There’s no stopping Queen on YouTube.

The British rock juggernaut enters the streaming platform’s Billion Views Club for a second time, as “Don’t Stop Me Now” crosses the threshold this week.

Housed on the 1978 album Jazz, “Don’t Stop Me Now” was a minor U.S. hit on its release as a single the following year, peaking at No. 86 on the Hot 100. On the other side of the Atlantic, the tune crashed the U.K. top 10, peaking at No. 9 on the Official Singles Chart.

In the decades that followed, “Don’t Stop” has enjoyed several new lives through film, TV and ad placements, including commercials for Toyota, Silk almond milk, Amazon, Pfizer, L’Oreal, a trailer for American Idol and the 2004 horror-comedy Shaun Of The Dead.

In 2005, viewers of the British TV show Top Gear ranked “Don’t Stop Me Now” as the “Greatest Driving Song of All Time,” and the following year, pop-rock group McFly topped the U.K. singles chart with a bright cover. Katy Perry, The Vandals and Glee have all covered the cut.

“Don’t Stop Me Now” appears on Queen’s 1981 Greatest Hits collection, the all-time best-selling album in the United Kingdom, where it has racked up 1,216 weeks (and counting) in the Official Albums Chart Top 100, and the track enjoyed another burst of energy with the blockbuster success of the Rami Malek-starring Bohemian Rhapsody from 2018, a global sensation that set the high mark for the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time.

Queen was first crowned in the Billion Views Club with the music video for their ‘70s classic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which reached the milestone back in July 2019.

Watch the official music video for Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” below.

Sam Smith is writing a new chapter for their love story.

The Grammy-winning singer disclosed in a new interview with The New York Times that they’re engaged to fashion designer Christian Cowan, sharing the heartwarming news just days after releasing the latest single, “Oh Mother” feat. The TwoCity Chorus, off of their forthcoming fifth studio album, Hazel Eyes.

Smith confirmed that Cowan is now their fiancé while looking back on the relationship that inspired much of the album, due Aug. 21 via Capitol Records. They revealed that “Everlasting Love,” another track from Hazel Eyes, was first written the night before the couple’s first date. It wasn’t until the relationship began to blossom that the song was completed. The album’s title is also a nod to Cowan, whose hazel-colored eyes inspired its name.

The upcoming project follows 2023’s Gloria, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and featured megahit “Unholy” with Kim Petras that peaked No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2022. Across their career, Smith has earned 7 top 10 hits on the Hot 100, including the No. 2-peaking breakthrough ballad “Stay With Me,” while 2017’s The Thrill of It All debuted atop the Billboard 200.

Elsewhere in the interview, Smith speaks vulnerably about the process of making Hazel Eyes outside the traditional pop songwriting system, collaborating with a close-knit group of creatives (including indie singer-songwriter Feist) to make what they describe as a more personal and creatively freeing project.

Though songs on Hazel Eyes explore everything from the joy of finding lasting love to heartbreak and healing, Smith said they intentionally held onto the emotional contradictions that tend to come with happiness. “I feel all types of things all the time,” Smith told The Times. “In my happiest moments, I can get really sad.”

The singer also reflected on crafting openly queer love songs at a time when LGBTQ+ rights continue to face challenges, explaining why celebrating love is meaningful in itself.

“For me, there’s something radical about being queer in this time, in this world and singing love songs,” Smith said. “I’m not going to allow the poison that I read and that I see to affect my way of loving.”

Hazel Eyes is set for release Aug. 21.

This year has already been a jam-packed for Cardi B, and now she’s set to release her first single since 2025’s Am I the Drama?

After previewing the single “Ah Ha” on Monday (July 27), the overwhelmingly positive reception from the Bardi Gang pushed Cardi and Atlantic Records to slap a release date on the single, which is slated to hit streaming services on Friday (July 31). “Meet me at the club,” Cardi captioned the IG post announcing the release date.

