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.
Samsung’s Frame TV has become a luxurious piece of home decor, offering up entertainment and style to upgrade the regular television set (it even snagged a partnership with Disney). For those not looking to spend $1,000+ on a new TV though, TikTok has discovered the ultimate dupe that’s small-space friendly — and it’s currently back in stock online.
Amazon’s Echo Show 15 is the latest in the brand’s Echo Show series, bringing a compact yet elegant way to watch TV and gather information at the touch of a button. TikTok has deemed the smart device to be the ultimate dupe, labelling it a “mini Frame TV” as it offers that framed photo aesthetic with all the benefits of a smart home device.
Similar to the Frame TV, TikTok users have show multiple ways to hang the Echo Show on the wall or use the included mount to rest it on your countertop. And now, you can get the latest model of the Echo Show 15 for 17% off.
SMART HOME TECH
Echo Show 15
Of course, at 15.6 inches, the Echo Show won’t completely replace a big-screen TV. And its HD screen won’t be the same as a 4K TV set. Still, for a mini Frame TV alternative, this is a solid bet.
The $249 price point is live for Prime Day and represents the lowest price we’ve seen for the Alexa-enabled device all year. While Prime Day is ending, the sale is still live as of this writing, as Amazon has been known to extend deals for its slate of devices.
As the latest release for Echo Show devices, the Echo Show 15 acts as an in-home hub for all your entertainment and daily needs. Just like with other Echo Show devices, you can play music, download streaming platforms including Paramount+, Hulu and Peacock, check your calendar, make a grocery list and even display artwork when the device isn’t in use.
Similar to the Frame TV, you can choose from a selection of frames to border the device and give it a more elegant touch.
Amazon’s Echo Show 15 has earned a 4.4 star rating (out of five) for its newest model, with almost 80% of shoppers giving it a full, five-star review. Reviewers rave about the device’s features and how easy it is to setup and use. Case in point: in addition to acting as a smart home hub, you can watch TV or call your friends with just one device as well as create a to-do list to keep yourself productive.
One reviewer even raved over how “it doesn’t look off in our kitchen and can be mounted to the wall like a picture frame.” A great Frame TV alternative indeed.
ALSO CONSIDER
Amazon Echo Show 21 (newest model)
Fancy a slightly bigger screen? Amazon also sells a 21-inch version of the Echo Show (appropriately dubbed the Amazon Echo Show 21 of course).
This is a bestseller on Amazon with more than 6,000 units sold in the last month alone. And you can get it on sale for 20% off right now for Prime Day.
For more product recommendations, check out ShopBillboard‘s roundups of the best home projectors, laptop deals and tablet stands.
He has always been notably quiet in person and has seldom had a lot to say from stage.
But big speeches weren’t what people have wanted from Alan Jackson. They wanted the songs: “Drive (For Daddy Gene),” “Chattahoochee,” “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Remember When,” “Small Town Southern Man,” “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” Those titles spoke volumes about Jackson as a singer-songwriter, and about the fans he served.
Related
Jackson caps his concert career Saturday (June 27) at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium with Last Call: One More for the Road — The Finale, a show that serves as a milestone in the Country Music Hall of Fame member’s career and a nostalgic reminder of his substantial body of work. But just as importantly, it highlights his influence. More than 35 years after Jackson reached the national spotlight, the ‘90s country that he helped define — marked by strong hooks, proud lower- and middle-class stories and an unapologetic use of fiddle and steel guitar — is hot. “Last Call” will feature appearances by a bundle of younger artists who took the baton, including Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack and Luke Combs, just to name a few.
They’re not the only music folks who’ll be on hand. The stadium will also welcome the four executives who headed the labels that oversaw his releases prior to this year: Tim DuBois, who signed Jackson to Arista Nashville; Joe Galante, who worked with him when a restructuring placed Arista under the RCA Label Group umbrella and, later, under Sony BMG; Mike Dungan, who signed him to Capitol Nashville; and Cindy Mabe, who succeeded Dungan at Universal Music Group Nashville (now MCA).
They collectively see Jackson as a key voice for the nation’s heartland.
“I call him the Norman Rockwell of country music,” DuBois says. “He just paints a picture that is so relatable to middle-class America.”
