Music
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Deafheaven, the long-running and critically acclaimed metal band, have signed with Roadrunner Records and will make their debut on the label with Lonely People With Power. Their first album since 2021 is due out Mar. 28, and the band has released the new song “Magnolia,” along with an accompanying music video. Explore Explore See latest […]
Nominees: “After Hours” (Diovanna Frazier, Alex Goldblatt, Kehlani Parrish, Khris Riddick-Tynes & Daniel Upchurch); “Burning” (Ronald Banful & Temilade Openiyi); “Here We Go (Uh Oh)” (Sara Diamond, Sydney Floyd, Marisela Jackson, Courtney Jones, Carl McCormick & Kelvin Wooten); “Ruined Me” (Jeff Gitelman, Priscilla Renea & Kevin Theodore); “Saturn” (Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, Solána Rowe, Jared Solomon & Scott Zhang)
Analysis: It’s always a good sign when a song earns nominations in both songwriting and performance categories, which means Coco Jones (“Here We Go”) and SZA (“Saturn”) have particularly strong chances at taking this one home. Jones won best R&B performance last year with “ICU,” but lost best R&B song to SZA’s “Snooze.” “Saturn,” though a hit, wasn’t as big of a smash as “Snooze,” but SZA’s seemingly unstoppable momentum and forthcoming co-headlining North American stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar (a seven-time nominee this year), could help her win the trophy.
Nonetheless, the frontrunner across the R&B field is probably Muni Long. Revenge didn’t exactly light the charts on fire (it missed both the Billboard 200 and genre-specific album rankings), but the record spawned three consecutive top three Adult R&B Airplay singles, including the chart-toppers “Ruined Me” and “Make Me Forget.” With “Ruined Me” earning a lot of love from R&B circles and Long remaining a consistent cultural presence via performances and candid music industry revelations, this could very well be the Year of Muni Long.
Kehlani earned three nods this year, and this is her first nomination in this category. “After Hours” was one of the few uptempo R&B hits from the last year, which could help its chances in a songwriting category. Tems‘ “Burning” probably has the same chance of winning as “After Hours”; it’s a poignant track that finds the crossover star soaring in a leading role after being a key featured player on Grammy-approved hits like Future‘s “Wait For U” and Wizkid‘s “Essence.”
We’ll call this category for Muni Long; “Ruined Me” is fresh, commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and features the most-nominated R&B artist of the night.
Prediction: Muni Long, “Ruined Me”
Look Out For: SZA, “Saturn”
Kai Cenat — the eternally upbeat streamer whose profile has exploded in recent years to make him the most popular personality on the Amazon-owned Twitch platform — is taking a moment to think.
In the five years or so since he’s become a full-time content creator, Cenat has had some of the most famous hip-hop artists, athletes and actors come to his house to drop in and join the “chat,” the affectionate word he uses for any of the 700,000-plus people who subscribe to his channel. He’s thinking over whether he can recall a favorite moment among so many, but it’s tough. It wasn’t when SZA and Lizzo stopped by together in the fall, nor when NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving taught Cenat’s friends and family how to play basketball. It would be reasonable to think it might be one of the many times Kevin Hart, one of his idols, swung by to kick it during the holidays.
Sitting in the basement room of his mountainside Georgia mansion, the 23-year-old needs a beat or two to consider the options. The room is a temple of adolescence, with pictures of his favorite basketball players, vintage arcade machines like Pac-Man and a gaming racing wheel. He has a huge walk-in closet and a king-size bed, both of which are being used by his three-person styling team. The only part of the room that hints at some sort of professional living there is the desk at one end that contains the computer and camera setup that power his streaming empire. Dressed in a BAPE hoodie and stonewashed denim that make him look like he’s straddling sartorial eras, Cenat finally settles on an answer: The May weekend last year when Drake and Kendrick Lamar dropped a total of four songs, three of them back to back.
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“That was the most fun experience I’ve had,” he says with a smile bright enough to power a Tesla. “I’m not going to lie.” It’s tough to tell if he’s actually super excited or just trying to manage his constant and unbridled childlike energy.
