Kid Rock is celebrating Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election in his signature, over-the-top style.

The 53-year-old musician (real name: Robert James Ritchie) shared a video on Instagram Friday (Nov. 8), offering two distinct reactions to the election outcome: one from his larger-than-life onstage persona and another from his more laid-back, everyday self.

Titled “Official Election Reaction: Kid Rock vs. Bob Ritchie,” the approximately two-minute clip opens with the rocker’s infamous bad boy image. Stepping out in a fiery red jumpsuit, holding a cigar, and sporting a white MAGA hat, the rocker dramatically celebrates Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. In true Kid Rock fashion, he drops the mic, grabs his crotch, and flips off the camera.

The video then cuts to a more subdued Bob Ritchie moment, where the singer sheds his onstage persona in favor of a casual Detroit Tigers cap, plain white T-shirt, green shorts and a wrist brace. Sitting in a wooden chair, he adopts a more reflective tone as his 2017 anthem “American Rock ‘n Roll” plays in the background.

“First off, let me convey to my family, friends, and supporters that now is not the time to gloat,” the singer narrates, accompanied by imagery of American flags and neighborhood homes. “We must remember that most of our left-leaning friends are good people who want the same things in life that we do, but simply think differently about how to get there.”

The scene shifts to footage of Rock performing live as he declares, “It is now time to be the bigger man, to extend an olive branch, and unite all reasonable people of this great nation.”

The tone then turns more patriotic, with the video cutting to clips of Trump passionately shouting “fight” after his attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

“God has blessed America, and together with President Trump, we will make America great again,” Rock concludes.

The video closes with a teaser for the musician’s Rock the Country 2025 tour, a 10-date trek billed as “A Festival for We the People.” The tour launches April 4-5 in Livingston, La., and wraps July 25-26 in Anderson, S.C. Full lineup and venue details were not available at press time. See more details here.

In addition to Rock, Trump’s 2024 campaign garnered endorsements from notable figures such as country stars Jason Aldean and Billy Ray Cyrus, as well as celebrities including Amber Rose, Savannah Chrisley, Caitlyn Jenner, Dr. Phil, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Joe Rogan and Lil Pump.

Watch Kid Rock’s reaction to Trump’s election win on Instagram here.

The Weeknd is paying tribute to late actor Tony Todd.

On Friday (Nov. 8), the superstar singer honored the iconic actor, known for his roles in horror franchises Candyman and Final Destination, with a heartfelt post on his Instagram Story.

“A trailblazer,” the Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, wrote alongside a photo of Todd as Daniel Robitaille/the Candyman. “Rest well Tony Todd.”

Todd passed away on Wednesday (Nov. 6) following a long illness at his home in Marina del Rey, a neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 69. The actor is best known for his portrayal of the sinister figure in Candyman (1992) and for his role in Final Destination (2000). He also appeared in the sequels of each movie.

Todd’s extensive filmography includes roles in Night of the Living Dead (1990), The Rock (1996), The Crow (1994), Hatchet (2006), The Man from Earth (2007), Frankenstein (2015), Hell Fest (2018), Requiem (2018), Hellblazers (2022), and The Bunker (2024), among others.

He also appeared in multiple Star Trek series, portraying Kurn in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as Alpha Hirogen in Star Trek: Voyager.

“The industry has lost a legend. We have lost a cherished friend. Rest in peace, Tony—Your Final Destination Family,” wrote New Line Cinema, the studio behind the Final Destination films, in a tribute shared on Instagram.

The Weeknd is no stranger to the horror genre himself. As previously reported, the singer’s upcoming psychological thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow will be distributed worldwide by Lionsgate. The film, directed by Trey Edward Shults, marks the Weeknd’s feature film debut and will also serve as an extension of his upcoming sixth studio album of the same name. Jenny Ortega and Barry Keoghan will also star in the movie.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is produced by The Weeknd’s production company, Manic Phase, along with his producing partner Reza Fahim (co-creator of The Idol) and the late Kevin Turen. Executive producers on the film include Ortega, Shults, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Ryan Kroft, The Weeknd’s manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, and Harrison Huffman.