Jackson has amassed 26 No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs among 50 top 10 singles, deftly using everyday language and unpretentious musical construction to create a bond with the genre’s listeners. He avoided gimmickry and never overplayed the emotional content in his material. Instead, he delivered his stories with sincerity and respect, using those tales as his primary means of communication. He could acknowledge commitment and economics in the same chorus — as he did when he sang “Livin’ on love, buyin’ on time” — capture intimacy in the lines of “When Somebody Loves You” and laugh at rejection in “She’s Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues),” the latter co-written with fellow traditionalist Randy Travis.
Jackson connected with men and women at the heart of their humanity, but he had his surface attractions, too.
“I know I sold a ton of music,” DuBois quips, “but I also sold a lot of long legs and long hair.”
A native of Newnan, Ga., Jackson communicated regular-Joe status through a love for the water and a passion for automobiles. He married his high-school sweetheart and kept cassette recordings of his songs in brown paper grocery bags, writing about his parents, his wife, his good times, his church and his growing pains. Fans saw him as one of their own — and he was. He still is.
But he wasn’t a pushover when it came to the music business. He needed a record company, but wasn’t about to sacrifice his identity to make it. Particularly as a younger man, he was prone to push back when the business people asked him to try marketing moves that didn’t fit his view of his art.
“He wanted it to be about the music,” remembers Dungan, who first worked with Jackson in the early days of his career. “When you’re the head of marketing, as I was at Arista, there are a million opportunities to fight with a man like that.”
And they did. Dungan remembers one brutally loud argument at a Nashville restaurant that turned the heads of other patrons. It wasn’t personal. Jackson simply had a public profile and — like most great artists — a sense of what he was willing to do when his name or likeness was attached. He knew what made his business work, and he didn’t compromise when it didn’t make sense.
“He was always on the lookout for anyone and everyone who was going to try to interfere with his creative process,” Dungan recalls.
Galante knew that side of Jackson, too. A year before Arista came under Galante’s leadership, Jackson registered a top 5 single with “Little Man,” a frank lament about the brute force of big businesses gobbling up market share in small communities. It wasn’t just posturing, but his own artistic success placed him in situations where he had to make choices between the music and the business sides of the music business.
When WHTZ New York, Z100, heard Jackson’s 9/11 reflection, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” the top 40 station was interested in playing it. As a five-minute country ballad, “Where Were You” was a bit of an outlier for a pop station. The company was willing to accept that, but executive vp Butch Waugh funneled one request to Galante: Could Jackson remix it with less steel guitar? Galante called the artist with the proposal.
“The silence — it seemed like an eternity, but it was probably three or four seconds,” Galante recalls. “He said to me, ‘I kind of like steel.’ And the next thing I heard was a click. I went into Butch’s office, and he said to me, ‘How did it go?’ I said, ‘Well, as I expected, he’s not going to change the record. And I don’t think he should.’”
It’s not like Jackson was acting out of selfishness. Though his songwriting was a hallmark of his career, he recorded a fair number of outside songs, including 18 of his top 10 singles, such as “Little Bitty,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” “Gone Country” and “Right on the Money.”
There was a practicality about it — invariably, the songs represented his love of classic country or expressed his viewpoint in a way that he didn’t think he could. The songs he selected and the compromises he refused to make were all a part of a genre that was central to his identity.
“He never lost his roots, and I think he always thought about that,” Galante says. “I mean, he was a shade-tree mechanic, coming from a small town, and still remembered what the struggle was like. I think that resonated in everything he picked, or wrote, and we worked.”
When Jackson left Arista, he called Dungan, who had moved on to Capitol, and suggested working together again. He acknowledged that they had had their share of arguments, but said he always knew that Dungan was giving him an honest assessment. He apologized for the long-ago restaurant squabble, and he laughed it off when Dungan said he wanted to get Jackson back on the radio. Jackson believed programmers had moved on.
“I was very shocked, because if you ever work with artists, you know none of them ever say that,” Dungan notes. “It’s the other side of the coin. It’s like they will not accept that radio won’t play them anymore. Here was a guy, who was very difficult in his early career, being the most grown-up adult in the room.”
