Accusations that Selena Gomez duped investors into putting $1.2 million into mental health startup Wondermind are baseless, the star’s lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, says after Gomez was named in a lawsuit filed Thursday (Aug. 13). Rosengart will be filing a motion to dismiss claims made in the suit.

On Saturday (Aug. 15), the litigator denied allegations made against Gomez in the statement seen below, which was first published by People. Billboard independently verified the statement with Rosengart.

“The allegations that Selena Gomez engaged in any way whatsoever in any purported ‘fraud’ or other wrongdoing are completely meritless, both factually and legally. We will vigorously defend these false allegations and indeed are filing a motion to dismiss the baseless claims against her,” Rosengart said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of five investors — Brent Saunders, Marc Roberts, EJ Solimine, Andrew Resnick and Mark Peikin — who are seeking the return of the money they invested in Wondermind, as well as additional financial damages for alleged wrongdoing by leadership at the company, which they say “quietly collapsed around them” while “not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors.”

The group claims that Gomez, Mandy Teefey (Gomez’s mother) and Danielle Pierson (former executive), who co-founded the mental health-focused company in 2021, led them to inves in the company in 2022.

Wondermind was envisioned as a suite of mental health media initiatives, including a digital magazine, a mobile app and a podcast.

The plaintiffs allege they were promised Gomez would be actively involved as Wondermind’s head of marketing, leveraging her huge fanbase and social media following to promote companity initiatives.

The plaintiffs allege Pierson — who no longer works at the company — told them Wondermind had a “potential future valuation” of more than $4 billion, and that she’d generated $40 million a year at her prior media company, The Newsette. They were also allegedly told the company had partnerships in place with JPMorgan and Fidelity, as well as major ad deals and interest in cover story features with stars like Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Elton John and Camila Cabello.

The lawsuit claims pitches turned out to be false, and that the investors only learned “the sheer magnitude of the fraud that the defendants had foisted upon them” when an exposé was published by The Cut last year that painted a picture of an apparently troubled financial state at Wondermind.

“The accounts in the Cut article collectively show that, from the outset, Wondermind had no plan for its future — much less a plan for achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation,” the lawsuit says.

The Cut reported in part that, after speaking with 14 current and former Wondermind employees, they’d learned Gomez distanced herself from the company soon after its launch, that finances were dire due to Teefey’s alleged erratic behavior and substance abuse issues, and that Pierson left Wondermind in 2023 due to a power struggle with Teefey; Pierson’s work at her previous employer was also under scrutiny.

“The information unearthed in this article proved not only that the company was, and is, in a state of financial calamity; it proved that the defendants’ representations about the company’s operations, personnel and financial prospects were a fiction. There was no legitimate enterprise in the works, much less a lucrative one,” Thursday’s lawsuit alleges.

Teefey denied allegations of company mismanagement, and said Wondermind remained viable, when The Cut article went to publication last year. “I started Wondermind because I wanted to help people with mental illness. It’s unfortunate that a few disgruntled employees with an ax to grind can spread lies about me and distort the truth. Even more disappointing that the media is willing to amplify their lies,” she said.

Frozen 3 is officially underway, and excitement is already snowballing over the franchise’s new music.

The third installment of Disney’s blockbuster franchise was announced Friday (Aug. 14) at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California, where stars Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel and Josh Gad reunited onstage to tease new music ahead of the animated film’s 2027 theatrical release.

Bell and Menzel, who voice sisters Anna and Elsa, respectively, took the stage at Honda Center to belt out a rendition of “Frozen Heart,” while Gad performed a new Olaf love song called “Ooooh, Samantha.”

The trio also offered a sneak peek at the story for Frozen 3. Bell revealed that Anna will finally marry her “mountain man” Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff), while Menzel teased that “love is in the air for everyone.” Bell then playfully asked, “Everyone? Even Olaf?”

Gad noted that his snowman character’s love story is like “one snowflake in a blizzard of other snowflakes,” while Menzel said that their characters will be “far from Arendelle” and facing a threat “more wild and dangerous than anything else” they’ve encountered so far.

Disney also revealed that Oscar-winning songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez will return to write new music for Frozen 3. Jennifer Lee and Trent Correy will direct the film, which is set to hit theaters on Nov. 24, 2027.

The first two Frozen films have been major box-office hits. The 2013 original grossed $1.28 billion worldwide, while 2019’s Frozen II topped it with $1.45 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The original Frozen soundtrack also became a major chart success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2014 and spending 13 weeks atop the chart that year.

The film’s signature anthem, “Let It Go,” performed by Menzel as Elsa, spent 33 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 5 for five weeks. The song won the Oscar for best original song and the Grammy for best song written for visual media.

The Frozen II soundtrack likewise reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2019.

The Greatest Showman is heading to London’s West End.

On Friday (Aug. 14), Disney Theatrical Group announced that the stage adaptation of the hit 2017 film will open at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in spring 2027.

