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BLACKPINK’s JENNIE drops her first tumbler collab with Stanley 1913. After recently teaming up with Beats for a limited-edition Ruby red Solo 4 headphone, the megastar is opting for a sleeker “Midnight Ruby” black colorway for her newly released tumbler partnership. Inspired by her 2025 debut album, the Stanley 1913 x JENNIE collection is a “first-of-its-kind collaboration” that celebrates the K-Pop star’s signature branding and self-expression as well as introducing two new inaugural Luxe products: the Quencher Luxe Tumbler and a smaller All Day Slim Luxe Bottle.

The 30 oz Luxe Tumbler is a sleek makeover of the brand’s Quencher bottle. At $75, this limited-edition tumbler features JENNIE’s style in a compact, carry-everywhere size. With double-wall vacuum insulation and an easy-carry handle, it’s made for all-day hydration without sacrificing style. There’s also collectible charms to add even more of JENNIE’s personal touches to the bottle, including a NINIBARA, an exclusive capybara design, a bear and a ‘JENNIE’ name plate.

BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

STANLEY 1913 X JENNIE

Quencher Luxe Tumbler


If you’re looking for something even more lightweight and portable, the 12 oz All Day Slim Luxe Bottle features a minimalist silhouette and twist-off lid for easy on-the-go sipping. It’s slim build was also made to fit seamlessly in any bag. It’s mostly black design is broken up by silver floral accents, a heart-shaped graphic, etched logo, and JENNIE’s signature motifs.

BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

STANLEY 1913 X JENNIE

All Day Slim Luxe Bottle


“I love how the products turned out, and I think fans will notice the ‘JENNIE’ touches that represent me,” JENNIE shared. “I hope they feel the personality and energy we poured into every detail.”

The full Stanley 1913 x JENNIE collection is available now at the brand’s website. If you love the limited-edition “Midnight Ruby” black colorway from the JENNIE collab, here are a few other best-selling, all-black tumblers, bottles and cups worthy of a spot in your bag.

BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

Stanley Black Chroma Quencher H2.0 FlowState Tumbler


BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

Stanley IceFlow Flip Straw Tumbler


BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

Stanley Adventure Stay-Chill Stacking Pint


BLACKPINK's JENNIE Drops New Stanley Collab: Shop Online

Stanley GO Everyday Wine Tumbler


Young Thug is happily clearing the way for the arrival of Cardi B‘s long-awaited sophomore album Am I the Drama? Friday (Sept. 19) by making sure his own upcoming album UY Scuti drops later.

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“Yall know I wasn’t dropping Friday. It’s a ladies day,” he wrote on X Wednesday night (Sept. 17) with a heart emoji. “Do yo s–t @iamcardib.” She sent back her own words of encouragement by replying, “And you better step next week …you got this, You know this !!”

Ahead of Am I the Drama?, Cardi revealed the album’s 23-song tracklist Thursday (Sept. 18), which includes previously released singles “WAP” (featuring Megan Thee Stallion), “Up,” “Outside” and “Imaginary Playerz” as well as more collaborations with Summer Walker (“Dead” and “Shower Tears”), Selena Gomez (“Pick It Up”), Kehlani (“Safe”), Lizzo (“What’s Goin On”), Cash Cobain (“Better Than You”), Lourdiz (“On My Back”), Janet Jackson (“Principal”), and Tyla (“Nice Guy”).

As for Thugger’s UY Scuti, he initially revealed this Friday as the release date at the tail end of his apologetic “Miss My Dogs” video that dropped last week, which addressed his trials and tribulations with his girlfriend Mariah The Scientist, Drake, Gucci Mane, 21 Savage, Future and Lil Baby. In a since-expired Instagram Story from Wednesday, the Altanta-bred MC teased another track with producer 808 Mafia while writing “Next Friday,” meaning Sept. 26. UY Scuti is now expected to drop the same day as Mariah Carey’s sixteenth studio album Here for It All and Doja Cat’s fifth studio album Vie.

Earlier this week, Thug was announced as one of the performers at Coachella next year, marking another major post-prison performance following his headlining stint at Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash this past June and ComplexCon next month.

See Cardi and Thug’s exchange below:

Hundreds of artists have yanked their music from streaming services in Israel to protest the ongoing violence against Palestinian people, including Kneecap, Faye Webster and Japanese Breakfast.

