As Las Vegas locks in its 2026 DJ residencies, The Chainsmokers are sticking with their longtime home at Wynn Nightlife.

The property confirms that the duo, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, have extended their contract with Wynn Nightlife for the next three years, meaning they’re playing Wynn’s Encore Beach Club and XS Nightclub through 2029. The pair have been playing these venues for nearly a decade, having started their DJ residency at Wynn Nightlife in 2017.

Related

“Performing at Wynn these past few years has been such an incredible experience. We value our relationship that we have built with the casino and nightlife team so much,” The Chainsmokers say in a joint statement. “We have seen for years how Wynn continues to deliver the best experience across Vegas for anyone on their property and that’s the experience we want to keep bringing to our fans! We’re so thankful to everyone who has been part of this journey, and we can’t wait to keep it going.”

“The Chainsmokers are more than just partners, they are a part of the Wynn Nightlife family,” adds Wynn Nightlife vice president Ryan Jones. “Over the years, we’ve created unforgettable experiences together, and this extension reflects this relationship and our commitment to continued success.” 

The Chainsmokers’ next performance at Wynn Nightlife is Friday (Nov. 21) at XS, happening as part of the festivities around F1 Weekend.

This is the second high-profile 2026 residency Wynn Nightlife has put up this month, with the property announcing that Calvin Harris will return to Wynn Nightlife in 2026 for a two-year residency. The Scottish product had his first ever Vegas residency at Wynn in 2011 and most recently was a 2024 resident at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, where he played the property’s venues LIV Las Vegas and LIV Beach. 

Billboard’s Dance Moves roundup serves as a guide to the biggest movers and shakers across Billboard’s many dance charts — new No. 1s, new top 10s, first-timers and more.

This week (on charts dated Nov. 22, 2025), Calvin Harris and Jessie Reyez crown the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart with “Ocean.” It becomes Harris’ 18th No. 1 at the format and Reyez’s first career No. 1 on any Billboard chart. Plus, chart moves for DJ Snake, Fred again.., Danny Brown and nate band.

Check out the key movers below.

Calvin Harris & Jessie Reyez

In July 2017, Jessie Reyez debuted on Billboard’s charts for the first time, thanks to her featured appearance on Calvin Harris’ “Hard to Love,” which debuted and peaked at No. 30 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. Now, eight years later, she reaches No. 1 on a Billboard chart for the first time, also thanks to a Harris collaboration.

Harris and Reyez’s “Ocean,” released Sept. 5 on Columbia Records, rises 3-1 on the latest Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. It earns Harris his 18th No. 1 at the format and Reyez her first No. 1 on any Billboard chart.

Harris’ 18 No. 1s mark the second-most in the chart’s 22-year history. Here’s an updated look at the artists with the most No. 1s:

  • 19, David Guetta
  • 18, Calvin Harris
  • 12, Rihanna
  • 10, The Chainsmokers
  • 8, Ellie Goulding
  • 7, Anabel Englund
  • 7, Madonna
  • 7, Tiësto

“Ocean” is Harris’ second No. 1 of 2025, following “Blessings,” featuring Clementine Douglas, in July. Before that, he notched three leaders in 2024 (“Free,” “Lovers in a Past Life” and “Body Moving”). Harris has now spent 108 total weeks at No. 1 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, extending his record.

Although this is her first No. 1, Reyez has had a steady presence on Billboard’s rankings since her chart arrival. She’s charted five songs on the Hot R&B Songs chart and earned radio hits on Alternative Airplay, Latin Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay. Plus, her album Before Love Came to Kill Us reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 in 2020.

DJ Snake

The Algerian-French DJ banks his third entry on the Top Dance Albums chart as his new album, Nomad, debuts at No. 7 with 6,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. His previous two entries, 2016’s Encore and 2019’s Carte Blanche, both hit No. 1. The new project includes collaborations with J Balvin, Travis Scott, Peso Pluma and Stray Kids, among others.

One of the album’s breakout tracks, “Tsunami,” featuring Future and Scott, debuts at No. 6 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. It earns DJ Snake his 12th top 10 on the chart. The J Balvin collab, “Noventa,” spent a week at No. 1 on Latin Airplay in October.

