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If you wanted an example of how to fumble badly in a press interview, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo provided that in an appearance on Saturday (November 1) during The Weekend on MSNBC. In speaking with hosts Eugene Daniels, Jonathan Capehart, and Jackie Alemany, Cuomo spoke about his positions on issues affecting New Yorkers as a mayoral candidate. When asked about Islamophobic rhetoric directed towards Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, Cuomo denounced it before making a statement.
“Our diversity is our strength, but it can also be a weakness,” he began. “So you have to work very, very hard to make sure you’re always keeping people united, and there’s always flare-ups among different races, religions, creeds for one reason or another.” Daniels offered a follow-up question asking what he meant by “weakness.”
Cuomo then replied, “Diversity can be a weakness if you have antipathy among groups, Jonathan. If you have racism or anti-semitism, et cetera. Then you’ve have friction.” After the camera caught Capehart’s perplexed reaction, Daniels would interject during Cuomo’s response to correct him: “I’m Eugene.” Daniels and Capehart are both Black.
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There would be another moment toward the end of the interview where Cuomo mixed up the two again, this time in an answer to Daniels about comparing his legacy as part of a political dynasty with his father, Mario Cuomo, as opposed to people wanting new blood like Mamdani.
“The mayor is an important job and people want to be safe,” Cuomo began. “People want affordable housing, and in New York City, you can have a crisis at any given time. I don’t think they want a mayor who has no experience or ability to do the job. It can be a scary city as you know, Jonathan, and you want someone in that seat who can handle whatever comes up.”
Capehart cut in as he and Daniels laughed at the repeated error, letting Cuomo know that he was speaking to him now instead of Daniels. Cuomo apologized meekly as the interview wound down, saying, “I’m sorry.” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi blamed the gaffes on the candidate being “in a mobile van unit with an earpiece and staring directly into the camera and couldn’t tell who was talking.”
The interview comes as 700,000 people in New York City have already voted early, leading up to the official election day on Tuesday (November 4).
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Jason Aldean is set to perform his songs “Try That in a Small Town” and “How Far Does a Goodbye Go” as part of Fox Nation’s seventh annual Patriot Awards, which will be held Thursday (Nov. 6) at The Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, N.Y. During the event, Erika Kirk, Turning Point […]
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A couple of recent news items from the Recording Academy may give us some hints about what to expect when the Grammy nominations are announced on Friday Nov. 7.
On Monday (Nov. 3), the academy announced that they have added approximately 2,900 new voting members this year as part of their years-long effort to diversify the voting body. Of the newly-admitted members, 49% are age 39 and under, 60% are people of color and 30% identify as women.
Also, for the first time, invitations to join the Recording Academy were extended to all voting members of the Latin Recording Academy. Many accepted the offer. That’s a strong indicator that Bad Bunny could be headed for his second album of the year nod for Debí Tirar Más Fotos. He was already a likely nominee in that category, especially since Sept. 28, when he was announced as next year’s Super Bowl halftime headliner. Now, he seemingly can’t miss. The influx of Latin Recording Academy members also puts Karol G, who is entered with Tropicoqueta, in the album of the year conversation.
Last Thursday, the academy announced the names of the celebrities who will participate in Friday’s nominations livestream, including several artists who are vying for nods – Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Brandi Carlile, Doechii, Jon Batiste and the aforementioned Karol G. Just because someone has been invited to announce some nominees on the livestream doesn’t automatically mean they’re going to be nominated, but if you’re looking for every conceivable hint and clue (and we are!), it’s a positive sign. Would the academy really ask an A-lister like Carpenter to participate in their livestream if she was shut out in the nominations? (That would be “Manchild” behavior.)
Kendrick Lamar (GNX) and Lady Gaga (MAYHEM) are probably this year’s surest bets for album of the year nods. It would be the fifth nomination in the category as lead (or co-lead) artists for both artists. Neither has ever won in the category. If Lamar is nominated, he’ll become the first solo artist in Grammy history to receive album of the year nods for five consecutive studio albums.
Elton John and Coldplay could be headed for their fourth nods in the category – John for his collab with Carlile, Who Believes in Angels?; Coldplay for Moon Music. Carlile, Batiste (Big Money) and Justin Bieber (Swag) could be headed for their third nods in the category.
