Hear Broadway’s Jessica Vosk Debut a ‘Beaches’ Fan Favorite: ‘Let’s Give the People What They Want!’

Like so many others, Jessica Vosk first encountered Bette Midler when, as a teen, she saw the 1988 movie Beaches. In the musical comedy about the friendship between two women who meet as girls in Atlantic City, Midler memorably played Cee Cee, a brash New Yorker who pursues a career as a singer, and in the movie memorably sings the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “The Wind Beneath My Wings.”

“I just thought: ‘Wow. This woman is electric and brave and unapologetic. I want to be like her,’” Vosk tells Billboard. Over the years following, as Vosk carved out her own career in musical theater — going on to become one of the most beloved actors to play Elphaba in Wicked, among many other Broadway roles — it “became even more clear to me that [Bette’s] was a once-in-a-lifetime talent. I wanted to work as hard as I could to someday even be in the same orbit as her.”

With her current turn as Cee Cee in the Broadway adaptation of Beaches (based on the book that inspired the movie), Vosk is realizing that dream eight times a week. But there’s one song in the movie that she doesn’t sing onstage each night: “Otto Titsling,” a humorous ode to, well, a certain feminine asset that Midler co-wrote with Jerry Blatt, Charlene Seeger and the movie’s musical supervisor and Midler’s own longtime pianist and collaborator (and future Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner), composer Marc Shaiman.

Kelli Barrett (left) as Bertie and Jessica Vosk as Cee Cee in ‘Beaches’ on Broadway. (Photo credit: Marc J Franklin)

“I must get 20 questions a day asking if I’ll ever cover it,” Vosk says of “Otto” (the Broadway Beaches has original music by Mike Stoller, of the famed songwriting team Lieber & Stoller). “So I figured, ‘Let’s give the people what they want!’” She recorded the track with Shaiman himself and today premieres the fan favorite exclusively with Billboard.

Shaiman shared behind-the-scenes Beaches memories with Vosk, including how, with “Otto,” he was tasked to write a song that would feel “overdone, very hysterical and off-kilter … and of course I was more than game to do that!” (She also got to see his Beaches platinum record up close.)

For Vosk, the recording is both a gift to fans and another way for her to leave her personal stamp on the role of Cee Cee. “When I stepped into Wicked to play Elphaba, it was an amazing learning experience to tackle something that has been performed onstage so iconically for so long. Beaches being new to Broadway is a whole new ballgame for me, getting the chance to create something,” Vosk says. “I wanted to originate this role because I believe so much in Cee Cee’s humanity and how she gets there. I relate to her hustle, determination and grit. And I am in love with her heart.”

Hear Vosk’s rendition of “Otto Titsling,” accompanied by Shaiman, here.

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MusicNSW Unveils Inaugural Ambassadors

SYDNEY, Australia — Six the best independent artists from the state of New South Wales take their places in MusicNSW’s inaugural Ambassador Program.

Alex The Astronaut, Jamaica Moana, Jannah Beth, SPEED’s Jem Siow, Velvet Trip’s Zeppelin Hamilton and The Buoys’ Zoe Catterall are the first cohort, announced Friday, May 1.

“Each of the artists joining us as ambassadors are already so embedded as role models within the NSW music ecosystem – shaping what independent music scenes can look like, leading through their actions and bringing their communities with them,” says MusicNSW managing director Joe Muller.

Representing a broad range of genres, communities and regions, each ambassador has chosen to lend their voice to the work of the state’s trade body for contemporary music.

The ambassadors “don’t just make incredible music, they are each active in building a music culture that supports those around them to do the same,” Muller adds. “We are honored to stand alongside them as we continue to shape our work as an organisation, in service of a NSW music ecosystem where artists can grow sustainable careers, communities are connected and supported, and music culture is properly valued – with the wellbeing of artists at the center.”

The ambassadors program is announced as MusicNSW launches a new brand and unveils a new website, which is intended to help and connect artists and industry workers in their pursuit of skills, opportunities and more. This includes a NSW music industry directory, tools for finding grants, opportunities and jobs in music, and a dedicated resource library for artists. New programs for NSW artists right across the state will be announced in the coming weeks, reps say.

The not-for-profit organization was established in 1998. One of its biggest wins came in 2023, when its team led the non-partisan Vote Music campaign, calling on government to invest A$100 million in the contemporary music sector in New South Wales. The NSW Labor Government responded with a A$103 million commitment, establishing Sound NSW, a 10-year Contemporary Music Strategy, and unprecedented sector investment across four years.

