With Nothing’s About To Happen to Me which dropped in February, Mitski’s recording career goes eight albums deep. There’s a sense she’s only getting started.
Following its release, Nothing’s About To Happen to Me debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with nearly 43,000 equivalent album units earned, the singer and songwriter’s best week ever by units. That for an artist who has converted a massive presence on TikTok into pop star-level popularity.
Mitski’s fans adore her. And she is reaching out to them, everywhere, on this album cycle, for which Mitski has been something of a road warrior. She completed a six-night residency at New York’s multi-purpose cultural center The Shed, in addition to a Tansy House Installation; five nights at Hollywood High School; four nights at the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE, and locked-in shows in Mexico City, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.
Mitski returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier year to perform “I’ll Change For You,” her first performance on the show since 2016, and last night (April 8) stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live, for a rendition of album track “If I Leave.”
Wearing a luxurious, faux leopard-skin coat, and a knee-length string of beads, the Japan-born artist was a picture of calm as her full band rocked out.
Mitski wrote all of the songs and performed all of the vocals on Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, which was produced and engineered by Patrick Hyland and mastered by Bob Weston, and features live instrumentation by The Land touring band and ensemble arrangements. The orchestra was recorded at Sunset Sound and TTG Studios, arranged and conducted by Drew Erickson, engineered by Michael Harris.
Her tour continues May 2 with a concert in Istanbul. Visit Mitski’s website for more, and watch her latest late-night appearance below.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 10:02:322026-04-09 10:02:32Mitski Is a Picture of Calm For ‘If I Leave’ Performance on ‘Kimmel’: Watch
Pop stardom is about the big moments. Securing one, and nailing it. Keli Holiday’s arrival at the 2025 ARIA Awards was a moment that many of us would rate as the stuff of nightmares, a phobia right up there with heights and massive, fangy spiders.
Holiday had the honors of opening the ARIAs with a performance of his viral smash “Dancing2.” Just Holiday, his hair teased like a mane, chest out, staring down the barrel of national TV cameras. Right on cue, he strutted through the industry tables at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, singing and cutting a path to the stage where an all-star band awaited. No worries.
Big moments, if and when they come, rarely do so with such a high degree of failure. He nailed it. Later, he nabbed an ARIA Award for best video, a fan-voted category.
In the five-plus months that have passed, Holiday has been gliding like he did at the ARIAs.
Holiday’s second studio album Capital Fiction, opened at No. 3 on the all-genres ARIA Albums Chart in February, and topped the national Australian albums tally. His tour in support of the LP got underway in March and went deep into regional Australia, visiting the capitals with a string of sellouts, and expands with his first-ever run of dates in North America, followed by more shows Down Under, and then the United Kingdom and Europe.
On April 29, Holiday has two chances of adding to his collection. He’s a first-time nominee for the APRA Music Awards, including the coveted song of the year for “Dancing2,” which took flight on TikTok, where fans clamored to its message of love, connection and positivity.
This new chapter for Keli Holiday is a “representative of love,” he tells Billboard over Zoom. “The core of it, it’s really joyous. It’s really about love. Human beings, we’re constantly craving love. We constantly hold on to love. It’s top of the rock. There is something to be said for the fact that, with all the madness going on in the world, any skerrick of sunshine we can clutch onto, whether that be through a song, or a movie, or a conversation is welcomed with a wide embrace. That’s what I represent with my shows and what I want to do it, because I really feel it, so I got to give it back.”
Holiday has been here before, but all of this is new. He’s the alter-ego of Adam Hyde, who alongside Reuben Styles is co-founder of Peking Duk, the multi-platinum, ARIA Award-winning electronic duo which has accumulated more than 400 million streams across such songs as “High,” “Take Me Over,” “Stranger” and “Fire.” The duo’s debut album, Paradise, is due out Aug. 14 and features the cut “Thrills” with Rico Nasty.
