Music
Page: 260
2025 might not be so bad after all. Roc Marciano and DJ Premier surprised rap fans with a new single in “Armani Exchange” and have announced that they’ll be releasing a collaborative EP later this year. Ironically enough, this all came together by a chance meeting at Macy’s flagship Herald Square store in New York […]
Things are only looking up for Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, who are taking the former’s music career to new heights following the heartbreaking loss of their home in the Los Angeles wildfires — and one unexpected benefit of the situation, they tell Billboard in a new video special with the couple, has been finally breaking the “stigma” they felt followed them after The Hills.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
While spending the day with Billboard, Montag and Pratt touched on their reality show beginnings, from which the former says they’ve “been trying to move forward” for “a long time.” “We’re thankful for where we started,” she said, standing next to her husband by the beach. “It definitely has been a bittersweet experience for us. Obviously we had a different experience than a lot of the cast from it.”
Trending on Billboard
“For us to be able to feel people really come together and support us and our family, and to kind of burn off, literally, that shell and that stigma that we had for so many years, it’s nice that people can finally see through that and see that there was always a love story,” Montag continued of the support they’ve been seeing from fans online since announcing in January that their house had completely burned down in the Pacific Palisades blazes.
The couple’s Billboard special comes just a couple weeks after Montag dropped Superficial 2, a followup to her 2010 album Superficial that featured 12 new songs. The original album has been receiving a surge in streams as fans have rallied around the singer and her family after the fires, with Superficial debuting on the Billboard 200 in January thanks to the extra love.
“It’s been really refreshing to have this new generation listen to the music for the music, and not with the stigmas attached, and the hate and the negativity,” Montag, who shares two sons with Pratt, told Billboard later in the day while at a restaurant. “Just to have it be purely listened to has been a blessing.”
One particularly famous person who’s also come to their aid has been Pitbull, who jumped on a remix of Montag’s “I’ll Do It” that was released Thursday (Feb. 6). “We were in touch with Pitbull, and he got on the phone with me,” Montag gushed.
“That was one of the most heartfelt, sincere, kind moments of my life,” she added. “A superstar taking time out of his day to be like, ‘Mamacita, I got you.’”
The same week he made his Billboard Hot 100 debut as a recording artist, Grammy-winning producer, actor and R&B star Leon Thomas made his live television debut on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Thursday (Feb. 6). Surrounded by his band on a red-lit stage with a projection of his Mutt album cover behind […]
Super Bowl LIX is just days away from taking over Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday (Feb. 9), and some of the biggest stars in music are coming along for the ride. The most highly anticipated performance, naturally, will be Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music Halftime Show performance, executive produced by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in […]
Twenty One Pilots lead Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for the first time in three years, reigning on the Feb. 15-dated list via the 2-1 rise of “The Line.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The song marks the duo’s 11th No. 1 and first since “The Outside” ruled for three weeks beginning in January 2022.
Since then, the band had notched three chart entries, including two No. 2-peaking tracks in “Overcompensate” and “The Craving” in 2024.
With 11 rulers, Twenty One Pilots, who first led with “Stressed Out” in 2015, rank as the act with the sixth-most No. 1s since Alternative Airplay began in 1988.
Trending on Billboard
Most No. 1s, Alternative Airplay:15, Red Hot Chili Peppers13, Green Day13, Linkin Park12, Cage the Elephant12, Foo Fighters11, Twenty One Pilots8, U28, Weezer7, The Black Keys7, Imagine Dragons
Of the band’s 11 No. 1s, two have now come from soundtracks to TV or film. “The Line” is featured on the soundtrack to Netflix’s Arcane, which premiered its second and final season in November, while “Heathens” was heard in the 2016 movie Suicide Squad.
Concurrently, “The Line” ranks at No. 17 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.4 million audience impressions in the week ending Feb. 6, according to Luminate. It reached a No. 14 high in December.
The song appeared at No. 28 on the most recently published multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally (dated Feb . 8, reflecting data accumulated Jan. 24-30); it hit No. 13 in December. In addition to its radio airplay, “The Line” earned 2 million official U.S. streams in that span.
