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Bunnie Xo, who is married to country singer Jelly Roll, is here to share her journey, on her own terms, in a new memoir.

The book, titled Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, is set to release Feb. 17, and is available on almost every platform, including Amazon for $24 and Barnes & Noble for $29.99. The memoir is witty and, at times, intense. That wittiness comes in handy to bring levity to otherwise dark topics. According to a synopsis from Amazon, the book is “cold, clear evidence that no one is irredeemable. With a heavy dose of humor and a refreshing sense of self-awareness, Bunnie pulls no punches as she shares her journey of redemption while offering some homespun wisdom to those who need a little saving themselves.”

The book’s cover is a reflection of Bunnie’s — born Alyssa DeFord — time in the sex-work industry. The star stands topless with her jeans unbuttoned, bearing her truth both physically and emotionally, through this memoir. According to Bunnie, her stint in the industry enabled her to “reclaim her power” following her struggle with addiction and the abuse she faced as a teen. Flash forward, and Bunnie has built an empire around Dumb Blonde Productions, creating a successful podcast with thousands of monthly listeners.

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This is a memoir by Bunnie Xo, Jelly Roll’s wife. The book is available for pre-order now.

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The book is branded as a “modern-day rags-to-riches story,” spinning a tale of triumph against all odds. “Stripped Down is the rawest reflection of who I am in every form. It felt only fitting to name my book after the way I’ve always lived life — raw, unfiltered and in my naked truth,” Bunnie said in an interview with People in regards to the memoir.

Bunnie and Jelly met in Las Vegas while the musician was performing at the Las Vegas Country Saloon in 2015. The pair married a year later at Las Vegas’ Stained Glass Wedding Chapel in August 2016. They briefly split in 2018, but they rekindled their relationship. Since their whirlwind love story began, Jelly Roll has written songs dedicated to his wife, including “Hey Mama” from Beautifully Broken and “Kill a Man” from Whitsitt Chapel.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

BTS are back and ready to tear up the music scene once again. This time, however, they’re coming to a city near you.

The boy group’s 2026 album, titled Arirang, is dropping on March 20. In support of said album, the boy band is finally going on tour, aptly titled ARIRANG tour. The hype is so real that, according to HYBE, BTS’ parent company, the North American and European legs of the world tour have already sold out within a few hours, reflecting ARMY’s hardcore devotion.

Think of it this way. This is the first album BTS has released since they all took time off to fulfill the mandatory military service South Korea imposes on men in the country — a service that takes up to 18 to 21 months. Additionally, the last time the group went on tour in America was during their Permission to Dance on Stage residency, which wrapped up in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 16, 2022. It’s safe to say that the lengthy hiatus and lack of music have left fans craving more of the BTS boys.

The North American leg of the ARIRANG tour will begin in Tampa on April 25, with stops in Mexico City, Las Vegas, Toronto, Chicago, and more. It will conclude with four-night shows at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles with 31 shows in total. Tickets for BTS’ ARIRANG tour were available for presale Jan. 22-23rd, followed by a general sale on Jan. 24. We’d recommend checking Ticketmaster periodically to see if new tickets have been added. If not, third-party ticketing sites are your best bet at securing seats. Below we’ve listed out a few of those third-party sites, along with a few deals on us, that’ll hopefully help you snag the tickets you’ve been searching for.

While you’re at it, why not shop the boy band’s merch to prep for your concert attendance? Shop our picks here.

Where to Get Tickets to BTS’ 2026 ARIRANG World Tour Online

BEST PRICES

StubHub

find tickets here

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StubHub features some of the best pricing on tickets for BTS’ tour we’ve seen thus far, with some going for just $167, a steal when compared to other platforms. The third-party platform still has a ton of seating options available. You can shop for all dates and arenas with ease thanks to the ticketing service’s FanProtect Guarantee. This initiative protects fan’s purchases by ensuring valid tickets or your money back. Plus, if your event is canceled and not rescheduled, you will receive a credit worth 120% of the amount you paid for the impacted event, or the option of a cash refund.

EARN REWARDS

Vividseats

FIND TICKETS HERE

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Seating is ample through Vivid Seats now, with prime pricing on some venues starting at just $141. The ticketing service offers a 100% Buyer Guarantee that vows your transaction will be secure, that your tickets will be delivered before your event and that those tickets will be valid and authentic. Right now, you can use promo code BB30 to snag $30 off of your purchase. Our favorite feature of the site is that it shows you the lowest ticket pricing for each venue on the landing page without having to click into the venue so you can compare in one place.

PROMO CODES

Seat Geek

FIND TICKETS HERE

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With our help, you’ll be able to get tickets to BTS’ tour at an affordable price via SeatGeek. Right now, you can use promo code BILLBOARD10 at checkout to receive $10 off at checkout. We’ve seen tickets at some venues for as low as $143. The ticketing service features a Buyer Guarantee that ensures smooth ticket purchases every time. The site also offers you venue options based on your location, giving you the closest venue to you.