We could see history made on Friday, if three rap albums are nominated for album of the year. There have never been more than two rap albums nominated in any one year. Lamar’s GNX seems a lock for a nomination. Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out and Tyler, the Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA also have a good shot.
Two soundtracks are strong contenders – KPop Demon Hunters, which has been an inescapable pop-culture phenomenon, and Wicked, which stars a major pop star (Ariana Grande) as well as a near-EGOT (Cynthia Erivo). But in the last 30 years, just three soundtracks have been nominated for album of the year – and all three were linked to a top-name producer – Waiting to Exhale (Babyface), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (T Bone Burnett) and Black Panther (Kendrick Lamar).
Debut or breakthrough albums often make the album of the year finals. Leon Thomas’ second album, Mutt, and debut releases by Alex Warren (You’ll Be Alright, Kid) and sombr (I Barely Know Her) are contenders this year. Olivia Dean’s breakthrough album, The Art of Loving, was released after the end of the eligibility period (Aug. 31, 2024, to Aug. 30, 2025). It will be eligible here next year, though Dean is eligible for best new artist this year, and is among the front-runners in that category.
Other albums, not already mentioned, that are strong contenders include The Weeknd‘s Hurry Up Tomorrow, Tate McRae’s So Close to What, Laufey’s A Matter of Time, Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken, HAIM’s I Quit, Lorde’s Virgin and Kali Uchis’ Sincerely.
Here are the eight albums most likely to be nominated for album of the year. They are listed in alphabetical order by artist, as they will appear on the official Grammy nominations list. We show you how many album of the year nominations the artist has previously received as a lead artist and how high this album placed on the Billboard 200.
Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Image Credit: Eric Rojas
The FCI Fort Dix era began for Sean “Diddy” Combs late last week with the Bad Boy Records founder getting transferred to the New Jersey correctional facility after a stint in Brooklyn, N.Y. With the move of such a major figure, all eyes were on Fort Dix, and the first images of Diddy have emerged, showing the mogul in relatively good spirits.
TMZ shared a report of Diddy’s appearance at FCI Fort Dix on Saturday (November 1), showcasing his interaction with fellow inmates. While the images were taken from what appears to be a great distance, Combs, dressed in a grey skullcap, dark blue jacket, and grey sweats, is seen smiling and chatting up a group of men.
One notable thing about the image, aside from Combs’ smile, was his beard being fully grey. Not much else could be determined from the images. There was also another shot of Combs in the same getup, save for a different colored skullcap.
In another report from TMZ, it was learned that Combs’ job behind bars was working in the laundry room. The outlet made it a point to highlight that during his trial, which led to his conviction on prostitution charges, Combs would rarely perform menial tasks.
Combs was given a 50-month sentence at the low-security FCI Fort Dix facility, reportedly a far cry from the infamous conditions at MDC Brooklyn.
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Photo: Getty
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As the beginning of the 2025-26 NBA season continues to deliver nonstop action, Playboi Carti and Mitchell & Ness have teamed up for a throwback NBA League collection. The limited-edition collaboration celebrates Carti’s love for basketball while reimagining classic NBA jerseys through his lens.
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Known for wearing basketball jerseys backwards, similar to hip hop group Kris Kross back in the ’90s, the collection offers a fresh take on basketball culture with a design sensibility rooted in authenticity, originality and individuality. The collection showcases exclusive designs from the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers and two Toronto Raptors styles.
Mitchell & Ness
Marked with “YVL”, each piece pays homage to Carti’s Young Vamp Life—a record label, collective, and clothing company built on his pure unfiltered individuality. Through his avant-garde, punk-inspired approach to style, Playboi Carti has redefined the boundaries between streetwear and high fashion for this generation of hip hop heads. Often seen pairing vintage sportswear with edgy, oversized silhouettes, Carti is known globally for his bold statement pieces and unexpected textures that mirror his disruptive musical energy. This brings that similar DNA to the sports world merging basketball nostalgia with his raw, genre-defying vision.
The Playboi Carti x Mitchell & Ness NBA League Collection will be available exclusively on Fanatics.com, Complex Shop and MitchellandNess.com, beginning November 6th. Make sure to check back here as we will update this story with our favorite NBA jerseys from the collection below. Spoiler alert, it’s the Philadelphia 76ers jersey.
