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Ed Sheeran has long talked about how vital music education was in his youth, helping him to sort out his feelings and, of course, paving the way for him to become one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the modern era.
Now, the singer is paying it forward with the announcement on Thursday morning (Jan. 9) of the Ed Sheeran Foundation. In an Instagram post announcing the venture, Sheeran explained, “I set up @edsheeranfnd because recently there’s been less and less importance being put on music education. Even when I was in school it was seen as a ‘doss subject’ and not taken seriously. There’s a misconception that it’s ’not a real job’ – when the music industry accounts for 216,000 jobs in so many different fields, and bringing as much as £7.6 billion($9.3 billion dollars) in a year to the UK economy.”

He added, “Not to mention the power our art has worldwide to bring joy to people. It’s something we should be proud of and championing in the UK, not sweeping under the rug and pretending we are just bankers (no offence to bankers obvz). It was incredible for my mental health as a kid, feeling a sense of purpose and achievement, even just learning piano or cello at a young age way before songwriting.”

Trending on Billboard

Sheeran said the goal of the foundation is to help children learn to play instruments, as well as learn production and songwriting and performance skills and “apprenticeship schemes” to teach them about different skills that could help them enter the music industry. As an example, Sheeran said his operation employs 150 people on tour, all with different skill sets, in addition to those that work with him on the label, management, publishing and promotion side.

“Music is such a key part of our society,” he wrote. “The more I do travelling around and visiting schools and grass roots projects, the more I see there’s passion and inspiring people, who are being undervalued and underserved. I’m hoping this foundation is a start to giving them the support they need to keep going, and show them they are hugely important to us.”

Back in 2019, Sheeran launched the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation, aimed at helping young people under 18 living in the Suffolk region of England with “small but useful grants” to help them study or play music.

In the accompany video to the announcement of his latest charitable venture, Sheeran said that music education “shaped who I am,” and that it has given him a sense of purpose and achievement since he was a kid. He noted that he went to a state-funded school, where a supportive teacher gave him the confidence to get on stage and perform.

He said he hatched the idea for the foundation after having a cup of tea with an old music teacher who told him about the poor state of music education. “There are venues getting shut down and there are organizations that do out-of-school music clubs that are getting shut down and I think the foundation’s key is to help those organizations carry on, because they are struggling,” Sheeran said in the video.

At press time no additional information was available about how the Foundation will distribute funds, though on the group’s website it promises to work with “communities, industry and government to make a change in how music is taught across the UK. We want every child to have equal access to express themselves through music and opportunity to pursue a music career.”

The site also says that it will advocate for school-based learning to encourage young musicians, as well as stronger funding and government policies to ensure access to high-quality music education and an investment in schools and grassroots organizations to “help them secure the resources needed for vibrant music programs, from instruments to teacher training.”

The announcement came after Sheeran told Variety in December that following the release of two albums in 2023 — – (Subtract) and Autumn Variations — as well as touring the world for the past two years, he might eschew the typical break he takes after his album/tour cycle because he already has another LP on deck. He said the as-yet-untitled LP is done, with two music videos shot, and plans to shoot two more early this year, as he continues touring in India, China and the Middle East before returning for dates in Europe in the spring and summer.

It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” he said. “It’s quite exciting.”

Check out the announcement video and see the first posts from the Foundation below.

Jennie’s to-do list is growing by the minute. For the last year, the pop star has been so consumed with the launch of her own label and arrival of her highly anticipated solo debut album — plus, now, the impending reunion of Blackpink, the globally renowned K-pop quartet she is part of — that she hasn’t had a moment to envision her ideal release-night party. That is, if she even has time for one.
“I like planning parties. I like creating an album,” Jennie says. “It’s fun, but sometimes it gets hard. I’m just trying to make sure everything is perfectly done.”

Sitting on a cozy couch in a small back room of a photo studio in Seoul’s Gangnam district, Jennie’s post-shoot look on this late-October afternoon calls to mind Gossip Girl “It” mom Lily van der Woodsen after a particularly tiring day. Leaning back in matching black pants and zip-up hoodie after hours spent staring at a camera, Jennie slides on a pair of dark-lensed Gentle Monster sunglasses to give her eyes, and perhaps herself, a bit of a break. (She partnered with the eyewear brand in April 2024 on her own line, Jentle Salon.)