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Aminé, Massive Attack, Soccer Mommy, Rina Sawayama, Fontaines D.C., MIKE, Primal Scream and Fontaines D.C. are also among the artists who have joined the movement, which is called “No Music for Genocide.” The initiative is accompanied by a new website, which features educational resources and shares the full list of more than 400 acts and record labels that have made their catalogs unavailable to play on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music in Israel.

“No Music For Genocide is a cultural boycott of Israel,” reads the project’s mission statement. “Over 400 initial artists and labels have geo-blocked and removed their music from that territory in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank; apartheid within Israel / ’48; political repression of Pro-Palestine efforts wherever we live; and the music industry’s own ties to weapons and crimes against humanity.”

“This tangible act is just one step toward honoring Palestinian demands to isolate and delegitimize Israel as it kills without consequence on the world stage,” it continues. “The successful cultural boycotts against apartheid South Africa prove that our creative work grants us agency and power. When we wield it together, we add unified pressure to a growing, global, interdependent movement, from Hollywood to the docks of Morocco.”

The movement comes just a few weeks before the two-year mark in Israel’s war against Hamas, which began after the deadly terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in the violence — while countless others have lived in a continued state of hunger and homelessness — and a United Nations commission recently declared that Israel is guilty of genocide, which the country denies.

Though kicking off with more than 400 names on its list, the “No Music for Genocide” boycott still wants more artists who believe in the cause to follow suit and pull their catalogs from Israel as well. It marks just the latest music-related initiative to end the suffering in Gaza in recent weeks, following on the heels of the “Together for Palestine” benefit concert in London overseen by Brian Eno.

Information on how to join or support the boycott is also available on its website.


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After having to postpone its new Las Vegas residency earlier this year, Nikki Sixx is happy to have Mötley Crüe back on stage with its current 10-date run at Dolby Live at Park MGM.

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“I’m excited about it,” Sixx tells Billboard. It’s not the Crüe’s first time in Vegas, of course: it follows Mötley Crüe Takes on Sin City in 2012 and An Intimate Evening in Hell the following year. But it is a new venue that, according to Sixx, affords the band a chance to craft something suitably extravagant for the career-spanning 13-song set, which includes a medley of covers the Crüe has recorded, among them its Billboard Hot 100 top 20 rendition of Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.”

“It’s a really super-wide stage, so it gives us an opportunity to do things with set design that are really cool,” Sixx explains. “You’re not in an arena or in a stadium; you’re in an inside environment, so you can control a lot of stuff, and that’s a lot of fun for us. Atmosphere’s such a big part of lighting, and when you can set your atmosphere and it’s a controlled environment, you can get some really cool looks. “

Sixx says the show is designed to be “a little more fan interactive,” which will include “some storytelling, which we’re excited about, on a couple of our songs,” he says. “A lot of people ask you what came first, the lyric or the (music), and we were talking at rehearsal about a specific song we’re gonna break down how the song happened. I’m bringing my acoustic guitar. I’m by no means what I would call even a good guitar player — I usually write from the bass — but I always have a guitar around and certain chords will inspire stuff…and I had these chords since I was 17 years old, through all the bands I was in…and nothing ever happened with them. We’re gonna talk about how those chords…turned into (a song).”

The residency, which began Sept. 12 and runs through Oct. 3, is Mötley Crüe’s first time back on stage in 11 months, since the Aftershock Festival last October. The run was originally slated for March and April but was pushed back to allow frontman Vince Neil to recover from a then-unspecified medical procedure, which he recently revealed was a stroke that occurred late last December. He told the Las Vegas Review Journal last week that, “I had to learn to walk again, and that was tough. The doctors said they didn’t think I’d be able to go back on stage again. I go, ‘No, no, I’m gonna do to it. Watch and see.’”

Sixx also addressed the ongoing legal battle with former guitarist Mick Mars over his departure from the group in 2022, slamming Mars’ allegations that Mötley Crüe did not play live at its concerts, calling it a “crazy betrayal,” and posting a subsequent social media message that, “I’m actually ashamed of him. So should you be, too.”

Back in Vegas, the Crüe met on Wednesday (Sept. 17) night with representatives of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, an outgrowth of Sixx and the band’s previous work with Covenant House in Los Angeles. “Any time I can be involved in any way with kids…that’s something that’s very important to me,” Sixx says, “and it’s something that we will continue doing whenever we can find an opportunity to give back.”

