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The Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died at age 63.
His death was first reported by the Manchester Evening News, and confirmed by Mani’s brother Greg on Facebook Thursday (Nov. 20). “IT IS WITH THE HEAVIEST OF HEARTS THAT I HAVE TO ANNOUNCE THE SAD PASSING OF MY BROTHER GARY MANI MOUNFIELD,” he wrote. “RIP RKID.”
Ian Brown, the band’s singer, also confirmed the news writing on his X profile: “REST IN PEACE MANi X.”
Mani was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, on Nov. 16, 1962. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.
The Stone Roses was formed in Manchester in 1983 by Brown and guitarist John Squire. Drummer Alan “Reni” Wren joined the group the following year, and Mani completed the lineup in 1987. The band fused the city’s burgeoning dance scene with a “baggy” psychedelic rock sound and earned widespread acclaim from the British press.
In 1989, the group released its seminal self-titled debut album, which peaked at No. 5 on the U.K. Official Albums Chart, and went on to inspire a number of bands from the local area such as Oasis. Liam Gallagher said in 2011 that seeing the Roses perform live made him “obsessed with music” and was what made him want to join a band.
Following the release of The Stone Roses’ debut album, the band was embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute with its label, Silvertone. The group eventually signed with Geffen in 1991, and three years later, released The Second Coming to mixed reviews. The LP’s labored production put tensions on the group, and Reni left in 1995. A year later, Squire announced he was also departing, leaving Brown and Mani as the sole two members of the group. After a disastrous performance at Reading Festival in 1996, the band called it quits.
Mani then joined Scottish band Primal Scream as its bassist in 1996, and performed with the band until 2011. He also formed the group Freebass with fellow Manchester bass players Andy Rourke (formerly of the Smiths) and Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order) and released one studio LP in 2010.
In April 2011, Brown and Squire reconciled at the funeral of Mani’s mother. Several months later, The Stone Roses announced its reformation for a number of shows at Manchester’s Heaton Park for June and July 2012. In May 2016 the group released its first single in 20 years, “All for One,” though relations soon broke down again and sessions for a comeback album were eventually scrapped. Despite tensions, the group toured steadily until 2017, including shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. In 2023, Mani’s wife, Imelda, died following a bowel cancer diagnosis.
On Nov. 14, Mani announced a U.K. speaking tour for the U.K. titled The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Me – An Intimate Evening With Gary “Mani” Mounfield. The tour was set to begin in September 2026 and run until June 2027.
Tributes have been pouring in from a number of Manchester artists. Liam Gallagher said on his X account: “IN TOTAL SHOCK AND ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED ON HEARING THE NEWS ABOUT MANI MY HERO RIP RKID LG”
The Charlatans’ singer Tim Burgess wrote on X, “I shared this photo a week or so ago on Mani’s birthday – It never failed to bring a smile to my face – and that was exactly the same for the man himself. One of the absolute best in every way – such a beautiful friend.”
Mani and Imelda are survived by twin sons Gene Clark and George Christopher.
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Lily Allen didn’t just want to make music again after her marriage to David Harbour fell apart — she needed to.
In an interview with CBS Mornings that aired Thursday (Nov. 20), the British pop star opened up about making her new album, West End Girl, a visceral 14-track LP detailing the end of her relationship. The project has generated critical acclaim since its Oct. 24 release, but Allen revealed on the show that she wasn’t even sure whether it would “see the light of day” while she was writing it across 10 days in December.
“I wasn’t even really thinking about it as, like, a commercial endeavor,” she told correspondent Anthony Mason. “It was an act of desperation, actually.”
The album was therapeutic to the point where Allen didn’t feel like her “healing process” was complete until it came out into the world. “Since I’ve put it out, it’s felt completely and utterly liberating,” she said. “It was kind of hellish having it in the background. I don’t know. I just feel like I couldn’t, it said everything that I needed to say. And I felt like I couldn’t really like get on with my life until I’d said it.”
Billboard has reached out to David Harbour for comment on Allen’s CBS Mornings interview.
