Microfest 2026
Courtesy of Desert Hearts
During a recent appearance on Talk With Flee, Cam’ron and co-host Sen City were talking about sample clearances when Sen brought up Killa’s “Pull It” collab with DMX, and asked if he had any memorable stories he was willing to share about the late rapper.
That’s when Cam could barely keep himself together as he told a story about the time the two were staying in a hotel and X had allegedly set up a fight between his dog and a raccoon. “I was filming Paid in Full the same time he was filming [Cradle 2 the Grave] with Jet Li,” he began by saying, “We were both staying in the same hotel at the same time in Connecticut. And he had a dog, I can’t remember if it was Boomer or not — rest in peace, Boomer, you know he loved Boomer — but he had a dog in the hotel with him and we kept bumping into each other. And he’s like, ‘Yo, bro, what you doing later?’ And I’m like, ‘I just gotta film, I’ll be back’ and he said, ‘Oh, aight, good. You gonna be done by 7?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll be back’ and he said, ‘Oh, cool, 7:30 we gonna be at the back of the hotel. Boomer is gonna fight this raccoon.’” [Ed. note: Billboard does not endorse animal fights. PETA considers staged animal fighting to be “cruel.”]
Adding, “How do you know where a raccoon gonna be at, at 7:30? How’d you set this match up with your dog and a raccoon to fight a n—a at 7:30 to where all parties are gonna be available to fight this raccoon.”
He then continued by saying that he ran into DMX the next day where he learned that the dog won the bout in easy fashion. “Then I remember seeing him the next day and he was like, ‘Yo, where you was at?’ I said, ‘I forgot all about it, X. What happened? He f—ked him up?’ He said, ‘Yeah, he f—ked him up. A f—kin’ raccoon can’t fuck with my n—a.’”
“That’s probably the No. 1 story out of all the stories with DMX that stands out to me,” he continued. “This n—a knew where a raccoon was gonna be at, at a particular time, and he had everybody set up to see the fight. I actually missed it, but I heard that his dog won and s—t.”
You can watch the full episode below.
On “Girl, So Confusing,” Charli xcx and Lorde worked it out on the remix — and at Lollapalooza 2026, they worked it out on the stage.
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After making a cameo at the New Zealand native’s headlining set in Chicago on Thursday (July 30), Charli shared a post on Instagram commemorating the surprise duet, writing, “the more we do this the more special it feels <3”
“love you ella,” she continued, captioning photos of herself and Lorde backstage at the festival and performing the Brat remix track. “congrats on headlining and ty for bringing me out!!!! ps i headline lolla tonight… im excited ;)”
In the comments, Lorde wrote, “Take care of it tn”
“U the f–kin one,” the “Royals” singer added.
Though the collaboration disrupted the internet when it dropped in 2024, Charli and Lorde have only sung it together live a handful of times. The two gave the remix its live debut at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in September 2024, when Charli brought out Lorde during her co-headlining show with Troye Sivan. When the British dance-pop star performed it at Coachella in 2025, Lorde joined her in the desert to assist, later inviting Charli to sing it with her during an Ultrasound World Tour stop in Los Angeles.
The two women’s ability to perform the “Girl, So Confusing” remix speaks to how far they’ve come since they first teamed up on the song. In her 2024 Billboard cover story, Charli told senior writer Kristin Robinson that she originally penned it about ambiguous, unspoken tension she felt with Lorde.
“Then the day before the record came out, I left her a voice note,” Charli said at the time. “[Lorde] replied straight away and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea you felt this way. I’m so sorry.’ And then was like, ‘You know, maybe I should be on a version of the song.’ I didn’t even ask her. She brought it up.”
“I love that we truly did work it out on the remix,” Lorde added in the same article. “Only Charli could make that happen. She had opened up a channel between us, and it made me say things that I had never said.”
As Charli noted in her post, she will now take the baton from Lorde and headline night two of this year’s Lolla on Friday (July 31), following sets from Zara Larsson, Lil Uzi Vert, Yungblud, Mustard and more. The festival goes all weekend, featuring respective night three and night four headliners Olivia Dean and Tate McRae.
Charli is fresh off the release of her new album, Music, Fashion, Film, which dropped July 24. Lorde’s most recent LP, Virgin, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last year.
