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The first UFC pay-per-view of the year is upon us, with UFC 311 taking place this weekend in Los Angeles.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship event pits Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan in a highly-anticipated rematch, live from Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. You can find a PPV livestream on ESPN+ here.
While there was talk of moving the event following the L.A. wildfires, UFC chief Dana White confirmed that UFC 311 would take place as planned in the new Clippers arena.
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UFC 311 takes place this Saturday, January 18 with the main card at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Prelims start at 8 p.m. ET and early prelims start at 6 p.m. ET (streaming free on ESPN+).
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How to Watch UFC 311: Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan 2 Online
The Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan fight is not airing on TV so the only way to watch UFC 311 online is through ESPN+. The fight carries a pay-per-view price of $79.99 for ESPN+ subscribers. Not a subscriber? Purchase a one-time pass for $91.98, that gets you a month of access to ESPN+ in addition to a UFC 311 livestream.
Your best value is to grab the Disney bundle deal, which gets you a month of ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu plus the UFC 311 stream for just $97. You can choose to continue with the Disney trio for $16.99/month afterwards or cancel before your 30 days are up.
While there are UFC 311 free streaming links on sites like Reddit, the only official stream is through ESPN+. The sports streamer lets you livestream Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan on your phone, tablet, computer or TV (via the ESPN+ app).
UFC 311 Odds, Favorites, Picks
Makhachev is the current UFC Lightweight Champion, and the Russian star takes on number one contender Tsarukyan in a rematch of the 2019 bout, which Makhachev won by unanimous decision. Makhachev is once again favored by bookmakers to take the win on Saturday.
The co-main event features bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili defending his crown against world number two, Umar Nurmagomedov. The latter, whose cousin is UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, is the odds-on favorite in the second match.
Find UFC 311 Tickets Online: Prices, Promo Codes
Tickets are selling quickly for UFC 311 but we found seats still available at StubHub.com (starting from $400) and at Vivid Seats. If you’re looking to save a couple dollars, Vivid Seats offers you 10% off your first order when you sign up for their mailing list.
Both sites guarantee that you’re buying authentic tickets and that you’ll receive your tix in time for Saturday night’s event.
If you’re looking for a promo code for UFC 311, start your search for tickets at Ticketnetwork.com. Customers can take $150 off orders of $500+ when you enter the code BILLBOARD150 at checkout, or save $300 off ticket purchases of $1,000+ with the code BILLBOARD300.
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Source: JIM WATSON / Getty / Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama wants no part of the sh*t show, aka Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, and social media doesn’t blame her for saying nah to the moment.
Spotted on Raw Story, Michelle Obama will not be joining her husband, Barack Obama, at the Trump inauguration, her office announced without giving a reason.
A statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama announced that “Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. “Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”
The announcement sparked immediate reactions from both sides. Those who supported our Forever First Lady applauded her on social media for not being in attendance.
Many brought up the apparent tension between Obama and Donald Trump, who said violent things about Ms. Obama during the 2024 presidential campaign.
“Michelle Obama is doing the right thing! In 2025.. who cares about the optics. Standing on principles should be commended. The people concerned about her not attending should be more critical and laser focused on the incoming felon assuming the presidency,” one post on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
“I love Michelle Obama forever,” MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid proudly said on BlueSky.
Singer Ricky Davila said on X, “Forever First Lady Michelle Obama will be skipping the dictator coronation on January 20th. Good, she seems to be the only one who clearly understands the assignment.”
X Reminds MAGA Folks Mad At Michelle Obama That Donald Trump Skipped Biden’s Inauguration
Those on the right are BIG MAD that Ms. Obama isn’t going to Trump’s inauguration, but they were quickly reminded that Orange Mussolini didn’t even bother to show up to President Biden’s because he was so bitter America fired him in 2020.
trump skipped biden inauguration why we flipping out that michelle obama doing the same.. pic.twitter.com/dJJXLK8ejt
— maniyah renae (@crzy4kamala) January 14, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Welp.
We understand if you won’t be tuning in to see Trump lie as he takes the oath of office.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Michelle Obama’s energy is what we’re on for the next 4 years
2. Required watching
3. Black women are fed up
5. EXACTLY
10. NO SIR
ASCAP announced Wednesday (Jan. 15) that it will distribute $1 million in emergency relief to ASCAP songwriters or composers who have suffered the loss or damage of their primary residences or studios in the Los Angeles wildfires. The organization is also offering assistance to those who have been evacuated.
