By the time she was in her early 20s, Thalia was already a global celebrity. As the lead star of the so-called “María Trilogy” of telenovelas in the ’90s — which aired in more than 180 countries to an audience of nearly 2 billion — she found fans wherever she went, no matter how far-flung the locale.

But for Thalia, who started her career as a child and came to fame in the ’80s both as an actor and as a member of the influential Mexican pop group Timbiriche, her early-’90s breakout was a period of significant and challenging adjustment.

“It’s very intense to think [about] because I was surviving back then,” the now 54-year-old recalls, almost in tears. “I never thought back then that I was an example for a little girl looking up at me while I was struggling. I was going through pain. I was going through tears. I was doubting myself. I did not believe in myself. I was just a teenager. I started very, very young, and I never expected to be an example in my worst moments for someone.”

Watch Billboard’s Women in Music 2026 live on YouTube.com/Billboard and Billboard.com on April 29, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT. For more coverage on Women in Music, click here.

But today, the artist born Ariadna Thalia Sodi Miranda is a powerful, resilient and transformed woman. Since 1990, when she launched her solo music career with progressive pop-rock melodies and a flirtatious persona, she’s placed 41 entries on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart, the third-most for a woman in the list’s history, behind only Shakira (56) and Ednita Nazario (44). She’s been a fixture on other Latin charts — 29 entries on Latin Airplay, 26 on Hot Latin Songs, 16 on Top Latin Albums — and has notched seven titles on the all-genre Billboard 200.

And beyond her enduring charts presence, the Queen of Latin Pop and Queen of Telenovelas (as she’s known) has bridged generations, supporting and collaborating with emerging Latin acts such as Maluma, Prince Royce, Natti Natasha and Lali early in their careers.

“It’s kind of like a mission for me,” she explains, recalling how veterans such as Juan Gabriel and Emilio Estefan lent their support when she was a new artist. “It’s just something that we have to do in this industry. We have to look [after] each other; we have to protect each other. It’s a big family.”

“I was just starting out,” Prince Royce says of working with Thalia on the 2013 track “Te Perdiste Mi Amor,” “so having someone as iconic as her believe in the music and want to work with me was definitely an honor.” The collaboration reached No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs and topped Latin Airplay. “Every time I see her, she’s full of energy and always has a big smile on her face,” he adds. “She’s passionate about what she does.”

Years later, Natti collaborated with Thalia for the cheeky 2018 reggaetón track “No Me Acuerdo,” which peaked at No. 14 on Hot Latin Songs. “She has managed to reinvent herself over the years without losing her essence — something that is incredibly difficult to achieve,” the Dominican singer says. “She boasts an impressive career and has connected with various generations, always representing Latin culture with great strength and elegance. Furthermore, her energy, discipline and love for music have kept her relevant for decades. That is a feat that very few artists manage to accomplish.”

At her Women in Music shoot — where she arrives in slouchy jeans and a brown sweater, before changing into a strapless red gown, her signature mane of loose waves draped over her shoulders — she radiates excitement and allure. She’s receiving the Icon honor, and in just a few days, she’ll release Todo Suena Mejor En Cumbia, a new all-cumbia album that includes her Los Ángeles Azules collaboration “Yo Me Lo Busqué,” which hit No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart in May 2025 — and a cumbia cover of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

“I’m very relaxed in my life right now and feel happy in my own skin. I feel that it’s a moment of celebration, and cumbia is exactly that,” she says. “It’s a party, family, memories, roots, neighborhood, and it’s just a project that’s so dear to my heart. It’s part of me growing up in Mexico. Cumbia is a big part of our DNA.”

The singer and actor — who’s also an entrepreneur, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and appears as one of the female leaders highlighted in Amazon Prime’s docuseries The CEO Club — has no plans of slowing down. When asked what defines an icon, her answer is simple: “I conquer, right?”

Then she elaborates. “I don’t take myself too seriously anymore,” she explains. “There was a moment when everything was life or death, black or white, now or never. Now, it’s just taking it easy. It’s OK. I earned my place. When [fans] approach me for a picture, or when they say they were named after me, those moments are when you realize that everything was worth it. All of these years. I always say this is the beginning. An icon is that.”

This story appears in the April 18, 2026, issue of Billboard.

As we arrive at the two-year anniversary of the passing of Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, his son is immersing himself in the grieving process on a new song.