On “Ah Ha,” Cardi delivers a catchy chorus, which finds her repeating the song’s title, and then goes on to snipe at her opps and the men after her.

“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 threee, two, to the one in this b—h/ I’ll give a hoe exactly what she want in this b—h,” she raps.

The 33-year-old rapper even disses Donald Trump on the track, which she’s had no problem doing when speaking out against the president publicly in the past.

“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 continues.

The hard-hitting single’s cover art shows Cardi posing in the same Dominican Republic-themed flag bikini she wore on the beach in the initial track teaser video.

Cardi hopped on IG Live on Tuesday (July 28) to clear up any confusion surrounding the “a n—a can’t trap me bar,” which fans believed was a shot at ex-boyfriend Stefon Diggs.

“I know exactly how I felt when I said that s–t. I could have a baby with a n—a, but that’s the issue,” she said. “You could have a baby with a n—a, and sometimes n—as think that because you have a baby with them or you gonna keep a baby or you have a baby that you won’t move the f–k on or you’ll stay there taking s–t. Nah, b—h, I’ll take my baby and get the f–k on. That’s for sure. Like nah, b—h, a baby ain’t trapping me b—h.”

Cardi kicked off the Little Miss Drama Tour in February, which served as her first headlining North American trek. She’s continued to remain outside since Am I the Drama?‘s arrival in September 2025, which topped the Billboard 200.

Check out a teaser of “Ah Ha” and the single’s cover art below.

Ariana Grande isn’t holding back on her new album, Petal, which the pop star said comes from a place of “unfiltered rage” in a new Apple Music clip posted Wednesday (July 29).

Shared one day prior to “Petal Radio” airing on the platform Thursday (July 30) at 5 p.m. PT with a more in-depth conversation about the LP, the clip shows Grande sitting on the bed that is part of her stage design on the Eternal Sunshine Tour. When asked which of the 12 tracks on Petal she’s most excited for fans to hear, the Grammy winner couldn’t choose.

“I’m equally excited to see how they react to every single song,” she said. “It pulls from many different parts of myself and yet, at the same time, it is very experimental and different for me. I wrote from a place that I don’t usually, which was like an unfiltered rage that I think we all feel sometimes.”

“I usually am too shy to tap into that,” she continued. “This time, I didn’t filter as much as I usually do. I usually do a lot of rewrites and make things a little kinder. This time, I didn’t.”

It’s not the first time Grande has hinted that Petal has a bit of a temper. In May, she posted a video of herself breaking down the message of the album in a meeting with her team, saying at the time: “It’s a little feral. It’s definitely from a place I’ve been maybe too shy or polite to tap into before. This kind of just feels like, ‘F–k it.’”

Fans will have to wait until the full album drops on Friday (July 31) to get the full picture, but the snippets of Petal they’ve heard so far definitely live up to Grande’s description. On Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” for instance, she muses with brutal honesty, “I’ve held your projections when you’ve felt so insecure/ Tell me, why is it this way?/ Why you so hate to see women endure?/ Is it really my fault you all gave me your hearts of your own accord?”

“Good luck on your way to hell,” the vocalist sings plainly on a clip from one song she posted on Instagram earlier in July.

And on the title track — which she debuted live on stage at her first Eternal Sunshine Tour show in Montreal — she further addresses her relationship to being in the public eye. “All of my favorite stories end in some kind of catastrophe,” the lyrics read. “But I don’t need someone to save me/ ’Cause this music and I will never die.”

Watch the clip from Grande’s conversation with Apple Music below.

The electronic world is reeling Wednesday (July 29) with the news of Kavinsky’s death. The French synthwave producer was found dead in his Paris home on the night of July 28, local time, with police reporting that the artist had been experiencing headaches and may have died from a stroke. An inquiry has been opened to determine the cause of death, with first responders finding nothing suspicious at the scene. He was 50 years old.

