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Mandy Moore had a simple message for Amazon on Tuesday (Feb. 11): “Do better.” The singer/actress lashed out at the global giant in her Instagram Story after she said the company delivered a package to her in-laws’ house in Pasadena, which was totally destroyed by last month’s devastating wildfires.
“Do better, Amazon,” she wrote in the Story that has since timed out, alongside a photo of the charred home and an image of the package sitting amidst the destruction. “Can we not have better discretion than to leave a package at a residence that no longer exists? This is my mother and father in law’s home. Smh.”
According to TMZ, Amazon responded to Moore’s post, with a spokesperson saying, “We’ve reached out to Ms. Moore via Instagram to apologize for this and to ask for more information from her in-laws so we’re better able investigate what happened here.” The representative added, “For weeks, we’ve advised those who are delivering on our behalf in southern California to use discretion in areas that were impacted by wildfires – especially if it involves delivering to a damaged home – that clearly didn’t happen here.”
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Moore, who initially reported that her home was also partially destroyed by one of the half dozen fires that killed 29 and destroyed more than 16,00 homes and other structures, also posted an emotional chronicle of her own flight from the Santa Ana winds-fueled conflagrations. “We never got an evacuation notice. Sometimes in the quieter moments of processing the last month, I play the game of what would have happened if I didn’t have my phone next to me, playing my typical ‘piano for deep sleep’ mix as I nursed Lou before bed, so I could answer the call from my brother-in-law?” Moore wrote on Instagram on Tuesday along with an image of the damage caused by the fire.
“It was 6:45 p.m. and he told me he, his wife, and our niece were evacuating, grabbing my in-laws (his parents) and getting the heck out of Dodge and we should do the same,” Moore continued. “I calmly walked downstairs and relayed this to my husband and without skipping a beat, we promptly packed up the kids (in their pjs), our dog, and scrambled to find our 3 cats as the power went out. I’ll never forget Taylor trying to figure out how to manually open our two little garage doors (they’d just finished construction around Thanksgiving and we’d just started using them—) in the harrowing 60 mph winds, as the sky glowed a dark red and ash started to fall all around us.”
Moore described racing across town dodging fallen tress on the freeway on their way to the safety of a friend’s home and getting her three kids to bed before running to Target to buy a litter box and some water. She also chronicled obsessively refreshing the Watch Duty wildfire map all night as she watched the evacuation zone narrow in on the eight-block radius around her home.
“It took until 4 a.m. for it to turn red. All the while, tossing and turning with a stomach-churning anxiety I’ve never experienced before, both boys passed out between us in bed,” Moore wrote. “[Oldest child daughter] Lou slept on the floor in a travel crib, and the dog curled up protectively by the door.”
She said that they just found out this week that their house is still standing, but that because of the proximity to the fires around their home, everything inside of it was a “near total loss. Clothes, furniture, pretty much everything will have to be disposed of… maybe even the walls too. We won’t be there for a very long time as it and the neighborhood itself get sorted out and cleaned and the rebuilding starts. I say all of this because i’m struggling. Yes we are exceedingly lucky to technically still have the structure of a home. But also… do we still have a home? I think my definition is in flux. The physical space? No. It goes without saying that our sweet brood and our pets are ALL that matters and home is where we are together… but having a sanctuary and safe space to feel settled really goes a long way too.”
The singer described “stumbling” on the home in the early days of COVID, instinctively knowing it was where they wanted to raise their kids; she found out she was pregnant with youngest son Gus two weeks after they closed on the home. Moore said they painstakingly restored and remodeled the home to make it their own and were just weeks away from finally finishing the work when the fires hit.
“I’m not saying all of this because I’m asking you to feel more sorry for us than someone else. Like I said, I am grateful. We’re so lucky!,” Moore wrote of the loss of the home and its contents, as well as the destruction of Taylor’s home studio. “By the grace of god we found a place to stay in the meantime and the kids are happy and safe. We’ve even starting collecting the books and toys that they’ve lost. It’s not a competition of who lost what or more. Real human beings across this town, regardless of their jobs or socioeconomic status, lost the life they’d come to know and count on in an instant. My whole heart is with them. Every one of them. This place, our home and the town itself, was our dream and I hope in time it will feel like that again… just a slightly different one.”
Last month, Moore’s brother-in-law, Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith, revealed that Moore and her family were taking shelter with her friend Hilary Duff. He also noted that he’d convinced his whole family and some close friends to move to Altadena years ago, including the siblings’ parents, who lived around the corner from him. Both Griffin and the Goldsmith’s parents lost their homes, while Taylor and husband Dawes singer Taylor Goldsmith had to flee their home and former Dawes bassist Wylie Gelber and his wife and their first crew member and old friend Jake lost their homes as well.