Motley Crue Las Vegas

Motley Crue Las Vegas

Rich Proctor

Neil’s stroke recovery also axed the Crüe from playing the Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath Back to the Beginning farewell concert, which took place July 5 in Birmingham, England, two weeks before Osbourne passed away at the age of 76. “It was something we were just unable to do…We couldn’t do it even if we wanted to,” says Sixx, who did watch the streaming concert online. He acknowledges that the band was disappointed to not be available, especially because Osbourne played such an instrumental role in the Crüe’s career when he took Sixx and company on the road as his opening act in 1984.

“Honestly, they broke our band, Ozzy and Sharon (Osbourne),” Sixx notes. “Sharon saw a band that something was happening with and it was a perfect fit for Ozzy, and we just became so close and Ozzy took us around the world and just did everything for us…and of course all the wild and fun stories that is Ozzy. I’ll forever be in debt to Sharon and Ozzy for that.

“And, man, I gotta tell ya — Ozzy, way to f–kin’ go out with a bang. He really did it, and everybody showed up because they loved him and supported him. Unfortunately, we don’t have him anymore, but we got one of the greatest rock stars of all time who came while we were here on this planet and went back to the f–kin’ stars, man. It’s like, ‘I came down there and I kicked some f–kin’ ass.’ Thank you, Ozzy, every day for the opportunity to have a career.”

The Vegas residency coincides with the release of From The Beginning, a new Crüe compilation that features 20 tracks (21 on the two-LP vinyl edition) including a new version of “Home Sweet Home” featuring additional vocals by Dolly Parton. Sixx says it’s part of Mötley Crüe’s deal with BMG, which obtained the band’s catalog during November of 2021. “This is something (BMG) felt was a really nice way to introduce younger fans,” Sixx explains. “It’s not a greatest hits record, even though it’s loaded with hits. It’s a way of keeping our catalog and our music alive.”

From The Beginning does include “Dogs of War” and, on the vinyl edition, “Cancelled,” both of which were part of last year’s Cancelled EP, its first project with new guitarist John 5. But Sixx isn’t hazarding a guess as to when the next batch of new material will come along.

“We’re not in rush mode,” he says. “We only work on music when something inspiring comes, so we’re not on a schedule,” he says. “If a few songs come together we’ll figure out how to get together and record them.”

Sixx, who’s been working on a variety of multi-media projects and has been writing songs with Cinderella drummer Fred Coury, adds that, “I don’t find full-length albums inspirational anymore. I feel like, the way people consume music, you can spend so much of your time and your life and your passion to do 11, 12, 15 songs to only have one or two really cut through. So we would rather do two or three and get them out, and when we feel inspired do another three or four. That’s the path that we’re on. That just feels natural.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC ) has filed a lengthy lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, seeking a permanent injunction against what it describes as years of “systemic unfair and deceptive practices.”

Joined by seven state attorneys general and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, the 84-page federal complaint filed in the Central District of California seeks monetary relief, civil penalties and restitution for alleged violations of the FTC Act, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (also known as the BOTS Act) and various state consumer protection statutes.

The lawsuit seeks to penalize Live Nation for failing to enforce the BOTS Act — an eight-year-old law the FTC is charged with enforcing but has only enforced two times in nearly a decade.

The lawsuit represents a second major legal action against the company by federal and state officials in two years — in 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Live Nation on anti-competitive grounds, arguing its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster gave the company an unfair monopoly of the concert business. Today’s FTC complaint argues that Live Nation and Ticketmaster control “roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing” and abuse that dominance through deceptive pricing, tacit collusion with ticket brokers and violations of federal ticketing law.

The lawsuit alleges three main categories of unlawful conduct by Live Nation: deceptive, or bait-and-switch ticket pricing; collusion with ticket brokers to evade ticket limits; and what it calls “systematic violations of the BOTS Act.” Each example of unlawful conduct, according to the complaint, directly inflates prices, harms artists’ intent to keep ticket costs affordable and “extracts billions in additional profits for the defendants.”

Ticketmaster has long received complaints about its drip pricing, which means customers view one price while shopping for tickets and then are presented with a higher price, sometimes as much as 30% higher, when fees are added. In recent months, however, the company has been leading efforts to promote all-in pricing, which would show the entire price of a ticket at the beginning of checkout.

