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Morgan Wallen Tops All 5 Country Charts for Record-Breaking Fourth Week

Morgan Wallen leads all five of Billboard’s country charts (dated May 13), marking the record-rewriting fourth time that the East Tennessee native has achieved the quintuple domination.

He passes Luke Combs, who managed the feat in three distinct weeks.

Wallen’s “Last Night” inhabits the penthouse on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart for a 13th frame. On Country Airplay, it vaults 5-1, becoming Wallen’s ninth leader, up 21% to 29.5 million in audience April 28-May 4, according to Luminate.

The track also drew 32.4 million official U.S. streams and sold 9,000 downloads, as it rules Country Streaming Songs for a 13th week and Country digital Song Sales for an 11th frame.

Plus, parent album One Thing at a Time commands the Top Country Albums chart for a ninth week (138,000 equivalent album units, down 8%), encompassing its entire run on the ranking so far.

This is the fourth week that Wallen has controlled all five country charts. He first did so on the Feb. 25 dated rankings, thanks to “Last Night” on Hot Country Songs, Country Streaming Songs and Country Digital Song Sales; “Thought You Should Know” on Country Airplay; and his prior LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, on Top Country Albums.

Wallen went on to top all five country surveys with the same titles on the charts dated March 4 and 11.

Prior to Wallen, just two artists accomplished the fivefold feat (dating to the start of Country Streaming Songs in April 2013). Luke Combs dominated the charts dated March 9 and 30 and April 6, 2019, after Kane Brown first achieved the honor on Oct. 28, 2017.

Concurrently, “Last Night” crowns the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 for a fifth week, marking the first song to top both that tally and Country Airplay simultaneously in the 33-year history of the latter chart.

Ginuwine Laughs Off His Big Fall at Lovers & Friends Festival: ‘Man Down!’

Ginuwine has updated his fans after falling off the stage while performing at the Lovers & Friends festival in Las Vegas over the weekend.

“Shout-out to everybody at Lovers & Friends, that was a crazy, crazy show,” he says in an Instagram video while riding in the back of a car back in Atlanta. “We had so much fun — aside from my little spill,” he adds, before breaking into laughter and shouting, “Man down, man down! And then man got up! You know what I mean?”

At that point in the video, Ginuwine breaks into song to continue the bit, singing, “We fall down/ But we get up/ Yeah!/ We fall down/ But we get up!”

Ginuwine added in the caption of the IG video: “I buss my ass I am constantly laughing with the funnies but we right back at it ATL stand up next year im windmillin so don’t mis it lolololol I got it prepared already but yeah I’m good about to do what I do one mo gin,” along with the hashtags #loversandfriends #wine and #90s and red wine emoji. “GOE GINUWINE Over Everything,” he concluded the caption.

In fan-captured footage from the Vegas festival, Ginuwine can be seen hopping off the stage and grabbing onto a sign-language interpreter before falling backward and disappearing completely from view.

Plenty of fans reacted to the video in the comments on TikTok, writing things like, “Now that was genuine,” and, “The fact he tried to grab that man and sacrifice him too,” along with lots of laugh-crying emojis. However, on his follow-up post, Ginuwine got support from industry friends like Tweet, Eric Benét, Claudia Jordan and more. Rapper David Banner commented, “My man ain’t never missed a step! He’s one of the best and the GOAT. A living #Legend so deal with it! Glad he’s safe and well. Haters will hate!!”

Check out Ginuwine’s fall at Lovers & Friends as well as his hilarious reaction afterwards in the videos below.

Verzuz Returns To MSG, Jermaine Dupri & Diddy Will Face Off

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Jermaine Dupri Video Shoot

Verzuz will reportedly make its return to Madison Square Garden in late summer where Jermaine Dupri and Sean “Diddy’ Combs will face off. Diddy confirmed the showdown with Busta Rhymes according to video footage, and Verzuz co-founder Swizz Beatz confirmed the news via social media.

Verzuz, now in its third season reportedly, which last took place in July 2022, is still one of the most anticipated music events of its sort. Dupri and Diddy were long positioned to square off with one another and the two mega-producers have both egged on the battle with some lighthearted chatter.

