State Champ Radio Music
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It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and Leon Thomas leads the pack.
On Friday, the singer woke up to a whopping six 2026 Grammy nominations, including album of the year, for his breakthrough sophomore album Mutt.
“Thank you God, my team, every collaborator, every producer, family, friends and most especially my fans, I couldn’t have done it without you,” he wrote in an Instagram caption for a graphic listing his nominations. “I got a show tonight and I’m gonna continue working harder on this next album.”
In addition to album of the year, Thomas — who won his first Grammy in 2023 thanks to his production contributions to SZA’s “Snooze” — also earned a nomination for best new artist. Poetically, his two general field nominations come 15 years after Victorious, the television series that established him as a Gen Z child star, premiered on Nickelodeon. Thomas earned his first Grammy nod back in 2020 in the best rap song category for his work on Rick Ross and Drake’s “Gold Roses.”
Mutt also earned a nomination for best R&B album, while several tracks were individually recognized, including “Yes It Is” (best R&B song), “Vibes Don’t Lie” (best traditional R&B performance), and the NPR Tiny Desk live version of “Mutt” (best R&B performance).
Six Grammy nominations cap a whirlwind breakthrough year for Thomas. Outside of earning his first Hot 100 top 10 hit as a performer with “Mutt” (No. 10), the multi-hyphenate also won best new artist at the BET Awards, made his late night TV debut on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and shared a new funk-forward EP titled PHOLKS. Last week, he played Austin City Limits and kicked off his headlining Mutts Don’t Heel Tour at Dallas’ House of Blues. The R&B star’s new trek will visit venues across the U.S., Europe and Australia, before concluding on April 19 at Perth’s Metro City.
In Thomas’ Billboard cover story, his manager, Jonathan Azu, remarked, “I hope he’s the guy with the Lauryn Hill photo [holding multiple trophies]. Every year, there’s somebody and I hope it’s him. He is a man of his peers, and I think over the past year he has proven to them that he’s here to stay.”
Looks like Leon Thomas is one step closer to re-creating that iconic photograph. Check out the “Mutt” singer’s reaction to his 2026 Grammy nominations below.
Do you get deja vu? Donald Trump‘s administration has once again been slammed by an artist for using their music without permission, this time receiving a comment from an unhappy Olivia Rodrigo after the White House and Department of Homeland Security shared a video set to one of her songs.
The controversial clip in question was shared in a joint Instagram post on Tuesday. Soundtracked by “All-American Bitch,” the opening track on the pop star’s Billboard 200-topping sophomore album, Guts, the video shows United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers forcibly tackling, detaining and deporting people.
It then cuts to a montage of supposed immigrants voluntarily boarding flights organized by the DHS, smiling and giving thumbs up as they go. “LEAVE NOW and self-deport using the CBP Home app,” the caption reads. “If you don’t, you will face the consequences.”
In the comments, Rodrigo wrote, “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”
Billboard has reached out to the White House and ICE for comment.
It’s unclear why the government would want to use a song by the three-time Grammy winner. Not only has Rodrigo been vocal in her opposition to Trump, endorsing his opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, but she’s also specifically called out his harsh crackdown on immigration by way of ICE raids this past year.
“I’ve lived in LA my whole life and I’m deeply upset about these violent deportations of my neighbors under the current administration,” she wrote on her Instagram Story in June. “LA simply wouldn’t exist without immigrants. Treating hardworking community members with such little respect, empathy, and due process is awful. I stand with the beautiful, diverse community of Los Angeles and with immigrants all across America. I stand for our right to freedom of speech and freedom to protest.”
That said, Trump’s administration is famous for using music without artist permission at this point. In the past few weeks alone, Kenny Loggins slammed the twice-impeached POTUS for pairing “Danger Zone” with an AI-generated video of himself dumping feces on “No Kings” protestors, and Swifties called out the White House for making a TikTok set to Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia.” (The pop star herself didn’t comment on the issue, but given her long history of clashing with Trump, it’s probably safe to say she didn’t give him the green light.)
Trending on Billboard Big Sean has responded to rumors that he split with Jhené Aiko for another woman seen in a recent video. Sean Don hopped on X to respond to a fan’s inquiry, who asked: “You broke up with the queen over a powdered donut, my n—a?” The question was in response to a […]
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The Grammys have a country problem.
