Tequila is in high demand. The Mexican spirit, made from agave plants, netted a record-breaking 2022, and according to Forbes, tequila is on track to beat out vodka and whiskey to become the top liquor in America. From a sales perspective, the tequila market is expected to expand to $15.7 billion by 2029.

With that said, it makes sense that celebs like Nick Jonas, Justin Timberlake, George Strait (shop the country legend’s Código 1530 here), Carlos Santana, Diddy and Adam Levine have gotten into the tequila business.

In celebration of National Margarita Day, we’ve compiled eight musician-backed tequila brands for you to enjoy. See the lineup below and for more drink suggestions, read our list of musician-owned liquor and non-alcoholic brands and wines.

Deleón Tequila – Sean Diddy Combs

Diddy and spirits company Diageo purchased the tequila brand in 2014. Deleón offers a variety of tequilas made from 100% Highland Blue Weber agave from the Los Altos region of Jalisco.

“Hand-selected at harvest for high quality and peak ripeness, our plants yield the sweetest piñas, giving the tequila its abundant character and balance,” the website reads. “Slow roasting of the agave in traditional brick and clay ovens, combined with slow fermentation, under the precise guidance of our master distiller contribute enriched depth and complexity to the agave’s natural sweetness, creating a remarkably nuanced character.”

Deleón is available at Reserve Bar, Total Wine & More and Drizly.

Casa Noble Tequila – Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana joined Casa Noble Tequila as a part owner in the brand and a member of its board of directors in 2011. Santana was born in Jalisco, so it was a perfect fit for the guitar legend.

The company handcrafts organic tequilas in crystal, reposado and añejo styles. Order it on Drizly here.

Villa One – Nick Jonas

Nick Jonas, John Varvatos and Stoli teamed up to create Villa One in 2019. The website boasts tequila with a “unique combination of agave flavors that combines herbaceous, earthy Lowland notes with the sweeter, fruity notes of Highland agave, resulting in a distinct, rounded profile.”

Order the silver and reposado varieties via Drizly here.

Calirosa Tequila – Adam Levine

“A fusion of Mexican spirit and California style captured in three tequilas.” Adam Levine’s and his wife, Behati Prinsloo’s, Calirosa tequila is aged in red win barrels from one month up to five years depending on the type of tequila.

To produce the tequila, Levine and Prinsloo partnered with the Real family of Tequila Selecto de Amatitán located in Jalisco, Mexico. Shop Calirosa blanco, añejo, extra anejo and reposado tequila here.

Dos Primos – Thomas Rhett

Dos Primos, which means “Two Cousins,” was fittingly launched by the country superstar and his cousin Jeff Worn to “create a tequila that blended Mexican tradition with southern sensibility.”

“My wife and I love to enjoy tequila together, and I’m excited for people to share a bottle with friends, sip it around a bonfire or enjoy it on a fishing trip or at tailgate or concert,” Rhett said in a press statement. “Dos Primos is about unwinding and enjoying the people and things that really matter in life.”

The award-wining tequila lineup includes reposado, añejo and tequila blanco.

Santo – Sammy Hagar & Guy Fieri

Hagar and celebrity chef Fieri teamed up with Juan Eduardo Nuñez, a third-generation distiller from distillery El Viejito in Jalisco for Santo, which offers “a sinfully smooth old world style tequila blanco, an oak-aged reposado, and the world’s first mezquila.”

Order the Santo Blanco via Total Wine & More here, and the mezquila (a blend of mezcal and tequila) with one-hour delivery on Drizly here.

Próspero Tequila – Rita Ora

The British singer and Conecuh Brands teamed with female distiller, Stella Anguiano, to launch Próspero tequila in 2020.

Available in blanco, añejo and reposado, the tequila serves up an “unparalleled flavor with a smooth, elegant, and perfectly balanced finish.”  

JAJA Tequila – The Chainsmokers

The Chainsmokers’ Alex Pall and Drew Taggart joined the JAJA team after the company was founded by Maurice Tebele and social media influencer Elliot Tebele in 2018.

The heritage facility, which produces blanco, reposado and añejo small batch tequilas, is led by a group of longtime distillers who focus on quality as well as sustainability.

Spoiler alert: This story contains information about contestants eliminated on Wednesday’s (Feb. 22) episode of The Masked Singer.

