After spending last summer playing arenas and amphitheaters, Gracie Abrams is ready for her close-up. The 26-year-old singer dropped her third full-length studio album on Friday (July 17), the 16-track Daughter From Hell. Prefaced by the introspective first single, “Hit the Wall” — which peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the new collection has been referred to by Abrams as her “favorite music” she’s made to date.

The follow-up to Abrams’ 2024 Billboard 200 No. 2 LP The Secret of Us once again finds her teaming up with The National guitarist/composer Aaron Dessner, who, along with his twin brother and bandmate Bryce Dessner, helped write and produce “Hit the Wall.” Aaron Dessner is listed as a cowriter on 14 of the album’s 16 tracks, while frequent Olivia Rodrigo producer-songwriter Dan Nigro has a coproduction credit on the fretful, am-I-doing-it-all-wrong song second single, “Look At My Life.”

Elsewhere, Mumford & Sons singer Marcus Mumford pops in for a guest vocal on the tune Abrams has said is her favorite on the LP, “What If It’s Right?,” and Abrams’ boyfriend, actor Paul Mescal, has a cowriting credit on “Imaginary Friend.” Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is listed as the coproducer of “Hit the Wall” and has a cowriting and coproduction credit on “Broke My Heart,” one of several songs on which he also contributes additional vocals.

“It’s definitely my favorite music I’ve ever made, and I feel very closely connected to it,” Abrams told The Hollywood Reporter in January. “I appreciate so much that these albums are time capsules of where I’m at in my life at any given point, but right now it does feel very like me. I hope that whoever finds it, connects with it and that they make it theirs when it’s out one day. But not yet.”

In a recent Spotify conversation about songwriting, friend Olivia Rodrigo said the Daughter From Hell song “Afflictions” is her favorite so far, calling it “pure, but also very mature. It feels like the love is very deep and not superficial.” Abrams agreed, admitting that she has a hard time writing about love and tends to avoid it if she can. “When I’ve tried to write about it before, it kind of diminishes what it actually feels like. But that [song] is super real for me,” Abrams said.

The pair also talked about the more negative relationships explored on Daughter From Hell, with Abrams saying she approached them differently than she has in the past. “I was careful about writing about conflict and pain from less of a place of pointing fingers and more so of having been on both sides, like, of both the protagonist and the antagonist of each song,” Abrams said. “There’s songs about tough friendships or a kind of a breakup … I was careless in the past writing music about how it might impact the subject, and I don’t like that. I wish I could go back and fix it. And I feel like moving forward, with this album.”

Abrams’ The Look at My Life tour will begin playing North American arenas beginning on Dec. 2 in Denver.

Listen to Daughter From Hell below.

Drake showed love to everyone attending opening day ceremonies for Kai Cenat‘s Streamer University yesterday (July 15).

Cenat was speaking to the invitees during an assembly when he announced that he had a message from the Toronto rapper.

“2026, back for another year,” Drake said via video message. “Congratulations to everybody that got accepted — all the new creators, all the veteran creators. I hope you guys make the most of this opportunity. I hope you learn something. I hope you’re able to teach each other things.”

Drake added that his OVO team had provided gifts for this year’s attendees who are staying at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas through July 20. “And behalf of us at OVO, I left you something…well, actually I left you a few things in your room to make the stay even easier,” Drake told the excited streamers. “So, shout out to Kai, Streamer University 2026. Enjoy.”

Some of the items unboxxed by the Twitch streamers include cologne, Nike clothing and OVO merch.

This is the second year of the innovative streaming bootcamp. The first Streamer University, hosted at the University of Akron in Ohio, won best streamed event at the 2025 Streamer Awards and clocked upwards of 20 millions hours watched on Twitch.

During a stream last June, Cenat revealed that he had to take legal action in order to own the name and the intellectual property to Streamer University, so that no one would be able to steal or redo the idea in its current iteration. “For Streamer University, the idea was so big that I had to take legal action into owning the idea, owning the name and making it mine because it was influencing a lot of people to just redo it, redo it, redo it,” he told the chat in 2025. “But we had to secure it and we gotta make this sh-t special. Streamer University, have full ownership. The name itself, have full ownership.”

