In 2018, RZA pitched the rest of Wu-Tang Clan on a five-year plan, which would corral all of the members that had been floating in and out of projects and serve as an exclamation point on their storied run. Actually, there were two different five-year plans — although the timelines were intertwined. “I called it ‘The Relay Plan,’” says the Wu’s longtime mastermind.

One timetable would involve the film properties focused on the groundbreaking New York hip-hop collective: a multipart documentary (which became Showtime’s four-­episode Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men in 2019), a TV dramatization of the group’s formation (Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga, which ran for three seasons through 2023) and “some type of feature film” that RZA says is still to be determined. The other plan would center on live shows — a multiple-tour farewell that would unite all 10 members and allow them to scatter upon its conclusion.

“That was my pitch to the brothers,” RZA recalls. It might have been a tough sell, considering how busy the members were: “Method Man was making movies, Ghostface [Killah] was making albums, people have families and all of that.” RZA himself was interested in getting behind the camera; this year, One Spoon of Chocolate, an action thriller he wrote and directed, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. But, RZA says, “I told everyone, ‘If we can carve out the time to match your schedules and lifestyles, would you agree to do this?’ And everybody said yes.”

Wu-Tang Clan’s touring renaissance began with NY State of Mind, a co-headlining run with Nas in 2022 and 2023, and continued in 2024 with the Las Vegas residency The Saga Continues. Yet Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber, a farewell arena tour that began in June, has become the culmination of the group’s strategy: Not only has the show earned rave reviews and included top-line guest stars, it has been one of the hottest legacy tours this year.

From 27 shows in June and July, The Final Chamber grossed $30.6 million, with 245,000 tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore. The $1.2 million average gross per show exceeded the average for NY State of Mind ($897,000 per show) and significantly outperformed Wu-Tang’s 2019 tour alongside Public Enemy and De La Soul ($692,000). “It blew away our expectations,” says manager Tyler Childs, who started working with RZA in 2009. “We knew that their first-ever Madison Square Garden show was going to sell well. But Raleigh, N.C.? Tampa, Fla.? These are arenas and are not core Wu-Tang [markets], but these shows sold out quickly.”

RZA says the co-headlining tour with Nas “built up their momentum” and that the Las Vegas residency elevated the production value of the group’s stage show. (“We had actors, dancers — a samurai fighting during an orchestrated version of ‘Shame on a N—a’!”) When it came time to game-plan The Final Chamber, the goal was to translate those experiences into a thoughtfully curated arena set: RZA and his team would huddle in his Woodland Hills office, dozens of sticky notes with the Wu member names sprawled across a window, and concoct a set list that would tastefully showcase each MC — a process that made RZA feel like part “sports GM” and part “Broadway stage manager.”

The Final Chamber show was ultimately structured into four acts: a full-group opening blast of energy with multiple classics from Enter the 36 Chambers, then a soulful reprieve marked by Raekwon and Method Man solo tracks, then a “samurai” section highlighted by GZA’s Liquid Swords material and then a family-­first finale featuring Wu-Tang Forever staples “Reunited” and “Triumph.” As the tour made its way toward a Northeast conclusion in mid-July, the surprise guests became more notable: The Madison Square Garden show included Lil Kim, Big Daddy Kane, Redman and SWV, while the final stop at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center boasted Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J and Freeway.

“We passed the mic because it wasn’t only about us — it was about hip-hop,” RZA explains of the guest stars. “There’s a stigma that hip-hop couldn’t be what it is — that from our generation, you couldn’t have an arena tour full of artists in their 40s and 50s performing. It was predicted that this would not happen, but Wu-Tang is living it out, and we’re doing what rock music did before us.”

The Philly performance could have been the final Wu-Tang Clan concert ever had ticket sales been anemic; now the show will be the end of the group’s first leg of an extended farewell run that will push into 2026. “There are a lot of different options,” Childs says, “certainly Europe, Australia, Asia and then definitely coming back to North America next year. What shape does that take? It’s going to be arenas again, and we want to go to markets that haven’t been repeated.”

At some point, however, Wu-Tang Clan will leave the stage together for a final time and both five-year plans will be complete. “’Bittersweet’ is the word,” says RZA, who celebrated his 56th birthday on the tour. “We’re getting all this love. But to be honest, [performing] is not easy. It’s not like I’m 25 years old. Method Man is in great shape, but he’s like, ‘Yo, I’m tired!’

“At the end of the day, I love the art and I love performing,” RZA continues, “but I know that there’s an exit to it. And mentally, we’re preparing for that.”

This story appears in the Aug. 30, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Halsey announced the dates for the 2025-2026 Back to Badlands international tour on Thursday morning (Aug. 28). The global swing will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the singer’s 2015 debut album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and featured the singles “Ghost,” “New Americana” (No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100), as well as “Colors” and “Castle.”

The Live Nation-produced tour will kick off with a special show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Oct. 14, before moving on to gigs in Mexico City, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Toronto and New York, winding down at the Fillmore Detroit on Jan. 17.

From there, the outing will move on to a European swing and wind down with three shows in Australia in mid-February. Tickets for the tour will first go on sale through an artist pre-sale kicking off on Tuesday (Sept. 2), with additional pre-sales running throughout the week before the launch of a general on-sale beginning on Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. local time here.