When looking back on his husband Sir Elton John‘s storied career in the music industry, David Furnish points out that there is a lot to be proud of. Yet, when thinking about that legacy in connection to the future, Furnish settles on one aspect of John’s career that makes him proudest: the pair’s work with the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Dedicated to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic for good, the organization — which was founded by the singer in 1992 — makes headlines every year with their glitzy, star-studded Academy Awards Viewing Party. Over the course of 33 years, the annual benefit, held on Oscars night, has helped raise over $100 million for the organization’s fight against the virus.
“Things go in and out of fashion and change with the times,” Furnish explains. “But every year, to see that everybody keeps stepping up? That just blows our minds.”
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The 2025 iteration of the event promises to be just as much of a spectacle — along with being co-hosted by John, Furnish, and actors Jean Smart, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, the viewing party is also set to feature an exclusive performance from pop phenomenon Chappell Roan. (Tickets to the party are still available on the organization’s website.)
“We’re always passionate about bringing in great, new, rising talent where we can,” Furnish says of the “Pink Pony Club” singer, before pausing and correcting himself with a laugh. “Well, she’s already risen pretty quickly, and I’d say she’s arrived.”
Below, Furnish speaks with Billboard ahead of the annual fundraiser about his admiration for Roan, the evolution of the gala and why the fight against HIV & AIDS related stigma is far from over.
This year is the 33rd Oscars viewing party that Elton has thrown — in the time that you’ve been involved, how have you seen this party evolve into what it is today?
It’s been an extraordinarily gratifying and rewarding experience. I mean, the fact that we continue to host the premiere fundraising event on Oscar night, that we have that tentpole for our organization… not only does it give us a superb fundraising opportunity to raise much-needed funds, but it also is a tremendous profile opportunity to, one one of the biggest entertainment nights of the year, get the support that we do from the people that come to the party.
One of the most important things in the fight against HIV and AIDS is that we are not finished yet. We’ve seen tremendous progress and tremendous success with the medications, and a lot of people are under the impression that this disease is essentially cured. But consistency is the most important thing in this fight. We have an end in sight, we have our eye focused on the finish line, and we have all of the science and medication that we need to basically end AIDS for good. But we have to be consistent, we have to keep going.
I always say to Elton, “We always have tremendous attendance, we always have a great auction, you’d think after doing it for so many years it might kind of taper off.” But I kind of turn cartwheels as I come out the door every year, because I think, “Oh my god, this is as big or bigger than it’s ever been.” Every year, it continues to get such an extraordinary level of support from the sponsors, from the ticket buyers, from the auction donors, from the performers, from the people who help co-host.
Speaking of performers, you guys got an excellent one this year. You and Elton have been close with Chappell Roan over the last few months — what made you decide to bring her in as the performer this year?
Oh, loads of reasons! First and foremost, she is an unbelievably brilliant performer. We went to see her at the Brixton Academy in London — her command of the stage, her band, her way of delivering her songs, her connection with the audience, her voice, her performance, her visual, everything about her is just like, “Wow.”
She’s also had a fantastic year! She’s really risen so quickly, and has been received so enthusiastically, with great song after great song. I mean, look at that best new artist Grammy this year! But I’m sure that she’s had a lot of requests for her time, and she’s at that stage when you have to keep investing in yourself to grow — and the fact that she so identifies with our cause, and relates so much with our journey and our mission of making sure we put our arms around everybody and that no one gets left behind, is amazing.
It’s that magical combination of the most brilliant artist, at such an extraordinary moment in their career, who is also so connected with this issue. We are just counting our lucky stars. It’s so great that she was available, and so happy to do it, and so joyful about understanding what it really means and wanting to make the best contribution.
We’re at a cultural moment where the stigma-combatting work organizations like yours do is more vital than ever. Can you describe what the EJAF is doing to actively fight against anti-LGBTQ+ and AIDS-related stigma on a daily basis?
Yeah, we want to share the positive messaging that you live a full, happy, healthy life with HIV. When properly treated, you don’t pass the virus on to anyone else, it is nothing to be afraid of and it is nothing to be ashamed of. The programs we’re able to take the money [from this event] and invest in all go a very long way.
It’s about communication, education, breaking down stigma, outreach within key communities and key populations — making sure people have access to testing and know their HIV status, and then once they know their HIV status, having access to the right treatment to deal with the virus headfirst. If they don’t test positive, then it’s about being able to use the latest advancements in science to protect themselves from contracting HIV. If people test positive, then we make sure they have the appropriate counseling and support so that they can live positively and proudly with HIV.
It’s a disease that took hold and thrived in the shadows and corridors of shame. In the It’s a Sin TV series in Britain, Callum Howells’ character says, “I feel so dirty.” There was so much shame associated with it, and we’ve gone so far beyond that now, and we need to continue to reach out and find the key groups that are affected so we can make sure that none of that messaging continues to linger or stick around. We want to make people feel empowered and supported.