“Defendants’ deceptive price display was no accident,” the lawsuit, written primarily by FTC Attorney Elizabeth Scott, alleges. “The design resulted from years of internal testing designed by Defendants’ employees that shows that Defendants’ revenues increase when their price display is, in Ticketmaster’s words, ‘less transparent.’”

According to one internal study from 2015 cited in the lawsuit, a Ticketmaster executive acknowledged that “‘the less transparent the higher the conversion,’ concluding that ‘this means we’re headed towards less transparency.’”

“Not until May 2025, deep into the FTC’s investigation — and just before the effective date of the FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, which authorizes the FTC to seek civil penalties and other monetary relief against violators — did Defendants announce their intention to incorporate fees into listed ticket prices,” the lawsuit explains.

The second major allegation is that Ticketmaster publicly blames scalpers and bots for high resale prices while privately allowing (and benefiting from) brokers’ mass purchases of tickets.

Artists typically set per-event limits (4to 10 tickets per buyer), but Ticketmaster fails to enforce them, the complaint alleges, noting “Defendants routinely allow ticket brokers to exceed ticket limits.”

One broker allegedly purchased 772 Coldplay tickets for $81,000 and resold them for $170,000, and 612 Chris Stapleton tickets for $47,000 and resold them for $89,000.

The complaint alleges Ticketmaster not only turned a blind eye but sometimes aided brokers, even issuing warnings about upcoming account enforcement changes so they could “consolidate illegally obtained tickets,” the lawsuit alleges.

“To evade Ticketmaster’s enforcement measures, brokers routinely create hundreds or thousands of Ticketmaster accounts,” the lawsuit alleges, including one reseller who purchased or created 13,000 Ticketmaster accounts over a four-year period.

“Ticketmaster forecast that in 2020, alone, more than five million of the concert tickets that it would offer for resale would be tickets purchased over ticket limits,” the lawsuit alleges. “This was more than 55% of the concert tickets it anticipated would be listed by brokers.”

Ticketmaster has “significantly increased their sale of secondary market concert tickets, from 3.8 million tickets in 2019 to over 20 million in 2024,” the lawsuit alleges, noting that in 2023, 78 percent of resale tickets sold on Ticketmaster were listed by ticket brokers.

Company officials were aware that brokers were using a number of different technology tools to circumvent ticket purchase limits on the site and either looked the other way or provided “technological support for brokers who exceed ticket limits to list the tickets for resale by Ticketmaster,” the lawsuit alleges. That includes the use of tools like TradeDesk, which ticket brokers use to upload tickets to Ticketmaster’s resale platform.

“A September 2018 Ticketmaster presentation reported that each TradeDesk account was associated with, on average, approximately 200 Ticketmaster accounts,” the lawsuit continues, a violation of Ticketmaster’s own rules limiting users to one account per person.

“As a Ticketmaster executive vice president explained to Ticketmaster’s executive team and Live Nation’s President and CFO in the wake of the undercover reporting on TradeDesk,” the lawsuit alleges “Defendants ‘turn a blind eye’ to brokers’ circumvention of their enforcement measures and follow a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ approach to brokers’ blatantly violative conduct.”

Publicly, however, company officials insist that Ticketmaster “does not turn a blind eye” to “patterns of behavior that indicate unlawful ticket purchases,” according to the lawsuit.

FTC attorneys argue that Ticketmaster benefits from what it calls “triple dipping,” collecting fees “when the broker buys the ticket, again when the broker lists it for resale on Ticketmaster, and a third time when the fan buys the marked-up resale ticket.” According to the FTC lawsuit, Ticketmaster generated $3.7 billion in fees from its resale marketplace from 2019 to 2024.

The complaint stresses that the practices harm not just fans but also artists, undercutting artists’ own efforts to set affordable prices.

“Defendants’ unlawful conduct and tacit coordination with brokers injures fans, who have paid far more than the advertised ticket price,” the complaint alleges, and “injures artists, who set ticket limits that they understand [Ticketmaster] will implement, only to be thwarted by [Ticketmaster’s] choice to allow brokers to evade them.”

According to the complaint, $82.6 billion was spent by consumers on Ticketmaster from 2019 to 2024, including $16.4 billion paid in mandatory fees during that period, along with $986 million collected in resale seller fees and $3.7 billion in resale fees charged to fans. The FTC is asking the court for a permanent injunction prohibiting Ticketmaster/Live Nation from “continuing deceptive practices” and is demanding civil penalties under the FTC Act and the BOTS Act, along with consumer restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten profits and attorneys’ fees and costs for participating states.