Bright lights, damp smells, electronic sounds bouncing from the walls. For Generation X, video game arcades were the gateway to dance parties.
PNAU made the leap. And somehow, that trip is fused into AHHCade, the electronic duo’s seventh studio album, out today (July 31) via Sydney-based indie label etcetc, part of TMRW Music.
“We started out this record trying to do something different and trying to make darker music,” co-founder Nick Littlemore explains in a sitdown chat with Billboard. “We talked about the idea of making it quite industrial, going back to my roots.”
That didn’t quite end up happening.
Instead, PNAU, the project of high school buddies Littlemore and Peter Mayes, reached deep into the memory banks, and those formative, dingy rooms that sucked up our pocket money and triggered dopamine dumps.
“Arcades were such an exciting place as kids. I don’t know if they were safe spaces, but they were exciting and they gave us a window to a future that other generations didn’t have,” Littlemore explains. In an earlier, simpler life, the young generation was “going to the arcades, making mixtapes for friends, representing yourself on your pencil case.”
Playing the “Spacies,” as Aussies of a certain vintage have in their vernacular, “the fact they weren’t necessarily that safe is a bit like going to raves. They were the precursor to going into other dark rooms, with dodgy foods being sold somewhere. And blinking lights, mad sounds. And very electronic. You were interfacing with it.”
Those sensory overload rooms were the first to enable youngsters to get a buzz by burying their faces in screens. “Music isn’t work; you don’t work music. Arcades, it’s a play time, isn’t it?,” Littlemore reckons. “There’s a playfulness to it.”
Playtime was “naive back then in a beautiful way. I never want to lose that.”
The new collection houses the previously-released belter “Tu Corazon (Your Heart)” featuring Mexican rock act The Warning; the bubbly single “Nirvana” with EARTHGANG and sadMONTH; and the new single “Serotonin,” which features Kurtis Wells and arrives today. Other features include Master Peace, Kungs, MEDUZA, Maleigh Zan, The Flints, LATASHA, and Marieme.
PNAU formed in Sydney in the mid-1990s, the golden era of Australia’s underground electronic music scene. Their debut album, Sambanova, dropped in 1999, and won an ARIA Award for best dance release. More would come, as would AIR Awards. Long-overdue international recognition came when PNAU joined forces with Elton John on the Rocket Man’s 2012 remix album Good Morning to the Night, which went to No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. PNAU and Elton teamed up again for the 2021 remix “Cold Heart” with Dua Lipa, and landed a bonafide global monster.
PNAU will support the new release with a national tour, kicking off Sept. 19 for Brisbane’s Night at the Parkland event. Littlemore, one half of Empire of the Sun, is a reluctant touring artist. “I want to wind up my personal touring by the end of the year. Ideally. I tried to do it last year. But I would like to move just purely into production and composition,” he insists. “I’ve been making a classical album, with an amazing arranger, and all these modular synths. Oh, my God. No one’s gonna listen to her, but I’m really enjoying making it.”
Littlemore admits he and Mayes and have “100s of songs and ideas” on standby. “Songs are spells. They’re wishes and they’re spells, and you want to put good spells in the universe,” he insists. “There are enough bad spells out there, anyway.”
AHHCade brings some balance to the equation. Eleven good spells, a half-hour playtime.
Stream it in full below.
Cardi B wants you in the club this summer. The Bronx native returned with her first single of the year on Friday (July 31), as “Ah Ha” arrived on streaming services at midnight ET.
The Bardi Gang went into a frenzy when Cardi previewed the hard-hitting single on Monday (July 27), which saw her rapping while taking a stroll on the beach in a Dominican Republic flag bikini.
Looking to capitalize on the buzz and momentum, Cardi and Atlantic Records didn’t waste any time setting a release date for the catchy single, which the Grammy-winning artist officially announced on Wednesday (July 29).
“A n—a can’t trap me, I won’t keep it/ B—es really hate me, so be it/ Bathroom floors and these hoes both heated/ It goes three, two, to the one in this b—h/ I’ll give a hoe exactly what she want in this b—h,” she raps on the new song.
Cardi also dissed Donald Trump on the track. “Black trucks at the club look like Trump in this b—h, f–k him/ A hoe never played with me once in this b—h,” she spews.
