Snoop Dogg is headed into space for a starring role in an upcoming sci-fi movie from director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element). The rapper will not only top-line The Last Man, but according to Variety, he will also co-produce the post-apocalyptic tale whose plot is being kept quiet for now.

The magazine reported that The Last Man is believed to be inspired by Planet of the Apes and have a connection to Snoop’s 2009 track “Last Man Standing.” Besson’s eclectic, four-decade-plus filmography has included a number of science fiction films, among them 1997’s The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, the trippy Lucy with Scarlett Johansson in 2014 and the big-budget Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in 2017, which featured Clive Owen, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna and Ethan Hawke.

Besson is also writing the script for the upcoming film, which Variety speculated would be in the same wheelhouse as The Fifth Element, mixing sci-fi with comedy and action. The project will be a reunion for the director and rapper, who worked together in 2006 on the live action/animated fantasy movie Arthur and the Invisibles, in which The Voice coach starred as Koolamassai leader Max alongside an all-star cast that also included Madonna, Robert DeNiro, David Bowie, Freddie Highmore, Mia Farrow and Chazz Palminteri.

“Ever since I’ve seen The Professional, I’ve always wanted [Luc] to direct a whole movie for me. Now we finally get the opportunity for him to write and direct me in a Luc Besson movie,” Snoop said.

Besson returned the admiration, adding, “I’ve been a big fan of Snoop Dogg’s music ever since ‘Who Am I.’ We first met 20 years ago, and we’ve always wanted to work together again. We just needed the right project that would excite us both — and this is it, with Snoop in the lead role. I can’t wait to get started!”

Snoop’s Death Row Pictures is co-producing the movie along with Besson and wife Virginie Besson-Silla for EuropaCorp, with filming slated to begin next year.

The rapper’s acting resume is nearly as long as his rapping sheet, dating back to early appearances in Half Baked and Caught Up in the mid-1990s, as well as co-starring roles in a variety of dramas, comedies and genre films, including Baby Boy, Training Day, Bones, The Wash, Starsky & Hutch and Dolemite Is My Name, among many others.

In the meantime, Snoop is gearing up to release his Missionary album on Friday (Dec. 13), which represents his first full-length LP made in collaboration with mentor Dr. Dre since Snoop’s 1993 debut, Doggystyle.

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2024 all next week. Before that, we revealed our Honorable Mentions for 2024 on Tuesday — and now, we present a salute to the artist with the most impressive comeback this year: Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who took his slowly built cult stardom back overground with one of the year’s defining pop hits and his biggest year of touring and live appearances yet.

Hozier — yes, the guy that sent a soulful rock ballad about a romantic relationship thriving in the face of religious discrimination to No. 2 on the Hot 100 back in 2014 — could have made 2024 a well-deserved victory lap after dropping a chart-topping album and embarking on a packed arena tour in 2023. Instead, he spent 2024 securing a commercial re-peak that he earned by spending the past decade growing his cult fanbase, even without further post-“Church” crossover success. 

At the top of the year, all was well with Hozier and his fans. Unreal Unearth was a smashing success — topping three genre charts (folk, rock and alternative), reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawning his first Hot 100 entry in nearly a decade (“Eat Your Young,” No. 67) — but there was the pesky issue of the Grammys. He’s never been a Recording Academy darling (his sole nod was in song of the year for “Take Me to Church” back in 2015), but a complete shutout for Unreal Unearth and its singles despite formidable commercial success and critical acclaim felt particularly painful. 

Nonetheless, Hozier & Co. barreled onwards. After spending most of 2023 touring the U.S. and Europe, Hozier added over 50 new shows across North America, alongside headlining slots at several music festivals, including Boston Calling, Hinterland, and Railbird. From the intimacy of his most heart-wrenching ballads (“Cherry Wine”) to the arena-rocking riffs of his most vibrant bangers (both parts of “De Selby”), Hozier’s engaging stage show reminded longtime fans why they first fell in love with him and converted legions of new fans to his kingdom.  

As his tour captivated multiple continents, footage from his shows helped Hozier pick up a devoted TikTok fan base who turned him into something of a heartthrob. They were enamored by his vulnerability, long flowing hair and signature “growl”; Hozier had entered his “Forest Daddy” era, and the world was thirsty for whatever that entailed. His newer TikTok audience was also drawn to his brand of folksy alt-rock that had a resurgence over the pandemic and the years immediately following, perhaps best exemplified by the breakout success of Noah Kahan. At the end of 2023, Hozier and Kahan joined forces for a duet version of the latter’s “Northern Attitude,” earning the Irish rocker his first top 40 appearance since “Church” and setting the stage for his 2024 commercial comeback. That level of fanbase-priming all helped result in the eye-popping streaming and sales debut of “Too Sweet,” the song that cemented Hozier’s mainstream commercial resurgence. 

