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Selena Gomez already knew she was dating one of the Sexiest Men Alive. But it definitely felt good that People magazine agreed. After boyfriend producer Benny Blanco appeared in a preview of this year’s issue — in which he sprawled seductively across a desk while showing off his signature champagne and homemade Mexican Pizza meal […]
Robbie Williams has announced a string of live 2025 dates throughout summer across the U.K., Ireland and mainland Europe.
The British pop icon will begin the tour in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 31 before visiting stadiums in London, Manchester and Bath. He’ll then head to the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Latvia and more before concluding the run in Helsinki, Finland on Sep. 20.
Support on the U.K. leg will come from Warrington rock band The Lottery Winners, while Rag ‘N’ Bone Man will do the honors on select dates in Edinburgh and London. See the full run of dates below.
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Tickets for the tour go on sale on Friday (Nov. 15) at 10 a.m. GMT. Fans can secure early access to tickets by pre-ordering the upcoming compilation soundtrack to biopic film Better Man, which will be released on Dec. 26, 2024 in the U.K. and Ireland, and on Jan. 17, 2025 in the U.S. and Canada.
The soundtrack, which will feature Williams’ greatest hits, will be released digitally on Dec. 27 with a physical release to follow. A tracklist is yet to be confirmed.
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Better Man will tell the story of Williams’ life through childhood and his fame with ‘90s boyband Take Thats, and follow his wildly successful solo career which includes 13 No.1s on the U.K. Albums Chart and 18 BRIT Awards. Williams will be played by a CGI monkey throughout the film directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman).
In a press release, director Gracey expanded on the decision to not use a human actor in the otherwise live action film. “Robbie would say things like, ‘I’m up the back dancing like a monkey.’ After a while, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to represent Robbie as a monkey in the film?’ Because Robbie is telling this story – and that’s how he sees himself.” Watch the trailer for the film below.
Robbie Williams 2025 European Tour Dates
May 31 – Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, U.K.June 6 – Emirates Stadium, London, U.K.June 11 – Co-op Live, Manchester, U.K.June 13 – Royal Crescent, Bath, U.K.June 19 – Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, DenmarkJune 22 – Johan Cruyff ArenA, Amsterdam, NetherlandsJune 25 – VELTINS-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, GermanyJune 28 – Werchter TW Classic, Belgium June 30 – Heinz von Heiden Arena, Hanover, GermanyJuly 2 – La Défense Arena, Paris, FranceJuly 5 – RCDE Stadium, Barcelona, SpainJuly 9 – Red Bull Arena, Leipzig, GermanyJuly 12 – Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria July 17 – Stadio Nereo Rocco, Trieste, ItalyJuly 21 – Waldbühne, Berlin, GermanyJuly 22 – Waldbühne, Berlin, GermanyJuly 26 – Olympiastadion, Munich, GermanyAugust 1 – Darius and Girėnas Stadium, Kaunas, LithuaniaAugust 3 – Mežaparks, Riga, LatviaAugust 7 – Stockholm Stadion, Stockholm, SwedenAugust 10 – Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, GermanyAugust 13 – Forus Travbane, Stavanger, NorwayAugust 16 – Granåsen, Trondheim, NorwayAugust 23 – Croke Park, Dublin, IrelandSeptember 7 – O2 Arena, Prague, Czech RepublicSeptember 9 – TAURON Arena, Kraków, PolandSeptember 12 – MVM Dome, Budapest, HungarySeptember 20 – Olympiastadion, Helsinki, Finland
Earlier this year, NCT DREAM opened up to Billboard exclusively about how DREAM( )SCAPE — the group’s March EP that’s pronounced as “Dream Escape” — represented some of the darker, more mature topics the septet was eager to tackle in their music.
From pushing past anxiety, yearning for freedom, and turning hardship into encouragement, the EP included “the message that we’ve always wanted to deliver to our audiences,” leader Mark explained. Facing the dark side head-on ultimately paved the way for the just-released, euphoric full-length DREAMSCAPE.
