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Hunched over a paper plate piled with oysters and snow crab legs, I realized I hadn’t worn a shirt now in two days. The sun was setting on day two of the first-ever Sand in My Boots festival, hosted on the beach of Gulf Shores, Alabama—part of the stretch of Florida/Alabama Gulf Coast sometimes referred to as the “Redneck Riviera.” Since 2010, this weekend in May has been reserved for the Hangout Music Festival, a more generalized three-day beach bash whose previous headliners included Travis Scott, The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey. But this time was something different: a complete takeover curated by Morgan Wallen, the 32-year-old country superstar whose 37-track fourth album, I’m The Problem, dropped on the fest’s opening day.
Borrowing its name from the opening song on Wallen’s first blockbuster (2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album, the first album in history to spend at least 100 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200), Sand in My Boots arrives as the high-water mark of the artist-curated festival. You could call the lineup that Wallen hand-picked “country-oriented,” though its details might surprise an old-school genre purist. Just past the three-day fest’s headliners (the newly roots-y Post Malone, country stalwarts Brooks & Dunn and Wallen himself) are an array of acts which suggest that, at a moment when country music’s bigger than it’s been in decades, its once strict boundaries are more porous than ever. Among rising country stars like Bailey Zimmerman and Ella Langley are a slew of rappers—some newer (like BigXthaPlug), some veterans (2 Chainz and Memphis icons Three 6 Mafia), though nearly all of them are Southern. Then there’s a handful of indie rock bands (The War on Drugs, Wild Nothing, Future Islands) which might seem comically random, were it not for the fact that Wallen’s been a champion of them for years.
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“When the idea of Sand in My Boots started becoming a reality, it was extremely important to me to build a festival of artists that I enjoy and listen to regularly,” Wallen told Billboard by email last week. “We didn’t come up with this idea trying to fill a gap, but I believe that is what we have done. We created a festival that was centered around my country culture and that just so happens to include a variety of sounds.” Whatever you want to call the Sand in My Boots vibe, all 40,000 tickets sold out in less than two hours last October. (Three-day G.A. passes started at $549, while VIP packages ranged upwards of $5,000, and private luxury cabanas by the main stage were even steeper.)
I’d arrived in Alabama’s gulf coast on Thursday afternoon, whispering “Get me to God’s country!” to the alarmingly small plane that would take me from Houston to Mobile, followed by a 2.5-hour drive to Gulf Shores. And Gulf Shores is, indeed, God’s country, if on the fourth day, God invented Zyn, the fifth day, Michelob Ultra, and on the sixth day, he declared, “Let there be scantily clad women walking barefoot in the street!” (Just across from the fest’s shuttle depot is a historic landmark: the world’s smallest Hooters restaurant.) Sand in My Boots’ two stages sit at either end of a pristine stretch of white sand beachfront along a body of water whose name no one can seem to agree on: while the festival’s website offers the opportunity to “cool off in the Gulf of Mexico between sets,” several dozen t-shirts and trucker hats I spy on attendees throughout the weekend proudly proclaim “GULF OF AMERICA SINCE 2025.”
Though I’m a fan of country music, both old-school and new, I also happen to be a Midwestern woman whose wardrobe is mostly black. This means that not only did I stick out like a sore thumb among the sea of body glitter, mesh cover-ups, star-spangled bikinis, ruffled mini-skirts, Hawaiian shirts, baseball jerseys, abundant camouflage, and yes, cowboy boots, I also cultivated the worst sunburn of my life within roughly 40 minutes of my arrival on day one. (“The sun reflects off the sand and makes it even worse!” explained a shirtless man in a mustache and a trucker hat that read “COUNTRY MUSIC TITTIES & BEER,” wincing at the two-tone paint job of my tan lines.)
Nevertheless, White Claw in hand, I set out to investigate the beachfront offerings between the stages, where a foam party was going off behind the Monster Energy Beach Club. Farther along, a man with a mustache and a microphone stood outside a makeshift chapel labeled “Love Somebody Lane,” soliciting passerbys: “Anybody wanna get married? It’s free!” (It’s more of a photo opp than a legally binding matter, he explained when I asked further: “Hell, we don’t even ask for their last names!”) All the festival grounds’ offerings are loosely Morgan Wallen-themed, from the 7 Summers Sandbar to the Up Down Cap n’ Gown (where you can collect a gift, should you have chosen Sand in My Boots over your graduation ceremony) to the booths hawking a zero sugar ice tea brand “crafted by Morgan Wallen,” to the “Field & Stream 1871 Club” pop-up, where you can subscribe to the magazine Wallen bought with Eric Church last year.