Shortly after the lawsuit was announced, Stephen Parker, executive director for the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) released a statement, said in part, “Today’s lawsuit has given credibility to what fans, artists, and independent stages have believed for years: Live Nation and Ticketmaster exploit their dominance not just in concert promotion and primary ticketing, but in the resale market as well.”

Parker noted that “This is not just bad business; it is deception and abuse of monopoly power. By turning a blind eye to scalpers, even giving them the tools to bypass limits and harvest tickets, Live Nation has acted as the promoter, the primary ticket seller, the artists’ manager, and the scalper.”

He added, “Independent venues and promoters are on the frontlines of this broken system, and it is fans and artists who ultimately pay the price. We applaud the FTC for bringing this case. It further bolsters the U.S. Department of Justice and 40 state attorneys general antitrust case against Live Nation.”

Officials with the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) also released a statement, saying, “Without commenting on the specific charges, NITO applauds the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to reform an unfair ticketing ecosystem that too often does not serve consumers or artists. Changes are needed that address excessive fees, availability of tickets for fans at fair prices and keeping the process aligned with artists interests that benefit their fans.”

Billboard reached out to Live Nation for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

The biggest surprise of the 2025 Grammy Awards season didn’t occur on Grammy night, but when the nominations were announced on Nov. 8, 2024 and Jack Antonoff was not in the running for producer of the year, non-classical.

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He had been nominated in that category for five straight years, winning in the last three years. Had he been nominated again last year, he would have become the first producer or producing team to be nominated in the category six years running since Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who were up every year from 2001-2006.

Antonoff’s omission was especially perplexing because he was nominated for album of the year with two albums last year – Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and Sabrina Carpenter’s breakthrough collection, Short N’ Sweet.

One of the big questions going into the 2026 Grammys is whether Antonoff will return to the producer of the year, non-classical finals. Another question is whether he will receive double nods for album of the year for the third year in a row. He very well may, thanks to his involvement with Kendrick Lamar’s GNX (where he is credited as a producer on 11 of the 12 tracks) and Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend (where he is credited as a producer on nine of the 12 tracks).

Antonoff first received double album of the year nods two years ago for Swift’s Midnights (which won) and Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.

Prior to that, he had been nominated for album of the year six times, but never with more than one album in a given year. His previous album of the year nominees were with his alt-pop trio fun.’s Some Nights (2013), Swift’s 1989 (2016, which won), Lorde’s Melodrama (2018), del Rey’s Norman F***ing Rockwell (2020), and Swift’s Folklore (2021, which won) and Evermore (2022).

Thus, Antonoff has received 12 album of the year nominations and could very well up that total to 14 when this year’s nominations are announced.

Antonoff’s failure to land a nod for producer of the year (non-classical) last November was seen as a desire on the part of the committee which made the final choices to give other producers a chance at Grammy glory. Indeed, three of the nominees – Alissia, Ian Fitchuk and Mustard – had never been nominated in the category before. The other two nominees, Daniel Nigro and Dernst “D Mile” Emile II, were on their second and third nominations in the category, respectively. Nigro won.

Here’s how the producer of the year, non-classical voting process works, taken from the Rules & Guidelines booklet for the 68th Grammy Awards: “The first round of voting is in the hands of the general voting membership via the first ballot. The second round of voting, however, takes place in a national craft nominating committee. The top 30 selections from the general voting membership appear on the ballot for the national craft nominating committees, made up of 25-30 voting members representing all the chapters. The committees review the recordings and vote by confidential ballot to select the five nominations.”

The process is exactly the same in songwriter of the year, non-classical as well as these three other categories: best instrumental composition; best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella; and best arrangement, instruments and vocals.

The question now is, having given other producers a chance to get some Grammy love, will the committee let Antonoff again compete in the category he has dominated for the past decade — and which he’ll have an extremely convincing case for once again in 2026?

David Byrne’s first album in more than seven years, Who Is the Sky?, debuts in the top 10 across four Billboard album charts: Top Album Sales (No. 10), Vinyl Albums (No. 5), Indie Store Album Sales (No. 4) and Top Current Album Sales (No. 9), all dated Sept. 20. It’s his first new album since American Utopia was released in March 2018.

The new set was preceded by the hit song “Everybody Laughs,” featuring the Ghost Train Orchestra, which reached No. 2 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in August, marking Byrne’s highest charting track ever on the 29-year-old ranking.