A synthwave pioneer, Kavinsky was a key member of the global swell of French Touch in the early and mid-2000s and into the 2010s. He became famous for 2010’s “Nightcall,” a synthwave masterpiece and staple of the era that gained global renown when it was used in the 2011 film Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

Now, the artist born Vincent Belorgey is being remembered by friends and associates.

“Just learned about Kavinsky’s passing,” David Guetta wrote on social media. “A true icon of French electronic music. Thank you for creating a sound that was entirely your own and for leaving us with music that will continue to inspire. Thank you for your kindness and simplicity. My thoughts are with his family, friends, and loved ones. Rest in peace.”

“Kavinsky was the funniest person I’ve ever met,” wrote A-Trak. “As I sit here processing the sadness of losing a dear friend, I think this is what he would want me to remember. The good times. There were many sides to Vinco. Of course there was the Kavinsky character, the zombie in the ‘Teddy’ varsity jacket, driving a Testarossa — whose music became more celebrated than ever in recent years since the French Olympics. But there was also a man who, in my case, joined the Fools Gold Records tour on the first year of the label, who had us in tears cracking up every time we saw him, who stayed at my apartment in Montreal back in the day, who had a nickname for everyone in the crew. The lore runs deep, a lot of stories will have to wait for another day but for now go watch the video for Mr. Oizo’s ‘Analog Worms Attack‘ to get a glimpse of Vincent the actor before he became a musician. Everyone who met him was marked by his charisma. RIP to the silver fox.”

Madeon wrote that “Yesterday I was going through my CD copy of OutRun, amazed by the vibrancy of his universe… I remember reading all the updates about him on French Touch Forum as a teen and how nervous I was when I finally got to meet him. A few months ago I played ‘Nightcall’ at Coachella as the sun set and I got chills sharing this unique moment with the crowd. It’s a generational record that our kids will discover as well. Sending love to his friends and family.”

Sebastian Tellier wrote, “You were one of a kind—hilarious and deeply moving. Your brilliant, masterful music will stay with me—and all of us—forever. We shared so much over the years: records, movies, music videos, fits of laughter, and endless nights out!!! I’m going to miss you terribly, my Vinco —as will the whole French Touch scene and our beloved Montmartre neighborhood. You were, and always will be, a legend!!!”

“My Vincent, the night truly called you back too soon,” wrote Jean-Michel Jarre. “I remember our late-night calls and the bond we shared, and I keep you close to me, my little brother-in-arms.”

Gaspard Auge of Justice simply wrote, “Goodbye mon cher ami.”

Majestic girl group FLO is entering their sophomore era with intense momentum. Ahead of the Aug. 7 release of Therapy at the Club, the British R&B trio offers Billboard a closer look at the 16-song project, which includes previously released songs “Leak It,” “Don’t Break Her Heart” and the title track, as well as yet-to-be-released songs “Floating,” “Cry Ugly,” “HaterBooth,” “Miss U Missing Me” and “Small Doses.”

Behind the music, though, there was a creative shift that the trio says happened long before the tracklist was finalized.

Speaking with Billboard, FLO shares that making Therapy at the Club meant becoming more outspoken in the studio, even when it felt uncomfortable. Instead of holding back their feedback, the group said they learned to trust their instincts and advocate for what they wanted the album to sound and feel like.

“It felt really good,” member Stella Quaresma says. “I think that it comes to a point where you just have to rip the Band-Aid off. Some things can feel confrontational or uncomfortable, but we’re all in the room to make a great song.”

That mindset, they explain, changed the entire creative process.

“It feels good to just say how you feel and say, ‘I don’t like that,’ or ‘try that,’” Quaresma continued, adding that speaking up left the group “in a much better place creatively.”

The confidence seems to have carried over into every corner of the album-making process. Compared to debut album Access All Areas, which introduced the trio’s rich harmonies and nostalgic R&B influences, FLO says Therapy at the Club reflects who they are as both artists and women.

“It definitely feels more grown,” Renée Downer says. “We have grown up. We have been heavily involved in the album. We immersed ourselves into it… figuring out what needed healing and figuring out what we wanted to talk about. It feels very honest and more real.”

