Before this wildly unpredictable presidential campaign season even kicked off, technology experts issued dire warnings that doctored artificial intelligence images and videos could be used to manipulate voters. That appears to be the case with some seemingly manufactured images shared by three-time White House candidate Donald Trump on Sunday (Aug. 18) on his Truth Social account.

The twice impeached former one-term Republican president re-posted a series of images whose authenticity could not be verified and which appeared to show Taylor Swift fans, as well as the singer herself, throwing in with his campaign. One featured six squares filled with smiling Swifties wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shits with the message “Swifties Turning to Trump After ISIS Foiled Taylor Swift Concert,” a seeming reference to the recently foiled plot to attack Swift’s since-cancelled trio of concerts in Vienna after the discovery of a 19-year-old ISIS-radicalized man’s plan to cause a mass casualty event outside the singer’s Austrian shows.

In another image meant to mirror the iconic “I Want You For U.S. Army” recruiting poster, a user doctored up an image of Swift in a patriotic red, white and blue suit and star-spangled top hat with the message, “Taylor Wants You to Vote For Donald Trump.” The other two pictures featured more images of what are allegedly Swift fans in Trump-boosting gear.

At press time spokespeople for Swift and Trump had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the post, which also featured Trump’s enthusiastic response to the alleged endorsement, “I accept!” According to The Daily Beast, the Swiftie images were first posted to X on Friday and Saturday by a couple of popular right-wing accounts, including one that reportedly mixed the doctored AI images with a real one of a blonde woman wearing a “Swifties For Trump” shirt at a rally. The Sunday Times noted that one of the 25 Truth Social posts featuring the faked images that read “The Swifties for Trump movement is real!” was labelled “satire,” calling into question whether Trump, 78, realized that he was re-posting computer-generated pictures.

Swift has yet to endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential race between convicted felon Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose nomination will be celebrated this week in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Harris was swapped in for President Joe Biden last month and since her sudden elevation to the top spot on the ticket polls have shown the once dead-even race that Trump — now the oldest candidate to ever run for the White House — was winning in several key battleground states shifting slightly in Harris’ favor.

The singer eschewed political endorsements for most of her career, but following Trump’s election in 2016 she endorsed two Democratic candidates in midterm elections in her home state of Tennessee as well as endorsing Biden in 2020. She also took aim at the former Apprentice host during the George Floyd protests in 2020, lambasting Trump’s response to the unrest after earlier saying she was “completely blindsided” by his 2016 victory over former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’???” Swift wrote in reference to a comment from Trump that many took as a veiled threat to protesters who flooded the streets around the nation following the killing of unarmed 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for nearly 10 minutes. “We will vote you out in November.”

Trump, who the Washington Post reported in 2021 had made nearly 31,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency — a rate of 21 claims per day — recently claimed that photos of a massive Harris/Walz rally in Detroit were AI-generated, a falsehood that was quickly disproven by photos and videos taken by reporters and attendees on the ground.

Check out the AI Taylor Swift images below.

UPDATE Aug. 19: The Billboard Fan Army Face-Off is back – and has entered the Finals. The Finals were set to begin on Friday (Aug. 16) but were derailed by a glitch that affected the Fan Army bracket from Aug. 16-18. No votes were lost but the glitch resulted in several different incorrect results showing up for the final round over the weekend. After around-the-clock work, the bracket is functioning properly – Billboard sincerely apologizes for the technical issues.

As a result, the Finals voting period – which is now back open — has been expanded through Thursday (Aug. 22) at noon ET. The final showdown for the 2024 Billboard Fan Army Face-Off is between Rihanna’s Navy and SB19’s A’TIN (as mentioned, over the weekend, the glitch resulted in some incorrect pairings showing up – but this is the correct final showdown given the votes). Vote now to determine the final winner.

UPDATE Aug. 16: The Billboard Fan Army Face-Off bracket is experiencing technical issues and in some cases is showing an incorrect finals pairing. Billboard is working to correct the issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime, 2024 Fan Army voting is on hold. No votes have been lost.

A competitive Semifinals period wrapped on Monday (Aug. 12), with some tight battles and razor-thin victories. The Semifinals saw Taylor Swift’s fan army emerge victorious over Billie Eilish’s; SB19’s best Dua Lipa’s; Hozier’s edge out Beyoncé’s; and Rihanna’s win out over Gracie Abrams’ fan army.

Now, just four fan armies remain on the battlefield. The Semifinals continue until Friday (Aug. 16) at noon ET, at which point the Finals will begin in earnest to determine the final victor.

Voting is open now – so start voting for your favorite artist to answer the question: Which artist’s fan army is the strongest?

