Before she travels the world for her Lifetimes Tour, Katy Perry will check out the planet from above. On Thursday (March 27), Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced the date of the singer’s ascent into the stars as part of the space exploration company’s first all-women flight crew, with Perry set to embark on the trip just before her upcoming global trek.

According to Blue Origin’s Instagram post, the spacecraft’s launch window begins at 8:30 a.m. CT on April 14 in the West Texas high desert. The company also unveiled the flight’s official patch, which features the last names of each member of the crew emblazoned on the border as well as symbols that are meaningful to the women.

Perry, for instance, is represented on the artwork with fireworks, a nod to her 2010 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Firework,” as well as her “global influence across music, pop culture, and philanthropy,” according to Blue Origin’s website.

The news comes one month after it was first announced that the “Woman’s World” artist would be joining CBS Mornings‘ Gayle King, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen and entrepreneur/film producer Kerianne Flynn on the NS-31 expedition. The trip will be led by Lauren Sánchez — who is engaged to Bezos and is vice chair of the billionaire’s Earth Fund — and marks Blue Origin’s 11th human space flight.

At the time of the announcement, Perry wrote on Instagram, “If you had told me that I would be part of the first ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you … Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.”

“Although we didn’t grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!” continued the former American Idol judge, who shares daughter Daisy with Orlando Bloom. “I work hard to live my life that way still, and I am motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space (pun intended). That’s why this opportunity is so incredible — so that I can show all of the youngest & most vulnerable among us to reach for the stars, literally and figuratively.”

The expedition will take place in between Perry’s rehearsals for the Lifetimes Tour and the trek’s kickoff in Mexico City April 23. Supporting new album 143 — which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 — the run will also see the musician lapping the United States, Canada, Australia, South America and Europe with shows scheduled through mid-November.

See Blue Origin’s flight date announcement below.

Brooks & Dunn, who are nominated for duo of the year at the 2025 ACM Awards, have a chance to add to their records for most wins in that category (16) and most overall wins by a duo (25).

Old Dominion and Rascal Flatts, who are both nominated for group of the year, have a chance to break out of a tie for most wins in that category — seven each. If either wins the award, they’ll stand alone as the top winner in the history of the category.

Billboard takes a deep dive into the ACM record book. The Academy of Country Music counts as “wins” only awards that were voted on by ACM members. Special awards, such as milestone awards, decade awards and humanitarian awards, don’t count as “wins.”

There’s another rule to keep in mind: The ACM gives artists credit for two wins in certain categories if they were also involved in other creative capacities. Artists can win a second award as a producer in album of the year, single of the year, music event of the year and visual media of the year; as a songwriter in song of the year; and as a producer or director in visual media of the year.

As shown below, Miranda Lambert is credited with seven wins for song of the year. These are as the artist on “The House That Built Me” (which was written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin) and as both artist and songwriter on “Over You,” “Automatic” and “Tin Man.”

Chris Stapleton has won eight awards for album of the year, as both artist and producer on four different albums — Traveller, From a Room: Volume 1, Starting Over and Higher. Lambert has won with five different albums — Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Revolution, Four the Record, Platinum and The Weight of These Wings. But since she didn’t produce or co-produce these albums, she is credited with just five wins.

Alan Jackson, George Strait and Tim McGraw are tied for most wins for single of the year — four each. Jackson has won as an artist on four different singles — “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Chattahoochee,” “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” the latter a collaboration with Jimmy Buffett. Strait and McGraw won as both artist and producer of two singles each. Strait scored with “Check Yes or No” and “Give It Away”; McGraw with “It’s Your Love” (a collab with Faith Hill) and “Live Like You Were Dying.”

Keith Urban has the most wins for music event of the year — five, as an artist on “Start a Band” and as both artist and producer on “We Were Us” and “The Fighter.” McGraw has four wins in the category, as an artist on four different singles — “It’s Your Love,” “Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me,” “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” and “May We All.”

Here are top winners at the ACM Awards in terms of four overall distinctions, as well as in 13 top categories.

Most overall wins: Miranda Lambert (33)
Most overall wins by a male solo artist: George Strait (19)
Most overall wins by duo: Brooks & Dunn (25)
Most overall wins by a group: Alabama (18)
Most wins for entertainer of the year: Garth Brooks (6)
Most wins for female artist of the year: Miranda Lambert (9)
Most wins for male artist of the year: Merle Haggard (6)
Most wins for group of the year: Old Dominion, Rascal Flatts (7 each)
Most wins for duo of the year: Brooks & Dunn (16)
Most wins for album of the year: Chris Stapleton (8)
Most wins for single of the year: Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, George Strait (4 each)
Most wins for song of the year: Miranda Lambert (7)
Most wins for video of the year: Brad Paisley (5)
Most wins for music event of the year: Keith Urban (5)
Most wins for songwriter of the year: Dallas Davidson, Hillary Lindsey, Shane McAnally (2 each)
Most wins for producer of the year: Jay Joyce (6)
Most wins for audio engineer of the year: Justin Niebank (9)

Over the Billboard Hot 100’s 66-year history, hits have spent between one and 57 weeks in the top 10. Of the more than 5,200 top 10s to date, nearly 600 have logged a single frame in the tier. Conversely, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” boasts the most top 10 weeks (57), followed by two other ubiquitous songs that hit first the top 10 in 2024: Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” (54) and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (45).

(The average for a title over the Hot 100’s archives is 6.5 weeks in the top 10. Since 2000, it’s 5.6 weeks; among songs that peaked in 2024, it was 7.2%.)

