“Descarada, despiadada e insistente”, son algunos de los adjetivos que suelen recibir las canciones de Princess Nokia. Y es que el álter ego de Destiny Nicole Frasqueri supo construir, desde su debut discográfico, 1992 Deluxe (2017), una carrera a punta de fuerza y autenticidad, de empoderamiento y resistencia. Mientras que su sonido nunca dejó de mutar, tras colgar sus primeras canciones a internet, convirtiéndola en la reina under de la música urbana. Haciendo honor, además, a sus raíces afro nuyorricanas, al cocinar un sofrito condimentado por el boom bap, el trap, el disco soul, el trip hop y el rap old school. De lo que puede dar fe su más reciente álbum, Girls, lanzado en octubre de 2025, y que iba a servir de excusa para preparar su primer desembarco en la capital argentina, pero que se suspendió días antes de su presentación (que iba a ser mañana), debido a problemas de salud. De todas formas, la semana pasada, antes del comunicado oficial publicado el sábado, Nokia habló con Rolling Stone y hasta se mostró enutiasmada con su debut en Buenos Aires.
“Estoy feliz y emocionada. Me refiero a que estoy realmente emocionada, más allá de las palabras y del puro verso que hay en este tipo de situaciones”, afirma esta neoyorquina de 33 años, al otro lado del zoom, desde la megalópolis estadounidense. “Actuar en Buenos Aires era una de mis grandes metas de este año, y es increíble que se haya podido dar. No me lo puedo creer todavía. Quiero conectar con la gente de allá, me gustaría conocer a toda la gente que me vendrá a ver”. Sobre la performance que ofrecerá, la artista, que fiel a sus raíces dispara en el mano a mano bocaditos de español con sabor a Caribe, adelanta: “Mi setlit repasará cada álbum que hice y cada una de mis épocas, porque el tour de Girls no sólo se enfoca en esas canciones. Será una especie de retrospectiva de mi discografía, ordenada de manera cronológica”.
Al momento de tocarlas en vivo, ¿cuál es la canción de Girls a la que ver convertida en un clásico?
Creo que todas las canciones de Girls son muy importantes. Si tuviera que describir al disco, te diría que es como capturar a la lluvia dentro de una botella. Cada vez que entré en el estudio a hacer alguna canción de ese repertorio, no duré más de dos horas. Es más: me llevó menos de una semana hacer todas las canciones del disco. Al terminar cada sesión, la sensación que me embargaba era la de que había hecho algo eléctrico y emocionante.
En comparación con tu álbum anterior, I Love You But This Is Goodbye, que explora más la música urbana, Girls pareciera estar intencionalmente inclinado hacia el sonido del rap de los años 90. ¿Ésa era la intención?
No era la intención, en Girls también le presto importancia a otros géneros. Es algo que me interesa hacer en cada una de mis producciones: abrir el abanico de estilos. Ése es el tipo de artista que soy. Hago todo tipo de música porque me gusta, y porque lo deseo así. Si mis colegas pueden, ¿por qué no lo puedo hacer yo también? Me siento muy capaz para todo. No considero a Girls un álbum enteramente de rap. Hay tres canciones para cada género. Todos cuentan una historia, e incluso a veces son historias diferentes.
A propósito de las historias, si hay un rasgo que atraviesa a tu obra ése es el de la mujer como eje de tus letras. En ese sentido, ¿qué te interesa explorar?
Sólo quiero que mi música se sienta como una forma de seguridad para las mujeres. El mundo puede ser muy inseguro para nosotras, ¿sabés? Incluso, tener conversaciones con hombres puede ser muy inseguro. Así que mis canciones son literalmente un espacio seguro para aquellas mujeres que no tienen el privilegio de ser tan libres o de ser tan empoderadas. Espero que las mujeres argentinas y de otras partes del mundo escuchen mi música y encuentren en ella inspiración para escapar de los entornos inseguros, de las personas inseguras y de los hogares inseguros. Y que eso les de perspectivas, a través de pensamientos inteligentes.