When the Fan Army Face-Off began, there were some surprising upsets in Round 1 (including country star Lainey Wilson’s fans victorious over BTS’ ARMY by more than 2%, Round 2 featured some neck-and-neck races. Among them were Taylor Swift’s Swifties vs. Drake’s Team Drizzy, with the pop superstar’s fans ultimately moving on with a less than 1% victory; and Eminem’s Stans and Ed Sheeran’s Sheerios in a razor-tight race that had them tied at 50.0% up until the end, when the rapper’s team pulled ahead by 2%. Not so close were the matchups between Jelly Roll’s Bad Apples and aespa’s MYs, with the country star’s fans pulling in an impressive 91% of the vote, or Sabrina Carpenter’s Carpenters against GloRilla’s supporters, with the pop star winning nearly 25% more of the vote to move onto Round 3. The biggest margin of victory in the second round went to SB19’s A’TIN, who defeated Karol G’s army 98.6% to 1.4% (Scroll down to see the final tallies.)

Last year, SB19 claimed the 2023 Fan Army crown thanks to A’TIN. Past Fan Army Face-Off winners include Stray Kids’ STAY, Super Junior’s E.L.F (victorious twice), T-ara’s Queens (victorious three times) and BIGBANG’s VIPs.

This year, fan armies for the following artists faced off for the crown beginning in Round 1: aespa, Ariana Grande, ATEEZ, Bad Bunny, Benson Boone, Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, BLACKPINK, BTS, Cardi B, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doja Cat, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, GloRilla, Gracie Abrams, Harry Styles, Hozier, Ice Spice, ITZY, Jack Harlow, Jelly Roll, Justin Bieber, Karol G, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Lainey Wilson, Lana Del Rey, Lil Nas X, Lim Young Woong, Madonna, Megan Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus, Morgan Wallen, NCT, NewJeans, Nicki Minaj, Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Post Malone, Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter, SB19, Selena Gomez, SEVENTEEN, Shaboozey, Stray Kids, SZA, Taylor Swift, Tate McRae, Teddy Swims, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Travis Scott, TWICE, Tyla, YOASOBI, Zach Bryan and ZEROBASEONE.

Some of these artists have been around for decades, changing the game and shifting the direction of culture, while others are newcomers, helping push music in exciting new directions. More than a handful of them have graced the cover of Billboard magazine (some more than once), and numerous artists here have topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Vote below now.

The Finals kick off Aug. 16 at noon ET.

For those working behind the scenes, Amazon’s sprawling, stunning and spendy fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is marked by a secrecy not unlike the clandestine creation of the titular gold bands in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world.

“I would come [home] after working for 12 hours and my wife would go, ‘How’s it going?’ And I’d go, ‘The project is going okay,’” recalls composer Bear McCreary of the show’s first season. “My daughter was seven at the time — she would [have gone] to school and said it. The secrecy was crazy.”

The second season, which premieres on Prime Video on Aug. 29, was a similarly stealthy production. When woodwind and brass players gathered at London’s AIR Studios Lyndhurst (a deconsecrated Victorian church that producer George Martin turned into a top-notch recording facility in 1992) in late April to record part of its score, the TV show’s name was markedly absent from the sheet music.

“Even though there’s a code name, they know when they see my name and hear these tunes,” admits McCreary, an Elmer Bernstein-trained composer who writes every musical cue for the show (save Howard Shore’s opening theme). “It feels like coming back to school after a summer off and seeing all your friends.”

If Rings of Power were a high school, you’d probably peg McCreary – with his black t-shirt, trim beard and long, dark mane of hair – as a metal kid. And sure enough, just days after that recording session, the 45-year-old unleashed The Singularity, an expansive, hard-rocking concept LP, into the world. But before he fell in love with Queen and Guns N’ Roses, McCreary was a little boy obsessed with film soundtracks, especially those for epic fantasies.

Now, after scoring Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead and a number of video games, he’s creating one of his own with The Rings of Power. Only for season two, the stakes are higher — arguably, this is the pivotal season that will cement the fan response to this latest adaptation of Tolkien’s beloved world.

McCreary is easygoing while giving notes to the trumpet section or chatting with visiting cast member Markella Kavenagh (who plays Nori) at the recording space, but when the French horns and oboes kick in, he is battle ready. Considering that season two ups the action quotient, his body language is fitting. Not only does heroine Galadriel battle with archnemesis Sauron (“We’ve been waiting for this fight,” McCreary says), but a mysterious region of Tolkien’s Middle-earth will be shown for the first time.

“I felt an initial shock when I read the script and realized we were going to Rhûn,” he says. “Here is a part of the map that we’ve never seen in an adaptation before.” After “using every trick in the book” to score season one, McCreary sold showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay on an unusual idea: bring in a Bulgarian’s women’s choir to complement the arid desert setting. “They let me run with it, and I have to say, it sounds beautiful — haunting and strange.”

Adds Bob Bowen, worldwide head of music at Amazon MGM Studios: “[Bear’s] use of innovative musical approaches, combined with his deep understanding of Tolkien, provides a unique world-building for this series.”

Though McCreary’s dramatic, nuanced score fills the hexagonal, high-ceilinged AIR Studios with a tense grandeur, he’s aware that most viewers will experience it in an entirely different setting. With that in mind, he sometimes spins the Rings of Power mixes on his cellphone to ensure the most salient melodic elements come through clearly. “I want to make sure the show and score sounds good, even in a terrible listening environment.”

