John Legend and Pharrell have been friends for over two decades, and they’re gearing up for their first collab album with Skateboard P producing the entirety of Legend’s upcoming Muse LP, which will be released on Oct. 23 via Republic Records.

The duo teamed up to release the second single from the project as “Fireflies” arrived on Friday (Sept. 25). For the classy music video, Legend hops behind his Yamaha piano to perform the ethereal track with some help from the Hollywood Cinematic Orchestra, who are suited and booted.

The seamless white backdrop is reminiscent of the visual from John Legend’s “Ordinary People,” which originally served as a single for his 2004 Get Lifted album.

The will.i.am-assisted ballad peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for best male vocal R&B performance, while receiving nominations in the song of the year and best R&B song categories.

In a similar vein, “Fireflies” finds Legend singing about turning hardship to hope while navigating the turbulence and hurdles life has thrown his way.

“Pharrell’s idea from the beginning was that we would create something with all of these classic, cinematic elements, this Black James Bond aesthetic,” Legend said in a statement. “But with a modern backbeat at its foundation. You can hear traces of me and traces of him, but it sounds like something new for the both of us. The combination of me and Pharrell, on paper, I think, is a good idea. And the execution is even better.”

“Fireflies” follows “Daylight,” which was the lead single for Legend’s Muse album. The project boasts 16 tracks in total and features an appearance from Clipse.

The Ohio native was set to perform at Global Citizen Festival on Saturday (Sept. 26) before the festival was canceled due to the inclement weather punishing the Northeast this weekend.

Watch the “Fireflies” video below.

“Bittersweet” is Marc Almond’s term for Danceteria, the sixth and final Soft Cell album which is out Friday (Sept. 25), 11 months after longtime partner David Ball passed away at the age of 66.

“It wasn’t a complete surprise, but I thought we still would’ve had more time together to see through this album, at least, and who knows what for the future,” Almond tells Billboard of Ball’s death, which came after years of extensive health issues. “I’d been in contact with him just two days before and we both ticked off the album and said how pleased we are with it, then two days later he passed away. So the album’s finally coming out, and I just wish Dave was around to enjoy it.”

Almond, 69, had an early chance to witness how Danceteria would be received on this summer’s Generations Tour with the Human League and Alison Moyet, during which he previewed three of its 14 songs, including the title track and the album-closing remake of Was (Not Was)’s “Out Come the Freaks” recorded with Nona Hendryx. The album was actually a couple of years in the making and originally planned to be released during the spring, but Ball’s health matters complicated those plans.

As far as Almond is concerned,  Danceteria puts a cap on the Soft Cell story, which began during 1979 in Leeds, while he and Ball were attending Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University). They borrowed money from Ball’s mother to make a limited-edition EP called Mutant Moments and contributed a track to a Some Bizarre label compilation before the duo’s cover of Gloria Jones’ 1965 single “Tainted Love” hit No. 1 in 17 countries and for a time held a Guinness World Record for its 43-week stay on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 8 in 1982. Soft Cell released three albums before splitting up in 1984, then reunited from 2000-2005 and again from 2018 to Ball’s death. Ball also contributed to Almond’s solo efforts.

In conversation, Almond told us about how the Danceteria album came together and went down memory lane to talk about the New York scene of the ‘80s that inspired the duo’s final statement.

There must be considerable emotion, for obvious reasons, as you put Danceteria out.

It’s relief, to be quite honest. We started recording the album heading on two years ago now. It’s been an on-and-off process, due to Dave’s health and various things, and of course him passing away last year. It held things back for quite a bit and came out later than we’d planned. I’d planned, alongside with Dave, to do a small tour around what would have been March this year, but of course all that didn’t happen.