Fred again..

The superstar debuts two tracks on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: “Beto’s Horns (Fred Remix)” with Argentinians CA7RIEL and Paco Amoroso (No. 15), and “Talk of the Town” with Sammy Virji and Reggie (No. 24).

The former becomes CA7RIEL and Amoroso’s first U.S. chart hit, following four entries on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100. “Beto’s Horns” was boosted by a mix with Ezra Collective. As for “Talk of the Town,” the song is a remix of Irish rapper Reggie’s 2022 track of the same name.

Both “Beto’s Horns (Fred Remix)” and “Talk of the Town” are part of Fred’s ongoing USB project — a concept beginning in 2022 that he’s called an “infinite album,” with new one-off mixes being released continuously.

Fred again.. has now charted 32 tracks on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, all since 2021.

Danny Brown

The trailblazing rapper appears on Billboard’s dance charts for the first time, as his new album Stardust debuts at No. 25 on Top Dance Albums with 3,000 units.

Stardust marks a fresh sonic turn for Brown, who has long embraced experimenting with new genres and styles. The project features Brown’s signature raps and leans into EDM and hyperpop textures. It includes guest appearances from genre fixtures Frost Children, Jane Remover and underscores.

Prior to Stardust, Brown charted four albums on the Billboard 200 and two top five entries on Top Rap Albums.

nate band

The up-and-coming DJ claims his first career entry on Billboard’s charts as “Miss Your Body” debuts at No. 14 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. The track, released Oct. 17 via moshpit projects/Thirty Knots, opens with 1.1 million official U.S. streams.

The vocals on “Miss Your Body” are sung by Lily Kaplan, who’s credited as a cowriter and coproducer on the track. She previously wrote songs for Central Cee, Ice Spice, Lil Durk, Stormzy and $uicideboy$. She reached the Billboard Hot 100 as a cowriter and coproducer on Ice Spice and Central Cee’s “Did It First” (No. 51 peak, 2024).

Band has released two other songs on DSPs: “Drugs I Like” (plus a remix with AVELLO) and “Falling.”


Billboard VIP Pass

We think of the iconicity of our favorite 21st century pop stars mostly in terms of the ways we had for long before: smash hits and blockbuster albums, classic music videos and sold-out tours, bold fashion statements and unforgettable TV and film appearances. But in the past 20 years, another crucial way in which these artists enter pop culture immortality has emerged, and it’s the one they have close to zero control over.

Memes have become an essential mode for how very online pop fans — basically all pop fans in 2025 — celebrate, engage with and occasionally even lightly poke fun at their favorite pop stars. But those pop stars don’t write, plan or release those memes, and often times they either refuse to interact with them or don’t acknowledge them until they’ve long run their course. They may occasionally drop a video or post or performance with one or more highly memeable moments, but whether or not they hit is still at the mercy of the wild and unpredictable whims of the internet, and what we all choose to latch onto. That’s the beauty of pop star memes: They’re truly up to us to decide on, and they can’t ever be forced.

But while there have been countless lists over the decades of the greatest pop albums, singles, videos and performances, there have been far fewer celebrating the greatest such internet moments. We at Billboard are hoping to start correcting that, with our list of the 100 greatest pop star memes of all time — collecting all the most legendary memes directly or even indirectly involving pop hitmakers of note.

By “all time,” of course, we’re mostly talking about those past 20 years — when the social media age permanently changed the way we interacted with culture and with one another, and gave these memes multiple global platforms over which to reach ubiquity. But we also threw in a few pre-digital examples to show how these adaptable forms of in-jokey fan-artist interactions may have greater opportunity for mass exposure in the 21st century, but they existed in the culture well before that. And we’re also going right up to present day — with 2025 giving us some already-legendary memes from Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Morgan Wallen and plenty more.

Check out our list below, enjoy reliving a lifetime in iconic pop star memes, and feel free to let us know about the dozens saved to your phone you can’t believe we left out.


Billboard VIP Pass

Charli xcx’s original idea has been turned into a film, which also features the British pop star playing a fictionalized version of herself, and A24’s The Moment released its first trailer on Thursday (Nov. 20).