It would be a fitting battle to witness considering both men have dozens upon dozens of hits between them and have worked with some of the biggest names in the business on the production front. They’ve also been front-facing artists and are no strangers to performing in front of a large crowd.

With the Verzuz happening at MSG, it isn’t exactly neutral ground as Diddy was raised just up the way in Mount Vernon, N.Y. That said, Dupri made his mark early on as a background dancer for the legendary Hip-Hop trio, Whodini, and isn’t the type to back down from a challenge.

According to Diddy and Swizz, the battle will take place on Sept. 8 but more details are certain to emerge as the months roll on.

The only question that remains is, who will you be rooting for? Sound off in the comments section.

Photo: Getty

Eslabon Armado Make History With ‘Desvelado’ No. 1 Debut on Top Latin Albums Chart: ‘It Means A Lot’

Eslabon Armado make history with the No. 1 debut of their full-length album Desvelado on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart (dated May 13). With 44,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, the set scores the largest week for a regional Mexican album since the survey started measuring titles by units in February 2017.

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“It means a lot being No. 1 on Top Latin Albums,” Pedro Tovar tells Billboard. “It’s probably our favorite album, but we didn’t expect it to go that high! Mainly because I know that people don’t like something at first, but when four, five, six months or a whole year pass by, there’s always that one song that hits, and then everybody is like, ‘Oh, this is my favorite album!’”

Desvelado was released April 27 via DEL Records. The 16-track effort starts with 44,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. during the April 28-May 4 tracking week, according to Luminate.

As its predecessor (Nostalgia, 2022), nearly all of Desvelado’s first-week total was fueled by streaming-equivalent album units, with 43,000 stemming from the metric. In total, its songs drew 63.51 million official U.S. streams – the most in a week ever for a regional Mexican album.

The set also boasts the fifth biggest streaming opening week among Latin albums, after Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (365.55 million official streams, May 2022), YHLQMDLG (201.37 million, March 2020) and El Último Tour del Mundo (145.94 million, Dec. 2020), as well as Karol G’s Mañana Sera Bonito (118.73 million streams, March 11-dated list).

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Desvelado opens at No. 6, becoming the highest rank ever for a regional Mexican album, since the ranking started measuring by units in December 2014. It also becomes the second album to hit the top 10, surpassing Eslabon Armado’s No. 9-peaking Nostalgia in May 2022.

“The hardest challenge producing and recording this album was the timing,” Tovar remembers. “We wanted to release it on the 27th and we had such a short time to record everything. Plus, I didn’t really get much time to put in the final touches, so I put it on God’s hands. The result was amazing.”

As Desvelado arrives at the summit on Top Latin Albums, Eslabon Armado maintain their perfect run of six straight top 10s among six chart appearances. Out of those, one other album took the quartet up the penthouse: the one-week ruler VIbras de Noche in August 2020. Plus, Eslabon’s sixth studio effort sends Benito’s Un Verano Sin Ti to No. 2 after its 46-nonconsecutive-week domination. (Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito crowned for five weeks in between.)

Desvelado was preceded by the No. 1 viral hit “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma — in its fourth week in charge on the multimetric Hot Latin Songs chart. It concurrently reaches No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart, with 34.6 million official U.S. streams, up 2%. It’s the first regional Mexican song to lead the list and the first No. 1 on the chart for both acts. Elsewhere, “Ella Baila” rises 20-9 on the all-Latin-genre Latin Airplay tally with 6.7 million in audience impressions earned during the same tracking week, a first top 10 for Peso Pluma there.

Meanwhile, among the new recruits on Hot Latin Songs, “Así Lo Quiso Dios,” with Luis R. Conriquez, bows at No. 24. “Quédate Conmigo,” with Grupo Frontera, follows at No. 25, while “Quiés Es El?” starts at No. 33.

“Honestly, ‘Quédate Conmigo,’ with Grupo Frontera, is the song I relate to with the most,” Tovar muses. “It’s super romantic and it fits me perfectly because now I am in love. In a way, I am kind of dedicating that song to a special someone.”

