Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris is a lifelong, dedicated West Ham United superfan. The rocker has long proudly flown the English Premier Club team’s signature maroon, blue and yellow colors. But this week, Harris changed his tune and was pictured holding up the signature Rossoblù (red and blue) jersey of Italian professional league football club Genoa FCF in an unexpected collaboration with the soccer-mad metal icon.

The team posted a pic of Harris holding up the shirt that reads “Genova” on its Instagram, with the bassist’s eyes just barely peeking out from behind the jersey’s collar.

It’s the team’s latest team-up with a musician, following last week’s tribute to one of their most well-known supporters, late crooner Frank Sinatra, in which Italian singer PierC sang Old Blue Eyes’ signature hit “My Way” during a home match. In 2023, the team also celebrated Rita Ora modeling one of the squad’s 130th anniversary shirts.

Iron Maiden recently announced more dates for their extensive 2026 Run For Your Lives world tour, including gigs in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Chile in October of next year; those dates will feature support from Alter Bridge, Mammoth, The Raven Age, Souls of steel, Nuclear and La h No Murio.

Before that swing, the band will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a European swing from May-July, followed by a run of August North American shows featuring Megadeth and Anthrax, slated to kick off on Aug. 39 in Toronto, before moving on to Montreal, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Minnesota, Illinois and California, winding down on Sept. 29 in San Antonio, Texas.


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The Weeknd and Lyric Capital‘s deal to move the Starboy artist’s back catalog into a new joint venture was financed through royalty-backed notes bought by the Swiss-based investment firm Partners Group, according to a press release.

The Weeknd’s masters catalog and Lyric Capital raised $1 billion — including $750 million in debt — in a deal that gave Lyric a 25% equity stake in artist Abel Tesfaye‘s masters, Billboard reported earlier in December. Partners said on Wednesday that The Weeknd will maintain “freedom to utilize the publishing and masters’ rights over the catalog” in the new vehicle, which it financed through the purchase of royalty-backed notes bought with client funds from its cross-sector royalty strategy.

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While Partners Group did not disclose the total amount of notes it bought, the global investment firm that has historically focused on real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets launched a dedicated royalty investment strategy in 2024, which it says is targeting $30 billion in assets under management by 2033.

Partners’ evergreen fund structure acquires royalties across life sciences, energy transition and entertainment, of which entertainment and music royalties will likely comprise $6 billion to $9 billion in assets, the company has said. In January, Partners announced investments in the film and TV music catalog of Warner Bros’, which is managed by a joint venture with Cutting Edge Group, and in a royalty-backed note issued by film and TV music rights catalog company Multimedia Music.

“To be able to add The Weeknd, who is one of the most commercially successful contemporary artists of all time, to our portfolio … speaks to the underlying quality and reach of our strategy,” Stephen Otter, Head of Royalties, Partners Group, said in a statement.

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Consistently ranked among the world’s most-streamed artists, The Weeknd’s catalog generates stable, growing revenue that is considered diversified because of its different fan groups spread around the globe. Buying exposure to that revenue through the royalty-backed notes gives Partners a low-risk, high upside potential way to be “aligned with the artist,” Otter says.

Partners has previously invested in Lyric Capital, Sherrese Soares’ HarbourView Equity Partners and Josh Gruss’ Round Hill Music. Partners has invested more than $210 billion in private equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure since its founding in 1996.


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The holiday season is here, and as Americans chowed down on turkey and mashed potatoes while gearing up for some Christmas shopping, the dollars continued to fly at strip clubs across the U.S. throughout November.

Billboard launched the inaugural strip club chart in August and will continue to track the top tracks played monthly at three prominent Atlanta strip clubs.

For those new here, Billboard joined forces with DJ Monitor, a service that installs music-recognition technology for venues and festivals, along with a contribution from the Coalition DJs, to collect data from three different strip clubs in Atlanta.

Billboard hosted a special episode of Unfiltered Live in November, which saw New York rappers Dave East and former Starlets bartender-turned-rapper DreamDoll joined the panel to reflect on their experiences at the strip club, while naming some of their favorite strip club anthems of all-time.