“We never experienced something like that,” he explains. “It was a good week. Everybody had their opinions. I was literally hopping on stream and had like 60,000 viewers. As soon as they dropped, my s–t was spiked to like 100,000.”
When it came to the beef that ended up taking over hip-hop for the better part of 2024, most popular streamers took sides or called winners, and Cenat was no different. “I’m cool with Drake,” he says. “So people would expect me to be on Drake’s side.
“But I’m not going to lie,” he continues. “Kendrick won that battle. It was good. I loved every second of it. I was just appreciating the moment. Like, bro, we got bangers right now that’s dropping back to back and everybody’s talking about them. It was definitely fire.”
Kody Phillips top, Louis Vuitton pants, AMIRI hat, Jacob & Co. watch.
Andrew Hetherington
For a person who makes a living by staring straight into a camera for hours on end and connecting with strangers, appearing truthful and genuine is crucial — and it’s one of Cenat’s superpowers. It’s what has allowed him to not only become the most popular streamer on Twitch, but also the most popular streamer in hip-hop and, arguably, one of the most powerful people in all music. No other streamer has been able to corral as many artists to be a part of their online world as Cenat has — and very few have earned the cultural respect from fans and artists that he has. His words hold so much weight that he’s able to materially affect the careers of the superstars his fans care about. That’s why during that weekend in May, Drake told Cenat to “stay on stream” before dropping his “Family Matters” dis track — he knew a good review from the jovial streamer would bode well for him not only in his sales, but in his battle with Lamar. But it’s also why, after the streamer said Drake’s “The Heart Part 6” was weak, Drake allegedly blocked him.
That’s just one of many major moments Cenat has driven for music’s biggest stars over the past few years. He’s had spats with Nicki Minaj, Blueface and Ye, though he eventually made up with all of them. (Minaj even gifted him a pink throne that he proudly keeps in his bedroom and doesn’t let anyone sit on.) Most recently, while on a stream in early January, he panned Lil Baby’s highly anticipated fourth album, WHAM, even questioning why certain songs were added to it. WHAM trended on X — mainly due to jokes about Lil Baby being washed. While it’s unfair to attribute to Cenat the initial negative reaction Baby’s album received on social media, he had a significant hand in spreading the sentiment that it wasn’t Baby’s best work. That’s just the power Cenat holds in 2025: He’s a self-made institution. Like EF Hutton, when Cenat talks, people listen.
All of that has made him, for all intents and purposes, the closest thing Gen Z has to 106th & Park or TRL, the erstwhile midday live-music shows that used to air on BET and MTV and were appointment viewing for any fans wanting updates on their favorite artists. Cenat’s stream is now the main place to tune in to see artists having fun and feeling comfortable enough to let loose and relax. “Yeah, people will be saying that,” he says with an impish grin. “For everyone to come to play music or just have a fun interaction, it means a lot to me, honestly, because I didn’t think, out of everybody, they would want to come over to my house. I still haven’t got to like really let it sit in and really let it digest, but it does mean a lot to me, and I’m just having fun as I go on.”
Building a platform to rival the biggest cable music stations of the 1990s and early 2000s should take at least a decade — but it’s important to understand how quickly all this has happened. Cenat, who first started posting on YouTube in 2019, is not an overnight success. But considering how integral he’s become to the cultural fabric, you could be forgiven for thinking he’s been ingrained in the hip-hop internet landscape forever.
Before first appearing on the platform, the Bronx-born creator had moved to Georgia at a young age with his mother and siblings, living in a homeless shelter while his mother worked multiple jobs to create a better life for them. It was tough, but Cenat says with his trademark positivity that he doesn’t remember those times as rough or bad. The family eventually made its way back to New York, and Cenat enrolled at SUNY Morrisville to study business administration. In search of a creative outlet, he started posting funny skits on YouTube. For Cenat, the decision was a no-brainer: “I watched YouTubers growing up — that’s why I understand it so well.”