ASCAP will provide one-time stipends in the amount of $1,500 to ASCAP writer members in good standing as of Jan. 1, 2025, who do “not have a resignation notice pending.” The stipends will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis while funds are available.
Please see the ASCAP website for more information or to apply for benefits. You can also check out our resource guide for music workers impacted by the fires here and find out how to help here.
“Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by the devastating Los Angeles fires. We are here to support our ASCAP members during troubled times, and we will ensure these funds reach ASCAP composers and songwriters in need,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews in a statement.
ASCAP president Paul Williams also wrote a message to members in need. His letter can be read below in full:
To my fellow ASCAP members,
My heart aches for the unimaginable loss and devastation that has struck our beloved city of Los Angeles. I want to say to all members and their families who have been impacted by the fires and are facing profound challenges, please take comfort that you are not alone. We are a community. As music creators, our community is built on a foundation of compassion, connection and a sense of purpose. That is our bedrock, where we always land, where we always begin.
Some of you have lost your homes, your studios, your instruments, those materials of your life which hold memories and meaning. What can never be lost is the spirit of this community and the enduring bond we share with each other. The outpouring of kindness, support, concern and generosity we have witnessed throughout this crisis is beyond inspiring. Proof, yet again, of an abundant supply of love.
As a community of songwriters, composers and music publishers, ASCAP has always harnessed our collective strength for the greater good. That is why ASCAP is setting up an emergency fund in the amount of $1 million for our members who have suffered from loss and damage to their homes and studios.
If you need help, please visit www.ascap.com/lafirerelief for more info.
Wishing you much love, hope and strength,
Paul
Lil Yachty delivered one of the most memorable Hot Ones episodes in 2018 with his first hot sauce experience, and the album has returned to the table for another bout. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Rocking a hot pink wig and a Coogie sweater from The […]
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame has announced its full crop of 2025 inductees.
Songwriter Dan Hill, “grande dame of Québec song” Ginette Reno, rock superstars Glass Tiger and singer/songwriter/composer Loreena McKennitt will all join the previously announced Sum 41. That legendary punk and rock band, who are currently on their farewell tour after returning to the top of the Alternative Airplay chart after more than two decades, will celebrate the induction with their final televised performance at the 2025 Juno Awards on March 30 in Vancouver.
The other four recipients will be joined by 2024 Hall of Fame inductee and Canadian hip-hop pioneer Maestro Fresh Wes at a special ceremony on May 15 at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (NMC), in Calgary. Maestro Fresh Wes was inducted into the Hall of Fame during The 2024 Junos broadcast in Halifax, and will again be honoured at the Studio Bell event this year.
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established by CARAS, the organization behind the Junos, in 1978 to acknowledge artists who have made a remarkable impact on Canadian music both nationally and internationally.
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Hill, Reno, Glass Tiger, McKennitt, Sum 41 and Maestro Fresh Wes will join the ranks of esteemed stars including Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, Joni Mitchell, k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Nickelback, Oscar Peterson, Rush, The Guess Who, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain.
This is the third time CARAS has held a multiple induction ceremony outside of the Junos.
“As the physical home of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, we’re proud to be a place that honours the individuals that have contributed so much to Canadian music,” says Andrew Mosker, president & CEO of the National Music Centre. “It’s always a privilege to host this special event and welcome the latest inductees to Calgary, where we can celebrate their significant influence and share their inspiring stories.”
The National Music Centre will unveil a new exhibition at Studio Bell on May 7, spotlighting the achievements of the four inductees.
Hill has achieved major international success, both for his own music and in collaboration with other musical legends. His “Sometimes When We Touch,” a tune Dolly Parton called her “favourite song of all time”’ and one she wishes she had written, has notched 63 million YouTube views and over 100 million downloads. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
Hill has recorded and released multiple Gold and Platinum albums, won a Grammy Award and five Junos, and was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021. He’s also worked with many of the pop’s top-selling artists, including Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears and Céline Dion.
Ginette Reno is a legend of Quebec music. In a 65-year career, she’s recorded over 2000 songs, 42 albums, all gold or platinum, and various notable roles on the silver screen and on television.
