Petal, Ariana Grande‘s new studio album, tops this week’s new music poll.

Listeners voted in a poll published Friday (July 31) on Billboard, choosing the pop star’s eight full-length LP as their favorite new music.

Petal rose to the top in a week that included new music releases from Cardi B, Davido, Slayyyter and Shaboozey — plus a collab track from Erick Brian, Dale Pututi & Nesty, as well as one from Benny Blanco, Selena Gomez & Becky G — and more. By the poll’s closing time on Sunday, Petal collected 41% of the vote.

Grande’s new album made its way to fans on Friday, mid-Eternal Sunshine Tour.

It’s the follow-up to 2024’s Eternal Sunshine album, which spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200.

Arriving with Grande’s new 12-song collection was a satirical new music video that has her starring as Pepper, an actress on set playing a performer who tries over and over again to be “good enough” for her ruthless critics — and who finally loses her cool, with the help of a chainsaw. The visual is set to Petal‘s title track, which is the second single from the album; it follows the Hot 100 No. 1 “Hate That I Made You Live Me.”

On Sunday, it was reported Grande will take a break from the public eye once her tour wraps.

Trailing behind Petal on the poll: Erick Brian, Dale Pututi & Nesty’s “Efímero” lands in second place, with 26% of the vote, followed by Cardi B’s “AH HA” in third, with 18% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s poll below.

Ariana Grande is set to take a break from the public once her Eternal Sunshine Tour wraps on Sept. 1. The pop star’s time off includes her pulling out of leading the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George, which was expected to open next summer in London’s West End.

People first reported the news — which comes just after Grande released her highly-anticipated new studio album Petal — on Sunday (Aug. 2), publishing a statement attributed to a representative for Grande. Billboard has reached out to Grande’s team for comment.

“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” the statement said. “She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny. This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”

Grande is also bowing out of her previously announced appearance in the West End revival of Sunday in the Park With George. She was set to star in the London production opposite Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey.

She’s currently on the last month of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, which next heads to Chicago for three concert dates (Aug. 3, 5 and 6) before a show-closing, 10-date run in London that spans Aug. 15 to Sept. 1.

Petal the album just arrived on Friday (July 31), and its title track was released as the LP’s second single.

A music video debuted alongside the track that echoes real-life critiques Grande’s received from the public; recent public commentary has been centered on her physical appearance and weight.

In the visual, which plays as a short film, the performer cuts down critics — with a chainsaw — after being told she’s “not good enough” and has “no sex appeal.” Audition notes saying that she “should get some work done” turn to “too much work done.” “The way you used to be, I miss that,” one naysayer says.

“Hate That I Made You Love Me,” the album’s first single, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Post-tour, fans can see her in movie theaters in Focker-in-Law, opening Nov. 25. The comedy is the latest in the Meet the Parents series, starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.

Phil Collins has praised Taylor Swift, saying the pop superstar “deserves” her place as “the hugest thing in the world” after being “blown away completely” the first time he saw her perform 15 years ago.

Speaking to Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years, Collins recalled meeting Swift at a Songwriters Hall of Fame event years ago, before she reached her current level of fame, and watching her perform her song “White Horse.”

“This very nice lady then got up on stage with a guitar and sang ‘White Horse,’ and it blew me away completely,” he said. “Not only was the song great, and the sentiment of the song really got me, but she sang it beautifully. And it was just so simple, you know, her on a guitar.”

Collins said he has “always had a soft spot” for the track since. “I’m so pleased that she’s the hugest thing in the world now because she kind of feels like she deserves it,” he said. “I mean it’s easy to knock someone that’s got so much success, but I think she really deserves it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Collins revealed that his signature solo hit “In the Air Tonight” was largely improvised. “A lot of my lyrics are kind of improvised. The classic example of that would be ‘In the Air Tonight,’ which was pretty much 80% improvised,” he said, explaining that the song’s atmospheric sound came from a Prophet-5 keyboard and that he “certainly didn’t labour on it.” He described the result as “the scenario of luck… and good fortune” rather than craft.

