Slayyyter earns her biggest week yet on Billboard’s charts as her new album, Wor$t Girl in America, debuts at No. 1 on the Top Dance Albums chart dated April 11.

Released March 27 via RECORDS/Columbia Records, the album also launches at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 with 27,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in its opening week, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 16,000 were in album sales, driving a No. 7 debut on Top Album Sales.

Three songs from the set land on the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart: “Yes Goddd” and “Crank” debut at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively, while “Dance…” reenters at No. 15.

In a March interview with Billboard, Slayyyter said she considered quitting music after making the album. “I just kept saying, ‘I’m going to go back to school after this. I’m done,’” she shared. “This is going to be my last project. I’m going to do one last rollout and give it my all and then I’m going to tell my team that I’m over doing this and shift gears, because it’s not working out. Then I rediscovered my love for making music while working on everything and ended up signing to Columbia for this project and everything has been so great. I really felt hopeless, so I think all of this music came from a place of wanting to make a project that fulfilled me, and then to move on with my life.”

Slayyyter previously reached the charts in 2023 with her second LP, Starf–ker, which hit No. 10 on Top Dance Albums and No. 46 on Top Album Sales, marking her first Billboard chart appearances.

Up next, Slayyyter is set to make her Coachella debut this weekend in Indio, Calif., followed by her first performance at Governors Ball in New York in June. Her headlining Wor$t Girl in the World Tour kicks off in September with dates planned across North America, South America and Europe.


Billboard VIP Pass

ANOTR’s “Talk to You,” featuring 54 Ultra, rises a spot to No. 1 on the WARM Global Dance Radio chart dated April 11, topping the tally for the first time thanks to nearly 800 plays across more than 200 monitored stations worldwide in the March 27-April 2 tracking week, according to World Airplay Radio Monitor.

Released March 6 via ANOTR’s own NO ART imprint, the song debuted on the ranking two weeks earlier at No. 7. It has also built on momentum from TikTok, where it has been featured in more than 40,000 videos to date.

“Talk to You” has also become a hit across Billboard’s U.S.-based charts, reaching No. 5 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. In the latest tracking week, it drew 1.1 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate.

ANOTR is an Amsterdam-based electronic duo comprising Oguzhan Guney and Jesse van der Heijden.

Milky X Mall Grab’s viral “Just the Way You Are” jumps 4-2 WARM Global Dance Radio. The song samples Milky’s 2002 hit of the same name, which spent five weeks at No. 1 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay and has since become a house music classic. Australian electronic trio PNAU released a new remix of the song on March 20.

Rounding out the top five of the WARM Global Dance Radio chart, Calvin Harris and Kasabian’s “Release the Pressure” falls to No. 3 after spending four weeks on top; Bebe Rexha and Faithless’ “New Religion” climbs 7-4 for a new high; and FISHER’s “Rain” drops 3-5.

The top debut on the chart is Chris Stussy and Tom Did It’s “Wide Awake” at No. 35, followed by Alok and Khalid’s “Dive Into Me” at No. 39.

David Guetta has the most songs on the latest chart with four: “Save Me Tonight,” with Jennifer Lopez (No. 13); “Upside Down,” with Jaden Bojsen (No. 16); “Crazy,” with Matt Sassari and Amira Eldine (also billed to Guetta’s DJ alias, Jack Back); and “Head & Heart,” with Joel Corry and MNEK (billed to Jack Back). John Summit, Meduza and Tiësto follow with three charting songs each.

The WARM Global Dance Radio chart debuted on Billboard.com in March, joining Billboard’s long-standing U.S.-based dance lists, including Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Dance/Pop Songs, Dance/Mix Show Airplay and Top Dance Albums. The 40-position Global Dance Radio chart (published in full as a 100-position ranking on WARM’s platform) aggregates plays from 200-plus dance-dedicated radio stations across more than 30 countries, reflecting songs trending globally through a network of programmers and radio gatekeepers operating across multiple territories.