The fact is that Jackson had a handle on what worked for him.
“Looking back,” says DuBois, acknowledging his own battles with Jackson, “he was right more times than I was.”
Jackson’s final concert is timely in a way he could not have predicted when he booked it more than a year ago. Back in 1989, Jackson — despite his longing for a recording contract — insisted on meeting DuBois’ boss, Clive Davis, before he became the first artist signed to Arista’s unproven Nashville division. Davis died on June 22, just five days prior to Jackson’s stadium show. Similarly, Larry Shell, who co-wrote “Murder on Music Row” — the award-winning 1999 release that excoriated the country industry for turning its back on tradition — died June 17. George Strait, who recorded “Murder” with Jackson, will participate in the concert.
Jackson’s legacy “matters so much, because the past, present and future of country music all connect together,” says Mabe, whose Joan of Arc Music is set to develop an NBC special out of the concert. “He’s an extension of Hank Williams, and what he’ll do for that next generation is they’re going to pick up the extension of Alan Jackson and move it forward. That’s why this concert and everything that comes in this moment is going to be so pivotal. It’s a cultural moment. It’s not just a last concert.”
Mabe’s production, of course, will need to demonstrate that through the music and through the other voices that might appear in it. Jackson, as someone who isn’t prone to talk much publicly, is certainly not one to boast. It’s not necessary.
The most talkative people in a room “tell you everything that they possibly know about anything,” Mabe observes. “The one with all the information is the quiet guy in the corner. That’s Alan Jackson. I’ll be honest, he knows a lot of stuff.”
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.
Matt Damon is stepping into the studio and behind the mic for… a rap track?
That’s the premise for a new clip for Water.org, helping to promote the charity’s new “Get Blue” initiative. In a clip posted to Instagram earlier this month, Damon debuts his rap alter ego, “The Nomad,” to riff on the “constant struggle” to get water into the homes of those who need it most. The actor-turned-aspiring musician seeks advice from Hit-Boy, the Grammy-winning producer, who questions whether rapping is really the right move for Damon’s altruistic intentions.
“Isn’t ‘Nomad’ just ‘Damon’ spelled backwards?” Hit-Boy asks, to the chagrin of the embarrassed actor.
In person, Damon is anything but embarrassed to promote the Get Blue campaign, no matter what it takes.
“We’re always looking for ways to cut through all the noise, and sometimes, humor is a shortcut to get people’s attention,” he tells Billboard. “We’ll try anything, you know?”
Damon hasn’t had to rap in his career to date, though he notes that, “I sang in The Talented Mr. Ripley a long time ago and uh, I sung in Eurotrip.”
And while his kids are musically-inclined — “Taylor [Swift] is a huge influence in our house,” he says. “We know that catalog pretty well” — don’t expect to see Damon debuting any official musical endeavors anytime soon. “Obviously, Kendrick has nothing to worry about. I’m not gonna become a rapper,” Damon says. “I don’t think that would go well.”
For now, Damon’s rap attempt will just live on social media, with the actor also using his studio time in the clip to tell Hit-Boy about the millions of people around the world who still lack access to clean water. With the Get Blue campaign, Water.org is partnering with brands like Gap, Starbucks and Amazon, to launch products that give back. For every purchase of a Get Blue product on the Gap site, on Amazon’s Get Blue storefront (official page coming in July), or a purchase of two specialty drinks on Starbucks (the Iced Blue Coconut Matcha and the Blue Coconut Refresher), the brands will make a donation to Water.org.
NEW RELEASES
Shop Get Blue Products on Gap
The Gap collection includes blue-colored hoodies, T-shirts, baseball caps and accessories in unisex styles and sizing.
Amazon makes it even easier, with a dedicated Get Blue playlist for inspiration and a host of REDISCOVER playlists on Amazon Music, bringing back popular artists and songs in one place. Amazon says it will donate $1 to Water.org every time someone plays a participating artist’s REDISCOVER playlist. The exact list of artists will be announced in July.
Amazon Echo Dot (newest model)
An even easier way to make a difference: customers with an Alexa-enabled device can say, “Alexa, donate to Get Blue” and Amazon will contribute $5 on their behalf.
