Zara Larsson has a theory about why Chappell Roan seems to attract more criticism than other stars.

In an interview with The Guardian published Friday (April 3), the Swedish singer came to her fellow pop star’s defense, noting that she thinks the “Pink Pony Club” artist receives disproportionate negativity. “The more people hate her, the more I love her,” Larsson said of Roan. “I don’t like how she’s being treated at all.”

“When a woman has boundaries, I think people freak out,” she continued. “Men can do violent criminal things, and people applaud them, but when a woman says, ‘Stop following me,’ it’s controversial? It’s like, ‘You guys just hate women, actually.’”

The “Stateside” singer was specifically referring to the backlash Roan has faced over the past couple of years for confronting people she feels have crossed her boundaries, from boldly shutting down a cameraman at the 2024 VMAs to calling out photographers and autograph hounds in Paris in March. (Noah Kahan also publicly defended Roan for the latter.)

More recently, the Missouri native faced criticism after a security guard allegedly yelled at Jude Law and Catherine Harding’s 11-year-old daughter for walking past Roan in a hotel in São Paulo and smiling at her. Harding’s husband, soccer star Jorginho, was the first to slam Roan for the incident in a heated Instagram Story, after which the singer clarified she hadn’t noticed the child or asked the bodyguard to scold her. But Harding still followed up with a video saying the star should “take responsibility” for all personnel working on her behalf.

Larsson also knows what it’s like to experience backlash for something she’s said. After making a joke about abortion on TikTok in March, she told The Guardian that a brand had revoked a multimillion-dollar sponsorship offer. “I lost $3 million, which is the biggest brand deal I’d been offered in my life,” she said. “I was genuinely like, ‘OK, losers!’”

RAYE has earned her first U.K. No. 1 album with This Music May Contain Hope.

The 17-song collection stormed to the top spot on the April 3-dated Official Albums Chart in the set’s opening week, going one spot better than her 2023 debut, My 21st Century Blues.

Earlier this year, lead single “Where Is My Husband!” hit No. 1 on the Official Singles Chart and became her second to score the No. 1 spot following “Escapism” (2023).

This Music May Contain Hope features guest appearances from Hans Zimmer, Al Green and her sisters Absolutely and Amma. Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving lifts one place from No. 3 to No. 2. 

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is at No. 3 with his 12th solo LP, Bully. The release comes amid a return to live performances; he played pair of shows at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium on April 1 and 3. He was also announced as the headline act for all three nights at London’s Wireless Festival in July, a move that has been criticized by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and by Jewish leadership organizations in the English capital. Earlier this year, Ye issued an apology for his antisemitic comments and support for far-right ideology.

BTS’ ARIRANG leaves the top spot after just one week, but lands at No. 4. The top five is completed by Melanie Martinez with her third top 10 LP, Hades (No. 5).

British rockers Don Broco earn their fourth consecutive top 10 album with Nightmare Tripping coming in at No. 7, while Tom Misch’s first solo studio album in eight years, Full Circle, debuts at No. 9. Robyn’s Sexistential comes in at No. 10, her best ever finish on the U.K.’s Albums Chart. 

Central Cee’s All Roads Lead Home EP debuts at No. 34, while Slayyyter’s Wor$t Girl in America closes at No. 36, her first ever-entry on the charts.

Universal Music Group has reached a settlement to end a $500 million lawsuit accusing Believe and TuneCore of “massive” infringement by distributing sped-up or remixed knockoffs of tracks by Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and others.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024, claimed that Believe and its TuneCore unit were “overrun with fraudulent artists” and had “turned a blind eye” to it. The French music firm has strongly denied the accusations, saying it takes “respect of copyright very seriously.”

In court filings on Friday (April 3), attorneys for both UMG and Believe asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. It was unclear if Believe had agreed to pay any money to UMG, or to alter any of the practices at issue in the lawsuit. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed publicly, and neither side immediately commented on the deal or shared details.

