Authorities say a former North Carolina law enforcement officer planned to kill Black people in a mass shooting at a major New Orleans festival but was arrested at a Florida hotel with a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Authorities in several states did not name the event, but the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, commonly known as Jazz Fest, runs from Thursday (April 23) through May 3. The gathering attracted about 460,000 people last year, organizers said.

Christopher Gillum of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was wanted for “terroristic threats,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in Florida posted online Thursday. Federal authorities told the sheriffs office that Gillum was in the Florida Panhandle “heading to do a mass shooting at a large festival in Louisiana.” The sheriffs office did not name the federal agency, and the FBI office in New Orleans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Okaloosa sheriff’s office said Gillum was arrested without incident Wednesday night at a hotel in Destin, and posted a photo of him being led away in handcuffs. Deputies recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from the hotel room, the statement said.

Gillum was arrested as a fugitive from justice and will be extradited to Louisiana to face charges there, the sheriff’s office said. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer. The Associated Press left a message at phone numbers listed for him.

Gillum’s family reported him missing on Tuesday and he had a history of self-harm, according to Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Gillum’s family told law enforcement he had a gun and “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’” according to a bulletin from police in Burlington, North Carolina.

Lyons said Gillum crossed state lines before his agency could prepare the paperwork to involuntarily commit him to psychiatric treatment. Lyons said that there were no criminal grounds to detain Gillum despite his comments about Black people “because there was no victim.”

“But we felt that there was definitely something there that needed to be shared, so that’s what we did,” Lyons said.

Gillum was located and stopped by law enforcement in Oklaloosa County on Wednesday, according to Lyons and the Burlington police bulletin.

However, Gillum “did not present any grounds for involuntary commitment or criminal charges” and was allowed to continue on his way, the bulletin stated. Gillum told officers that he was “en route to New Orleans,” the report added.

Okaloosa deputies were initially asked to make a “welfare check” on Gillum on Wednesday morning and were “not aware” of any threats he had made, sheriff spokesperson Michele Nicholson said. Later that day, after the sheriff’s office learned Gillum was being investigated, deputies surveilled him until a signed warrant arrived from Louisiana, she added.

Gillum had been hired as a detention officer by the sheriff’s office in Orange County, North Carolina, in October 2023 but he left in July 2024, department spokesperson Alicia L. Stemper said.

“We hired him again as a deputy on Jan. 13, 2025,” she said in an email. “He resigned his position on Sept. 21, 2025, and we terminated him accordingly.”

Gillum also served as a sworn police officer for Chapel Hill from 2004 until his resignation in 2019, town communications manager Alex Carrasquillo said.

“He returned as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving for another job by the end of that year,” Carrasquillo said in an email.

Louisiana State Police spokesperson Trooper Danny Berrincha said the agency is still investigating the episode with the FBI.

“At this time, there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana,” he added.

In a statement, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival said it works closely with law enforcement and applauded their efforts, saying ”we look forward to another safe and joyful Jazz Fest.”

It only took 20 years, but Trixie Mattel is finally a Swiftie. On the latest episode of Takes Us Out, the drag icon and DJ revealed to Billboard that she’s now a Taylor Swift fan thanks to the pop superstar’s most recent album, The Life of a Showgirl.

Chatting with Tetris Kelly over sweets at California Donuts on Hollywood Boulevard, Mattel shouted out Swift’s 12-week Billboard 200-topper as an album she’s been loving lately. “I’m a new Swiftie,” the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner began.

“I don’t want to be like an uncultured swine, but I think this album that everyone said wasn’t good is the first one I responded to,” she continued of Showgirl before calling out the LP’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits. “I really like it. ‘Fate of Ophelia,’ ‘Opalite,’ these singles — I was like, ‘This is amazing.’”

Elsewhere in the segment, Mattel revealed which Gen Z pop stars she’d like to see portray her in a biopic someday — “Dove Cameron and Sabrina Carpenter, I saw her on The Muppets” — and joked about the recent controversy surrounding Chappell Roan and soccer star Jorginho. “I was in Dollywood last weekend,” the musician said. “Imagine Disney with less kids — they have Chappell Roan come in and just kick everyone out. ‘All the kids gotta go!’”

Mattel’s remark pokes fun at the backlash Roan faced after Jorginho accused her of sending a bodyguard to scold his stepdaughter at a hotel breakfast, leading the Grammy winner to post a video clarifying that she didn’t even know the security personnel. “I do not hate people who are fans of my music,” Roan added at the time. “I do not hate children.”

