Britney Spears isn’t afraid to share her obsessions. On Tuesday (Oct. 15) the “Toxic” singer posted a lengthy tribute to her favorite women on Instagram Stories, reeling off a long list of famous singers, actresses and models who she is obsessed with.

“Women I genuinely admire and have crazy girl crushes on 😘😘😘!!!” she wrote. “I have girlfriends I hang out with every now and then but it’s not the same as when we were younger !!! But why isn’t it ??? I wanted to share the women who inspire me !!!” Sure, there are friends she grew up with who she was so close to they finished each other’s sentences and even began to speak, walk and share mannerisms with.

But eventually you “get married and you grow up an live worlds apart,” she said. So, Brit ran through a list of women who inspire her now. First up was former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, who she said is a “classic babe and seems so sweet!!!”

She also had kind words for Vox Lux star Natalie Portman, who she called the “coolest person,” recalling meeting the star on a New York street and realizing they had the same shirt on. She also gave props to “I Luv It” singer Camila Cabello, “because she’s so darn pretty and she makes me giggle out loud !!! Her personality is so sweet and kooky I think it’s healthy to be silly !!! I wish I was more like that.”

Britney then wondered if it’s “even normal to be that pretty ???” in reference to model Kendall Jenner and wrapped things up with shout outs to Selena Gomez and Drew Barrymore, just because they’re “literally gorgeous”; both women were on hand for Spears’ 2022 wedding to now ex-husband Sam Ashgari. In the end, Spears admitted that even she wasn’t sure why she committed all that to digital ink before wrapping up with a tease of what’s next.

“I’m away writing my novel and learning about myself,” said Spears, who penned two books with her mother, Lynne Spears, 2000’s Heart to Heart and 2001’s A Mother’s Gift, before releasing her 2023 tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me. At press time no additional information was available about the book from the singer who said in January that she will “never return to the music industry.”

In the liner notes for her 2017 self-titled debut LP, Welsh electronic producer Kelly Lee Owens includes a quote by German author and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Released when she was 28-years-old following a stint working in London’s record shops and as an auxiliary nurse in palliative care, Kelly Lee Owens was a culmination of years of absorbing music and beauty on her journey thus far. The dream to create and produce her own music, something she’d harbored since she was a child, eventually became a reality.

On her fourth album, Dreamstate, Owens is still thinking big. The new record, due out on Friday (Oct. 18), sees her collaborate with dance royalty The Chemical Brothers, as well as one of the biggest names on the circuit, Northern Irish techno duo Bicep.

She’s also newly signed to Dirty Hit – home to The 1975, Bleachers and Beabadoobee – and their dance music-focused imprint DH2 to be their inaugural release. The imprint was set up by The 1975 drummer George Daniel and Dirty Hit general manager Ed Blow; Daniel also appears on the record in a producer role.

“This feels like the beginning of a new phase,” Owens tells Billboard of the move from Norwegian indie label Smalltown Supersound to DH2. “A new team felt right. I’m grateful for the past and the present, but I’m excited about the future because I really do believe that DH2 is really going to show the world some great dance music.”

Where Owens’ previous work was a sparse, sometimes experimental take on techno, house and pop, Dreamstate is more euphoric and maximalist. Lead single “Love You Got” is as radio-friendly as her material has ever been, pairing classic songwriting with pounding drums and synths. “Ballad (The End),” co-written with The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands, includes a string arrangement by Owens and builds to an emotional crescendo. These were new avenues to explore.

2020’s Inner Song, which reached No.30 on the UK’s Dance Charts, showed hints of this direction. But 2022’s LP.8, a knotty, left field collection, put paid to that clean upward trajectory.

Even so, the collection and her previous work caught the ear of Depeche Mode, who enlisted Owens to join them as a support act on the road for their mammoth Memento Mori tour. She speaks of the awe of opening the band’s shows in US arenas and Mexico City’s Foro Sol stadium, where the Mode headlined to 195,000 fans over three sold-out nights.

“Without knowing it at the time, they really instilled confidence in me,” she says of the selection. The band’s songwriter and keyboardist Martin Gore also gave crucial feedback on Dreamstate during its formation. As did Xavier de Rosnay of French electro duo Justice, who Owens met a decade ago while she was still bassist in the indie band The History of Apple Pie.

The conviction dovetailed with Owens’ role as executive producer on Dreamstate, a new challenge which included recruiting collaborators far and wide but retaining a singular vision. She points to her heroes Björk and Kate Bush as artists who have done so successfully. “It was something that at this point in my career I felt that I wanted and, more than that, needed,” she says. “Initially I thought that that would mean letting go of control more, but when you create with different people across different songs on an album, you have to be surer than ever of your vision.”

Owens was born in rural north Wales and says that Dreamstate taps into some of those formative experiences growing up, even when the creative industries, or simply just taking time to dream and reflect, can feel out of reach particularly for working class artists. “There is no separation between my personal life and what I do music and it’s an all-encompassing thing,” she says. “There’s a lot of sacrifice which a lot of people who don’t do this [career] don’t want to hear about.”