Just after twilight on night one, a throng of girls in t-shirts printed “MORGY HARDY POSTY” were buzzing around the sandy margins of the main stage, where Hardy was preparing to perform. You either know the Mississippi native from his solo material, which often draws from rock and nu-metal despite its outlaw themes, or from the endless stream of hits he’s co-written for other artists under his full name, Michael Hardy. (You’ll find his name throughout the credits of Wallen’s discography, from 2017’s “Up Down” to I’m the Problem.) Emerging onstage barefoot in camo shorts and a Death Row Records t-shirt, Hardy’s set epitomized the omnivorous sound of country today: thrashed out with a full rock band, songs like “Truck Bed” and “Psycho” felt more like mosh-pit fodder. Thematically, there was less ambiguity: “I believe America is the greatest country in the world,” he bellowed as an introduction to 2019’s “God’s Country.” “And if you don’t agree, go get a f–kin’ beer!”
On the other end of the beach, T-Pain’s set was starting; the 40-year-old former Auto-Tune maverick has been slowly but steadily embraced by country fans since his 2023 cover of “Tennessee Whiskey.” (In fact, as he shared with me last year, the Florida native lived in Nashville in the mid-2010s, ghostwriting songs for Luke Bryan, Toby Keith and Florida Georgia Line.) But having seen his set extensively, I re-upped my cocktail (a vodka/lemonade/iced tea concoction named after the golfer John Daly) and settled in for the headlining set from Post Malone, who made his official jump to country with last year’s F-1 Trillion, fulfilling the promise of a 2015 tweet: “WHEN I TURN 30 IM BECOMING A COUNTRY/FOLK SINGER.” A cynic might read the pivot as opportunistic, but so far, I’ve been charmed by Posty’s country crossover: he’s got the voice, demeanor and goodwill to fit seamlessly into the Nashville scene, where face tattoos are no longer frowned upon, thanks to Jelly Roll.
I might add that Post didn’t look half-bad in his boot-cut jeans and cut-off Cowboys jersey, strutting and shimmying down the runway through the crowd as he performed slightly rootsier versions of old hits (“White Iverson,” “Circles”) and twangier album cuts like “Wrong Ones” and “M-E-X-I-C-O.” “I came here tonight to play some sh-tty music and party a little bit while we do it!” he crowed, sitting down at one point to pull off his cowboy boots and pace the stage barefoot. Mostly, the 29-year-old just seemed happy to be there, hyping up his nine-piece band and thanking the audience profusely between every song. Beside me in the sand along stage left, a sunburnt six-year-old girl mouthed every word of “Losers” from her perch on her dad’s shoulders: “Last callers, last chancers, 9-to-5ers, truckers, dancers…”
My day-old sunburn was feeling borderline psychedelic on Saturday afternoon, but the idea of putting a shirt over my bikini just seemed wrong, particularly on a perfectly balmy 80 degree day. So I slathered on some sunscreen, chugged some water (plus a mysterious blue cocktail billed as “Electric Lemonade”) and made my way past rows of booths selling “Cowboy Nachos,” “Boot-Scootin’ Smoothies,” and discounted cans of Zyn (Sand in My Boots’ preferred nicotine delivery unit) towards the Dangerous Stage, where all of the day’s rappers were performing. First up was BigXthaPlug, the 27-year-old Dallas native with a booming voice and offensive lineman build who’s spent the past few years putting Texas rap back on the map. I was initially unsure how songs like “Mmhmm” and “Levels” would go over with an early afternoon crowd rocking t-shirts that read “SLAMMIN’ BUSCH & POUNDIN’ TUSH” and “EVERYTHING I LOVE IS ILLEGAL, OFFENSIVE, OR BRUNETTE” (plus one fellow who’d fashioned the box of a Twisted Tea 12-pack into a hat). But far more people than I expected rapped along to every word, not to mention lost their minds as X stripped off his shirt to the sounds of “All The Way (Don’t Let Me Down Easy),” his collab with Bailey Zimmerman that debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 last month.