About Desvelado’s eight collaborations, Tovar concludes: “I think the best one is with Peso Pluma, mainly because it’s the No. 1 song. Everywhere I go I hear it… everywhere! I don’t get tired of singing that song at all.”

Donald Glover’s ‘Atlanta’ Wins Another Peabody Award: See the 2023 List of Winners

This is getting to be a habit. Atlanta, which won a Peabody Award in its first season in 2016, today became one of the few series to win a second Peabody Award. The 2023 awards, with 35 winners honored, were announced on Tuesday (May 9).

Of Atlanta, the Peabody Awards said, “The experimental series, in which Donald Glover plays a shiftless Princeton dropout trying to manage his cousin’s burgeoning rap career, won a Peabody for its first season in 2016 for its sharp, evocative depiction of its eponymous city and the cast of characters making their way through it. Now, in its final seasons, the groundbreaking series has transcended its original success by introducing an anthology-style structure in season three that deviates largely from the central cast, allowing the final two installments of Atlanta to display a wealth of creativity and insight.”

Glover can put his two Peabody Awards alongside the two Primetime Emmys he won for the series in 2017 — outstanding lead actor in a comedy series and outstanding directing in a comedy series. Glover has also won five Grammys under his Childish Gambino alter ego. He won four of them, including record and song of the year, for “This Is America,” which was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018.

Better Call Saul also won a second Peabody Award. Like Atlanta, it previously won for its first season. Of the show, the Peabodys said, “It is a remarkable thing for a spin-off to surpass the artistic terms of its predecessor, even more so when that predecessor is as excellent as Breaking Bad, but that’s precisely what Better Call Saul did by the end of its six seasons.”

Entertainment programming led all categories with 10 wins, followed by eight for documentaries and seven for news

Other entertainment winners included Abbott Elementary, Quinta Brunson’s ABC sitcom, which appears to be headed for a Primetime Emmy win as outstanding comedy series; We’re Free, an HBO docuseries about drag queens; Severance, an Apple TV+ series from director and executive producer Ben Stiller and creator Dan Erickson; and Los Espookys, a Spanish-language comedy with English subtitles, which was created and written by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and SNL alum Fred Armisen.

The Peabodys were especially warm in their capsule description of We’re Here: “Whenever Shangela, Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka O’Hara alight on any given town during any one episode of HBO’s docuseries We’re Here, their purpose is clear: All three queens are eager to preach the gospel of drag. Drag isn’t a mask you hide behind, as they suggest with every new transformation of a local trio tasked with performing at the end of every episode; it’s a way to reveal who you really are.”

We Need to Talk About Cosby won a Peabody in the documentary category. The Peabodys noted: “For decades, no figure shaped America’s perception of Black life with as much authority as Bill Cosby. His eponymous sitcom wasn’t just a massive commercial success; it also opened the door for countless other television series focused on Black characters. And yet, W. Kamau Bell’s deeply personal docuseries takes up the troubling quandary of Cosby in modern times, given all we now know about him — the man, the entertainment phenomenon, the paragon of respectability politics and the predator.”

The winners were chosen by a unanimous vote of 32 jurors from more than 1,400 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web/digital in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, public service and interactive programming. PBS had the most wins (six), followed by Apple TV+ and Disney+ (three each), and HBO Max (two).

The winners of the 83rd Annual Peabody Awards will be celebrated on Sunday, June 11, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. This will be Peabody’s first in-person ceremony since 2019, as well as the first time in its history that the awards will take place in Los Angeles. Bob Bain Productions is set to produce the event. Variety is the media partner for the awards ceremony.

Peabody previously announced four specialty awards including NBC News’ TODAY as an Institutional Award winner. Lily Tomlin was named winner of the Peabody Career Achievement Award; Issa Rae won the Peabody Trailblazer Award; and Shari Frilot was named the winner of the Visionary Award.

