State Champ Radio Music
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You might have noticed that Machine Gun Kelly walked the red carpet at Monday night’s (May 26) 2025 American Music Awards, but did not appear to make it into the actual ceremony in Las Vegas. According to E! News, the “Cliché” singer had to bail on his first major event since welcoming a child with […]
05/27/2025
Chesney leads Billboard’s 100-position Top Country Artists of the 21st Century retrospective. Below, find a breakdown of the 2000-24 top 10.
05/27/2025
Sabrina Carpenter might be a pro at dominating stages in the real world, but now she’s set her eyes on the world of Fortnite, teaming up for their newly announced Dance With Sabrina Jam Stage Experience.
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Carpenter was initially welcomed into the Fortnite universe in early April, joining in for the festivities of Fortnite Festival season eight. Her involvement has already resulted in a handful of her tracks being made available as part of the Season 8 Music Pass, with her outfits and instruments also being offered up to those who like their gameplay Short n’ Sweet.
Now, she’s expanding her virtual reach even further, with Carpenter inviting fans to jump onstage as she takes over the Festival Jam Stage. The newly announced Dance With Sabrina interactive music experience will be running continuously from Friday, May 30, at 3 p.m. ET until Monday, June 16, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
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Dance With Sabrina will see players invited to take part in her vibrant and critically acclaimed live show. Players are able to test their rhythm as they match to the beat of Sabrina’s 2024 Pop Airplay-topping singles “Bad Chem” and “Espresso” as they fill their heart meter.
Those with the highest heart meter by the song’s end will be able to contribute to the gig as Dance Leader, Special Effects Pro or Video Artist for the next song. The skilled players who manage to match the most beats for the whole shot will ultimately be able to appear side-by-side with Sabrina in the finale snapshot.
“Artists come to Fortnite to connect with their fans and create in-game music experiences that are authentic to their music and style,” said Emily Levy, Director of Music, Talent & Influencer at Epic Games, in a statement. “When Sabrina came to Fortnite, we saw seas of Sabrina Carpenter Outfits populate matches and perform synchronized Dance Emotes, so we knew we had to celebrate this season with an epic dance party inspired by our players and their incredible energy.”
Alongside the newly announced experience, Fortnite have also dropped some further good news for fans of Carpenter, with her “Bad Chem” Jam Track and “Bad Chem” Emote set to be available in the “Bad Chem” Bundle when it arrives in the Fortnite Shop on Thursday, May 29, at 8 p.m. ET.
Country music is a quintessentially American genre, but its global appeal is growing. Case in point: Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem, which enters the Official U.K. Albums Chart at No. 1.
Wallen’s 2021 album Dangerous: The Double Album, debuted and peaked at No. 77 on the Official U.K. Albums chart. His 2023 album, One Thing at a Time, debuted and peaked at No. 40 on that chart, setting up his current breakthrough. Speaking to the U.K.’s Official Charts Company, Wallen said: “The massive growth that we’ve seen in the U.K. is truly something special…. I am so grateful and humbled my music is connecting in a place where we have spent time and worked to build a real and meaningful relationship with our fans there. Thank you guys so much!”
I’m the Problem is just the 11th album to reach No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and the all-genre Official U.K. Albums chart. All 11 of these albums, which we list below, have been released since the late 1990s.
None of the six artists who have had the most No. 1 albums on Top Country Albums appear on this list. George Strait, who has amassed a record 27 No. 1 albums on Top Country Albums, has never cracked the Official U.K. Albums Chart. Neither have Kenny Chesney, who has had 17 No. 1 albums on Top Country Albums, or the late Merle Haggard, who had 16.
Garth Brooks, who has had 17 No. 1s on Top Country Albums, just missed making this list. He peaked at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart in 1994 with In Pieces. That album was No. 1 on Top Country Albums for seven weeks in 1993.
Willie Nelson, who has had 18 No. 1 country albums, topped out at No. 16 with his highest-charting album in the U.K., Legend: The Best of Willie Nelson. Tim McGraw, who has had 17 No. 1 country albums, topped out at No. 43 in the U.K. with his highest-charting U.K. album, Two Lanes of Freedom.
