Cher says Sonny Bono’s widow should have to foot the $1 million bill from elite lawyers who won a court ruling preserving the pop superstar’s right to publishing royalties.

Mary Bono initiated a bitter legal battle in 2021 by claiming Cher was no longer entitled to royalties from the Sonny & Cher catalog, including 1960s hits like “I Got You Babe,” “The Beat Goes On” and “Baby Don’t Go.” But a California federal judge rejected this contention in 2024, and he officially entered judgment in Cher’s favor this past November.

Now, Cher wants Mary to cover the hefty fees incurred by her attorneys at the media law powerhouse Davis Wright Tremaine. The legal team, composed of Peter Anderson, Sean Sullivan, Eric Lamm and Samuel Turner, billed nearly 2,000 hours at rates ranging from $400 to $795 per hour.

“Defendant sought to keep or obtain, among other things, millions of dollars of Cher’s royalties,” reads the Monday (Jan. 12) motion for reimbursement. “Given the relief that Cher sought and the amounts of royalties involved, Cher was perfectly justified in incurring $1,023,605.50 in attorney’s fees to successfully defeat defendant’s improper attempt at termination.”

The litigation revolved around Cher and Sonny’s 1978 divorce settlement, which allocated Cher a 50% cut of the publishing royalties from songs the former couple wrote together. That agreement stayed in effect for years, including after Bono died in a 1998 skiing accident — until Mary took the position in 2021 that Cher was no longer due any royalties because of copyright law’s so-called termination right.

The termination right allows songwriters and their heirs to claw back control of intellectual property decades after signing it away. But U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt ruled in 2024 that this provision cannot apply to Sonny and Cher’s divorce, which was a contract for financial compensation rather than a copyright assignment.

Cher’s lawyers argue in the Monday fee motion that Mary’s position was always rooted in an “untenable interpretation” of copyright law. They note, for example, that the termination right statute specifically excludes contracts arising out of state law, such as Sonny and Cher’s California-based divorce settlement.

“Yet defendant dragged this case out for five years by taking patently unreasonable positions,” write Cher’s attorneys. “Defendant argued, repeatedly and frivolously, that a federal statute that expressly states it does not affect state-law rights somehow extinguishes those state-law rights.”

Mary’s legal team did not immediately return a request for comment on the fee request on Tuesday (Jan. 13). She is appealing Judge Kronstadt’s decision and has maintained that the termination right was properly invoked.

Foo Fighters gave their first concert of the year on Saturday (Jan. 10) in the city of León, located in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico, in a new setting for the iconic American band: a state fair. The result was a success, drawing more than 25,000 attendees, according to organizers, and meeting the challenge of bringing the stadium-filling rock band outside the major festival circuit in Mexico City and Monterrey.

The achievement is the result of a strategy that the Patronato, a citizens’ council, began several years ago to make the annual Feria Estatal de León, which has been held for 150 years, a key destination, with major performances that place the city and state on both national and international maps.

“When a traditional fair like the Feria de León offers high-level content, it generates significant tourism revenue that ensures a safe return on investment,” Alonso Limón Rode, general director of the Feria de León and Parque Urbano, tells Billboard Español. “The fair thus becomes an economic driver for the city and the state in the first weeks of the year.”

Organizers expect the 2026 Feria de León, which began Friday (Jan. 9) and will run through Feb. 4, to attract 6.7 million visitors — more than 30% of whom are from outside the region — over 27 days of activities, generating economic revenue of 9 billion pesos ($504 million USD).

In addition to Foo Fighters, this year’s lineup includes artists such as Zoé, DJ Tiësto, Los Ángeles Azules, and Banda Machos in a venue known as Foro de la Gente Mazda. Meanwhile, in the city’s Palenque — promoted as “the largest in the country” with a capacity for 7,500 people — the headlining act is Mexican star Carín León, followed by other major regional Mexican music acts, including Julión Álvarez and Christian Nodal. (A palenque is an indoor space popular as a performance venue for Latin artists that often boasts a central or 360-degree stage.)

Limón Rode explains that in 2024, the Feria de León set a precedent for attracting international talent to the annual event in the livestock-oriented city, located 360 kilometers (about 224 miles) from Mexico City and home to 1.7 million residents, according to official data. A year later, British acts Sam Smith and Def Leppard performed.

“The first big task was convincing the agencies representing those artists. First, we had to put the state on the map, then the city, and then explain that it’s a local fair,” Limón Rode recalls. “Then we gave them the certainty and security that we are prepared to host this type of artist.”

This year, the Patronato of the Feria Estatal de León joined forces with Mexico’s leading promoter, Ocesa — part of the global entertainment giant Live Nation — to organize and produce the concerts at Foro de la Gente Mazda, as well as to secure the artists performing there.