Since their first three albums starting in the mid-1980s, Ontario rock band Glass Tiger spawned 14 Top 40 Hits in Canada in five years. The 1986 hit “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” (which hit No. 2) and following hit “Someday,” which both reached Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the band’s debut album, The Thin Red Line, went quadruple platinum in Canada and gold in the U.S.
McKennitt has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide while remaining self-managed and self-produced. Her music, combining elements of pop, folk and worldbeat styles, has been dubbed “eclectic Celtic.”
Tickets will soon go on sale at the National Music Centre. More info at the Canadian Music Hall of Fame website.
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Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
It seems the relationship between Cardi B and Offset continues to sour. She is now claiming that he did not give their kids Christmas gifts and actually stole from her.
As per Rap-Up Magazine Cardi B has once again taken to social media to out her estranged husband. On Tuesday, Jan. 14 she hosted an X Spaces session, formerly known as Twitter, and proceed to air him out over his lack of co-parent support during the holidays. “You love your kids so much that you didn’t buy them s**t for Christmas, but you came to New York to buy your other kids gifts,” she alleged. “You ain’t bought my kids s**t on purpose to spite me.”
Cardi B also says Offset has failed to be in his newest daughter’s life as well. “[You said] you haven’t accepted the divorce [papers] because you want to see the kids. You just called your [newborn] daughter for the first time this year yesterday (Jan. 13).” Before closing out the session she alleged that he is also a thief. “Mind you, we were cool. We weren’t f**king, but we was cool,” Bardi explained. “You and your momma robbed me cold. Wiped my nose.” Cardi B did not clarify on what she believes was actually taken from her.
You can listen to Cardi B discuss Offset and more below.
As the Los Angeles wildfires continue to devastate the city, celebrities are coming together to support the wildfire relief efforts that have been working tirelessly to help the community rebuild and gather resources for victims. At the time of publication, the Palisades fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres and is only 19% contained, while the […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) is firing back at Drake’s lawsuit accusing the music giant of defaming him by promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” calling the case “illogical” and accusing Drake of trying to “weaponize the legal process.”
In a strongly-worded statement issued Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 15), UMG flatly denied the allegations in Drake’s lawsuit — filed earlier in the day in New York federal court — and sharply criticized its superstar artist for bringing it.
“Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical,” the company wrote. “We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.”
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The lawsuit claims that UMG knew that “inflammatory and shocking allegations” in Lamar’s scathing diss track were false, but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
But in UMG’s response, the music giant said that Drake himself had often engaged in rap beefs featuring bombastic claims about his opponents — the very thing that he now claims is illegal.
“Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists,” UMG wrote. “He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”
Drake’s case repeatedly makes clear that he is not suing Lamar himself, and that he holds UMG responsible for releasing a song that it allegedly knew was defamatory.
In its statement, UMG denied that claim — and said it would defend Lamar or any other artist if they were hit with such a lawsuit.
“We have not and do not engage in defamation—against any individual,” UMG said in the statement. “At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song.”
Drake and Lamar exchanged stinging diss tracks last year, culminating in Lamar’s knockout “Not Like Us” — a track that savagely slammed Drake as a “certified pedophile” and reached the top of the charts. In November, the star filed stunning legal petitions suggesting that he planned to sue UMG, claiming that the company had artificially boosted a song that contained defamatory statements about him.
Earlier on Wednesday, Drake made good on those threats — filing a federal lawsuit that claimed UMG had boosted a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a pedophile, severely harming his reputation and even putting his life in danger.
“UMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,” the star’s lawyers wrote in their complaint. “UMG did so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
The accusations — and Wednesday’s response statement — represent a remarkable rift between the world’s largest music company and one of its biggest stars. Drake has spent his entire career at UMG, first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint that was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.
Dave Grohl spent his 56th birthday giving back to families in need amid the ongoing wildfire crisis in the Los Angeles area. In videos posted to Instagram Stories Tuesday (Jan. 14) by Feed the Streets — an L.A.-based charity with which the Foo Fighters frontman has volunteered in the past — Grohl helps stir homemade […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
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This week: Fan support for a 2000s TV icon has resulted in her 15-year-old album likely recharting next week, while a soundtrack synch sets off a revival of a late-’80s pop classic and TikTok embraces a Rihanna hit that never was.