That evolution extends beyond the songwriting. While discussing the cinematic music video for their song “Leak It,” the group candidly admitted they hadn’t been “100% happy” with some of their previous music videos, making it a priority for this era’s visuals to better showcase the ambition of the songs.

“We knew that song had to have a big moment and a big video,” Quaresma states. Downer chimes in as well, adding, “You want to make the video an accurate representation of the music. If the music feels big, it’s always kind of sad if the video doesn’t match it.”

The album arrives after a breakout stretch for FLO: Access All Areas earned the triad a Grammy nomination for best progressive R&B album earlier this year after reaching No. 20 on Top R&B Albums in late 2024.

If Access All Areas introduced FLO to the world, Therapy at the Club appears poised to show listeners a more self-assured version of the trio: one that’s no longer afraid to speak up, both inside and outside the recording studio.

Noah Kahan is the latest artist to lash out at the White House for using his music in a social media propaganda. After President Trump’s visit to a Michigan auto plant this week to tout cars made in America, the administration posted videos and photos on TikTok and Instagram cued to Kahan’s song “American Cars” from his fourth studio album, the Billboard 200 No. 1 LP The Great Divide.

The 29-year-old Vermont-bred singer-songwriter adamantly slammed the unauthorized placement, writing in comments on Instagram (where, at press time, it appeared the sound had been disabled), “Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration.” The comment on Monday’s (July 27) post has more than 21,000 likes so far.

The song, however, is still featured in the accompanying 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. Kahan’s frequent cowriter and the co-author of “American Cars,” guitarist Noah Levine, left a more blunt comment on the Instagram post, writing, “You fat f–k this song isn’t for you.” At press time, a number of fans complained that it appeared Levine’s comment had been scrubbed.

At press time, a spokesperson for the White House had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.

Kahan joins a very long list of artists who’ve called out the Trump administration for using their music without permission in videos or posts promoting the president’s agenda. Over the weekend, Katy Perry was similarly incensed when the White House used her iconic 2010 hit “Firework” in a TikTok that featured footage of military strikes, writing on X, “I am deeply appalled and angry to see ‘Firework’ used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it.” The video synchronized Perry’s “boom, boom, boom” lyrics with black-and-white footage of bombing, with the caption, “Iran has been warned.”

Perry added, “My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”

That followed a similar comment from Ariana Grande in June, when she objected to the White House using a version of her 2024 song “Bye” in a TikTok showing ICE agents arresting and handcuffing people. “Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. F— ICE,” Grande wrote in a comment that is no longer visible.

Kahan, Perry and Grande join a large roster of acts who have spoken out against Trump using their music in campaign and administration hype videos, a list that includes everyone from Beyoncé and Adele to Celine Dion, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Jack White/White Stripes, Kenny Loggins, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, Ozzy Osbourne, Rihanna and many more.

Dua Lipa has announced her curated lineup for the 2026 London Literature Festival, running from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1 at the Southbank Centre. The program marks the latest venture for her Service95 Book Club, which features monthly reading selections and an author-interview podcast series.

“Curating the line up for the London Literature Festival with my Service95 Book Club has been a true joy and I’m so proud of the program we have created,” Dua Lipa said in a statement. “We’ll be joined by icons as well as emerging voices from across the arts the world needs to know. You will recognize some as friends of the book club, and others may be your first introduction, but ultimately, I wanted to create a space that brings together some of the most exciting writers, poets and thinkers from around the globe. I’m looking forward to being both in conversation and taking my seat in the audience at this iconic venue.”

Dua will be in conversation with a number of authors and musicians during the event. On Oct. 24, She will speak with British author Zadie Smith about her award-winning 2000 debut novel, White Teeth, alongside separate discussions with Sudanese-Canadian poet Mustafa (Oct. 24) and punk-rock icon and author Patti Smith (Oct. 25).