Want a job done, ask a busy person. Holiday is that person. He’s already making headway on a new album. “I’ve written the majority of the next record,” he tells Billboard. “I want to get that album as close to ready as possible before embarking on those shows. Because I have a lot of ideas coming out of me at the moment, and to not act upon them while they’re creating a little buzz within would be remiss. It’d be a disservice to the idea itself, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
And how far along is the process? “As far as the agonizing part goes, I’d say I’m about 60% now. The most important thing is the bones of it, the writing. So, I’ve really hunkered down. I think I’ve written all the songs for the record. I could be wrong.” Holiday plans to “get with some people in L.A., throw some different sonic ideas around. We’ll see where we land.”
For those fans about to experience Keli Holiday for the first time, he sets the scene with the “wild, sweaty, beautiful union of people getting down to a bunch of new music” on his Australian tour. “It felt so refreshing to be able to bring this show that I created around this country, and to have it received in a warm embrace. It was gorgeous. I’m still kind of humming from it.”
That confident ARIAs performance last November, and hanging out backstage with Olivia Dean and his peers, was like a gate opening for Holiday. “Buzz is definitely the word,” he recounts of the experience. “It was, like, a different kind of nervous energy. It was a real excitement. To be able to walk through the room, sing this song, meet all these wonderful people, it was just a great way to introduce Keli Holiday to Australia, in a really kind of formal way. Even though I wasn’t wearing a shirt.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 09:21:292026-04-09 09:21:29With North America and Europe Tour Dates to Come, Keli Holiday Has ‘Hunkered Down’ With His Next Album
The legendary Led Zeppelin frontman returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday evening (April 8), for something old, and something folky.
The British singer and his group Saving Grace performed Martha Scanlan’s “Higher Rock,” lifted from their self-titled debut covers album, released last September. The veteran artist and his bandmates stuck around for a bonus shot at the Zeppelin classic, “Ramble On.”
It’s the second time Plant has graced the Late Show stage in six months. Last November, he stopped by for a deep dive into The Lord of the Rings and the fantasy classic’s late author J.R.R. Tolkien. Hitting “Ramble On” was a neat tie-in. The song was originally recorded in 1969, appears on Zeppelin’s second studio album, and is said to have been inspired by LOTR.
Earlier, in a sitdown with Colbert, Plant discussed the state of English folk music. He digs it, well, most of it. It’s become “quite healthy again. There’s a contemporary element of it,” he remarks in a “Colbert Before Air” edit. The American stuff, however, “it’s a lot more bloodthirsty and there’s a lot more treachery.” Sea shanties, nope.
Colbert’s beloved late-night show is scheduled to go off the air, for good, on May 21. The talk-show master isn’t folding with the end in sight.
Plant, one of many superstar entertainers booked for the last run, is one of the best to ever do it. Zep’s career spans nine albums and 12 years, effectively ending when drummer John Bonham died in 1980. Seven of those went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and five are certified diamond by the RIAA, for 10 million units shifted in the United States. The blues-rockers were indicted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Saving Grace was recorded between April of 2019 and January of 2025 in the Cotswolds region of England and on the Welsh Borders. Plant most recent collaborations have been with longtime creative partner Alison Krauss, with whom he went on tour last summer, and the Sensational Shapeshifters, which was active from 2012 to 2018.
Plant and Saving Grace (vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown) will embark on a tour of Europe and the United States this summer and fall.
For their next musical adventure, PNAU is aiming straight for the heart — with some help from Mexico’s The Warning.
The electronic music hitmakers return with “Tu Corazón (Your Heart),” a good time crunched into three pumping minutes. It’s a piece of art years in the making, honed on multiple continents.
“Tu Corazón,” say reps for PNAU’s Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes, is a song about opening your heart to the beauty around you, an important reminder in this ever-changing world.
PNAU were first made aware of The Warning when Littlemore’s other project, Empire of the Sun, was filming in Mexico more than a decade ago. At the time, The Warning, the Villarreal Vélez sisters Daniela (guitar, vocals, piano), Paulina (drums, vocals, piano), and Alejandra (bass guitar, backing vocals, piano), were a band on the way up, dreaming of the big stage.
After an initial meeting, the siblings headed to a recording session in PNAU’s studio in downtown Los Angeles. “Tu Corazón (Your Heart)” is part of that long-percolating collaborative process.