Heidi Montag’s ‘Superficial’ Goes Viral to Aid Recovery From Palisades Fire
Reality star Heidi Montag can now add pop star to her resume. Montag and husband Spencer Pratt, best known for their roles on hit reality TV show The Hills, lost their home in the Palisades wildfire last week. Pratt took to TikTok to share the devastating news, and to direct viewers to stream and purchase Montag’s 15-year-old album Superficial to help the family generate income in the wake of the disaster.
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Followers certainly showed up for the couple, pushing Superficial to No. 1 on the iTunes chart over the weekend and into this week with over 6,000 in album sales for the weekend of Jan. 10-12 (up from a negligible number of sales the weekend prior). It also picked up massively on streaming services, growing 740.6% in U.S. on-demand streams to over 800,000 from the first weekend of January to the second. If it maintains its performance, it could make a bow on the Billboard 200 next week — which would be Superficial‘s first appearance on the chart. — KRISTIN ROBINSON
‘Babygirl’ Milk Drinkers are Lapping Up George Michael’s ‘Father Figure,’ Too
Babygirl, Halina Reijn’s new erotic thriller/dark comedy starring Nicole Kidman as a powerful CEO who indulges in her sexual fantasies with her intern (played by Harris Dickinson), has not only served as Kidman’s latest bravura turn with Oscar buzz, but is also being meme’d ad nauseam by cinephiles who are sick of talking about the turtle in Conclave. One particular sequence that has been hoisted up by the Internet involves Dickinson dancing shirtless to “Father Figure,” the iconic No. 1 smash by George Michael, in a hotel room, while Kidman watches from afar.
Following the film’s wide release on Christmas Day, “Father Figure” has not only picked up steam on streaming services thanks to the Babygirl scene, but also with Michael’s 1987 smash soundtracking various TikTok mash-ups, from those trying to recreate Dickinson’s dance moves to others who want to anoint Pedro Pascal as the ultimate “father figure” (read: zaddy). In any event, “Father Figure” earned 358,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Dec. 26, according to Luminate, and that weekly streaming total had more than doubled two weeks later, to 984,000 streams in the week ending Jan. 9. Who knows? With the film’s pivotal scene of Kidman’s character drinking a glass of milk, maybe U.S. dairy sales are on the rise, too. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Nearly 18 Years Later, Rihanna’s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ Is Still Churning Out Hits
Even though she’s popped up for a Black Panther song or two, it’s still been nearly nine years since Anti – Rihanna‘s last studio album. Like most Rihanna album’s, Anti produced a plethora of hits, and that’s a trend Riri began with 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad. That album housed “Umbrella” (No. 1, seven weeks); “Shut Up And Drive” (No. 15); “Hate That I Love You” (No. 7); “Don’t Stop the Music” (No. 3); “Rehab” (No. 18); “Take A Bow” (No. 1) and “Disturbia” (No. 1). Now, nearly 18 years later, another Good Girl track is looking to join those ranks: the Christopher “Tricky” Stewart-produced, The-Dream-penned “Breakin’ Dishes.”
According to Luminate, “Breakin’ Dishes” has steadily risen in streams over the past month. In the week preceding Christmas (Dec. 13-19, 2024), the track pulled over 2.37 million official on-demand U.S. streams. Though streaming activity dipped during the holiday week (Dec. 20-26) — earning 2.25 million streams, down 5.2% — the following week produced its biggest week-over-week streaming increase of the month. During the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2, streams for “Dishes” soared 22% to over 2.7 million streams. By the following week (Jan. 3-9), streams rose by a furter 5.7% to just over 2.9 million streams.
Although “Breakin’ Dishes” — like the bulk of RiRi’s catalog – isn’t available on TikTok as an official sound, fan uploads have kept the song in near-constant circulation on the platform. Across three different sounds ranging from 40,000 to 280,000 posts each, users have hopped on three distinct trends attached to “Dishes.” First, some users use the song’s “A man, a man, a ma-e-a-a-an” refrain to show off their boyfriends’ strength by having them lift them up on one shoulder. Another set of users have used the song to make edits of their favorite characters from media like Squid Game and various Disney films; other users have used “Dishes” sounds to explain that the song is about “female rage” and not love.
Regardless of how they found their way to “Breakin’ Dishes,” fans are discovering Rihanna’s deep cuts and falling in love with them as if they’re new singles. — KYLE DENIS