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Alex Warren has continued his dominant streak at the summit of the U.K. Singles Chart for a third consecutive week with breakout hit “Ordinary” (Apr. 4). The US singer-songwriter and influencer holds off competition from Chappell Roan, Doechii, and Ariana Grande to keep the spot following a third consecutive week of growth. Official Charts Company […]
LOCASH leads Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated April 12) for the first time since 2016 as “Hometown Home” ascends a spot to No. 1. The song increased by 10% to 30.1 million audience impressions March 28-April 3, according to Luminate. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The […]
Contemporary Christian Music hitmaker and five-time Grammy winner Brandon Lake is set to release a new album and launch a massive arena headlining tour this year.
Lake — whose song “Hard Fought Hallelujah” has spent 16 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart and gave him his all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart debut — will release his upcoming album, King of Hearts, on June 13. Lake co-wrote each of the album’s 16 songs and the project will include his 10-week Christian Airplay hit “That’s Who I Praise” and the Jelly Roll collaborative version of “Hard Fought Hallelujah.” Other songs on the album include “I Know a Name” with CeCe Winans, “Right in the Middle” with Hulvey, and “Remember the Miracles” with Hank Bentley.
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In an Instagram post, Lake shared, “I’m not sure if I knew who this record was for when I started writing it, but as the songs came the more I realized it was not for the seemingly put together, but rather those who are honest about their brokenness, but also have a desire to connect with their creator and experience Him in everyday life.”
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He added, “This creator is King of the universe, King of Nations, King of creation, but none more important than King of hearts. ♥️”
In addition to the album, Lake will embark on his 48-city King of Hearts arena headlining tour starting Oct. 2 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL. The trek will visit cities including Salt Lake City, Detroit, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and more, before wrapping next May in his hometown of Charleston, S.C. We The Kingdom bandmember-turned-solo artist Franni Cash will open shows on the fall 2025 dates on the tour. Lake’s fall 2025 and spring 2026 tour dates will follow his upcoming Summer Worship Nights 11-city tour with Phil Wickham.
The full list of Lake’s King of Hearts tour dates can be found at brandonlake.co.
Lake will also appear on American Idol on April 20, as part of a three-hour Easter special episode that will also feature performances from Winans, Jelly Roll, Roman Collins and The Brown Four.
See the tracklist for King of Hearts below:
1. “Plans” (Brandon Lake, Jacob Sooter, Hank Bentley, Jordan Colle)
2. “King Of Hearts” (Brandon Lake, Jacob Sooter, Hank Bentley)
3. “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Jelly Roll (Brandon Lake, Steven Furtick, Benjamin William Hastings, Chris Brown, Jason Bradley DeFord)
4. “Daddy’s DNA” (Brandon Lake, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter)
5. “I Know A Name” with CeCe Winans (Brandon Lake, Steven Furtick, Jacob Sooter, Hank Bentley)
6. “As For Me & My Home” (Brandon Lake, Benjamin William Hastings, Jacob Sooter, Hank Bentley)
7. “The Great I Am Can” (Brandon Lake, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter, Micah Nichols)
8. “Remember The Miracles” with Hank Bentley (Brandon Lake, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter, Jordan Colle, Brandon Breitenbach)
9. “Right In The Middle” with Hulvey (Brandon Lake, Chris Hulvey, Micah Nichols, Zac Lawson, Benjamin William Hastings)
10. “But God” (Brandon Lake, Micah Nichols, Benjamin Williams Hastings, Zac Lawson)
11. “Watch This!” (Brandon Lake, Steven Furtick, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter)
12. “Spare Change” (Brandon Lake, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter, Micah Nichols)
13. “Ghost Stories” (Brandon Lake, Jacob Sooter, Hank Bentley, Jordan Colle)
14. “SEVENS” (Brandon Lake, Micah Nichols, Hank Bentley, Jacob Sooter, Steven Furtick)
15. “That’s Who I Praise” (Brandon Lake, Benjamin William Hastings, Micah Nichols, Zac Lawson, Steven Furtick)
16. “The Half Has Not Been Told” (Brandon Lake, Steven Furtick, Jason Ingram)
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Miley Cyrus seeks friends for “End of the World,” Ed Sheeran goes global and ENHYPEN drop their first single of the year. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Miley Cyrus, “End of the World”
The three songs that Miley Cyrus has released this week, culminating in sparkling new single “End of the World,” have included members of indie darlings like Alvvays, The War on Drugs and Model/Actriz in the liner notes — but instead of Cyrus pivoting to the Pitchfork set, she has synthesized their attributes for her most effervescent collection of songs in years, with “End of the World” sounding primed to shimmer on top 40 radio and stoking anticipation for the upcoming album of the same name.
