KATSEYE is learning that some parts of fame can be really gnarly — and not in a good way.

In a conversation with BBC News posted Wednesday (Nov. 12), the girl group opened up about the high volume of hate — and sometimes death threats — they’ve received since debuting in 2024. “I think as time goes on and on, the stakes just get higher and higher, and the pressure from 360 all sides becomes more heavy and intense,” said member Lara Raj. “I’m like, ‘It doesn’t matter, and what people say doesn’t matter,’ but we’re humans.”

“And if 1,000 people are, like, sending you death threats, it’s jarring,” Lara continued. “Even if it’s not gonna happen, and it doesn’t mean anything, it’s heavy, and it’s jarring.”

When interviewer Mark Savage responded with surprise that the ladies had already faced such intense negativity so early on in their careers, member Sophia Laforteza confirmed that even their families and friends have had to put up with online hate and attacks. “We’ve gotten a lot of things already said to us, about us, to our families,” she said.

“It’s something that we know we signed up for, being so public and just being out there for people to … they know so much about [us], and it’s a part of our job,” Sophia added as bandmates Daniela, Manon, Megan and Yoonchae nodded. “We know it’s a part of fame. But it doesn’t change the fact that we are human.”

Fortunately, the group members agreed that it’s nice to have each other to lean on when things get tough, as they all already know everyone in the band knows how it feels.

The interview comes as KATSEYE’s fame is exploding in 2025, with the sextet recently nabbing a best new artist Grammy nomination ahead of next year’s awards. In an interview with Billboard about the honors, Megan said, “With any award or nomination, it means so much to us because we work so, so hard … So, it’s like all of the hard work, those long hours and all the dedication are really paying off.”

The nomination comes less than two years after KATSEYE released its debut single, “Debut,” in 2024 after forming the year prior on the competition series Dream Academy. The band scored its first-ever Billboard Hot 100 hit in May when “Gnarly” made its entrance on the chart, and this fall, the ladies reached the top 40 with “Gabriela,” which also scored a Grammy nod for best pop duo/group performance.

Watch KATSEYE’s full sit-down with BBC News above.

Three years after the legendary Ernest Tubb Record Shop closed in 2022, the iconic establishment is gearing up to celebrate its official reopening during a celebration set for Nov. 13. 

The late Country Music Hall of Fame member Tubb, known for hits including “Walking The Floor Over You,” “Soldier’s Last Letter,” and “Waltz Across Texas,” first opened the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Nashville’s Commerce Street in May 1947. Since 1951, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop has been in its current location at 417 Broadway in downtown Nashville. 

While the shop sold vinyl records and music songbooks, it also became a heralded performance spot due to Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree, where artists who were performing on Saturday nights at the Grand Ole Opry (then centered at the Ryman Auditorium) would head to the nearby shop afterward to perform late-night sets that would broadcast on WSM radio. Over the years, Tubb, who joined the cast of the Opry in 1943, welcomed and encouraged artists including Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Patsy Clin, and Johnny Cash, giving younger artists valuable career exposure. Over time, the shop became a home for community and camaraderie. Tubb was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and won the Academy of Country Music’s pioneer award in 1980. Tubb died in 1984.

The same year the shop closed, brothers Jamie and Bryan Kenney, co-founders of management company Tusk Brothers Entertainment, bought the four-story building. The brothers are the team behind Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston bar Never Never, as well as Reunion Bar & Hotel in East Nashville. They teamed with Tubb’s grandson Dale Tubb, as well as top-flight Nashville session musician Ilya Toshinskiy, to revitalize the record shop. 

“The first time I met these guys, they said, ‘We’ve been entrusted with this important piece of history,’” the younger Tubb tells Billboard. “Everything they do from a storytelling standpoint is to preserve and tell that story properly, to preserve the essence, the bones and the spirit of this place.’” 

Now, the building that houses the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, has been revitalized to not only revive the record shop, but make use of all four stories, adding performance spaces, a honky-tonk and an open-air rooftop bar. The walls have the original exposed brick. 