Check out the top 40 of the WARM Global Dance Radio chart on Billboard.com and head over to WARM’s website for the full 100-position survey.


Billboard VIP Pass

The members of BTS are not to be messed with in the new music video for their ARIRANG single “Hooligan,” with the visual serving up dystopian fantasy vibes ruled by RM, Jimin, Jin, j-hope, SUGA, V and Jung Kook.

Related

Posted Tuesday (April 7), the video finds the septet serving up intricate, powerful choreography in a variety of dark, barren landscapes shrouded in fog and dust. At one point, the Bangtan Boys unite atop a stark red platform as masked dancers weave around them, a stony palace looming behind. Elsewhere in the clip, the members walk through a dark and windy passage as gravity-defying civilians float overhead.

“Watch this, watch this beat goin’ hooligan/ We pop out, we actin’ a fool again,” RM raps. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, hooligan/ Watch this, watch this beat goin’ hooligan.”

“Hooligan” is just the latest track on new album ARIRANG — which dropped in March and recently notched its second consecutive week atop the Billboard 200 — to get a music video. The boy band has also unveiled sleek visuals for Billboard Hot 100-topping lead single “SWIM” and “2.0.”

The new video comes just two days ahead of the kickoff show on BTS’ highly anticipated world tour, which is launching with three performances at Goyang Stadium in South Korea. The trek is scheduled to run through March of next year and will take the members through cities in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia, performing numbers from the new album — including a hidden track produced by SUGA, as teased by RM in a recent Weverse livestream.

Check out the “Hooligan” music video above.


Billboard VIP Pass

Harry Styles is putting his stamp on one of London’s most prestigious arts venues with a tastefully curated bill for the 2026 edition of Meltdown Festival.

Related

In a statement, Styles said: “Music is my life; every artist involved in this year’s Meltdown festival means so much to me, both as a fan and a musician. It’s a true honor to host legends who have paved the way for the generations that follow them, as well as new acts that have inspired me to push my creative boundaries.”

Set to run from June 11 to 21 at the Southbank Centre, the event reflects Styles’ wide-ranging musical taste, pairing established alternative acts with emerging voices across indie, jazz, electronic and pop. The artist is also set to headline the venue’s Royal Festival Hall during the festival.

Among the indie-leaning highlights are Stephen Fretwell, who will deliver a rare performance, alongside Dev Hynes (also known as Blood Orange), Orlando Weeks, Nilüfer Yanya, Bar Italia and Warpaint. Newer acts across the lineup include Bristol-based duo Getdown Services and in-demand Australian DJ and producer Ninajarichi. 

The lineup also extends to jazz, featuring Kamasi Washington and Mulatu Astatke, alongside contemporary U.K. figures such as Yussef Dayes and Shabaka Hutchings.

Elsewhere on the bill, experimental pop acts Erika de Casier and Fousheé join ambient and electronic names such as Jon Hopkins, Beverly Glenn-Copeland and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, the latter being a key influence for Styles’ recent fourth LP Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.

Further lineup details, including ticketing information for Styles’ own show at the Royal Festival Hall, will be announced soon.

Tickets for the rest of the lineup go on sale to Southbank Centre members at 10 a.m. BST on Thursday (April 9) via the venue’s official website. General sale will take place at 10 a.m. BST on Friday (April 10).

The former One Direction member joins a prestigious list of previous Meltdown Festival curators including the likes of The Cure’s Robert Smith, David Byrne, Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and most recently, Little Simz.

Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally topped the Billboard 200 and the Official U.K. Albums Chart upon release on March 12, spawning a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with lead single “Aperture” and U.K. No. 1 single in “American Girls.” Styles is set to support the record with the Together, Together Tour later this year, kicking off at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam on May 16.


Billboard VIP Pass

Kacey Musgraves has won six Academy of Country Music Awards in competition, but she has yet to perform on the show. That changes on May 17, when she is set to perform a new song from her upcoming seventh studio album, Middle of Nowhere, which is due May 1. The first single from that album, “Dry Spell,” reached No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Related

This has been a season of firsts for Musgraves, who performed on the Latin Grammys on Nov. 13. The singer performed two songs, “Ahí Estabas Tú” and “Lost In Translation,” in tandem with Mexican singer-songwriter Carín León.

Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town have also been added to the ACM Awards performance lineup, joining the previously announced Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Riley Green. Lambert is the most decorated artist in ACM Awards history, with 33 wins in competitive categories, including a record nine awards for female artist of the year. Little Big Town has won eight competitive awards on the show, including four for vocal group of the year.

The 61st ACM Awards will stream live for a global audience on Prime Video on Sunday, May 17, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Fans will also be able to watch the broadcast on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, as well as in the Amazon Music app.

Tickets for the 61st ACM Awards and other ACM Awards week events are available for purchase on the AXS site. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, April 9.

Established in 1966, the Academy of Country Music Awards is the longest running country music awards show. The show made history in 2022 as the first major awards ceremony to exclusively livestream, in collaboration with Prime Video.

Raj Kapoor and Patrick Menton are executive producers of the 61st ACM Awards, with Kapoor also serving as showrunner. Kapoor is on a historic hot streak, having also executive produced the 2026 Grammys and Oscars. He is also set to serve in that same role on Tony Awards on June 7.

Related

Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music, serves as executive producer of the ACM Awards for the academy. Jay Penske and Barry Adelman serve as executive producers for Dick Clark Productions. John Saade will also continue to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.

The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.


Billboard VIP Pass

Karol G bares her soul — and her killer abs — for the latest issue of Playboy, which dropped Tuesday (April 7) featuring the Latin music icon as its cover star.

Striking a number of different sensual poses, Karol G looks strong and glowy in all of the photos she shot for the legacy magazine. Though stripping down for Playboy can be daunting, she told the publication, “The only person I asked if I should do it or not was Sofia Vergara. I called her and told her, ‘If you tell me not to do it, I won’t.’”

Related

“‘Mijita, with that body?’” the Modern Family actress responded, according to Karol G. “When you get to this age, you tell yourself, ‘F–k, why didn’t I pose that one time?’”

The cover comes ahead of this year’s Coachella, which kicks off Friday (April 10). The Colombian musician is set to headline the festival alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Justin Bieber, an opportunity that’s particularly meaningful for Karol.

“They called me and told me — in Spanish — that I was going to be the first Latina to close the festival,” she told Playboy. “I feel like it’s a show for my community, for the world, but it’s a show that’s very much for me.”

On the topic of representing her community, the singer was also candid about her complicated feelings toward condemning ICE, which has been carrying out Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations and raids on immigrant communities since he took office last year. According to her, she’d like to speak out more — but she’s been repeatedly advised not to.

“People will say, ‘It’s better you don’t,’” she told the publication. “Why? Because if you say the thing, maybe the next day you’ll get a call: ‘Hey, we are taking your visa away.’ You become bait, because some people want to show their power.”

“My team would kill me,” she continued. “If I’m being honest with you, it’s something that crosses the line of what I have to do to protect myself. But at the end of the day, what is my role if I’m in this position?”

That said, she’s waiting for the opportunity to arise for her words to make the most impact. “I have a huge stage, and that’s why I want to wait, and if someone was ever to do something to me, I want to stand firmly on my stage for my community,” Karol added. “So that’s why I may have to be more careful, and wait for my turn, and ensure that, through that opportunity, I can talk and represent something more.”


Billboard VIP Pass

Last week, Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – made his return to U.S. soil with a pair of performances at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. For Ye, the two-night bonanza was more than a “best of” highlight reel – it doubled as a mission statement, reminding the public why he remains an all-world performer despite his errant missteps.

The shows reportedly grossed $33 million, featured a bevy of superstars – including Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott and Don Toliver – and arrived on the heels of his 12th studio album and Billboard 200 No. 2 debut, BULLY

Ye’s sights are once again set on absolution. But with the rug now being pulled out from under his planned follow-up performance overseas, the question looms: Will Ye actually be able to pull off the career course-correction this time that he’s been able to in the past? 

