Peso Pluma is already a champ, and at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, he was victorious once again with a knockout performance of his swaggy corrido “Rubicon.” The Mexican star took the stage — or, rather, boxing ring — alongside heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, whose robe had “the best ever” written on the back.

As the 24-year-old hitmaker — Mexican music’s biggest star today — made his way to the ring, his superfans cheered him on. He then took to the ring to perform the track that’s part of his history-making album Génesis, and was joined not only by Tyson, but also his seven-piece band.

Following his epic performance, Peso Pluma (born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija) was honored with the top Latin song award for his and Eslabon Armado’s global smash hit “Ella Baila Sola.” Earlier this year, the track made history as the first regional Mexican song to enter the top five on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“Give it up to the people’s champion, Peso Pluma!” Tyson said as he handed the singer-songwriter his award. Then, it was Peso’s turn to speak.

“Thank you everyone,” he said, speaking in English. “Thanks, Mr. Tyson, for being here. Thank you to all the fans, thank you for all the love and the support. And I’d like to thank the Billboard Awards for having me here. Thank you very much.”

Peso has 22 entries on the Hot 100, and in June, he became the first artist to ever lead both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. lists simultaneously with different songs: “Ella Baila Sola” and “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 55,” respectively. His Génesis album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (dated July 1) — the highest rank ever for a música Mexicana album on the chart.

Peso was a top winner at October’s Billboard Latin Music Awards, taking home eight awards, including artist of the year, new. He entered Sunday’s awards show as a six-time finalist.

Nashville songwriter and musician Abe Stoklasa, known for writing songs for Tim McGraw, Charlie Worsham, Chris Lane and trio Lady A, has died at age 38, Billboard has confirmed. He passed away on Nov. 17 of undisclosed causes.

The Princeton, Missouri, native found his passion for music early, playing in his father’s band by the age of six.

“I have always been a musician,” Stoklasa previously told The Shotgun Seat of his musically formative years. “My dad had a little ransom style show in the midwest — we did like 70 shows a year — so from two years old I was singing on the stage. At like six years old my dad threw me in the band as the keyboard player, sink or swim. So that’s how I learned to play music.” 

He grew up immersed in the music his father loved — music from 1950s through 1970s — soaking in the influence of Elvis, Merle Haggard, The Beatles and James Taylor.

Stoklasa’s family moved to Tennessee when he was a teen, and he soon enrolled at Nashville’s Belmont University. After graduation, he joined David Nail’s road band as a steel guitar player. He briefly spent time pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Coral Gables, Florida — though soon, his passion for doing music, not just studying it, drew him back on the road. He joined Billy Currington’s band for three years, including a stint opening for Kenny Chesney’s 2011 Goin’ Coastal stadium tour.

In 2013, Stoklasa decided to leave the road to focus on songwriting. His writing talents would catch the ears of Nashville mainstays such as Mike Reid (a writer on Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in My House”) and Mark D. Sanders (Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance,” Reba McEntire’s “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”).

Stoklasa was a writer on Chris Lane’s 2016 No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Fix” and crafted songs recorded by Tim McGraw (“Portland, Maine”), David Nail (“Lie With Me”), Billy Currington (“Give It To Me Straight”), Charlie Worsham (“Call You Up,” “The Beginning of Things”), Scotty McCreery (“Here and Ready”), Blake Shelton (“A Girl”) and Lady A (“Ocean”).

Stoklasa told Music Row in 2016, “For a long time, ‘Beginning of Things’ was my favorite song that I was very proud of. I wrote it with Donovan Woods and Charlie Worsham just cut it. It’s so songwriter-y, in that there are two or three levels and meanings to the lyrics that you will not get on one or two listens, which is a fun puzzle to put together. The whole story is made up with some influences in real life, but it was just an exercise in a certain way to be Shakespearean in a way. But I would feel confident handing that to Paul Simon, and I wouldn’t do that with any of my other songs.”

At the time, Stoklasa also expressed his gratitude for artists including Currington, Nail and Kelley working with him, saying, “Billy Currington, he was the first person to care about my songwriting. David Nail is a good friend, we don’t even have to talk about music. We both experienced a lot of firsts together on a tour bus. Charles Kelley has always been like a brother to me. He’s an amazing writer. We’ve written songs other people have cut… and he likes to cut my songs!”

