Beth Matthews caught up with Drew Afualo & Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2026.
Ella Langley caught up with Drew Afualo & Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2026.
Mariah the Scientist caught up with Drew Afualo & Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2026.
Kali Uchis caught up with Drew Afualo & Billboard’s Lyndsey Havens on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2026.
Ella Langley’s second week with Dandelion at the summit of Top Country Albums and the all-genre Billboard 200 dated May 2 places her in rare company. The set earned 106,000 equivalent album units in the United States in its second frame (April 17–23), according to Luminate, making her one of just three women with country projects to post at least 100,000 units in a second consecutive week.
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Langley joins Beyoncé and Taylor Swift in the achieving feat. Beyoncé met the mark with Cowboy Carter (2024), which debuted with 407,000 units and followed with 128,000. Swift has done so multiple times in the past decade. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) opened in 2023 with 716,000 and followed with 121,000, while 2021’s Red (Taylor’s Version) logged three consecutive 100,000-plus weeks (605,000, 159,000 and 102,000). Dandelion follows with 169,000 and 106,000.
Swift’s 2021 Fearless (Taylor’s Version) also reached multiple 100,000-plus weeks, though not consecutively. It opened with 291,000 units, dipped below the mark in its second week at No. 1, then returned to the summit later that year with 152,000.
Before Billboard’s genre album charts shifted to their current streaming and sales hybrid methodology in February 2017, the sole metric was album sales. Swift reached back-to-back 100,000-plus weeks with the original versions of Fearless (its first seven frames in 2008-09) and Speak Now (its first nine in 2010-11). Her Red (2012) did even better, debuting with 1.21 million sold and selling more than 100,000 in its first 10 weeks. Carrie Underwood also earned the honor in 2012 with Blown Away, which began with 267,000 and followed with 120,000.
Dandelion flexes its second-week strength as Langley’s profile continues to grow beyond the charts, including a high-visibility Stagecoach appearance the day after the tracking week closed, positioning the album for continued momentum beyond its second week at No. 1. Plus, the set’s “Choosin’ Texas” tops Hot Country Songs for a 22nd week; follow-up “Be Her” holds at its No. 2 high, and her new duet with Morgan Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” newly added to Dandelion with its April 24 release, is set to splash onto next week’s charts (dated May 9).
Rimas Entertainment officially unveils SONAR, a record label focused on the development, management and projection of artists within the Latin music market, Billboard can announce exclusively today (April 29).
The initiative is part of the expansion of Rimas Entertainment’s music ecosystem, with services including artist development (A&R), music production, digital distribution, marketing and promotion, rights management, public relations and commercial partnerships.
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“At SONAR, we believe in building lasting relationships that allow us to accompany artists not just in their first steps, but throughout their entire music journey,” Noah Assad, CEO of Rimas Entertainment, says in a statement. “It’s not just about a work structure but about a system that supports artists at every stage of their development.”
“SONAR is a record label where artists can develop with freedom and grow at their own pace without losing their essence,” adds Jesús Rodríguez, SONAR’s head of label. “We aim to accompany them in their evolution, serving as a strategic partner that allows them to experiment, innovate and project themselves internationally.”
With a roster that includes Cris MJ, Yan Block, Hades66, J Abdiel, Matt Louis, Slow Jamz, Hydro, Panda Black and Slayter, among others, SONAR positions itself as a platform for talent development in Latin music, focusing on the structure, execution and international expansion of projects within an integrated ecosystem.
“What sets us apart is diversity and representation,” Rodríguez emphasizes. “We are committed to the art of different sectors of the community and seek to continue expanding its reach.”
Metallica are prepping the definitive reissue of their seventh studio album, ReLoad, which will be issued as Reload (Remastered) on June 26 through their own Blackened Recordings label. The new edition of the album originally released in 1997 will come in a variety of formats, including a 2-LP vinyl edition, as well as a 3-CD expanded edition, CD, cassette and digital downloads.
It will also come in a sprawling deluxe box set that features the album on an 180-gram double LP and CD, “The Memory Remains” 7″, three live LPs, 15 CDs and four DVDs with unreleased content (live shows, rough mixes, demos), and MP3 download card of all the audio, as well as three tour laminates, posters, pins, stickers, guitar picks, lyrics sheets and a 128-page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos.
