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The upcoming 2025 American Music Awards show is partnering with Easy Day Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to assisting veterans in their transition back to civilian life, the foundation and Dick Clark Productions announced Monday morning (May 5).
According to the announcement, viewers will see “several special in-show moments that celebrate veterans while raising funds for a variety of national and local organizations” during the telecast of the AMAs on May 26. The fan-voted awards show, for which Kendrick Lamar leads this year’s nominations, airs on CBS and streams on Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT; Jennifer Lopez is hosting.
Easy Day’s collaboration with the American Music Awards is a well-timed effort, as May 26 is Memorial Day and May is Military Appreciation Month. There will be two performances to help honor those who’ve served, plus a presentation of a special award “honoring a marquee talent who uses their platform to make meaningful contributions to the Veteran community,” the team reveals. Stories from active-duty service members and veterans are expected to be heard during the event, which will have seating in the audience reserved for veterans to attend this year’s awards show.
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“PMC and Dick Clark Productions are deeply honored to spotlight our nation’s heroes through this meaningful partnership with Easy Day Foundation and the most preeminent organizations supporting our nation’s heroes,” says Gerry Byrne, vice chairman of Penske Media Corporation and a Marine Corps Vietnam combat veteran. “The transition from service to civilian life isn’t easy and these special moments during the AMAs shine a much-needed light on the real challenges Veterans face and the critical support systems required to help them navigate life after service.”
Money raised from in-show fundraising moments will benefit a number of veteran service organizations: Bob Woodruff Foundation, Boot Campaign, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Fisher House, the Folded Flag Foundation, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Team Rubicon and UNLV’s Military and Veteran Services Center. Additionally, a portion of ticket sales is being allocated to the Easy Day Foundation and its partners.
The Easy Day Foundation, co-founded by Frank Fertitta IV and Landon Gyulay and based in Las Vegas — the city where the AMAs take place this year — assists veterans with critical needs, such as mental health care, job training and placement, and family support services in their return to civilian life.
“Our goal at this year’s American Music Awards is to not only honor the memory of our fallen heroes but to spotlight the ongoing needs of millions of veterans as they reintegrate into civilian life,” Fertitta says. “We’re proud to be part of an iconic award show like the American Music Awards that has the power to raise awareness, inspire compassion and drive real change.”
Gyulay adds, “Partnering with the AMAs gives us a powerful platform to elevate the stories of our veterans and amplify the mission of Easy Day. These brave men and women have given their all for our freedom and our AMAs partnership allows us to turn national attention into national action on their behalf.”
The American Music Awards engages music fans to vote in its awards categories. Nominees (see the full list here) are based on key fan interactions — as reflected on the Billboard charts — including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and Luminate, and cover the data tracking eligibility period of March 22, 2024 through March 20, 2025. Fan voting for the 2025 AMAs is now open via VoteAMAs.com and the @AMAs Instagram profile.
The American Music Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
Adam Lambert killed it last year in his Broadway debut as the Emcee in the revival of Cabaret. Now the singer is taking the stage again in another iconic musical, and this time he’ll share the boards with another powerhouse vocalist also known for having a flashy fashion sense. Grammy nominee Lambert has been tapped […]
Kelly Clarkson believes in love again. After dropping the new single “Where Have You Been” on Friday (May 2), the singer followed up with a high-gloss video for the song in which she rocks a colorful, glittery jumpsuit with billowing arms that looks straight out of the 1970s Cher Las Vegas collection. Explore Explore See […]
Morrissey is planning to get back on stage at Centennial Hall in Tucson, AZ on Monday night (May 5) after postponing a pair of shows on his spring U.S. tour over the weekend due to health issues. “The Morrissey tour will reconvene at Tucson Centennial Hall (Arizona) on Monday 5 May,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Sunday (May 4).
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“Following the [April 30] show at The Fox in Bakersfield, Morrissey contracted a severe sinusitis attack and was treated at Coronado Hospital in San Diego,” the statement continued. “Missed shows at Rancho Mirage [May 3] and San Diego [May 1] are not cancelled and now have new dates. Morrissey, the band and crew, are very appreciative of those who convey understanding at difficult moments during tours.”
