Fontaines D.C. has pulled the curtain back on its next era, with the Dublin-formed band’s new album, Dopamine Chamber, confirmed to arrive on Oct. 16 via XL Recordings.

News of the forthcoming LP arrives alongside its punchy lead single, “Marianne,” which received its live debut during a headline gig at the Baluarte de la Candelaria venue, in Cadiz, Spain, on Aug. 8.

According to the press release, Dopamine Chamber was produced by James Ford, who worked with the band on its previous two albums — Skinty Fia and Romance. The album was recorded between London, the English countryside and Palermo, and sees the band embrace a darker, electronic-infused sound. Conor Curley, the band’s guitarist, said in a statement that the sonic shift and new influences is the band “trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.”

Lead single “Marianne,” the band said, was partly inspired by Netflix thriller series Ripley (2024) starring Adam Scott, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Listen to the track below.

Dopamine Chamber marks Fontaines D.C.’s fifth record to date, following Dogrel (2019), A Hero’s Death (2020), Skinty Fia (2022) and Romance (2024). The latter was nominated for the Mercury Prize and won the band the 2025 BRIT award for international group; it also peaked No. 2 the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart while becoming the group’s first entry on the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 97).

After meeting at music college in the Irish capital in 2014, the five-piece has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed rock bands of the past decade, earning consistent critical acclaim while growing its audience and leveling up to arena-sized headline shows. Fontaines D.C. has notched multiple Grammy Award nominations across its career, starting with a best rock album nod for A Hero’s Death at the 2021 ceremony, followed by two nominations in 2025 for Romance (best rock album) and the single “Starburster” (best alternative music performance).

The band will headline Reading & Leeds Festival on Aug. 30, appearing alongside fellow bill-toppers Charli xcx, RAYE, Dave, Florence + The Machine and Chase & Status.

Beabadoobee, Jorja Smith and Nemzzz are returning to their roots for a run of new intimate live performances with Spotify.

Dubbed Hometown, the three-part series launches next month, with Smith kicking things off in her stomping ground of Walsall, near Birmingham, on Sept. 6. Nemzzz follows in Manchester on Sept. 12, while Beabadoobee will close out the run in London on Sept. 17. Venues for each show are yet to be announced.

The shows will give the trio an opportunity to perform in the cities where their respective musical journeys began. Top listeners of each artist will be invited to attend the performances, which will later be released as exclusive concert films. Spotify will also partner with each artist on supporting local community initiatives, including donations to youth organisations.

Smith, who releases her third studio album What Are The Odds this Friday (Aug. 21), said in a press release that “Walsall is where I first started writing and recording music as a teenager.” She added, “It’s where my love of music began and the people, experiences and sense of community there continue to influence my creativity today. It’s home, home is where my heart is and home is where I found my voice! I hope it’s a moment that inspires the next generation to believe that big things really can come from Walsall.”

Manchester-born rapper Nemzzz, meanwhile, is gearing up to drop new record Locked In on Sept. 4. “I’ve always made a point of celebrating Manchester and representing where I’m from, so getting to do Hometown with Spotify feels like a natural extension of that,” he said.

“There’s a pride that comes with doing it at home, around the people and places that have been there from the beginning. No matter where this takes me, I’ll always find a way to bring it back home.”

Beadoobee will follow with her forthcoming LP Pylon on Sept. 18, marking the follow-up to her twice BRIT-nominated 2024 album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves. As part of her Hometown event, she will support The Avenues, a specialist social care charity in west London.

“London has always felt like home to me, it’s where I started finding my people, making music, playing tiny shows and figuring out what I wanted to do, so Hometown feels really special,” she said.

“It’s also really cool that we’re also able to give something back to the community with [west London social care charity] The Avenues and support young people locally, that part feels really important to me.”

The Hometown series also follows a recent run of Spotify live projects that put U.K. artists and their biggest fans in more intimate settings. In May, the platform brought Skye Newman to Hackney Church for a special performance celebrating her SE9 project, with the resulting show released as an exclusive live film.