The soundtrack to Arcane’s second season peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 in December and has earned 220,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Feb. 15 will update Tuesday, Feb. 11, on Billboard.com.
Kelsea Ballerini had to cut short a concert in Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night after falling ill.
The Patterns hitmaker was five songs into a headlining show at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center as part of her Kelsea Ballerini Live On Tour 2025 trek, when she had to leave the stage due to sickness. A member of Ballerini’s team then came onstage to inform the audience that the show was being postponed.
“This was the conversation I did not want to have tonight,” the teammember said from the stage. Shaking his head, he said, “She just can’t finish. She’s too sick, and we’ve given everything and we tried to do it and unfortunately cannot finish the show tonight. I do not know much beyond that. We are going to be looking at options and you will be receiving emails. Beyond that, there is not much I can say right now.”
Ballerini soon shared her own video on social media, explaining the situation, and thanking her fans for their understanding and patience.
Trending on Billboard
“Buffalo, I am so so sorry that I could not finish the show tonight. I am sicker than I’m trying to be, and I did not want to let anyone down tonight and I just got through the first few songs and I couldn’t do it. And I am so sorry, but I never want to give you a half-a– show,” she said, noting that they have rescheduled shows in Buffalo as well as in Pittsburgh and in Toronto.
Ballerini said, “And I will make them the best shows I’ve ever played in my whole life, and I will put out every stop for you, and I will make it so worth it. I’m going to go rest now, and get better, so I can really show up for the rest of this tour, and I hope you understand, and thank you for the grace to be human.”
Ballerini has rescheduled three shows on her tour, with the Buffalo date now set for April 11, the Pittsburgh show now set for April 12, followed by the Toronto show on April 13.
The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer’s next scheduled tour stop comes Feb. 10 in Philadelphia.
The time has finally come, Beyoncé is gearing up for what’s sure to be yet another culture-shifting tour.
After showcasing her Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter album through a bombastic Netflix-streamed NFL Christmas Day halftime show, Queen Bey uploaded a mysterious teaser promoting a Jan. 14 announcement date across her official social media accounts. Fan theories went wild, and, unfortunately, the devastating Los Angeles wildfires forced Beyoncé to delay her announcement.
Then came the first day of Black History Month (Feb. 1), the day Beyoncé and Netflix slyly edited the very end of her Beyoncé Bowl standalone special to include the official announcement of the Cowboy Carter Tour. The following day (Feb. 2), Queen Bey picked up three Grammys for her historic country and Western-infused LP, including her long-elusive album of the year trophy.
The last time Beyoncé hit the road was for 2023’s Renaissance World Tour in support of her four-time Grammy-winning 2022 Renaissance LP. That trek grossed a jaw-dropping $579 million from 56 shows across North America and Europe. Beyoncé played the entirety of her edifying dance music LP, molding her larger setlist around the record’s narrative and flow. The Renaissance World Tour — which also famously began with Beyoncé serving as her own opening act with an enrapturing ballad section — later topped the domestic box office as Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, an acclaimed documentary concert film chronicling the conception and execution of the iconic tour.
Sparkly, silver cowboy hats were all the rage for the Renaissance World Tour, so what will be the color for the Cowboy Carter Tour? Perhaps some of the golden brown hues that have been present throughout the era — from the “Texas Hold ‘Em” single cover to Beyoncé’s dress at the 2025 Grammys. A Beyoncé tour is destined to include new infectious choreography and genius mashups, but she’s never toured an album this downtempo or this outside of her home genre of R&B — so the world truly is her oyster with the Cowboy Carter Tour.
Below is our dream setlist for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour. The setlist covers Beyoncé’s discography (yes, including Destiny’s Child, The Gift, and Everything Is Love) and key musical connections to her country music foremothers. When scrolling through this setlist, envision country-fried arrangements of Queen Bey’s pre-Cowboy Carter catalog, and expect the album to be performed largely in tracklist order like Renaissance was at its tour.
We’re aware this show would probably be over three hours (let’s be real, who wouldn’t watch the world’s greatest living entertainer for that long), but considering that there are markedly fewer dates for this tour (at press time), maybe Queen Bey will keep the show going for just a little bit longer!
