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It has been more than six years since Lily Allen’s most recent studio LP — but that could be about to change. In a new update, the British pop star has said that she is “trying to manifest” releasing a new album by “the end of the year.”
Speaking on her Miss Me? podcast, a show she hosts with TV presenter and longtime friend Miquita Oliver, the 39-year-old musician discussed the potential follow-up to 2018’s No Shame, which landed at No. 8 on the U.K.’s Official Album Charts.
“Firstly, I’m going to go and get my head straight for a bit,” she said on the show’s latest episode, which was released Thursday (Jan. 2). “I’m doing a little bit of work on myself in this beginning period of the year, then I’m going to do some more writing, then I’m going to do my play [Allen will star in a new production of Hedda Gabler in Bath, England, in July], hopefully, maybe get an album out by the end of the year. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
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She continued, “It’s not real, I’m just trying to manifest it now.” Later, she added, “Listen, I’ve got this. We’re bringing Lily Allen back in 2025.”
Across her career, Allen has released four studio albums: 2006’s Alright Still, 2009’s It’s Not Me, It’s You, 2014’s Sheezus and 2018’s No Shame. Three of her singles have charted at No. 1 on the Official Singles Chart in the U.K. – “Smile” (2006), “The Fear” (2008) and a cover of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” (2013).
On a previous episode first released in April 2024, Allen revealed that she had been working on new music in Nashville. “I’m in Nashville, where everyone is really good. There’s so much legacy,” she told her co-host Oliver. “I have to say it’s quite intimidating being here. People are really talented.” Prior to that, she also said on X that she had written up to 50 songs for a new album.
In July 2024, Allen shared that she had begun selling pictures and videos of her feet on OnlyFans and that she was receiving more revenue from her pictures than from her music streams. “Imagine being and artist [sic] and having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on spotify but earning more money from having 1000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet,” she said on social media.
Listen to the episode below (music discussion begins at the 6:00 mark.)
Britney Spears‘ ex-husband Sam Asghari has gone Instagram official with his new girlfriend. The 30-year-old The Traitors actor posted a series of celebratory New Year’s pics on Wednesday (Jan. 1) in which he is seen getting up-close-and-personal with his blonde lady love.
In the first snap, the couple, both dressed in all white, are seen staring deep into each other’s eyes under a palm tree beneath a starry sky next to a caption reading “Happy New Year to All.”. According to US Magazine, Asghari’s new partner is realtor Brooke Irvine, whose social feeds are set to private.
In another picture, Irvine lays her head on Asghari’s stomach as the couple recline on the trunk of a palm tree. The reel also features a snap of the pair in all-black at what looks like a party, followed by another cuddly image of them sitting on a carnival-like ride and a final pic of Asghari with his arm around Irvine’s neck, standing behind her as they take a mirror selfie while dressed in all-white again.
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In December, Spears celebrated her 43rd birthday on the same day a California court declared her officially single. The declaration came seven months after her divorce from Asghari was finalized in Los Angeles. Spears and Asghari separated in July 2023, 13 months after their wedding and six years after they first started dating. Asghari filed for divorce in August 2023, citing irreconcilable differences.
Two months earlier, Spears announced that she’d “married” herself in a throwback video that appeared similar to one from 2022, in which she wrote, “The day I married myself … Bringing it back because it might seem embarrassing or stupid, but I think it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done !!!
The divorce from Asghari was the third for spears, who was also briefly married to childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004 before tying the knot with dancer Kevin Federline that same year; she and Federline had two sons, Sean Preston, 19 and Jayden James, 18, before splitting in 2007.
While Asghari spent the new year with his new love, Spears revealed over the Christmas holiday that she’d reunited with Jayden, calling their reconciliation the “best Christmas of my life!!! I haven’t seen my boys in 2 years!!!”
Justin Bieber rang in the new year by rededicating himself to wife Hailey Bieber. After the model posted a spicy NYE pic in which she wore a pink bikini under a fur coat, Justin hopped into the conversation in his Instagram Stories on Wednesday (Jan. 1) by commenting “Goin anywhere with u bb,” according to […]
London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display was, apparently, brat. The celebration took pace on the River Thames as Big Ben struck midnight and 2024 shifted to 2025.
Charli XCX‘s big year made it into the city’s annual fireworks display airing on BBC and ITV; her influence on the fireworks show is immediately recognizable as Brat green lights the sky, as captured in the photo above.
The night’s Brat-inspired moment can be seen in full here, via a clip Charli’s fans shared on X (formerly Twitter). Along with that familiar shade of green, album track “Apple” plays and “london” appears typewritten in the style of Charli’s album art.
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Elsewhere on New Year’s Eve, Charli shared reflections on Brat‘s massive success over the past year on Instagram.
“So many highs in 2024 and i cba to post them all but here’s some of my fav memories and fav people. love you all so much and thank you for everything. sorry i’m a lot sometimes xx,” she wrote on Dec. 31.
