Will Smith has won a court order throwing out the sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an electric violinist who performed on his Based on a True Story tour last year.

A court order from Tuesday (May 5), obtained by Billboard, granted Smith’s request to dismiss the claims lodged by Brian King Joseph in December. Joseph, a violinist who came in third place on America’s Got Talent in 2018, alleged he was illegally fired from Smith’s international tour after reporting that someone had broken into his hotel room during a Las Vegas stop and left sexually suggestive materials, along with a note reading, “Brian, I’ll be back.”

Judge Michael Shultz found that while the note was sexual in nature, its existence does not rise to the level of workplace sexual misconduct. The judge also said it’s not reasonable for Joseph to assume without any evidence that Smith or any of his staffers are to blame for this supposed break-in, which they unequivocally deny.

“The allegations do not support a severe and pervasive concerted pattern of harassment sufficient to create an abusive working environment,” reads the court order.

The judge held that these deficiencies doom not only Joseph’s sexual harassment claims, but also his allegations of wrongful termination and retaliation. That’s because, according to the court’s ruling, Joseph hasn’t shown that he was fired as a direct result of reporting something improper in the workplace.

However, the case is not necessarily done for good; Joseph is permitted to try again and rework his lawsuit against Smith if desired. His attorney did not immediately return an inquiry as to whether he plans to make such an amendment.

Reps for Smith also did not return a request for comment on the dismissal ruling. Lawyers for the actor and rapper previously said in court papers that Joseph’s “false and salacious” claims are “untrue, inflammatory, legally baseless, and are nothing but an attempted money grab.”

A joint album was not in the 2026 bingo card for J Balvin and Ryan Castro—but here they are 10 tracks later, further cementing the bromance they often show on social media.  

Coined Omerta—after the Italian word that means “code of silence”—the album represents a loyalty between the two Colombian artists that goes beyond just a collaborative effort. 

“It’s like sealing our musical and personal brotherhood,” Balvin tells Billboard. “In this career, it allows you to grow without ego, share visions, and forge new paths; it also pushes you out of your comfort zone to create something distinct.” 

“J Balvin is a very selective person when it comes to choosing his favorite artists, his friends, and his inner circle,” Castro adds. “I feel that he saw something very special in me—he saw my unique talent. I admire his work deeply and to be able to say that in my career and in my process I have an album with him is a dream come true.”

Home to the previously released “Tonto” and “Pal’ Agua,” Omerta seamlessly blends Castro’s signature dancehall and reggae rhythms as heard in “Una A La Vez” and “Medetown” as well as Balvin’s progressive reggaetón sound, such as “Dalmation” and “Viernes.”  

The set also delivers trap, urban-pop fusions, Afrohouse and the alternative-meets-perreo “Melo,” which is Balvin’s personal favorite “because it breaks the mold and has an unexpected energy,” he says. “We brought together things that normally don’t go together, and in the end, it feels very us—evolving without fear.   

“We blended the two worlds: the Caribbean, the island, is deeply ingrained in my DNA, while he lives more in the city, in New York,” explains Castro. “Culturally, we share very similar musical tastes, and I think we came up with a lot of ideas that we both really loved. Bringing those two worlds together was truly awesome.”

Though a joint album was technically not planned, its creation happened organically. 

“It all started without a plan,” Balvin expresses. “We were in the studio, laughing and making music without any pressure, and the vibe just came together naturally. That’s when we realized there was something special there—and when we looked back, we already had a project without even realizing it.” 

Castro elaborates: “Beyond the friendship and respect we share, we are family. We didn’t approach this from a business perspective; rather, we did it for fun and to vibe together.”

Omerta follows a set of singles that both Medellín-born powerhouses have released together including “Nivel de Perreo” in 2022 and “+57” alongside Karol G, Maluma, Feid, Blessd, DFZM and Ovy on the Drums in 2024. Balvin was even a featured actor in Castro’s 2025 “Mi Fortuna” music video. 

“Ryan possesses a truly authentic essence—a voice and a flow that connect on a different level,” Balvin gushes. “I bring a different creative vision, one that involves daring to push the boundaries of genre a bit until the song finds its true form. Ultimately, it’s about complementing who each of us is.”

Stream and listen to Omerta below.

