Pop-punk icons Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley reunited onstage over the weekend for a surprise performance of Sum 41’s “In Too Deep” during Lavigne’s headlining set at the Vans Warped Tour stop in Washington, D.C.

Eight songs into her June 15 set, Lavigne brought out her ex-husband — and Sum 41 frontman — to deliver one of the most iconic anthems of the genre. “What do you say we bring one of the OG Warped Tour bands back out here tonight to join me right now?” she told the crowd. “Let’s hear it for Deryck from Sum f—ing 41!”

Whibley, who had recently announced his retirement from music following Sum 41’s final album Heaven :x: Hell, responded with his signature smirk: “Holy s—, goddamn. I thought I f—ing quit music. But how the f— can I miss the Warped Tour, right? I’ve come out of my three- or four-month retirement for two reasons: to be with the Warped Tour family, and to be with the one, the only, the motherf—ing princess.”

The two, who were married from 2006 to 2010, launched into the 2001 hit backed by Lavigne’s live band, creating one of the most buzzed-about moments of the Warped Tour’s comeback weekend.

After the show, Lavigne posted a carousel of photos from the set with a caption celebrating the reunion: “This legend @deryckwhibley from @sum41 joined me for one of the best pop punk anthems of all time ‘In Too Deep.’”

The moment marked Whibley’s first return to the stage since Sum 41’s retirement announcement earlier this year. The band wrapped things up following the release of their double album Heaven :x: Hell, citing Whibley’s health issues and a desire to go out on a high note.

The performance also came after a turbulent year for the frontman, who filed a lawsuit against former manager Greig Nori with claims of abuse. Nori denied the allegations and countersued.

Still, in D.C., none of that overshadowed the shared nostalgia onstage. Lavigne summed it up best: “Headlined Vans Warped Tour last night and it was everything I would have expected and more!”

Warner Music Australia are currently in the midst of a purple patch in their home country, with Warner Music Group’s Down Under division recently clocking up a “historic” showing on the ARIA Singles chart.

The success in question relates to the two recent ARIA charts – dated Monday, June 9 and June 16 – which sees nine of the positions across the fortnight’s top fives held by WMA artists.

While Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” sits in the top spot on the June 9 chart, it’s joined by a double-header from sombr by way of “Undressed” and “Back to Friends,” with Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” and Tate McRae’s “Just Keep Watching” rounding out the top five.

The tune is largely the same in the June 16 chart, with the only difference being the insertion of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” in the No. 2 spot. The remainder of both charts’ top ends are filled out by familiar contemporaries, including Benson Bone, Bruno Mars (both with Lady Gaga and Rosé), Teddy Swims, and perennial favorites Fleetwood Mac and the Goo Goo Dolls.

All told, the first week hosts a total of 11 WMA acts in the top 20, with that number dropping by just one for the following chart, resulting in a majority representation.

Reflecting on the success of the recent achievement, Dan Rosen, President of Records And Publishing, Australasia, Warner Music Group, explains that it’s a “phenomenal effort” to achieve these “historic levels of chart share.”

“These things are built up on years of hard work from teams around the world, in terms of artist development, A&R, and connecting with culture,” he explains. “We’ve been able to cement that here in Australia.

“Our mission is to make our global artists local, and local artists global,” he adds. “It has been amazing to see, in terms of making this next generation of great Warner acts feel part of our local culture and getting them on ground and building them up.”

Rosen – who was recently named as one of Billboard’s 2025 Global Power Players – also focused on some of the specific artists that fall under his purview, specifically looking at the success of Australian and New Zealand artists on the global stage.

“We’ve always known that Aussies and Kiwis are as good as anyone else in the world, and I think the global platforms now give us the opportunity to really showcase that,” he explains. “Building that next generation of Aussie and Kiwi acts on the global stage has been a big job and a heavy lift, but we’re really starting to see results.”

Among the successes that Rosen looks at fondly are the likes of Auckland alternative pop outfit Balu Brigada,who topped the Alternative Airplay chart with their debut single “So Cold,” with latest single “Backseat” also making impressive moves globally. 

CYRIL also scores a mention from Rosen, with the Darwin DJ having seen plenty of success on the radio charts, while his recent track “There She Goes” has topped the TikTok charts.

“We’ve always had wonderful export artists and are really excited seeing this next generation come through in both the indie rock and dance genres, which we’ve traditionally been very strong in,” he adds.

