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Queen City music fans will have to wait a while to see Janet Jackson after the pop star announced on Thursday (March 20) that due to “personal matters” she will not be headlining the second night of this summer’s Cincinnati Music Festival.
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“To all my Cincinnati Music Festival fans…. I’m so sorry that I won’t be able to be with you all in July. Some personal matters have come up and I am unable to attend. I look forward to seeing you all soon!” Jackson, 58, said in a statement shared by promoters.
Jackson — who previously headlined the festival in 2022 — was slated to headline on July 26 at Paycor Stadium on a bill that also includes Lucky Daye, 112, The Bar-Kays and a tribute to one of the event’s most beloved perennial stars, late R&B legend Maze frontman Frankie Beverly featuring the TMF Band (formerly Maze) feat. Jubu, as well as special guests Ronald Isley, Joe, After 7, Dave Hollister and Raheem DeVaughn.
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“We just learned that Janet Jackson is unable to perform at the 2025 Cincinnati Music Festival presented by P&G due to personal matters,” the event’s promoters said in a statement. “Festival organizers are working quickly to fill her spot on the lineup.”
Night one of this year’s show (July 25) will be headlined by Earth, Wind & Fire and also feature Anthony Hamilton, PJ Morton, Jazmine Sullivan and a Zapp Band tribute to the King Records legacy featuring Dreion. The beloved summertime classic that draws fans from across the country first took place in 1959 in French Lick, IN with a lineup that included the Miles David Quintet, Duke Ellington’s Big Band, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughn.
It has changed names, and profiles, over the years, but has always remained one of the calendar highlights for both the city and music lovers.
After moving to Cincinnati in 1962, it began to shift from a jazz-focused gathering to one that also incorporated a wide range of blues, R&B and soul, featuring such 1970s headliners as Roberta Flack, Ray Charles, Ike & Tina Turner, Marvin Gaye. In the 1980s and 90s it welcomed everyone from Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross, to New Edition, Natalie Cole and Patti LaBelle.
Though the 2000s have continued to focus on those genres with sets from D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, John Legend, Fantasia, Maxwell, Jennifer Hudson, Jill Scott and hometown hero Bootsy Collins, in recent years it has added a third night of programming at the adjacent Brady Music Center spotlighting hip-hop. This year’s opening night will feature sets from Scarface, Goodie Mob, the Sugarhill Gang and Young MC.
While Jackson will not be back this year, at press time the singer’s official site still listed a run of six weekend residency shows at the Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas between May 21-31.
It’s been a long road from Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red to Music. King Vamp ended the drought with his first album in four-plus years on March 14.
The loaded 30-track album features superstar guests from The Weeknd to Travis Scott, and showcases Carti’s full artistic repertoire. Billboard Unfiltered returned on Wednesday (March 19) with a new episode covering Carti’s new LP from all angles.
“I think this Music album is probably the best showcase of all the different sides to Carti,” staff writer Kyle Denis said. “You get his pop sensibility side on records like ‘Backr00ms,’ and you get some of the rage rap stuff … I love how throw-everything-at-the-wall it was.”
Denis “sighed” every time Travis Scott popped up for a feature. “The best Travis verse for me that was on ‘Backr00ms,’ and that one wasn’t on the album,” he added. “I love how Kendrick kind of slid into Carti’s world. I think that was the highlight for me, seeing him adapt to the vamp stuff.”
Denis “had a great time with Music,” but thinks that it was way too long at 30 tracks. “There’s a great 16-track album hidden somewhere,” he said.
Music is expected to debut atop the Billboard 200, and all 30 tracks could possibly enter next week’s Billboard Hot 100.
Senior charts and data analyst Trevor Anderson highlighted “Evil J0rdan” as when the album really started to take off for him, and noted Kendrick Lamar’s performance in Carti’s world holding his own. “I think he does a good job of playing in the background, but obviously making his presence known,” he said.
He wonders if Carti can have that pop breakthrough run as a hitmaker, but couldn’t land on one track he thought would take off. “‘Rather Lie’ could be a radio record,” Denis said. “Both Kendrick joints will probably do fine. ‘Fine Shit’ is one that popped out to me.”
Lizzo returned last week with her “Still Bad” single as she plots her comeback for 2025. That didn’t come without an X rant, in which she clapped back at haters of the track and called out the mistreatment of Black women artists.