Even without any new music prior to “Ah Ha,” Cardi has been booked and busy so far this year. She kicked off 2026 with the Little Miss Drama Tour, which served as her first headlining North American trek. The 33-year-old also came in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hottest Female Rappers list for the first half of 2026.
It’s unclear if “Ah Ha” is the launch of a new era or a one-off release. Cardi’s sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, arrived in September 2025 and topped the Billboard 200.
Stream “Ah Ha” below.
Like flowers from a tomb, Ariana Grande‘s new album has found its way to us.
Led by her 10th Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” Petal — the eighth studio album from the Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated superstar — arrives a little over halfway through her ongoing, arena-headlining Eternal Sunshine Tour.
With Grande handling lyrics by her lonesome and co-executive producing alongside longtime collaborator Ilya, Petal finds the pop juggernaut shape-shifting into a darker, more guitar-driven sound that builds on the ethereal glimmer of 2024’s Eternal Sunshine and its 2025 Brighter Days Ahead deluxe tracks. After spending her last record processing the dissolution of her marriage and the subsequent emergence of a new love, Grande uses Petal to survey the two years since Eternal Sunshine — and it’s pretty much a manicured middle finger aimed directly at the public.
From her hair and weight to her romantic life and vocal preservation techniques, Grande is constantly at the center of vicious public discourse. Things came to a head during the unfairly derailed Wicked: For Good press run, with heaps of misogyny (specifically misogynoir in the case of co-star Cynthia Erivo), feigned concern from armchair medical experts and an unwarranted nitpicking of Grande’s mere existence doing their best to define the final month of a key chapter of her career.
Petal finds Grande not just directly addressing the precarious relationship between her celebrity and person — as she so deftly does on the excellent title track — but also celebrating the first signs of new life born out of particularly volatile periods like 2025. Some of that new life (petals in the pavement, if you will) looks like a rejuvenated perspective on privacy, maturation and the beautiful unknown of the path not chosen (“Freak”), and other parts of that new life are anchored by a sense of self that’s stronger than ever because it embraces and cherishes all of its past iterations (“Never Get Over Me”).
Fans of Dangerous Woman and Thank U, Next will feel right at home with Petal, as the 12-track set effortlessly balances straightforward pop bangers (“Stay”) with quippy, candid songwriting (“Oh Well”). Intro track “Kiss Me” helps establish an undertone of shoegaze that courses through nearly every track, including moodier garage-indebted moments like “Nowhere, Nobody” and the rollicking pop-rock energy of “Bad Thing (Bunny Hop),” a spiritual successor to “The Boy Is Mine.” Where earlier albums had moments that felt as though Grande was acting out a caricature of her pop persona; Petal seems to emerge from somewhere much more grounded, which allows Grande to sneak in meaningful personal revelations in between genuinely hilarious digs.
But that’s not to say Positions fans don’t get some love, too. “Big Feelings” is another instant standout thanks to its sultry R&B groove, and “Like I Do” recalls the dramatic darkness of mixtape-era The Weeknd. Petal somehow simultaneously sounds like nothing Grande’s ever made before while still clearly nodding to virtually all seven of her other studio albums — and that’s what she’s been trying to get across ever since she sang, “Cause I’m still the same, but only entirely different” on “Hampstead” last year. And for what it’s worth, if you missed the questionable-yet-charming enunciation of pre-Wicked Grande, you’ll be all set with Petal.
Even when her immaculate tone and sense of melody are the only saving grace for, at times, underdeveloped lyrics, Grande fully commits to the concept of Petal; her vocal performances brim with ever-so-slightly reserved hope that stands on a foundation of trauma-induced survival mode. But she’s also angry here — far past annoyed and almost downright irate — and rightfully taking up the space to get snarky. Where Eternal Sunshine felt warm, Petal is really, really cold. Grande’s no damsel, and that tenacity is what continues to make her such a compelling pop star and artist. This is also an album clearly crafted to be performed live — perhaps more so than any of her previous LPs — which makes the era’s future all the more exciting.
Petal marks the official follow-up to Eternal Sunshine, Grande’s seventh studio album, which spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200, spawning two Hot 100 chart-toppers in “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” and winning the 2025 MTV Video Music Award for video of the year for her Christian Breslauer-helmed Brighter Days Ahead short film.
