In his new songs, Tom Morello keeps the rebellious spirit and explosive sound of his former band, Rage Against The Machine, alive. But now, in addition to crafting powerful riffs, the American guitar virtuoso also sings — on a new artistic project that combines rock and activism, alongside his 13-year-old son, Roman Morello.

“From a musical level, I’m very excited about my first-ever solo rock album”, Morello tells Billboard Español about this still-untitled project. He hints that it will honor the riffs and repertoire of the bands that brought him fame, including Audioslave, as well as the acoustic material from his work as The Nightwatchman, and his collaborations with the legendary Bruce Springsteen.

“I really wanted to make… a record that is relentless in its big guitar riffs, relentless in its inventive guitar solos”, he adds in a video call from Los Angeles. “But also a record that invites my young son Roman, who is a tremendous guitar player who we’ve played [with] across the world — [one that] welcomes him and his ideas into it, as a new generation who has this Morello DNA of rock ‘n’ roll power.”

His latest single, “Pretend You Remember Me,” offers a glimpse of what fans can expect in 2026 when the album, set to be released by Mom+Pop Music, drops. Written by Morello, the song features his haunting vocals and signature captivating guitar riffs.

The track was written in solidarity with immigrants in the U.S. who have been affected by deportation campaigns. The accompanying video, directed by Morello himself, features activist and freed political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

“The song is written from an emotional point of view and a reminder that this situation of families being torn apart is not new to the Trump administration,” he explains. “It was there with Biden. It was there with Trump’s first term. It was there with Obama… My heart goes out to all the families throughout all of these years who’ve been torn apart.”

The 61-year-old musician and activist admits that the immigration policies enforced by the Trump administration is “an issue that makes me furious and angry.” In June, he joined several demonstrations against anti-immigrant raids in Los Angeles, where the Mexican flag became a symbol of the protests.

On that occasion, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem accused Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum of “encouraging violent protests” in Los Angeles, following the immigration raids ordered by the Trump administration, a claim the Mexican leader strongly denied in a message on X.

“First of all, let me just say I’m not an expert on Mexican politics — I don’t want to pretend that I am to your readers,” Morello responds when asked for his opinion. “But from what I do know, you have a president who is intelligent. You have a president who does care about human rights and about the people in the country — and not about sort of dividing, but uniting in a way that will uplift its citizens, as opposed to a president that is our president.”

A Grammy winner, Harvard graduate, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Morello says he has truly been able to write honestly about his view of the world. He shares that “Pretend You Remember Me” and his 2024 single “Soldier in the Army of Love” offer a preview of the lyrical direction his new album will take, adding that “there’s plenty more coming.”

The musician is also planning his return to Latin America in 2026, with his first stop on March 13 at the Lollapalooza Chile festival, followed by another performance at Estéreo Picnic in Colombia on March 21. He hopes to add Mexico to his anticipated tour of the region, where he recorded the live DVD The Battle of Mexico City with Rage Against The Machine in 1999.

“Some of my favorite shows that I’ve ever played were in Mexico,” he recalls. “From the early shows Rage Against the Machine 1992 at Iguana’s in Tijuana to Rage in Mexico City, Audioslave, Prophets of Rage. Some of my favorite shows have been there. I know that the fans in Mexico have been wonderful supporters of all of my work, and I can’t wait to get back there and rock you.”

Luna Stephens is shaping up to be quite the interviewer. Months after helming a Billboard Family Q&A with her famous dad John Legend, the 9-year-old has scored an exciting new gig: talking to Gloria Estefan and Laila Lockhart Kraner about the new Gabby’s Dollhouse movie.

In an adorable video that Billboard Family is exclusively premiering below, the EGOT winner’s eldest daughter with Chrissy Teigen sits between both the stars at the movie premiere. “Hi, my name is Luna, and today I’m interviewing Gigi and Gabby,” Luna tells the camera with a smile, referring to Estefan and Kraner’s characters in the film.

