Two years ago, WrestleMania 40 — arguably WWE’s greatest spectacle ever — took over Lincoln Financial Field. Home to the Philadelphia Eagles, WM40 drew more than 120,000 wrestling enthusiasts and unfolded as a cinematic answer to Avengers: Endgame. Heavyweights like The Rock, The Undertaker and John Cena flexed their in-ring superpowers, leaving thousands awestruck just hours before reality came calling.

Minutes away, inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena, Trick Williams was writing his own origin story. Headlining NXT Stand & Deliver, the former NFL hopeful was inching closer to the stage he had always envisioned for himself.

Now, his moment has arrived. On Sunday night, Williams will look to carve out his WrestleMania moment, making his official debut alongside Lil Yachty, with the United States Championship in his sights.

“This is my first WrestleMania. This stage is the biggest and where the lights are the brightest,” Williams tells Billboard in his first-ever interview with the publication. “On top of that, I have a purpose and a why. My mom had knee surgery about a month ago — she got a knee replacement. She’s been rehabbing every single day. She said, ‘There’s no way in the world I’m going to miss my baby’s first WrestleMania.’ I got to show up and show out. If she’s fighting, I’m fighting. It’s way bigger than me.”

Williams’ volcanic rise isn’t only a product of grit and tenacity — it’s charisma. His in-ring promos drip with it, leaving fans hungry for more. Add in his entrance theme, powered by triumphant horns inspired by Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem’s Grammy-winning track “Family Ties,” and Williams feels like a star built for more than just the squared circle. He’s an in-ring firecracker with rap sensibilities, ready to conquer the entertainment world. On Thursday (April 16), Williams leaned further into that lane, releasing his new song “Gingerbread Man” featuring Lil Yachty, which is aimed at his WrestleMania opponent Sami Zayn.

“Some people are gonna kick, fly, flip, and that’s cool. But Trick Williams ain’t no stunt double — I’m a superstar,” he says. “I’m gonna make you want to watch me work. When I come out, I don’t have to do all the moving. I’m gonna sit still and soak it in.”

For entry 020 of Mic Drops and Elbow Drops, Williams speaks with Carl Lamarre about Kendrick Lamar’s influence on his entrance theme, his own musical ambitions, working with Lil Yachty, and navigating comparisons to The Rock.

Two years ago, you were main-eventing NXT Stand & Deliver. Now you’re on the WrestleMania card fighting for the U.S. Title. What’s been the biggest shift in you as a performer and as a man during that rise?

I think it’s the pressure. Going into the deep end time after time again and having ups and downs. You mentioned Stand and Deliver and that was my first time main-eventing during WrestleMania weekend. I remember being hyped for that match with myself and [Carmelo Hayes], which was crazy. It was the biggest NXT attendance ever — no title involved. I remember just saying to myself, “Oh shoot. We’re breaking records.” 

I just remember the pressure and the anxiety that came with that. But, as time progressed, with winning and losing the title eventually, main-eventing, going to TNA — no, excuse me, “Trick-N-A” — as the world champion, I had to learn to be a dog, jump off the deep end and work with some GOATs who were honestly better than me. Now, you take all that and transition to Smackdown, I felt the fire. I felt the pressure. Now I can stand across from Randy Orton. I can stand across from Sami Zayn and call him Ginger Ale or Ginger Snap, because I been here before. I’ve been working my whole life for this entire moment.

Your relationship with Carmelo Hayes goes back to your early NXT days. What did it mean to share the ring with him again on SmackDown, this time as two fully realized stars?

It was a dope moment. Even in that environment, with us trying to make it to Elimination Chamber, it felt oddly familiar hearing his music play before mine — or I’m sure it felt the same way for him hearing my music. We’ve both been here both countless times. So it’s cool to see all that hard work that we put in from day one manifest into something great like Smackdown every single Friday.

With that history between you and Melo, how much deeper can the storytelling go now that you’re both on the main roster stage?

I feel like that’s not really up to me. I’ll be honest with you: I’m not really chasing the past. Ex-girlfriends, they’re back there. I’m getting married soon. That’s just how I look at it. The past is in the past, and if Melo is in the main event scene, shoot, I’ll meet him there — because that’s what I’m on the way to, ’cause there’s where I’m trying to be. 

“Whoop That Trick” went from an NXT crowd chant to arguably one of the hottest themes in WWE today. Why do you think it connects the way it does?

The theme song is just lightning in a bottle. There’s a lot of things you can’t orchestrate or predict the way they need to hit. I’ll tell you this, Carl, I just knew I wanted horns at the beginning — because to me horns signify royalty. When Jesus is coming back, there’s gonna be horns playing. I love [Baby Keem and] Kendrick Lamar’s “Family Ties.” [Starts humming the beat.]

Triumphant. 

