Pop
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From the moment she blasted onto the pop scene in 2008, Lady Gaga became a lightning rod for public speculation.
Every inch of her persona — her outfits, her lyrics, her anatomy — was scrutinized by fans, critics and media outlets alike. When new projects were announced, speculation would follow; what would Gaga do this time? When some of those projects fell commercially short of the stratospheric bar she’d set at the foundation of her career, that speculation curdled into declarations: Gaga’s reign as pop music’s paragon must be over.
Nearly two decades after that industry-reshaping debut, the pop icon is still struggling to manage the weight of those expectations. “Ever since my first album, I did listen to what people would say. ‘Will she outdo herself? Can she top herself? Can she live up to this? She needs to evolve, she hasn’t changed enough,’” Gaga tells Billboard. “There was a lot of noise.”
When it came time for her to embark on creating her seventh studio album, that noise hadn’t gone away. Fans, who had dubbed the untitled project “LG7,” were sharing wishlists of what they wanted to see Gaga do next. What genre would she tackle this time? Would there be high-profile features? Could the long-awaited continuation of “Telephone” finally materialize?
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Sitting in a New York hotel’s conference room, Gaga’s shoulders relax. “Taking the pressure off myself helped me to value what I feel really matters about me as a person,” she says, her face softening. “When you put your artistry first, and then you take the other stuff away … it gave me so much dignity. And I didn’t realize how much I was craving that.”
Mayhem, Gaga’s long-awaited new album (out Friday, March 7 via Interscope Records), doesn’t concern itself with expectations. It does play with them, though, changing up the sonic and thematic spaces it occupies before it can be boiled down into a single idea. In a musical landscape concerned with “album eras,” Mayhem refuses to be easily categorized. Ranging from grinding industrial techno one moment to soulful, heartfelt balladry the next, Mayhem makes its title a thesis statement — the throughline is disorder.
That pandemonium was established early in the process of making the album, thanks to Gaga’s own sense of experimentation in the studio. When setting out to write and record her new project, the singer says she found herself taking a piecemeal approach to her creative process, a welcome change from past efforts.
“There have been times in my career where I had an idea in terms of how to conceptually approach a record. But I would say that this album, from start to finish, was like pieces coming together,” she says. “I did not want to turn it into anything artificial, I really wanted to allow myself to just follow the music. By doing that, it started to slowly remind me of my earlier work.”
As she began piecing her music together, Gaga created a mantra for her work on the album: “Go with the chaos.” Instead of laboring under the expectation of finding a sonic or thematic subject, she instead opted to embrace the tumult itself and see where it took her.
Part of that process involved bringing in a new suite of collaborators — working closely with co-executive producer Andrew Watt and collaborators like Cirkut and Gesaffelstein, Gaga went about crafting an album that sounded like her while still bringing something fresh to the mix. As Cirkut explained to Billboard in November 2024, that wasn’t always easy to balance in the studio. “Do you do something so different that you move away from the things that you are known for?” he asked. “But if you just do the same thing that you’ve been known for, does that end up feeling like a ‘more-of-the-same’ type situation?”
Gaga says that she found herself leaning hard into her own intuition during the recording process. “I think what I look for in collaborators are people that will uphold me as a woman in the studio and follow my vision,” she explains. “I tried musically to work with people that I could push myself with — so that it wouldn’t be exactly what you’ve heard from me before, but there is the DNA of my approach to pop music.”
That approach to her pop sound pays off in spades throughout Mayhem. On early highlight “Perfect Celebrity,” Gaga takes the ruminations on fame that she made a career out of and twists the knife that little bit deeper. Serving as a kind of mirror image to 2009’s “Paparazzi,” “Perfect Celebrity” puts much of the onus back on Gaga as she examines why she fought for fame so vigorously. “I’m made of plastic like a human doll/ You push and pull me, I don’t hurt at all,” she sings. “I talk in circles because my brain it aches/ You say ‘I love you,’ I disintegrate.”
“I had this feeling inside myself of, ‘You can’t write about that. You can’t show this part of yourself.’ And then I was like, ‘No … embrace it, what do you want to say?’” Gaga recalls of the writing process. “It became complicated so quickly; owning that I wanted to be a star, and that it did bring a lot of complication to my life. So then, it’s also that anger that I felt towards myself, that I brought this on myself.”
She takes a beat before continuing. “I was nervous to put it on the album. But part of Mayhem is that I just put it all out there,” she says.