While much movement has been made to increase access to water and improve safe drinking conditions around the world, Damon notes that more than two billion people still lack access to safe water — that’s one in four people globally.
“It’s so hard for us to relate to growing up here,” Damon says. “You’re only a few steps away from a clean drink of water, whereas if you think about AIDS or cancer or things like that, usually there’s an emotional connection for somebody. You’re never very many degrees removed from somebody who’s struggling with that, whether it’s a family member or a friend.”
Get Blue Logo Baseball Hat
“What this [campaign] does,” he explains, “is it raises the awareness, and then hopefully, we can start this larger cultural conversation, and it’ll stay at the front of people’s minds.”
The Get Blue campaign continues the work that Gary White has been doing for decades, as the CEO and co-founder of Water.org. The charity works with local partners on the ground to offer small, affordable loans so families can get the pipes, pumps, or plumbing they need to serve safe drinking water at home. Education is also an important of their advocacy, with White noting that many young children in developing countries can’t attend school, because they are in charge of water collection for their families.
“So many people around the world, when they wake up tonight, they don’t know where they’re going to get their water, and they have to spend time and sometimes money just to get it,” White tells Billboard. “And with Water.org, we’ve pioneered some really innovative ways to kind of close that gap,” he says, noting the organization’s work in everything from building wells to facilitating clean sanitation.
“But what we also realize is we need to bring in a wider audience,” White adds. “It’s critically important that we have these partners who have a platform, who have a voice, who know how to connect through cool shirts or music, because that’s where people live.”
White’s goal for the campaign and for his organization: “We’ve reached over 90 million people with our water programs and I think in the next four years, we can reach another 100 million.”
Starbucks Physical Gift Cards (Multipack of 4 x $10)
Whether you’re ordering a fancy “blue” Starbucks drink or picking up a T-shirt at Gap, Damon says the Get Blue campaign makes it easier than ever to make a difference.
“When I was growing up, on our refrigerator, my mother had this quote from Gandhi, and it said, ‘No matter how insignificant what you do may seem, it is most important that you do it,’” he says. “And I’ve always thought about that. I think the problems of the world can feel overwhelming,” he continues, “but if everybody does their part, what you’re doing is not insignificant, because you’re going to save somebody’s life. You’re going to completely change the outcome of their life. And there’s nothing insignificant about that.”
Who knew Vice President JD Vance had Diddy jokes up his sleeve?
Vance visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library to promote his memoir Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith and was asked about a chapter that just so happens to be named “More Money, More Problems,”one of the late Notorious B.I.G.’s most popular songs. That’s when he quipped about the song’s producer, Diddy, being a “great Christian theologian,” before saying he’s “going to get in trouble” for the remark.
“I’m a millennial, and so I believe that’s the wisdom of the great Christian theologian P. Diddy, who as we found out in the last couple of years is very much not a Christian or a theologian,” the vice president joked about the embattled mogul after being asked why more money causes more problems. “I’m going to get in trouble for all kinds of things. That will be one of them. That will be in an attack ad at some point in the future.”
Diddy was sentenced to four years in prison last October on prostitution charges and is currently in the middle of appealing his sentence, which can take up to a year to be sorted.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump revealed that Diddy asked him to consider a pardon through a handwritten letter. However, he said Puff’s criticism of him during his first run for president in 2016 “makes it more difficult to do,” even though the two have been cordial over the years.
Billboard has reached out to the White House for comment.
This week, Billboard’s New Music Friday Guide: Latin roundup — curated with key recommendations by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features a number of new songs and albums, including Bizarrap and Myke Towers’ “BZRP Music Session #42/66,” Becky G’s “Patrona” and Kane Rodriguez’s album Loco Soñador.
Released Wednesday, Argentinian producer Bizarrap dropped his latest music session featuring Puerto Rican artist Myke Towers. “BZRP Music Session #42/66” is the producer’s first session of the year. His previous one, “BZRP Music Session #0/66,” dropped in late 2025 and featured another Puerto Rican music icon, Daddy Yankee.