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The show at the San Diego Civic Theatre originally scheduled for May 1 has been pushed back until Jan., 6, 2026, while the May 3 show that was scheduled to hit the Agua Caliente Resort in Rancho Mirage, CA is now slated for Oct. 24. Morrissey, 65, released his most recent solo album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, in 2020. In November, the singer singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been shelved so far because of his various controversial statements. “As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”
In 2019, Morrissey supported the far-right Britain First political party and while his Bonfire of Teenagers LP was scheduled for release in February 2023, it was pulled from calendars a few months before its street date with the singer claiming its “fate is exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles.)”
After winding down his U.S. swing with shows in Atlanta and St. Petersburg and Hollywood, FL later this month the former Smiths singer will hit the U.K. and Ireland for his first shows there since 2023, with planned shows in Dublin (May 31), Glasgow (June 4-5) and Manchester (June 7); he will then embark on a summer run of European shows.
Miley Cyrus debuted another new song from her upcoming visual album Something Beautiful (May 30) during a show for an intimate audience at Casa Cipriani in New York on Saturday night (May 3). “Oh I stay when the ecstasy is far away/ And I pray that it’s comin’ ’round again,” Cyrus croons in a video […]
With just two months to go until Black Sabbath perform their final-ever live show, founding bassist Geezer Butler has admitted to some intense anxieties ahead of the gig.
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The band’s final performance will take place as part of the Back to the Beginning concert, which takes place in Birmingham, England on July 5. The event will see the band’s classic line-up – comprising frontman Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Butler and drummer Bill Ward – play live together for the first time in two decades, while the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Alice in Chains, and myriad others also join the bill.
While Osbourne hasn’t performed a full set since Dec. 31, 2018 – two months before his diagnosis of Parkinson’s – he’s previously tempered expectations for the upcoming gig, noting he isn’t “planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath,” but rather “little bits and pieces” with the group. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable,” he explained.
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Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the July event, Butler admitted that while he’s unsure of how the performance will roll out, or how Osbourne’s health may affect the show, the lofty expectations behind such a gig have left him feeling immensely anxious.
“I’m already having palpitations,” he noted. “In fact, I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed everything went wrong on stage and we all turned to dust. It’s important that we leave a great impression, since it’s the final time that people will experience us live. So it has to be great on the night.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Osbourne again pointed out that Black Sabbath aren’t planning on performing a full-length set. “We’re only playing a couple of songs each,” he explained. “I don’t want people thinking, ‘We’re getting ripped off’, because it’s just going to be … what’s the word? … a sample, you’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath.”
Though Osbourne also noted he has been undergoing extensive training as part of his preparation for the show, the end result will undoubtedly be far different to what fans may have hoped for, but as much as he can handle given his health circumstances.
“I’m used to doing two hours on stage, jumping and running around,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be doing much jumping or running around this time. I may be sitting down, but the point is I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.”
Close to three years on from the release of BLACKPINK‘s latest album, LISA has confirmed that new music from the group is in the works.
LISA shared the news with Variety on Saturday (May 3) while promoting the release of her new Bose earbuds collaboration. “Actually, we were in the studio a few days ago,” she explained. “We’re all so super excited to get back together and go on tour. We really miss the blinks. We can’t wait to see them.”
New material from BLACKPINK would be the first released by the South Korean quartet since 2023 single “The Girls,” which in turn followed on from their second album, 2022’s Born Pink. The record became the group’s first to top the Billboard 200, and was also accompanied by a global tour which became the highest-grossing for a female group.
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In the time since, all members of BLACKPINK have embarked on solo careers and released albums in recent months, beginning with Rosé, whose Rosie album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. While Jisoo released her Amortage EP in February, LISA’s Alter Ago and Jennie‘s Ruby were released in consecutive weeks across February and March, with both peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.