Elsewhere during the festival, there’ll be a number of panels focused on translated fiction, and an appearance from British rapper and musician Kae Tempest. Malorie Blackman (Noughts & Crosses) and Hernan Diaz (Trust) will also be in attendance. Tickets for the event are on sale now from the Southbank Centre’s official website.

The guest curation is the latest move by the esteemed London venue in its 75th anniversary celebrations. In June, Harry Styles curated the annual Meltdown Festival and also performed a stripped-back, rarity-stuffed headline show as part of the program.

Dua’s Service95 Book Club launched in 2023, and its monthly reads have included both classics (One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and a number of contemporary favorites (Flesh by David Szalay).

London’s Ministry of Sound will mark its 35th birthday with a weekend-long party, Billboard U.K. can exclusively reveal.

Across the weekend of Oct. 2-3, Andy C, Kerri Chandler, Moodymann and Loco Dice will take over the famous club with a series of performances. Tickets are available for the event via Dice.fm.

Louder, MoS’ longest-running club night, will take over the Friday night, with drum-and-bass legend Andy C returning to the London venue for the first time in 10 years for an extended three-hour set.

The following day, influential label Hard Times will bring together two of house music’s most revered figures, with New York deep-house pioneer Kerri Chandler and Detroit icon Moodymann performing during the daytime event.

On the evening of Oct. 3, Urge, the Ministry’s flagship underground house and techno night, will be headlined by Tunisian-German DJ and producer Loco Dice. Additional names for the event series will be announced in the coming months.

Speaking on the program, club director Matt Long said, “Few venues get to celebrate 35 years at the heart of dance music. We wanted to mark this milestone with a lineup that reflects both our heritage and where our sound is today. It’s an honor to celebrate this anniversary with such incredible talent, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you all.”

It’s the latest celebration for the London institution’s 35th anniversary. The club recently released a new book, Ministry of Sound: Anthology, which tells the untold story of the London space, and launched Boxed In, a live-streamed talent competition for emerging DJs. They will return to Ibiza with a one-off party at 528, marking their first event on the island in more than a decade.

The club first opened in London’s Elephant & Castle in September 1991, and has played a key role in shaping the U.K.’s dance music scene. The Ministry of Sound Group has grown to include a record label, publishing arm and a private members club.

As legend would have it, Niccolò Paganini completed one of his legendary violin performances on a single string when the others snapped one by one. Whether it was the art of showmanship, or just a display of ridiculous talent, is a matter still open for discussion hundreds of years later.

Vetle Nærø had his own moment that would’ve made Paganini proud.

Earlier this month, the Norwegian neo-classic composer dazzled with a performance on the piano, a special guest of the 2026 Bergtatt Festival. That haunting mid-morning set at Luster’s Dale Church, built during the first half of the 13th century, was unexpectedly unplugged — through no fault of his own.

“The concert was going to be a more electronic set with my synthesizers, some gear. But they were lost at the airport,” he tells Billboard. “So I had to basically rearrange my concert and return to solo piano.”

The show must, and did, go on. The performance, and his words to the 200 guests, had some in floods of happy tears. To create “calm and connection,” he says, “is the reason why I do this.”

Thanfully, the musical equipment has since been returned to its owner.

Born in Oslo in 2000, and raised in the quiet coastal town of Ålesund, Nærø studied classical piano at a young age, learning his craft from the playbooks of Chopin and Rachmaninoff. By age nine, he had discovered the godfathers of minimalism, including Philip Glass and Arvo Part. Later, he would form a jazz trio and the electronic scene came calling.

His first album, 2018’s By Heart, was a spontaneous project recorded in a single day. Its followup, Introspection, came in 2021. A third, From Moments, dropped in 2023, and his most recent album release, All Moments Must Pass, was issued in May 2025 on Piano & Coffee Records.  

He’s currently mapping out his fifth studio album, to be released in 2027.

“It’s forming up to be a very big release, at a bigger scale than I’m the previous one,” he hints. “I get to work with some amazing people that really believe in what I’ve made.”