Luna goes on to ask a number of colorful questions about the characters in the movie, which builds on the interactive Gabby’s Dollhouse children’s series that first premiered on Netflix in 2021. The film is accompanied by the Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie soundtrack, which dropped alongside the film on Sept. 26.

“Do you have a favorite song from the movie that you love to sing?” the young Legend asks her interview subjects.

“I like ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse World,’ I think that’s a catchy one,” replies Kraner, while Estefan says, “For me, I think it’s the ‘pinch me’ song [‘Pinching In’].”

Elsewhere in the interview, Luna adorably challenges the two ladies to make the “silliest meow sound” they can. Both Kraner and Estefan immediately oblige with hilarious yowls, with the iconic Cuban-American entertainer joking, “That’s when they step on the cat’s tail.”

On screen, it’s easy to tell where Luna may have inherited her skills from: Her superstar mom has hosted a number of programs, from Lip Sync Battle to NBC’s New Year’s Eve program in 2018/19.

Late last year, Luna interviewed her dad on camera for Billboard Family. At the time, the two Legends spoke about John’s first kids’ album My Favorite Dream, on which Luna makes a cameo alongside younger brother Miles and Teigen.

Watch Luna’s full interview with the stars of Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie.

After more than a decade headlining festivals, raking in five Grammy nods and dominating Billboard’s rock and alternative charts, Tame Impala finally achieves a long-awaited milestone — scoring its first career entry on the Billboard Hot 100.

Kevin Parker’s psych-pop project debuts on the chart this week with its new single, “Dracula.” The song enters at No. 55 on the Oct. 11-dated tally, thanks to 6.5 million official U.S. streams, 1.7 million radio audience impressions and 1,000 sold in its first week of release (Sept 26-Oct. 2), according to Luminate. It’s the third single from Tame Impala’s fifth studio album, Deadbeat, due Oct. 17.

The album’s first two singles, “End of Summer” and “Loser,” each came close to debuting on the Hot 100, both reaching the top 10 of the Bubbling Under Hot 100 ranking. Still, “End of Summer” peaked at No. 7 on Hot Dance/Pop Songs and No. 12 on Hot Alternative Songs, while “Loser” reached No. 14 on Hot Alternative Songs. “Dracula” has emerged as Deadbeat’s clear breakout, though, becoming the set’s first radio hit. The song opens at No. 23 on Rock & Alternative Airplay and No. 31 on Alternative Airplay, while also debuting at Nos. 7 and 8, respectively, on the multimetric Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts.

While “Dracula” marks Tame Impala’s first Hot 100 entry, Kevin Parker himself has appeared on the chart before as both a producer and songwriter. He previously charted five songs on the ranking in his career as a producer or co-producer: Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Illusion” (No. 15 peak in 2016), Travis Scott’s “Skeletons” (No. 47, 2018; it samples Tame Impala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”), The Weeknd’s “Repeat After Me (Interlude)” (No. 69, 2020) and Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” (No. 11, 2023), “Training Season” (No. 27, 2024) and “Illusion” (No. 43, 2024).

Parker is also credited as a songwriter on all six of those tracks and has songwriting credits on three other Hot 100-charted hits: Kanye West’s “Violent Crimes” (No. 27, 2018), Kid Cudi’s “Dive” (No. 80, 2020; it samples Tame Impala’s “Love/Paranoia”) and Don Toliver’s “Bandit” (No. 38, 2024; it samples Tame Impala’s “One More Hour”).

Even without a prior Hot 100 hit, Tame Impala has long been a force across Billboard’s charts. Three of the act’s albums have reached the Billboard 200: Lonerism (No. 34, 2012), Currents (No. 4, 2015) and The Slow Rush (No. 3, 2020). The latter two also hit No. 1 on both the Alternative Albums and Vinyl Albums charts.

To date, Tame Impala has charted 28 songs on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, including 10 top 10s. Radio-wise, the act has scored six entries on Adult Alternative Airplay (including the No. 1s “Lost In Yesterday” and “Is It True,” both in 2020) and nine on Alternative Airplay (including the No. 1 “Neverender,” with Justice, in March). “Neverender” also became Tame Impala’s first crossover to Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay earlier this year, reaching Nos. 23 and 33, respectively.

