Music
Page: 93
Shakira is gearing up for a monthlong takeover on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Billboard can announce Tuesday (April 28). With three confirmed appearances, the Colombian superstar will first perform her global hit “Hips Don’t Lie” in honor of the song’s 20th anniversary on Tuesday, May 6. A sit-down interview with Fallon — during […]
Nothing More scores its third No. 1 in a row on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, ruling the May 3-dated survey with “House on Sand.”
The song, which features I Prevail’s Eric Vanlerberghe, follows two-week reigns apiece for “If It Doesn’t Hurt” and “Angel Song,” the latter featuring Disturbed’s David Draiman, both in 2024.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In all, Nothing More boasts four Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s, as “Go to War” led in 2017.
Trending on Billboard
“House on Sand” marks the third No. 1 from Nothing More’s album Carnal, which debuted at No. 9 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart last July. It’s the second time in 2025 that an act has earned a third leader or more from an album, after Falling in Reverse scored its fourth from Popular Monster in March with the Saraya-featuring “Bad Guy.”
Vanlerberghe, one of two vocalists from I Prevail, lands his first No. 1 solo; I Prevail has three: “Hurricane” (2020), “Bad Things” (2022) and the Halestorm collaboration “Can U See Me in the Dark?” (2024).
Concurrently, “House on Sand” ranks at No. 14, after reaching No. 13 the previous week, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.2 million audience impressions in the week ending April 24, according to Luminate.
“House on Sand” also places at No. 17 on the multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs tally; it hit a No. 11 best upon its debut in April 2024. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 364,000 official U.S. streams in the latest tracking week.
Carnal, Nothing More’s seventh studio album, has earned 73,000 equivalent album units to date.
Nelly shared his thoughts on President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office before stepping on stage for his Stagecoach performance. In a quick interview with Fox News Digital prior to his Stagecoach set on April 26, Nelly called himself a “glass half-full type of guy” when speaking on Trump’s first 100 days back in […]
On the heels of delivering Kush + Orange Juice 2, Wiz Khalifa is hitting the road. Wiz and Sean Paul announced the Good Vibes Only Tour on Tuesday (April 29), which will feature DaBaby as a special guest performer. The 15-date amphitheater run will go through North America this summer, kicking off on July 6 […]
Seems like Tyla is gearing up for her sophomore album by teasing a new single titled “Bliss” on Tuesday (April 29). “Take me out of my mind/ Oh-oh-oh, oh, oh-oh/ Take me out of my mind/ Oh-oh-oh, oh, oh-oh/ You take me to bliss,” she’s heard crooning in a video shared to her social media […]
So, who invented “rage” rap? Trippie Redd has an idea.
“The inventors of the rage sound is me, [XXXtentacion], Carti and Uzi,” he said in an Instagram Stories video posted April 27. “We paved the way. We popularized it. I’m not gonna let you old a– n—s say you invented something that you ain’t invent. N—s need to take they pills, man. You n—s be psychotic, like, out of they f—king mind. Your old a– ain’t invent sh—t.”
“That’s exactly why I ain’t pull up on his old a– ‘cause he always just wanna put a n—a beneath him and s—t. You ain’t really for black people. You ain’t really for your people, n—a. You be using n—as and you lost right now.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Trippie then added a message for younger artists to be careful who they chose to collaborate with.
Trending on Billboard
“Artists coming up — keep a hold of y’all craft, man,” the Ohio rapper warned. “Don’t give y’all s—t out to these old n—as ’cause they just wanna get around you, find out your sound, use you, and then dump you, n—a. They won’t f—k with you ever again. All these n—as cutthroat.”
And while he didn’t mention any names, Trippie may be referring to Ye’s April 26 comments during an interview with Sneako, claiming that he invented the style with his 2013 album Yeezus, and more specifically with the song “Blood on the Leaves.”
“I invented ‘rage,’ bro. ‘Blood on the Leaves,’ Ye claimed. “I invented this whole ‘rage’ sound … Yeezus is that energy. ‘N—as in Paris’ is the first time n—as was moshin’. We got Black people moshin’, that was some white boy s—t.”
Some fans on social media have credited Kid Cudi as the rapper to introduce that specific sound and point to his Man on the Moon series of albums and the fact that he often referred to himself as “Mr. Rager.”
When Moroccan-Belgian artist Dystinct announced his upcoming third album with a debut single featuring French Montana, the moment didn’t just mark a major milestone in his career—it signaled his arrival on a much broader stage.
The single, titled “Ya Baba” and released on April 18, should be seen as a high-profile collaboration that reflects the convergence of languages, identities and sonic worlds. It’s also a meeting point for two diasporic stories: French Montana was born in Casablanca and grew up in the Bronx; Belgium-born Dystinct also traces his roots to the same Moroccan coastal city.
