State Champ Radio Music
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It’s been a decade since Zayn Malik left One Direction and on Tuesday night (March 25) during the singer’s show in Mexico City he did something he hasn’t done since then: he performed one of the group’s most beloved hits during a solo show. At his gig at Palacio De Los Deportes on the Stairway […]
Lucy Dacus has some mixed feelings about her newly minted public profile. “My dream is that I could play huge shows where [the crowd] knows every word,” she says, “we can connect after the show — and then I can wipe everyone’s mind of myself once they leave.”
The lack of Men in Black-esque technology notwithstanding, it’s easy to see why Dacus may feel that way. After spending the majority of her career as a cult artist with a tight-knit fan base in the indie scene, the singer-songwriter broke big alongside her friends Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker with The Record in 2023. Their supergroup, boygenius, sold out arenas, led Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart while also earning a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 and dominated the rock categories at the 2024 Grammys, winning three awards.
As she prepares her first solo release since the band’s breakthrough, Dacus, 29, still struggles with her shift from underground phenom to rock headliner. “Honestly, I don’t like being culturally relevant,” she says with a giggle. “I don’t like being somebody where people think they need to have a ‘take,’ in either direction.”
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Yet even in that discomfort, Dacus exudes a confidence that feels new for her. Forever Is a Feeling, her fourth studio album (out March 28 on Geffen Records), takes the sound that Dacus has painstakingly crafted over the last decade and broadens it as her most lush collection to date.
Going into the creation of Forever Is a Feeling, Dacus says she “knew the scope was going to be different” for this album. That process included honing what she wanted to sing about. Whereas her past albums confronted loss and childhood trauma, the new set focuses almost entirely on romance. The first proper track off the album, “Big Deal,” finds Dacus reminding a doomed lover just how important they are; “Talk” traces the shifting dynamics of a relationship to its near end; and album closer “Lost Time” is one of the boldest love songs of her career, on which she declares, “I notice everything about you.”
Meredith Jenks
That line also encapsulates a key part of the singer’s songwriting process: Since she broke onto the scene with 2016’s No Burden, Dacus has always thrived at transforming specificity into universal lyrics. “Once you focus on one thing and one person, it actually recontextualizes everything else, and you realize that every detail is its own universe,” says Dacus, who recently revealed that she and her boygenius bandmate Julien Baker are in a relationship. She then quotes a line she read in one of Susan Sontag’s journals: “Love is noticing.”
With Forever Is a Feeling marking Dacus’ major-label debut on Geffen, the singer’s new music is striking a chord with mainstream listeners. “Ankles,” the project’s exhilarating lead single, earned Dacus her first solo entries on the Adult Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts. “She writes songs that are potent and timely but will endure for years to come,” says Matt Morris, executive vp of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M. “The success of ‘Ankles’ at radio is a very deserved accomplishment for an artist who has already been so influential and continues to break new ground with this album.”
The set also finds Dacus continuing to evolve as a producer, after she recently helmed singer-songwriter Jasmine.4.t’s debut, You Are the Morning, alongside her boygenius bandmates. “A lot of [producing Jasmine’s album] was about advocating when it comes to being less experienced in the studio,” she explains. “It’s about helping develop a language and asking folks, ‘What do you want? Here’s how to say it.’ I want to continue to help hold the emotional space of saying, ‘Do us the favor of being a control freak.’ ”
Meredith Jenks
That experience speaks to Dacus’ larger goal of late: using her newfound platform to create good. Shortly after the Trump administration began rolling out its anti-trans policy agenda, Dacus took to her social media and called for any of her trans fans hosting fundraisers for gender-affirming surgeries to share their campaigns so that she could donate $10,000 in $500 increments to those in need of help.
There’s a reason Dacus made that pledge in public. “Ten thousand dollars is not that much in the grand scheme of things,” she says. “But I wanted there to be a list of links on my profile so that if anybody else wanted to do what I was doing, then they could scroll through and donate as well. If other people are jumping in, then that can really matter.”
