Wanna guess which song is Olivia Rodrigo‘s favorite this summer? Hint: It’s a remix of the cheekiest track on Charli XCX‘s Brat featuring another A-list pop star.

In a new interview with Complex, the “Drivers License” musician revealed her personal song of the summer: “I mean, I love the Charli XCX and Billie [Eilish] song ‘Guess,’” she said. “So good,” Rodrigo gushed. “It’s been on repeat.”

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The revelation comes just a few weeks after the English tastemaker dropped a reimagined version of “Guess” with the “Bad Guy” singer, debuting at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the highest-charting song Charli has logged since 2014. The duo also co-starred in a music video for the track, featuring Eilish bulldozing over a mountain of bras and panties.

Rodrigo last dropped music in March, when she unveiled five new songs on the deluxe edition of her Billboard 200-topping album Guts. One of them, “Obsessed,” reached No. 14 on the Hot 100.

The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum is currently embarked on her first arena tour in support of the LP, with two nights left to go in Los Angeles at the Intuit Dome before she begins Asian and Australian legs of the trek. While speaking to Complex, she also opened up about how she’s been passing the time on the road, from reading Donna Tartt’s The Secret History to hyping herself up with Soulja Boy and Nicki Minaj songs.

“I sleep so much on tour,” she added. “I sleep for 13 hours a day sometimes. I’m so exhausted. So that passes a lot of the time. But I’ve just been reading and I’ve been watching all of my comfort shows. I’ve been watching Sex and the City every day to make myself feel like I’m grounded and at home.”

The trailer for the six-part Apple TV+ documentary series K-Pop Idols has arrived, and it’s premiering exclusively on Billboard below.

Set for its global unveiling at the end of the month, the first-of-its-kind series offers an unprecedented and refreshing glimpse into the high-stakes, high-pressure world of K-pop while following the lives of Korean-American rapper-singer Jessi, chart-topping boy band CRAVITY, and global girl group BLACKSWAN navigating the intense realities of the industry.

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With raw storytelling reminiscent of the honesty felt in 2012’s illuminating K-pop doc 9 Muses of Star Empire, the upcoming series follows the idols as they confront their careers’ euphoric highs and harsh lows. The K-Pop Idols trailer shows Jessi tearfully recounting her experience of being stranded outside during her European tour, while Allen of CRAVITY discusses the grueling schedules that leave K-pop idols sleep-deprived. BLACKSWAN’s Fatou shares the difficulty of not seeing her family for years and her bandmate Gabi tearfully questions her place in her girl group.

Filming took place across multiple countries, including the United States, South Korea, France, Belgium, Germany and Cambodia, capturing the global scope of the K-pop phenomenon and helping to resonate with both dedicated fans and a broader audience for a narrative that reveals the too rarely seen vulnerable sides of the stars that remain at the heart of the rapidly rising music scene.

“With K-Pop Idols, our goal was to pull back the curtain on the highly competitive world of K-pop and reveal the human stories behind the stars,” said executive producer Elise Chung, who executive produced Bling Empire. “This series is a tribute to the relentless passion and perseverance of artists like Jessi, CRAVITY and BLACKSWAN who are shaping the future of music on a global scale. We’re excited for viewers to experience the challenges, victories and everything in between that comes with chasing a dream as big as becoming a K-pop idol.”

K-Pop Idols was produced for Apple TV+ by Matador Content, a subsidiary of Boat Rocker whose work includes shows like ABC’s Boy Band, Paramount’s Lip Sync Battle (Paramount Network) and Vice’s What Would Diplo Do? An Emmy Award-winning team contributed to the project including Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry executive producers Todd Lubin and Jay Peterson, as well as Chung, Jack Turner (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields producer), Sue Kim (The Speed Cubers director), Bradley Cramp (Lord of War) and Eric Yujin Kim (Undoing). Fans can also look forward to famous friends of the different artists making cameos in the series too.

Apple TV+ will exclusively stream K-Pop Idols, set to premiere globally on Aug. 30. Take a look at the trailer and new photos until then.

BLACKSWAN in rehearsal in “K-Pop Idols”
BLACKSWAN in rehearsal in “K-Pop Idols”
K-POP Idols, Jessi
Jessi with her family in “K-Pop Idols”
BLACKSWAN in “K-Pop Idols”
BLACKSWAN in “K-Pop Idols”

Sexyy Red is about to be a beauty mogul: The 26-year-old rapper introduced her Northside Princess beauty brand on Monday (Aug. 19).

