Saint Etienne’s goodbye lap will make it to Australia and New Zealand later this year.
The beloved British indie electronic-pop act will get their final Australasian tour underway with a concert Nov. 20 at Auckland’s Powerstation, followed by a show Nov. 21 in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.
Presented by Destroy All Lines, the jaunt then skips the Tasman for shows in each of Australia’s five capital cities: Adelaide (Nov. 23), Melbourne (Nov. 26), Sydney (Nov. 27), Brisbane (Nov. 29) and a tour closer Dec. 1 in Perth. The general onsale starts Friday, 9am local time at destroyalllines.com.
Across a career spanning more than 35 years, Saint Etienne earned a reputation for creating the creamiest, classiest of pop, with electronic touches and swinging ’60s flair. Saint Etienne is one for the connoisseurs.
The farewell tour follows the release of their final studio LP, International, via Heavenly Recordings, which dropped in September 2025. International has an Australian connection, a collaboration with Brisbane electronic-pop act Confidence Man on the track “Brand New Me.”
That collection peaked at No. 8 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, one of the act’s three career top 10 appearances, and 11 entries in the top 40. The group also landed 17 tracks on the top 40 of the Official U.K. Singles Chart, including a top 10 appearance with their year 2000 collaboration with Paul Van Dyk on “Tell Me Why (The Riddle)” (reaching No. 7).
Saint Etienne bandmates Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs have known each other since childhood, and turned that friendship into a band in 1990 with their cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” The first thing they ever recorded, which they completed in just two hours in a bedroom studio in Pollards Hill, north of Croydon, also gave Saint Etienne their first and only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, topping out at No. 97 in 1992.
Singer Sarah Cracknell completed the lineup when she joined for their third single “Nothing Can Stop Us” and the 1991 album Foxbase Alpha.
Saint Etienne “aren’t splitting up as such,” reads a statement from the band. They “still remain the best of friends after 35 years recording together – but they don’t feel like they want to go on forever and wanted to go out with a bang.”
Before making the long haul, Saint Etienne will criss-cross the United Kingdom and Europe for a run of summer festival shows and headline concerts.
Saint Etienne Final Australia and New Zealand Tour:
Nov. 20 – Powerstation, Auckland
Nov. 21 — Meow NUI, Wellington
Nov. 23 — The Gov, Adelaide
Nov. 26 – Forum, Melbourne
Nov. 27 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Nov. 29 — The Tivoli, Brisbane
Dec. 1 — Freo Social, Perth
Luke Taleno isn’t short of courage. Or talent, as it turns out.
Taleno stepped into the America’s Got Talent auditions on Tuesday night, June 2, with a performance that was nothing short of golden, and a story that reads like a book.
Born in Cuba, and a cancer survivor, Taleno relocated at the age of just three to the United States, his parents chasing a “good life,” he explained in the preamble. Before he could speak a lick of English, he understood the language of music and its power to connect people. “Actually, that was how I got to learn the language. And the best way I could express myself.”
At 13, he was diagnosed with leukemia. “Writing songs, and music, got me through it,” he remembered.
After high school, Taleno took on odd jobs to pay the bills. “Music was the only thing I loved.” So, he started busking, rapping on the streets. Trying to find that small window of opportunity to chase his dream. Last season, he watched AGT from the audience, as a guest of his friend Jourdan Blue. That experience “made me realize,” he recounted, “this is what I’m supposed to do.”
He didn’t waste the opportunity then to get in front of Simon Cowell. “Remember this face,” he told the British hitmaker and AGT judge a year ago, “because next year I’ll be on this stage. And I expect that golden buzzer.”
Under the bright lights of the AGT stage, he pronounced: “I’m here for a reason, everything in my life prepared me for this moment right here.“
Taleno didn’t waste the opportunity before the entire panel of judges, either. Performing an original number, “From Seat to Stage,” a nod to his real-life AGT experience, Taleno showed he could walk it, and talk it.