Ye’s behavior at this point goes beyond tabloid fodder: it’s left lasting scars. His 2018 remark that slavery was a “choice” still reverberates within the Black community. Watching him seemingly admonish his own ancestors while publicly aligning himself with Donald Trump felt like a breaking point for many. The same can be said for his 2022 antisemitic rhetoric, which drew widespread condemnation and cut across a broad swath of people. 

In 2024, Ye apologized for his behavior ahead of the release of his Billboard 200-topping Vultures set with Ty Dolla $ign — but quickly reverted back to his old ways when, even releasing a single titled “Heil Hitler” in 2025. So it’s not surprising that after his most recent apology tour – including a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal – there’s still a level of caution that comes with Ye.

His caustic, wildcard demeanor has always been both his gift and his curse. He’s the epitome of a Gemini – his on-off switch determining the altitude of his career. In the past, it was easier to overlook his transgressions when they were less weighty, and also when he was still delivering generational music. Still, people still show up in droves to his events and drops because that same unpredictability carries a certain excitement. It fuels the belief that maybe, just maybe, they’ll get the “old Kanye.” 

And so far in 2026, there have been flashes of that elusive genius. Though BULLY arrived a day after its initial release date – which has become par for the course for Ye releases – he delivered the project early on Saturday morning, March 28, alongside a visual for “FATHER” featuring Travis Scott. While some may argue his raps aren’t as sharp as they once were, his production remains unflappable. Still the gold standard behind the boards, “All the Love” and “Preacher Man” land like Michelin-caliber cuts.

This Sunday (April 5), Bully became Kanye West’s 14th top 10 album on the Billboard 200, earning a robust 152,000 album-equivalent units, despite missing a full day of tracking. The strong debut, paired with sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium, seemingly had Ye positioned for another full comeback, particularly on the verge of a recently announced headlining gig at the U.K.’s Wireless Festival in July.

But his planned victory-lap gig ended up being a house of cards. Pepsi became the first sponsor to pull out of Wireless Festival. The decision also followed criticism from U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer, who labeled Ye’s booking “deeply concerning.” Other companies – including Rockstar Energy, PayPal and Diageo – then reportedly followed suit. The U.K. Home Office ultimately delivered the final blow, blocking his entry into the country and forcing Wireless to cancel the festival altogether.

Despite Ye’s enduring star power and signs of a refurbished reputation, his inflammatory commentary remains a sticking point for major companies unwilling to bet on his volatility. With Ye now ousted from Wireless, promoters and venues may grow increasingly hesitant to take a chance on the controversial artist despite the massive wins at SoFi just days prior. Gatekeepers, including streaming platforms and award shows, may continue to keep their distance, even as BULLY racked up nearly 100 million streams on its opening day.

Ye’s impact commercially and culturally over the past 25 years has been so tremendous that it’s unlikely he’s ever going to be totally expelled from the mainstream — his legacy is too profound, and his presence is too indelible for his still-massive cult of followers, as his BULLY streams and SoFi reception have proven. But while his continued moments of brilliance are undeniable, flashes aren’t the same as consistency, and for many, they’re nowhere near redemption. Even after issuing an apology and offering to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K., Ye will have to match words with action — and there’s no guarantee that he’ll ever be able to totally wash out the stain he’s left on his career and image for so many.


Billboard VIP Pass

Pop-rock singer-songwriter Bella Kay doesn’t understand why everyone thinks her upbeat-sounding breakout hit “iloveitiloveitiloveit” is a sad song.

As she tells Billboard on a giggly Zoom call in late March just a few days after her 20th birthday, “I put it out, and everyone was like, ‘Oh my god… this is gut-wrenching,’” she says. “I was genuinely like, ‘What? Hold on. I thought it was fun, guys.’”

Bella Kay photographed on April 1, 2026 at El Cid in Los Angeles.