“BO$$ LADY SPEAKIN …. New and improved @sexyyred_products is back better den eva !! introducing NORTHSIDE PRINCESS the brand @getnorthside,” she wrote on Instagram. The first product from her Northside Princess line is lip gloss called Sexyy Gloss, which comes in eight different shades: Coochie Juice, Bootyhole Brown, Nut, P*ssyhole Pink. Yellow Discharge, Gonorrhea, Blue Ballz and Sex On My Period.

The Bootyhole Brown Sexyy Gloss is a play on her notorious “My coochie pink, my bootyhole brown” line from her and Tay Keith‘s 2023 smash “Pound Town.” Nicki Minaj hopped on “Pound Town 2,” which earned Sexyy Red and Tay Keith their first Billboard Hot 100 entries and hit the top 20 of both R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay.

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Sexyy mentioned her lip gloss brand and teased some of the names to Complex over a year ago. “The names for my lip gloss is something that nobody would’ve ever thought of. I got one called ‘Nut,’ and it’s the color of some nut. I got one called ‘Gonorrhea,’ it’s green like gonorrhea. I got one called ‘Yellow Discharge,’ like how girls be having yellow discharge…. And ‘Coochie Juice’ is clear with silver glitter. It’s cute. The sh– cute, and it smell good,” she said at the time. “I be thinking all out the box sh–. It’s not even on purpose, it’s just my brain help me think outside the box to do some crazy a– sh–.”

YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy) will plead guilty to a federal gun charge that saw him held under house arrest for more than two years while awaiting trial, according to new court filings.

In a notice lodged in court Wednesday (Aug. 14), the rapper (real name Kentrell Gaulden) told a federal judge that “I wish to plead guilty to the offense charged” — referring to a single count of possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

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It’s unclear whether the guilty plea is the result of an agreement with prosecutors or will result in a more lenient sentence. YoungBoy’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.

The rapper was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2021 after he was allegedly found with two guns during a September 2020 incident in Baton Rouge, La. He was charged with violating a long-standing federal law that bans convicted felons from possessing guns — a rule that applied to him because he had previously been convicted in 2017 of aggravated assault with a firearm.

The rapper had finally been set for a trial on that charge this July. But in a March ruling, a federal judge paused the case to await a Supreme Court ruling on a major gun-control case that could play a key role in YoungBoy’s efforts to avoid a conviction. That ruling came out in June, but the case had yet to fully resume when Wednesday’s notice was filed.

While awaiting trial, YoungBoy has been confined to his Salt Lake City mansion — a house arrest that’s lasted more than two full years. In October, his attorneys pleaded that the “long period of social isolation” was harming his mental health and asked that the judge loosen restrictions, including allowing him to travel to a recording studio to create new music. But that request was largely denied in November.

While Wednesday’s plea will resolve the federal gun charge, YoungBoy is facing dozens of newer state charges in Utah after he was arrested in April for allegedly running a “large scale prescription fraud ring” while living under house arrest.

Those charges include identity fraud, obtaining a prescription under false pretenses, forgery, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity and possession of a controlled substance.

YoungBoy was granted release on bond in May; it’s unclear when he might ultimately face trial on the prescription drug charges.

The Democratic National Convention takes over Chicago’s United Center starting on Monday night (Aug. 19), and Mickey Guyton and James Taylor have joined the opening day performer lineup, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Guyton and Taylor will join previously confirmed performer Jason Isbell, who is set to deliver a rendition of his 2015 hit, “Something More Than Free,” the title track off his Grammy-winning fifth studio album. The DNC’s first night’s theme is “For the People.”

Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling, Tony Goldwyn and Ana Navarro are this year’s DNC hosts, each scheduled to deliver opening remarks and make appearances throughout the week. Additional performers are to be announced.

Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential nomination will be celebrated this week in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Harris has also chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz to run alongside her as her selected VP. Harris was swapped in for President Joe Biden last month and since then, surveys have shown that while Trump was previously winning in several key battleground states, the polls are now shifting slightly in Harris’ favor, per New York Times/Siena College.

Biden is also scheduled to speak on the opening night of the DNC, which begins at 9 p.m. ET. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Ashley Biden, Hillary Clinton, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, U.S. Senator Raphael G. Warnock and more are also set to make remarks.

Adidas AG has won a court order dismissing a class-action lawsuit that claims the German sneaker giant violated securities laws by failing to warn its shareholders about Ye’s offensive behavior.