Though she’s now in a much better spot, 2024 was an excruciating year for Allen. One month prior to news of her separating from the Stranger Things actor coming out in February, the musician checked into a treatment facility to get help with her mental health. At the time, she said on her Miss Me? podcast that she was struggling with constant panic attacks and disordered eating.
“I was excited, but also, you know, my life was falling apart,” she reflected on CBS Mornings of writing the album just before going into treatment. “So I had to, like, go and deal with some very practical stuff.”
And while Allen has stated that West End Girl is a mix of real life and fantasy, it doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of her marriage to Harbour, whom she wed in 2020. The lyrics detail a partner who pressured her into having an open relationship before breaking the agreed-upon boundaries, leaving her feeling heartbroken and betrayed.
“That’s what’s fun about this record,” Allen told Interview Magazine in October. “At the time, I was really trying to process things, and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge.”
Now feeling much better than she did a year ago, Allen is gearing up to go on a U.K. tour in 2026. She says she’s excited to bring her two daughters — whom she shares with ex-husband Sam Cooper — along for the ride, which she plans on expanding to include dates in North America soon.
Watch Allen’s interview with CBS Mornings below.
Lily Allen wrote most of her new record, “West End Girl,” in 10 days at the end of last year.The album, @lilyallen’s first in seven years, was written during the breakup of her marriage. In her only TV interview about her new music, Allen told @anthonymasoncbs why releasing the… pic.twitter.com/oPdrQ7uJ9R— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) November 20, 2025
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Nelly is demanding that a lawyer for one of his former St. Lunatics bandmates repay more than $78,000 he spent in legal bills to defeat her “frivolous” lawsuit over the rights to his debut album Country Grammar.
The case, filed by ex-bandmate Ali, was dropped in April after Nelly argued it was obviously filed years after the statute of limitations had expired. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the case was so bad that Ali’s lawyer must repay his legal bills as punishment for pursuing it too far.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Nelly’s attorneys handed Ali’s lawyer the tab: $78,007 in legal fees for three copyright litigators, covering 142 hours they say they spent working on the case after it was clear it should have been dropped.
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“These rates are reasonable because they reflect the market rate for similar services to our quality of work in the New York City area,” Nelly’s attorney Kenneth Freundlich writes in the filing.
Ali’s attorney, Precious Felder Gates, will have a chance to argue for a lower fine before the judge settles on a final number. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, she said she still believes the sanction itself was “unwarranted,” saying she’d “acted with the honest conviction that our client’s claims merited judicial consideration.”
Wednesday’s filing highlights the risk of filing questionable lawsuits against well-heeled defendants – and a potential weapon for top musicians who have complained about a rise in such cases. Ed Sheeran, Cardi B, Jay-Z and many other stars have warned that such lawsuits are often aimed at extracting quick settlements by exploiting the hassle and expense of litigation.
The case against Nelly was filed last year by members of St. Lunatics, a hip-hop group also composed of St. Louis high school friends Nelly, Ali (Ali Jones), Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb). It centered on Country Grammar, the star’s debut solo album that spent five weeks atop the Billboard 200 and helped launch a career that reached superstar heights with his 2002 chart-topping singles “Hot in Herre” and “Dilemma.”
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The lawsuit alleged that Nelly had cut his former crew members out of the credits and royalty payments for the hit album. It claimed the star had repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely thinking they’d be paid for their work.
But three of the St. Lunatics quickly dropped out, saying they had never actually wanted to sue Nelly and hadn’t given authorization to the lawyers who filed the case. Though Ali initially moved ahead alone, he dropped the case entirely in April. That move came as Nelly’s lawyers were seeking to dismiss the decades-delayed case under the Copyright Act’s three-year statute of limitations.
Though the case was over, Nelly’s attorneys refused to let Ali and his lawyers walk away. They asked for sanctions — meaning legal penalties — over a “vexatious” lawsuit that “should never have been brought.”
In the American legal system, each side usually pays its own legal bills, even including defendants who win a lawsuit that they feel they shouldn’t have faced. Only in rare cases, including as punishment for misconduct, do judges order the loser to repay the winner’s fees.