“Tu Corazón is a flash of ecstatic dance, coming at you from our sister city of Monterrey,” comments Littlemore. “A once storied adventure, now a booming jam – punk, love and all wild. Try as you might to sit still, I challenge you to do so. You have been warned!”
The Warning adds: “This song is about opening your heart to every beautiful thing this world has to offer through community and the people we love. We had a great time working with PNAU creating something this unique and fun! It was a very nostalgic process for us and we loved connecting with our past selves through this song. We are grateful to have been a part of this record and we love Pete and Nick very much!”
The official music video was shot in Monterrey, and can be seen below.
Forged in Sydney’s rave scene, PNAU has gone where few Australian electronic acts have ventured before: landing No. 1 hits around the globe.
An international breakthrough came when PNAU joined forces with Elton John on the Rocket Man’s 2012 remix album Good Morning to the Night. The collection went to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. PNAU and Elton repeated the feat for another remix, the 2021 single “Cold Heart” with Dua Lipa, and landed a bonafide global smash.
“Tu Corazón” follows The Warning’s single “Kerosene,” and a bunch of high-profile concerts and festival spots including Lollapalooza Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and a record-breaking crowd of 50,000 for their homecoming date at Monterrey. Later this year, the sister act will support YUNGBLUD on his IDOLS World Tour in the United States and United Kingdom.
“Tu Corazón (Your Heart)” comes on the heels of PNAU’s collaborations with Italian trio MEDUZA, “Rollin,” “Light Me Up” with Kungs, and a slew of remixes with the likes of including Coldplay, Parcels, Tame Impala, Diana Ross and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
The latest incarnation of PNAU is the OG lineup. Sam Littlemore, Nick’s brother, joined in 2016 and wrapped up at the end of the last album cycle, 2024’s Hyperbolic. Billboard understands Sam contributed to the production of the new song, which was recorded before they parted ways.
To coincide with the new release, PNAU announces a 12-date Nirvana Tour of Australia’s East Coast this June and July, the winter months in these parts. Before that, the lads will debut their live show May 1 at Foro Indie Rocks! in Mexico City.
PNAU DJ Sets:
April 10 – Beach Hotel, Byron Bay
April 11 – Ability Fest, The Timber Yard, Melbourne
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 04:13:532026-04-09 04:13:53PNAU Returns With Playful ‘Tu Corazón (Your Heart)’ Featuring The Warning: Stream It Now
After completing their North American tour, Bleachers will embark on a visit to the U.K. and Europe.
The indie pop-rock outfit will play their biggest pan-European headline jaunt to date across November and December, including a raft of shows up and down the United Kingdom.
As previously reported, the group will tour in support of the May 22 release of everyone for ten minutes (via Big Hit), their fifth studio album. Before Jack Antonoff and Co. head abroad, a major run of shows that get underway June 5 in Chicago IL, rolling into cities across the United States and Canada, and wrapping up Oct. 8 in Nashville, TN. Along the way, a five-night headline residency this September in Los Angeles.
The forthcoming collection includes previously released cuts “You and Forever, “Dirty Wedding Dress,” and “The Van,” which dropped this week and can be streamed in full below.
Everyone for ten minutes, reads a statement announcing the new project, is the “inevitable culmination of a lifetime of devotion to bands for the six members of Bleachers and, ultimately, finds each one at their creative peak.”
It’s said to have “moments where it briefly peers into darkness,” but is “essentially an optimistic record that feels lovestruck and hopeful, leaping from harmony-laden folk rock to shimmering pop soul to the sax-assisted New Jersey sound that Bleachers have become synonymous for.”