“Ooohh, I wanna see Three 6 Mafia!” shrieked a woman in stars-and-stripes booty shorts and a MAGA trucker hat to her husband, who was costumed in Hulk Hogan wrestling attire. It is almost unthinkable the extent to which the Memphis rap group have parlayed their hellish beats and eldritch lyrics into a wildly influential 35-year career, which has brought 48-year-old DJ Paul and 50-year-old Juicy J here to incite a beachfront riot. “Can we do a mosh pit?!” coaxed Juicy J to the stabs of 1997’s “Hit A Mothaf-cka.” “I ain’t never seen a mosh pit in the sand before,” noted DJ Paul above the fray, beginning a chant: “When I say ‘WEAK ASS,’ y’all say ‘BITCH!’” “We got anybody in here from jail? DUI last night, straight from jail?” he continued with a grin. “Anybody from the hospital? Anybody from rehab?”
Sand in My Boots Festival
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Across the beach, I caught the tail end of the set from Riley Green, the 36-year-old Alabama native whose baseball player-esque good looks and horny new single, “Worst Way,” have combined to make him the festival’s unofficial heartthrob. (“SAVE A HORSE, RIDE RILEY GREEN” read one passing tank top.) Green’s the Platonic ideal of an archetype my buddy has coined a term to describe: the GCB, short for Glam Country Boy, a type of guy you know well if you live in certain parts of the South or the Midwest. The GCB listens to country and a little bit of rap, wears a thin gold chain and often a mustache, possibly played minor league baseball; but his defining feature is the half-mullet my friend described as “that salad in the back.” (I tried to keep a tally of the festival’s GCB count, but the task was too exhaustive, and I quit after an hour.) Soon Green is joined by Ella Langley—another Alabama local who tore up the stage earlier that afternoon with nostalgic songs like “Weren’t for the Wind” and “Better Be Tough”—for their pair of duets, “You Look Like You Love Me” and “Don’t Mind If I Do.” But I had an appointment with “Super VIP” catering that I was not going to miss.
At the risk of sounding like a tremendously spoiled douchebag, the dining room for the ritziest tier of VIP attendees was the most elaborate I’ve witnessed in all my days as a reporter. Saturday night, the dinner buffet included a dozen salads, charcuterie, beef short ribs, porchetta, blackened cod and a tower of crab legs piled higher than me—and that’s before you hit the oyster bar. (It’s air-conditioned, don’t fret.) And that’s how I found myself sunburnt and shirtless, cracking open crab legs as if I were Rick Ross. “Life on the Redneck Riviera ain’t too bad,” I thought, washing down another oyster with a tequila soda.
I’d answered my own question as to whether the crowd would be too young to appreciate the evening’s headliner, Brooks & Dunn—what did kids these days know about “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”? But Sand in My Boots’ crowd skewed a bit older than your average music festival, and though a few youngsters streamed towards the exit as the Nashville duo (formed in 1988) took the stage, most of the crowd knew every word to 20-something-year-old songs like “Ain’t Nothing ‘bout You” and “Red Dirt Road.” On the shuttle back to my hotel (there’s no parking on the premises, but a steady stream of buses ran from the grounds all day), a pair of sun-dazed women arrive at an inspired idea: “Girl, should we get Waffle House?” “Ohhhh, f–k me up!”
The seagulls have grown bold on day three of the festival, flying so low above the food court as to incur screams from shirtless men in Busch Light cowboy hats. As for me, I figured “when in Rome” and joined the line for the Zyn pop-up, where those 21 and up can purchase packs of the Swedish nicotine pouches favored by cowboys for the low price of $1. “Our menthol flavor has a eucalyptus aftertaste,” a gorgeous saleswoman informed me. Just ahead of me in line was a couple who’d flown in from Calgary, Alberta, the man cowboy hatted and mustached and the woman dressed to the nines in red thigh-high cowboy boots. “You guys like country music in Canada?” I asked them, to which they replied, “Oh, yah!”