A few of the overlapping go-to picks the duo feels run the strip club included Future’s “March Madness,” Juicy J’s “Bandz a Make Her Dance” and Waka Flocka Flame’s rowdy “No Hands” featuring Wale and Roscoe Dash.

Metro Boomin has been on a torrid run atop the strip club chart behind his A Futuristic Summa mixtape, but he’s been dethroned in November by Atlanta rapper Belly Gang Kushington’s “Friend Do (Remix)” with YKNIECE.

The November chart features largely the same artists as October, but the likes of Cardi B, Jeezy and YFN Lucci now appear in rearranged slots.

As far as the artists who enjoyed the most spins in the strip club for November, the top 10 goes as follows:

No. 10, Belly Gang Kushington (168)
No. 9, Young Thug (177)
No. 8, Jeezy (192)
No. 7, Young Nudy (214)
No. 6, Gucci Mane (230)
No. 5, Moneybagg Yo (251)
No. 4, BossMan Dlow (327)
No. 3, Lil Baby (382)
No. 2, Metro Boomin (422)
No. 1, Future (884)

U.S. club owners interested in contributing data can send an email to hiphop@billboard.com. Check out the top 10 songs making noise in Atlanta strip clubs below.

Will the real J. Biebs please stand up? Justin Bieber surprised fans with a cover of one of Eminem‘s biggest hits on a recent livestream, flying through the Detroit rapper’s verse on the Dr. Dre collab “Forgot About Dre.”

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As captured in recordings from the stream on Twitch — where the Canadian pop star has been regularly going live from his warehouse rehearsal space in preparation for his 2026 Coachella set — Bieber took the mic as a few friends danced around him. Facing the camera, the musician whips through the lightning-fast rhymes on the iconic Y2K hit, fumbling a few of Em’s lines but overall keeping with the difficult pacing.

“So what do you say to somebody you hate/ Or anyone tryna bring trouble your way?” Bieber spits. “One day I was walking by/ With a Walkman on, and I caught a guy/ Gave me an awkward eye/ Strangled him up in the parking lot.”

Released in 1999 on Dr. Dre’s 2001 album, “Forgot About Dre” entered the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2000 and peaked at No. 25 that March. In 2022, Dre and Em reunited to perform the track during the former’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performance.

Bieber has been hunkering down in his warehouse for weeks, frequently going live to show fans his progress in rehearsing for next year’s Coachella. The hitmaker is set to headline the 2026 festival alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G.

The massive rehearsal space is decked out with lounge furniture, a basketball hoop, a skate ramp, play areas for Bieber’s 1-year-old son, Jack Blues, and more. Ahead of the holidays, the singer has also now set up a shimmering Christmas tree.


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Young Thug put on a ring on it. Thugger and his longtime girlfriend, Mariah the Scientist, got engaged on Tuesday night (Dec. 16) after the Atlanta rapper proposed to the singer while on stage.

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Thugger got down on a knee while performing at his Hometown Hero concert in Atlanta, which had Mariah in shock. A “Will You Marry Me” graphic was blasted across the jumbotron screen as the crowd erupted into a frenzy.

The couple shared a warm embrace with Thug still holding the ring out while on a knee. “What you say?” he asked. “Put it on,” she exclaimed back to her man, giving her approval. Mariah later added, “I guess I’m getting married” before kissing Thugger.

Atlanta-based photographer Prince Williams captured a better look at the double-barreled diamond-encrusted ring backstage at the concert. The photos feature Thug caressing Mariah, who’s showing off her new bling, with the rapper even cracking a rare smile.

Thug and Mariah the Scientist began dating in 2021, and she held him down throughout his two-plus years behind bars, fighting the YSL RICO case.

However, back in October, Thug confirmed in a livestream with Adin Ross that he “got broken up with,” which hinted at a split with Mariah. The couple ended up reconciling days later for the singer’s birthday.

In a way, Mariah manifested getting engaged when she dropped some major hints for Thug during an interview with Angie Martinez over the weekend.