The announcement follows the production’s sold-out world premiere run earlier this year at Bristol Hippodrome. The news was revealed during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

The West End production will star Oliver Tompsett as P.T. Barnum, with Samantha Barks as his wife, Charity Barnum. The principal cast also includes Ben Joyce as Phillip Carlyle, Vajèn van den Bosch as Jenny Lind and Malinda Parris as Lettie Lutz. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

The musical is based on the 2017 film starring Hugh Jackman as Barnum, who goes from being unemployed and struggling to creating a spectacular circus that eventually grows into the famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The film’s soundtrack became a major commercial success, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2018. The album features songs performed by the film’s cast, including Jackman, Barks, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Michelle Williams and Keala Settle.

The movie’s “This Is Me” also won the Golden Globe for best original song in 2018.

The West End production will bring back the film’s signature songs, including “The Greatest Show,” “A Million Dreams,” “Come Alive,” “Rewrite the Stars,” “Never Enough” and “This Is Me,” while introducing new music created specifically for the stage musical.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the film’s songs, will return to write the stage production’s score. Tim Federle is penning the book, while Casey Nicholaw will direct and choreograph, according to Variety.

Hundreds of fans lined the streets of a seaside Welsh village on Saturday (Aug. 15) to bid farewell to late singer Bonnie Tyler as her coffin was brought home.

The Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star, beloved worldwide for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died last month in a hospital in Portugal. She was 75.

Tyler was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.

Locals and fans from around the United Kingdom and beyond took to the streets of Mumbles, near the city of Swansea, to see the hearse, which carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag. Dozens waited outside the singer’s former home or left floral tributes there.

“She was always coming home and making sure that she came back to her fans in Wales,” said Carys Edwards, 18. “Her songs really did touch a lot of people here in Wales; we loved her a lot.”

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.

The singer earned three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 — and most recently during this week’s solar eclipse.

She was also known for other hits including “It’s a Heartache” and “Holding Out For a Hero,” from the soundtrack of the film Footloose.

A celebration of Tyler’s life for family and friends will take place at a church in Swansea on Monday (Aug. 17), before the singer makes a final journey through her hometown of Skewen.

Dave Marsh, one of the most influential music writers of his generation and a passionate activist for health care, social justice and freedom of expression, died on Friday (Aug 14).

The cause of his death has not been reported but he had been in declining health in recent years.

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1950, Dave grew up immersed in the sounds of Detroit — Motown, R&B, and rock ‘n’ roll — inspiring a lifelong belief in the power of music.

Marsh was among the first editors of Creem magazine when it launched in 1969. He wrote extensively for Rolling Stone and other publications and authored more than two dozen books on artists including Elvis Presley, The Who and Bruce Springsteen. His 1979 biography, Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, became a New York Times bestseller. In 1993, Marsh shared a Grammy for best album notes for Aretha Franklin’s Queen of Soul.

He also co-founded the newsletter Rap & Rock Confidential and, in 2004, joined SiriusXM, hosting Kick Out the Jams for 19 years, along with Live from E Street Nation and Live from the Land of Hope and Dreams.

He was married to Barbara Carr, longtime co-manager of Springsteen. Following the death of their daughter, Kristen Ann Carr, in 1993 at age 21 of sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, Marsh co-founded and served as a trustee of the The Kristen Ann Carr Fund to advance sarcoma research and support families affected by cancer.

“Here on E Street, the irreplaceable loss of Dave Marsh has us heartbroken,” Springsteen wrote in a statement shared Saturday on Instagram. “My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock ‘n’ Roll lifer. He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative. Watching Jon Landau and Dave drive each other crazy over some arcane piece of music would make my day. He wrote the first book about me, Born To Run, and Dave always had my back. He deeply believed in what I was trying to accomplish and his lifetime of support meant the world to me.”

Added Springsteen, “More than anything else, I admired Dave as a man of conscience and commitment. He lived and stuck by his values come hell or high water. Wherever he is, I hope he’s receiving some of the grace, happiness and reward he’s brought into my life. God bless you Dave.”

“Dave Marsh has always been a tireless advocate of justice, human rights and rock ’n’ roll,” wrote Tom Morello, co-founder of Rage Against the Machine, in 2023 upon the publication of an anthology of Marsh’s work titled Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing.  

“His pen and voice are an important player in the history of the music we love and the struggle for a more just and decent world,” Morello wrote.

Lauren Onkey, the former senior director of NPR Music, in her introduction to Kick Out the Jams, wrote: “Dave Marsh has been writing about music like our lives depended on it.”

In 2021, a host of authors, activists and artists — including Morello, Pete Townshend, Springsteen, Nona Hendryx, Dion DiMucci, Jackson Browne and Steven Van Zandt — took part in online sessions billed as ” Land of Hope and Dreams: A Celebration of Dave Marsh’s Work and Vision.”

Across more than five decades, through his writing about music, Marsh offered insights into issues of community, class, race, politics, health, the environment, the music industry and more. Marsh also was a generous mentor and advocate for many younger music writers.