“That’s how you take your moment,” Cowell remarked at the close. “I loved it. It was amazing,” Sofía Vergara enthused. “I am so glad that you made it to the stage because you deserve to be on the stage. Good job.”
Mel B doused the vibe by pointing out it wasn’t the greatest of all auditions. His breath work needs improvement, the Spice Girl explained. Cowell wasn’t having any of it. “I really admire people who just do it,” he stated.
Taleno just did it.
Howie Mandel, after giving a standing ovation, spoke last. Taleno, he said, is the poster boy of authenticity. “Last year you predicted something, and I have just one question,” he reacted. After a pregnant pause, and a response to his own question, Mandel hit the Golden Buzzer. With that, Taleno automatically advances to the Live Shows for AGT season 21.
Watch below.
Barry Can’t Swim, Interplanetary Criminal and Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman) are the top billed talent for Bizarro’s 2026 festival run of Australia, which will drop into three east coast cities across one long weekend this October.
The electric music heavyweights lead the Labour Day weekend action at Overtone, set for Friday, Oct. 2 at Musgrave Park on the Gold Coast/Kombumerri; Freeform, Saturday, Oct. 3 at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne/Naarm (presentedin collaboration with Crown Ruler), and Mode, Sunday, Oct. 4 at Cockatoo Island/Wareamah in Sydney/Eora.
Each respective lineup is unique and “centered on the same DNA celebrating electronic music on day-to-night dancefloors, while also being individually sculpted by the cities and spaces around them,” reads a statement from Bizarro, the Sydney-based promoter.
While Australia’s festivals scene is in a state of flux, with banner events Bluesfest, Splendour in the Grass, and many others either taking a pause or folding altogether, dance music events are playing to a different beat.
Creative Australia’s Soundcheck report from 2024 mapped the nation’s festivals circuit and found that dance music was the top genre, accounting for almost one in every four fests in these parts. Money is tight, but Aussies love a party. Further proof came earlier this week, when homegrown EDM superstar Dom Dolla sold out his homecoming show at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium in record time, an historic moment for electronic music in these parts, say promoters Untitled Group and Frontier Touring.
The general on-sale for Overtone, Freeform and Mode festivals begin on Thursday, June 11, with the portal for early access opening the day before, on Wednesday, June 10.
Overtone Festival (presented by Bizarro)
Oct. 2 — Musgrave Park, Gold Coast/Kombumerri QLD
Barry Can’t Swim (DJ) / Interplanetary Criminal / Mall Grab / Richie Hawtin
(A-Z) 6 Sense / Avalon Emerson / Bella Claxton / Ben Ufo / Eva Charley / Freddy K B2B D.Dan / Liza / Memphis Lk / Mikalah Watego / Ned Bennett / Ngaaru / Shimmy / Swim / Tori Pepper / Two Shell
Freeform Festival (presented by Bizarro, in collaboration with Crown Ruler)
Oct. 3 — Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne/Naarm VIC
Barry Can’t Swim (DJ) / Interplanetary Criminal / Richie Hawtin
(A-Z) 2lubly / Ash Lauryn / Avalon Emerson / Bella Claxton / Ben Ufo / Call Super / Crÿbaby / D. Dan / Freddy K / Gigi FM / Hasvat Informant / Memphis LK / Mikalah Watego / Ned Bennett / Ogazón / Rakhi / Ron Trent / Storm Mollison / Swim / Twiena / Two Shell
Mode Festival (presented by Bizarro)
Oct. 4 — Cockatoo Island/Wareamah, Sydney/Eora NSW
Barry Can’t Swim (DJ) / Interplanetary Criminal / Richie Hawtin
(A-Z) Alilia B2B Anusha / Ash Lauryn / Avalon Emerson / Bella Claxton / Ben Ufo / Call Super / D. Dan / Freddy K / Fuchsia / Gigi FM / Harry Hayes / Hasvat Informant / Jun Wan / Ksmba / Memphis LK / Mikalah Watego / Ned Bennett / Obeido / Ogazón / Ron Trent / Storm Mollison / Swim / Twiena / Two Shell
In March, Billboard unveiled its 2026 Global Power Players list honoring leaders driving music business success outside the United States. Among the names recognized as this year’s Power Players, Hyunrock Han, representative director and CEO of HYBE JAPAN, was recognized for the first time. To mark the occasion, Billboard Japan sat down with Han to hear how he helped grow the company from around 20 employees at the time of his appointment to roughly 300, about his strategies with &TEAM, an act signed to the label he heads (YX LABELS) and more.