¿Cuánto influye para una artista de ascendencia latina como vos crecer rodeada del cosmopolitismo neoyorquino?
¡Dios mío! Crecer en la ciudad de Nueva York fue muy interesante. Cuando empecé a relacionarme con otras comunidades latinas, me encontraba ya en la secundaria. Eso se convirtió en un gran cambio de vida para mí, y lo digo en el mejor sentido posible. Conocí a muchas personas que me enseñaron un montón sobre la latinidad, una cultura que no logré curtir donde crecí. Si no hubiera sido así, quizá no la hubiera experimentado. Fui a una escuela latino-católica profunda, donde nuestra cultura tenía una gran presencia. La mayoría de mis compañeros y compañeras eran hijos de padres que había inmigrado a los Estados Unidos. Gracias a eso es que pude aprender a hablar español.
En canciones como “Lo siento”, “Brujas” o “Dragons” mechaste algunos versos en español. ¿Cuáles fueron tus referencias para animarte a hacerlo?
La razón por la que me animé fue que crecí escuchando a bandas de Colombia, México o Chile. Fue el mejor curso de música que he recibido, lo que me hizo tener un gran amor por la música latina. Por ejemplo, me encanta Café Tacvba, me encanta Maldita Vecindad, me encanta Molotov. No hubiera experimentado eso si mi familia y amigos mexicanos de la escuela latina no lo hubieran compartido conmigo. Empezaron a llevarme a los recitales de Julieta Vanegas, Bebé y Ximena Sriñana. Así fue como aprendí español: traduciendo esa música. Eso me llevó más tarde a descubrir a raperas que son influyentes en mi música como La Mala Rodríguez o Ariana Puello. Eso le dio mucho sentido a mi vida.
Tomando en cuenta que hoy existen tantas raperas y cantante de música urbana en la industria musical, ¿cómo logaste hacer tu propio camino?
Si te soy honesta, más que un obstáculo, eso lo siento como una brisa en el parque. Vivo en una burbuja completamente diferente, vivo en un planeta distinto al del resto de la industria y al del resto de mis compañeras. No lo sé. Siento que vivo en el planeta Nokia, y siempre estoy en el planeta Nokia. Nunca sé qué más está pasando, no le presto atención a nada más. Sólo atiendo a lo que está en frente de mí, y a este mundo muy extraño que he creado para mí misma. Creo que eso habla de mis valores, porque la mayoría de las mujeres no son afortunadas de poder tener esa libertad en un mundo tan complicado e intrínseco. Así que les pido, por favor, que confíen en sus propios mundos.
¿Alguna vez la multinacional de telecomunicaciones de la que tomaste prestado su nombre te hizo quilombo por usarlo?
No, no, en lo absoluto. Me aman.
The post Princess Nokia: “Quiero que mi música se sienta como un lugar seguro para las mujeres” appeared first on Rolling Stone en Español.
Olivia Rodrigo hosted SNL for the first time and starred in seven sketches that made it to air Saturday night (May 2) in an episode that had her pulling double duty as musical guest. Following a political cold open and Rodrigo’s monologue, the show launched with a terrifically absurd sketch that set the tone for an evening of quirky comedy.
SNL‘s writers played on Rodrigo’s musicality this week: The You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love artist sang in two top sketches, as well as in her monologue. (This was all in addition to her first televised live performance of the giddy new single “Drop Dead” and her debut of the emotionally turbulent ballad “Begged“).
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Throughout the episode, Rodrigo portrayed a weird assortment of roles including soap opera villain, human teen trapped in an zoo exhibit on Bug Planet, girl obsessed with her ex at a friend’s birthday, lava cake maker blissfully unaware of how her goods look, main character in an Isley Brothers “Busted” parody, witness of the next greatest white Rasta artist, and TikToker with an unexpected employer. (Dress rehearsal attendees report on Reddit that the production also tested at least two more sketches with Rodrigo, one on situationships and another that had her as a guest on a Kenan Thompson-hosted daytime talk show. At press time, no cut-for-time sketches have been made available online.)