Late nights. Early mornings. Drugs. Booze. Constant touring. While working in dance music offers its own distinct pleasures, it also comes with these distinct challenges.

Now, mental health and wellness nonprofit Backline has launched a mental health toolkit made specifically for dance artists and other professionals, particularly those who tour. Available for free through the Backline website, the guide offers detailed advice on packing for tour, preparing to be away from loved ones, supporting one’s immune system while on the road, hearing health, sleep optimization, venue safety, substance and much more.

Access the Backline EDM Mental Health Toolkit here.

“Music is therapeutic, but in live electronic it’s also a lot of late nights, early mornings, sets until sunrise and then flying to the next city,” Backline co-founder and executive director Hilary Gleason says in a statement. “Backline is committed to taking care of the artists and community who are so generous with their time and talent, and we designed these tools to meet the EDM scene where they are with specific resources for their unique needs.”

“Seeking help is not something to be ashamed of,” dance legend Armin van Buuren is quoted within the guide itself. “The most important thing is to get rid of the shame. The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek. Ultimately, you can’t escape yourself.”

“We see firsthand how demanding this space can be,” adds LP Giobbi, “and tools like this are essential for empowering artists and industry professionals to look after themselves and each other.”

Backline was co-founded by Gleason in 2019 as a resource to offer support and help for those across the industry. Most recently, the organization created a 24/7 Mental Health and Crisis Support Line that launched in January. This service, B-LINE, has had more than 250 people reach out since its launch. The nonprofit also offers one-on-one case management connecting individuals to vetted providers and wellness resources such as mindfulness and yoga.

The organization reports that since 2019, it has invested $5 million into mental health and wellness in the music industry and served 3,000 people through its Case Management program. 

The Arre Festival, which brings together major regional Mexican music stars, is returning this year to its original venue in Mexico City after being held in Monterrey in 2025.

Alejandro Fernández and Banda MS headline the lineup for the event organized by Ocesa, now formally called Arre Pepsi Black. The festival will take place Sept. 5 and 6 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the same location where it was held during its first two editions.

This year, the lineup will feature artists from mariachi, banda, norteño, tumbados and tropical music, with notable performances also by Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Calle 24, Clave Especial, Eslabón Armado, Gabito Ballesteros, Grupo Cañaveral, Los Dos Carnales, Los Plebes del Rancho de Ariel Camacho and Víctor Mendivil. These stars, who represent different generations of regional Mexican music, will be joined by other artists to be announced at a later date.

The history of Festival Arre began in 2023, when it attracted more than 70,000 attendees — a feat that has been repeated in subsequent editions, according to organizers, showcasing the growing importance of the genre in recent years.

According to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Mexico entered the top 10 global music markets for the first time in 2024. That milestone was driven by a 15.6% increase in recorded music revenue, as reported in the IFPI’s Global Music Report 2025.

Tickets for Arre Festival will go on sale starting May 13 through Ticketmaster.com.mx.

Check out the full 2026 lineup below.

Warner Music Group (WMG) reported on Thursday (May 7) that first-quarter revenue rose 17% compared to last year on double-digit percentage growth in recorded music and publishing revenues, with major releases from artists including Bruno Mars and sombr contributing to the uptick.

Total revenue came in at $1.7 billion, driven by $1.38 billion in recorded music revenue, up 17%, and $353 million in music publishing, up 14% compared to a year ago. Operating income of $264 million was up 57%, and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rose 31% to $397 million.

“After years of doing hard, unsexy, foundational work, after making tough organizational decisions and redesigns and difficult decisions while growing the business, we have now hit our stride,” Warner CEO Robert Kyncl said on a call discussing the results. “It feels great to work hard for years and now have consistent delivery, and it feels great to have confidence about the future.”

Digital revenue rose 16.7% to nearly $1.2 billion across the recorded music and publishing divisions, with streaming revenue rising 17.1%. Recorded music streaming revenue increased 16.5% and music publishing streaming revenue increased 20.0% overall, driven by broad-based growth in recorded music artist services and expanded rights, and physical revenue; along with music publishing synch and mechanical revenue.

Foreign exchange rates had a significant impact on WMG’s earnings, but, while it was detrimental to Universal Music Group’s earnings, the strengthening U.S. dollar resulted in a $22 million gain in the quarter on WMG’s euro-denominated debt. WMG also reported a currency exchange gain on intercompany loans of $12 million in the quarter, versus a $27 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Both contributed to WMG’s profit rising to $181 million from $36 million in the year-ago quarter.