Last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger said the case against Nelly was that kind of rare situation. He said it should have been “patently obvious” to Felder Gates that the case was doomed by last November, but that she had instead “doubled down.”
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Felder, the judge said, should face punishment for “vexatiously protracting the proceedings in bad faith by her attempt to obfuscate the facts she knew barred Jones’s claims and her subsequent refusal to withdraw the amended complaint in the face of overwhelming arguments that the claims could not possibly succeed.”
At the time, Freundlich said he hoped the ruling “sends a message to lawyers that there will be consequences for dragging a defendant into an action that is frivolous on its face.”
Wednesday’s filing explained the amount that Nelly’s lawyers say Felder Gates should pay under that order. Freundlich, a veteran music industry litigator, says he spent 19 hours at his rate of $725 per hour; a senior counsel at his firm, Jonah A. Grossbardt put in 88 hours at $575 per hour; and an associate, Hugh H. Rosenberg, worked 35 hours at $375 per hour.
Such rates are typical for attorneys at those levels in major law firms in New York and Los Angeles. Many lawyers at bigger firms charge even more, and complicated cases can cost millions to litigate. But the judge is not required to grant the entire request and could very well settle on a lower number.
Felder Gates will have a chance to file a motion next week seeking a lower fine, but the judge’s order means that she will eventually have to pay Nelly some amount of fees. In her statement to Billboard, she continued to defend her firm’s conduct in the case.
“Our firm pursued a legitimate claim in good faith to protect rights expressly afforded to our client,” she said. “Based on the information available and the applicable law, we held a reasonable and well-supported belief that viable arguments existed to [extend] the statute of limitations, and we accordingly advanced those defenses.”
Trending on Billboard As Las Vegas locks in its 2026 DJ residencies, The Chainsmokers are sticking with their longtime home at Wynn Nightlife. The property confirms that the duo, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, have extended their contract with Wynn Nightlife for the next three years, meaning they’re playing Wynn’s Encore Beach Club and XS […]
Trending on Billboard
Billboard’s Dance Moves roundup serves as a guide to the biggest movers and shakers across Billboard’s many dance charts — new No. 1s, new top 10s, first-timers and more.
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This week (on charts dated Nov. 22, 2025), Calvin Harris and Jessie Reyez crown the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart with “Ocean.” It becomes Harris’ 18th No. 1 at the format and Reyez’s first career No. 1 on any Billboard chart. Plus, chart moves for DJ Snake, Fred again.., Danny Brown and nate band.
Check out the key movers below.
Calvin Harris & Jessie Reyez
In July 2017, Jessie Reyez debuted on Billboard’s charts for the first time, thanks to her featured appearance on Calvin Harris’ “Hard to Love,” which debuted and peaked at No. 30 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. Now, eight years later, she reaches No. 1 on a Billboard chart for the first time, also thanks to a Harris collaboration.
Harris and Reyez’s “Ocean,” released Sept. 5 on Columbia Records, rises 3-1 on the latest Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. It earns Harris his 18th No. 1 at the format and Reyez her first No. 1 on any Billboard chart.
Harris’ 18 No. 1s mark the second-most in the chart’s 22-year history. Here’s an updated look at the artists with the most No. 1s:
19, David Guetta
18, Calvin Harris
12, Rihanna
10, The Chainsmokers
8, Ellie Goulding
7, Anabel Englund
7, Madonna
7, Tiësto
“Ocean” is Harris’ second No. 1 of 2025, following “Blessings,” featuring Clementine Douglas, in July. Before that, he notched three leaders in 2024 (“Free,” “Lovers in a Past Life” and “Body Moving”). Harris has now spent 108 total weeks at No. 1 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, extending his record.
Although this is her first No. 1, Reyez has had a steady presence on Billboard’s rankings since her chart arrival. She’s charted five songs on the Hot R&B Songs chart and earned radio hits on Alternative Airplay, Latin Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay. Plus, her album Before Love Came to Kill Us reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 in 2020.
