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Billboard, Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical are partnering with comedian/musical improviser Reggie Watts to put on the sickest show in Palm Springs, literally, with “MuSick: Live from Reggie Watts’ Couch.”
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Watts has joined with Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon One Medical to let concertgoers know where to turn if their “festival fever” turns into an actual fever. Watts will perform atop an enormous couch — yes, a couch — poolside at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, as part of Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy’s message that “Healthcare just got less painful.” With Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy, you can get 24/7 telehealth care and your prescriptions without so much as getting off the couch — thank ah-choo very much!
Watts, who is known for his trippy beatboxing soundscapes, will wow the audience in his signature style, only this time he’s bound to incorporate some sick sounds — a sneeze or a cough or two — into his “sick” beats. Stay on the lookout before his performance to see Reggie cruising around Palm Springs on a motorized couch recruiting festival-goers to join him for the show. His live performance will be kicked off with a DJ set by special guest NEIL FRANCES. The event, which is open to the public, will take place from 12:00pm – 4:00pm at the venue and offer giveaways, cocktails, mocktails, and more. Click here to RSVP to the event!
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Watts shared, “When Amazon explained what they were doing to make healthcare less painful, and what they wanted to create, I was in. I was inspired by this idea and started to play with the sounds of being sick and turn them into music. I turned the usually unpleasant experiences of getting sick and dealing with healthcare into something relatable and entertaining. The results put a smile on all our faces.”
Dana Droppo, Chief Brand Officer, Billboard, echoed that sentiment, saying, “We are thrilled to join forces with Amazon and Reggie for this exciting activation. These festivals are a vibrant celebration of music and culture, and this partnership elevates that experience in a truly engaging way. We’re confident that fans will not only love what we’re creating but will walk away feeling connected and deeply immersed in the spirit of the music.”
Stay tuned for more updates on the “MuSick: Live from Reggie Watts’ Couch” event!
Mexican band Los Alegres del Barranco spoke out for the first time on Wednesday (April 2) about the controversial concert where they projected images of the leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, in an auditorium at the University of Guadalajara last weekend. The incident caused the United States to cancel the work and tourist visas of the group’s members.
In a statement and video posted on their social media, the Sinaloan group offered an apology for the events that occurred on Saturday (March 29) during their performance at the Telmex Auditorium, and stated that, as a group, “it was never our intention to create controversy, much less cause offense.”
The band — who has released some songs with clear references to narcoculture — reaffirms that their music is inspired by telling popular stories within Mexican music. “We will take more rigorous measures on the visual and narrative content of our shows,” he added.
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The statement from the corrido group — who perform in a genre that has occasionally made clear references to narco-culture and famous cartel leaders since its origins over a century ago — came a day after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau confirmed on Tuesday (April 1) in a post on X that the government of that country had canceled the visas of the members of the Mexican group following the projection of images “that glorify drug traffickers.”
“In the Trump Administration, we take our responsibility regarding the access of foreigners to our country very seriously. We are not going to roll out the red carpet for those who glorify criminals and terrorists,” Landau stated in both English and Spanish.
The incident, which has caused great controversy and outrage in Mexico, was condemned on Monday (March 31) by Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, and prompted the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation for “advocating crime.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on February 20 the designation of eight cartels — including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — and transnational organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
On Tuesday, the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus, stated in a message on X that his government supports the measures taken by the University of Guadalajara to prevent concerts from glorifying criminal acts, such as what occurred over the weekend at the Telmex Auditorium.
Videos show the moment when attendees at the concert titled “Los Señores del Corrido” (The Lords of Corridos) erupted in jubilation as images of the drug lord were projected, further fueling controversy and outrage in Mexico.
In a statement, the Telmex Auditorium distanced itself from the events, explaining that the venue, “has no involvement in the selection of the repertoire, speeches, or audiovisual material that the artists choose to share with their audience.” However, it acknowledged that the images of the drug lord could be considered as “advocating crime.”
The controversy over the alleged homage to the drug trafficker comes after the debate over the way in which the cartel founded in that western Mexican state allegedly uses clandestine ranches to recruit people to the criminal group through deceitful job offers. As reported by federal authorities and the media, a raid by authorities at Rancho Izaguirre in the municipality of Teuchitlán revealed the spot where acts of torture and murders were allegedly committed, actions denounced in March by the Guerreros Buscadores collective, a civilian corps focused on finding missing and disappeared loved ones.