Speaking to Billboard U.K., Andy Sloan-Vincent, managing director at Spotify (U.K., Ireland, and Netherlands) explained the streaming platform’s approach to supporting homegrown talent via live initiatives: “Skye is a [Spotify] Radar artist in the U.K., which means we’ve made the commitment to develop her. She has an incredible voice; when you go into the room with her, everyone wants her to win,” he said. 

“I think the reason we want to get behind artists like that is because we want the artist to win. That’s our outlook on things.”

Jessie Parker, the festival director of Australia and New Zealand’s Laneway Festival, is stepping down after 16 years with the touring event, she announced this week.

Parker shared the news in a LinkedIn post on Monday (Aug. 17), saying she will leave the role at the end of the month. “After 16 years with Laneway Festival, and six incredible years at the helm as General Manager / Festival Director, it is time for me to wrap up this chapter and step down at the end of this month,” she wrote.

Parker joined Laneway as an event assistant and rose through the organization over the following decade to become general manager and, in May 2025, festival director for Australia and New Zealand — one of the highest-ranking female executives in the country’s live-music industry.

“Reflecting on where it all started as an event assistant, I never could have imagined the wild, rewarding journey ahead,” she wrote. “To go from managing resident comms and running accred around the site, to leading six simultaneous touring events across Australia and New Zealand has been the privilege of a lifetime.”

Her departure caps a high point for the festival. Laneway’s 2025 run was its most successful, drawing 200,000 attendees across sold-out shows in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, with a bill led by Charli XCX, Clairo, BICEP and Olivia Dean. The festival went on to win the inaugural ARIA Award for Best Festival and was named Music Event of the Year in New Zealand.

Parker pointed to the industry work behind the scenes as her proudest contribution, citing her roles on the Australian Festivals Association board and the NSW Music Festivals Roundtable “during a transformative era for live music.”

Parker did not detail her next move, saying only that she is “excited for what comes next and fully open to new opportunities.” She did not announce a successor, and Laneway — part of the TEG group, with co-founders Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio — has not yet named a replacement.

The exit comes at a pivotal moment for the festival. Laneway returns to Australia and New Zealand in 2027, but announced last week that it will not visit Adelaide or Perth next year, scaling back to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, with venues, dates and lineup still to come.

The pullback lands amid a turbulent stretch for Australia’s festival sector, which has seen a wave of cancellations and closures in recent years. Laneway marked its 21st year in 2026 with a lineup headlined by Chappell Roan, alongside Wet Leg, Wolf Alice, PinkPantheress, Geese and Lucy Dacus.

Shakira has committed an initial $1.25 million to help rebuild schools damaged by the earthquake that struck her native Colombia, announcing the pledge during a surprise visit to one of the hardest-hit regions of the country.

The Colombian superstar traveled Monday (Aug. 17) to Quibdó, the capital of the province of Chocó, where nearly 200 schools have reported damage following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, killing hundreds of people. She toured damaged classrooms, meeting students and educators, and met with Chocó’s governor, Nubia Carolina Córdoba, and Quibdó’s mayor, Rafael Bolaños, to hear about the region’s needs.

The $1.25 million commitment brings together several partners: $500,000 from Shakira and Live Nation, $500,000 from the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, and $250,000 from CAF, the development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. The funds, channeled through Shakira’s Fundación Pies Descalzos (Barefoot Foundation), will go toward rebuilding schools and getting children back into classrooms.

Philanthropist Howard Buffett, who accompanied Shakira on the visit and has partnered with her on education projects in Colombia before, announced that his foundation would separately support the reconstruction of 10 additional schools in Chocó. “When she calls, I come,” Buffett said during the visit.

Shakira framed the effort around the long-term stakes for the region’s children.

“What worries me the most is that schools are not rebuilt once this emergency is over,” she told journalists. “Every day that children don’t go to school is a day they miss out on their future.” Her foundation has operated in Chocó for more than two decades, running two schools in the region.

“It’s a place I love, a place where I’ve seen our students grow in our classrooms,” she said. “I really want to see it rebuild again.” She added that she planned to dedicate her personal efforts to rebuilding a local technological university in the province.