Bleachers U.K. and Europe 2026 Tour: Nov. 5 – Alcatraz, Milan, IT Nov. 7 – Tonhalle, Munich, DE Nov. 9 – Columbiahalle, Berlin, DE Nov. 10 – Columbiahalle, Berlin, DE Nov. 12 – Sentrum Scene, Oslo, NO Nov. 13 – Annexet, Stockholm, SE Nov. 15 – Sporthalle, Hamburg DE Nov. 17 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL Nov. 18 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL Nov. 20 – Cirque Royal, Brussels, BE Nov. 21 – Salle Pleyel, Paris, FR Nov. 24 – O2 Academy, Bristol, UK Nov. 25 – O2 Academy, Glasgow, UK – Nov. 26 – O2 Academy, Leeds, UK Nov. 28 – O2 Academy, Birmingham Nov. 30 – 3Olympia, Dublin, IE Dec. 2 – O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK Dec. 3 – Eventim Apollo, London, UK
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 02:50:502026-04-09 02:50:50Bleachers Set 2026 U.K and Europe Tour, Share ‘The Van’
BTS‘ certainly made a splash with “SWIM,” the lead single from their seventh studio album ARIRANG. The 2026 LP was the K-pop group’s first record after they announced they would be taking an indefinite break in 2022 for the members to complete their mandatory military service.
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In true BTS fashion, the new album and lead single topped the charts immediately upon release. “SWIM” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ARIRANG did the same on the Billboard 200. Seven must be the band’s lucky number, as ARIRANG was their seventh album and seventh Billboard 200 No. 1 while “SWIM” was their seventh Hot 100 chart-topper.
Swim, swim Water falling off your skin Swim, swim I could spend a lifetime watching you Swim, swim This is how it all begins Swim, swim I just wanna dive I just wanna dive
Bad world Gone away, I still wake up in this mad world Name a place that I could breathe on this map, world Lookin’ like a goody, goody in this bad world, bad world Don’t know how to act, girl I’m in the deep, tell me where the hell you at, girl? Oh, you ain’t even gotta love me back, girl You know that I’m never holdin’ back, girl, yeah
So easy Don’t make it so hard Nights like these, I just wanna get lost Right here with the moon and the sharks I ain’t gotta think ’bout a thing, baby, I just
Swim, swim Water falling off your skin Swim, swim I could spend a lifetime watching you Swim (swim), swim (swim) This is how it all begins Swim, swim I just wanna dive I just wanna dive
Water, water so deep Water so deep Take it off the ground I ain’t never gettin’ cold feet Yeah, you know me Yeah, you know me Sittin’ on the shore Now I’m ready for the whole sea I can feel the high waves comin’ (yeah) Why you run away? You can run in (yeah) Salt on my tongue, she’s stunnin’ (yeah) You’re the only place that I wanna be, yeah
Swim, swim Water falling off your skin Swim, swim I could spend a lifetime watching you Swim (swim), swim (swim) This is how it all begins Swim, swim I just wanna dive I just wanna dive
Splash (splash), drift (drift) I make waves with my two fins (two fins) Splash (woo), drip (drip) I just wanna take it across the line Under here, we don’t chase the time Baby, everything can’t be so sad (so sad) Turn my face from the land I just wanna dive I just wanna dive
Swim, swim Water falling off your skin Swim, swim I could spend a lifetime watching you Swim (swim), swim (swim) Let it all begin Swim, swim I just wanna dive I just wanna dive
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 01:23:042026-04-09 01:23:04Here Are the Lyrics to BTS’ ‘SWIM’
Andrea Bocelli will join the list of international artists who have performed at the iconic Zócalo in Mexico City on April 18, when he takes to the country’s main public square for a free concert. And he won’t do it alone.
That night, the acclaimed Italian tenor will be accompanied by the Mexican cumbia band Los Ángeles Azules and singer/songwriter Ximena Sariñana, announced Banco Plata, the event’s organizer alongside the city government.
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“Can you imagine that fusion? Neither can we, but we can’t wait to hear how it sounds,” said the bank in a message posted on social media on Tuesday night (April 7).
Bocelli will bring his celebrated 1997 album Romanza — one of his most successful and commercially acclaimed — to the Plaza de la Constitución (the official name of the Zócalo) in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
Clara Brugada, Mexico City’s head of government, previously expressed excitement about Bocelli’s performance at the iconic venue. “It will be a magical evening that reaffirms Mexico City as the cultural capital of the world,” she said.
The Zócalo is considered a landmark of great importance, as it is a plaza filled with symbolism where politics, social movements, culture and religion intersect. It is the second-largest public square in the world, only behind Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
One of the earliest concerts held at the Zócalo on record was by Los Tigres del Norte in 1999, which lasted nearly three hours. Since then, artists like Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Grupo Firme have performed there before thousands of attendees.