Hozier first teased Unheard as a standalone EP comprised of songs that did not make the final Unreal Unearth tracklist. In his TikTok announcing the project, the Irish singer-songwriter used a snippet of “Too Sweet,” setting the stage for the song’s official TikTok sound to collect over 42,000 posts on the platform. “Too Sweet” debuted at No. 5 on the Hot 100 (dated April 6), marking both Hozier’s first song to debut in the top 10 and his first top 10 hit since “Take Me to Church.” Three weeks later — thanks to over 35.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate – the sultry pop-rock tune reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 (dated April 27), marking his first U.S. chart-topper. Though “Too Sweet” only topped the Hot 100 for one frame, it managed to do so in a week where he was competing with singles from longtime stars Beyoncé and Ariana Grande, as well as historic pop breakthroughs for Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song.” 

Hozier’s “Sweet” success wasn’t just a well-deserved celebratory moment following his robust 2023, it was also a feat that culturally positioned him as one of the sonic forefathers of Top 40’s larger alt-rock resurgence in 2024. Notes of Hozier’s brand of big-voiced, guitar-backed rock anthems with a pop edge can be found in a number of 2024 Hot 100 hits, including Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” (No. 1), Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” (No. 2), Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” (No. 20) and Michael Marcagi’s “Scared to Start” (No. 54), and, of course, Kahan’s “Stick Season” (No. 9). All of those artists made their Hot 100 debuts this decade, but Hozier has been riding this formula to hits for a decade now – it was only right he finally got a chart-topper of his own.  

Now his longest-running Hot 100 hit behind “Church” (37 weeks), “Too Sweet” topped three Billboard airplay rankings (pop, rock and adult pop) and became his first song to top Streaming Songs and the all-genre Radio Songs chart. What’s most remarkable about “Too Sweet,” is how little in-your-face promotion the song required to connect with consumers: All Hozier really needed was a good song and a TikTok post – no dance trend or star-studded remix or virality-seeking music video necessary.  

A few months after “Too Sweet” hit the Hot 100’s summit, Hozier headlined the first night of Lollapalooza 2024 (Aug. 1). During his set – in which he debuted “Nobody’s Soldier” – the routinely outspoken artist called for “peace and safety and security for everybody in the Middle East… which of course would mean seeing Palestine free from occupation and free from violence.” In an era where many of music’s biggest stars have seemingly forgotten or undervalue the edifying, unifying and liberating aspects of the artform, it was incredibly refreshing to hear Hozier wax poetic about the innate interconnectedness of global liberation movements at his shows around the world. 

Unaired arrived a little over two weeks after Hozier’s headlining set (Aug. 16), with “Nobody’s Soldier” serving as the focus track. Following the uptempo blueprint of “Too Sweet,” “Soldier” missed the Hot 100 entirely, but still managed to become Hozier’s fifth consecutive No. 1 single at Adult Alternative Airplay (AAA). With “Soldier,” “Sweet” and his Kahan-assisted “Northern Attitude,” Hozier became the first soloist in history to score three new AAA No. 1s in a single year – and he’s just one song away from tying U2 for the all-time record of most consecutive AAA chart-toppers (six).  

By the end of the year, Hozier combined his two new EPs into one sprawling deluxe album titled Unreal Unearth: Unending. To cap off his 2024, Hozier will perform as the musical guest for the upcoming Dec. 21 episode of Saturday Night Live – his first appearance on the show since post-“Church” in 2014. 

It’s not often that an undeniable commercial resurgence occurs alongside a revival in cultural prominence, but Hozier pulled it off this year. With “Too Sweet” Hozier placed himself at the center of one 2024’s defining musical styles and returned to the awards conversation, picking up his first two MTV Video Music Awards nods in 10 years – though that Grammy remains out of reach, as he was shut out again in the 2025 nominations. Not only did he top the pop charts with new solo music, but he also re-established himself as a bona fide superstar. Whether he was flexing onstage banter or speaking truth to power, people hung on to his every word – especially the non-musical ones.  