PROMO CODE

TicketNetwork

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More savings on us, this time with TicketNetwork. You can use code BILLBOARD300 at checkout to save $300 off orders of $1,000, and BILLBOARD150 to save $150 off orders of $500. If you don’t have the funds to buy your tickets just yet, you can also buy the tickets on the website now and pay later with help from Affirm. Plus, the website includes all-in pricing that lets you see exactly what you’ll be paying upfront (fees included).

GREAT PRICES

Gametime

find tickets here

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Gametime features a slew of seating options for a range of prices, making for another great third-party option for those looking to shop BTS tickets on a budget. Some venues have tickets starting at $134, a steal given how in high-demand the tour is and how pricy tickets can become. Gametime guarantees the lowest prices, event cancellation protection, job loss assurance and on-time ticket delivery for a smooth ticket buying experience every time, no matter the occasion.

OFFICAL TICKETING

Ticketmaster

find tickets here

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Ticketmaster is the official spot to snag tickets for BTS’. Picking are slim, given many venues have already sold out, but it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled in case new dates are added. The ticketing service offers a Fan Guarantee, which allows for cancellations, refunds or exchanges within 24 hours of booking, subject to certain exclusions.

The ticketing site also recently announced that they’re barring fans and brokers from operating multiple accounts on its platform. They also plan to shut down its long-criticized TradeDesk ticket uploading application and start requiring ticket brokers to hand over their Social Security numbers in order to sell tickets on Ticketmaster’s resale platform, further making sure your tickets are secure.

BTS 2026 ARIRANG World Tour Dates

Shakira was spending the holidays at her farm in Uruguay, across a vast ocean from South Africa, host country of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when she conceived “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).” Already a global phenom known for her vocals and dance moves, the Colombian star had quickly gone to work when presented with the opportunity to write a song for the upcoming soccer tournament, and she soon turned a track around that fused genres, languages and multinational beats with abandon.

“It was sort of magical the way it happened, because I was just walking from the barn into the house, and I started singing the melody of the verse, with the lyrics, automatically, in English,” Shakira says. “It was like someone was dictating it from above. And I felt so connected to my childhood, to my roots, to my Afro Caribbean roots as well … I was so excited, I called the people at Sony and told them I had just written the most amazing World Cup song.”

“Waka Waka,” produced by Shakira with John Hill, was already catchy — but it became even more so after a fortuitous encounter in a New York studio between Hill and South African pop fusion group Freshly-ground, which then contributed to the song, adding a musical element that honored the host nation.

“Shakira moved swiftly from interest to creation, writing and recording a track that stood apart from the musical landscape at the time,” recalls Dusko Justic, senior vp of international artist strategy and development for Sony Latin Iberia, who at the time was responsible for the A&R and marketing for the official FIFA World Cup music program. “Once FIFA heard the finished record, there was no debate.”

For nearly four decades, FIFA has partnered with prominent musicians to craft songs that celebrate the World Cup and its competing nations. “Waka Waka,” the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, remains the most successful World Cup song in history and a global juggernaut; its video has been viewed a staggering 4.4 billion times on YouTube, making it the platform’s eighth most viewed music video of all time. A decade after its release, Shakira would perform the enduring hit at another globally watched sporting event: the Super Bowl LIV halftime show, where it ended her co-headlining set with Jennifer Lopez.

“Waka Waka” had all the elements that make for a successful and enduring World Cup song: a danceable, uptempo beat to resonate with audiences around the world (the song samples “Zamina Mina [Zangaléwa],” by Cameroonian band Golden Sounds), an artist with global appeal and reach, and a featured artist representing the host nation. Shakira also recorded the song in Spanish, which drew in her Latin fan base. And significantly, she was already a genuine soccer aficionado; the song’s music video not only incorporated her signature dance moves but also major soccer stars from Lionel Messi to Gerard Piqué, who became Shakira’s longtime partner and the father of her two sons after meeting her at the video shoot.

World Cup songs are not always such massive hits — nor were they always officially sanctioned by FIFA. The first World Cup was played in 1930, but the event wouldn’t designate a song as “official” until the 1962 event in Chile when Chilean band Los Ramblers’ “El Rock del Mundial” was declared the tournament’s official song.

It’s unclear when FIFA became actively involved in the song’s selection (the organization did not respond to Billboard’s requests for comment), though multiple reports cite Italian composer Giorgio Moroder’s “To Be Number One,” recorded for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Since then, every tournament has had an official song, anthem or — for the past several World Cups — both. (The exact distinction between these designations has shifted over the years.) Some of them have been performed at the closing ceremony (as was the case with “Live It Up,” performed by Nicky Jam, Will Smith and Era Istrefi in 2018) and some at the opening ceremony (like 2014’s “We Are One [Ole Ola],” performed in Brazil by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Brazilian artist Claudia Leitte).