Andrew Hetherington
Andrew Hetherington
Mainly filmed in his dorm room and around campus, Cenat’s skits were low-rent affairs with minimal costumes or production where he came off as a slapstick comedian in the tradition of Martin Lawrence. His most viewed videos were his challenges, like the popular “Try Not To Laugh Challenge” that he still does to this day and clips like the Extreme Ding Dong Ditch series, which sounds crazy but was just Cenat and his friends playing the childhood game in different locations. They didn’t get massive traction, but they caught the eye of fellow Bronx-bred creator Fanum, who invited Cenat to join the AMP (Any Means Possible) collective of YouTube creators. Soon, Cenat was posting videos at an increasingly rapid pace, as well as appearing in clips by other AMP members.
By 2021, Cenat was ready to branch out from YouTube and grow his audience another way. He decided to try livestreaming and landed on Twitch, the platform Amazon acquired in 2014, as his new home. At the time, it was being used mainly by gamers to livestream gameplay while avid fans watched like a professional sport. Cenat enjoyed playing video games, but his first foray onto Twitch was through what are known as “just chatting” streams, where he’d sit down with a camera on his desk and, yep, just talk with his audience. By the end of his first day on Twitch, he had 5,000 followers. By the end of his first month, he had 70,000. The next month, 140,000 people tuned in.
Despite Cenat’s brand now being so closely associated with hip-hop, he didn’t start producing music content, really, until he started streaming. “When I started streaming, most of my content was blowing up based off me just reacting to different songs and listening to albums when they drop and just enjoying it for what it was and just saying, like, my opinions on it,” he remembers. “And then, like, people just loved it.”
In fact, he didn’t even listen to rap until he was a teenager. Growing up, “I did straight Michael Jackson up until high school” — which is when Cenat became a fan of a hometown hero who was then dominating the charts: A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. “That was my real transition,” he says. “I went from Michael Jackson to A Boogie, and I explored from then on.”
His musical exploration has fueled his Twitch channel’s growth: Thanks to his Mafiathons — monthlong 24-hour streaming marathons that he’s held with some of the most famous names in music, sports and entertainment — Cenat now has the most subscribers on Twitch (728,535 at press time) and holds its record for the most concurrent streamers at 720,000. He’s now also one of the richest streamers in the world, according to Forbes, which estimates his 2024 earnings at around $8.5 million. (Cenat declined to comment on his earnings.)
Andrew Hetherington
His manager, John Nelson, credits these streaming marathons with cementing the Kai Cenat brand. “His first 24-hour stream [in January 2023] is really when his trajectory went off,” Nelson says. “And it’s interesting — I believe it was that one that ended with Ice Spice [on camera]. Funny, because both of them took off at that same time. Two New York kids. And, you know, they were both very popular then, but they weren’t the megastars that they are today.” Each of Cenat’s Mafiathons has helped him not only grow his audience but also break Twitch records; the most recent, in November, featured a who’s who of pop culture that included Serena Williams, GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Druski that helped him break the record for most subscribers, with more than 340,000 new people paying $5.99 to join Club Cenat.
Yes, more than 720,000 people pay money to watch a 23-year-old talk about whatever comes to mind and prank his best friends. But why, exactly?
“I just think it’s the creativity,” Cenat says. “This is just the vibe I give off, like on my stream. I try to make it as fun as possible. And being able to, like, break ice with anybody who comes on.”
It’s the creativity, sure. But it’s the combination of that creativity with his comparatively radical sincerity that has endeared him to Fortune 500 companies like McDonald’s, T-Mobile and Nike. It’s also what drew the likes of Snoop Dogg, the veritable hip-hop pitchman who’s able to move between disparate worlds, to tap the young star to work together. And it’s the reason Hart, the blockbuster comedian who has mastered the art of multimodal content more than perhaps any other superstar, took a liking to him over any other streamer of the moment.
Cenat, much like Snoop and Hart, has built a brand on being genuinely unproblematic, which, combined with his affable demeanor, has appealed to an unusually large swath of people. Unlike several other popular streamers, he hasn’t delved into the incel echo chamber side of streaming culture that has, in part, been popularized by Twitch competitor Kick. The Australian-based streaming platform reportedly offered Cenat $60 million to switch to Kick, but he turned it down.