Two late, great singers – Glen Campbell and Jim Reeves – are also not present, even though they both topped both charts (but with different albums). Campbell had nine No. 1 albums on Top Country Albums, but his only No. 1 album in the U.K. (1976’s 20 Golden Greats) was not among them. Reeves, best known for his 1960 ballad smash “He’ll Have to Go,” had four No. 1 albums on Top Country Albums, and two No. 1 albums on The Official U.K. Albums Chart, but none of them overlapped.
Lionel Richie had one No. 1 album on Top Country Albums, 2012’s Tuskegee, on which he teamed with various top country stars, but it stalled at No. 7 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
Here are the 11 albums that reached No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and the all-genre Official U.K. Albums chart.
Shania Twain, Come on Over
Image Credit: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images
The see-saw story of The Who‘s drummer chair continued to tilt over the weekend when former, then current and then former again time keeper Zak Starkey clarified that he had not been fired from the band but rather “retired.” The 59-year-old son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and in-demand session player wrote in an Instagram […]
Tom Morello has never been one to mince words when it comes to his thoughts on Donald Trump. The firebrand Rage Against the Machine guitarist and solo star joined his friend and fellow rock agitator Bruce Springsteen over the weekend in giving a NSFW salute No. 27 from the stage.
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Performing at the Boston Calling 2025 music festival on Sunday (May 25), Morello took the stage in front of a towering backdrop that featured a series of images of the president amid a sea of oversized buttons that spelled out “F–K TRUMP.” If that message wasn’t clear enough, at one point during his set, Morello flipped his instrument up to play with his teeth and revealed another pointed message aimed at the current administration taped to the back of his guitar that read “F–k I.C.E.,” in seeming reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with implementing Trump’s aggressive deportation policy.
Introducing a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Morello dedicated the track to The Boss, noting that the rocker has been “in a tussle with the president lately” after the Jersey giant recently dubbed the current administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous,” a broadside that raised the ire of the commander in chief.
“Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality,” Morello said. “And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a much bigger audience. F–k that guy.” According to Boston.com, at the top of his set, Morello invited fans to enjoy “the last big event before they throw us in jail.”
In the midst of the Trump administration’s attack on universities it claims are not doing enough to combat antisemitism, Morello also mentioned his alma mater, Harvard University, which has particularly drawn Trump’s ire. In its latest actions, the administration has threatened to strip the school of more than $3 billion in grants following Trump’s order to freeze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding grants for the university and threats to revoke its tax-exempt status. Morello praised Harvard’s recent decision to offer a free online course called “We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy.”
Morello, who graduated with honors from Harvard in 1986 with a B.A. in political science, described the class as a primer on “basic U.S. government, understanding the Constitution, and how to recognize a dictatorship takeover of your country.”
The lash out against Trump by Morello amid the president’s slash-and-burn reshaping of democratic norms came after Springsteen kicked off his Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Manchester, England on May 14 by lambasting the blitz of strong-arm actions that many political pundits have deemed authoritarian.
“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” Springsteen told the crowd. “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring.”
As is his wont, Trump replied to Springsteen’s harsh words with one of his all-caps Truth Social disses, calling the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer “highly overrated” and “dumb as a rock.” The president continued, “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.”
On the precipice of what many financial experts say could be a ruinous global recession sparked by Trump’s unpredictable, see-saw tariffs, the president continued his attacks on Springsteen over the ensuing days, adding in another of his favorite targets: Taylor Swift. On May 16, the 78-year-old leader of the free world wrote, “Has anyone noticed that, since i said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?‘”
While Swift has not responded to the unprovoked attack to date, Springsteen was unbowed, doubling down on his disdain for Trump on May 17, telling a crowd in Manchester, “Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore… In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now… In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers,” calling Trump an “unfit president” who is running a “rogue government.”
Gorillaz has announced details of four special London shows to celebrate the virtual band’s 25th anniversary.
The group – led by Damon Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett – will take over east London’s Copper Box for a four-night residency where they will perform some of their classic albums in full. The group released its debut EP, Tomorrow Comes Today, in November 2000 and have released eight full-length LPs since.
The shows will take place on August 29, 30 and Sept. 2, 3 and coincide with the upcoming House of Kong exhibition taking place at the same venue between August 8 and Sept. 3.
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Each night will feature a unique performance from the band. On night one (Aug. 29), the group will perform its 2001 self-titled debut in full and recreate the early live performances. The band’s first show at London’s Scala in 2001 saw the live musicians perform behind a curtain while the avatars of the group’s virtual members – Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D – were projected to the audience; Albarn and his band of musicians will perform in a similar way on night one.