Notably, the recent chart success from WMA also comes accompanied by some less-than-stellar news of the Australian industry as a whole, with the entirety of the Singles chart’s top 50 being devoid of any local acts.

The only Australian influence that can be found is within Doechii’s “Anxiety,” which prominently samples Gotye’s 2011 single “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The Albums chart is slightly more promising, with Jimmy Barnes’ Defiant album in the top spot for June 16, though the rest of the top 20 lacks any locals.

This lack of Australian artists isn’t new, however, with ARIA’s 2024 end-of-year charts comprising just 5% local content.

“It’s tough out there,” Rosen agrees, referencing a need for local acts to be visible in order to make an impact on the charts. “There’s no doubt we can’t shy away from that impact on the chart here, but I think these things are cyclical and I’m incredibly optimistic of this next generation of Aussie acts that will impact the charts, both here and overseas.

“It’s definitely a moment in time. We can’t pretend it’s not happening, but we need to set ourselves up for what success looks like in the future and to me, that’s very much around the acts that can impact globally.”

The recent chart successes from WMA can also be traced back to the importance of having artists performing in the local market – a necessity which Rosen labels as “fundamental.” 

“Look at Benson Boone and Teddy Swims, we brought both artists out to market really, really early,” Rosen recalls. “Benson Boone played a small sold-out show at the Lansdowne [in Sydney]. Teddy Swims’ first great, Hot Hits was in New Zealand with ‘Lose Control,’ and New Zealand and Australia are still his top two markets anywhere in the world.

“I think the number one most important thing is to get artists to market,” he continues. “So you see how great they are, Aussie fans can fall in love with them and we can connect them with local culture. And that’s really our job here, to work with our partners. 

“We’ve got incredible partnerships with Atlantic Records and Warner Records and we’ve worked with them from early days about ‘How do we help you break this artist in the market?’ We value those partnerships, we work incredibly hard with them, and we bring those artists as early as we can and start seeding them into the local culture and building their fanbase.”

In addition to his current role with WMA, Rosen took on new duties this year with publishing, with the recent good news of a strong showing in the charts undoubtedly leaving the entire team feeling content.

“I’m just the figurehead at the top and it’s a lot of hard work from the teams,” he explains. “I think we’ve got the most passionate and hardworking team across both records and publishing in the market and I feel very proud to lead them. 

“We’re not going to rest on our laurels,” he adds. “Lots more to achieve, lots more to do, but I think you have to celebrate the wins. We all know how hard we work in this business, so it’s good to celebrate the wins, but we’re off to work out what comes next.”

As fortunate fans spilled into the intimate and sweaty Maxim’s de Paris on Wednesday night (June 18), no one knew exactly what to expect. Vocals? For sure. Fashion? Absolutely. This is Miley Cyrus, after all.

But when the superstar combined two of her biggest hits – none other than “The Climb” and “We Can’t Stop” – into a special one-off medley, fans were floored. “We put this together just for all of you tonight,” shared Cyrus, in her first of two Mugler looks.

The special and career-spanning fusion – reminiscent of two distinct times in the pop star’s life – was fitting for an equally special evening. Cyrus hadn’t performed in Paris for over 10 years, and she made sure her grand return was well worth the wait. The evening’s set was for Spotify’s Billions Club Live, making Cyrus only the second artist, after The Weeknd, to ever earn a Billions Club concert. (As Spotify previously confirmed to Billboard, Cyrus’ Billions Club Live show was filmed to be released later this summer.)

Despite such a massive milestone, Cyrus stayed true to form and kept the setting and guest list rather intimate, with only a few hundred fans packed into Maxim’s downstairs venue. But unlike her famed Chateau Marmont sets in Los Angeles or her recent performance at an equally intimate New York space — all in support of her latest album, Something Beautiful — Wednesday night was perhaps the most wide-ranging setlist fans have enjoyed for some time. 

Thanks to the nature of Spotify’s Billions Club Live, Cyrus’ set was a tight hour (including an outfit change) of her biggest hits on the platform — all of which, yes, have reached more than 1 billion streams. (On the pre-show playlist, deep cuts including “Cattitude” off her She Is Coming EP satiated superfans.)