The chaotic teaser sees her diving into a reimagined version of her Brat era. Charli’s artist name and her 2024 album are used throughout the clip, which finds the singer preparing for her first arena world tour while navigating the turbulence of fame and a spotlight that’s burning brighter than ever.

“When I felt like people started to care about me, nothing else mattered,” Charli says in the trailer. “Nothing was more important than Brat.”

2026 is shaping up to be a busy campaign for Charli on the silver screen, with the Aidan Zamiri-directed movie coming to theaters on Jan. 30.

The Idol’s Rachel Sennott, award-winning actor Alexander Skarsgård and reality mogul Kylie Jenner are set to appear in the film alongside Charli. The rest of the cast includes Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Rish Shah, Jamie Demetriou, Arielle Dombasle, Hailey Benton Gates, Trew Mullen, Mel Ottenberg, Richard Perez, Isaac Powell, Shygirl and A. G. Cook.

The Moment serves as Zamiri’s feature directorial debut, while Charli xcx is on board as a producer through her Studio365 production company.

As far as the rest of her film endeavors, Charli xcx is slated to deliver multiple original songs for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, and the first arrived with “House” earlier in November. The 33-year-old also notched roles in upcoming projects including Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of Faces of Death, I Want Your Sex, The Gallerist, 100 Nights of Hero and Sacrifice.

Watch The Moment‘s trailer below.


Billboard VIP Pass

The Brothers Gibb had already enjoyed two fairly full career arcs as hitmakers by the time the Bee Gees surfaced for a third time in the mid-’70s — this time as Miami-dwelling disco dons. They got off to a pretty good start with a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits, but it wasn’t until late 1977 that a new hit movie and soundtrack would make them no-doubt superstars. With the brothers established as a chart-dominating powerhouse, they also spread their writing and production to other artists — including their own younger brother — soon being responsible for a near-majority of the hits dominating top 40. But it couldn’t hold forever, and the end of the decade with it brought with it a massive downturn for disco, and the Gibbs’ fortunes as recording artists along with it.

On this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Chris Dalla Riva, author of the excellent new Billboard-themed book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, to talk about a year that looms large in Billboard Hot 100 history: The Bee Gees’ 1978. We go over the stats and context behind the Gibbs’ absurd year of both chart and cultural dominance — as well as as their one extremely high-profile film misstep — before discussing why it ultimately wasn’t meant to last.

Along the way, we also answer all the most pressing questions about the Bee Gees’ biggest year: Does Barry Gibb get the respect he deserves as one of pop’s all-time great songwriters? What would kids today think about the unexpected brutality of Saturday Night Fever? Is Maurice Gibb a hero to balding would-be pop stars everywhere? Is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band the movie so bad it’s good, or so bad it’s unwatchable? Is Sesame Street Fever worth a curiosity listen? How big a badass do you have to be to get Frankie Valli to defer to your sound and style? And of course: Why doesn’t the Bee Gees’ 1978 get mentioned more often as one of the all-time great pop years?

Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from the Bee Gees’ 1978, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to both the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for great new episodes every Thursday!

And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:

Transgender Law Center

Trans Lifeline

Destination Tomorrow

Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe

The Weeknd‘s massive After Hours Til Dawn tour has racked up yet another huge record thanks to worldwide grosses topping $1 billion. According to a statement from Abel Tesfaye’s team, the grosses make the AHTD outing the top-earning tour by a male solo artist in history.

The billion mark was crossed following the recent onsale dates for upcoming spring and summer 2026 dates in Mexico, Brazil, Europe and the U.K., which bumped the tour’s total ticket sales to more than 7.5 million to date across 153 shows since its July 14, 2022 kick-off at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

In mid-August, Billboard Boxscore reported that at that point the tour had grossed $635.5 million and sold 5.1 million tickets since launching, making it the biggest R&B tour in history. That meant that AHTD easily overtook Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance World Tour, which took in $579.8 million over 56 shows. The Weeknd lapped Queen Bey when it crossed the $600 million mark following two return performances at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field on July 30-31.