“I want to settle down, I wanna be married,” she said. “That’s my plan. I want a baby. I just want at least one. I’ll start with that and see how I can manage.”

Thug and Mariah have joined forces on the music side as well, teaming up for collabs such as “Ride,” “Walked In,” “Dreams Rarely Do Come True” and “Invest Into You.”


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Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues and promoters of 2025 earlier in December. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Now, we continue with pop.

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The definition of pop has always been in flux, encompassing the most, well, popular, acts in music. According to this year’s top 10 pop tours, it ranges from the 1980s to the 2020s, centers around artists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and incorporates influences from dance, R&B, rock and more. Pop has also historically been one of the most equitable genres in terms of gender representation. This year’s round-up leans toward women, with six of the top 10 spots.

The year’s top pop artist is a familiar face, having previously crowned the genre breakout in 2018, 2019, and 2022. On the other end of the spectrum, two of the featured artists make their year-end pop debut, with Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae each scoring their first appearances. Though not her first-ever top 10 look, Kylie Minogue is back for the first time since 2011.

On the whole, pop remains steady. It makes up 16.9% of the top 100 tours’ overall earnings, barely up from 16.4% in 2024 and 15.8% in 2023, and ever-so-slightly off from 17% in 2022.


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Scroll to check out the 10 highest grossing tours by pop acts. Rankings are determined according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All reported shows worldwide between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, are eligible.

Tom Morello‘s latest collaboration is a different kind of raging against the machine. On the high-octane single “Everything Burns,” the RATM guitarist and solo performer cranks up the energy for a fierce metal-meets-beats jam featuring urgent vocals from Beartooth vocalist Caleb Shomo.

“Whole house packed/ Not here to make friends/ Do or die moment/ I love it this intense/ Who am I taking out/ Thinking you’re next/ You’ll know it when the sky turns red/ ‘Cause everything burns,” Shomo sings on the ominous song before jumping into the howling, galloping chorus: “Everything burns/ Light it up lets go/ Light it up lets go.”

The team-up with the metalcore singer brings to mind the vibe and energy of the classic 1993 nu-metal-meets-hip-hop mash-up soundtrack to Judgement Night, which paired such seeming odd fellows as Biohazard and Onyx, Slayer and Ice-T and Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill.

“Everything Burns” was produced by Tyler Smyth (Falling In Reverse, Royal & the Serpent) and on Tuesday (Dec. 16) it made its in-game debut in the latest update to the Final Fantasy XIV video game.
“Everything Burns is a high energy riff heavy banger that feels like it’s rising from the streets,” said Morello in a statement. “Collaborating with Beartooth and super producer Tyler Smyth to forge this ferocious next single from my upcoming solo album was a real thrill.”

Shomo added, “creating ‘Everything Burns’ was the definition of lightning in a bottle. Pressure makes diamonds. When I got a call saying Tom Morello wants you to sing on a song for a huge project and it’s due in a few hours I had no idea what would happen, but I gave it all I had and it turned into something that’s truly once in a lifetime. I couldn’t be more honored to be a part of this with Tom and the entire Final Fantasy family that made this happen. Life goal achieved.”

Morello recently unveiled his new Arm the Homeless guitar with Fender — which recreates one of the rocker’s most beloved instruments — with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Los Angeles homeless charities Midnight Mission and Covenant House.

Watch the “Everything Burns” video below.


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All Rihanna wanted for Christmas was to see Mariah Carey command the stage at her holiday show in Las Vegas — but so did the people seated behind her.

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In a newly shared video from the Songbird Supreme’s Dec. 13 performance at Dolby Live at Park MGM, Ri has a hilarious reaction when a fellow fan seemingly yells at her to sit down so that the people behind her can see. The Fenty mogul was raised up high above the rest of the crowd, waving her arms and blowing kisses up toward the stage when she heard someone shout behind her as Carey was singing “We Belong Together.”

In the clip, Ri looks appalled as she turns to see who yelled, then lets out a sassy, “Oh, s–t!” before continuing to dance. “The audacity to yell at Rihanna to sit down while she’s fangirling over Mariah Carey is wild,” the caption reads.