Studio 8H brings out nerves in even the best performers. Naturally delivering late rewrites via cue card isn’t an everyday skill, unless you’re full-time cast.
Rodrigo’s previous TV work — from little girl in an Old Navy commercial to Disney Channel series regular — and the stage command she’s developed over countless nights on tour as a musician — served her quite well in preparing for the chaos of Saturday Night Live. Or “Saturday Night Liv,” as she quipped on Instragram post-show.
The night was a milestone moment for Rodrigo, who’d only performed as musical guest before (twice, in 2021 and 2023).
In fact, probably still abuzz from the afterparty, on Sunday she called it the “best night of my mf life!!!! such a dream come true!!!” She thanked Lorne Michaels and the SNL team in her social update — “for being so welcoming and brilliant. will remember this forever!!!!”
Here’s a ranking of every sketch Rodrigo was in on the show that aired Saturday night. Watch all seven sketches from the May 2 episode of SNL below.
“Bring Your Love,” Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter‘s new song release, tops this week’s best new music poll.
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Listeners voted in a poll published Friday (May 1) on Billboard, choosing the superstar team-up as their favorite music release this week.
“Bring Your Love” rose to the top in a week that also delivered new music from Zara Larsson, Kacey Musgraves and Bella Poarch, plus the new soundtrack accompanying the box office hit The Devil Wears Prada 2. At the poll’s closing time on Sunday, Madonna and Sabrina had amassed an overwhelming 88.99% of the vote.
Interestingly, there was a Madonna and Devil Wears Prada crossover over the weekend in movie theaters, where a teaser for Madonna’s upcoming Confessions II album played ahead of the film. The promo spot featured Madonna and Vogue‘s Anna Wintour, who’s ready to hear the confessions to come on July 3.
But first, it’s time for “Bring Your Love” to shine.
The Madonna x Sabrina duet is meant for the dancefloor, or at least meant to put your mind in that transcendent space.
The pair debuted the single in Madonna’s surprise guest appearance during Carpenter’s recent Coachella set, then officially unleashed the studio version of the song on Friday. With it came a vibrant visualizer that puts the lyrics of “Bring Your Love” front and center, in bold text. On the track’s verses, the two artists make declarations like “Don’t comment on my ideas/ I don’t want your judgment or your expectations” and “Don’t rely on my moral compass/ Or my discretion, I have a confession.”
The chorus: “Bring your love ’cause you cannot shake me/ Bring your love ’cause you’ll never break me/ Bring your love ’cause you cannot take me down.”
Madonna co-produced “Bring Your Love” with longtime collaborator Stuart Price, who worked with her on 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor and has maintained the musical director position on several of the star’s tours.
Among the new releases trailing behind “Bring Your Love” on the poll this week are Bella Poarch’s “Ribcage,” Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun: Girls Trip album, Kacey Musgraves’ Middle of Nowhere album and the soundtrack for The Devil Wears Prada 2; the sequel to the original 2006 film leads the box office this weekend, opening with $77 million in North America and $156.6 million overseas, for a global total of $233.6 million.
See the final results of this week’s poll below.
Great news for the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers has turned out to be not so great for Bruce Springsteen fans. After the Sixers advanced to the second round of the NBA finals by beating the Boston Celtics in a playoff series for the first time in 44 years — besting their rivals 109-100 in game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinals series on Saturday (May 2) and becoming just the 14th team in league history to come back from a 3-1 deficit — The Boss and the E Street Band have reshuffled their Land of Hope & Dreams North American tour.
“Due to the NBA and NHL playoff schedule, the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert at Xfinity Mobile Arena has been rescheduled for May 30,” the band wrote on Instagram over the weekend. Tickets for the original date, May 8, will be honored on the new date.