“Heartache” is opening track and second single from Duane Betts’ upcoming second solo album, Isle of Hope, due out June 12. Co-written with regular collaborator Stoll Vaughan and accompanied by an evocative video directed by Bobbi Rich, the moody and mournful song references the likes of Pink Floyd and George Harrison as Betts sings, “Until your eyes have lost their spark/And the room has gotten dark/I’ll wait, watch over you/Nothing I can do.”

“‘Heartache’ is a deeply personal song to me,” Betts tells Billboard via Zoom from Los Angeles. He and Vaughan wrote it in Florida, shortly after Dickey Betts passed away on April 18, 2024, at the age of 80. Duane Betts had played in his father’s band, Great Southern Sky, since 2005, while he and the late Gregg Allman’s son Devon Allman work together as the Allman Betts Band, staging annual Allman Betts Family Revival Tours late each year.

“It’s haunting,” Betts says of “Heartache,” “but I think more than anything it’s a universal feeling that we all can relate to, losing somebody we love. It goes to anyone who’s lost somebody that they love. Obviously when you lose someone like that, it’s this flood of emotion and you’re mourning, but there’s also a beauty and a relief that they’re in a better place and they’re not suffering anymore.

“It’s tough being that vulnerable. I was in a very emotional and vulnerable place, but I wasn’t in a depression. I have an unfair ‘advantage’ because I play music, and I’m up on stage every night. I feel like even if I’m not playing one of my dad’s songs, I keep him in my back pocket. I know he’s right there with me, riding right with me. I’m just really grateful for the good memories and all the good times, especially the later years when we were both sober. He was able to see me pull my life together. That was a great relief to me.”

The video for “Heartache,” meanwhile, is shot on 8mm film to give it a grainy, home movie appearance, with photos of Betts and his father interspersed with scenes of him performing the song in beachfront areas around Malibu, one of the younger Betts’ homes while he was growing up.

“I really like making videos when you have somebody at the helm you can trust, who you know has impeccable taste and is gonna do a great job,” Betts says of Rich, who was discovered by his wife. “I really wanted to (film) out on the West Coast, on the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to get away from the old Florida vibe, ’cause I’ve done that. On the second day (of filming) the spirit was with us; it was iconic Southern California type of weather, and there were whales and dolphins and sea lions and hawks. All of nature was out, and it was so beautiful.”

“Heartache” follows the rowdier “Down to Houston” in previewing Isle of Hope, which was produced by Dave Cobb over five days at his studio in Savannah, Ga. The album takes its title from the actual Isle of Hope in that area, but Betts says he chose it to represent the feeling he wants the set to convey across its 10 songs.

“I really want this record to offer a sanctuary…that music is a sanctuary, and this is your little piece of land to stand on,” he explains. “Everybody agrees these times are crazy, and everybody’s anxious. Something my dad used to say when we’d go up on that stage every night for three hours was we want to give our listeners, our fans, a little reprieve from their outside trouble and daily stresses in life. We want to offer them a sanctuary, where they don’t have to think about that.”

Unlike his solo debut, 2023’s Wild & Precious Life — which featured guest appearances by Derek Trucks, Marcus King and others — Betts stuck to a core band, which includes fellow guitarists J.D. Simo and Johnny Stachela. “We tossed the idea (of guests) around,” Betts says. “I looked to (Cobb) for advice, and he said, ‘No, you need to come out by yourself and have great songs. That’s what you need to get you where you want to be.’ And, I mean, doing the record with Dave Cobb is kind of that big feature. That’s a big deal.”

Betts and his Palmetto Motel touring band have shows booked into October. There’s also an Allman Betts Family Revival concert on June 6 in Vail, Colo., with a run of those dates expected for the usual late November-December timeline. “That’s always something we look forward to, and we kinda just go wherever they take us,” Betts says. “Obviously I’m focused on my record, so I don’t want to do too much else to overlap that. (Isle of Hope) comes from a really deep and meaningful place for me, so I’m really looking forward to having people hear these songs.”

Before there was Tate McRae, ultra-polished pop performer, there was Tate McRae, preteen from Calgary, Alberta, writing songs at home and uploading them to YouTube.

And while McRae’s high-caliber, intricately choreographed performances and visually striking, maximalist music videos have arguably become the focal points of her public image today (manifesting in a fierce alter ego she calls Tatiana), it’s her other side that Billboard is honoring as this year’s Women in Music Hitmaker — the one who used to take solace in crafting lyrics to sing not in front of more than 10,000 screaming fans but alone in her bedroom. The 22-year-old’s underappreciated pen is just as lethal as her performance capabilities. After a modest debut in the familiar lane of Gen Z pop melancholia — making her first Billboard Hot 100 appearance in 2020 with “You Broke Me First” — McRae enlisted fellow hit-makers Ryan Tedder and Amy Allen to help craft pristine, radio-­friendly pop bangers that she could actually move to, tapping into her upbringing as a competitive dancer onstage and channeling past pop icons such as Britney Spears (to whom she’s now ­frequently compared).