DJ Snake
The Algerian-French DJ banks his third entry on the Top Dance Albums chart as his new album, Nomad, debuts at No. 7 with 6,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. His previous two entries, 2016’s Encore and 2019’s Carte Blanche, both hit No. 1. The new project includes collaborations with J Balvin, Travis Scott, Peso Pluma and Stray Kids, among others.
One of the album’s breakout tracks, “Tsunami,” featuring Future and Scott, debuts at No. 6 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. It earns DJ Snake his 12th top 10 on the chart. The J Balvin collab, “Noventa,” spent a week at No. 1 on Latin Airplay in October.
Fred again..
The superstar debuts two tracks on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: “Beto’s Horns (Fred Remix)” with Argentinians CA7RIEL and Paco Amoroso (No. 15), and “Talk of the Town” with Sammy Virji and Reggie (No. 24).
The former becomes CA7RIEL and Amoroso’s first U.S. chart hit, following four entries on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100. “Beto’s Horns” was boosted by a mix with Ezra Collective. As for “Talk of the Town,” the song is a remix of Irish rapper Reggie’s 2022 track of the same name.
Both “Beto’s Horns (Fred Remix)” and “Talk of the Town” are part of Fred’s ongoing USB project — a concept beginning in 2022 that he’s called an “infinite album,” with new one-off mixes being released continuously.
Fred again.. has now charted 32 tracks on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, all since 2021.
Danny Brown
The trailblazing rapper appears on Billboard’s dance charts for the first time, as his new album Stardust debuts at No. 25 on Top Dance Albums with 3,000 units.
Stardust marks a fresh sonic turn for Brown, who has long embraced experimenting with new genres and styles. The project features Brown’s signature raps and leans into EDM and hyperpop textures. It includes guest appearances from genre fixtures Frost Children, Jane Remover and underscores.
Prior to Stardust, Brown charted four albums on the Billboard 200 and two top five entries on Top Rap Albums.
nate band
The up-and-coming DJ claims his first career entry on Billboard’s charts as “Miss Your Body” debuts at No. 14 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. The track, released Oct. 17 via moshpit projects/Thirty Knots, opens with 1.1 million official U.S. streams.
The vocals on “Miss Your Body” are sung by Lily Kaplan, who’s credited as a cowriter and coproducer on the track. She previously wrote songs for Central Cee, Ice Spice, Lil Durk, Stormzy and $uicideboy$. She reached the Billboard Hot 100 as a cowriter and coproducer on Ice Spice and Central Cee’s “Did It First” (No. 51 peak, 2024).
Band has released two other songs on DSPs: “Drugs I Like” (plus a remix with AVELLO) and “Falling.”
WhoSampled, perhaps not the most popular place for Hip-Hop producers who like to dig in the crates, is now joining the most popular streaming service globally, Spotify. According to a pair of blog posts from WhoSampled and Spotify, the sample source site will operate as it has before, with some functionality improvements and the empowerment of the streamer’s SongDNA feature.
In a blog post from Spotify, the impetus for the acquisition was made clear. The data from the sample source site will be used to empower the SongDNA feature, which will give an array of details about the artist and the track listeners are enjoying.
From Spotify:
We’ll also be rolling out SongDNA, an interactive view that maps out connections between songs, showing collaborators, samples, and covers all in one place. Spotify Premium listeners will see it in the ‘Now Playing’ view as a new way to explore, dig deeper into how tracks are connected, and trace a song’s creative roots. Samples and covers in SongDNA are powered by WhoSampled, which is now part of Spotify. With WhoSampled’s community-built knowledge, fans can dive into the influences behind the music they love, while giving sampled and covered artists fresh ways to get discovered and celebrated.
WhoSampled has enjoyed both success among users who enjoy learning more about the sources of their favorite songs, but the flipside is that some producers who rely heavily on sampling believe this could upend their creative aims.
The site explained in its own blog post that the site operates separately from Spotify, will have faster moderation, free apps across iOS and Android platforms, and the elimination of ads.
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Photo: WhoSampled/Spotify
The memes that have deepened our relationships with our favorite pop stars for the last two decades and beyond.
