Shania Twain is set to host the Academy of Country Music Awards for the first time. The 61st ACM Awards will stream live on Prime Video on Sunday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“I’m thrilled to be hosting the 61st ACM Awards in Las Vegas, a place that feels like home,” Twain said in a statement. “It’s such an honor to be part of this incredible night celebrating Country Music’s biggest stars, especially with so many talented women leading nominations this year. I can’t wait to welcome all of the fans and artists out for this unforgettable night.”

“We are honored to welcome global music superstar Shania Twain as our host this year,” ACM CEO Damon Whiteside said. “We couldn’t imagine a more perfect icon to follow our previous iconic hosts, Dolly, Garth, and Reba, blending one of the most important nights in Country Music with the excitement of Las Vegas.” (Editor’s Note: Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks co-hosted the 2023 ACM Awards. Reba McEntire hosted the last two years.)

While this is Twain’s first time hosting the ACM Awards, she hosted the People’s Choice Country Awards in September 2024. That was the second and apparently final installment of that show, which aired on NBC and streamed on Peacock.

Twain is a three-time winner at the ACM Awards. In 1996, she won both top new female vocalist and album of the year for The Woman in Me. Four years later, she won entertainer of the year. In addition, in 2023, she received an honorary award, the Poet’s Award, in recognition of her songwriting career.

Twain has had six top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, including a pair of No. 1 albums, Up! and Now.  She has had three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – “You’re Still the One,” “From This Moment On” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” Twain, a native of Canada, is also a five-time Grammy Award winner.

Twain’s selection as host was considered a surprise. McEntire has hosted or co-hosted the ACM Awards 18 times and is just one show away from tying Bob Hope‘s record as the most-frequent host of any major awards show. Hope hosted or co-hosted the Oscars 19 times between 1940 and 1978.

This is the second time in two weeks that ACM Awards executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor has confounded expectations with his choice of a host. On April 9, P!nk, who has yet to appear on Broadway (but is a theater fan) was announced as host of the 2026 Tony Awards, another of the many shows Kapoor is overseeing.

Returning to the Sunday night timeslot, the ACM Awards will feature performances by Cody Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Lainey Wilson, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, and Riley Green, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets for the 61st ACM Awards and ACM Awards week events are available for purchase on AXS.com.

Established in 1966, the Academy of Country Music Awards is the longest-running country music awards show. The show made history in 2022 as the first major awards ceremony to exclusively livestream, in collaboration with Prime Video. Fans will also be able to watch this year’s show on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, as well as in the Amazon Music app.

The 61st Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions (DCP). Kapoor and Patrick Menton are executive producers, with Kapoor also serving as showrunner. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music, and Jay Penske and Barry Adelman serve as executive producers for DCP. John Saade will also continue to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.

The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.

The U.K.’s Official Charts Company has shared an update for its leadership following the departure of its former chief executive.

In March, Martin Talbot announced that he was stepping down from the role after 18 years. Talbot assumed the position in 2007 and led the OCC — which tracks music sales in the U.K. — during a revolutionary tenure which saw the charts adapt to new sales strategies and the introduction of streaming services. 

The Official Charts Company publishes a number of charts on a weekly basis, including the Official Albums Chart and Official Singles Chart, both of which are currently topped by Olivia Dean with her The Art of Loving LP and “Rein Me In,” a collaboration with Sam Fender.

In a memo sent to Billboard and a number of clients and partners, Official Charts’ chairman, Drew Hill, shared an update regarding their leadership structure in the coming months.

With immediate effect, Chris Austin and Becca Monahan will jointly assume interim leadership of the company as co-managing directors. Hill adds that “Chris and Becca will be further supported by Lauren Kreisler, ensuring continuity of senior management team leadership, and a consistent focus across all key areas of the business.”

The note continues that over the coming months, “the board will consider the long term requirements” of the Official Charts, and that it is “very much business as usual.” Hill also praised Talbot for his leadership over the past 18 years and said “his leadership has helped shape not only the organisation, but the wider UK music and entertainment landscape and we wish him every success in the future.”

The Official Charts company reports it is due to launch “a brand new, state-of-the-art data system later this year following the largest infrastructure investment in the company’s history” as part of a new contract with market research comapany Kantar, which was finalized in 2025.

Read the full memo below.

Dear clients and partners,

With the recent departure of Official Charts’ CEO Martin, I am writing to share an update about Official Charts’ leadership moving forwards

Naturally, I and the Board want to recognise Martin’s significant contribution to the Official Charts Company. His leadership has helped shape not only the organisation, but the wider UK music and entertainment landscape and we wish him every success in the future.

With immediate effect, Chris Austin and Becca Monahan will jointly assume interim leadership of the company as Co-Managing Directors. Both bring a strong understanding of our business and have the full confidence of the Board to lead the Official Charts in the coming months.