Kesha is gearing up for her biggest headlining tour to date. The “Yippee-Ki-Yay” singer announced the dates for The T-ts Out tour on Thursday (April 3), which will also feature disco pop act Scissor Sisters joining her on all the dates for the latter’s first North American live run in more than a decade; Slayyyter and U.K. singer Rose Gray will join on select dates.
The Live Nation-produced outing is slated to kick off on July 1 at the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City City, UT and play arenas and amphitheaters in the U.S. and Canada through an August 10 gig at MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL on August 10. The run will include Kesha’s first-ever solo headlining gigs at a pair of iconic venues: L.A.’a Kia Forum (July 5) and New York City’s Madison Square Garden (July 23).
“The most political thing we can do right now is love. Love ourselves and love each other,” Kesha said in a statement about the tour that is partnering with the Feeld dating app for the open-minded. “Americans need to have more safe, consensual sex. Our administration is so disembodied and disconnected. I’m going T–S OUT this summer to bring as much safety, fun, acceptance, love, connection, and celebration to this country because we are just as much the fabric of this FREE nation as anyone else. We will not be quiet, and we will fight through joy! I think it’s time to make LOVE, not content. LOVE, not anger. LOVE, not hatred, and love, not war.”
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The singer who is gearing up to release her sixth album, . (Period), on Kesha Records on July 4 — her first independent release since her departure from Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe Records — added, “I’m committed to bringing my newfound freedom to a city near you. A celebration is in order. I have partnered with Feeld, a dating app for open-minded people, in order to bring our sexually liberated selves and give us a place to flirt, meet, connect, and dance. Color-coded options will be available soon, but this summer wear RED if you are single, horny, and down to flirt! Let’s fight chaos with love, so let’s see how much love we can bring to the summer of 2025.”
And, not for nothing, Kesha said she’s looking for a “sugar daddy,” telling fans that they will get “extra animal points” if they bring along a “tall, hot, single friend.”
Sign up now for access to a pre-sale beginning on April 8 at 10 a.m. local here or here, with additional pre-sales slated throughout the week. Remaining tickets will be available in a general on-sale on April 10 at 10 a.m. local. Kesha will celebrate the roll-out of the dates with a Boiler Room set in Miami on Thursday night.
“We are stoked to extend our reunion to the US and Canada this summer alongside Kesha,” said the Scissor Sisters, whose reunited lineup features members Jake Shears, Babydaddy and Del Marquis. “There has always been a bit of anarchy and chaos to both of our live shows – and we can’t wait to bring that ‘anything can happen’ energy across North America again.”
To date, Kesha has released the singles “Joyride,” “Delusional” and the new country-leaning “Yippee-Ki-Yay,” featuring T-Pain from the upcoming album.
Check out the dates for Kesha’s 2025 North American T–s Out tour below:
July 1 – West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre ^
July 3 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre ^
July 5 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum ^
July 6 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre ^
July 8 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion * ^
July 10 – The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion ^
July 12 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre ^
July 13 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre ^
July 15 – Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park – Ascend Amphitheater ^
July 16 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center ^
July 18 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center ^
July 19 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre #
July 21 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage #
July 23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
July 24 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center #
July 26 – Burgettstown, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake #
July 28 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center #
July 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavillion at The Mann #
July 31 – Buffalo, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater #
August 2 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater #
August 3 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek #
August 5 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion #
August 7 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre #
August 9 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre #
August 10 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre #
^ w/ Slayyyter
# w/ Rose Gray
Ye — formerly Kanye West — and Bianca Censori’s relationship has long been plagued by break-up rumors, but West confirmed a split from his wife in a new song named after Censori. Yeezy is teasing the rollout of his WW3 project and he previewed “BIANCA” on a stream with Akademiks on Wednesday night (April 2), which saw him confront Censori leaving him.
“My baby she ran away/ But first she tried to get me committed/ Not going to the hospital ’cause I am not sick I just do not get it,” Ye raps on the track. West has been staunch in his stance of avoiding medication and hospitalization in recent weeks, alluding in the song to Censori being upset with him over his flagrant, offensive tweeting habits.
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“She’s having a panic attack and she is not liking the way that I tweeted/ Until Bianca’s back I stay up all night I’m not going to sleep/ I really don’t know where she’s at,” he continues to rhyme in distress on the pitched-up soul track featuring the rapper’s distorted vocals and an assist from viral MC Dave Blunts.