The announcement came as both the Sixers and the city’s NHL team, the Flyers, have advanced in the 2026 playoffs. The Sixers will be back at Xfinity on May 8 to play the New York Knicks in game three of their series, followed by the Flyers, who will face the Carolina Hurricanes at home on May 7 and May 9.
The original E Street Band date was squeezed in between a run of New York shows, including a show on Tuesday (May 5) in Elmont, N.Y. bookended by the first of two shows at Madison Square Garden on May 11 (with a second one on May 16) and a stop at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 14. The Philly show will now come after what was supposed to be the E Street Band’s May 27 finale at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
The latter date was a pointed booking, as it would have wrapped the tour on the doorstep of Springsteen’s frequent target during the tour’s run: President Donald J. Trump. The Boss launched the tour in Minneapolis on March 31, the site of the killing of two American citizens by Trump’s immigration enforcement agency during a surge in the city earlier this year. The routing was a clear rejoinder to Trump’s actions in the Twin Cities, which Springsteen also reacted to with the flash-release of the searing protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” which the Boss debuted at a show by fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tom Morello at the legendary First Avenue club in the city on Jan. 30, less than a week after the track was written and recorded.
Donald Trump is claiming that his dance moves to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” helped drive a resurgence of the song on the Billboard charts.
During a speaking engagement at The Villages retirement community in Florida on Friday (May 1), the U.S. president took credit for the 1970s smash hit topping Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart in late 2024, more than four decades after its original release.
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“That song was No. 5 32 years ago, and it went to No. 1 32 years later,” Trump incorrectly stated during his speech. “It went to No. 1 for months during the last months of the campaign.”
The ubiquitous disco-era track — described by Trump as the “gay national anthem” — was frequently used during his 2024 presidential campaign and spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Top Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart that November. Following its original release in late 1978, “Y.M.C.A.” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In December 2024, Village People founder Victor Willis spoke out about why he allowed Trump to use “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies and events leading up to his election win. The musician originally asked Trump to stop using the song in 2020 but later reconsidered after realizing that the politician seemed to “genuinely like” it and was “having a lot of fun” with “Y.M.C.A.,” he wrote in a lengthy Facebook post in late 2024. Willis also noted that the dance tune has only “benefited greatly” in terms of chart placements and sales since Trump incorporated it into his campaign.
“Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A.,” Willis wrote. “And I thank him for choosing to use my song.”
During his speech on Friday, Trump also noted that his wife, Melania Trump, isn’t a fan of his onstage reaction to “Y.M.C.A.” “She hates when I dance to what is sometimes referred to as the gay national anthem,” the president said. “She hates it.”
He added, “We love that song. But [Melania] goes, ‘Darling, please.’ You know, she’s a very elegant woman. She goes, ‘Darling, please don’t dance. It’s not presidential.’ I said, ‘It may not be presidential, but I’m leading by 20 points in the polls or something.’ ”
Trump ended his speech by showcasing his signature dance — featuring fist pumps and hip shakes — as “Y.M.C.A.” played at the close of his address at the Florida retirement community.
Back when Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving global tour was announced last summer, a month before the album’s release itself, you’d be forgiven for thinking some of the venue choices were punchy. Prior to this run, Dean’s biggest show in the capital had been at London’s 3,500 capacity Eventim Apollo, and debut album Messy topped out at No. 4. Now it’s six sold-out nights at the O2 Arena to a combined 120,000 fans. Now? It feels like she could have done six more, judging by the clamor for tickets at this U.K. run before the tour goes global.
The Art of Loving looks set to be one of the U.K.’s defining albums this century. Since its release it has scarcely left the top five of the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart and has earned eight weeks at the summit. The LP has collected the best album prize at the BRITs — and Dean herself won best new artist at the Grammys, a rare feat for a British artist. Expect it to pick up an album of the year nod at next year’s ceremony and be a favorite to win.
