The second round of voting is now open for Billboard‘s Latin Power Players’ Choice Award, featuring the top 15 executive nominees voted by their peers.

The new peer-voted award will run alongside Billboard‘s annual Latin Power Players list of the genre’s most influential executives. This new Latin Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive in the genre whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond.

Voting is open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member. Vote here.

Billboard launched its first Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year, followed by the Country Power Players’ Choice Award that concluded in June and the R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players’ Choice Award, whose winner will be announced in August.

The second round of voting runs through Aug. 17 to narrow down the top 15 nominees into the final five top executives. The semifinalists are:

The third round of voting will begin Aug. 18, to select the winner from the final five executives. Voting concludes Aug. 31 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Vote now and if you are not yet a member of Billboard Pro, join here.

Ne-Yo has issued an apology for the comments he recently made regarding transgender kids.

“After much reflection, I’d like to express my deepest apologies to anyone that I may have hurt with my comments on parenting and gender identity,” the singer wrote on Twitter/X Sunday night (Aug. 6). “I’ve always been an advocate for love and inclusivity in the LGBTQI+ community, so I understand how my comments could’ve been interpreted as insensitive and offensive.”

Ne-Yo continued: “Gender identity is nuanced and I can honestly admit that I plan to better educate myself on the topic, so I can approach future conversations with more empathy.”

“At the end of the day,” he said, “I lead with love and support everyone’s freedom of expression and pursuit of happiness.”

On Saturday, a video of an interview with Gloria Velez for VladTV — in which Ne-Yo and Velez questioned parents who support their children identifying as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth — was uploaded to YouTube.

“I just personally come from an era where a man was a man and a woman was a woman,” said Ne-Yo in the interview clip. “And there was two genders, and that’s just how I rocked. You could identify as a goldfish if you feel like, I don’t care. That ain’t my business. It becomes my business when you try to make me play the game with you. I’m not gonna call you a goldfish. But if you wanna be a goldfish, you go be a goldfish. We live in a weird time, man. We do.”

During their conversation he said, “I feel like parents have almost forgotten what the role of a parent is. If your little boy comes to you and says, ‘Daddy, I want to be a girl.’ And you just let him rock with that? He’s 5 … If you let this 5-year-old boy decide to eat candy all day, he’s gonna do that. When did it become a good idea to let a 5-year-old, let a 6-year-old, let a 12-year-old make a life-changing decision for themself? When did that happen? I don’t understand.”

“He can’t drive a car yet, but he can decide his sex?” asked Ne-Yo, who is a father of seven children.

The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association all agree that gender-affirming care is not dangerous for trans youth, and in most cases, it’s highly beneficial and life-saving.

Later on Saturday Ne-Yo expanded on his thoughts in the comments section of an Instagram post, writing, “1st and foremost, I CONDEMN NO ONE. Who am I to condemn anybody? Your life, your kids, your choice. I was asked a question and I answered it. My opinion is mine. I’m not asking anybody to agree with me nor am I telling you what you can and cannot do with your children. I stated my opinion on a matter and that’s that. Why should I care if my opinion upsets you when you don’t care if yours upsets anyone? Opinions aren’t special. We all have one. People voice them regularly whether they’re asked or not. I was actually asked mine. Agreeing to disagree is not a declaration of war. Y’all do whatever the hell y’all want to. But my feelings on the matter are mine. Same way yours are yours. Meanwhile, I love everybody. Don’t agree with some of y’all’s ideals….but love you no less.”

See his latest statement below.

Taylor Swift included Lover standout “Death by a Thousand Cuts” during her surprise songs set at SoFi Stadium Saturday night (Aug. 5). Arguably, no one appreciated Swift’s pick more than director/writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who happened to be at this Eras Tour date in Los Angeles.

Friends, including actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, captured the moment Kaytin Robinson freaked out upon realizing Swift was playing “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and shared clips on Instagram. It’s the second time the star has performed the song on the Eras Tour, and one of only a handful of songs she’s repeated during her acoustic surprise set. She’s typically only repeated a song if she messed it up the first time around, which she did at an earlier tour stop.

Swift revealed “Death by a Thousand Cuts” was actually inspired by Kaytin Robinson’s romantic comedy Someone Great in 2019.

“I just wrote a song based on something she made, which she made while listening to something I made, which is the most meta thing that’s ever happened to me,” Swift said at the time.

Someone Great, starring Gina Rodriguez and released by Netflix in 2019, tells the story of a couple who ends their relationship after nine years. “It’s a movie about how she has to end this relationship that she didn’t want to end because she’s still in love with the person but they just grew apart and he’s not a jerk,” said Swift. “It’s just sad because it’s just realistic, time passed and now we’re different people and that is the most devastating thing.”

Kaytin Robinson said that Swift’s 1989 album had been there for her “like a best friend with a bottle of tequila and a bear hug” and that she “found the most comfort in ‘Clean,’ a song about rebirth after love lost. It inspired me and Someone Great.”

See the director’s reaction to hearing “Death by a Thousand Cuts” live, plus a clip of Swift’s performance captured by a fan, below. So far Swift has performed three of six concerts scheduled at SoFi Stadium. She’ll return for the next show on Aug. 7.

Greta Gerwig should be feeling closer to fine these days. In just three weeks in theaters, Barbie is set to sail past $1 billion in global ticket sales, breaking a record for female directors that was previously held by Patty Jenkins, who helmed Wonder Woman.

Barbie, which Gerwig directed and co-wrote, added another $53 million from 4,178 North American locations this weekend according to studio estimates on Sunday (Aug. 6). The Margot Robbie-led and produced film has been comfortably seated in first place for three weeks and it’s hardly finished yet. Warner Bros. said the film will cross $1 billion before the end of the day.

