Nearly five decades after his grandfather Vicente Fernández was named Mr. Amigo, Alex Fernández received the same honor during the Feb. 26 ceremony at the Gateway International Bridge, which connects Matamoros and Brownsville, where the event is held annually. The award honors individuals who unite the cultures of Mexico and the U.S. through their work.

“It’s an honor that connects history, culture, and community,” Fernández tells Billboard Español after the event. “It has immense significance because, in my family, we don’t see it as a trophy, but as a symbol. My grandfather was Mr. Amigo in 1977, and growing up with that example reminds me that a legacy isn’t just about music or fame; it’s about how you represent your people and your values.”

“Honestly, I was in shock,” he added about the moment he received the news of the recognition. “I felt immense gratitude and, at the same time, a sense of responsibility.”

During the ceremony, the 32-year-old singer, known for songs such as “Cuéntame” and “Te Amaré,” was also named a Distinguished Guest of Matamoros. “The Fernández family is very special to our community,” Michelle Pompa, president of the Mr. Amigo Association, said about the choice of the ranchera music performer, part of the third generation of a renowned dynasty of singers.

The award comes at a time of great tension for immigrants in the U.S. due to the aggressive deportation campaigns under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I think it feels more relevant than ever,” Fernández tells Billboard. “Mexico and the United States are deeply connected. Migrants are an essential part of that connection. We can celebrate what unites us, honor our differences and choose respect as our meeting point.”

The Mr. Amigo distinction originated in the early 1960s when a small group from the Chamber of Commerce in Brownsville, Texas, undertook a project to promote relations with the border city of Matamoros to strengthen ties between the two countries. It was first awarded on Oct. 12, 1964, to Mexican president Miguel Alemán.

Since then, a long list of personalities has been honored — including Mario Moreno “Cantinflas,” Armando Manzanero, Lola Beltrán, Juan Gabriel, José José, Emmanuel and many others — which has been documented in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as a model of friendship between the two nations.

As part of the 2026 celebrations, Fernández unveils a star with his name on the Brownsville Walk of Fame on Friday (Feb. 27). On Saturday (Feb. 28), he will parade in an open vehicle accompanied by charro associations from both cities in a traditional event to conclude the festivities.

When I came to Billboard in January 2019, the U.S. recorded music business had just gone through its third year in a row of growth. After hitting a low point of about $7 billion in 2014 and 2015 — about half of its 1999 peak — U.S. recorded music revenue in 2018 rose 12% to $9.8 billion, three quarters of that from streaming. The number of paid music streaming subscriptions in the U.S. hit 50 million. Vinyl brought in $419 million. Call it a comeback.

After seven years here as a deputy editor and then a columnist, Feb. 27 will be my last day and this will be my last column. I’ve seen a million faces and I’ve rocked them all — plus covered enough intellectual property litigation to know that it’s legally safer to quote that lyric if I point out that it’s commentary. I saw the music business return to health, boom and begin to navigate its next set of challenges. (Before you ask, I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing next, but stay in touch.)

As of 2024, the last full year for which information is available, the U.S. recorded music business is worth $17.7 billion, 84% of which comes from streaming, including more than 100 million paid subscriptions. Vinyl alone accounted for $1.4 billion, which would have been a fifth of the entire business in 2018. The publishing business is thriving, the live sector is booming and music rights are becoming a recognized investment vehicle.

If things are so good, though, why do so many music creators and executives feel so bad? Over the past two years, the major labels have gone through rounds of layoffs. A flood of AI content threatens streaming royalties. And the high margins that labels traditionally generated are now threatened by new distribution companies — including those owned by the labels themselves. Should I have called this column “We’ve Only Just Begun” or “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” The only things I know for sure are that seven years from now my colleague Ed Christman will still be the sharpest journalist covering the industry and no one in it will have done anything worthwhile with the blockchain. But here are some reasons to be upbeat — and downcast — about where the music business is going.

Reasons for Optimism

Drivers License

So far, AI music has been more about litigation and consternation than value generation. But last year, two of the three major labels signed licensing deals with generative AI companies that represent an important initial step toward making this a business that helps creators and rightsholders. How exactly this will work in practice is still unclear — deals are necessary, but not sufficient. But now that various stakeholders know that there’s going to be licensing revenue, they can begin to argue over it.

We Are the World

Over the past seven years, global recorded music revenue grew from $17.3 billion in 2018 to $29.6 billion in 2024, the last year for which data is available, according to IFPI. Some of that revenue now comes from countries that barely generated any revenue in 1999. The same is happening with publishing royalties. When it comes to artists, more talent than ever is crossing borders, and creators working in genres like K-pop and regional Mexican music are scoring global hits. The U.S., Japan and Europe remain the biggest music markets, but countries like South Korea, Mexico and Brazil are more important than ever. That trend will continue.