As a soloist, Byrne’s chart history dates to March of 1981, when his collaborative album with Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, debuted on the overall all-genre Billboard 200. Byrne is also the frontman of Talking Heads, who made its Billboard chart debut nearly 48 years ago, when the Talking Heads: 77 set bowed on the Billboard 200 dated Oct. 8, 1977.

Talking Heads collected 13 charted titles on the Billboard 200, including eight that reached the top 40. As a soloist, Byrne has logged 14 entries on the Billboard 200, including Who Is the Sky? (No. 172), with two of those titles visiting the top 40.

Back on the latest Top Album Sales chart, as Byrne’s Who Is the Sky? launches at No. 10 with 8,500 sold in the United States in the week ending Sept. 11, it joins five other debuts and reentries in the top 10. Rich Man – The 6th Mini Album by aespa bows at No. 4 (23,000), ZEROBASEONE’s NEVER SAY NEVER starts at No. 5 (21,000), MONSTA X’s THE X debuts at No. 6 (19,000), Slipknot’s 1999 self-titled debut effort reenters at No. 7 (10,000, up 948%) after it was reissued for its 25th anniversary (all versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes), and Rob Thomas’ All Night Days bows at No. 9 (9,000).

As for the non-debuts and reentries in the top 10 on Top Album Sales, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend holds at No. 1 for a second week (27,000, down 88% in its sophomore frame), Stray Kids’ former No. 1 KARMA is steady at No. 2 (26,000, down 52%), the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is a non-mover at No. 3 (23,000, up 56% following the wide release of its CD and a deluxe digital and streaming edition with additional tracks) and Deftones’ Private Music falls 4-8 (a little over 9,000, down 29%).

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.


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Ariana Grande was named songwriter of the year at the 2025 SESAC L.A. Music Awards, which were held at the W Hotel in Hollywood on Wednesday (Sept. 17). This marks the fourth year the awards took place in Los Angeles.

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Grande was also awarded song of the year for her hit “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love),” which in March 2024 became her seventh song to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, earning her the record as the female artist with the most No. 1 debuts in history. (Taylor Swift has since tied that record, when she landed her seventh No. 1 debut with “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone).

“We Can’t Be Friends” was published by Universal Music Group Publishing, which also received the publisher of the year award. The company was also behind such songs as “The Emptiness Machine” recorded by Linkin Park and “We Pray” recorded by Coldplay featuring Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna and TINI.

Dez Wright and The Legendary Traxster each received producer of the year awards in recognition of their work with artists including Travis Scott, Future, Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion. Additional award-winning writers include Jack Harlow, Emily Armstrong, Dahi, Japanese Breakfast, Green Day, Fede Vindver and Sam Tinnesz.

“We’re proud to honor the incredible songwriters and publishers who make our music come alive,” Sam Kling, chief creative officer at SESAC Performing Rights, said in a statement. “These songs are the result of immense dedication and talent.”

Kling announced that two members of the creative team, James Leach and John Sweeney, received posthumous legacy awards in recognition of their service and dedication.

Artist and SESAC songwriter Tamara Jade served as the MC for the event for the third consecutive year.  

Here’s a list of the key winners. A full list of all winners is available at the SESAC site.

Songwriter of the Year

Ariana Grande

Publisher of the Year

Universal Music Publishing Group

Song of the Year

“We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”

Written by: Ariana Grande

Published by: Universal Music Publishing Group

Performed by: Ariana Grande

Producer of the Year

The Legendary Traxster

Dez Wright

Regional Mexican singer Lupillo Rivera has just released his autobiography Tragos Amargos: Gloria e Infiero de El Toro del Corrido, a retrospective of his life in which he makes deeply personal revelations — from a health issue that could jeopardize his career to details of his last encounter with his late sister, Jenni Rivera.

With her, he shared a touching moment just a few days before her tragic death in a plane crash, when at one of his performances — he writes — she arrived unexpectedly and went up on stage to sing with him “Tragos Amargos,” the classic song by norteño legend Ramón Ayala, which now serves as the title of his book.

With his raspy voice and unique style, Lupillo Rivera (real name: Guadalupe Rivera Saavedra) is known for hits like “El Moreño,” “Baraja de Oro,” “Fondo, Fondo,” and “Grandes Ligas.” His rise to stardom allowed him to help launch his sister Jenni’s career. The siblings worked at their family’s record label, Cintas Acuario, while waiting for their opportunity to record.