The comments arrive during a landmark year for Collins, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2026 — 16 years after entering as a member of Genesis. Across his solo career he scored seven No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s, including “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” “One More Night,” “Sussudio” and “Groovy Kind of Love.” “In the Air Tonight,” the 1981 debut solo single he referenced, reached No. 19 on the Hot 100 but became one of the most enduring recordings of his career, later finding new life through film, television and a viral 2020 reaction video.

Swift, for her part, holds the record for the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 among soloists with 15, and her most recent release The Life of a Showgirl debuted with a modern-era record of 4 million equivalent album units. “White Horse,” the song Collins singled out, appeared on Swift’s 2008 album Fearless and won two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Song.

Two Australian icons shared a stage in Brighton, England, on Friday (Aug. 1) as Kylie Minogue joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the band’s concert at Preston Park to perform their 1995 duet “Where the Wild Roses Grow.”

Minogue appeared midway through the Bad Seeds’ set for the murder-ballad duet, marking the first time the pair had performed the song together live since 2019, when Cave surprised the crowd during Minogue’s legends slot at Glastonbury.

Before that, the two sang it together in 2018 — the last time the Bad Seeds played the song live — as well as in 2013 and on several occasions in the mid-1990s following the release of Murder Ballads.

Minogue reflected on the reunion in an Instagram post after the show. “I’ll forever be your Wild Rose @nickcaveofficial,” she wrote, thanking the Bad Seeds and calling it a “wonderful crowd, wonderful night.” She also credited her white lace dress, complete with wild-rose embellishments, to Susie Cave — Nick Cave’s wife and the designer behind the fashion label The Vampire’s Wife.

Earlier that day, Cave and the Bad Seeds played a surprise rooftop set atop the city’s Resident Music record store, performing four songs. That set included “Train Long-Suffering,” a track from 1985’s The Firstborn Is Dead that had not been performed live in 27 years before the band revived it on their 2026 European tour, along with a cover of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” that Cave had previously only performed solo.

“Where the Wild Roses Grow” remains one of the most celebrated collaborations in Australian music history. Written by Cave and released as the lead single from the Bad Seeds’ 1996 album Murder Ballads, the duet cast Minogue as the doomed Eliza Day opposite Cave’s murderous narrator — a stark departure from her pop image at the time.

It became Cave’s biggest commercial hit, reaching No. 2 on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia and No. 11 on the U.K. Singles Chart, and won the 1996 ARIA Award for Song of the Year. The accompanying video, which depicted Minogue lying in a river in a pose evoking Millais’ painting Ophelia, became a fixture on MTV and helped push Murder Ballads to the biggest commercial success of the band’s career.

Minogue, one of the most successful pop artists of her generation, has scored seven entries on the Billboard Hot 100 — including “The Loco-Motion” (No. 3) and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (No. 7) — and 11 titles on the Billboard 200, led by 2001’s Fever at No. 3. Her 2023 single “Padam Padam” won the first Grammy for Best Pop Dance Recording. Cave and the Bad Seeds, meanwhile, continue their 2026 European tour in support of their catalogue, one of the most acclaimed in modern alternative rock.

Rock legend Patti Smith was giddy and almost at a loss for words when she met Friday (July 31) with Pope Leo XIV.

“Hi,” she said softly as she sat down across from Leo at his desk in the Apostolic Palace.

Post-meeting, on Instagram, she had a bit more to say: “This is a moment that shall forever produce a smile,” she wrote of the encounter.

Wearing a crucifix necklace and hair in her trademark braids, Smith has become an increasingly visible presence at the Vatican thanks to her friendship with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican’s culture ministry.

She has said that while she is not Catholic, she was drawn in particular to Pope Francis and his “gentle, open, and steadfast sense of humanity.”

She also had a thing for Pope John Paul I: Her 1979 tune “Wave” is about a make-believe conversation with the pope who had just died after a 33-day papacy. It begins “Hi. Hi,” uttered in the same breathy voice Smith used with Leo on Friday.

The pope clearly was familiar with the tune. “That was marvelous,” he said.

Earlier this year, Smith performed during the inauguration of the Holy See’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair. The occasion, May 8, was the anniversary of Leo’s election.

Spadaro, who joined Smith at Friday’s audience, said the encounter between the two Chicago natives was around 40 minutes long. In a text message, he said it “felt more like a conversation between two people discovering they were old friends, sharing memories woven from words and music, dreams, visions, and hopes — both from yesterday and for today.”