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Katie Atkinson, Eric Renner Brown, Hannah Dailey, Stephen Daw, Kyle Denis, Paul Grein, Joe Lynch, Meghan Mahar, Heran Mamo, Melinda Newman, Jessica Roiz, Kristin Robinson, Michael Saponara, Andrew Unterberger, Denise Warner, Abby Webster, Xander Zellner
11/20/2025
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Charli xcx’s original idea has been turned into a film, which also features the British pop star playing a fictionalized version of herself, and A24’s The Moment released its first trailer on Thursday (Nov. 20).
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The chaotic teaser sees her diving into a reimagined version of her Brat era. Charli’s artist name and her 2024 album are used throughout the clip, which finds the singer preparing for her first arena world tour while navigating the turbulence of fame and a spotlight that’s burning brighter than ever.
“When I felt like people started to care about me, nothing else mattered,” Charli says in the trailer. “Nothing was more important than Brat.”
2026 is shaping up to be a busy campaign for Charli on the silver screen, with the Aidan Zamiri-directed movie coming to theaters on Jan. 30.
The Idol’s Rachel Sennott, award-winning actor Alexander Skarsgård and reality mogul Kylie Jenner are set to appear in the film alongside Charli. The rest of the cast includes Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Rish Shah, Jamie Demetriou, Arielle Dombasle, Hailey Benton Gates, Trew Mullen, Mel Ottenberg, Richard Perez, Isaac Powell, Shygirl and A. G. Cook.
The Moment serves as Zamiri’s feature directorial debut, while Charli xcx is on board as a producer through her Studio365 production company.
As far as the rest of her film endeavors, Charli xcx is slated to deliver multiple original songs for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, and the first arrived with “House” earlier in November. The 33-year-old also notched roles in upcoming projects including Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of Faces of Death, I Want Your Sex, The Gallerist, 100 Nights of Hero and Sacrifice.
Watch The Moment‘s trailer below.
Trending on Billboard The Brothers Gibb had already enjoyed two fairly full career arcs as hitmakers by the time the Bee Gees surfaced for a third time in the mid-’70s — this time as Miami-dwelling disco dons. They got off to a pretty good start with a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits, […]
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The Weeknd‘s massive After Hours Til Dawn tour has racked up yet another huge record thanks to worldwide grosses topping $1 billion. According to a statement from Abel Tesfaye’s team, the grosses make the AHTD outing the top-earning tour by a male solo artist in history.
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The billion mark was crossed following the recent onsale dates for upcoming spring and summer 2026 dates in Mexico, Brazil, Europe and the U.K., which bumped the tour’s total ticket sales to more than 7.5 million to date across 153 shows since its July 14, 2022 kick-off at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
In mid-August, Billboard Boxscore reported that at that point the tour had grossed $635.5 million and sold 5.1 million tickets since launching, making it the biggest R&B tour in history. That meant that AHTD easily overtook Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance World Tour, which took in $579.8 million over 56 shows. The Weeknd lapped Queen Bey when it crossed the $600 million mark following two return performances at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field on July 30-31.
The gaudy numbers for AHTD made it the ninth tour to hit the $600 million and above mark, with the Weeknd the only R&B and Black artist on a list that features pop and rock acts including Elton John and Harry Styles. The Weeknd’s attendance at the shows is also a record-setter according to Billboard Boxscore, making him the only genre act and only Black artist to sell more than five million tickets on a single tour, as well as just one of eight to sell more than five million tickets and gross more than $600 million.
In addition to the record-setting box office figures, the singer’s team said to date the Weeknd has donated more than $8.5 million to his XO Humanitarian Fund as well as to Global Citizen, with additional proceeds from the 2026 dates set to continue supporting World Food Program Global Citizen.
After the 2025 North American stadium leg featuring 40+ sold out shows set highest attendance records by a Black male artist at venues in New York, Denver, Santa Clara, Seattle, Edmonton, Montreal, Orlando, Arlington and Houston, as well as breaking the all-time record for the most shows by a male solo artist on a single tour with six performances at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the trek will continue next year with 40 more dates in Mexico, Brazil, Europe and the U.K. The next leg kicks off on April 20 with the first of three stop at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City.