Billboard has reached out to both singers’ reps for comment.

The Barbados native has always been loud and proud with her love for Carey. This year marks the second year in a row Ri has attended one of the icon’s annual Christmas shows, making headlines in December 2024 after getting Carey to autograph her cleavage last holiday season in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Other videos from this year’s concert in Vegas show Ri letting loose and rocking out to Carey’s evergreen classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” — which is currently spending a record 20th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and meeting the night’s star backstage.

“It’s a tradition,” Ri says in one backstage clip to Carey, who agrees, “It’s a tradition!”


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Less than 24 hours after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unveiled its shortlists in 12 categories, including best original song and best original score, the Society of Composers & Lyricists revealed the nominations for its 2026 awards.

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Sinners composer Ludwig Göransson and Wicked: For Good composer Stephen Schwartz are each nominated for three SCL Awards. Both composers are nominated for outstanding original score for a studio film (Schwartz alongside John Powell); both also received two song nominations. Göransson received two nods for outstanding original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production for “I Lied to You” and “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from Sinners. Schwartz has two nods for outstanding original song for a comedy or musical visual media production for “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked: For Good.

In addition, Göransson and director Ryan Coogler will receive the Spirit of Collaboration Award, the SCL’s most distinctive and meaningful award, which recognizes a composer/director partnership that has created a significant and enduring body of work. Since their first collaboration on Coogler’s Fruitvale Station (2013), Göransson has scored all of Coogler’s feature films as a director — Creed (2015), Black Panther (2018), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and Sinners (2025). Göransson won an Oscar for best original score for Black Panther and received an Oscar nod for best original song for cowriting “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Composer Harry Gregson-Williams received the 2025 Spirit of Collaboration Award for his work with director Ridley Scott. Other past recipients in this category include the late composer Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese; Thomas Newman and Sam Mendes; Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee; Carter Burwell and the Coen Brothers; and Justin Hurwitz and Damien Chazelle.

Diane Warren is nominated for outstanding original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production for “Dear Me” from the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless. Warren has been nominated in each of the seven years that the SCL Awards have been presented. She won in this category in both 2025 for “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, and in 2023 for “Applause” from Tell it Like a Woman.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of overlap between the SCL nominations and the Oscar shortlists. All of the SCL nominees for outstanding original score for a studio film are on the Oscar shortlist for original score.  All but one of the 2026 SCL nominees for original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production are on the Oscar shortlist for original song. The one SCL nominee for original song that failed to make the Oscar shortlist was “The Hills of Tanchico” from The Wheel of Time, which was cowritten by Nikhil Koparkar and Rammy Park.

The Bacon Brothers, consisting of actor-musician Kevin Bacon and his older brother, composer Michael Bacon, will cohost the seventh annual SCL Awards at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 6. That’s at nearly the midpoint between the announcement of the Oscar nominations on Jan. 22 and the opening of first-round Oscar voting on Feb. 26, which makes the SCL Awards an important stop on the Oscar campaign trail.

The SCL Awards will feature a performance by Grammy-winner Melissa Manchester. (Trivia note: Dean Pitchford cowrote Manchester’s Grammy-winning song, “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” and also wrote the screenplay and cowrote all the songs for Kevin Bacon’s breakout film, Footloose.)

Final voting for the 2026 SCL Awards will open on Jan. 19 and close on Jan. 26.