This is a celebration on top of a celebration, because Elton is nominated for best original song at this year’s ceremony alongside Brandi Carlile for “Never Too Late.” What does that mean to the two of you, to have Elton at this stage of his career still receiving these major nods?
We’re just so thrilled. There’s so many amazing things connected with nomination — it’s not just Elton, but also Brandi and Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin, and they are like extended family for Elton and me. The fact that the song became the closing point for the documentary I directed with R.J. Cutler, and even the overall messaging of saying that it’s never too late to change your life and find hope, that there can always be a positive outcome and a happy ending if you work for it; the Oscar represents all of that, to us. Also, oh my god, it’s an Oscar nomination! It’s such an amazing honor, and Elton is incredibly proud.
He and Bernie got the Oscar [for The Lion King‘s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”] as the first major award they’d won as songwriters — they’d never won a Grammy at that point. This time around, for Brandi and Andrew to be a part of the process of creating the song, Elton is so excited for them, as well as for himself and Bernie. Yeah, I mean, we’re all just very thrilled.
And what an excellent prelude to Elton and Brandi’s album coming out later this year, too.
Yeah! It’s a wonderful album. Brandi started the process on this song before the album started, because I screened the documentary for her the summer before everybody went into the studio to start on the album. I knew Brandi was a huge fan and understood Elton’s history so well, so I wanted her to see the film. She was so profoundly moved by it, that she wrote this lyric before she went into the studio and started working on it. It’s been an amazing journey.
By the time Temple University director of athletic bands Dr. Matt Brunner finally listened to Chappell Roan’s music, many of the young adults in his life — students, band alums, even his son’s girlfriend — had already implored him to check her out.
When he did play the singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, he quickly realized why they’d been so adamant. “I started listening and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is awesome. I absolutely have to do this,’ ” he recalls excitedly months later. “Everything about it just worked.”
By that, Brunner means Roan’s glitzy dance-pop tracks seemed tailor-made for a marching band — full of the catchiness and energy the format demands, plus the kind of melodies that begged to be amplified by high brass and drum line-ready percussion. Still struck by how fast the arrangement came to him, Brunner orchestrated a 10-minute halftime medley of the pop star’s music that his marchers eagerly learned in just three rehearsals ahead of the Owls’ September football game against Utah State at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.
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Their work paid off before they even stepped onto the field. “Some people said, ‘I’m coming to the football game just to see the show,’ ” Brunner says with a laugh, recalling how the student section later came to life doing Roan’s viral “Hot To Go!” choreography along with the band. With that energy behind it, Temple bested Utah State, 45-29.
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
That kind of stadium-rocking enthusiasm is exactly what motivates collegiate band directors all over the country — whether at major state schools like Temple; smaller, private institutions; or historically Black colleges and universities — to adapt current chart-toppers for halftime shows, stand tunes (keeping the bleachers hyped during timeouts and between plays) and pep rallies every year. Having evolved far beyond their 19th-century military band origins, marching ensembles are now key fixtures in the spectacle of college game days, tasked with engaging fans and generating the kind of hype that will inspire the team, reflect well on the school and, ultimately, manifest in more ticket sales. One of the best ways to serve that mission, the directors of seven different ensembles tell Billboard at the end of their 2024-25 football season, is to incorporate fresh pop music into their repertoires — a goal that’s easier said than done.
For starters, not all pop songs are created equal in the world of marching bands. Directors have numerous considerations to make when vetting potential selections, from crowd appeal — which many of them measure by surveying students, patrolling the Billboard Hot 100 and tracking Spotify streams as early as spring to determine what will be trendy in the fall — to whether they can secure the necessary licensing, budgeting anywhere from a few thousand dollars to five-digit sums for rights-buying each year.
They also must weigh if a hit has enough longevity to justify the time spent getting permissions and then arranging and teaching it to 300-plus marchers. Notre Dame director of bands Dr. Ken Dye still ruefully remembers a “Macarena” draft his ensemble never got to play before the dance craze fell out of favor in the ’90s. He also notes with a laugh that he tries to steer clear of tracks with inappropriate lyrics, to avoid repeating the time he received a stern email “from the boss” over a performance of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Turning 180 this year, The Fighting Irish’s college marching band is the oldest in the United States and also represents a Catholic university. (So far, nothing has hit Dye’s inbox over the “motherf–ker” bomb in Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which he paired with Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” for a 2024 halftime.)
But checking those boxes isn’t enough if a song doesn’t first have the musical foundation of a good marching band tune. University of Southern California (USC) band director Dr. Jacob Vogel says that compelling, stackable melodies; harmonies; basslines; and background elements are crucial ingredients, emphasizing how important variation is for filling stadiums with sound. “I refer to it as the enveloping nature of music,” he explains. “Why do people turn music on so loud in their car? So they feel like they’re inside of it. When I put our arrangements together, I want to make sure the band also has that enveloping nature.”
