A former Live Nation arena development executive has filed a lawsuit alleging he discovered “compounding corporate malfeasance” while working at the live music giant — and then was fired for trying to “stand up for and confront that misconduct.”

Nicholas Rumanes, who worked as Live Nation’s executive vp of development for U.S. concerts between 2022 and 2025, sued the company for retaliation, wrongful termination and fraudulent inducement on Tuesday (April 22). Rumanes is seeking a whopping $35 million in damages — the amount, he says, that he would have earned from long-term stock options if he had remained at his previous job instead of joining Live Nation.

Live Nation said in a Friday (April 24) statement to Billboard that Rumanes’ claims are “false and without merit.” The company added: “His contract was not renewed after failing to meet expectations. He did not raise these allegations during his employment, only doing so months after his departure, and an independent investigation found no evidence to support them. We will respond through the appropriate legal process.”

A veteran real estate developer, Rumanes held executive roles at resort developer Las Vegas Sands, investment firm Alagem Capital, mall giant Westfield and healthcare infrastructure company Welltower before joining Live Nation. He alleges Live Nation “lured” him away from his lucrative last job with promises of a strategic leadership role, only to relegate him to a “subjugated and inferior position” upon arrival.

Once at Live Nation, Rumanes says he noticed “serious corporate misconduct” within the venue development division. He alleges this behavior included inflating projected revenues, understating capital expenditures, concealing project delays and manipulating numbers for shareholder and investor presentations.

“It became clear to Rumanes that Live Nation’s basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business,” reads the legal complaint, obtained by Billboard.  

Many of Rumanes’ gripes are with his former boss, Live Nation global president of venues Jordan Zachary. He alleges that Zachary, described in the complaint as Live Nation’s “heir apparent” and “CEO whisperer” to chief executive Michael Rapino, ran his department through a “totalitarian command structure that punished independence and was clearly designed to suppress and evade oversight.”

Rumanes also claims that Zachary’s team used an improper $20 million “pay-to-play” fee to win a contract for the Grand Rapids Acrisure Amphitheater in 2024, and that Live Nation operated under a general “culture of deception and expendability.” For example, he says that when he asked why Rapino didn’t testify at a 2023 congressional hearing following the ill-fated presale for Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour, Zachary replied, “Michael can’t keep his facts straight and will perjure himself and end up in jail. So, we sent [Live Nation CFO] Joe Berchtold– if he f—s it up, he’s expendable.”

According to the complaint, Rumanes flagged his many concerns to Zachary and other Live Nation executives. But rather than take his words to heart, he says, Live Nation fired him in May 2025 “in a naked act of retaliation.”

Rumanes’ lawsuit comes just one week after Live Nation was held liable by a federal jury for monopolizing the live music industry via its control of concert promotions, amphitheaters and the primary ticketing giant Ticketmaster.

The blockbuster verdict could result in Live Nation being forced to sell Ticketmaster, though it remains to be seen whether a judge will order such drastic relief. Live Nation continues to deny any anticompetitive conduct and has promised to appeal the decision.

Luke Combs scores a historic twofer on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for a second time as “Sleepless in a Hotel Room” and “Days Like These” rank at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the ranking dated May 2. The former, in its third week at No. 1, drew 32.3 million audience impressions (up nearly 1%) and the latter, up two places, totaled 29.9 million (up 15%), April 17-23, according to Luminate.

Combs remains the only artist to have placed two titles with no billed collaborators in the top two simultaneously. He achieves the feat for a second time, following his double-up in September 2023, when “Love You Anyway” led and “Fast Car” followed at No. 2.

Only Morgan Wallen and Luke Bryan have come close. Wallen reached Nos. 1 and 2 via collaborations — “Cowgirls,” with ERNEST, and “I Had Some Help,” with lead artist Post Malone — in 2024. Bryan did so in 2014 with his own “Play It Again” and his collaboration with Florida Georgia Line, “This Is How We Roll.”

‘Look’ Here

Ontario, Canada-born and Nashville-based Josh Ross earns his second Country Airplay top 10 as “Hate How You Look” jumps 15-10 on 17 million audience impressions (up 14%). His first entry, “Single Again,” made the tier in its 60th week before peaking eight weeks later at No. 2. His latest reaches the top 10 in roughly half that time (31 weeks). (His first single, “Trouble,” missed Country Airplay but charted on Hot Country Songs in 2023.)

Marci Braun, brand manager of Audacy’s WUSN-FM Chicago, shares research on “Hate How You Look.” “Incredibly solid since the end of February,” she tells Billboard. “It has consistently ranked in the top 10.” Echoes Rich Davis, program director of iHeartMedia’s KEEY-FM Minneapolis, “Josh hasn’t missed for us.”

Lefty Right for Radio

Stella Lefty claims her first Country Airplay entry as “Boston” debuts at No. 53 (1.2 million). The start also marks the first appearance on the chart for Atlantic Outpost, which launched last summer with a focus on singer-songwriters.

When Nova Scotia native Anne Murray attained the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart dated April 24, 1986, it marked the only time in her career that two noted Canadian producers, both from British Columbia, pitched in on the project.

David Foster (Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston) guided just one cut on Murray’s 10-track Something To Talk About album, created from a melody he cowrote with Jim Vallance (Tina Turner, Glass Tiger), a frequent Bryan Adams cowriter. They mostly had just a topline and chords when they introduced it to Murray, who then called Nashville songwriter Randy Goodrum (Murray’s “You Needed Me,” Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie,” Toto’s “I’ll Be Over You”) to concoct some lyrics.