Stoklasa contributed heavily to Lady A member Charles Kelley’s 2016 solo album, The Driver, including “Leaving Nashville,” “Your Love,” “Dancing Around It” and the Grammy-nominated title track, which also featured vocals from Dierks Bentley and Eric Paslay.

“Abe was otherworldly,” Kelley said in a tribute posted on his Instagram page. “I always knew his mind moved at a pace I could never comprehend. He was confidence and self doubt all wrapped in one. He frustrated me and inspired me all at the same time. He was a true enigma in every sense of the word, but aren’t the most talented musicians and artists that way? He was a musician’s musician and carried one of the most authentic voices in this town. I’ll never listen to the songs we shared together the same or forget the moments we had onstage and on the late night bus rides. Nashville will never see another Abe Stoklasa. I’ll miss you my soft spoken friend.”

Nail said of Stoklasa in an Instagram post, “He was beyond unique, and beyond talented. He was a true genius. That word gets tossed around a lot these days, but he was the definition! In the early years of me touring, many of you will remember we had a steel guitar player. That was Abe. He could make it sound like anything you needed. He was brilliant. We weren’t meant to be on the road together, and once he left The Well Ravens, we got closer than ever before. I was so proud when he got off the road for good, to focus on songwriting, something that he was a natural at. He immediately became a hit in the songwriting community. His voice? Oh, he sang like a 50 year old. Soulful, and weathered beyond anything I’d ever heard from a 25 year old young man.”

Worsham also offered up heartfelt memories of his friendship with Stoklasa, saying in a social media video, “I first met Abe Stoklasa through Derek Wells, when I was putting a band together to play the Ernest Tubb Record Shop Midnight Jamboree. He was wickedly hilarious and wickedly talented. I’d never met anyone who could play steel guitar and saxohone really well, and who loved Vince Gill and Aretha Franklin with equal depth … he was so principled and so kind and caring.” Worsham recalled that the last time they wrote together, they penned a song inspired by the television series The Golden Girls, called “Dorothy and Rose.” “It was probably the best song I wrote in six months,” Worsham said, “’cause that’s just how good Abe was … I loved him dearly, as we all did, who knew him.”

Taylor Swift has postponed the second night of her Eras Tour concert in Brazil on Saturday (Nov. 18) due to “extreme temperatures” in Rio de Janeiro.

The last-minute delay arrives one day after the death of a fan attending the pop superstar’s opening night at Rio’s Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos on Friday (Nov. 17).

“I’m writing this from my dressing room in the stadium,” Swift shared in a handwritten note on her Instagram Story Saturday. “The decision has been made to postpone tonight’s show due to the extreme temperatures in Rio. The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”

Brazilian concert promoter T4T noted in a statement on Instagram that Saturday’s concert will be scheduled for Monday (Nov. 20). Further information about rescheduled event will be shared through taylorswifttheerastour.com.br.

On Friday night, Swift expressed her sorrow on social media over the loss of 23-year-old fan Ana Clara Benevides Machado, who died after attending the opening night of the singer’s Eras Tour in Rio. The woman was treated by paramedics after she reported not feeling well and was later taken to a hospital, where she died, according to an Instagram post by T4T. The exact cause of Machado’s death had not been revealed at press time.

“I can’t believe I’m writing these words but it is with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show,” Swift wrote on her Instagram Story. “I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by this. There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.”

She continued, “I’m not going to be able to speak about this from stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it. I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends. This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil.”

Many concert-goers complained that they were not allowed to bring in water bottles to the stadium despite a record-breaking heat wave in Rio, the Associated Press reports. Temperatures reached 102.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the city on Friday.

During Friday’s show, her first of three at Rio’s Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos, Swift paused her performance to request water for a group of fans who indicated they needed it.

“There’s people that need water right here, maybe 30, 35, 40 feet back,” the singer said, as seen in fan-captured footage on X. “So whoever is in charge of giving them that, just make sure that happens. Can I get a signal that you know where they are?”

This marks the second time Swift has been forced to postpone dates on the South American leg of her Eras Tour. Just hours ahead of her second show at the Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday (Nov. 10), the “Cruel Summer” singer announced that the concert was being delayed due to “truly chaotic” rainy weather conditions in the region.