Bad Bunny officially kicked off his summer residency No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico on July 11. Produced by Noah Assad Presents and Move Concerts, the 30-day trek will wrap Sept. 14, with the […]
Bad Bunny continues to keep fans on their toes. Throughout the first three dates of his 30-show No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (a.k.a. El […]
A new documentary tracking the origins of dance music culture and the dizzying peaks of the EDM era is coming to streamers.
Waiting for the Drop: Rise of the Superstar DJs features interviews with artists including Carl Cox, Kaskade, Hardwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, Paul Oakenfold, Tiësto, Nervo and Fatboy Slim along with industry figures like Amy Thomson, Stephanie LaFera, James Barton and David Grutman. It also features music by Deadmau5, Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Hardwell, Arty, Sevenn and Silver Panda.
Waiting for the Drop will be distributed on global digital platforms by Indie Rights, starting with Amazon later this summer.
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Made between 2013 and 2023, the doc looks at the rise and fall of dance music in the U.K., the Netherlands and Ibiza in the 1980s and ’90s, then tracks the genre’s explosion in popularity in the early 2010s, an era commonly referred to as the EDM boom.
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In this infamous moment, a wave of new dance/electronic sounds and producers took the genre to new heights in the U.S. and beyond, with the genre seeing unprecedented commercial growth, clocking major crossover hits and generating massive revenue, altogether establishing DJs as “the new rockstars.” That is, until the cracks started showing with the collapse of SFX Entertainment, with the doc zeroing in on the impact of greed and social media on the genre and its adjacent culture.
Waiting for the Drop is the directorial debut of journalist and filmmaker Alexei Barrionuevo, who shot the doc at clubs and festivals in Europe and the U.S. at the height of the EDM boom. (Barrionuevo is also a former Billboard staff writer.) Cinematography was done by Darko Nikolich and Lucian Alexandrescu edited and did additional camera work. The film was co-produced by Jalen James Acosta and Agatha Bober.
“EDM was a pivot point in modern youth culture, a time when Millennials, seeking something of their own, seized an opportunity to create a tribe,” Barrionuevo says in a statement. “Crass commercialism infected that celebration as outsiders sought to profit. And the DJs and their enablers, long thirsting for legitimacy and cultural acceptance, leaned in — hard.”
Check out the full trailer for Waiting for the Drop below:
Skepta took several shots at Joyner Lucas with his “Friendly Fire” diss track on July 11, and the Massachusetts rapper appears ready to step in the booth and offer up his response.
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Lucas posted a clip to social media on Sunday (July 13) acknowledging Skepta’s jabs, but also teasing his plans to reply. “Alright, say less, my boy,” he stated matter-of-factly after listening to the U.K. rapper’s track.
Joyner sparked the feud after seeing Skepta crown the U.K. rappers over what the American spitters had to offer. “The moment I’ve been waiting for… say the word, Joyner Lucas vs @Skepta#UKvsUS,” he wrote.
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Skepta fired back via Instagram Stories: “Hey Jonah, I wasn’t even gonna reply back but I’m a rapper’s rapper. I’m gonna respect the fact that you stood up and said something. The first man, you get me? But this is just another example of the ignorance. Jonah, if you was from the UK, fam? Quiet, bro, understand?”
The U.K. rhymer referred to Lucas as a “joke” and dissed his rapping style as well as his inability to produce hits throughout the bristling “Friendly Fire.” “Where I’m from, I’m a GOAT/ Where you’re from, you’re a joke/ SK turn you to a ghost, yo/ Talkin’ like you’re lyrical miracle, oh please/ Where I come from, that’s a default speed,” Skepta spews on the track.
Drake chimed in on the U.K.-U.S. rapper debate, and he’s siding with London. “London rappers are the best lyricists in the world,” Drizzy said during his Wireless Festival set. “No disrespect to America, but nobody in the world can outrap London rappers.”
Lucas laughed at Drake’s comments, and now the countdown appears to be on to when his response to Skepta will arrive.
After Megan Thee Stallion sent the internet into a frenzy as eagle-eyed fans uncovered a vacation IG photo featuring Klay Thompson in the background, the Dallas Mavericks star leaned into the rumors and soft-launched his relationship with the Houston rapper […]
Boy George has never been one to play by the rules. The queer icon born George Alan O’Dowd who blazed trails in the early 1980s as the androgynous, heavily made-up lead singer of Culture Club is still bucking against the system.
In an interview with The Times on Friday (July 11), George, 64, pushed back against the “identity politics” of the modern queer community. “I don’t think it’s helped anyone. We’re not a thing,” he told the publication. “It’s like, ‘This is what black people are, this is what Jewish people are, this is what trans people are.’ No! Everybody is diverse because nobody is like anybody else, so you’re starting from the wrong perspective.”
