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Gwen Stefani Tears Up as Blake Shelton Gives Heart Melting Speech at Her Walk of Fame Ceremony

Gwen Stefani was honored with a much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday morning (Oct. 19), and she celebrated the honor alongside her three sons and husband Blake Shelton.

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The country superstar gave a swoon-worthy speech during the ceremony, gushing over her commitment to being a mother to 17-year-old Kingston, 15-year-old Zuma and nine-year-old Apollo. “Standing here almost 10 years later after I first met her, I can say without question that being a mother is still the most important thing in her life,” he told the crowd, “And I gotta tell you all, that’s rare in this business.”

As Stefani began to get misty-eyed, Shelton continued, “Today, it’s nice to see her honored for her side project, which is being one of the biggest stars in the world. In my opinion, Gwen is the perfect person to receive a star on the Walk of Fame. From music, television and movies to fashion and beauty, she has risen to the top over and over again, with her unique style that has made the world fall in love with her. Not as much as me, though.”

Stefani took to Instagram after the ceremony to share gratitude for her achievement, writing, “Who would have thought this girl from Anaheim would have her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ? thank u for walking this journey with me, singing with me all these years … i love u !!!”

See her post here.

Adele Tells Las Vegas Crowd She Stopped Drinking ‘3 & A Half Months Ago’

Adele is embracing sobriety these days, but she’s missing a casual drink every now and then. During the singer/songwriter’s Las Vegas residency this past weekend, she spotted a fan in the crowd enjoying an alcoholic beverage, which resulted in her revealing that she has given up liquor in recent months.

“I stopped drinking quite a long time ago…I stopped drinking, when did I stop drinking? It feels like forever. Maybe like three and a half months ago,” she’s seen telling audience members in a video shared on X. “It’s boring. I mean, oh my God, it’s boring. I was literally borderline alcoholic for quite a lot of my 20s, but I miss it so much. I cut out caffeine, so enjoy your whiskey sour. I’m very, very jealous,” she told the audience member enjoying a drink.

The 16-time Grammy winner has been vocal about drinking in the past, telling Vogue in a November 2021 feature that she was “fascinated by alcohol” because it’s what took away her absentee father, Mark Evans (he died of bowel cancer May 2021 and, according to People, was gone for most of Adele’s life after her parents’ divorce when she was 3 years old). “I’ve always had a very close relationship with alcohol. I was always very fascinated by alcohol. It’s what kept my dad from me. So I always wanted to know what was so great about it,” she told the magazine.

Adele also spoke with Oprah in the same month about abstaining from alcohol, noting that quitting it is an incredible tool for self-reflection: “That’s one great way of really sort of getting to know yourself, is just drinking water and being sober as anything.”

Watch Adele talk about her current relationship with alcohol below.

XG’s Billboard Cover, Mitski’s 2nd No. 1 on TikTok Billboard Top 50 & More | Billboard News

The ladies of XG are Billboard’s newest cover stars. In honor of the Hot 100’s 65th anniversary, Billboard staff has been pulling together a huge list of the top 500 best pop songs. The 2023 Billboard Music Awards, set for Sunday, Nov. 19, will include a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Spotify ‘Fans First.’ And more!

Tetris Kelly:
South by Southwest Sydney headliners XG are on the cover of Billboard. Major Billboard Music Awards announcement incoming. Sebastian Yatra takes us Behind the Photo. We reveal Billboard’s Top Pop Songs of All Time. And we run down the top songs on TikTok this week.

Welcome to another episode of Billboard News. I’m Tetris Kelly. It’s Thursday, October 19th. And we’re starting this show off with our latest cover stars Japanese global pop artists XG.

Maya:
Well, we’ve been inspired by a lot of groups but maybe TLC, Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls. The evolution of girl power.

Jurin:
I think the fundamental haven’t changed.

Maya:
It hasn’t changed I agree, I agree.

Jurin:
I think defining yourself in a certain way.

Maya:
Don’t limit yourself.

Jurin:
Yeah not being bound by any boundaries or anything like that is what I believe is the fundamental aspect of girl power.