As we patiently wait for the collection to drop, Billie Eilish also released a multi-piece headwear NBA collaboration with Mitchell & Ness. Shop the playful and nostalgic snapbacks below.
Mitchell & Ness x Billie Eilish Los Angeles Lakers Snapback
A Los Angeles Lakers snapback.
Mitchell & Ness x Billie Eilish Milwaukee Bucks Snapback
A Milwaukee Bucks snapback.
Mitchell & Ness x Billie Eilish Chicago Bulls Snapback
A Chicago Bulls snapback.
Mitchell & Ness x Billie Eilish Boston Celtics Snapback
A Boston Celtics snapback.
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Drake is almost definitely in his feelings following the conclusion of the 2025 World Series, which resulted in his home team losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who gladly took the opportunity to troll the rapper after their victory by using some Kendrick Lamar lyrics.
After triumphing over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 on Sunday (Nov. 2), the Cali team shared a group photo of the players and staff wearing “World Series Champions” shirts. “THEY STILL NOT LIKE US,” the Dodgers wrote in the caption, quoting Dot’s famous Billboard Hot 100-topping diss track against Drizzy.
The ribbing comes after Drake spent much of the World Series trolling the L.A. team’s star player, Shohei Ohtani, on social media. Following Game 5, the Toronto native had shared a picture on his Instagram Story of the pitcher wearing a sweater vest and wrote, “ONE MORE!!!!!!!,” after which he posted a photo the Jays’ Trey Yesavage striking out Ohtani and gloating: “Savage already [on the way] to the dugout boss lol.”
Drake was then in attendance at Game 6 on Friday (Oct. 31), which ended with a Dodgers win. After the team won again two days later, securing the World Series trophy, Champagne Papi shared a diplomatic post on Instagram, writing, “Congrats to the Jays for a dream season and a legendary World Series fight!!!”
The Dodgers, however, weren’t the only ones eager to tease Drake after their big victory. Nike also trolled the rapper post-game by sharing a cinematic montage of the L.A. team set to “Not Like Us,” while Fox Sports posted an edited photo of Lamar driving off with the World Series trophy, leaving a disappointed-looking Drake in the dust.
The repeated use of “Not Like Us” to drag Drake definitely adds insult to injury, as the musician’s headline-grabbing defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over the song’s lyrics was recently dismissed by a judge. At the end of October, however, Drizzy filed an appeal to revive the case.
The track has been haunting Drake since a certain Compton icon dropped it in May 2024, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon. This past February, Lamar won both song and record of the year at the Grammys for “Not Like Us,” which he performed on the world’s biggest stage just one week later at the 2025 Super Bowl.
Trending on Billboard CoComelon‘s new song “I Love My Bed” might be a bedtime anthem, but it’s no lullaby. Billboard Family is exclusively premiering the animated music video for “I Love My Bed,” and “animated” is also a good adjective to describe the song, which is more upbeat than most bedtime music, aiming to make […]
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In his memoir, Heart Life Music, Kenny Chesney takes the reader on the journey of how he developed from a sports-loving young boy growing up in a tiny East Tennessee town raised by a single mom to one of the biggest country stars of all time.
The engrossing tale, co-written with award-winning journalist Holly Gleason, is a love story to the music that inspired him and, ultimately, to Chesney’s fans who make up the No Shoes Nation and who have helped the recent Country Music Hall of Fame inductee realize success beyond his wildest dreams.
Below, Chesney, who will return to Las Vegas’ Sphere in June, highlights more than 30 songs of the dozens mentioned in the book, which is available starting Tuesday (Nov. 4). He’s exclusively sharing with Billboard what the songs mean to him, including ones that influenced him, such as Conway Twitty’s “Hello Darlin’,” which he heard at the first concert he attended.
“Someone asked me if there was a soundtrack for the book. It’s easy to say, ‘Just listen to [SiriusXM’s] No Shoes Radio,’ but someone else asked, and I thought, “Well, why not? I just looked at my life, so lets look at the music,” Chesney says. “This isn’t the definitive list, nor is it the only list,” he continues, “But it’s one collection of songs that you could listen to and enjoy while you’re reading. To me, that was the fun of this playlist: make a playlist that would be fun to listen to while reading. Though now I hear getting the audio book and listening to that while you read is the thing. Anyways… Enjoy the book. Enjoy the music. But especially, enjoy your life.”
