As part of Billboard China and QQ Music’s recent global campaign, Chinese singer Liu Yuning reached a new milestone with his latest single “JUMP,” earning a series of featured promotional opportunities.

The track sees Liu Yuning teaming up with J Balvin on a cross-cultural collaboration that blends rock with traditional Chinese instruments, including the pipa, guzheng, erhu and Tang-style drums. Combined with Ning’s energetic rap delivery, “JUMP” — which interpolates Van Halen’s Billboard Hot 100-topping hit from 1983 — creates a seamless meeting point between Eastern and Western musical influences.

At the same time, Ning is steadily unveiling his long-awaited second solo album, Liu Yuning’s, his first full-length project in five years. Rather than releasing the album all at once, he has chosen a track-by-track rollout, with nine songs available so far.

Among them is “Not Too Late,” released earlier this year, which offers one of the album’s most intimate moments. Written and produced by singer/songwriter Penny Tai, the warm rock ballad reflects on the emotional weight that comes with life in the spotlight. Its lyrics capture feelings of exhaustion, misunderstanding and self-doubt, while ultimately delivering a message of resilience and hope. Instead of dwelling on hardship, the song becomes an invitation to rediscover inner strength.

The album’s more recent releases, “Door” and “I Want,” showcase two contrasting emotional landscapes. “Door” turns inward, pairing restrained vocals with an enveloping arrangement to convey isolation, uncertainty and quiet introspection. In contrast, “I Want” opens outward. Driven by bright guitar lines and soaring vocals, the song releases the emotional tension built throughout its companion track, highlighting Ning’s dynamic vocal control and expressive range as it moves from vulnerability toward clarity and liberation.

Beyond his solo work, Ning continues to establish himself as one of China’s most in-demand OST vocalists. He has recently contributed songs to several popular television dramas, demonstrating remarkable versatility across genres and storytelling.

For Yu Ting Yao, “Seeing Mountains and Rivers” balances epic grandeur with emotional depth, echoing the series’ sweeping historical narrative. In The Road to Splendor, his song “A Promise” takes the idea of keeping one’s word as its emotional core. Backed by his deeply expressive vocals, the track captures the resilience and sense of responsibility of people trying to hold on to their principles in turbulent times. Meanwhile, “Borrow a Little Light From Ordinary Days” feels like a bedside lamp in a complicated world, using understated musical language to celebrate the quiet heroism found in everyday life.

From the deeply personal reflections of his second album to his emotionally resonant work for film and television, Liu Yuning continues to expand the scope of his artistry. With each new release, he is building a musical universe that is unmistakably his own.

When Landon Barker was offered a spot on The Voice, his dad, Travis Barker, didn’t think it was time to jump at the opportunity.

Instead, the Blink-182 drummer asked his 22-year-old son to consider what kind of artist he wants to be and whether the opportunity actually fits into that vision.

“My son called me the other day and he’s like, ‘Hey, they offered me to go on The Voice,’” Travis said during an Aug. 8 appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast. “And I was like, ‘Dude, you’re way too cool for that.’”

For Travis, the decision came down to authenticity. He encouraged Landon to look toward the musicians who have influenced him and consider whether they would have pursued the same route.

“You got to think about your idols,” he said. “If your idol is Kurt Cobain, would he ever do The Voice? No.”

This advice comes as Landon is pursuing his own musical career, aiming to establish himself as a singer and songwriter in his own right. Instead of just rushing into trying to capitalize on every available platform, Travis said his son should give himself time to develop the music he actually wants to make.

“I’m in the studio, I hear the songs that he’s creating,” Travis said. “There’s no rush, you know?”

That doesn’t mean Travis is against televised music opportunities across the board. The drummer has appeared on American Idol several times himself, a distinction he pointed out while acknowledging that his advice to Landon could sound contradictory.

“I’m different,” Travis said. “I’m doing fun sh– that’s just fun for me ’cause I’m a drummer and I’m not in the forefront. It’d be different if I was singing with all these people.”

In other words, Travis sees a difference between making a guest appearance as a member of a band and putting yourself into a competition designed to introduce a singer to a mass audience. For Landon, he wants the focus to remain on developing his own sound and identity. “Stay on your own trajectory,” Travis advised his son.

Landon has already had some notable moments in his young career, including joining The Fray on tour. Now, according to his father, there’s no reason to let the pressure to move quickly dictate what comes next.

Travis also reflected on how his own relationship with fame has changed over the years. He recalled once having a much more confrontational attitude toward paparazzi, admitting that he “used to almost get in fights with paparazzi” and “used to have a temper.”

“Nowadays, I’ve realized it’s just all noise,” he said.

His approach now is considerably simpler: “Be happy. Try not to harm anybody and just be a good person.”

Travis has spent decades navigating the music industry himself, from Blink-182’s late-1990s, early 2000s Billboard 200 dominance to the band’s return to No. 1 with California in 2016.

Watch Barker’s full Popcast interview below:

Limp Bizkit will headline the 2026 edition of Good Things Festival, the Australian travelling heavy-music event announced Tuesday (Aug. 11), atop a bill of more than 30 acts across nu-metal, pop-punk, metalcore and hardcore.

The lineup also features Simple Plan, Spiritbox, Polaris, The All-American Rejects, Bad Religion, Alexisonfire, Grinspoon, Millencolin, Ministry, MxPx, Neck Deep, P.O.D. and The Devil Wears Prada. The festival runs Dec. 4 at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Dec. 5 at Sydney Showground and Dec. 6 at Brisbane Showgrounds, with all dates 16-and-over. Presale tickets go on sale Aug. 18.