Through 33 chapters, Tragos Amargos (Bitter Moments) — released in Spanish the U.S. on Sept. 16 via Penguin Random House and soon to arrive in Mexico — offers an emotional journey through the artist’s childhood, his time at Cintas Acuario, and his complicated family relationships — especially with his father, Pedro Rivera, with whom he severed ties over business matters. He also discusses his past loves, confirming a previous relationship with pop star Belinda. (A Billboard message to a representatives of the singer hasn’t been answered.)

“I just share what I lived, I talk about everything, and I know many people won’t like what I say,” Rivera admits. Below, he discusses some of those revelations with Billboard.

You worked alongside your father at Cintas Acuario. What did that experience teach you?

I learned the music industry from the ground up. From my father, I learned the value of hard work to support a family. Back then, my dad didn’t do anything wrong. He made deals to buy and sell songs. At the end of the day, artists sell their talent.

You had the chance to meet singers like Chalino Sánchez and Valentín Elizalde at Cintas Acuario, both of whom became major stars. What special memories do you have of them?

Chalino was an honorable man. He always carried a gun, but he never looked for trouble. He was serious in his dealings and incredibly talented. Many people think his singing style meant he didn’t know music, but he didn’t need to — he understood exactly what he had to do.

Things started going well for me in 1999, and by 2000, my career had taken off. Valentín used to complain to my dad, saying he only promoted me. I’d tell him to be patient, that his time would come. I knew he’d succeed. He had something special, his presence was striking. When he moved to another label, we competed at fairs and events, but we got along really well.

In your book, you mention recording demo vocals, which led to your father giving you the opportunity you’d been waiting for as a singer. But this happened during a difficult time in your life.

I became a father at a very young age. I was already signed up to join the Marines, but my girlfriend was pregnant. This was during the Gulf War; my friends who went didn’t survive. I stayed behind and started my music career. My relationship with Maria, my first wife, was wonderful for many years, though she didn’t want me to be a singer, even when I started earning a good income.

I used to look at my parents’ marriage, where they always worked together, and I wanted that with my wife. But it didn’t happen. I was unfaithful multiple times, and she didn’t deserve that — she’s a good woman. We had four daughters together. Later, I remarried and had two more children. I have six children and nine grandchildren, whom I love to spoil.

What’s the current situation with your career?

My father and I had an agreement to split the earnings from the music I recorded for Cintas Acuario 50/50, but he didn’t honor that. That’s why I decided to re-record all my music, so I could leave something for my kids. A record label approached me three months ago and bought 20 songs. The label is Hyphy Music, which specializes in acquiring master recordings.

Is this related to the lawsuit your nephews filed against your father over Jenni’s music?

My sister Jenni is no longer with us; it’s my responsibility as an uncle to guide them. This situation affected me because I also lost all my music [when Cintas Acuario kept it]. I don’t want to fight with my father or mother, which is why I decided to re-record my work.

Speaking of Jenni and her absence, in the book you suggest her death could have been foul play.

It was intense, very intense. Sometimes it’s better to protect those of us who are still here because we won’t win. You have to learn to lose and accept things in order to move forward. My father was determined to find out what happened, but I told him that if we kept pushing, it would destroy us all.

In another striking moment in the book you recount the last time you saw Jenni. You describe how she made a surprise appearance at your show.

That day in Texcoco, she asked for my forgiveness many times on stage. Back in the dressing room, she apologized again. I told her, “Don’t say that. Look at how much the people love us.” For me, that moment is more important and beautiful than anything else.

Why did Jenni ask for your forgiveness?

A lot of people have misinterpreted this, unfairly. During my last performance at what is now the Microsoft Theater, I invited my dad, and he told me he needed to talk to me. I remember he came into the dressing room and said, “You need to be very careful, son.” I asked why, and he replied, “Because they’re doing things to harm your career. Your brother Juan and your sister Jenni are doing things that aren’t right.” I remember crying and telling him, “Don’t worry.”

I always supported her, but she never invited me to one of her shows. These are harsh truths, but they’re real.

Some of your comments might upset people. Are you aware of that?

Yes. I was very careful with what I wrote. It’s not my intention to offend my sister’s fans. I’m just sharing what I lived. I talk about my ex-partners, everything. I know many people won’t like what I say. My professional life has been on top of the world, while my personal life has been in shambles — it’s always been that way.