You’ve said his passing wasn’t a surprise, but nevertheless…

I think it was a matter of timing. His health had been very bad for awhile, but he was really on an up, healthwise. We’d done the album. He was very positive about it. He was feeling better than he had been in awhile. He was looking forward to doing some dates in the U.K. What makes me most sad about everything is Soft Cell’s been getting a little bit of a renaissance recently, whether it’s through Danceteria or (2022’s) Happiness Not Included… there’s been a bit of an upsurge in interest. I would’ve loved for him to at least be able to enjoy that a little more.

Do you feel like that idea of mortality was on both of your minds in any way, and had an impact on the album?

I’m not too sure. I expected (Happiness Not Included) to be our last album, really. I didn’t think we’d get to make another. Then (Ball) had a really bad scare; he’d fallen and broken his back, which is what put him in a motorized chair most of the time. I didn’t think I was ever gonna get any music from him again, and then I got the music from him for this album and it was, “Hurray! I’ve got a file of music from Dave!” And it was really, really great. I was really happy and loved the music and felt infinitely inspired to start writing, as I always did when Dave sent me music. We were off again making another album that I never expected to make — but inside my heart, I think, I knew we wouldn’t make another.

Did that steer Danceteria lyrically at all? There is a song called “In Heaven (When I Dance With You).”

It did, really. I really thought the music he sent me was much more uplifting than the last album’s music, which we wrote and recorded all the way through COVID, in lockdown, swapping files and things. That album had a different attitude to it; it was a little downbeat at times, a little cynical and angry. It reflected the mood of the times. It was good to get a lot of music from him this time that felt more uplifting. And immediately I thought back to a track I did on Happiness Not Included called “Polaroid,” which was about going to meet Andy Warhol in 1982 at the Factory (in New York). And then I thought back to that period of time, which was such an amazing time for Soft Cell in New York. We recorded our first three albums there, so I wanted to go back to that time and write a love letter to New York at that time, our experience of being in the U.S.A., as well as about Soft Cell. I thought if this was going to be the last album, it ties things up and comes around full circle.

So for sure this is the last Soft Cell album?

We have a live album that might come out, but there will never be another album of new Soft Cell material. I’ve got a file of some great music he left me for my solo stuff that we were working on together, so at some point more Dave Ball songs will come out, co-written with me. But it won’t be Soft Cell. I just can’t make a Soft Cell record without Dave Ball being in this world. So as far as Soft Cell, new music, this is it.

What kind of memories do you have of Soft Cell in New York 40-plus years ago?

It was so exciting for us, what New York was like in the early ‘80s, which was a pretty chaotic, somewhat dangerous place. But we just loved it; we were so inspired. It really set us free as musicians, and as people. We’d had a huge hit in England with “Tainted Love,” an enormous hit, and Mike (Thome), who produced the track, said, “I don’t want to do the (album) in London. I want to record in New York,” and we thought, “Great! Amazing!” The record company wanted us to be pop stars and carry on the “Tainted Love” torch, and we were two belligerent art students. We still thought of ourselves as an underground band, a cult band, and we were influenced by bands like Suicide and people like that, New York punk and Andy Warhol, John Waters, all these things we really loved. So when we were in New York and not under the watchful eye of our record company, we had a great sense of freedom to grow. And we were introduced very quickly to the New York nightlife.

Sounds like trouble…

[Laughs] I think on the first day or second day I was taken to Studio 54, which in those days was the dying days of Studio 54. It was just hanging in there. Then we got taken to another club, this place called Danceteria. To me, I felt like I’d come home; there was different music on each floor, playing Latin, salsa, punk, all kinds of eclectic music. There was video work going on. There was performance art going on. There was cabaret, very transgressive, out-there stuff. I’d found a place I always wanted to be, all my life. I made friends there, met people. It was great … but also a weird time for us. It was making us as a band or duo, whatever you want to call it, but it was also the beginning of the end of us.

How so?

It was the start of the separation of both of us, really, because we wanted to do different things, meet different people. We were great friends, we had loads of affection for each other, we had a lot in common. But we were like chalk and cheese, too. In New York we found our own groups of friends, our own people. Dave went on to stay with another producer guy, Phil Ramone, and went to stay with him. We worked together great and did those first three albums, but we finished before we thought we would, too.