Trending on Billboard

The 28-year-old appears at ease despite the chaos swirling around her. She’s also strikingly self-aware, which seems to be both freeing and consuming for her — she knows the pursuit of perfection is exhausting and never-ending, and yet she’ll settle for nothing less. Recently, this has manifested in the secrecy surrounding her upcoming album, which for the self-described “workaholic” is far from manufactured marketing mystique. Rather, it may well be a way to buy time until she feels the project she has dreamed of for so long is as close to perfect as possible — even as pressure to release it builds.

“It’s not nice to be someone who’s always like, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t say anything,’ ” she says of the album she began working on in early 2024 — and that the world still knows very little about. “I want to say I’m almost there,” she offers. One of her biggest takeaways from the process? “I’m just going to say, ‘I don’t do well with time,’ ” she says with a laugh.

Jacquemus top and AREA hat.

Songyi Yoon

Since Jennie became a YG Entertainment trainee at 14 and a Blackpink member at 20, her career has been clearly defined and carefully handled — a meticulous approach that has yielded historic results and global fame. In 2019, Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to perform at Coachella, and just four years later, the first Asian act to headline the festival. And the group — rounded out by Lisa, Rosé and Jisoo — made history in 2022 as the first South Korean girl group to top the Billboard 200, with its celebrated second album, Born Pink.

Yet that well-paved path to stardom also offered Jennie little time to explore her own creative voice. From Blackpink’s 2016 debut through 2023, she released just two solo singles, both through the group’s label, YG: the aptly titled Korean-English “Solo” in 2018 and the dance-pop “You & Me” in 2023, the latter of which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. All the while, Jennie was growing eager to piece together “the puzzle of my dreams,” as she calls her solo-album-to-be. So in 2023, when Blackpink re-signed with YG for group activities and its members became free agents for the first time in their careers for solo activities, she jumped at the chance.

“While I was on my last Blackpink tour [it wrapped in 2023], I couldn’t stop myself from starting to plan ahead. I’m just like that,” she says. “I listed out the things that I want in my life and started pinpointing, or prioritizing, what’s my very next step. And instantly, I was like, ‘I still haven’t accomplished the dream of releasing a solo album.’ I wanted to satisfy myself by achieving that goal.”

With a clear runway, she set out to do just that. In December 2023, she announced her own independent label, OddAtelier (commonly referred to as OA). At the start of 2024, she began her “album journey” in Los Angeles, where she says she worked on “99%” of the project, whose title has yet to be unveiled. By September, she announced a partnership with Columbia Records, and in October, she released the album’s fierce and sassy lead single, “Mantra,” which peaked at Nos. 2 and 3 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Billboard Global 200 charts, respectively.

“It’s been a long process because American artists, they usually take a few years to make one album, but we have time limitations because [this year] she’s got to go back into Blackpink activities again,” says Alison Chang, OA’s head of global business and Jennie’s self-described “right hand.” “She really wanted to show her artistry through this album, and in the beginning, we were meeting producers and writers who she didn’t really match with. I think finding her sound throughout this process was kind of hard, and landing with ‘Mantra,’ that took a very long time. Just finding that first perfect single to let the world know this is the start of her solo career.”

And while Jennie’s years as a trainee prepared her for nearly every aspect of stardom, nothing could have braced her for the pressure and responsibility that comes with being truly in charge.

“The thing is, even back in the [trainee] days, I was never OK with what other people approved. I would check on every single team like, ‘Can I look at other options?’ ” she recalls. “So I am used to the process, but it’s more of a mental thing. The idea of ‘you’re on your own, make the right decision.’ And sometimes that’s the scariest feeling. Sometimes I wake up like, ‘I don’t want this overwhelming control.’ ”

“Just touched down in L.A.,” Jennie sings on “Mantra,” later noting, “We’ll be 20 minutes late ’cause we had to do an In-N-Out drive-by” — and days after its release, she found herself back in town.

She was there to perform the playful pop hit on Jimmy Kimmel Live! — her solo U.S. TV debut — and it was the first time in a long time she had seen her fans, who gathered en masse for the appearance. “Mantra” “was a good start for her because it [showed the] things people still expect from Jennie — she’s dancing and she’s singing and rapping at the same time,” Columbia vp of A&R Nicole Kim says.

Later that night, it was Jennie’s turn to be a fan: She attended Charli xcx and Troye Sivan’s Sweat Tour and snapped pics with Charli, Sivan and her pal and The Idol co-star Lily-Rose Depp. Jennie made her TV acting debut on the shocking 2023 drama about an aspiring pop star (Depp) and her controversial relationship with a producer (The Weeknd); Jennie’s collaborative single with Depp and The Weeknd, “One of the Girls,” became her first appearance on the Hot 100 under her own name.

Jennie feels “more freedom” in L.A. compared with her native Seoul, saying, “I could definitely go out and eat whenever I want to, wherever I want to,” but adds that the biggest difference between the two cities is who surrounds her. “I learn a lot from people [in L.A.]. It’s a great environment, especially for people in music, to meet people that can inspire you.” (She was back in November for Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, where she made a surprise appearance during Matt Champion’s set to perform their 2024 collaboration, “Slow Motion,” and posed with Doechii backstage. In April, she’ll return to California to make her solo debut at Coachella.)

It’s why, Jennie says, recording most of her album in L.A. was “very intentionally done. I just really wanted to throw myself out there to experience it. [In Seoul], I was so comforted in an easy environment that I created a long time ago, and I didn’t enjoy it. I was like, ‘No, if this is your career and if this is your life, explore and learn.’ I kept telling myself that.”

Alexander McQueen coat, David Koma top and Coperni bottoms.

Songyi Yoon

Jennie had worked with just one producer, acclaimed K-pop veteran Teddy Park, prior to her debut album — so when it came time to build a new creative network in a new city, she says the process was “rough.”

“I struggled a lot in the beginning,” she admits. “A few months, I would say, was just me throwing myself out there, walking into rooms filled with new people. I just had to keep knocking on the door, like, ‘Is this it?’ ‘Is this it?’ and then eventually, we got to a point where I found a good group of people that I linked with, sonically and as friends.” (“Mantra” was co-written by songwriters affiliated with management, recording and publishing company Electric Feel such as Billy Walsh, Jumpa and Claudia Valentina, among others, and was mostly produced by El Guincho, known for his work with Rosalía and Camila Cabello, among other left-of-center pop girls.)

Jennie spent six years as a YG trainee before being placed in a group — the longest of any of Blackpink’s members — and while working on her solo album, she reflected on those early days, especially her individual tastes. Back then, she had time to listen to “so much music,” she recalls. “I can’t explain how much that helped in terms of the beginning era of making this album. I never really had a chance to look back at myself [during Blackpink’s rise], so [this process] was a time to really be like, ‘What was I interested in back then?’ Those times played a big role to get it started.”

So did her childhood. Born in South Korea as Jennie Kim, she recalls her mother playing a lot of ’90s pop music, which she says was “rare” for anyone living in Korea at the time. “She had a big passion for Western culture, too,” Jennie says. “She would be playing Norah Jones and Backstreet Boys … Naturally, I was drawn to R&B and, of course, Korea is known for its K-pop culture. So that was also very familiar. I was just always into the idea of music.” (Jennie says she and her mom still “live super close to each other,” allowing them to see each other often.)

Markgong top

Songyi Yoon

From a young age, Jennie also craved independence. Following a vacation when she was 10 with her mom to Auckland, New Zealand, Jennie spent the next five years there attending school and participating in a homestay with a Korean family. That’s primarily where she learned English and where she ideated her alter ego of Ruby-Jane, inspired by the desire for a middle name like her new friends all had. “I feel like I am great at creating different characters within myself,” she says. “I like that about me.”

These characters, it seems, all come to play on her upcoming debut (along with a few features she’s hesitant to share more on just yet). “I intend to complete myself as Jennie Ruby-Jane, for that to be a whole person, in a way,” she reveals. “You’ll definitely know what I mean once the album drops, but because I’m playing with a lot of different genres and elements — I’m rapping here, I’m singing here, I’m harmonizing here, I’m talking here … The overall sound was me making sure I like every single [song]. I didn’t want to be forced into putting a song onto my album — that’s what I really fought for. And I was lucky to have all these people believe in me and support me so I could get to a level where we were like, ‘Wow. I think we’re ready.’ ”

When it came to her new label, Jennie knew what she wanted in a name: something that looked and sounded pretty, that represented herself and her team — but that wasn’t so specific it would box them in. “I wanted it to be [a name that signifies] we’re open to do anything,” she says. “I didn’t want anyone to label what we were.” OddAtelier, named for the French word for a collaborative workshop or studio, “just made sense,” she says. “Atelier is a place where we create art.”

Still, soon after deciding to launch it in late 2023, Jennie took a look at herself in the mirror and thought, “ ‘Do you realize the choice that you’ve made?’ It was really an all-or-nothing situation,” she says. “I didn’t one day decide I want to make a label for myself. For me, building the relationship with my team, we started dreaming together, naturally. Because a lot of them I’ve worked with for a long time. So when we had a chance to go our individual way, I thought that would be like six years in the future. I didn’t think it would be so soon. So I got the courage to start my independence in life, and every step of the way has been a learning process for me. I’m studying this whole new world. Now that it’s been a year, I can say I’m glad I was brave enough to have started this label. I couldn’t be more proud.”

As for whether she plans to sign other artists to OA, her response makes clear how overwhelming a moment this is: “I’ve been getting this question left and right, and my answer is ‘Please, I am so busy on this album. Let’s not even get my brain on that path just yet,’ ” she says while laughing through a polite sigh.

Chang, OA’s global head of business, met Jennie in 2019, when she was working with YG Entertainment USA handling licensing, merchandising and intellectual property for acts including Blackpink. The two “just hit it off,” Chang says. “We formed this bond, and then from there, we just saw each other every day, and it evolved into managing her stuff along with Blackpink. We went on tour together, and then [in 2023], she was like, ‘Hey, I want to create OA.’

“From the day I met her, I just knew, ‘Wow, this girl is so smart,’ ” Chang continues. “She knows what she wants. She’s ambitious. Our standards for each other are so high. As a solo artist, she’s able to spread her wings a bit more and have more authority over her creative direction and strategy for how she wants to develop into an even bigger global artist.”

Jacquemus dress

Songyi Yoon

The hope is that Jennie will become the Korean pop star to represent the Asian music market — a bit like Bad Bunny does the Spanish-language one. But she and her team couldn’t conquer the world on their own. Chang knew that if the goal was to break even wider in the United States, they would need more resources and experience. “It was just a given,” she says. “We needed to partner with an American label.”

She and Jennie took “a lot” of label meetings in late 2023, but ultimately signed with Columbia for its “proactiveness” and how much the team they met had researched Jennie ahead of time. “Jennie values her roots and heritage more than anyone else, and while she does want to establish herself as a global artist, including in the U.S. market, she also deeply cares about her base and wants to make them proud,” says Kim, who worked at HYBE with acts including BTS prior to joining Columbia. “And I think our team is working really hard to support her in achieving that.” (For additional support, Jeremy Erlich will co-manage alongside OA; as Interscope’s executive vp of business development in the late 2010s, he helped facilitate the conversations between the label and YG that ultimately led to their global partnership and Blackpink signing with Interscope.)

But as the web around Jennie spreads, she remains firmly at its center — and is intent on calling the shots. Jennie attributes that to the woman she calls the “No. 1 boss lady”: her mom. “I don’t even have to look anywhere else. She’s taught me how to be a woman, how to be a boss, how to be myself. She’s my idol,” she gushes.

While coming up in Blackpink, Jennie says she had to learn how to compromise; with her own album, the only person she has to do that with is herself. “It’s a fight between me, myself and I — I’m not easy to convince,” she says. “It’s not easy working with me.” And that’s why Jennie craved this experience: It forced her to look into a metaphorical mirror.

“I needed this. I wanted this,” she says, her tone growing more confident. “The more I get to know myself, the more I try to love myself. I’ve had a time in my life where I didn’t — I had no clue how to do that. I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know what I was living for. The time where I was feeling clueless. The fact that I’ve moved on from that phase and being so committed to myself, I’m very proud.

“It’s so easy to lose yourself, which is OK,” she continues. “There was also a time where I was feeling lost about ‘K-pop,’ ‘pop music,’ all these labels that I was chasing after … Now that I look back, I just want to tell myself, ‘Maybe enjoy it a little, feeling lost in the struggle, because there will be a time where you don’t even have time to think you’re lost.’ ”

Blackpink’s group chat is ID’d with a simple yet fitting emoji: a family of four. Jennie says her groupmates check in there as often as they can.

“We are all so caught up with life. Obviously, we can’t be calling each other every day,” she says. “Even though we know we can’t see each other so much, it doesn’t really feel any different than all the other years because we know we’re here for each other. They’re literally a phone call away. And at this point, we respect each other’s space so much. So if there’s anything to be happy for, to celebrate, we’re all in it together.”

