This summer, singer-songwriter Yeison Jimenez achieved his lifelong dream of selling out the coveted Movistar Arena in Bogotá, Colombia — not once, but three times, with more than 40,000 collective fans attending the shows. The feat was not only historic for Jimenez, but for any música popular (regional Colombian) artist. “No one in the genre has been able to [sell out] a solo arena throughout Colombia,” he says.

Música popular — which fuses ranchera and the string music known as carrilera in Colombia — was born more than five decades ago in the country’s coffee region, which has four departments: Caldas (where Jimenez was born), Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima. Initially known as música de carrilera or música de cantina, its inspiration derived from regional Mexican music and first gained traction in small towns and local bars with the help of genre pioneers including Darío Gómez, Luis Alberto Posada and El Charrito Negro.

As Jimenez tells it, música popular traces back to Gómez in particular. The former notes that when the latter arrived at radio stations with the newborn fusion in the ’70s, they told him he was crazy.

“This is not like vallenato, which is something authentically ours — we did not invent this,” música popular singer Pipe Bueno says. “We are a subgenre that comes from Mexico but with our essence and our flavor. The fact that we are Colombian gives it a different color.”

Lyrically, a regional Colombian song will often focus on despecho (heartbreak) or rejoicing in good times. Sonically, the arrangements can mirror the instrumentation of mariachi and ranchera music, such as trumpets, violins and the guitarrón (six-string acoustic bass), blended with the accordion, commonly used in vallenato.

As part of the new wave, Bueno and Jimenez — alongside artists including Paola Jara, Luis Alfonso, Jessi Uribe and Arelys Henao — have not only given the genre a modern twist but also propelled it to an international scale. Jimenez first reached Billboard’s Latin Airplay and Regional Mexican Airplay charts with “Tu Amante” in 2021, and he’s now touring nightclubs and theaters across the United States. Bueno, who entered the Latin Digital Song Sales and Latin Rhythm Airplay charts with his 2014 song “La Invitación” (featuring Maluma), has since collaborated with Grupo Firme and inked a deal with Warner Music Latina earlier this year.

“We are an aspirational genre,” Bueno says. “We have been at the top of the streaming charts alongside Peso Pluma. We are filling arenas. It wasn’t like this [when I started my career].”

“When we came into the game, we wanted to make music that would reach other countries and, above all, other generations,” Jimenez adds. “On one hand, there’s a lot of admiration. On the other hand, we are criticized a bit… I don’t pigeonhole myself because we are in another era.”

This story appears in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.

While accepting best crossover song at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards Thursday (Sept. 26), MGK (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) gave the biggest thank you to someone he used to have bad blood with: Jelly Roll.

Now, the two are both friends and collaborators, with their July duet “Lonely Road” taking home the crossover award at the ceremony, which the “Son of a Sinner” star didn’t attend. “Dude, Jelly Roll. Bubba!” MGK cheered on the stage on behalf of his song partner. “Jelly, I love you. We went from 10 years ago, hating each other, to elevating each other.”

“Comparison is the thief of joy,” the rapper-turned-rocker added, holding up his trophy. “There’s enough room on this couch for everybody. We found camaraderie in the chaos.”

Jelly and the “My Ex’s Best Friend” singer previously addressed their decade-old feud in a Sept. 13 vodcast episode, helping Spotify launch its musician-focused Countdown To series. “It is so funny how much I love you now,” MGK said during their conversation, sitting face to face with the country star. “God, I hated you so much back then.”

“You gotta understand there was only like seven white rappers on Earth at this time, so it was so competitive when you was in that pool, that we were kind of automatically forced against each other anyways,” Jelly added with a laugh at the time. “You were just like, just skinny and handsome. So I was like, I was just a hater. I was just a hater, dude! It’s hard to grow up in front of the whole world.”

In addition to dropping “Lonely Road” in July, Jelly and MGK also shot a music video costarring their respective partners, Bunnie XO and Megan Fox. The visual finds the musicians struggling to provide for their families, so they organize a heist that ends with MGK behind bars, leaving the Jennifer’s Body actress to raise their fictional newborn baby without him.

Watch MGK thank Jelly Roll at the People’s Choice Country Awards below.

With the mystery of “LG 6.5” officially solved, Lady Gaga is ready to let fans in on the making of her newest album, Harlequin.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Gaga explained that the idea for her new album of jazz and pop classics came to her after she finished filming Joker: Folie à Deux. After performing for so long as her character Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (aka Harley Quinn), Gaga felt that she still had more to say. “I had such a deep relationship with Lee,” she said. “And when I was done filming the movie, I wasn’t done with her.”

As for why she teased the album as “LG 6.5,” the singer explained that she didn’t want fans to see this only as her next album. “It is my record. It’s a Lady Gaga record, but it’s also inspired by my character and my vision of what a woman can be,” she said. “It’s why the album does not adhere to one genre … it’s not my next studio album that’s a pop record, but it is somewhere in between, and it’s blurring the lines of pop music.”

The new project sees Gaga taking on a series of jazz standards — such as “Get Happy,” “World on a String” and “That’s Life” — much like she did in her Tony Bennett duet albums Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale. While Gaga says she struggled with not having her friend and collaborator in the studio with her following his death in 2023, she thinks he would have appreciated Harlequin for its shapeshifting nature.