With 18 Billboard Hot 100 hits over the past decade-plus (including standouts like “Unforgettable” and “Pop That”), French Montana has cemented his status as a powerhouse in U.S. hip-hop and pop. In “Ya Baba,” however, we hear French Montana rapping in Moroccan Darija (Moroccan vernacular Arabic) for the first time. It’s a full circle moment for an artist who left Morocco at age 13 but never lost touch with his roots. For Dystinct, this collaboration marks a major milestone in his global rise—joining forces with a U.S. pop heavyweight signals a new level of international recognition and reach.
Trending on Billboard
Shot in Morocco, the music video for “Ya Baba” combines the celebratory and the sobering: children playing in the alleyway, elders sipping tea, the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Its combination of Moroccan textures with Afropop grooves, and lyrics that toggle between English and Moroccan Darija, illustrates Dystinct’s ethos of musical diversity. “More money, more problems, ya habibi,” he sings—echoing one of the most iconic lines in hip-hop history, while capturing the emotional paradox of success and the generational weight that comes with it.
But Dystinct’s journey to this moment didn’t happen overnight.
Born and raised in Belgium to Moroccan immigrant parents, Dystinct has long been immersed in Arabic music, as Billboard Arabia wrote in its cover story last year. Yet his ascent to stardom started first through Dutch-language tracks before making his mark in Arabic. That moment arrived in 2023 with LAYALI, an album that passed 500 million streams and supported a sold-out world tour.
Dsytinct
Moise Donkers/Billboard Arabia
Songs like “Tek Tek” with MHD and “Y Dor” with Soolking positioned him at the heart of the MENA Afropop wave. The viral success of “La”—which soared to No. 1 on Billboard Arabia’s Hot 100—and the hit “Wala 5,7,10” cemented his status as a chart-topper, propelling him to No. 2 on Billboard Arabia’s Artist 100. Meanwhile, his track “Spider,” with French artist GIMS, reached new heights, earning multiple Diamond certifications, and is currently approaching 200 million streams. The versatility in dialects in these tracks—from Moroccan to Khaleeji Arabic—reflects his fluency, not just linguistically but musically, across several continents.
French Montana’s career paved the way for this kind of ambition, though from a different era and scale of global success. From his breakout mixtapes in the late 2000s to major label success, Montana represents an earlier wave of diasporic success—one that had to Americanize first, then reconnect with its roots. With “Ya Baba,” the script flips: Dystinct doesn’t compromise his sound for global appeal; he elevates it on his own terms, and French Montana meets him there.
In a world where music is increasingly borderless, this collaboration signifies more than a co-sign—it’s a recognition that cultural identity, when channeled authentically, has the power to travel. As French Montana raps in Darija and Dystinct carries Arabic textures across languages and platforms, “Ya Baba” becomes a symbol of the present moment: one in which artists don’t have to choose between global and local but can be both.
Dsytinct
Moise Donkers/Billboard Arabia
On her new album, Cosas Que Sorprenden A La Audiencia (Things That Surprise the Audience), Vivir Quintana uses the strength of her voice and the power of her words to tell real-life stories of women who were imprisoned after killing their abusers in self-defense. She does so through the corrido, a traditional Mexican genre often associated with glorifying violence and misogyny — but transforming it into a narrative of denunciation, dignity, and justice.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Told in the first person, Quintana’s sophomore LP is the result of a decade of research and collaboration with women who shared “their hearts, their homes, and their cells” to recount their stories and the reasons that led them to defend themselves against their abusers, ultimately losing their physical freedom after being accused of “excessive self-defense.”
Trending on Billboard
“Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine was a victim of femicide, and it made me incredibly sad — I didn’t know who to blame or how to cope,” the Mexican singer-songwriter shares in an interview with Billboard Español. “For a long time, I kept thinking about what would have happened if my friend had killed her abuser instead of him killing her.”
Her friend’s femicide inspired her popular 2020 release “Canción Sin Miedo” (Song Without Fear), the powerful feminist anthem that accompanies marches and protests against gender violence in Mexico, as well as the fight of mothers searching for their missing children.
But in her album Cosas Que Sorprenden A La Audiencia, released last Thursday (April 24) on digital platforms, the artist, originally from the northern state of Coahuila, goes further by reflecting deeply on the causes of machista violence — the same that results in the killing of 10 women every day in Mexico for gender-based reasons, according to reports from UN Women.
Released under Universal Music, the album features 10 corridos, a genre that emerged during the Mexican Revolution (191–1917) as an alternative account to official history, according to experts consulted by Billboard Español.
With resonant guitar sounds and a powerful accordion, Quintana uses this musical style — characteristic of the region where she was born and raised — to tell stories like that of Yakiri Rubio, the protagonist of the song “La Nochebuena Más Triste” (The Saddest Christmas Eve). In 2013, Rubio was kidnapped by two men who took her to a hotel to sexually assault her, and she ended up killing one of her attackers in self-defense.