You can watch the full stream of Streamer University’s 2026 Opening Ceremony below.

Post Malone looks to be retiring his cowboy hat, for now. Posty teased new music on Instagram on Thursday (July 16), which appears to find him tapping back into his rap roots.

“That one mofo that don’t know when to leave,” he captioned the clip, which sees Post slugging a Bud Light and puffing on a cigarette.

The unreleased track features Post’s signature melodic rapping sound that fans fell in love with on albums like beerbongs & bentleys and Hollywood’s Bleeding and could signal his sonic direction for his upcoming LP. “All my money clean, not a damn stain on me/ I would pop a bean, 2016 Stoney,” he raps on the new snippet.

“Ohhhhh this a hit,” Tyla Yaweh said in a comment, lending his stamp of approval. Fans in the comments seemed to welcome Post Malone’s return to hip-hop as well.

Post’s last rap album came with 2022’s Twelve Carat Toothache, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. He leaned more into pop with 2023’s Austin and made a country pivot on 2024’s F-1 Trillion, which boasted hits like “I Had Some Help,” featuring country titan Morgan Wallen, which topped the Billboard Hot 100.

The 31-year-old has been gearing up for his next album, The Eternal Buzz, which remains without a firm release date. He first spoke about the project to Billboard at Coachella last year, where he detailed recording the LP in Nashville and already had 35 songs under his belt.

Post Malone broke out as a rapper with top 20 Hot 100 hit “White Iverson” in 2016, and blossomed into a potent hitmaker with Hot 100 No. 1s like “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, “Rockstar” with 21 Savage, “Circles” and “Sunflower” with Swae Lee.

Listen to the snippet from Post Malone below.

Gracie Abrams is bringing us heaven in celebrating her new album, Daughter From Hell.

The project marks the pop singer-songwriter’s first full-length since her Billboard 200 No. 2-debuting The Secret of Us in 2023. Ahead of her third studio set’s release, Abrams unveiled two preliminary singles led by “Hit the Wall,” which reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Look at My Life.” So far, the rest of the album’s 16 tracks are yet-to-be released — at least, not as studio recordings.

To kick off release week, Abrams hosted a free show at the Bowery Ballroom in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday (July 14) where a few hundred lucky Capital One cardholders got the opportunity to hear a handful of new songs live for the first time, plus some fan favorites (see the full setlist below). In addition to performing her prerelease singles, she sang six brand new songs from the project, including “Imaginary Friend,” which she recently revealed was co-written by her boyfriend, Paul Mescal.

A few hours before, Abrams sat down backstage to exclusively share early snippets of two other songs off the Aaron Dessner-produced project and chat about how they came to be in the Billboard original short form series, Voice Memo Demo.

Scrolling through the voice memos on her caseless silver iPhone, she eventually pulled up the original “verse-melody-pass” for what is now track 8 on the album, “Sober.” In the recording, we hear Abrams scratchily humming a soft melody a cappella, which she shared was inspired by an instrumental Dessner sent over.

“That melody isn’t even in the song anymore,” she quipped a few seconds into playing us the recording, which she said turned into a song that reminds her of something that could live on her first studio album, Good Riddance.

“Anyway, I love this song,” she continued. “It’s a song about in time, or in another life — this yearning quality. I thought about the girls who might dig a yearn.”

She also shared a similar very early recording of “Mews,” where she hums atop simple piano chords. After hitting pause on the memo, Abrams explained how the song was inspired by the London studio of the same name that it was recorded in.

“It sort of is like the most ballad-y ballad I’ve ever written, I think,” she said. “There’s something that feels classic about it that I loved right away.” She revealed the Macedonian Orchestra plays strings on the track, highlighting its build to the bridge.

She continued: “It sits in a place vocally that’s a bit uncharted for me, so stretching in that capacity was exciting.”

Daughter From Hell is out Friday (July 17).

Gracie Abrams: Live from the Bowery Ballroom in celebration of Daughter from Hell Setlist

Live debuts are bolded below.