When asked why, Cenat struggles to articulate a clear metaphor. “Say, for example, you go to Steph [Curry] and you’re like, ‘Hey, man, we want you to be a running back [in] the NFL. You’re so good at basketball, but we want you to just leave everything behind right now and go to NFL football and be a running back,’ ” he says. “It doesn’t make sense! I’ve been on Twitch. I’ve built a core community. Kick is not my home. My home is definitely Twitch. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what I live by.”
Andrew Hetherington
Andrew Hetherington
And, unlike a number of popular streamers, he’s managed to stay clear of the political discourse that dominated the conversation in 2024. “It’s just because I don’t understand it. Some people say I should just do some research on it and, like, inform myself,” Cenat explains. “Now, I’m living in America, so it’s good to know what’s going on in politics. But like, I’m just not educated enough to speak on that.”
On the early January day I sit down with Cenat, Adin Ross, the superstar Kick streamer who famously interviewed President Donald Trump and gifted him a Tesla Cybertruck, made a statement apologizing for “raising a toxic community” on the platform and vowed to do better. “I want to rebuild,” Ross said. “I want to actually completely revamp and reset everything. I want to go back to stuff that matters. With that being said, every stream that I do, especially at this point, until I say something else, is going to be something that’s heartwarming and something that’s meaningful.”
Sounds a lot like Cenat, doesn’t it? He brushes off the idea. Cenat believes a fan base is a reflection of the creator. “So if you feed it nonsense, you’ll get nonsense. [Ross] realized what happened and now he’s trying to make a big change.”
But regardless of how he frames it, Cenat still has major clout. On Aug. 4, 2023, a full-on riot ensued in New York’s Union Square when he announced to his massive audience that, to celebrate his first streaming marathon, he would be giving away PlayStation 5 consoles and gift cards there. But he didn’t have a permit. Around 3 p.m., large crowds started to form in Union Square, and police took notice when people began to destroy public and private property. The New York Police Department called in 1,000 officers to the scene — and then all hell broke loose. Cars were destroyed, store windows were broken, and seven people were injured, including three NYPD officers. Over 60 people were arrested, half of them minors. It was a rare dark day for Cenat — but it proved just how big his brand and celebrity had gotten.
In 2023, Cenat and his small team — his assistant/production partner Brianna Lewis, his videographers and manager Nelson — traveled to Nigeria. And when they stopped by Makoko, a small, impoverished waterfront settlement on the outskirts of Lagos, they realized they were out of their depth.
The village didn’t have broadly available internet like the city itself, so Cenat couldn’t stream. But what really caught him off guard was the state of the Makoko Children Development Foundation School and Orphanage. “I went over [to Nigeria] just to go visit it, see how it is, and I went out where I just seen things that I was like, damn,” he says. He decided then and there to at least try to help improve the town. “I stumbled across this school that they had in this very small school building. These small classes and the kids were so eager to learn even in the condition that they were in. Don’t get me wrong: When I went to Nigeria, I seen beautiful parts. They got great big houses, fire cars — like, Nigeria is beautiful. [But] the place where I went to was Makoko.”
His first plan was to just fund some renovations to the school, but soon that didn’t feel like enough. So he decided to give 20% of his earnings from his November Mafiathon 2 to build a brand-new school in Makoko. “Hopefully it comes out exactly like what I’m imagining,” he says. “They said it’s going to be done this year probably, and I want to go back to Nigeria and see how it is and [have] like a grand opening. I want to be able to stream that.”
Andrew Hetherington
Cenat’s work in Makoko offers a window into how he envisions his future. He has dreams of doing more with the streaming format, but also, maybe, leaving it all together. Though he loves streaming, he wants to act in and direct movies. (Not TV, though: In his words, “No one watches TV anymore.”) Hart, whom he now calls a friend, has been helping him prepare for that next stage of his career; Cenat won’t share specifics, but says Hart has given him certain movies to watch and has been advising him. “I would love to be in movies and stuff; he definitely pushes me,” Cenat says. “He tries to connect me to the right people that direct and write movies and produce them.”