Whenever I decide on an outfit, I always try to project the image I want to become. For today’s Billboard interview, I went with something a bit more mature and colorful and added a bit of playful touch.

Destiny’s Child, TLC and Aaliyah. I love them. I love new challenges, and I like to set my mind to something and just get on with it. So I call myself Active Gal.

Well for me personally it means having my own style and loving myself. I think that’s what girl power is.

Harvey:
We all have very different personalities and things we really like. Each of us have to remember what we’re really into. Taking time to do what you like to do? I think we are doing that individually. I’m the same with COCONA and HINATA but I also try to draw pictures. I also like to read books and do other things that I really like.

Watch the full video above.

Hear Exclusive CRSSD Fall 2023 Sets From Basement Jaxx, Interplanetary Criminal & Nikki Nair

CRSDD Music Festival has been a fixture of the Southern California electronic circuit for more than a decade, having become so, and stayed so, on the power of lineups featuring a smart blend of legends, rising stars, reliable genres and experimental sounds.

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The fall 2023 edition of the festival, which happened this past September 23-24, demonstrated this same balance. Headliners included Flume, Underworld, Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte, with a loaded undercard including Salute, DJ Minx, Weval, TSHA, HAAI, SG Lewis and many others.

This electronic melange was set against the extremely picturesque San Diego waterfront, with the festival again drawing thousands of fans to its longtime base at the city’s Bayfront Park.

Were you there? Did you miss it? Either way, take some time to transport yourself back to the event with these three exclusive CRSSD Fall 2023 sets from Basement Jaxx, Interplanetary Criminal and Nikki Nair.

Basement Jaxx

The English legends brought the heat during their headlining set, loading up their 90 minute performance with loads of funk, disco strings, Latin rhythms, edits of their own hits, classic Donna Summer and lots of other mega high-energy house music.

Interplanetary Criminal

The rising Manchester native played a 75-minutes set made of ultra fast-paced house music, spatial experimental sounds, drum ‘n’ bass and loads of hard house by U.K. and Irish artists including Knuckleheadz, Camrisa and Ryan Donaghy.

Nikki Nair

The Atlanta-born producer loaded his set with experimental sounds, with the vibe ranging from spare to elastic to crunchy to spacey to pummeling. Listen for his 2023 Hudson Mohwake collab “Demuro.”

Sexyy Red Gets First Top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart by Assisting Drake

Sexyy Red, one of rap’s biggest breakout stars of 2023, lands her first top 10 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart through a guest spot on Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy,” which also features SZA. The track is one of 21 Drake arrivals as his For All the Dogs album cuts flood the list.

“Rich Baby Daddy” debuts at No. 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list dated Oct. 21. The premiere gives Sexyy Red her first top 10 in her fifth visit, following her breakthrough viral hit “Pound Town” with Tay Keith, which, after a remix release with Nicki Minaj, peaked at No. 21; “SkeeYee” (No. 17); “Looking for the Hoes (Ain’t My Fault)” (No. 49); and “Hellcats Srts 2,” with Lil Durk (No. 40).



Fellow featured act SZA nabs her 16th career top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while, between “Rich Baby Daddy” and six further top 10 debuts this week, Drake ups his total to a record-extending 128 top 10s on the tally. The triple-digit total pushes him further into his own stratosphere, now 71 ahead of the second-place act, James Brown, who boasts 57 top 10s (dating to October 1958, when the chart became the first all-encompassing songs survey for the genre).

In the Oct. 6-12 tracking week, “Rich Baby Daddy” registered 24.3 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold. The former allows for a No. 8 start on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart, while the latter sparks a No. 12 bow on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales. In addition, the track opens at No. 28 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay thanks to 3 million audience impressions at the format.

As mentioned above, “Rich Baby Daddy” appears on Drake’s new album, For All the Dogs, released Oct. 6. The set’s tracks storm the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, with 21 debuts from the project and the previously released, former one-week champ “Slime You Out,” featuring SZA, at No. 6 in its fourth week on the list. The domination includes a second Dogs No. 1, “First Person Shooter,” featuring J. Cole, which grants Drake a record-extending 30th No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. With his latest champ, he moves 10 ahead of the nearest competitors, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, each with 20 leaders.