Adjusting WMG’s earnings on a constant currency basis, which strips out foreign currency fluctuations, total revenue rose by 12%, and adjusted OIBDA rose 24%.

In addition to Mars and sombr, first-quarter releases from Alex Warren and Ed Sheeran helped drive recorded music revenue growth up 17.4%, or 12.7% in constant currency. Digital revenue was up nearly 16%, artist services and expanded-rights revenue rose 28.6%, and physical revenue rose 22%.

Music publishing revenue rose nearly 14%, or 9.6% in constant currency, bolstered by a nearly 20% increase across digital and streaming revenue following new publishing deals and renewals. Performance revenue rose nearly 10%, and synchronization revenue edged up $1 million compared to the year-ago quarter.

WMG and Bain have spent $650 million from their joint venture, called Beethoven JV, “to acquire a number of heavyweight … iconic, high-margin catalogs,” WMG’s CFO, Armin Zerza, said on a call with investors.

Zerza said the WMG’s reorganization, first announced in 2023, is helping the company achieve profit margin expansion that is at “the high end” of its target, or around 200 basis points of margin expansion this year. Adjusted OIBDA margin expanded by 2.5 percentage points to 22.9% in the quarter.

“At the same time, we are leading the industry in AI initiatives, which we believe will be a material contributor to our top and bottom line growth, starting in fiscal 2027,” Zerza said.

Earnings highlights:

YoungBoy Never Broke Again let fans know Thursday (May 7) that he’ll no longer be performing at this weekend’s Rolling Loud festival in Orlando, Florida.

In a message posted to his Instagram Stories, NBA YoungBoy wrote: “To my Rolling Loud family, I won’t be making it this time. I just need some time away from traveling and performing right now. Love to everybody supporting me, I’ll forever appreciate y’all!”

Rolling Loud re-posted the message on their Stories and, minutes later, shared a new lineup that includes Ken Carson as the replacement Sunday headliner. “PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEW SUNDAY HEADLINER, @kencarson,” reads the caption alongside the lineup poster.

The festival kicks off Friday at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, with headliner Don Toliver, while Playboy Carti is at the top of the bill for Saturday. Carson wasn’t previously on the bill before stepping in as the new Sunday headliner.

Other rappers performing this weekend include Sexyy Red, Chief Keef, EsDeeKid, Destroy Lonely and PlaqueBoyMax.

This marks the first time Rolling Loud has taken place in Orlando, following 10 stints at its original Miami home. Orlando marks the only U.S. Rolling Loud stop scheduled for this year, previously hosting events in the New York and Los Angeles areas as well. They’ve also gone international, with the last overseas Rolling Loud event taking place last year in India with headliners Central Cee, Wiz Khalifa, Karan Aujla and Toliver.

Carson — who scored his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album last year with More Chaos — was originally set to headline Rolling Loud Australia this year before the March festival was canceled.

See the updated Rolling Loud Orlando lineup below:

Well, put this sad news on the s–t list. L7 announced on Thursday (May 7) that the band is hitting the road for one final tour.

“When L7 decided to release a documentary in 2015, we thought maybe we would take one last victory lap around the sun by playing some shows,” said frontwoman Donita Sparks, referring to the feminist rock band’s 2016 documentary Pretend We’re Dead, which borrows its title from the lead single off its 1992 studio album, Bricks Are Heavy. “Instead, that lap turned into 11 more years of touring, sweat, new music and reconnecting with the fans who made this all possible in the first place.

“Looking out into the crowd seeing longtime supporters rocking out next to a new generation of L7 fans has been the most powerful and humbling part of this chapter,” she continued. “We are deeply grateful and ready to give our audiences one last, loud, fun and hopefully unforgettable night of rock and roll.”

The 27-date North American trek, called The Last Hurrah Tour, is set to kick off June 4 in Toronto, and wraps Nov. 14 in Los Angeles, with stops in Seattle, New York City, Dallas, D.C., Chicago and more in between.