The gaudy numbers for AHTD made it the ninth tour to hit the $600 million and above mark, with the Weeknd the only R&B and Black artist on a list that features pop and rock acts including Elton John and Harry Styles. The Weeknd’s attendance at the shows is also a record-setter according to Billboard Boxscore, making him the only genre act and only Black artist to sell more than five million tickets on a single tour, as well as just one of eight to sell more than five million tickets and gross more than $600 million.

In addition to the record-setting box office figures, the singer’s team said to date the Weeknd has donated more than $8.5 million to his XO Humanitarian Fund as well as to Global Citizen, with additional proceeds from the 2026 dates set to continue supporting World Food Program Global Citizen.

After the 2025 North American stadium leg featuring 40+ sold out shows set highest attendance records by a Black male artist at venues in New York, Denver, Santa Clara, Seattle, Edmonton, Montreal, Orlando, Arlington and Houston, as well as breaking the all-time record for the most shows by a male solo artist on a single tour with six performances at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the trek will continue next year with 40 more dates in Mexico, Brazil, Europe and the U.K. The next leg kicks off on April 20 with the first of three stop at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City.


Billboard VIP Pass

Even before its release to streaming services, “I Run,” a dance/EDM track by the artist HAVEN., was a viral sensation online, amassing millions of plays on TikTok after it was teased on Oct. 10. “I love this song so much,” said one TikTok commenter. “DROP THIS RIGHT NOW PLEASEEEE,” commented another.

Related

For HAVEN., a new artist project from British producers Harrison Walker and Jacob Donaghue, who also makes music under the name Waypoint, it was the kind of debut that could change the trajectory of their lives. But now, a swirl of legal complaints and takedown notices have engulfed the song, resulting in it being removed and reuploaded to streaming services multiple times — and stopping its momentum just as it was poised to reach the Billboard charts.

The frenzy of activity around “I Run” prompted multiple A&Rs at major and independent music companies to look into signing the track and the people that created it as it awaited official release. It also caught the attention of the popular UK R&B singer Jorja Smith. The uncredited female vocalist on “I Run” sounded eerily similar to Smith, prompting the singer to to post a video of herself on TikTok using it. She asked in the caption: “who actually is this?” and noted in a reply to a comment “it’s not meeeee” when fans asked if she sang on the track or if it was AI. (The video has since been deleted). HAVEN. jumped in, adding #jorjasmith to a now-deleted social post about the song, according to a member of their team. “It was more so just embracing that it does sound like her,” a spokesperson for HAVEN. said. “It became an organic trend.”

That’s when questions started circulating about the origins of HAVEN.’s viral track — and whether or not it was an unauthorized AI deepfake of Smith’s voice. Ultimately, the song was released in late October by Isekai Records, Broke Records and AAO Records, and it continued to amass major listenership — so much so that it quickly reached #11 on the U.S. Spotify chart and #25 on Spotify globally. Meanwhile videos using the song kept going viral on social media, including one in which the rapper Offset apparently played the song during a Boiler Room DJ set, with the video overlaid with text that said, “Unreleased Jorja Smith.” (The song was not actually used during Offset’s recent Boiler Room set.)

Just as the song was taking off, it was taken down from streaming services. The Orchard — to whom Smith is signed — as well as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and International Federation of the Phonograph Industry (IFPI), issued dozens of takedown notices for “I Run” upon its official release, according to screenshots of the notices, alleging various issues with the song, including that the song “misrepresents” another artist and that it constitutes copyright infringement.

Related

As a result of the dispute, the song has also been withheld from the Billboard charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, on which some chart prognosticators had predicted it would debut this week. Billboard reserves the right to withhold or remove titles from appearing on the charts that are known to be involved in active legal disputes related to copyright infringement that may extend to the deletion of such content on digital service providers.

Broke Records tells Billboard that it filed dozens of counter-notices, asserting HAVEN.’s ownership of the song and noting that no lawsuit has been filed against them to date in association with the song. (The Orchard declined to comment.)

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and produced the song in ProTools, sharing screenshots and videos of the ProTools session files and stems with Billboard. They admit, however, that “AI-assisted vocal processing” was used to “transform solely [their] voice” in the song. Specifically, they say they used AI music generator Suno to turn Walker’s voice into that of a woman’s — without referencing Smith. According to Suno prompts shared with Billboard, the producers wrote into the model a prompt that included, among other requests, “soulful vocal samples” to get the voice they ultimately used on the song.