He said at the end, Smith said “Bye. Bye.”

Smith met Francis in 2013 and sang for him in 2014. When he died, on April 21, 2025, she wrote a poem on social media, comparing Francis to a dandelion, “humble yet strong.”

“Nature and poetry and the suffering shall miss their champion,” she wrote.

It was Leo’s second encounter with a music legend this week. On Wednesday, Leo attended a concert in his honor by tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The family of Glen Hansard has announced details of the Irish singer-songwriter’s public memorial and funeral following his death.

A public wake for Hansard will be held at the Baroque Chapel at IMMA, Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin on Monday (Aug. 3) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Glen will lie in repose for those wishing to pay their respects,” Hansard’s family wrote in a statement released Friday (July 31).

Hansard’s funeral service will take place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 4). The service will be open to the public, though access inside the cathedral will be “extremely limited” due to the large number of mourners expected.

The funeral will also be broadcast live on Irish news outlets RTE News and RIP.IE.

“Music at the funeral will be provided by Glen’s friends and family,” the statement added.

Hansard’s family also asked well-wishers to forgo flowers and gifts in favor of donations to Dublin’s Simon Community, which provides services to people experiencing homelessness, or Ukrainian Action.

“The family kindly asks that the privacy of Glen’s family and friends be respected at this time,” the statement says.

Hansard, the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter and Once star who fronted The Frames and was one half of the duo The Swell Season, died on July 29 following a motorcycle crash near his home in Dublin. He was 56.

Following his death, the beloved Irish troubadour was remembered by dozens of fellow artists, including U2’s Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Eilish, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…. Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence… A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty of graces,” Bono wrote on X.

Modest Mouse has announced that guitarist Simon O’Connor will not join the band’s upcoming North American tour following allegations that he sent inappropriate social media messages to a minor.

In an Instagram post shared Friday (July 31) and captioned “Upcoming tour update,” the indie rock band revealed that O’Connor will be replaced on the trek by Les Savy Fav guitarist Seth Jabour.

“Simon O’Conner will not be joining us on the upcoming tour,” Modest Mouse wrote in the statement. “The good news is that Seth Jabour of Les Savy Fav will be jumping in to play guitar. We look forward to being out there with you all.”

The band did not provide further details about O’Connor’s status beyond the upcoming tour or indicate whether he remains a member of Modest Mouse. Billboard has reached out to the band’s representatives for comment.

The announcement comes as Modest Mouse prepares to tour in support of its eighth studio album, An Eraser and a Maze, released in June. The North American run begins Aug. 4 at Libbey Bowl in Ojai, California, and wraps Oct. 24 in Sacramento.

O’Connor, who joined Modest Mouse in 2021, was accused in late July by a Reddit user who said they were 17 years old of sending them “an erotic image” and commenting on their “bikini pics.” The user alleged they were 16 years old when the photos referenced were taken.

The guitarist later responded to the allegations in a Reddit post, writing that he “unequivocally” opposes “any sexual behavior towards minors.” He also claimed he mistakenly believed the Reddit user was someone who had repeatedly created fake social media accounts to troll him.

“Throughout my adult life, there has been a person who has popped up from time to time with the intention of, for lack of a better term, messing with me,” O’Connor wrote. “This person creates multiple social media accounts and deletes them… but always posts similar photos that I often recognize from previous accounts.”

He continued, “I assumed that this was the same person I had dealt with before and, with poor judgement, I decided to reach out with a tasteless meme, a sticker that read ‘Simon calls your bluff,’ and an attempt to indicate that I recognized the ‘barrage of likes’ and similar photo content from the previous profiles…. Almost a ‘gotcha.’ After a few minutes, I realized that I had made a mistake and this was not the person who I had dealt with before. I unsent the messages and immediately ceased communication.”

See Modest Mouse’s Instagram post below.

Lil Uzi Vert turned a scrapped festival set into a celebration on Friday (July 31), surprising fans with a new EP on their 31st birthday hours after a last-minute Lollapalooza cancellation.

The eight-track project, Maverick “Almost Forever,” is the Philadelphia rapper’s first release in two years, and arrives with cover art depicting a young Uzi alongside their grandmother.