Here’s a complete list of 2023 Peabody Award winners listed by category, with network/platform in parentheses:

Entertainment

Abbott Elementary; Delicious Non-Sequitur Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television and 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios (ABC)

Andor; Lucasfilm Ltd. (Disney+)

Atlanta; FX Productions (FX)

Bad Sisters; Merman / ABC Signature in association with Apple (Apple TV+)

Better Call Saul; High Bridge, Crystal Diner, Gran Via Productions and Sony Pictures Television (AMC)

Los Espookys; HBO in association with Broadway Video, Antigravico and Mas Mejor (HBO Max)

Mo; A24 (Netflix)

Pachinko; Media Res / Blue Marble Pictures in association with Apple (Apple TV+)

Severance; Fifth Season / Red Hour Productions in association with Apple (Apple TV+)

We’re Here; HBO in association with House of Opus 20 and IPC (HBO Max)

Arts

Fire of Love; National Geographic Documentary Films presents A Sandbox Films Production / An Intuitive Pictures & Cottage M Production (Disney+)

Documentary

Aftershock; Onyx Collective and ABC News Studios present a Malka Films and Madstone Company Inc Production In Association with Good Gravy Films and JustFilms | Ford Foundation Impact Partners

Batata; Saaren Films Inc., Six Island Productions Inc., Musa Dagh Productions (Streaming platforms)

Independent Lens: Missing in Brooks County; ITVS, Fork Films, Engel Entertainment (PBS)

Independent Lens: Writing with Fire; Black Ticket Films (PBS)

Mariupol: The People’s Story; Top Hat Productions / Hayloft Productions (BBC Select)

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks; SO’B Productions (Peacock)

The Territory; National Geographic Documentary Films Presents A Documist And Associação Jupaú Film in association with Time Studios, Xtr, Doc Society Climate Story Fund / A Production of Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava (Disney+)

We Need to Talk About Cosby; Showtime Documentary Films Presents, A Boardwalk Pictures Production, In Association With WKB Industries (Showtime Networks)

Interactive & Immersive

ContraPoints; Natalie Wynn (YouTube)

Life Is Strange: True Colors; Deck Nine Games & Square Enix External Studios (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Stadia)

Lucy and the Wolves in the Walls; Fable Studio, Third Rail Projects, Sound+Design, Story Studio & Experiences (Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest)

Reeducated; The New Yorker (Oculus, Mobile, Desktop)

The Uncensored Library; Media.Monks, Reporters without Borders, DDB Germany (Minecraft)

News

Guns in America; PBS NewsHour (PBS NewsHour)

Frontline: Michael Flynn’s Holy War; Frontline (PBS) with The Associated Press (PBS)

Frontline: Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack; Frontline (PBS) with Channel 4

The Gap: Failure to Treat, Failure to Protect; KARE-TV (NBC/KARE-TV)

No Justice for Women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan; VICE News (VICE News)

One Day in Hebron; AJ+ (Direct From)

Shimon Prokupecz: Unraveling Uvalde; CNN (CNN)

Podcast/Radio

Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s; Spotify & Gimlet Media (Spotify)

The Divided Dial; On the Media/New York Public Radio (New York Public Radio)

This American Life: The Pink House at the Center of the World; This American Life (This American Life)

Public Service

Frontline: The Power of Big Oil; Frontline (PBS) (PBS)

What Does Ed Sheeran’s Copyright Win Mean For Music Industry? Plus Tory Lanez, Kanye West & More

This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.

This week: Ed Sheeran wins his trial over whether “Thinking Out Loud” infringed Marvin Gaye’s iconic “Let’s Get It On”; Tory Lanez is denied a new trial over the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion; Adidas faces a class action over its Kanye West partnership; and much more.

Want to get The Legal Beat newsletter in your email inbox every Tuesday? Subscribe here for free.

THE BIG STORY: Ed Sheeran & The Copyright Road Ahead

That sound you hear? It’s not Ed Sheeran strumming his guitar from the witness stand, or the tinny audio from a supposedly “smoking gun” YouTube video. It’s the music business letting out a giant sigh of relief.