On March 1, Colombian superstar Shakira set a record as the artist who has drawn the largest number of attendees to a free show in the Zócalo, with 400,000 people gathered, according to official figures. The previous record-holder was the Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, which brought together 300,000 people on June 3, 2023, followed by Grupo Firme, which attracted 280,000 attendees a year earlier.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 00:46:252026-04-09 00:46:25Opera Meets Cumbia: Andrea Bocelli to Perform at Mexico’s Zócalo With Los Ángeles Azules & Ximena Sariñana
Eden Muñoz captures the crown on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart with his latest single “Mi Yo De Antes” leading the April 11-dated ranking. The song rises 4-1 after a 20% surge to 7.6 million audience impressions on United States panel-contributing regional Mexican stations during the March 27-April 2 tracking week, according to Luminate.
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“I am very happy that this is my 10th No. 1 on Billboard,” Muñoz tells Billboard. “These past four years as a soloist have been quite dynamic. The No. 1s are like a big hug to the entire team that is giving their all to ensure the message of these songs reaches, as much as possible, those who need it most. Thank you, Billboard, and thanks to the whole team.”
“Mi Yo De Antes,” released Feb. 5 via EMC/Sony Music Mexico/Sony Music Latin, has enjoyed a steady ascent since its February debut at No. 29. After three weeks in the top 10, the track reached the summit of the chart in its seventh week.
“The song represents me completely today, especially in phrases from the song like feeling that you can’t handle everything, or that sometimes you don’t even know what you want, feeling lost,” Muñoz adds. “I realize that it’s not just me going through this stage, but many people who have connected with this song and have found it to be a catharsis.”
With the move, Muñoz hits a milestone, securing his 10th No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay, dating to the 2022 chart-topping “Chale!” Plus, he breaks his previous tie with El Fantasma and joins an elite group of solo artists who have earned 10 or more No. 1s since the chart’s launch in 1994. Here is how the leaderboard stands:
Artist, No. 1s
Christian Nodal, 17 Alejandro Fernández, 14 Gerardo Ortiz, 14 Carin León, 12 Eden Muñoz, 10 El Fantasma, 9 Julion Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda, 9 Marco Antonio Solis, 8 Vicente Fernández, 7 Alfredo Olivas, 6 Xavi, 6
“Mi Yo De Antes” also climbs 8-3 on the overall Latin Airplay chart and becomes just the third soloist track to break into the top three in 2026, after Gerardo Ortiz with “Échame El Grito” (No. 3 in January) and Danny Ocean’s “Corazón” (No. 1 in February).
“Mi Yo De Antes” is the first single from Muñoz’s forthcoming album 8847 slated for an August release. Says Muñoz, “8847 is an important number for me. This album will include tracks that directly tie into this introspection. There’s the song ‘Osadía’ with the maestro Cristian Castro, and collaborations with Fonseca and Yuridia.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 00:30:302026-04-09 00:30:30Eden Muñoz’s ‘Mi Yo De Antes’ Hits No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay Chart: ‘It’s Like a Big Hug to the Entire Team’
While conducting an interview with the singer for the April 7 issue of Perfect, the fashion mogul asked Carpenter how she would describe the importance of having a queer audience as a pop star in today’s day and age.
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“I don’t think pop music would exist if it wasn’t for the queer community,” Carpenter begins her thoughtful response. “I don’t think some of our greatest pop stars would exist if it wasn’t for the queer community.”
Carpenter goes on to shout out the LGBTQ+ people in her life: “I feel so deeply connected. I mean, some of my greatest friends and collaborators and artists that I know are a part of the queer community or are just so celebratory of it.”
The Coachella headliner then speaks on how having the community with her has affected her work, saying that she doesn’t think going on tour would be as fun without them.
“I feel so connected and grateful to be able to have them be a part of my journey, to be a part of the world,” Carpenter concludes. Jacobs, an out gay man, agrees with Carpenter’s stance, saying, “Life is much more [colorful] and fun with [the queer community],” and, “It’s important sometimes to say it. Especially now.”