The result was “Now and Forever (You & Me),” a midtempo pop-country single loaded with electronic keyboards, spiky guitars and backing vocals from Mr. Mister lead singer Richard Page.

“Now and Forever” started at No. 58 on the Hot Country Songs chart dated Jan. 25, 1986, progressing to No. 1 over a 14-week climb. It marked the last of her 10 trips to the country summit, which began with her cover of a George Jones chart-topper, the re-gendered “He Thinks I Still Care,” which reached the summit on July 27, 1974.

Overall, Murray amassed 25 top 10 country singles, four top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 and 19 Adult Contemporary top 10s. “Now and Forever” peaked at No. 7 on AC. Now retired from music, Murray was celebrated in an Oct. 27, 2025, Nashville tribute that featured Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Collin Raye and k.d. lang.

V’ghn might have a sixth sense. The Grenadian soca sensation knew “Jab Decisions” would be a season-defining hit ahead of its release for Spicemas 2025 — and he also had the idea for his current tour long before its titular song came to fruition.

On Saturday (April 25), V’ghn will return to his home country of Grenada for his Jab Decisions Tour finale at the island’s National Stadium. Also serving as his 30^th birthday celebration, the massive show boasts a lineup that includes fellow Caribbean music stars Terra D Governor, Voice, Lyrikal, Nailah Blackman, Mical Teja, Full Blown, Skinny Fabulous, Christo, Coutain, Ding Dong, Dred Lion, Bubbah 473, Dash and 2025 Spicemas Road March winner Lil Kerry.

The blockbuster show also arrives alongside the news of V’ghn’s new publicity team. On Friday (April 24), the soca star confirmed that he joined forces with veteran publicist Yvette Noel-Schure and award-winning publicist Tenille Clarke of Chambers Media Solutions. Notably, Noel-Schure, whose clients include music industry titans like Beyoncé, is a fellow Grenadian, and Clarke hails from the twin-island republic of Trinidad & Tobago, making the new partnership a true cross-Caribbean collaboration. After teaming up to power KestheBand’s latest era, and now adding V’ghn to the fold, Schure and Clarke are collecting Caribbean music stars like infinity stones.

Saturday’s all-night extravaganza marks the conclusion to the Jab Decisions tour, which transported V’ghn to major global cities such as Miami, New York, London and Toronto. The cross-continental trek is jointly produced by him and Top-Notch Entertainment, with support from both Pure Grenada and the Grenada Ministry of Tourism, Creative Economy & Culture.

“I had the idea to go on tour about three days after dropping ‘Jab Decisions,’ since it was one of the last songs released for the [Spicemas] season,” he tells Billboard. “I also just wanted to incorporate Terra into whatever I was doing. He was happy to join, but I realized it could be even bigger. I’ve always wanted to include a multitude of Grenadian artists and create history. Soca is one, and every island contributes to the genre. We have to stick together. That oneness will drive the streams and the numbers.”

V’ghn’s early pitches to promoters were all shut down, he says, but “telling me ‘I can’t’ is like telling me, ‘I can’ in a different language.” So, he spoke with Tracy Garrett-Baptiste, head of department for creative economy at the Grenada Office of Creative Affairs, for over a month, eventually convincing her to throw some support behind the artists and their accommodations. By that point, other promoters realized songs recorded by the expected tour lineup were dominating the season, so they began to latch onto V’ghn’s idea as well.

“Jab Decisions” began with V’ghn lying down in a friend’s room in London and vibing to different beats. “[Producer] Kay Frass sent me the beat about two months before I recorded it,” V’ghn recalls. “He’s been sending me beats for years, and I told him one of these days, the right song is going to come. When he played me that beat in [Grenada’s] Lavo Lanes while we were bowling, I said, ‘This is the one I’m writing a song on, and I’m going to give you a hit.’”

It took him a while, but V’ghn eventually got around to mumbling an early melody pass, which he sent to Frass, who then demanded he finish it as soon as possible. With a clearer understanding that he was onto something, V’ghn recorded the full song and shared a snippet on an Instagram story post. Despite the departure from his signature, groovy soca-rooted sound, fans and peers alike demanded the immediate release of the song.

Building on his sonic experimentation, V’ghn also tapped his first Grenadian collaborator in some years, Terra D Governor, despite fans recommending Boyzie and Voice throwing his hat in the ring via Instagram DM. By the end of August’s Spicemas celebrations, “Jab Decisions” cemented itself as one of the season’s biggest anthems — and V’ghn didn’t even touch down in Grenada until the evening of Carnival.

As he prepares to take the stage for his Jab Decisions tour finale, V’ghn is hoping to bring the rich history and culture of soca music and jab jab to a new generation. On Monday (April 20), he took to his official Instagram page to reveal that Grenada’s PBC boys’ choir will be joining him onstage for “Keep It Together,” an introspective, DJ Puffy-helmed cut that arrived on Jan. 30.

“As the only youth ambassador for WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organization] in the Caribbean, it’s my duty to incorporate the youth and get them involved in things like this,” stresses V’ghn. “I’ve been wanting to work with the PBC choir; it’s just the right moment and the right time. I remember trying choir in school, and those are moments that stick with you. And there are a few guys who probably look up to me, so I want to motivate them and make them feel like they’re on the right path. I want to be an example of what they can be and even surpass.”

Given that his as-yet-untitled new album is slated to arrive this summer on Aug. 20, V’ghn is headed straight to the studio following Saturday night’s show. “I’m tapping into being more open with music, giving more of my experiences in life in the songs,” he teases. “Expect more of me in my music, more of who I am and who I want people to understand me to be.”