NIKI has given Chappell Roan a musical makeover, covering “Casual” for her recent appearance on Like a Version, the long-running segment from Australian radio station triple j.

Airing on Friday, April 10 (Australian time), the performance was recorded in mid-March during the Australian leg of the Indonesian-born singer’s Buzz World Tour. As is tradition, the two-song set launched with an original, which saw NIKI deliver a raucous rendition of her “ female rage” song “Colossal Loss,” which has become wildly popular with her fans despite not being released as a single.

For the cover portion of the set, NIKI turned her attention to Roan’s “Casual,” which had been initially released in late 2022 as a single, before appearing on her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess the following year. As a result of the Grammy-nominated album’s global success in 2024, “Casual” peaked at No. 59 on the Hot 100 in August.

Stripping away the nostalgic synths in favor of a Gibson 12-string and slide guitar, NIKI’s reinvention of the track almost feels like something of a link between Roan’s original and the country-pop of her March single “The Giver.”

“It’s definitely a song that I wish I wrote,” NIKI explained in a post-performance interview. “I love the entire record, obviously, but ‘Casual’ was the one that really stayed with me on a personal level. It’s almost like I feel like I’ve known those melodies all my life, so it just felt very familiar and the production is just so moody.”

“For my version of casual, we decided to speed it up and make it more of like an early 2000s vibe, because we’ve been covering a lot of early 2000s bangers on tour,” she continued. “Just to kind of tie it into that universe of my Buzz tour, we sort of like Buzz-ified it, I guess.”

Having first launched in 2004, the Like a Version series has gone from being a near-impromptu acoustic affair to featuring larger studio productions. Numerous artists have taken part over the past two decades, with the likes of Billie Eilish, Childish Gambino, Arctic Monkeys, and more reinventing classic tracks in the process.

HYBE is continuing to work to protect its artists.

Korea’s Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency (NGPPA) worked with the global entertainment company to arrest eight individuals who are suspected of creating and distributing deepfake videos of HYBE Music Group artists, Billboard can confirm. Deepfakes are false images, videos or audio that have been edited or generated using artificial intelligence.

The investigation was launched as a result of a Memorandums of Understanding between HYBE and NGPPA, signed in February 2024, as a means to combat cybercrimes for their artists and maintain their safety. HYBE provided information to NGPPA, who were able to track down and identify the suspects. Additionally, fans helped the investigation by sending reports via the HYBE Artist Rights Violation Report Center tip line.

“HYBE will respond firmly to crimes that infringe on our artists’ portrait rights and reputations, based on a zero-tolerance and no-settlement policy,” Jason Jaesang Lee, CEO of HYBE, said in a press statement, adding, “We will continue to monitor and take legal action to eradicate such serious crimes.”

Ho-seung Kim, district chief of NGPPA, also assured that deepfake suspects will continue to be tracked down. “Deepfake crimes that exploit the vulnerabilities of celebrities—who often find it difficult to report such offenses themselves — are on the rise,” he said in his statement. “Deepfake is a serious type of crime that can destroy the daily lives of victims, and crimes targeting public figures are no exception.”

At press time, HYBE has not released names of suspects or which of its artists were affected.

In new promos for this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, Lizzo pays homage to another pop star with a rich history on the SNL stage: Britney Spears.

Saturday’s musical guest Lizzo wears a Britney T-shirt in the promos, throwing back to the pop princess’ teen-idol days. This weekend will mark Lizzo’s fourth time performing on SNL (she also hosted the show once in 2022), while Spears did double-duty as host and musical guest twice (in 2000 and 2002) and performed on the show in 2003. (Spears has also been impersonated on the show more than a dozen times, most recently by current cast member Chloe Fineman.)

Lizzo stars in the new promos with host Jon Hamm (hosting for a fourth time this weekend) as well as cast members Bowen Yang and Marcello Hernandez. The quartet finds out just how much they have in common when they decide to say their favorite food in unison (“mozzarella sticks”) but things get really “weird-mazing” when they recite their shared favorite movie. “Angels in the Outfield, the heartwarming 1994 sports comedy starring Donald Glover and a young Joseph Gorden-Levitt!” they all say enthusiastically at once.

We also learn Hamm’s surprising real name and find out that this isn’t the first time this four-pack has spent time together. Watch the promos here:

Lizzo is going on the show to promote her upcoming fifth studio album Love in Real Life, which doesn’t yet have a release date and has been preceded by the title track and “Still Bad.” Last month, she announced on Instagram that the album is officially complete.

“ALBUM IS DONE YALL!” she wrote, alongside a photo of herself in the studio, struggling to smile, which she explained in the second half of the caption: “ASTROLOGY EXPERTS Do my mercury got micro braids? Cus I got an emergency root canal, announced SNL & finished my album all in one day today.”

SNL airs Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and then streams on Peacock.

Rema is ready to get Coachella weekend one started with his new Afro-R&B single “Bout U,” which he released on Thursday (April 10).

Produced by Rema and London, the intoxicating track finds Rema infatuated by the one he dubs his favorite girl in the world, with a subtle nod to Megan Thee Stallion‘s 2020 hit “Body” (“4:30 in the morning, thinking about you/ And about your archy, body-ody-ody-ody,” he sings in the first verse). He’s determined to let nothing tarnish his dreamy love affair, encapsulated by the song’s sensual melody and striking electric guitar.

“Bout U” is the second single the Nigerian star (real name Divine Ikubor) released this year, following his Sade-sampling “Baby (Is it a Crime)” in February. The single reached No. 3 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs and No. 4 on World Digital Song Sales.

He’ll make his Coachella debut this Sunday, April 13 at the Mojave Tent. His performances during the first and second weekends of the festival are included in his Heis World Tour, which officially kicks off Friday, April 11 at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, includes stops at major international arenas such as London’s O2 Arena and Paris’ Accor Arena before wrapping on Aug. 3 at Poble Espanyol in Barcelona, Spain. The 23-date international trek is in support of his critically acclaimed sophomore album Heis, which peaked at No. 7 on World Albums and earned Rema his first Grammy nomination earlier this year for best global music album.

Rema is nominated for artiste of the year, song of the year (“Ozeba”), album of the year (Heis), music video of the year (“Charm”), producer of the year (“Hehehe”), Headies’ viewers’ choice (“Ozeba”), Afrobeats album of the year (Heis), best performer (live) (Ravage Uprising: Rema Live From The O2, London) and digital artiste of the year at the 2025 Headies Awards, which will take place at the Landmark Centre in Lagos, Nigeria on April 27.

Listen to “Bout U” below.

The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” has hit another milestone, as the music video for the viral hit reached one billion YouTube views.

The milestone marks the Australian singer-rapper’s first entry to the Billion Views Club and the Canadian superstar’s 12th as a lead, featured artist or collaborator. In the clip, which was released in July 2021, the duo are frozen in time as LAROI navigates a broken heart.

Upon its release, “Stay” spent seven non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the Pop Airplay and the Adult Pop Airplay charts. The diamond-certified anthem won Top Hot 100 Song as well as Top Collaboration honors at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.

In the 2024 Prime Video documentary Kids Are Growing Up: A Story About A Kid Named LAROI, the duo opened up about becoming musical collaborators. “From the moment I met Justin, it was just all about positivity coming in here. No judgment zone, let’s all have fun,” Laroi says in the doc, before Bieber recalls: “He plays me this song, ‘Stay,’ and it was him on it by himself. He was like, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna use it for my album.’ I was like, ‘Well, if you don’t use it, give it to me. I’ll use it. This is a great song.’”

To celebrate the song’s new achievement, rewatch the “Stay” music video below.