Yeezy refers to himself and Censori’s relationship as the “new Cassie and Diddy,” in seeming reference to disgraced Bad Boy Records mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and his longtime girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventur. Combs settled a lawsuit filed by Ventura one day after she filed the motion in November 2023 in response to the the lawsuit over what she claimed were years of alleged physical abuse, including rape; Combs, who has been jailed without bail since September while awaiting trial in New York on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, has denied Cassie’s allegations.
In the song, Ye also claims to have been tracking Censori via the Maybach app. “I’m tracking my b—h through an app/ I’m tracking my b—h through the city/ She hop in the car and she ran/ My b–h just don’t understand/ Sometimes it just feel like it’s planned,” he sings.
West and Censori tied the knot during a private ceremony in December 2022. They were first photographed together shortly after in January 2023. While he confirmed the split, West still wants to get back together with the 30-year-old architect who has frequently been seen by his side in very revealing outfits. “Bianca, I just want you to come back/ Don’t know what I did to make you mad/ Bianca, I just want you to come back/ Want you to come back to me,” he warbles.
West and Censori spent January in the Maldives celebrating her 30th birthday and took a lengthy trip to Japan. The former couple had social media buzzing on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards in February when she posed for photos in a scantily clad seethrough micro-dress.
It’s been a turbulent few months for West, who has controversially used X to continue doubling down on his antisemitic sentiments, praising Hitler and showing off a Swastika chain after trying to sell Swastika t-shirts.
Ye’s also been critical of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her family in his frequent X posts, along with a number of his rap peers, including Jay-Z, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott and more.
Though March might not have been as packed a month of pop stardom as February, we still ended the month with a whole lot to talk about: big comeback albums, long-anticipated singles (and music videos), award-show moments and performances, and a couple leftover pop stars from 2024 who just refuse to let up in their […]
Jon Batiste will receive the inaugural Ray Charles “Architect of Sound” Award at the annual Grammy Hall of Fame Gala, which is set for May 16 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. The award is to be presented annually at this event, which is presented jointly by the Grammy Museum and the Recording Academy.
The “Architect of Sound” Award recognizes an artist whose impact on music echoes Charles’ pioneering spirit. A 17-time Grammy winner, Charles is widely-regarded one of the most influential artists of all time. He was in the inaugural class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recipients in 1986 and also received the Kennedy Center Honors that year. He received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and has 10 recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for portraying Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray. The film remains one of the top 10 top-grossing musical biopics.
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“Ray Charles is a beacon for me, a blueprint,” Batiste said in a statement. “He is a singular example of musical genius, artistic freedom and craft of the highest level that will continue to inspire humanity for generations and stand the test of time. I am honored to receive this award. It is vitally important to me to carry on our cultural legacy of true artistic greatness and lead the way for generations to come.”
Michael Sticka, Grammy Museum president/CEO, said, “Ray Charles was a trailblazing artist whose influence knows no bounds, and Jon Batiste is a true reflection of that legacy. Beyond his immense talent, Jon has been a dedicated partner in advancing the Grammy Museum’s mission to make music education more accessible. Honoring him with the inaugural Ray Charles ‘Architect of Sound’ Award is not just fitting — it’s a celebration of two artists who have shaped the sound of generations.”
Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation, added, “Ray Charles was always pushing music forward — blending genres, breaking barriers, and inspiring generations. He would be deeply honored to have his name attached to an award that celebrates artists who share his fearless creativity and dedication to their craft. Jon Batiste embodies that spirit.”
Batiste has won seven Grammys, including album of the year for We Are, and an Oscar for best original score for Soul (in tandem with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). His latest album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), is the first in his solo piano series, reimagining classical works through a fresh lens.
Batiste will take the stage for two performances at the Gala, which will also feature musical moments from a lineup of artists to be announced soon. The event will additionally honor this year’s label honoree, Republic Records.
The show will be produced by former Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich, alongside Ron Basile, Lindsay Saunders Carl and Lynne Sheridan, with musical direction by Cheche Alara, a Grammy- and Latin Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and conductor. CBS News journalist Anthony Mason returns as host.
The Gala will celebrate the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings, which include iconic recordings such as JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman, Santana’s Supernatural, and recordings from Big Star, Clara Ward, Eddie Floyd, Emmylou Harris, Fela Kuti & Afrika 70, Geeshie Wiley, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Linda Martell, and Luther Vandross.