Beck is returning from Hyperspace after seven long years. The “Saw Lightning” singer announced the long-awaited follow-up to that 2019 Grammy-winning LP on Wednesday (July 15), when he revealed that his 16th studio album, Ride Lonesome, is due out on Sept. 18 via Capitol Records.

“My new album Ride Lonesome is coming out this fall. The musicians from my original touring and recording band that I recorded Sea Change, Morning Phase and Mutations with — Smokey Hormel [guitar], Joey Waronker [drums], Justin Meldal-Johnsen [bass], Roger Joseph Manning Jr. [keyboards], and Jason Falkner [guitar] — reconvened with me at my favorite studio (Room B at United Studios in Hollywood),” said Beck in a statement about reuniting his crack band from those classic albums.

“We had [producer] Nigel Godrich, who worked on Sea Change and Mutations with us mixing all the songs. It had been a decade since we went in the studio and recorded Morning Phase,” Beck added. “This time It felt like the playing and the chemistry had evolved and deepened — a sound that’s come together over the decades of working together.  While we were revisiting a musical and physical place, it also felt like we were finding new sounds and emotional textures along the way.”

Beck released the contemplative, can’t-put-your-arms-around-a-memory title track in April, which taps into a similar haunted-by-love vibe as the just-released second single, “In the Night.” The ghostly ballad featuring finger-picked acoustic guitar, a swaying string section and subtle horns is anchored by the indie veteran’s sad and lonesome vocals.

“Darkness came on by/ With stories of the sky/ To bury all the lies/ In the night, in the night/ Your teachers and your saints/ They’ll walk you to the grave/ And say you’ll find your way,” he sings on the tune that was accompanied by an equally pensive video directed by Mikai Karl starring French character actor Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Gagarine). In the clip, Lavant is filmed crying over some unseen emotional challenge, then lighting a cigarette and shaking his head as he tosses his fedora aside and moodily contemplates his fate while pacing around a cramped apartment.

The tracklist for Ride Lonesome is: “Ride Lonesome,” “Run Away,” “In the Night,” “Failed Words,” “Bleep,” “Disappearing Act,” “For Your Love,” “Slow Canyon,” “It Ends Right Here,” “Falling Through My Hands,” “If You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “Beyond the Light.”

Beck will support the new album on the Ride Lonesome North American tour, slated to kick off on Sept. 16 in Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and run through an Oct. 31 show at The Truth in Nashville.

Watch the “In the Night” video below.

Life is a rollercoaster, Ronan Keating once told us. You’ve just gotta ride it.

More than a quarter century has passed since the Irishman handed out those lifehacks, none of it a lie.  

Keating has whizzed to the very peak of that thrill ride, bagging three U.K. solo No. 1 singles — including that perfect pop nugget from 2000, “Life Is A Rollercoaster” — and four No. 1 albums. And as a member of Boyzone, he boasts another six U.K. No. 1 singles, and five No. 1 albums.

That’s nine No. 1 singles, nine No. 1 albums. Another hit might not be too far away, perhaps tipping Keating’s career chart crowns into double-digits.

“I’m just in the process of making a record right now,” he tells Billboard over a Zoom from his home in Dubai, “and the first single is with a young singer-songwriter by the name of Ed Sheeran. I’m ready to release this album.”

Rollercoasters, they come down too. After the misery of the pandemic, Keating lost his brother, Ciaran Keating, in a car accident in 2023. That tragedy rocked the veteran artist, now aged 49, as did the loss of his former Boyzone bandmate, Stephen Gately, in 2009. Art, as it so often does, finds its way in the darker times.

“I do find clarity, calm, in those moments when I’m on stage,” he explains. “I tried to write a song about Ciaran, but I struggled a lot with writing in the last couple of years.” Earlier this year on a trip to Australia, where he has a long history as a reality TV judge, that creative block became dislodged when Keating and his wife Storm stumbled upon a melody, a tune that became something more.