All the lineup’s indie rock bands have been relegated to the Dangerous Stage for the festival’s last day, so I headed across the beach, passing the outdoor showers where a half-dozen partygoers were quite literally washing the sand off their cowboy boots. I’d been interested to see the crowd for The War on Drugs, the Philly-based seven-piece band whose t-shirts Wallen has been known to rock. Numbers-wise, the crowd paled in comparison to the hip-hop acts who played the previous day, to the point where I could clearly make out Ernest covering Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition” from the main stage. Still, I could see a through-line between the band’s synthy heartland rock and a handful of my favorite Wallen songs—2023’s “One Thing at a Time,” or the recent “Genesis.”
After another absurdly lavish dinner (peel-and-eat shrimp, crab legs, oysters, Lyonnaise salad, chicken piccata) I post up at the main stage, where 25-year-old Bailey Zimmerman is bouncing around in jean shorts before a band whose members all looked vaguely like Skrillex, reminding the crowd: “God is good all the time!” Until 2019, the Southern Illinois native had never sung outside of drunk karaoke; he worked on a gas pipeline, then gained some fame on TikTok for his videos tricking out his GMC truck. When his first-ever song, 2020’s “Never Comin’ Home,” racked up a million TikTok views overnight, he quit his job the next day. Now, between hits like “Fall in Love” and “Religiously,” he coaxed the crowd to scream “I love you!” to his mom backstage.
But like most everybody else, I’m here for Morgan Wallen, whose set tonight will close the festival. So far he had refrained from popping out for duets with collaborators on the lineup (Post Malone, Hardy, Ernest), and I was curious how much his setlist would reflect the brand-new album, whose mood was decidedly more introspective and subdued than previous blockbusters like Dangerous and One Thing at a Time. As for the crowd that had gathered around stage left, morale was high; a group of girls who’d traveled from Kentucky generously passed around a couple boxed wines and a joint. Then the lights went down, the beach erupted with screams, and video showed Wallen in white shorts and a white long-sleeve, jogging out from backstage to the sounds of “Broadway Girls,” his 2022 collaboration with Lil Durk.
Wallen kept the banter brief, taking a moment to acknowledge the years it had taken for Sand in My Boots to come together, then launched into a pair of songs from One Thing at a Time before transitioning to a handful of I’m the Problem singles (the title track, plus “Love Somebody”) and a few new songs he’d yet to play live before: “Kick Myself,” “Don’t We,” “I’m A Little Crazy.” “I wanted to find the most classy way to talk a little sh-t,” he introduced the latter. (“I’m a little crazy, but the world’s insane,” goes the chorus.) As stage presence goes, I’ve certainly seen more dynamic performers; occasionally he’d pick up an acoustic guitar, more as a shield than anything. But his raspy Tennessee drawl sounded surprisingly great live, particularly on “Cover Me Up,” a Jason Isbell song he’s been covering for years, and on the festival’s namesake track, a ballad about a one-night stand on the beach: “Somethin’ bout the way she kissed me tells me she’d love Eastern Tennessee/But all I brought back with me was some sand in my boots.”
Wallen finished with a suite of early hits: “More Than My Hometown” and “Whiskey Glasses,” followed by an encore of the inescapable “Last Night” and his 2016 debut single “The Way I Talk.” Then the festival figurehead was off into the night, and so was I—back on the east-bound shuttle bus, where the driver allowed a group of drunk girls to blast Soulja Boy and Flo-Rida over the Bluetooth speakers. I didn’t have boots to speak of, so all I brought back with me was a raging sunburn and a couple packs of Zyn.
Young Thug has reacted to photos of Gunna that seemingly show that the Atlanta rapper has covered up his YSL tattoo. A photo of a shirtless Gunna working out hit social media, and fans noticed that the YSL logo usually on his left bicep had been covered with flames of ink. The viral pics eventually made it […]
Billie Eilish isn’t done hitting the road hard and soft, with the pop star unveiling a slew of extra U.S. dates — plus two new shows in Tokyo — on Monday (May 19). Sharing a graphic with the bonus Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour dates on Instagram, Eilish wrote, “heard you wanted more shows […]
Drake placed a seven-figure bet on his Toronto Maple Leafs, but unfortunately, the Leafs were demolished in game seven on their home ice Sunday night (May 18) by the Florida Panthers. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Drizzy bet with his heart instead of his head on Sunday […]
Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” logs a lucky 13th total and consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The single is one of just 15 to have led for at least that long dating to the survey’s Aug. 4, 1958, start. “Luther,” whose title is a tribute late R&B legend […]
President Donald Trump has accused Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and more stars of participating in an “illegal election scam” run by Kamala Harris‘ campaign during the 2024 election, with the billionaire calling for a “major investigation” into their allegedly “corrupt” endorsements of the former VP.