The case claimed that Adidas knew about serious problems with Ye (formerly Kanye West) as far back as 2018 but failed to disclose them, leaving investors facing losses when the company finally ended the partnership in 2022 over Ye’s antisemitic tirades and erratic behavior.

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In a ruling Friday (Aug. 16), Judge Karin Immergut said she did not condone Ye’s conduct “erratic, inappropriate, and antisemitic” behavior and said it was “troubling” that it had happened at Adidas, but that it did not rise to the level of securities fraud.

“The question before this court is not whether to admonish Ye or hold Adidas morally accountable for Ye’s conduct,” Immergut wrote. “Rather, this Court is faced with a precise legal question: has Plaintiff sufficiently pleaded facts showing that Adidas misled investors and thereby committed federal securities fraud? On the current record before this Court, the answer is no.”

Adidas ran a lucrative collaboration with Ye and his Yeezy apparel brand for nearly a decade. But the party ended in 2022, when the sneaker company (and many others) cut ties with the embattled rapper amid a wave of offensive statements he made about Jewish people. In an October 2022 statement announcing the split, Adidas said the rapper’s statements were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.”

It’s been a messy breakup for Adidas. The split contributed to a loss of $655 million in sales for the last three months of 2022 and left Adidas holding $1.3 billion worth of unsold Yeezys and facing tricky questions about how to dispose of them responsibly. Adidas also battled Ye in court over millions in company funds and disclosed that it was litigating other aspects of the divorce in private arbitration.

In May 2023, a group of investors took Adidas to court over the breakup, arguing that Adidas executives had been aware for years of the potential harm that could come from the Ye partnership but had failed to publicly share such concerns with shareholders, as required by U.S. securities law.

In particular, the lawsuit cited a November 2022 Wall Street Journal article reporting that Adidas executives feared for years that the Yeezy relationship could “blow up at any moment.” The article reported that West had made antisemitic comments in front of Adidas staffers, including suggesting that an album be named after Adolf Hitler. The Journal story also highlighted a 2018 presentation to then-CEO Kasper Rørsted that detailed the risks of the arrangement and contemplated cutting ties with him.

But in Friday’s ruling, Judge Immergut sided with arguments from Adidas that the company’s disclosure statements had not misled investors about the risk posed by Ye. In one passage, she reminded the plaintiffs that Ye had shown signs of erratic behavior well before the split with Adidas — quoting statements in which he said that “racism is a dated concept” and that slavery was a “choice.”

“This court would be remiss not to note the very public nature of Ye’s behavior before Fall 2022,” the judge wrote. “After all, courts are not required to exhibit a naiveté from which ordinary citizens are free.”

The judge gave the investors one final chance to refile an updated version of their case against Adidas, but she cast doubt on whether they could overcome the problems she had identified in her ruling.

Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return a request for comment.

Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late Maurice Williams, who died on Aug. 5 at age 86, by looking at his lone No. 1, the doo-wop classic “Stay,” which he recorded as the frontman of Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs.

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Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs meet the most common definition of one-hit wonders, as they had just one top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – but, boy, what a hit. Their doo-wop classic “Stay” reached No. 1 in November 1960, sandwiched between two other top-tier classics, Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” and Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome To-night?.”

Over backing chants of “Stay!” by his fellow group members, Williams carries much of the song and its plea to a girl to stay out longer than she is supposed to. Her Daddy and Mommy won’t mind, Williams argues, not entirely convincingly. Midway, he steps back and hands the lead to Henry Gaston for one of pop music’s most unforgettable falsetto shouts — “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer!”

Williams wrote the song in 1953 when he was just 15. The song was inspired by his crush on one Mary Shropshire. “[Mary] was the one I was trying to get to stay a little longer,” Williams told the North Carolina publication Our State in 2012. “Of course, she couldn’t.” (The more restrictive mores of the 1940s and 1950s inspired such other great pop songs as the Oscar-winning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and The Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie.”)

“It took me about 30 minutes to write ‘Stay,’ then I threw it away,” Williams told ClassicsBands.com. “We were looking for songs to record as Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs. I was over at my girlfriend’s house playing the tape of songs I had written, when her little sister said, ‘Please do the song with the high voice in it.’ I knew she meant ‘Stay.’ She was about 12 years old and I said to myself, ‘She’s the age of record buying,’ and the rest is history. I thank God for her.”

The Zodiacs’ producer, Phil Gernhard, took the demo, along with some others, to New York City and played them for all the label reps that he knew. Al Silver of Herald Records was interested, but insisted that the song be re-recorded as the recording levels were too low. He also said that one line, “Let’s have another smoke,” would have to be removed for the song to be played on commercial radio.

