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There’s nothing in the water this year. Pharrell has announced that his Something in the Water festival in Virginia Beach will no longer be taking place in October and has been postponed to April 2025. While pre-sale tickets still went on sale on Friday (Sept. 13) and the festival’s lineup was set to be revealed […]
Lauren London sat down with Radhi Devlukia on the A Really Good Cry podcast and talked about how she’s been handling grief since her boyfriend Nipsey Hussle was murdered in 2019.
“I still feel like a mess, that’s the thing,” she said of how she’s been dealing with his death. “I guess I have to ask my friends how far I’ve come because I still genuinely feel like I have not arrived anywhere.” Adding, “I feel like I’m really heavy a lot, but again, I have to counter that to just, like, the grace of God, because if it was up to me, I would be sliding in here on my stomach, but I also don’t want to take away from the work that I’ve done from then until now. So, I don’t wanna do that, ’cause I’m good at doing that.”
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She credited her kids and her community for helping her “push through” the pain. “God just placed people in my life that can kinda just usher me in and teach me and guide me. I always say the prayer of strangers held me up.”
London also talked about how she’s been teaching her two sons about dealing with losing Nipsey. “It’s so different with both of them, because one’s 14, the other one’s 7, so you know. I’m always, like, a container for whatever emotion they have,” she explained. “I’m just like, ‘It’s OK to feel all these things, you know? I’m holding it for you, I feel you, I understand, I hear you.’” Adding, “But also, playing his music. I’m always telling them to journal as well, like, write him a letter, tell him how you feel.”
Earlier in the interview, London told Devlukia that their love was “intentional, pure and safe” and talked about what she learned from him. “All the things he was saying to me made more sense after he left,” she said. “I’m such in my cave and a homebody, that he would be like, ‘People really need to hear from you. You have a lot of truth you should share.’ He saw me like my kids see me.”
She added, “But when he was here, just the reliance on God. He really relied on God, he truly believed in himself, he really did not believe in ‘Somebody else has the keys to your destiny as much as you and your creator does.’ And authenticity is something you can’t buy, it’s something that you can’t fake, it’s something that you can’t put on.”
On the fifth anniversary of his death, London shared a tribute on Instagram. “If you know me You know March is always tough for me 31 days of holding my breath,” she wrote. “This day decided to fall on Easter Sunday this 2024 Interesting…. considering your name #GodWillRise Energy never dies…. I love you. Eternal.”
You can watch the full interview here.
This past July, the Desert Hearts crew road-tripped out to Arizona for their first edition of the festival outside California.
After being bounced around SoCal a bit after launching the festival near San Diego more than a decade ago, then moving to Riverside County in 2022, then to downtown Los Angeles in 2023, over the July 4 weekend, the team assembled in what seems to be a viable new home at the Playa Ponderosa ranch near Flagstaff, Arizona, throwing the festival in partnership with the Phoenix-based Walter Productions.
For this edition, Desert Hearts also went back to its origins, returning to its original single stage format for its 72 hours of house and techno. The lineup included Anja Schneider, Ardalan, Coco & Breezy, Rinzen, Life on Planets, Lubelski, Mary Droppinz, Walker & Royce and many more, including, of course, the Deserts Hearts founders/house DJs, each of whom played separately and then together for a closing set.
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Hear this closing set exclusively below, along with sets from Desert Hearts’ Lee Reynolds, Los Angeles legend Doc Martin and club maven Öona Dahl.
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In a statement posted to social media after the event, the Desert Hearts team wrote that their goal with the 2024 festival was “to return Desert Hearts to the quality of events we hosted at Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. The result surprised us and far surpassed anything we’d ever done!”
They continued by saying that “The last five years have been incredibly challenging for DH since losing our long-time home during the pandemic. Canceling the 2023 camping festival was the hardest thing we’ve had to do since founding Desert Hearts. But it was your resilience and unwavering support that kept us going.”
Keep it going yourself with these seven hours of music from the fest.
The Desert Hearts Crew
Öona Dahl
Doc Martin
Lee Reynolds
Rick Ross sounds like he’s open to reconciling with Drake. During an appearance on Caresha Please with Yung Miami, Ross talked about the infamous incident in Vancouver and his relationship with Drake. When asked if all it would take is a phone call between the former collaborators, Ross said he would maybe consider it. “I […]
Ethan Slater and Lilly Jay are now legally divorced, TMZ reports.
The couple separated last year, after which the Broadway actor began dating his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande.
According to TMZ, Slater and his high school sweetheart — who share a young son — reached a settlement that was approved by a judge as of Thursday. Like all divorces in the state of New York, the terms of the agreement are sealed.
Billboard has reached out to Slater’s reps for confirmation.