Madonna, Lauren Jauregui & More Weigh in on Israel-Hamas Conflict as Violence Continues

The century-long conflict between Israel and Palestine reached a new level of conflict earlier this month after the horrific Oct. 7 terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival at Kibbutz Re’im by Hamas militants.

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The assault by air and land by the militant arm of the terrorist organization that governs the more than two million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip included the killing of more than 260 revelers and many more kidnapped at the Paralello Universo Supernova Sukkot Gathering electronic dance music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah.

Since then, Hamas fighters have killed more than 800 Israelis in various attacked throughout southern Israel, and Israel retaliated by launching bombs in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 500 Palestinians. Israel has also placed troops along the Gaza border and announced a “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip, stopping food, fuel and more commodities to the area.

While Hamas is just a small sector of the Palestinian population, the broader conflict between Israel and Palestine stems back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which committed the British government to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

On Thursday (Oct. 19), President Joe Biden took to X to reveal that he’ll be addressing the ongoing Israel-Hamas war from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. ET. “Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel. The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine. We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics,” he wrote.

As the violence continues, celebrities have taken to social media to send love to the families of victims whose lives were lost, and pray for peace at last between Israel and Palestine. See below for thoughts from Madonna, Lauren Jauregui, P!nk and more.

10 Top Jelly Roll Collaborations

Former Billboard cover star Jelly Roll has become one of country music’s biggest breakthrough success stories over the past year, notching hits on Billboard charts in multiple genres. His 2021 song “Dead Man Walking” topped the Mainstream Rock chart. He followed with “Son of a Sinner,” which topped the Country Airplay chart and “Need a Favor,” which vaulted to the premier position of not only the Country Airplay chart, but also the Mainstream Rock and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

In his first year of CMA Awards nominations, Jelly Roll has earned five nods, including new artist of the year, male vocalist of the year and single of the year (“Need a Favor”), leading up to November’s ceremony. Earlier this year, he took home the most CMT Music Awards wins of the evening during the Austin, Texas-held ceremony, cinching three trophy wins.

His musical amalgam of rap, country and rock, paired with his unfiltered, megawatt personality and inspiring story of rising from an incarcerated youth to a musical hitmaker and arena headliner, has become Jelly Roll’s calling card.

Embedded in the music and his persona is a through line of connection–connection to his fans, and connection with fellow artists. Outside of his solo material, Jelly Roll has been featured on many artists’ songs, and as of late, has become one of country music’s go-to collaborator. But looking back at his previous hip-hop projects, which include work with Struggle Jennings, Lil Wyte, it’s clear that his penchant for collaborations has been steadfast.

Here, we look at 10 Jelly Roll collaborations.

Kanye West Checks Elon Musk Over Kim Kardashian Via Leaked Texts

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Kanye West and his public moves of late have been a curious mix of teasing music along with being seen traipsing around the world. By way of Ian Connor, Kanye West, also known as Ye, delivered a message to Elon Musk regarding his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.

Fashion influencer and stylist Ian Connor shared an Instagram post on October 18 which shows a text conversation between him and Kanye West.

The messages began with Connor writing, “My word, All praise be to Allah” with a screenshotted text presumably from West to Elon Musk.

That message read, “When are we going to speak. You owe me nothing. You never have to speak to me again. But if we do speak. The nature of the relationship has to change.”

Ye added, “I’m not bipolar. I have signs of autism from my car accident. You can’t watch Kim keep my kids from me and not say anything publicly and then call yourself my friend so I can bring my audience to your struggling platform.”

At one point, Ye and Musk seemed to be fast friends with the X and Tesla honcho endorsing the Chicago producer and designer’s 2020 presidential bid. However, Ye’s targeted messages against the Jewish community led to him being banned from the X, formerly Twitter, platform.