Chocó is one of Colombia’s poorest and most isolated regions — an area roughly the size of Switzerland where towns are connected largely by rivers and unpaved roads, complicating relief efforts. Shakira’s pledge is among a wave of commitments from Latin American artists following the disaster. Over the weekend, Marc Anthony and Chayanne joined dozens of artists at a Miami benefit concert for earthquake relief in Colombia and Venezuela, while Karol G pledged to match fan donations to her Con Cora Foundation during a three-night run at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles.

One of the most successful Latin artists in history, Shakira has long paired her career with philanthropy in her home country. She scored a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with 2006’s “Hips Don’t Lie” featuring Wyclef Jean, one of the best-selling singles of the century, and holds the record for the most Latin Airplay No. 1s of any woman, with 21. She headlined the halftime show at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final in July and was named Billboard’s inaugural Latin Woman of the Year in 2023. She founded Fundación Pies Descalzos in 1997 to expand educational access for children in Colombia.

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It’s late afternoon in Seoul and the air is thick with humidity as throngs of sun-soaked fans push toward the main stage at Waterbomb, the K-pop music festival that merges stripped-down artist performances with over-the-top hydrotechnics and water gun battles.

Backstage, Karina is surrounded by a team of handlers fussing about, each tasked with making sure the aespa star is ready for her solo headlining performance on stage. A hairstylist adjusts the singer’s middle part to make sure it is sitting just right, while another woman adjusts her outfit, which on this day consists of a mesh football jersey layered over a lime green bodysuit and leopard-print shorts. Representatives from Sprite, which sponsors Waterbomb and employs Karina as a brand ambassador, mill about, eager to get a product plug in during the “Up” singer’s set.

The Sprite team has hired an interpreter for Karina’s backstage interviews and she stands to the side waiting to be called into action, but the singer politely declines and insists on speaking for herself.

“I’m so excited,” the singer tells Billboard about her performance. “The energy of Waterbomb is amazing because so many people will be watching me perform, and I always feel the crowd’s love and support for me.”

Still, there’s one thing she’s nervous about: “I’m excited, but I’m afraid of getting water on my face,” Karina admits, blushing. “I have to be careful of the makeup.”

The singer’s answer seems to sum up the duality of Karina perfectly: at once carefree and cautious, eager to let loose onstage and perform for her fans, but always in total control of her vocals, choreography and — on this day — her job as a global model for Sprite.

Indeed, the singer’s Waterbomb set is peppered with Sprite shout-outs, from Karina taking a big sip of the brand’s new Sprite Zero With Tea release, to performing her songs against a giant green background. After her set, she’ll head to the Sprite side stage (in a branded green tank top) where she’ll dutifully answer pre-approved questions about her favorite drink flavor (the Sprite Zero With Tea, of course) and pose for photos under a giant blow-up can of the lemon-lime soda. The Sprite reps can take a breather. This girl always delivers.

It’s been six years since Karina burst onto the scene as the leader of aespa, the K-pop group known for their hyperpop sound and futuristic style. Since then, she’s been consistently in the limelight, fronting countless magazine covers and campaigns, while landing award nominations for everything from her singing and rapping, to brand cache. In 2024, Karina released her first solo endeavor, with the hip-hop track “Up,” taken from aespa’s digital single album, SYNK: Parallel Line. The song debuted at number 27 on the Billboard Global 200 chart in its first week — no small feat considering other artists on the chart that week included Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. “Up” has since accumulated almost 200 million streams on Spotify to date.

Waterbomb was only the singer’s “second solo stage,” as she explains, and Karina says she’s eager to showcase more of what she can do on her own, though she knows it will take time to find her individual sound apart from the group (for what it’s worth, the medley of aespa songs that she performed on stage at Waterbomb drew some of the loudest cheers of her set, and she would reunite with her group mates days later at Lollapalooza 2026).

She’s also been busy on aespa’s SYNK : COMPLæXITY trek, the group’s fourth world tour, while fulfilling her brand partnership obligations with everyone from Sprite and Prada, to Converse and Chanel. As the face of the the former’s “It’s That Fresh” campaign, Karina joins Spanish singer Omar Montes to promote Sprite’s commitment to championing music and community, while celebrating “fresh takes, street culture and authentic self-expression,” per a release. Go anywhere in Seoul and you’re bound to see billboards of the singer with a can of Sprite in hand (though she sheepishly admits that coffee is her go-to drink these days: “I can’t eat a lot before a performance, but honestly, I drink a lot of iced coffee,” she says).