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Most recently, LISA also appeared as a featured artist on Maroon 5’s new single, “Priceless.” The single marks Maroon 5’s first collaboration with a K-pop artist and features a guitar-driven sound that nods to the band’s early 2000s roots, complemented by LISA’s confident rap verse. The accompanying music video, shot on 35mm film and directed by Aerin Moreno, takes visual inspiration from the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
BLACKPINK last performed live in September 2023, but are currently readying their live return, which launches in South Korea in July before visiting North America, Europe, and the U.K. in the following weeks, with three dates in Japan scheduled for January 2026.
When asked by Variety about the potential release date for new BLACKPINK music, LISA neither confirmed nor denied it would arrive in time to coincide with their live return. “You have to be patient about it,” she urged. “It’s coming soon, I promise. It’s about time.”
Julien Baker and TORRES have announced the cancellation of their spring tour dates, citing a need for Baker to focus on her health.
News of the tour’s cancellation was shared on Sunday (May 4) via social media, just hours before the pair’s scheduled performance at Stable Hall in San Antonio, TX.
“Due to recent events, Julien Baker is prioritizing her well-being and taking time to focus on her health,” the post read. “Therefore, the Julien Baker & TORRES ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ Tour has been canceled. This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the disappointment this may cause for fans. We deeply appreciate your understanding.”
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“Thank you for your continued support and compassion,” the post concluded.
First announced in early February, the pair hit the road in March with a series of shows throughout the U.S. and U.K., with their spring tour officially launching on April 23 in Richmond, VA.
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A pair of appearances at Ohio University and Tennessee’s Big Ears Festival were also cancelled, with a social media post explaining that “one of our key members sustained a concussion and will need to take the next few weeks to recover.” An additional performance at Iowa’s Mission Creek Festival was also cancelled due to an “unforeseen medical situation.”
No further specifics relating to these incidents were announced at the time, and currently, the pair’s website lists an appearance at Massachusetts’ Green River Festival on June 20 as their next scheduled performance.
Baker and TORRES released their Send a Prayer My Way album on April 18, debuting at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 3), and also reached the top 10 on both the Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales rankings.
According to the pair, their collaborative project has been years in the making, with its roots tracing back to 2016 when Baker and TORRES first played a show together. That night, the idea of making a country album was casually thrown out, with the notion coming to fruition almost a full decade later.
Baker has previously found success as a member of boygenius alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. The trio’s debut full-length album, the record, landed at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in 2023, while Baker’s solo album Little Oblivions peaked at No. 39. TORRES, known for her sharp, introspective songwriting, has built a loyal following with critically acclaimed releases like Thirstier and Three Futures.
Ghost grabs the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, as the Swedish hard rock band’s new studio effort Skeletá debuts atop the tally (dated May 10) with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending May 1, according to Luminate. Of the album’s starting sum, 89% was driven by traditional album sales — buoyed by a big vinyl sales figure.
Skeletá launches with Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales.
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Skeletá marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the Billboard 200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album, Infestissumam, which also marked the act’s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28. Skeletá scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, and fifth to reach the top 10. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with its last full-length studio album, 2022’s Impera.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 10, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 6. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Skeletá’s 86,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 77,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, three CD variants and four cassette variants (all containing the same tracklist, but in collectible packaging).
With Skeletá scoring 9,000 in SEA units (12.45 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs), the group logs its biggest streaming week ever for an album. It surpasses the opening-week of Impera (7,000 SEA; 9.11 million streams for its songs).
The new album was led by the radio-promoted single “Satanized,” which became the act’s 10th top 10-charting hit on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in April. It’s one of a trio of hits that the album yielded on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart prior to the album’s release. “Satanized” hit No. 3 (March 22 chart), followed by “Lachryma” (No. 3, April 26) and “Peacefield” (No. 13, May 3). (Skeletá is also the first full-length project from the band since the act garnered its first hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, when its viral hit “Mary on a Cross” reached No. 90 on the tally in 2022.)
With the No. 1 arrival on the Billboard 200, Skeletá lands a number of milestone achievements for Ghost. Here’s a recap:
Skeletá yields Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales. The act’s previous high in both metrics came in the debut week of Impera (March 26, 2022), which earned 70,000 units (of which nearly 63,000 were album sales). As noted earlier, Skeletá also garners the largest streaming week for a Ghost album.