Let’s Get Physical

For more than a decade, Very Serious People have been saying that the music business is driven by streaming — which it is. But global revenue from vinyl sales has grown for 18 years, and the format now generates almost 10 times the revenue of the entire recorded music business in the Middle East and North Africa, according to IFPI. (It’s almost certainly less profitable, but that’s hard to know for sure.) A couple of years ago, I was told that revenue from vinyl “isn’t as important,” which is either too smart for me to understand or pretty stupid. Vinyl sales are leveling off, but a new wave of pricey audiophile products will continue to drive growth. So, in a much more modest way, will I.

Memory of a Free Festival

For much of the last decade, the live concert business in the U.S. was dominated by festivals, which is fantastic if you like seeing artists while standing in a field. For those of us who prefer venues better suited to music, it’s good news that single-artist concerts are making a comeback. Partly, this is because these shows, often events in their own right, can be more lucrative. But it’s also because festivals that once prized their differences — from hipster Coachella to hippie-leaning Bonnaroo — started to book a lot of the same acts. Festivals aren’t going anywhere; they will remain an important part of the live business, as they should. But it’s nice to have more variety, as well as more seats.

Reasons for Pessimism

Islands in the Stream

For all its cultural and financial importance, music streaming can still be a bit wonky — focused on the mainstream and weak on discovery, without much context. If you like relatively mainstream music — pop, rock, hip-hop, country, Latin — the big streaming services work really well. But if you like jazz or reggae or old country, they’re still just not organized very well — quartets and quintets led by the same musician are considered completely different artists, albums recorded by artists under pseudonyms are listed separately and nothing is cross-indexed in a useful way. I wish that just a bit of the work and wealth that goes into buying and marketing catalogs could be devoted to the basics.

Mo Money, Mo Problems

The live music business has never been better — or, in some ways, more fragile. Concert ticket prices have risen to the point where they are unaffordable for many people. I don’t consider this a moral issue and I’m not sure the government needs to get involved, except to ensure that the market of promoters remains competitive. At the same time, pop concerts have almost always been affordable for teenagers and twentysomethings, who remain their core audience. Changing that won’t affect the concert business soon — but it could affect the entire music industry over time.

Margin Walker

It’s funny how much venture capitalists used to complain about major labels, given that their businesses weren’t as different as either side would like: They both made big bets, against tough odds, on terms that as a result had to favor them. These days, though, labels face more competition than ever from distributors, both those they own and those they don’t. This pushes artists to demand better terms, which is great except that these deals don’t come with as much of a runway. The bets on creators get smaller, safer and shorter-term. It’s easy to resent the major-label business model until you realize just how much of their gross profit goes into finding, signing, developing and marketing new artists.

It’s the Same Old Song

Although these things are hard to measure, it seems harder than ever to break new acts. Catalog dominates streaming — not the old rock that some envision but the hits of the last decade or so. The dominant artists of the time I’ve been at Billboard have been Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Drake — with the last of them recently losing some ground to Bad Bunny and Morgan Wallen. Whether these artists are enjoying their justly deserved dominance or clogging up the charts depends on how much you like them — but they have all had great runs. Who’s next? More stars emerge all the time, but it does seem to be harder than ever to develop them.

Joe Shanahan kept a voicemail from R.E.M. for 20 years. The owner of Chicago venue Metro isn’t sure where it is now. Erased? Stored on an old piece of technology? Accidentally discarded? But he does know that the voicemail launched his 1,100-capacity club nearly 45 years ago.

Shanahan had begun hosting DJ events at what he named Smart Bar on one of the top floors of Chicago’s former Swedish community center turned concert venue – first as the Northside Auditorium Building, which hosted greats like John Prine and Bonnie Koloc, and then as Stages Music Hall. The Chicago native was spinning records at his own loft when the crowds of 200-300 people became too large and he transitioned his talents to Smart Bar that kicked off in the concert hall around midnight and went until 4 a.m. or 5 a.m.

The first DJ to perform at Smart Bar was house music pioneer Frankie Knuckles in the summer of 1982 and, from there, the space became known for its fusion of house and punk.

“I was at that fulcrum, that pivot culturally in Chicago. All the other bars were just playing Top 40 music,” Shanahan tells Billboard from Gman Tavern, the watering hole next to Metro that he bought years after drinking at the bar with Prine “trading bullshit about baseball and life and politics.”