“It’s been such an honor to see the love and support for ‘I Run’ these past few weeks,” HAVEN. said in a statement to Billboard. “What started as something fun and experimental between two producers and music-lovers ended up taking the internet by storm. I’m aware that AI has become part of that storm. It shouldn’t be any secret that I used AI-assisted vocal processing to transform solely my voice for ‘I Run.’ As a songwriter and producer I enjoy using new tools, techniques and staying on the cutting edge of what’s happening. To set the record straight, the artists behind HAVEN. are real and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other humans.”

Related

Suno does not allow users to request specific artist or song names. But the company is currently in the midst of a blockbuster lawsuit with the three major music companies — Sony, Universal and Warner — over allegations of widespread copyright infringement of the majors’ sound recordings during the AI training process. Given Smith is signed to The Orchard, a Sony Music-owned distributor, it is possible her sound recordings were used in Suno’s training. According to the lawsuit and to AI music expert Ed Newton-Rex in an article for Music Business Worldwide, users can find savvy or accidental ways to prompt Suno into providing results that seem to contain recognizable pieces of intellectual property from artists like ABBA, James Brown, Michael Buble and more.

The takedowns list a variety of reasons for the request for removal, according to emails obtained by Billboard, including one from Spotify that says, “We have received a complaint that your content infringes the sound recording rights of a third party. While this claim is under investigation, the content has been removed.” Another from Spotify says the content “violates exclusive rights.” A third reads, “Spotify may remove content that misrepresents a track as originating from or featuring an artist or that uses an artist’s name in a misleading way.” One from TikTok also lists the reason why the track is muted as “it contains unauthorized copyrighted music.”

“Sound recording copyrights are not going to protect her voice if the voice sounded like her. There would have to be a sample of her sound recordings,” says Theresa Weisenberger, lawyer and co-lead at BakerHostetler’s AI practice, adding that voices are only protected by publicity rights — the legal right that varies state-to-state in the U.S. which protects one’s name, image and likeness from exploitation.

Historically, these rights have been mostly limited to commercial contexts, like misleading endorsements. The singer Bette Midler once famously sued the Ford Motor Co. over ads featuring a Midler impersonator who was hired by the company. Amid the boom in AI and deepfakes, however, lawmakers in Tennessee passed a new law, called the ELVIS Act, to dramatically expand the right to stop voice cloning in any context. And federally, lawmakers are currently considering a similar law, the NO FAKES Act, that would do the same thing nationally.

“I think this ought to be a wake up call for people to look at the status of the NO FAKES Act and to deal with how long it will take to get that moving and into a national uniform law,” adds Kenneth Anderson, an attorney at Rimon Law who recently advised his client, Ben Folds, though a deepfake situation. “We have a problem that is rapidly overtaking the music industry. It’s rampant and it’s increasing.”

Related

To fight the takedowns, HAVEN.’s labels started reuploading the song over and over, leading to a seemingly endless game of whack-a-mole for both sides. The impact on “I Run” became even more pronounced when the song did not appear on The Official Charts in the U.K. or the Billboard charts.

“Once that counter notice is filed and then a lawsuit is not filed, a platform is free to put the song back up if they want to,” explains Weisenberger. “But the fact that platforms aren’t doing that might speak to the PR issue this song causes.”

For Broke, an indie record label founded in 2023, “I Run” was gearing up to be their (and HAVEN.’s) biggest hit yet, and its founders tell Billboard they feel the song is being discriminated against by bigger industry players. “HAVEN., an independent producer-songwriter who created a global breakout hit on his own, is the one being fully de-platformed through a sophisticated campaign by a major label,” the label said in a statement to Billboard. “It is difficult to imagine this recording, if released by a major label, being treated in the same way as HAVEN.”

