Billboard News

Ivy Queen is hitting the road this summer with her Pride Tour, a 12-city journey that highlights her long-standing connection with the LGBTQ+ community. The Puerto Rican reggaetón stalwart kicks off the U.S. trek on June 4 at Washington, D.C.’s Echostage and will wrap on June 27 at Vertigo Club in Houston, Texas. Stops along the way include Los Angeles, Atlanta, Orlando, and Dallas, with a mix of clubs and theaters as the settings for these intimate, energy-packed shows.

Known for her unapologetic lyrics, and unwavering commitment to authenticity, the genre trailblazer has cultivated a loyal fanbase across generations. A key piece of that following has been the LGBTQ+ community, which has embraced her message of empowerment and individuality since her early days as one of reggaeton’s first female artists. The Pride Tour aims to honor that connection, shining a spotlight on her commitment to inclusivity and self-expression throughout her career.

According to the press release, Pride Tour is described as “a tribute to a community that has sustained this story since its inception,” referencing Ivy Queen’s career foundations in the mid ’90s. “This tour is a statement of identity and pride. No one hides here: the pride of a vibrant community is celebrated without fear. A lover of authentic reggaeton.”

Fans attending the Pride Tour can expect a high-energy setlist, likely featuring her timeless bangers like “La Vida Es Así” and “Quiero Bailar,” as well as newer material from her recent releases. The reggaeton trailblazer has already dropped two singles this year: “Flow de Revista,” a solo effort that arrived in January, and “Cría y Calle,” a hard-hitting collaboration with Boy Wonder CF and Charlee Way, released last month.

Tickets for Ivy Queen’s Pride Tour are available in this link here. See the full tour dates below.

The war of words between Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump cranked up another notch on Thursday (April 2) when Dan Point, the president of the Local 802 American Federation of Musicians and Local 47 AFM president Marc Sazer lashed out at the president for his latest broadside against the Boss.

“We can not remain silent as one of our most celebrated members is singled out and personally attacked by the President of the United States,” the union presidents said in a joint statement following a post on Trump’s Truth Social in which the president again took aim at the rock icon for speaking out against his administration. “Bruce Springsteen is not just a brilliant musician, he is a voice for working people, a symbol of American resilience, and an inspiration to millions in this country and around the world.”

The pair continued, “From Nebraska to Born to Run, his music has spoken truth to power for decades, and that is exactly what he is doing now. Musicians have the right to freedom of expression, and we stand in complete solidarity with Bruce and every member who uses their platform to speak their conscience. Local 802 and Local 47 will always defend that right.”

The backing from the union — Bruce is a member of L.A.’s Local 47 and Asbury Park, N.J.’s Local 399 — came after Springsteen opened his Land of Hope and Dreams North American tour in Minneapolis on Tuesday (March 31) with pointed words about Trump’s actions. During the fiery show, the rocker reminded the sold-out crowd that federal immigration troops “brought death and terror” to the city’s streets in January, a reference to the killings of American civilians mother of three Renée Good and Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.

Elsewhere in the show, Springsteen — a frequent critic of the president — condemned Trump’s “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous” administration. In the midst of the unpopular and grinding Iran war, rising inflation and gas prices at home and historically low poll numbers, Trump took time on Thursday to lash out at Springsteen in a Truth Social post in which he wrote about the, “Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Trump continued, “The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America. Under Sleepy Joe and the Dems, our Country was DEAD, and now we have the ‘hottest’ Country, by far, anywhere in the World. MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT HIS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH SUCK. SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.”

Trump and Springsteen have been trading barbs for several months, with the White House issuing a statement in February referring to the 20-time Grammy winner and Kennedy Center Honoree as a “loser” after Springsteen released the scathing anti-ICE anthem “Streets of Minneapolis,” in which he lashed out at the Trump administration’s deadly immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.

Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis” at last weekend’s No Kings rally in St. Paul, Minn. The E Street Band’s tour will roll on to the Moda Center in Portland, Ore. on Friday night (April 3).