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Beyond the commercial heft, Dean’s The Art of Loving was built for broad appeal. The LP deftly glides between pop smashes (“Man I Need”), soul-infused groovers (“Baby Steps”) and intimate R&B (“A Couple Minutes”). The album’s visual aesthetics — and Dean herself — are leading its own inimitable style; the amount of polka dot skirts and floating dresses, Dean’s signature style, worn by fans give viral math-rock duo Angine de Poitrine a run for their money.
Now she’s bringing all of those sounds and visual references to life with a powerhouse show, one that’ll be one of 2026’s most sought-after tickets. These were the best moments from Dean’s Saturday night (May 2) showcase at London’s O2 Arena.
The Michael Jackson film Michael has grossed $424.8 million worldwide in its first 10 days of release, according to boxofficemojo.com. That already places it at No. 2 on Billboard’s list of music biopics with the highest worldwide grosses. Jackson has a long history of ranking No. 1 on lists, dating back to The Jackson 5 landing their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Want You Back” in 1970, but that will be a tough assignment in this case. The all-time top-grossing music biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, grossed $910.8 million worldwide.
According to boxoffice mojo figures, international ticket sales account for nearly two-thirds of Michael‘s boxoffice total to date. International is responsible for 66.1% of the boxoffice tally, with the other 33.9% coming from the U.S. and Canada.
Michael has already outperformed the 2009 concert film/documentary hybrid Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which grossed $268 million worldwide.
Of note: Graham King, who co-produced Michael with longtime Jackson associates John Branca and John McClain, also co-produced Bohemian Rhapsody and a third music biopic on this list, Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons.
Here are the highest-grossing biopics of musicians in terms of worldwide box office. We didn’t include a few high-grossing films about real-life music personalities because the subjects are not well-known music stars in their own right. These include The Sound of Music (which tells the story of Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers); Green Book (which deals with a road trip taken by pianist and composer Don Shirley); Florence Foster Jenkins (about an heiress and hopelessly untalented soprano by that name); and Music of the Heart (about violinist and music educator Roberta Guaspari). Meryl Streep starred in the latter two films.
Here are the 25 biopics of music stars with the highest worldwide grosses.
Olivia Rodrigo playfully reflected on some of her career highlights during her Saturday Night Live monologue.
The 23-year-old pop star pulled double duty on May 2, serving as both host and musical guest on the late-night sketch comedy show.
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In her opening monologue, Rodrigo said it had always been her dream to host SNL before poking fun at her age.
“I grew up watching the show, and they say your favorite SNL cast is the one you watched as a teenager,” the singer said, rattling off several current cast members. “Mine is Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson and Chloe Fineman. And they all came back this week just to cheer me on. How sweet is that?”
She then plugged her upcoming album, joking about its unusually long title.
“My last two albums were called Sour and Guts, and this new one is called You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” Rodrigo said. “I’ve learned more words, guys. Yay!”
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, her third studio album, is scheduled for release on June 12.
The “Drop Dead” hitmaker also revisited her early acting days on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark, where she starred alongside her former co-star Jake Paul.
“When I was 13, I was on a Disney show called Bizaardvark, and we had an incredible cast, which included acting legend Jake Paul,” Rodrigo said. “And we’d always talk about our futures, me and Jake. I’d say, ‘I really wanna create music that explores the complexities of girls my age,’ and he’d say, ‘Well, one day I really wanna beat up old guys on Netflix.’”
The joke references Paul’s 2024 boxing match against Mike Tyson, which streamed on Netflix. “And we both did it, hooray!” she added.
Rodrigo closed her monologue with a parody of her 2021 breakout hit “Drivers License,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The updated version found Rodrigo singing about getting her real ID instead of a driver’s license.
“You know, a lot has changed for me since my first single ‘Drivers License,’ which was about the biggest event in my life when I was a teenager. And now that I’m older, I decided to write a new song about the most recent big event in my adult life, and I really hope it speaks to you,” she said before launching into the parody.