Triumphant. Glorious. It feels like something big is on the way to the ring and I love that. I said I needed some trap drums on there, some 808s and something to make it feel like hip-hop because that’s a large part of who I am being The Anointed One. So I sent the “Family Ties” instrumental to our musical team and they sent me back my instrumental within the next 10-20 minutes. Right away, I said, “That’s a hit.” I could feel the energy. 

Man, I was in my living room and just walking out remembering where I was going to hit my points — I already knew it. Mind you, the “Whoop That Trick” chants — if you listen to the instrumental — there’s no words in the song. Since day one, when I had a match against IIja Dragunov and debuted this theme, the crowd was right there, chanting “Whoop That Trick.” That’s why I said it’s lightning in a bottle: Because I didn’t know they were gonna chant. They were chanting “Whoop That Trick” with my old theme — which is why it crossed over so smoothly — but you don’t know if it’s gonna hit the same. It fell right on their lap. Then, Booker T was right there with the ad-libs. Nobody heard this before. There were no rehearsals. 

I’m manifesting Kendrick and Keem popping out at WrestleMania 43 and 44 to do a mash-up of “Whoop That Trick” with “Family Ties.”

That would be so tough, man. Inspirational place to be. I love that. 

You’ve shown flashes on the mic, even rapping on NXT. Could you ever see yourself taking music seriously like John Cena or R-Truth did?

Absolutely. Trick Williams and music are intertwined. I speak from this, because I’ve been a fan of music for a very long time. So I understand music — maybe not to the doctorate level where I’m hitting notes and everything — but I know what sounds good and I know what doesn’t. Now that I’m rocking with Lil Yachty, we might have a little something on the way. Gingerbread, let’s [talk] about it. Music, it gotta happen. 

Lil Yachty recently appeared alongside you on SmackDown. How do you see that relationship evolving both creatively and musically?

Can’t lie. Working with Yachty has been dope, man. He loves the business. He’s not here to be no part-timer or just pop in for WrestleMania, he wants to be here for [even the smaller markets like] Delaware or Baton Rouge. He wants to hit the cities because he loves the game. It’s funny seeing him before we went out on [Smackdown]. You can tell he was getting in his state. He said, “Man, I don’t even get nervous for no concert no more, but I feel something for this.” That’s special. 

Your charisma is undeniable. How do you make sure the personality enhances and not overshadows your in-ring work?

I can’t be worried about that. Shoot, I’m just gonna do my thing, nah mean? [Laughs.] If it overshadows, then so what? Everybody here for a different reason.

As the kids would say, some people just have that aura. 

You know what I’m saying? And the work gotta be there. That’s a non-negotiable, like having your degree. Yeah, it’s a necessary requirement to get the job, but it doesn’t make you qualified in the sense that you’re the best to do it. So know I can lean on more than what I can do inside the ring. I want to make you feel like it’s a whole other environment when my music plays. You just stepped into Trick Willy’s world. Let’s talk about it. 

Wrestling feels more embraced by hip-hop and the Black community than ever right now. From your perspective, what’s changed and what does that mean for the next generation?

Wrestling was cool — it was always cool — but especially in the Attitude Era. Stone Cold been accepted amongst us. The Rock, Booker T, DX, it was cool. People were proud to say, “Did you see what The Undertaker did last night? — it was part of the culture. Things are circling around to where wrestling is becoming hotter now than it was ever before. Shout-out to TKO, Nick Khan, [and] Triple H, because they got us on different platforms where the brand can expand to places we ain’t ever been before. Now we’re on The Breakfast Club, and ESPN. I’ve been on ESPN five times.

You were on First Take with the Lemon Peps. 

With the Lemon Peps. Me and Stephen A [Smith] kicking it, talking about South Carolina basketball. This doesn’t happen 10 years ago. It’s a good time to be in the game. 

You’ve drawn comparisons to a young Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. How do you take that as motivation without letting it define you?

When it comes to being a WWE Superstar, that’s one of the best compliments you can ever receive, because I feel like nobody has ever done it like The Rock. That being said, I don’t want people to see The Rock in my work. Maybe the way people feel might be similar to when The Rock was doing his thing now that Trick Williams is doing his. I want that to be the extend of it, but as far as, “Oh man. He’s doing what The Rock does?” Absolutely not, man. Trick Williams is his own man because The Rock is one of those guys who can really, really say, “I’m going to pursue this.” 

When I was putting down my football helmet with the Philadelphia Eagles — it was around KofiMania time — I said let me go back to what made me love wrasstling. I watched The Rock and his promos. I saw how he can pick the crowd up and set ’em down and they can know everything he was about to say. He controlled the crowd. It was almost like a pastor at church. It was crazy how he can do it. I said if I was going to do this, I want it to feel like this. I gotta find my way to make the people know that they can have a great time. I’m not The People’s Champ, I’m The Anointed One. Let’s talk about it.

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.