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“Nice guys finish last.”
Baseball manager Leo Durocher first said a version of that now-legendary phrase in 1946, and nearly 80 years later, bending, breaking and ignoring the rules is commonplace in public life.
Deceit is so mainstream that a number of merchandisers have developed “Make Lying Wrong Again” ballcaps and T-shirts.
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But Drew Baldridge counters the idea that nice guys are losers. He went all the way to No. 3 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in 2024 with “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined),” a song with a protective veneer that he released on his own Patoka Sounds label. Follow-up “Tough People,” an affirmation of regular Joe resilience, peaked at No. 13 in June 2025.
His latest single — “Rebel,” which Stoney Creek released to country radio via PlayMPE on Oct. 30 — takes on the good-guy stereotype, imbuing it with notable power.
“Sometimes in our society, the wrong things get glorified,” Baldridge notes. “It’s hard sometimes when you’re trying to stand up for good things and you see [the] wrong things get glorified.”
Around March 2024, he reached out to one of his “Tough People” co-writers — fellow artist Adam Sanders, currently a competitor on the CBS series The Road — with a request to help him write a song that would flip the narrative on decency, casting someone who does the right thing as an against-the-grain character.
Sanders was in. They met at Sony Music Publishing on Music Row and worked first at developing a setup line, which proved challenging. They finally found an appropriate rhyme for the title: “If the whole wide world wants to dance with the devil/I guess you could call me a rebel.”
Knowing where they were headed, they dug in on the opening verse, both of them writing on acoustic guitars and logging the lyrics on their phones. Sanders tuned his guitar a full step down to meet the mood.
“It gives it more of a bottom end, a droning kind of feel,” Sanders suggests.
The first verse seems to almost mimic the TV show Cops to build its bad-guy images: a mug shot, a DUI and “cussin’ out a cop.” Baldridge and Sanders were conscientious about avoiding politics, though 20 months after they wrote “Rebel,” that last item may sound like a loaded phrase to listeners who hear the “cop” reference without paying close attention to the rest of the verse. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has angered many Americans by wearing masks while on duty, attacking peaceful protesters and arresting mostly people with no criminal record. Many would consider cussing those law enforcement officers an act of rebellious patriotism.
“I could be wrong, but I feel like ICE is very different than a cop protecting his city,” Baldridge says. “In my head, I don’t view them as the same people.”
They made the chorus anthemic, pledging to “stand my ground” and protect the family name. They also inserted the word “integrity” — uncommon for a country song — at the end of a line, giving it a figurative spotlight.
“It is not an easy word to put in a song,” Baldridge notes. “It’s hard to sing and hard to rhyme with. I remember being in there with Adam, and I was like, ‘Look, we have to say this word like it is.’ Standing up for integrity right now is such a big thing.”
Once they had a verse and chorus, they decided to stop.
“We could have easily, probably, in that first writing session, finished the song, but would it have been the best the song it could be?” Sanders asks rhetorically. “We both agreed that we wanted to live with where we got the song to and come back with fresh brains.”
When they reconvened, verse two emphasized family loyalty and setting an example for the next generation. They also fashioned a bridge by repeating a key line from the opening stanza: “When did wrong become right/And right become wrong become so cool?”
“I felt like those two lines were the most important,” Baldridge says. “When I wrote in my notes, I had ‘Rebel’ at the top, and I had ‘right is wrong and wrong is right’ underneath it. And so I wanted to iterate that again.”
Sanders enlisted steel guitarist Andy Ellison to produce a demo, and Baldridge’s team got excited about “Rebel” once they heard it. His usual producer, Nick Schwarz, took the first crack at it and cut a version that hit hard. Stoney Creek thought it could use a lighter touch and brought in Zach Crowell (Sam Hunt, Dustin Lynch), who rerecorded it at Nashville’s Saxman Studios with programmed claps and Nathan Keeterle’s subtle banjo.