This is not new news, of course, but in another banner year for country music it was reinforced when the nominations for the 68th annual Grammy Awards were announced on Friday morning (Nov. 7).
Nowhere is the omission more obvious than in the best new artist category. To be sure, it was an extremely competitive race across several genres — but in a year when nascent country acts like Megan Moroney, Ella Langley and Zach Top were legitimate contenders with commercially and critically acclaimed breakthroughs, their names were nowhere to be found. No country artists made the cut.
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Looking further in the six general field categories, which, in addition to best new artist, include record, album, song, producer (non-classical) and songwriter ((non-classical) of the year only two country creators made the cut and both for songwriter of the year: Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote songs for artists including Moroney, Jelly Roll, Russell Dickerson and Morgan Wallen that were released during the eligibility period and Laura Veltz, who had songs cut by BigXthaPlug, Jessie Murph, Josh Ross and Maren Morris, among others. (It must be noted that country’s biggest artist, Wallen, took himself out of contention this year and did not enter, but given his past lack of nominations other than for his duet with Post Malone, the voters would likely have continued to ignore him).
This has been an ongoing issue. For the last 10 years, including today’s nominations, only five country projects have received album of the year nominations among 74 contenders (and that’s generously including efforts by Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile, and artists who have temporarily dipped into the genre, like Beyoncé). There have only been two winners: Kacey Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018 and Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter earlier this year.
In song of the year, over the last 10 years the only country nominations have gone to the writers of Tanya Tucker’s “Bring My Flowers Now” and Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
For record of the year, the outlook is even similarly bleaker: the only country nominations have gone to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Despite today’s goose egg, as country music has boomed over the last several years, country artists have fared best in the new artist category with eight artists receiving nominations over the last decade. However, there has been no country winner in 15 years since Zac Brown Band in 2010. And we know there won’t be one at the 2026 ceremony.
To state the obvious, the fans who have propelled country’s popularity aren’t voters. Grammy voting is a numbers game and until there are enough voters among country creators, it’s hard to see things changing. It’s clear among the winners and nominees that many of them, such as Beyoncé and Shaboozey, had projects with crossover appeal, which likely garnered them votes from beyond the country community.
That brings up a broader point, unlike other genres, such as rap and alternative, country often still remains its own island and doesn’t always cross over with other genres. That is changing, with artists like BigXthaPlug and Tate McRae collaborating with country artists and bringing new fans in, but there still seems to be a bigger divide: country listeners (including voters) likely listen to other genres of music, while fans of other genres don’t necessarily listen to country.
The Recording Academy is well aware of the country lag, and even added a new country category this year, Best Traditional Country Album, which was the only new music category added for the 68th annual Grammy Awards.
“The community of people that are making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said we would like to have more variety in how our music is honored,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. told Billboard in June when the category was announced “They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.”
That’s a great move and puts the country categories in line with a number of the other genres that have both contemporary and traditional categories, but until the number of country creators who vote rises, there is very likely to be no change in the general field because the numbers just aren’t there to cross a country artist or project over the mainstream finish line.
The Recording Academy has been on a massive drive over the last several years to diversify its ranks especially among women, younger voters and people of color, adding 2,900 new voting members this year alone. Total voting membership is now approaching 15,000, with 73% joining since the Academy introduced a new membership model in 2019. Tellingly, only 1% of this year’s new voting members identified as being most aligned with the country genre.
Trending on Billboard Quavo, Yeat, and producer BNYX have dropped off their new track “New Trip,” along with an accompanying music video that finds the trio partying it up in Las Vegas. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Over a glitchy beat, Quavo and Yeat trade bars about their fast-paced lifestyle while the video […]
Trending on Billboard This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features new music, including fresh picks by Zhamira, Pablo Alborán, Rosalía and Santa Fe Klan, to name a few. Zhamira released her debut album, Curita Para el Corazón, an LP that doubles down on matters of the heart, ranging from heartbreak […]
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New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.
Pablo Alborán, KM0 (Warner Music Spain)
Pablo Alborán’s personal and heartfelt seventh album, KM0, is a set of 14 songs and four bonus tracks in which he explores a variety of rhythms and styles. Born from the pain and uncertainty of a loved one’s illness, as the artist recounted in a recent interview with Billboard, the album showcases a more mature and determined musician with renewed artistic freedom. Here, Alborán takes on the songwriting of all the songs and, for the first time, produces and arranges most of them, experimenting with rhythms like country/folk (“Vámonos de Aquí,” with Indiara Sfair), salsa music (“La Vida Que Nos Espera”) and merengue (“Si Te Quedas”).