“The two of us spent the afternoon just sitting and writing. I had the guitar and we wrote this song. It was the first song I’d written since my brother died. That was the catalyst that has allowed me to get this album moving and going,” he tells Billboard. “I think it was my wife’s angle of what she saw me going through, and us going through as a family, and we ended up just pouring our hearts out into this song. It was beautiful. I think music and songwriting has allowed me to grieve.”

After the tough, low points, the rollercoaster is on the climb. “Storm and I, we spend a bit of time in the studio writing. I’m in a really good place musically, and I’m ready to drop this next album, and I’m really excited about it, the way it feels, and it sounds.”

There’s no title just yet, but Keating is happy with the progress made. “We’re about halfway through the album. And I can definitely say that the first single will be with Ed and (Wheatus frontman) Brendan Brown. The three of us wrote the song earlier in the year, and it was just one of those moments. I knew this is going to be a big moment. So, yeah, I can confidently say it’s the first single on the album.”

Keating is excited, too, about his 26^th anniversary tour of “Life Is A Rollercoaster,” which continues Saturday, July 18 at Newbury Racecourse in the United Kingdom, and bolts into Germany, Switzerland, Austria and more markets this summer.

Then, on Dec. 5, a once-in-a-lifetime moment, when Keating joins the likes of Robbie Williams, the Corrs, Natalie Imbruglia, Darren Hayes, Katherine Jenkins and more for the Carreras & Friends concert at the Gabba Stadium in Brisbane, Australia — the host city for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“I’m very excited to finally get to sing with Jose (Carreras), because, you know, I was lucky enough to sing with Pavarotti back in 1998 (dueting on the Boyzone hit “No Matter What”). He’s on my list. I remember that moment when The Three Tenors stood up and sang ‘Nessun Dorma’ at the 1990 World Cup. That was a moment that will go down in history as one of the great musical moments of our generation.”

Looking ahead, “for me to get to sing with Pavarotti was this huge moment, and now Jose is there, and I have this opportunity to tick that box and to sing with him. This is a great honor,” Keating enthuses. “And yes, to stand in the mighty Gabba, I’m very excited to be there and to perform.”

Versatile. Joyful. Family. Sam Neill was all of those things and more to Jimmy Barnes, the great Australian rocker.

Neill, the Northern Ireland-born, New Zealand-raised actor who memorably led the way in scores of films, from ‘90s blockbuster Jurassic Park to Jane Campion’s Academy Award-winner The Piano, Event Horizon, Dead Calm, My Brilliant Career, the Peaker Blinders series, and many others, died Monday, March 13. He was 78.

“What a day it’s been. My dear friend Sam left us today,” writes Barnes, who boasts an unmatched 22 No. 1 albums in Australia, including 16 solo leaders and six with Cold Chisel. “I can’t believe we will no longer be eating great food together and sharing the odd glass of wine down at his winery, while laughing, singing and solving the problems of the world together.”

Neill, he continues, “was a big part of our lives. He was family. He lifted our spirits when he walked in the room. Sam was everything he appeared to be on the screen. Caring, funny, intelligent, charming, honest, talented, the list could go on. He sat with me while I recovered in hospital and I sat with him when he needed me. We shared a lot in this life and for that, I will be always thankful. Rest easy, dear Sam. You are always in our hearts.”

Fellow Australian rockers The Cruel Sea remembered Neill for his “superb acting and his wonderful presence off screen,” and for those quirky videos that kept the flame burning for so many of us during the pandemic — including a Radiohead cover, performed on ukulele. “One of my great small joys through Covid and recent years was to follow him on Instagram. Such a funny and charming man full of humble Kiwi stoicism and humanity,” writes The Cruel Sea’s bass player Kenny Gormly.

Neill had friends everywhere, across the creative industries and into the halls of power. He attended the ARIA Hall of Fame ceremony in Sydney on June 11, a special guest of inductee and fellow Kiwi Jenny Morris.

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern inducted Morris on the night, and “had the profound joy of sitting with Sam Neill, talking about life, politics, and home,” she recounts in a social post. “He was such a thoughtful, curious, and decent person. Someone who was principled, unafraid of speaking his mind, and willing to take up a fight when he saw injustice. He was also an artist, and anyone who watched him perform knew he was someone special. We’ve lost another incredible kiwi, and I feel profoundly sad.”