The caption went along with a photo carousel looking back at the year of Brat, with snapshots with friends and from the rollout of the album — and its companion release, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. Some highlights included pictures with her fiancé (The 1975’s George Daniel) and a behind-the-scenes cue card shot from her SNL hosting gig.
Brat arrived in June, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. It also led the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 29 weeks.
Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a variation of the original album featuring collaborations with Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, The 1975, Lorde, Robyn, Troye Sivan, Bon Iver, Julian Casablancas, Caroline Polachek and more, followed in October.
Charli’s fall Sweat Tour with Sivan earned $28 million, with 297,000 tickets sold over the course of 22 shows in the U.S. and Canada, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The Jonas Brothers are gearing up for a busy 2025. On Tuesday (Dec. 31), the sibling trio of Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas reunited for a special appearance at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in New York City. Ahead of their high-energy performance, the group — celebrating their 20th anniversary this […]
Rihanna surprised fans with an impromptu visit to a New York City karaoke bar.
On Saturday (Dec. 28), the 36-year-old singer and entrepreneur made an unexpected stop at Manhattan’s Girls Love Karaoke, where she took the stage to perform “Needed Me” and “Sex With Me” from her 2016 album, Anti.
In fan-captured footage from the event, RiRi can be heard telling the excited crowd that she only had about five minutes to spare, joking that her “battery” was “about to burn out.” The Grammy-winning superstar, also a mother of two, added a dose of star power to the evening while playfully teasing fans who have been eagerly awaiting new music, nearly nine years after the release of Anti.
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Following the performance, Rihanna’s Navy flooded social media with reactions to the karaoke surprise. “Imagine going to [karaoke] night and you get a free Rihanna performance,” one fan wrote on X. Another added, “Awee she’s having fun.” Someone else gushed, “Her voice reminds me of Whitney Houston.”
But not all responses were so positive. “Chii 😭 the mic was bleeding,” one commenter quipped on X. Another person wrote, “Help this is horrible 😭😭.” A third user critiqued, “I didn’t know singing a simple note was this hard.” And yet another questioned, “Is this really Rihanna? My cat can sing better.”
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Some disgruntled fans took to social media to call out the Fenty Beauty founder for performing at a karaoke bar instead of focusing on new music.
“So she wanna f— around with karaoke instead of getting her ass in the booth. wtf Rihanna 😒,” one person wrote on X. Another added, “Karaoke to your own 2016 hits with nothing new released?!!?” alongside a Simpsons meme that read “Pathetic.”
Earlier this year, Rihanna — who shares two young children with boyfriend A$AP Rocky — teased that her upcoming music will be worth the wait.
“I already got stuff that I feel like I could make hits out of,” she told ET in April. “Me and Rocky are really trying to figure out who’s gonna use what because it’s so good.”
In March, Rihanna performed live for the first time in eight years when she took the stage for a pre-wedding celebration for the son of Asia’s richest man.
Charli XCX had a landmark 2024, and she’s looking back on the best moments of her year on social media. “So many highs in 2024 and i cba to post them all but here’s some of my fav memories and fav people. love you all so much and thank you for everything. sorry i’m a […]
Ariana Grande is reflecting on a highly productive and successful year.
On Tuesday (Dec. 31), the 31-year-old pop star and actress looked back on 2024, sharing a series of nostalgic photos and videos. In her Instagram post, Grande highlighted some of the standout moments from the past 12 months, including the filming of her record-breaking musical movie Wicked and the release of her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine.
“a year full of art and heart,” the “We Can’t Be Friends” singer captioned the post. “thank you eternally for your love and support, words truly don’t suffice. i love you always and am wishing you a all a very happy new year !”
Grande’s carousel begins with a stunning shot of her “Sleeping Beauties”-themed look, worn at an afterparty following the 2024 Met Gala. The gallery also includes photos with friends and Wicked castmates, including Cynthia Erivo and Bowen Yang, along with a playful shot of her in a Catwoman-inspired outfit from her “The Boy Is Mine” music video. Several heartwarming pictures with her mom, Joan Grande, and brother Frankie Grande are also featured.
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In her Instagram Story on Tuesday, Grande shared a mysterious clip showing her head tilted against what appears to be film equipment, with the caption, “to be continued…,” alongside a heart emoji. The image is reminscent of one of her Eternal Sunshine alternative album covers.
It’s been a monumental year for Grande. The two-time Grammy winner, who ranked No. 9 on Billboard’s list of Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century, scored her sixth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Eternal Sunshine in March. Meanwhile, her new movie Wicked became the highest-grossing film ever based on a Broadway musical at the domestic box office, earning $634.4 million worldwide since its Nov. 22 release.
The year was rounded out with a milestone for her holiday hit “Santa Tell Me,” which reached the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time since its release in November 2014. The track landed at No. 9 on the chart dated Dec. 28, after peaking at No. 11 in 2023.