“Lyrically, it’s an intense song,” Crowell says. “It can be heavy. It can really make you think about your life, so any little commercial, acoustic, clappy thing we can put in there, it’s like, ‘Let’s do that.’ ”
“Rebel” was so intense that Baldridge needed rest after about five takes while cutting his part.
“We definitely made a conscious choice of how intense his vocal is, like ‘How gravelly is his vocal? How much is he screaming? How pulled-back is he?’ ” Crowell recalls. “I remember when he was singing a time or two, he’s like, ‘Hey, should I be singing harder? Or not as hard?’ We were like, ‘Hey, calm down just a little bit.’ ”
The label wanted some changes, but Crowell moved to a new home shortly after turning in “Rebel,” and his studio would not be ready for a month. He suggested they have Schwarz finish the production. Crowell’s version peaked in intensity at the bridge and then dropped in volume by the end; Schwarz beefed up the back end, keeping the energy at peak volume to the very finish. He played several parts himself and hired guitarists Justin Ostrader and Mike Payne for overdubs. Schwarz also resurrected the drums and a slide solo from the middle of the original production and repurposed them in the final minute of the new version.
“It’s the same tempo, same key,” Schwarz says. “May as well use it.” In the end, the story and the conviction in the performance suited Baldridge well. “It’s perfect for Drew because Drew is a tough guy, but he’s also a very reliable and loyal, dependable guy,” Schwarz says. “The rebel that he’s talking about is Drew.”
“Rebel” seemed destined to become a single, almost from the minute they turned it in. “I’ve had people from both sides of the aisle tell me we need this,” Baldridge says. “I don’t have anybody coming up and saying, ‘This is political.’ They’re all coming up and saying, ‘I’m glad somebody is standing up for honesty and truth and love. We all need this message.’ And that is what excites me.”
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Katy Perry has long made being a charming klutz part of her brand. The singer leans all the way into that part of her personality in the brand new preview of her upcoming single, “Bandaids.” After teasing what fans assume is her next single on Tuesday (Nov. 4) with a picture of her somber face all cut up and bruised, Perry offered up a brief video preview of the song that is due out at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday (Nov. 6).
Spoiler: things get way, way worse.
Though it does not contain any actual music, the eight-second sneak peek at what appears to be the visual for the track finds Perry perishing in all the worst ways. It opens with the 41-year-old pop star sticking her hand into a garbage disposal, which she seems shocked to learn will set off a blood geyser as her unseen fingers are chewed up, blasting the white sink with gore.
For her next trick, Perry sits on the wrong end of a giant tree branch and saws away at it until the bit she’s resting on comes crashing down, followed by KP suffering a major face plant as she trips at the top of an escalator at a mall, leading to her getting seriously electrocuted while walking through a puddle at a gas station.
And sorry Katy Kats, but it does not get better. While enjoying a coffee at the Crumb Café, Perry is blasted with shards of glass from an unseen explosion, then forced to dodge gigantic tree trunks falling off an 18-wheeler on the highway and, finally, covered in dirt, bruises, scratch and bandages, Katy is blown to bits after lighting a cigarette, resulting in a massive, fiery blast.
What does it all mean? You’ll have to wait one more day to find out.
At press time, a spokesperson for Perry had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information on whether the song is a one-off single or attached to a new album. Perry released her uptempo seventh studio album, 143, last September, which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The LP, written and produced by controversial producer Dr. Luke, as well as pop savants Max Martin and Stargate, was fronted by the single “Woman’s World — which peaked at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart — followed by the songs “Lifetimes” and “I’m His, He’s Mine” featuring Doechii.
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Ariana Grande has been open about the fact that portraying Glinda in the Wicked films has been healing for her as an artist. But in a recent interview, the pop star — who was previously managed by Scooter Braun — shared that signing with a new team of representatives has also played a big part in her falling back in love with making music.
In a New York Times profile published Wednesday (Nov. 5), Grande was candid about feeling unhappy with her music career before she was cast in Wicked a few years ago, noting that she once thought she’d never go on tour again after her exhaustive 2019 Sweetener trek. “There was something broken about my relationship to pop music that was healed recently through the time away,” she told the publication.