Chris and Becca will be further supported by Lauren Kreisler, ensuring continuity of senior management team leadership, and a consistent focus across all key areas of the business. 

Over the coming months the board will consider the long term requirements of the Official Charts.  In the meantime, it is very much business as usual. Our priorities remain unchanged, and the work Official Charts does with its clients and partners is hugely important. The Board is hugely excited about the future and looking forward to working with the team. 

Regards

Drew Hill

Chair, Board of Directors

RAYE’s career arc is better than any tale told in a Disney film.

Born and raised in London, the singer and songwriter is a former BRIT School student and nominee for BBC Music’s Sound award, an identifier of the next big thing. Then, she landed a record deal with Polydor, a frustrating era that boiled over when, in 2021, she tweeted that the major label wouldn’t let her release an album. Shelved, in the industry vernacular.

RAYE split with the music company and went independent, signing with distribution and artist services company Human Re Sources, a relationship that continues to this day.

Then, the magic happened. In January 2023, RAYE nabbed her first U.K. No. 1 single with “Escapism” (featuring 070 Shake) and went on make history. In March 2024, she collected a record haul of six BRIT Awards, including album of the year and artist of the year. That effort smashed the old record of four awards in one night, held jointly by Harry Styles (2023), Adele (2016) and Blur (1995).

In January 2026, she scored her second U.K. No. 1 with “Where Is My Husband?” It peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, the best placed of her three titles to impact the chart.

“Where Is My Husband” appears on her sophomore studio effort, This Album May Contain Hope, which dropped in March of this year. Hope debuted at No. 1 in the U.K., her first leader. In the United States, she bagged a career best No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart, and she’s set to receive the Hal David Starlight Award at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame gala. A headline spot awaits at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Before all that, RAYE returned to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night (April 21), three years after her performance of “Escapism.” This time, she delivered a double hit of live music. RAYE took the mic for a performance of “Clack Clack Symphony,” shot in black and white. And, in a bonus for guests at the Ed Sullivan Theater and late owls watching at home, RAYE doubled up with performance of “Joy,” dazzling in a yellow summer dress.

For both spots, RAYE was supported by a full band and an ensemble of backing vocalists, including her sisters Lauren (“Amma”) and Abby-Lynn (“Absolutely”).

Watch below.

Olivia Dean now has membership into Spotify’s Billions Club.

The fast-rising British pop star achieves her milestone moment with “Man I Need,” which crosses the threshold with one billion plays on the Sweden-based streaming music platform.

It’s one of many recent plaudits for Dean, who was named best new artist at the 2026 Grammy Awards, swept the 2026 BRIT Awards with four wins, including artist of the year and album of the year, and collected a hattrick of honors at the 2026 MOBO Awards.

Also, Dean is the female artist with the biggest increase in global streams on Spotify in the past year, and she performed her signature song at the Spotify Best New Artist party during Grammy Week.

In Australia, “Man I Need” has collected 20 non-consecutive week at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, making it the second-longest reigning single in the history of the national charts, which were first published in 1983. Only Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” has more weeks at the top (24).

In the United Kingdom, she became the first female solo artist in Official Charts history to have four songs in the top 10 simultaneously, a feat achieved last October with her No. 1 “Man I Need,” along with The Art of Loving cuts “So Easy (To Fall in Love),” “Nice To Each Other,” and her collaboration with Sam Fender, “Rein Me In.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, Dean is the Rookie of the Year for Billboard’s 2025 Greatest Pop Stars series and, earlier this month, was crowned on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart with “Man I Need,” recognizing the most-played song on panel-contributing adult R&B radio stations in the United States.

Dean can add to her collection of silverware at the 71st Ivor Novello Awards, to be presented May 21 in London. Dean is one of the frontrunners at the Ivors, with two nominations: best album and The PRS for Music most performed work categories.

“Man I Need” is now added to Spotify’s Billions Club playlist, which now numbers 1,255 songs. Stream it below.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications today announced the nominees for the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame. The 24 nominees were chosen by the Radio Hall of Fame nominating committee, with input from the radio industry and listeners.

Voting for inductees begins on Friday, April 24, and runs through Friday, May 8. The top six vote recipients will become part of the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame Induction class. The additional inductees that will make up the induction class will be selected by the Radio Hall of Fame nominating committee. This is a mechanism for ensuring balance in each year’s class.                                                   

Nearly 1,000 industry members will receive a ballot on Friday (April 24) to cast votes for up to six nominated individuals. The confidential ballot will be conducted by Votem.com and overseen by Miller Kaplan‘s Andrew Rosen.