In the process of preserving the building, the brothers got a first–hand look at the memorabilia Tubb’s grandson had kept over the years, such as journals where the country artist scribbled song ideas, a letter from Minnie Pearl telling Tubb she’d dropped off muffins for him, or a telegram from Johnny Cash telling Tubb that one of Cash’s children had been born. There is another letter from Cash, wherein the Man In Black was attempting to get a meeting with Tubb to discuss playing on the Grand Ole Opry. Much of that memorabilia now lines the walls of the building’s four floors. 

“We saw the depths of his influence in a totally new way,” Jamie Kenney says. “[Ernest] was truly the godfather, the kingpin of country music.”  

“It’s still very in line with what he did,” Dale Tubb says of the venue’s continuation of his grandfather’s legacy. “He partied hard. Granddad would be slinging booze in here. This place evolved, just like the music did. Music evolves as society evolves.” 

The first floor features a honky-tonk with two bars and two stages (including the original stage of Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree), as well as photos of Tubb with his fellow country stars. Throughout the venue, there is more memorabilia, such as Tubb’s guitars, cowboy boots from the 1940s and a revolver Tubb used as a prop when filming the western The Fighting Buckaroo. 

“The story that the first place Patsy [Cline] played in Nashville was the Midnite Jamboree; well, here’s the thank you letter from that night. What are the odds that it’s still in mint condition and didn’t get tossed or hidden in someone’s private collection?” Dale Tubb says. “You could immediately tell there was a sense that these guys care about this type of environment. There’s a true respect for the music.” 

On the second floor is the record shop, with vinyl records for sale on wooden shelves, along with branded merchandise, another bar and space to host live acoustic performances in an intimate setting. The third floor offers a private event space, outfitted with vintage lighting and a bar, offering an exclusive setting for industry showcases, album release parties and label events.  

“Through the whole project, we want to honor the music business, because the music business is the piece that built this,” Jamie says. “We’ve been touring all the labels and the Opry and publishers and artists and just kind of saying, ‘We’re the stewards of this, but this is yours.’” 

The basement has been revamped to become The Forty Seven lounge, which showcases wood-paneled walls, vintage accents and velvet seating — all paying tribute to 1947, the year Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop first opened. The Kenney Brothers estimate the remodeled venue has a capacity of around 1,000 people. 

“Ernest Tubb seemed to be the classic gatherer of the people, and he was very ahead of his time,” Jamie says. “He always honored the past, but he would always grab the younger artists of his day, people that were up-and-coming. We want to reflect that, too. All these things we’re calling ‘country-adjacent’ or ‘folk,’ ‘Americana.’ I think he would have loved that. It’s going to be a curated artistic aesthetic.” 

On Nov. 15, the longtime Midnite Jamboree will return to Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop, airing on WSM 650 AM radio. 

“The soul of the record shop was the performances and these country stars wandering over from that alley 200 feet away, after they performed at the Opry, grabbing a flask of whisky or a six-pack, jumping onstage and having a party,” Bryan says. 

“We don’t just want to save the record shop,” he adds. “We want to restore the DNA of what made it great and give it a new iteration, so it has many more years.” 

Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) concert slated for Nov. 29 in São Paulo is in jeopardy.

According to Metropoles, the São Paulo State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPSP) has reportedly ordered that West be arrested if he makes any pro-Nazi remarks during the show or performs his controversial song “Heil Hitler.”

“No one who promotes Nazism will play or sing any words on public equipment belonging to the City Hall,” said São Paulo mayor Ricardo Nunes on Monday (Nov. 10). “We do not accept it and we will do everything necessary to ensure that no one who promotes Nazism has any kind of activity here in the city of São Paulo.”

Nunes continued: “Here in the city of São Paulo, we will not allow events by people who promote Nazism in municipal spaces.”

Billboard has reached out to Ye’s reps for comment.

Additionally, the promoters for Ye’s show, Guilherme Cavalcante and Jean Fabrício Ramos (Faublous Fabz), have also reportedly been ordered to be arrested if West promotes Nazism in any fashion.