The album opens with “Clickbait,” a pop track that critiques the superficiality and fake news of social media, addressing the obsession with fame and “likes.” And continues with the emotional title track, “KM0,” in which he sings about facing a new start after going through a very difficult period in his life. It also features collaborations with Luan Santana (“Qué Tal Te Va”), Ana Belén (“Inciso”), Vicente Amigo (“Planta 7,” named after the hospital floor where his relative was located), and Japanese artist Lilas Ikuta (“Perfectos imperfectos”). In true Alborán style, it is a sublime and thoroughly enjoyable work, full of heart and musicality. – SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Santa Fe Klan, “No Seré Quien Canta” (473 Music)
There’s a serenity to Santa Fe Klan’s new single, which captures the Mexican rapper at his most raw and vulnerable state. “No Seré Quien Canta” is a welcome departure — both sonically and lyrically — from his hard-hitting rap songs that have catapulted him to fame over the past decade. Powered by soft guitar notes, the soul-baring cumbia finds Santa in a state of healing, reflecting on love that once was and the peace that comes from letting go. “I was broken into pieces, my steps were unsteady,” he sings with pathos. “And when you hear a loud voice, you’ll think it’s your lucky day, but I won’t be the one singing, I won’t be the one making you vibrate.” — GRISELDA FLORES
Zhamira, Curita Para El Corazón (Dynamic Records/EMPIRE)
Almost 10 years after gaining momentum on Univision’s reality talent show, La Banda 2, Zhamira unleashes her highly-awaited debut studio album Curita Para El Corazón. If its title is any indication, which translates to “bandaid for the heart,” the 14-track set explores love and heartbreak, offering personal and vulnerable songs that can heal the deepest wounds. The Venezuelan singer-songwriter delivers a full-blown pop album sprinkled with heart-wrenching ballads and some tropical tunes.
For example, the bachata-infused “Mil Preguntas” is about a girl questioning her boyfriend’s intentions. The country-tinged “Otra Vez,” alongside her artist husband Jay Wheeler, is about making broken promises, and “No Me Quiero Ir” is a soft-paced merengue. In Curita Para El Corazón, Zhamira collaborates with Greeicy (“como fué?”), Noreh (“me hubiese gustado”) and KENNY (“desvelo”). The set is also home to a salsa version of the Jay Wheeler-assisted “extrañándote” that earned Zhamira her first Top 10 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart when it peaked at No. 4 in February 2024. — JESSICA ROIZ
Edén Muñoz & Bacilos, “Chimba” (Sony Music México)
Edén Muñoz is fulfilling one of his biggest dreams: releasing a collaboration with Bacilos, a band that strongly influenced him during his teenage years and whose songs are part of his set list at shows. With the release of “Chimba,” a song written and saved for many years by Muñoz, Mexico and Colombia come together once again in music and joy. What begins with soft guitars continues with a very danceable rhythm set by trumpets and timbales. The tuba also plays a part, adding that Sinaloan touch, while the accordion gives it a vallenato flavor. The lyrics couldn’t be more catchy: “And she gave me a little kiss, invited me to her apartment, we had a great time, really awesome, and I was left thinking, how lucky I am,” referring to a serendipitous encounter between two people who want to heal their broken hearts. — TERE AGUILERA
Estevie, La Traición y El Contrabando (Warner Music Latina)
Beneath her signature cowboy hat, Estevie is carrying the emotional depth and firepower of música mexicana’s brightest newcomers — but with a style that’s entirely hers. With her latest EP, La Traición y El Contrabando, the Beaumont-born vaquera doesn’t ease you in at first play. Instead, she spins haunting falsettos over accordion-laced melodies in the ghostly opener “La Eternidad.” And then there’s “Esa Fui Yo,” a tender-yet-defiant declaration of love and heartbreak, as she sings, “Y cuando te caiste quien te recogió, esa fui yo” over a rich cumbia groove, steeped in nostalgia and illuminated by the shimmer of a 12-string guitar. By the time you reach the flashy “Diamantes en mi Boca” or the melancholic closer “Contrabando,” her emotional range and high-pitched vocals leave you captivated. Estevie’s voice resonates throughout that lush blend of cumbia-pop, and leaves an impression that lingers long after the music fades. — ISABELA RAYGOZA
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Pierce the Veil leads Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for a second time, lifting a spot to No. 1 on the Nov. 15-dated survey with “So Far So Fake.”