The song has become a lightning rod for conversations around generative AI use in the creation of popular music. To date, some music streaming services still do not have AI-specific policies in place, and those that do, like Deezer and SoundCloud, tend to only penalize fully AI-generated works, not something like “I Run,” which contains significant human input. As Billboard reported in 2023, however, an increasing number of platforms have broadened the ability of rightholders to issue takedowns when publicity rights — the right to one’s name image likeness and voice — are violated, due to the rise of AI-generated deepfakes. This is done on a voluntary basis and is not required by law.

Related

Spotify added to these publicity rights protections just last month when it announced that it was strengthening its policies against negative uses of AI. This included increased protections around impersonation, and according to a source close to the situation, the platform’s impersonation rules did come into play with the takedowns for HAVEN.’s track specifically. The source adds that Spotify tends to side with the party that has been deepfaked. (Spotify declined to comment.)

Now, HAVEN. is gearing up to release a re-recording of the song, featuring the vocals of a singer named Kaitlin Aragon. She was discovered by the team after posting a TikTok video, covering “I Run” which sounds fairly similar to the original. The hope is, for HAVEN.’s team, that they can recapture the same buzz as they achieved with the last version of the song and restart HAVEN.’s career — but this time, with human vocals.

A week ago, an incident involving a man charging at Ariana Grande on the Wicked red carpet in Singapore made headlines — not just because of how terrifying it was, but also due to the heroic way Cynthia Erivo immediately stepped in to protect her costar.

Related

Viral videos from the premiere show how the culprit — later identified as 26-year-old Johnson Wen, who was arrested for his actions — jumped over the barricade and barreled straight toward the pop superstar on the red carpet, putting an arm around her neck and grabbing onto her shoulder as Erivo pried him off and yelled at him not to touch Grande. Many were quick to praise the Tony winner for her quick thinking, but in an interview with Today Thursday (Nov. 20), she explained that it was all “instinct.”

“I wasn’t really thinking,” Erivo told host Savannah Guthrie. “I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe.”

“I wanted to make sure that she was OK,” she continued, shrugging. “That was my first instinct, yeah.”

Erivo’s instincts served her and Grande well. By the time security personnel jumped in to haul Wen away from the scene, the Pinocchio star had already mostly torn him away from the R.E.M. Beauty founder, whom Erivo further guarded by putting a protective arm around until Wen was a comfortable distance away.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean us harm, but you never know with those things,” she said, adding of Grande, “We’ve really looked after each other in this.”

Regardless of Wen’s intentions, the Australian man was placed under arrest by Singapore police and sentenced to nine days in jail for the charge of being a “public nuisance.” It’s not the first time he’s faced legal repercussions for his behavior, previously getting arrested for stage-crashing one of Katy Perry’s concerts over the summer and touching her without consent.

The Wicked premiere at which Wen charged at Grande marked the last stop on the film’s international press tour leading up to the Friday (Nov. 21) theatrical release of Wicked: For Good. The long-awaited film comes almost exactly one year after the first installment came out, shattering box-office records and earning Oscars for best costume design and best production design.

Watch Erivo’s full interview with Today above.


Billboard VIP Pass

At the 2025 Latin Grammys, Paloma Morphy won the coveted best new artist award, where she was up against promising newcomers such as Alleh of Alleh y Yorghaki fame; Isadora, Chayanne’s talented daughter; and flamenco guitarist Yerai Cortés.

Related

“I feel like the new girl in the classroom,” she told Billboard during Latin Grammys week in Las Vegas. “Seeing all these artists for the first time off-screen was quite shocking, but I’m so happy, excited, and nervous. It’s truly a dream come true. I was scared before coming, thinking it would be full of competition … but I realized we’re all in the same boat. We’re happy to meet each other and support one another.”

Hailing from Mexico City, Morphy discovered her passion for music at a very young age when she joined chorus and talent shows. Aware of her super power, there came a point in her life where she felt spiritless and did not see a career in music viable. So, instead, she pursued a career in law.  Her love for music, however, was always present, and after uploading her songs on social media—just as a hobby—Morphy officially stepped into the music realm in 2022 with her debut single “La Idiota Soy Yo.”

“I quit my job as a criminal lawyer to pursue my childhood dream of making music,” she noted. “I said I’d give it two years to see what happens.” 