The Grammy Hall of Fame was established by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees in 1973. The inducted recordings are selected annually by a committee, with final ratification by the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. With 13 new titles, the Grammy Hall of Fame currently totals 1,165 inducted recordings. Eligible recipients will receive an official certificate from the Recording Academy.
Tickets for the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala are on sale now. For more information, visit the Grammy Museum website.
Last week (March 26), Lady Gaga announced dates and venues for The MAYHEM Ball, marking her first tour in three years and the sixth such “ball” of her career, dating back to 2009’s The Fame Ball. With ticket sales rolling out this week (beginning March 31), Billboard estimates that the tour could land as her fourth trek to gross $100 million.
An ever-expanding slate of shows have pushed Gaga’s 2025 projections from the brink of $100 million to surging toward $125 million. But firm estimates for The MAYHEM Ball are tricky, because much in the spirit of Lady Gaga, the 2025 routing zigs where she has previously zagged. To use figures from her most recent outing – $5.6 million and 41,700 tickets per show on 2022’s The Chromatica Ball – would be to ignore the nuances of this year’s schedule.
The MAYHEM Ball winds Gaga through arenas in Europe and North America, following warm-up dates at Mexico City’s Estadio GNP Seguros and Singapore’s National Stadium (plus a free show in Rio de Janeiro) – at least as much as stadium shows can serve as a warm-up. It’s a swerve from the all-stadium routing on The Chromatica Ball, not to mention her theater residency in Las Vegas from 2018-24.
Upon the tour’s announcement, Gaga took to social media to celebrate her upcoming calendar. “We chose arenas this time to give me the opportunity to control the details of the show in a way you simply can’t in stadiums – and honestly, I can’t wait.”
Not only has Gaga oscillated from intimate theaters to football stadiums, but The MAYHEM Ball re-introduces some markets that she hasn’t played in decade, while foregoing some of the sold-out cities from her recent treks. Her shows in Seattle and Manchester will be her first proper concerts in those cities in 11 years. More dramatically, those stand-alone stops in Mexico City and Singapore will be her first since The Born This Way Ball in 2012.
Time is also a factor. Since Gaga’s last mostly-arena tour in 2017-18 (The Joanne World Tour), she has starred in three major-studio films, one of which won her an Academy Award for songwriting, plus a nomination for acting. She also released Chromatica and MAYHEM, both of which topped the Billboard 200 and spawned Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, in addition to two jazz albums and the chart-topping soundtrack to A Star is Born.
Just as key, the concert business has undergone major transformation, first shutting down entirely for more than a year due to COVID-19 and then returning bigger than ever with skyrocketing ticket prices.
While recent projections for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour were simple enough, carrying over many of the same venues from her previous tour just two years ago, the shape of The MAYHEM Ball is all its own.
Using the average ticket price from the markets that do carry over from The Chromatica Ball, and average-to-high capacity from each venue’s recent history, this year’s initial routing would be headed toward $80-85 million from about 700,000 tickets sold. A 15% rise in ticket prices would push the projected gross beyond $90 million and a 25% increase would clear the $100 million mark.
Those bumps consider the way that ticket prices have risen beyond the rate of inflation since her 2022 tour. And while The Chromatica Ball did take place after the post-COVID return as prices were already on the rise, tickets for six of its 20 shows were sold primarily in the (barely) pre-pandemic era, as the then-limited tour was first announced on March 5, 2020, just a week before venues were forced to close.
Notably, as Gaga undergoes a relative downsizing from stadiums to arenas, supply-and-demand could drive higher prices than on The Chromatica Ball, with far fewer seats available each night. Including multiple shows in certain locations, her 2025 schedule includes just six cities in the U.S. and Canada. That’s slightly less than eight for Chromatica, and much tighter than 35 on The Joanne World Tour and 33 on ArtRave: The Artpop Ball (2014). She makes up for it with multiple shows everywhere, including six at Madison Square Garden. Much like Beyoncé’s upcoming trek, sales could be even more competitive as fans from surrounding cities flock to Chicago, Miami, and New York, among few others.
Momentum behind The MAYHEM Ball and its international spin-offs has already gathered, with early demand forcing extra shows in those three markets plus a handful of others. Originally 38 shows, Gaga’s current slate of 50 ticketed dates is likely to surpass of The Chromatica Ball’s stadium-sized $112 million, potentially making it Gaga’s biggest year on the road since 2012.
