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If there are two ladies who’ve ruled pop music this summer, it’s Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, both of whom have experienced mind-bogglingly fast rises to fame.
And in her first Rolling Stone cover story, the 26-year-old “Hot to Go!” artist revealed that the pair have bonded over the pressures that come with the territory of so-called overnight success. “We’re both going through something so f–king hard,” Roan told the publication of the 25-year-old Girl Meets World alum. “She just feels like everything is flying, and she’s just barely hanging on.”
The Missouri native also said that Carpenter suggested meeting up to discuss how overwhelming their year has been so far. “It was just good to know someone else feels that way,” she added.
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The interview comes as both ladies have been climbing the charts for months, with the “Espresso” singer recently scoring her first-ever No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 thanks to Short n’ Sweet. She also nabbed her first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year, with “Please Please Please” reaching the top spot in June.
Meanwhile, Roan isn’t far behind Carpenter, with the “Pink Pony Club” musician’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reaching a new peak at No. 2 on the albums chart in August. She’s also had seven songs enter the Hot 100 since April, including the No. 6-peaking “Good Luck, Babe!”
With the rapid rise to fame, however, comes way more people watching your every move, which, for Roan, has manifested into countless inappropriate interactions with fans that led her to set some boundaries in multiple social media posts in August. And for the first time, Roan went into detail about some of the exchanges that led to her calling out such “predatory behavior” in her posts, telling Rolling Stone that an admirer once grabbed her and forcibly kissed her at a bar. She also had to hire her own security because she has a stalker who once followed her from Missouri to a New York hotel room, and at one point, a man berated her at an airport for not signing autographs.
The good news is, a lot of other female stars — from Billie Eilish to Phoebe Bridgers, Lorde and more — have reached out to her offering support. “I just wanted to humbly welcome you to the s—tiest exclusive club in the world, the club where strangers think you belong to them and they find and harass your family members,” reads a letter from Mitski that Roan shared with the publication.
See Roan on the cover of Rolling Stone below.
Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — jogged fans’ memory when he ran through hit after hit from his decorated discography during his show with Ty Dolla $ign in Seoul, South Korea, earlier in September.
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Ye posted a highlight from the concert on Instagram Monday (Sept. 9), which saw him performing “On Sight” and Tyler, the Creator hopped into the comments section wondering why the 24-time Grammy winner wasn’t rapping the lyrics to his Yeezus opener.
“N—a u was right there just say the words,” Tyler wrote. The comment has nearly 100,000 likes, and fans echoed the “Earfquake” rapper’s sentiments.
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Ye’s Vultures collaborator added a goat emoji into the comments, while Chicago rapper Joey Purp chimed in, “This my 5 am alarm.”
Yeezy and Ty Dolla $ign have performed a handful of Vultures listening parties over the months, but that typically involves no rapping and gives fans a chance to hear the music rather than a conventional concert.
West gave fans a taste of what a tour could look like when rapping along to some of his anthems at the Seoul show, which consisted of a 70-track set spanning his entire Hall of Fame discography.
Ye will have a chance to build on the Korea performance with his next show slated for Haikou, China, on Sept. 15 at the Haikou Wuyuan River Sports Park. He’ll be without Ty Dolla $ign, so Ye will have to do the heavy-lifting at the concert.
The Chicago native — who faced widespread criticism and lost deals after repeatedly doubling down on his antisemitic hate speech in 2022 — hasn’t embarked on a traditional tour since 2016’s Saint Pablo Tour, which was cut short following West’s hospitalization due to extreme exhaustion and dehydration in November 2016.
Vultures 2 arrived on Aug. 3 after multiple delays, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 107,000 total album units sold in the first week.
Watch the “On Sight” clip below.
Country Music Hall of Famers Brooks & Dunn are set to bring their high-octane live show and stacked arsenal of hit songs to arenas in Texas, North Carolina, Illinois and more in 2025, as they have revealed the dozen-concert initial slate of shows for their Neon Moon Tour. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and […]
As Chappell Roan dealt with backlash to her comments on toxic fan behavior over the last month, the singer says a huge number of fellow female artists have offered her their support.
In a new cover story for Rolling Stone, Roan said that a number of her fellow pop girls reached out to her and offered their words of encouragement. The list of singers included Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Hayley Williams, Katy Perry, Lorde, Muna, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Mitski. “I’m not trying to name-drop,” she explained. “I’m trying to tell you there are girls who are good people, who are helping other girls out. I’m name-dropping them because people just need to know that people are good people.”
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Roan specifically thanked Sabrina Carpenter during the conversation, saying that the pair had a long heart-to-heart about their similarly huge years and the implications that has on their mental health. “We’re both going through something so f–king hard … she just feels like everything is flying, and she’s just barely hanging on,” Roan said. “It was just good to know someone else feels that way.”
The “Pink Pony Club” singer did point out that she’s noticed a worrying trend among the artists reaching out to her. “Not a lot of boys have been like, ‘Let me know if you ever want to talk about it,’” she said, before revealing that a few — including Orville Peck, Troye Sivan and Noah Kahan — have offered her their support.
One living legend who has supported Roan throughout her career also reached out — Sir Elton John. The “Rocket Man” singer told Rolling Stone that he felt “protective” over Roan. “She is kind, innocent and wonderful. She is not ‘Chappell Roan’ off stage – a bit like me,” he said. “She is one of those people who I felt like I have known for a long time.”
Roan added that as much as audiences like to pin the toxic fan discussion on her, she is far from the only artist feeling this way. “I don’t want to be agoraphobic. That’s [how] most of my peers [feel]. Every f–king artist is on this page,” she said. “Everyone is uncomfortable with fans. Some people just have more patience. I f–king don’t.”
Elsewhere in her interview, Roan revealed a number of specific instances of fans being inappropriate with her, including a fan kissing her without consent and a stalker showing up to her parents’ home in Missouri. “[Fans] need to see me as a random b—h on the street,” she said. “You can’t yell at a random b—h who’s on the sidewalk that you don’t know. It’s considered catcalling or harassment.”
Flavor Flav knows how to work his way around a clock, but maybe don’t let him get a gavel in his hands. The lesson was learned when the Public Enemy rapper joined U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team goalie Ashleigh Johnson at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday (Sept. 9). Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
She Is The Music Day took to New York City for its third installment and welcomed 100 local college women for an opportunity to connect, grow and empower each other. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Held at Soho’s lush Casa Gessi event space, the afternoon affair […]
Beyoncé has a reputation for staying aloof and enigmatic in spite of being one of the most famous women on the planet, with her public appearances remaining few and far between even when she’s in the midst of an album cycle. And in a new GQ cover story published Tuesday (Sept. 10), the multi-hyphenate explains why.
In the interview conducted over email, Bey was candid about the fact that creating art and performing are what she loves to do — but everything else that comes with superstardom? Not so much. “I create at my own pace, on things that I hope will touch other people,” she told the publication. “I only work on what liberates me.”
“It is fame that can at times feel like prison,” Bey continued. “So, when you don’t see me on red carpets, and when I disappear until I have art to share, that’s why.”
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Because of her love of music, the 32-time Grammy winner hasn’t shied away from experimenting with new genres — for example, her Billboard 200-topping country LP Cowboy Carter — and making albums based on what she loves, not on what’s popular. For instance, in 2011, when she could’ve played things safe by releasing a dance-pop album to keep up with the time’s radio-friendly trends, she instead turned in 4.
“I wouldn’t say that I was anti-pop,” she recalled of the 13-year-old project. “I respected pop. But it was a time where everyone was doing pop/dance music, and R&B and soul were getting lost. It was popular and fun, but it wasn’t my thing. It was not where I was going with my music career at that time. I was yearning for something deeper with more musicality.”
The cover story comes amid fan outrage that Cowboy Carter was snubbed from the CMA Awards, eight years after the incident that Bey seemingly hinted in March was the catalyst for her releasing a country album in 2024. In 2016, her performance of “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks at the award show sparked backlash from critics who felt she didn’t belong in the space; almost a decade later, the vocalist wrote on social media that Cowboy Carter was “born out of an experience” she’d had years prior where she “did not feel welcomed.”
But as Bey told GQ, she’d still be singing even if she had no stage to perform on. “Singing is not work for me,” she said. “There’s magic in the way it feels on my throat, a resonance that vibrates through me. When I am at my lowest, when I’ve been sad or in a heavy fog, sick or anxious with sleepless nights, I sing. And, often, I sing alone.”
