Despite the challenge flags thrown by Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans, Jay-Z is 100% firm in his support for Bad Bunny playing the Super Bowl halftime show next year. Amid criticism from the President and a number of commentators on the right decrying the choice of one of the world’s most popular artists to play at the game in February, Jigga — whose Roc Nation has been tasked with booking the most-viewed musical TV performance of the year since 2019 — told TMZ that he is unwavering.

When asked by a TMZ photographer about the hate coming Benito’s way, Jay reportedly told the site that the Puerto Rican superstar is way more beloved in the U.S. than some would have you think. “They love him. Don’t let them fool you,” Jay said.

After Roc Nation tapped Benito in late September, Trump reacted a week later with disdain, claiming to conservative outlet Newsmax, “I’ve never heard of him… I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s, like, crazy.” In addition, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem threatened that U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents will be “all over the place at the Super Bowl.

While Trump seems unlikely to watch the game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has no misgivings about the booking. “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell told CBS Sports. “That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value. It’s carefully thought through.” To be fair, the commish added, he doesn’t think the league has ever “selected an artist without some blowback or criticism.”

Turning Point USA, an ultraconservative youth organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, has announced its intention to host an alternate halftime show out of protest; a line-up for that show has not yet been announced.

Though Trump claimed to have never heard of Bad Bunny, the singer’s chart bona fides speak for his broad appeal. Benito holds records as the first Latin artist to have 100 career Billboard Hot 100 songs, as well as having the first all-Spanish album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart (2020’s El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo). He has also tied Taylor Swift for having the most No. 1s on the Billboard Global 200 of any solo artist, has rolled up nearly 80 million Spotify listeners over his career and was ranked the most-streamed artist on Spotify three years running (2020-2022).

Super Bowl LX will air live on Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on NBC and Telemundo and stream on Peacock and NFL+.

In fall 2026, Live Nation will open the 4,400-capacity indoor music venue The Truth in Nashville.

“Live Nation wanted to be sure that we were adding something that was going to speak to the core of Nashville,” Sally Williams, president of Nashville Music & Business Strategy for Live Nation, tells Billboard.

The Truth will be led by general manager Mickey Davis, and will join AJ Capital Partners’ 18-acre, mixed-use Wedgewood Village development in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston.

The venue will highlight talent ranging from global headliners to local Nashville favorites representing an array of musical genres. The Truth, designed by Live Nation’s in-house design and development group Blueprint Studio, will offer a flexible floor plan with three levels in close proximity to the stage, with configurations able to accommodate capacities ranging from 1,800 to 4,400, including standing-room and fully-seated shows.

“This is going to give us the flexibility to host everything from comedians who maybe don’t want a standing room audience to bigger shows where people want to stand,” Williams says. “We will shine the light on Nashville, but we’re going to bring in the biggest stars on the planet, too, from outside of Nashville.”

Williams noted that Live Nation’s Blueprint Studio team spent time in Nashville venues and spoke with Nashville artists, music industry members and historians in creating a venue design intended to honor Nashville’s community.

Throughout, the venue will pay homage to Nashville’s music creators. The Truth takes its name from a quote from late country songwriting legend Harlan Howard, who called country music “three chords and the truth.” Howard, known as a writer on classics including Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and the Buck Owens hit “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” is also honored through the venue’s whiskey bar, named Harlan’s. Howard’s signature quote is also emblazoned on the front of the venue’s building. Having Howard’s legacy represented within the venue is a full-circle moment for Williams, who recalls that when she first moved to Nashville, one of the first events she attended was the annual Harlan Howard Birthday Bash.

“It represents to me the community that I have found,” Williams says. “It was all of these songwriters singing their songs, and everyone supported. To have his quote, to have people talking about him, means they are talking about songwriters in general, which means they are talking about the foundation of our community. I am beyond proud of that, because I think those are things that we, as a city, have to hold on to.”

The Truth’s two-level, up to 300-person capacity listening lounge, Vinyl Room, will offer a space for gathering and listening to music. Williams tells Billboard that United Record Pressing will be involved in curating vinyls to be displayed in The Truth, as well as providing music for Vinyl Room and the venue’s five backstage dressing rooms. Williams says the Vinyl Room will also be a space that can hold VIP listening sessions and other similar events.

The food and drink menus will highlight local Nashville whiskeys and spirits. Meanwhile, Live Nation teamed with Isle of Printing’s Bryce McCloud to add another visual element to the venue.

“We are going to have an old-school letterpress printing set lists each night for fans to buy and take home,” Williams says. “Set lists are going to be our sort of living art exhibit backstage, too, because every time a show plays here, we will put the set list up and as we move along, it will tell our story visually.”

The backstage will also be outfitted with a family and friends suite overlooking the stage, a large crew lounge, an artist game room/lounge, a multi-use production room and an intimate industry suite.

As part of the venue’s launch, Live Nation has also partnered to support Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and the W.O. Smith Music School, aiding songwriters and the next generation of musicians.

Live Nation also hopes to hold local music industry events at the venue, such as industry awards and other charitable gatherings.

“People are going to begin to feel like this is their venue, which is what they’re hoping for,” Williams says. “The mission has been to create something other than the sort of box with a stage that you could put anywhere in the world. We wanted to do something completely Nashville-centric.”

The Truth will join other Live Nation venues in Nashville, including Brooklyn Bowl Nashville and Ascend Amphitheater.

Billboard‘s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.billboardlivemusicsummit.com/2025/home-launch.

When Jerrell Melton and Ralph Edwards sang “I Lose Control” on NBC’s The Voice, they weren’t telling the whole truth.