Founded in 2005 by Denis Ladegaillerie, a former Vivendi executive, Believe has grown substantially in recent years by focusing on large European markets and developing markets globally. From 2020 to 2024, its revenue rose 124% to $1.05 billion, and it launched a new publishing arm in October. In 2015, Believe bought TuneCore, a popular distribution service for self-releasing artists.

But in 2024, UMG claimed in its lawsuit that Believe and TuneCore had been able to “achieve dramatic growth and profitability” by turning themselves into “a hub for the distribution of infringing copies of the world’s most popular copyrighted recordings.” The music giant said it would seek a whopping $500 million in damages from Believe over the alleged illegal conduct.

Joined in filing the case by ABKCO and Concord Music Group, UMG claimed that Believe’s catalog included phony tracks by “Kendrik Laamar,” “Arriana Gramde” and “Jutin Biber,” songs that were “overtly infringing versions” of the originals, often only lightly remixed or sped up. And it claimed Believe knew about it, but had agreed to distribute “anyone willing to sign one of its basic form agreements.”

“Believe’s illicit strategy to accumulate and monetize a vast catalog of infringing recordings has been wildly successful,” UMG’s lawyers wrote at the time. “While Believe is fully aware that its business model is fueled by rampant piracy, it has eschewed basic measures to prevent copyright violations and turned a blind eye to the fact that its music catalog was rife with [infringement].”

As Billboard‘s Kristin Robinson wrote at the time, the lawsuit not only made major accusations about Believe and TuneCore, but also raised big questions about the business model of DIY distribution as a whole: “These problems are definitely not unique to TuneCore,” one expert said.

But the case essentially never got underway. The litigation almost immediately went into settlement talks that lasted for more than a year, and in December, both sides said they had reached “a tentative settlement in principle on many of the key issues” and the case was formally paused to allow them to finalize a deal.

Israeli violinist and vocalist Tzruya “Suki” Lahav, who briefly toured with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in the mid-1970s, has died from cancer at age 74. According to a Facebook post from son Yonatan Albalak, Lahav died on Wednesday (April 1), with Albalak writing, “my beloved and beautiful mother, Zeruya Lahav was gathered into infinity after a short and hard battle with the cursed disease. She wrote songs that touched people’s hearts. She was a special woman, smart, pure in heart and loving life. She was the best mom I could ever ask for.”

A beloved poet, author, lyricist, musician, actress and singer in her native Israel, Lahav was introduced to Springsteen in 1972, when her husband, recording engineer Louis Lahav, worked on the rocker’s 1973 major label debut, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. The following year, she contributed backing vocals to “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Incident on 57th Street” from The Boss’ sophomore album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.

According to Rolling Stone, Lahav was pressed into service on the album after a church choir Springsteen hired didn’t show up and the future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and his producers overdubbed layers of her vocals to turn her into a one-woman choir, not originally crediting her contribution in the LP’s liner notes.

During the summer of 1974, Springsteen put an ad in the Village Voice looking for a new drummer, pianist, trumpet player and violinist after drummer Ernest “Boom Carter” and keyboardist David Sancious quit the band. Their replacements came in the form of longtime E Street stalwarts drummer Max Weinberg and keyboardist Roy Bittan, as well as Lahav, who was hired on a trial basis at first.

Her first show with the band took place on Oct. 4, 1974 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York and she performed with the group from then through March 1975, with her final show coming on March 3, 1975 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. before she and her husband moved back to Israel, according to RS.

Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper wrote that Lahav was a beloved, award-winning multimedia artist in her native country, where she was known for writing songs for some of the nation’s most popular acts, including Gidi Gov (“Perach”), Rami Kleinstein (“Al Hagesher Hayashan”), Yehudit Ravitz (“Yemei Hatom”) and many others.

