Burna Boy granted fans an all-access pass to one of the biggest performances of his career, and Billboard had a front-row seat.
In a new behind-the-scenes video diary for Billboard, the genre-blending artist takes viewers through every single step of his day as he prepared to perform at the inaugural FIFA World Cup Final halftime show on Sunday. From a police escort at the beginning of the day to the adrenaline of stepping on the field at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for the halftime show, the video transparently showcases a timeline of all the moments that led up to and followed his high-profile performance.
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Along the way, Burna shares several memorable interactions. He poses for photos with collaborator Shakira, with whom he teamed up for the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem “Dai Dai.” The song — which the duo performed during Sunday’s halftime — spends a second week atop the Billboard Global 200 and a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. Burna also meets up with streamer iShowSpeed, embraces Justin Bieber in a hug, and even greets Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, who made an unannounced cameo to introduce Bieber. After making his rounds, Burna squeezes in one final practice session right before taking the stage.
The camera follows Burna stepping onto the field, capturing the celebration. Burna is all smiles as the performance comes to an end, entering the players’ tunnel to return backstage and receiving praise from Chris Martin, who curated the halftime show and co-wrote the song “We Dance” with his Coldplay bandmates for the finale.
Watch Burna Boy’s full day in the life via Billboard below.
J. Cole‘s The Fall-Off World Tour has gotten off to an auspicious start.
Last week during the tour’s second stop in Miami, a couple got engaged as he was performing “Life Sentence,” one of the latest cuts from his most recent album The Fall-Off, which is dedicated to love and marriage despite the song’s title. “What’s up, baby girl? What’s up, my boy? God bless y’all,” the rapper said once he caught wind of their engagement. “That’s f—ing beautiful. Y’all make some noise for them, man.”
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There was also another couple who were getting married the day after the show at Miami’s Kaseya Center and had their seats upgraded by Cole’s team and invited him and his manager Ibrahim Hamad to the wedding. “Aye @KingOfQueenz @JColeNC we just wanna say thank you for tonight’s show in Miami. our original tickets had an ‘obstructed view’ and so y’all upgraded our tickets to the front row,” the fan wrote on X. “Y’all let a bunch of fans since 2010 make a core memory. thank you. my lady and I get married tomorrow at 3pm in Miami if y’all would like to come. shoutout to Cole for showing us love during Life Sentence.”
And now, during the tour’s fourth stop at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, someone threw their bra onstage as Cole was performing his hit record “Work Out” from his 2011 debut studio album Sideline Story. “N—a ain’t got a bra onstage in a long motherf—in’ time, boy,” he told the crowd as he was laughing in shock. “You gotta cherish that sh–.”
The American leg of Cole’s tour ends in his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina, at Crown Coliseum on Sept. 3. He then heads out for the European leg starting Oct. 7 at Uber Arena in Berlin and will end it at Unity Arena in Oslo, Norway, on Nov. 12, so there’s still plenty of time to catch him if you haven’t gotten the chance to already.
Make sure to bring either a bra or an engagement ring — or both.
Taylor Swift attended game 4 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden in June, which saw the Knicks overcome a 29-point deficit for the largest comeback in Finals history. Knicks star Jalen Brunson spoke at Variety’s inaugural Sports & Entertainment Studio last week, during which he showed appreciation for having the pop supernova courtside among the celebrity guests in the crowd.
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Taylor Swift & Haim Sisters Sit Courtside at NBA Finals Game 4 — And You Have to See Their Hilarious Homemade Knicks Shirts
“It’s really cool having her there,” Brunson said, before bringing up Swift also being courtside for the Eastern Conference Finals in Cleveland. “I feel like her being in Cleveland for courtside one game, obviously, I think Travis and the Kelces are from Ohio, so I get that. And she’s been at the Knicks’ games before.”
He continued: “So, I mean, whoever comes, as long as you’re cheering us on, we appreciate it. And I think that was probably a really good game to come to as well.”
Swift cheered on the Knicks during the historic comeback in game 4 while rocking a “Stevie Knicks” T-shirt alongside HAIM’s Este and Alana Haim as well as actress Mariska Hargitay.
JB and the Knicks ended up disposing of the Spurs in five games to capture the franchise’s first championship in 53 years.