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KATSEYE Sets One-Off Performance In Australia

KATSEYE isn’t coming all the way to Australia just to talk; the two-time Grammy nominated global girl group will also deliver a one-off performance next Friday, May 8, at Melbourne’s Festival Hall.

As previously reported, KATSEYE will make its first trip to these parts for a trip that, until now, was anchored on an exclusive fan Q&A experience in Sydney on May 6. The winner of the competition receives flights, accommodation and a double pass to the Q&A, while 29 runners-up will receive a double pass for the session.

The pop act’s itinerary just got bigger, with a one-off Australia show presented by Visit Victoria’s “Melbourne. Every bit different” campaign in collaboration with American Express, Live Nation, HYBE and Geffen.

Universal Music Australia is behind the contest and the concert, a 30-minute pop-up performance. American Express Centurion and Platinum Card Members can access a select number of priority tickets for the show via the Amex Experiences App from Wednesday, May 6.

KATSEYE is hot right now, thanks to the release of their Billboard Hot 100 hit single “Pinky Up,” and their eye-catching performances at Coachella. Since then, the group has been added to the line-up of performers for the 52nd American Music Awards, on a night where they have nominations in three categories — new artist of the year, best music video for “Gnarly” and breakthrough pop artist. The AMAs are set for Monday, May 25 in Las Vegas.

A new KATSEYE EP, WILD, is due out Aug. 14 via HYBE x Geffen Records. It’s the followup to 2025’s Beautiful Chaos, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and features Billboard Hot 100 hits “Gnarly” and “Gabriela.” In Australia, “Gabriela,” “Touch” and “Gnarly” are all certified platinum, while “Debut” and “Gameboy” are certified gold.

The girl group is currently a five-piece (Daniela, Lara, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae) while bandmate Manon is on a temporary hiatus.

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Noah Kahan’s ‘The Great Divide’ Debuts at No. 1 In Australia

Noah Kahan brings a nation together as The Great Divide opens its account at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart.

The Great Divide is Kahan’s fourth studio collection, and second consecutive leader in Australia after Stick Season logged three weeks atop the chart in early 2024.  

The American singer and songwriter will reward his loyal Australian fans when his The Great Divide Tour stops by Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena and Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena for eight total concerts this September and October.

Foo Fighters enjoy another stint on the podium as Your Favorite Toy unwraps its debut ARIA Chart position at No. 3. The Foos have landed all 12 of their studio albums in the ARIA Top 10, with eight going all the way to No. 1: One By One (in 2002), In Your Honor (2005), Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), Wasting Light (2011), Sonic Highways (2014), Concrete And Gold (2017), Medicine At Midnight (2021) and their last record, But Here We Are (2023). The Rock Hall-inducted band also led the list in 2009 with Greatest Hits.

Homegrown metal merchants The Amity Affliction enjoy a No. 4 start with House of Cards, their ninth studio album. It’s the eighth straight top 10 appearance from the Gympie, Queensland rockers, after Youngbloods (No. 6 in 2010), Chasing Ghosts (No. 1 in 2012), Let The Ocean Take Me (No. 1 in 2014), This Could Be The Heartbreak (No. 1 in 2016), Misery (No. 1 in 2018), Everyone Loves You…Once You Leave Them (No. 2 in 2020) and Not Without My Ghost (No. 2 in 2023).

Also new to the latest frame, published Friday, May 1, is the soundtrack from the new Michael Jackson biopic, which moonwalks its way to No. 17. Michael: Songs From The Motion Picture is the late king of pop’s 24th solo appearance on the ARIA Top 50, the trade body reports, stretching back to 1973’s Music And Me. That tally includes chart leaders Off The Wall (from 1979), Thriller (1983), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book I (1995), Invincible (2001) and The Essential Michael Jackson (2005).

Kehlani is close behind with her self-titled effort, new at No. 18, while new releases from Masayoshi Takanaka (Takanaka Super Live 2025 Black Ship in L.A. at No. 22), Ruby Fields (Small Achievements at No. 29), Nessa Barrett (Jesus Loves a Primadonna at No. 41) and Pink Floyd (Live From The Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975 at No. 43) impact the top 50.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Olivia Dean and Sam Fender’s “Rein Me In” enters a third non-consecutive week at No. 1, ahead of her former leader “Man I Need” (holding at No. 2) and Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” up 8-3 for a new peak position.