Legend has it you saw Madonna’s first performance during that time.

Well, I remember a couple of appearances. There were so many performers coming on and off at the cabaret they did at Danceteria; Madonna came on and you could tell she was slicker than most. She had it more together than most of the acts that were coming on. And later I was having a party at a club called Tunnel — I think I was celebrating a birthday or something — and Madonna was performing with some dancers. I think she was doing “Everybody” or “Holiday,” “Into the Groove,” one of those early songs. Seymour Stein had just signed Soft Cell to Sire Records and I was standing with him and Seymour said to me, “This girl on the stage, I just signed her to Sire Records and she’s gonna be absolutely massive. You can’t believe how big she’s gonna be” – and when Seymour said somebody was gonna be massively big and enormous, you took him seriously. After the show Madonna came over and Seymour introduced me; I thought she was incredibly sweet and incredibly nice. We already had some mutual friends, but I didn’t know her apart from that. But I really was thrilled that I got to see her in those very early days.

Have you crossed paths since?

No, but I do know she has a track called “Danceteria” on her (latest) album. I think that’s great. It’s all in the zeitgeist. It’s all fantastic. She name-checks different people on hers than we name-check on ours, so it’s all a great thing. I don’t know whether she’s too aware of Soft Cell’s existence these days, although I think she’s aware of most things in the world, actually. She’s really clued up on everything. I don’t know whether she’s heard ours or not, but I’m a huge fan. I still think she’s great. All through the years I’ve really loved watching her. I feel in a lot of ways she’s like a David Bowie figure; the music is different, but the way she reinvents herself and has tuned into so many different things that are happening and producers and art people and video people is in that same kind of spirit (Bowie) had.

“Out Come the Freaks” here is inspired — and unexpected.

I used to DJ around ’81 in Leeds and I loved the mutant disco ZE Records was putting out around that time. “Out Come the Freaks” was a track I really loved and played then. When I started writing lyrics to Danceteria I wanted to imagine it was like a suite of songs in a way, a song cycle, taken from a nighttime in New York, 1982. So you’d be at the dance club Danceteria, go through this strange night and you’d end up in the darker parts of New York, this weird, kind of druggy no man’s land. Then you start the next day, “Wave to America,” with a couple of coffee and then you’d go back in the same cycle, ending up with “Out Come the Freaks.” It just came into my head; I thought it fit into Soft Cell world, just a great, amazing track. I love the whole vibe of it.

How did Nona Hendryx get on the track?

When I was playing “Out Come the Freaks” as a DJ, I was also playing “Bustin’ Out” by Nona Hendryx (with Material). I became friends with Nona, and her partner Vicki Wickham, who booked all the bands for the pop show Ready Steady Go!, was my manager for awhile. So when we decided to do “Out Come the Freaks” we thought it would be great to have (Hendryx) on there, too. I actually have a version, which I think they may release as an extra at some point, of Dave doing the whole vocal to “Out Come the Freaks”; on the record his voice is at the beginning and the end of the track. The very last thing you hear on Danceteria is Dave Ball’s voice singing “woodwork squeaks and out come from the freaks,” which was another nice, full-circle way to end things.

Will we be seeing more of Soft Cell live in the future?

We’re coming back to California in the autumn around the Darker Waves festival (Nov. 14 in Huntington Beach). The Generations Tour was quite a short, friendly show; you get 40 minutes, so you compact as much as you can, but this will give us a chance to do some of the stuff I know fans really like that I didn’t get to do, some of the darker stuff and things from The Art of Falling Apart period and things like that. We’ll probably come to the East Coast early next year and then see what else. I don’t know how long it will go on, to be honest; I’d certainly like to see out the life of Danceteria and keep Dave’s music that we did together alive a bit longer.

And then what will we be hearing from you after this?