At a time when increased acceptance and visibility — amidst the current U.S. administration’s efforts to roll back transgender rights — have put the LGBTQ+ community in the spotlight, the “Karma Chameleon” singer said he thinks reality and what we experience online are very different things. “Trans people are the new people to hate, but I always say: How many trans people have you met today?” he said. “There’s the world on the internet, which is hideous and full of anger. Then there’s the real world, which is entirely different so in reality people have nothing to be nervous about.”
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In his trademark biting wit, he added, “If I’m really lucky my own sexuality takes up about three hours a month. We’ve all got cats to feed, families to visit, jobs to do. I said in an interview when I was 17, ‘Being gay is like eating a bag of crisps. It’s so not important.’ I still think that now. What do you care about someone’s sexuality unless you’re going to have sex with them?”
While George was hit with accusations of transphobia in 2020 when he tweeted “Leave your pronouns at the door,” he’s recently defended trans rights in a social media dust-up with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. The billionaire author has denied being transphobic despite sharing a number of anti-transgender views online, including actively participating in campaigns to bar trans women from sports and from using public restrooms that align with their gender. Last month, he responded to Rowling’s question, “which rights have been taken away from trans people?” and her follow-up comment about her feelings that her speech is being curtailed by writing, “The right to be left alone by a rich bored bully!“
The subject of trans lives came up in a discussion about George’s drive to revive his Tony-nominated 2002 musical Taboo, which chronicled the hedonistic 1980s nightclub of the same name founded by Leigh Bowery, the Melbourne-born performance artist/club promoter whose outrageous performances inspired a young George.
“What I want to explore in the show is the odd relationship between Leigh and his wife, Nicola Bowery,” he said. “Long before non-binary, here’s a gay guy who married a straight woman and there was real tenderness and love between them. Yes, part of the reason he married Nicola was to piss everyone off, but I do think he really loved her.”
According to the writer’s reckoning, for George, outliers like himself and Bowery were birthed from a period when the idea was to present your true self, without trying to “represent a wider community who identify as queer, non-binary” or any other label. ““Oh totally. Someone said the other day, ‘Leigh Bowery was the blueprint for gay identity. He would have hated that. Hated it!,’” said George.
George Kittle won’t be forgetting this year’s Tight End University any time soon, especially because of the spontaneous duet he shared with Taylor Swift at a bar in Nashville during the event.
While speaking to NBC Sports Bay Area & California‘s Matt Maiocco recently, the San Francisco 49ers star reflected on hanging out with the pop star at the NFL tight end summit — which he cohosts with Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen every year — in June. “We have a fun Monday night welcome party at our hotel in Nashville for Tight End University,” he explained. “Taylor and Travis came, and they were like, ‘Hey, wanna go to Broadway?’”
After heading down to a bar on the famous Nashville strip with Kelce, Swift and Claire Kittle — who is married to George — the California athlete said that something magical happened. “I was in the process of handing Claire and Taylor drinks for the night, and I was like, ‘I just gotta tell her that ‘Love Story’ is one of my favorite songs, definitely my favorite Taylor Swift song,” he recalled.
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“And as I was telling her, it came on the speakers, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to miss this opportunity,’” Kittle continued. “You don’t get to sing ‘Love Story’ with Taylor Swift very often. It was just an absolute riot and something I’ll probably remember forever.”
Shortly after the event, Kittle shared a video on Instagram of himself and Swift jumping up and down while belting out “Love Story” together. Kelce also makes a cameo in the clip.
Tight End University took place over the course of three days in Music City, with many of the NFL’s tight ends coming together from all over the country for group training and community-building activities at Vanderbilt University. In addition to attending the welcome party with Kelce, Swift showed up at the Tight Ends and Friends concert at the Brooklyn Bowl — where she surprised the crowd with an unscheduled performance of Billboard Hot 100-topper “Shake It Off.”
While later reflecting on the event on his New Heights podcast, Kelce revealed that his famous girlfriend’s performance was entirely last-minute — as in, she didn’t even practice before taking the stage with headliner Kane Brown and his band. “Tay just kind of went up to [Brown] and the band and went, ‘Hey, if you guys are down, I’ll go up there, play a song and see if we can pop the roof off this place,’” Kelce reflected earlier in July.
He added at the time, “[She] just went out there without practicing, and it was pitch-perfect.”
HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” from the soundtrack to the hit animated film KPop Demon Hunters, conquers the competition on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts to become the biggest song in the world. It rises 2-1 on the former ranking and 5-1 on the latter.
