Taylor Swift secures her 15th No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Album Sales chart (dated Jan. 25), as her 2023 set Lover: Live From Paris reenters the list following its reissue on vinyl, as well as its first release as a download album.

With a 15th No. 1 on Top Album Sales, she surpasses JAY-Z for the most No. 1s on the 33-year-old list. The latter racked up 14 leaders between 1998-2017. 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.

The new Jan. 25-dated Top Album Sales chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 22.

Lover: Live From Paris was exclusively available through Swift’s official web store and sold 202,500 copies in the United States in the tracking week ending Jan. 16, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 161,000 were vinyl sales — the largest sales week for a live album in the format since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.

The eight-song live project was initially released back in 2023 exclusively as a limited-edition heart-shaped, color double-vinyl set, sold only through Swift’s web store. It spent one week on Top Album Sales at No. 5 and on the Billboard 200 at No. 58 in 2023. The project commemorates Swift’s City of Lover concert in Paris at the Olympia on Sept. 9, 2019 — her final live show until the kickoff of The Eras Tour in March 2023.

Earlier in January 2025, Lover: Live From Paris was briefly restocked on vinyl in Swift’s web store, with an expected ship date to fans on or before Jan. 20. The set’s sales in the latest tracking week were also bolstered by its limited availability (for the last six hours of the chart’s tracking week) on four digital album variants in Swift’s web store, with three of those each boasting one unique bonus live track culled from The Eras Tour.

Since the fall of 2023, the Las Vegas Sphere has hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company, Anyma and a current residency from the Eagles. And last week, Kenny Chesney was announced as the arena’s first country headliner.

The announcement has the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast asking: When will we see a pop star at the groundbreaking venue? On our latest episode, Katie & Keith are discussing some potential names, including existing rumors around Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Harry Styles. And it wouldn’t be a Pop Shop discussion without Keith suggesting it could be the perfect spot for Madonna to play her promised new 2025 music.

Listen to the conversation below:

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Bad Bunny captures his fourth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as his DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS climbs 2-1 after its first full week on the chart, edging out a surprise challenger in Taylor Swift’s fan-favorite Lover: Live From Paris album. Plus, reality TV star Heidi Montag hits the Billboard 200 with a 15-year-old album, thanks to an outpouring of support from fans following the loss of her house in the Pacific Palisades wildfire.

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 managing director, charts and data operations, 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.)

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Funko has released a limited-edition V Day-themed Wicked set, that re-imagines Glinda and Elphaba as pink and red figurines.

NEW RELEASE

Funko Pocket Pop! Valentines 2-Pack – Elphaba & Glinda

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The officially-licensed collection gets you a two-pack of Wicked’s Pocket Pop! vinyl figures, inspired by the hit movie musical. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba goes from green to pink, while trading in her black dress and pointed hat for a ravishing red number. She also swaps her broomstick and the Grimmerie for a pink heart.

Ariana Grande’s Glinda, meantime, looks stylish in her pink gown, which is accessorized by a “crystal” crown. She clutches a red heart accessorized with a pink bow. Both of these mini figurines measure approximately two inches tall.

You can also buy the Wicked Valentine’s Day Funko Pops individually. Amazon has both Elphaba and Glinda Valentine vinyl figures available right now. The Elphaba figurine measures approximately 4.65 inches in height, while the Glinda Funko is 4.75 inches tall. See images below.

Funko Pop! Movies: Elphaba Valentine

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Funko Pop! Movies: Glinda Valentine

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The Wicked Valentine’s Day Funko Pop collection is the latest Wicked merch release to hit the internet, and makes a great gift for a partner or family member. It’s also a great Galentine’s or best friend gift, for the Glinda and Elphaba in your friend group. Prefer to buy full-size Wicked dolls? Mattel’s Barbie-inspired Wicked dolls are back in stock after selling out over the holidays. Shop them here.

GIFT IDEA

Million Roses Basic Box – Dark Green

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Prefer something a little more classic and romantic for Valentine’s Day? Wicked fans will love these preserved dark green flowers from LA-based The Million Roses. These are real roses that have been painstakingly grown, cut, trimmed, “rehydrated” and painted. The brand says these arrangements last up to three years without fading. Choose from a black, white or gold box; each box contains 6-7 real roses.

Weezer’s cover of Toto’s perennial favorite “Africa” undoubtedly became one of the band’s biggest successes, but Toto guitarist Steve Lukather isn’t sure the reasons behind the cover were genuine.

The cover first arrived in May 2018 following a months-long campaign in which a then-14-year-old social media user urged Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo to cover the song. As a result, Weezer released their own rendition of Toto’s “Rosanna” as a way to troll the campaign, ultimately unveiling their version of “Africa” just days later.

Reaction to the cover was overwhelmingly-positive, with the cover becoming their first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2009, and their first to top the Alternative Songs chart since “Pork and Beans” in 2008.

The viral quality of the song continued in the following months, too. Not only was the track accompanied by a “Weird Al” Yankovic-featuring music video, but it was included on their self-titled covers album (also known as the Teal Album), and inspired Toto to respond in kind with a cover of Weezer’s 2001 single “Hash Pipe”.