“I think it got away from me in a way I didn’t expect,” she continued. “There’s a thing that comes along with your dreams coming true that feels dangerous at times … Nothing prepares you for what comes with it. Until quite recently, it was really hard for me to navigate and I think it stripped a lot of joy out of this for me.”
Despite her prior reservations, the Grammy winner is now gearing up to hit the road again in 2026 for a small tour supporting 2024 Billboard 200-topper Eternal Sunshine, which she dropped after previously thinking that she’d never make an album again. She’s said before that recentering acting after primarily focusing on her pop-star duties was essential to her, but while speaking to NYT, she also hinted that the people she used to work with discouraged her from pursuing a balance between her two passions.
“By the way, I have a different team now,” she said on the subject. “Said with love, but that was a piece.”
Billboard has reached out to Braun’s rep for comment.
The interview comes more than two years after Grande parted ways with SB Projects, where she had been managed by Braun on and off since 2013. The departure came at a time when several major clients were also announcing their splits from the music mogul, including Demi Lovato and J Balvin.
In June 2024,Braun revealedthat he was retiring from music management altogether. At the time, he said that he would “continue to root” for all of the big names that had once been on his roster, which also included Justin Bieber and Tori Kelly.
This past June, Braun echoed those sentiments while guesting on The Diary of a CEO podcast. “To see Justin move forward and succeed, to see Ariana with what’s happened with Wicked in this past year … Everybody that I’ve ever had a chance to work with, to see them go on and do great things on their own, it’s awesome,” he said at the time.
Shortly after leaving SB Projects, Grande signed with Brandon Creed’s company, Good World Management. A source told Billboard at the time, “She wants the focus to be her art and [Creed] puts her artistry and vision before anything else.”
Two years later, it seems as though Grande has been able to do just that with her new team behind her.
“I’ve never felt this connected to my art or inspired, and that’s just been such a tremendous gift,” she told NYT. “It’s like, oh, I don’t actually have to take on those things that were projected onto me. I can focus on my art, and that can be a separate entity. But I had to give myself the permission to think that.”
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A$AP Rocky knows how long fans have been waiting for his new album, and joked that the project will probably never see the light of day.
In a brief chat with Maurice Kamara’s The People Gallery uploaded on Tuesday (Nov. 4), Rocky was asked, while navigating New York City’s subway system, to give a status update on his long-awaited fourth studio album.
“Don’t Be Dumb?” Rocky says. “Never dropping.”
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Kamara and Rocky then both burst out into laughter. “They gon’ kill us for that one,” the rapper added.
Rocky accepted the Fashion Icon Award that he had won at the CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday (Nov. 3). While on the red carpet for the event, the musician spoke about welcoming daughter Rocki with partner Rihanna, with whom he also shares sons RZA and Riot Rose.
“Yo, being a girl dad is amazing,” Rocky told Extra. “I mean, check me out — I’m glowing.”
It’s been seven years since Rocky dropped off his last album, Testing. Regardless of the delay in new music, 2025 has been a crazy time for the Harlem rapper. He was found not guilty in his felony shooting case involving former associate A$AP Relli in February, welcomed his new daughter in September, and starred alongside Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s latest film, Highest 2 Lowest.
In a new interview Rocky did with Perfect Magazine to talk about that film, Rocky also took a moment to talk about why he rarely drops music.
“It’s about who did it the best,” Rocky said. “Everything I do is based off building legacy. That’s why I’m not so eager to just drop, drop, drop. I don’t do things to just try and stay relevant, or keep my name in the conversation. I try to do natural things, creative, ambitious things that really satisfy me.”
Check out the vlog below:
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As Rosalía readied the release of her anticipated album Lux (out Friday, Nov. 7), the global pop star was also filming for the upcoming third season of Euphoria.