First, could you tell us a little about your background?
I spent my career in management strategy across a range of industries — finance, manufacturing, trading companies — before joining Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) in 2019. At my previous company, MISUMI Group, I was based in Thailand and handling the Asia region when a mutual friend introduced me to Si-Hyuk Bang, the Chairman of HYBE’s Board of Directors and the company’s founder. His business philosophy, his extraordinary creativity, and his character left a deep impression on me. I had no prior experience in the entertainment industry, but felt that I could put my background in strategy and various project experience to good use working under him, so I returned to South Korea in 2019.
So you weren’t assigned to Japan from the very beginning.
Initially, the plan was to work in Korea for a few years. But about six months after joining, I was asked to go to Japan. I wrestled with the decision, but told them, “The way I manage and operate based on my experience may differ from the conventions of the traditional music industry. In the process of reforming and shaping the organization, there may be friction and pushback. But whatever anyone says, I need you to trust me for three years.” I made my resolve clear and made up my mind to come to Japan.
You then became President of Big Hit Solutions Japan (now HYBE JAPAN) in 2020, when the company had fewer than 20 employees. Six years later, you’ve grown to around 300.
If someone asked me to do the same thing again, I’m not sure I could. [Laughs] That’s how hard those six years were. When I came to Japan, I had two broad missions. The first was to build an in-house, autonomous solutions organization. The second was to develop original Japanese artists.
When I arrived, HYBE was outsourcing virtually all of its operations through business partnerships. Company A handled live production, Company B ran the pop-up stores, Company C produced merchandise, Company D managed the fan club, and so on. But neither data nor institutional knowledge accumulates in-house that way. I restructured everything so that our own staff could handle each area. In my first year, I was conducting interviews with two or three people almost every single day. I didn’t limit myself to candidates with music industry experience and hired specialists in retail operations, merchandising, loyalty customer business and so on, bringing in experts from each field.
When I make decisions, I always base them on common sense, logic, and data. So I spent over a year organizing and connecting the various customer data sets our company held, looking at things like whether people who came to show were also purchasing albums, how pop-up visitors behaved online and so on, and built an organization that drives its business on the foundation of such data.
With data, you can do an accurate post-mortem whether a business succeeds or fails. This allows us to maintain a continuous improvement loop (PDCA) — forming hypotheses, executing, and refining our strategy. Repeating that process is how we’ve grown the organization.
The second mission — the original Japanese artist — is &TEAM. They’re HYBE’s first localized artist developed by one of its global headquarters outside of Korea, so everything was uncharted territory. I think we looked at over 50 properties just scouting for their rehearsal space. Everything from that initial groundwork to trainee contracts, we built from scratch through discussions among our staff.
Bringing together people from all different industries while taking on projects no one has done before must require tremendous leadership. What do you consistently tell your employees?
The two things I always tell everyone as being important are interpersonal excellence and problem-solving ability. Interpersonal excellence means the ability to generate empathy, draw others in, move them, bring them together, and drive them toward something new. Some people move others through passion, others build empathy through logical explanation, others have a natural charm they were simply born with — if there are 100 people, there are 100 different expressions of interpersonal excellence. Big business doesn’t move without people working together, so I tell my employees to develop the ability to speak straight with each other while bringing others along with them.
What do you mean by problem-solving ability?
No matter how thoroughly you plan, the unexpected always happens. So the ability to troubleshoot when something comes up is critically important. I hold myself to both of those standards at all times, and I encourage everyone to do the same. As HYBE JAPAN has grown this large, each business unit can also become siloed, so in Japan we created a structure called Artist Strategy.