In two Truth Social posts from the early hours of Monday (May 19), Trump first accused the Boss — whom the POTUS also called “highly overrated” and “dumb as a rock” just a few days prior — of illegally accepting an undisclosed payment to appear at one of Harris’ rallies last year before lumping the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer, as well as Oprah Winfrey and U2’s Bono, into the alleged scheme. “HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?” Trump began. “WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS?”
“ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???” he continued early Monday morning. “I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter. Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds.”
“IT’S NOT LEGAL!” Trump added. “For these unpatriotic ‘entertainers,’ this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system.”
In a follow-up post about seven hours later, Trump doubled down on his claims. “According to news reports, Beyoncé was paid $11,000,000 to walk onto a stage, quickly ENDORSE KAMALA, and walk off to loud booing for never having performed, NOT EVEN ONE SONG!” he wrote. “Remember, the Democrats and Kamala illegally paid her millions of Dollars for doing nothing other than giving Kamala a full throated ENDORSEMENT. THIS IS AN ILLEGAL ELECTION SCAM AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL! IT IS AN ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION! BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, OPRAH, BONO AND, PERHAPS, MANY OTHERS, HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!!!”
When that 11-million figure first surfaced last year and made the rounds on social media, fact check organizations found no evidence to support the claim. Billboard has reached out to reps for Beyoncé, Springsteen and Bono for comment.
The president’s remarks come about three days after he first targeted the “Born in the U.S.A.” rocker shortly after Springsteen slammed Trump’s “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” administration during a concert in Manchester. Trump called the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer a “pushy, obnoxious JERK” who “ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT” on Friday (May 16). That same day, Trump also wrote that Taylor Swift is “no longer ‘HOT’” following her September endorsement of Harris and his subsequent “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” post.
Springsteen was vocal in his support of Harris throughout the 2024 election, performing at rallies in Pennsylvania and Georgia as well as appearing in an advertisement supporting the Democratic politician’s campaign. Beyoncé also appeared at a Harris rally in Houston, delivering a speech in which she asserted: “I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother. A mother who cares, deeply, about the world my children and all of our children live in.”
An Irish citizen, Bono did not endorse a candidate in the 2024 U.S. election or participate in any campaign events.
The E Street band leader and Destiny’s Child alum were just two of many stars who backed Harris during the 2024 election, with Megan Thee Stallion, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Cardi B, Eminem and more throwing their support behind the former prosecutor’s campaign. Finance records do not show that any of them were paid for their endorsements — something Harris would have needed to disclose if that were the case — and Harris’ campaign has denied in the past that it ever paid artists to perform at events. “We have never paid any artist and performer,” senior spokesperson Adrienne Elrod stated to Deadline when rumors to the contrary first surfaced last year. “We have never paid a fee to that person.”
Beyoncé’s camp has also denied that she accepted payment for her endorsement of Harris, as has the 35-time Grammy winner’s mother, Tina Knowles. “The lie is that Beyonce was paid 10 million dollars to speak at a rally in Houston for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Knowles wrote on Instagram in November. “When In Fact : Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harrris’s Rally in Houston. In fact she actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam . They are not only lying and disrespecting Beyonce’s name but they are trying to further discredit the power of our vice president! When does the lies and rumors stop?”
There is record of Harris paying Bey’s production company, Parkwood Production Media LLC, $165,000 after the Texas event; that payment would be in accordance with federal law, which prohibits corporations from giving directly to a candidate’s campaign and mandates that campaigns reimburse the costs of large event production, according to The Hill.
Billboard Latin Music Week, the most prestigious and longest-running week dedicated to the celebration of Latin music, will return to Miami from Monday, Oct. 20 to Friday, Oct. 24, with the Billboard Latin Music Awards set for Thursday, Oct. 23.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Set once again at the historic Fillmore Miami Beach, Latin Music Week 2025 will bring together top and emerging Latin music artists and executives from around the world for a week of showcases, networking, exclusive conversations, panels, workshops, activations and concerts.