Lahav was born in on the northern Israeli kibbutz Ayelet HaShanar on July 16, 1951 and served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ paratroopers brigade entertainment troupe. After returning following her stint in the E Street Band, she appeared on the first and only album by the influential rock band Tamouz, 1975’s Sof Onat Hatapuzim.

“I felt like a complete outsider,” Lahav told the paper in 2023 about her time with Springsteen’s band. “Beloved, respected, with the guys, but really a character from another planet. And yet, to be part of great art is a huge thing.” She may have felt like she didn’t quite fit, but Lahav said she picked up crucial lessons on songwriting from the future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. “What I took from him was the understanding that when you write songs for music, you can soar,” she said. “Soar with the text. You don’t have to stick to some limiting coherence; you can just soar. You can and should.”

Before moving back to Israel after her E Street stint, Lahav studied acting at the renowned Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles and went on to act in several musicals and plays in Israel and briefly joined the band Habreira Hativit before putting musical performance behind her and focusing on writing poetry and prose. In addition to two novels, she wrote the screenplay for the 1996 crime drama Kesher Dam.

Billboard’s Dance Moves roundup highlights the biggest movers and shakers across Billboard’s many dance charts, including new No. 1s, notable debuts, chart milestones, first-timers and rising tracks and artists.

This week, on charts dated April 4, BONNIE X CLYDE, deadmau5 and Steve Appleton, ILLENIUM, David Guetta, Dustin Lynch and Dead Turnley all achieve new feats. Check out the key highlights below.

BONNIE X CLYDE

The electronic duo earns its first No. 1 on a Billboard chart as “What Love Can Do” rises to the top of Dance/Mix Show Airplay.

BONNIE X CLYDE is comprised of producers Daniel Litman and Paige Lopynski, who teamed in Fairfax, Va., in 2015. “What Love Can Do” is the pair’s seventh career entry on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, following three top 10s: “Love Is Killing Me” (No. 2 peak in 2020), “Need Ya” with FOMO (No. 2, 2023), and “Memory” with SUM SUN (No. 5, 2023). The pair first hit the chart in May 2019 with “The Good Life” (No. 22 peak).

“What Lovers Do” also marks the first No. 1 for Breakaway Projects — the company behind the Breakaway Music Festival. The label and management division of the company launched in February 2025 with a focus on emerging artists. The company is partnered with The Orchard for distribution.

deadmau5 + Steve Appleton

deadmau5 returns to Dance/Mix Show Airplay as “Science,” with British singer-songwriter Steve Appleton, debuts at No. 38.

Released Feb. 20 on EpicWin/mau5trap/Create, the track earns deadmau5 his 16th entry on the chart, and first since 2023’s “I Remember (John Summit Remix),” with Kaskade. Appleton adds his second career Billboard chart appearance, following his feature on Tiësto’s “Blue” in 2020 (No. 35 peak on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs).

“Science” is set to appear on deadmau5’s album due later this year. It marks his first solo studio LP since W:/2016Album/, which topped the Top Dance Albums chart in 2016.

ILLENIUM, David Guetta & Dustin Lynch

The talents, two from the dance world and one from country, join for the first time on “Die Living,” which debuts at No. 9 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.

Released March 20 on Republic Records, the track opens with 1 million official streams earned in the U.S. in its first week (March 20-26), according to Luminate. ILLENIUM notches his 70th entry, tying for the fifth-most, and 11th top 10.

Guetta extends his record with a 98th visit to the chart and collects his 28th top 10, tying Kygo for the most.

The song is Lynch’s first to make a dance chart, with his history boasting 17 entries on Country Airplay, including nine No. 1s.

Dean Turnley

Melbourne-based DJ/producer Dean Turnley lands his first Billboard chart hit as “Actin’ Tough” debuts at No. 21 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.

Released March 20 via ROSSI.HOME/GRXWN/Chaos/Astralwerks/Interscope Capitol, the viral breakout earned 689,000 U.S. streams in its opening week.