Team Snoop’s singers went toe-to-toe Monday night (Oct. 27) for season 28’s fourth and final Battle night, hitting a rendition of Teddy Swims’ mega-hit from 2024. Both oozed control, not a lack of it.  

Edwards, the 30-year-old native of Fresno, California, with his burly, oak-flavored tones, and Melton, the 29-year-old from Fayetteville, Georgia, whose soulful voice has a hint of sweetness, could barely be separated.

Mind, this is no ordinary song. “Lose Control” in July became the first number in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to spend triple-digit weeks on the chart, as it cleared its milestone 100th frame. 

Niall Horan “loved” Melton’s voice, remarking that it’s “really pure, really clean.” And Edwards, the Irishman remarked, his energy, his power and rasp, “it’s aggressive but it’s controlled.”

Reba McEntire read from her notes a performance she described as “powerful, smooth like butter. Raspy, smooth like velvet.” The country ace admitted the decision to split them would be a tough one. If she had to, she’d pick Melton.  

Both contestants laid it all out. Melton with a “gorgeous smoothness,” was reminiscent of the very best in the business, Michael Bublé remarked.  While Edwards, or “Wreck-It Ralph,” as the Canadian crooner and others like to call him, should “go far on the show.”

Just how far was up to Snoop Dogg, who had the final call.

“You just showed the world that you two are superstars,” the rap legend noted. “Jerrell, you overachieved. We gave you something that was out of this box, and you did what you were supposed to do,” he added. “Ralph, knock it out of the park. This is what we do.”

Snoop took a moment to consult with the “Gangsta Holy Ghost” and he called it. “Wreck-It Ralph” Edwards wins, and progresses to the Knockouts, which start next Monday, Nov. 3. Melton won’t be there, an unlucky loser.

The Knockout episodes will air every Monday on NBC until Nov. 24. Then, the Playoffs will beam out on Monday, Dec. 1 and Monday, Dec. 8 on NBC, with the Season 28 Live Finale set to spread over the two nights of Dec. 15 and 16.

Watch Melton and Edwards’ Battle below.

Halloween is nearly upon us, but Duran Duran got there first with a shadowy re-recording.

Ahead of their winter North American tour dates, the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band swings into Fright Night with a re-imagined version of “Shadows on Your Side,” featuring original guitar parts from Andy Taylor.

The original, a punchy, polished cut from Duran Duran’s third studio album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, is overhauled as a club-ready tune with several unexpected changes in pace.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger was released in 1983, and yielded the global hits “New Moon on Monday,” “Union of the Snake” and “The Reflex,” which gave Duran Duran the first of two No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 and Official U.K. Singles Chart. 

Seven And The Ragged Tiger is the only Duran Duran collection to lead the Official U.K. Albums Chart, and it proved to be the band’s final effort with its classic “Fab Five” lineup of Taylor/Taylor/Taylor/Rhodes/Le Bon, until Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor (the Taylors are unrelated) returned to the fold for 2004’s Astronaut. Andy Taylor, who is battling stage 4 prostate cancer, has since departed from the band, but has contributed to recent recordings.

Simon Le Bon and Co. will return to the United States for a run of dates in December 2025 and in January 2026. As previously reported, the new wave legends have been in the studio together this year working on new material, including stints with Nile Rodgers at Abbey Road in London.

The band has been on a Halloween binge since the 2023 release of Danse Macabre (via Tape Modern/BMG), a concept album gathering new compositions, reworked songs, and covers of songs by Billie Eilish, Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones, Siouxsie And The Banshees and more.

Danse Macabre peaked at No. 4 in the U.K. and spawned the Secret Oktober concert film, shot at the Encore Theatre at Wynn in Las Vegas. The Gavin Elder-directed film is streaming on demand at StagePlayer+ until Nov. 3.

Earlier this year, the band struck a different type of collaboration by teaming up with Italian luxury perfume house Xerjoff on two unisex perfumes, NeoRio and Black Moonlight. The scents were, of course, created with Le Bon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes, along with bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor.

Stream “Shadows On Your Side” below.

Friendship will literally and figuratively sail on into the sunset in 2026, with organizer Gary Richards announcing that the next edition of the dance music cruise will be its last.

The event has dropped the 2026 lineup in tandem with the news, with scene luminaries including Bob Moses, Boys Noize, Polo & Pan, Mary Droppinz, Jason Bentley, Nina Las Vegas, Dita Von Teese, Mikey Lion, Justin and Christian Martin and Richards, who has long performed under his Destructo moniker, all on the bill.

See the complete lineup below, with additional names to be announced in the coming months.

“Friendship: The Final Transmission” will mark the fourth annual edition of Friendship and happens Jan. 18-22, 2026, aboard the Norwegian Joy, which can accommodate approximately 3,800 passengers in addition to crew. The voyage takes off from Miami, travels to Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas then sails back to Miami. Tickets and cabin packages are on sale now.

Richards helped forge the rave cruise model when he launched Holy Ship in 2012, with the party at sea an extension of the HARD events brand he also founded. The group of people who returned annually for Holy Ship came to be known as “Shipfam,” with many of them finding their way to Friendship when it started in 2023.

“Almost fourteen years ago, I had a vision to create something different, special and out of this world,” Richards says in a statement. “As a result of that, the Shipfam was born, a reoccurring group of people who would meet annually to travel with us. Our voyagers became a family, one that has shared moments that surpass the test of time and that feel like they’ll echo forever. Maybe this is the last one… or maybe it’s just the beginning of something new as we embark on this final transmission.”