New York ain’t the Windy City, but Radio City Music Hall hosted a star-studded tribute to Chicago on Sunday (June 7) during the 79th annual Tony Awards.

P!nk (2026 Tonys host), Queen Latifah (who played Matron “Mama” Morton in Rob Marshall’s 2002 film adaptation), Whitney Leavitt (who currently plays Roxie Hart on Broadway), Dylan Mulvaney (who recently wrapped a run in Broadway’s Six), Alex Newell (2023 Tony winner and Chicago Broadway veteran) and Julianne Hough (who hosted the 2022 Tonys pre-show) and more participated in a medley of the musical’s best-known songs.

After an introduction and torch passing (“from one mother hen to another”) from Queen Latifah, Newell belted out a song both of them know well: “When You’re Good to Mama.” Newell’s boisterous voice was on full display, making Mama a helluva hard act to follow. But it helps when you have a round-robin of murderesses talking about how they killed the men who had it comin’: “Cell Block Tango,” which everyone (including Jesse Tyler Ferguson in a brief but hilarious cameo) sold with gusto. To wrap it up, P!nk sang Chicago centerpiece song “All That Jazz”: the hardest-rocking pop star served jazz hands, vocal excellence and a bit of the cat who caught the canary energy at the end, clearly living her childhood fantasy on the Tony Awards stage.

“We always come from a theatrical place,” the Grammy winner told Billboard ahead of her Tonys hosting gig when asked about the connection between live theater and her concerts. “I mean, for me, I’m a carney, right? So it’s sort of like a circus, without the animals of course, other than the humans.”

The multi-song performance commemorated 30 years of Chicago on Broadway; while the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical debuted on Broadway in 1975, the current revival opened in 1996 and has been running ever since, making it the longest-running show currently on the Great White Way and the longest-running musical revival ever.

Prior to the Chicago stopover, P!nk opened the 2026 Tonys with an extravagant, hilarious parody of her collaborative 2001 smash “Lady Marmalade” (a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1) rewritten as “Leading Lady Marmalade,” which brought out Megan Thee Stallion, Lea Michele, Neil Patrick Harris, the Tony-nominated women of 2026 and dancers from The Lost Boys, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Schmigadoon! and more.

Morgan Wallen‘s Still the Problem Tour added another headline-making moment to its run on Friday night (June 5), when the country superstar grabbed a cellphone out of a security guard’s hand mid-performance and flung it across the stage at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium.

Video of the incident, posted to TikTok by user jcroo419 and rapidly circulated on social media, shows the guard holding up a phone while recording Wallen perform — reportedly at the request of a fan who had passed the device forward in the hopes the guard would hand it to the singer.

Instead, Wallen gestured toward the phone, walked away, then returned, removed it from the guard’s hand and dramatically launched it across the stage. “I get it… security should be doing security things, but…,” the user captioned the clip. Billboard has reached out to representatives for Wallen for comment.

The phone-throwing came at the end of a turbulent week on the road for the I’m the Problem tour. Just days earlier, Wallen experienced an onstage meltdown during his Denver show, when his piano appeared to malfunction during a performance of “Sand in My Boots,” forcing him to finish the song a cappella. He then walked back to the piano, shoved it about a foot, and flipped it over — breaking it on the stage.

The next day, Wallen posted a TikTok video addressing the moment, showing himself at a new piano. “Hey, I just want you to know that right now this piano is working,” he said. “That’s what they told me last night, too.”

Wallen also abruptly canceled his Saturday show in Pittsburgh, citing high winds and stage safety concerns rather than the swirling “nonsense” speculation about his behavior.

“My team walked on the bus and told me they had been consulting with local officials and that I should cancel my show in Pittsburgh tonight,” he explained in a video posted to his Instagram Stories. “They said that there was going to be strong winds in the area… I’ve been seeing a lot of nonsense about me that is simply not true, and I just wanted to clear the air.”

The Pittsburgh phone moment is the latest in a string of headline-grabbing incidents tied to Wallen’s chart-dominating 2026. His current album I’m the Problem, released in May 2025, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, and produced the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “I’m the Problem.”

He had previously topped the Hot 100 in 2024 with “I Had Some Help” featuring Post Malone, which spent six weeks at the summit. One Thing at a Time (2023) spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, one of the longest-running chart-toppers of the streaming era.

The Still the Problem Tour continues across the U.S. throughout the summer.

Tony Awards host P!nk brought an iconic pop culture reference from 25 years ago to 2026’s ceremony, opening the televised show with a leading lady-themed remake of “Lady Marmalade.” Megan Thee Stallion, who recently took an early exit from her run in Moulin Rouge, took the New York stage in her Zidler costume next to P!nk and reworked Lil’ Kim’s rap from the 2001 supergroup single during Sunday night’s (June 7) lively performance.

The parody of “Lady Marmalade” (based on the Grammy-winning version of the song P!nk once recorded with Lil’ Kim, Christina Aguilera and Mya), “Leading Lady Marmalade,” had P!nk highlighting several of Broadway’s best in the tune’s “gitchie, gitchie” chorus.

Lea Michele, who wasn’t nominated for an award this year, joined in for a cameo to hit Xtina’s big vocal note from the original “Lady Marmalade” — but swapped in a fitting lyric, all things considered: “We don’t do it for the awards.”

June Squibb, nominated in the best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play category, and seated in the front row at Radio City Music Hall, also had a scene-stealing moment. When the mic was pointed her way, Squibb — who’s the oldest acting nominee in Tony Awards history — quipped to the tune of “Mocha Chocolata, ya-ya“: “All the parts I’ve played, I’ve slayed ’em.”

Backed by a full-stage ensemble that included familiar faces like Broadway’s Dylan Mulvaney, Shoshana Bean, Neil Patrick Harris and more, the opening number ended with a soaring “Welcome to the Tony Awards!” from P!nk.

Harris, who’s had four turns hosting the awards ceremony himself, had helped P!nk lead into the “Leading Lady Marmalade” scene after the pop star first made a spinning-in-the-air entrance, dressed as Peter Pan.

“I just wanna show how much I love theater even though I’ve never been on Broadway,” she told Harris, who wondered what she was up to.

“But you’re P!nk, you can do anything,” he replied.

“But I’m worried some people will wonder why P!nk is hosting the Tonys. I just want to make sure everyone knows I’m thrilled to be here and I want my opener to be as ‘Broadway’ as possible,” P!nk insisted.

P!nk had hinted at a “wild” Tony Awards opening number in interviews in the days leading up to this year’s ceremony. Without spoiling the “Lady Marmalade” nod, P!nk told Broadway.com, “It’s just a full-blown ridiculous celebration. I told them my one caveat was that immediately as soon as I step onto the stage, I have to make fun of myself, and make it absolutely just about fun and celebrating everyone.”

Follow a complete list of the 2026 Tony Awards winners, updating live as they’re announced, here.