Page Six reported that Brunson and the rest of the Knicks starting five were invited to Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. JB didn’t confirm whether or not he was invited, but he did relay that he wasn’t at the star-studded affair.
“It’s a great question,” he said. “I found out the same way the rest of the world did. So, I don’t know if it was true or not, but I did not attend.”
Swift and Kelce tied the knot at Madison Square Garden on July 3 in front of more than 1,000 wedding guests, while Adam Sandler served as the ceremony’s officiant.
Hey, sexy ladies! PSY‘s smash hit “Gangnam Style” is now the first K-pop video to reach a major YouTube milestone.
As of Monday (July 20) — almost exactly 14 years after it was posted on the platform — the humorous, dance-heavy visual has amassed more than 6 billion views. No other music video in the genre has reached those numbers to date, underscoring PSY’s legacy of setting the stage for modern K-pop to cross over into the global mainstream in recent years with acts such as BTS, BLACKPINK and more.
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Directed by Cho Soo-Hyun, the video finds the South Korean superstar causing chaos wherever he goes with his signature “Gangnam Style” choreography. A number of now-iconic scenes emerged from the project, including PSY busting a move by himself in a horse stable or singing to the camera while lying between a dancing man’s legs.
Reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2012, “Gangnam Style” has long been known as a game-changer. The year it was posted, its music video became the first upload to ever reach a billion views on YouTube, meaning it was the original member of the Billion Views Club that’s now inhabited by Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and more pop smashes.
Several other K-pop visuals have also entered the club in the years since PSY kicked it off, including BTS’ “Dynamite” and “Butter” as well as BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” and “How You Like That.”
It’s been a few years since PSY dropped an album, releasing PSY 9th in 2022.
Add your view to 6 billion others by checking out the “Gangnam Style” video above.
At the halfway point of 2026, albums from the K-pop scene have rewritten history for new chart records while also delivering projects to expand the scope of Korea’s music scene.
Since the start of the year, it feels like there has not been a month without a major blockbuster release or highly anticipated comebacks where artists stepped up to high stakes put upon them. While BTS‘ ARIRANG spent multiple weeks at No. 1 atop the Billboard 200 (and set several new sales records while at it), the larger context behind the group’s full-length return showed the importance of an artist creatively pushing themselves and not falling back to what worked in past victories. Artists who scored breakout years in 2025, including NMIXX, Yves, WOODZ, idntt, XLOV and XngHan&Xoul, all ensured their next releases would not disappoint as fresh rookies like LNGSHOT and HEART OF WOMAN didn’t hold back with bold projects to earn themselves a place in the K-pop conversation.
Perhaps more than ever in past years’ lists, K-pop showed the different ways it’s expanding, with independent acts like AKMU, can’t be blue, Yves and Balming Tiger as well as K-pop mainstays all making their marks in major ways without sacrificing any artistic integrity. Some acts blending their style into the larger K-pop world (can’t be blue collaborated with XngHan and Stray Kids member HAN this year as PLAVE enlisted singer SOLE for their first release with a feature), looking outward to expand a message (Yves enlisted Lolo Zouaï and Lexie Liu as collaborators her EP) or doing it fully on their own (AKMU, Balming Tiger and Billlie all crafted ambitious, full-length projects without any guest features).
Spanning girl groups and boy bands to rock acts and soloists, these are the albums from the larger K-pop industry that have resonated and stayed with our staff the most in 2026 so far.
Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm got married to Australian model Chris Dingwall on Saturday (July 18) in a private ceremony in the British countryside. According to British Vogue magazine, Chisholm, 52, known as “Sporty Spice” during her Spice Girls days, wore a simple, white floor-length gown while holding a bouquet of wildflowers during the nuptials at the Country House Cumbria in the Lake District.
Most of the other Spice Girls were on hand, including Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton, Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown and Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell-Horner, though Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham was not on hand because she was in New York for the 2026 FIFA World Cup third-place game on Saturday — where England defeated France 6-4 — as well as the Spain-Argentina finale on Sunday.