Fortunately, pop’s current crop of upbeat, melodically driven hits led by the likes of Roan and Carpenter offers those elements in abundance. But Vogel remembers two eras that definitely did not: the Adele-style power ballads of the mid-2010s, which were simply too slow for marching, and the EDM crossover phase before that, which was laden with dubstep dance breaks that band instruments couldn’t replicate.
Hip-hop, band directors say, has always been case by case. Horns can’t mimic the spoken quality of rap, but they can do a track justice if it has a prominent instrumental — like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which Southern University’s Human Jukebox covered this season. “ ‘They not like us, they not like us’; we wouldn’t be able to musically execute that,” director Dr. Kedric Taylor explains. “But we are able to musically execute ‘bum bum ba bum,’ ” he continues, singing the chromatic four-note string theme that anchors Lamar’s hit and got new heft courtesy of Southern’s screaming horn line.
Once songs are selected and parts assigned, directors and their staff can design field routines — an art form that, at times, is as straightforward as mining a song’s lyrics for ideas. Vogel’s students at USC formed a deck of cards while playing Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” at halftime, while Brunner, fully aware of a particular lyric’s cheeky double meaning, had his Temple marchers take the shape of a rabbit during Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova” after spelling out her first name. “I can play dumb,” he says with a laugh. “I figured that the people that knew about it would love it and the people that didn’t would be like, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ ”
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
Other parts of the field plan are far less intuitive. Directors must always think mechanically about the relationship between drill and music to ensure that their bands’ sound isn’t compromised by the spacing, timing or direction of any on-field configurations. The list of errors to avoid is endless, as University of Michigan assistant director of bands Dr. Richard Frey illustrates: “Where you place the tubas relative to the melody ends up being critical. If the drums are on the 10-yard line, we’re in big trouble. If you’re backward marching at 172 bpm, the sound’s not going to be great.”
But that painstaking attention to detail pays off on game day, when the marchers finally get to show off their hard work and see how it fires up fans in real time. Their pop arrangements are usually mixed in with classic hits and school songs, but Auburn University director Dr. Corey Spurlin — recalling how the student section sang and danced to Carpenter’s “Espresso” throughout the 2024 season — can attest that the more recent tracks are particularly useful for engaging the crowd. And as long as collegiate marching bands can do that, he says, the ensembles, and not recorded music, will remain “the soundtrack of college football.”
“When people come to the stadium, you want that experience to be worth the investment,” Spurlin says. “Bands are the key cog in being the sight — and sound especially — of college football and making people feel like they’re part of the pageantry. The percussion, the brass, the woodwinds — that’s what we associate with the sport. You can’t get that in your living room.”
Incorporating popular music also helps bands promote themselves and their schools far beyond campus. Many of the directors interviewed here scored viral moments for their shows this year, and one group, Jackson State University’s Sonic Boom of the South, even caught the attention of an artist it covered: Tyler, The Creator, who retweeted a video of the band’s speaker-busting rendition of “Sticky” in November and wrote, “THIS IS WHY I ARRANGED IT THAT WAY … MY HEART IS FILLED.”
“That’s what arranging is all about,” director Dr. Roderick Little says proudly of the rapper’s reaction. “Music is such an important vehicle because it can be interpreted by different musicians a thousand different ways.
“I’m just happy that our program was the one to bring his vision to life,” he adds. “I hope that it brings about new opportunities for marching bands so we can continue to create this art form and ultimately provide opportunities for our students — because we have a lot to offer.”
This story appears in the Feb. 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
The Backstreet Boys will be the first pop group to take the stage at Las Vegas’ Sphere. The man band announced the dates for their summer 2025 “Into the Millennium” residency at the futuristic venue, which will find them performing nine shows in July.
“Fans can expect an unforgettable experience as the Backstreet Boys bring their legendary Millennium album to life, alongside a selection of their greatest hits,” read a statement announcing the run of shows, which will find the group performing such hits as “I Want It That Way” and “Larger Than Life” in the venue that has wowed attendees with its immersive sound and wrap-around, high-tech visuals.
The group — Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough — will perform at the Sphere on July 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27. Fans can sign up for an artist presale now (through Feb. 17 at 10 p.m. PT) here for the first six dates. The Backstreet Boys Fan Club presale will kick off on Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. PT, with the artist presale launching on Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. PT. Additional presales will run throughout next week ahead of the general onsale that begins on Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. PT here.
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Tickets for the final three announced shows are available now via an artist presale through Feb. 17 at 10 p.m. PT here. The Fan Club presale for those shows will begin on Feb. 18 at 11 a.m. PT, with an artist presale beginning Feb. 19 at 11 a.m. PT, followed by additional presales throughout the week until the general onsale begins on Feb. 21 at 11 a.m. PT here.