In the book, you confirm rumors about a months-long relationship with Belinda. Will she be upset about the details you share?

I don’t want to speak poorly of Belinda in any way. She’s a very beautiful woman and part of this industry. I don’t want what I say to affect her, but I think she will be upset. Or rather her team will be upset. On that subject, the media painted me as obsessed, but it was a beautiful relationship.

You reveal that you have hearing problems and might have to stop singing.

When I got the news, I asked myself, “What am I going to do now?” I took such good care of myself, and it didn’t help. I didn’t want to tell my kids to avoid worrying them, but when [my older ones] found out, they wanted to live with me.

When I joined [TelevisaUnivision’s reality show] La Casa de los Famosos [in 2024,] I had already lost 40% of the hearing in one ear and 80% in the other. During the show, I lost it completely. I’ve been recording [music] with a very talented engineer who knows me well and helps ensure everything is perfect. Some might think my condition is from stage noise, but one doctor told me it’s stress-related — everything I’ve lived through is taking its toll at 53 years old.

What will you do if you can no longer sing?

A few weeks ago, I started producing for a young woman named Tita Medina. I saw her on social media. She’s not a professional singer but went viral, so I decided to contact her. I don’t see myself as a record executive, but I consider myself an advisor because of my experience. For new artists, we’ll work with equal profit splits — that’s only fair.

What will happen to the Rivera family when your father is no longer here?

I’ll be sitting back watching everything unfold from afar, eating popcorn.

Lupillo Rivera, "Tragos Amargos"

Lupillo Rivera, Tragos Amargos

Penguin Random House

It’s fair to say that the world has never seen anything quite like Kpop Demon Hunters, which has absolutely captivated audiences — to the point that fictional band HUNTR/X is now making very real moves in the music industry. Its single “Golden,” for instance, has spent five weeks so far at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first female K-pop group to reach the chart’s summit.

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That said, the imaginary trio also has some very real musical influences that informed its look and sound — and in a conversation with Billboard over noodles, the singing voices behind HUNTR/X spoke about some of their personal favorite K-pop acts. EJAE, who portrays Rumi in the Kpop Demon Hunters musical numbers, begins, “I like the OG generation, so, like, G.O.D, shout-out.”

“H.O.T, S.E.S, like, they are the reasons why I fell in love with K-pop,” she continues. “And like, aespa, BLACKPINK, BTS, TWICE.”

“I’m a big 2010s era [fan], like, I fainted at a Big Bang concert when I was like 12,” Audrey Nuna, who sings for Mira, says. “2NE1 was hugely inspirational, because I feel like they were just so cool. Obviously they’re amazingly beautiful as well, but I think for me, it was like they led with their coolness, and they led with their kind of self empowerment. That was huge to see, like, an Asian female face who was owning their stuff to that degree.”

REI AMI, who voices Zoey, agrees. “They weren’t doing like the traditional girl group, aesthetic approach, of, like, very good, frilly, girly,” she says of 2NE1. “No, they were hard, in your face, full of attitude. And I think us being raised in the West, there was a part of us that we saw in them. Because, you know, we are Korean-American. There’s a whole Western side to us, and it shows in our music and our artistry.”

The ladies’ outing with Billboard comes as Kpop Demon Hunters is dominating on the charts following the film’s premiere on Netflix in June. In addition to the mini-residency “Golden” has taken up on the Hot 100, the project’s soundtrack recently reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

And while HUNTR/X is the first female K-pop group to top the Hot 100, they’re also the first all-female group, period, to rule the chart since Destiny’s Child did it with “Bootylicious” in 2001.

“It is really cool, because I feel like they were so trailblazing in their own way as well,” says Nuna of the iconic R&B trio comprised of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. “It feels like a similar narrative, in the sense of three women of color just –.”

“Dominating,” REI AMI jumps in.

With all the success Demon Hunters is seeing, fans have been clamoring for another installment. A part two is reportedly in talks, but as REI AMI reminds Billboard, “The sequel has not been confirmed.”

“We are, you know, looking forward, and we will know once we get that email,” she continues.

So what do the voices of HUNTR/X intend to do in the meantime? “We should start, like, a tap-dancing group or something,” says Nuna as REI AMI and EJAE laugh. “Or a whistle chorus. An a cappella group.”

Check out the trio’s full interview with Billboard above.


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