What role does that play?
It’s a team that tracks each area of business — live shows, merchandise, music releases — on a per-artist basis. Thanks to them, we’ve been able to keep each artist’s branding consistent and on course.
What strategy did you take with &TEAM, the second mission you mentioned?
When I took over as label head in June 2025, &TEAM had set “Japan to Global” as their goal, but I felt there were challenges because the fact that “&TEAM is an act from Japan” and that “&TEAM is taking on the global stage from Japan” wasn’t coming through clearly enough to the public yet. So first I simply focused on getting more people to know &TEAM, and on making them artists who are loved across all generations.
“Go in Blind” came in at No. 5 on Billboard Japan’s year-end single sales chart.
Thank you. I’m grateful to every fan who supported them. And to help more people learn about their “Japan to Global” challenge, we released the documentary series &TEAM 100 Days Journey 〜Howling out to the World〜. Typically, documentary footage is released after a phase of activity has wrapped, looking back at what went on behind the scenes. But this series was broadcast in near real time.
So fans could feel like they were running alongside them.
Yes. There were many things we couldn’t show in advance — new choreography, for example — so in practice it turned out to be incredibly difficult. Debuting in South Korea was a major challenge for us. I wanted viewers to experience firsthand what kind of conflict, struggle, and obstacles they were facing as they pushed forward. We aired it on terrestrial TV and Hulu, while also releasing edited excerpts on &TEAM’s official YouTube channel to reach fans all over the world.
If the goal is global expansion, there’s an argument for targeting North America first rather than South Korea. Why did you choose the latter?
Because of what I’d call the “distribution structure” of K-pop and Korean television broadcasting. In Korea, when a music program airs, the official footage from that program is also shared on YouTube. High-quality video broadcast from television can reach the entire world almost immediately. We wanted to deliver &TEAM’s performances globally through that ecosystem, and that’s what led us to pursue the Korean debut. Korea has a concentrated wealth of know-how for expanding the K-pop industry to the world. Just as BTS spread Korean culture across the globe, one of our goals is for &TEAM to eventually become a bridge, not just through their music, but connecting Japanese culture, food, lifestyle, and trends to the rest of the world.
Since 2022, you’ve also been running THE CITY, an initiative that partners with local governments and companies to create new entertainment experiences. Could you share your thoughts on the economic impact that live events create?
This may sound contradictory, but as technology has advanced and people can now watch livestreamed concerts, the value and scarcity of the offline experience has actually increased. And then, to make that offline experience more flexibly enjoyable, IT technology becomes important again, meaning a kind of cycle has emerged. Our “digital stamp” service for preserving memories with artists, or WEVERSE Pickup, which eliminates wait times at merchandise booths at concert venues, are examples of this. By making smart use of these digital tools, the time spent offline becomes all the more meaningful.
HYBE is a company born in South Korea, but the foundation of HYBE JAPAN’s coexistence model is to firmly take root in Japan and grow from there. Giving people more to enjoy before and after a show also connects to revitalizing the local area, and we felt it was important in terms of letting fans feel a deeper connection with the artists they love.
The first thing we tackled was a merchandise pre-order system. In the past, buying goods at a venue meant standing in line. But by building a system where fans select items and pay in advance, then come to pick them up at a designated time, there’s no longer any need to queue. The time that would have been spent waiting can now be used for pop-up experiences, dining, or anything else.
Shows draw not just people from nearby, but fans traveling from far away by bullet train or plane. For those fans, we’ve developed shops featuring local specialties from the area, which might in turn lead to passersby coming across the artist collaboration pop-up and becoming a new fan. It creates mutual promotional benefits for both sides.
MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN launched in 2025 as an initiative to accelerate the export of Japanese content globally. How do you see it developing?