In all seriousness, Mattel pointed out on Takes Us Out, “They never talk about men not being nice to kids.”

Fresh off the release of her new single “Hella Good” featuring Bonnie McKee, Mattel first started DJing during the COVID-19 pandemic. She’s now a regular at major music festivals, and she’s currently gearing up to play Lightning in a Bottle in California this May. After that, she’ll perform at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Osheaga, Capitol Hill Block Party and Outside Lands.

Before launching her career in dance music, Mattel said she worried that people might not see her as a legitimate musician due to her drag artistry. “When I first started making music, playing my guitar and stuff, I was desperately interested in everybody taking me seriously,” she told Billboard. “I used to be like, ‘It’s not a drag show, I’m a musician.’ Now I’m like, ‘It’s a drag show.’ Because the truth is: It’s all a drag show!”

Check out Mattel’s full episode of Takes Us Out above.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

The NASCAR schedule heads to the famed Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, and it’s once again expected to be one of the biggest parties of the year down South.

Zac Brown has been announced as this year’s grand marshal, and the country star — who recently finished a Las Vegas run with his band at the Sphere — will give the command for the Jack Link’s 500 on Sunday in Alabama. Kip Moore, meantime, is set to perform at the Saturday Night Infield Concert at the track, ahead of his new album, Reason to Believe, due May 29.

Last-minute tickets to catch the action in person are still available on sites like StubHub. But there are also a few ways for racing fans to catch the action on TV and online.

NASCAR Cup Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega: Date, Start Time

NASCAR Cup Series drivers will navigate the 2.66-mile track — the biggest oval on the NASCAR circuit — at the Jack Link’s 500 on Sunday, April 26. Start time in Alabama is set for 3 p.m. ET / noon PT, and this year’s race is being broadcast on FOX. You can watch the NASCAR Talladega race on TV through your local FOX affiliate.

How to Stream NASCAR Talladega Races Online

Don’t have cable? You can watch the race online with any livestreaming service that includes FOX in its channel offerings. We like DIRECTV, which offers a five-day free trial for new users that you can use to stream the Talladega NASCAR race online free.

You can also use DIRECTV to livestream the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race online. That race takes place Saturday at 4 p.m. ET and is airing on The CW, but if you don’t have cable, you can find a CW live feed through DIRECTV. Both FOX and The CW are included in the free trial offer.

DIRECTV’s “MySports” package starts at just $44.99/month for your first two months after your free trial is up. Part of the streaming service’s “Genre Packs,” the deal gets you more than 20 live sports networks like ESPN and FS1 and all your local channels, plus a subscription to ESPN Unlimited.

You can also watch the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (airing on The CW) and the Cup Series Talladega race (on FOX) online through Fubo, which offers a live feed as part of its “Sports + News” plan. Start with a free trial this weekend to watch the NASCAR races online for free, then choose to cancel or continue on with plans from $45.99 and up.

The cheapest way to watch the Talladega Superspeedway races online without cable is through Sling. The streaming service carries a live feed of FOX as part of its “Select” package, which starts at just $19.99/month. While Sling doesn’t offer a free trial, it offers the most flexibility when it comes to live streaming options, with dozens of channels and package deals to suit what you want to watch on TV. See more details here.

Famously spoofed in the 2006 Will Farrell film, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, races at Talladega are some of the most competitive and exciting ones to watch, thanks to the tightly packed lineup of cars, the highest-banked track on the circuit (at 33 degrees) and the longest distance covered (at 2.66 miles per lap).

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 

This week: Justin Bieber’s post-Coachella streams keep going up, while a couple artists experience their first big viral moments — one with a newer song, one with an older one.

Justin Bieber Gets His Best Streaming Day of 2026 Following Coachella Weekend Two

Following his extremely buzzy headlining appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival two Saturdays ago (April 11), Justin Bieber experienced the biggest non-Super Bowl catalog bump we’ve seen this year, with his discography essentially tripling in streams in the days following his performance. But unlike Bad Bunny’s performance on the most watched television event of the year, Justin Bieber got to go back and do it all over again a weekend later — and his streams climbed even higher as a result.

Bieber returned last Saturday (April 18) for his weekend two set, a performance generally better-received by fans than his weekend one show. The Bieb was praised for seeming more comfortable both with the stage and with his audience, as well as for bringing out even starrier guests like Billie Eilish and SZA. He also played an entirely different set of early-career classics and forgotten gems during the YouTube portion of the set. Consequently, the set drew similar attention to his weekend one performance, keeping his streaming momentum pointing in the right direction.