“This is not the first time she has had records that haven’t connected. Right after ‘About Damn Time,’ she tried to push ‘To Be Loved,’ and that didn’t really pop off in a way remotely comparable to ‘About Damn Time.’ I don’t think the culture’s moved beyond corny pop songs,” Denis said. “There’s always going to be an audience for that.”
Watch the full episode above.
As two short blonde hitmakers, Dolly Parton and Sabrina Carpenter have a lot in common. But they also have some key differences, and according to the country legend, there were a couple things the pair had to agree on before she signed on to do the 25-year-old pop star’s “Please Please Please” remix earlier this year.
In an interview with Knox News published March 18, Parton had nothing but praise for Carpenter — even if the “Espresso” singer does “talk a little bad now and then.”
“I told her, I said, ‘Now, I don’t cuss,’” continued the “9 to 5” singer. “‘I don’t make fun of Jesus. I don’t talk bad about God, and I don’t say dirty words on camera, but known to if I get mad enough.’”
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Those ground rules led the Girl Meets World alum to scrap the famous “motherf–ker” bomb from the chorus of “Please Please Please” for her version with Parton, with the pair instead singing the much cleaner line, “I beg you, don’t embarrass me like the others.”
When Carpenter first announced in February that she and Parton would be teaming up, the former wrote on Instagram, “and yes that does say featuring Miss Dolly Parton…. 💋💋💋she wouldn’t want me to swear but holy s–t!!!!!”
“She was so sweet,” Parton added of Carpenter in the interview before praising two of her other recent collaborators. “And Beyoncé’s great, and Miley [Cyrus], you know I love her. So, I’m just having fun with all of it.”
The Dollywood founder made a cameo on the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer’s Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter, which also featured Bey’s updated version of Parton’s “Jolene.” Parton and the “Flowers” artist have worked together a number of times, with the godmother-goddaughter duo recently releasing a duet version of Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” for the country icon’s 2023 Rockstar album.
As for which modern star she wants to work with next, Parton said, “Whoever calls me that I like … I’ll I say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that!’”
Her conversation with Knox News marks one of the Tennessee native’s first interviews since the death of her husband, Carl Dean, who passed away a few weeks prior at the age of 82. At the time, Parton wrote in a statement, “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”
During the interview, Parton shared an update on how she’s faring since the loss. “I’m doing better than I thought I would,” she said. “I’ve been with him 60 years. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll keep him always close.”
“I’m at peace that he’s at peace,” she added. “But that don’t keep me from missing and loving him.”
As 1995 began, Madonna was still an A-plus-list superstar and one of the most famous people in the world — but she was no longer at the absolute center of pop music. A half decade of increasingly controversial (though often brilliant) albums, singles, videos, movies and appearances had left the public divided and unsure about the Queen of Pop’s standing, while the dance-pop she’d conquered the world with in the ’80s had fallen out of fashion in a top 40 landscape dominated by alt-rock, hip-hop and R&B. But ’95 saw her reclaim her radio supremacy, while still taking huge artistic chances and pivoting to a more mature cross-platform star persona — though hardly all at the same time.
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In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Keith Caulfield, Billboard‘s Managing Director of Charts & Data Operations (and co-host of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, and longtime M disciple) to express ourselves and not repress ourselves about Madonna’s incredibly fascinating 1995. We pick up mid-Bedtime Stories rollout with Madonna, as she improbably scores the biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit of her entire storied career, and we make it through her LP’s experimental final two singles (and their rather notable music videos), through getting cast in the film role of a lifetime, through the ’95 Video Music Awards, and finally end with her Something to Remember era, while she preps the world for a year of Oscar campaigning.
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In the meantime, we brace the most important questions about La M as she reached the midpoint of her 1990s: Which super-cool-and-acclaimed European act made for better Madonna collaborators, Björk or Massive Attack? Why does nobody remember that “Take a Bow” was her longest-running No. 1? Should “Human Nature” have been a bigger hit? Was Evita worth shutting down her mid-’90s touring plans for? Did she really deserve a Razzie for her Four Rooms appearance? And of course: How did she fare in her infamous interview showdown with Courtney Love following the ’95 VMAs?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from Madonna’s 1995, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights. (Madonna would want you to!)
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
After announcing last week that his upcoming fourth studio album, I’m The Problem, was “officially done,” Morgan Wallen revealed the released date for the project on Thursday morning (March 20). The news came via an Instagram post featuring footage of the singer in the studio with the title track playing as a hand sketches his profile for the cover of the LP due out on May 16.