Would he leave streaming behind for Hollywood? Perhaps — but not right now. “Our good friend, [YouTube superstar] Mr. Beast, was like, ‘Why would you use something that you’re so good at to catapult you into another category? Just be completely dominant in the category that you’re in right now and just take over that.’ And I’m like, ‘Damn, he does make a good point.’ ”
His current solution to the conundrum: eschew Hollywood entirely and produce a movie on his own. “I want to be able to, like, put it out to the world,” he says. “I’m going to take a hit financially. But like, I want to be able to put it out to the world and just see if a company will pick it up.”
For the moment, Cenat remains laser focused on streaming. After all, his is one of the only streams that can genuinely help (or hurt) an artist’s career, at least in his mind. When Cenat panned GloRilla’s 2023 single “Cha Cha Cha” with Fivio Foreign, the Memphis MC blocked him on social media. He felt he was just being honest. “If there’s some bad music, I’m going to let you know it’s bad,” he says. However, according to Cenat, after their dustup, Glo glowed up. “We’re good friends now. And ever since I told her that one song was bad, she’s been making hits!” He’s not wrong. Ever since that spat, Glo has notched five songs in the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And when the biggest names in entertainment are DM’ing and texting you to ask to visit your crib and hop on your stream, what could possibly measure up next? Going bigger — even bigger than the movies. “I want to go to space!” Cenat exclaims. “I want to be the first human in space to float around, [stream] and talk my talk to my chat and then come back down to Earth.”
He’s serious, too. He wants to do everything he wanted to do as a kid, living and dreaming in that homeless shelter. “I want to have the whole Avengers on my stream one day,” he says with the enthusiasm of a middle schooler. “I really believe that’s going to happen one day.”
This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Kai Cenat — the eternally upbeat streamer whose profile has exploded in recent years to make him the most popular personality on the Amazon-owned Twitch platform — is taking a moment to think. In the five years or so since he’s become a full-time content creator, Cenat has had some of the most famous hip-hop […]
Evan Rachel Wood issued a strong statement supporting survivors of domestic and sexual assault following Los Angeles County DA Nathan J. Hochman’s announcement last week that his office would not file domestic abuse and sexual assault charges against her ex-fiancé, shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
“My lawyer and I were advised by the Deputy District Attorneys and the Sheriff deputies who investigated the case that there was compelling evidence to support our claims, but that the statute of limitations prevents many of those crimes from being prosecuted,” Wood wrote on her private Instagram on Friday, according to People magazine. “We always knew that the statute of limitations would be a barrier, which is why we created the Phoenix Act so that other victims wouldn’t have to experience this outcome.”
Working with legislators and domestic violence survivors, Wood helped write the 2019 Phoenix Act, a California law that extended the statute of limitations for domestic violence felony crimes from three to five years. She was among a number of women who accused Manson (born Brian Warner), 56, of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, allegations the musician has denied.
On Friday, Hochman said his office decided that that statute of limitations had expired on any domestic violence charges against Manson and that they could not prove a sexual assault charge in court. In a statement, Hochman said prosecutors, “recognize and applaud the courage and resilience of the women who came forward,” thanking them for their “cooperation and patience… While we are unable to bring charges in this matter, we recognize that the strong advocacy of the women involved has helped bring greater awareness to the challenges faced by survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault,” Hochman said.
In her statement, Wood — who had alleged that Manson “started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years” — added, “Unfortunately, the Phoenix Act cannot help in cases which occurred before it was passed, but I hope this shines a light on why it’s so important to advocate for better laws. Evidence of violent crimes should not have an expiration date. I am grateful for the work law enforcement has done, and I am endlessly proud of all the survivors who risked everything to protect others by speaking the truth.”
Game of Thrones actress Bianco accused Manson of abuse in 2021 and reached an undisclosed settlement with the musician in 2023 after alleging that he had “used drugs, force and threats of force to coerce sexual acts” and had “locked Ms. Bianco in the bedroom, tied her to a prayer kneeler and beat her with a whip that Mr. Warner said was utilized by the Nazis.”