The music session with Towers was released in two different acts. In the first one, Towers’ signature melodic rapping style takes precedence while Bizarrap’s bass-heavy, hip-hop-driven beats deliver the undertone. Through the lyrics, the rapper pays homage to his roots, rapping about his elevated lifestyle while making it clear that Puerto Rico remains on his mind no matter where his career takes him.
In the second part of the collaboration comes “Boobytrap,” a long-awaited track that fans have anticipated ever since an early snippet surfaced years ago. In the trap-leaning rap song, Towers shows off his lyrical tenacity, rapping about his lifestyle and how he now has the respect he didn’t get before from others in the industry. The song title “Boobytrap” refers to a famous strip club in Miami, also named Boobytrap, which the artist claims to visit whenever in South Florida.
Meanwhile, artists such as Hermanos Espinoza, Kane Rodriguez, Fuerza Régida and Mariangela also dropped new music this week.
The most recent New Music Latin poll was topped by Feid’s El Moco Verde with more than 49.53% of the vote. Which release this week do you think is best? Give these new releases a spin and vote for your favorite new Latin music release below.
Editor’s Note: The results of the weekly New Music Latin poll will be posted if the poll generates more than 1,000 votes. This poll closes at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, June 29.
Hyuuganatsu, Minoji Kurata, Touko Shino’s Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) Vol. 22 debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Book Hot 100, on the list released June 25.
The volume is the latest installment of the manga version of the title, serialized in Gekkan Sunday GX. The volume bows atop the chart with three metrics landing in the top 10: No. 1 for e-books, No. 2 for brick-and-mortar and No. 9 for EC.
Blue Lock Vol. 39 follows at No. 2, leading the brick-and-mortar metric. Last week’s No. 1, the manga version of Tensei Shitara Suraimu Datta Ken (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) Vol. 32, comes in at No. 3.
Kotaro Isaka’s 777 Triple Seven hits No. 5. The paperback edition of the latest entry in his “assassin” series originally published in 2023 went on sale June 16. The title places No. 4 in social media, reflecting a renewed wave of attention. Asako Yuzuki’s BUTTER was also released on paperback this week and jumps from outside the top 20 to No. 10.
The Billboard Japan Book Hot 100 is a comprehensive chart combining physical sales, e-books, library loans, subscription data and social media activity. Below are the top 10 titles on this week’s list, tracking the period from June 15 to 21.
(Numbers in parentheses indicate the title’s metric placements for brick-and-mortar, EC, e-books, subscriptions, and social media, top 20 only. English title given if translations or adaptations exist.)
1. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto ~ Maomao no Kokyu Nazotoki Techo ~ (The Apothecary Diaries) Vol. 21, Hyuuganatsu, Minoji Kurata, Touko Shino (2/9/1/–/–)
2. Blue Lock Vol. 39, Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura (1/–/2/–/–)
3. Tensei Shitara Suraimu Datta Ken (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) Vol. 32 (Comic Edition), Taiki Kawakami, Fuse, Mitz Vah (3/–/15/–/–)
4. Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu (Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy) Vol. 17, Kotora Kino, Kei Azumi (5/–/8/–/–)
5. 777 Triple Seven, Kotaro Isaka (6/–/–/–/4)
6. ONE PIECE CHOPPER’s Vol. 1, from ONE PIECE (by Eiichiro Oda) (4/18/–/–/–)
7. Fire Dome Vol. 1, Mizuki Tsujimura (11/12/–/–/1)
8. PRODUCE 101 JAPAN Shinsekai FAN BOOK, PRODUCE 101 JAPAN (–/1/–/–/–)
9. Henna Ie (The Strange House) Vol. 7, Uketsu, Kyo Ayano (10/–/6/–/–)
10. BUTTER, Asako Yuzuki (–/10/–/7/5)
“The show starts now,” says lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist in perfect Spanish to energize the crowd at Peru’s National Stadium. The audience responds with cheers and the chorus of the song “Enough Is Enough.” The scene, captured in their documentary The Hives Live in Latin America, showcases the intensity of the Swedish band’s recent tour through the region, as well as their connection with the language.
“I wouldn’t say I know Spanish, but I know enough to say some stuff on stage,” Almqvist tells Billboard Español. He explains that he first learned the language at age 16, taking classes for one year in school, though his real contact with Spanish began two decades ago, mainly during The Hives’ early tours in Latin America.