He’s also cognizant of social media responses to his score and was pleased when a few savvy fans figured out that his theme for Halbrand is the theme for the perfidious Sauron played backwards (Spoiler: the two were revealed to be one and the same in the season 1 finale). “I like to encode messages into the score,” says McCreary, who reveals that he’s burying the musical Easter eggs even deeper on season 2. “Now that I know people are digging, I can be even more subtle.”

The most rewarding fan response, however, has been at home. “My daughter has watched the show multiple times. She loved it,” he says, his tone growing as misty as the mountains of Moria. “I felt so proud that I could be part of the stories that bring my daughter into Middle-earth.”

A version of this story will appear in the Aug. 24 issue of Billboard.

Are you ready for “One More Time”… one more time? Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker sent fans’ heart racing over the weekend when he teased new music from the punk-pop trio in a post on X in which he promised that fresh tracks are almost ready to go.

After tweeting “Who’s ready for One More Time part 2” on July 22, Barker followed up on Sunday (August 18) with an update, writing, “One More Time Part 2 turned in mixed and mastered for you guys [present emoji].”

At press time it was unclear if Barker was referring to a full-length sequel to the band’s ninth studio album, last year’s One More Time…, which featured the singles “Edging,” “DanceWith Me,” “Fell in Love” and the emotional title track acoustic ballad; a spokesperson for the band had not returned a request for comment at press time on whether Barker’s post was in reference to a full-length sequel album or a second part to the previous album’s title track.

One More Time… was the band’s first album marking the return of guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, who left Blink for a second time in 2015. Back in June, the trio debuted a previously unreleased song, “Can’t Go Back,” during the opening night of their current tour at the Kia Center in Orlando. The group, which also includes bassist/singer Mark Hoppus, will take the stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England on, respectively, Friday (August 23) and Saturday (August 24), and play four other UK shows before returning to the U.S. for a run of September and October festivals gigs.

See Barker’s tweet below.

The Weeknd is set to return to Australia in October 2024, bringing his After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour Down Under after initially postponing and then cancelling his 2023 dates.

The Australian and New Zealand leg was originally planned as one of the final stretches of his world tour before those dates were shelved.

The Canadian R&B superstar, born Abel Tesfaye, will kick off the 2024 leg on Oct. 5 at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, with a second show on Oct. 6, before heading to Sydney for back-to-back performances at Accor Stadium on Oct. 22 and 23.

These will be The Weeknd’s first stadium shows in Australia and his first visit since 2017. Special guests Mike Dean and Chxrry22, along with Australian DJ and vocalist, Anna Lunoe, will join him on all 2024 Australian dates.

However, fans in Brisbane and New Zealand, who were included in the cancelled 2023 tour, will be disappointed to learn that these locations are not part of the 2024 itinerary.

According to a statement from the tour’s press release: “Due to schedule and logistical constraints, the ‘After Hours ‘Til Dawn’ tour will not be making its way to New Zealand or Brisbane in 2024 and there will be no further cities added.”

This decision has sparked backlash on social media, with fans expressing frustration over their shows being dropped from the 2024 run.

One commenter noted on Reddit, “Not sure what logistical circumstances they’re trying to blame for not coming to Brisbane or even NZ. Suncorp Stadium literally has no event booked in October other than the Travis Scott show at the end of the month.” Another added, “Apparently it’s more logical to fly to Australia, fly back to the USA, fly back to Australia and then fly back again.”

Before announcing the 2024 Australian dates, The Weeknd performed numerous sold-out shows across the United States as part of the After Hours Til Dawn tour.

The U.S. leg included notable performances at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he fans with a setlist featuring hits from After Hours and Dawn FM.

In a statement about the upcoming shows in Australia this October, The Weeknd said, “I feel a strong pull to perform in Australia before moving on to the next chapter and want to make sure you all know I hadn’t forgotten about you. When I return now, it will be the right time, and I promise it will be such a special experience. I can’t wait to see you all!”

For 2023 ticket holders, a special ‘Past Purchaser Presale‘ will be available, offering the first opportunity to secure tickets for the upcoming Australian tour dates.

The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn tour has been a global success, with over 60 sold-out stadium dates and more than 3 million attendees across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Latin America. The tour has also broken attendance records, including a two-night run at London Stadium that drew 160,000 fans.

In other recent news, earlier this month it was revealed The Weeknd will return to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood on Sept. 5 with The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy, an immersive haunted house experience featuring music by The Weeknd and Mike Dean.

It follows the success of his 2022 After Hours Nightmare attraction, inspired by his Billboard 200-topping album After Hours.

The Weeknd After Hours Til Dawn 2024 Australia Tour Dates:

Oct. 5 – Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Oct. 6 – Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Oct. 22 – Accor Stadium, Sydney
Oct. 23 – Accor Stadium, Sydney