NCT DREAM’s new LP invites listeners into an expansive soundscape that’s nostalgic, escapist, and emotionally charged. Taking the introspective narrative of DREAM( )SCAPE, these 11 songs embody a generally lighter, more peaceful musical world. Seamlessly melding pop, house music, hyper-pop, R&B, and throwback hip-hop, NCT DREAM uses DREAMSCAPE to explore themes of love, dreams and childlike wonder, giving fans fresh and familiar sounds that sound specifically catered to Mark, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung.
Joining DREAM’s previously released English single “Rains in Heaven” from August and the pre-released buzz track “Flying Kiss,” the album centers around the uplifting, vintage synthesizer–driven single “When I’m With You.” NCT DREAM will likely bring the new singles to life during their upcoming performances on the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and New York, alongside the likes of Katy Perry, Jason Derulo, Twenty-One Pilots, SZA, The Kid LAROI, Saweetie and more.
From the singles “Rains in Heaven,” “Flying Kiss,” and “When I’m With You” to the tracks written entirely by the members, as well as the soon-to-become-fan-favorite album cuts, here is our ranking of the 11 songs on NCT DREAM’s fourth full-length album, DREAMSCAPE.
“INTRO – DREAMSCAPE”
Ariana Grande really, really wanted to play Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked.
How much? “If it hadn’t happened, I might have ended up in an insane asylum,” she joked during a panel Sunday (Nov. 10) in Hollywood following a screening of the film, which opens in theaters Nov. 22. Grande, who is credited as Ariana Grande-Butera in the film, prepared for months for her audition.
“Vocally, it’s very different for me than what I usually sing, so I started training every single day with my vocal coach for two-and-a-half, three months before my first audition, and my acting coach. I just wanted to be prepared to use any tool needed whatever was asked, I wanted to be able to drop in and do it and really become her,” Grande said. “I gave my everything to it and paused everything else.”
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If she had not gotten the role, Grande noted she knew that, because of director Jon M. Chu and producer Marc Platt, the part “was in the most loving hands, so I just kind of worked as hard as I could and let the rest fall into place. I do think, though, if it hadn’t happened, I might have ended up in an insane asylum, so there’s that.”
Chu admitted that Grande had “a giant wall to climb over” simply because of her fame as “Ariana Grande.” He also questioned, “Does she really know what it takes to carry a movie? Does she know what it takes to be inside a character? And she came in, and I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I was like, ‘She’s not talking like Ariana Grande. She’s not singing like Ariana Grande.’ By the way, I was outside in the parking lot, and she drove past like 14 times in 20 minutes.”
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“I didn’t know you had seen me or heard me,” Grande broke in. “You were like, ‘Who’s blasting [Wicked song] “One Short Day?”’”
Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who stars as the Wicked Witch Elphaba, first met at Erivo’s house and shared snacks, including berries. “We just giggled and I felt an immediate safety,” Grande says. “And then we kind of made a pact to really take care of each other.”
“To be really honest with each other,” Erivo continued. “To make space for each other.”
Grande says she was extremely nervous. “I almost sh-t in my pants. But she’s just the warmest human being. We were just so open immediately with each other. I think that that promise that we made to each other and how we kept it and how it strengthened along the way is one of the things that we’re proudest of.”
11/11/2024
The K-pop group proves why they’ve graduated to stadiums on the RIGHT HERE U.S. tour.
11/11/2024
Three weeks after Liam Payne‘s shocking death, the Jonas Brothers appeared to pay tribute by performing One Direction’s “Night Changes” at the siblings’ concert in Highland, Calif., on Sunday night (Nov. 11).
Standing in a line onstage at Yaamava’ Theater, Nick, Joe and Kevin gave the song a delicate touch — the “Jealous” singer sharing lead vocals with the DNCE frontman while strumming dual electric guitars with the eldest Jonas brother. “We’re only gettin’ older, baby/ And I’ve been thinkin’ about it lately/ Does it ever drive you crazy/ Just how fast the night changes?” the trio sing as the crowd joined in.