The track runs just 1:38. It is the shortest of the 1,174 singles that have reached No. 1 on the Hot 100. You could play the song in its entirety six times in the time it would take to play the longest-running No. 1 hit, Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” (which runs 10:13, per the dominant version the week the song topped the Hot 100 in 2021) just once. But despite its historic brevity, the record never feels that short. It’s simply exactly as long as it needed to be to tell its story. It’s to the group’s and Gernhard’s credit that they didn’t pad it just to make it longer.

The song entered the Hot 100 at No. 86 on Oct. 3, 1960 – though in a gaffe, Williams was credited as a solo artist. The billing was changed to Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs in Week 2, when the record vaulted to No. 40. The record hit the top 10 on Nov. 7 (when another great R&B record, The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me,” was No. 1). Two weeks later, it reached No. 1.

“Stay” was only the third No. 1 in Hot 100 history (which commenced in August 1958) that was both written and recorded by a Black artist. It followed Lloyd Price’s “Stagger Lee” (which he co-wrote with Harold Logan) and Dave “Baby” Cortez’s instrumental smash “The Happy Organ” (which he co-wrote with Ken Wood).

Williams and the Zodiacs’ recording of “Stay” was the first major hit for producer Gernhard, who returned to the top five on the Hot 100 in the ’60s and ’70s as the producer of The Royal Guardmen’s novelty hit “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” Dion’s poignant “Abraham, Martin and John,” Lobo’s “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo” and “I’d Love You to Want Me,” Jim Stafford’s “Spiders and Snakes” and The Bellamy Brothers’ “Let Your Love Flow,” the latter, Gernhard’s second No. 1 on the Hot 100.

The Billboard Hot 100, November 21, 1960
The Billboard Hot 100 Chart for the week ending on November 27, 1960.

Williams and the Zodiacs had two more Hot 100 hits in 1961, but both were minor – “I Remember” (No. 86) and “Come Along” (No. 83). The group had broken through near the tail-end of doo-wop’s peak. Few doo-wop artists outside of the 4 Seasons, which had doo-wop roots, had extensive pop careers as Motown and, starting in 1964, the British invasion took over. A 1965 Williams song, “May I,” seemed promising, but the group’s label, Vee-Jay, went bankrupt just as the song was coming out. “May I” would become a top 40 hit in March 1969 for a white pop group, Bill Deal & the Rhondels.

Williams had had that same frustrating experience, on a much bigger scale, in 1957, when his group The Gladiolas released the original version of “Little Darlin’” (which Williams also wrote). The Gladiolas’ version reached No. 11 on R&B Best-Sellers in Stores and No. 41 on the Billboard Top 100, a forerunner to the Hot 100. But as was common in that era, a cover version by a white group, The Diamonds, became the bigger hit. The Diamonds’ version logged eight weeks at No. 2 on Best Sellers in Stores, and appeared in the 1973 film American Graffiti – a nostalgic film which was perfectly timed as the Watergate scandal broke wide open. American Graffiti received an Oscar nod for best picture and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995. The double-disk soundtrack album, a first-rate oldies collection, reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in February 1974.

“Stay” was memorably featured in two films – American Hot Wax, a 1978 film about legendary DJ Alan Freed, and the 1987 blockbuster Dirty Dancing, another nostalgic film that provided relief from the woes of that era, including Iran/Contra and AIDS. “Stay” was featured on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which topped the Billboard 200 for 18 nonconsecutive weeks.

Many artists have recorded successful cover versions of “Stay.”  In November 1963, the song was released by The Hollies, whose bright, effervescent version shifted the focus from doo-wop to rock’n’roll. Their version reached No. 8 on the Official UK Singles Chart, becoming their first of 18 top 10 hits in their home country.

Two cover versions have reached the top 20 on the Hot 100 – one by the 4 Seasons in April 1964 (with Frankie Valli taking on Gaston’s falsetto part) and another by Jackson Browne in August 1978 (with David Lindley handling the falsetto vocals). Browne cleverly recast the song from a romantic plea to a performers’ plea to the audience to let them play a little longer. Instead of saying Mommy and Daddy won’t mind, he argues that the promoter, union and roadies won’t mind (again, not entirely convincingly!).  Browne’s version directly followed his own song “The Load-Out” on his hit album Running on Empty, a No. 3 album on the Billboard 200 and a Grammy nominee for album of the year. That two-song coupling, which also featured vocalist Rosemary Butler, was recorded live at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

There have been many other notable cover versions of the song. The Dave Clark Five recorded the song for their studio album Glad All Over, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in May 1964. Andrew Gold recorded a version of “Stay” for his 1976 album What’s Wrong with This Picture?, which also spawned his only top 10 hit on the Hot 100, “Lonely Boy.” Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band teamed with Browne, Butler and Tom Petty to record the song at the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Garden in September 1979. The recording appeared on a triple-disc album which made the top 20 on the Billboard 200 in January 1980.