“If I had put rock n’ roll chords over production in a record that I did with Tony years ago, I don’t know how he would’ve felt about that. Tony didn’t love rock n’ roll, but he would’ve said, ‘Wow, that’s amazing,’” she explained. “He was somebody who loved how risk-taking and different I am, and I always thought that was so cool. He was 60 years older than me, and he would flinch less than young people that I would meet … He was just a really compassionate, inclusive person. So he was definitely with us [in the studio], but he was mostly inside of me.”

As for fans still eager to hear what her long-awaited seventh studio album will sound like, Gaga remained tight-lipped, but offered a small hint. “The pop album is nothing like Chromatica. It’s a completely different record,” she said. “It’s meant to be ingested as a time in my life. And I’m also really excited about this idea that I don’t have to adhere to an era if I don’t want to. I can have a few going at once.”

When Billie Eilish sings, “I’ll love you ’til the day that I die” on “Birds of a Feather,” that deadline also includes the afterlife.

In the Hit Me Hard and Soft single’s new Aidan Zamiri-directed music video that arrived Friday (Sept. 27), the 22-year-old pop star sits alone in an abandoned office building, smiling to herself as the invisible ghost of a loved one jerks her around, pulls on her chair and drags her across the floor. “I don’t know what I’m crying for/ I don’t think I could love you more,” she sings. “It might not be long, but baby, I/ I’ll love you ’til the day that I die.”

“Birds of a Feather” marks just the latest music video to come from Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft album, following lead single “Lunch” — which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and “Chihiro.” The two-time Oscar winner’s third studio album arrived in May and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, following her 2019 debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and 2022 sophomore effort Happier Than Ever, both of which peaked at No. 1 on the albums chart.

The visual arrives just two days ahead of the start of Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft World Tour, which kicks off Sunday (Sept. 29) in Quebec. The arena trek will span North America, Australia and Europe, ending in July in Dublin.

The run will also include three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden Oct. 16-18. The next day, on Oct. 19, Eilish will return to Saturday Night Live to serve as musical guest for a Michael Keaton-hosted episode.

Watch Eilish’s new “Birds of a Feather” music video above.

While recording his latest album, Eden, Eden Muñoz landed himself in the emergency room a whopping four times, all to monitor his fast-beating heart. “I consider myself a relatively healthy person,” the Mexican singer-songwriter says today, still sounding a bit perplexed by the situation. “It wasn’t stress — I know stress.”

After consulting multiple cardiologists, Muñoz visited one more (who was also a good friend) and finally got his answer: He was told that the process of making Eden proved too energizing. “It was a type of excitement that didn’t let me sleep because it felt like I was wasting time,” he recalls. “I needed to be in the studio.”

And though the hospital trips were nerve-racking, Muñoz welcomed the excitement — it was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in relation to music in a long time. Since launching his solo career two years ago after more than a decade fronting Calibre 50, he has enjoyed a whole range of new emotions. Most importantly, Muñoz says, “I know what it feels like to be happy again.”

The 34-year-old first entered the scene in the early 2010s as Calibre 50’s lead singer, accordionist and songwriter. The group — which became one of the most successful norteño bands of all time — placed seven No. 1s on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart and landed more than 20 No. 1s on Regional Mexican Airplay. Despite the success, Muñoz felt something was off — and was craving more.

He announced his departure from Calibre 50 in early 2022 and, soon after, launched his solo career. “I was very limited as part of a group,” he says. “I felt that I could give a lot more at the production level.” As it turns out, making music on his own terms proved fruitful. Over the past two years, Muñoz has scored four top 10s on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart, including the title track to 2023’s Como en los Viejos Tiempos, which topped the list. He has also placed five entries on Hot Latin Songs, including a top 10 hit with his debut solo single, “Chalé!”

Yet it’s Eden, released in August, that Muñoz feels most proud of. “I had been pleasing others for so many years that it was only fair that I do what makes me happy for a change,” he says. “This album reflects that transition.”

Eden arrived as Muñoz’s second album on Sony Music Mexico, which he signed with last year in a partnership with Sony Music Latin, and his third full-length since launching his solo career. The project spans 15 songs on which Muñoz fuses the traditional banda and norteño sound that have characterized his music with genres that have also shaped his musical palette: bachata, country and rock’n’roll.

While mashing up música mexicana with other styles would have been frowned upon by purists just a few years ago, when it mainly catered to an older audience, the decades-old genre is now reaching a new generation of listeners, thanks to a wave of young Mexican and Mexican American hit-makers who have embraced a more nuanced approach. By modernizing lyrics and borrowing from genres including trap, hip-hop and country, regional Mexican music has earned the approval of Gen Z — and Muñoz is leaning in.

“When I was creating this album, I broke out of my comfort zone to rebuild myself,” he says. “This album served as an exercise to see how far I can go and where I draw the line so it doesn’t go outside of Mexican music. It was like creating the perfect salad with a balance of protein and carbohydrates.”

Now, with Eden behind him, Muñoz’s heart is at peace. “I have my studio, a little lake next to us where I go fishing, and I love to cook. I have everything here,” he says of his home in Mazatlán, a resort city in Sinaloa, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children when he’s not on tour. (His Como en los Viejos Tiempos U.S. trek began in August.)

His newfound creative freedom hasn’t only benefited the music, but has altered his perspective, too. “I know I’m not at No. 1, and I probably never will be, and that’s cool,” he says. “I feel f–king great. I do what I want. I work with the people I want to work with. I’ve matured. That, to me, is being in my prime.” 

This story appears in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.