The event — which last year featured conversations and performances by an impressive lineup including Alejandro Sanz, Peso Pluma, J Balvin, JOP, Bad Gyal, Belinda, Chiquis, Danny Ocean, Eden Muñoz, Eslabon Armado, Fat Joe, Feid, Keityn, Maria Becerra, Thalia, Yahritza y Su Esencia, Yeri Mua and many more — is known as the top gathering place for the most influential and impactful artists today, both established and emerging, as well as the ultimate meeting ground for top music executives.
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Marquee panels in 2024 included the now-iconic Women’s Panel and “Making the Hit Live,” which last year featured Grupo Frontera, who wrote a song live, “Ya No,” and later released it on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.
More than 10,000 people attended Latin Music Week last year, including the live shows by Fuerza Regida with Majo Aguilar; a reggaeton night with Omar Courtz, Dei V, and Saiko; and LMW’s 35th anniversary party with Young Miko, Tito Double P, Belinda, Elvis Crespo and more, among other events. (See the full 2024 schedule here.)
Ticket and lineup information for Billboard Latin Music Week 2025 will be announced in the coming weeks. Pre-register now for the latest information at billboardlatinmusicweek.com.
“To finally be the headliner and not the maid of honor or the freakin’ bridesmaid?” Cyndi Lauper says with a laugh over Zoom. “It was pretty good.” The Brooklyn-born pop/rock legend is talking about her first-ever headlining show at New York’s Madison Square Garden last fall, part of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour. These goodbye shows — an invigorating blast of rock energy, pop balladry pathos and vivid art – have been met with rave reviews from fans and critics alike. After overseas legs in Europe, Australia and Japan, Lauper is bringing her tour back to the States (and Canada) this summer for 24 final North American dates, kicking off July 17 in Mansfield, Mass.
Selling out arenas like MSG was a huge part of the reason Lauper – who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall – wanted to do this farewell tour in the first place. While wrapping up mastering on a soundtrack companion to her 2023 career-retrospective documentary Let the Canary Sing, Lauper says that “everybody turned around and said, ‘Why don’t you do a farewell tour?’” The Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner was into the idea, but with a condition: “If I’m leaving, I would like to headline these places,” she recalls telling her team. “I don’t want to play theaters – I’m in theaters anyway,” she notes, tipping to the fact that she’s spent much of the last 15 years working in musical theater, between Broadway’s Tony-gobbling Kinky Boots and a long-gestating musical adaptation of the 1988 film Working Girl she’s still crafting with Theresa Rebeck.
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Now, for the tour’s North American swan song this summer, Lauper wants the chance to reconnect with fans in places she missed last fall. “I didn’t get to Philadelphia [last year]. I’m going to leave and not go to Philly?” she asks rhetorically ahead of a July 20 date in the City of Brotherly Love. “I wanted to say goodbye to everybody. I really do. That’s the end of this chapter.”
The final North American dates of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour will feature some changes – including a setlist swap thanks to a famous fashion designer. Apart from alterations to the staging to accommodate outdoor venues, the Billboard Hot 100-topping singer is adding in some dance music for her fervent LGBTQ fanbase. “I am going to switch one song, because Christian Siriano said, ‘The gays want glamor.’ On Instagram, somebody wrote, ‘The gays love glamor, but they also love to dance. Would you mind just putting in a dance song from [the 2008 album] Bring Ya to the Brink?’ I thought that was really funny,” she admits. “So I said okay, fine.”
While it’s hard to quibble with an injection of upbeat dance music (just imagine if she sang “Sex Is in the Heel” from Kinky Boots? A stan can dream!) to the setlist, the show’s standout moments often come during her peerless ballads. “Time After Time” has found her duetting with guests like Sam Smith and Lucinda Williams, while “True Colors” and “Sally’s Pigeons” are staged in a way that’s as much performance art as pop music (Daniel Wurtzel’s “air fountain” factors heavily into those).
Lauper says it’s impossible for her to pick a standout moment from the shows, though – and she means that literally. “Once I step out there, I’m not there anymore because I’m in it,” she insists. “I used to work at Belmont walking the horses. I feel like one of those racehorses – you’re in it but you can’t think. You have to have one foot in reality and one foot in someplace else, and that place is where things come through you.” She once had a conversation with Prince about this very topic, which he likened to turning off a third eye. “He was like, ‘Part of you, you go out of your mind a little bit [on stage]. You’re not there. You can’t be, because if you are, then you have a third eye. And all of a sudden, whatever magic, otherworldly door it is that you’re knocking on is not going to open.’”