Nick Jonas warmed hearts with his siblings in the warm, fuzzy and silly last year’s A Very Jonas Christmas Movie. But this holiday season, the Jonas Brothers singer and Power Ballad star will crank up the chill factor when he co-stars with Kathryn Newton (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) in MRC’s holiday horror film White Elephant.

According to Deadline, the film directed by Eli Craig (Clown in a Cornfield) will tell the story of “Eight friends. One prize. Zero trust. Their annual festive holiday gift exchange spirals into a cutthroat game of Christmas carnage.”

Jonas is among the producers through his Powered By Jonas company. At press time no additional information was available about the rest of the cast or a release date. The news of the Christmas creeper movie comes after Jonas premiered his new musical dramedy, Power Ballad, at SXSW earlier this year, a film in which he and Paul Rudd play an unlikely musical duo who rediscover the joy of songwriting together. That movie, directed by John Carney (Once, Sing Street) is slated to be released by Lionsgate on June 5.

It will be a busy year in the multiplex for Jonas, who is slated to co-star alongside Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart in the latest Jumanji sequel from Columbia Pictures. Jonas will also star in the high-stakes thriller Bodyman, from director Gary Fleder (Reacher), described as the story of a longtime bodyguard of an “eccentric billionaire” who unexpectedly inherits his dead boss’ private military company, setting off a violent clash with the man’s family.

In a statement, Fleder called Bodyman a “smart, lean, high-voltage action thriller that gives Nick the chance to show every side of what he can do: the physicality, the intensity and the emotional depth”; Bodyman will also be produced by Powered by Jonas. “I’ve been developing this project for a while and I’m excited to see it come to fruition. Re-teaming with Byron Balasco and director Gary Fleder also makes this project more special to me,” Jonas said in a statement.

Jonas released his first solo album in five years, Sunday Best, in February.

This summer will be a particularly warm and fuzzy one: The Temper Trap will release Sungazer on July 10, and play tracks from it when they support Muse on a North American tour throughout that month and the next.

Sungazer (via Mushroom Music / Virgin Music Group) is the Australian alternative rock act’s fourth studio album and first in a decade. It’s led by “Lucky Dimes,” which dropped in 2025, and “Giving Up Air,” which TTT performed live in January on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

“With time apart and much personal growth from us all,” reads a statement from the band, “Sungazer feels like it’s captured the most pure collection of music we’ve ever made. We had more fun making this record and in the writing room than on any of the previous records we’ve done. We’re in a great place creatively and in our friendships, we’re closer than ever. Being back into the studio together really felt like coming home.”

Dougy Mandagi (lead singer), Toby Dundas (drummer), Jonathon Aherne (bass) and Joseph Greer (guitar) “immediately felt an inspiring energy” on their return to the studio, reads a statement from reps. “Working between continents, sending demos back and forth, convening in Melbourne for studio dates, the resulting record delivers an impassioned and immediate sound.”

TTT captured the sound of the late 2000s with “Sweet Disposition,” powered by its featured spot in (500) Days of Summer and those stunning falsetto notes of frontman Mandagi. At home, the band enjoyed ARIA Awards, consecutive chart crowns (with 2012’s The Temper Trap and 2016’s Thick as Thieves), endured lineup changes (longstanding guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto left in 2013), played stadiums (they led the halftime show at the 2012 AFL Grand Final).

The Aussies embarked on a run of headline shows in their homeland late last year, followed by North America shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. They’re coming back with a major North American tour in support of Muse, on the British prog-rock trio’s The Wow Signal Tour. TTT will bring the fireworks when they start their trek with a spot at Summerfest 2026 in Milwaukee, WI on July 4 (see below).