“I got my real ID last week, showed up at the DMV. I sat there waiting 14 hours, with 9 forms to prove it’s me,” Rodrigo sang while seated behind a piano.
Elsewhere in the episode, Rodrigo performed her previously released track “Drop Dead,” which has already become her fourth No. 1 on the Hot 100, and debuted the new song “Begged.”
Watch Rodrigo’s SNL monologue below.
Twenty years after the original, the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada made a splash in its first weekend in theaters. Driven largely by women, The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned $77 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $156.6 million internationally, according to studio estimates Sunday (May 3). It easily topped the box office and bumped Michael to second place, though the musical biopic held well in its second weekend, falling only 44%.
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The Walt Disney Co.’s 20th Century Studios opened The Devil Wears Prada 2 in 4,150 locations in North America. Women made up about 76% of the ticket buyers, according to PostTrak exit polls; 74% said they would “definitely recommend” the movie to friends. Critics were a bit mixed on the sequel, which finds Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs working once more for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly at the fictional Runway magazine in a much-depleted media landscape.
The movie cost a reported $100 million to produce — a significant boost from the first movie’s $35 million production budget. But as filmmaker David Frankel told The Associated Press recently, “As it turns out, you know, by the time you finish paying all the biggest movie stars in the world, you still end up with basically the same budget for making the movie as we did the first one.”
Stars Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci have been on a fashion-forward global publicity blitz for weeks, with glamorous stops in Tokyo, London and New York. Even Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the Prada-clad devil, has been involved this time, appearing with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of Vogue.
The first movie opened in June 2006 and would go on to earn over $326 million worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. And perhaps more importantly, it firmly became part of the culture thanks in part to its ever-quotable likes (“gird your loins,” “groundbreaking,” “that’s all”). Legacy sequels are never a sure thing, but this time anticipation was high: According to Nielsen, streaming viewership for The Devil Wears Prada was up 428% from March 2026 to April 2026.
Second place went to Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael, which made $54 million in its second weekend in North America, where it’s playing on 3,955 screens. Its running worldwide total is already $423.9 million. Universal Pictures is handling the international release.
“This is on the great end of what we had speculated might happen, but we were very confident that we were going to have a great hold even with the assumption that Prada would do a lot of business,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson. “The conventional wisdom that a new giant movie can knock out a movie that has planted itself is constantly proven inaccurate.”
This weekend marks the start of Hollywood’s summer movie season, a crucial 18-week corridor that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for around 40% of the annual box office. There are often Marvel blockbusters programmed as the season’s kickoff, but the combined power of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael wasn’t a shabby substitute.
“This is a really solid weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “It’s this irresistible combination that more than makes up for the fact that there’s not a Marvel movie to kick off the summer movie season.”
Prada alone actually did better business than last year’s summer kickoff Marvel movie, Thunderbolts. There were several other new films in theaters this weekend as well, including the Adam Scott-led horror movie Hokum, Andy Serkis’s animated adaptation of Animal Farm and the Aaron Eckhart- and Ben Kingsley-led survival movie Deep Water.
They all opened behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which made $12.1 million in its fifth weekend, and Project Hail Mary, which made $8.6 million in its seventh weekend. Neon’s Hokum led the newcomers with $6.4 million, rounding out the top five, followed by the very poorly reviewed Animal Farm with $3.4 million. Deep Water opened to $2.2 million.
In the top four movies, Dergarabedian has noticed a trend: “Over the past couple of months, moviegoers have really embraced pure, escapist entertainment,” he said.
The annual box office is currently running about 14% up from last year, with about $2.8 billion in domestic ticket sales to date.
Noah Kahan achieves his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as The Great Divide debuts atop the list dated May 9. The set, Kahan’s fourth full-length studio project, earned 389,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending April 30, according to Luminate.
That marks Kahan’s biggest week by units, the largest week for a rock album by units since the chart began measuring by units at the end of 2014 and the third-biggest week of 2026 among all albums.