The 2026 inductees will be announced on Wednesday, May 20, and be honored at the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago. Information on tickets for the event will be available soon.

Dennis Green, co-chairman of the Radio Hall of Fame, said, in a statement: “This year marks the 38th class of inductees as we celebrate those who have made a lasting impact on the industry — many of whom continue to shape it today. Congratulations to all the nominees.”

Kraig T. Kitchin, co-chairman of the Radio Hall of Fame, added: “This special group of individuals and programs nominated for induction in 2026 epitomizes the wide spectrum of talented individuals our industry is fortunate to rely on and build large audiences around. My congratulations to each of them.” 

Ten of this year’s nominees also appeared on last year’s ballot: Big D & Bubba, Bob Stroud, Enrique Santos, Funkmaster Flex, Joey Reynolds, John & Ken, Kevin Matthews, Kid Leo, Larry Elder and Raul Brindis.

The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. The Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations of the Hall in 1991.

Here’s the complete list of 2026 nominees:

The 2025 inductees were:

Dave Mason, the celebrated singer, songwriter and musician who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as a co-founder of Traffic, died Sunday (April 19) at the age of 79.

“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Dave Mason,” reads a statement from his publicists.

According to reps, Mason passed away peacefully at his home in Gardnerville, NV. Mason, the message continues, “lived a remarkable life devoted to the music and the people he loved.”

Born in post-war England, in 1946, Mason rose to prominence with the blues-rock band Traffic, for which he contributed writing credits and lead vocals for such tracks such as “Hole in My Shoe” and “Feelin Alright?,” which would be recorded by dozens of artists, including Joe Cocker, the Jackson 5, and John Belushi.

Mason also enjoyed an impressive solo career, which got underway in 1970 with his debut solo album, Alone Together, which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and featured the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Only You Know and I Know.” Let It Flow from 1977 was a platinum smash, yielding the single “We Just Disagree.”

As a collaborator, Mason was a wanted man. Across the years, he recorded or performed with the likes of George Harrison, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and others. His guitar work can be heard on Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower,” on the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” McCartney’s “Listen to What The Man Said” and on fellow Beatle Harrison’s own collection All Things Must Pass.

Traffic finally broke up in 1974 after releasing 11 albums, four of which cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200. While active, four Traffic singles crashed the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The rockers reunited two decades later to tour in 1993-94, while Mason hit the road with Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi in 1998.

In 2004, Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member Traffic. Bandmates Capaldi and Steve Winwood performed “Dear Mr. Fantasy” at the ceremony. The following year, Capaldi died after a brief battle with stomach cancer, aged 60.

Mason returned to the Rock Hall in 2009 for an official VIP induction pre-party at the pillar’s museum, where he played an acoustic set that included “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and his rendition of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”

His most recent solo album release, A Shade of Blue, dropped in 2025. However, Mason recently called time on touring after 60 years, citing ongoing health challenges. 

He is survived by his wife and partner, Winifred Wilson, his daughter Danielle, nephew John (Trish) Leonard and niece Michelle Leonard, as well as his brothers in law Sloan (Claudia) Wilson and Walton (Barbara Sims) Wilson. He was preceded in death by his son, True and his sister, Valerie Leonard.

It’s been less than a week since Madonna announced Confessions II, the sequel to her 2005 electro-pop dance classic Confessions On a Dance Floor. But so much has happened in the days since.

After she announced the album’s July 3 release date, Madonna released “I Feel So Free” — the first song from the project — on Friday and then joined Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella weekend 2 to tease their potential Confessions II collab and duet on 1989’s “Like a Prayer” and 1990’s “Like a Prayer.”

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about all the buzz around Madonna and her new album and what we could expect next ahead of the album sequel.

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Ella Langley debuts atop the Billboard 200 with her first No. 1 album Dandelion, while its single “Choosin’ Texas” continues to stand tall at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Plus, how Lady Gaga and Doechii’s “Runway,” from The Devil Wears Prada 2, struts onto the charts and how Coachella headliners Justin Bieber and Carpenter make a big splash on the charts following the festival’s first weekend.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

Keith Urban has identified his rising star.

The Australia-raised country music superstar taps Ethan Calway as the inaugural recipient of the Keith Urban Rising Star Scholarship, a new initiative with the Tamworth Country Music Festival that spotlights domestic country talent that should make international waves.

Urban and Co. started the national search earlier in the year, to find one rising Australian country artist ready to take the next step internationally, an exportable act.

Calway stood out from a “strong field,” reps say.

“Ethan has something really special,” says Urban, who broke the good news with a Zoom call. “There’s a rawness and honesty in what he does that really connects. I’m excited to see what this next chapter brings for him and to be part of that journey.”