Isolating the proper tour’s arena run, The MAYHEM Ball should approach the $100 million mark, possibly becoming Gaga’s forth tour to crack the nine-figure mark. It’d follow The Monster Ball (2009-11), The Born This Way Ball (2012-13) and The Chromatica Ball. The Joanne World Tour earned $94.9 million before cancelling its last 10 shows due to Gaga’s struggle with fibromyalgia. Plus, the Lady Gaga Enigma + Piano & Jazz residency brought in $110 million from 2018-24.
Dating back to her first reported headline show at San Diego’s House of Blues on March 12, 2009 ($18,500; 1,000 tickets), Gaga’s tours have grossed $723.1 million and sold 6.4 million tickets from a reported 462 shows.
Amid a characteristically packed schedule of events at Miami Music Week 2025, Femme House continued carving out a place for itself and the many artists and industry folks who align with its mission to make the dance world a more inclusive place through education, music, camaraderie and community building.
Founded by Hermixalot and LP Giobbi in 2018, the nonprofit — which works to create opportunities for women, gender-expansive, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creatives — hosted a series of events during the annual dance industry gathering, which took over Miami from March 26-31.
On March 27, the organization hosted the first ever Femmy Awards, an afternoon gathering at Palm TRee Club that honored some of the dance world’s most essential female pioneers — DJ Minx, DJ Lady D, Crystal Waters and Barbara Tucker, shining a light on the Black, female creators who helped forge the dance scene in its early days and who’ve been consistent presences in the decades since.
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The awards, a festive occasion that elicited a lot of cheering and also some tears as award winners were announced on the the packed patio, also honored many other women and allies, with beloved party brand and label HE.SHE.THEY winning for best record label, Lightning in a Bottle winning for most diverse festival and The Martinez Brothers appearing to accept the Ally Award, among many other winners. See exclusive photos from The Femmy Awards below.
British producer TSHA won the best producer of the year, with her speech acknowledging “all the DJs who’ve put me on their lineups… I saw the Martinez [Brothers] are here…they’ve always put me on their lineups — and not as the warmup DJ, which is what happens a lot. I usually get stuck as the warmup, but they haven’t done that, so thanks guys. And to all my fellow producers, singers, DJs and my girls here, you guys are amazing, this award means the world to me and I will continue to support you, too.”
While accepting her award for producer of the year, techno star Sara Landry shouted out fellow techno queen Nicole Moudaber, who was also at the ceremony, calling her “one of the original pioneers of techno in this space, an original glass ceiling breaker; I would not be where I am without you, thank you Nicole.” Landry also acknowledged fellow techno producers Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte, saying their “fearlessness has made it so much easier for me, and your community and sisterhood have lifted my spirits even when I’m feeling like absolutely dogs… It’s a joy and a pleasure to go backstage and to see your spaces and be welcomed in loving and open arms.”
Landry also acknowledged the pioneers in the room, acknowledging the “women who went through what I’m going through now, before these spaces existed to honor them for the work that they do. We have all have had some very difficult times; it’s hard to be the only woman in the room, and the sisterhood and the camaraderie I’ve gotten from the incredible women in this industry, whose kindness and acceptance and willingness to welcome me into this space when I was a f—ing nobody from Austin, Texas, y’all have made such a difference to me… I solemnly swear to pay it forward and continue to do that.” See the complete winners list here.
Beyond The Femmys, Femme House’s Miami Music Week programming a showcase for LP Giobbi’s Yes Yes Yes label, with DJ Minx headlining the event and the party going until 5 a.m. on Friday morning. Despite this late night, Hermixalot (the artist born Lauren Spalding) and Giobbi were back in action by Friday mid-morning, first hosting a brunch for friends of Femme House and then a panel discussion featuring DJ Lady D, Crystal Waters and Kaleena Zanders, three Black female dance music vocalists who spoke to the injustices Black female singers have faced within the dance world, which has historically profited from the voices of Black women without providing proper acknowledgement and fair compensation.
“The reason I curated this panel in this way is because these are the voices, literally,” Hermixalot said while moderating the event. “These are the artists literally, this is the culture literally. I wanted to give them a chance to call all you industry folks in and tell you how to do it and how to do right by them, because they’ve earned that right. This is about creating equity, impact and longevity. These women are the personification of those ideas, and I think it’s important that we listen to them and that we honor what they have to say and that we act on it appropriately.”