Ghost lands the biggest week of 2025, by either equivalent album units or traditional album sales, for any rock, hard rock or alternative album.
Of Skeletá’s first-week album sales, vinyl purchases comprised just over 44,000 copies. That’s not just the largest sales week on vinyl for Ghost, but the biggest week for a hard rock album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). It’s also the third-largest sales week on vinyl in the modern era for any rock album, trailing only the opening weeks of blink-182’s One More Time… (49,000; 2023) and boygenius’ The Record (45,000; 2023).
Skeletá is the first hard rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in over four years, and the only rock, hard rock or alternative album to be No. 1 in 2025. The last hard rock album at No. 1 was AC/DC’s Power Up, which premiered at No. 1 on the Nov. 28, 2020, chart and spent one week at No. 1. The last rock, or alternative, album to lead the tally was Coldplay’s Moon Music, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Oct. 19, 2024, chart (spending one week at No. 1).
Rock, alternative and hard rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts, respectively.
Not only is Skeletá the group’s first No. 1, but it’s the first chart-topper for its label Loma Vista Recordings and the first leader for Concord Label Group in nearly a decade — since James Taylor’s Before This World (on Concord Records) debuted at No. 1 on the July 4, 2015-dated chart. Loma Vista had previously gone as high as No. 2 with Ghost’s last full-length studio album, Impera, in 2022.
Skeletá is the lone debut in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart. The titles at Nos. 2-7 are all former No. 1s. SZA’s SOS slips to No. 2 (52,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%), Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls 2-3 (48,000; down 5%), Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is down 3-4 (46,000; down 4%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet descends 4-5 (44,000; down 8%), PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U falls 5-6 (43,000; down 6%) and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is down 6-7 (38,000; down 3%).
Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going gallops 45-8 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (up 110%) after a deluxe reissue on April 25 that added six additional songs, bringing its total song count to 18. The set debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the June 15, 2024-dated list. (He also played the Stagecoach Festival on April 26.)
Playboi Carti’s chart-topping MUSIC (7-9; 34,000 equivalent album units, down 11%) and Morgan Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album (9-10; 33,000, down 3%) round out the Billboard 200’s top 10.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Maroon 5 and LISA‘s “Priceless” tops this week’s new music poll.
In a poll published Friday (May 2) by Billboard, music fans chose the collaborative song from the Adam Levine-fronted band and BLACKPINK star as their favorite new release of the week.
“Priceless” brought in nearly 58% of the vote, beating out new releases from artists like KATSEYE (“Gnarly”), TOMORROW X TOGETHER (“Love Language”), Ed Sheeran (“Old Phone”), Key Glock (Glockaveli), and more.
Released after days of teasing from both Maroon 5 and LISA, the funk-infused pop track sets the stage for the band’s upcoming eighth studio album, while also serving as a bold punctuation mark on the BLACKPINK member’s debut solo project, Alter Ego.
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“Priceless” marks Maroon 5’s first collaboration with a K-pop artist and features a guitar-driven sound that nods to the band’s early 2000s roots, complemented by LISA’s confident rap verse. The accompanying music video, shot on 35mm film and directed by Aerin Moreno, takes visual inspiration from the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
“It’s just a guitar-based song, which we haven’t really done in so long,” Levine said in a statement. “It happened first for us while recording the album. I think it’s the purest, and we’re so happy to have LISA on it.”
He added, “The guitar intro is literally me playing into an audio message on my iPhone with an unplugged guitar. I actually got a little emotional recording it because it felt like reconnecting with our roots — which a lot of our fans have been asking for. It’s been over 20 years, so I think it’s time for that sound to return.”
“Priceless” follows Maroon 5’s 2021 album, Jordi, which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. For LISA, the track builds on her expanding portfolio of international collaborations as a solo artist, following the success of her 2021 debut single “LALISA,” and her continued work with BLACKPINK.
This week’s poll runner-up was KATSEYE’s experimental pop anthem ‘Gnarly,’ which earned 23% of the vote. It marks the group’s first new release since 2024’s “Touch.”
Check out the full results of this week’s poll below and visit Billboard’s Friday Music Guide for more must-hear releases.