Carpenter has long been incredibly vocal in her support of the LGBTQ+ community. In partnership with non-profit PLUS1, the singer raised over $1 million for mental health initiatives, LGBTQ+ rights and animal welfare last year. In doing so, The Sabrina Carpenter Fund became the nonprofit’s fastest-growing artist fund to date.
Carpenter has also platformed LGBTQ+ artists in her work. Last August she enlisted openly queer Academy Award-winning actor Colman Domingo for her “Tears” music video. The video was inspired by the queer cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show and featured Domingo playing Carpenter’s drag mother. When she debuted the track onstage at the VMAs the following month, Carpenter performed alongside drag artists and trans dancers who held up signs that read, “Protect Trans Rights,” “Support Local Drag” and “Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!”
Carpenter is set to headline Coachella on Friday (April 8). While we don’t know what surprises she might have planned for “her most ambitious show ever,” perhaps she’ll invite some drag artists from her past performances to the stage with her again.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 00:25:422026-04-09 00:25:42Sabrina Carpenter Shouts Out Queer Community’s Impact on Entertainment: ‘I Don’t think Pop Music Would Exist If it Wasn’t for the Queer Community’
While some headlines say Pershing Square’s offer to buy the Universal Music Group (UMG) values the company at $64 billion — which would make it by far the biggest music industry deal ever — if you get into the details of the offer, it looks like Pershing Square’s founder and CEO, Bill Ackman, is trying to buy the major on the cheap. At least that’s the assessment of some Wall Street music investors and music industry executives.
For one thing, despite all the headlines touting the more than $60 billion valuation of the convoluted offering, the cash option, if it were available for all shares — which it is not — wouldn’t even be bigger than UMG’s initial public offering.
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Pershing Square’s valuation is based on its forward-looking view that UMG’s stock price will have a projected value of 30.40 euros ($35) per share on Dec. 31, 2026, which would give the deal a valuation of 55.55 billion euros ($64 billion). However, if you read Pershing Square’s letter to the UMG board, it says UMG shareholders may elect to receive all cash or a mix of stock and cash consideration. If shareholders choose to receive all cash, they will receive 22 euros a share, which would give the deal an overall value of 40.34 billion euros ($43 billion).
In short, $43 billion would put the deal below UMG’s valuation after its first day of trading, when it closed at 25.10 euros, giving it a 46 billion euros valuation — then about $54 billion. But even the $43 billion valuation is a pie-in-the-sky figure, because Pershing Square is only proposing to bring 9.4 billion euros ($10.85 billion) to the table to pay for its deal by injecting 2.5 billion euros ($2.89 billion) in cash, raising 5.4 billion euros ($6.23 billion) in debt and getting another 1.5 billion euros ($1.73 billion) toward the financing by selling UMG’s Spotify holdings.
The non-binding offer will pay shareholders 5.05 euros ($5.82) a share and the equivalent of a 0.77 share in new UMG stock, which would see the share count fall by 17%, from 1.833 billion to 1.541 billion shares.
If you add in the $2.5 billion that Ackman still has in UMG stock — he paid $4 billion in 2021 for about 10% of UMG and, in 2025, sold about $1.5 billion of that, leaving him with a 6.2% stake in the company — that means he’s trying to take control of UMG for a total of about $12 billion, not $64 billion. In addition, he’s only bringing $5.5 billion of Pershing Square’s own money to the table. If shareholders agree to the Pershing Square proposal, at the end of the deal, Pershing will own an 11.7% stake in UMG shares, according to a Billboard transcript of a Pershing Square conference call with Wall Street analysts.
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What Ackman is really trying to do, say music industry financial executives, is take over UMG on the cheap — or at the very least, ignite UMG share price increases.
As one music industry financial investor puts it, “Ackman is saying, ‘Trust me, I’m the man. I’ll put a great board in; we will get listed in the U.S., and we will get rid of the guys in Europe, and off we go.’ That executive describes the Pershing Square offer as a “non-transaction transaction. Is he really buying the company or is he saying, ‘Put me in charge and the company will do better’?”