That’s not to say all of Mayhem is shrouded in darkness — later tracks on the album, like the campy disco banger “Zombieboy,” show Gaga shrugging off that self-seriousness to embrace pure pop hedonism. “Part of my personal mayhem is that it’s fun, and that’s why I keep doing it,” she says. “That’s what makes it complicated — it is dark, and it pulls me away from myself, but it’s also the best time. It’s that point where you’re at the party, and you’re totally numbing out, and you’ve fully accepted that by the morning you are not going to feel well, but you’re fully in it.”
As experimental and twisted as Mayhem gets, it’s clear that the early teases of the album have struck a chord with global audiences. “Die With a Smile,” the project’s closing track featuring Bruno Mars, spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — that’s the second longest stay any of the star’s singles have held in the chart’s top slot, just one week behind her 2011 behemoth “Born This Way.” Meanwhile, “Abracadabra” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart — where it remained for three weeks, — and continues to float around the Hot 100’s top 40.
Gaga is still in awe at both tracks’ immediate success. “I am really grateful, and I am really beside myself,” she says. “I never expect anything like this, because you never know, all you can do is your best. This is really a true honor and privilege.”
Along with becoming one of the biggest hits of her career, “Die With a Smile” also earned Gaga her 14th Grammy — she took home the 2025 trophy for best pop duo/group performance alongside Mars. When she took to the stage at the February ceremony, though, Gaga made sure that she shared her win with the trans community, reminding the audience at home that “trans people are not invisible” and that they “deserve love.”
Looking at the current administration’s ongoing attacks against the trans community, Gaga doesn’t mince her words. “I think it is abysmal, and horrible, and violent and wrong,” she offers, matter-of-factly. “I just want to extend all of my love and gratitude to the trans community for showing us so much strength and love.”
She often shares that same sentiment about her fanbase, the Little Monsters, whom Gaga credits with “having this conversation [with me] through art and fashion and politics for a long time.” While her fans have always been active and outspoken in their support for her, Mother Monster has noticed a shift in her following as of late.
“I’ve seen Little Monsters be so amazing for almost 20 years. I haven’t seen us like this in a long time,” she says, pointing to the swath of videos fans have shared across apps like TikTok and Instagram learning her choreography and creating new art out of her music. “Between the dancing, the makeup. the hair, the costumes, it gives me so much life, and I am really honored. All I ever want to do is make something that you press play and you feel good for the duration of the record, and maybe you play it again.”
That activation on her base’s part may have something to do with a similar activation on the singer’s part — fans on TikTok have noticed how frequently Gaga comments on fan-made videos, with some even referring to the phenomenon as “conjuring” Gaga.
“That is me,” Gaga confirms about her TikTok comments, smiling. “That’s the way we always were — it just wasn’t to this extent, because we didn’t have the same tools to talk to each other.” After a pause, a look of incredulity crosses Gaga’s face. “I just … how could I not? I always say that I have the best seat in the house, because I get to watch the fans.”
With her fans fired up for a new album, her singles finding massive global success and her meticulously-crafted album ready to release, Gaga takes one last look at a career’s worth of expectations before dismissing them. “I do think that I felt a lot of pressure, over the years, to prove myself as a musician,” she says. “And that sometimes stopped me from having fun. So, I tried to have a lot of fun making this record.”
Celine Dion scored a hole in one on Tuesday (March 4) after ESPN’s Marty Smith asked the singer which one of her classic hits best represents her golf game. Making an appearance at the TGL match between the Atlanta Drive GC and Jupiter Links Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Dion didn’t hesitate. Explore […]
Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin is working with FIFA to curate the first Super Bowl-style halftime show at the World Cup final next year. The MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — to be known as New York New Jersey Stadium for the World Cup — will host the final on July 19, 2026. FIFA is also […]
Lewis Capaldi has finally notched his first video in the YouTube billion-views club. The Scottish singer made it onto the 10-digit list this week when his 2019 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit became his first visual to notch a billie. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
BTS‘ J-Hope gives new meaning to the phrase “teaser” with the 17-second preview of his upcoming collaboration with Miguel on the song “Sweet Dreams.” The K-pop superstar dropped the second taste of the upcoming single on Wednesday morning (March 5) and it (barely) pulled back the curtain a hair more on the anticipated team-up. Explore […]

Fresh off her appearance at Sunday’s Academy Awards as part of a James Bond theme song tribute, BLACKPINK’s LISA bonded with Jimmy Kimmel over their shared experience of being flown up into the rafters on wires at the Oscars. “It seemed so elegant and graceful, but it’s kind of scary right?” asked Kimmel on Tuesday night’s (March 4) Jimmy Kimmel Live!, recalling the agita (and discomfort) he felt while flying over the stage during one of his hosting stints on the awards show.