After one of the biggest music trials in years, Sheeran won a jury verdict last week that his “Thinking Out Loud” didn’t infringe the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s famed “Let’s Get It On,” clearing the singer of wrongdoing and avoiding the potential for millions in damages.

A verdict against the singer would have reverberated throughout the industry, much like the infamous 2015 verdict against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over their megahit “Blurred Lines.” Like in that earlier case, many music pros and copyright lawyers believed that Sheeran and Gaye’s songs shared only common musical “building blocks” that everyone is entitled to use. They worried that a verdict against Sheeran could have blurred the line between legal similarities and illegal copying.

For years, the verdict on “Blurred Lines” led the industry to be hyper-cautious about songs that sounded remotely similar. Musicology reports and insurance policies became far more common, and songwriting credits were liberally doled out at the first sign of trouble — by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars for their smash hit “Uptown Funk,” by Sam Smith for his Grammy-winning “Stay With Me” and by Olivia Rodrigo for her chart-topping “Good 4 U,” among many others. When cases were filed in court, many defendants chose to quickly settle, rather than face an unpredictable jury.

The legal reality, though, is that courts have slowly been back-tracking from “Blurred Lines” for a while now — first with an appellate court decision in 2020 on Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven,” then with a similar ruling last year on Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse.” Both of those rulings provided clear case law that simple elements of music creation, standing alone, cannot be monopolized by any one songwriter. Over just the first few months of 2023, song-theft cases against Donald Glover (over his Childish Gambino chart-topper “This Is America”) and Nickelback (over the band’s 2005 hit “Rockstar”) have both been dismissed at the earliest stage of litigation.

Far from throwing the industry back into confusion, Sheeran’s victory last week seems to be the latest incremental step in a march toward a post-“Blurred Lines” world. Jury verdicts don’t change case law, but they can serve as a powerful disincentive to the next round of potential copyright accusers, who might be less willing to head to court if they see that artists are willing to successfully fight back rather than quickly settle when faced with an allegation.

For Sheeran, that seems to be precisely the effect he’s aiming for.

“By stopping this practice, we can also properly support genuine music copyright claims so that legitimate claims are rightly heard and resolved,” Sheeran said on the courthouse steps, minutes after the verdict was read aloud in court. “We need songwriters and the wider musical community to come together to bring back common sense. These claims need to be stopped so that the creative process can carry on, and we can all just go back to making music.”

Other top stories…

NO NEW TRIAL FOR TORY – A Los Angeles judge refused to grant Tory Lanez a new trial after he was convicted last year of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, setting the stage for the rapper to be sentenced to as much as two decades in prison. His lawyers called the trial a “miscarriage of justice,” but such requests are very rarely granted.

CLASS-ACTION KANYE – Adidas was hit with a class action lawsuit claiming the sportswear giant knew about Kanye West‘s problematic “personal behavior” years prior to ending its partnership with the disgraced rapper but failed to warn investors about it. West himself was not named in the case.

SPINRILLA SHUTTERED – Hip-hop mixtape site Spinrilla and founder Jeffery Copeland agreed to shut down the site and pay $50 million to Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music and others to end a years-long copyright infringement lawsuit over the unauthorized use of thousands of songs by Bob Marley, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar and more.

Cardi B Is Red-Hot With Stunning New Hairstyle

Cardi B is a master of every hair color, and she debuted her new style on Monday (May 8) on her Instagram Stories.

The “I Like It” rapper shared a selfie video, in which she’s rocking a bright, fire engine red hair color in a Pamela Anderson-inspired messy bun atop her head. In the next clip, she headed to the dentist with her new look, messing with the doctor and the dental assistants as she pretends to flinch every time they try to look inside her mouth.

See her Stories before they disappear here.

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The bold new style comes just a week after Cardi attended the 2023 Met Gala, during which she stepped onto the iconic red carpet in a sleek tuxedo gown, complete with massive black roses and a Karl Lagerfeld-inspired grey hairdo, perfectly matching this year’s theme, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.