Speaking from decades of experience, Chicago house icon DJ Lady D advised that it’s necessary for any curator with a platform to make space for the originators of dance music culture. “There are only a few pioneers of this movement left,” she advised, “and I think that festivals and places like that should be putting those people that are still here on stages. They should be intentional about that.”
Waters, meanwhile, stressed the importance of having a good lawyer to check contracts to make sure they’re benefitting singers. She noted that “there’s a lot of legal stuff that I don’t think a lot of people know or understand,” referring to how crucial it is for vocalists to be listed as featured artists on tracks in order to receive royalties. “Educate yourself, get an attorney, get that stuff straight, because there’s a lot of little pinpoints where you can protect yourself for years to come, especially with the AI coming in, you’re going to have to start thinking ahead.”
The house music star also noted the importance of just speaking up and standing your ground. “Men will tell you ‘no’ as a default,” Waters advised, “and if you just let it go, they’ll push you to the side, so you have to be persistent, you have to kind of be a b—h, but you don’t have to be a nasty one.”
Speaking as a younger voice of the dance world, Zanders said that given “how mistreated vocalists and Black women are in this industry, I felt a responsibility to stay in dance music, to fight the fight.” She continued that she has her own list of checks and balances when choosing collaborators, emphasizing that she tries to have the producers that reach out to her for a possible collaboration “see the human in me first, because they often don’t see that at all.”
Pragmatically, the conversation also focused on the importance of singers being listed as primary artists in the backend of DSPs (even if they’re listed as featured artists on the front-end of these platforms) to ensure maximum and accurate streaming revenue. Zanders advised that while you “might have to follow up 1,500 times” with DSPs to ensure these correct listings, “you have to fight the fight.”
Billboard is the official media sponsor of the 2025 Femmy Awards.
The 2025 Femmy Awards
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The 2025 Femmy Awards
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The 2025 Femmy Awards
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The 2025 Femmy Awards
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The 2025 Femmy Awards
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“If you’re keeping score at home…”
Anyone who has tuned in to baseball on TV or radio has probably heard Vin Scully or Bob Costas refer to the shorthand used to keep track of the game.
In a parallel world, anyone keeping score at the tavern will understand the results in Jordan Davis’ play-by-play of a guy attempting to drown out his past: “You and your memory, one/ Me and this bar, none.” His team is behind, trying desperately to catch up in what looks like a losing battle.
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When Davis — an avowed sports fan — related to “Bar None” from the outset, it was partly because it reminded him of high school athletics.
“I pitched in baseball, and I was losing a lot,” he recalls. “So this one felt right at home.”
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There haven’t been a ton of country hits centered on baseball — or even baseball metaphors — though a few exist: Alabama’s “Cheap Seats,” Kenny Rogers’ “The Greatest” and Bill Anderson’s “Liars One, Believers Zero” are good examples.
But none of that was at work in the “Bar None” backstory.
“When I brought in the general concept, I knew it was going to be about keeping score, but I didn’t have that lyric all settled,” remembers songwriter Lydia Vaughan (“If I Didn’t Love You,” “Friends Like That”). “I wasn’t having a specific sport in mind. Maybe the sport of heartbreak.”
Vaughan first considered “Bar None” as a title when she heard it in a conversation. She toyed with it, recognizing its colloquial meaning — “without exception” — but also seeing the keeping-score turn of a phrase as an interesting bit of wordplay. Despite fears that it might be too complicated, she introduced it last summer at Nashville’s Skyline Studio during a writing session with Hunter Phelps (“wait in the truck,” “Cold Beer Calling My Name”) and studio owner Ben Johnson (“Liar,” “Truck Bed”). Both her co-writers liked the concept of the score-related “bar none” hook, though Phelps was confused when Vaughan and Johnson considered employing the original meaning.
“I’d never heard the phrase ‘bar none’ before used as ‘no doubt’ or ‘with no exception,’” he says. “She had the hook of the chorus mapped out, and she said the hook, and I was like, ‘Well, that’s awesome,’ without knowing that.”
They spent perhaps 20 minutes debating the familiarity of “bar none” — Phelps even texted his wife, whose response was simple: “Yeah, everybody’s heard that phrase.” Ultimately, he trusted them and they plowed forward, with Johnson developing a fast-paced stomp-clap percussion bed to set a lighter tone.
“That’s actually what, for me, makes the song great,” Vaughan says. “It turns what lyrically is a sad, getting-over-somebody song into more of a fun drinking song, just sonically.”