The veteran rockers from San Diego previously led with “Emergency Contact” for a week in August 2023.
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“Emergency Contact” and “So Far So Fake” are both on the same album, 2023’s The Jaws of Life. So why the two-plus-year gap between Alternative Airplay reigns? While not initially a promoted single, “So Far So Fake” was serviced to radio this summer after it went viral on shortform video platforms such as TikTok, spurred by a dance challenge set mostly to its instrumental break.
Boosted by that buzz, “So Far So Fake” debuted on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in August, eventually rising to No. 8 later that month. It also became the band’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry, reaching No. 64.
In between “Emergency Contact” and “So Far So Fake,” Pierce the Veil made Alternative Airplay once via its No. 27-peaking cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” in June 2024. The band’s only other charter, “Circles,” hit No. 31 in 2016.
On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “So Far So Fake” jumps 6-4 with 3.7 million audience impressions in the week ending Nov. 6, up 14%, according to Luminate. It’s Pierce the Veil’s highest-charted song on the tally, having surpassed “Emergency Contact” (No. 10).
“So Far So Fake” ranked at No. 16 on the most recently published Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally (dated Nov. 8, reflecting data accumulated Oct. 24-30). In addition to its radio airplay, it drew 3.1 million official U.S. streams.
The Jaws of Life debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in February 2023 and has earned 371,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 15 will update Tuesday, Nov. 11, on Billboard.com.
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The easy thing for Rosalía would have been to follow up 2022’s successful Motomami, which placed her on the brink of superstardom, with a quick album that walked that same path: Songs that treaded the line between her flamenco Spanish roots and Latin and reggaetón influences. It was a formula that yielded hits like “Despechá,” Rosalía’s take on merengue, and “La Fama,” her take on bachata alongside The Weeknd. The set provided an unlikely segue from her stunning but niche-appealing El Mal Querer, to a broad audience who embraced Rosalía and her sound with cult-like passion.
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It stands to reason, then, that something along those lines would follow in quick succession.
Instead, fans waited for two and a half years for LUX, an album that not only breaks parameters for Rosalía, but for the musical landscape as a whole. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, it’s an ambitious, complex, sprawling orchestral and operatic ouvre of 18 tracks, performed in 13 different languages, where Rosalía pushes her vocal prowess into untested waters. This isn’t your tried-and-done collection of pop songs set to symphonic arrangements, but rather a new take on pop (or is it classical?) that tests the limits of what genre is and where it falls in the spectrum of musical production and consumption especially in an era of fast-food music that’s quantified and discarded with grim abandon.
“Sexo, violencia y llantas” (Sex, Violence and Tires), the provocatively titled opener to Lux, starts with a piano intro that evokes a classical piano étude — a cross between Bach and Chopin — then gives way to Rosalía’s vocals set to a sustained acoustic bass line that final crashes in choruses and full string orchestra. The track ebbs and flows in rhythm, pacing and BPM’s, full of rubattos and crescendos, sounding every bit like a classical music composition, except it quite isn’t. The opening line – “Quién pudiera vivir entre los dos, primero amaré el mundo y luego amaré a Dios” (How nice it’d be to live between them both, first I’ll love the world, then I’ll love God) — establishes the foundation of an album and an artist tied to the terrestrial but aspiring to the spiritual and sublime, and actually reaching them more than once.
Lux keeps you on your toes. Divided into four movements, yet another nod to its classical ground, it nevertheless doesn’t adhere to the tradition of a single tempo or mood per movement, but instead veers from arrangements and styles in dizzying manner. Listen carefully, though, and you’ll find the “intentional structure” Rosalía sought to create throughout the album. “I was clear that I wanted four movements,” she told Billboard in her cover story. “I wanted one where it would be more a departure from purity. The second movement, I wanted it to feel more like being in gravity, being friends with the world. The third would be more about grace and hopefully being friends with God. And at the end, the farewell, the return.”