“My inspirations for this look, it’s just Chanel and Karl. It’s a little mix, because if you see the top, it’s giving the infamous Karl suits with the tie, the white collar. Almost like his suit, but not really,” she explained to Vogue in a behind-the-scenes video of her getting ready for the prestigious event. “At the bottom, if you see the skirt it has the camellias, which is the flower. So yeah, it’s just a little bit of everything. It’s representing the house of Chanel and Karl. Karl is so infamous for his gray hair.”

Here Are All the Performers & Presenters for the 2023 ACM Awards

The ACM Awards are bringing a country music party to Frisco, Texas!

Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks will co-host this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, set to air May 11 at Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas.

But they will also be guiding an evening of strong performances, highlighted by duets from Carly Pearce and Trisha Yearwood (in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Yearwood winning the ACM’s female artist of the year award). Also collaborating are Cole Swindell and Jo Dee Messina on the remix of Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” Ashley McBryde will welcome Brandy Clark, Caylee Hammack, Pillbox Patti and John Osborne (on guitar) for a performance of “Bonfire at Tina’s” from McBryde’s collaborative Lindeville project, which is nominated for album of the year. HARDY, who leads this year’s nominees with seven nods, will also make his ACM Awards performance debut.

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Morgan Wallen had been slated as a performer, but pulled out of the awards show Tuesday (May 9) and is canceling six weeks of shows due to being placed on vocal rest. Sources tell Billboard that the ACM does not plan on replacing Wallen’s performance slot due to already having a stacked lineup of performers.

While Wallen will not be replaced, the ACM’s announced earlier in the day that pop star Ed Sheeran will be performing. It will be the “Shivers” singer’s first time on the show; he just released his new album, Subtract, on May 5.

Additionally, the ACMs revealed this year’s presenters, as well as contributions from four-time ACM National On-Air Personality of the Year winner Bobby Bones, whose “Backstage With Bobby Bones” interview segment will be featured throughout the evening.

Following HARDY in terms of nominations this year are Lainey Wilson with six nods, then Cole SwindellKane BrownLuke Combs and Miranda Lambert with five nods each.

The awards show will be streaming live for free to a global audience via Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. The full rebroadcast will stream the following day for free on Amazon Freevee.

See below for the full list of performers and presenters announced for this year’s ACM Awards.

Performers:

  • Jason Aldean
  • Kane Brown
  • Luke Combs
  • Ed Sheeran
  • Cody Johnson
  • Miranda Lambert
  • Ashley McBryde
  • Jo Dee Messina
  • Dolly Parton
  • Jelly Roll
  • Cole Swindell
  • Keith Urban
  • The War and Treaty
  • Lainey Wilson
  • Bailey Zimmerman
  • Carly Pearce
  • Trisha Yearwood
  • HARDY
  • Jordan Davis
  • Brandy Clark
  • Caylee Hammack
  • Pillbox Patti
  • John Osborne

Presenters:

  • Gabby Barrett
  • BRELAND
  • Brandy Clark
  • Jordan Davis
  • Mickey Guyton
  • Tyler Hubbard
  • Dustin Lynch
  • TJ Osborne
  • Jon Pardi
  • Carly Pearce
  • MacKenzie Porter
  • Dak Prescott
  • Emmitt Smith
  • Tanya Tucker
  • Keith Urban
  • Trisha Yearwood

The ACM Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions. DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldrige. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.

Tory Lanez Denied New Trial After Conviction for Megan Thee Stallion Shooting

A Los Angeles judge is refusing to grant Tory Lanez a new trial after he was convicted last year of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, setting the stage for the rapper to be sentenced to as much as two decades in prison.

Attorneys for Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) had called the case a “miscarriage of justice,” arguing that Judge David Herriford made numerous errors during a star-studded, two-week December trial that resulted in a guilty verdict. But prosecutors later called those claims “vague and unsupported” and urged the judge to uphold the jury’s decision.

At a hearing on Tuesday (May 9) in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Herriford sided with prosecutors and denied Lanez’s motion, according to a person with knowledge of the proceedings. Neither prosecutors nor Lanez’s legal team immediately returned requests for comment.