See The Weeknd’s tribute to Tony Todd here.

Spotify rode a post-election wave of market enthusiasm to close above $400 for the first time on Friday (Nov. 8), valuing the music-streaming giant at nearly $80.5 billion. Before finishing at $400.68, up 4.1% for the week, the company’s stock reached an all-time high of $405.88. 

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company’s stock price has increased 113% in 2024 as the company overtook Universal Music Group (UMG) as the most valuable music company. When investors began to tire of high-growth streaming companies with little to show in profitability, Spotify underwent two major rounds of layoffs in 2023, helping reduce costs without sacrificing subscriber growth or revenue. With third-quarter earnings coming on Tuesday (Nov. 12), Spotify will show whether it has maintained that momentum. At least one analyst is optimistic ahead of earnings: Deutsche Bank raised its Spotify price target on Wednesday to $440 from $430.

U.S. stock markets soared this week following the election of Donald Trump on Tuesday (Nov. 5) and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on Thursday (Nov. 7) to lower interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. On Friday, the Nasdaq composite closed at an all-time high of 19,286.78, up 5.7%. The S&P 500 gained 4.7% to close at a record high of 5,995.54. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 5.5% to 3,452.30. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index improved just 0.7% to 2,561.15. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 fell 1.3% to 8,072.39.

The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index gained 2.4% to an all-time high of 2,043.02, bringing its year-to-date gain to 33.2%. The index had 13 stocks in positive territory while six lost ground and one was unchanged. 

The week’s top music stock was iHeartMedia, which jumped 16.7% to $2.44 after the company announced it will restructure much of its retiring debt and plans to save $200 million in 2025 through cost cuts and the embrace of technology. “Technology is the key to increasing our operating leverage and is a constant focus for us,” CEO Bob Pittman said during an earnings call on Thursday. “It allows us to speed up processes, streamline legacy systems and it enables our folks to create more, better and faster.” iHeartMedia shares are down 8.6% year to date but have risen 180% since May 24. 

LiveOne gained 15.6% to $0.89 per share after the music streamer announced that revenue increased 14% to $32.6 million and paid members rose 27% to 645,000 in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30. Reservoir Media was another top gainer, improving 9.1% to $9.00.

On the live front, Live Nation shares rose 5.1% to $123.02 following a post-election day boost. The concert promoter is currently facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice but could find a better outcome from new appointments made by the Trump administration. The election wasn’t the only reason for the stock’s gains: Morgan Stanley upped its price target to $140 from $120 based on “a combination of strong underlying consumer demand and powerful artist incentives to tour,” analysts wrote in an investor note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank also increased its Live Nation price target to $130 from $122.

K-pop stocks surged this week despite HYBE and SM Entertainment both reporting sharp drops in profit last quarter due partly to weaker recorded music revenues. HYBE shares jumped 6.4% after the company reported a 99% drop in net income. Likewise, SM Entertainment gained 7.2% the same week the company announced quarterly net profit fell 96% on a 9% revenue decline and a 36% drop in recorded music revenue. Investors may have gained optimism from SM Entertainment’s announcement it will launch a new girl group — its first since aespa debuted five years ago — in 2025 with a single and album release in the first quarter. 

JYP Entertainment, which has not yet announced quarterly earnings, shot up 12.6%, and YG Entertainment continued its hot streak, rising 6.3% and bringing its gain in the last three weeks to 17.6%. YG has received a boost from the success of “APT” by ROSÉ featuring Bruno Mars. The song is currently in its second week atop both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. 

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) shares rose 2.4% to $11.39 ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings on Tuesday (Nov. 12). Bernstein initiated coverage of TME with a $14 price target. Barclays initiated coverage with an “overweight” rating and a $16 price target. 

German concert promoter CTS Eventim was the worst-performing music stock of the week, dropping 10.4% to 87.70 euros ($94.05). The company will release third-quarter results on Nov. 21. Elsewhere, Cumulus Media dropped 6.4% to $0.88, adding to the prior week’s 19% decline, while SiriusXM dropped 5.5% to $26.13. 