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The album’s release will coincide with the singer’s upcoming Sand in My Boots Festival in Gulf Shores, AL on May 16-18.
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“I have been a problem, for sure, and I’ve got no problem admitting that,” Wallen said in a statement. “But there are other sides to me as well. I’ve spent the last 11 months really trying to figure out, ‘Do I still want to be the problem? Is it time to move past that phase in my life?’ I think it probably is, and this might be the last time I get a chance to honestly say it.”
According to a release, Wallen spent nearly a year writing and honing the tracklist on a farm outside of Nashville with his crew of collaborators that includes producers Joey Moi and Charlie Handsome, boiling down the sessions into a collection that combines “Wallen’s country, cross and dirt-rock influences” while also taking inventory of “where he’s been and where he’s headed — and not shying away from the past.”
The street date reveal set up fans for the release of two news songs on Thursday night, the previously teased contemplative ballad “Just in Case,” written by Wallen, John Byron, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Ryan Vojtesak, Josh Thompson, Blake Pendergrass and Alex Bak and world-gone-mad serenade “I’m a Little Crazy.” The latter was written by Michael Hardy, Smith Ahnquist, Hunter Phelps and Jameson Rodgers, with both songs produced by Moi, with Handsome co-producing “Just in Case.”
I’m the Problem is the follow-up to Wallen’s hit LPs 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album — which spent 10 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard 200 album chart — and 2023’s One Thing at a Time, which spent 19 total weeks at the top of the chart. In the run-up to the release, Wallen has previewed several songs, including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Love Somebody,” as well as “Lies Lies Lies,” “Smile” and the title track; at press time the full track listing for the album has not yet been announced.
Wallen will be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 29 along with host Oscar-winning Anora star Mikey Madison.
Check out Wallen’s album announce video below.
After months of slowly teasing fans with new music, Eric Church will return with his new album on May 2, when he releases Evangeline Vs. the Machine. The eight-song album marks his first release since 2021’s Heart & Soul triple project, and judging from the songs the upcoming album has already yielded, the project promises to be one of Church’s most creative and introspective to date.
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“An album is a snapshot in time that lasts for all time,” Church said in a statement. “I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art — I think it’s important. I’ve always let creativity be the muse. It’s been a compass for me. The people that I look up to in my career and the kind of musicians I gravitate to never did what I thought they were going to do next — and I love them for it. I never want our fans to get an album and go, ‘Oh, that’s like Chief or that’s like this.’ Painstakingly, I lose sleep at night to try to make sure that whatever we do creatively, they go, ‘Wow, that’s not what I thought.’ I think that’s my job as an artist.”
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As with his previous projects, the new album features a mix of solo writes and collaborative efforts. Church has writing collaborations with several top-shelf songwriters, including Casey Beathard, Scooter Carusoe and Luke Laird, while also contributing three solo writes.
The project’s lead radio single, “Hands of Time,” impacts country radio on March 24. “As I get older, I’m looking for things that make me feel not as old,” Church said of the song via a statement. “I can honestly say that when I hear music or see something from my past, I feel like I did then; I relate to what it was then. I really believe that a good way to handle that is with music.”
in February, Church previewed another song from the album, “Johnny,” at the Country Radio Seminar during the annual UMG Nashville showcase at the Ryman Auditorium. The song is a reinterpretation inspired by The Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and also inspired by the tragic school shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School in 2023.
The album also features “Darkest Hour,” which Church previously released to raise funds to aid those impacted by Hurricane Helene, with all of Church’s publishing royalties on the song going to aid those in his homestate of North Carolina.
The album closes with a cover of Tom Waits’s “Clap Hands.”
See the full tracklist for Church’s Evangeline Vs. The Machine below:
“Hands of Time” (Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe)
“Bleed on Paper” (Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell)
“Johnny” (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren)
“Storm In Their Blood” (Eric Church)
“Darkest Hour” (Eric Church)
“Evangeline” (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean)
“Rocket’s White Lincoln” (Eric Church)
“Clap Hands” (Tom Waits)
Shakira paid an emotional tribute to Mexico with mariachi rhythms and regional Mexican music on Wednesday night (March 19) with first-time performances of “Ciega Sordomuda” and “El Jefe.” The songs were inspired by the country where the Colombian superstar launched her musical career 30 years ago.
With the surprising inclusion of a Mexican section in her repertoire, the artist kicked-off the first of seven scheduled concerts at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City in front of 65,000 people as part of her current Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, according to figures from promoter Ocesa.