She moved to London and began working in record shops including Sister Ray in Soho and Pure Groove in Archway. There she met future collaborators, DJs Daniel Avery and James Greenwood, and began writing and recording her solo material. It has been a story that has stepping stones, gradual increments rather than overambitious leaps. Now she’s at a point in her life where the monumental achievements – she played Glastonbury Festival for the first time in June – mean even more to her.

“I actually didn’t want to be a big, massive, first album success because I watched a lot of my friends or people around me do that and found that they had nowhere to go,” she says. “I want to encourage artists to know that in your 30s you can be reaching a place with your inner confidence. You’ll get those absolutely epic firsts and you know you deserve to be there.”

Another first came through Charli XCX – who is engaged to Owens’ collaborator and label boss Daniel – when she hosted her Boiler Room party in Ibiza, and selected Owens to appear on the bill at Amnesia, her first time performing at the Balearic superclub. She joined a stacked bill including Charli, Shygirl, Robyn, Romy from The xx and more.

She’s a fan of Charli’s Brat and loves that the lines between pop chart hits and the club remain blurred. “We have so many sides to ourselves and as an artist, you need to be free to explore all of it as long as it’s genuinely authentic to you people will feel that,” she says.

Dreamstate is precisely that; all it took, as Goethe wrote, was Owens to be bold enough to begin it.

It was an emotional Billboard Latin Power Players event, with executive of the year George Prajin and his star artist, Peso Pluma, both delivering heart-felt messages that touched upon resilience, friendship and belief against all odds.

“I love you like a father George,” said Peso Pluma, who surprised Prajin at the Power Player celebration at Casadonna in Miami to give him his award.

“The talent and sacrifice that we put in is one thing, and all the doors that you have opened for us, and all the things that you have done so that we can have an opportunity to show ourselves as greats before other exponents of music and the industry, have been very important not only for me and for you as a person, but for an entire country, an entire generation,” he said.

Prajin, a Latin music veteran who began his career working at his father’s one-stop distribution company in Los Angeles and now not only manages Peso Pluma but also is a partner in his Double P Records as well as heading Prajin Parlay, was visibly emotional when he picked up his award.

“I realized dreams that I never thought I would realize,” he said. “And I stand today because of you,” he added, pointing to Peso Pluma. “And I share this award with you. We’re doing this together.  Regional Mexican has always been a genre that’s been one of the most profitable genres but often overlooked. And I’m very proud to be receiving this award on behalf of the genre.”

Prajin went on to thank numerous people, including his roster of artists (including Tito Double P and Jasiel), his staff (including publicists Elina Adut) and other music industry executives and companies, including Jimmy Humilde, Richard Bull, Jason Pascal of The Orchard and Del Records, who released early hit “Ella Baila Sola” alongside Eslabón Armado.  

While Prajin was the centerpiece of the celebration, the evening also honored, for the first time, the main label and publishing winners of the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards. Sony Music Latin president Alex Gallardo picked up the award for Top Latin albums label of the year, home to Shakira, Marc Anthony and Manuel Turizo, among many others. The label also wins Latin airplay label of the year; Tropical airplay and albums label of the year; Latin pop airplay label of the year; regional Mexican albums label of the year and Latin rhythm airplay label of the year.

Hot Latin songs label of the year went to Interscope Capitol Labels Group, with hits by Xavi, Ivan Cornejo and Karol G, and was picked up by Nir Seroussi and fellow power players José Cedeño and Manny Prado.

Publishing Corporation of the year went to Sony Music Publishing, home to Keityn, Shakira and Edgar Barrera, and was picked up by CEO Jorge Mejía.

In addition, the Choice award went to Rebeca León of Lionfish Entertainment and RImas Entertainment was honored with a special 10 year impact award accepted by founder and CEO Noah Assad along with co-founder Junior Carabaño and Raymond Contreras, head of Rimas’ management arm, Habibi, and Rimas Entertainment CEO Jorge Bracero.

On Tuesday night (Oct. 15), Fat Joe and Too Short sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 BET Hip Hop Awards to discuss a bevy of pressing issues ahead of this year’s upcoming election.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there that would suggest to people that their vote doesn’t matter,” said Harris when asked about why voting matters more than ever. “As far as I’m concerned, you should never let anybody silence you because when you vote, you actually have the ability to determine the future of our country.”

Harris also expressed her concerns about spreading misinformation and its detrimental effect on this year’s election. “When you tell people that they can’t trust the system, what are they likely to do? Not participate,” she said. “That’s why I always say don’t ever let anybody take you out of the game. That’s the first step toward never being able to make a difference.”

She didn’t mince words and spoke on the consequences that would follow a potential Trump win, and how Project 2025 would decimate middle-class citizens.

“They came up with a plan for Donald Trump if he wins again,” she said. “So, I encourage everybody to Google it. It’s an 800-, 900-page document. They published it [and] gave it out. It would do things like eliminate overtime pay. It would get rid of the Department of Education, including Head Start. It would do the work of trying to destroy our democracy and really work against middle-class folks. So this is a man who’ll posture like, ‘Hey, support me because I’m tough and strong,’ but he’s weak.”