Even though Beyoncé made history when the 2025 Grammy nominations were announced on Friday (Nov. 8), she turned the spotlight to another “queen” — Linda Martell.

Martell is nominated for best melodic rap performance alongside her and Shaboozey with “Spaghetti” from Beyoncé’s eighth studio album Cowboy Carter. Outside of “Spaghetti,” the pioneering country artist delivered another spoken-word segment on “The Linda Martell Show” from the same album. “Congratulations to my queen Linda Martell on your nomination and your contribution to Country Music,” Queen Bey wrote on Instagram while sharing an old picture of the singer.

Martell told Billboard in May that she was “very, very glad” to be featured on Cowboy Carter and added that she appreciated the attention Beyoncé had brought to her music.

Beyoncé earned 11 nominations for the 67th annual Grammys, making her the most nominated artist in the show’s history – breaking out of a tie with her husband Jay-Z. She’s up for record and song of the year and best country song with her two-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Texas Hold ‘Em,” album of the year and best country album with Cowboy Carter, best pop solo performance with “Bodyguard,” best pop duo/group performance with “Levii’s Jeans” (featuring Post Malone), best melodic rap performance with “Spaghetti” (featuring Martell and Shaboozey), best country solo performance with “16 Carriages,” best country duo/group performance with “II Most Wanted” (featuring Miley Cyrus), and best Americana performance with “Ya Ya.”

She now has a total 99 nominations, and Billboard broke down all of them here. In 2023, when she took home four trophies, she made history for becoming the most-decorated artist with 32 Grammys, beating the late classical conductor Sir Georg Solti who previously held the record with 31 Grammys.

See Beyoncé’s celebratory post below.

Country star Zach Bryan is now at the center of serious allegations from his former girlfriend, podcast host and internet personality Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia.

In a Nov. 8 episode of the BFFs Podcast LaPaglia co-hosts with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards, she made a series of bombshell claims, including accusing Bryan of “emotional abuse” during their relationship and claiming she was offered $12 million and a New York apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which she refused.

“The last year of my life has been like the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” LaPaglia said on the podcast episode. “I’m still scared right now because I’m scared of him. My brain’s rewired, and I’m scared to make him mad.”

LaPaglia described a tumultuous relationship marked by fear and control. “There was always another excuse as to why he was treating me so poorly and why I’m crying myself to sleep every night, why he’s screaming at me,” she recounted. “And then you wake up, it’s the apology, it’s the ‘I’m going to be better, I need you in my life.’”

She alleged that Bryan made his previous girlfriends sign NDAs to prevent them from discussing their experiences publicly. “He made the women before me believe that they had no other choice than to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away,” she claimed.

According to LaPaglia, after their breakup, she was approached by Bryan’s team with a significant financial offer in exchange for her silence.

“I was offered a lot of money, like a big lump sum of money and a few options,” she explained. “Basically, I would have gotten the money over the course of three years. I would have had to sign all of my experiences, everything that I am, away to this person. They would have been monitoring everything that I do.”

She firmly rejected the offer, stating, “I did not accept any money. I will not accept any money. I think that’s beneath me. I don’t think you can pay people off that you hurt for them to protect you. I think that in itself, offering millions of dollars to this apparent beautiful relationship to keep it a secret, speaks volumes.”

LaPaglia explained her desire to support others who may be facing similar situations. “This isn’t about drama for me,” she said. “This is for anyone else that’s been emotionally abused and for people right now being emotionally abused. It’s for people that don’t have a support system that I luckily had going through this.”

She recounted specific incidents during their relationship, including one at the Golden Globes. LaPaglia claimed Bryan “ruined” her experience because he disapproved of her dress. “That was f—– crazy. That was the first time he had really tried to control what I wore and what I posted,” she recalled. “So I went to the Golden Globes and I posted like a carousel of pictures, and he didn’t like my dress.”