I’ve got an album with Barry Adamson [Magazine, Visage, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds] coming out next year, and there are a few other little things I’ve got bobbling around that I’d like to do. And as I’ve said, I do have a lot of music Dave left me, which is great. I’m 70 next year; I’d like to do a glut of recording projects, even if I just sit on them for awhile, ’cause you never know what’s going to happen in the future. I don’t want to sound morbid or moribund or anything; I’m still lucky enough to have a pretty OK voice. I still enjoy the live performances a lot. You get to a place where you think, “How much longer can I do this?” As long as is possible, I hope.

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.

Last week, we featured Miley, Carly Rae Jepsen, Riley Green and more.

This week, Taylor Swift returns with “Patient Zero,” one of four new bonus tracks from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, out today; Tinashe releases her edgy and energetic eighth album; and Maren and Morris and Michelle Branch rework a 2001 classic with “Goodbye To You”… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Taylor Swift, “Patient Zero”

We knew something was coming ever since Taylor appeared in an Emmys sketch alongside host and friend Mariska Hargitay, during which Swift dropped a few easter eggs (that some of us are still decoding). Still, it came as a surprise when, this week, she announced a new single titled “Patient Zero,” one of four bonus tracks on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, out tonight. The song opens with country-inspired strings that quickly fade into the back of more expected pop production; the tempo, however, is less familiar for the Showgirl era. As a result, the midtempo song seems to connect where Swift has just been with where she’s heading next (possibly toward country?) in a really refreshing way. Because after an encore the show really, truly, is done. Right? — LYNDSEY HAVENS

Tinashe, Popstar

Just two years ago, Tinashe released Quantum Baby — and shifted her career. That album’s lead single, “Nasty,” earned the singer her first solo Hot 100 hit and soon after, album track “No Broke Boys” shot to No. 36 thanks to a Disco Lines remix. Now, she’s back with her poppiest album yet, aptly titled Popstar. And on standout track “Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore,” she doubles down on the same point Miley makes on “Bass Persuades” — get on your feet, already, and dance. As Kyle Denis writes in Billboard‘s Tracks Ranked of the album, “Popstar is sneakily sarcastic and gloriously sassy, but Tinashe, unlike quite a few of her contemporaries, can actually commit — and back it up.” Read the full tracks ranked here. — L.H.

Madonna and Charli xcx, “Danceteria Afterhours“

In perhaps one of the most obvious and clubbiest pairings in recent memory, Madonna taps Charli xcx to help deliver a fresh take on “Danceteria,” a track from Madonna’s July album Confessions II. On the original, Madonna sings of the famed New York club where she got her start, Danceteria; on this version, Charli shares her own starter story from a club across the pond, recalling being “sweet 15 in a weird outfit.” Clearly, things worked out just fine for them both. — L.H.

Maren Morris and Michelle Branch, “Goodbye to You (2026 Version)”

Nearly 25 years after Michelle Branch released her breakout ballad “Goodbye To You” — which she famously performed on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and hit No. 21 on the Hot 100 — the singer has tapped Maren Morris for a modern-day revamp. Given the country singer’s presence, the music leans into the genre with softer, twangier strings that lift the effortless harmonies from the two singers. Who knew this classic could hit even harder? — L.H.

Blondshell, Violins

Indie rocker Blondshell shares her third album, Violins, and with it delivers a new trove of angsty, relatable songs all performed in her signature, mellow tone. While previously-released single “Heart Has To Work So Hard” remains a standout, focus track “Stone Fruit” packs a rocking instrumental bridge while “Two Fried” is the most upbeat song on the album (even opening with an Addison Rae-esque scream). In all, Violins is a welcome addition to Blondshell’s discography, building on her familiar sound while digging deeper into her already precise and poignant songwriting. — L.H.

Kenny Chesney, Silver Sands Marina

On his 21st studio album, a concise collection of 11 songs, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee continues placing a premium on top-shelf songwriting that balances lyrical wit and emotional resonance. He welcomes Lily Meola on the quirky heartbreaker “Goldfish,” Megan Moroney on the heartfelt “It Just Got Weird,” and Colbie Caillat on “What We Got Going On.” One of the album’s strongest tracks comes with “Remember Me That Way,” a song that looks back on a fizzled relationship through the softer lens of some of its happier days. Linking each of the songs is Chesney’s warm, conversational vocal approach that makes each song feel even more lived-in and credible. — JESSICA NICHOLSON

Kirk Franklin ft. GloRilla, “This Time”

Twenty-time Grammy-winning gospel icon Kirk Franklin is back with the latest taste of his forthcoming I Am What I Am album — and he’s bringing GloRilla along for the ride. Over a sample of Shawty Lo’s classic “Dey Know,” ebullient brass and his signature choir, Kirk delivers an anthem of inner peace and contentment with God’s timing. Building on 2024’s “Rain Down On Me,” her first collaboration with Franklin, GloRilla flaunts her versatility and exalts her church roots in her winning guest verse. — KYLE DENIS

Leon Bridges, Happiness Anytime

Grammy-winning soul crooner Leon Bridges has returned with Happiness Anytime, the official follow-up to 2024’s Leon. Assisted by Jungle’s Josh Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto on production, Bridges has delivered a groovy collection of tunes that traverse the globe, from notes of cumbia (“Light the Way”) to reggae (“Take My Hand”). — K.D.

Jae Stephens, Audacity

Jae Stephens is back with a whole lotta Audacity. The rising, Issa Rae-cosigned pop star dropped her sophomore album, featuring contributions from long-time collaborator and producer Dallas Caton, Grammy-nominated pop architect MNEK and dance-pop maestro Pinkpantheress, who delivers backing vocals on “Crush.” From the soaring “I Miss the City” to the sassy “Expensive & Difficult,” Audacity is an audacious pop offering that blends a Coyote Ugly-esque fantasy land with the best parts of ‘00s rhythmic pop. — K.D.

Nanpa Básico, “No Me Morí”

Nanpa Básico is well and alive, and his new single “No Me Morí” (I didn’t die) is proof of that. If his previous bangers, such as “Hasta Aquí Llegué” with Beéle, are any indication, the Colombian rapper knows exactly how to overcome a heartbreak: through his powerful and mature lyrics. In “No Me Morí,” a sensual Latin afrobeats with slow reggaetón undertones, Nanpa gives fans a nearly three-minute therapy session, singing with his raspy and demanding vocals: “y mirame aquí, yo no me morí, estoy bien sin tí/ claro que lloré, pero me curé/ la vida es así” (And look at me here—I didn’t die, I’m fine without you/ Sure, I cried, but I healed; that’s how life is). — JESSICA ROIZ

Taylor Swift is back for one last twirl under the spotlight for The Life of a Showgirl, dropping four new songs as part of a deluxe version of her 12th studio album on Friday (Sept. 25).

Titled The Life of a Showgirl: Encore, the extended project adds tracks titled “Patient Zero,” “Babylon,” “Pink Clouding” and “Cleveland!” to the original set, which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and opened with a record-shattering 4.002 million equivalent album units in the United States in its first week. Swift first announced the deluxe just two days prior to its release, writing on Instagram, “About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing … you gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history.”

“I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max [Martin] and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album,” she continued in her post. “Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”

A couple of days prior, the 14-time Grammy winner had teased that something was coming by switching out the letter O’s in her Instagram bio and some of her Apple Music song lyrics with zeros. Those turned out to be clues for “Patient Zero,” which Swift announced prior to revealing the news about the full Encore set.

Swifties are now waiting for the VMAs on Sunday (Sept. 27), as the pop star is planning to premiere the cinematic music video for “Patient Zero” during the ceremony. In the meantime, she’s released a teaser revealing that Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson costar in the visual, which she directed. Swift will receive the inaugural Artist Director Honor at the 2026 VMAs.

Listen to The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore below.

Club queens Madonna and Charli xcx have united for “Danceteria Afterhours,” a revamped version of “Danceteria,” a standout track from Madonna’s July album Confessions II.

The original song finds Madonna telling the lore of her early history in New York City along with the history of the city’s famous club Danceteria, where she got her start and spent significant time with fellow party people like Debi Mazar and Basquiat. The new version carries over Madonna’s verses and adds new ones from Charli, who recounts her own club kid history, from being “sweet 15 in a weird outfit” during her first time DJing in London to going to L.A. in 2015 to hang with A.G. Cook and SOPHIE and discovering “different DJs, flavored cocaine.” Listen to the “Danceteria Afterhours” below.

This new version of the song follows the previously released “Afterhours” version of Confessions II‘s “Love Sensation,” featuring Kylie Minogue. Confessions II debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 following its release on July 3. The achievement gave Madonna her first No. 1 album of the 2020s and made her the first act with a No. 1 album in the 2020s to have also topped the chart in three other decades.

Madonna will open the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards this Sunday (Sept. 27) with her first performance at the show in 23 years. She’s also the leading nominee at this year’s VMAs, with 11 nods. As previously reported by Billboard, 2026 “marks the first time Madonna has been the leading nominee since 1998, the year she won video of the year for the first time with ‘Ray of Light.’”

Dove Cameron and Damiano David are now married, tying the knot in Italy on Thursday (Sept. 24) after three years together.

According to E!, the couple wed at Palazzo dei Priori in Montalcino in Tuscany. Photos that have surfaced online show the two musicians in complementing white-and-cream ensembles, with Cameron holding a bouquet of lilies and sporting a chic belted blazer and tie, walking the cobbled streets and kissing.

The news comes about eight months after the Descendants star and Måneskin frontman announced their engagement on Instagram. “It’s gonna be a beautiful year,” David wrote at the time.

The prior October, the pair — who first met at the 2022 VMAs, where they were both nominated for best new artist — celebrated their two-year anniversary.

“i am brought to tears at least once a week because life has become so beautiful with you in it,” Cameron said on the occasion, sharing photos of herself and David smooching in a restaurant on Instagram. “i love you in a way no words could ever express, but i will never stop trying. buon anniversario amore mio.”

The Schmigadoon! alum is currently fresh off the release of her new single “When in Rome,” written as an ode to the romance she’s built with David in his home country of Italy. “We should fall in love when in Rome,” she sings on the track. “Why don’t we get married, build a home?”

David last dropped music in 2025, releasing solo album Funny Little Fears.

Shortly prior to their wedding, Cameron and the rocker appeared in Vogue Italia and discussed their quiet life together behind the scenes. “Because of the way the internet works, people only see the big moments,” the “Boyfriend” singer told the publication. “I was just in Malta accepting an award, and of course those photos stay in circulation. But in between that, there were two months when we were just grocery shopping, cooking, and figuring out our new juicer.”

Druski has proven to be a trailblazer in paving the way for the next generation of comedians. It all may have never played out the same for Druski if it wasn’t for a massive cosign from Drake.

During an appearance on The Diary of a CEO on Thursday (Sept. 24), the sketch comedian credited Drake with changing his life and legitimizing his career after casting him in his 2020 “Laugh Now Cry Later” music video.

“The thing that changed my life at the time was Drake calling for the ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ music video. Everything shifted after that because brands started to take me seriously,” he explained. “Now it’s transactional with everything.”

Druski continued: “Once I was seen with Drake, Lil Durk, we had Marshawn Lynch, Kevin Durant, Odell Beckham Jr. all in this video alongside me. Me being the comedic relief in this video, which was called ‘Laugh Now, Cry Later,’ this meant a lot more than another music video.”

Drake was just a fan of Druski’s content at the time, but he wasn’t making much money from it. That all changed with the music video appearance, as Druski detailed how brands began to see him in a “broader light” and the price started to go up. “They started to see me as an actual star, instead of just another amongst all these other guys who are doing comedian things,” he added.

The OVO boss was an early believer in Druski and saw him as the leader in the next generation of comedy. “This is wild to hear from somebody who, in my eyes, is a megastar,” he said. “It shifted everything almost immediately.”

Druski is always finding new ways to elevate his profile and comedy career, as he became the first comedian to cover Billboard‘s No. 1s issue, hosted the 2026 BET Awards in June, won a 2026 Webby Special Achievement Award, toured arenas with Coulda Fest and appeared on Justin Bieber’s SWAG album in 2025.

“Laugh Now Cry Later” saw Drake join forces with Lil Durk during the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and picked up a pair of Grammy nominations.

Druski has made appearances in other music videos like Jack Harlow’s “Tyler Herro,” “Churchill Downs” and Lil Yachty’s “Oprah’s Bank Account.”

Watch the full interview with Druski below. Talk about Drake takes place about an hour and eight minutes in.

New Found Glory will pay tribute to late guitarist Chad Gilbert with a series of shows at his favorite place on Earth. In an Instagram post on Wednesday (Sept. 23), the group announced that following Gilbert’s death at 45 on Sunday (Sept. 20) after a long battle with cancer they will honor him by returning to the stage at EPCOT at the Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. during the upcoming Eat to the Beat Concert series.

“First off, we want to thank everyone for the overwhelming amount of love and tribute posts for Chad these past few days,” they wrote in the post. “Seeing how deeply he touched so many lives means everything to us, and we know he would be so proud to see it.”

As they process the loss of their longtime friend and bandmate, the group said they were canceling their planned appearance at the Aftershock Festival (Oct.1-4) in Sacramento in order to pay proper tribute to Disney superfan Gilbert at his happiest place on Earth.

“We rarely cancel shows but this felt needed,” they wrote. “Anyone who knew Chad knew that he was a massive Disney fan. Our shows at Epcot were dates he was so excited for and he was actively planning to be on stage with us there. He had already worked on the setlists with us and was practicing as much as possible to be ready. Because of how much he wanted to play these shows, taking the stage at Epcot feels like the right way to honor him, and what he would want us to do.”

Before Gilbert’s death, their plan was to announce the setlist for the Epcot shows ahead of time, which is why they posted it in their Insta announcement. “Every note we play and every word you sing at Epcot is for Chad,” they said. “Thank you all for wrapping us in so much love, understanding, and support as we come together to honor his legacy.”

NFG will play six different sets during their two-day run at EPCOT on Monday (Sept. 28) and Tuesday (Sept. 29) and perform such fan favorites as “Something I Call Personality,” “All About Her,” “A Love Song,” “Failure’s Not Flattering,” “Dressed to Kill,” “My Friends Over You,” “Hit or Miss,” “All Downhill From Here,” “Better Off Dead” and “All Downhill From Here,” among others. Bands play three sets a night during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, which will also feature upcoming sets from Element and Smash Mouth, after earlier appearances from The War and Treaty, Yellowcard, Couch, Fitz and the Tantrums, MercyMe and Grupo Manía.

Gilbert’s wife, Lisa Cimorelli, announced the guitarist’s death over the weekend, six months after the pop-punk stalwart who co-founded the group in 1997 when he was just 17, revealed that he was fighting brain cancer, which followed a liver cancer diagnosis in 2021.

Also on Thursday, Gilbert’s ex-wife, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, paid tribute in a loving, handwritten note in which she said she did not know “what to say or if it’s appropriate. But I feel sure now that I want to bc life is made of the paths we cross and the reasons we cross them are infinite,” she continued. “Chad is indeed a legend in the scene and my time connected to him taught me a lot. He introduced me to people that continue to shape my life in beautiful ways, and to music and culture that has made life a lot richer.”

She lauded Gilbert for “what he contributed to the musical world a lot of us grew up in,” noting that his “influence and attitude guided the genre forward.” Williams and Gilbert began dating in 2008 and married in 2016; they separated a year later.