However, Ye and the promoters are still scrambling to book a new venue after city hall canceled the show at Interlagos racetrack for West’s previous antisemitic remarks. The October ruling from prosecutor Ana Beatriz Pereira de Souza Frontini also prohibited West from wearing any Nazi imagery on his clothing during his time in Brazil.

It remains to be seen if the Brazil show will take place. West also has upcoming shows in South Africa on Dec. 13 and another in Mexico on Jan. 30.

Ye met with a Rabbi earlier this month, where he apologized for his past remarks and expressed remorse for the pain he caused the Jewish community tied to his antisemitic remarks.

“I feel really blessed to sit here and take accountability,” West told Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto. “I was dealing with various issues. I was dealing with bipolar also, so I would take the ideas I had and forget about the protection of the people around me and myself. So I wanted to take accountability.”

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Nov. 22, as Taylor Swift and KPop Demon Hunters continue to rule the roost, we look at artists with good chances to break into the top 10 below them. 

Rosalía, LUX (Columbia): Few new pop sets this year have been either as hotly anticipated or as rapturously received as Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía’s ambitious new set LUX, which arrived on Friday (Nov. 7). That is, if you can even plausibly call the album pop: While the album certainly has its big melodies and catchy moments, it’s as influenced by opera, classical, jazz and showtunes as much as it is by any of the genres most directly feeding into contemporary top 40, and it’s sung in over a dozen different languages.  

Still, LUX has proven dazzling enough to delight critics and fans alike — and given both its rapturous critical acclaim and its strong start on streaming, it seems likely to become Rosalía’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 to date. Aiding its first-week performance will be its availability for purchase in four different CD boxed sets — each including branded merch and a CD — as well two vinyl editions, one of which is signed by the artist.  

Will it be enough to get Lux to the Billboard 200’s top 10 — which, somewhat surprisingly for an artist of Rosalía’s profile, she has still yet to even get near, peaking highest (No. 33) with 2022’s Motomami? With solid sales and steady streams, it certainly seems likely — with a top five debut also a possibility — though it depends on both how well the set maintains on DSPs, as other more-streaming-proven releases continue to perform at a high level.  

But it helps that the set already seems to have something of a breakout hit: Yahritza y Su Esencia collab “La Perla,” which is still on both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Apple Music real-time charts, and climbing again on each.  

Hayley Williams, Ego Death at a Bachelor Party (Post Atlantic): Hayley Williams’ first release on her new independent imprint Post Atlantic — can you guess which major label she recently parted ways with? — has had an extremely unconventional rollout. First, in late July Williams released 17 of its tracks to her website for free streaming, before uploading them to DSPs all as individual singles in early August. Then in late August, the set was collected on streaming as the full album Ego Death at a Bachelor Party, with two new songs joining the then-19-track set.  

Now, the album has reached its (possibly) final form: On Friday, Williams released Ego Death on CD and vinyl for the first time — while also re-releasing it to DSPs — all with the extra new track “Showbiz” now making the tracklist an even 20 songs. The set, which was very well received by fans and critics even with its somewhat jumbled release, should sell fairly well — with multiple vinyl variants on sale — and Ego Death should handily surpass its previous No. 173 high on the Billboard 200, possibly even threatening a new peak in the top 10.  

IN THE MIX 

Sombr, I Barely Know Her (SMB/Warner): One of the year’s most exciting new breakout hitmakers is coming off a very big weekend, both scoring his first Grammy nomination (for best new artist) and making his debut appearance on Saturday Night Live as a performer. Keeping the good times rolling: the first physical release on CD, vinyl and cassette of his debut album I Barely Know Her, which should give the album a nice boost on the Billboard 200, from where it currently sits at No. 27 to somewhere around its original No. 10 peak.  

Yeonjun, No Labels Part 1 (Big Hit): Also threatening the top 10 this week: the debut solo EP from Yeonjun, singer/songwriter in the chart-topping Korean pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER. The six-track set does not yet have a major presence on streaming, but is expected to sell very well, assisted by a litany of different CD variants, each including collectible paper goods, some of which is randomized per copy.