Another example is the corrido that opens the album, “Era Él o Era Yo” (It Was Him or Me), which narrates the story of Roxana Ruiz, who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing her attacker in 2021. “Files and more files/ With my name and the names of other women/ Who fiercely dodged death/ Justice destroyed our luck,” goes part of the lyrics.
The album also includes titles like “Mis Cuarenta” (My Forty), “Mi Casita” (My Little House), “Más Libre que en Casa” (Freer Than at Home), “Mi Cobija” (My Blanket), “Claro Que No” (Of Course Not), “Kilómetro seis” (Kilometer Six), “Al Tiro” (At the Ready), and “Cosas Que Sorprenden a la Audiencia,” the album’s title track, inspired by Marisol Villafaña, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against her abusive husband.
“That’s why the album is named this way,” Quintana explains, “because we’re so surprised when a woman defends herself, but we’re not surprised when a man receives an exemplary sentence for committing femicide.”
Recognized in 2024 as one of the Leading Ladies of Entertainment at the Latin Grammys, the 40-year-old artist is one of the new faces of corrido music in Mexico, although she has revolutionized the genre since her debut over a decade ago, by using music as a tool for activism and denunciation. In addition to “Canción Sin Miedo,” she is the author of “El Corrido de Milo Vela” (The Milo Vela Corrido), a tribute to journalist Miguel Ángel López, who was murdered in 2011 along with his wife and son in Veracruz. In 2024, she also wrote “Compañera Presidenta” (Madam President), a letter dedicated to the then-possible first female president of Mexico, a position now held by leftist Claudia Sheinbaum.
“With this album, I hope people open their hearts — but beyond that, I hope they open their minds to understand that gender violence needs to be addressed by all of us,” Quintana says. “And may we never forget that the voices of women deprived of their physical freedom also matter.”
Regarding the controversy surrounding corridos that glorify drug trafficking — subject to bans and restrictions in public spaces across ten Mexican states, though not officially prohibited by the federal government — Quintana believes that prohibition “is not the solution.”
“The children born into a world of organized crime, where their social context is that, where their family members are part of that life, and one day they realize they want to sing or play the guitar — what are they going to talk about?” Quintana questions. “Music is nothing more than a reflection of the reality or social context you live in, so narcocorridos should be regulated, but through education. That way, we can distinguish between reality and fiction, between good and bad.”
While in Auckland, New Zealand, for the latest stop on her Secret of Us Tour, Gracie Abrams paid tribute to the country’s patron saint of pop music, Lorde, whose ballad “Liability” the American singer covered during her show at Spark Arena Tuesday (April 29).
In clips taken by fans at the venue, Abrams sits at her keyboard on a B-stage while chatting with fans, whom she tells she’s been “thinking about [Lorde] a lot” while spending the week in the “Royals” singer’s home country.
“Obviously, being here, and also because she finally returned to save pop music …,” she continues of Lorde, whose comeback single “What Was That” dropped less than a week prior.
Trending on Billboard
After calling it “one of my favorite songs ever,” Abrams then dives into the moody Melodrama fan favorite, closing her eyes as she gently plays the piano. “They say, ‘You’re a little much for me/ you’re a liability, you’re a little much for me,’” she croons softly as the crowd belts along with her.
As the “That’s So True” singer highlighted, the cover comes just as Lorde reemerges from a four-year break between albums to kick off her next era, releasing “What Was That” April 24. Abrams — who recently wrote that she’s ready for “Lorde summer” on X — is just one of several stars who have expressed their excitement for the Kiwi artist’s return, with Olivia Rodrigo also jamming out to the new track in a TikTok and writing “I LOVE THIS MF SONG.”
But in addition to being her fan, Abrams is also Lorde’s friend. In her recent cover story with Billboard, the former opened up about her relationship with the latter, telling staff writer Hannah Dailey, “She’s like 800 years old inside … whenever we’re together, I feel my nervous system regulate differently.”
Abrams is currently in the midst of her first-ever arena tour, with about three months of shows in Australia and Europe left ahead of her before she returns to North America for a second Secret of Us leg. The trek supports her breakthrough sophomore album The Secret of Us, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
Lorde, on the other hand, hasn’t dropped an album since 2021’s Solar Power, which debuted at No. 5 on the albums chart. Fans are hopeful that a new LP is coming soon, however, with the “Green Light” musician teasing in an April 15 voice note, “Everything is about to change … I’m so ready.”
“We’re going to scream our faces off!” So declared two cowboy-garbed fans even before Beyoncé stepped onstage to kick off the first show of her Cowboy Carter Tour last night (April 28). Multiply those two sets of screams by the thousands of others screaming, cheering and dancing inside Inglewood, Calif.’s SoFi Stadium throughout the 35–time […]