‘The Masked Singer’ Reveals Season 7 Champion

The last masks came off, and the final celebrity was outed Wednesday night (May 18) as season seven of The Masked Singer reached its conclusion.

For the finale, three “Team Good” celebs battled it out for the Golden Mask. There could be only one champ, Firefly, who was revealed to be R&B singer Teyana Taylor.

Second place went to “The Goldbergs” star Hayley Orrantia (as the Ringmaster) and third went to while “Call Me Kat” star Cheyenne Jackson (Prince).

Taylor, who performed at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards and has charted three times on the Billboard 200, including a No. 8 best for 2020’s The Album, sang Usher’s “Bad Girl” for her final song.

Previous performances included “Ain’t Nobody” by Chaka Khan; “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” by Michael Jackson; “Attention” by Charlie Puth; and, in a finale face-off with Ringmaster, hit Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without U”.

The latest season of Fox’s surprise hit boasted a combined 112 film appearances, 15 Grammy nominations, eight Emmy noms, seven Super Bowl performances, two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and, in Rudy Giuliani, the disgraced former personal attorney of Donald Trump.

Watch the final moments of The Masked Singer 2022 below.

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Lil Wayne Fires Back at Mark Cuban Amid NBA Drama: ‘I Will P— in Ya Fkn Mouth’

Lil Wayne and Mark Cuban have traded insults like the NBA trades players amid the Western Conference semifinal face-off between the Phoenix Suns and Cuban-owned Dallas Mavericks.

As the two basketball teams duked it out in a seven-game series (which the Mavericks ultimately won 4-3), decade-old tensions arose on Twitter when Lil Wayne — who is longtime friends with Suns point guard Chris Paul — tweeted that Mavericks point guard Luka Dončić is “a ho” during Game 4 on May 8.

More than a week later, Cuban fired back with an insult to Lil Wayne using the Grammy-winner’s own song lyric from the 2018 bop “Uproar.” “It’s a s–t show, put you front row’ #MFFL,” the mogul tweeted on Monday (May 16) with a photo of the hip-hop hitmaker sitting court-side. 

Lil Wayne didn’t take much time to hit back at Cuban, tweeting a since-deleted comeback the following day,” Mark Cuban don’t make me get u [sic] smacked boy U [sic] playin w me?? I will p— in ya fkn mouth ho.”

Though the two’s feud may seem new to many, according to Fox Sports 1 commentator and Undisputed host Skip Bayless, the drama dates back to circa 2011.

Per Bayless, Cuban and Lil Wayne were friends when Tunechi lived in Miami and was an avid Heats fan. He allegedly attended an afterparty with Cuban, where then Miami Heat teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade ultimately weren’t too thrilled to see the rapper. Bayless says the party encounter led to Lil Wayne temporarily being banned from attending Miami Heat games.

See a timeline of ex-friends Lil Wayne and Mark Cuban’s beef as told by Bayless below:

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Anghami Posts Double-Digit Subscriber, Revenue Growth in First Quarterly Earnings

Anghami, a music streaming service that operates in the Middle East and North Africa, finished the first quarter of 2022 with 18.5 million active users, a 20% increase year over year, and revenue of $9.3 million, up 23% from the prior-year period, the company announced on Tuesday (May 17) in its first earnings release since going public in February.

The subscription side of the business dominated the ad-supported side of the business, accounting for $7.3 million of the $9.3 million in quarterly revenue. The number of monthly paying subscribers (excluding free trials) grew by 43% to 1.24 million, while average revenue per user increased 10% year over year to $1.87. Anghami attributed the improvement in subscriptions to its emphasis on monthly subscriptions – it also offers daily, weekly, quarterly and annual subscription plans.

“Anghami has met many expectations in the run-up to its Nasdaq listing and remains committed to launching more innovative offerings, expanding its global reach and delivering value to customers through best-in-class content and innovative new features,” F. Jacob Cherian, Anghami’s co-CEO, said in a statement. “We are confident that this positive development will continue through 2022 as we benefit from our growing partnerships and offerings.” At the end of 2021, Anghami had 41 partnerships with telecom operators, up from 35.

In 2021, Anghami posted revenues of $35.5 million in 2021, up 16.3% from 2020. Subscription revenue amounted to $25.7 million but grew only 3.8% from 2020 and accounted for just 19% of the annual growth. Advertising revenue improved 69.6% to $9.8 million and represented four-fifths of the revenue gain. Expenses rose faster than revenues did, however – particularly the 215.3% increase in general and administrative costs that helped Anghami’s operating loss deepen from $2.5 million in 2020 to $17.2 million last year.

The operating losses stem in part from “significant costs to license content” and pay royalties to record labels, music publishers and other copyright owners, the company stated in its prospectus released Wednesday. What’s more, Anghami expects costs “to increase in future periods” and “to expend substantial financial and other resources” on securing content from labels, distributors and publishers, and creating original content, in addition to technology costs and scaling the business and growing internationally.

Anghami’s share price fell 4.2% on Wednesday to $7.28, which gives the company a market capitalization of $189.3 million. The 10-year-old, Abu Dhabi-based company went public in February by merging with Vistas Merger Acquisition Company (VMAC), a blank-check company that had an initial public offering on the Nasdaq in 2020. Although VMAC raised $100 million, holders of about 97.6% of VMAC common shares redeemed their shares prior to the business combination, according to the prospectus. As a result, Anghami raised less capital than planned and may seek additional capital through “a combination of private and public equity and debt offerings” or other services, which would dilute existing shareholders’ equity. Prior to the merger, VMAC sold $40.6 million of common stock in what’s called a private placement. After merger transaction costs and settlement of loans and borrowings, Anghami’s cash and bank balance was $22.3 million on Dec. 31 on a pro forma basis.