Check out Billboard’s preliminary ranking of every track on Ariana Grande’s Petal below.
Ariana Grande‘s eighth studio album has blossomed, with the pop star finally unveiling Petal — on which she allows herself to be angrier and more authentic than ever before — on Friday (July 31).
Hitting streaming services at midnight ET, the set features a total of 12 tracks, all but one of which fans hadn’t heard before. The only song Grande released as a single ahead of time was “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” which dropped in June and debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, marking the star’s 10th career No. 1 on the chart. She’d also posted snippets of the a cappella vocals from “Oh Well” and “Freak” on Instagram, as well as debuted the album’s phenomenal title track at an Eternal Sunshine show in Montreal.
Beyond the music itself, Grande also revealed before Petal‘s arrival that it was “written from a place … [of] unfiltered rage.” Upon the delivery of the full bouquet of songs, it’s clear that the previously unheard portions of the album definitely live up to that description, with the Wicked actress holding nothing back as she takes stock of her relationship to the public and the gossip about her personal life she’s faced for years.
The new album marks Grande’s latest since Eternal Sunshine, which dropped in 2024 and spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200, spawning two Hot 100 No. 1 hits: “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).” Last year, she treated fans to a deluxe version of the LP featuring five brand new songs accompanied by a short film.
The Grammy winner is now more than halfway done with her Eternal Sunshine trek, the rest of which may or may not feature additional Petal tracks incorporated into the setlist. After closing out the tour with a 10-night stay at the O2 Arena in London, she’ll prepare for the promotional cycle of her next acting project, Focker-in-Law, which premieres in November, after which she’ll star alongside Jonathan Bailey in a West End production of Sunday in the Park With George in 2027.
Listen to Petal below.
After pressing pause on its flagship festival for 2026, Desert Hearts is making a smaller-scale return this fall.
The dance music collective has announced Microfest, a new five-day gathering set for the beginning of October at Deloro Valley in Northern California. This comeback is designed to encapsulate the intimate ambience that helped launch Desert Hearts more than a decade ago, and it’s meant to bring fans back to the community-focused dancefloors that first defined the brand.
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This announcement comes after the pause of Desert Hearts Festival 2026, the news of which was shared in an Instagram post this past November. The crew’s statement read that “After 13 years of magic, love, and dancing under the stars, we’ve made the tough call to pause Desert Hearts Festival in 2026. This isn’t goodbye – but it’s time to reset, refocus, and rebuild so the heartbeat of DH can keep going strong for years to come.”
With today’s news, Desert Hearts has kept their promise to come back better than ever, with the Microfest lineup featuring house and techno veterans alongside longtime Desert Hearts favorites. DJ Minx, Stacey Pullen, Danny Daze, Doc Martin, Justin Martin, DJ Holographic, Kevin Knapp, Shaded (Live), Toy Tonics (Barbara Boeing & Cody Currie) and Life On Planets are among the artists scheduled to perform, with Desert Hearts founders Mikey Lion, Lee Reynolds, Marbs and Porky also taking the stage throughout the weekend.
Additional performances will come from B Rose, Brunch Life, Caleb Jackson, Groovewell, Issac Carter, Jake Mora, Justin Campbell, Maitreya, Rob Grega, Sprout, Stacy Christine and Techno Tupac. See the complete lineup below.
The lineup reveal also arrives alongside new music from the collective’s founders. Mikey Lion, Marbs and Lee Reynolds have released “A Place For Us” under their newly unified Desert Hearts artist project, with the song reflecting the sense of connection and belonging that has long been central to the Desert Hearts community.
Microfest takes place Oct. 1-5 in Deloro Valley, Calif. Tickets are available now.
Everyone loves a good song about being cool, confident and comfortable in your own skin — but sometimes, what we really need is an anthem that captures what it’s like to feel the opposite.
Most people — albeit some more than others — have experienced moments of feeling like the odd one out, whether it’s envy for others who seem to be effortlessly popular, awkwardness in social settings or alienations when no one else seems to share your same interests. Even some of music’s biggest artists have felt that way, sparking a number of iconic songs by the likes of Taylor Swift, Echosmith and Olivia Rodrigo on the topic that perfectly encapsulate the experience of not fitting in, no matter how hard you might try.
But as many of those stars can also attest, it’s not always a negative thing to march to the beat of your own drum. Rather than yearning to be like everyone else, stars such as Pink, Jimmy Eat World and Lorde — not to mention the cast of Glee, a show that’s practically dedicated to this theme — have blessed the world with musical odes to celebrating one’s individuality and embracing labels such as “loser,” “dork” or “freak” rather than shying away from them. In their eyes, being “uncool” is, well, cool — and Billboard happens to agree.
That’s why we’ve assembled a list of songs handpicked by staff that are all about being the opposite of status quo. From Beck to Bob Dylan, Wheatus to Weezer and more, keep reading to see our 21 favorite songs about straying from the norm below.
Shaboozey’s Outlaws era is in full swing, with a new album out Friday (July 31) and a major tour getting underway in September.
Night owls just got a ride with “Cowgirl,” and a good look at Ciara Miller.
Shaboozey stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday evening to perform the lively song in a set dressed up like a faded Wild West saloon, and recreated from the official music video.
Miller, the star of Bravo’s Summer House, appeared in the promo, which was directed by Logan Meis and Shaboozey and dropped last month. For the late night spot, she reprises her “Cowgirl” role, and enjoys a dance with her leading man.
“Cowgirl” is the followup to the April release “Born To Die,” both lifted from Shaboozey’s forthcoming concept album The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.
The collection is a Western portrait, a country tale told with Americana, hip-hop, and pop, recounting a “tragic, mythic story of vengeance, love, and transformation,” reads a statement. It’s said to unfold like a Western film, told in chapters with narration, skits, and cinematic transitions.
The main character is Cheri Lee, a woman shaped by violence and driven by loss. On her travels, she falls for an outlaw, which provides her with entry into the world that she’s trying to destroy. It’s complicated, and the story takes a bloody turn, leaving our hero with some big calls to make.
Released through EMPIRE, The Outlaw Cherie Lee is the successor to his breakout 2024 project Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going. Shaboozey is responsible for one of the biggest hits of the streaming era with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which set a new benchmark by spending more time at No. 1 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart than any song before it and spending 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
Shaboozey’s Outlaws Never Die Tour starts Sept. 8 at Arizona Financial Theatre.
Check out his late-night performance of “Cowgirl” below.
The White House has gone on the offensive after Noah Kahan criticized president Donald Trump for using his music in social media propaganda.
The brewing beef stems from the administration’s videos and photos posted to TikTok and Instagram cued to Kahan’s song “American Cars” from his fourth studio album, the Billboard 200 No. 1 LP The Great Divide, all part of an exercise to celebrate Trump’s visit to a Michigan auto plant this week where the POTUS touted cars made in America.
The 29-year-old Vermont-bred singer and songwriter wasn’t thrilled by the situation. “Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration,” the “Stick Season” artist wrote write in comments on Instagram, where the sound appears to have been disabled. Kahan’s comment on Monday’s (July 27) post has more than 53,500 likes, and upwards of 840 comments.
Kahan’s frequent cowriter and the co-author of “American Cars,” guitarist Noah Levine, vented with his own comment on the Instagram post, writing, “You fat f— this song isn’t for you.” Levine’s comment has since been wiped, an action that was spotted my numerous users.
The song, however, continues to accompany the White House TikTok from the event, where it plays as Trump is signing a white Corvette while visiting the General Motors proving grounds in Milford, Mich.
Trump’s team isn’t holding back. Kaelan Dorr, who holds several titles with the Trump administration, including principal deputy communications director, retweeted Variety’s post on Kahan’s comments, and offering some of his own. “Symptoms of TDS,” a reference to Trump Derangement Syndrome, “apparently include having a northern attitude.”
It’s worth pointing out that Kahan’s recordings are available for use as part of the public Instagram library following a 2024 pact between the Universal Music Group and Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and WhatsApp).
Kahan is a member of a large, and growing roster of acts who have spoken out against Trump using their music in campaign and administration hype videos, a list that includes Beyoncé, Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Jack White/White Stripes, Kenny Loggins, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, and Rihanna.