Act I: Welcome to the Rodeo
An Instagram user recently used artificial intelligence to make it sound like Rihanna said things that never actually came out of her mouth — and the star isn’t happy. On Wednesday (Feb. 5), the Fenty mogul jumped in the comments on a video doctored to sound like she was listing out her “most expensive purchases” […]
Paramount will pause a handful of awards shows for 2025, including the CMT Music Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards and more, Billboard has confirmed. Other awards shows being impacted are the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards Mexico and the MTV MIAWs (previously known as the MTV Millennial Awards).
As The Hollywood Reporter first reported, the news came as part of a memo from the office of Bruce Gillmer, Paramount Global’s president of music, music talent, programming and events, media networks/chief content officer, music, Paramount+. According to the memo, the changes come as the company seeks “to reimagine and optimize our events slate going forward.”
Gillmer’s memo added, “Our world-class events remain a key component of Paramount’s music offering as we continue to raise the bar in delivering iconic, unforgettable performances and moments that drive pop culture.”
Trending on Billboard
In 2022, the CMT Music Awards shifted from CMT to CBS; the annual event had aired on CMT since 2002. In 2023, the show relocated from Nashville to Austin. Last year’s big winners during the CMT Music Awards included Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and Dan + Shay.
At the 2024 MTV EMAs, held in November, artists including Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter emerged as top winners.
The memo follows rounds of layoffs that began last year after Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy noted plans for the company to reduce its U.S.-based workforce by approximately 15%, including at CMT. In August, Paramount also shuttered Paramount TV Studios amid the restructuring and layoffs. The shifts came after Paramount Global agreed to a merger with David Ellison‘s Skydance in July 2024.
See Gillmer’s memo to staffers below.
Team,
We want to share some news. We are pausing a few events for 2025, as we look to reimagine and optimize our events slate going forward. These include the MTV EMAs, MTV MIAWs, Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in Mexico, and CMT Music Awards.
Our world-class events remain a key component of Paramount’s music offering as we continue to raise the bar in delivering iconic, unforgettable performances and moments that drive pop culture. We have the best team in the business, and we are grateful for your hard work and dedication in bringing these events to life.
Thank you,
Bruce
Linkin Park lands its 12th No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Heavy Is the Crown” lifts a spot to the top of the tally dated Feb. 15.
The song is the band’s fourth No. 1 in as many tries dating to 2023, when “Lost” reigned for eight weeks. “Friendly Fire” followed for a week last April and “The Emptiness Machine” ruled for six frames beginning in October.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
With 12 total Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s, the sextet ties Disturbed for the eighth-most leaders in the chart’s history (which dates to 1981). Of those, 10 came with vocals from late singer Chester Bennington or rapper/singer Mike Shinoda, while new vocalist Emily Armstrong has taken the reins of the two most recent rulers alongside Shinoda.
Trending on Billboard
Most No. 1s, Mainstream Rock Airplay:19, Shinedown18, Three Days Grace15, Five Finger Death Punch14, Foo Fighters14, Metallica13, Godsmack13, Van Halen12, Disturbed12, Linkin Park
Linkin Park first led Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2003 with “Somewhere I Belong.” The group first appeared on the survey in 2000, when “One Step Closer” debuted; it peaked at No. 4 in January 2001, marking the band’s first of 21 top 10s.
Concurrently, “Heavy Is the Crown” rises 13-12 on Alternative Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, it reigns for a fourth week via 5.3 million audience impressions in the week ending Feb. 6, according to Luminate.
On the most recently published Hot Hard Rock Songs list (dated Feb. 8, reflecting the Jan. 24-30 tracking period), “Heavy Is the Crown” ranked at No. 2; “The Emptiness Machine” led for 21st week. In addition to its radio airplay, the former drew 1.7 million official U.S. streams, up 3%.
“Heavy Is the Crown” is the second single from From Zero, Linkin Park’s eighth studio album and first with Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain. The set launched at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart in November and has earned 287,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Feb. 15 will update Tuesday, Feb. 11, on Billboard.com.