The latest episode of The Masked Singer‘s ninth season had way more drama than viewers saw onscreen Wednesday night. Not only did returning champ Medusa absolutely crush it again on the ABBA-themed night, but Night Owl also flew in and wowed the judges with her killer vocals and moves while rocking “Fernando” after getting the call less than 24 hours earlier to fill in for a sick contestant.

“I literally did the math and I had 16 hours’ notice… so I decided not to overthink it,” the veteran singer, actress, Broadway star and reality competition judge/contestant tells Billboard about the eleventh-hour invite to save the day. The judges had some pretty good ideas about who she was, guessing everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker (Ken Jeong, wrong, wrong, wrong, of course) and Paula Abdul to The Go-Gos’ Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper or Kylie Minogue.

The Night Owl impressed, but she would have to soar even higher in the Battle Royale showdown with Medusa, during which both had to tackle “The Winner Takes It All.” She put some serious emotion into the ABBA favorite from a vocalist who the clue package told us was a “pop princess OG.”

Well, that was all you needed to know to figure out that panelist Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg was right all along: Night Owl was, indeed, OG pop royalty Debbie Gibson.

Billboard spoke to Gibson before her elimination and found out how her mother’s death inspired her to get in the game, what a 17-year-old Debbie would have thought about her being on a reality singing show, and what fans can expect on her upcoming The Body Remembers Tour.

Had you ever seen the show before you signed up?

I’ve had so many friends on the show — Joey Fatone, Donny Osmond, LeAnn Rimes — and when they called, I ended up filling in for somebody. I knew [someday] I would possibly do the show and that I could say no and properly prepare and do all that and still only last one episode. [But] I decided this would be my moment and this would be my way to do the show and, to quote P!nk, do a trust fall and be rock ‘n’ roll and show up not knowing anything about what I would be doing. I took a flight from New York to Las Vegas and I was on the plane when the call came in, I came home and unpacked and repacked and the driver in the car heard us making arrangements and said he could drive me to L.A. During the ride I got calls from wardrobe and they were like, “How about ‘Fernando?’” I just kept saying yes and laughing because it was so ridiculous.

Were you scared, excited?

I was so amped up and I had no idea how my voice would present itself. It was the one-year anniversary of losing my mom and I was in the Newark airport and I honored my Italian heritage and my mom by having pizza for lunch — I was done singing for the year and wasn’t going to start up again until [my upcoming] tour — so I was a vocalist letting her hair down, having pizza and a Coke, getting on a dry airplane and just crying. Just letting myself so far off the hook and [saying] “whatever happens happens.” I was here to fill a niche because someone fell ill on this multimillion-dollar production and I will be that go-to girl and giggle my way through the day and do my best.

And why the Night Owl?

She is nocturnal and I’m normally in bed with my dogs by 7 p.m. I have a song “Who Loves Ya Baby,” and in that song I wing “Who, who, who loves ya baby?” and that was reason enough to be Night Owl. I pieced it together and the metallic body suit reminded me of my Liberace piano and the Thierry Mugler bodysuit Madonna wore. I was in Beauty and the Beast [on Broadway], and I had this giant dress and wig, and this costume was way heavier because all the weight was on the shoulders.  

You’ve done music, acting, Broadway and some reality TV (The Apprentice, Dancing With the Stars, Skating With the Stars), but is it safe to say this was one of the more unusual gigs you’ve had? 

That’s what was so fun about it! I’ve made a deal with myself to be super present in this chapter of my life. I’ve been a mentor and a judge on American Juniors. I’ve sat where the judges sat, but in this moment, in this costume, I was thinking every reason I wanted to get into showbiz is happening right now: I’m playing dress-up, there’s a mystery involved, I’m singing and dancing and surprising people. People love the show because it has magic to it and it’s very wholesome. It’s like being a child and playing dress-up. It’s one of the more refreshing gigs I’ve done.

Do you think 17-year-old Debbie would ever imagine you’d be singing ABBA in an owl costume at this juncture in your career?

[Laughs] Coming from the theater, I didn’t rule anything out. Coming from the ’80s pop music scene I didn’t have these kinds of reality shows, so never in my wildest dreams would I think that these shows could be a career game-changer. You have to get over the idea that you have to be a rock star at all times. It’s fun, why not?

Did you want to win though?

