Pop
Since the fall of 2023, the Las Vegas Sphere has hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company, Anyma and a current residency from the Eagles. And last week, Kenny Chesney was announced as the arena’s first country headliner. The announcement has the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast asking: When will we see a pop star at the […]
Kelly Clarkson has proven once again that she can sing any song in any genre, taking on Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” for the Tuesday (Jan. 21) installment of her talk show’s Kellyoke segment. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Dressed in a brown leather maxi […]
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” secured a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Jan. 25, 2025, and Mars is ready to party. “THANK YOU ALL!” he wrote alongside a cheers emoji and a screenshot of this week’s top 10 on the chart. “I’m headed to the studio […]
ROSÉ has now added dance teacher to her resumé. In a new YouTube Short posted to The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s account, Kelly Clarkson tells ROSÉ that she “heard” about a viral dance to the tune of the K-pop star’s Bruno Mars collaboration, “APT.,” asking, “I love dancing, so can you teach me and maybe some […]
Addison Rae is one of the few influencers who is successfully transitioning into a pop career, and in a new Rolling Stone cover story, the 24-year old star opened up about how her friend Charli XCX has been an inspiration to her along the journey. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Suffice to say, Jade Thirwall and Harry Styles weren’t written in the stars. While serving as a guest on Louis Theroux’s podcast episode posted Tuesday (Jan. 21), the Little Mix star reflected on meeting the One Direction alum during their early days on The X Factor, revealing that they went on one date before a certain teen heartthrob ghosted her.
While talking about her career beginnings on Simon Cowell’s talent competition show, Thirlwall shared that she and Styles met — and hit it off — when both of them were auditionees. “I think we went on like one date when we were 16 or something,” she said. “He’d just got put in a band, and it was really funny, because we kept in touch. Then the minute they went on live shows, he didn’t message me back.”
“I thought, ‘That’s it, now he’s gone. He’s made it,’” the “IT Girl” singer continued, laughing.
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Thirlwall tried out for The X Factor in 2010, but didn’t make the cut. That same year, Styles also auditioned and was sorted into One Direction with bandmates Liam Payne — who died in October — Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan. The boy band placed third on the show.
The next year, Thirlwall re-auditioned for X Factor, this time earning a spot in girl group Little Mix alongside Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson. After she made it onto the show — later winning the season with her band — the “Angel of My Dreams” musician says she ran into Styles again.
“He was like, ‘I’m really sorry I ignored you,’” she recalled. “I was so young, it didn’t really matter. But he was always very, very lovely. He’s gotten himself to where he is because he’s very talented and he’s very lovely. Very charming.”
Little Mix went on to release six studio albums between 2012 and 2020, notching three singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Nelson left the group at the end of 2020, and the remaining trio announced a hiatus the following year.
In 2024, Thirlwall finally kicked off her solo career with the release of debut single “Angel of My Dreams.” She’s since dropped the tracks “Midnight Cowboy,” “Fantasy” and “IT Girl.”
Listen to Thirlwall talk about Styles and Payne on The Louis Theroux Podcast below.
Alex Warren is in the middle of packing when he logs on to Zoom, sitting in a bedroom with only a bed and some taped-up boxes behind him. It’s just before the holidays, and the pop singer-songwriter is preparing to move from Los Angeles to Nashville with his wife (and fellow Internet personality) Kouvr Annon. “We’re young,” he reasons, “so let’s go experience some other things and see what we like.”
The 24-year-old is accustomed to whirlwind life changes. His latest single, the piano-backed ode to resilience “Burning Down,” became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit in October, and signaled his breakthrough as a musician. Prior to making music his full-time gig, from late 2019 to 2022, he and Annon were major players in Hype House, a popular group of TikTok content creators that frequently collaborated and lived together. (They both starred in the 2022 Netflix docuseries of the same name, which lasted one season.)
Even before the Hype House disbanded the same year, Warren had already begun to pivot into a music career, a passion of his since he began playing guitar as a child. He released his aching, guitar-driven debut single, “One More I Love You” as an independent artist in June 2021, and the track quickly drew a following on streaming platforms. With a manager already in tow — Odd Projects’ Brian Sokolik, whom he first met four years ago through a former agent — the two began to field major label offers. Warren signed with Atlantic Records in 2022.
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“We were looking for a label that really understood Alex as a person and would teach him what works best,” Sokolik recalls. “Our first meeting with Atlantic, it was pretty obvious that it was home. They came in and were brutally honest about what was good and what wasn’t, but in a really productive, constructive way.”
Austin Hargrave
In the months that followed, Warren’s life, both professionally and personally, continued to accelerate: he dropped his first single under Atlantic, “Headlights,” in August 2022, and followed it with “Chasing Shadows” that December. He then kicked off 2023 by proposing to Annon before embarking on his first headlining tour. He continued releasing more singles through last year all while maintaining his content creation career, pumping out daily TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.