“Sungazer” Tracklist

The Temper Trap’s North American Tour 2026

July 4 -– Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest 2026

July 5 -– Maryland Heights, MO @ The Wow Signal Tour – supporting Muse

July 7 -– Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center – supporting Muse

July 10 -– Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

July 11 -– Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center – supporting Muse

July 13 -– Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre – supporting Muse

July 15 -– Toronto, ON @ RBC Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

July 18 -– Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center – supporting Muse

July 22 -– Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center – supporting Muse

July 24 -– Saratoga Springs, NY @ Albany Med Health System at SPAC – supporting Muse

July 25 -– Wantagh, NY @ Northwell at Jones Beach Theater – supporting Muse

July 28 -– Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion – supporting Muse

July 29 -– Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion – supporting Muse

Aug. 9 -– San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands

Aug. 10 -– Charlotte, NC @ Truliant Amphitheater – supporting Muse

Aug. 12 -– Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 14 -– Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion – supporting Muse

Aug. 15 -– Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater – supporting Muse

Aug. 18 -– Greenwood Village, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 20 -– West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 22 -– Ridgefield, WA @ Cascades Amphitheater – supporting Muse

Aug. 23 -– Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 26 -– Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 27 -– Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 29 -– Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – supporting Muse

Aug. 31 -– Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl – supporting Muse

Monsta X opens its next chapter with Unfold, the K-pop act’s latest English-language album.

The new collection dropped at midnight, and was accompanied soon after with the official music video for album cut “heal,” a lush, midtempo number that draws on soul and gospel influences.

Unfold is said to be a musical journey “through the messy architecture of the human heart,” tracing the “emotional arc of fracture, distraction, and resolution.”

With the release, Monsta X becomes the first K-pop act to release three full-length albums in English. The lads aren’t mucking about; they full intend to cross borders.

They’re “not simply expanding their global footprint,” reads a statement from reps, “they are solidifying their role as a rare K-pop act that authentically speaks to the U.S. market while maintaining their signature intensity and performance excellence.”

The six-strong outfit has already made several moves in that direction. In 2020, they became just the third K-pop act to reach the Billboard 200 top 10, with their first English album All About Luv, which bowed at No. 5. Then, in 2021, Monsta X dropped their second English album, The Dreaming, peaking at No. 21 on the all-genres list.

Monsta X rung in Christmas 2025 with the Connect X concert movie, which celebrated their 10th anniversary as a group and as a tribute to the journey shared by members Joohoney, I.M., Hyungwon, Kihyun, Minhyuk and Shownu with their fandom, known as MONBEBE.

Earlier that year, Joohoney, Hyungwon and Kihyun were the final group members to complete their mandatory South Korean military service, after which time the band hopped back in the studio and released The X EP in September to mark their milestone anniversary.

Unfold houses the previously released “Growing Pains,” and “baby blue,” which Monsta X debuted at iHeartRadio’s 2025 Jingle Ball last December.

Stream Unfold in full below.

BTS are still the kings of Australia’s albums chart, as Arirang (via Virgin Music Group/Geffen) enters a second week at No. 1.

Arirang becomes BTS’ second album to score multiple weeks on top, ARIA reports. Map Of The Soul: 7 also logged two weeks at No. 1 in 2020, while Map Of The Soul: Persona (in 2019) and Proof (2022) each landed at No. 1 for a single week.

The Australian legion of ARMY will get a chance to see their heroes next year when the BTS world tour visits Melbourne (Feb. 12 and 13), and Sydney (Feb. 20 and 21).

The top new release belongs to Ye, the controversial hip-hop artist formerly known at Kanye West, whose independently-released new album Bully drops in at No. 3. Ye has now amassed seven top 10 solo albums: Graduation (No. 2 in 2007), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (No. 6 in 2010), Yeezus (No. 1 in 2013), YE (No. 1 in 2018), Jesus Is King (No. 1 ion 2019), Donda (No. 1 in 2021) and now Bully.

Also, Watch The Throne with Jay-Z reached No. 2 in 2011; Kids See Ghosts with Kid Cudi peaked at No. 4 in 2018; Vultures 1 and 2 with Ty Dolla Sign topped the chart in 2024, six months apart; and the rapper’s compilation album Cruel Summer peaked at No. 7 in 2012.

Melanie Martinez enjoys a hot start on the ARIA Albums Chart with Hades (Atlantic/Warner), new at No. 4. It’s the followup to 2023’s Portals, which went to No. 1 for a week. Previously, Martinez cracked the ARIA Top 40 in 2015 with Cry Baby (at No. 27) in 2019 with K-12 (No. 6).