Marsh “helped build alliances that fought against racial and class bigotry and for free speech, voting rights, economic justice — inside and outside the music industry — environmental justice, universal health care, cancer research, as well as visions of human liberation,” said longtime friend and anthology co-editor Danny Alexander at the time of that 2023 celebration. “Perhaps more than anyone I know, he taught me what that old Woody Guthrie line meant: ‘Nobody wins unless everybody wins.’”

Marsh was predeceased by his daughters Kristen Ann Carr and Sasha Carr. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Carr. A complete list of his survivors and plans for a service were not immediately available.

From career milestones to new releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.

Romeo Santos Launches Fundación Los Santos to Support Children With Autism

Romeo Santos is turning a very personal experience into a broader mission. On Tuesday (Aug. 11), the bachata superstar announced the launch of Fundación Los Santos, a registered 501(c)(3) organization created to support children with autism and their families through greater access to resources, educational opportunities, developmental programs and community initiatives.

“As a father of a child with autism, I have experienced firsthand both the joys and challenges that many families face every day,” Santos said in a statement. “The Los Santos Foundation seeks to help families feel seen, supported and empowered, contributing to a more hopeful future for so many children.”

With a personal contribution from Santos, the foundation’s initial efforts will focus on grants, strategic partnerships, family resource centers, social and developmental opportunities for children, and collaborations with schools and community organizations. Additional initiatives are expected to be announced in the coming months.

Los Ángeles Azules to Receive L.A. Street Naming Ahead of Hispanic Heritage Month

Los Ángeles Azules’ decades-long cumbia legacy will be celebrated with a new street designation in L.A. On Sept. 14, Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla will host a ceremony naming the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Chase Street in Panorama City Los Ángeles Azules Square, honoring the group’s cultural impact ahead of Latino Heritage Month.

“It is an incredible honor for Los Ángeles Azules to receive this recognition from the City of Los Angeles,” said the group in a statement. “Having the iconic corner of Van Nuys Blvd. and Chase Street in Panorama City bear our name represents much more than a tribute to our career, it is a symbol of the deep bond we have built over so many years with this city, the Latino community, and the families who have made our music part of their lives.”

They continued: “We were proudly born in Iztapalapa and have had the immense privilege of seeing our music embraced in so many places around the world. Without a doubt, the City of Los Angeles holds tremendous meaning for us and will always have a very special place in our hearts. Here, generations of fans have welcomed us with open arms, danced to our cumbia, and passed our music down from parents to children, making it part of the cultural history of this great city.”

The ceremony will include the unveiling of the band members’ handprints in cement, along with remarks from city officials, community leaders and the group.

Eladio Carrión Announces Return of Saucegiving in Puerto Rico

Eladio Carrión’s Sauce for a Cause Foundation is bringing its annual Saucegiving community celebration back to his roots in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 6. Now in its sixth year, the free event will combine sports, music and community programming, including a celebrity softball game, Home Run Derby, baseball clinics for hundreds of young people, a dog adoption fair and SauceMarket merchandise.

“Saucegiving is something that means a lot to me because it’s about giving back to the people and community that have supported me throughout my journey,” Carrión said in a statement. “Every year, we get to bring more families together, create new opportunities for our youth and make a bigger impact.”

Through Sauce for a Cause, founded in 2020 under the umbrella of Fundación Rimas, Carrión has supported more than 17,000 people across Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean through initiatives focused on youth development, animal welfare, community empowerment and disaster relief.

Rosalía Stuns Rio with A Cappella Tribute to Caetano Veloso and Fito Páez

Rosalía delivered an unforgettable moment during her Lux Tour on the second night at Rio de Janeiro’s Farmasi Arena on Tuesday (Aug. 11). Stepping to the front of the stage for an intimate, stripped-back segment, she stunned the Brazilian crowd by singing a raw, a cappella rendition of the iconic Argentine rock anthem “Un Vestido y Un Amor” by Fito Páez.

Before singing, the Spanish superstar shared with the audience that she had watched icon Caetano Veloso perform live in the city just days earlier, which deeply inspired her to pay homage to him. By performing “Un Vestido y Un Amor” — a track Veloso famously covered and popularized in Brazil — Rosalía beautifully bridged Argentine rock, Brazilian MPB history, and her own signature vocal artistry into a single, breathtaking moment of cross-cultural admiration. Watch the moment here.

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The UFC is headed to the “City of Brotherly Love” for UFC 330. Two top fighters will face off in the main event, as Russian Islam Makhachev (28-1-0) defends his welterweight title against Irish fighter Ian Machado Garry (17-1-0) on Saturday (Aug. 15).

UFC 330 takes place at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a start time of 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT. The main card begins at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, with the main event starting around 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT.

What Is Makhachev’s and Machado Garry’s Walkout Music for UFC 330?

Although the UFC has yet to announce each fighter’s walkout songs for UFC 330, both usually go out to the octagon to the same songs during their matches. Makhachev has walked out to “Dreams” by DJ Nariman, while Ian Machado Garry prefers to walk out to “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos.

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