KPop Demon Hunters premiered June 20 in a limited theatrical release in the U.S., and on Netflix, alongside its soundtrack. For the week ending July 6, it ranked at No. 2 on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in United States chart.
Meanwhile, as HUNTR/X earns its first No. 1 on the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S., it becomes the first fictional act to reign — “Golden” is by KPop Demon Hunters’ protagonist trio whose music is voiced by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.
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HUNTR/X outpaces its rival KPop Demon Hunters boy band Saja Boys, though the latter act claims two tracks in the top 10 of the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S.: “Your Idol” (up 10-3 and 15-5 on the respective charts) and “Soda Pop” (up 13-6 and 17-7, respectively). The Saja Boys songs feature the vocals of Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee.
Elsewhere, Drake’s “What Did I Miss?” debuts at No. 9 on the Global 200.
The Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020 — and three weeks earlier marked their 250th week — rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
HUNTR/X’s “Golden” crowns the Global 200 with 67.7 million streams (up 40% week-over-week) and 6,000 sold (up 27%) worldwide July 4-10.
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” drops to No. 2 on the Global 200 after 10 weeks on top beginning in May.
Saja Boys’ “Your Idol” soars 10-3 on the Global 200 led by 45.7 million streams worldwide (up 22%) and “Soda Pop” buzzes 13-6 with 41.3 million (up 24%). Each song sold 3,000 globally.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” slips 3-4 on the Global 200, after 18 weeks at No. 1 starting last September, and ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” ascends 6-5, following 12 weeks at No. 1 beginning in November.
Plus, Drake’s “What Did I Miss?” enters the Global 200 at No. 9 with 35.5 million streams and 7,000 sold worldwide from its July 5 release through July 10. He ups his total to a record-extending 37 top 10s since the chart began. (Taylor Swift ranks second with 33 top 10s, followed by Bad Bunny with 25.)
“Golden” rules Global Excl. U.S. with 49.1 million streams (up 40%) and 2,000 sold (up 38%) outside the U.S.
“Ordinary” falls to No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. after eight weeks in the lead starting in May; “Die With a Smile” holds at No. 3 after 17 weeks at the summit starting last September; and “APT.” extends its lease at No. 4 after reigning for a record 19 weeks beginning in November.
“Your Idol” blasts 15-5 on Global Excl. U.S. powered by 30.3 million streams outside the U.S. (up 21%) and “Soda Pop” bounds 17-7 with 29.8 million (up 23%). They sold 1,000 and 2,000 beyond the U.S., respectively.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated July 19, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, July 15. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
After making a guest appearance overseas in Paris, Jay-Z blessed the Atlanta audience with a Cowboy Carter Tour cameo on Sunday night (July 13). Rocking a black leather jacket, Hov joined his wife, Beyoncé, on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium stage for […]
Raphael‘s life story is headed to Netflix with an eight-episode series that will release exclusively in Spain and Latin America. According to the streamer, the series — titled Aquel — began filming in June and will trace the Spanish star’s humble beginnings in Spain to his rise as a global star with a career that spans 60-plus years.
“I am deeply excited about this project, the result of more than three years of work,” the Spanish star said in a statement. “It has been months of intense scriptwriting, casting, production design and close collaboration with the directors, alongside three exceptional partners: Caracol, DLO and Netflix. Filming finally began in June, and I couldn’t be happier with the initial results. This biopic not only tells my story; it also reflects a shared history: more than six decades of a career marked by unforgettable moments — some well-known, others more intimate; some bright, others more difficult — but all deeply meaningful.”
Known for Spanish-language anthems such as “Toco Madera,” “Maravilloso, Corazón, Maravilloso” and “Escándalo” — which reached No. 2, No. 7, and No. 9, respectively, on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart — Raphael will be honored as the Latin Recording Academy’s 2025 Person of the Year in November. In 2022, the legendary artist was honored with the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award.
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“I have told my life story without filters, and the screenwriters have interpreted it with complete freedom,” Raphael added in the statement. “This is not a biopic that idealizes my career, but an honest, unadorned portrait that does not shy away from any aspect, no matter how complicated it may have been. For all these reasons, I believe that Aquel has a special value. I am looking forward to seeing the final result and, above all, to sharing it with all of you.”
Aquel‘s cast includes Javier Morgade and Carlos Santos in the role of Raphael throughout different life stages. The series is produced by Dlo Producciones (El jardinero, Ni una más) in association with Caracol Televisión and is directed by Tito López Amado, Javier Pulido and Beatriz Sanchís.
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