Over time, Warren has become more comfortable with his music reflecting his challenging upbringing. His father passed away when he was nine years old, after which he lived with his mother, who struggled with alcoholism and died in 2021. She kicked Warren out of the house just after he turned 18, and he spent the next five months homeless. Reflecting today, he’s grateful to be able to channel such painful experiences into his music.
“I recently started doing this thing where I write about those [experiences], and I try to take control in a way,” he says. “For me, something really beautiful is taking something so sad and dark, and what most would view as something that ruined their life, and turn it into something that can help people.”
Alex Warren photographed December 19, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
Last May, during a set of studio sessions in Los Angeles, Warren felt particularly inspired by such memories, and began to write with collaborators Adam Yaron, Cal Shapiro and Mags Duval. The result was “Burning Down,” which came together in just a day, among other tracks over the course of the productive week.
“I’ve always let people walk all over me, and ‘Burning Down’ was a song I always wanted to write, but never had the balls to do it,” he says of his biggest hit to date, released on Sept. 20, one week ahead of his debut album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1). Warren’s deep, husky voice frees himself from the blame of an unhealthy relationship over a stomping piano beat.
He put his social media savvy to good use to bolster the song’s hype leading up to its release, posting a number of videos to his 16 million TikTok followers lip synching to the song with Annon. From Warren’s perspective, there’s no gimmick in getting his followers — whom he affectionately calls his “friends” — to listen to his music.
“The drawback for a lot of musicians is that they don’t necessarily understand social media,” he says. “In my career, I have been so open with my friends who follow me. They know everything about me and we’re so connected and I love that. I’m thinking of these people while I’m writing these songs, because I’m thinking about what I would want to hear if I was still going through that.”
“He knows what his fans want and will respond well to,” Sokolik adds. “Alex will tell me, ‘I have an idea for a video. I’m going to tease this and see how people respond to it.’ If they respond the same way we are, then full steam ahead — and that’s exactly what happened.”
“Burning Down” became Warren’s first Hot 100 entry, debuting at No. 76 on the Oct. 5-dated chart, and reaching No. 69 the following week. As the song continued to build both on streaming platforms and at radio, Atlantic’s A&R team reached out to Joe Jonas’ team to gauge interest in a potential remix. Jonas was already a fan. “He told us he heard the song, had it saved to a playlist on Spotify and wanted to jump in and do it with us,” Sokolik recalls.
The “Burning Down” remix arrived in December, with Jonas and Warren trading lines during verses before blending together seamlessly in the chorus. In the week following its release, the song (in all versions) was up 70% (Dec. 6-12) from the week before to 6.2 million U.S. official U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Since the arrival of the remix, “Burning Down” has also lifted on multiple radio-based Billboard charts: in January, the single hit new highs of No. 25 on Pop Airplay and No. 31 on Adult Pop Airplay.
Ahead, Warren is booked for a world tour that kicks off in February in Europe — and he has plenty of songs to come, teasing an impending Chapter 2 installment of his debut album. “I’ve always dreamed of this moment,” he says.
“There are very few people I’ve met in my life who are willing to do whatever it takes,” adds Sokolik. “Alex is one of those people. Whatever he puts his mind to, he will accomplish.”
Brian Sokolik, left, and Alex Warren photographed December 19, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Lady Gaga has been teasing her next era for more nearly a year. And while Little Monsters are well aware that LG7 (as they’ve been referring to her as-yet-untitled seventh studio album) is due out next month, at press time no additional information was available on the LP’s specific release date or track listing.
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The good news is that some news appears to be on the horizon. Over the weekend, Gaga launched a countdown clock on her official website that is slated to run out at 11 a.m. ET on Monday (Jan. 27). While the site update didn’t reveal any actual details, eagle-eyed Monsters noticed that when you swiped the blue crystals on the screen with your mouse they revealed the phrase “LG1” in the signature font from Gaga’s early career The Fame era; in addition, the crystals also called back to the oversized, bejeweled glasses she wore on the cover of her 2008 debut album.
Gaga’s upcoming album will be her first full-length solo LP since 2020’s Chromatica. To date, she’s released several versions of the album’s first single, “Disease,” as well as her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash duet with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile,” which will be included in the new album’s tracklist. In a recent interview, the singer called LG7 a life-spanning project that she promised is “full of [her] love of music,” with “so many different genres, so many different styles, so many different dreams.”
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She also said the collection “leaps around genre in a way that’s almost corrupt. And it ends with love. That’s the answer to all the chaos in my life is that I find peace with love. Every song that I wrote, I just kept getting kind of swept away in these different dreams I was having about the past — almost like a recollection of all these bad decisions that I made in my life.”