Accidents, however, can test that tenuous connection. Lauper describes one such incident during this tour’s “Sally’s Pigeons,” which features a white sheet undulating through the air thanks to an assortment of crisscrossed fans (not the flesh-and-blood type). “It’s so beautiful, right? Gorgeous. One time I saw that big sheet, it went right up — I had to look away because I was going to start laughing – it fell right on top of somebody. I saw everybody scrambling,” she chuckles. “It’s live, right? You don’t know what the heck (will happen).”
Mostly, however, she’s able to stay in the magic zone – though she admits to fighting some serious nerves prior to that first headlining MSG show. “Before I went on stage at Madison Square Garden, I was thinking, ‘You idiot. You had all your friends come here, and if you fall flat on your face, everybody and all your friends are going to see.’ Then I said to myself, ‘No, be positive. Do not think like that.’ I was like, ‘You know, it’s only rock n’ roll, but I like it. Whatever.’”
Lauper did not, for the record, fall flat on her face, literally or metaphorically – I was there, and it was one of the best concerts I’d seen in years, both performance-wise and conceptually. Much of the tour’s aesthetic traces to Lauper’s love for art, museums and eye-popping fashion; the tour boasts original collaborations with Wurtzel, Siriano, Geoffrey Mac, Brian Burke and Yayoi Kusama. “When you’re moving and you have all that color, it’s like a painting,” Lauper says in her gloriously unrepentant Brooklyn accent – a tone one doesn’t typically associate with a hifalutin arts discourse. “[Kusama] wore her art, and for me in the ‘80s, that’s kind of what I was doing,” she says of the Japanese artist whose distinct polka-dot palette broke through globally around when Lauper catapulted onto MTV and the Billboard charts. “I could kick myself for not knowing in the ‘80s – I had no idea about Kusama. But I was on the hamster wheel and peddling so fast that I did not go to museums (back then), which was sad for me.”
While the 71-year-old icon makes time to experience art in her life these days, it’s hard to escape the sneaking suspicion that, unlike many musicians who can’t keep away from the grind, it’s the hamster wheel that’s following her.
Prior to the tour’s next leg kicking off in July, Lauper is still tinkering with the music for Working Girl. “I am short four songs that I gotta do before the tour, but I think I can do it,” she sighs. “June is pretty full. My God, everything happened at once,” she says, noting that she also needs to start prepping for her induction. “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is on the eighth (of November), and (Working Girl) opens on the ninth. Wow. So, kill me now, right?”
Schedule overload notwithstanding, Lauper sounds honored to join many of the legends who inspired her in the Rock Hall’s ranks. “It’s a community of people, rockers that have changed the world,” she muses. “Here’s the thing: I still believe that rock n’ roll can save the world. I just want people to remember that we did make a difference. We can make a difference if we band together. We must come together as a community and make light and bring people together to make change, to do the good work.”
For Lauper, sharing her story in her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour is part of that. “I wanted to have people know who the hell has been singing to them all this time so they would have a connection. And maybe they would be inspired to look at their history, to understand themselves,” she opines. “Everybody has a different perspective. When you tell your story, it makes human beings closer. It makes communities. That’s very important. In the darkest time, remember – you write the chapters, you make light.”
Billboard U.K. Live headed to The Great Escape on Friday (May 16) with a stellar lineup of emerging new artists.
Taking over the Deep End stage at the TGE Beach site, the Billboard U.K. Live stage played a key role in The Great Escape’s programming. The event, held in Brighton annually, kicks off the U.K.’s festival season with a number of global acts heading to the seaside for days of music, networking, conferences and more.
A number of big name artists performed at the festival across the four-day event, with The Libertines frontman Pete Doherty, Rizzle Kicks, Skunk Anansie and The Horrors all heading down to the city on the south coast.
Over on the Billboard U.K. Live stage, RIP Magic – dubbed London’s “buzziest buzz band” by The Guardian – opened proceedings with a set of intense, genre-bending electronica, and offered a chance for punters to hear the band’s music in a live setting. As it stands, the band has yet to release any music officially online, with hype building via their performances and live clips on YouTube.