A music industry financial executive similarly says, “While the offer is impressive on its face, it’s financially structured with very little cash, new debt and a very large equity component in a new UMG structure. Shareholders are not getting a premium in cash; they are taking a bet on the valuation that Pershing Square says it can get in the future.”
Pershing Square is betting that all current shareholders will choose to take the equivalent of 77% of their shares and 5.05 euros, instead of cashing out and choosing to take 22 euros a share. However, if shareholders do choose to take the all-cash payout, the math doesn’t work. As the Barclays Bank European Media Equity research analyst team puts it, “There is in effect no cash alternative.”
If, as Pershing Square expects, existing shareholders choose to take the equivalent of 77% of a share for each share outstanding and 5.05 euros, the cash component works out to 9.3 billion euros, which the money on the table would just about cover. Alternatively, the 9.4 billion euros cash offer on the table will only allow shareholders to buy, at 22 euros a share, 444.3 million shares — or just 23.3% of outstanding shares.
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It’s unlikely that all shareholders will choose to take all cash, and it’s equally unlikely that all of them will choose to instead take the 0.77 a share trade-in deal plus 5.05 euros a share — meaning it will probably be a combination of both. But as Barclays’ European Media team puts it, either way, “The number of shareholders that can get €22.00 per share or 100% cash would be very small.”
Others wonder if the offer is even real. “Isn’t he just trying to stimulate share price? He is doing what activist investors do,” says a senior music industry executive.
If that was Pershing Square’s main intention, Ackman is off to a good start, as UMG’s stock closed at 19.06 euros on Tuesday (April 7) — up nearly 11.5% from the April 2 close of 17.10 euros. According to the music industry financial executive, Ackman’s offer served as a huge advertisement that UMG’s stock is undervalued, and “he just got at least 10% richer.”
Ackman has previously said he believes UMG shares are undervalued and do not reflect the company’s performance, a point he extensively reiterated on Tuesday’s conference call. He is not alone in that assessment, as others have noted that UMG has been producing strong results but has not been rewarded when it comes to its share price — something that UMG management agrees with. Just last week, in an apparent bid to boost the share price, UMG announced it would buy back about 500 million euros ($574 million) worth of its shares. In a statement at the time, UMG CFO Matt Ellis said, “We currently see a meaningful dislocation in UMG’s market valuation.”
But that effort isn’t enough for Pershing Square. During the conference call, Pershing executives laid out that while UMG’s performance has been strong, UMG management hasn’t paid enough attention to the share price. In particular, Ackman cited the company’s ownership of about $2.7 billion in Spotify shares and said the market is giving UMG no credit for that stake.
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“There’s been no presentation by the company of what the plans are for that holding. In general, we hear from shareholders that they just find the business hard to understand, difficulty getting their questions answered,” Ackman said during the conference call, according to the Billboard transcript. “They’re surprised almost every quarter with puts and takes in the earnings. And really this relates to how investor relations have been handled by the company.”
Later in the call, according to the Billboard transcript, Pershing Square Capital Management chief investment officer Ryan Israel said, “We think that we can add a lot of value [by helping] capital allocation and shareholder communications. And we think the combination of those two things can be very powerful to allow for very significant earnings per share growth over time.”
During the call, Pershing Square outlined where it believes it can deliver value to shareholders. But some worry that despite having a five-year history of UMG ownership, Pershing Square’s understanding of the music business still falls short.
The music industry financial executive says there are always “serious concerns about how a financially structured transaction” will impact investment in artists and songwriters. “Many CFOs of the larger financial institutions have shown they are not concerned about investments” in A&R when it comes to getting cost savings to raise a stock price valuation, the executive adds.
But Pershing Square’s Israel addressed that concern during the conference call, saying, “We agree with management that the first priority of the free cash flow of the business is investments and acquisitions that further improve the competitive position of the company.”
Industry insiders are nevertheless skeptical that that will remain the case. As another senior music industry executive puts it, “Did you listen to the conference call? It was like the greatest hits of someone who knows just enough to be dangerous.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2026-04-09 00:02:462026-04-09 00:02:46What Is UMG’s Real Value? Investors & Music Execs Weigh in on Pershing Square Bid