Few could have predicted that Hozier would score a No. 1 single a decade after his “Take Me to Church” breakthrough, but, then again, few expected “Church” to be as massive as it was a decade ago. If ever there was a shining contemporary example of a mainstream musician consistently serving and nurturing their fan base, and reaping handsome (if long-delayed) returns for those efforts, it’s Hozier. 

Check Billboard later today for the reveal of our 2024 Rookie of the Year, and come back next week as we start the countdown of our top 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2024!

Sky Rompiendo secures his first entry, and top 10, on a Billboard albums chart with his Feid collaborative set, Los 9 de Ferxxo y Sky Rompiendo, which debuts at No. 6 on the Latin Rhythm Albums chart dated Dec. 14. Feid rounds up his fourth top 10 project.

The nine-track set, Los 9 de Ferxxo y Sky Rompiendo, released Nov. 29 via Black Koi/Good Kidz/Universal Music Latino/UMLE, launches with 6,000 equivalent album units logged during the Nov. 29-Dec. 5 tracking week, according to Luminate. As with most Feid’s projects, the majority of the album’s starting totals come through streaming activity.

That streaming sum represents 7.5 million official on-demand clicks of the nine songs on the album in its opening week. Album sales and track-equivalent albums comprise a negligible amount of activity.

With Los 9 de Ferxxo y Sky Rompiendo, Feid lands his fourth top 10 on Latin Rhythm Albums among six career entries. The top 10 streak began with 2022’s Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo: Te Pirateamos El Álbum, which peaked at No. 5. It continued with the No. 3-peaking Mor, No Le Temas a La Oscuridad (October 2023) and Ferxxocalipisis (No. 5 high, December 2023).

Sky Rompiendo has previously produced three top 10-charting sets on Latin Rhythm Albums — for Feid projects. But Los 9 de Ferxxo y Sky Rompiendo earns the Colombian producer his first entry and top 10 as an artist. Further, the project also starts at No. 15 on the overall Top Latin Albums for Sky’s first entry as an artist there.

Los 9 de Ferxxo y Sky Rompiendo joins two other Feid albums on Latin Rhythm Albums, both of which have remained on the chart for more than 50 weeks: Ferxxocalipisis, at No. 13 (53 weeks) and Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo: Te Pirateamos El Álbum at No. 21 (in its 117th edition).

During a recent conversation, John Mayer and Shawn Mendes opened up about an experience not many others can relate to: having a high-profile ex write a hit song about you.

On the latest episode of the “Daughters” singer’s How’s Life With John Mayer program on SiriusXM, the two men — who, between the two of them, are believed to have inspired bangers by artists such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter — got real about the “psychological toll,” as Mayer called it, of those songs opening up their personal lives to public scrutiny.

“No one’s gonna understand,” Mayer began, conceding that he and his friend are “handsomely rewarded for the stuff we have to deal with.” “You and I are both talking as people who’ve heard songs that — at least other people are saying — are references to us.”

Agreeing, Mendes shared, “It sucks to feel like … It’s a funny feeling to feel like you’re being written about, and maybe the whole picture’s not being expressed.”

As Mayer pointed out, it’s also not exactly like the two musicians can talk about these issues to a professional who relates to the pressures of celebrity life. “You talk to a therapist and go, ‘You ever seen your ex-girlfriend on a billboard before?’” the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” artist said, laughing. “‘Let me tell you, it’s a weird two weeks.’”

Even so, the Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile star said he wouldn’t let that prevent him from falling in love with another songwriter. “The suffering that is from hearing a song talking about you in a way you don’t want to be talked about is not even close to the beauty of falling in love with someone for the first time,” he told Mayer.

Neither of the artists named names, but both have been in public relationships with very famous women in music. Between 2012 and 2015, Mayer dated the “Teenage Dream” singer — whom he bumped into at a recent Carpenter concert — and before that, he had a relationship with a certain Eras Tour headliner, whose scathing 2010 ballad “Dear John” is widely believed to be about the guitarist.

Speaking of the “Espresso” singer, Mendes is the long-rumored center of a love triangle with his “Señorita” duet partner and Carpenter. Cabello’s “June Gloom” and the Girl Meets World alum’s “Sharpest Tool” and “Taste” detail a love interest who’s still not over his ex, seemingly mirroring how Mendes was spotted with Carpenter several times in 2023 right before rekindling things with Cabello.

Without getting into details, Mendes did appear to touch on the situation with Mayer. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is no one gets out of this life without getting hurt, and no one gets out of this life without hurting someone,” the “Mercy” singer said.

Watch Mayer and Mendes talk about being the inspiration for songs below.