Written more than 20 years ago, “Ciega Sordomuda” was one of Shakira’s first international hits, and it sparked euphoria among attendees. Accompanied by the mariachi group Gama 100, the singer delighted her audience with her famous MTV Unplugged (2000) version of the song, featuring Mexican trumpets and brass arrangements. Meanwhile, with “El Jefe” — a collab with Mexican-American band Fuerza Regida included in the 2024 album that gives its name to the tour, — she completed the Mexican segment of the show during her return to the Latin American country after a seven-year absence.
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“This is the first of seven nights in this city that has given me so much joy. Together, we are breaking a historic record, and that’s thanks to all the love you give me,” Shakira expressed with excitement.
Her run of gigs at GNP Seguros Stadium (March 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, and 30) make the Colombian star the first artist to sell out this iconic venue in Mexico City (formerly known as Foro Sol) seven times, collectively bringing together almost half a million attendees, according to Ocesa.
The 48-year-old artist opened her dazzling show with “La Fuerte,” produced by Argentine DJ Bizarrap, followed by hits such as “Girl Like Me,” “Las de la Intuición,” “Estoy Aquí,” “Inevitable,” “Te Felicito,” “TQG,” “Monotonía,” “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” and “Don’t Bother,” showcasing a much more rock-oriented side of her artistry. The rest of the setlist was almost identical to what the Barranquilla native has presented throughout the Latin American leg of the tour tour, which began in Rio de Janeiro on February 11.
Before her unprecedented residency in Mexico City, Shakira achieved other milestones in the country, such as two sold-out shows at the BBVA Stadium in the border city of Monterrey, where she gathered 100,000 people on March 12 and 13. Additionally, she performed two concerts on Sunday (March 16) and Monday (March 17) at the Akron Stadium in Guadalajara, bringing together 90,000 people, according to the promoter.
Mexico City will also host the pop-up event “Shakira Estoy Aquí Experience Ciudad de México,” a free exhibition opening Friday (March 21) and running through March 30. The immersive experience will allow fans to dive into the universe of the Colombian artist through thematic spaces showcasing her evolution, creative process, and pivotal moments in her career.
Mexico also marks her second-to-last stop in the region before Shakira starts the U.S. leg of the tour on May 13 in Charlotte, N.C.
In the summer of 2023, Tyla made a massive splash with her Billboard Hot 100 top 10 popiano smash, “Water.” But that turned out to be just a hint of what the South African star was capable of — and in March 2024, she released her acclaimed self-titled debut album, a showcase for her expert fusion of amapiano, Afrobeats, pop and R&B.
That same month, she was forced to cancel her debut Coachella set and first headlining international tour in the wake of a back injury. But no setback could stop Tyla, 23, from shining in the global spotlight. She ditched her aquatic motif for a sand-sculpted Balmain gown for her debut at the Met Gala in New York last May, and this year, she’ll join A-listers like André 3000 and Usher as a member of the Costume Institute Benefit Host Committee as the event honors Black style. In October, she performed her song “Push 2 Start” for the first time at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show; the sweltering reggae-infused track from the deluxe version of Tyla, released just days before, became her second Hot 100 entry.
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Join us at Billboard Women in Music 2025 — get your tickets here.
Following her historic 2024 Grammy Award win — when “Water” took home the inaugural best African music performance trophy, making her the youngest-ever African artist to win a Grammy — Tyla picked up more hardware at the BET Awards, Billboard Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. And this year’s Women in Music Impact honoree remains determined to spotlight African music and bring her native South African amapiano to the world’s biggest stages while dispelling the notion that she, and all African artists, only make “Afrobeats” music. Case in point: Come April, Tyla will finally play Coachella.
“The fact that what I’ve been doing has impacted people all over the world, especially African artists, is special,” she says.
You’ve been very vocal while winning “Afrobeats” awards. Is it hard to relish those victories when your music is being mislabeled?
It’s still an honor because I do use Afrobeats’ influence in my music. I represent Africa as a whole. Genre is so fluid, so it’s become difficult to categorize it. If people see it as the influence that the artist is using in their music getting its recognition, it’ll help more [with perceptions], rather than being like, “This person is not that.”
Who are the women who’ve been the most influential in your life as an artist?
Tems is a big one. What she’s been able to do has been very inspiring. Britney [Spears], Whitney Houston, Aaliyah.
What performance that you’ve done in the past year have you found most impactful?
