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The 10 Biggest Live Music Stories of 2025: Live Nation Lawsuits, Ticket Prices & More

On its face, the annual numbers for the concert industry don’t look particularly great as 2025 comes to a close. Ticket sales from the Billboard Boxscore Year-End charts are effectively flat this year, down a fraction of a percent over 2024, with attendance and total show count all stagnant for the year. Live Nation’s share price isn’t faring much better — after […]

Chinese Music Shines on the Global Stage as Zi Yu Claims Top Spot in 2025 Billboard Global No. 1s China Honor Selection

Recently, Tencent Music Chart, under Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), partnered with Billboard China to officially unveil the China region results of the 2025 Billboard Global No. 1s, a prestigious annual global honor initiated by Billboard. Following two rounds of fan voting, rising Chinese artist Zi Yu emerged from a field of exceptional musicians to […]

The 25 Best Stand-Up Comedians of the 21st Century So Far (Nos. 25-11)

No matter how quick the wit, no stand-up comic starts out a success. Forget the top: on the way to the bottom rung, comics need to endure endless open-mic tryouts, log thousands of miles for little or no money and be thankful for 1:00 a.m. slots in front of drunken hecklers. And that’s just for starters. The further up the ladder they climb, the more pressure they face to consistently write and hone hour-plus sets that will […]

The 10 Hottest Female Rappers of 2025: Staff Picks

After watching women MCs spar for pole position in hip-hop over the last few years, in June 2024, Billboard put together its first-ever Hottest Female Rappers List. The 10-slot list not only served as a hotly contested battle royale, but also sparked healthy discourse about how women have not only infiltrated the rap space, but […]

Nogizaka46’s ‘Biryani’ Hits No. 1 on Japan Hot 100

Nogizaka46’s “Biryani” soars to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, on the chart released Dec. 3. This marks the popular girl group’s 30th No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100. Serving as the title track of the group’s 40th single, the song sold 736,722 copies in its first week to debut at No. […]