Photo: Getty

2023 Billboard Music Awards Teams With Spotify for Reimagined Awards Show | Billboard News

The 2023 Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs), set for Sunday, Nov. 19, will include a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Spotify ‘Fans First’ to bring fans up-close-and-personal with their favorite artists. The BBMAs will roll out performances and awards across BBMAs and Billboard social channels, as well as via BBMAs.watch, on that date. Performances and award celebrations will take place in global locations, in the midst of sold-out tours and in custom venues.

Tetris Kelly:
Get ready, because it’s the season we’ve all been waiting for.

Billboard is back to honor the artists who had us bopping non-stop throughout the year with their chart-topping hits.

For 2023, Billboard is reimagining award shows, and a first-of-its kind collaboration with Spotify to bring fans up close and personal with their favorite artists.

The Billboard Music Awards will deliver fans with hours of music and exclusive content, including winners, celebrations, behind-the-scenes moments and performances.

Performances and awards celebrations will take place in global locations, in the midst of sold-out tours and in custom venues.

In addition, the BBMAs and Spotify have teamed up to identify fans who consumed the most hours of music over the past year to receive a golden ticket, granting them access to attend a once-in-a-lifetime performance curated by their favorite artists.

It all goes down on Sunday, Nov. 19, across BBMAs’ and Billboard‘s social channels, as well as BBMAs.watch.

Rolling Stones Escape Copyright Lawsuit Over 2020 Song ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ For Now

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing The Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of copying their 2020 single “Living in a Ghost Town” from a pair of little-known songs, ruling that the case was clearly filed in the wrong court.

Filed in March by songwriter Sergio Garcia Fernandez (stage name Angelslang), the copyright infringement lawsuit claimed that Jagger and Richards “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” from his 2006 song “So Sorry” as well as his 2007 tune “Seed of God.”

But in a decision Wednesday (Oct. 18), Judge Eldon E. Fallon ruled that his Louisiana federal court lacked jurisdiction over Fernandez’s case. In doing so, he pointed out that Jagger and Richards are Brits, Fernandez lives in Spain, and The Rolling Stones have “only performed in New Orleans four times.”

“The mere fact that people in this district listen to the Rolling Stones or the alleged work does not permit this court to wield specific jurisdiction over the defendants,” Judge Fallon wrote in dismissing the case.

The judge only tossed the case “without prejudice” — meaning Fernandez is free to re-file the lawsuit in a more appropriate location. In the lead-up to Wednesday’s ruling, lawyers for The Rolling Stones argued that the case should have been filed somewhere in Europe.

In a statement to Billboard, Fernandez’s lawyer said he’s “disappointed and stunned by the court’s ruling.” But he vowed to “refile the lawsuit in a different venue in addition to reviewing other legal options.”

Released at the peak of the COVID-19 shutdowns in April 2020, “Living in a Ghost Town” was the first original material released by the Stones since 2012. The song, a blues-rock tune with reggae influences accompanied by a COVID-themed video, reached No. 3 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in May 2020.

In his lawsuit, Fernandez alleged that the new track was created by borrowing key features from his two earlier songs, including vocal melodies, chord progressions and other elements. “Defendants never paid plaintiff, nor secured the authorization for the use of ‘So Sorry’ and ‘Seed of God,’” his lawyers wrote at the time.

How would members of the iconic band have heard those songs, which have less than 1,000 spins on Spotify? Fernandez claims he gave a demo CD to “an immediate family member” of Jagger.

“The immediate family member … confirmed receipt … to the plaintiff via e-mail, and expressed that the musical works of the plaintiff and its style was a sound The Rolling Stones would be interested in using,” Fernandez’s lawyers wrote.

When the case was first filed, experts told Billboard that it was unlikely to succeed. Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist and a professor at Berklee College of Music, said the songs shared only an overall vibe — based on mid-tempo rock grooves in the key of A minor — that’s been ubiquitous in rock and blues since the beginning.

“The Stones didn’t copy from Fernandez, because they didn’t need to,” Bennett said. “They’ve been playing grooves like this for a very long time, as have many others.”