I think it’s a truly meaningful music award as an effort to send a diverse range of artists from Japan out into the world. NewJeans’ “Ditto” won the award for Best K-Pop Song in Japan last year, and I’m very grateful that artists from HYBE MUSIC GROUP are receiving such positive recognition. Going forward, I hope this award takes firm root and becomes a central launchpad for artists to take flight from Japan to the world.
—This interview by Naoko Takashima first appeared on Billboard Japan
Sunita Kaur joins Universal Music Publishing Group as president, Asia, part of a major restructuring at the music publishing giant.
Based in Singapore, Kaur will lead UMPG’s activities across the Asian continent, and is tasked with driving sustainable growth, strengthening the company’s presence in key markets, and helping “to shape a more connected, inclusive, and forward-looking music ecosystem,” reads a statement.
Also, Kaur will work closely with UMPG teams across the region with a focus on supporting and amplifying the voices of songwriters and artists, ensuring they have the platforms, partnerships, and protections they need to thrive.
“Asia represents one of the most exciting and important regions for the future of music publishing, and I’m thrilled that an executive of Sunita’s experience and depth is joining UMPG to lead our continued growth in the region,” comments UMPG chairman and CEO Jody Gerson, to whom Kaur reports. “She has a deep understanding of the evolving digital landscape and the opportunities it creates for songwriters, and her leadership and relationships across the region will be invaluable as we continue supporting and championing the next generation of songwriters.”
Kaur is a Billboard International Power Player alum who brings to the role a resume stacked with experience in music, digital media, and technology. She served as senior VP, APAC at Twitch from 2020 to 2023, and before that, climbed the ranks at Spotify, including stints as managing director SEA and VP revenue, APAC. From 2011, to 2013, she oversaw Facebook’s operations in the region as director, Asia.
“I’m grateful to Jody and Marc for the opportunity to join UMPG at such an exciting time for the company and for music across Asia,” Kaur remarks. “Having worked across both music and technology throughout my career, joining UMPG feels like a natural and exciting next chapter as those worlds continue to come together in new and powerful ways. Asia is at a defining moment for the global music ecosystem, and I look forward to working with our teams across the region to drive the next phase of growth and opportunity for songwriters.”
UMPG unveils their top new recruit just hours after announcing the departure of long-standing regional chief Andrew Jenkins, with effect from July 1. Currently, Jenkins serves as president of Australia and the Asia Pacific Region.
Taylor Swift might have her own new music arriving this week, but she took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday night (June 2) to hype up someone else’s brand-new project.
Late Tuesday, Swift shared an Instagram post from Paul McCartney promoting his just-released album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which arrived on Friday. Swift added her own message too (along with a bicep emoji): “Never not inspired by this eternally exceptional artist.”
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This is hardly the first time the pop superstars have crossed paths. In addition to sharing the stage to perform “Shake It Off” at a legendary Saturday Night Live 40th-anniversary afterparty in 2015, they also interviewed each other about songwriting for Rolling Stone magazine back in 2020, in which McCartney revealed he had planned to ask Swift to join him onstage for his COVID-canceled Glastonbury set. “Were you going to invite me?” Swift asks. “I was hoping that you would,” he said. “I was going to ask you.” Not only was the Beatles legend going to extend his hand, he was planning to play “Shake It Off” with her again. “I know it, it’s in C!” McCartney quipped.
After that interview, Swift released her second 2020 album, the Folklore follow-up Evermore, on Dec. 11, 2020, and the Wings frontman dropped McCartney III the following week. Dungeon Lane is McCartney’s first solo album since then, while Swift has released four re-recorded albums and three originals in the years after.
McCartney also showed up as a VIP guest at one of Swift’s Eras Tour dates at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2024 and was captured in fan video dancing along to The Tortured Poets Department standout “But Daddy I Love Him.”
This week, on Friday, Swift is set to release the song “I Knew It, I Knew You” from the Toy Story 5 soundtrack.
Dexter Wansel, a forefather of alternative R&B and the gifted songwriter/producer of hits such as Patti LaBelle’s “If Only You Knew,” died Sunday in Philadelphia of undisclosed causes. He was 75.