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Ed Sheeran, “Azizam”
Place the wistful, finger-picked melancholy of – (Minus) and Autumn Variations squarely in the past: Ed Sheeran is back to crafting stadium-sized anthems, and with “Azizam,” a relentlessly catchy mash-up of the singer-songwriter’s Irish folk sing-along instincts and Persian pop production, Sheeran has kicked off his next era with global ambitions.
Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Who Believes in Angels?
“My ambition for her with this album was to break her internationally,” Elton John told Billboard recently about working with Brandi Carlile on Who Believes in Angels?, a rollicking rock project that pushes Carlile out of her Americana sound and towards more mass-appeal songwriting; the pair play off each other well, and the project could indeed open new doors for the Grammy winner.
ENHYPEN, “Loose”
ENHYPEN’s first new music of 2025 is a throwback to boy band days of yore: “Loose” carries a funky groove and boasts plenty of high-falsetto harmonies, with moments that recall classic Motown but the K-pop group steeping the single in modern sensibilities. “Loose” will thrill ENHYPEN diehards, but there’s plenty of crossover potential with this one.
Sexyy Red, “Hoochie Coochie”
With one minute remaining on a two-and-a-half minute track, Sexyy Red sits back and lets the ominous piano line rock for a few seconds, before tossing out some ad-libs and returning to the chorus; that’s how efficient she is on the raunchy, riotous “Hoochie Coochie,” dressing down her competition so thoroughly in the first half of the new single that she can take a break to shine midway through.
Djo, The Crux
While Joe Keery’s musical project scored a viral smash last year with “End of Beginning,” Djo is a long-term investment that’s already paying dividends: new album The Crux stretches its creative ambition outward, as Keery tinkers with alt-pop idiosyncrasies, makes room for moments of hushed beauty, and upends anyone pigeonholing him into one song, sound or medium.
Lainey Wilson, “Bell Bottoms Up”
“Bell Bottoms Up” is already a set highlight on Lainey Wilson’s tour in support of last year’s Whirlwind album, and the studio version of the single captures its live energy, with the rising country star declaring, “I’m fillin’ up these jeans like I do my cup / Throwback, throw down, bell bottoms up!” before a heel-kicking guitar solo crashes in.
Editor’s Pick: Scowl, Are We All Angels
The tension between pop bliss and hardcore rage makes Scowl’s new album, Are We All Angels, an immediately intoxicating listen — the way that the Santa Cruz band construct songs on their Dead Oceans debut, the next scream or hook is always lurking around the corner, but band leader Kat Moss serves as the connective tissue between Scowl’s two modes and achieves a true breakthrough.
It’s always a bold move to perform one of the coaches’ songs on The Voice, but Divighn was up for the challenge — and he excelled.
For the Knockout rounds, the 33-year-old California native opted to perform Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” in front of Adam Levine himself. He added choreography and amplified emotion to the Songs About Jane breakout hit, all while maintaining impressive vocal control.
His competitor, Kaiya Hamilton, followed up with a performance of Alessia Cara’s “Here,” an objectively difficult song to sing due to its pace. Hamilton had no issue, though, displaying flawless vocal ability and range as she delivered the track.