“Tate was dedicated and disciplined to become the absolute best,” recalls renowned choreographer Sean Bankhead (Lil Nas X, Victoria Monét, Normani), whom McRae tapped specifically to help with her transformation, of first meeting her. “I have always wanted to mold the next big pop girlie who could not just write amazing songs and sing them live but of course command every stage she stepped foot on. And with Tate we accomplished that in a very quick two years.”

Watch Billboard’s Women in Music 2026 live on YouTube.com/Billboard and Billboard.com on April 29, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT. For more coverage on Women in Music, click here.

With her 2023 breakthrough, Think Later, and its 2025 follow-up, the Billboard 200-topping So Close to What, McRae became a chart regular, as songs like “Greedy,” “It’s Ok I’m Ok” and her post-The Kid LAROI breakup anthem “Tit for Tat” all landed in the top 20 of the Hot 100. Last May, her Morgan Wallen collaboration “What I Want” became her first Hot 100 No. 1, and despite swerving from her now-signature pop sound, the team-up didn’t feel “out of the ordinary” for McRae. “I used to write to only guitar in the studio, so it felt natural,” she tells Billboard matter-of-factly.

Now, on a drizzly Friday afternoon in February, she’s somewhere in between the two aforementioned Tates — still in full glam from the photo shoot she just wrapped as stylists flutter around her but also chatting freely about her burgeoning love for Jersey City (near where rumored boyfriend Jack Hughes of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Olympic gold medal-­winning U.S. hockey team is based) and whether there’s still time to enjoy her favorite weather here in New York, where she now lives. “Is it still raining?” she asks hopefully, craning her neck to see. “I love the rain!”

With fame has come noisier online speculation about her politics and personal life — and she’s spoken in the past about her complicated feelings, post-proverbial “rebrand,” around the public’s way of sexualizing young female pop stars. But she says she’s combated this by ditching social media and “romanticizing” her real life instead. And with her $110.8 million-grossing (according to Billboard Boxscore) Miss Possessive arena tour in the books since November, she confirms she’s back in the studio, feeling inspired by everything from her recent travels to Paris to her newfound obsession with Scottish dream-pop legends Cocteau Twins. (She’ll return to the road this summer, with headlining turns at Montreal’s Osheaga and Chicago’s Lollapalooza.)

She has no idea where her writing will take her next — but that’s perfectly OK with her. “I’m just constantly trying to make art that feels somewhat timeless and [give] performances that feel like they can eventually stand up beside my favorite performances,” McRae says with a shrug.

“It definitely feels like the beginning,” she adds. “I feel like right now I’m looking at a blank page being like, ‘Where do I take this?’ ”

How would you define a hit song?

You have to think with the most extreme and open mind when you’re writing … [otherwise] it’s the most uninspiring work. Everything’s been done before — every key has been played, every word has been used. All you have is your own unique perspective.

Which of your hits have been the most meaningful?

“Sports Car” is one of my favorite songs of mine. It was such a swing and such a fun song to write.

“Greedy” was a very meaningful song to me. When I think back to that phase of my life, I was so lost. I was 19, and this big singing career felt so daunting to me, and it felt like this was one of the first times where I had pure clarity and direction on where I wanted to go visually and sonically.

Who’s your dream collaborator?

Lana Del Rey. I listen to Lana 24/7 — I’m just the biggest fan.

Which other women in the industry do you admire?

I love Olivia Dean, Sabrina [Carpenter], Gracie [Abrams]. Olivia [Rodrigo] — I’m so excited for her to drop music again. She’s an unbelievable songwriter. She never fears brutal honesty or laying out all her insecurities or feelings on the table. She’s like that as a friend too, just the most open, honest person.

I always look to Rihanna and think she’s got the best career ever. She’s just the coolest woman alive.

People love to talk about your “rebrand,” but what steps did you take to become the performer you are today?

I had a very specific vision. I remember being like, “I want to be a pop star. I want Sean Bankhead. I want to write over this tempo. I want to do it in a hockey rink. I want this to be the aesthetic.” I could see it all in my brain.