British singer and songwriter Raye enjoys a career best ARIA Chart position with This Music May Contain Hope (Orchard), her sophomore album. It’s new No. 6. That easily eclipses the No. 97 best for the Londoner’s first album, My 21st Century Blues, from 2023. The lead single “Where Is My Husband!” peaked at No. 3 earlier this year and sits at No. 9 on the latest chart, published Friday, April 3, while “Click Clack Symphony” featuring Hans Zimmer flies 87-42.

Swedish pop veteran Robyn also enjoys a career best chart result with Sexistential (RMT), her ninth studio album and first in eight years. It’s new at No. 12. Until now, Robyn’s best performing album in these parts was her most recent LP, 2018’s Honey, which topped out at No. 20.

Six-time ARIA Award winning singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett returns to the chart, and the top 20, with Creature Of Habit (Virgin Music Group/Inertia), her fourth solo studio album. It’s new at No. 19. Creature Of Habit follows the Melbourne artist’s Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit (No. 4 in 2015), Tell Me How You Really Feel (No. 2 in 2018) and Things Take Time, Take Time (No. 5 in 2021), while her collaborative album with Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice, swam to No. 5 in 2017.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Olivia Dean‘s unbroken streak at No. 1 with “Man I Need” (Universal) ends at 19 weeks. The English artist won’t lose any sleep over it, because she replaces herself at the top as “Rein Me In” (Dew Process/Universal), her duet with fellow Brit Sam Fender, lifts 2-1. It’s her second ARIA Chart leading single, and Fender’s first.

Finally, Kevin Parker’s Tame Impala continues to climb the ARIA Singles Chart with “Dracula” (Columbia/Sony) up 7-4, for a new career high chart position. The single grew a new set of chart wings thanks to a remix featuring BLACKPINK’s JENNIE, and a TikTok trend, on which the K-pop superstar happily joined in.

Bruce Hornsby says the “origin story” of his new album Indigo Park is “very clear.” And interesting — especially since he wasn’t even planning on making it.

Out today, April 3, Indigo Park follows, and is now part of, one of the most prolific stretches of a recording career that dates back 40 years to Hornsby’s triple-platinum debut (and title track signature hit) The Way It Is. From 2019 he’d released five albums in six years, including Absolute Zero, built from unused instrumental pieces Hornsby composed during his time scoring for Spike Lee, and two collaborations with the New York chamber troupe yMusic.

“I was trying not to write songs,” Hornsby tells Billboard via Zoom from his home in his native Williamsburg, Va. “I’d been so feck and so fertile creatively, so I was kind of burnt with all that — not just with the writing process but burnt with the recording and producing. So I was ready for a break from it all.”

But a new song idea — which became Indigo Park’s reflective and autobiographical title track —  interfered with that plan.

“It just wouldn’t let me go,” Hornsby recalls. “I kept giving it the Heisman, giving it the stiff-arm, but to no avail. After about four or five months into trying to not deal with this and having it come roaring into my head at three in the morning, four in the morning, I finally succumbed to the insistence of this idea and decided, ‘OK, I’ll take a deep dive and write this song.’

“I was getting chills while I was writing it and recording it, and that’s telling you something because you can’t force chills. It either happens or it doesn’t, but when it does happen you need to listen to that. You need to follow the chills.”

And when Hornsby’s opinion of the song was confirmed by his “little coterie of like-minded nerds and geeks whose opinions I trust” — including his brother and onetime lyricist John Hornsby — “it made me go, ‘OK, motherf***er, I guess you have to write nine more.”

With guest appearances from Bonnie Raitt, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Blake Mills, songwriting collaborations with Robert Hunter and one of the last recordings by Bob Weir, Indigo Park is among Hornsby’s most ambitious and stylistically far-reaching of his 22 studio releases. That’s saying something in a catalog that’s played hopscotch between…well, just about every genre imaginable, from pop to contemporary classical and all points in-between. And while he’s at his piano throughout its 10 tracks, the album also finds Hornsby playing a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar — “It’s my Bruce McGuinn” record, he quips, referencing the Byrds co-founder who made the instrument famous — on six of the tunes.