I didn’t have time to think about wanting to win. I honestly really wanted to get through the day. I didn’t know how I could stand, let alone sing, at the end of the day coming from the day I had before. When I saw and heard Medusa and her lovely energy, she was just super respectful and we were rooting for each other — I wanted her to have it. Whoever this is has been preparing for a long time.

It felt like Jenny was on to you pretty early, but they also threw out Sarah Jessica Parker, Paula Abdul, Belinda Carlisle, Kylie Minogue and Cyndi Lauper, all of whom are nothing to sneeze at.

I thought the Kylie one was the best, because with Kylie, I do feel like we are separated at birth, like sisters from across the world. I always jokingly say that what the world needs to do is find Carrie Bradshaw’s long-lost sister — Sarah [Jessica Parker] and I are long-lost sisters as well.

I don’t know who Medusa is either, but that Battle Royale on “The Winner Takes It All” was super intense. What was your strategy?

My strategy is always to just be me. I was going to sing that pretty straight ahead and didn’t have time to figure out how I would finesse it. One of the things that always connected me to my audience from the time I was young was I open my mouth and sing and I don’t overthink it. Sing the lyrics, tell the story and open up and let it come out. That’s what I felt like I did.

You announced that you’re going on an encore run of The Body Remembers Tour. Talk to me about the fan reaction to that and what they can expect. 

For people who haven’t seen me perform in a long time, I’m a very raw performer and I play for a long time. I get the curfew-time hook a lot, and that’s what I did — I really poured myself out onto the stage — and that’s what I will do again. I released this album [The Body Remembers] a year ago, and I watch contemporaries like Shania Twain and Janet [Jackson], who are on major labels and doing Live Nation tours, and I haven’t done it that way. I’m so specific on how I like to use my energy. I don’t want creative input. I’ve done it my way and I’m so proud of that. This tour is such a reflection of that. It’s nostalgia, you’ve got old and new, and it’s my audience, my generation, and everyone is experiencing a renaissance — people are vital and vibrant at 40-50 — and they want their artists to be like that and to experience that energy in the room.

After 2022 marked KCON’s in-person return following two years online, the world’s biggest K-pop festival has set 2023 dates for events in the U.S., Japan and Thailand in the coming months.

Once again, KCON will hold its flagship event in California with KCON 2023 Los Angeles between Aug. 18-20 at the Crypto.com Arena and LA Convention Center. Barring 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, the West Coast iteration of the festival has been held throughout the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center) and LA Convention Center since 2015, with 2023 marking its 10th time in the city’s famous L.A. Live campus.

Last year, KCON LA reported 90,000 fans attending across its three days of convention, panels, workshops meet-and-greets and concert activities headlined by artists like Stray Kids, ATEEZ, ITZY, The Boyz, Kep1er, TO1 and more.

After visiting Tokyo in October, KCON also revealed that it will return with its KCON 2023 Japan between May 18-20 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba. The fest last visited the city for its two-day KCON Premiere Chiba event last year where K-pop boy band TO1 performed alongside J-pop acts like JO1 and INI. KCON 2022 Japan was held at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena with TO1, ATEEZ, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, fromis_9, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans, Monsta X‘s Kihyun and more K-pop and J-pop acts performing.

KCON Los Angeles and Japan join the preciously announced KCON Thailand, taking place next month at the IMPACT Arena and IMPACT Exhibition Center throughout March 18-19 in Bangkok’s northern suburb of Muang Thong Thani. The festival has TO1, ATEEZ, Kep1er, JO1, BamBam, iKON,(G)I-DLE and more K-pop and J-pop acts scheduled to visit.

KCON followed up in a press release that each location would have “signature programming as well as content tailored for each region” and that KCON will be live streamed globally without regional limitations.

Despite increasing competition from new K-pop festival startups like last year’s KAMP and the upcoming We Bridge Music Festival & Expo, as well as more Korean artists appearing on long-running U.S. music fests like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Governor’s Ball, KCON has managed to keep its attendance and audience engagement strong for more than a decade now.

“KCON, which started out with an audience of 10,000 in 2012, has now grown into the world’s biggest K-culture festival,” said Kim Hyun-soo, Head of Live Entertainment Business at CJ ENM, in a statement. “This year, KCON will meet global fans in Thailand, Japan and the U.S., advancing the spread of K-pop and K-culture around the world.”