Find his explanations behind the songs chosen below, and check out the full playlist on Spotify here.
“The Tin Man”
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AC/DC will continue their globe-hopping Power Up tour into 2026 with Monday morning’s (Nov. 3) announcement of a run of 21 more shows in South America and North America next year. The new dates for the nearly two-year-old tour by the legendary Australian hard rockers will kick off on Feb. 24 at Estádio do MorumBIS in São Paulo, Brazil and include stops in Santiago, Chile on March 11 and Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 23 before winding down on April 7 in Mexico City at Estadio GNP Seguros.
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The band will then take the spring off and be back on the road beginning July 11 in Charlotte, N.C., followed by shows in Columbus, Ohio, Madison, Wi., San Antonio, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Edmonton, Alberta, Vancouver, Atlanta, Houston, South Bend, Ind., St. Louis, Montreal, Toronto and East Rutherford, N.J. before winding down on Sept. 29 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Tickets for the upcoming run of 2026 shows will be on sale at 10 a.m. ET on Friday (Nov. 7); click here for details.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act — singer Brian Johnson, guitarist Angus Young, rhythm guitarist Stevie Young, drummer Matt Laug and bassist Chris Chaney — kicked off the tour named for their 17th studio album in May 2024. The band’s next scheduled date is on Nov. 12 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia.
Check out the 2026 dates for AC/DC’s Power Up tour below.
Feb. 24: São Paulo, BR @ Estádio do MorumBIS
March 11: Santiago, CL @ Parque Estadio Nacional
March 23: Buenos Aires, AR @ Estadio River Plate
Apr. 7: Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros
July 11: Charlotte, N.C. @ Bank of America Stadium
July 15: Columbus, Ohio @ Ohio Stadium
July 19: Madison, Wis. @ Camp Randall Stadium
July 24: San Antonio, Texas @ Alamodome
July 28: Denver, Colo. @ Empower Field at Mile High *
Aug. 1: Las Vegas, Nev. @ Allegiant Stadium *
Aug. 5: San Francisco, Calif. @ Levi’s Stadium
Aug. 9: Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium
Aug. 13: Vancouver, BC @ BC Place
Aug. 27: Atlanta, Ga. @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Aug. 31: Houston, Texas @ NRG Stadium
Sept. 4: South Bend, Ind. @ Notre Dame Stadium
Sept. 8: St. Louis, Mo. @ The Dome at America’s Center
Sept. 12: Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean-Drapeau
Sept. 16: Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium
Sept. 25: East Rutherford, N.J. @ MetLife Stadium
Sept. 29: Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field *
*Denver, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia on sale at 12pm local time
Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, click here.
Nicki Minaj is standing with Donald Trump on the issue of alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
In response to the president’s recent threat to deploy military action in the West African country in the name of religious freedom, the rapper wrote in a Saturday (Nov. 1) post on X that she felt a “deep sense of gratitude” to be able to “freely worship God” in the United States and thanked Trump for “taking this seriously.”
“No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion,” Minaj continued, sharing a screenshot of one of the twice-impeached politician’s Truth Social posts about intervening in Nigeria. “We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other.”
“Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice,” she added. “God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”
Minaj’s post comes as the Trump administration has re-added Nigeria to its “Countries of Particular Concern” list, which also includes China, North Korea, Russia, Pakistan and several other nations that the White House has classified as having violated religious freedom. In another post on Truth Social, the president called Nigeria a “disgraced country” and promised that America’s military intervention would “be fast, vicious and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
But despite Trump’s claim that “radical Islamists” were murdering “thousands of Christians” in the region, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has rebuked the claims. “The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” he said in a recent statement, according to Reuters.
Regardless of whether or not there’s truth to Trump’s remarks about Nigeria, some of Minaj’s fans have expressed disappointment in the hip-hop star for aligning herself with the polarizing politician in any capacity. One person, for instance, told Minaj on X that MAGA Republicans have been attempting to “weaponize religion so YOUR GAY FANS can be pushed into a corner and silenced,” to which the hitmaker reportedly had a biting reply.
“Imagine hearing that Christians are being MURDERED & making it about you being gay,” Minaj wrote in a since-deleted post, per The Independent.
Billboard has reached out to Minaj’s reps for comment.