According to a release, Badlands is one of the only albums in music history to have every song RIAA certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum. The singer recently released a new video for the Badlands fan favorite “Gasoline,” with a promised second new video soon for another classic from that era, “Drive.” The album has always been a special one for Halsey, who in 2020 celebrated its fifth anniversary with their first-ever live album, Badlands (Live From Webster Hall).

Check out the dates for Halsey’s 2025-2026 Back to Badlands world tour below:

  

Focusing on its core digital music business helped BMG keep earnings steady on lower revenue in the first half of 2025, the company reported Thursday (Aug. 28). The Berlin-based company had revenue of 424 million euros ($463 million) in the first six months of the year, down 8% from the prior-year period. Organic revenue — income from existing operations — fell just 4%. 

Operating EBITDA was flat at 122 million euros ($133 million). With the reduction in revenue, EBITDA margin improved to 29% from 26.5% in the first half of 2024. The margin improvement was the result of numerous factors, CEO Thomas Coesfeld told Billboard. “It’s distribution, it’s catalog acquisitions, and first and foremost, it’s about focusing the business, for the time being, on publishing and recordings.” 

Music streaming revenue had high single-digit growth, which put BMG on par with its larger competitors. That helped push digital’s share of total revenue to 72% from 69% a year earlier. While subscriber growth has slowed in major markets, Coesfeld is “optimistic” about streaming’s ability to drive continuing growth. “It’s prices in the Western world, and it’s usage expansion, penetration and our [royalty] pool increases in all fast-growing markets.”

The revenue decline was also the result of greater emphasis on digital. Back in 2023, not long after Coesfeld took the CEO role, BMG sold its stakes in two live entertainment companies, Undercover and Karo, to focus on its core businesses. Physical product, which has lower margins than digital formats, also played a lesser role in the first half of the year. The decline in physical sales was “very intentional,” said Coesfeld, adding that BMG’s physical distributor, Universal Music Group, has helped with forecasting and adjusting order sizes to reduce inventory on hand. As a result, he said, physical sales declined but costs improved.

BMG, which has grown through numerous acquisitions since its founding in 2008, continues to see catalog acquisitions as “the centerpiece” of its strategy to acquire repertoire. BMG acquired 17 catalogs in the first half of the year, up from 10 in the prior-year period. While details on the acquisitions were not revealed, the company claimed the deals were “consistently delivering strong returns and fueling future growth.” 

Coesfeld also pointed to the successes of the front-line division in the U.S. headed by John Loba. In the first half of the year, BMG’s recorded music division had standout success from Jelly Roll, Spiritbox, yung kai, Wiz Khalifa and Billy Idol, among others. Signings and extensions in the period include MeeK, Olly Murs, Evanescence, Mark Keller, i-dle, Joyce Wrice, Fredrik and Jessi. A deal with pop hitmakers OneRepublic was announced in July.

“The first song [“Beautiful Colors”] being released by OneRepublic, that puts BMG in a different position compared to last year,” said Coesfeld. “It’s in pop, it’s in the U.S. And, still, at the same time, we keep releasing great songs in [the] country [genre] in the U.S. out of Nashville.” 

Sting is being sued by his former Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland over alleged missing royalties for their signature song “Every Breath You Take,” according to reports published by the Los Angeles Times and other titles.

Summers and Copeland filed their lawsuit in London High Court, in which they claim they were never properly credited as songwriters on “Every Breath You Take,” their biggest hit in the U.S. The pair also claim they never received royalties for their contributions to it.

Sting (real name: Gordon Matthew Sumner) and his publishing company, Magnetic Publishing, are listed as defendants in the suit.

Released in 1983, “Every Breath You Take” went all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band’s first and only leader on the chart, and won a brace of Grammy Awards, for song of the year and best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

The evergreen number grew wings when Summers’ arpeggio was sampled on Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ Notorious B.I.G. tribute from 1997, “I’ll Be Missing You.” In 2023, Puff Daddy went on the record as saying he pays Sting $5,000 every day for the use of that sample, a comment he later walked back.

In 2022, Sting sold his entire song catalog from his early days in The Police through his solo career to the Universal Music Publishing Group, a business decision that reunites his music publishing rights with his master recordings.

While terms of that deal were not disclosed, Billboard previously reported that Sting had been shopping a music asset bundle that produced an annual royalty income stream of about $12-$13 million and was looking at a roughly $360 million payday.

With their bleach-blonde hair, tight performances, and collection of radio friendly hits, including “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle”, “Walking On The Moon”, “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, “Every Little Thing She Does,” “King Of Pain” and more, The Police were arguably the biggest band in the world, certainly for an album cycle or two.

In the UK, the band landed five consecutive No. 1s on the Official UK Albums Chart. The bandmates went their separate ways after completing the 1984 world tour in support of the Synchronicity album, before reuniting briefly in 1986 for a rerecording in “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” which appeared on a greatest hits collection.

The former bandmates settled their differences to mount a 2007–2008 world tour, marking the 30th anniversary of their formation. Sting is booked to perform at QPAC’s Glasshouse Theatre in Brisbane next year, where he will present his musical The Last Ship.