Megan Thee Stallion has become a renowned mental health advocate by opening up about her personal struggles on her path to stardom.

The Houston rapper sat down with actress Taraji P. Henson at the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation’s inaugural I Am the Table Benefit Brunch in Maryland on Sunday (Oct. 12), where Megan got emotional recalling her journey and the moment she realized she needed therapy.

“Through all of that grief, I was just working and trying to be the best Megan I could be,” she said while getting choked up. “And I didn’t know I needed therapy until one day, I was just like, ‘Damn, I’m really sad, and it’s really scary how sad I am.’ And it was like, I didn’t care what happened to me. And I didn’t want to feel like that, like I should care about my life.”

Megan’s mother, Holly Thomas, passed away in 2019 from a brain tumor. Not long after, she endured the trauma that came with being shot by Tory Lanez in July 2020, which was followed by a lengthy and intense trial with plenty of social media scrutiny (Lanez was sentenced to a decade behind bars).

The LGBTQ nonprofit the Trevor Project honored Megan Thee Stallion with the 2025 Mental Health Champion award. “I’m honored to receive this year’s Mental Health Champion award from The Trevor Project,” Megan wrote in a statement. “My goal has always been to use my platform to help break stigmas around mental health and provide resources for those seeking safe spaces to have honest and heartfelt conversations.”

The three-time Billboard Hot 100-topping rapper launched the Bad B—hes Have Bad Days Too wellness website in 2022, which provided mental health resources, crisis hotlines and therapy contacts for youth. She also contributed to the Seize the Awkward campaign in 2023, which focused on breaking the stigma surrounding mental health.

There’s a reason they call her a legend — when Gloria Estefan steps up to a microphone, even the quietest room becomes a dance floor ready to ignite.

On Monday (Oct. 13), the Cuban-American icon turned the cozy space of NPR’s Tiny Desk into a stage for celebration and a display of the timeless magic that has defined her career for nearly five decades. Wearing a dazzling red dress and hoop earrings, Estefan effortlessly spanned seven songs in 30 minutes, from crowd-pleasing classics to new material from her August album, Raíces.

Backed by a 14-member ensemble featuring brass, percussion, strings and vocalists, the Latin hitmaker’s voice shone with warmth and precision. From iconic staples like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and the electrifying “Conga,” she transported viewers to the golden era of Miami Sound Machine, while newer pieces like “Raíces” and the playful “La Vecina (No Sé Ná’)” testified to her relevance today. “I don’t think you realize how hard it is for musicians to cut down their songs to be tiny for Tiny Desk,” she quipped, drawing chuckles from the audience. “So we’re trying to give you as much as we can!”

“Everything we’ve done — despite the fact that it may not be either Cuban or American — it’s still music that I have celebrated throughout my life, that I’ve learned about, and that I’ve made my own, to a degree. I’d love to head over to Peru with this next song,” she mentioned before kicking off “Wrapped,” originally written by Peruvian poet/musician Gian Marco. Estefan is the only artist who has been allowed to record a video in Machu Picchu. “It was quite something to experience that magic,” she said.

Estefan also performed “Mi Tierra” and “Chirriqui Chirri.” This showcase is part of NPR’s “El Tiny” series celebrating Latin artistry during Hispanic Heritage Month. In August, the Miami icon graced the cover of Billboard Español. On Oct. 22, Gloria Estefan will join Emilio Estefan at Billboard Latin Music Week for an Icon Q&A at the Fillmore Miami Beach. Get your tickets at Billboard Latin Music Week 2025.

Watch Gloria Estefan’s full Tiny Desk Concert above.

Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, head here.

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It’s week six of Monday Night Football and it’s a doubleheader.

This Monday, Oct. 13, the Buffalo Bills and Atlanta Falcons will go head-to-head, followed by a matchup between the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders. The Bills are fresh off a loss against the Patriots during week five, their first of the season. Atlanta has not bested the Bills since 2013. The Falcons will host the Bills at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., airing live on ESPN. That game will begin promptly at 7:15pm.

An hour later at 8:15pm via ABC, the Commanders will be hosting the Bears at Northwest Stadium in Prince George’s County, Md. The Commanders are favored to win with a 14-12-1 record against Chicago at home and a 24-22-1 overall record. As for the 7:15pm Bills vs Falcons game, tickets are more expensive, starting at $181 and up via Ticketmaster and Vividseats.

If you don’t live in the area, or just don’t have enough money to shell out on tickets, we’re showing you how you can stream tonight’s game live and on-demand (with and without cable).