Fans who preorder the deluxe box will get instant grat versions of “The Memory Remains,” including the remastered original recording, an instrumental mix and the Take 18 Floor Take and Live in Brisbane. In addition, a Live in Philadelphia version of “The Memory Remains” is available now (see below).
According to a release, the deluxe, numbered pressing version of the quadruple platinum album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart at the time is “bursting” with exclusives, including on-air and TV performances, the Live at Ministry of Sound ’97 triple live album on 140g vinyl, never-before-released collections of riffs, 13 Rorschach Test cards and much more.
The news about the reissue also coincides with the opening of the #GetTheReLoadOut fan cover competition, which last year found thousands of Metallica fans submitting their interpretations of Load tracks for the first round of the #GetTheLoadOut contest. Round two will add a new category, so in addition to traditional musical covers, performance and visual artists are invited to participate. A different song from the album will be highlighted each week through the stunt, ending with two grand prize winners each earning an autographed ReLoad Remastered Limited Edition deluxe box set.
ReLoad was the sequel to 1996’s Load album, and like its predecessor, it expanded the band’s thrash metal sound, from adding hurdy-gurdy and violin to “Low Man’s Lyric” to collaborating with their first-ever guest vocalist, Marianne Faithfull, on “The Memory Remains.” It also featured “The Unforgiven II,” the sequel to their 1991 song “The Unforgiven.”
Watch “The Memory Remains” (live in Philadelphia, Nov. 11, 1997) below.
Country music trailblazer Mickey Guyton is set to perform at the 51st annual Gracies Awards Gala on Tuesday, May 19, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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Actress Andie MacDowell will receive the Gracies Icon Award. Actress, writer and producer Yvette Nicole Brown, best known for her role in Community, will host the event. The awards are presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF).
Guyton, 42, has received four Grammy nominations, including back-to-back nods for best country solo performance in 2021-22 for “Black Like Me” and “Remember Her Name,” respectively. In 2021, she performed “Black Like Me” on the Grammy telecast. She has received two Academy of Country Music Awards nominations and one at the Country Music Association Awards. In 2021, she co-hosted the ACM Awards with Keith Urban and performed “Hold On” on the telecast.
MacDowell has received four Golden Globe nods, most recently in 2022 for Maid, a Netflix limited series in which she acted alongside her daughter Margaret Qualley. Her previous nods were for her early hits Sex, Lies and Videotape, Green Card and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
“Andie MacDowell belongs in the company of the legends who have carried this award before her,” Becky Brooks, president of AWMF said in a statement. “She has shown us what it looks like to lead with integrity, to grow with intention, and to stay fully, unapologetically herself, and she has done it in a way that has opened doors for women across the industry.”
Janet Jackson isn’t even mentioned in Michael, the hit biopic about her brother Michael Jackson, but she will be front and center at the 2026 Grammy Hall of Fame Gala next week, as her 1989 album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, is inducted. The ceremony will be held Friday, May 8, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
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Being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame is a Jackson family tradition. Michael was inducted with both Off the Wall and Thriller, his first two albums with legendary producer Quincy Jones. The Jackson 5 made the grade with three of their four 1970 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”
Rhythm Nation 1814 was Janet Jackson’s fourth studio album. Although A&M executives were hoping for material similar to that on her previous album, Control (1986), Jackson insisted on creating a concept album addressing social issues. The accompanying video won a Grammy for best music video, long form, but the album and its many hit singles won no Grammys, despite receiving six nominations across two years. In what must have been a huge disappointment for all involved, the album was passed over for a nomination for album of the year, a nod that Control had garnered.
The Gala will celebrate the 2026 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings, a group of 14 titles spanning nearly a century of recorded music. The Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum, which jointly present the Gala, revealed details of some of the performances:
- Father-daughter duo Fyütch & Aura V, who won a Grammy in February for best children’s music album for Harmony, will perform Ella Jenkins’ 1966 children’s classic “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song.” Aura V set a new record as the youngest individually credited Grammy winner in history. She was just 8 when she won. The old record was set by Blue Ivy Carter, who was 9 years old five years ago when she won alongside her mom, Beyoncé, and WizKid for “Brown Skin Girl.” Jenkins received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004. She died in 2024 at age 100.