It’s that sense of renewed purpose that shows how far Dacus has come as a leading voice in rock — even if, as she points out, she is the “guinea pig” of the boygenius bandmates as the first of the trio to release a solo project since The Record.
“I feel really gratified when putting my albums out means something to someone else,” she says with a warm smile. “I wouldn’t do this if it didn’t matter to some people.”
Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Tamela Mann earns her 12th No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart, breaking out of a tie with fellow gospel music icon Kirk Franklin for the most leaders in the list’s 20-year history. Mann achieves the honor as “Deserve To Win” ascends a spot to the top of the chart dated March 29. Explore See […]
Lady Gaga announced the dates for her anticipated summer-fall 2025 Mayhem Ball tour in support of her new Mayhem album on Wednesday morning (March 26). “This is my first arena tour since 2018,” said Gaga in a statement. “There’s something electric about a stadium, and I love every moment of those shows. But with The MAYHEM Ball, I wanted to create a different kind of experience — something more intimate — closer, more connected — that lends itself to the live theatrical art I love to create.”
After a run of previously announced shows in April and May, Gaga’s first North American and European tour since her 2022 Chromatica Ball tour will open in the U.S. with a double-down in Las Vegas on July 16 and 18, two shows in Seattle, three nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and two-night runs in Miami, Toronto and Chicago. She will then play a run of arena dates across Europe from Sept. 29 through Nov. 20.
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Tickets for the North American dates will go on sale on March 31, with an artist pre-sale beginning on April 2 at 12 p.m. local time; sign up for that pre-sale here through 8 a.m. ET on Sunday (March 30). The general on-sale will kick off on April 3 at 12 p.m. local time here. There will also be a Citi pre-sale for North America beginning on Monday (March 31) at 12 p.m. local time through April 2 at 11 a.m. local time here. A Verizon pre-sale will begin on April 1 at 12 p.m. local time through April 2 at 11 a.m. local time here.
Tickets for select shows in Europe will go on sale on March 31 with a Mastercard pre-sale for shows in Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Belgium beginning at noon local time through April 2 at 10 p.m. local here. Additional pre-sales will run throughout the week before the general on-sale for all of the European/U.K. dates beginning on April 3 at 12 p.m. local time here.
Mother Monster will gear up for the tour by headlining Coachella next month, followed by a pair of previously announced dates (April 26-27) at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, and some other already announced spring dates, including a free May 3 show on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and four nights at the National Stadium in Singapore on May 18, 18, 21 and 24.
Check out the dates for the 2025 Mayhem Ball tour below.
July 16 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
August 6 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
August 7 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
August 22 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 26 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 31 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
Sept. 1 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
Sept. 10 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 11 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 15 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Sept. 17 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
Sept. 29 – London, UK @ The O2
Sept. 30 – London, UK @ The O2
Oct. 2 – London, UK @ The O2
Oct. 7 – Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live
Oct. 12 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena
Oct. 13 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena
Oct. 19 – Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum
Oct. 20 – Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum
Oct. 28 – Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
Oct. 29 – Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi
Nov. 4 – Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
Nov. 5 – Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena
Nov. 9 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
Nov. 11 – Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis Arena
Nov. 13 – Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena
Nov. 14 – Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena
Nov. 17 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena
Nov. 18 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena
Nov. 20 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena
Selena Gomez isn’t afraid to talk about the double standard when it comes to comments about her appearance. On this week’s episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Gomez lamented that she gets “a tad bitter” when people mention her weight, noting that those comments are always aimed at women.
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Appearing with fiancé Benny Blanco — who said he never reads too deeply into what people say about him online because he’d rather “free-fall through life” without knowing what anyone else thinks — Gomez said her take is very different. “I was also going to point out that women have it much worse,” she said. “From my perspective, it’s pretty wild, and I think this isn’t news to anybody, that obviously women have a lot more intense feelings from their appearance to what they are wearing to everything.”