It was about collecting the right people around me to make it a reality. Sometimes you get signs and messages on where you’re supposed to go in life, and you ignore it. And then finally, it becomes the most piercing feeling in your gut, and you wake up and you’re like, “All right. No more time to waste.”

Are there ways in which you’ve felt misunderstood by the public?

So many different ways. As a woman, you just have to understand that you’re constantly going to be under a microscope, and sometimes that’s a really scary and overwhelming feeling. But on the optimistic side of that, with scrutiny and opinions and people’s perceptions of you, it just leads to a lot of growth and doubling down on who you are.

I could say that people’s comments don’t affect me, but of course they do. I’m a girl. I have emotions and feelings and insecurities. It sucks to have people commenting on your body or commenting on who you are or having perceptions that are completely off.

But for me, I’m just here to make art. Trying to explain yourself is a game that I can never win.

This story appears in the April 18, 2026, issue of Billboard.

Diane Warren loves reggae. Maybe you weren’t aware, but you will be soon thanks to the legendary songwriter’s upcoming debut reggae album, Songs in the Key of Diane: A Reggae Compilation of Diane Warren Songs. The unexpected 13-track collection of classic, deep-cut and unreleased songs penned by Warren is due out on July 31 and was previewed on Friday (April 17) with the revamp of DeBarge’s 1985 chart-topping single “Rhythm of the Night,” given a swaying island lilt by American reggae band Common Kings.

“I’ve always loved reggae,” said Warren in a statement announcing the project that mixes unheard songs and lesser-known tracks with certified hits. “It’s music that just makes you feel good. My music has always had that rhythmic Caribbean feel, starting with ‘Rhythm of the Night.’ It’s cool to have fresh covers of the old hits – it’s like putting a new set of clothes on them – but I’m even more excited about the songs that haven’t been heard before. There’s such a wide variety of artists on this record, which made it so much fun to do.”

The album was born out of the more than three-decade relationship between Warren and Regime Music Group president Steven Rosen, who curated the project and co-produced it alongside Warren and Regime/Island Empire co-founders Ivory Daniel and Kevin Zinger.

“What makes a song great is its ability to stand on its own two feet, and be able to work in different genres, like reggae,” added Warren. “If the melody, lyrics and rhythm are there – the bones – it should work in any style of music. I could write something as a ballad and have it turned into a killer dance track. I love taking a song and flipping it on its head.”

Another Island Empire label act, Polynesian/Samoan reggae singer Sammy Johnson, takes on “I Heart U,” a previously unreleased Warren-penned reggae song, with late Pacific reggae superstar Fiji performing a version of “You Kind of Beautiful,” which was originally covered by country singer Jimmie Allen for Warren’s 2021 album, The Cave Sessions, Vol. 1; it was the final recording by Fiji (born George Brooks Veikoso) before his death at 55 in July 2025.

“It’s a tragedy that he [Fiji] didn’t get a chance to see this come out,” said Rosen. “He and Diane had a great relationship. She gravitates to singers who can carry the message of her songs.  They need that type of singer.  Not everyone can cover a Diane Warren song. Her melodies are challenging.”

Among the other Regime/ Island Empire acts on the set: Filipino American singer Eli Mac, who covers the 1983 Exposé hit “I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me,” Tongan singer Analea Brown’s take on Aerosmith’s 1998 Oscar-nominated Armageddon smash “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and Hawaiian-born singer MAKUA’s cover of Bad English’s 1989 hit “When I See You Smile.” In addition, Fiji protégé Nomad do a version of “Blame It On the Rain,” the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash written by Warren for disgraced lip synch duo Milli Vanilli.

Anuhea covers the LeAnn Rimes Coyote Ugly soundtrack tune “Can’t Fight the Moonlight,” alongside tracks that never saw the light of day, including Pia Mia’s “Hey Haters,” a “happy eff you” song recorded years ago in a non-reggae version that was never released. Grammy-winning Nashville band Morgan Heritage’s lead singer Gramps Morgan offers up a version of “I Wish That,” an unreleased Warren song from more than a dozen years ago that the release said has a resonance in today’s politically fraught times.

“That’s what was most interesting to me,” Warren said of the tracks that were brushed off and reimagined for the set. “Being able to place these songs with these reggae and Pacific Island artists so that they can be heard was a big attraction for me. I write songs without having any idea about who can perform them, and then along comes an artist who fits it perfectly. That happened throughout this project.”

Check out the track list for Songs in the Key of Diane below: