For over 15 years, Drake’s reign has been characterized by — and often maligned for — his versatility. Few rappers have ever ventured into so many genres and subgenres, pushing listeners past their boundaries and turning initial critics into those who have to spin back and say, “I didn’t get (insert song/album) at first, but I love it now.” 

What began as him baring his soul on R&B records, expressing emotions that many men would normally hide, turned into legitimate pop and house smash records as time went on. His 2020s have taken him further into new territory, starting with the full dance album Honestly, Nevermind, and continuing on collaborations with Spanish-language artists on records like “Gently” and “Meet Your Padre,” and, this past weekend, with his club-ready 14-track album MAID OF HONOUR. 

A key piece of these musical journeys has been one of his go-to producers this decade, GORDO, formerly known as Carnage. The Nicaraguan-American DJ has his hands all over the 6 God’s most exploratory (and often polarizing) songs of the last half-decade: “Sticky,” “Massive,” “Calling My Name,” and “Rich Baby Daddy,” just to name a few. 

Now, having placed nine tracks on MAID — plus “WNBA” from HABIBTI — the 35-year-old producer has over 20 songs with The Boy. With songs like “Hoe Phase,” “Outside Tweaking” and “New Bestie” on their collective resume, the producer could rightfully compare his collaborative relationship with Drake to any of the strongest dynamic duos of the 2020s. 

“I grew up as a Drake fan my entire life,” he told Billboard. “You have to give him so much props because he stayed relevant this long, during so many changes in pop culture. That’s the crazy part about it. We’re not talking about a niche rapper… he adapts, and he stays on the ball.”

Read Billboard‘s discussion with GORDO below about witnessing Drake continue to break barriers, why he worked so hard on every record they released together, and what is next for his career.

You told me two years ago that you didn’t think you could make a better album than DIAMANTE and I think you might have outdone yourself. Obviously, MAID isn’t your album in the same way DIAMANTE was, but you have nine out of 14 tracks. What’s your response to that?

Technically speaking, on DIAMANTE, I had a say on everything. On this album, I didn’t have a say on everything, but I was a small tool to this guy’s genius plan. And the best thing about all this was this was about him. It wasn’t about me. I worked so hard on this album because I was rooting so hard for him. I was like, “I want to do everything I can to help and send positive energy toward this legend.”

How do you define your collaborative relationship with him, on top of the fact that you’re such good friends as well?

Sometimes when I’m DJing, I wish I could go and watch myself, to understand it, and also learn. In the same way with music, I wish I could be you guys. I grew up as a Drake fan my entire life. When I was 14, 16 years old, I was listening to this guy. So 20 years later, this guy is over here – every single quarter, he does something that’s like, “Whoa, what is this?” Then, over the years, he keeps doing it, and now people are just like, “Oh no, I don’t like this,” or “This is weird.” 

That’s their new response, yet these songs continue to do great for years and years and years. They love to just talk. That’s the place we’re in. You have to give him so much props because he stayed relevant this long during so many changes in pop culture. That’s the crazy part about it. We’re not talking about a niche rapper. He stays and adapts. He always does something new and inventive. It’s like, “Yo, it’s mind-blowing.” So it’s just kind of insane that he can do that.

Were you able to be in the studio with him to record any of these? If so, what was it like seeing him put together a song like “Road Trips” or “Stuck”?

It’s mind-blowing that we’re getting Drake doing a song with an electro-EDM-trap drop on the second half of “BBW.” Like, what? What are we even talking about right now? He’s entered his “I don’t give a f–k what anyone thinks” era. And we’re talking about a guy that’s really good at making music. That’s the thing; he’s the GOAT because he’s always been able to stay relevant and do things that are culturally relevant. 

And he’s still young as f–k. He’s almost 10 years younger than Kanye. My boy said something yesterday. He was like, “Yo, Drake’s only like getting to the middle of his whole career.” It had me think, “Oh sh-t. That’s actually possible.” We already off rip know we have another 10 years of Drake. That’s kind of insane to think about.

I was listening to Popcast this weekend, and I agreed with their take that MAID OF HONOUR is going to have the most legs in terms of its experimentation. It said a lot that he promoted the album as “I had to make ICEMAN so I could make these other two projects.” 