“We’re heading ‘Into The Millennium’ once again! 🌐🩵 Relive your Backstreet Boys Y2K memories, but this time… LARGER THAN LIFE at @SphereVegas starting this July!,” the band said in an Instagram announcement that included images of the quintet projected on the outside of the venue.
U2 helped launch the venue in Sept. 2023 with their U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency, which had them stay put through March of 2024, making way for a four-show run by Phish and a 30-show stint by Dead & Company. The Eagles will play 32 shows in a run that kicked off in Sept. 2024 and is currently slated to run through an April 12 gig. EDM artist Anyma’s 12-show run kicked off on Dec. 27 and is slated to wrap on March 2, with Dead & Co. slipping back in for 18 more shows from March-May of this year, after which Kenny Chesney will touch down for 15 shows in May and June.
Check out the Sphere announcement below.
Taylor Swift has earned a good reputation for her cooking skills, just don’t ask Kylie Kelce what those meals taste like. Kelce, who is married to former NFL star Jason Kelce, said when the couple had a stay-at-home double date with her brother-in-law, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and Swift, the singer whipped up a dinner for them that went untouched for a very good reason.
Appearing on Wednesday’s (Feb. 12) episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Kylie said that during the couple’s night, “I don’t know that I really ate the meal,” explaining to host Alex Cooper that the night out was actually a night in at her and Jason’s house. “This is going to sound terrible. I didn’t really eat the meal because I was eight weeks pregnant and it was one of those where nothing sounded [good to me].” Kylie is pregnant now with her and Jason’s fourth child, a girl, who will join their daughters Wyatt, 5 and Elliote, 3 and Bennett, 23 months.
Kylie told Cooper that she first met Swift at a Chiefs game against the Buffalo Bills in January 2024, and dispelled rumors that she appeared to be avoiding the singer, who began dating Travis the previous summer. “People are deeply disturbed by this. There was, like, all this stuff leading up to it [the meeting] about, ‘Well, why haven’t they met, they’re avoiding each other.’ I’m not avoiding anyone. I’m more than happy to meet someone, especially someone that Travis is dating,” she said.
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To be fair, Kylie said she didn’t even meet Travis for “close to a year” when she began dating Jason. “And she’s busy,” Kylie said of the pop supernova who wrapped up her historic Eras Tour on Dec. 8 of last year. “It’s just so silly to me that that’s the storyline that’s written,” Kylie said.
Cooper also asked how the rest of the family found out that Travis — who Kylie said feels like a sibling to her at this point — was dating the most famous singer in the world, assuming that there was a group text or some other kind of secret signal.
“We were not [told]. I will say, we knew before everyone else knew, but it was not like… it did not hit the group chat,” Kylie said. “Jase and I found out together, but we knew before they hard launched with her going to a game,” she said in reference to Swift appearing at a Sept. 24, 2023 game between the Chiefs and Chicago Bears.
As for what she and Swift had bonded over in the year since, Kylie said she and Taylor grew up going to the same New Jersey Shore points in Sea Isle/Stone Harbor, where she and Jason now own a home.
Watch Kylie talk Taylor and Travis double date below.
Sabrina Carpenter just earned the ultimate pop royalty seal of approval.
After being unveiled as the cover star for the March 2025 issue of Vogue on Tuesday (Feb. 11), the “Espresso” singer received high praise from none other than Madonna, who took to Instagram to express her admiration for the striking photoshoot—one that many fans noted bore a strong resemblance to Madonna’s own Vanity Fair spread from 1991.
“Is this a Valentine’s present to me?” the Queen of Pop commented under Vogue’s Instagram post, seemingly acknowledging the visual nod to her iconic era.
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Carpenter’s high-fashion moment, shot by longtime Madonna collaborator Steven Meisel, sees the singer posing in an ice-blue satin cone bra corset mini dress by Dolce & Gabbana—a silhouette that immediately drew comparisons to Madonna’s signature Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra from her Blond Ambition Tour in 1990.
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Beyond Madonna, other celebrities also took notice of the glamorous spread. Actress Lily Collins excitedly wrote, “Omg this is amazing,” while supermodel Heidi Klum added, “Wow.”
Carpenter, who has long embraced elements of pop history in her aesthetic, has paid homage to Madonna before. At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, she turned heads in a white sequin Bob Mackie gown—famously worn by Madonna at the 1991 Academy Awards. The choice was seen as a bold tribute to one of her biggest inspirations.
In her accompanying Vogue interview, Carpenter opened up about drawing inspiration from powerful, hyper-feminine women while recording her highly anticipated sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet.
“(I was) feeling inspired by images of women that felt very strong and hyperfeminine,” she explained. “And then being like: ‘If only she said what she was actually thinking.’”