Maurice Williams didn’t have enough hits to receive major honors. He’s not in the Songwriters Hall of Fame (despite writing two colossal hits). He and the Zodiacs haven’t even been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the placement of “Little Darlin’” and “Stay” in such iconic films as American Graffiti and Dirty Dancing helps ensure that those songs will live on forever.

And Williams’ place in the Hot 100 record books seems secure: Even with hit songs getting shorter and shorter in the TikTok era, no one has yet passed Williams for his 98 seconds of pop perfection.

After weeks of mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, sitting POTUS Joe Biden announced that he was doing just that — shortly after which he endorsed his own vice president, Kamala Harris, to take on the role instead.

In the hours that followed, countless party members, public figures and voters alike provided an outpouring of support for the attorney-turned-politician’s last-minute campaign, which raised more than $50 million in fundraising less than a day after it launched. “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country,” Harris wrote in a public response to the news. “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”

So, too, did musicians get on board. Following a noticeable and well-documented drought in celebrities endorsing Biden for a second term in the early months of 2024, many were suddenly quick to publicly back Harris as soon as she took the reins. Everyone from Ariana Grande to Cardi B and John Legend shared their approval of the VP’s candidacy, while Charli XCX notably declared online, “Kamala IS brat.”

More stars are sure to throw their hats in the ring as election day draws closer, while others — Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, etc. — will likely continue to cheer on former president Donald Trump as the Republican party’s nominee.

Billboard will update this list as more endorsements roll in, but for now, keep reading to see which artists and other music-world figures have expressed their support of Kamala Harris’ 2024 bid for the White House so far below.

Jelly Roll‘s music and relatable persona have made him a favorite of fans and celebrities alike. The four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping artist recently played a show at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, N.Y., and the show not only aired on SiriusXM’s The Highway, but according to People and Variety, it had a star-studded list of attendees that included Jimmy Fallon, John McEnroe, Kelly Bensimon and Jon Hamm.

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Jelly Roll’s set included songs such as “Halfway to Hell,” “Wild Ones,” “Son of a Sinner” and “Son of the Dirty South,” which he originally recorded with Brantley Gilbert. At one point, the Antioch, Tennessee native told the audience, “I make real music for real people with real problems,” adding, “I believe music can heal people.”

In addition to his own tunes, the country star offered covers of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” Green Day’s “Good Riddance” and Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay.”

The co-hosts of the SmartLess podcast — Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes — introduced Jelly Roll.

Arnett said, “Tonight’s performer is an incredible performer. He is a husband, he is a father, he is a philanthropist, he is a Grmamy-nominated artist, he is a CMA Award winner.”

Hayes added, “He’s performed in front of sold-out crowds, setting records at music festivals across the country. We are so excited to have him tonight. He’s about to kick off his tour, The Beautifully Broken Tour, [and is] releasing a new album very soon.”

Jelly Roll’s The Beautifully Broken Tour launches Aug. 27 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Listen to his Hamptons set on SiriusXM’s website.

Jason Isbell will be taking the stage on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday night (Aug. 19), Billboard can confirm.

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The star will be performing his 2015 hit, “Something More Than Free,” the title track off his Grammy-winning fifth studio album. “I don’t think on why I’m here or where it hurts/ I’m just lucky to have the work/ Sunday morning I’m too tired to go to church/ But I thank God for the work,” he sings on the working people’s anthem.

Isbell is also no stranger to condemning Donald Trump. Most recently, in June, he posted the advice to fans: “All I ask is that you consider voting for a presidential candidate who can legally travel to Canada and the UK.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential nomination will be celebrated this week in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Harris has also chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz to run alongside her as her selected VP. Harris was swapped in for President Joe Biden last month and since then, surveys have shown that while Trump was previously winning in several key battleground states, the polls are now shifting slightly in Harris’ favor, per New York Times/Siena College.

Biden is also scheduled to speak on the opening night of the DNC, which begins at 9 p.m. ET.