“While New York was birthing rap and hip-hop,” he adds. “Chicago was birthing house and industrial.”

Prior to Smart Bar, he had flown out to see R.E.M. play the Big Apple’s Danceteria and fell in love with the band’s sound.

“Being the Chicago, South Side Irish hustler that I am, I walked backstage. I had a business card that had my name on it, had a phone number on it, but didn’t say anything about Metro, didn’t say anything about Stages. Because they didn’t exist yet,” he says. To R.E.M., “I was like, ‘Hey, if you ever get stuck and don’t have a gig in Chicago and don’t have a promoter or don’t have a venue, call me. I will help. I will be there for you.’”

In 1982, R.E.M. left Shanahan the voicemail.

“These guys remembered that,” Shanahan says. “I was like, ‘Okay. I’ll do this’ and I did. I did a ticket price for $7 at the door, $5 in advance [at Stages Music Hall]. I paid the band a little bit of money. We broke even. And I thought, ‘Gosh, that was fun. What are we going to do next weekend?’”

More calls started coming in, which Shanahan credits to R.E.M. for telling people how much fun they had playing his venue in Chicago. Shanahan began booking shows at Stages, which he changed to Metro when he took over the main stage. He named the venue after the Paris public transport system because he felt the many staircases of the 1927 building resembled the Metro stop where he got stuck trying to find his way out to the Eiffel Tower.

Much like the Swedish community center before it, Shanahan wanted Metro to serve Chicago by supporting local talent, as well as bringing non-regional acts for what was once considered a flyover state for touring acts.

“First couple of months, we had no idea what we were doing and it was more about that we just liked the music. We went after bands we liked,” says Shanahan, who booked local bands including Naked Raygun and Ministry. From there, he flew around to cities that nurtured punk and alternative music cultures like London and New York, where he saw New Order and booked them for Metro.

The day New Order first played Metro “was one of the hottest days in Chicago. The air conditioning at Metro – what we had at the time was inadequate for the amount of people that were in the venue for as long as they were in the venue,” Shanahan recalls, adding that Wax Records founder Jim Nash, told him “I sweated off five pounds of beer and water” that night.

New Order and Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook remains a friend to this day and will play two nights at Metro later this year.

According to Shanahan, Chicago and Metro gained a reputation for nurturing metal and other burgeoning genres of rock music. In 1983, Metallica played their first Chicago show at Metro. In 2024, Metallica returned to play Chicago’s 60,000-plus capacity Soldier Field and played a video of their days performing at Metro.

Three years before the Soldier Field performance, Metallica played at Metro for the 30th anniversary of the Black Album and sold tickets for $19.83 to reflect the first year they took the stage in Chicago.

Metro went on to put Chicago on the map bringing in shows from Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, The Ramones, PJ Harvey, Joe Strummer, Elliott Smith and more. And in the 1990s, Metro was ready to welcome the rise of grunge, punk and alternative rock, booking gigs from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sleater-Kinney, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mudhoney and Chicago’s own Smashing Pumpkins.

The Pumpkins “played every month for a year,” Shanahan says, calling Metro the band’s laboratory. “They would open for people. They would play in the middle slot. They would headline. My staff at one point was saying, ‘God, if we have to hear the Pumpkins one more time, Joe.’”

Along with help from venues in Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland and Cincinnati, the Midwest touring circuit began to thrive, circulating local bands like Soul Asylum, Husker Du, The Replacements and The Afghan Whigs. By Metro’s 15 anniversary, the club had enough notoriety to book two nights with Bob Dylan to celebrate.

“Bob had just released a record [1997’s Time Out of Mind] and he’s heard about Metro and he wanted to play there,” says Shanahan. “He had very specific ideas on how to do the ticketing, which meant we had to sell each ticket by hand at the door before the show.”

When tickets went on sale at the box office, there were more than 2,000 fans waiting in line and Shanahan and Jam Productions’ Nick Miller spent their day attempting to weed out fake fans. Scalpers, he explains, used to put teenagers in line with a hot dog and a beeper to get tickets they could easily flip for a quick profit. So, he and Miller went down the line asking people what their favorite Dylan song was and booting those who didn’t pass the test.

Metro’s ticketing strategy has gotten more sophisticated over the years. The venue team – many of whom have been working there for 20 or 30 years – will sort through ticket purchases to weed out ticket resellers looking for out of country requests or bulk ticket buyers. “Artists know that we’re going to do the ticketing right. We’re not greedy people looking to make $1 or two off of a ticket. It’s about getting real fans at the club,” Shanahan says.