The scrutiny is so intense that Gomez said it gets in her head when she’s getting ready for the red carpet. “When I get prepared for an event, 90 percent of the time I’m just like, ‘I just hope I can take the picture and sit down.’” Gomez said, “It’s the character that gets judged, it’s the way I’m not white enough, I’m not Mexican enough. There’s just so many different things that come up in my face that I can’t help but see. But I fall victim to looking at things, and it really doesn’t add to your life, but it’s just so difficult. From the choices of people you date, it’s like nobody cares about those kind of things with men. They’re just like, ‘yeah, the did that, they said that.’”
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Gomez, 32, said the most frequent unsolicited comments she sees are about her weight, with “everyone” online having “something to say” about it. “My weight’s a big one too,” she said. “It’s really making me sad and — not even sad cause, I’m not a victim, I just think it’s made me a tad bitter, and I feel really guilty for saying that, but it’s true.” In the past, Gomez has shared that the medicine she takes to combat the chronic autoimmune disorder lupus can cause weight fluctuations.
In November, Gomez hit back at negative posts about her posture at a red carpet event promoting her Oscar-nominated film Emilia Perez, after some TikTok users suggested she was trying to hide her body with poses in which her hands were positioned across her stomach. “This makes me sick,” Gomez wrote in the comments of the speculation. “I have SEBO [SIBO] in my small intestine. It flares up. I don’t care that I don’t look like a stick figure. I don’t have that body. End of story. No I am NOT a victim. I’m just human.”
As she’s revealed before, the singer also told Shetty that she takes mental health breaks from being online and “most of the time” she ignores the haters, noting again that she doesn’t have social apps on her phone. “So there are ways to combat it,” she said. “I’m not like, ‘I hate it.’ I understand the power of what social media is, it’s just tricky.”
Watch Blanco and Gomez on the Shetty podcast below.
Erykah Badu has loudly and proudly always marched to the beat of her own drummer. But the “Call Tyrone” singer admitted this week that she’s happily hopping on a recent trend to protest the deep cuts to government agencies being led by Elon Musk as part of his DOGE team by trashing one of the richest man in the world’s signature vehicles.
“Just vandalized my own Tesla,” Badu tweeted earlier this week. “Trying to stay on trend.”
There have been a number of attacks on Teslas and Tesla dealerships around the country over the past few weeks, from Cybertrucks set on fire to molotov cocktails hurled at Tesla dealerships and vandalism of charging stations. Attackers have also taken their ire out on the all-electric vehicles with anatomical drawings and NSFW messages such as “Hail Elon” and “Nazi car,” in seeming reference to Musk’s Nazi-like salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
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It was unclear if Badu — who recently revealed to Billboard that she is working on her first new album in 15 years — was joking or actually dinged up her Tesla, but she is not the only one breaking up with the pricey vehicle that was once considered a badge of environmental courage. Sherly Crow announced last month that she had sold her Tesla and donated the proceeds to NPR in protest; NPR and PBS executives will be on Capitol Hill on Wednesday (March 26) to testify in a hearing titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable” as DOGE is reportedly homing in on drastic cuts to public radio and television.
While many protests across the nation, and the world, have focused on Teslas and Musk, Green Day took aim at the billionaire during shows in January, where singer Billie Joe Armstrong swiped at the unelected DOGE boss while performing in Musk’s home country of South Africa. “I’m not part of the Elon agenda,” he sang in a switch to a classic “American Idiot” lyric.
Jack White also slammed Musk during a performance of his 2018 single “Corporation” at a February 18 show on his No Name tour. “I was thinking about becoming an oligarch, who’s with me?” White sang in Boston. “I was thinking about taking government subsidies and starting my own electric car company. Who’s with me?” he added. “I’m thinking about not being elected. Never holding a public office. Never serving one day of military service. But somehow having the authority to control parts of the U.S. Government. Who’s with me?”
Then, on the debut episode of Netflix’s Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney earlier this month, 1960s folk legend Joan Baez lamented that “our democracy is going up in flames… we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.” And while she didn’t name names, when Mulaney joked about Baez owning a Tesla, she noted that she did used to have one, but that she sincerely regrets the purchase now.
“I hated that thing,” Baez, 84, said. “But I thought I was supposed to like it. So I drove off in it. Within 45 minutes I had smashed it into an oak tree on my property… I was thinking, ‘That’s a sign.’” Without saying when she ditched it, Baez added, “I hated it… It was too big… I sold it and got one-half the amount of money I paid for.”
Two of the world’s most iconic names in electronic music — U.S.-based Insomniac and Belgium’s Tomorrowland — are joining forces for the first time ever to debut a groundbreaking new experience titled UNITY.
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The collaborative project will premiere over Labor Day weekend (Aug. 29–31) at Sphere in Las Vegas, one of the most technologically advanced venues on the planet.
Billed as “just the beginning,” UNITY marks the first chapter in a broader partnership between the two powerhouse festival producers and promises to transport audiences into a new dimension of immersive music and storytelling.
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“Through the past decades, we both have strived to create festivals and experiences around the world that foster beautiful, unique communities of individuals,” reads a joint statement from Insomniac and Tomorrowland. “Music is our universal language, the dance floor our sanctuary, and every one of you, our family. Now, for the first time in history, our worlds become one.”
“Now, for the first time in history, our worlds become one. In UNITY, we join together to create a brand-new experience that harnesses the magic, love, and awe-inspiring moments within our events—and there’s no better stage on earth than Sphere.”
Merging Tomorrowland’s signature dreamworlds — including Planaxis, Adscendo, and Orbyz — with Insomniac’s flagship universes like Beyond Wonderland, Escape Halloween, and Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), the UNITY experience is being described as a guided audiovisual journey through the imagination. The story will unfold across an original orchestral-meets-electronic soundtrack, featuring cinematic compositions and iconic dance anthems, building toward surprise DJ performances during a climactic finale.
The event will take full advantage of Sphere’s next-gen immersive capabilities, including its 16K resolution wraparound LED display and Sphere Immersive Sound system, allowing UNITY to blur the lines between fantasy and reality, bringing fans inside the shared creative visions of both brands.
Vibee is offering exclusive hotel and ticket packages from March 27–30 at unity.vibee.com, with general presale access beginning March 31 at 10 a.m. General on-sale begins April 7 at unityxsphere.com.
A rare piece of Beatles history has resurfaced in an unexpected place: a small record store in Vancouver.
Rob Frith, owner of Neptoon Records, recently stumbled upon what he believed was a run-of-the-mill bootleg labeled Beatles 60s Demos. But after finally playing the reel-to-reel tape—years after acquiring it—Frith realized he may have uncovered a direct copy of the band’s original 1962 Decca audition tape.
“I just figured it was a tape off a bootleg record,” Frith posted on social media. “After hearing it last night for the first time, it sounds like a master tape. The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have what sounds like a Beatles 15-song Decca tapes master?”
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The tape is believed to be a copy of the infamous Jan. 1, 1962 audition session The Beatles recorded at Decca Studios in London. The label famously passed on signing the group—who would instead join Parlophone under George Martin and release their debut album Please Please Me in 1963.
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Frith, speaking to CBC, said the sound quality was so pristine “it seemed like the Beatles were in the room.” The tape, wound in what’s known as “leader tape” (used to separate tracks on master recordings), was identified by music preservationist Larry Hennessey as something far more than just a fan-made compilation.
Further intrigue came when Frith tracked down the man who brought the tape to Canada: Jack Herschorn, a former Vancouver label executive. According to Herschorn, the tape was given to him by a producer in London during the 1970s with the suggestion to sell copies in North America. But he refused, saying, “It didn’t feel like the moral thing to do. These guys are famous and they deserve to have the right royalties on it… it deserves to come out properly.”
Now, more than 60 years after the original session, fans can hear a snippet of the first track—“Money (That’s What I Want)”—via Frith’s Instagram, where it’s quickly gone viral among Beatles devotees.