“It steadies my heartbeat, it’s my best hit of dopamine,” she added. “It’s one of the deepest joys of my life, a necessity as vital as breath.”
See Bey’s cover of GQ below:
While none of us will ever know what it’s like to go on a lavish island vacation with Jay-Z, to hear Beyoncé tell it, the soundtrack to her 2024 Hot Girl summer is totally relatable. In a new email interview feature with GQ, Queen Bey opens up about about why she decided to launch her own whiskey brand, SirDavis, as well as the musical influences on her Cowboy Carter album and what movies and albums she’s had on repeat lately.
Asked what is currently inspiring her in the world of film and music, Beyoncé said she simply loves and respects “all of the female singers-songwriters who are out right now,” ticking off a list that includes: Raye, Victoria Monét, Sasha Keable, Chloe x Halle, and Reneé Rapp. “I love Doechii and GloRilla, and I just heard That Mexican OT, he’s from Houston…. He goes hard!,” she said of the MC from Bay City, Texas whose 2023 breakthrough hit “Johnny Dang” hit No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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In addition, like so many of you, she also loves Sabrina Carpenter’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, “Please Please Please,” and added that, “I think that Thee Sacred Souls and Chappell Roan are talented and interesting.” Most relatable of all, though, was her love for Miley Cyrus, with Bey saying she’s mesmerized by the singer who joined her on the Carter track “II Most Wanted.”
“I’m obsessed with my backseat baby…. I’m a Smiler,” Bey said, referring to Cyrus by her fan group name and via a lyrical reference to the line “I’ll be your backseat baby, drivin’ you crazy/ Anytime you like, whoa/ I’ll be your shotgun rider, ’til the day I/ ‘Til the day I die” from their whiskey-soaked Carter ballad collab.
Back in March, Miley gave thanks for her feature on the landmark country-tinged album from Bey that features a galaxy of other stars — including her godmother Dolly Parton, among many others. “I’ve loved Beyonce since long before I had the opportunity to meet & work with her,” Cyrus wrote in an Instagram post that included the Cowboy Carter album cover. “My admiration runs so much deeper now that I’ve created along side of her,” she continued. “Thank you Beyonce. You’re everything & more. Love you. To everyone who spent time making this song so special thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
When she’s not listening to her fellow female pop stars, Beyoncé said she spins classics by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the legendary Stax label, as well as watching the 2024 documentary about the Memphis soul label that broke Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Sam & Dave, Stax: Soulsville U.S.A.
The best movie she’s seen this year? The long-awaited, $1 billion-grossing sequel to the feelings-forward animated smash Inside Out 2. ” I think it’s brilliant,” she said of the film featuring the voice work of Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Tony Hale, Amy Poehler and Lewis Black, among others. She said she’s also currently watching the Game of Thrones sequel House of the Dragon and Lena Waithe’s long-running drama about life on the South Side of Chicago, The Chi.
Singer-songwriter Joshua Ray Walker, known for songs including “Thank You for Listening,” gave fans an update on his cancer battle, revealing on Tuesday (Sept. 10) that his cancer has spread.
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“Once again, I’ve got some good and bad news to deliver. The good news is that I’ve finished chemo treatment!” began the country artist, who first told fans he was receiving treatment for colon cancer in 2023. “The bad news is that upon the completion of tests to check on the status of my cancer post treatment, multiple nodes of varying sizes were found in both my lungs.
“Before I started chemo, I was told I had a 90% chance of having clear tests post treatment. So to find completely new growth in a new organ was something for which I was not prepared,” he continued. “This unfortunately means my cancer will likely be restaged to stage 4.”
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He informed fans of the road ahead for his treatment, explaining, “I will get a lung biopsy and start radiation soon. I wish I had more information to share but I’m still waiting to meet with a radiology oncologist following my biopsy surgery.”
Walker promised that he’d “continue to fight my hardest” despite the bad news. “I’ve always lived life to the fullest and I will continue to do so. When times are hard my instinct is to figure out how to survive financially,” he shared. “I work harder to ensure that me and my loved ones will have basic necessities. This trait has been very useful in life, but it makes it hard to rest when life’s difficulties aren’t solely monetary. I have a hard time asking for help, even when I believe it will be given happily.”