In modern box office history, just 53 movies have made over $1 billion, not accounting for inflation, and Barbie is now the biggest to be directed by one woman, supplanting Wonder Woman’s $821.8 million global total. Three movies that were co-directed by women are still ahead of Barbie, including Frozen ($1.3 billion) and Frozen 2 ($1.45 billion) both co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Captain Marvel ($1.1 billion), co-directed by Anna Boden. But, Barbie has passed Captain Marvel domestically with $459.4 million (versus $426.8 million), thereby claiming the North American record for live-action movies directed by women.

New competition came this weekend in the form of the animated, PG-rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and the Jason Statham shark sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, both of which were neck-in-neck with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, also in its third weekend, for the second-place spot.

Meg 2 managed to sneak ahead and land in second place. It overcame its abysmal reviews to score a $30 million opening weekend from 3,503 locations. The Warner Bros. release, directed by Ben Wheatley, currently has a 29% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B- CinemaScore from audiences. The thriller was released in 3D, which accounted for 22% of its first weekend business.

Third place went to Oppenheimer, which added $28.7 million from 3,612 locations in North America, bringing its domestic total to $228.6 million. In just three weeks, the J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic starring Cillian Murphy has become the highest grossing R-rated film of the year (ahead of John Wick Chapter 4) and the sixth-biggest of the year overall, surpassing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Oppenheimer also celebrated a landmark, crossing $500 million globally in three weeks. Its worldwide tally is currently $552.9 million, which puts it ahead of Dunkirk, which clocked out with $527 million in 2017, and has become Nolan’s fifth-biggest movie ever. It’s also now among the four top grossing biographies ever (company includes Bohemian Rhapsody, The Passion of the Christ and American Sniper) and the biggest World War II movie of all time.

Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was close behind in fourth place with an estimated $28 million from 3,858 theaters in North America. Since opening on Wednesday, the film, which is riding on excellent reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores, has earned $43.1 million.

“This is one of those movies that is a multigenerational joy,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “I think the enduring popularity of Turtles is showing its true colors. And there hasn’t been an animated film in eight weeks and there won’t be another for eight weeks which is great for us.”

Turtles cost $70 million to produce and features a starry voice cast that includes Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, Ayo Edebiri and Seth Rogen, who produced and co-wrote the film, which leans into the “teenage” aspect of the turtles.

Barbie, Oppenheimer and even the surprise, anti-trafficking hit Sound of Freedom (now at $163.5 million and ahead of Mission: Impossible 7) have helped fuel a boom at the box office, bringing in many millions more than was expected and helping to offset pains caused by some summer disappointments.

“After The Flash, Indiana Jones and, to a certain extent, Mission: Impossible, people were saying the summer was a disappointment. But it’s not over yet,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “We’re going to have a summer that is going to go out on a high note.”

But the moment of triumph for the industry will likely be short lived if the studios can’t reach an agreement with striking actors and writers soon. The fall release calendar has already gotten slimmer, with some studios pushing films into 2024 instead of trying to promote them without movie stars.

Sony had planned to release its PlayStation-inspired true story Gran Turismo in theaters nationwide next Friday, but will now be rolling it out slowly for two weeks before going wide on Aug. 25. The thinking? If movie stars can’t promote the film, maybe audiences can.

“We have to be realistic,” Dergarabedian said. “We’re on this emotional high of movies doing so well, but we have to temper our enthusiasm and optimism with the fact that the strike is creating a lot of uncertainty. The longer it goes on the more profound the issues become. But the audience has spoken and they love going to the movie theater.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

Police have arrested a 17-year-old high school student on a hate-motivated murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a professional dancer during an altercation between two groups of friends at a New York City gas station last weekend.

Police took the teenager into custody Friday (Aug. 4) in connection with the killing of the 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, who was gay. Authorities declined to release the defendant’s name.

“Parents lost a child, a child, to something that was clearly a hate crime,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, said Saturday during a news conference outside the Brooklyn gas station where Sibley was killed July 29.

The stabbing occurred after the two groups got into a confrontation at one of the gas pumps, where Sibley was dancing with his friends to a Beyoncé song. Authorities said Sibley’s group was being taunted by the other group before the confrontation ended in violence.

Beyoncé would later pay tribute to Sibley on her website.

Security camera video showed the two groups arguing for a few minutes. Both sides had walked away when Sibley and a friend abruptly returned and again confronted one of the young men, who had stayed behind recording on his phone.

In the video, Sibley could be seen following the teen and then lunging at him before the two disappeared out of the camera’s view. A moment later, he walks backward into view, checking his side, and then collapses to the sidewalk.

Lee Soulja Simmons, the executive director for the NYC Center for Black Pride, also spoke at the news conference.

“We wrestle with people within our community constantly facing discrimination — not just because you’re Black but because you represent LGBT” communities, he said.

“The fact that he was doing nothing more but voguing and dancing here, he did not deserve to die in that way,” Simmons said.

One of Sibley’s friends who was there, Otis Pena, said in a Facebook video that Sibley was killed because he was gay, and “because he stood up for his friends.”

One witness, Summy Ullah, said in interviews that the men complained that their behavior offended them as Muslims.

Some leaders of the area’s Muslim community condemned the slaying.

“The weight of this loss is felt deeply, not just by the family and friends of O’Shae, but by all of us who value life, peace and justice,” Soniya Ali, the executive director of the Muslim Community Center, said Saturday.

“As Muslims, we are committed to stand up for justice, even if it means standing against our own selves,” she said. “We unequivocally condemn the unjust murder of O’Shae.”

Sibley performed with the dance company Philadanco in his native Philadelphia and in New York, where he took classes with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension program.