Frith says he has no intention of selling the tape but would gladly offer a copy to Decca or, as he joked, personally hand it to Sir Paul McCartney if he ever stopped by Neptoon Records.
Elton John is preparing to release his new collaborative album with Brandi Carlile next week, but a new interview has seen the prolific artist reveal the upcoming record left him confronting his mortality.
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John and Carlile’s new record, Who Believes in Angels?, is set to release on April 4, with singles such as its title track and “Swing for the Fences” arriving in the lead-up. While announcing the record, John explained it hit hard on both sides of the spectrum, describeing it as equally “one of the toughest I’ve ever made” and “one of the greatest musical experiences of my life.”
In a new episode of the Smartless podcast which was released to subscribers on Tuesday, March 25 – John’s 78th birthday – the musician revealed that the album’s closing track hit closer to home than previous songs due to its rather pertinent themes.
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“I wrote a song at the end of the album and I just get the lyrics, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics,” John explained “I’m writing the verse, like, ‘Oh, this is really pretty.’ And then I get to the chorus and of course it’s about my death.
“When you get to my age, which is near 100, you think, ‘How much time have I got left?’” he continued, before his thoughts turned to husband David Furnish and sons Zachary and Elijah. “You’ve got children, you’ve got a wonderful husband, you just think about mortality. And so when I got to the chorus, I just broke down for 45 minutes – and it’s all on film.”
The sessions were recorded as part of the film Elton John: Never Too Late, which was released in October to widespread acclaim. The titular “Never Too Late” will also be released on Who Believes in Angels? and was recently up for best original song at the Academy Awards.
“I want everybody to see it because it’s really human, like deeply flawed and embarrassing,” Carlile added. And the kind of shit that you do when you forget that there is a camera on is what’s really interesting.”
The forthcoming episode of the Smartless podcast, which officially releases to all listeners on March 31, also sees John reflecting on his earliest days as a solo musician. “I never imagined myself as a solo artist,” he explained. “When I was in my group, Bluesology, I took the big risk of going up to Liberty Records saying, ‘I want to write songs, I’m so fed up with playing in a band that doesn’t want to go anywhere, and I can sing too.’”
Longtime Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has teamed up with former bandmate Mick Fleetwood once again, with the pair reuniting in the recording studio recently.
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News of the pair’s musician reunion was detailed by Swedish producer Carl Falk, who took to Threads recently to share a photo from the studio where Fleetwood has been working on a new solo album. The sessions have ostensibly also seen Fleetwood working with The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel.
“Slightly unreal moment to sit with Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood to play Lindsey the album we have been working on,” Falk wrote. “And to see his genuine happiness for Mick to finally do his own album and offering to play guitar and to sing on it. Can’t wait to finish this one.”
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Another post shared by Falk captured Buckingham in the studio with his guitar in hand. “Mick and Lindsey together again, what a flawless guitar player,” the caption wrote. Currently, no official details from Fleetwood have been announced in regard to the content or release of the forthcoming album.
Fleetwood served as one of the founding members of Fleetwood Mac alongside guitarist Peter Green and bassist John McVie, serving as the group’s percussionist for the entirety of their career. Buckingham joined as guitarist and vocalist alongside singer Stevie Nicks in 1974, completing the band’s most famous lineup, which also included McVie’s then-wife Christine.
Buckingham departed the group in 1987, but rejoined in 1997 as part of the band’s classic lineup reunion. Buckingham remained with the band until the 2018 announcement he would no longer be touring as part of Fleetwood Mac.
“I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was really my doing or my choice,” Buckingham later explained during a live concert. “I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective.”
“It harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build,” he added of the group’s decision, “and that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”
The guitarist was replaced by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers member Mike Campbell, and Crowded House’s Neil Finn for the band’s final years. Fleetwood Mac would officially split in 2022 following the passing of Christine McVie.
Buckingham’s departure from Fleetwood Mac occurred almost a year after the release of Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie, an album which featured the band’s lineup with the exception of Nicks. Until 2025, it was the most recent collaboration between Buckingham and Fleetwood.