Limp Bizkit headline after appearing at the 2023 festival and playing sold-out sideshows. Formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1994 and fronted by Fred Durst, the band’s 1999 album Significant Other debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earned two Grammy nominations and was certified seven-times platinum on the strength of “Nookie” and “Break Stuff.”

Its 2000 follow-up Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water also debuted at No. 1, opening with more than one million U.S. copies — at the time a record for the fastest-selling rock album of the SoundScan era. The band has sold more than 40 million records worldwide.

Elsewhere on the bill, Spiritbox’s 2021 debut Eternal Blue reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200, and its 2025 follow-up Tsunami Sea hit No. 26 while topping the U.K. Independent Albums chart; the Canadian band has earned three Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance. Simple Plan return for the first time since the 2019 festival, while Australian metalcore band Polaris topped the ARIA Albums Chart with 2023’s Fatalism.

Several acts are marking milestones. Alexisonfire will play their 2006 album Crisis in full for its 20th anniversary, Millencolin will perform 2000’s Pennybridge Pioneers in full, and Bad Religion mark their 45th year. Ministry’s dates have been billed as the industrial band’s final Australian shows. Grinspoon also feature, weeks after frontman Phil Jamieson cancelled a solo tour following a fractured vertebra, alongside a card that includes Speed, Slowly Slowly, Neck Deep, MxPx, Bilmuri and Voice of Baceprot.

Good Things Festival 2026

Dec. 4 — Melbourne — Flemington Racecourse (16+)

Dec. 5 — Sydney — Sydney Showground (16+)

Dec. 6 — Brisbane — Brisbane Showgrounds (16+)

With Ariana Grande‘s Petal launching at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the singer is taking a moment to share her appreciation to fans who helped make the LP her seventh chart topper.

Grande shared the news of her latest release’s triumphant debut on Sunday (Aug. 9) via an Instagram Story, where she reposted Billboard‘s headline about the set hitting No. 1.

“thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she wrote, adding a heart emoji to show love for her fans.

On Saturday, Grande posted a series of photos and short video clips documenting the making of the album on her Instagram grid. “petal forever,” she captioned the behind-the-scenes look.

The star wrapped the North American leg of her Eternal Sunshine Tour Friday night in Chicago. She next heads to London for the final performances on this tour, with 10 concerts at the 02 Arena spanning Aug. 15 to Sept. 1, before taking a breather from the public.

“i love you … i cannot believe that this concludes the north american leg of the eternal sunshine tour,” Grande wrote in a post this weekend marking the occasion. “i am overwhelmed with love and the deepest gratitude. thank you endlessly for the most special, beautiful, joyful and deeply fulfilling few months … i will cherish every moment of this time with you all & these memories forever. thank you, chicago … london, i cannot wait to see you soon. i love you all more than ever.”

Post-show, her brother Frankie also published a heartfelt message honoring his sister’s work — plus a video of himself and mom enjoying the concert at Chicago’s United Center — on his Instagram account.

“Family forever. I will have your back until the end of time. I am so proud of you and so happy for you. Last night was a beautiful celebration of your artistry and the magnificent eternal sunshine family you have built and created. It was a magical night. You are magical. You are my everything and I am so so happy I was there to see you shine on this tour one last time,” he said.

Once the Eternal Sunshine Tour concludes, Grande plans to take “a step back from visibility,” according to a statement from her rep shared with People last weekend. “She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances.” The break — which happens to come amid heightened public scrutiny about the singer’s physical appearance and weight, but was a decision that was “quietly made a long time ago” and not “reactive,” Grande says — includes bowing out of her previously announced starring role in an upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George, which was expected to open next summer in London.

The internet apparently doubted the real “U-S-H-E-R R-A-Y-M-O-N-D” was in the house this weekend at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where the singer was on the bill for two nights with Chris Brown on their co-headlining Raymond & Brown Tour Aug. 7-8.

A rumor that Usher was replaced by a clone for his performance in East Ruthorford, N.J., Friday night was rampant enough to elicit a response from Usher himself (or was it?).

Several crying-laughing emojis were involved when Usher seemingly hit the comments section of footage from his own concert this weekend to address the conspiracy theory, which was being talked about on videos with hundreds of thousands of views across social media platforms.

“Ya’ll are funny…clone? They can’t clone this??” he wrote in one comment, saved and shared on @therandbtour on Instagram, a Raymond & Brown Tour update account that keeps fans in the know about what’s happening at each date on tour.

Another comment shows Usher quipping, “How ya’ll come up with this? AI ain’t that advanced.”

Meanwhile, folks on TikTok and X were side-eyeing clips from the show. “I’m confused. I see Usher but then I don’t,” one person remarked of the performer’s moves on a popular TikTok post, while others found themselves caught up with zooming in on cell phone video to track tattoo placement, or speculating that his cheekbones didn’t look like Usher’s. Others found it suspicious that the talent didn’t remove his sunglasses. Someone joked that it wasn’t Usher, it was “Unsure.”

Something just must’ve been in the air on Friday, which saw a delayed start due to thunderstorms but proceeded to deliver “a seamless performance,” Billboard‘s Carl Lamarre said in his factual recap of top moments from the show. “The three-hour bonanza was littered with dance numbers, acrobatic moves, special guests ranging from Lil Baby to 50 Cent and, of course, picture-perfect moments of Brown and Usher crossing paths onstage to deliver their classic collaborations.”