But record labels didn’t -fully appreciate the possibilities of official songs until the 1998 tournament in France when, in addition to the official anthem (Youssou N’Dour and Axelle Red’s “La Cour des Grands [Do You Mind If I Play]”), Ricky Martin released the official song, “The Cup of Life.” With both English and Spanish (“La Copa de la Vida”) versions and its French rallying cry of “allez, allez, allez,” the track made the World Cup “the most influential and pivotal platform in the transition of helping to create the Latin explosion,” says Tommy Mottola, who was then Sony Music chairman.

“The Cup of Life,” with its mix of brash trumpets and Brazilian batucada, was a global hit, peaking at No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending 34 weeks on the chart, long after the monthlong tournament had ended. It was so successful, in fact, that when Martin earned a 1999 Grammy nomination for best Latin pop performance for his Spanish-language album Vuelve (which included “The Cup of Life”), Mottola pushed hard to have him on the show, over the Recording Academy’s objections.

After the academy relented, the rest was history. Martin’s exuberant performance of “The Cup of Life” — complete with a huge backing band and performers on stilts — became what then-UTA head Rob Prinz called “the single biggest game-changing moment for any artist in the history of the Grammys.” It not only catapulted his career into the mainstream but also helped to usher in “the Latin explosion,” as it would become known stateside. “[Taking it] from the platform of the World Cup to the stage of the Grammys really was the key to set off this Latin explosion,” Mottola says. “There would probably be no Bad Bunny without this.”

The World Cup is, by far, the most widely seen sporting event in the world, with an estimated 5 billion people tuning in to watch the 2022 edition at some point, including 1.5 billion viewers for the tournament’s final match, according to FIFA. But while that platform “100% provides value” to any music release, Mottola says, it doesn’t guarantee huge, or lasting, commercial success.

Sony Music — which was FIFA’s official label partner for many years until 2019 — released “The Cup of Life” and “Waka Waka,” and in their wake, the importance of music as a promotional vehicle during the World Cup soared. What was once one “official” song became many, with tournament sponsors, broadcasters and individual countries commissioning original tracks.

“It used to be that there was a single song that FIFA chose and everybody used that song,” says Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin Iberia. “But after ‘Waka Waka,’ every brand, every network wanted to have a World Cup song. And while a hit is not something you simply dictate … it helps when there is a single song that’s played everywhere you go.”

But, Verde continues bluntly, “you need a real hit. And you look for a hit informed by what’s happening on the planet, what the social climate is. You need to embody the spirit of the sport, convey a message of unity, understanding it’s a competition. The song needs to reflect that each team is going to give their all.”

In 2021, FIFA launched its FIFA Sound strategy, meant to connect soccer and music fans, and partnered with Universal Music Group for a series of releases and initiatives that included the first-ever multisong FIFA World Cup official soundtrack for the 2022 event in Qatar.

From that soundtrack, “Arhbo,” performed by Ozuna with Congolese French rapper and singer–songwriter GIMS and produced by RedOne, topped Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart for three weeks in 2022.

At press time, FIFA had yet to announce an official tournament song or anthem for this year’s event, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. But official FIFA songs already include Robbie Williams’ “Desire” (penned for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup), while last year Telemundo premiered its own official song, “Somos Más,” performed by Carlos Vives, Xavi, Wisin and Emilia.

There have been notable World Cup songs through the years. In 2014, “We Are One” hit No. 59 on the Hot 100; as of Jan. 22, it has 146.5 million on-demand official streams, according to Luminate. And K’Naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” from 2010 was chosen by Coca-Cola as its official song for the tournament, garnering 161.6 million on-demand streams in the United States and reaching No. 82 on the Hot 100.

But none have come close to “Waka Waka” in consumption or longevity — perhaps in part because Shakira fully understood the importance of the sport in the creation of the music, a rare combination.

“A World Cup song needs to have that feeling of adrenaline that you get when you’re playing or when you’re watching an exciting game,” she says. “A suspenseful pre-chorus, a joyous, explosive chorus. You have to feel the payoff. And I think the rhythm is important, so people can celebrate not only with the words but also with dancing, with their bodies. I think music is the best vehicle for moments of extreme emotion, like a World Cup can be.”

This story appears in the Feb. 7, 2026, issue of Billboard.

If it seems like your favorite K-pop star is everywhere all the time when they have a new album or tour to promote, there’s a good reason for that. In a new chat with The Hollywood Reporter ENHYPEN member Jake broke down the rigors of the K-pop fame machine, telling the magazine that “you can’t really expect to have a normal life,” when you’re thrust into the genre’s hype cycle.