Further, The Great Divide lands 2026’s largest streaming week of any album. It also claims the biggest vinyl sales week for a rock album in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991). (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)
The Great Divide is Kahan’s fifth charted effort on the Billboard 200 and his second top 10. He previously topped out at No. 2 with Stick Season, in 2024. That set returns to the top 10, rising 11-10 in its 179th week on the chart.
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Kehlani captures her fourth top 10 with the No. 4 debut of her self-titled effort, while Michael Jackson’s chart-topping Thriller re-enters the chart at No. 7 following the debut of the Michael biopic in movie theaters.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 9, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 5. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X and Instagram.
Of The Great Divide’s 389,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 212,000 (equaling 215.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks, Kahan’s best streaming week and the biggest streaming week of 2026; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 175,000 (his best sales week; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000.
With 389,000 equivalent album units earned, The Great Divide scores the biggest week for a rock album since the Billboard 200 began measuring by units in December 2014. It surpasses the previous high by a rock set in that span, by the No. 1 debut of Dave Matthews Band’s Come Tomorrow, with 292,000 units (June 23, 2018). Plus, with 175,000 copies sold in pure album sales, the set notches the largest sales week for a rock album in nearly seven years, since Tool’s Fear Inoculum bowed at No. 1 with 248,000 (Sept. 14, 2019).
Vinyl purchases comprise 118,000 of The Great Divide’s first week, which is both Kahan’s best week ever on vinyl and the best sales week on vinyl for a rock album in the modern era.
The Great Divide was announced on Jan. 28, and the album’s release on April 24 was preceded by its title track, which spends an 11th week at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart this week (the most weeks atop the chart this decade). The track debuted and peaked at No. 6 on the all-genre multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (Feb. 14-dated list), marking Kahan’s highest-charting hit ever.
The album’s first week got a boost from its availability across nine vinyl variants (including a signed edition and a Target-exclusive set with two bonus live tracks), three CD editions (including a signed edition and a Target-exclusive with two bonus live tracks) and a deluxe digital download and streaming version that added four bonus studio songs (dubbed The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs).
Kahan will launch his The Great Divide Tour on June 11 in Orlando, Florida.
A pair of former No. 1s follows Kahan on the latest Billboard 200, as Ella Langley’s Dandelion drops a spot to No. 2 (112,000 equivalent album units, up 6%) and Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem dips 2-3 (81,000, down 3%).
Kehlani captures her fourth top 10-charted album on the Billboard 200 as her self-titled set debuts at No. 4 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned — the biggest debut for an R&B album by a woman in 2026. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 45,000 (equaling 45.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 5 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 24,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
The new album was preceded by a trio of top 10s on the Hot R&B Songs chart, including the five-week No. 1 “Folded,” also her first top 10 on the all-genre Hot 100, reaching No. 6 in January. Kehlani was released on five vinyl variants (including a signed edition), six CD variants (including multiple signed editions), and via a standard digital and streaming edition and a deluxe “Uncut” digital download edition with 10 additional tracks.
BTS’ former No. 1 ARIRANG falls 4-5 on the latest Billboard 200 (56,000 equivalent album units, down 8%), while Justin Bieber’s SWAG slips 5-6 (47,000, down 22%).
Michael Jackson’s Thriller re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 7 with 45,000 equivalent album units earned (up 425%), following the April 24 release of the Michael biopic in movie theaters and its blockbuster opening weekend at the U.S. and Canada box office. Thriller, which spent 37 weeks at No. 1 in 1983-84 — the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a singular artist — was last in the top 10 on the Dec. 3, 2022-dated chart, when it jumped 115-7 after its 40th anniversary reissue.
Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving falls 6-8 on the latest Billboard 200 (43,000 equivalent album units, down 7%), Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time drops 10-9 (39,000, down 2%) and Kahan’s Stick Season steps 11-10 (38,000, down 2%).
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.