The prospectus relates to the issues of up to 10.9 million shares issuable upon exercise of its warrants – each warrant is exercisable for one ordinary share at an exercise price of $11.50. However, with Anghami shares currently trading near $7, those warrants are “out of the money,” and the company does not expect holders to exercise their warrants. If exercised, however, the warrants would provide Anghami with up to $125 million which it would use for general corporate purposes and possibly the repayment of debt.

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Sharon Van Etten’s ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ Debuts in Top 10 on Multiple Billboard Charts

Sharon Van Etten hits the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 21) for the first time with her new album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. The set debuts at No. 10 on the latest ranking, selling 5,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending May 12, according to Luminate.

The album also bows in the top 10 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums, Tastemaker Albums, Vinyl Albums and Top Current Album Sales charts.

We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is Van Etten’s sixth album and first since Remind Me Tomorrow, which was released in 2019.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Americana/Folk Albums lists the week’s most popular Americana/folk releases, ranked by equivalent album units. Tastemaker Albums ranks the best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores. Vinyl Albums lists the top-selling vinyl albums of the week across all sellers. Top Current Album Sales ranks the week’s biggest-selling current albums (not including catalog – older – releases).

Also in the new top 10 on Top Album Sales, Arcade Fire scores its fourth No. 1 as We debuts atop the tally with 26,500 sold. The album is one of seven debuts in the top 10. Also starting in the region are Halestorm’s Back From the Dead (No. 2; 14,000), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (No. 3; 11,500), Thrive Worship’s Pour Your Spirit Out: A Live Album (No. 4; 9,000), Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You (No. 5; 8,000), Three Days Grace’s Explosions (No. 6; 7,000) and Van Etten at No. 10.

A trio of holdover titles populate the top 10, as Miranda Lambert’s Palomino trots from No. 2 to No. 7 in its second week (7,000; down 72%), Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping Sour falls from No. 6 to No. 8 (6,500; down 7%), and The Weeknd’s former leader Dawn FM drops from No. 1 to No. 9 (5,500; down 88%).

In the week ending May 12, there were 1.697 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 7.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.284 million (down 9.6%) and digital albums comprised 413,000 (up 1.6%).

There were 623,000 CD albums sold in the week ending May 12 (down 7% week-over-week) and 653,000 vinyl albums sold (down 11.6%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 11.991 million (down 12.2% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 14.056 million (up 4.2%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 33.911 million (down 7.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 26.224 million (down 3.9%) and digital album sales total 7.687 million (down 19.1%).

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Florida man gets 50 years for helping a mother produce child porn of her 6-year-old son

A Florida man was sentenced last week to 50 years in federal prison for producing child pornography of a 6-year-old boy — with the help of the child’s mother. A … Click to Continue »
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DeSantis announces $100 million for Florida cancer hospitals for treatment and research

With cancer ranked as the second-leading cause of death in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday visited the University of Miami’s Don Soffer Clinical Research Center to announce that he … Click to Continue »
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Gus Machado found TV and became a Miami car and philanthropic giant. He has died at 87.

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Dusty demise for NASA Mars lander in July; power dwindling

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Megan Thee Stallion Reveals Her New Album Is ’95 Percent Done’

Megan Thee Stallion has some exciting news for the Hotties.

After scoring the 2022 Webby Award for artist of the year on Monday night, Thee Stallion revealed details about her next project.

“I’m probably like 95 percent done with my new album,” she said backstage. “I wanna tease that for the Hotties. I haven’t even told them nothing about my album, but yeah.”

The Stallion’s noteworthy update came just one day after she hit the stage during the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Surrounded by an array of dancers, Megan gave an incredible performance of her new track “Plan B” followed by “Sweetest Pie.” Although the latter is a collaboration with fellow hitmaker Dua Lipa, Thee Stallion shined solo on Sunday night after winning the BBMA for top female rap artist.

While accepting the honor, she said, “Thank y’all so much. First of all, thank you to the Hotties, because without the Hotties, there would be no Hot Girl Coach.”

She went on to celebrate her fellow nominees, saying onstage, “Everybody in this category is a winner. I feel like we all been working so hard all year, we been working hard for a long time. And it’s just so nice to be appreciated and recognized by your peers and celebrated by your peers and celebrated by your supporters. And that’s all I gotta say!”

In addition to her BBMA win, Megan has appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 25 times, including two No. 1 hits: “Savage” and her feature on Cardi B’s “WAP.”

Watch Megan Thee Stallion discuss her upcoming album below:

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After Selena Gomez’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Hosting Debut, Which Musician Should Host Next? Vote!

This past weekend, Selena Gomez hosted Saturday Night Live for the very first time, where she showed off her spot-on Miley Cyrus impression and reminded viewers of her showbiz beginnings on Barney & Friends. While she’s far from the first musician to host SNL — following in the footsteps of Lizzo, Adele, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, Drake, Ariana Grande and many more — her hosting gig got us thinking: Which musician should host the show next?

On the latest episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith throw out a few ideas for current musicians who would make great SNL hosts, from Megan Thee Stallion and Olivia Rodrigo to Lil Nas X and Doja Cat. And you might be just as surprised as we were to learn that Beyoncé has somehow never hosted (can we fix that ASAP, Lorne?).

Below, listen to the full podcast, and scroll down to vote in our poll: Which musician do you think would make the best Saturday Night Live host?

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Bad Bunny scores his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and, in doing so, gives the chart just its second all-Spanish-language No. 1. Plus, Lizzo lands her fourth top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with “About Damn Time.” And, as it joins Latto’s “Big Energy” in the top 10, there’s a surprising common bond between the two that you maybe didn’t realize.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

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