Related

With Kay’s bright, earnest voice chugging the acoustic guitar-driven track’s momentum forward from start to finish, “iloveitiloveitiloveit” is the winking lament of someone who can’t escape the cycle of a slightly concerning, rollercoaster-like romance — packaged as a carefree love song in which ignoring red flags is thrilling, not self-sabotage. (“I love it when we fight, and I like it when you’re mean,” she admits in the lyrics. “We don’t have to get into what that says about me.”)

“I don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, this is a toxic relationship,’” she says. “I look at it as like, ‘Oh!’” — she cheers, smiling and shaking her head wildly, as if she’s in the middle of a rave — “‘This is a toxic relationship!’”

Intentionally heartbreaking or not, the song’s wide-reaching relatability and punchy lyricism launched “iloveitiloveitiloveit” onto the Billboard Hot 100 in February — Kay’s first entry on the chart, which has since reached No. 17. It was officially released in January, but she first posted the chorus on TikTok immediately after writing it in “five minutes” on her guitar in November. Within the next month, she’d finished the lyrics with producer and now-frequent collaborator Alexis Kesselman and settled on its breathless, no-spaces title — despite people “teasing” her for it — to match the chaotic nature of the song.

“The whole point is like, ‘I shouldn’t do this, but I love it,’” she explains with a shrug. “It has to feel stupid and crazy.”

Bella Kay photographed on April 1, 2026 at El Cid in Los Angeles.

“iloveitiloveitiloveit” came at exactly the right time for Kay. In the spring of 2025, she decided to begin regularly posting music clips on TikTok in hopes of launching a career, despite being two years into a prelaw degree at Texas A&M. “I was so embarrassed,” the Houston native recalls of sharing her first original song snippets on the platform. “My TikToks were getting, like, 30 likes … but I kept going.”

As her fan base took off that summer — largely thanks to viral clips of her moody, stripped-down tracks “Lonely” and “The Sick,” which appear in full on her November 2025 self-released EP sick to my stomach — she signed with Atlantic Records in July and then partnered with Immersive Management’s Adam Mersel and Priscilla Felten in October.

The fire had been lit — she just needed one song to pour gasoline on the flame. Released on Jan. 11, “iloveitiloveitiloveit” did that in abundance, racking up nearly half a million uses on TikTok to date. “When it started charting, I was like, ‘This is insane,’” Kay says tentatively, as if she still can’t quite believe it herself.

But the most fulfilling evidence, she says, is how loud her fans scream the words back at her when she sings the track at shows. Felten notes that Kay’s performances have been key to the success of “iloveitiloveitiloveit” — particularly her series of free, intimate pop-up concerts in Los Angeles, London, Houston and more cities beginning in November.

“The L.A. show in particular … even though [the song] was unreleased at that time, hearing it in that context — and the word-of-mouth that spread from there — was powerful,” Felten says of the 100-capacity performance. “It was also the first time you were seeing her [in person], because everyone had just known her solely through a phone.”

Mersel adds that Kay dropping “iloveitiloveitiloveit” on a Sunday evening, forgoing the industry-standard Friday release window, has been a strategic win — and one inspired by Kay’s prior farm-to-table delivery of sharing songs straight to social media. “During the school year, when Sunday nights can really be the blues for a lot of kids, it’s a nice little treat before the beginning of the week,” Mersel says, pointing out that the team has stuck with non-Friday releases for Kay’s other singles. “[Fans] felt like they were communicating with her in real time. They didn’t feel like there was a middleman involved.”

Next on the agenda is her first headlining tour through theaters in Europe and North America this spring, plus even more yet-to-be-announced live shows after that. And, if all goes to plan, Kay will release her already nearly complete debut album this summer. She says that the sound and emotional nuance of “iloveitiloveitiloveit” has informed the project more than any other track, recalling with a self-deprecating laugh, “I was talking to Alexis, and I was like, ‘There’s not enough sad songs.’ And she was like, ‘Bella. There’s like one and a half happy songs, and they’re not even really that happy.’”