“It was very challenging to do both. I was recording the album and producing and checking mixes, everything, while I was shooting Euphoria,” shares the Billboard cover star. “I had to divide my mind between both, and it was the first time, also, that I was doing something like this — preparing a character, studying lines. These are new things for me. It’s very different from making an album and making music. So that was a real challenge.”
Plus, despite her fame, she still had to audition for a role: “Girl, of course, claro!” But once she landed the part and filming began, she says Euphoria co-star Alexa Demie had the best advice to share. “She’s been a very close friend of mine, and she’s been very supportive. The way she approaches it is so effortless, and that’s something very beautiful to see and very inspiring.”
As for who has the best music taste on staff? “Definitely me,” she says with a laugh, before offering another answer. “Zendaya. Because Zendaya recommended Motomami to the director.”
“When we were filming, I admire her so much, I didn’t want to distract her at all,” continues Rosalía. “So I wouldn’t talk to her too much. But when she would be off set, then she would explain that she knew about my music, and that made me very happy. It meant a lot, because I really like what she does. She can do it all.”
Rosalía can, too. With Euphoria on her resume, she reveals that she would love to work with Quentin Tarantino or Sofia Coppola. But until then — and until the third season of Euphoria finally airs in 2026 — fans can cling to the singer’s fourth album, Lux, and read her full Billboard cover story.
Our writers’ picks for the very best bands since rock became a permanent part of popular music.
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Katie Atkinson, Katie Bain, Eric Renner Brown, Anna Chan, Kyle Denis, Thom Duffy, Paul Grein, Joe Lynch, Melinda Newman, Isabela Raygoza, Dan Rys, Andrew Unterberger
11/5/2025
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We Are Moving the Needle, a nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender gap in the music industry, has announced the return of the Resonator Awards on Jan. 27 at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. The inaugural edition of the event was held in 2024, but the planned 2025 edition was not held due to the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
A kickoff to Grammy week, the 2026 Resonator Awards will showcase the contributions of women producers, engineers, and creators behind-the-board and will include an awards ceremony and live performances.
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Funds raised from the event will go to We Are Moving The Needle, a nonprofit founded by Grammy-winning mastering engineer Emily Lazar. The organization seeks to empower women and non-binary producers, engineers, and creators to succeed through scholarships and grants, mentorship, research, advocacy, and community events.
“When I founded We Are Moving The Needle, it was born from a simple belief: music should sound like the world we live in,” Lazar said in a statement. “Every voice, every story, every sound. The Resonator Awards honor the ones who’ve kicked that door down and challenge us all to keep it open.”
Lazar made history in 2019 as the first female mastering engineer to win a Grammy for best engineered album, non-classical for Beck’s Colors. Two years later, she made history again as the first mastering engineer to land three album of the year nominations in the same year for her contributions to HAIM’s Women in Music, Vol. III, Coldplay’s Everyday Life and Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 3. She has also received Grammy nods over the years for work with Foo Fighters, Vampire Weekend, Sia and The Bird and the Bee, as well as on Collier’s follow-up album, Djesse Vol. 4.
Lazar founded We Are Moving The Needle in 2021. The organization has awarded more than $875,000 in scholarships to creators to attend audio education programs globally and supports more than 20 chapters on college campuses. Every scholarship recipient receives tools, gear, guidance, and mentorship from their soundboard, a community of top artists, producers, engineers and industry leaders, including HAIM, Brittany Howard, Leslie Ann Jones, Brandi Carlile, Shirley Halperin, Jenna Andrews and Molly Neuman.
Jenny Eliscu hosted the inaugural Resonator Awards, which were held during Grammy Week 2024. Honorees in attendance included Alanis Morissette, Corinne Bailey Rae, Caroline Polachek, Catherine Marks, Laura Sisk, Jennifer Decilveo, Michael Goldstone and Christine Thomas. Inaugural Hall of Fame inductees included Alicia Keys and Linda Perry.
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Rosalía‘s ambitious fourth album, Lux, doesn’t officially drop until Friday (Nov. 7), but the Barcelona-born singer has already gotten the co-sign of a lifetime from an artist who knows a thing or two about musical transformations.