“It was really scary,” LISA smiled. “I was like, ‘I’m not comfortable doing this!” The singer said producers repeatedly checked in to make sure she felt good about being lowered to the stage in a harness as she sang Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die” as part of a medley that also had Doja Cat covering Shirley Bassey’s “Diamond Are Forever” and RAYE’s take on Adele’s “Skyfall.” While Kimmel complained about gravity “squeezing everything down” if you know what he means, LISA said she couldn’t really feel her legs.
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“Those were the least of my problems,” Kimmel joked.
The BLACKPINK singer also talked about her well-received turn as Mook on the current season of HBO’s The White Lotus, noting that many fans have speculated that because her resort worker character is so sweet on the series she might turn out to be the killer. “Oh… am I supposed to tell you that?” she responded haltingly, with a coquettish glint in her eye. “Legally you should not, but I would appreciate it if you did,” Kimmel said, knowing that his ploy to squeeze some spoilers about the tightly-held plot of the show was going nowhere.
“I think she’s a sweet girl,” LISA said of the character whose name means “pearl” in Thai before Kimmel explained the not-as-nice meaning of the word in America. Kimmel also wondered if during the cast’s regular karaoke sessions on set if the crew or extras freaked out when they saw the K-pop superstar stepping up to the mic. “They don’t care!,” LISA said. “I’m just sitting in the corner of the room cheering them, hyping them up,” she said, explaining that she didn’t sing during the sessions, but was more into dancing.
“I feel weird for me to grab the mic and sing karaoke,” she smiled. “[There’s] a lot of pressure.” As for who was the best karaoke singer in the cast, LISA said for sure it was the lone returning actor from season two: horny masseuse Natasha Rothwell. “Oh, she’s so good!” LISA said.
She also discussed the concept behind her just-released solo album, Alter Ego, explaining that while recording it in Los Angeles she tried her hand at recording songs in a variety of styles, all of which she ended up loving. “That’s why I called this album Alter Ego and [I] have five different characters [on it],” she said of Roxi, Kiki, Sunni, Speedi and the main character, Vixi.
These days, she said, Vixi is the one that is closest to her actual personality, though, like Speedi, she loves to drive fast in her car.
Watch LISA on Jimmy Kimmel Live! below.

Director Ezra Edelman spent nearly five years meticulously piecing together his sprawling, nine-hour documentary about Prince. In an appearance this week on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, the Oscar-winning director of O.J.: Made in America called the decision by Netflix and the Prince estate to pull the plug on the film a “joke.”
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“The estate, here’s the one thing they were allowed to do: Check the film for factual inaccuracies. Guess what? They came back with a 17-page document full of editorial issues — not factual issues,” Edelman said. “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that is factually inaccurate?”
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The Yale-educated director known for his deep-dive process, spent years developing and meticulously editing his six-part The Book of Prince doc for Netflix — after being hand-picked for the project by former Netflix VP of independent film and documentary features Lisa Nishimura — only to have the Prince estate object to the way the late singer was depicted in the film; the estate announced last month that the project would never be released and that it was working on its own documentary featuring “exclusive content” from the archive of the singer who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in April 2016 at age 57.
“This is reflective of Prince himself, who was notoriously one of the most famous control freaks in the history of artists,” said Edelman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon known for fiercely protecting his name, image and likeness. “The irony being that Prince was somebody who fought for artistic freedom, who didn’t want to be held down by Warner Bros., who he believed was stifling his output. And now, in this case — by the way, I’m not Prince, but I worked really hard making something, and now my art’s being stifled and thrown away.”
Before the public saw even a frame of the film, it was in the headlines last September when a New York Times magazine profile described elements of the project that touched on Prince’s alleged physical and emotional abuse of his partners, as well as allegations that the singer had suffered abuse as a child. At the time, the two companies that control Prince’s assets, Primary Wave Music and Prince Legacy, said that they were “working to resolve matters concerning the documentary so that his story may be told in a way that is factually correct and does not mischaracterize or sensationalize his life.”
Following the shelving of the film, Edelman said that he believes Netflix is “afraid of [Prince’s] humanity.” Torres, who has seen the movie, said he came away with the takeaway that “this is one of the most impressive artists that has ever lived.”
That sentiment appeared to confirm Edelman’s feelings about the project. “This is the thing that I just find galling. I mean, I can’t get past this — the short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line,” Edelman said.