Does Lux follow the rules of classical composition? It doesn’t mean to, and sometimes, it runs all over the place (we can only imagine the Grammys and Latin Grammys discussing what category to place the album and tracks into). “Porcelana,” for example, sounds like four different segments glued together without much rhyme or reason. But Rosalía’s voice is irresistible, capable of going through pianissimos to forte with ease and support. Only a trained voice could deliver this tour de force, and you keep listening, rivetted, until the very end, moving from “Porcelana,” with its traces of reggaetón, urban and flamenco, to “Mio Cristo Piange Diamante,” a bona fide aria performed in Italian.
There are decided commercial nuggets here. “La Perla,” performed with Mexican trio Yahrtiza y su Esencia (with Yahritza’s soprano voice beautifully rising to the task of singing with Rosalía), is a deliciously naughty dis track aimed at a former lover and arranged as a waltz, both quaint and incisive. And “Dios Es Un Stalker” is as catchy and rousing as a mid tempo pop hit can be.
But this is an album that defies convention, arrangement and structure. Challenging but exquisite, we hope it forces others to delve deeper into their art, and make us wait just a little bit more if it means making us listen again and again — not because we’re immediately hooked, but because we want to discover more.
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The 2026 edition of MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (MAJ), one of the country’s premier international music honors, is set for June 13 next year.
The Grand Ceremony, including the red carpet and presentation of the major categories, will be held that evening at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, while the Premiere Ceremony, which covers additional categories, will take place earlier that day at TOKYO DREAM PARK. The MAJ week, running from June 8 to 13, will also include artist performances alongside seminars and showcases featuring music industry professionals from Japan and abroad.
At a press conference held in Tokyo on Wednesday (Nov. 5), organizers revealed mid-year standings based on data from January through August 2025, covering the current entry pool of eligible works and artists. Nominees for Artist of the Year include some of the year’s most prominent acts: timelesz, HANA, Gen Hoshino, Mrs. GREEN APPLE, and Kenshi Yonezu, among others. For New Artist of the Year, the list includes CANDY TUNE, CENT, TENBLANK, HANA, Brandy Senki, MON7A, and ONE OR EIGHT.
The Song of the Year field features many of the year’s defining releases, such as AiNA THE END’s “On the Way,” Sakanaction’s “Kaiju,” JENNIE’s “like JENNIE,” Snow Man’s “CHARISMAX,” and multiple tracks from HANA (“Burning Flower,” “Blue Jeans,” “ROSE”), BE:FIRST’s “Muchu,” and Mrs. GREEN APPLE (“KUSUSHIKI,” “Darling,” “Heaven”), as well as Kenshi Yonezu (“BOW AND ARROW,” “Plazma”).
Meanwhile, Album of the Year contenders include acclaimed works such as Southern All Stars’ THANK YOU SO MUCH, Snow Man’s THE BEST 2020 – 2025, Fujii Kaze’s Prema, BABYMETAL’s METAL FORTH, and Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s 10.
Eligible works include songs and albums whose full official versions were first released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025, either on public digital services or in physical form (with some category exceptions). Winners are determined through voting by members of the music community.
The award categories have been restructured since the inaugural MAJ with 14 new categories added. To reflect the diversity of Japan’s music landscape, new Dance & Vocal categories (Group/Solo) and separate Boys Idol Culture and Girls Idol Culture Song awards (Group/Solo) have been introduced. In response to the rise of long-running hits and renewed attention on catalog music, a Back Catalog category has also been created to honor works that continue to be embraced over time. In addition, with vinyl experiencing a resurgence, an Analog Record category has been established. The Largest Live Audience (International) award and Best Music Video Director award have also been newly added.
Founded under the theme of “Connecting the world, illuminating the future of music,” MAJ was established by five major organizations in Japan’s music industry. At the inaugural event held in May, music professionals voted — with some category exceptions — to determine winners across 62 categories (including six major awards) from a pool of approximately 3,000 entries.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE took Artist of the Year, Creepy Nuts won Song of the Year with “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” tuki. earned New Artist of the Year, Fujii Kaze won Album of the Year with LOVE ALL SERVE ALL, YOASOBI took Top Global Hit From Japan with “Idol” and aespa won Best Song Asia with “Supernova.” The ceremony at ROHM Theatre Kyoto was streamed worldwide on YouTube.
Ceremony Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026
MAJ Week: June 8 (Monday) – June 13 (Saturday), 2026
Venue: TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, Tokyo