With Short n’ Sweet expected to further establish her as a dominant force in pop, Carpenter’s Vogue cover—and Madonna’s co-sign—marks yet another defining moment in her fast-rising career.
In another testament to SB19‘s unwavering global appeal, the Phillippines’ boy band sensation is gearing up to dominate new U.S. stages as part of their much-anticipated Simula at Wakas World Tour.
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Fresh off being crowned winners of the Billboard Fan Army Face-Off for both 2023 and 2024, the group’s global fanbase — affectionately known as A’TIN — can look forward to Pablo, Josh, Stell, Ken, and Justin visiting even more of them this year while hitting new cities and countries.
Billboard can exclusively reveal plans for the SB19 Simula at Wakas World Tour, which will showcase not only their dynamic live performances of the P-pop boy band but, inevitably, the latest evolution of their sound as they gear up to drop their new EP, Simula at Wakas, on Friday, April 25.
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Simula at Wakas promises to push the guys further into the global-pop conversation as the final chapter in their musical trilogy following 2021’s Pagsibol and Pagtatag! from 2023. SB19 first teased fans with a new trailer video on January 31, 2025 (below) that featured visual callbacks to previous hits like “What?” and “Gento” (which hit No. 8 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart in 2023) to signal a fresh, new musical direction for their soon-to-be revealed new single set for a February 28 release.
Soon afterward, the Filipino sensation will hit the road with a series of concerts, including U.S. stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and more, alongside international dates in cities like Toronto, Tokyo, Sydney, Taipei, Doha, and more.
“We’re really excited to meet everyone,” Ken tells Billboard. “We’ve been preparing for unlimited surprises for you guys.”
While Justin promises that fans will hear new songs from Simula at Wakas for the first time, Josh is sure to add that A’TIN should “stay tuned for new genres and performances, plus fresh arrangements of our older tracks!”
While the guys are laser-focused on releasing their new music, they say bringing those songs to life in new countries and territories is equally exciting to the quintet.
“We’re thrilled to finally share what we’ve been working on over the past few months,” Stell says. “After a long break as a group, our main focus is now on the new EP, and we can’t wait to reconnect with our fans — especially in places we haven’t visited before. We’re really excited to meet everyone there.”
In addition to the world tour dates already set between May-August, as well as October 2025, SB19 say “more cities will be announced soon” with dates coming soon for their Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, and Hong Kong stops.
“We are pushing the boundaries and we want the best for all of the fans,” leader Pablo shares before Josh adds, “We think from our last tour they have seen more of our individuality but this time, we will be coming stronger.”
Stell concludes by speaking to SB19’s larger ambitions, saying “We really want our fans to connect with our stories since we did it with all our hearts. Our goals are not only for SB19 but for the entire Philippine music industry.”
See below for the Simula at Wakas World Tour poster and stay tuned for more information from the band.
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Charlie Puth has a very urgent message for Ye: STOP. The “Left and Right” singer took to his Instagram Story on Monday (Feb. 10) to implore the artist formerly known as Kanye West to stop selling a t-shirt commemorating the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews.
“@ye The message you are sending out to the world is incredibly dangerous,” wrote Puth. “Please man, I beg you to stop. You are selling a T-shirt with a Swastika on it, and MILLIONS of people are influenced by you. Please I BEG you to stop, PLEASE.”
The call seems unlikely to land with the rapper whose once praised, prodigious skills as a musician and culture mover have been overshadowed, again, by his embrace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Nazi symbolism and virulent antisemitic messaging.
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Puth’s plea came after Ye went on a four-day hate spree on X beginning last Friday, in which he posted dozens of all caps screeds every hour that included homophobic, ableist and antisemitic slurs. He capped things off on Sunday night with a Super Bowl commercial for his Yeezy brand that aired in a handful of markets and took fans to a site that at present is selling only one product: a white t-shirt featuring a swastika.
Ye’s promotion of Nazi symbolism drew yet another rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, which warned that such antisemitic behavior from a person with a large social audience is both dangerous and irresponsible at a time when attacks on Jewish people have been on the rise. “As if we needed further proof of Kanye’s antisemitism, he chose to put a single item for sale on his website — a T-shirt emblazoned with a swastika,” read the group’s statement.
“The swastika is the symbol adopted by Hitler as the primary emblem of the Nazis. It galvanized his followers in the 20th century and continues to threaten and instill fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy,” the group that works to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate and bigotry continued. “If that wasn’t enough, the T-shirt is labeled on Kanye’s website as ‘HH-01,’ which is code for ‘Heil Hitler.’ Kanye was tweeting vile antisemitism nonstop since last week. There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior. Even worse, Kanye advertised his website during the Super Bowl, amplifying it beyond his already massive social media audience.”