Outside of the ticketing process, very few things have changed at Metro in the last four decades. The floors are the same. The fixtures are the same. The railings and the doors are the same. Only the stage and the sound system (which Metallica’s Lars Ulrich gave his seal of approval) have been upgraded and the floor that previously held Smart Bar is now office space for Shanahan and his team that still operate under the parent company Stages Music Hall. But Metro continues to book big names like Snoop Dogg, Chance the Rapper, Fall Out Boy, Luke Combs, Common and more.

The secret to Metro’s longevity, Shanahan says, is “music is the message.”

“I’m still a fan. I still love new, emerging talent. One thing that’s been consistent in my life is, I still buy records every Saturday morning. I still listen to a lot of radio online from KEXP or even FIP in France,” he adds. “People who work at Metro are also music fans and that’s what keeps the indie spirit alive.”

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the building and 45 years of Metro and Shanahan is ready to celebrate. He’s hoping to get some bucket list talent with help from promoters C3 Presents (Lollapalooza) and Jam Productions like Tracy Chapman, The Rolling Stones and U2. Shanahan asks, “Bono, Dylan played Metro. Why not you?”

On the eve of a potential BRIT Awards triumph, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s “Rein Me In” has held onto the No. 1 spot on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart.

The joint track first hit the top spot Feb. 20 following a record-breaking rise: The song spent 35 unbroken weeks in the top 40 before finally reaching the summit.

The song was first released on Fender’s People Watching album in February 2025. Four months later, Dean joined the Geordie-born rocker at his London Stadium show for a performance of the song, with a new studio version issued. It’s the first No. 1 song of Fender’s career and Dean’s second.

“Rein Me In” will compete in the fan-voted song of the year category at the BRIT Awards ceremony Saturday (Feb. 28). Fender is also nominated for album of the year, artist of the year and alternative/rock act, while Dean competes in the album, artist, song and pop act fields.

Dean is also at No. 2 with her solo track “So Easy (To Fall in Love),” a non-mover from the previous week.

In the week she was named BRITs’ producer of the year winner, PinkPantheress sees “Stateside” bump six places to No. 3 and follows the popularity of her song’s remix with Zara Larsson. She is the first woman and the youngest ever recipient of the honorary producer prize, which she will collect at Saturday’s ceremony.

Bella Kay’s “iloveitiloveitiloveit” sees a massive jump up to No. 4, a 22 place rise on the previous week, and gives the newcomer her first top 10 single. The track first entered the top 40 just two weeks ago.

Sombr’s “Homewrekcer” lifts two places up to No. 5 to give the track a new peak on the Singles Chart. Milky’s 2002 track “Just the Way You Are” is up to No. 11 and enjoying a resurgence due to Mall Grab’s viral remix.

There’s a new peak for Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights track “Chains of Love,” and Dominic Fike’s 2018 track “Babydoll” hits the top 20 for the first time (No. 18). 

Christmas came early for millennials on Friday (Fen. 27), when Megan Thee Stallion hopped on the fiery remix of Juvenile’s comeback hit “B.B.B.”

The raunchy track has been scorching on TikTok for Juvie, which led to the Houston Hottie’s fans imploring Megan to jump on a remix, and she happily obliged, while completing the southern link-up spanning generations.

“A YN can’t do s—t for me, I need that old money, AARP/ My s—t a jacuzzi, pinker than tusi/ Just like Claressa, he love this Papoosey/ Get in that flow state, he don’t wanna lose me,” Meg shrewdly raps about her love life.

Nowadays, Megan Thee Stallion seems to be head over heels for her NBA boo, Klay Thompson. While Klay is only 36 years old, the Dallas Mavericks sharpshooter has that “old money” she’s rapping about, with Thompson’s career earnings approaching a staggering $300,000,000, according to Spotrac.

Boxer Claressa Shields and Flo Milli lent their stamps of approval to Megan’s bars referencing them. “JUST LIKE CLARESSA HE LOVE THIS PAPOOSY REAL HOT GIRL SH!T,” the boxer wrote on Meg’s Instagram post announcing the song.

Flo added: “Get in that flow state he dont wanna lose mee… Ur eatingggggg!”

View this post on Instagram

Juvenile has picked up momentum in the early stages of 2026 thanks to “B.B.B.” The New Orleans legend joined Wild 94.1 for an interview earlier this week, where he spoke to his creative process.

“I listened to [the beat] and I just thought about it and I said, ‘Hmm, let me do a song that relates millennials, me, people like me,’” he explained.

The Cash Money icon released “B.B.B.” in January featuring an assist from Genesisthegawd via UTP Records/DNA Music and Hitmaker Distro.

Listen to the “B.B.B.” remix below.