The shows I did back home [in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria]. I haven’t really done much there since everything has happened [with “Water” blowing up]. Those were the biggest headlining shows I’ve ever had. It was fun being able to have that much control over the stage, the dancing, the lighting, the song arrangements. It was really cool to create something from scratch and give home a whole show that I’ve never been able to give them.
What else do you have in store for 2025?
New album. I’ve changed a lot in a short amount of time because I was kind of forced to with how fast I had to adapt to everything. I don’t think it’s going to be the same energy [as Tyla] at all, especially with what I’ve started making. It’s different, but also still Tyla.
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
The Sea.Hear.Now festival will be back in Asbury Park, N.J. this fall with a lineup including headliners Blink-182, Hozier, LCD Soundsystem and Lenny Kravitz. The Sept. 13-14 event will also feature sets from Alabama Shakes, ZZ Top, Remi Wolf, Royel Otis, De La Soul, UB40, Gigi Perez, Sublime, Public Enemy, TV on the Radio, Spoon, Phantogram, 4 Non Blondes, Hot Mulligan and Mannequin Pussy, among others.
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The seaside event will once host some of the world’s greatest surfers and emerging stars, who will ride the waves throughout the weekend in team contests held between the Surf and Sand stages. Among the scheduled participants are: Landon McNamara, Cam Richards, Balaram Stack, Sam Hammer, Rob Kelly, Cassidy McClain, Pat Schmidt, Mike Gleason and many more.
A pre-sale for the event will kick off on Friday (March 21) at 10 a.m. ET, with a public on-sale to follow if any tickets remain; click here to sign up for a pre-sale passcode.
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Among the other musical acts on the roster for this year are: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Inhaler, Mondo Cozmo, Bumpin Uglies, Not Yer Baby, Grace Bowers & the Hodge Podge, Landon McNamara, Neal Francis, Surfing for Daisy and The Tide Bends.
Last year’s fest got a major boost when Jersey legend Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ripped off a three-hour-plus throwdown for a massive crowd that was full of hometown stories and a mix of beloved classics and deep-cut tracks. The epic show was later released on CD and for streaming via nugs.net.
Check out the 2025 Sea.Hear.Now announcement below.
Dolly Parton said she’s doing her best following the death earlier this month of her beloved husband of nearly six decades, Carl Thomas Dean. After a surprise appearance at the 40th season celebration at her Dollywood resort in Pigeon Forge, TN, last week, the singer spoke to Knox News about how she managing life without Dean, who died on March 3 at age 82.
“I’m doing better than I thought I would,” Parton said. “I’ve been with him 60 year. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll keep him always close.” Parton added that Dean — who was publicity-shy and more than happy to let his famous wife take all the spotlight over their long marriage — suffered “a great deal” near the end. “I’m at peace that he’s at peace,” she said of the love of her life, who she met when she was 18 and he was 23. “But that don’t keep me from missing and loving him.”
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Parton, of course, poured her grief out in the only way she knows how days after Dean’s death, releasing the moving ballad, “If You Hadn’t Been There,” an homage to the stoic support her husband offered her throughout their life together. “If you hadn’t been there/ Where would I be?/ Without your trust/ Love and belief/ The ups and downs/ We’ve always shared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there,” Parton sings on the track.
“If you hadn’t been there/ Well, who would I be?/ You always see the best in me/ You’re loving arms have cradled me/ You held me close, and I believe,” she adds on the song before leaning into the loving chorus: “I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there/ Holding my hand/ Showing you care/ You made me dream/ More than I dared/ And I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there.”
In her trademark chin-up style, Parton told Knox that there is a “hole in my heart… but we’ll fill that up with good stuff and he’ll still always be with me.”
Though Dean was happy to stay off the radar, Parton also talked about how he loved visiting Dollywood, often standing in line to purchase his own ticket because “he didn’t want somebody giving him a ticket ’cause he was Dolly’s husband. Everybody thinks that’s the funniest thing.” In fact, he’d go alone, snack on funnel cakes and give his wife notes on improvements, saying things like, “‘You need more bathrooms’… or he would say, ‘You need to tell them this or that. It’s crowded over in that area. You might want to tell them they ought to do this or that.”
In his honor, Parton said she plans to hit up Dollywood and “do like Carl” and “walk around, look at everything.” The interview came after Parton made her first public appearance since Dean’s death on March 14, where she thanked Dollywood guests for their love and support.