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Both performances were met with standing ovations by the judges, and Levine voiced his support for Divighn’s choice to perform a Maroon 5 song. “Divighn, you got great taste in music, man,” he joked, before adding more seriously, “I always secretly dread when people are going to do our songs, because it makes me nervous. I’m so close to it. I love what you did with it. You took it and did something that I actually liked, and that it wasn’t what I normally do. The way that you can get up there and move the way you were moving, and still just deliver a rock solid big vocal, that’s big.”
He also praised Hamilton, noting, “I love how you sing. You kind of gave the opposite clinic. Your’s was like, ‘I’m not going to worry about anything except singing my butt off.’”
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Though, as perhaps expected, he ultimately gave his pick to Divighn. “I would maybe go with Divighn, because he has all these other things that were really impressive but it’s no disrespect to you Kaiya because you did an amazing job as well,” he said.
However, the choice on who stays in the competition comes down to the duo’s coach, Michael Bublé, who revealed that he “made a mistake” putting Divighn and Hamilton against each other. “Divighn, your performance, your choreography was beautiful and so smooth and so fun to watch. You’re an overall entertainer,” he told his team member. “Kaiya, your voice is undeniable. You sang the heck out of this and I feel like you know who are as an artist.”
Watch the Knockout round performance below, and find out who Bublé chooses when the full episode airs on Monday (April 7) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, before it streams the next day on Peacock.
Mumford & Sons has returned to the top of the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart for the first time in nearly a decade with the release of Rushmere (Apr. 4).
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The folk group’s fifth studio album – their first since 2018’s Delta – has placed them back at No. 1, and follows two previous chart-toppers: 2012’s Babel and 2015’s Wilder Mind. Their huge 2009 debut, Sigh No More, peaked at No. 2, as did Delta. Each of the band’s LPs – minus Sigh No More – has topped the Billboard 200.
Rushmere is the first LP from the group since the departure of guitarist Winston Marshall who left the band in 2021, with Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwayne continuing as a trio.
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The group’s upcoming arena shows sold out instantly upon ticket release last week, and will include two dates at London’s The O2, alongside dates in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Sheffield in November and December.
Rock band The Darkness finish the week at No. 2 with eighth studio album Dreams on Toast, their highest spot for 22 years. Earlier this week, guitarist Dan Hawkins threw down the gauntlet in the chart battle with Mumford & Sons, saying to Classic Rock that he was “confident” that Dreams on Toast would go to No. 1, adding “We’re going to beat those c—s.” The flamboyant rockers’ 2003 debut Permission To Land remains their sole chart-topper in the U.K.
Following the release of a deluxe edition, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine returns to the top five, finishing the week at No. 3. The album first went to No. 1 upon its initial release in March 2024 and spawned two singles “Yes And?”, and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” which both hit No. 2 on the Official Singles Chart.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet finishes the week at No. 4 while indie hero Lucy Dacus’ Forever is a Feeling finishes at No. 5. In 2023, the debut album from Boygenius – comprised of Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker – hit the top spot on the U.K. Albums Chart.
Last month, DK Metcalf proposed to Normani — and according to the “Motivation” singer, she was totally clueless that the NFL wide receiver was going to pop the question.
While stopping by The Jennifer Hudson Show on Friday (April 4), Normani told her side of the story, describing how the new member of the Pittsburgh Steelers popped the question during a family gathering in Houston. “I had absolutely no idea,” she began. “As oblivious as oblivious can get, that was me.”
The former Fifth Harmony member went on to explain that Metcalf was originally going to propose to her a year prior on a trip to Turks and Caicos, but ultimately decided to wait as not to overshadow the June 2024 release of Normani’s debut solo album, Dopamine. Fast forward to last month, when the wide receiver tricked the musician into thinking that she was headed to a birthday celebration for his sister — but really, it was her own engagement that she walked into.
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“I’m like, dang, I hope I don’t ruin the surprise… I thought I was in on the surprise, but I got surprised,” Normani told Hudson, noting that the room in which Metcalf proposed was decorated with bunches of flowers, as well as a violinist and pianist. “He really did it up for me.”