However, while much of the attention seemed to tie in with the track’s good-natured origins and desire to lean into an online joke, Lukather recently took part in an interview with Matt Pinfield’s New & Approved program, telling the host he’s not sure if the cover’s origins were as affectionate as they seemed.

“I don’t know about him loving the song, man,” Lukather said of Pinfield’s claim that Cuomo was fond of “Africa”. “I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think he did it to take the piss out of it and it blew up in his face and now he’s got to play it every night.

“I tried to reach out to this guy and be friendly and then it just got weird,” Lukather added. “I don’t want to get into it, but peace and love. It was good for them, it was good for us.”

Lukather’s comments echo earlier statements he made in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, where he explained he was left with “hurt feelings” following his attempts to speak to Cuomo.

“I tried to reach out to Rivers,” he explained. “I said, ‘Hey, man, isn’t this funny? Whether you like us or not, it’s working out good for both of us.’ Silence! The cat refused to talk to me! I’m friends with the biggest rock & roll stars in the world, and this is the only cat that refuses to talk to me! I’m sorry, Rivers. You made a lot of fuckin’ money off this. You should be a little bit more thankful. But I got nothing bad to say about them. Some of them were cool, but Rivers really hurt my feelings.”

Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro – who departed the band in 2019 – echoed Lukather’s opinions, telling the publication that when he performed “Africa” with Weezer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he was backstage when Weezer’s manager informed them it was gaining traction on the airwaves.

“I saw Rivers wince,” Porcaro explained. “They initially did it as a goof, but now they realized they’d have to play the song for a lot longer than they thought they would. This whole business runs on hit records. If you get one, you better be prepared to play it for the rest of your life.”

Indeed, Weezer’s cover of “Africa” became a staple of their live sets from 2018 onwards, though fell out of favor following the launch of their Voyage to the Blue Planet tour in 2024 which saw them performing their 1994 debut album in full for its 30th anniversary.

Ethel Cain has defended her choice of words in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

On Jan. 10, the 26-year-old musician shared a quote on her Instagram Story from former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, discussing how powerful groups such as the NRA, Big Oil and insurance companies influence Congress. Cain added the hashtag “#KillMoreCEOs” to the post, later clarifying she wasn’t aiming to be reactionary or “edgy.”

“I genuinely mean what I say. Corporations giggle at protesting,” Cain wrote. “Why would anyone ever willingly come down off their throne that they’ve spent years building off the suffering of their fellow man? Nobody is getting visited by the ghost of Christmas future, no one is having a change of heart. It’s simple, you make them fear for their lives and hit them in the only place they hurt or nothing will ever get done.”

“I don’t even see how that’s an incredibly radical idea,” she concluded. “It seems quite straightforward to me. ‘Violence is never the answer’ wrong. Sometimes it is.”

The backlash to the post was swift, with Fox News panelists Jason Chaffetz, Jackie DeAngelis, Anita Vogel and Guy Benson discussing the comments on an episode of the network’s The Big Weekend Show.

“The message there is violence is the answer,” Benson said in response to Cain’s post. “You know who used that exact same mentality, that type of language? Terrorists. That is actual terrorism, what she’s talking about here … This should be a very clear black-and-white moral issue, and it is scary to see how much support that type of sentiment has gotten.”

“People need to boycott her,” added DeAngelis, with Chaffetz saying, “I hope people call her out for this.”

Now, Cain has weighed in on the topic once again, taking to Tumblr to share a new post which defends her position, and questions why climate change and “corrupt” healthcare systems have become political issues.

“I find it funny that conservatives try to paint me calling for the death and destruction of multi-billionaire CEOs as some radical ‘woke liberal’ standpoint,” Cain began. “As if that even has anything to do with politics, especially in this era of surface level circus politics. The same way they try to politicize the hurricanes or the wildfires destroying parts of America, as if climate change is somehow a red vs. blue issue.”

“It’s no secret I’m from a deeply conservative family in the sticks of Florida and I still grew up hearing ‘I fought the law and the law won’. The healthcare system has fucked each and every member of my family in a different way at one point or another, as is the case with pretty much every family in this scorched earth nation.”

As Cain continued, she switched her attention to the “staunchly anti-government” origins of country music. In 2024, Billboard looked back at the changing politics of country music, noting how Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign began to appeal to the historically Democratic-voting working and middle class Southern whites, ultimately instigating a gradual shift to the right for country music which – as Cain points out – has only continued.

“Remember when country music, the genre currently associated the heaviest with the most conservative faction of America, used to be staunchly anti-government and about sticking it to the man?” she asked. “Remember when the coal miners, grandfathers to the ‘Trump-er hillbillies’ of Appalachia that everyone loves to write off as ignorant, fought tooth and nail for unionization because the companies that were built off their labor didn’t give a shit if they lived or died? Since when has ‘upholding traditional values’ gone hand in hand with… defending lawmakers and oil tycoons. 

“My family and I complain about the same issues at the dinner table. The men in charge better hope they can keep their digital smokescreens running as long as they can because the moment the rednecks and the hippies lay down their swords long enough to realize they have the same enemy, all hell is gonna break loose.”

Cain’s controversial comments came just two days after the release of her latest recording project, Perverts, which arrived as the follow-up to her acclaimed 2022 debut album, Preacher’s Daughter.