Bianco also issued a statement following Hochman’s ruling, writing on Instagram: “Whilst I am deeply disappointed by the decision of the District Attorney to not bring charges in the case against Brian Warner, I am sadly not surprised. Within our toxic culture of victim blaming; a lack of understanding of coercive control, the complex nature of sexual assault within intimate partnerships, and statutes of limitations that do not support the realities of healing; prosecutions face an oftentimes insurmountable hurdle.”
She added, “Once again, our justice system has failed survivors. Not the individual prosecutors and detectives who worked for years on this case, but the system that made them do so with one hand tied behind their collective backs. Seven years ago when I was faced for the first time with that failure, it set me out on a journey of advocacy and activism, but with that came a very clear directive. My healing and peace could not be reliant upon the outcome of a desperately broken system. I know the truth of what happened to me. It sits deeply rooted in my belly, unshakable, mine. No-one and nothing can take that away. And so to all the survivors reading this, who are being hit by yet another piece of stinging news and feeling hopeless or discouraged, let me remind you: you know your truth also. Let that be your anchor, for it is stronger than the bars of any prison.”
With truth as her guide, Bianco vowed to continue fighting for justice reform and to “shine our light onto dark realities of sexual violence and intimate partner abuse, so that we can not only understand it, but end it.” She also had a blunt personal message to Warner, writing, “By you dragging me through hell, I discovered the unstoppable force of my own power. I learnt how strong, and brave and bold I really am. I emerged as a Phoenix from the ashes that you left of my life. You also know the truth, and may you endeavor to find peace with that.”
Manson has strongly denied all the allegations, at one point filing a motion to dismiss the case filed by Bianco, in which he accused her of “cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement.” He also filed a defamation lawsuit against Wood, claiming she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously” with false allegations against the rocker. Wood denied the counter-allegations and Manson dropped the suit in November 2024, agreeing to pay $327,000 of her legal fees.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
Looks like Martha Stewart never got the Brat summer memo last year. In a hilarious new teaser for Uber Eats’ upcoming Super Bowl commercial, the businesswoman lets Charli XCX know in no uncertain terms that she’s never heard of her before.
Sitting next to the “Guess” singer as they both take part in a trend called “We Listen and We Don’t Judge,” Stewart kicks things off with a gentle dig at her counterpart’s stage moniker. “Honestly, Charli, when my agent first sent me your name, I thought it was the wifi password,” the culinary guru says as the Grammy nominee chuckles.
But Charli immediately gives it right back to Stewart. “Well, when my agent told me you were doing this, I thought you’d be doing the catering,” she tells the author, who later asks the musician, “But seriously, who are you again?”
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Both Charli and Stewart will star in Uber Eats’ commercial airing Super Bowl Sunday, which this year takes place Feb. 9. Matthew McConaughey will also appear in the advertisement, leading the “Apple” artist and TV personality on quest to prove that football was invented just to sell food.
“It was cute filming my first Super Bowl campaign with Uber Eats!” Charli said of the commercial in a statement. “Matthew and Martha are obviously legends, so I felt right at home.”
The songwriter also filmed a solo teaser for the campaign that’s more in line with the vibes of her year-defining 2024 album Brat — which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — with Charli breaking down football positions in “club terms.” “The quarterback — he’s like the DJ,” she says, wearing sunglasses while sitting on a conference room table. “He controls the vibe. Bad quarterback, bad vibe.”
“The defensive lineman is sort of like a bouncer, I suppose — you have to get past him if you want to score,” she continues. “The tight end? No translation needed, babe.”
Watch Charli XCX and Martha Stewart’s Super Bowl ad teasers below.
Katy Perry is bringing her Lifetimes Tour to the U.S. this spring and summer. On Monday morning (Jan. 27), the singer announced the first American dates for the tour in support of her 143 album, which will kick off with a May 7 show at the Toyota Center in Houston.
The outing will then swing through Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Las Vegas and Austin, TX before hitting Dallas’ American Airlines Arena on May 21. June will find Perry playing a string of previously announced arena gigs across Australia, before she makes her way back to the U.S. for July stops in Phoenix, Anaheim and Inglewood, CA and San Francisco before wrapping up that leg at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on July 21.