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Olivia Rodrigo’s New Album Has ‘Multiple Songs’ Inspired by Miranda and Steve from ‘Sex And The City

If you thought Olivia Rodrigo‘s next album would be stacked with love songs, wrapped in emotions raked from both ends of the spectrum, some of which are inspired by HBO’s Sex And The City, then you’d be right.

The pop phenomenon stopped by NBC’s The Tonight Show on Thursday night, May 30, where she spilled the beans on her forthcoming album, tour and Saturday Night Live gig.

“I knew that I wanted this record to be about romantic love in more of a positive sense,” she says of You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, due out June 12 via Geffen Records. That’s considering her last two were “heartbroken and angsty,” in her own words. Expected love songs, “injected with a little bit of sadness and longing. And melancholy, because all my favorite love songs have that.” Those faves, she tells Jimmy Kimmel, include “Love Song” by the Cure, and “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey.

“Multiple songs” from her forthcoming album, she also reveals, are inspired by the complex relationship of lawyer Miranda Hobbes and former bartender Steve Brady, two central characters from Sex And The City. “It’s my favorite show,” she enthuses. “I think I watched every single episode maybe three times.”

It’s worth pointing out that Sex and the City concluded after six seasons on Feb. 22, 2004, a year to the month after Rodrigo was born.

Rodrigo’s new album is led by “Drop Dead,” which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking her fourth title to debut in the top spot. “The song is basically about an awesome first date,” she explains. “It’s the first step in the journey of You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl. The journey definitely like ebbs and flows. It goes in lots of different places from here, but this is the first chapter.”

Rodrigo will sing “Drop Dead” and a brand new one, when she appears on Saturday Night Live this weekend as both host and musical guest.

“It’s always been a huge dream of mine,” to pull double duty on SNL, she explained. If she has nerves, she’s not showing it. And she does have a lucky charm, a gift from Jack White, which he planted in her dressing room.

The 23-year-old pop star will support her next release with the Unraveled Tour, which currently stands at 65 arena date across North America, Europe and the U.K. this fall and winter beginning with a Sept. 25 show at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn. “I’ve been working so hard on it,” she says during her latest late-night interview. “I’m so stoked to play these songs live.”

With You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, she resisted the temptation of going with another four letter word after Sour (from 2021) and Guts (2023), both of which logged time at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. “I always knew if wasn’t going to be four letters.” She wanted to “break out,” and “didn’t want to be stuck in it,” she tells Fallon.

Watch Rodrigo’s appearance on late-night TV below.

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Zara Larsson Previews ‘Midnight Sun’ Remix Album ‘Girls Trip’ at Intimate Listening Party

Summer is never truly over — just ask Zara Larsson.

On the heels of her breakthrough artist win at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music Awards on Wednesday (April 29), the Swedish pop star kept the celebrations going with a special listening party for her remix album Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, on Thursday (April 30). Hosted by iHeartRadio and aired live on TikTok and radio stations around the country from the 450-seat iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles, the Girls Trip album preview gave Larsson’s biggest fans the opportunity to hear a sneak peek of the remix album hours before its release.

Larsson opened the night with an acoustic performance of her Hot 100 hit “Midnight Sun” before sitting down for a Q&A with iHeartRadio host EJ. The singer shared why she decided to expand what she called the “Midnight Sun universe.”

“I think music and culture in this day and age, it moves quickly, but I’m definitely not ready to move on from Midnight Sun, for a little while at least,” Larsson said. “And I just thought, have fun. It’ll be so fun.”

The singer also shared who inspired her to take on this venture.

“People have been doing it for a long time, but I was really inspired by [Charli xcx]. I was really inspired by [PinkPantheress],” she shared. “Even though a song is out, you can still have so many different worlds and sounds around the song. If a song is good enough, it can kind of be anything.”

Girls Trip features ten remixed versions of songs from the original Midnight Sun, with features from an incredible slate of women artists. Fans in attendance at the preview, watching live on TikTok or listening from the iHeartRadio app got to hear five of the songs in full.

Before each track, Larsson spoke about how the remix came to be, its sound and the person she tapped for the feature.

The first remix of the night was “Crush” featuring Eli. Larsson then played “Blue Moon” featuring Kehlani, an artist who she shared she was a fan of for a long time. Next up was “Hot & Sexy” with Tyla, the second of the duo’s collaborations following “She Did It Again” which came out earlier this month. “Hot & Sexy” was followed by “Pretty Ugly” with JT and Margo XS, a remix Larsson admitted she preferred over the original. Then came “Eurosummer” with Shakira, who Larsson shared she has loved since childhood.