But just as she did with “iloveitiloveitiloveit,” Kay has her own way of looking at things. “A good sad song to me is always going to be a happy song, just because you feel so understood [by it],” she says. “I want to make sure that I do pop my own way. I don’t want it to be super shiny and polished — I want it to be dirty and real.”

Bella Kay photographed on April 1, 2026 at El Cid in Los Angeles.

A version of this story appears in the April 18, 2026, issue of Billboard.

Celine Dion has expanded her upcoming Celine Dion Paris 2026 run of shows in the City of Light. On Tuesday morning (April 7), the singer announced that her long-anticipated five-week limited engagement return to the stage will be expanded with six additional shows, bringing the total to date to 16 concerts.

The fall run at the Paris La Défense Arena will now include sets on September 18 and 25, as well as October 2, 9, 16 and 17. An artist presale is open now through Thursday (April 9) at 5:59 ET, including access to the newly added dates; the artist presale is open to preregistered fans selected to participate through the Fair AXS registration that closed last week. For more ticketing information on the artist presale click here.

Fans who have not been selected for the artist presale will be added to the waiting list or have another chance to buy advance tickets during the Visa presale, which kicks off on Wednesday (April 8) at 4 a.m. ET through Thursday at 5:59 p.m. ET.

Dion announced the shows last month in a video recorded at the foot of the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower, telling her fans that she is “doing great, managing my health [and] feeling good,” a reference to her yearslong retreat from recording and performing as she battle the debilitating Stiff Person Syndrome, which has limited her ability to perform live. “Even in my most difficult times, you were there for me,” she said. “You’ve helped me in ways I can’t even describe. I’ve felt your prayers and support, your kindness and love.”

Dion has not performed in public since 2024, when she sang a moving version of Edith Piaf’s “Hymne A L’Amour” from the Eiffel Tower during that year’s Summer Olympics opening ceremony. In 2022, Dion, 58, revealed that she’d been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome — a rare neurological disorder that causes severe muscle spasms, which resulted in her canceling a planned tour.

See the full list of dates for Dion’s 2026 Paris residency below.

  • Sept. 12
  • Sept. 16
  • Sept. 18
  • Sept. 19
  • Sept. 23
  • Sept. 25
  • Sept. 26
  • Sept. 30
  • Oct. 2
  • Oct. 3
  • Oct. 7
  • Oct. 9
  • Oct. 10
  • Oct. 14
  • Oct. 16
  • Oct. 17


Billboard VIP Pass

Starting in nightlife as a 21-year-old bartender, David Grutman has since built an empire. His company, Groot Hospitality, is behind major nightclubs, restaurants and other assorted hotspots, including LIV in South Beach and Las Vegas (with the latter city also home to LIV Beach at Fontainebleau Las Vegas); Miami’s Gekkō, a restaurant created in partnership with Bad Bunny; and Miami’s Casadonna, Papi Steak, Komodo and more.

Through it all, Grutman has worked with some of the biggest stars of the dance world and beyond. In his new book Take It Personal: How to Succeed by Building Relationships and Playing the Long Game, he writes about how building genuine relationships with artists, managers, agents, consumers and beyond has been a key difference maker in his decadeslong career.

Out April 14, the book features an foreword by Kim Kardashian, who writes that it “isn’t just the story of a man who built a hospitality empire… It’s the story of someone who understands that life is richer when it’s shared. He’s created places where cultures blend, where barriers drop, where people who might never cross paths end up sharing a moment they’ll never forget. That’s powerful. That’s legacy.”

In this exclusive excerpt, Grutman talks about getting in on the ground floor of the careers of artists including Steve Aoki, Alesso and John Summit. (Excerpted from Take It Personal: How to Succeed by Building Relationships and Playing the Long Game by David Grutman, © 2026 by David Grutman. Used with permission of the publisher, Zando, LLC.)

Related

I’m not interested in being the venue where chaos happens. I’m interested in being the venue where people want to be. Where they feel protected. Where they feel respected. That doesn’t come from chasing drama. That comes from building relationships and valuing them.