A Philadelphia native born Aug. 22, 1950, keyboardist Wansel was an errand boy for the local Uptown Theater while growing up. Following a stint in the Army, he began working at the city’s famed Sigma Sound Studios, where he gained the attention of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, the Grammy-winning co-founders of pioneering soul label Philadelphia International Records. As a recording artist for the label — beginning with his influential 1976 debut album Life on Mars in addition to wearing multiple hats in-house as a writer, arranger, composer, conductor, producer and A&R director into the ‘80s — Wansel earned a reputation as one of the vital craftsmen in developing the inimitable “Sound of Philadelphia.”
In a joint statement sent to Billboard, Gamble & Huff commented, “Dexter Wansel brought a new age sound to our record label in the 1970s and ‘80s, arranging and producing hits for many of our artists such as The Jacksons, The Jones Girls, Jean Carne and MFSB Orchestra, and including hits for himself. Dexter’s synthesizer and symphonic keyboard sounds were iconic.”
Encompassing vibrant fusions of R&B, funk, jazz and futurist/electronic grooves coupled with lavish orchestrations, those sounds were the hallmark of Life on Mars and the three additional albums that Wansel released via Philadelphia International. The projects include 1977’s What the World Is Coming To, 1978’s Voyager and 1979’s Time Is Slipping Away.
Wansel stayed just as busy behind the scenes at the label during the late ‘70s and into the ‘80s. He teamed with in-house lyricist Cynthia Biggs for a fruitful run that reaped songs such as LaBelle’s No. 1 R&B single “If Only You Knew,” The Jones Girls’ “Nights Over Egypt,” The Stylistics’ “Hurry Up This Way Again,” Grover Washington Jr.’s “The Best Is Yet to Come” featuring Patti LaBelle and Phyllis Hyman’s “Living All Alone.”
Wansel was also a producer on Lou Rawls’ 1977 album Unmistakably Lou, for which the singer won a Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance. Wansel’s work has also been sampled by various hip-hop artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Kim, Drake and J. Cole. Over these later years, Wansel released other solo projects, among them: Captured (1986), Digital Groove World (2004) and The Story of the Flight Crew to Mars (2021).
Added Gamble & Huff, “Dexter’s prolific songwriting with his long-time writing partner Cynthia Biggs – who worked with Teddy Pendergrass and others — made them one of the most sought-after writing teams in our publishing company. Most importantly, Dexter was our dear friend, protegé and great contributor to the Sound of Philadelphia. We send our sincere condolences to his wife Judy and family.”
Wansel is survived by his Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer son Andrew “Pop” Wansel of Pop & Oak. The younger Wansel’s credits include projects by Usher, Kehlani and Alessia Cara.
A statement from the Wansel family states, “We wish to express our gratitude for the outpouring of condolences we are receiving for our loved one, Grammy winner and one of the architects of the Sound of Philadelphia, Dexter Wansel. He’s at peace now.”
Memorial details will be announced at a later date.
Jennifer Lopez is setting the record straight on what she says is one of the most common rumors that gets recycled about her: that she’s dating anyone she’s ever seen with.
During an interview with the Today show, the star of the new rom-com Office Romance and her co-star Brett Goldstein got cornered into answering questions about their relationship off-camera.
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Today‘s Savannah Guthrie, who interviewed the actors, had Lopez and Goldstein rewatch a clip where the “Get Right” singer confesses to Bravo host Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that the best kiss she’s ever had was with Goldstein during the filming of the movie. “I just did a movie with Brett Goldstein and I’d say he was the best kisser,” Lopez confessed to Cohen.
Rewatching the clip with her co-star beside her made Lopez blush and led Guthrie to ask the pressing question: “You know what everyone is saying,” Guthrie said.
“What are they saying?” Lopez asked, to which the presenter said, “That it might be real. That you might actually be dating in real life.”
Lopez brushed off the question. “There is never a time when I’m seen with somebody or working with somebody that they don’t try and put me with the person,” Lopez replied.
“I think if you stand near her, that’s what happens,” Goldstein added.