“This is legendary status going on right here because [Girls Trip] was like a little bit the talk of the town — I mean at least in the small industry of music that I’m in,” Larsson said. “And one day I got a call, it was my A&R, and he was like, ‘Shakira heard about this project and she really likes ‘Eurosummer.” And I was like, ‘let’s go.’”

The final remix fans got to hear was a crossing of Swedish pop icons: “Puss Puss” with compatriot Robyn.

“This is my Swedish icon, legend Robyn. Who else would be on this song?” Larsson said as the track began.

In between songs, Larsson also took time to answer fan questions from the audience, viewers on TikTok and radio listeners. Many of the questions were appropriately trip-themed and the singer shared her preferred ways to take a girls trip, including being both driver and DJ.

“I think the music is quite important,” Larsson said of what makes for a perfect girls trip. “The girls trip starts when you get in the car, or on the train, or on the way to the airport.”

The Girls Trip experience ended with a celebration of Larsson’s 2015 Hot 100 track “Lush Life,” which has been gifted new life online thanks to a viral dance trend. The singer invited those fans who knew the choreography to join her on stage as they danced the evening to a close.

Midnight Sun: Girls Trip is out now. Stream it below.

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The Black Keys’ Peel Off ‘Peaches!’: Stream It Now

The Black Keys peel back the lid on Peaches!, the Grammy Award-winning rock duo’s fresh dose of blues.

Dropping at the stroke of midnight, Peaches! (via Easy Eye Sound/Warner Records) is the Akron, OH natives’ 14th studio album, and third in as many years.

The 10-track project emerged following frontman Dan Auerbach’s late father’s battle with esophageal cancer, which was diagnosed while he was staying at Dan’s Nashville pad. Bandmate and bestie Patrick Carney had the bright idea “that it would be good for Dan to have something to do,” something to lift his spirits while Dan’s dad’s health spiraled.

The studio beckoned, and Peaches grew. Its songs are said to reflect Dan and Patrick’s obsessive record-collecting habit, which they flaunt at their intimate Record Hang, all-vinyl parties. “I’d look for 45s specifically to play at the record hangs,” Auerbach explains, “but sometimes I’d find a song and think, ‘This might be fun for Pat and me to play live.’”

In support of the new collection, Auerbach and Carney share the official music video for album track “She Does It Right,” featuring a performance outside of Memphis’s Hernando’s Hideaway, directed by EJ McLeavey-Fisher and celebrated animator Kyle McCarthy.

The Black Keys are currently road-testing new material on their Peaches ‘N Kream World Tour ‘26, along with renditions of early favorites “Busted” and “Do The Romp,” plus classic hits “Gold On the Ceiling,” “Lonely Boy,” and “Howlin’ For You.”

The tour continues through October with stops along the way in New York, Chicago, Nashville, Paris, Milan and London, where the band has added a third headline show “due to demand,” on Sept. 2, reps say. The support acts for the ongoing tour are all signed to Dan Auerbach’s own Easy Eye Sound record label.

Peaches! is the followup to 2025’s No Rain, No Flowers, which peaked at No. 52 on the Billboard 200, their 14th appearance on the all-genres albums chart, a tally that includes a No. 1 with 2014’s Turn Blue.

Stream Peaches! below.

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Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter, Kacey Musgraves, Zara Larsson & More: New Music Friday Guide

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

Last week, we featured Noah Kahan, Kehlani and Suki Waterhouse.

This week, Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter release “Bring Your Love,” which the pair previewed at Coachella weekend two; Kacey Musgraves releases her anticipated album Middle of Nowhere; and Sienna Spiro appears on the star-studded Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack, which is out now… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love”

After live-debuting this alluring and hypnotic dance-pop track during Sabrina’s weekend two Coachella headlining set — during which Madonna was a surprise guest, treating the audience to a bonus 10-minute set that also included “Vogue” and “Like a Prayer” — their collaboration “Bring Your Love” is finally out. The song is sure to is start summer early, as it’s essentially sonic bait to lure listeners out of the house and onto the nearest dance floor. And this is just the beginning; Madonna’s upcoming album, Confessions II, is out July 3.

Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere

Kacey Musgraves has said her new album was largely inspired by the Mexican community, which you can hear across its tracks — including the buzzy “Horses and Divorces.” The duet made headlines long before it arrived thanks to its unexpected feature from country icon Miranda Lambert. As Musgraves told NPR earlier this year: “We’d lost touch for years and wouldn’t consider each other friends. I saw her on Instagram one day, riding one of her horses, and I was like, ‘Well, we ain’t friends, but I guess we have two things in common, horses and divorces, that’s for sure…I just randomly reached out to her…We aired out any of the old laundry. We had some laughs and wrote the song in a matter of a few hours.”