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The following night (August 30) will honor 2005’s Demon Days, which featured hit singles “Feel Good Inc.” and “Dare.” The LP landed at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and scored them their sole Grammy Award to date for best pop vocal collaboration (“Feel Good Inc.”). The live performance will pay homage to the limited run of shows in Manchester (2005) and New York (2006), where the album was also played in full, and Hewlett’s visuals for the show will also be resurrected.
On Sept. 2, their third LP Plastic Beach, will be performed in full for the first time since 2010. The record hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, and the group headlined Glastonbury Festival that summer after U2 were forced to withdraw due to injury.
The residency’s final night (Sept. 3) is billed as a ‘mystery show,’ and promises special guests alongside the group. Earlier this year Albarn revealed that he was completing work on an upcoming Gorillaz LP, which would be the band’s ninth.
Ticket holders to the House of Kong exhibition will have priority access to tickets when they go on sale later this week (May 30). Passes for the House of Kong exhibition are on sale now.
Gorillaz U.K 2025 tour dates:
August 29 – London, England @ Copper Box – Gorillaz in fullAugust 30 – London, England @ Copper Box – Demon Days in fullSept. 2 – London, England @ Copper Box – Plastic Beach in fullSept. 3 – London, England @ Copper Box – Mystery Show
Jennifer Lopez left it all on the floor during her whirlwind 2025 American Music Awards hosting gig on Monday night (May 26). After dancing to a breathless six-minute, 23-song medley of the year’s biggest hits in a sparkling Tron-like futuristic leotard on the stage at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas — and kissing a couple of […]
05/27/2025
Taylor Swift was shut out at the AMAs for the first time since 2007.
05/27/2025
Fresh off the back of revealing their first round of performing artists, SXSW Sydney has detailed the first wave of music speakers for its 2025 event.
Taking place in Sydney from October 13-19, the third outing of the Australian event will feature “some of the world’s best thinkers, buyers and culture-makers,” as per a press release.
Leading the charge of their first speaker announcement is Emmy Award-winning Jen Malone, who is best-known as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand music supervisors thanks to her credits such as Euphoria, Wednesday, Mr & Mrs Smith and more.
Malone is joined by Dr. Marcus Collins, who is renowned as an Award-winning marketing professor, cultural translator and best-selling author, having also previously served as the former director of digital strategy for Beyoncé.
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A number of international figures have been confirmed for the first round of speakers, including Senior Director of A&R at All Flowers international label Group, Alex Berenson; Rareform’s Hallie Anderson; tech entrepreneur Andrew Batey; and Brian Hobbs, the Director of Music Festival Programming at SXSW.
Other international names added to the first round include Founder of Hong Kong’s Clockenflap Festival Justin Sweeting (Hong Kong); Apodaca Group and Pal Norte Festival’s Macarena González (Mexico); Meng Ru Kuok CEO of Caldecott Music Group (Singapore); Sally Dunstone, Agent/Partner from Primary Talent (UK); and Lucy Atkinson, Senior Agent at ATC Live (MØ, Erika De Casier) (UK).
A strong contingent of local names are also on the schedule for this year, including John Watson, President of Eleven Music and John Watson Management; music industry consultant Jono Harrison; and host of Airing Your Dirty Laundry podcast, Daphne Berry.
“SXSW Sydney is about big ideas, bold conversations and unexpected connections,” said SXSW Sydney’s Head of Music, Claire Collins. “It’s a chance to hear directly from the people who open doors — the buyers, curators and deal-makers — and to better understand how to cut through, stay independent, or scale globally.
“Whether you’re building a team, exploring how AI can support your creative and business goals, or just looking for inspiration from other creative industries, this is where the conversations start.
“We’re proud to bring this talent to Sydney, and to connect them with the broader SXSW Sydney community,” Collins added. “It’s a week packed with fun, discovery, and opportunities to connect, collaborate, and imagine what’s next for music in our region and around the world.”
The first round of music speakers joins a solid selection of performers which have already been confirmed for the 2025 edition of SXSW Sydney, including Australian acts such as Swapmeet, RICEWINE, and Jamaica Moana, alongside names from Ireland, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.K.
Further speakers and performers are expected to be announced in the coming months, with more than 300 international and domestic artist performances set to feature on the final schedule.