“Actually, the last tour with My Chemical Romance was my first attempt at not speaking English at all between the songs, and it worked out,” he adds, speaking in English. “I even did Portuguese in Brazil, and that worked out, too. People seem to really like me doing it, so I’m going to keep doing it regardless of my skill level.”
The connection between the quintet from Fagersta, Sweden, and their Latin American fans is nothing new. The rock band has been visiting countries like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina for over 20 years, first arriving with their 2004 album Tyrannosaurus Hives. Since then, they’ve been slowly incorporating Spanish and Portuguese into their shows, as seen in their documentary, which premiered Thursday (June 25) on their YouTube channel.
The Hives Live in Latin America follows the band through Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, documenting not only some of their most explosive stadium performances in front of thousands of people but also behind-the-scenes moments and parts of their journey through Latin American cities.
Beyond the language, local culture is also integrated into their live shows. In Mexico, during their performance at Estadio GNP Seguros as the opening act for My Chemical Romance this past February, the group was introduced by luchadores El Hijo del Santo and Santo Jr., both heirs to the iconic masked wrestler El Santo.
“Santo is in the kind of ’90s garage rock that we were really into,” says Almqvist. “There were bands that wrote songs about Santo — a band called Southern Culture On The Skids that had a record maybe, so we were aware of him from garage rock. And we were wrestling fans when we were kids. It’s got the same physical show element, the same physical entertainment value that our shows have.”
Part of the experience of touring Latin America has also allowed the members of The Hives to dive into the region’s vast cuisine. Mexican tacos al pastor have been a special discovery for the band’s frontman, he shares in the interview. “I recently started eating meat a little bit after 20, 30 years as a vegetarian. So I’m into the al pastor, which is kind of new to me,” he reveals.
The Hives Live in Latin America combines live performances with everyday moments of the band in the main capitals of Latin America. “First, more music from Los Hives,” Almqvist shouts in Spanish to the crowd in the opening scene of the film, announcing the emotional journey the viewer will take alongside the band. With more than a quarter of a century of experience, The Hives traveled through Latin America earlier this year, reaffirming a timeless truth night after night: no one leaves unchanged after seeing them live.
“We already miss all of our Mexican and South American fans and we hope we can come back sooner rather than later,” Almqvist says. “I don’t really know in what form or shape, but you know we really like it here. Can’t stress that enough.”
Watch The Hives Live In Latin America in full below.
Josh Ross achieves his first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 as “Hate How You Look” rises a spot in its 40th week on the chart dated July 4. The song drew 32.7 million audience impressions (up 4%) June 19-25, according to Luminate.
Related
Written by Jessica Farren, Chris McKenna, Nicholas Sainato and Christian Yancey, the track assumes the lead from Ella Langley’s “Be Her,” which descends to No. 3 after a four-week run at the summit. Ross’ sole prior Country Airplay entry, “Single Again,” reached No. 2 last summer, in its 68th week.
Ross is the second artist this year to secure a first Country Airplay No. 1, among 12 total leaders (a 16.7% success rate); Tucker Wetmore’s “Brunette” led in May. Three acts earned career-first leaders in 2025, of 20 No. 1s overall (15%): Corey Kent (“This Heart”), Hootie & the Blowfish (“Bottle Rockets,” with Scotty McCreery) and Chase Matthew (“Darlin’”). There were nine first-timers in 2024, out of 27 No. 1s (33.3%). Since the start of 2016, 54 artists have notched first No. 1s on the ranking, among 314 total leaders (17.2%).
Keepin’ On Truckin’
Bailey Zimmerman lands his seventh Country Airplay top 10 as “Chevy Silverado” revs 11-9 (17.8 million, up 5%) in its 37th week. It follows “Backup Plan,” which rose to No. 2 last September.
Zimmerman has reached the top 10 in 25 weeks on average across his trips to the tier, making “Chevy Silverado” one of his longer climbs. Only “Holy Smokes,” which took 44 weeks, needed more time, while “Backup Plan” marked his fastest ascent, 11 weeks.