The singer added that he had launched a GoFundMe campaign to help him “focus exclusively on my health and relationships during this precious time, and ended his message with a note of gratitude for fans who have supported him during his health battle.
Walker is known for albums including 2019’s Wish You Were Here, 2020’s Glad You Made It and 2021’s See You Next Time. Last year, he released the album What Is It Even?, where he paid homage to several women artists, covering songs from artists including Whitney Houston (“I Wanna Dance With Somebody”), LeAnn Rimes (“Blue”), Cher (“Believe”) and Sia (“Cheap Thrills”).
See Walker’s post below:
The first edition of the Billboard Arabia Music Awards (BBAMAs) is set for Dec. 11 at the iconic KAFD in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The awards show is part of the first-ever Riyadh Music Week, an initiative bringing together the global music community for a series of music festivals and events.
Billboard Arabia has become the ultimate destination for discovering Arab artists, with the awards show celebrating a year of music milestones and achievements, including the launch of its flagship charts and other initiatives. The BBAMAs will honor trailblazers and rising stars with awards across a wide range of categories, including top artist, female artist and male artist, along with the year’s hottest songs and more.
Unlike other music award shows, BBAMA winners will be selected based on their ranking on Billboard Arabia’s flagship charts, including the Hot 100 and Artist 100, as well as the newly launched dialect charts – Khaleeji, Egyptian, Levantine and Magharebi – and genre-specific charts – Arabic Hip-Hop, Arabic Indie, Shelat and Mahraganat. Billboard Arabia’s Charts follow the well-established parameters set by the Billboard brand over the last eight decades.
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In addition to recognizing the top artists and music of the year, the BBAMAs will showcase Saudi Arabia and the region’s diverse talent through live performances and surprise collaborations, featuring both established and emerging artists. It will also include performances from some of the biggest international artists.
“In just one year, Billboard Arabia has become the fastest-growing music platform that truly reflects the preferences of millions of music fans and followers across the globe,” Jomana R. Alrashid, CEO of SRMG, said in a statement. “Through the support of the Saudi Music Commission, part of the Ministry of Culture, and SRMG’s strategic partnership with Billboard, this significantly strengthens our ability to spotlight Arab artists to bring their work to global audiences and grow the region’s vibrant music industry.”
Rami M. Zeidan, managing director of Billboard Arabia, said: “I am proud to announce the first edition of the Billboard Arabia Music Awards. As one of the fastest growing music hubs, Riyadh is the perfect location to celebrate the achievements of Arab artists around the world. Audiences will experience the diversity of Arab music firsthand through live performances. They will see their favorite artists like never before. This is what BBAMAs are all about: ensuring that Arab artists, their music and their stories receive the well-deserved recognition both regionally and globally.”
Billboard Arabia, a pioneering platform at the intersection of culture and music, celebrates the artistry and diversity of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Launched as a partnership between SRMG, the largest integrated media group from the MENA region, and Billboard, the world’s most influential music media brand, its mission is to redefine the global music landscape.
Mike Van, president of Billboard, stated: “We are proud to bring the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs) to Riyadh. The show remains the preeminent music event worldwide. The BBMAs celebrate and recognize musical talent and chart achievements and we’re thrilled to extend this legacy and vision to the MENA region, highlighting the musical excellence of Arab artists. This show will not only celebrate artists’ commercial success, but also highlight their real impact on the music industry. The focus is on spotlighting artists and the evolving music landscape. Winning at the Billboard Music Awards is not just about one night; it represents an important moment elevating artists toward sustained success in their careers. This year, with the launch of the Billboard Arabia Music Awards, we are applying the same metric-based methodology to showcase Arab artists who have resonated most with music fans worldwide.”
Billboard Arabia was launched in June 2023 to spotlight Arab artists and their stories on a global stage. Since then, it has introduced several iconic Billboard franchises to the MENA region, including Billboard Arabia News, Women in Music and Charts. These initiatives have established the necessary infrastructure to help both established and new artists reach wider audiences. Billboard Arabia has also developed several unique IPs that further highlight the Arab voices, including its exclusive studio session series, Jalsat Billboard Arabia, and its groundbreaking initiative, Sounds of the Land.
Performances and ticket information will be announced in the coming weeks. For more updates and news, visit billboardarabia.com.