The “Wild Side” musician’s visit to the talk show comes just a few weeks after Metcalf revealed their engagement during an NFL press conference following his recent trade from the Seattle Seahawks to the Steelers. “Hold that rock up, baby,” he said at the time, gesturing to Normani sitting nearby, before telling reporters: “It was my sister’s spring break and just thought about getting the whole family together for a big kumbaya and joining our families with the ring.”
The couple first sparked dating rumors in summer 2022, going official on Instagram a year later. They were introduced by Ciara and Russell Wilson, who played with Metcalf on the Seahawks.
“[Ciara] kept telling me, ‘There’s this guy, there’s this guy,’ for literally like two years,” Normani told Hudson on Friday. “I was in a relationship at the time… but then when the time came around and the time was right, God put all of that together.”
Also on the show, Normani played a game of “Shake It or Share It,” wherein she had to either answer personal questions or bust a move in different styles of dance. While avoiding queries about secrets she hasn’t told her parents and the craziest things fans have done, the X Factor alum showed off her impressive breakdancing and disco skills. She did, however, reveal which celebrity she’d have officiate her wedding to Metcalf — “Ciara, easy,” she said” — as well as if she wants to have kids someday.
“Absolutely,” Normani replied. “My dream has always been four. I want a big family.”
Watch Normani on The Jennifer Hudson Show above and below.
Over two decades ago, Texas native Jessica Simpson was known for her pristine, sleek pop image — as the vocal purveyor of massive pop hits like “I Wanna Love You Forever,” “I Think I’m in Love With You” and “With You,” but also for her work as a fashion industry titan and a reality television star.
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But her new music video, “Blame Me,” off her March 21-released, five-song EP Nashville Canyon: Pt. 1, showcases Simpson in a laid-back, creative mode, working with a cavalcade of writers and musicians to bring the song to life. She wrote “Blame Me” with Lucie Silvas, Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne, Teresa LaBarbera, and writer-producer JD McPherson (who recently toured with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant).
“Being in the studio, what you see with ‘Blame Me’ is really the process of me becoming the artist I’ve always wanted to be,” Simpson tells Billboard.
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Nashville Canyon: Part 1 marks Simpson’s first new music in 15 years — and a project where she explores the nuances of healing after heartbreak, fusing her own written lyrics with elements of rockabilly and Americana. Following a split from husband Eric Johnson, she decamped to Nashville in late 2023, and found solace and strength through songwriting — chasing emotional connection rather than simply widespread audience consumption.
“We gave them a playlist of songs with artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sierra Ferrell, Fred McDowell, and we just said, ‘Anything you want off the playlist, let’s go with that vibe.’ Don’t say the word ‘single,’ don’t say the word ‘hit,’ we’re traumatized by the word ‘smash,’” Simpson said.
Many of the songs filling the EP are drawn from a notebook of what Simpson calls “Jessica’s Golden Nuggets”: an assortment of quotes, ideas and musings Simpson has jotted down throughout her days, which served as inspirations for the songs on the new project. “I’ve always journaled. If I don’t journal for a few months, I know there’s something I’m not wanting to confront, emotionally. So, I went to Nashville and was like, ‘Let the confrontation begin,’” Simpson says.
In “Blame Me,” knowing her own story and her own worth, she dares an ex-lover to go ahead with trash talking her to those around them and laying the responsibility for the fizzled relationship at her feet.
“I think it’s such a powerful song. I think it’s a strong heartbreak anthem that we’re all strong enough to go through whatever hand gets dealt and we can find power in the pain of things,” she says.
Simpson says more music is on the way, with part two of the project in the works. “We’re finishing that up in the next couple of weeks, which is exciting,” she says.
Simpson spoke with Billboard about the video for “Blame Me,” creating her new project in Music City and rediscovering herself as an artist.
The video for “Blame Me” features you and the musicians, your fellow creators, all in the studio together. Why was that so important for you to showcase?
When I walked into the studio with all the musicians, at first I thought I was going to throw up in my mouth. I was so nervous, but then it was just so welcoming and everybody just looked to me for direction, which I’m not used to as an artist. You would think I’d be used to that, but I’m so used to somebody else directing me.