Johnson devised a cascading instrumental passage for the intro, and it emerged as a signature sound for the piece.
“I actually slowed the track down about 20 beats per minute and played the riff really slow,” Johnson notes. “Then I sped it back up, and even though I played it on guitar, it kind of sounded like a mandolin or a banjo, and it gave it a cool, warbly effect.”
Verse one set the scene: guy attempts to numb his emotional pain at the bar. Verse two established the bottles on the back bar as his teammates. They purposely dropped internal rhymes (“burn,” “bourbon,” “hurtin’,” “certain”) and alliteration (“banged-up broken heart”) into key spots to create some playfulness, and they unintentionally cemented the sports theme with a mid-chorus reference to a scoreboard for the guy’s heartache. That part came with a short, melodic boost.
“Before that, the whole chorus was kind of on three notes,” Johnson says. “[We wanted] to get that part to lift up.”
When they needed a singer for the demo at the end of the day, Phelps was the best option — bar none — for a performance with a modest Lumineers vibe. “It sounds a little folky,” Phelps allows, “but it also sounds a little bluegrass, too.”
Around the time they wrote it, Davis appeared in a CMT Crossroads episode with NeedToBreathe, and he subsequently attempted to write something with a stomp-clap feel that mirrored that band’s core sound. When “Bar None” was sent his direction, he was an easy convert. “I didn’t even have to finish the entire first listen,” Davis says. “Right after that intro, I was like, ‘I’m pretty in on this.’ ”
Davis’ next album was mostly done, but he convinced MCA Nashville to let him cut four more songs, including “Bar None.” Producer Paul DiGiovanni (Travis Denning, Alana Springsteen) booked a session at Nashville’s Sound Stage with drummer Nir Z, bassist Jimmie Lee Sloas, guitarists Ilya Toshinskiy and Derek Wells, and keyboardist Alex Wright.
“That’s been kind of the hometown team for Jordan,” DiGiovanni says. They used the melody’s upper plateau on the “scoreboard” line to gauge the key, lowering it a bit to accommodate Davis’ expectation that it would become significant.
“I knew that it was going to be something that I was going to be playing for a long time and would potentially be going to radio,” he says. “I definitely didn’t want to cut something in a key that I was going to dread to see on the setlist every night. So I bumped it down a little bit, just to make those two notes on the back of the chorus a little easier to grab.”
Nir Z loosened the wire snares under his snare drum to eliminate some of the fuzz in the track’s percussion, and Toshinskiy opened his guitar boat road case to give the supporting track a variety of stringed instruments, with mandolin, banjo and bouzouki among the ream of options.
“He was like a magician [with] his hat, pulling out some crazy string thing I’d never seen before,” DiGiovanni recalls. “We kept most of the stuff, honestly. The song is driven by the acoustics of it, so it’s kind of like a wall of all these different timbres and octaves of different acoustic instruments.”
Davis was keenly aware of the “scoreboard” lines when he laid down the final vocal. “The back half of that chorus lifts pretty good,” he says. “It wasn’t super hard, other than those two lines.”
Trey Keller sang approximately 20 different harmony parts, some of which were blended with the instrumental riff to create a dreamy effect in the middle of “Bar None.” “I just knew he was going to crush this one,” DiGiovanni says.
Appropriate for a song with a sports hook, “Bar None” came up a winner. MCA Nashville released it to country radio on March 24, and with only a few days to accrue spins during the tracking period, it debuted at No. 57 on the Country Airplay chart dated April 5. Its energy is hard to ignore, but when Davis played a stripped-down version, he realized its appeal goes deeper.
“It’s not just a feel song,” he says. “It’s a well-written song. And I was excited. That was the day where I was like, ‘Awesome.’ ”
Bruce Springsteen is really throwing open the vaults for his upcoming Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set. But, unlike the his 1998 four-disc odds and sods Tracks collection, The Boss’ sprawling sequel will contain seven previously unheard full length records. According to a release on Thursday (April 3), the 83-track collection due out on June 27 through Sony Music will “fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career timeline — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist.”
In a statement, Springsteen said, “The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released. I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”-
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The box will include the lo-fi LA Garage Sessions ’83, described as a “crucial link” between the bare-bones Nebraska and the full-throated Born in the U.S.A., as well as the drum loop and synthesizer experimentation for the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions. The project covering the years 1983-2018 is a peek into 35 years of home recording and songwriting that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said provides insight into work that no one has heard before.