“Other K-pop artists or other K-pop seniors that have been doing this for longer than me. They know what I’ve gone through,” he said of the grueling scheduled of rehearsals, recording and promotion. “They all went through the same thing. I feel like it’s important to share what you’re feeling because if you want to ask advice for anything related to your life or my life as a K-pop artist, there’s no one that can relate to it other than the same people that are doing it. I don’t really know a lot of people, to be honest.”

Jake, 23, who slid into a producer role on the septet’s recent album, The Sin : Vanish, said stepping behind the boards “sparked something inside me that I didn’t really know that I had,” because, if he’s being honest, sometimes being a K-pop idol is “very repetitive. We wake up, we have a very tight and set schedule down to the minute. We have to wake up at this hour, this minute. We end our schedule at this [time]. I used to enjoy that.”

And while he likes that kind of regimented schedule and said he’s just naturally “wired that way,” sometimes without him realizing it the non-stop schedule can get “very tiring.” Switching things up and trying his hand at production, though, has helped Jake escape that exhausting cycle, if only for a little while. Jake said that taking the helm on the new LP’s opening narration track, “The Beginning,” and the song “Sleep Tight” was one of his personal goals for the year.

“It’s the first time I really worked on the track. I would usually just work on the melodies or the topline on a song, but it’s the first time that I really just started working on it from scratch,” he said. “It was a very new experience. I found out that I might be better at the producing of the track. A very close producer that I always worked with, he told me that I might be better at doing the track instead of the top melody. It just all came along together very smoothly, which is kind of surprising because it’s the first time for me to really work on a song on an album. I was very lucky and very surprised.”

Learning a new skill is key to staying relevant in what Jake confirmed is the rapidly evolving K-pop universe, one that is quick to react to trends and changes as the industry cranks out a steady stream of new acts, each striving to carve a unique lane to break through to global audiences. “I feel like the fact about K-pop that every K-pop artist knows but does’t want to talk about is that [the] K-pop industry is very competitive, right?,” Jake said. “We all say we don’t want it to be, or we want everyone to do their own thing… Every K-pop artist is different.”

Jake said the ever-changing, “fast-paced” series of concepts his fellow K-pop bands roll out in search of a leg up on the competition keeps the genre as up-to-date as any other. “You have to be on top of everything,” the singer said. “We would be lying if we said we didn’t feel any pressure. We are very confident in our abilities to always put out something different or a different concept. I feel like we’re confident in that way… We all try to be the first to do something and be the first to do something different, and I think we definitely did that for this album.”

Don’t get him wrong, though, Jake loves what he does and wouldn’t change it for anything. “We enjoy performing in front of our fans, and I think that’s what motivates us during the hard times, which is before we come back, before we put out an album, the few months or the half a year that we have to put in doing the music videos, recordings, making the album, that’s the hard bit,” he explained. “Just the thought of putting this album out and singing this song in front of our fans is what helps us get through the few months.”

ENHYPEN recently released the trailer for ENHYPEN [WALK THE LINE SUMMER EDITION] IN CINEMAS, a tour documentary for the film that will hit movie theaters for a limited engagement on March 5 and 7.

The Bad Bunny Bowl is in the books. Now, only one question remains: Who should headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2027?

As always, the internet is already rife with speculation about which major artist could take the baton at the next Big Game, which is slated for Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. One name that inevitably comes up every year is Taylor Swift, who definitely has the star power and catalog of hits to dominate the stage for 10 minutes — though she said in 2025 that she probably won’t take the gig for as long as fiancé Travis Kelce is playing in the NFL.

“Can you imagine that he’s out there every single week, like, putting his life on the line, doing this very dangerous, very high pressure, high intensity sport, and I’m like, ‘I wonder what my choreo should be?’” she joked to Jimmy Fallon in October.

But who knows? The Eras Tour might change her mind, or maybe either of the world’s biggest K-pop groups — BTS and BLACKPINK — will get the gig, with both of them scheduled to make huge comebacks with new albums in 2026. Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, with their widely loved, chart-topping discographies are also favorites, while either Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus or Harry Styles could bring some pop energy to the league. Perhaps Lil Wayne will get the chance to headline the mid-game spectacle after feeling snubbed a year ago when Kendrick Lamar won it over him, or Drake could finally have his opportunity to hit back at Dot’s 2025 halftime disses with a show of his own.

And then there’s always the possibility that Jay-Z himself will do the honors. The rap icon’s Roc Nation has overseen the booking of the halftime performer since 2019, and though he hasn’t released an album in nearly a decade, there’s always a chance he’ll use the Super Bowl stage to launch his long-awaited, highly anticipated return to dropping music and performing.

It’ll be many months before we know for sure who’s headlining Super Bowl LXI, but right now, Billboard wants to know who you’d pick. Vote for which artist you think should perform at halftime next year in the poll below.