To have other musicians that do this every day of their lives for all kinds of artists looking at me and wanting to really understand where I was at lyrically and understanding me as an artist, this just feels so authentically me. And it was important to show the process in such a vulnerable song. We have to feel to heal. It was the last song we wrote for EP One. We didn’t have a ballad and I really wanted to have one.
You wrote “Blame Me” with a few co-writers, including Lucie Silvas and Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne. What was that like?
We also did “Leave” on the EP with John and Lucie. They are incredible, and John — what a guitar player. He’s so incredible, I was just blown away.
You named the EP Nashville Canyon. Why was Nashville the right place for you to record this project?
I love Nashville so much because lyrically, it’s such a place where you can say anything and you can open up about anything without judgment, and you are just automatically connected to the other songwriters. It’s truly like therapy sitting in front of a therapist, yet nobody’s a therapist. It depends on what kind you go to. They can ask you questions that make you discover. And I feel like the way that writers do that, they talk you through things as well. They offer advice. A lot of people have gone through the same things and they’re so used to being so open.
You released Nashville Canyon independently. How has that been different?
I’m not with the record label. I don’t have money behind me. Everything you’re seeing is just my own change that I have. I’m not paying for radio. I do feel like a new artist all over again. But this time I have the reins. Early on [in her career], I never met the musicians behind any of my music, and I never even knew the songwriters. So, until I started writing with people… the first song that I got to write was actually my first huge song [2003’s “With You”]. I realized early on that people respond to who I am as a person, my work — they know when it’s real. They know when it’s authentic. I think I’ve taken such a long break that people are now discovering me all over again.
One of the last albums you released was the country album Do You Know. Last month, you played your first live show in 15 years, at SXSW, and Nashville Canyon: Pt. 1 went to No. 1 on iTunes’ country albums chart. How has that felt?
It was shocking that it went to number one on country. I was like, “Wait, I had a number one country album [in 2008 with Do You Know] and I was dropped that week, and I never understood it.” I just thought people didn’t want me singing country. [With Nashville Canyon: Pt. 1] I wanted it to be genreless. When you’re not focused on radio and you’re not focused on that type of thing, the music really can land wherever the people put it.
I was dropped [from her former label] in 2007, 2008. I had a record deal since I was 14 years old. It’s losing a part of yourself that you thought made you who you were. I didn’t really have a deep understanding of it until a bit later. But they also didn’t know that I was such a different artist than they were trying to push and I never got that freedom of discovery. I did another project, a Christmas project [2010’s Happy Christmas], but that was the last thing I’d ever done. My kids [Maxwell (12), Ace (11), and Birdie (5)] have never seen me perform still. I did the Rockefeller Tree lighting and the Macy’s Day Parade, but they have never seen me perform, so when they do, it’ll be such a beautiful moment for me.
What do you hope people take away from this record?
I wanted to give people a piece of me, and that is what art is: they watch it and they apply it to their own lives, and they know that I’m just like they are. Just like reality TV was important for people to take me off of a pedestal and not just be an unapproachable, pretty singer. It was important to show my personality so people knew that there’s some things in life I take seriously and there’s some things that I don’t. I definitely say everything that comes into my mind out loud. I have no filter and I don’t have a filter when it comes to music.
What is ahead for EP two?
We just recorded at a different place called The Bomb Shelter, which had different acoustics and vibes for EP two, but the sounds will be cohesive. We have steel guitar on there, but not steel guitar in how you would think country… it’s more like how Tom Petty or Neil Young would use a steel guitar player.
Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” enters the winners circle on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, jumping three spots to the top of the April 12-dated ranking. She leads the list for a second time, after “Good Luck, Babe!” hit No. 1 for a week last September. “Pink Pony Club,” on KRA/Amusement/Island Records and promoted to radio […]
An annual tradition on American Idol continues on Monday (April 7) – Hollywood Week, an integral part of the process of finding a winner, which has been part of the series since season 1 in 2002. But this year’s Hollywood Week is different from any previous edition, with the addition of Idol’s first artist-in-residence, Jelly Roll.