West’s barrage of hate speech included declarations such as “I’m a Nazi” and “I love Hitler,” as well as offensive tweets targeting people with disabilities, Taylor Swift and Super Bowl halftime performer Kendrick Lamar. He also petitioned Donald Trump to free disgraced Bad Boy Records founder Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is in jail without bail awaiting trail in New York on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges.
The rapper’s lauding of Nazis and Hitler also drew a rebuke from former Friends star David Schwimmer, who on Saturday implored X owner Musk to ban Ye from the platform. “This is so 2022. We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk,” the Jewish actor, 58, wrote on Instagram to the world’s richest man, who himself was accused of making a gesture that many said evoked the Nazi straight-arm salute at one of Trump’s inaugural events last month. “Kanye West has 32.7 million followers on your platform, X. That’s twice as many people than the number of Jews in existence. His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews.”
Ye was booted from X (then still known as Twitter) in October 2022 for antisemitic posts, briefly reinstated in November of that year and then re-suspended that month after posting an image of a swastika intertwined with a Jewish star. Musk reinstated West’s account eight months later. West, who capped off his manic post salvo by sharing uncensored porn clips, appeared to sign off from X on Sunday night, just hours after his Super Bowl ad promoting the swastika shirt aired.
“I’m logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent. It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board,” Ye wrote before the account went offline. At press time it did not appear as if Musk had responded to West shutting down his account and it was still unclear if the move was West’s choice or if the account had been suspended by X; a spokesperson for West had not returned Billboard’s request for comment at press time.
West’s music and fashion empire went into free fall in late 2022 and early 2023 when he went on a series of similar hate-filled, antisemitic rants that included a threat to go “death con [sic] 3″ on Jewish people, as well as repeated praise for Hitler and the parading of the white supremacist phrase “White Lives Matter” on shirts at Paris Fashion Week.
In quick succession, Ye was dropped by the Gap, Adidas, Balenciaga and his agents at CAA and has his social media accounts suspended or revoked in a fallout so complete that the once — and according to him, again — billionaire said in February of last year that he nearly went bankrupt.
Britton Moore made a lasting impression on The Voice Monday night (Feb. 10), delivering a stunning performance of Coldplay’s “Yellow” during Blind Auditions that earned him a coveted four-chair turn.
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The 21-year-old singer from San Antonio wasted no time winning over coaches Adam Levine, John Legend, Kelsea Ballerini, and Michael Bublé, setting off a heated battle for his talent.
Levine, who was the first to turn his chair just seconds into Moore’s audition, made it clear he saw something special in the young singer. “When I heard you go into your falsetto, I was like, ‘Okay, I need to coach this guy,’” the Maroon 5 frontman told Moore.
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“There’s definitely something in your voice that reminded me a little of how I do it. I just felt an instant connection, and I pushed really early because I thought, ‘Man, this kid’s gonna be special,’ and I was right. You’re amazing, dude!”
Legend was equally impressed, praising Moore for his control. “Singing falsetto is actually really hard in a live setting,” he said. “I always tell my artists, ‘Your falsetto will betray you when you need it most.’ And it did not betray you, and you sounded so effortless and you really took some creative leaps.”
“I think nobody sounds like you on the show, and that will be exciting. And it would be so fun to coach you.”
Ballerini, in her first season as a coach, said, “Can I call you Britt? Perfect. We go way back. You’re from Texas, I’m from Tennessee. Similar. You’re 21, I respect my elders.” She also played a snippet of her song “Dibs” via a button on her chair, attempting to secure Moore for her team.
In the end, Moore chose Team Adam, marking Levine’s second four-chair turn victory of the season. “Almost half my team is four-chair turns,” Levine remarked backstage.
Moore’s song choice was no small feat—“Yellow” served as the Stateside lead single for Parachutes, the band’s landmark Grammy-winning debut studio album (it won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2002 awards show). On the Billboard Hot 100, “Yellow” climbed to No. 48, while Parachutes reached No. 51.
Watch Moore’s performance below.
When BLACKPINK was gearing up for its highly anticipated debut in 2016, rising creative director SINXITY was adamant the group needed an unexpected sound to distinguish itself. Alongside the group’s explosive EDM-trap banger “BOOMBAYAH,” the young exec at YG Entertainment pushed for a secondary, simultaneous single in the minimalist-yet-emotionally tinged “Whistle” to show their wider, “magical” range to distinguish them from YG’s other female outfit, 2NE1. Nearly a decade later, BLACKPINK remains one of the most successful acts from South Korea, and SINXITY is overseeing a new female quartet made for the global stage while emphasizing that “identity and diversity are important.”