And in those two years, Morphy has not only captivated with her indie-pop sound, charming vocals, and bubbly personality, but she also released her debut studio album, Au, under Sony Music México this year, and was a two-time nominee at the Latin Grammys, ultimately winning the 2025 best new artist trophy.  

Paloma Morphy accepts the Best New Artist award onstage at the 26th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on November 13, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Paloma Morphy accepts the Best New Artist award onstage at the 26th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on November 13, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Christopher Polk

“I was very sad and unmotivated, and I don’t know where I got the strength to move forward, but I connected with my dream since I was little that I never thought could be real,” she expressed in the media center backstage on the evening she won. 

Moreover, she reflected on her time as a lawyer, admitting to Billboard: “There’s a reason I endured five years of that incredibly boring career, but yes, it gives me a different perspective, and all my songs are based on that experience. So far, I haven’t been able to write about things I don’t feel deeply about.”

Below, learn more about this month’s Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise.

Name: Andrea Paloma Barrios Gomez Álvarez Morphy

Age: 25

Recommended Song: “la mexicana”

“I wrote this song because, during my time working at the prosecutor’s office, I realized how many reports of gender-based violence never even reached the investigation stage. From that perspective, I wrote a song to Mexico as if it were a person I love, because I love my country; it’s beautiful in so many ways, but in this song, I ask Mexico: Why don’t you love me the way I love you? It’s truly my way of raising my voice, and it’s made me reflect on how we can truly make a difference.”

Major Accomplishment: Winning best new artist at the 2025 Latin Grammys, and her debut album, Au, garnering over 28 million streams on Spotify since its release this March.

What’s Next: A new collaboration with Neto Péña and Robot95 releases on Thursday (Nov. 20), in addition to working on new music that she will release in 2026 leading up to her sophomore studio album

Last year, RAYE swept the BRIT Awards and established her presence in the U.S. with the 070 Shake-assisted top 40 hit “Escapism.” In 2025, the British singer-songwriter has proven that her star power is not dimming anytime soon, earning her first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Where Is My Husband!,” which currently sits at a No. 58 high on the chart dated Nov. 22.

Co-written and co-produced with longtime collaborator Mike Sabath, “Where Is My Husband!” finds RAYE blending Motown-era soul, big band instrumentation and a funky, rapid-fire cadence into an irresistibly animated plea for her imagined spouse to arrive already. “I would like a big and shiny diamond that I can wave around/ And talk, and talk about it/ And when the day is here, forgive me God, that I could ever doubt it,” she proclaims in the bridge, which went viral as a snippet on TikTok ahead of the song’s Sept. 19 release. “Husband” also serves as the lead single for RAYE’s forthcoming sophomore studio album, which follows debut My 21st Century Blues. In addition to helping RAYE become the first artist to win six BRIT Awards in a single year, the project also earned her 2025 Grammy nominations for best new artist and songwriter of the year, non-classical. 

“Instead of being like, ‘How are we going to follow [My 21st Century Blues] up?’,” we were like, “You just toured the whole world, and it looked and sounded like this,” Sabath says about the inception for “Husband.” “You want to look and sound like that more. How do we design for that?”

Related

RAYE first performed the then-unreleased “Husband” as the opening number during her Glastonbury Festival set in late June, preparing the stage for months of hype across social media. After RAYE’s first TikTok of her performance garnered nearly two million views, she continued teasing the song in subsequent posts, often leaning into her humor or giving fans glimpses inside the recording studio. Now, just over two months since its release, “Husband” has hit No. 13 on the Billboard Global 200, her highest ranking since “Escapism” peaked at No. 7 in 2023. 

Below, New York-bred producer-songwriter Mike Sabath, 27, goes deep with Billboard about the composition of “Husband,” working with RAYE in the studio, and how they finished the song just 11 days before its release.

How did “Where Is My Husband!” come together? 

We had an idea of the space we wanted to play in. [RAYE] was super inspired by The Supremes, visually and textually, and I’ve had this sonic vision since [My 21st Century Blues] — we reached it a bit with “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Worth It.” She had been touring for eons, and I had been doing other things and my own artist stuff. We got a ski cabin at Big Bear [Lake] in California for 10 days, but it took us five days to figure out how to eat and drink water there. (Laughs.) We’re musicians, we cook up in a whole different way! 

