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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.
SB19
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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.”
It’s been a near-year-long road to the Big Game for Kendrick Lamar, whose 2024 crescendoed from March onward, to the point where the rapper — who had long seemed conflicted about the idea of crossover success — ended the year as our editorial staff’s pick for the year’s Greatest Pop Star. He’s picked up right […]
02/10/2025
Check out the music moments you might have missed if you weren’t in the building on Sunday.
02/10/2025
Donald Trump became the first sitting President to attend a Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb. 9), when he watched two quarters of the Philadelphia Eagles’ dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs on their way to a decisive 40-22 victory. The second termer also became the first commander in chief to post a nasty taunt of […]
Before becoming a Billboard Hot 100-topping singer/songwriter, Teddy Swims was dominating in a different arena: the football field. But just like Zac Efron’s High School Musical character before him, Swims had to take a break from sports to follow his musical dreams.
On the next episode of Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals web series, premiering Tuesday at 6 a.m. ET, Swims sits down with host Josh Scherer to eat their way through some of the musician’s all-time favorite foods and talk about his life story. When Scherer compared Swims’ teen days growing up in Conyers, Georgia, to High School Musical — in which Efron’s Troy Bolton is the basketball star who harbors secret musical aspirations — Swims immediately related to the Disney analogy.
“I call myself the fat Troy Bolton, you know?” Swims laughed. “I wanted to quit football to do music, focus on theater. I remember my mom was so bummed out about it. She had [saved] all my stuff, all my trophies … since 6 years old. She was like, ‘Baby, we’re a football team. We’re a football family. Why would you do this to us? We’ve always done football!’ She was so confused. I just told her, ‘I want to do music. I really like music.’”
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His mom’s mind changed when she saw him onstage for the very first time. “I remember her coming to my first performance. We did this show called Damn Yankees, and I had, like, all of two lines in it. As soon as it got done, I remember her coming to me and saying, ‘Baby, I’m so sorry. This is where you belong. You’re a superstar.’ It just flipped. Just watching me onstage, it just flipped it upside down for her.”
Last month, Swims shared the news via Instagram that he’s expecting his first child with his partner, fellow musician Raiche Wright, and he sees fatherhood as an opportunity to revisit the world of sports.
“We’re gonna get back on that field,” he tells Scherer. “I just want to be the coach of something. Hopefully I’m gonna have a son and I can coach a football team. I want to do the Snoop Dogg, like, youth league Netflix series. That’s what I’m trying to do eventually: Teddy Swims little league, and like coach my son. Hopefully I get that opportunity. Maybe a daughter wants to play football, or maybe I’ll do the Teddy Swims cheerleading league … chess league. Whatever they’re into, I’m into.”
Teddy Swims released his second studio album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2), on Jan. 24 — debuting atop Billboard‘s Top Album Sales chart and at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 — ahead of his Feb. 2 performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for best new artist.
Lady Gaga cast a spell at the 2025 Grammys with “Abracadabra,” and for the 2025 Super Bowl, she showed up to bring audiences together with another rousing performance.
In a special segment ahead of Super Bowl LIX, Gaga appeared alongside sports legends Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw and others in a pre-filmed segment on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street to pay tribute to the victims of multiple disasters over the last year, including the New Orleans terror attack, Hurricane Helene and the Los Angeles wildfires.
“Here on Bourbon Street, always the heart and soul of New Orleans, this year began with a terror attack that tried to shatter its spirit,” Strahan said while walking down the iconic thoroughfare sporting a “NOLA Strong” shirt. Brady, wearing an L.A. Fire Department T-shirt, joined in, adding that New Orleans’ resilience is “matched by the resolve of our country. When tragedy strikes, we don’t break — we come together, we rise above and we never let evil win.”
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The camera then cut to Gaga — sporting a wide-brimmed white hat and long white lace dress — seated at a piano and surrounded by a crowd in the middle of Bourbon Street. The singer launched into a stripped down performance of her Top Gun: Maverick single “Hold My Hand.” With various police officers and firefighters looking on, Gaga drove home the song’s inspirational message: “So cry tonight/ But don’t you let go of my hand,” she sang. “You can cry every last tear/ I won’t leave ’til I understand/ Promise you’ll just hold my hand.”
The segment aired just before the Philadelphia Eagles squared off against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2025 Super Bowl. Music fans around the world will be tuning into the program to watch as Kendrick Lamar takes center stage at Caesars Superdome for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, featuring special guest SZA.
In the pre-show, meanwhile, in addition to Gaga, performers included Ledisi, Harry Connick Jr., Lauren Daigle and Jon Batiste to deliver annual renditions of the national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “America the Beautiful.”
Watch Gaga’s performance of “Hold My Hand” above.
The first week of February concludes with a smattering of new music, featuring releases from LISA, Doja Cat and Raye, Anitta and more. To start with what is already one of the biggest team-ups of the year, the BLACKPINK star has released her latest single, “Born Again,” featuring a heavy lift from two all-star collaborators. […]