I appreciate that… The thing is, I feel pride every day getting to work with Drake. He’s allowed me to push the barriers sonically and create music that we believe is timeless. I was shocked too when he was really f–king with this stuff. I think it’s a testament to the fact that there’s more GORDO and Drake to come, if he hopefully decides to keep making music with me. 

And, to be honest, there’s something I want to be super vocal about. A lot of this music couldn’t have been made without ZECCA, my brother from Argentina, and Johan and Richard. Literally, we would link up every couple of months or weeks in random locations, and just cook up. We’d make five to seven different versions of songs. I went to Colombia with Zeka a couple of months ago. Me and him cooked up for a couple of days. Literally, I would leave my computer on and go to sleep. When I would wake up, he’d have made like nine different versions of a song. 

A lot of the music came from these guys, too, so everyone had equal input. You know when you think of guys who are, like, super-geniuses on the computer? That’s them. That’s why the album sounds so good. We need some more light on the producers. 

Seeing all of the directions you’ve been able to go with him, combining your vast tastes in music, what’s next for you? What’s the next mountain for you, or some sounds that you want to explore musically? What’s the next milestone?

I’m working on the next album right now. It’s the new album, and I’m building on TARAKA, my party that I’m doing. I’m doing a crazy show in Chile on June 13. I built a metal coliseum to put inside this venue. Basically, there’s going to be different floors and people around this big circle. We’re going to hang stuff. It’s this crazy concept I’ve been working on for a couple of months. That’s going to be one of my favorite things of the year. 

And then, also my Ibiza residency. I finally got my residency in Ibiza. That’s really one of my most important things that I’m working on right now just because I’ve never had the position to be in a place where I’m “one of the ones” in Ibiza.” That’s very, very rare, especially at a high-level club. Pacha, that’s the best club in the world. 

Do you have your eye on any artists that you’d like to collaborate with in the future, especially with an album in the works?

I hate to say this, but my life has been so “GORDO and Drake, GORDO and Drake, GORDO and Drake,” that I haven’t even had time to think about any of that. I’ve just been so focused on that, on top of touring and DJing. 10-hour set here, 12-hour set there. I don’t even know how I’m functioning, to be honest with you. 

As you said, you’re constantly traveling, on the road, DJing, and partying. When do you get time to rest? What’s GORDO doing in his downtime to get away from all of the craziness?

I am in Thailand resting, recovering. I take health very seriously, so I do a lot of sauna and cold plunges. A lot of cardio. Basically, just getting my life in order and being relaxed. I’m not trying to overly push it. Staying focused. I just want to stay alive. I’m on the peptide swag. 

You were previously Carnage. When do you feel like GORDO really established himself as separate from Carnage and really made his stamp on the game? Or do you feel there’s more to do?

It’s taken time to prove that, but that’s just the journey that we’re on. It’s going really well. It’s a great time to be alive. There are so many blessings happening. So many good things are happening. The best part about it is that there’s so much good music happening.

“The show must go on” might be an oft-repeated adage in showbiz, but when it comes to children’s theater, the curtain rising is not the top priority. “The safety of children is the number one thing,” Ryan French, who has served as managing director at Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) for the last year, tells Billboard.

To that end, even before the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s controversial Operation Metro Surge hit Minnesota in early 2026, the theater “had been preparing for what could be some form of immigration enforcement” in Minneapolis. “We had all our protocols in place on how to read warrants and deal with anyone that would have come specifically to the theater,” explains French, who oversees administrative and operational duties at the CTC.

In January, however, the situation escalated far beyond what anyone expected. Seventeen days after Renée Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent a mile away from the theater, another Minnesotan, Alex Pretti, was shot and killed by ICE agents just two blocks from the children’s theater – despite, like Good before him, seeming to pose no threat to ICE agents.

“That’s when it became very, very real,” says French. With children inside the theater for Saturday classes when Pretti was killed, “we made the decision to continue with the shows where the kids were safest in the building. Then when their parents came to pick them up, we canceled the rest of the day.” Sunday’s slate of programming was scuttled, too. “The National Guard was coming in to basically cordon off the neighborhood so we couldn’t have had a show if we wanted to.”

All in all, six performances of Go, Dog. Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! — a bilingual show based on a popular children’s book — were canceled outright, but the incident’s impact persisted well beyond the days the theater went dark. With ICE still swarming the streets of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota) after killing two U.S. citizens in broad daylight, attendance plummeted. “People canceled, school groups chose not to come,” French explains. “Most people just said, ‘We’re not coming downtown.’”

The drop in ticket sales continued into March, affecting the theater’s next production, Dinosaur World Live, as well. “We saw dramatic decreases in both shows,” French says. “We expect between 65 to 85% of a house filled for our shows at that time of year, and we saw numbers around 40%, almost half of what we would expect.”

Initial estimates placed the CTC’s loss at $230,000 for the period of January and February, but the theater’s estimated loss has soared to $430,000 since then. While French acknowledges you “can’t attribute all of that to necessarily a single incident or single presence,” he points out that Go, Dog. Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve! had been on track to earn its financial goals until Pretti was killed two blocks from the theater, causing an immediate drop in attendance.

Aside from lost income for the six-decade-old children’s theater, which serves the second-largest theater-company-per-capita market after New York City, French bemoans the lost experiences. “For a school matinee, that second grader, that might be their first time seeing live theater,” muses the father of two, surrounded by children’s drawings and a “Hi Dad!” message from one of his kids on a whiteboard.

The CTC is hoping to overperform economically with its current production of The Wizard of Oz, which is on stage through June 14 and closes out the current season. But French is well aware that, ruby slipper miracles notwithstanding, it is “mathematically impossible for us to remake all $430,000 of earlier missed goals.”

Still, the CTC is pursuing “aggressive goals” for the show, a glitzy, crowd-pleasing production directed by CTC artistic director Rick Dildine—and luckily, they are on track to hit their revenue goals for it. Naturally, it helps that The Wizard of Oz is a production with built-in nostalgia and cross-generational name recognition.

“You enter the theater, and your heart is already filled with anticipation, and then it just bursts. It’s so beautiful and well done,” French says. Plus, The Wizard of Oz is hitting the stage in the wake of not one but two blockbuster films based on the Broadway smash Wicked. “For some kids, they don’t even know that there was a show before Wicked,” he laughs. “You’ll hear parents say, ‘This is where that one reference in Wicked comes from.’”

With its emphasis on self-discovery, supporting other people’s dreams and the importance of home, The Wizard of Oz arrives as a fitting finale for the theater’s exceptionally difficult season. “I do think there’s an interesting and heartfelt parallel to what Minnesotans discovered about themselves, the strong internal drive that came out when they needed to get together to take care of their neighbors,” French says when asked of the connection. “We need a little more humanity and fewer screens and isolation. I can’t think of a better way than live theater to have that happen.”

On July 24, a transformative album is rolling out. And it promises to be more than meets the eye – and the ear.

To celebrate 40 years of The Transformers: The Movie, the Nelson Shin-directed animated flick that thrilled (and traumatized) a generation of children well before Michael Bay’s live-action adaptations, Hasbro is giving fans a “reformatted” edition of the film’s iconic, hard-rocking soundtrack.

The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition boasts rerecorded, reimagined versions of all 10 tracks from the original movie soundtrack: the power ballads, the heavy metal headbangers, the instrumentals and the wacky synth-pop parody.

Fans who have the 1986 songs seared into their subconscious can rest easier knowing that one special singer—the soundtrack’s MVP—is bringing his indelible touch back to the Autobots vs. Decepticons battlefield. Stan Bush, the man behind the fist-pumping power ballad “The Touch” and the rousing “Dare,” is on board for this Cybertronian musical odyssey.

“Man, I’m fired up to reprise ‘The Touch’ on this Transformers The Reformatted Edition soundtrack! Coming back to a song that’s touched so many lives is pure magic,” Bush says. “The guys involved with the new recording did a great job! Transformers fans — it’s time to feel the power once more. You got the touch!”

Check out a new music video for the reimagined “The Touch” by Stan Bush below.

The new album is led by a band called The Knights of Unicron, which includes Gus Rios, Matt Harvey and Ross Sewage. Incredibly enough, metal icon Sebastian Bach swings by to sing “Nothin’s Gonna Stand In Our Way,” while Brittney Slayes belts out “The Transformers (Theme).”

Original film composer Vince DiCola also returns to the laser-scorched, robotic realm for this project, with Mark Osegueda biting into “Hunger,” Francesco Cavalieri rebuilding “Instruments of Destruction” and Cold Slither’s Torch taking over for “Weird Al” Yankovic on “Dare to Be Stupid.” The new album is produced by Matt LaPlant.

The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition, a collaboration between Hasbro and the record label Reigning Phoenix Music, hits streaming services July 24 and is also coming out on vinyl in limited editions. You can preorder here.

The 40th anniversary celebration of The Transformers: The Movie is far from over after the release of this album. Starting Sept. 17, the film itself returns to theaters, giving fans the chance to see Optimus Prime, Megatron, Galvatron, Hot Rod, the Sharkticons and more back on the big screen, in all their animated ‘80s glory, only this time augmented by 4K.

‘Til that day, when all are one, check out the full tracklist (and some of the vinyl edition artwork) below.

The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition

1. “The Touch” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Stan Bush (originally recorded by Stan Bush)

2. “Instruments of Destruction” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Francesco Cavalieri (originally recorded by N.R.G.)

3. “Death of Optimus Prime” – Vince DiCola

4. “Dare” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Stan Bush and Vince DiCola (originally recorded by Stan Bush)

5. “Nothin’s Gonna Stand in Our Way” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Sebastian Bach (originally recorded by Spectre General)

6. “The Transformers (Theme)” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Brittney Slayes (originally recorded by Lion)

7. “Escape” – Knights Of Unicron (originally recorded by Vince DiCola)

8. “Hunger” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Mark Osegueda (originally recorded by Spectre General)

9. “Autobot/Decepticon Battle” – Knights Of Unicron (originally recorded by Vince DiCola)

10. “Dare to Be Stupid” – Knights Of Unicron featuring Torch (originally recorded by “Weird Al” Yankovic)

Aqua, the Danish-Norwegian Eurodance group behind one of the 1990s’ most enduring pop anthems, have announced they are ending their run as a live band after three decades together.

Members Lene Nystrøm, René Dif and Søren Rasted shared the news on Instagram on Monday (May 18), posting a joint statement in both Danish and English.

“After many incredible years, we have decided to close the chapter of AQUA as a live band,” they wrote. “When you’ve been together for this long, you also learn when it’s time to protect what you’ve created together. For us, this feels like the right moment to say goodbye, while the memories are still strong, and while the love for the music, the story, and each other remains intact. From the bottom of our hearts: thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey over the past 30 years.”

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Formed in Copenhagen in 1995, Aqua originally comprised four members — Nystrøm, Dif, Rasted and Claus Norreen, who departed in 2016 to pursue other projects. The trio broke through globally with “Barbie Girl,” the third single from their 1997 debut album Aquarium.

The track — a tongue-in-cheek Eurodance number built around the fictional lives of Barbie and Ken — topped charts across Europe and became one of the best-selling singles of the decade, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their success made them the best-selling Danish band of all time, with estimated sales of over 33 million albums and singles worldwide.

The band’s cheeky lyrics attracted legal attention from Mattel, the makers of Barbie, who launched a lawsuit in 2000 claiming the song damaged the brand’s reputation. The case was dismissed in 2002, with the judge famously advising both parties to “chill” — and Aqua later went on to work with Mattel directly on promotional campaigns.

Their sophomore album Aquarius arrived in 2000, after which the band split for the first time. They reunited in 2007 and released Megalomania in 2011 — their third and final studio album — before splitting and reuniting once more in subsequent years.

Their most recent brush with mainstream pop culture came in 2023, when Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sampled “Barbie Girl” on “Barbie World,” recorded for the soundtrack of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie film, earning a Grammy nomination and sending the original back into the UK Top 40 for the first time in 25 years. Their final live performance was in November 2025 at the Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival in India.

Drake sampled Lykke Li’s “Little Bit” on 2009’s So Far Gone, and now he’s interpolated the Swedish singer again, this time her breakthrough hit “I Follow Rivers” nearly two decades later on his new Iceman album, which arrived on Friday.

Rolling Stone caught up with Lykke Li over the weekend to get her thoughts on Drizzy circling back to shrewdly interpolate her 2011 EDM-infused bop on the spiteful “Janice STFU.” “I think it’s potent. It has that raw, revenge, hip-hop energy,” she said of the Iceman standout.

Li thought she was being trolled by co-writer Rick Nowels, who informed her via email that Drake wanted to use “I Follow Rivers” on Iceman. Most of all, the 40-year-old appreciates all of the different lives that the global anthem — which exploded following a The Magician remix — has taken on over the years.

“I mean, it is the most mysterious, incredible gift of my career because it’s had so many lives and different iterations,” she added. “With certain songs, there’s an alchemy or symmetry to them that allows them to have their own life in the world. And as a songwriter, that’s the greatest wish. I’m so grateful and blessed to have one of those songs that doesn’t even belong to me. It has a life of its own.”

Fittingly, it’s almost as if Lykke Li manifested reconnecting with the 6 God, as the singer admitted she’d been “craving” Drake and bumping classic tracks like “Marvin’s Room” recently.

“Strangely enough, I’ve been really craving Drake and have actually been listening to ‘Marvins Room’ lately,’” she revealed, name-checking the 2011 Take Care song. “The old Drake was such an era. When you’d walk into a room and they’d play ‘Hotline Bling.’ … So yeah, I was missing him.”

Lykke Li performed at Coachella in April and dropped her The Afterparty project earlier in May. As for the OVO boss, Drizzy returned with Iceman on May 15 alongside Habibti and Maid of Honour to complete a trifecta of LPs.

Listen to “I Follow Rivers” and “Janice STFU” below.

Lola Young just delivered a performance that cannot be ignored, helping Apple Music launch its brand-new Music Room series.

The British pop singer is the first artist to appear on the new performance series, which aims to give musicians an opportunity to reimagine their own tracks in a smaller, more private setting. The first look at her performance comes exclusively via Billboard on Monday (May 18), with a video of Young singing “Can We Ignore It :(” for a small crowd of fans gathered in Apple Music’s studios in Los Angeles.

After an extended instrumental intro that differs from the original track, Young raises her mic and lets her powerful voice rip in the video, the stripped-back setting giving a new resonance to her lyrics. “I play with fire, kinda like the way I feel when it burns/ If I’m being honest, I’ll take anything as long as it hurts,” she belts, emotion saturating her voice. “I need a doctor, got a sickness, and it’s just getting worse/ I said, ‘I think I’m dying,’ he said, ‘Darling, you’ve been dying since birth.’”

As the song picks up in intensity, the Grammy winner circles the small, carpeted room, taking turns singing straight to members of the crowd bopping along in their seats. “I’m not going to start crying my makeup off, but it was just a moment when you realize, like, art is really all we have,” she says at the end, holding back tears.

“F— it, that’s what I’m saying,” she adds. “That moment when I’m hearing the music, and it’s like, ‘F—, that’s all I’ve ever had.’”

Young also reworked several other songs from her 2025 album, I’m Only F–king Myself — including “d£aler,” “Penny Out of Nothing” and “One Thing” — for the flagship program, with her full performance premiering on Apple Music and YouTube at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday (May 19). Fans will then be able to listen to recordings from the event compiled on an EP titled Music Room: Lola Young EP, available exclusively on Apple Music.

“Apple Music has always aimed to bring artists and their fans closer,” Rachel Newman, co-head of Apple Music, said in a statement about the new series. “There is no better example of that idea come to life than Music Room. It’s everything that’s pure and even magical about live music, unfiltered and unadorned. No spectacle or stage — just the songs and the stories behind them, shared like never before, the audience just inches away.”

More installments of Music Room with other guest artists are set to roll out in the coming months.

Watch Young’s performance of “CAN WE IGNORE IT :(” for Apple’s new Music Room series above.

Holli’ Gabrielle Conway, Jade Milan and Stoney B. Woods are set to portray Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, respectively, in CrazySexyCool — The TLC Musical. As noted in an earlier Billboard story, the show — produced by special arrangement with Bill Diggins — will debut this summer at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, D.C. It will run from June 12 through Aug. 9. The musical’s debut will precede the upcoming It’s Iconic Tour, co-headlined by TLC and Salt-N-Pepa with special guest En Vogue. The tour launches Aug. 15 in Franklin, Tenn.

Based on music recorded and performed by the four-time Grammy Award-winning group — featuring signature songs such as Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits “No Scrubs,” “Creep,” Waterfalls” and “Unpretty” — CrazySexyCool is written and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. His credits include One Love: The Bob Marley Musical. Additional members of the production’s creative team include choreographer Chloe O. Davis (Gypsy), Tony Award-nominated music supervisor David Holcenberg (MJ the Musical) and music director Jaret Landon (Smokey Joe’s Café).

“CrazySexyCool is as bold, fearless and unapologetic as TLC themselves,” said Arena Stage artistic director Hana S. Sharif in the press release. “It holds space for the music we love and the reality that lies behind it, making room for both the joy of their success and the complexity of everything that came with it.”

The actresses playing the three members of the pioneering R&B/pop group have previously performed on Broadway. Conway appeared in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Milan was in Hell’s Kitchen and Woods acted in The Book of Mormon. “One of the most meaningful parts of this process is showing how TLC’s impact has lasted for generations,” said the trio in a joint statement. “Every song brings you back to a moment in your life. Stepping into that nostalgia, while furthering TLC’s legacy of resilience, creativity and sisterhood has been one of the coolest and most rewarding parts of telling this story. The chemistry and trust between us have become a huge part of what makes this show feel special.”

In speaking about the musical’s titular group, cast and creative team, Kwei-Armah commented, “TLC’s music was the soundtrack to a very meaningful part of my life. The cast we have assembled is fire, and the creative team is out of this world. I haven’t been this excited in a long time.”

For additional information about CrazySexyCool — The TLC Musical and tickets, visit the show’s website here.

In partnership with Billboard, Montauk Yacht Club has announced the return of its Marina Music Series for a third season, kicking things off with a Memorial Day Weekend DJ set from Washed Out on Saturday, May 23, with more talent announcements yet to come.

Washed Out — christened the “Godfather of Chilllwave” by Pitchfork — will set the tone for the summer with a sunset DJ set on May 23 from 5-8 p.m. ET. The singer/songwriter/producer born Ernest Greene has scored two top 20 albums on Billboard‘s Top Dance Albums chart, including his most recent release, 2024’s Notes From a Quiet Life (Sub Pop).

The Marina Music Series will bring a string of live performances to the East End all summer, following a 2025 season that featured sets from NEIL FRANCES and Paco Versailles, as well as inaugural 2024 sets from Anderson .Paak and St. Lucia.

If you’ll be in Montauk next weekend, you can reserve a spot for Washed Out here, or reach out about VIP table reservations for larger groups by emailing myc.dining@montaukyachtclub.com. You can also keep tabs on future summer events and more Marina Music Series announcements at MontaukYachtClub.com/happenings. (Table reservations, hotel guests and marina members have priority access and guaranteed entry; GA guest list is based on capacity and not guaranteed entry.)

“Billboard has long been an incredible partner to us, so we’re thrilled to bring this music series back to Montauk Yacht Club,” says Casey Dolkas, vice president, activations & experiences at Proper Hospitality. “Music has always been central to how we create culture and community across our properties, and there’s no better backdrop for this summer series than Montauk.”

“Billboard has always been focused on bringing artists and fans together in unforgettable settings, and Montauk Yacht Club provides a unique experience,” says Mary Rooney, SVP of experiences at Billboard. “We’re excited to continue building on this partnership and create a summer series in Montauk that feels intimate, elevated, and deeply connected to music culture.”

Built in 1928, Montauk Yacht Club is the largest luxury hotel and marina in the Hamptons, spanning 16 acres, with 106 hotel rooms and more than 230 boat slips on the historic Star Island.

Jason Lee typically doesn’t mince words when it comes to giving his unfiltered opinions as a pop culture critic. However, he realizes there are times he crossed the line, one of those being his offensive remarks about Ariana Grande, which his close friend, Cardi B, called him out for.

The Hollywood Unlocked founder joined If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes on May 14, where Lee recalled a time he overstepped his boundary with his criticism.