The rest of the summer is a mix of previously announced Canadian shows in late July and early August and yet another run of U.S. gigs in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Neward, Baltimore, Raleigh, Nashville, Atlanta and Tampa, winding down on August 23 at Keseya Center in Miami. After that, Perry heads down to South America and then back to Europe in the fall for a run currently slated to wrap up on Nov. 5 at the Accor Arena in Paris.
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Tickets for the U.S. dates of the Live Nation-promoted tour will be available starting with Citi and Verizon presales beginning on Tuesday (Jan. 28) at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday (Jan. 3) at 10 p.m. local time; click here for Citi ticket info and here for Verizon ticketing info. The general onsale will begin at 10 a.m. local time on Friday (Jan. 31) here.
Katy Perry 2025 Lifetimes Tour U.S. dates:
May 7 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
May 9 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center
May 10 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
May 12 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
May 13 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
May 15 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
May 17 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
May 20 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
May 21 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
July 12 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
July 13 — Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
July 15 — Inglewood, CA@ Kia Forum
July 18 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
July 21 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
August 3 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
August 6 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena (newly announced Canadian show)
August 8 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
August 9 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
August 11 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 14 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
August 15 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
August 17 — Raleigh, NC @ Lenovo Center
August 19 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
August 20 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
August 22 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
August 23 — Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
On Sunday (Jan. 26), it was Travis Kelce‘s turn to sing in the spotlight. As Taylor Swift looked on from the field, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end celebrated his team winning the AFC Championship following a tight battle with their frequent rivals, the Buffalo Bills, with a little ditty. After Kelce and the gang […]
Manchester-based rapper Aitch has fired back at Central Cee after the latter dissed him on his recently-released album Can’t Rush Greatness (Jan. 24).
On the LP’s “5 Star,” Central Cee (real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su) came for Aitch in a line that referenced the latter winning a BRIT Award over him at the 2023 ceremony. Aitch triumphed in the hip-hop/grime/rap category over Central Cee, Dave, Loyle Carner and Stormzy. Central Cee has been nominated for the award a number of times and has yet to grab the prize
“I felt like a p—k when I went to the BRITs and they gave the award to a guy called Aitch/ I had my acceptance speech prepared like, ‘Long live F’s,’ I’m goin’ insane,” he said. The latter line references Central Cee’s close friend Fernando “FDot Johnson” who was murdered in January 2023.
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Later that afternoon (Jan. 24), the Manchester rapper responded to the diss with a track “A Guy Called?” which was uploaded directly to his Instagram with the caption “leave me alone” alongside a picture of his BRITs trophy. On the track’s opening line Aitch claims that Central Cee is an “influencer” and that he will “jump in the booth for something to do.”
Further references in the track allude to Cench’s BRITs barb, saying: “Little boy is just there to be spun, gettin’ mad at the BRITs, there’s bare to be won.” Later in the track, Aitch adds: “Bringin’ the BRITs up two years later, f— my life, you should go live yours.”
Elsewhere Aitch alleges that Central Cee employs ghostwriters (“All your songs get wrote by Clint, in the booth, one mic, two c—s”) and makes reference to Central Cee’s ethnicity (“Clint was p—d ’cause Cench got beat by a white MC, Cench is as white as me”). Speaking to British Vogue in 2024, Central Cee said that he was born to an English mother and a father of Guyanese and Chinese ancestry.
A number of their U.K. rap contemporaries including Kairo Keyz, ArrDee and M1llionz have commented on Aitch’s Instagram post. Central Cee responded to the track by commenting “fair enough” alongside a flame and laughing face emoji. Listen to the track below.
Aitch released his debut album Close to Home in 2022 and which reached No. 2 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart.
Central Cee is nominated once again in the hip-hop/grime/rap category at the 2025 BRITs which take place March 1, where he will go up against Dave, Ghetts, Little Simz and Stormzy for the prize.
It was almost head-to-toe Louis Vuitton for Taylor Swift at the Chiefs-Bills game Sunday evening (Jan. 26). She attended the NFL AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, in support of Travis Kelce, tight end for the Chiefs. Sunday’s playoff game determined which team will play the Eagles at this year’s Super […]