L7 launched in L.A. in 1985, with their self-titled debut album arriving three years later. Third studio effort Bricks Are Heavy launched in 1992 and peaked at No. 160 on the Billboard 200 in September that year; 1994’s Hungry for Stink reached No. 117; and 1997’s The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum achieved a No. 172 high. 1992 single “Pretend We’re Dead” achieved the No. 8 peak on the Alternative Airplay chart, while “Andres” off Hungry for Stink reached No. 20.

During the group’s career, several songs were featured on movie soundtracks, including “Shitlist” on both Pet Semetary 2 and Natural Born Killers, and “Shove” for Tank Girl.

Take a look at L7 over the years in the band’s teaser for its upcoming tour, and find the North American dates below:

Jason Derulo has emerged victorious in a copyright trial over the writing and production credits on his 2020 chart-topper “Savage Love.”

A jury in Los Angeles handed down a verdict on Thursday (May 7) rejecting the claims brought by session musician Matthew Spatola against Derulo and Columbia Records. This means Spatola won’t recover any royalties from “Savage Love,” a viral TikTok hit from August 2020 that later hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to a remix featuring BTS.

A rep for Spatola declined to comment following the verdict. Reps for Derulo and Columbia did not immediately return requests for comment.

Spatola, who played guitar and bass on “Savage Love,” argued during the two-week trial that he also had a hand in crafting the instrumentals and was thus entitled to writing and production splits. Derulo denied this, testifying in court that Spatola just played what he was told and “created absolutely nothing” for the song.

The case, which has been making its way through the court system since 2023, highlighted the prevalence — and potential pitfalls — of informal dealings between artists and their musical collaborators. It is undisputed that Spatola was paid a $2,000 fee for two studio sessions in April 2020. But it’s also undisputed that he and Derulo never formally signed a so-called work-for-hire agreement.

Under copyright law, a work-for-hire agreement confirms that a musician does not have authorship rights despite contributing to a song. In this case, no such deal was signed; Derulo merely texted Spatola after the fact, asking, “1K good each day?”

Spatola alleged that the absence of work-for-hire paperwork was proof that he was more than just a session musician. Derulo countered that these forms just fell through the cracks because “Savage Love” was recorded at the height of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, “so the people that would typically be in place to give him an agreement just weren’t there.”

Jurors ultimately sided with Derulo after deliberating for just over a day, finding that Spatola hadn’t proved he was a joint author of either the “Savage Love” composition or master recording. They did not give any explanation for their verdict, as is typical.

RAYE‘s star has exploded in the past couple of years — and with that, she’s faced more scrutiny than ever. But one specific critique involving the late Amy Winehouse has bothered her in particular, something she addresses on her song “I Will Overcome.”

In her Billboard cover story published Thursday (May 7), RAYE told staff writer Hannah Dailey why she chose to sing about people comparing her to the British soul-pop icon — who died in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning — on the opening number of her March album This Music May Contain Hope. On the track, she sings, “Some people say I remind them of Amy/ Some spit through their keyboards, I’ll never amount/ And the evil in insults, the arrows from your tongue/ [Are] the same devils you tortured her with.”

“It just strikes me as so funny, darkly funny, that someone can rip into me in the most evil, horrible way, ‘defending’ Amy,” RAYE explained to Billboard of including the lyric. “What you’re saying to me is a microcosm of what Amy went through. Amy went through being berated and annihilated through words — by the press, by the public, by everyone.

“It’s one thing to not like me, that’s fine,” she continued. “It’s just the irony of someone being so horrible, so dark, so nasty. It’s the same evil. I just wanted to say that, because … I get a lot of beautiful, lovely, kind things. Unfortunately, the negative things are just louder.”

This Music May Contain Hope debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 in the U.K., RAYE’s first LP to do so. The feat comes after a long uphill struggle to make her name as an independent artist following her split from her first label, Polydor Records, in 2021.

Elsewhere in her Billboard cover story, the musician touched on her experiences with mental health, sexual assault and finding light in her life again. She also shared her current mindset on dating, having declared her desire to find love on the hit single “Where Is My Husband!,” which has so far peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“It’s been genuinely so many years that it feels alien to me,” she said. “Sometimes I’m very assured and confident and happy with my life, and then some days I’m watching a rom-com, and I’m like, ‘Where? Where?’ But it’s not serious. I’m not crying myself to sleep every night — just some nights.”

Watch RAYE address the Amy Winehouse comparisons below.