The ruling is not particularly surprising. Such requests for a judge to overturn a jury verdict are rarely granted, reserved for major revelations about procedural errors or withheld evidence. Similar arguments could still be successfully raised in a future appeal.

Tuesday’s decision clears the way for Lanez’s sentencing, in which he potentially faces up to 22 years in prison. It had originally been scheduled for January but was repeatedly delayed due to his request for a new trial. Sentencing is now expected within the next month but could be delayed again.

Lanez was convicted on Dec. 23 on three felony charges over the mid-2020 incident, during which the rapper allegedly shot Stallion (born Megan Pete) in the foot during an argument after a pool party in the Hollywood Hills.

The shooting happened in the early-morning hours of July 12, 2020, when a driver was shuttling Lanez, Stallion and her assistant and friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, Megan got out of the vehicle during an argument and began walking away when Lanez shouted “Dance, bitch!” and proceeded to shoot at her feet.

Following the incident, Stallion initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.

During the blockbuster trial, Lanez’s lawyers made their best effort to sow doubt over who had pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered only confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Stallion herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her; neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.

In a motion for a new trial filed in March, Lanez attorneys Jose Baez and Matthew Barhoma argued that Judge Herriford made numerous errors during the course of the trial. Among others, they said he should not have allowed jurors to see an Instagram post that appeared to undermine the rapper’s central defense that Harris actually pulled the trigger. In it, Lanez appeared to personally post a comment that such a suggestion was “not true.”

“The court erred on numerous questions of law in allowing the People to introduce this post, depriving defendant of a fair trial,” Lanez’s lawyers wrote. “The only acceptable remedy for this miscarriage of justice is a new trial.”

Lanez’s lawyers made numerous other arguments, too. They said that key DNA evidence had been mischaracterized and improperly admitted; that Lanez had been denied his right to counsel because his longtime attorney withdrew at the eleventh hour; and that prosecutors had run afoul of a new California law that bans the use of creative expression in criminal trials.

But prosecutors argued back last month that the request for a new trial was groundless. The Instagram comment was a “relatively insignificant piece of evidence,” they argued, among an “overwhelming” amount of testimony and other evidence showing that Lanez had been the one to shoot Stallion.

“The defendant’s brief is replete with colorful rhetoric and conclusory statements, but it lacks substance,” prosecutors wrote. “Despite being nearly 80 pages long, the defendant has failed to cite a single instance of error in the trial court.”

Following Tuesday’s decision, Lanez can still file an appeal of the verdict at a state appellate court. But such a challenge will face an uphill climb: In 2022, California appeals courts overturned a defendant’s guilty verdict in just 19% of cases.

Chrissy Teigen Shares C-Section Photo in Response to Strange Claim That She Was ‘Born Male’ & Faked Her Pregnancy

One thing about Chrissy Teigen is she’s never letting a troll get away easily.

The model took to her Instagram Stories on Monday (May 8) to share a screenshot of a bizarre comment under a photo of her four-month-old daughter Esti Maxine, in which a commenter claimed that Teigen was “born male” and used a device “called a moonbump” to pretend she was pregnant while her daughter was born via surrogate.

In response, the Cravings cookbook author shared a photo of her C-section in January, when she welcomed her third child. “Extremely realistic ‘moon bump,’” she captioned the snap, in which Esti is clearly seen coming out of Teigen’s body. See Teigen’s Stories before they disappear here.

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Esti’s birth came just a little over two years since Teigen suffered a pregnancy loss at 20 weeks in September 2020 — a son they’d already named Jack. In February 2022, she shared that she had started IVF treatment in the hopes of conceiving again, and in August, she announced that she was pregnant.

Teigen’s husband John Legend previously told E! News that the Esti’s unique name was initially the model’s idea, but it also has surprising roots in his own family tree. “It turns out, my great-grandmother was named Esther,” he said. “It wasn’t intentionally after someone, but once Chrissy told me that idea, I was like, ‘Oh, my great-grandmother’s name was Esther.’

Teigen and Legend are also parents to seven-year-old Luna and four-year-old Miles.