Now with “Dracula,” Tame Impala is still unlocking new milestones. And with Deadbeat on the way, it’s just getting started.

Even by Taylor Swift‘s standards, the numbers have been inconceivable. Billboard reported on Saturday that Swift’s 12th album The Life of a Showgirl had, by the end of its Friday (Oct. 3) release day, already sold 2.7 million copies — the second-biggest performance of the entire Nielsen era in just a day’s time — while the set also broke streaming records left and right, particularly with lead single and opening track “The Fate of Ophelia.” The album is well on its way to becoming yet another career-defining commercial triumph for Swift — though the response to it from critics and from hardcore Swifties has maybe been a little more mixed so far.

With this Rollout Report Card episode, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard staffers Danielle Pascual and Meghan Mahar as we look at everything surrounding The Life of a Showgirl — from the New Heights podcast where the new era was officially launched, to the artwork for the album (which at least one of us may have already purchased seven alternate vinyl editions of), to the Official Release Party film debuted last weekend in conjunction with the new set. We attempt to grade all aspects of the rollout, and whether or not the most-anticipated pop album of the year met either our own expectations, or the ones that Taylor (and now-fiancé Travis Kelce) explicitly established for it.

As we hand out our letter grades for all the most important factors in Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl rollout — from the live performances and music videos to the new songs and overall “albuminess” — we answer all the most pressing questions: How well do we actually remember the fate of the original Ophelia? What’s the best way to replicate the Official Release Party from the privacy of your own home? Is there actually any interpolating of George Michael’s “Father Figure” in Taylor Swift’s “Father Figure”? Do we want to see a full Taylor Swift-Charli XCX back-and-forth on record? And perhaps most importantly: How did the biggest pop star of our lifetimes possibly get way bigger yet again?

Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from this unforgettable album campaign, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!

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

Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.

After seemingly everyone reacted to the news that global superstar Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2026, President Donald Trump is now sharing his thoughts on the Latin icon taking to the stage.

In an on-air phone interview with NewsMax host Greg Kelly — who referred to the singer as “the Bad Bunny Rabbit of whatever his name is” — the twice-impeached president claimed that he didn’t know who the “DtMF” singer was. “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy,” Trump said, before shifting the conversation to Roc Nation and Jay-Z, who are responsible for helping choose the halftime show performer every year. “And then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Billboard has reached out to Bad Bunny’s rep for comment.

It’s worth noting that while the president may not know who Bad Bunny is, the world at large most certainly does. The Puerto Rican star has amassed nearly 80 million monthly Spotify listeners over the course of his career, making him currently the 12th most streamed artist on the platform. From 2020 to 2022, he was the ranked the most streamed artist on Spotify at the end of each year, dethroned only by Taylor Swift in 2023 and 2024.

Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s historic, 31-date No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí residency at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo broke sales records for the venue; the livestream of his final show in the residency became the single most watched livestream in the history of Amazon Music.

Since he was announced as the performer for next year’s halftime show, Bad Bunny has been subject to criticism and attacks from right-wing commentators and members of Trump’s administration. The president’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski called the pick “shameful” and claimed that Benito “seems to hate America so much,” despite the fact that Puerto Rico — the singer’s homeland — is a U.S. territory.

Lewandowski also claimed that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be present at the Super Bowl. Kristi Noem, the current secretary of homeland security, later confirmed that ICE agents would be “all over” the Super Bowl.

After a number of other right-wing commentators complained about Bad Bunny being openly critical of the president and the fact that he would be singing primarily in Spanish, the singer responded to the ongoing criticism during his monologue as host of the season 51 premiere of Saturday Night Live. “I’m doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show and I’m very happy. I think everyone is happy about it — even Fox News,” he joked in his monologue. He then proceeded to share a message in Spanish about the importance of representing his community at the Super Bowl — when he finished, he switched back to English and added, “If you didn’t understand know what I just said, you have four months to learn!”