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On Wednesday morning (Nov. 5) Madonna posted an image of the album’s provocative cover — on which Rosalía wears a nun’s habit and hugs herself from under her white shirt — on her Instagram Story with the message, “Thank you @Rosalia. I can’t stop listening! You are a true visionary!!!
The high praise comes as Rosalía gears up to release the follow-up to 2022’s Motomami, which found her dipping into pop, reggaetón, hip-hop, electronic and other genres, landing the singer her first album to chart on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 33. Lux is yet another hard turn into an experimental zone, an orchestral, operatic epic recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra that mashes together history and spirituality across 18 tracks on which the singer Rosalía sings in 13 different languages including her native Spanish, as well as Catalan, English, Latin, Sicilian, Ukrainian, Arabic and German, among others.
She spent three years on writing the LP’s lyrics and instrumentation, which reference notable women from Saint Rosalia of Palermo to Chinese Taoist master/poet Sun Bu’er, the biblical figure of Miriam, sister of Moses, and punk godmother Patti Smith. “In general, just to be in this world is a lot; sometimes it’s overwhelming,” she says in her new Billboard cover story. “In the best-case scenario, the idea would be that whoever hears it feels light and feels hope. Because that was how it was made and where it was made from.”
Fans got their first taste of the results last month when Rosalía dropped the single “Berghain,” which features Björk and Yves Tumor and a string orchestra introduction, followed by a Carmina Burana-esque chorus and Rosalía singing in an operatic soprano in three languages. “This album has a completely different sound than any of the projects that I’ve done before. It was a challenge for me to do a more orchestral project and learn how to use an orchestra, understand all the instruments, all the possibilities, and learn and study from amazing composers in history and say, ‘OK, that’s what’s been done. What can I do that feels personal and honest for me?,’” she says about the intensive recording and writing process.
The genre-hopping project has also earned high praise from “Berghain”collaborator Björk, who tweeted out her enthusiasm last week on X, writing, “so extremely honoured to be on this song with rosalía ! it is so thrilling to watch this woman grow : congratulations to her with this incredible album switching genre kung-fu style this concept is fierce !”
Randy Madden, a singer who competed on season eight of American Idol, was arrested in Ventura County, Calif., and is facing multiple felony charges.
According to court documents viewed by Billboard, the 45-year-old musician faces six felony charges, including unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 18, as well as sending harmful matter, luring and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Public online records show that the date of violation was July 21, and he was taken into custody on Oct. 30 before being released on bail early Tuesday (Nov. 4) morning after paying a $100,000 bond. A criminal protective order has been filed for the victim, according to court records.
Madden’s next hearing for the case will take place on Nov. 13, with a second hearing set for Nov. 17.
Billboard has reached out to the Ventura County Police Department, the district attorney’s office and Madden.
The aspiring rock star tried out for Idol in 2008, back when the program still had its original lineup of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. He never made it past his first audition, earning unanimous “No” votes from the trio after performing Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Cowell was especially tough on him, calling Madden — who had started to cry — “cliche” and a “drama queen.”
Kris Allen would go on to win the season.
Before his brief time on Idol, Madden played in a band called Sexual Harassment. In August 2024, he started a GoFundMe to help cover his living expenses and medical costs after suffering severe complications from a ligament replacement surgery he’d had on his left leg in May of that year. He was still seeking donations this past June, at which time he shared that he still couldn’t walk without crutches or a cane and anticipated needing at least two more procedures to treat the issue.
American Idol is now on its 24th season, which will premiere in January next year with judges Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan.
If you or anyone you know has been sexually assaulted or abused, contact RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline for 24/7 support and resources at 800-656-HOPE or via the website.
Trending on Billboard “[American Life was] the worst-selling album of my career, but one of my favorite records ever,” Madonna told CBS’s Harry Smith on The Early Show in late 2005. “But what I’m grateful for is the ability to just keep — keep doing what I do. And … OK, people weren’t, you know, […]