How to Watch Monday Night Football on ABC, ESPN & More

You can stream MNF games on DirecTV, Fubo, Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV. Falcons vs Bills will begin at 7:15pm ET broadcasted live via ESPN, followed by Commanders vs Bears at 8:15pm ET broadcasted via ABC.

DirecTV Stream offers a free trial at sign up and over 90 cable and local channels including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ABC and ACCN. Plans start at $89.99/month. With a free trial, you can save up to $40 off your first month depending on the plan you choose.

Not interested in DirecTV Stream? For sports fanatics looking for streaming alternatives, Fubo, Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV are some of the streamers that provide instant access to ABC, ESPN and other channels.

Depending on which package you choose, DirecTV’s streaming plans lets you access specialty channels like Big Ten Network, ACC, SEC, MLB Network, CBS Sports Network, Starz, Encore, Max, Ion, NHL Network and more.

There are also several other affordable ways to watch local channels such as ABC, NBC and CBS. For example, you can buy an HDTV antenna like this one on sale at Amazon for $24 (free shipping for Prime members), and of course, football lovers can subscribe to streamers such as FuboTV and Sling TV.

For around $20-$75, you’ll get to stream live TV and on-demand content, including sports channels and DVR storage. And now that the football season has officially arrived, many of your favorite streamers are offering streaming deals for the NFL season and beyond.

For example, you’ll get a free trial with Fubo to watch your favorite football games for free for up to a week and a discount at sign up.

Looking for more streaming deals? Sling TV is half off for your first month. That means you can subscribe and stream all TV shows, movies, football games and other sports content starting as low as $29.99. One of Sling’s best streaming deals is the Orange & Blue package. Right now, you can get a subscription to both Orange & Blue for just $29.99 for your first month.

Looking for another affordable option? Subscribe to Fubo and save $20 off your first month.

Fubo’s streaming plans start at $59.99/month (regularly $79.99) after a week free. Fubo Pro, one of the cheapest among the aforementioned streaming plans, includes 202 channels, 1000 hours of Cloud DVR and streaming on up to 10 screens. For Spanish speakers, Fubo Latino is $19.99/month (regularly $32.99/month) to stream 62 channels.

You can also watch NFL games on YouTube TV and NFL+, the latter starts at $6.99/month for the base subscription and $14.99/month for NLF+ Premium.

With NFL+, football fans can watch or listen to games live and on-demand, plus enjoy recaps and more.

Keep in mind, while there are different ways to watch football games from your TV, phone, laptop or computer, the price will vary depending on the platform. Fortunately, ESPN is available on several streamers including Fubo, Sling and Hulu + Live TV.

Hulu + Live TV gives you access to 90+ channels in edition to ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+, and DVR storage, for $82.99/month after a three-day free trial. Click below join.

Atlantic Music Group executives Zach Friedman, 34, and Tony Talamo, 35, have always been seen as a package deal. Often referred to in tandem as simply “Zach and Tony,” the trusted right-hand men of AMG CEO and longtime colleague Elliot Grainge say their friendship predates their label roles by decades.

“We’ve known each other since birth,” Talamo says. “Same neighborhood, same everything. Growing up, we bonded over movies, music and sports.” Like many entrepreneurs before them, the Voorhees, N.J.-raised duo started a marketing and management company — eventually called Homemade Projects — in 2011 during their first year of college. “It was the moment when music really started to become democratized,” Friedman says. “Justin Bieber used YouTube to build a fan base. We were big fans of Mac Miller, and we saw him succeeding with just his friends and a camera.”

Talamo and Friedman identified a promising young act of their own, a tween rapper named Chris Miles. They DM’d him, offering to help make a music video. It didn’t matter that Talamo and Friedman were only 19 or that they didn’t have any experience making videos. They wanted to help Miles build a fan base online. “We took a bus into the city and started making his videos,” Friedman says. Soon after, they got Miles onto WorldStarHipHop, a popular rap blog at the time, which earned the young artist millions of views a day, Friedman recalls.

Homemade Projects grew into one of the early leading digital marketing companies, contracting for major labels on retainer and blowing up artists on now-defunct social apps like Musical.ly (which eventually merged into TikTok) and Vine.

“Now everyone does this. It feels like every day there’s a new one of these companies,” Friedman says. “But at the time no one really understood what we were doing or the full power of these influencers.”

Along the way, Talamo and Friedman met Grainge, a similarly young entrepreneur who was building his own independent label, 10K Projects. “Elliot really got what we were doing from the beginning,” Talamo says. “We became great friends.” Business followed. The duo started handling digital marketing for 10K, then formed a joint venture with Grainge and eventually became the label’s co-presidents.