“I’m just interested in pushing the norms and forms of the popular song and make a sound that I haven’t heard before,” explains Hornsby, who co-produced Indigo Park with Tony Berg and Will Maclellan and recorded mostly at legendary Sound City in Van Nuys, CA. “I know that sounds pompous, maybe, but I hope that every third song or so there’s something that’s hopefully gonna bend your ear and take you to a new and adventurous place where you may not have dealt with in the basically white-not universe we live in in popular music.”

Another Musical Hot House

Two of those “out there” moments come from his collaborations with Hunter, who passed away 2019; they mark the last of five songs the two wrote together from 2008. “‘Alabama’ is a totally wild song lyrically,” Hornsby notes. “It’s completely whacky, and I love it. And it made me feel like, ‘OK, here are these lyrics that are definitely atypical, so I need to write atypical music…something as crazy as the words,” drawing inspiration from Austrian classical pianist and composer Arnold Schoenberg. Hornsby also tapped sources such as Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Ligeti and Dmitri Shostakovich on other Indigo Park tracks, while “Silhouette Shadows” comes from another unused instrumental cue written for a Lee film.

“Modern classical music has been informing my music for quite awhile,” he notes.

Having Weir, who passed away back in January, on the album was particularly meaningful for Hornsby, who played as an adjunct of the Grateful Dead during the early ’90s and was part of the spin-off band the Other Ones as well as the Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary concerts in 2015. “Well, of course; it deepens the situation,” Hornsby acknowledges. Weir recorded his part for “Might As Well Be Me, Florinda,” the other Hunter co-write, during May of 2025, and Hornsby remembers that “we were all so happy about it when he sang it down to us at Sound City.

“Weir`s performance is fairly unbridled in the best way, kind of unhinged in a fantastic way, which of course fits the song,” he says. “I’d heard little rumblings about him having some health problems…then nothing, then all of sudden, gone. The same thing happened with (Bill) Walton, and with Robbie Robertson. That throws you.

“(Weir) was always so busy. We were on the phone and I said, ‘Man, you’re always here, you’re there, playing with the National Symphony, the London Symphony, doing these symphonic Dead concerts. Why?’ He said, ‘Man, I just don’t know how much time I have left, and I want to get as much in as I can’ — which, of course, at this point feels (prophetic).”

Mortality, or at least aging, is on Hornsby’s mind throughout Indigo Park as well, with songs that wax nostalgic and sentimental, as well as pensive — and even celebratory, as he sings in the title track, “Oh let these days be your delight…It’s only life, and life is enough/So whatever, it’s life and life only.”

“I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got this song, and it has a little bit to do with sort of aging and hopefully getting to be a little less of an idiot and a little smarter about things as you get older, ’cause you have a better perspective,” he explains. “That sent me heading into this idea that, ‘OK, I’m just going to write about where I am now.’ It’s the story of the record.”

The fun component, meanwhile, surfaces in the Raitt-featuring “Ecstatic,” a rhythmic, poetic track drawn from AAU basketball cheers — and even featuring the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team chanting and dancing in its music video. It’s not necessarily a musical environment you’d expect to find Raitt, but Hornsby said, “She did a great job. She heard it and was like, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting this.’ She said, ‘It’s so you,‘ maybe because of the sports origin story, but she’s so good on it.

“When she sent it down, we just went crazy. (Berg) got her on the speaker phone and we’re all exulting and he said to her, ‘Bonnie, I’ve always loved you, but now I’m in love with you…'”

The Way It Was…And Still Is

Though certainly a different kind of album, Indigo Park comes out almost 40 years to the date of The Way It Is, whose chart-topping title track put Hornsby on the map, winning the Grammy Award for best new artist, after a tenure in Sheena Easton’s band. Hornsby has often said that he finds his earlier releases “unlistenable” — “Mostly because I’m not a fan of that singer,” he says — but he appreciates what it meant for his career.

“The mass of the world knows me for that one song,” he acknowledges. “In America I was sort of a four- or five-hit wonder, but in the rest of the world it’s that song. Even (Don Henley’s) ‘The End of the Innocence’ wasn’t that big abroad. What I really feel in this area is that they missed the best part. I feel like I’ve continued to grow and develop through the years, evolve. I’ve just never allowed myself to be shackled in that prison people would like to place me in.