On Monday (April 20), Bieber’s streams reached a new high for 2026, as the pop superstar racked up a stunning 32.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate — a 12% gain from his total the previous Monday (just over 29 million), and a 5% gain from the previous Tuesday (30.9 million), his prior high-water mark for the year. Since getting his initial Coachella bump, he’s now had six days of at least 30 million streams — compared to only four such days in all of 2025, a year when he released both a 21-track new album (Swag) and a deluxe reissue with an additional 23 tracks (Swag II).

Clearly, Bieber’s Coachella headlining appearance has turned into an absolute game-changer for him — and will undoubtedly be studied by both fellow star artists and by the folks at Goldenvoice themselves as, evidence of what such a set can mean to even a long-established veteran artist’s career. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

People Are Really Missing Frank Ocean — And F3mii’s “Noble” Is Filling the Void

Dublin-based Nigerian-Irish singer-songwriter F3miii doesn’t hide his influence — and that’s exactly why his catchy new “Noble” single has taken over TikTok and debut on the official U.K. Singles Chart.

He first teased “Noble” in a Dec. 16, 2025, TikTok post, pairing a snippet of the track with the onscreen caption, “I was really missing 2013 Frank Ocean and Childish Gambino, so I made this demo, let me know what you think.” Less than a day later, F3miii shared that he had completed the song and would share it once the attached TikTok sound reached 500 posts. By Christmas Day (Dec. 25), F3miii announced (again via TikTok) that “Noble” was officially available on streaming (in Ireland/U.K. time), with the rest of the world receiving the track the following day. Now, those three posts boast a combined 5.8 million views, mostly thanks to similarly Frank Ocean-starved music lovers.

According to Luminate, “Noble” earned 335,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of Feb. 27-March 5. Three weeks later (March 20-26), “Noble” jumped 276% to over 1.26 million official streams, and by April 10-16, that number leapt another 116% to over 2.74 million official streams. Over the past six weeks, “Noble” has vaulted a whopping 716% in official on-demand U.S. streams. On the U.K. Official Singles Chart dated April 22, “Noble” debuted at No. 81, marking F3miii’s first career entry.

The official “Noble” TikTok sound plays in over 25,000 posts, while the unofficial sound attached to F3miii’s initial snippet plays in an additional 11,300. Most of these posts fall into three main categories: fans heralding the return of Ocean’s electronic-infused R&B sound, comedic clips timed to the “she has composure” lyric in the chorus and steamy fancams for fictional characters, namely those on the newest season of HBO’s Euphoria.

Already proving to be a multipurpose song that can bridge different generations of R&B lovers, “Noble” is just getting started. — KYLE DENIS

Sweet Sibling Trend, Basketball Edits & Furries Revive 2017 Sidney Gish Deep Cut

The most enduring songs tend to resonate with seemingly disparate communities, and Sidney Gish’s “Imposter Syndrome” is headed down that path.

Over the past few years, very different groups of listeners (although there’s bound to be some overlap) have latched on to “Imposter Syndrome,” the penultimate song from Gish’s 2017 No Dogs Allowed album. The acoustic pop song describes feelings of discomfort, as if its protagonist were a dog pretending to sit at a table with humans. Those sentiments struck a chord with the neurodivergent community, who have used an unofficial TikTok sound (nearly 100,000 posts) to soundtrack depression room clean-ups and reflect on living with autism.

Separately, in September 2025, producer and DJ Russel Buck dropped his RAVEPOP album, which housed an “Imposter” remix titled, “Just Be Competent.” Buck, who associates with the furry community, earned a TikTok hit with his remix, which can be heard in over 50,000 clips. Back in 2018, Gish, via her official X account, addressed fans thinking her song was about being a furry, writing, “No, but it can be.” Finally, a more recent trend of younger siblings using “Imposter Syndrome” to admit their admiration of their older siblings has helped further propel the song on social media, as has the litany of acoustic covers the track inspired. A few users have also used the song to highlight athletes they deem underrated or underappreciated.The official “Imposter Syndrome” TikTok sound currently plays in over 76,000 clips.

At the top of the year (Jan. 16-22), “Imposter Syndrome” earned just over 335,000 weekly official on-demand U.S. streams, with that number jumping 80% to 1.33 million by Feb. 27-March 5. By the week of April 10-16, the song jumped another 68% to over 2.23 million streams. Over the past 12 weeks, streams for “Imposter Syndrome” have exploded over 203%.

Seven years after opening for Mitski, Sidney Gish is still very much in the conversation. — KD