“There’s been a few times I have crossed the line. I was in a podcast and I didn’t have a lot of people around me that would say, ‘Damn, you shouldn’t have said that.’ So I would just say anything I wanted. At the time, I just felt some type of way about Ariana Grande,” he said.

The 48-year-old revealed it was Cardi B who checked him and put him in his place, which made him take a step back and reconsider his words.

“It was Cardi B who called and just said like, ‘Nah, you crossed the line. You got to go back and fix that ‘cause that wasn’t right. You’re better than that.’ So although nobody was around me at the time I said it or edited it, it went out,” he explained.

Lee continued: “Cardi was able to check me to go back and fix it. And so I looked at it, I’m like, you know, I got five sisters. I probably would have felt some way if somebody did that to my sister. I didn’t need to deliver it that way. So I did go back and apologize.”

Jason Lee didn’t offer up exactly what he was referring to about the “7 Rings” singer, but he’s possibly alluding to a viral clip from early 2019, which found him making extremely offensive comments including comparing her looks to “an underage piece of meat.”

“You chose to be friends with Nicki Minaj and clearly you pick losers,” he said. “And third of all, if I ever see you on an award show opening your legs up during a performance like you Beyoncé — girl you look like R. Kelly’s snacks you need to stop. She looks like an underage piece of meat ready to be p-ssed on by Robert.”

The former Wild ‘N Out star added: “If you’re f—ing Ariana Grande, you want to f–k little kids, for sure. She is not a woman. That is not a woman, that’s a little girl.”

Lee explained that he doesn’t regret his comments, but used them as a learning experience going forward. “Do I regret it? Nah, because I had to go through these experiences to learn the power of my platform, the power of the tongue, being responsible and owning it,” he said. “And that it’s OK to apologize when you cross the line, because people do want to see you’re human and know you’re not just an emotionless tree that don’t care about other people’s feelings… So yeah, I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve learned from them.”

Watch the entire interview below. Find Jason Lee’s comments about Ariana Grande and Cardi B around the six-minute mark.

Spain’s National Court has acquitted Shakira in a tax fraud case after eight years, ordering the government to return 60 million euros ($69 million) to the Colombian superstar. According to a judicial document obtained Monday (May 18) by Billboard Español, the court concluded that Shakira did not meet the minimum residency requirement to be taxed in Spain during 2011.

“After more than eight years enduring brutal public accusations and sleepless nights that took a toll on my health and my family’s well-being, the National Court has finally set the record straight,” Shakira said in a statement. “There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself was never able to prove otherwise.”

The case revolved around whether Shakira was obligated to pay taxes in Spain on income generated during her world tour that year, during which she performed 120 concerts in 37 countries. Tax authorities had argued that the artist had spent enough time in Spanish territory to be considered a tax resident, a claim the court ultimately rejected.

The ruling also dismissed the notion that Spain was the main center of her economic activities and ordered the return of 60 million euros withheld, along with interest and legal costs. According to the verdict, Shakira did not meet the minimum stay required to be taxed in Spain during the investigated period.

In the same statement, the singer’s lawyer, José Luis Prada, described the ruling as the end of “an eight-year ordeal” and stated that Shakira “had the strength and resources to see it through to the end” in a process that, he said, “suffocates many anonymous taxpayers who lack the resources to defend themselves.”

The artist added that she hopes the ruling “sets a precedent” for other taxpayers facing similar disputes with Spain’s Tax Agency.

This is not the only case Shakira has faced with the Tax Agency. In November 2023, she reached an agreement with Spanish authorities over a separate case related to the years 2012 to 2014, when she lived in Barcelona with her then-partner, Gerard Piqué. Shakira acknowledged six charges for unpaid taxes, received a suspended three-year sentence, and paid a fine of $7.6 million.

The ruling comes as Shakira prepares to close the European leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour in Madrid, where she has already scheduled 12 dates for October at the temporary “Shakira Stadium,” built specifically for the tour’s final stretch. The news also coincides with one of the singer’s most prominent moments on the international stage, following her performance for 2.5 million people at the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro and her upcoming halftime show at the FIFA World Cup 2026 final alongside BTS and Madonna.