For the group’s dedicated Blinks, Blackpink’s 2025 reunion, which will include new music and a tour — and follows Rosé’s just-released solo album, a forthcoming album and a role on The White Lotus for Lisa and an acting gig on a forthcoming K-drama and a Dior campaign for Jisoo — is indeed cause for celebration. “I’ve missed the girls. I’ve missed doing tours with them. I miss our silly moments,” Jennie says. “I’m excited to see what everyone brings. You know, everyone took their own journey [during] this time, and I’m excited to share that with the girls. I want to say it’s going to be the most powerful [versions] of ourselves that anyone has seen.”

As Blackpink’s members continue to grow, Chang says the best part of her front-row seat to Jennie’s journey has been seeing her evolution. “People don’t really know, but she’s a very shy, introverted person,” she says, “and seeing her throughout this whole process, I’m just really in awe of how much she’s grown. She put her heart into this.” As Kim recalls, while Jennie was recording her album, there were periods when she would be in sessions every day until six or seven the next morning: “It was surprising to me that she wanted to stay longer and write more. She was really, really passionate. It was inspiring for me to see her working so hard in the studio.”

Annakiki dress

Songyi Yoon

Most of Jennie’s album, as a result, is rooted in ­deeply personal songwriting about “what I’ve experienced, what I resonate to or what I want in my life. That’s one other thing that’s changed from being in Blackpink, is that I get to say my message in my way.”

And with so much time to reflect — both in and out of the studio — parts of Jennie’s life came into focus for the first time, including the realization that this is her life. Given her fluctuating schedule, she says her body often struggles to catch up or get into a rhythm, but over time, she has become better at prioritizing self-care. Her ideal day off (“Which is rare,” she says) includes morning coffee or tea, Pilates, a sauna or bath, dinner with friends and organizing her home. “That’s healing for me,” she says.

Understandably, she was thinking of such things while getting her hair and makeup done earlier today as she prepared for her Billboard shoot, and they inspired a thought that she shared with her team. “I said if I ever had a chance to tell people that are in their teenage [years] that look up to this job or this world, all I can say from experience is, ‘This is your life — and you have a whole lifetime to live.’ Not the next 10 years, not the next three years. It’s amazing to chase after your dream, but don’t forget to live.”

For now, Jennie is taking her own advice. When asked if her solo debut is the start of a continued solo career, her answer is succinct: “Let’s not put pressure on me. I want to live my present for now, and then let me ease myself into the next thing.”

Has she ever done that before?

“Oh, definitely not,” she says. “Every day has made me into who I am right now.”

This story appears in the Jan. 11, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Jennie’s to-do list is growing by the minute. For the last year, the pop star has been so consumed with the launch of her own label and arrival of her highly anticipated solo debut album — plus, now, the impending reunion of Blackpink, the globally renowned K-pop quartet she is part of — that she […]

Aly & AJ Michalka just took a trip down memory lane on Call Her Daddy, with the younger sister recalling her first kiss with the Joe Jonas on the podcast episode posted Wednesday (Jan. 8). When host Alex Cooper asked AJ to confirm whether the 33-year-old musician’s first kiss was really with the Jonas Brothers […]

Talk about a sweet dream come true! Eurythmics’ music video for their classic 1983 hit, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” has surpassed one billion YouTube views. It marks the British synth-pop duo’s first clip to enter the Billion Views Club. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]

“Singer gets first national chart ink exclusively in Billboard,” read a caption on page 65 of the issue dated July 1, 2006. “Song title name-checks fellow artist.” The blurb included an arrow pointing directly to the single debuting at the No. 60 anchor spot on the Hot Country Songs chart: “Tim McGraw,” by then-16-year-old Taylor […]

Mandy Moore is among the tens of thousands of Angelenos who’ve been forced to evacuate in the midst of the devastating, fast-moving wildfires that have engulfed the Los Angeles area of the past 48 hours. “Evacuated and safe with kids, dogs and cats,” the This Is Us star and “When I Wasn’t Watching” singer wrote in an Instagram Story on Wednesday (Jan. 8).
“Praying and grateful for the first responders,” she added. In a second slide of Moore with one of her three children with husband Dawes singer/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith, she wrote, “grateful for the kindness of friends that we had a place to land last night. Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel. Praying for everyone in our beautiful city. So gutted for the destruction and loss. Don’t know if our place made it.”