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Westside Cowboy drew a packed tent as fans jostled to catch a glimpse of the band that recently won Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition. With just two songs released so far, the Manchester-based band pulled a full-house in their third and final set of the festival, airing unreleased material and new single “Shells.”
In their second consecutive year at The Great Escape, My First Time brought sharp songwriting and an energetic stage presence in their set. Soon after, Liverpool-formed band Courting aired cuts from their new album Lust for Life, Or: ‘How to Thread the Needle and Come Out the Other Side to Tell the Story’ in a fun, frenetic set. The electronic rock outfit are set to play a number of festivals this summer, including the upcoming BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend.
Rising group RabbitFoot, whose set showcased baroque-pop to pummeling electronic synth lines, showcased a theatrical, personable approach to their songs. Daffo, who is set to support Blondshell on their upcoming U.S. tour, featured indie-rock material with bite in what was their first live show in the U.K.
Leeds’ English Teacher closed the stage in their return to The Great Escape festival, this time as headliners of a major stage. The group won the 2024 Mercury Prize with debut album This Could Be Texas, and proved how the U.K.’s grassroots scene is continually producing stellar acts, and why it must be protected and treasured.
The set featured much of the material from that LP, with “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab,” “Nearly Daffodils” and “Broken Biscuits” all being played, and a poignant “Albert Road” closing the show’s set. The band are poised to play a number of headline shows in the U.K. this coming autumn.
Before Ron Killings became a grappling warrior in WWE rings, he was a rhyme-slinging MC barreling through the Carolinas in pursuit of rap notoriety. Armed with demo tapes and unflappable ambition, Killings trekked from city to city, chasing his big break at the celebrated Jack The Rapper Conventions — a cornerstone of hip-hop culture that, for over two decades, united Black executives, DJs and artists under one roof.
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There, Killings brushed shoulders with some of hip-hop’s most venerable legends, including Tupac Shakur and Eazy-E, leaving an indelible mark with his contagious personality and tireless hustle.
“I would follow those places around. Every year I’d go,” Killings recalled in an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this year. “It lasted a good three months, and I’d meet Tupac. He’d be at the Jack The Rapper Convention. It was him and Eazy. There would be so many celebrities there. It was the WrestleMania of the music industry.”
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Though Killings never reached the rap pinnacle of Pac or Eazy, his efforts paid off in another arena. After signing with WWE in 1998, he rebranded as K-Kwik — a spry, charismatic performer who brought lyrical swagger to the squared circle. By the time he exited in 2002, Killings was a two-time Hardcore Champion, laying the groundwork for a storied wrestling career.
Shortly after, Killings joined the rising promotion TNA, where he elevated his stock and became one of its premier in-ring performers. In doing so, he made history as the first African American NWA World Heavyweight Champion — a title he held twice. His star power on the indie scene eventually caught WWE’s eye again, and in 2008, Killings returned. This time, with refined in-ring skills and his signature comedic flair, he became a fan favorite all over again.
Over the years, Killings racked up accolades — United States Champion, Tag Team Champion, 24/7 Champion — while headlining against marquee names like John Cena and AJ Styles. But beyond the belts and bouts, his mic work made him unforgettable. Whether playing the lovable goof who couldn’t tell left from right, or hilariously claiming Cena was his childhood hero (despite being five years older), Killings turned even throwaway segments into Saturday Night Live-worthy skits. He didn’t just survive in WWE — he thrived, by turning his time on the mic into comedic art.
Now, at 53, Killings steps into what might be his most poetic moment yet: a one-on-one match against the Undisputed WWE Champion, John Cena, this Saturday at Saturday Night’s Main Event. The match was sparked after Truth jokingly told Cena he “sucks at wrestling” following his victory over Randy Orton earlier this month. Now leaning into a darker persona, Cena didn’t take it lightly, slamming Truth through a table at a post-match press conference.
This weekend, two veterans — both closer to curtain call than curtain jerk — will share the ring in a match loaded with nostalgia and mutual respect. For Killings, it’s a chance to shine once more on a grand stage, proof that the consummate professional can still steal the show.
And in case you’re wondering — yes, Truth still has big boy bars. Like Cena, he rapped his own entrance theme and was still dropping music as recently as 2024, teaming up with D4L’s Fabo on the swaggering tune “You Know It.” Whether he’s taking bumps or spitting rhymes, Killings has always done one thing without fail — bring the truth.