Prior to his passing, Neill fought and beat an advanced blood cancer, Stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, thanks to an innovative CAR T-cell therapy. He was cancer-free at the time of his death. However, his immune system was compromised by the treatment and the beloved actor succumbed to pneumonia, his agent has confirmed.

His death was confirmed in a post on his official Instagram account.

“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” the post reads. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”

Neill’s survivors include his children, Andrew, Tim and Elena, and six grandchildren.

Read more on his life and career at The Hollywood Reporter.

Dave Kendall, the British VJ who helped bring the sounds of the alternative rock nation into millions of homes in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the host and guiding force behind MTV’s influential 120 Minutes, has died at age 68. The news was shared by fellow former MTV talking head and 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield, who paid tribute to his friend and colleague in a post on Tuesday (July 14).

“Dave was one of the true believers,” wrote Pinfield on Instagram. “Long before alternative music found its way into the mainstream, he was there every week on 120 Minutes, introducing people to bands that would go on to define an era. He didn’t just host a show. He gave a home to music that deserved to be heard. He loved the music, respected the artists, and connected with fans in a way that always felt authentic. That’s a rare gift.” Pinfield gave no cause of death.

According to his bio, Kendall began his career as a journalist and editor, writing profiles and reviews for American and British newspapers and magazines including Melody Maker, Spin and the New York Post. After relocating from his native England to New York, he was hired by MTV to create 120 Minutes. He went on to spend seven years as a writer, producer, presenter and news reporter at the video music channel that once had tremendous star-making power.

In his role as host of 120 Minutes from 1988 to 1991, Kendall helped to promote a variety of alternative acts who went on to great fame, including premiering the video for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in September 1991. The show continued with Pinfield as host from 1995 to 1999, and then enjoyed a brief 2011-2012 revival, before being canceled by sister channel MTV2 in 2003.

Following his MTV run, Kendall went on to host and co-produce the nationally syndicated talk show Music Scoupe, as well as to host the internationally simulcast 1994 concert Soccer Rocks the Globe and anchor the Woodstock ’94 pay-per-view. In addition, Kendall worked extensively in radio, writing and hosting local and nationally syndicated shows. He also created an early video streaming site (alterworld), worked in content development at Soundbreak and had a seven-year DJ residency at New York’s Limelight; he released the mix CD A Voyage Into Trance, Volume 2, in 2002.

Kendall moved to Bangkok in 2011 to host and produce the travel show Destination Thailand. Beginning in 2017, he edited and wrote stories for the Bangkok Post.

Cardi B is having a proud mom moment while celebrating her daughter Kulture’s 8th birthday. 

The Grammy winner posted a series of photos on her Instagram of her firstborn at different moments of the celebration. The carousel included shots from a photoshoot of Kulture in her birthday dress; posing in front of a private plane and in front of the pool at her birthday party; snapshots of Cardi and her family at Universal Studios; and various pictures in front of a four-story rainbow Care Bears-themed birthday cake. 

The singer included a message in the caption that said, “Happy birthday to my sweet beautiful firstborn @kulturekiari …just the most kind hearted girl in the world ..My real life bestie …Shout out to @universalorlando A TIME WAS HAD !! Ooo and of course @thecakegirl for the amazing cakes.”

The New York City rapper has four children: three with rapper Offset and one with New England Patriots player Stefon Diggs. In September 2025, the artist released her latest album, Am I the Drama?, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking her second time atop the chart following her debut album, Invasion of Privacy.

After Kulture was born in 2018, Offset released his debut solo album, Father of 4, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in February 2019.

While daughter Kulture, 8, son Wave Set Cephus, 4, and daughter Blossom Belle Cephus, 1, are Cardi and Offset’s three children together, he also has three children from previous relationships. In 2024, Cardi B filed for divorce from the hip-hop artist and gave birth to their daughter, Blossom, shortly after. 

Following her split from the Migos member, Cardi began dating New England Patriots player Stefon Diggs. They share an 8-month-old child, her youngest, who was born in November 2025.