Florida musician T-Pain has well and truly put his hometown on the map, and now the city of Tallahassee have returned the favor.

In a ceremony held on Sunday (Nov. 10), Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey awarded T-Pain (whose stage name is derived from the phrase “Tallahassee Pain”) with both the Keys to the City, and cemented the musician’s status as one of the city favorite’s songs with a street dedication.

As part of the ceremony, Pasco Street – a portion of road which the Tallahassee Democrat notes he walked as a child from Nims Middle School to the Walker Ford Community Center – has officially been renamed T-Pain Lane.

“Today, I had the incredible honor of presenting @TPain with the Key to the City in recognition of his contributions to music and his ongoing commitment to this community,” Dailey wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “As a hometown hero, T-Pain has inspired countless fans and artists worldwide, and we’re proud to call him one of our own.

“To further celebrate his legacy, we named ‘T-Pain Lane’ in his honor. Thank you, T-Pain for making us #TallahasseeProud!”

Hours after the ceremony, T-Pain also took part in a performance at the Adderley Amphitheater for the Tallahassee bicentennial celebration, where he showcased tracks from his decades-long career.

“Everything that went on today was just a dream come true,” T-Pain told the gathered crowd.

Recently, T-Pain was also announced as one of the many performers set to appear at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on Thursday, Nov. 28.

Appearing as part of the event’s 98th anniversary, the parade will also feature the likes of Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Chlöe and The War and Treaty as those performing this year, with the lineup also featuring Bishop Briggs, Kylie Cantrall, Dan + Shay, Dasha, Coco Jones, Walker Hayes, Ariana Madix, Joey McIntyre, Idina Menzel, Natti Natasha, Rachel Platten, Lea Salonga, The Temptations, Alex Warren, Sebastián Yatra, Charli D’Amelio and Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia.

Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it is somewhat tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs forever.

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked whether his feelings toward his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” — now that Combs is facing trial for numerous allegations of sexual abuse, racketeering and more.

“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what went on [with Diddy]. But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”

The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 the year it came out, and it remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans and 112, featuring an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at No. 1.

Diddy was arrested Sept. 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery, after which he was immediately taken into custody and denied bail multiple times as he awaits trial on May 5, 2025. The most recent update in his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “unwarranted” request that a gag order be issued against his alleged victims and their lawyers on the grounds that they were making “inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press.”

“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”

Meanwhile, Sting has been touring once again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a setup not unlike his three-person lineup with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — and the “We’ll Be Together” singer is aware of the irony. “I never left the Police,” he said while speaking to the Times. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record — as the others had done — and enjoyed it more than I did being in a band.

“And here I am again,” he continued of his return to form. “My whole modus is surprise. I don’t want people to be entirely confident about what I’m going to do next. That’s the essence of music for me. And no one expected a trio at this point.”

The Cure makes a striking return to Billboard’s album charts (dated Nov. 16) with the arrival of Songs of a Lost World. It’s the band’s first No. 1 on the 33-year-old Top Album Sales chart and the act’s highest-charting effort on the Billboard 200 (No. 4) since 1992. It also bows at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Vinyl Albums and Indie Store Album Sales.

Songs of a Lost World is The Cure’s first album of new material since 2008. The new album is the act’s third top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200, following its self-titled effort (No. 7 in July 2004) and Wish (No. 2 in May 1992).

Equivalent album units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. Nov. 16, 2024-dated charts will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Songs of a Lost World bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned (the act’s best week by units) in the United States in the week ending Nov. 7, according to Luminate. Of that sum, album sales comprise 53,000 (The Cure’s biggest sales week since 2004, when its self-titled album launched with 91,000), SEA units comprise 4,000 (equaling 5.02 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.

The new album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across five vinyl variants (which sold a combined 23,000 copies; the band’s best week on vinyl since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991), a standard CD, a CD/blu-ray audio package, two cassettes, a standard digital download and a deluxe digital download with five bonus live tracks (exclusive to the band’s webstore).

Meanwhile, the set’s “A Fragile Thing” rises 25-22 on Alternative Airplay (a new best and The Cure’s highest charting song since 2004) and 12-10 on Adult Alternative Airplay (the group’s first top 10, and third charted hit, since the list began in 1996).