“We carried out a process to select the company providing the entire integrated service. The company tasked with organizing and producing the venue had to provide comprehensive services in terms of production, catering and travel,” Limón Rode says, adding that more than 13 Mexican promoters participated in the selection process this year. “We evaluated technical and operational capacity, financial solvency, and economic stability, and we were thrilled to find in Ocesa a very serious, thoroughly proven company.”

One unique feature of the Feria de León is that most of its events are free to the public. “Eighty-five percent of the capacity is free. We aim to bring this kind of content closer to the people, ensuring accessibility, and we’ve developed an entire strategy to generate revenue to sustain this investment,” says Limón Rode.

Digital tickets are distributed free of charge to attendees through an online registration process. “Users enter a random virtual queue through this digital system, with no fees, and a QR code is issued, which is activated hours before the concert,” he explains. The remaining 15% of the Foro de la Gente Mazda’s capacity is sold to the public under a concept called Fila Cero (Zero Line), guaranteeing access to those attendees.

The announcement that Foo Fighters and Zoé would perform at this year’s event led to approximately 500,000 and 650,000 people, respectively, to try to secure free tickets, according to organizers.

“The Feria de León began 150 years ago as a fair that commemorated the foundation of the city in two aspects: allegorical floats and a livestock exhibition,” Limón Rode says. “But now, it has taken a very significant turn, and we are being viewed from an international perspective. That excites us greatly.”

For more information, visit the Feria de León’s official website.

Guy Moon, who composed music for animated TV series including Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents, died as a result of a traffic collision in Los Angeles on Jan. 8. He was 63.

Moon’s family announced his death in a Facebook post on Jan. 10. Moon was hit by a vehicle while riding his Vespa scooter in the Wilmington neighborhood of L.A. He died of traumatic injuries at the scene.

Moon was best known for scoring The Fairly OddParents, an animated series that tracked the adventures of Timmy Turner. Moon was the show’s composer from 2001 to 2017 and scored more than 150 episodes, according to IMDb.

Moon was nominated for four Primetime Emmys for outstanding music and lyrics from 2002 to 2004 for songs he composed for the show. He collaborated on all four songs with lyricists Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel. They were joined on one of them by lyricist Scott Fellows.

Moon won three consecutive BMI Cable Awards at the BMI Film & TV Awards from 2002 to 2004 for his work on The Fairly OddParents (shared with Hartman and Ron Jones). He also won an Annie Award for music in a television production in 2007 for his work on the show.

Moon was raised in Fort Atkinson, Wis., and graduated from the University of Arizona School of Music.  Moon, who was inspired by the music of Chick Corea, began his career in the 1980s. Moon also worked on The Fairly OddParents creator Hartman’s other series Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy.

His other credits include The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), A Very Brady Sequel (1996), Come on Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story (1999) and A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! (2011). He was last credited in 2025 as a composer for The Artist, a series from streaming service the Network.

Moon is survived by his wife, Jennifer Moon; his three adult children — daughters Chelsea and Savannah and son Dusty; his parents; two older sisters and seven grandchildren, with an eighth on the way.

The family said in their Facebook post that they plan to celebrate Moon’s life at a memorial in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, which would have been the composer’s 64th birthday. That remembrance will be followed by another in Wisconsin at a later date.

Yes, baby, Madison Beer is hitting the road this year. The pop singer announced dates for The Locket Tour on Tuesday (Jan. 13), which will be making stops in North America, Europe and the United Kingdom.

The global trek comes in support of Beer’s new album Locket, which arrives on Friday (Jan. 16). Lulu Simon will be an opener for the tour’s entirety, while Isabel LaRosa will perform for the European leg before tagging in Thuy for the North American dates.

The Locket Tour will kick off overseas in Poland on May 11 and make stops in Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Manchester.

Madison Beer is slated to headline her first arena dates with shows at NYC’s Madison Square Garden and L.A.’s Kia Forum. She’ll also be performing in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Philly, Detroit, Toronto and Boston.

North American fans can sign up for pre-sale access, which will begin on Jan. 26 at 10 a.m. local time, while the general public tickets are slated to go on sale on Jan. 21.

“The locket tour ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ you can sign up for presale now thru the link in my bio ! w special guests @isabel.s.larosa @thuymusic @lulusimonofficial general on sale is 1/21 all other information can be found at the link in my bio :’)))) i hope to see you there,” she wrote to social media.

In a separate Instagram Story sharing Madison Square Garden’s post about her show, the singer enthused, “can’t believe this is real.” She also commented on MSG’s post, “my literal dream come true.”

Locket boasts 11 tracks, including the trio of singles “Yes Baby,” “Bittersweet” and “Make You Mine.” Beer earned her first Billboard Hot 100 entry earlier in January when “Bittersweet” debuted at No. 98.

Find all of The Locket Tour dates below.