“Let`s face it; people go to a concert because they like more than few songs by the artist, and they go hoping or, mostly, expecting to hear faithful interpretations that help them stroll down memory lane. I totally get it, but it’s a creative prison. I’ve never been constrained by that idea. So I get nasty letters all the time, nasty Facebook screeds, and I’ve learned to live with that for 40 years now.”

Unafraid of stoking that ire again, Hornsby and his band, the Noisemakers, return to the road just after Indigo Park’s release, on April 9 in Cincinnati, with dates currently booked into October. He’s also been working with friend Jeff Daniels on music for a new play. And, as unintentional as the new album’s genesis, Hornsby may have a next venture in his sights already.

“I’ve just about written a song about an artificial friend, inspired by the Kazuo Ishiguro novel Klara and the Sun, and I kinda like this one,” he says. “It feels like a Beatles/Beach Boys thing, with some interesting chord movement. I can almost sit there and play it for someone so…maybe that’s the start of something.”

Stream Indigo Park below.

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

Last week, we featured Miley Cyrus, Raye, Charlie Puth and more.

This week, Jack White prepares for his gig on Saturday Night Live with a punchy two-pack, Arlo Parks shares her gorgeous third album, Ambiguous Desire, and Anne Hathaway — ahem, Mother Mary — continues teasing her upcoming role as an iconic pop star in the A24 film of the same name… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Jack White, “G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs”

Released as a surprise two-pack alongside single “Derecho Demonico,” it’s possible these could be the two songs Jack White will perform as musical guest on Saturday Night Live come April 4. And “G.O.D.” certainly comes with a message, as White sings on the track, “Well, it’s the beginning of the world now/ And there’s nobody left… Let’s start again… Let’s do it all over again.” Musically, it’s not as electrifying or hard-hitting as some of White’s other material, but that’s where “Derecho Demonico” comes in as a perfect partner.

Arlo Parks, “Beams”

Released in tandem with the English singer-songwriter’s third album, Ambiguous Desire, “Beams” is a peak into the project’s gentle touch — a signature of Parks’ sound. Yet here, that gentle touch is a bit of a bandaid for an old wound, until eventually Parks realizes just how much healing has happened under the surface. The song is a delicate dance between that still-present ache and a soft assuredness that has crept in with time. As Parks shared in a statement: “It’s about the pain of feeling discarded, or feeling like the oldest hurt that you carry around like a stone is a burden not just to you but to everyone around you…But it’s also about trying to (slowly but surely) want better for yourself and realise that you are loveable as a whole.”

Anne Hathaway, “My Mouth Is Lonely For You (From Mother Mary)”

Come April 17, Mother Mary will make her debut when the A24 film of the same name premieres, starring Anne Hathaway as an iconic pop star making a comeback. Mother Mary: Greatest Hits will drop the same day, featuring seven original songs written and produced by Jack Antonoff and Charli xcx. Single “Burial” arrived first, showcasing airy vocals that feature even more prominently on “My Mouth Is Lonely For You,” which soundtracks the latest trailer for the film. Written by FKA twigs, the experimental influence is clear — and Hathaway more than delivers, arriving as a fully-formed pop artist before the movie arrives itself.

floweroflove, “American Wedding”

Rising pop singer floweroflove is preparing to make her Coachella debut and is pulling out all the stops for promoting new music — including a fake engagement. While teasing new single “American Wedding” on social media, the singer posted a selfie wearing an engagement ring, writing: “Wasn’t going to post this but I can’t hide it anymore. I’m so so so excited to announce that I’m engaged! To the money. American wedding comes out tomo.” While the song sounds as sweet as its sentiment (“I wanna have your babies/ I wanna be First Lady”) the guitar solo that crashes in near the end highlights the real twist of the track: her ex was never up for getting married. As she concludes of a wedding that never was: “It ended just like that.”