Top Debuts
Cole Swindell’s “Girl Dad” opens at No. 26 on Country Airplay (5.8 million). Plus, Jelly Roll’s “Hands Up” enters at No. 28 (5.6 million). The acts boast eight and nine career No. 1s, respectively.
All charts dated July 4 will update Tuesday, June 30, on Billboard.com.
Eslabón Armado returns with Nocturno, the group’s ninth studio album, where its signature regional Mexican sound stays front and center, now joined by vocal turns from guests including Peso Pluma, Gabito Ballesteros, Clave Especial and Calle 24.
Released Friday (June 26) via Interscope, the 16-track set includes songs like “Ojos de Diabla,” “Corta Venas,” “Siempre, Siempre,” “Nunca He Llorado” and “Que No Se Apague.”
“Most of the lyrics are mine, and the music came from my bandmates Brian and Damián,” singer-songwriter Pedro Tovar tells Billboard Español. “Before, I used to be a little more involved in the studio with them, but this time I gave them full freedom to do whatever they wanted. We really loved how it turned out.”
Nocturno moves from requintos to charchetas, through corridos and all the way into urban sounds. Lyrically, while the songs draw from everyday situations and colloquial expressions, the band continues to steer clear of the explicit language that defines much of música tumbada. “That’s what got us to where we are — always singing about love, and of course pain too, for fans going through tough times. But we’ve never disrespected women,” Tovar says. “Never.”
Tovar wrote and produced “Ella Baila Sola,” his global hit with Peso Pluma, which spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs and six weeks atop the Billboard Global 200, and reached No. 4 on the Hot 100. The group’s 2023 album Desvelado, which included “Baila,” topped both Top Latin Albums and Top Regional Mexican Albums, and hit No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
At the time, many gave Peso most of the credit for the song’s success, even though it was an Eslabón Armado track. Tovar felt sidelined when the Mexican star’s fame exploded — especially when Peso performed it solo on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “There were some tense moments, but over time everything cooled off. It wasn’t until a year later that I realized just how massive the song was, when I heard it in so many countries during a trip,” he says. “Peso and I have been messaging for a while, and that’s how the new collab happened.”
That new collaboration is “Amigos con Derechos,” a corrido tumbado about a love triangle.
Eslabón Armado is now gearing up for its Amor Nocturno Tour, a 28-date U.S. run promoted by Live Nation that kicks off July 24 in Phoenix and wraps Dec. 5 in San Diego. On Aug. 7, the group will play YouTube Theater in L.A., where Peso Pluma is expected to join as a guest.
The band also has 12 shows lined up across Mexico, including a Sept. 6 performance at Mexico City’s Festival Arre. There, they’ll cross paths with collaborators Gabito Ballesteros, Calle 24 and Clave Especial — and plan to share the stage with them at the event.
Below, Tovar breaks down five essential songs from Nocturno.
This year, June is ending with a particularly stacked slate of new music releases, thanks to musicians such as Phoebe Bridgers, Sombr and more.
Related
On Friday (June 26), the Boygenius band member finally released her first piece of new solo music in six years, dropping single “Lost Boys” ahead of her recently announced album Lost Weekend. The relaxed-tempo track finds Bridgers — who premiered the song live on her series of secret pop-up performances earlier in the year — examining the type of unmoored man she tends to attract, often finding herself as the person who gets left.
Continuing his run of strong singles, Sombr has followed up “Homewrecker” and “Potential” with new track “My Body Isn’t Ready,” one of his most personal confessionals to date as he laments feeling too insecure in his physique to be intimate with someone else.
Also new on streaming services on the tail end of June are tracks by Steve Lacy and SZA — who teamed up on duet “Is It Cool?” — and Gracie Abrams, whose single “Look at My Life” marks the second taste of upcoming third album Daughter From Hell fans have gotten. Plus, Katy Perry breaks free from her past on “Watch It Burn,” while Axwell teams up with Bonn on “Whatever Turns You On,” Cobrah joins forces with Grimes on “Sign From God,” and TEEKS shares “My Boy” as KWN drops the EP And All Pride Aside.
That’s a lot of new music to choose from, but Billboard still wants to know your favorite. Vote for the release you’re most excited by in the poll below.