Brandi Carlile has a call to action for those who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 but now feel disappointed in how his second presidential term has played out so far: It’s OK to change your mind.

In an interview with Rolling Stone moments after her Saturday (Feb. 21) concert in Minneapolis, the country star expressed empathy for people she thinks were misled by the twice-impeached POTUS, especially amid ICE’s widely criticized ongoing immigration enforcement operations in the United States. “It’s very clear that this administration is not interested in legal immigration,” she told the publication backstage at the Target Center.

“They’re interested in violent theater,” Carlile continued. “Violent theater and dominance over other people. I don’t believe most people signed up for that. Even people who voted for Trump, who I’m angry with, I don’t think they voted for this, and I do think that they can still change their minds.”

The 11-time Grammy winner went on to compare the situation Trump voters are in to a time when she says she was manipulated into buying an expensive vacuum cleaner by a door-to-door salesman. Rather than paying the bill — which she couldn’t possibly afford at the time as a struggling artist — she called up the company and successfully pressured them into taking the product back at no cost.

“So, you got f–king scammed. We’re living in a scammy time,” Carlile said. “That’s what people do. You can’t even pick up your phone without getting scammed. Doesn’t mean you have to double down. It doesn’t mean you have to pay for the f–king vacuum cleaner. And I just think there are a whole lot of people out there right now feeling duped and feeling ashamed and embarrassed.”

“What they need to feel is angry,” she added. “They need to get mad and change their minds. Get past the embarrassment, get past the shame that we got duped by a con artist. Get mad enough to change your mind.”

Billboard has reached out to the White House for comment.

The singer’s tour stop in Minnesota doubled as a benefit concert for Minneapolis nonprofit The Advocates for Human Rights, which has been working to support families affected by ICE’s arrests, detainments and deportations in the city. According to a post shared by Carlile on Instagram, the event raised more than $600,000 for the organization.

Minneapolis has been at the center of discussions around the morality of Trump’s crackdown on immigrants since the beginning of the year, with people all over the country protesting ICE’s presence in the city and the fatal shootings of two civilians — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — at the hands of immigration enforcement officers in January. Many musicians have spoken out against ICE in the weeks since, while Carlile has long been outspoken in her opposition to the federal agency’s actions.

“I am so heartbroken and angry for Minnesota,” she wrote in a January post on Instagram. “Over the past month, the community there has continued to set an incredible example for the rest of us, demonstrating the power of uniting to protect our neighbors and defend what is right.”

PinkPantheress will be honored with the producer of the year prize at the 2026 BRIT Awards, making her the first woman to earn the accolade.

The Kent-born musician will collect the award at the ceremony held at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena this Saturday (Feb. 28).

First awarded in 1977, the prize has been won exclusively by male producers. Paul Epworth, Eurythmics’ David A. Stewart, and Trevor Horn are the all-time leaders, having won the prize three times each. Other winners include Sir George Martin (1977), Brian Eno (1994, 1996), and Calvin Harris (2019). A.G. Cook, a key contributor for Charli xcx’s 2024 LP brat, is the most recent winner of the prize. 

Kate Bush and Goldfrapp are among the female producers to be nominated over the years, but ultimately did not collect the prize. 

At 24 Pantheress is the youngest to collect the prize, beating previous record-holder Steve Levine, whose credits include work with Culture Club and The Beach Boys; Levine was 25 years old at the time of his win in 1984.

Since her first release in 2021, PinkPantheress has been recognized for her songwriting and production skills. She began producing at age 17 on GarageBand, and has continued in her role as a lead producer on all of her recorded material, including 2023’s Heaven Knows LP and 2025 mixtape Fancy That. The latter was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2025, and reached No. 3 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart.

Her style, which features a variety of samples and nods to scenes such as U.K. garage and rave, has drawn plaudits. She achieved a No. 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with Ice Spice collaboration “Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2” in 2023.

Speaking on the recognition, PinkPantheress said: “As the first woman to win this award, I’m grateful to be recognized. My music production is the thing I’m proudest of, and I’ve worked really hard at it, so I hope this inspires others to pursue their passion.”

She joins Noel Gallagher and Mark Ronson as honorees at the upcoming ceremony. Ronson will collect the outstanding contribution to music prize, while Gallagher – despite controversy – is to be awarded songwriter of the year.

Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead the pack with five nominations each at the upcoming ceremony, with Dean set to perform alongside Harry Styles, Wolf Alice, Rosalía, Alex Warren and more.

Live Nation is asking a judge to postpone its looming federal monopoly trial so that it can file an immediate appeal, arguing that last week’s ruling contained legal errors that could “dramatically change” the case.

Judge Arun Subramanian sent the case to trial last week, setting the stage for a jury trial next month in the Department of Justice’s sweeping antitrust lawsuit, which claims that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have abused their dominance over the live music industry.

But in a court filing on Sunday, Live Nation says it wants to launch a so-called interlocutory appeal – meaning it wants to challenge that ruling before the case is over. And it says the scheduled trial must be halted until that appeal has been decided.

“The court should not empanel a jury to try a complex, month-long case when that trial (at least as currently envisioned) may well prove wholly unnecessary,” Live Nation’s lawyers write, adding that such a pause would “avoid wasting the resources of the parties, this court, and jury members on a trial of claims that may well be deemed legally deficient on appeal.”

A jury trial is currently scheduled to begin on March 2. DOJ did not immediately return a request for comment on Live Nation’s move to pause the case.

The DOJ and dozens of states filed the case in 2024, with an aim to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over accusations that they form an illegal monopoly over the live music industry. The feds alleged Live Nation runs an illegal “flywheel” — reaping revenue from ticket buyers, using that money to sign artists, then leveraging that repertoire to lock venues into exclusive ticketing contracts that yield ever more revenue.

In October, after more than 15 months of discovery, Live Nation moved for a so-called summary judgment ruling, arguing there was “barely a molehill” of evidence that it had done anything monopolistic. The DOJ disagreed, arguing it had uncovered numerous examples of the company abusing its market power.

In his ruling last week, Subramanian said the case could proceed to trial on several key accusations, including that Live Nation abused its vast portfolio of amphitheaters to force artists to use its promotion services: “A reasonable jury could certainly find that artists were coerced into going with Live Nation as their promoter to get into its amphitheaters,” the judge wrote.

Though he allowed the case to move ahead, the judge also threw out some other key monopoly claims focused on concert booking and the fan experience. And Live Nation quickly praised those elements of the ruling, arguing they undermined “any serious argument for breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.”

In a blog post titled “It’s Time to Move On,” Live Nation head of corporate and regulatory affairs Dan Wall urged the DOJ to respond to the ruling by reaching a “realistic, common-sense” settlement rather than take the case to trial. But by Friday, that post had been removed from Live Nation’s website.

The DOJ and the states will have a chance to file their own court papers in the coming days responding to Live Nation’s request for an immediate appeal and postponement of the trial.