Despite her busy schedule, the artist says she’s been enjoying some downtime too, catching up on books (“I’m reading ‘The Alchemist’ in Korean,” she shares), relaxing with a face mask, and keeping a notepad-style journal to record her thoughts. What kinds of things does she write down? “I write down favorite lines from my books and memories from my travels,” she says. “And I’m always writing lyrics.”

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While Karina can’t share too much about what she’s working on, she says she’s always excited to travel and tour to “see the fans.” It’s a sentiment shared by Sprite, who tapped Karina as a brand ambassador back in 2025, and calls her one of the “most culturally resonant voices in the world.”

“Sprite’s role in music has always been to serve as a platform for the freshest voices and freshest experiences,” offers Oana Vlad, VP Sprite Global Brand. “You see it through the partnerships that we have now with artists like Karina, who we’ve been partnering with for several years. I think she’s much more well-known than when we started our partnership.”

“Music has always been a core part of Sprite’s cultural DNA and one of the ways we connect with culture around the world,” Vlad adds. “We’re championing the people and communities shaping what’s next, from festival experiences to original music collaborations.”

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As Vlad explains, “If I could summarize the Sprite brand for you in one sentence, we refer to it as ‘ultimate refreshment with cultural edge.’”

Why sponsor Waterbomb? “We always say that for Sprite live experiences, refreshment has to be tasted, seen, felt and heard,” she says.

Back at the festival, Karina is approaching the end of her set when she finally steps behind the massive yellow water canons on stage, which performers ranging from Kiss of Life to Shownu and Hyungwon from Monsta X have been using to soak the crowd throughout the three-day outdoor event. “Thank you Waterbomb!” Karina shouts from the stage, as she aims the super soakers towards fans who have been lapping up every second of her set.

The cameras zoom in on the K-pop superstar as she smiles and waves goodbye. Her hair is now a little wetter, yet still perfectly in place, and her outfit has held up to her energetic stage performance, which saw her dancing, jumping and even running into the crowd at one point. As Karina’s face is beamed onto the big screen, you can’t help but feel caught up in the same excitement she had gushed about just before she stepped foot on that stage.

And there’s one more thing you notice.

With the sun beginning to set, sweaty fans raucously chanting her name, and droplets of water still hanging in the air, the singer is literally glowing. And her makeup is perfectly in place.

The Jonas Brothers really are taking it all over again.

After selling out their headlining shows at Madison Square Garden, Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas announced Monday (Aug. 17) that their Burning Up Tour All Over Again will officially expand into a 45-city North American tour this fall. What started as a special revival of one of the band’s most iconic eras is now becoming a full-fledged arena run.

The tour will kick off Sept. 25 at Boston’s TD Garden and make stops in cities including Toronto; Washington, D.C.; Miami; Los Angeles; Seattle; and Denver before wrapping Dec. 21 with home state show at Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center.

For Jonas Brothers fans, the name is more than just a clever throwback. The original Burning Up Tour launched in 2008 and became a defining moment in the group’s Disney-era rise to superstardom. The new trek promises to revisit that era and bring the experience to fans who couldn’t make it to the band’s New York shows.

“Our last tour reminded us just how much this music means to us and to the fans who’ve been with us from the start,” the brothers said in a statement shared with Billboard. “The response was so overwhelming announcing the MSG shows that we knew we couldn’t stop at New York.”

Seemingly, the Jonas Brothers aren’t the only ones getting in on the nostaglia.

Magnus Ferrell, Franklin Jonas (yes, the fourth Jonas brother, lovingly nicknamed Bonus Jonas) and All Time Low will join the band as special guests on select dates, adding some new blood to a tour built around revisiting the past.

The announcement comes during a busy stretch for the brothers, as they were just announced as halftime performers for the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia this past week. Then came the Aug. 13 premiere of Camp Rock 3, which brought Kevin, Joe and Nick back to Disney Channel nearly two decades after the original movie helped skyrocket their careers. The sequel began streaming on Disney+ the following day.