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Seven years after exiting YG Entertainment and launching AXIS as a multi-operational label, production house and creative incubator for internationally minded projects, SINXITY (neé SJ Shin) is the executive producer for the freshly debuted cosmosy. The act consists of four Japanese singers who trained in Korea under the K-pop system and sing in a mix of English, Japanese and Korean to appeal to the global pop market. Two members, De_Hana and Kamión, rose to recognition after competing on Produce 101 Japan The Girls (a local spin-off of the Korean singing competition series that created Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart-toppers JO1, INI and ME:I), are joined by relative newcomers Himesha and A’mei, respectively the eldest and youngest member, who trained in dance since childhood (while idolizing the likes of British superstar Dua Lipa and BLACKPINK’s Thai icon Lisa).
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Executing the internationally minded group brings NTT Docomo Studio & Live (the entertainment wing of Japan’s major mobile carrier) together with Sony Music Korea (the Seoul-based label that recently signed multilingual Monsta X member I.M in 2022 for his solo work). The move isn’t entirely without precedence with XG (the Japanese girl group based in South Korea that sings in English with a mix of U.S., Japanese and Korean management), or the likes of HYBE’s KATSEYE and JYP Entertainment’s VCHA girl groups (both Los Angeles-based acts sing in English but have performed across Asia and the Americas). Leading all of cosmosy’s creative and professional decisions, SINXITY proudly says this is a group where the members’ “natural talent should be what’s emphasized.”
“I really want to open up a new path for the girls for them to be able to do a lot of different genres and try different concepts,” he shares during an afternoon video call when he’s taking a break from putting the final touches on cosmosy’s first music video before it goes live at midnight. “Inevitably, people are gonna compare the girls to groups like XG, NiziU, and the other Japanese girl groups, but I want to do something for them that is new and different. Whether it’s K-pop, J-pop, pop, hip-hop, R&B, I want to incorporate various music genres and create a new path for them.”
SINXITY and cosmosy both describe the group as having a “girlish crush” concept, inspired by the girl crush image that K-pop acts like BLACKPINK, ITZY, and (G)I-DLE embody with cosmosy peppering in additional sprinkles of mystique, innocence and even a little devilishness blended into “a group that has never existed before,” according to De_Hana.
“Unlike the typical girl crush everyone knows, our concept includes both cool and cute elements,” explains Kamión, an Osaka native who spent time studying abroad. “There is also a touch of mystery, which evokes the atmosphere of Japanese horror or anime.” Meanwhile, Himesha and A’mei use “mysterious” to describe the group.
After unveiling cosmosy’s debut single “zigy=zigy” alongside its music video on New Year’s Eve, the track was released globally on Feb. 7 to kick off the first of multiple digital singles the act will drop throughout the year with an EP potentially eyed for spring. With Korean television appearances and fashion-magazine features on the horizon, SINXITY emphasizes that as important as new cosmosy content is, the next, urgent priority is to meet fans in person.
“They’re super talented, really pretty, such nice and charming girls; I really want people and fans to meet them directly,” the producer adds. “The key factor is how to meet core fans.”
Showing up to work as one’s true self and connecting to others authentically is personally important for SINXITY, who says he’s finally at ease in a professional environment where he’s comfortable to fully focus his energy on the work at hand.
“The Korean entertainment industry has become safer than in the past,” he shares. “Because I am gay, identity and diversity are very important to me and something I’m trying to build on…it’s still not widely accepted to be in the LGBT community since there are restrictions and laws for gay people, but it’s more accepted and it’s a safer, better space compared to others. But it’s still not a thing to come out and be openly gay.”
Noting the three women assisting him during this video call in Seoul, SINXITY estimates that 90 percent of the crew that works with cosmosy are women. That’s a rarity in Korean entertainment, and an even bigger percentage than AXIS’ division focused on producing Boy Love (also known as BL) television, the popular genre of same-sex drama series that boasts majority female audiences. With works including the 2022 breakout hit Semantic Error and FC Soldout currently airing, SINXITY and AXIS are inevitably shifting the norms of what and how Korean-pop entertainment operates simply in the name of creativity — and openly support other industry shakers.
“I’ve worked overseas, I’ve done a lot of projects with YG in Japan and Korea,” says SINXITY, who also worked with YG Entertainment’s actors roster during his time. “I have a unique identity, so I can’t help but talk about it and share myself here anyway. I just want to be free to create, reach more people and show them even more in these creative areas.”
SINXITY smiles before asking to include an additional note before the call wraps and he goes back to color-correcting the “zigy=zigy” video.
“One more thing: wait for NewJeans and stand up for Min Hee-jin,” SINXITY says, with a visibly surprised translator noting that he may be the first Korean executive to support the embattled former CEO of ADOR publicly. “I really admire Min Hee-jin and respect her. She’s the one and only best producer in this K-pop industry, so I really [want to] stand with her and really pray for NewJeans to have more free activities. We’re in some of the same networks, but I’m really just a fan. She’s really the one-and-only qualified producer.”