Guthrie pointed out that was still not an answer to the question, to which Lopez said, “It was an answer. ‘Cause all these people that they put me with … I think I was with Kevin Costner this year, there was a lot of people. It happens all the time.”
When Guthrie pushed once more — “So you’re not dating then?” — Lopez responded, “Not dating,” while Goldstein added, “Correct.”
Lopez recently had a resurgence on the Billboard charts when her dance-pop anthem “On the Floor” hit the Billboard Global 200 thanks to a scene from the Prime Video series Off Campus, in which a character re-creates Lopez’s iconic Versace dress while dancing to the song at a Halloween party.
Watch Lopez and Goldstein’s full Today interview below:
Mal shocked his co-hosts in a recent episode of New Rory & Mal by proclaiming that he would side with Drake if a rap battle popped off between the Toronto rapper and Jay-Z.
“I might have to ride with my man Drake,” the brother of Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke said while discussing the possibility.
When jokingly pressed about his family ties to the Jigga Man, Mal doubled down. “That’s big bro, that’s family,” he said of Jay-Z. “But [Drake’s] my man. I gotta ride with my man.” However, he did add that he would change his mind if things ventured into more personal territory saying, “I’m with it if it remains rap and respectful. I’m not with the corny, just make up anything and say anything bullsh– that we witnessed two years ago,” in reference to the Drake/Kendrick battle.
In another clip that surfaced online, Mal revealed that Drake texted him about the way Jay-Z was sporting his hair onstage at the Roots Picnic. “The funny sh– about all of this is Drake is the one that told me about this freestyle, because I was watching the Spurs game,” he claimed after his co-host Rory told a story of how Jermaine Dupri made him FaceTime Mal to scream at him about not siding with the family. “I wasn’t online. Game 7 was on. The Knicks was waiting. I’m trying to see who the Knicks gon’ get so I’m not even paying attention to my phone, nothing. So I think it was halftime or something, so I look at my phone, and I see texts from Drake.”
He added: “I don’t know what’s happening so everything that we’re talking about, I don’t even know what was said,” Mal said of his subsequent back-and-forth text exchange with Drake. “So he was picking out certain things that he said, but the one thing that Drake said was like, ‘Yo, but what’s up with the hair?’ Now mind you, I haven’t seen a picture.”
Jay-Z shook up the rap world with an a cappella freestyle during the Roots Picnic over the weekend in which he aired his grievances and dissed a bunch of people, including Drake, Nicki Minaj, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Dame Dash, among others.
British soul/R&B trio FLO is set to receive the ASCAP Vanguard Award at the 2026 ASCAP London Celebrates Songwriters and Composers event on Tuesday (June 16).
The award is presented to breakthrough artists who are shaping the future of music. Previous recipients include Dua Lipa, Victoria Monet and St. Vincent.
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“FLO are redefining R&B with incredible chops and style,” Paul Williams, ASCAP chairman of the board and president, said in a statement. “As they continue to build on their remarkable creative achievements, we’re proud to honor FLO with the Vanguard Award.”
On March 26, the London-based trio won a MOBO award for best R&B/soul act (besting Olivia Dean, among others). It also received a 2026 Grammy nod for best progressive R&B album for its debut set, Access All Areas. In 2023, the group won the rising star award at the Brit Awards, and that same year it rated in the annual BBC Sound of… poll. FLO has additionally been nominated for seven BET Awards and three Soul Train Music Awards.
FLO, which is signed to Island Records, is composed of Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer. The trio’s debut studio album, Access All Areas (2024), included “In My Bag,” a collaboration with GloRilla. The album peaked at No. 3 on the Official UK Albums Chart and No. 163 on the Billboard 200.
FLO plans to attend the June 16 event, at which ASCAP will celebrate its U.K. songwriters and composers who have achieved success in the U.S. for their work in music, TV and film. The event will also celebrate the U.K. writers of the 2026 song of the year, top Hot Dance / Electronic Song, top box office film of the year and more.