The album will drop just before Gaga headlines this year’s Coachella Festival on April 11 and 18.
Gaga will take the stage alongside Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, a reunited No Doubt, Katy Perry, Jelly Roll, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews, Green Day and many more at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles fore the FireAid Benefit Concert on Jan. 30 to support victims of the ongoing wildfire crisis that has devastated the L.A. area over the past two weeks.
Among the flurry of executive orders signed by President Trump on his first day in office was one stating that the United States would recognize only two sexes: male and female. The controversial order requires the U.S. government to use the term “sex” rather than “gender” — with Trump explaining during his inaugural address that, “this week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
He added, “We will forge a society that is color blind and merit-based. … As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
The order — one of more than 100 signed by Trump on day one — immediately drew backlash from the LGBTQ community and allies, including Ariana Grande, who shared an Instagram Story supporting the trans community following a 2024 election cycle in which the Trump campaign spent more than $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ messaging.
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First, Grande re-posted a statement from Advocates for Trans Equality which read: “Today is a tough day for our community. The incoming administration campaigned on attacking trans people’s lives, healthcare and dignity and we’re bracing ourselves for what these extremists will try to do next. No matter what comes, we will protect each other.”
A second post from the organization defiantly predicted that the new administration’s stated agenda to roll-back many of the progressive, inclusive policies of the outgoing Biden administration would not deter them from their mission. “The incoming Trump administration, and the Project 2025 extremists who will staff it, are reacting to decades of progress made by our LGBTQI+ community by trying to drag us backward. But we have fought even harder battles before, and won. We’ll do it again.”
Grande, who has long been a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ community, also included a screenshot from Trump’s inaugural address announcing the “two gender” rule with a re-post from A Bit Fruity podcast host Matt Bernstein, who wrote, “Okay, sure, whatever you say. But let’s be very clear: queer and trans people were here before donald trump and will continue to be here after he’s dead. whether or not you want us to exist is secondary to the simple fact that we do. the sun does not care if you sign an executive order telling it to stop rising each morning. it just continues to rise.”
According to the NIH, sex refers to biological characteristics, while gender refers to characteristics encompassing “gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations about status, characteristics and behavior as they are associated with certain sex traits.” The new order requires the government to use “sex” rather than “gender,” and mandates that ID documents issued by the government, such as passports and visas, be based on what it describes as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
The Human Rights Campaign vowed to fight the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back the rights or trans Americans, with the group’s president Kelly Robinson writing that, “Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in all areas of their lives. No one should be subjected to ongoing discrimination, harassment and humiliation where they work, go to school, or access healthcare. But today’s executive actions targeting the LGBTQ+ community serve no other purpose than to hurt our families and our communities.”
The post noted that the order will take time to go into effect — while vowing to do “everything possible to protect our communities” — promising that the HRC’s lawyers are analyzing the wording now and will fight back against the executive order in the courts and in Congress. “We are not going anywhere,” the post added. “And we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got.”
The post included an additional encouraging message in the caption: “Let’s love and uplift each other today and every day with open hearts like never before.”
The band Garbage also reacted to Trump’s edict, writing on Instagram: “Queer, trans, intersex and non binary peoples have existed since the dawn of time. They will continue to exist whether you choose to recognize this or not. They will exist long past the current administration and long past all of our lifetimes. An enormous shout out to so many of our beautiful friends who have to wake up this morning feeling pressured and fearful. We stand with you all. You belong in this world as much as anyone else does. Of course you all know this. Only an uneducated person or an unnecessarily cruel person would think otherwise.We send you our love this morning and every morning.”
The post ended with a positive message to the group’s many trans and queer fans. “You go on being beautiful you,” it read. “That’s what you do. Go baby go. We are right behind you.”
GLAAD also reacted to Trump’s comments, writing on Instagram, “When he says Make America Great Again, he clearly doesn’t mean it for all Americans.” That statement drew commentary from a couple of RuPaul’s Drag Race stars, including Niecy Nash, who posted a, “Nuh-uh” gif, while Cynthia Lee Fontaine added, “Trash. But we will continue to ensure we will continued with our rights. We will NOT be silent.”
Drag Race judge Michelle Visage also weighed in, writing in all caps, “YOU WILL NOT ERASE MY CHILD YOU POS.”
Coldplay’s Chris Martin thanked his Indian audience on Saturday (Jan. 18) for “forgiving” British colonialism, as the band’s Music Of The Spheres dates kicked off in Mumbai. The band performed at DY Patil stadium in Mumbai to 75,000 fans, where Martin expressed his gratitude for a warm welcome, despite Britain’s past colonial rule in India. […]