The news comes about a year and two months after reports first emerged of the Broadway actor’s romance with the “Yes, And?” singer, whom he met on the set of Jon M. Chu’s Wicked films. A few days after news of his relationship with Grande surfaced, Slater filed to divorce Jay on July 26, 2023, after five years of marriage.
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Meanwhile, Jay told Page Six at the time: “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl. My family is just collateral damage.”
The following September, Grande filed to legally end her marriage to luxury realtor Dalton Gomez two years after they tied the knot, logging their date of separation as Feb. 20, 2023, in the court documents. The Victorious alum and Slater have since kept their romance low-key, though the couple have been seen out in public together a number of times. In April, Grande supported Slater at his final Broadway performance of Spamalot, and in June, the pair attended the Stanley Cup finals together.
As for the public scrutiny she’s faced for her relationship over the past year, the “7 Rings” star has remained diplomatic. Ahead of the release of her Billboard 200-topping album Eternal Sunshine, she acknowledged on The Zach Sang Show that the negative attention presented “an insatiable frustration, an inexplicable hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love, and you.”
Doja Cat aired out a lot grievances on her 2023 album Scarlet. And in a new interview with Jack Harlow for Present Space, the “Paint the Town Red” rapper explained why tapping into her own fury was such an important part of her creative process. “Scarlet is a very, to put it simply, quite an […]
This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music from artists including new music by Chencho Corleone, Arthur Hanlon, Yotuel & Darell; Cris MJ, FloyyMenor & Louki, and more.
In her latest release, X Amor II, Kim Loaiza builds upon the foundations laid by her 2023 debut, X Amor. The Mexican singer demonstrates her evolving artistry through an eclectic mix of genres ranging from reggaetón to música mexicana, peppered with other unexpected styles. A standout track includes the opener, “5 Babys,” a powerhouse intro that features an all-female lineup with Spanish MC Ptazeta, Mexican reggaetonera Bellakath, Argentine lyricist Yami Safdie, and Colombian rapper Fariana.
Argentinian stars LIT Killah and Nicki Nicole team up with the release of “Somos 3,” an electro pop track with subtle trap and Afrobeat undertones, courtesy of producers Tatool and Francisco Zecca. The single was recorded during the summer in Madrid.
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Cumaná, Venezuelan newcomer MARI also dropped “La Carajita,” which offers a “hypnotizing fusion of urban music and Venezuelan llanero music, subtly transporting us to the countryside through sustained falsetto verses like ‘the street is calling me,’ and bringing us back to the city with forceful drum rhythms, rap and cuatro,” wrote Billboard Español‘s Sigal Arias-Ratner.
Other new releases this week include Charly García’s La Lógica del Escorpión, Chino Pacas’ corridos “Otra Vez Pegue Un Vergazo,” Mike Bahía’s tropical pop “La Pena,” and a whole new remix EP by Nathy Peluso, Club Grasa.
Last week, Andy Rivera’s “Moncler” won the poll, bringing in nearly 88% of the votes. Who should win this week? Give these new releases a spin and vote on them below.
What’s your new favorite Latin music release?/¿Cuál es tu nuevo lanzamiento favorito de música latina?
From The Weeknd releasing the lead single to his next album to Charli XCX and Troye Sivan initiating Brat autumn with a fresh remix, this week is full of artists stepping into new eras. Starting with the Canadian superstar, new song “Dancing in the Flames” marks the lead single off his upcoming album Hurry Up […]
Jelly Roll and mgk are helping Spotify launch its new vodcast series Countdown To, which offers viewers a behind-the-scenes introduction to artists’ upcoming projects as they count down to album launch day.
In July, Spotify expanded its Countdown Pages tool, which helps artists and their fan bases gear up for album launches by allowing listeners to preview tracklists, watch clips, acquire artist/album merch and see a timer count down the seconds until album launch.
With Countdown To, artists sit down with their fellow artists, album collaborators, family members and friends to dive into a new album’s music, themes and inspirations. The interview-spearheaded series is located on the artist’s Countdown Page, while the full video will be available as a vodcast episode on Spotify, and on Spotify’s YouTube page.
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The inaugural episode features Jelly Roll in conversation with mgk, as the countdown ticks to the release of Jelly Roll’s upcoming album Beautifully Broken on Oct. 11. Jelly Roll and mgk previously teamed up for the song “Lonely Road.”
“I felt early in this writing process, it was becoming my journal of mental health,” Jelly Roll said, adding, “It’s the longest time I’ve took writing a single project… I really wrote this record hoping that people would feel that they were spoken for. What I hear the most from people is, ‘Man, this song says what I can’t.’ And that sticks with me, dude… That’s what I want them to get from this album.”