The drop landed on a date with history in Uzi’s catalogue: exactly a decade earlier, on July 31, 2016, they released The Perfect LUV Tape, which debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified gold by the RIAA. Uzi had teased new material as recently as mid-July, sharing an Instagram Story showing work on a studio project.

The release followed the abrupt cancellation of Uzi’s Lollapalooza set at Grant Park in Chicago, where they had been slated to perform Friday evening ahead of headliner Charli XCX.

Lollapalooza’s official statement attributed the cancellation to “weather issues,” and NBC Chicago separately reported the cancellation was tied to the heavy rain and stormy conditions that swept the area throughout the day. Zara Larsson was moved up to fill the slot.

The birthday release extends a run that has made Uzi one of the most commercially dominant hip-hop artists of their generation. They have topped the Billboard 200 three times — with Eternal Atake (2020), its deluxe reissue Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World 2 (2020) and Pink Tape (2023) — and scored a Hot 100 No. 1 as a featured artist on Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” in 2017. Their own “XO Tour Llif3” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and is certified diamond by the RIAA.

Maverick “Almost Forever” arrives as Lollapalooza 2026 continues through Aug. 2 at Grant Park, with Smashing Pumpkins, Mustard and Yungblud among the acts who performed Friday.

Smashing Pumpkins turned their Lollapalooza headline set into a generational summit on Thursday (July 31), with Billy Corgan bringing out Olivia Rodrigo and Yungblud as surprise guests for a pair of nineties deep cuts in Chicago.

The set marked the Chicago-bred band’s first Lollapalooza headlining slot in 32 years — they last played the festival in 1994, during its original touring incarnation, on a bill alongside the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest and Green Day. Corgan, a lifelong Chicagoan, had spent the week leading up to the performance staging a hometown celebration dubbed “Pumpkinpalooza,” including a sold-out underplay show at the 2,500-capacity Riviera Theatre, a merch pop-up near Grant Park, and a roving version of Madame Zuzu’s, the teahouse he owns with wife Chloé Mendel.

Yungblud arrived first onstage, taking his spot less than an hour after his own festival set to sing “Luna,” the closing track from the band’s 1993 breakthrough Siamese Dream. The British rocker, dressed in black to match Corgan, handled the song’s soaring falsetto as Corgan backed him on guitar. “This is a f—ing dream come true,” Yungblud told the crowd.

Rodrigo followed, introduced by Corgan as “a very, very special guest.” She appeared in a sheer dress and knee-high stockings to sing “Thirty-Three,” the fifth single from the band’s 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with Corgan switching to acoustic guitar as the stage was bathed in red light.

The pairings carried a certain lineage. Rodrigo has been open about the influence nineties alt-rock had on her sound, and both guests represent chart eras the Pumpkins helped make possible. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness remains the band’s commercial high point — it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1995 with 246,500 first-week units, the only Pumpkins album ever to top the chart, and was certified diamond by the RIAA for sales exceeding 10 million.

Its singles ran deep: “1979” became the band’s biggest Hot 100 hit at No. 12 and their only No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, while “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” won the 1997 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. The album earned seven Grammy nominations in all. Siamese Dream, the source of “Luna,” has been certified four-times platinum.

Rodrigo, for her part, arrived as one of the defining pop breakouts of the decade. Her 2021 debut SOUR and its 2023 follow-up GUTS both entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1, and she has scored multiple Hot 100 chart-toppers, including “Drivers License,” “Good 4 U” and “Vampire.” Yungblud has been threading the same alternative lineage: he won his first Grammy earlier this year, for Best Rock Performance, for his rendition of “Changes” at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell Black Sabbath concert, and his Aerosmith collaboration EP One More Time reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 in November.

The guest spots capped a week of nineties nostalgia. At a Lollapalooza aftershow earlier in the run, the Pumpkins brought out actor Barry Williams — Greg from The Brady Bunch — to perform the sitcom’s Seventies novelty hit “It’s a Sunshine Day,” and reunited with former touring bassist Melissa Auf der Maur for “The Everlasting Gaze,” from 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God.

The band now turns to its most ambitious outing in years: The Rats in the Cage tour, launching Sept. 30 in Columbus, Ohio, built around a set marking the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness alongside a career-spanning second act.