What are key differences between songs that have short and long stays in the Hot 100’s top 10? Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its 2024 Staying Power report.

Here are three takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s in-depth research about Hot 100 top 10s during 2024.

Everlasting Love

A hefty 82% of songs that spent 10 or more weeks in the Hot 100’s top in 2024 featured a love/relationship lyrical theme. Encompassing all top 10s, the share was 52%. Among No. 1s, it was 44%.

As noted above, “Lose Control” fits that theme, as do songs with lengthy top 10 runs in 2024 including Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” and Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” each of which spent more than 20 weeks in the top 10.

Pop Harder to Stop

“Pop songs had the greatest staying power in 2024, with 36% remaining in the Hot 100’s top 10 for 10 weeks or more,” Hit Songs Deconstructed notes. “Country songs followed at 23% and R&B/soul rounded out the top three at 18%. Hip-hop/rap — while it was the most popular primary genre in the overall top 10 — came in fourth in terms of staying power, accounting for 14% of songs.”

Along those lines, “pop was the most common influence across-the-board, being featured in 95% of songs” with 10 or weeks in the top 10 in 2024, according to the report. Plus, pop was an influence in two-thirds of songs that charted for nine weeks or fewer.

Leaving? Not So Fast

Simply put (hopefully), faster songs were slower to leave the Hot 100’s top 10 in 2024 and slower songs were faster to leave the top 10.

A 65% majority of songs that charted in the 10 for at least 10 weeks last year had tempos of over 100 BPM, with the most common range being 100-119 BPM. Of songs that spent between one and nine weeks in the top 10, however, 62% had tempos under 100 BPM, with most in the 80-99 BPM range.

Fans of the ACM Awards will get super-served at this year’s ceremony as the show, which had clocked in at two hours since moving to the commercial free Amazon’s Prime Video, will expand by 30 minutes.

“It was a long discussion with Amazon because we pride ourselves on the fact that we’re the only major awards show that clocks in at two hours and that’s a big consumer benefit for our show,” says Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside. “However, this year there’s so many things that we want to accomplish in the show because we want to give a proper nod to our history, but we still have a lot of business to take care of in terms of the current nominees as well, so we just felt like the extra time will allow us to do some special things. I don’t think viewers are going to be unhappy that we’re giving them an extra 30 minutes of really amazing content.”

Ella Langley leads all nominees with eight nods, which Whiteside sees as a sign of how current and fresh the ACM Awards are. “To have essentially a brand-new artist lead the nominations, especially in our 60th year, it’s almost like a full-circle thing, because we really pride ourselves on often being the first organization to honor a new artist,” Whiteside says. “It speaks to the fact that we’ve always been an organization that is very new artist forward.”

Langley is followed by Cody Johnson, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson, all of whom received seven nominations, with Chris Stapleton garnering six nods.

Whiteside also lauds Johnson’s seven nominations as “he just continues to grow and so it’s exciting to see him get acknowledged and, obviously, Morgan Wallen continues to be a juggernaut,” he says. He also enthuses over Kelsea Ballerini’s first nomination for entertainer of the year. “I can’t say enough about her and her journey and the way she continued to grow as an artist.”

Like Langley, a number of artists, including Dasha, Shaboozey, Red Clay Strays and Zach Top landed their first nominations this year. “It does feel like a really fresh crop of artists are getting recognized,” Whiteside says.

Beyoncé received no nominations, despite winning two country Grammys in February, including for country album of the year, just weeks before first-round ACM voting opened. “Were we hoping she’d be nominated? Absolutely,” Whiteside says. “We love that Beyoncé is in the country genre. That’s fantastic for all the country artists out there. It’s fantastic for the fans. The more successful she is, the more we’re bringing more mainstream people into the genre which we want.”

Unlike Grammy voters, who span all musical genres, the more than 5,000 ACM voters primarily make a living in country music and are mostly based in Nashville. “I think, more likely, they’re going to be voting for artists that they’ve got relationships with and work with on a regular basis and that are in the country music business 365,” Whiteside says, but adds, “We’d love to have Beyoncé on the show. She has an open invitation to be on the ACM stage anytime she ever wants to.”

As Whiteside, executive producer/show runner Raj Kapoor, and show producer dick clark productions work on the show, they are trying to strike the right balance between old and new.  “It’s tough because we may have a really great idea on honoring this artist from the past, but then it’s like, ‘Well, that may take away a slot from a current artist’,” Whiteside says. So far, Wilson, Blake Shelton and Eric Church have been announced as performers. The three new artist winners-male, female and duo or group- who are announced in advance will also perform.

“It’s a little bit of a past/present/future approach,” Whiteside adds. “It’s going to be a really iconic night and a great way to look back and look forward and celebrate where we are right now as an industry.”

Plans around the ACM Awards are still being firmed up but will include free shows on the Star Plaza on May 6 and 7, as well as a Top Golf tee-off tournament on May 6, and an official after party following the awards.

With the Amazon deal and the contract with the Cowboys for the Frisco location both expiring this year, Whiteside says things could look very different next year depending upon if the deals aren’t renewed.   

“For 2026, we may do a major pivot again and define what’s the future of the ­academy. This year is a very special year, but next year is going to be kind of turning the page,” he says. “It’ll be a fresh new year. We don’t know yet where we’ll be. We don’t know what [outlet] we’re going to be on. Everything’s a new day in 2026, so it’s going to be the evolution of the ACM Awards, but we’re excited about that because it’s a blank slate.”

The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.