Here’s the full list of 2026 SCL Award nominees:

Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film

Ludwig Göransson – Sinners

Alexandre Desplat – Frankenstein

Jonny Greenwood – One Battle After Another

Stephen Schwartz & John Powell – Wicked: For Good

Max Richter – Hamnet

Jerskin Fendrix – Bugonia

Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film

Dara Taylor – Straw

Bryce Dessner – Train Dreams

David Fleming – Eternity

Fabrizio Mancinelli – Out of the Nest

Jónsi & Alex Sommers – Rental Family

Sara Barone & Robert Christenson – To Kill a Wolf

Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production

Diane Warren – “Dear Me” from Relentless

Alice Smith, Miles Caton & Ludwig Göransson – “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from Sinners

Raphael Saadiq & Ludwig Göransson – “I Lied to You” from Sinners

Sara Bareilles – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light

Nikhil Koparkar & Rammy Park – “The Hills of Tanchico” from The Wheel of Time

Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin & John Mayer – “Drive” from F1

Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production

EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick – “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters

Stephen Schwartz – “No Place Like Home” from Wicked: For Good

Stephen Schwartz – “The Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked: For Good

Jack Black & Jared Hess – “Steve’s Lava Chicken” from A Minecraft Movie

Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt & Jack Black – “I Feel Alive” from A Minecraft Movie

Blake Slatkin, Shakira & Ed Sheeran – “Zoo” from Zootopia 2

Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television Production

Cristobal Tapia De Veer – The White Lotus

Carlos Rafael Rivera – Dept. Q

Dave Porter – Pluribus

Sean Callery – The Beast in Me

Amanda Jones – Murderbot

Jeff Beal – All Her Fault

Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production

Theodore Shapiro – Severance

Antonio Sánchez – The Studio

Brandon Roberts – Andor

Dave Porter – Pluribus

Cristobal Tapia De Veer – The White Lotus

David Fleming & Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us

Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media

Austin Wintory – Sword of the Sea

Gordy Haab – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of the Giants

Wilbert Roget II, Cody Matthew Johnson & Jon Everist – Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune

Maclaine Deimer – Wildgate

David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent

Cameron Moody – Washington Black

Chin-Shan Chang – Laws of Man

Raashi Kulkarni – A Nice Indian Boy

Greg Nicolett – Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches

Freya Berkhout – Ride or Die

Sara Trevino – The Map That Leads You


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Warner Chappell Music has signed Margo Price to a global publishing deal. Meanwhile, Price’s close collaborator Jeremy Ivey has also inked an administration deal with WCM.

Price’s most recent album, Hard Headed Woman, has earned two Grammy nominations, for best traditional country album, while the album’s song “Love Me Like You Used To,” a Price duet with fellow Warner Chappell Music writer Tyler Childers, is up for best country duo/group performance.

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Price said in a statement, “It’s an honor to become a part of the Warner Chappell family. I’ve been writing songs for decades now so it feels empowering to be seen not only as an artist and a singer, producer and author, but also as a songwriter. I’m grateful for Carianne Marshall and the entire team at Warner Chappell for recognizing me as a composer and writer. At the core of everything I do, the writing has always come first and I can’t wait for all that’s ahead.”

Carianne Marshall, co-chair & COO, Warner Chappell Music, added, “Margo has carved out a powerful place in music with songs that cut straight to the truth. She’s fearless in her writing, constantly pushing boundaries while staying rooted in the storytelling tradition that defines country and Americana. Our team has been fans of her work for a long time, and we’re thrilled to welcome her to Warner Chappell. This partnership is a true collaboration across our Nashville and Los Angeles teams – especially Christina [Wiltshire] and Greg [Sowders] – as we support Margo in continuing to shape the sound of her generation.”

Margo Price

Top L-R: Austen Adams (WCM), Kevin Morris (Red Light Management)
Bottom L-R: Carianne Marshall (WCM), Margo Price, Christina Wiltshire (WCM)

Grace Hartrick

Price is known for writing songs that are keen, unfiltered takes on life, inequalities, politics, love and more. Her debut, 2016’s Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, was released on Jack White’s Third Man Records, marking the label’s first country release; that album reached the top 5 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums chart and reached the top 10 on the Top Country Albums chart. That set also earned Price two Americana Honors & Awards nominations, while Price won for emerging artist of the year.

She’s followed with acclaimed albums including All-American Made (2017), which earned Price a Grammy nomination for best new artist. In 2023, she released the album Strays and solely produced Jessi Colter’s album Edge of Forever. She’s toured with artists including Chris Stapleton and Willie Nelson and recently embarked on her Wild at Heart Tour, which extends into 2026.


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