“The lawyer who runs the estate essentially said he believed that this would do generational harm to Prince. In essence, that the portrayal of Prince in this film — what people learn about him — would deter younger viewers and fans, potentially, from loving Prince,” the director added. “They would be turned off. This is, I think, the big issue here: I’m like, ‘This is a gift — a nine-hour treatment about an artist that was, by the way, f–king brilliant.’ Everything about who you believe he is is in this movie. You get to bathe in his genius. And yet you also have to confront his humanity, which he, by the way, in some ways, was trapped in not being able to expose because he got trapped in his own myth about who he was to the world, and he had to maintain it.”
Though neither Netflix nor the Prince estate have detailed what specific issues they have with the doc, among the controversial allegations reportedly featured in the project are claims from one of the singer’s former lovers, Jill Jones, who allegedly describes a night when Prince slapped and punched her in the face. Another former paramour, Susannah Melvoin — musician and twin sister of Prince and the Revolution guitarist/singer Wendy Melvoin — reportedly told the director that after she moved in with Prince he would not let her leave the house, monitored her phone calls and tried to keep her from seeing her sister. It also reportedly featured accounts of Prince asking Wendy Melvoin to renounce her homosexuality as a prerequisite for getting the Revolution back together.
“The whole point of it is the journey. And the whole point of it was actually reflecting a journey that he went through,” Edelman told Torres. “Prince’s whole thing was that he was a Gemini and so this sort of push-and-pull of who he was in all these facets, male/female, black/white, artist/businessman, it goes on and on. In terms of this binary in his head was this idea of good and evil, which, sorry, God and sex, and that was another basic dichotomy of his art. He was always sort of weighing his moral account of how he was going through the world and he believed in karma in terms of how he treated people.”
The movie also reportedly features an interview with Prince’s ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, in which she alleges that he left her alone after the couple’s son died six days after his birth due to a rare genetic disorder. At press time it did not appear that Netflix or the Prince Estate had responded to Edelman’s interview; at press time a spokesperson for Prince had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
“The image I’ve had in my head is the last show of Raiders of the Lost Ark, of just a huge warehouse somewhere in Netflix. A crate and just like put away,” Edelman said, noting that viewers will never see his work because he doesn’t “feel like getting sued.”
Watch Edelman discuss the doc’s cancellation below.

Nick Jonas admitted that he might have taken the title of the song “Moving Too Fast” a bit too literally during a rehearsal for his upcoming return to Broadway in The Last Five Years. In an Instagram video posted on Tuesday (March 4), the Jonas Brothers and solo star revealed that he had an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.
“I was singing ‘Moving Too Fast,’ one of my character Jamie’s songs,” Jonas said of the run-through of the song he performs with his Tony winning co-star. “I’m supposed to jump onto this platform and then pull my co-star, Adrienne Warren, up onto the platform with me and keep singing.”
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And then things went a bit sideways. “I do it, and I hear a [ripping sound]. And I’m like, ‘Oh no, oh no.’ Then I feel a cool breeze in a place you don’t want to feel a cool breeze,” Jonas laughed before moving back from the camera to display the huge tear in the groin of his camo cargo pants. “This is what happened to my pants,” he said. “They’re not tight pants by any means. It just was the perfect spot and the position that I jumped up.”
It was bad, but it could have been worse, and it was.
Jonas mentioned that the pants split happened in front of the show’s director, Whitney White, as well as its composer, Jason Robert Brown, “and, of course, my co-star, Adrienne Warren,” as well as the stage management department, musical director, pianist and percussionist. So, basically, the whole team.
The singer shared that he attempted to fix the pants himself — “I tried to duct tape it, it didn’t work… I tried to put some safety pins in, didn’t hold” — before the crack stage managers ran over to Target to fetch him some black shorts so he could finish the rehearsal.
Jonas, who is returning to Broadway 13 years after starring in 2012’s revival of the musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, will take the stage for the debut of The Last Five Years on March 18.
Watch Jonas relive his trouser tragedy below.
No rick rolling here. Rick Astley took to his YouTube channel on Monday (March 3) to deliver a cover of Chappell Roan’s hit, “Pink Pony Club.” In his version, the “Never Gonna Give You Up” star strips the song down to just an acoustic guitar, which he plays while using his characteristically deep vocals to […]
Rapper, vocalist and now actress LISA continues to expand her solo artistry with the highly anticipated project Alter Ego. Fresh off her acting debut as Mook, a hotel staff member on HBO’s original hit series The White Lotus season three (which premiered Feb. 16), the Thai superstar leveraged the social satire’s cross-generational appeal to cement […]