“Being a part of the Billions Club is only a part of me – it’s an honor, but in no means is it holistic,” Cyrus said. “Each of you are a piece of a billion, and without each of you, the billion doesn’t even exist. That’s how important and crucial you are to the success in my life. The confidence and goals that I have achieved [is] because of you and your support. And I’ve never really been too interested in numbers because math is done from the mind, but true authentic beauty is from the heart.”

During her set, Cyrus demonstrated just how much of her heart has always been in her hits – and is likely what has pushed these in particular to become some of her biggest. During opener “Flowers,” she emphasized and riffed on the line “no regrets, baby” while holding up a bouquet of flowers gifted by a fan. And while introducing “The Climb,” she shared that the song is “inspired by the effort and the struggles that it takes to become the person you want to be. … I truly believe the most authentic version of yourself is deep within the struggle. … Everything in my life that I can stand here and be proud of at one point was towering over me like a mountain.” (The mere mention of a mountain elicited emphatic cheering.)

And before performing her Plastic Hearts hit “Angels Like You” accompanied by nothing more than a piano, Cyrus told her fans: “You are the earth angels that make my life heaven.” And in another unexpected twist, she performed the impassioned “Wrecking Ball” next while still backed by only keys.

After an outfit and hairdo change – from teased waves and a Mugler dress dripping with crystals to an updo with a Mugler crystal corset and suit jacket – Cyrus returned to the stage alongside her full backing band, which included a four-person string section and guitarist Maxx Morando. A front-row fan declared that Cyrus looked “super French,” to which Cyrus replied that they’ve actually been discussing what to name her current backing band, before concluding that “Super French” was the best idea they’ve heard yet.

Cyrus then closed the show with a one-two punch of Something Beautiful standouts: “End of the World” and “More to Lose.” Before performing the latter, she said, “A lot of my songs are about resilience, and I’m very proud of that,” noting that the theme of resilience is one not only personal to her and her music, but that is universally felt – and desperately needed right now.

Halfway through “More to Lose,” she turned to Morando and said she’s tired of crying and wanted to do something a bit more fun. The solution? “Easy Lover.” Cyrus performed the song with an extended outro, during which she strutted from one side of the small stage to the other, blowing kisses to fans who were within arm’s length before returning to its center to take a bow.

And after showing off her outfit one last time, Cyrus seamlessly disappeared behind thick red velvet curtains, as if bringing her “End of the World” lyric to life: “Let’s go to Paris, I don’t care if we get lost in the scene.”

As the wide-eyed expressions across the room proved, there’s hardly a better scene to get lost in.

T.I. has been hit with an intellectual property theft lawsuit over his upcoming movie Situationships, with a web series producer claiming the title is lifted from her own project of the same name.

The rapper (Clifford Harris Jr.) faces trademark infringement claims in a complaint filed Wednesday (June 18) by Featherstone Entertainment, an Atlanta-based production company run by a creator named Cylla Senii.

Senii has made two seasons of the scripted web series Situationships, which chronicles the ups and downs of millennial dating. The show launched on YouTube in 2016 and has since been distributed by BET Digital, Amazon Prime and Tubi.

According to the complaint, Senii worked between 2019 and 2024 to develop both TV show and movie versions of Situationships. But in the fall of 2024, she says, she was shocked to learn that T.I. and his company, Grand Hustle Films, were about to start filming their own comedy film called Situationships, written, directed by and starring the rapper.

“Defendants are engaging in a common scheme and effort to take advantage of the public’s association of Featherstone’s ‘Situationships’ brand by marketing their own film and entitling it ‘Situationships,’” writes Senii’s attorney.

The lawsuit claims T.I.’s alleged infringement is intentional. Senii’s lawyer notes that one collaborator she worked with to develop her Situationships show is a close friend of T.I.’s family, and that another producer with whom she discussed the project is now working on the rapper’s movie.

Senii says this behavior is “ironic” after T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris’ recent $71 million trial win in their long-running intellectual property battle against toymaker MGA, which took issue with dolls supposedly modeled after their teen pop group OMG Girlz.

“Unfortunately, T.I. is engaging in the same conduct he fought so vigorously to protect himself from in his own intellectual property lawsuit,” writes Senii’s lawyer.