As the first recipient, Calway will receive career-changing opportunities in Nashville, including the chance to perform, write, record, and connect with key industry figures and enjoy dedicated recording time at Urban’s studio, The Sound.

Hailing from Warragul, in country Victoria, Calway possesses electrifying guitar skills, a raw, emotive vocal style and an authenticity that signals strong global potential, say organizers of the scholarship, with a knack for blending country, rock and storytelling. Indeed, he has been compared to a young Keith Urban.

He’s not coming in from the cold. Calway was a grand finalist in the 2023 Gympie NAB Talent Search and a top 10 finalist in the 2024 Toyota Star Maker. Then, in 2025, he presented his stuff to the nation on The Voice Australia, where he enjoyed a four-chart during the Blind Auditions, after which he joined Richard Marx’s team.

“His artistry reflects both lived experience and a clear creative vision – marking him as one of Australia’s most exciting emerging voices,” reads a statement following his scholarship win.

To celebrate, Calway drops the new single “Better Tomorrow.” Stream it in full below.

“What an incredible opportunity – I’m beyond grateful to be chosen for something like this,” enthuses Calway. “To learn, write and record in Nashville, and to have that kind of support behind me, is something I’ve always dreamed about. I can’t wait to get over there and make the most of it.”

Look ahead, the Tamworth Country Music Festival and Urban’s teams will work closely with Calway as he soaks up the scholarship experience.

“The response to the scholarship has been extraordinary, and Ethan is a truly deserving recipient,” comments Peter Ross, executive manager of the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

“This initiative reflects the shared values of the Festival and Keith – creating meaningful opportunities for artists to grow and reach new audiences,” Ross continues. “Keith is the living embodiment of the Tamworth pathway to success, and together we are proud to support the next generation of Australian country artists as they take their music to the world.”

A four-time Grammy Award winner, Urban has stayed true to his Australian roots. He has collected six ARIA Awards (in addition to hosting, and performing at the annual event) and won 15 Golden Guitar Awards. In 2025, he was inducted into the Roll of Renown at the Golden Guitar Awards, the highest honor in Australasian country music.

Before he made it big in the United States, Urban cut his teeth busking on Tamworth’s Peel Street, performing in local venues, and won the Star Maker competition at age 22, a moment that provided a launch pad for his career.

Country music is going gangbusters in Australia. “Step Into Country,” a 30-page report from Live Nation, published in July 2025, reinforced that Australia is the third biggest market for the genre, behind the United States and Canada, respectively.

In the previous three years, the volume of country music streams in Australia had lifted by 115%, according to Spotify data detailed in the document, while some two-thirds of respondents were found to follow at least one country music artist on social media.

Almost 80% of Australian music fans said that country music is now “mainstream.”

Anthropic says it’s time to end a copyright lawsuit brought by Universal Music Group (UMG) and other publishers over the use of song lyrics to train Claude, its mega-successful artificial intelligence chatbot.

UMG and the other music companies urged a federal judge last month to find that Anthropic’s use of its intellectual property was not “fair use” — a legal tenet that excludes “transformative” uses of a work from copyright protection. Now the AI giant is hitting back, saying in a Monday (April 20) brief of its own that the publishers cannot “meaningfully dispute that training on lyrics (and other copyrighted text) is transformative.”

According to Anthropic, Claude ingests lyrics alongside trillions of other words to “understand the interrelationships between words and concepts in human language” so it can code software, conduct research and write documents. Anthropic says this is what fair use is all about: turning the publishers’ lyrics into something completely different.

“Claude’s transformative training creates a flexible, general-purpose model that can be used in myriad beneficial ways — the vast majority of which are wholly unrelated to lyrics or music,” write Anthropic’s lawyers.

Anthropic also says the publishers have no evidence that Claude is harming them in the market, which is another element of a judge’s fair use analysis. The AI company points out that the opposite was actually conveyed by UMG’s own chief digital officer, Michael Nash, during the company’s earnings call last month, when he told investors, “Thoughtful analysis will conclude that the impact AI will have on our business will be overwhelmingly net positive.”

In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday (April 21), a rep for the music publishers said, “There is no excuse for Anthropic’s blatant infringement of Publishers’ copyrighted song lyrics.”

“Anthropic’s recent filing is wrong on the facts and the law in numerous respects, and Publishers look forward to rebutting those arguments and correcting the record when they file their opposition brief,” added the rep.

The question of whether AI training constitutes fair use is an unsettled legal question at the heart of dozens of ongoing copyright cases that have been filed against these booming new tech companies in recent years.

The music industry entered this battle on two fronts: publishers led by UMG sued Anthropic in 2023, and then all three major label groups brought their own copyright cases against AI music generators Suno and Udio in 2024. The Suno and Udio lawsuits also remain ongoing, despite some partial licensing settlements inked at the end of last year.