The singer who released her seventh studio album, In Real Life, in 2022 and who scored the hits “Candy” in 1999 (No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100) and “I Wanna Be With You” in 2000 (No. 24), added a hashtag for the Eaton Fire, which according to NBC News has killed two people and burned more than 2,200 acres to date, with zero percent containment.

That fire, as well as the Palisades and Hurst fires, have burned nearly 8,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses so far. The blazes have been fed and spread by the destructive annual Santa Ana winds, which at times have whipped up to nearly 100 m.p.h., sending embers flying through the air as fire crews struggle to contain the blazes that experts say are already one of the most destructive to hit the region in recent memory.

In addition to the evacuations and homes and other structures destroyed, NBC reported that more than 300,000 Angelenos have lost power.

The Associated Press reported that in addition to Moore, the Pacific Palisades fire has displaced Star Wars icon Mark Hamill and actor James Woods in he hillside neighborhood along the coast that is home to many stars and which was name-checked in the Beach Boys’ 1963 classic “Surfin’ USA.” In a testament to the speed of the out-of-control fire, news reports featured footage of fire crews using bulldozers to clear streets littered with abandoned cars clogging the roadways, left behind by fleeing residents. Other stars who live in the area where 30,000 residents are under evacuation orders include Adam Sandler, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker’s kids, Landon and Alabama, were also forced to evacuate from their Palisades homes, while former reality TV stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag (The Hills) reported themselves safe after their Palisades home burned to the ground.

NBC also reported that Lakers coach JJ Redick said his family was evacuated from their homes on Tuesday due to the Palisades fire. In addition to a number of school closures, Universal Studios closed its park in Hollywood and Universal CityWalk and the L.A. premieres of the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man and the Blumhouse horror movie Wolf Man, as well as Jennifer Lopez’s wrestling drama Unstoppable have been cancelled; the SAG Awards also called off their in-person nominations announcement on Wednesday.

Another, smaller blaze dubbed the Tyler Fire was 100% contained at press time, with fire officials saying that at this point the causes of the various conflagrations is not yet known.

Sabrina Carpenter‘s road to Grammy-nominated pop star wasn’t short — but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been sweet. In a new interview with People published Wednesday (Jan. 8), the 25-year-old pop star opened up about the long road she had to take before she was ever considered for best new artist by the Recording Academy, […]

This summer’s Bonnaroo Festival will feature headline sets from Luke Combs, Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo and Hozier. The June 12-15 mega fest on the ‘Roo Farm in Manchester, TN will also feature sets from John Summit, Dom Dolla, Avril Lavigne, Glass Animals, Vampire Weekend, Justice, Queens of the Stone Age and an “Insanely Fire 1970’s Pool Party” SuperJam curated by Remi Wolf.

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See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

This year’s edition will also introduce the first-ever ‘Roo Residency, which will find prolific Australian rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard playing three sets over three days. Also performing on the fest’s 10 stages over four days: Marcus King, Insane Clown Posse, Goose, The Red Clay Strays, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Megadeth, Wallows, Foster the People, Nelly, GloRilla, Mt. Joy, RL Grime, Beabadoobee, Tyla, MJ Lenderman, Modest Mouse, Raye, Royel Otis, Dispatch, Aly & AJ, Action Bronson, Role Model, Natasha Bedingfield and BossMan Dlow, among many others.

Trending on Billboard

Tickets for the festival will go on sale on Thursday (Jan. 9) beginning at 10 a.m. CT exclusively here, with guaranteed lowest-priced tickets available during the first hour of sales (10-11 a.m. CT). In addition, fans looking for a heightened experience can opt for GA+ tickets, with unlimited access to the Centeroo GA+ lounge, as well as VIP and Platinum options featuring close-in and on-field viewing areas and other perks; click here for more information on VIP and Platinum tickets.

Among the new elements added this year is the “Infinity Stage,” described as a “one-of-a-kind” venue created in partnership with Polygon Live that will feature “spatial sound, synchronized lights and an unprecedented three-dome, open-air design to create the world’s largest, most immersive 360-degree live music experience.”

Check out the full Bonnaroo 2025 lineup below.

SEVENTEEN’s special unit BSS — which is comprised of SEUNGKWAN, DK and HOSHI — is fresh off the release of their second single album, TELEPARTY, on Wednesday (Jan. 8). According to the press release about the project, the snappy title combines the words “telepathy” and “party,” and that the trio wants the album to remind […]