On Sunday, the trio took another trip down memory lane when they were inducted as Disney Legends during the D23 fan event. In other words, if 2026 has felt like one giant Jonas Brothers reunion so far, they’re not done yet.

The band is even giving fans something to snack on while they wait for tickets. The Jonas Brothers have teamed up with PopUp Bagels for a limited-edition “Burnin’ Up Schmear,” a Hot Pepper Parmesan Cheese available nationwide through Aug. 26. The collaboration started after Joe Jonas slid into the PopUp Bagels account with a simple message: “Burnin’ up collab?”

As for tickets, the first opportunity comes Tuesday (Aug. 18), when eligible Spotify Premium Top Fans can access the Reserved by Spotify presale beginning at 8:28 a.m. local time. Additional presales will run throughout the week, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday (Aug. 21) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster. VIP packages will also be available, with options including premium tickets, access to a pre-show Burnin’ Up VIP Lounge, exclusive merchandise and pre-show merch shopping.

See the full list of tour dates below.

Ellie Goulding claims in a new lawsuit that her former managers, Ben Mawson and Ed Millet of TaP Management, never told her about Live Nation’s controlling stake in their firm.

The “Lights” singer initiated legal claims for breach of fiduciary duty in the U.K. on July 24, according to court records reviewed by Billboard. She’s suing both Mawson and Millet, who co-founded TaP in 2010, as well as the management firm’s parent company, HNOE Limited.

Goulding signed to TaP in 2018 and remained there through 2025. According to Variety and Rolling Stone, which both obtained copies of the singer’s lawsuit, Goulding is alleging that Mawson and Millet pushed her during this period to do business with Live Nation for touring, merch and a documentary film.

The problem, Goulding reportedly alleges, is that nobody ever disclosed to her that Live Nation had purchased a controlling stake in HNOE in 2015 — or that Live Nation then bought out the rest of the company in 2019.  Unbeknownst to Goulding at the time, the ownership arrangement allegedly subjected Mawson and Millet to contractual obligations that barred them from steering artists under their management away from doing deals with Live Nation.

According to Goulding, this meant that Mawson and Millet did not prioritize finding the best deals for her as a client.

“The defendants had a personal interest or duty in dealings between Ms. Goulding and companies in the Live Nation group, which was in actual or potential conflict with the interests of Ms. Goulding in securing the best commercial terms with whichever promoter, merchandiser or other counterparty it was most advantageous for her to deal with,” reads the lawsuit, per Variety.

Goulding is seeking unspecified financial damages in the lawsuit. Reps for Goulding and TaP did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday (Aug. 17).

Live Nation, which is neither named as a defendant nor accused of any wrongdoing, declined to comment on the case.

Rick Ross is unbeatable in Madden — at least according to him.

The Miami rapper and businessman was recently on an episode of the Complex collectibles show On Display, where he showed off his car, motorcycle and video game collection that he stores in his $50 million Miami airplane hangar.

While showing off his arcade games, host Joe La Puma asked which game Ross is unbeatable in, and that’s when Rozay revealed he has a near-decadelong winning streak when it comes to the popular football game. “I haven’t lost in Madden in maybe eight or nine years,” he claimed. “I used to smoke, sip syrup, and now I could sit there and I could sit there while listening to a beat at the same time.”

He was then asked if he has a specific team that he plays with, to which Ross replied that he has three teams he goes to depending on who his opponent picks. “I can’t disclose who I play with,” he said. “If you ever want any smoke or if somebody wants some smoke, depending on who you are and where you from, then I’ll decide. I got three teams that I could go with. It just depends what I want to exploit you on the most.”

However, when it comes to celebrities, Ross said that he tries to avoid playing his famous friends because their ego could sometimes get the best of them. “Not really,” he replied after being asked if a celebrity has ever challenged him in Madden. “You know celebrities have egos and they know I’ll text them early in the morning, ‘I toasted you. Are you embarrassed?’ That sh– go a long way.

You can watch the full episode of Complex’s On Display below.