Long before 2025 even kicked off, many artists were already starting to tease fans, hinting or downright saying they should expect new music in the upcoming year.
Take The Weeknd, for example. The artist born Abel Tesfaye began teasing his fans on Jan. 7, 2024, via social media. In an Instagram carousel, he shared the covers for After Hours and Dawn FM, followed by a black square with a giant white question mark in the center and a tiny parental advisory sticker in the bottom left. His caption? A single “3.” He finally revealed the title of the final album of his trilogy — Hurry Up Tomorrow — in September, and the day before Thanksgiving, shared its release date.
Then there was Lady Gaga. Mother Monster surprised the Little Monsters with a simple message at the end of the Gaga Chromatica Ball concert film, confirming that her seventh album is indeed in the works: “LG7 GAGA RETURNS.” But the tease, which debuted on the HBO Max film in late May, did not offer any hints as to when the highly anticipated release would arrive. It wasn’t until her September Vogue cover story that Gaga revealed LG7 would arrive sometime in February 2025. As of press time, a specific release date has not yet been revealed.
And of course, things don’t always go as planned. Joe Jonas announced in July that his new solo album, Music for People Who Believe in Love, would arrive Oct. 18, then shared in a September tweet that the set “is gonna come out later now” because he wanted to add some “final touches.” A new release date has not yet been announced.
With surprise album news, moving release dates and the sheer number of album announcements, it can be hard to stay on top of when new music by favorite artists is arriving. To help make sure fans don’t miss out on big arrivals, Billboard‘s calendar of 2025 new album releases — which will include the most notable releases from artists across genres, spanning hip-hop, K-pop, Latin, rock, pop, country and more — will be updated regularly as new music is announced.
The calendar is organized chronologically by month and week, and includes a section for albums that artists have announced, but have not given an exact release date.
Keep checking back for the latest 2025 album release dates!
January
Beyoncé‘s mom, Tina Knowles, has had a busy week flying her matriarch flag. First, on Friday, she took to social media to defend Bey’s eye-popping Christmas Day NFL halftime show during the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. When some commenters took issue with the 12-minute set highlighting songs from Bey’s hit Cowboy Carter country-influenced album, Knowles wrote, “It is mind-boggling to me that you would take your precious Christmas day and watch a performance of someone you hate and you don’t think has talent so that you can talk ish about it later.”
Then, on the Run-Through With Vogue podcast Knowles, 70, talked about a recent social media hiccup in which it appeared she liked a post about allegations that her son-in-law Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted an unnamed 13-year-old girl in 2000; Jay-Z has denied the allegations.
“I’m a protector of my kids and I just feel like that’s my job,” Knowles said on the New Year’s Eve episode of the pod (social media talk begins around 21:30 mark). “And, you know, my kids are always like, ‘Mama, just ignore that.’ But it gets to the point where I’m just like, ‘I’m sorry. This is enough. It’s enough.’ You know? Because imagine being a mother and somebody’s lying on your kid. It’s hard to watch.”
That said, Knowles explained that just because she appeared to like a negative post about Jay doesn’t mean she did it on purpose. “It’s so funny because you know how many times I’ve liked something that was negative about my own children?” Knowles said. “Because if I’m busy and I’m going through the thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s Beyoncé with so and so.’ I like that. And then the fans come back and say, ‘Miss Tina, please erase that because you’re liking some negative post.’ I mean, that’s what happens to 70-year-olds on social media. It’s true.”
Earlier this month, many fans were surprised when it seemed as if Knowles liked a post about the rape allegations against Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) that are part of a civil suit against the two rappers; Combs is currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering and is the subject in more than 10 civil suits related to allegations of sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment and other charges. Combs has also vehemently denied the allegations and Jay-Z has called the suit a “blackmail attempt.”
After Knowles initially liked the post, just days later, the like was gone and she informed followers that she had been “hacked,” adding, “As you all know I do not play about my family. So if you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that it is not me !”
Knowles did not take on the allegations against Jay, but she did share some sage advice the rapper has given her about social media etiquette. “I know that it doesn’t understand what I’m saying, and it’s got crazy stuff,” she said of her Insta comments, many of which feature captions that are created using voice-to-text and some of which are misinterpreted due to her Southern accent. “And my son-in-law, Jay will say, ‘Listen, if you’re gonna read somebody, at least spell your words right. Don’t misspell your words, Ma. You can’t do that. Take your time and go over and spellcheck your stuff!’”
While she appreciates the tip, Knowles admitted, “I don’t have time for that.”
The chat also found Knowles talking about fashion and shopping, describing how as a Texas native she’s always appreciated cowboy fashion. “I’ve always worn boots and cowboy hats,” she said, noting that some people used to make comments in not “such a great way” when she showed up in L.A. in her Cowboy Carter finest. She also reminded any lingering haters that costumes she designed for Destiny’s Child back in the day hinted at the family’s Texas roots, with “a lot of fringe and cowboy hats and cowboy boots.”