Sienna Spiro, “Material Lover”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack features just a few original songs, including one from Sienna Spiro — which puts her in the company of superstars like Lady Gaga, Doechii. And while “Material Lover” (produced by Omer Fedi) is a title tailor-made for the film, the track stands entirely on its own as Spiro delivers her now signature warmth while singing about wanting the “real thing.”

Zara Larsson, Midnight Sun: Girls Trip

Zara Larsson’s collaborations album, Girls Trip, has arrived — and it delivers on that title. Released as a disc two to her 2025 album Midnight Sun, this girl-powered new edition features 10 fresh takes on the original 10 tracks. With a roster of guests including PinkPantheress, Shakira, Robyn and more, Girls Trip takes an already poptastic album to the next level.

Bella Poarch, “Ribcage”

Opening with a gorgeous string section, “Ribcage” quickly takes a turn toward alternative pop as Bella Poarch sings of watching her thoughts “turn to dust and decompose.” As Poarch said in a statement, “Ribcage” is about “the parts of yourself you try to protect and the parts that still feel everything. Writing this song helped me process a lot of emotions I didn’t fully understand before. It’s a very honest piece of me, and it felt like the right way to begin this new chapter.” The haunting track previews more new music to come.

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Guns N’ Roses World Tour 2026 Setlist: Every Song Played At First Show

Guns N’ Roses returned to the stage on Thursday night (April 30), putting on a career-spanning show that was as comprehensive as it was satisfying to some of the most hardcore fans that showed up to celebrate the group’s 40-plus-year career.

After a global 2025 tour that took the iconic rock band from Korea to Mexico, they kicked off their 2026 dates at the Hard Rock Live club in Hollywood, California, playing to a crowd that was raucous and eager to see the group play the States for the first time in three years, since the fall of 2023 tour wrapped with two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

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And the group came out on fire, running through a quick opening run of songs from their game-changing 1987 album Appetite For Destruction — the project that launched them into superstardom — before going deeper into their catalog, playing both lesser-known cuts and some newer tracks, including more brand-new songs like “The General” and “Perhaps.” But it was the old stalwarts — show opener “Welcome to the Jungle” and show closer “Paradise City” among them — that got fans truly rocking and off their feet, while lead guitarist Slash showed off the chops that have made him rightfully considered one of the greatest players who has ever picked up the instrument.

While the band gears up for the rest of their tour — so far, they have two more dates in Florida in May, before more fully hitting the road in July — their tune-up ahead of F1 Miami this weekend in south Florida proved to be a mesmerizing one for their legions of fans who have been there from the beginning. Here is the set list from that first show of their 2026 run.

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Kacey Musgraves Finds Herself In The ‘Middle of Nowhere’: Stream It Now

Kacey Musgraves returns with her new album, Middle of Nowhere.

Across a baker’s dozen collection of tracks, Musgraves explores the range of emotions that come with post-breakup solitude and finding oneself embracing a solitary life stage.

“This album period coincided with me getting more comfortable being alone,” Musgraves recently told Texas Monthly, adding, “not as isolation, but as sovereignty.”

The album also nods to traditional Western music styles, and weaves in Mexican music elements as well, paying homage to its long-reaching influence on and connection to country music. Throughout, the album features washes of accordion, acoustic guitar and pedal steel, while embracing Texas dancehall percussion.

She also teams with artists including Willie Nelson (“Uncertain, TX”), Miranda Lambert (“Horses & Divorces”), Billy Strings (“Everybody Wants to Be a Cowboy”) and Gregory Alan Isakov (“Coyote”).

The new album is the successor to 2024’s Deeper Well, which was her fifth to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Deeper Well‘s song “The Architect” also won a Grammy for best country song.

As she releases Middle of Nowhere, Musgraves is also gearing up for her Middle of Nowhere Tour later this year. The trek will launch Aug. 21 in Chicago, and will wrap Oct. 27 in Seattle. The tour will feature openers including Carter Faith, Midland and William Beckmann.

Musgraves also recently performed a set during Coachella, and debuted music from the new album, which Musgraves produced alongside her longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk.

She will also perform during the 61st annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which will air live on Prime Video on May 17.

Stream Musgraves’ new album below:

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