- George Clinton, Funkadelic guitarist Blackbyrd McKnight and Erykah Badu will perform a tribute to Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain (1971), which was the funk rock band’s third studio album. It was the last album recorded by the original Funkadelic lineup. Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2019.
- Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson will perform selections from their 1976 debut studio album, Dreamboat Annie. At the time, the band was based in Vancouver, British Columbia; the album was recorded in Vancouver and first released in Canada by the local label Mushroom Records in September 1975. It was released in the U.S. five months later, through the U.S. subsidiary of Mushroom Records in Los Angeles. The album spawned the singles “How Deep It Goes,” “Magic Man,” “Crazy on You” and “Dreamboat Annie.” The Wilson sisters received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy in 2023.
- Lucinda Williams will perform songs from her 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. The album, Williams’ fifth studio set, won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. It spawned the singles “Right in Time” and “Can’t Let Go.” The latter track was nominated for a Grammy for best female rock vocal performance.
- Take 6 will perform The Soul Stirrers’ 1950 recording “Jesus Gave Me Water.” The track came from the first studio session of a young Chicago gospel singer named Sam Cook, seven years before he added an “e” to his last name and became a crossover pop/R&B star and enduring music legend. Cooke was shot to death in 1964 at age 33 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 1999.
- Taylor Hanson, who achieved fame, a Hot 100-topping single and a Grammy nod for record of the year as a member of the brother trio Hanson, will perform a tribute to Nick Drake’s 1972 album, Pink Moon. It was the English musician’s third and final studio album, and the only one of his studio albums to be released in North America during his lifetime. Drake was found dead in November 1974 at the age of 26 due to an overdose of antidepressants.
Additional performances include a set by Norah Jones, this year’s Ray Charles Architect of Sound Award recipient. Josh Groban and Teddy Swims are slated to perform as part of a tribute to Warner Records, this year’s Visionary of Music Award recipient.
Broadcast journalist Anthony Mason will host the event. The show will be produced by former Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich, alongside Renato Basile, Chantel Sausedo, and Lynne Sheridan, with musical direction by Cheche Alara, Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and conductor.
Tickets for the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala are on sale now. For more information, go here.
An online auction will run alongside the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala beginning May 5 and closing May 21, featuring a collection of guitars signed by such artists as Charli xcx, ROSÉ and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as Platinum tickets to the 2027 Grammy Awards. Proceeds will benefit the Grammy Museum. More information will be available after May 5.
Prediction markets have become mainstream and are changing the way fans engage with music and pop culture. Kalshi COO and co-founder Luana Lopes Lara joins Billboard On The Record to discuss how the platform is expanding into new categories and giving music superfans the ability to put money behind their favorite artists and predictions. She breaks down why she believes it was essential for Kalshi to be fully government regulated, how the company views insider trading and why she sees music and entertainment as essential to the platform’s future.
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Luana Lopes Lara:
We did over $3 billion last week. Just the music markets last year, we did $70 million traded. And this year, just to-date, over $400 million. Just on the Super Bowl halftime show opener, it was $110 million.
Kristin Robinson:
I also wonder, though, if, if it’s actually telling the future, or if it influences the future.
Getting more information is very good.
There’s still, like, the issue of potential, like, addiction to betting.
We don’t make money when our users lose.
I wonder how it’s gonna affect the fan experience.
The biggest users is an Ariana Grande superfan. Found Kalshi and now he’s made over $100,000 just predicting, like, chart positions for her music.
Prediction markets are everywhere. From betting on the outcome of elections, to the winner of the Super Bowl, to what’s going on on the top of the music charts. Sites like Kashi and Polymarket are finding a way to monetize knowledge about anything and everything happening in the future. Today I’m joined by Luana Lopes Lara, COO and co-founder of Kal She, to answer the burning question that I’ve had for a long time, how is this going to impact the music industry? Okay. Luana, welcome to On The Record.
Thank you for having me. I’m excited.
I’m excited for you to be here. I hear you’re a big music fan.
I am.
Okay. I really am. So who are you listening to during a work day?
Oh, I think this week, I think everyone’s listening to Justin Bieber
Fair enough. Fair enough. . . .
After the Coachella performance. KATSEYE, Justin Bieber, just honestly doing all the, the, everything I saw at Coachella.
I didn’t go, but I watched the videos and, yeah. I did a lot of watching at home, but it actually just kinda made me sad that I wasn’t there.
Keep watching for more!