The lawsuit says Senii sent T.I. a cease-and-desist letter in December 2024, but he never responded. Senii has also challenged T.I.’s numerous attempts to obtain a trademark for “Situationships,” with one of T.I.’s applications getting preliminarily rejected in May after an examiner found there was a likelihood of confusion with the web series mark.

Senii is now levying a slew of claims against T.I. and Grand Hustle Films for trademark infringement, unfair competition and civil conspiracy. She’s seeking an injunction that would bar him from releasing his movie under the moniker “Situationships” as well as unspecified financial damages.

Reps for the rapper and Grand Hustle Films did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit.

A New York hedge fund manager linked to the SFX bankruptcy has been quietly co-managing Avant Gardner and the temporarily closed Brooklyn Mirage nightclub since late last year and leading unsuccessful efforts trying to get it reopened, Billboard has learned.

Andrew Axelrod’s Axar Capital has been a secured creditor of Avant Gardner — the Brooklyn nightclub company that books and manages the Brooklyn Mirage, Kings Hall and the Great Hall — since late 2023, sources close to the company have confirmed. 

A year prior, former Avant Gardner CEO Billy Bildstein had negotiated the purchase of the Electric Zoo festival from Axelrod, whose Axar Capital was the senior creditor to media mogul Bob Sillerman’s one-time EDM conglomerate SFX — of which Electric Zoo’s parent company, Made Events, was a part. When SFX went bankrupt in 2015, Axar Capital led a takeover of the company, rebranding it LiveStyle and hiring music executive Randy Phillips to lead a selloff of its assets, which included U.S. promoters like Disco Donnie Presents and Life in Color; Europe’s ID&T, the Dutch promoter behind Tomorrowland; and EDM tech startups like Denver-based electronic music platform Beatport. The last asset to sell, in 2022, was Made Events. Axelrod wanted $15 million for the company and structured the deal so that Avant Gardner could pay Axar Capital using the proceeds from the Electric Zoo festival.

Avant Gardner successfully ran the Electric Zoo festival in 2022 but was sidelined by multiple fiascos the following year including permit denials, gate crashers, the cancellation of the festival’s opening day and accusations of overselling the closing day by 7,000 fans. Due to the disastrous 2023 run, Avant Gardner has faced multiple lawsuits from both fans and unpaid vendors and was condemned by a one-time ally, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who had previously supported the popular Brooklyn Mirage and sided with Bildstein during his high-profile battle with the State Liquor Authority.

Sources tell Billboard that the demise of the festival, and Avant Gardner’s inability to pay Axar the reported $15 million price tag for Electric Zoo, are what led to Axar becoming a senior creditor to Avant Gardner. Terms of the Electric Zoo sale are not public, but a previous agreement between Axar and publicly traded streaming service LiveOne, which purchased Chicago’s Spring Awakening festival — another SFX asset — shows how Axelrod liked to structure some of those deals.   

In that agreement, Axelrod sold Spring Awakening to LiveOne for $2.5 million in convertible loans that Axelrod could turn into equity. The deal allowed LiveOne to take over the festival immediately and pay Axelrod back over two years. There was even an option for Axelrod to accept LiveOne stock instead of cash if shares of the company hit certain price targets, but they never did. A month after the deal closed, COVID-19 hit, and Spring Awakening 2020 was canceled. After LiveOne lost $3.5 million on the 2021 event, Axelrod agreed to accept $2.4 million worth of LiveOne stock. But five months later, the value of LiveOne’s stock had fallen 70%, dropping the value of Axelrod’s LiveOne shares to approximately $700,000. 

Avant Gardner is a private company, so it’s unclear how the agreement with Axar was structured. Sources tell Billboard that Axelrod made additional investments into the Brooklyn Mirage, which recently underwent extensive renovations and is now attempting to navigate New York’s Department of Buildings to secure a permit to open.   

On May 22, Avant Gardner parted ways with Josh Wyatt, a hospitality executive Axelrod had hired to run the company and guide it through renovations that saw the club close for construction. The Brooklyn Mirage was supposed to open May 1 with a concert by Sara Landry, but building inspectors declined to grant the facility a permit to open. A month and a half later, the club has been forced to cancel and relocate more than a dozen shows as its permit problems persist.  

Gary Richards, a promoter, touring artist and former CEO of Livestyle for Axar Capital, is now running Avant Gardner and managing day-to-day operations. Billboard reached out to Richards and Axar but was told that neither planned to comment for this story.