With the last album, it all came together through the live show, which expanded and unified the sonic realm by making it super orchestral and brassy. She brings that queen energy. It’s like Your Highness who wears no shoes.

[With “Husband,”] we reverse-engineered it from her live show. It started with a drum roll and these brass hits, then I tapped a keyboard groove on the MIDI [controller]. It’s easy to [complain about not having] live drums, but it’s so important to get the idea out in its most simple form. There’s always time to sonically improve something, but there’s not necessarily another time when that stroke of inspiration is there. Lyrically, I just let her do her thing; I Americanize things when I need to. I come in like, (Sings lyric.) “He should holler.” 

When did you know “Husband” was complete? 

We literally didn’t finish it until 11 days before it came out. We got the foundation in Big Bear, and then we ended up finishing it at a studio in Joshua Tree, including the bridge. I did the horns at that studio, and then I added strings when I got back home. RAYE added a bass player and some piano when she went to London. 

I feel like deciding if a record is done before it’s mixed is just silly. The mix is such a part of the color and the setting of the record; it reveals and cleans things. After one of the early mixes, for example, I realized RAYE needed to record more backing harmonies on the pre-[chorus]. 

This record was super untraditional in the way that we did the lead vocal. In the verses, there’s no lead vocal; it’s just doubles on the sides. And that’s how we did [most of] the record. She kept trying to cut a lead and didn’t like it, so I had to figure out what the “lead” meant in this context and create what it would feel like using four to eight voices. We did it with Tony Maserati, who’s a legend, and the sweetest dude ever. 

In the 11 days before the song came out, I flew to Australia thinking the record was done. I landed at 4 a.m. and ended up in the Uber on Mixstream with Tony, making significant changes to the record over the phone as I’m completely delirious. When I finally got to where I was staying, we were still mixing, but I could look at the water, which calmed me. Physical location is a really powerful perspective tool in mixing. The song also had a different ending.

What was the original ending? 

RAYE loves as much drama as possible, so she made this whole extra ending. I was like, “This is such a potent song, we should just end it.” And she’s like, “I want to do this thing!” I’m always supportive, so I let that happen, and that ultimately revealed other things that helped finish the record anyway. The day before we turned the song in, she calls me as she’s going to sleep in London, like, “Mike, we have to remove the ending.” It was hilarious because we made this whole thing for her ending, which we ended up keeping for the new ending. It was like a side quest. 

I produced a new ending on the phone with Tony, and it was f–king insane. But it worked. After we turned the song in, RAYE and I were like, “I don’t know about the master.” Something about it just wasn’t hitting. We pulled that version, but we had to send them the mixed version, so I texted Tony out of his sleep. He got out of bed, made some coffee, went into the studio in the middle of the night, and bounced the final files. And then we delivered the record 11 days before it came out.

Was there a sense of “This is a hit!” when you turned the song in? 

My biggest songs have been songs that I’ve been most excited to play for people — and that was the case with “Husband.” When it was done, I knew it was different. I really liked it, but I didn’t know it was going to be a hit. They were going to put out a different song, and I really pushed for this. It wasn’t that hard because it was pretty clear at that point, but I was like, “You have to come back with the drum roll!” Also, [“Husband”] was just more done at that point. 

Why do you think fans have latched on to the song so much?  

The world really fell in love with her on the last record, so I think people wanted her to win. Also, I think a lot of people are looking for a husband. People want love; we’re humans, and people want a partner. That’s resonant in itself and probably why the bridge exploded first. And the song itself is just crazy. People want to hear real music s–t going on, and there’s all that happening in this record. It’s also the things that are intangible, too. 

The whole journey with RAYE so far has been amazing. We started eight years ago, and to witness all of this and be a part of it has been beautiful. I’ve always been like, “You guys are sleeping on this girl!” She’s always been amazing. Generational artists don’t just pop up; they are trained and prepared for sustainability. [RAYE] is a generational artist, and I’m honored to be her friend.

A version of this story appears in the Nov. 15, 2025, issue of Billboard.