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“Hollywood Week is even more chaotic than what you see on TV. The episodes are pretty chaotic, but the camera can’t catch all of the chaos,” Jelly Roll tells Billboard during a sit-down interview. “I love it because it reminds me of the music business. It’s real. They’re not hazing these kids. This is stuff that happens in our business all the time. I can’t wait for the world to see this – the show brings me in when the kids are picking their head-to-head songs, so I am in the trenches with these babies. I watch them pick their songs. I give them advice and I catch them picking their partners. Some of them probably picked the wrong partner,” he shares.
“There was one group of singers who didn’t know how to communicate with each other, and I said, ‘This is the biggest decision you’re going to make because this is the last time the judges decide who goes forward. I’m going to give y’all my advice right now. Take it or leave it and I won’t be offended, but I think at this point your best bet is to pick a song that you feel safe doing together, not where one has to carry the other.’
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“Another group picked a song that the girl knew really well, and the guy didn’t know, and they thought it was the best for them. I said, ‘At this point, if y’all aren’t going to change the song, then there’s going to be a point where you’re going to have to carry this song,’ and that’s exactly how it shook out. She ended up having to carry the song and then, as happens in American Idol, there’s a plot twist, but I can’t give that away.”
Season 23 is not the first time the producers have shaken up the Hollywood Week format. “We refresh it here and there, year-to-year,” executive producer and showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick explains over breakfast with Billboard. “The auditions are the auditions. The live shows are the live shows. Hollywood Week is the round that has the most flexibility, but I do think that it’s really important to keep the integrity of the challenges the same as far as actually giving them real experiences that they might have in the industry, like staying up all night, collaborating with someone you’ve never met before, learning a new song. Some years you have duets or groups. With Carrie Underwood coming back, it was important for me to maintain some of the things that she had experienced in her season.”
And what did Underwood think of that? “Hollywood Week for her was the biggest eye-opening experience,” says Wolflick. “She remembers so much about all of it and her group round with Vonzell Solomon singing ‘Please Mr. Postman’ and all the little things, like forgetting her words in the first round. She sang ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ by Candi Staton. She didn’t really know that song. It was a different era then with no original music and you couldn’t play guitar. So she’s definitely seen the evolution. It was nostalgic, yet she was still excited about it.”
Wolflick elaborated on adding Jelly Roll to the mix, following his appearance on the season 21 finale and his mentorship during the Hawaii shows in season 22. “He was so great last year. He sat with the panel and he brought so much charisma and excitement. When the show aired the feedback was very positive and we and ABC were eager to do something with him. I’m sure every other show, like The Voice, were asking him too. He’s very hot. He loves American Idol. He told me, ‘This is one of the biggest things to ever happen to my career.’ He literally watched every single tape. He watched every single bio. He took the kids off to the side before going on camera and made them feel comfortable. I’ve never experienced mentoring on this level. I think carving out his role on the live shows is going to be interesting, too.”
In a separate interview, Jelly Roll confirmed his feelings about the show. “I love Idol. I’ve been an Idol fan my whole life. Who doesn’t love watching a kid’s dream come true on national TV? That’s what we get to see. To come back this year and have a full-time position with the cast is really great.”
Expanding on his role on Idol this season, Jelly Roll’s enthusiasm was apparent. “It’s fun. I’m glad we’re talking about this, because I look at my role probably different than anybody else does. I think I am the bridge from these young artists to the people’s living room. I am a bridge between them and the judges. I’m a constant mentor and source of advice, but more than anything, my job is to try to make these kids feel as good as I know they sound.”
Wolflick explained why this new role was created for Jelly Roll. “The word mentor seemed a little cliché and I wanted something with some weight. An artist-in-residence matches the gravitas that he has. He’s there with us all season. Hopefully he’s here for the long haul. He’s invested above and beyond what we would really expect of him.”