Sofia D’Angelo, “Time”

“Time” comes as the latest single from Sofia D’Angelo — perhaps better known as a member of New York indie-pop collective MICHELLE — who in 2024 started releasing solo material again for the first time in four years. The surging pop track packs powerful meaning about time passing by and wondering what you’ll remember; the music video plays into the theme, showing an elderly D’Angelo (thanks to makeup) speaking to the camera, reflecting on her simple life before concluding that every once in a while, “even grandma needs a good time.” What follows is the soundtrack for a contemplative night out, with D’Angelo prematurely wondering “if time was on my side.”

Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova is in seriously hot water with Russian authorities, not for the first time.

Following an investigation, Russia’s Investigative Committee this week indicted the punk artist and activist for violating the so-called “foreign agent law” and added her to the federal wanted list, reps for Pussy Riot explain.

Tolokonnikova had been accused of flouting Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the national criminal code, which carries punishment of up to 2 years’ prison for “foreign agents” on a range of offenses, including those who failed to register or didn’t label social media posts.

The Krasnoyarsk Krai Court twice found her guilty in 2024 of administrative offenses for violating foreign agent regulations, and later, while outside Russia, she is said to have distributed materials in a messaging platform without labeling them as being produced by a foreign agent.

Russia’s Ministry of Justice designated Tolokonnikova a “foreign agent” on Dec. 30, 2021.

Attention turns to Tolokonnikova after Pussy Riot, the masked Russian punk feminist collective, staged a protest at the Manhattan offices of tech company Ubiquiti on Friday, March 27 over their claims that the company’s Wi-Fi equipment is being used by Russian soldiers in their ongoing war against Ukraine.

Tolokonnikova later posted a video statement in which she said that the Russian military is allegedly using Ubiquiti to communicate with front line troops. In the clip, she talks in voice-over about the company she claims “powers Russian war crimes” over footage of three PR members in all black wearing pink balaclavas with x’d out eyes holding a sign that features that same provocative phrase.

When “Starlink was turned off, Russian guys went crazy,” she said in reference to ex-DOGE boss Elon Musk’s move in February to cut Russian forces’ access to his Starlink satellite service in order to give Ukrainian fighters an edge in the grinding four-year war. She quipped that the Russian fighters scrambled for an alternative, suggesting they were considering using doves to carry their messages.

As previously reported, members of Pussy Riot gathered outside Ubiquiti’s Manhattan offices to protest and deliver their list of demands. Hours after their action, they wrote that the company appeared to respond in the form of a message from payment processing partner Square, which informed PR that its Square account had been deactivated.

Pussy Riot have long been vocal critics of Russia’s leadership. Their 2012 “A Punk Prayer” protest made global headlines and resulted in members Tolokonnikova — who was added to Russia’s most wanted list in 2023 — and Maria Alyokhina being briefly imprisoned.

They’ve since staged a number of other protests, including at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, as well as a field invasion during the 2018 World Cup Finals and a “celebration” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 68th birthday in October 2020 in which they hoisted rainbow LGBTQ pride flags outside government buildings in Moscow in protest of the Russian government’s continued denial of LGBTQ rights. In 2023, the collective received the Woody Guthrie prize for their fight for freedom and justice.

More recently, Nadya has spoken up about Russia’s return to the Venice Biennale, one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious cultural institutions in Europe, and has created an online petition with thousands of other artists. In an open letter to Biennale President Pietroangelo Buttafuoco, she writes: “Accommodating official state representation while curating ‘dissent’ risks turning the latter into a performative gesture and virtue-signaling rather than a position…You claim to care about censorship, Pussy Riot is so censored in Russia that we were deemed ‘an extremist organization’ – simply visiting our website or liking images of our art is criminalized.”

Several countries, including the United States, have criticized the inclusion of Russia in the prestigious exhibition, while the European Commission has warned organizers it will suspend €2 million in support if the festival goes ahead with Russia among its exhibitors. Russia withdrew from Venice Biennale ahead of its 59th edition in 2022, just ahead of its invasion of Ukraine.

Tolokonnikova’s latest indictment “will not stop her from protesting Russia’s return to Venice Biennale,” explains a rep in a message to Billboard.