They also discussed how they went from enemies to friends, with mgk saying, “So, our beginnings were interesting,” and sending Jelly Roll into a deep laugh. “It is so funny how much I love you now,” said mgk, “because like, God, I hated you so much back then.”
Jelly replied with a laugh, “I was just a spiteful, bitter f–kin’ dude, you know what I’m saying?” adding, “I explain this to people and they don’t understand the concept because of our age now. Whenever I talk to my daughter, I’m like, ‘You gotta understand there was only like seven white rappers on Earth at this time, so it was so competitive when you was in that pool, that we were kind of automatically forced against each other anyways.”
“For sure,” mgk said. “You’re bred to hate each other.”
“And you were just like, just skinny and handsome,” Jelly Roll said. “So I was like, I was just a hater. I was just a hater, dude! It’s hard to grow up in front of the whole world.”
“This might be one of my favorite mgk disses, was, ‘F–k Machine Gun Kelly and his mohawk,’” mgk said, eliciting more laughs from Jelly Roll. “Because you just had this Southern drawl on your voice, where you didn’t say ‘mohawk,’ you said ‘mo-hawck.’ And that mohawk, dude, my mohawk was f–kin’ just a nice, eight inches of just egg whites and cheap hairspray…”
Jelly Roll’s song “I Am Not Okay,” featured on Beautifully Broken, is currently at No. 9 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. Meanwhile, the album shares its name with Jelly Roll’s just-launched arena tour, which also features openers Warren Zeiders and Alexandra Kay.
Jelly Roll also talked about the struggle of balancing life on the road with being there for his family, and the two also discussed the ever-broadening reaches of country music, and compared the widening borders of rock and country.
“Countdown To is the latest effort in our ongoing commitment to spotlight artists and their new music on Spotify,” Sarah Patellos, head of Spotify Music Studios, said in a statement. “Working with director Karam Gill and mgx creative, these intimate conversations are shot documentary-style to really get to the root of each artist’s creative journey.”
See Jelly Roll and mgk’s discussion below:
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The 23rd Annual Americana Honors & Awards, which are set for Sept. 18 at Nashville’s fabled Ryman Auditorium, will be bookended by memorable performances.
Duane Betts will open the show by performing the Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Sky,” which his father Dickie Betts wrote. The song appeared on the 1972 classic Eat a Peach, the band’s first album to make the top 10 on the Billboard 200. Dickie Betts died on April 18 at age 80.
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell will close the show with “Return of the Grievous Angel,” the opening track on Gram Parsons‘ Grievous Angel, on which Harris was prominently featured. The album was released in January 1974, four months after Parsons’ death from an overdose. He was just 26.
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The Americana All-Star Band, led by Buddy Miller, will return to back the artists who are performing on Americana music’s biggest night. Other band members include Don Was (who is set to receive a lifetime achievement award), The McCrary Sisters, Bryan Owings, Jerry Pentecost, Jen Gunderman, Jim Hoke and Larry Campbell.
In addition to being top nominees this year, Sierra Ferrell, Noah Kahan and Brandy Clark are set to perform on the show.
Blind Boys of Alabama, Dave Alvin, Dwight Yoakam and Shelby Lynne, all of whom are set to receive lifetime achievement awards, will also perform.
Other performers set for the show include SistaStrings (who will perform with Clark) and Fantastic Negrito (who will perform in a tribute to the late Rev. Gary Davis, who will receive the Legacy Award in partnership with the National Museum of African American Music).
The program will be filmed for broadcast on PBS in the Austin City Limits time slot in November. The awards show is the centerpiece of the annual Americanafest, which returns for its 24th year Sept. 17-21.
The show is set to begin at 6:30 pm CT. Doors open at 5:30 pm CT.
Here are all the performers and presenters for the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards.
Performers
Blind Boys of Alabama
Brandy Clark (with SistaStrings)
Charles Wesley Godwin
Dave Alvin
Dwight Yoakam
Fantastic Negrito
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Jobi Riccio
Kaitlin Butts
Larkin Poe
The Milk Carton Kids
Noah Kahan
Sarah Jarosz
Shelby Lynne
Sierra Ferrell
Turnpike Troubadours
The War and Treaty
Waxahatchee with MJ Lenderman
Wyatt Flores
Presenters
Allison Moorer
Amy Helm
Amythyst Kiah
Gaby Moreno
Hiss Golden Messenger
Iron & Wine
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Joe Henry
Lukas Nelson
The Lone Bellow
Margo Price
The Milk Carton Kids
Nathaniel Rateliff
Shane Smith & Bennett Brown
Silvana Estrada
Susan Tedeschi
T Bone Burnett
Warren Zanes