When Grainge sold a majority stake in 10K to Warner Music Group and was appointed CEO of AMG a year later in October 2024 — which included oversight of 10K, 300 Entertainment and Elektra — he installed Friedman and Talamo as COO and GM, respectively, and adopted the digital-first strategy that Homemade Projects had pioneered.

“It’s just like when we were 16 in the basement,” Friedman says. “And when it doesn’t feel that way anymore, I’m out.”

Early in your careers, you signed one of your artists to Atlantic Records. What was the label like when you first worked with them?

Zach Friedman: Tony and I were in a meeting. It was supposed to be a planning meeting, and we were like, “We really need to get on Spotify playlists.” I’m not going to name names, but someone at Atlantic said, “Name one rapper that’s broken off Spotify.”

Tony Talamo: We looked at each other, like, “Oh, we’re screwed.” That’s when we realized we were going to have to figure this out on our own. That’s when we stumbled across MagCon [the Meet and Greet Convention where fans mingled with Instagram and Vine stars; it ran from 2013 to 2017].

Friedman: That’s where we really saw the power of influencers. Five thousand people would show up to these shows to meet people. It was just a meet-and-greet — literally nothing else. All these girls would show up, and we would see that when the influencers posted songs, they would rise up the iTunes chart. We made a deck, went to every major label and pitched paying these [young influencers] we knew to create hit songs. We were always hustling, and everyone was like, “We’ll give you $1,000, $1,500.” It would always work.

Digital marketing changes at a high velocity. What is the key to staying on top of it?

Friedman: We’re chronically online. We’re fans first. This was our hobby before it was our job. That’s the competitive advantage. Also, we pioneered the space before anyone else was in it or taking it seriously.

Talamo: To Zach’s point, when you do something for so long and you’re so in it, you can read the tea leaves and you know how to maneuver.

When did you see other people catch on to influencer marketing?

Friedman: There were only a few people doing it when Musical.ly transferred to TikTok and COVID happened. There was no other play because everyone was inside, so that’s when it exploded.

What did you do in your first days at Atlantic Music Group?

Talamo: First was the roster. We had to go through and see what we felt we could immediately sprinkle our magic dust on, so to speak. Second was the team. We met everybody and talked to them at length. Then we had to decide how we wanted to structure everything — from a marketing standpoint, from an A&R standpoint. What resources were in one department that we felt should be in another. Really getting under the hood and seeing how we could make it more efficient and more effective in the current music climate.

Friedman: When we met with the staff, a lot of people felt defeated over the past three years, and we just wanted people to have fun again. People here are excited again, and they’re having a good time. I feel like there’s a lot of negativity in music right now. But the vibe at Atlantic isn’t like that.

Now that the music business has become so democratized, what is the value of a major label?

Friedman: We’ve been on the other side of the table. We have the insight of going to all the labels and hearing all the pitches, and we worked in digital for a bunch of the labels. I think we are the best at the internet and providing strategies to maximize people’s fan bases and communities. It’s really powerful that we run the global campaigns out of our office here.

How much of Atlantic under Elliot Grainge is basically a bigger, revamped version of what he built with 10K?

Friedman: The entrepreneurial spirit and the indie spirit definitely flow through Atlantic now. We don’t say no a lot here. People are given the reins to build things and be their own boss, which is really powerful, especially for young people to learn and succeed.

Major labels are largely undergoing a lot of change, including restructuring, layoffs and new CEOs. Why is this happening all at once?

Friedman: Restructures are terrible, but sometimes they’re needed to bring fresh life. There’s a new way of doing things, and there were a lot of redundancies in the system. They had to be cleared out to provide to other resources.

Now that AMG has gone through layoffs and restructuring, where do you want to invest those savings?

Friedman: A&R and overall digital audience building.

Talamo: Content, for sure. We’re in a battle for attention. You’re not just competing with the million songs uploaded a day or whatever that stat is — you’re competing with business and news and food and influencers and sports — all these different things. And everyone has an opinion.

Can artists compete without doing the kind of digital marketing you are doing?

Friedman: Yes, 100%. Quality always wins. If the art is that good, people will share it. There are so many artists that come here that are doing millions of streams a week and have spent zero dollars on marketing.

Talamo: It’s not all about money. 

Friedman: The fans are creating trends themselves now. Could they amplify that and put their music in front of a bigger audience? Yes. That’s our job, once they bring us in.

Lastly, any update on when we can expect WMG’s long awaited superfan app?

Friedman: I don’t have an update on that.

A vershion of this story appears in the Oct. 11, 2025, issue of Billboard.