“The ability to record at home whenever I wanted allowed me to go into a wide variety of different musical directions,” Springsteen said. Some of that includes the “sonic experimentation” on “Faithless,” a film soundtrack he wrote for a movie that was never made, as well as the country-leaning, pedal steel-fueled sound of Somewhere North of Nashville, featuring songs such as “Repo Man,” “Tiger Rose,” “Silver Mountain,” “Janey Don’t Lose Your Heart” and the title track.
There’s also the “richly-woven border tales” on Inyo songs including “Indian Town,” “The Aztec Dance,” “Our Lady of Monroe” and “Ciudad Juarez” and the “orchestra-driven, mid-century noir on such Twilight Hours tracks as “Sunday Love,” “Lonely Town,” “September Kisses” and “High Sierra.” Another album, Perfect World, featuring the songs “I’m Not Sleeping,” “Idiot’s Delight,” “The Great Depression,” “If I Could Only Be Your Lover” and “You Lifted Me Up.”
Springsteen previewed the album on Thursday with the muscular, devastating Perfect World song “Rain in the River,” on which he sings, “Down at the water, I head my Marie/ She said, ‘Now Johnny, your love mean no more to me’/ Than rain in the river/ Than rain in the river.” He also posted a 90-second trailer for the album on Thursday morning, in which he says, “I often read about myself in the ’90s as having some lost period or something. And I really, really I was working the whole time.”
The rock icon explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic he “finished” everything he had in his vault, totaling 83 songs — 82 of which have never been heard before — including 74 that have never been heard before in any version.
The Lost Albums will come in limited-edition 9-LP, 7-CD and digital formats, with distinctive packaging for each previously unreleased record, as well as a 100-page cloth-bound hardcover book with rare archival photos, liner notes on each album from essayist Erik Flannigan and a personal introduction from Springsteen. A 20-track compilation entitled Lost and Found: Selections From The Lost Albums will be released on June 27 on two LPs and one CD.
Check out “Rain in the River” and the full track list for Tracks II: The Lost Albums below:
LA Garage Sessions ’83
1. Follow That Dream
2. Don’t Back Down On Our Love
3. Little Girl Like You
4. Johnny Bye Bye
5. Sugarland
6. Seven Tears
7. Fugitive’s Dream
8. Black Mountain Ballad
9. Jim Deer
10. County Fair
11. My Hometown
12. One Love
13. Don’t Back Down
14. Richfield Whistle
15. The Klansman
16. Unsatisfied Heart
17. Shut Out The Light
18. Fugitive’s Dream (Ballad)
Streets of Philadelphia Sessions
1. Blind Spot
2. Maybe I Don’t Know You
3. Something In The Well
4. Waiting On The End Of The World
5. The Little Things
6. We Fell Down
7. One Beautiful Morning
8. Between Heaven and Earth
9. Secret Garden
10. The Farewell Party
Faithless
1. The Desert (Instrumental)
2. Where You Goin’, Where You From
3. Faithless
4. All God’s Children
5. A Prayer By The River (Instrumental)
6. God Sent You
7. Goin’ To California
8. The Western Sea (Instrumental)
9. My Master’s Hand
10. Let Me Ride
11. My Master’s Hand (Theme)
Somewhere North of Nashville
1. Repo Man
2. Tiger Rose
3. Poor Side of Town
4. Delivery Man
5. Under A Big Sky
6. Detail Man
7. Silver Mountain
8. Janey Don’t You Lose Heart
9. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone
10. Stand On It
11. Blue Highway
12. Somewhere North of Nashville
Inyo
1. Inyo
2. Indian Town
3. Adelita
4. The Aztec Dance
5. The Lost Charro
6. Our Lady of Monroe
7. El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona)
8. One False Move
9. Ciudad Juarez
10. When I Build My Beautiful House
Twilight Hours
1. Sunday Love
2. Late in the Evening
3. Two of Us
4. Lonely Town
5. September Kisses
6. Twilight Hours
7. I’ll Stand By You
8. High Sierra
9. Sunliner
10. Another You
11. Dinner at Eight
12. Follow The Sun
Perfect World
1. I’m Not Sleeping
2. Idiot’s Delight
3. Another Thin Line
4. The Great Depression
5. Blind Man
6. Rain In The River
7. If I Could Only Be Your Lover
8. Cutting Knife
9. You Lifted Me Up
10. Perfect World