At the end of the tune, Nick sang part of the last line — “It’ll never change….” — before pointing to the audience to finish it for him. “… for me and you,” fans delivered before applauding.
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The moment was inevitably full of unspoken emotions, as it comes as many in the music world — and certainly those who were close to Payne — continue to process the loss of the “Strip That Down” musician. On Oct. 16, the ex-boy band star fell to his death from the third-story balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires, with toxicology reports later determining that he had “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” in his system when he died.
Police are still investigating the events that transpired leading up to the fall and detained three people in connection to the case this month. They were charged with abandonment of a person followed by death and the supply and facilitation of narcotics, according to the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor, but one of them — 24-year-old waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, who claims to have partied with the star the night of his death — recently publicly denied that he’d given Payne drugs.
Payne is survived by a son, Bear, whom he shares with ex Cheryl Cole. Many of the X Factor alum’s friends and family posted messages of grief in the days following his death, including all four of his former One Direction bandmates: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. In a separate full-band statement, the foursome wrote, “We are completely devastated … We will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly. The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever.”
Watch the Jonas Brothers cover “Night Changes” below.
Lance Bass is one of the many boyband members and associates featured in the upcoming Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands documentary, which dives deep into the genre’s history and influence. In a new clip shared exclusively with Billboard on Monday (Nov. 11), the *NSYNC star shares a glimpse of how often a young […]
11/11/2024
The producer who is dating Selena Gomez is featured in the magazine’s anticipated sexiest issue with tips on epic first dates and cooking.
11/11/2024
At the Los Angeles premiere of Wicked, Harry Daniels made the gutsy decision to serenade Ariana Grande with her debut single “Put Your Hearts Up” — a song she isn’t exactly fond of.
But luckily, it paid off. In a video posted to the influencer’s TikTok over the weekend, the pop star spotted Daniels in the crowd as she was greeting Wicked fans and immediately recognized him, cheering, “Oh my god it’s Harry Daniels!”
After feigning running away from his inevitable performance — the social media star has built a platform off forcing celebrities to watch him sing — Grande listened intently as he sang a few bars from the 2011 bubblegum single. “Oh my god, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life,” the Grammy winner said sweetly after it was over, hugging Daniels. “It’s so nice to see you, thank you for being here.”
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“THIS IS MY GLINDA YALL IDCCCC,” Daniels, who also shared a photo with Grande on Instagram, captioned the clip.
Of all the songs in Grande’s multiplatinum discography, “Put Your Hearts Up” is on the record as one of the singer’s least favorites. In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, she called it “geared toward kids” and “so inauthentic and fake,” adding, “That was the worst moment of my life. For the video, they gave me a bad spray tan and put me in a princess dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole thing was straight out of hell. I still have nightmares about it, and I made them hide it on my Vevo page.”
Since then, Grande has released seven studio albums, six of which have topped the Billboard 200, most recently 2024’s Eternal Sunshine. However, the vocalist has revealed that she now plans on focusing more on acting and musical theater after falling back in love with both while working on the Wicked films, a far cry from her mindset at the time of that same 2014 Rolling Stone interview (“I hate acting,” a then 20-year-old Grande said. “It’s fun, but music has always been first and foremost with me.”)
“I’m always going to make music, I’m always going to go on stage, I’m always going to do pop stuff, I pinky promise,” she said on the Nov. 6 episode of Las Culturistas. “But I don’t think doing it at the rate I’ve been doing it for the past 10 years is where I see the next 10 years … Whatever makes sense, or whatever roles we see fit, or where I could really do a good job or honor the material, I would really love to. I think it’s a lot better for me.”
The first Wicked film hits theaters Nov. 22. Watch Daniels serenade Grande below.
It’s been almost 11 months since Lil Nas X boldly declared that “b—h I’m back like J Christ.” Now, the singer promises, he’s actually back for good. In a video posted to his X account on Sunday night (Nov. 10), the rapper revealed that “phase 1” of his new era begins on Monday (Nov. 11). […]