“He said he didn’t want to date someone that presents themselves that way. And he unfollowed me, he unfollowed everyone, and I… when I flew home — I flew home after the Golden Globes. He ruined my night,” continued LaPaglia.

“Everything good, anything good I did for me, he made sure to ruin it for me. He ruined my birthday, he ruined my tour, he ruined the Golden Globes. Anything Brianna did for Brianna, he had to ruin it.”

LaPaglia also described an alleged incident on her birthday, where Bryan reportedly berated her friends after she had gone to bed. “I look outside and I have my aunt trying to control Zach — there’s a recording of all of this that can never be out — basically Zach stood up at the fire and he just starts screaming at my friends.”

“He stood up at the fire and just starts screaming at my friends, ‘You’re not going to be anything, you’re a [expletive] loser.’ Just the most horrible [expletive],” she explained, adding that Bryan smashed glass. “It was just crazy, completely out of nowhere, and I’m like, ‘What the [expletive]?’ But when Zach gets in that zone, there’s no containing it.”

In another instance, LaPaglia claimed Bryan had smashed her phone, saying to her co-hosts, “Oh, Look at my phone, it’s smashed from him, he’s always smashed my phone,” adding that he “will whip it at a wall.”

She also alleged that Bryan attempted to control her professional life. “He offered to double what [Barstool Sports] offered me so that I would quit,” she said. “He just didn’t want me to do it and he always made it—he twisted it in my head where he would make me be like, ‘You’re better than this, you’re better than Barstool, you’re destined for so much more.’”

LaPaglia shared that she felt isolated and lost during the relationship, which was made public in July 2023. They dated for over a year before he confirmed their split in October.

“I lost myself throughout this whole relationship,” she admitted. “I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I lost 15 pounds I didn’t have to lose in the relationship. I didn’t sleep. I was completely isolated from my family, from my friends, from work.”

Billboard has reached out to Zach Bryan’s representatives for comment but has not received a response as of publication.

It comes after co-hosts Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards released a diss track aimed at Zach Bryan. The track, which mocked Bryan and referenced the allegations, reportedly faced multiple takedown attempts.

“We knew it was a hit the second we laid it down,” Richards said on the podcast. Portnoy added, “We got crybaby Bryan and the spineless PR team running around deleting [expletive] off the internet, and guess what, it’s still getting millions of views.”

Portnoy claimed that Bryan’s team attempted to suppress the diss track through legal means. “They’re trying to squeeze Bri because of Josh and me,” he said. “We have nothing to do with it. Either pay her or shut the [expletive] up. I’m losing patience.”

The diss track was eventually removed from several platforms, allegedly due to takedown requests from Bryan’s team. “Their crisis management—why he cares so much—is, I guess, what we’ll get into now,” Portnoy commented.

LaPaglia expressed that sharing her story was important not just for herself but for others in similar situations: “That’s why I didn’t take the money. The message I want to put out there is that so many people go through this, feeling trapped or thinking they’ll never be able to leave.”

She added later, “I hope people can understand what I went through this past year and see why I lost myself and wasn’t who I was before him. But I’m back now, and I’m so happy to just be myself again. No more dictatorship here.”

Just a day before the allegations emerged, Bryan shared his latest single, “This World’s a Giant,” with a a candid Instagram post, where he revealed his plans to pause touring to pursue a master’s degree in Paris.

“After not being home for a year and a half, I drove out to my mother’s gravestone in the dead of night… and I came to realize just like in the past, that she never would call me again,” he wrote, sharing a series of images of his late mother, Annette, and his bandmates.

Bryan continued, “I told her I quit touring because I got accepted to get my masters in Paris next year… I told her about all my best friends in New York and all the nights we howled with the moon… [and] about making it on The Rolling Stone.”

He expressed gratitude to fans, adding, “Thank you guys for listening to ‘This World’s a Giant’ last night, and thank you to all the people who love me; who have truly carried the weight with me… I’m home now and I’ll hold you through the pain.”

You can watch the full episode here.