I think this applies to a lot of businesses. When I work with start-ups, I’m interested in people who are at the top of their games, but I’m not interested in people who are tearing down other businesses. Devaluing relationships is also dangerous in a world where everyone knows everyone. That’s the part that gets lost in the “all press is good press” mindset. People forget that relationships are the real currency in business, which I know I’ve already said in this book ten times and will probably say ten more times before the end of the final chapter. Every time you protect someone’s privacy, every time you choose integrity over attention, you’re investing in that relationship. And those investments pay off. They show up in repeat business, in trust, in long-term loyalty.

I’ve seen it play out again and again. The people who chase fast press burn out fast, too. They get one big moment, and then they’re gone. But the ones who nurture relationships? They build empires. They get the callbacks. They get the deals. They get the second and third and tenth opportunities. That’s how you last.

You never know where someone’s going to end up, and remembering that has paid off for me in huge ways. If you treat someone like shit, they remember that, too. But if you always show up with respect, you build something that lasts. You also continue to put it out into the world that you’re a stand-up person and someone people want to know and be in business with.

That’s just been a truth for me from the beginning. One of the best examples of that is my longstanding relationships—personal and professional—with Steve Aoki. He’s been with me since the very beginning—like, nineteen years ago, back when I first opened LIV.

At the time, the kind of music he makes—electronic, indie, whatever you want to call it—was not mainstream the way it is today. Not at all. But we believed in it. We believed in Steve, and we believed in the importance of not just playing what people want to hear now but in trying to predict what they’ll want to hear in six months.

Now, of course, Steve is a household name around the world, and I know he remembers that I’m someone who believed in him before everyone else did. And what’s cool is we’ve both grown over time. There have been moments when my brand was bigger than his, and I used that leverage to help push him up. Now, he’s one of the biggest DJs in the world—still growing, still moving, still killing it—and we share deals and ideas and tips. We’re always checking in, making sure each of us is part of the next opportunity.

That’s what the long game looks like when your relationships are authentic. You’re not just helping someone when it benefits you directly. You’re investing in their future, and they invest in yours. It creates a special relationship where you’re able to vouch for each other’s character—when Steve was getting started, booking gigs as often as he could, he knew I’d always be happy to tell anyone who asked what a great DJ and person he was. In turn, if DJs were wondering about what clubs they should be trying to get into and who in the nightlife world they could trust, someone like Steve is unreservedly able to tell them that David Grutman is a good guy.

I remember when Sebastian Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia first called me about Alesso. He said, “I have this great kid I’m working with. He doesn’t even have a logo yet, no branding, no nothing. We’re going to have to make it all from scratch.”

I said, “Okay. If you believe in it, I believe in you.” And we did it. I got involved, helped shape the visual identity, the positioning, the whole thing. And now? Alesso is one of the biggest gets in nightlife. Sebastian is someone who has been in my life for a long time—years and years. We’ve both grown in our own ways, but I’ve been there throughout his entire career, and he’s been there for mine. These are relationships built on time, mutual respect, and consistency. That’s the long game again—trusting the people you trust and investing early. I’ve met so many people where I’ve liked their vibe, or their talent, or their product, and that alone is enough for me to want to start to build a relationship.

A lot of people wait until someone has something clear to offer before they invest in the relationship. That, to me, is transactional in the worst way. It’s saying “I’m only trying to build a relationship with you because of what I think you can do for me.” I remember the first time I really noticed the DJ John Summit. He built a huge community of followers online, and every new track he released sparked genuine interaction from that community—likes, comments, real engagement. I knew this was someone worth investing in.

I decided to take a big bet. I signed John to a three-year deal, not because we were following trends but because I saw the potential to create something bigger. My goal wasn’t just to put him on the map—it was to amplify the community he had already built and give him opportunities to grow beyond it. I made sure he was seen alongside people who could elevate his profile: Tom Brady, David Guetta, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Rapino from Live Nation. I captured those moments and shared them widely, letting the world see all the people who were coming to John Summit’s shows. Slowly but surely, it helped position him as one of today’s most influential DJs.