The magazine reported that after Dingwall surprised the singer by popping the question while they were on holiday in Mallorca last July, they began working on their summer wedding, which included a legal ceremony in the groom’s native Australia before Saturday’s event. Though Beckham was not there in person, Chisholm checked off the “something borrowed” item on her list by wearing a dress designed by the singer-turned-fashion designer.
“I was actually having dinner with Melanie and asked her what she was up to,” Beckham told British Vogue. “She very casually told me she was leaving for Australia in two days and getting married! When I asked what she was wearing, she mentioned she had actually ordered one of my dresses but that it didn’t quite fit, and she didn’t have time to get it altered before leaving. I happened to have that exact dress in my own wardrobe and offered to lend it to her.”
The lace cami dress was one of a number of pieces Melanie’s stylist had pulled ahead of the wedding, with the bride saying it was “the best, hands down. There’s just something about her clothes… they have a real simplicity, especially the slip dresses. They’re really feminine, but in a way that feels comfortable, and very me.” Once Beckham stepped up to figure out the sizing issue, Chisholm boarded her flight to Australia with the dress in hand. “Victoria’s dress was my something borrowed,” Chisholm said. “It was very special, having her there.”
And, when Beckham heard that a larger wedding was in the works in the U.K., she said she offered to make Chisholm her “dream dress,” using the original lace cami as a starting point. “Victoria wanted to make it much more personal to me. She found some gorgeous vintage lace, and everything was really delicately dyed to the perfect shade. It’s very flattering, open at the back,” said Chisholm, who met Dingwall on the exclusive celebrity dating app Raya in 2023; Chisholm has a 17-year-old daughter, Scarlett Starr, with ex Thomas Starr.
Though Beckham could not make it to the big day, British Vogue posted a series of snaps from the wedding, including one of the happy couple walking hand-in-hand, Chisholm getting a final fitting and the singer posing with the rest of her Spice Girls bandmates.
Tom Morello, Garbage, Violet Grohl, Courtney Love and more artists are remembering Jennifer Finch, the L7 bassist and vocalist who died Saturday (July 18) following an aggressive form of brain cancer. She was 59.
A family representative announced Finch’s death over the weekend, days after L7 revealed that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer and would be unable to join the band’s upcoming farewell tour.
“Jennifer’s impact on the world of music was seismic; her impact on our lives, even more so,” the representative said in a statement. “We appreciate everyone’s interest and concern, thank you for all the kind messages. We appreciate some space to heal privately during this difficult time.”
Finch’s L7 bandmates Suzi Gardner, Donita Sparks and Dee Plakas also shared their own tribute, remembering her as a “beloved bandmate, friend, and fellow troublemaker.”
“With a very heavy heart we announce that our beloved bandmate, friend, and fellow troublemaker Jennifer Finch has passed away today,” the band wrote. “She had a long courageous fight with brain cancer and was loved by many wonderful friends, musical peers and fans worldwide. We love you, Jennifer.”
Morello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, remembered Finch as both a key figure in the Los Angeles rock community and a generous presence within it.
“God bless her. An important fixture of the LA scene, a super cool person, a true artist with a kind and welcoming heart,” Morello wrote. “I loved, respected and admired her greatly. She will be missed.”
He also described Finch as a “powerful artist and gracious friend.”
Garbage shared a brief tribute, writing, “Godspeed beautiful Jennifer. Thank you,” while Violet Grohl remembered Finch as a “force.”
“This is so devastating, she was such a force,” Grohl wrote. “Made so many feel so seen. Rest in peace legend.”
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe also posted a short remembrance, writing, “Bless her.” Courtney Love, who played with Finch in the pre-Hole band Sugar Babydoll alongside future Babes in Toyland member Kat Bjelland, also honored Finch with a photo tribute.
Finch joined L7 in 1986 and became part of the band’s best-known lineup alongside Sparks, Gardner and Plakas. Her bass work helped drive the group’s 1992 breakthrough album, Bricks Are Heavy, which included “Pretend We’re Dead,” “Wargasm” and “Shitlist.”
Produced by Butch Vig, Bricks Are Heavy pushed L7 from the Los Angeles punk underground into the wider alternative-rock moment of the early ’90s. The band’s heavy riffs, blunt humor and political bite made them one of the era’s most distinctive guitar acts.
Finch left L7 in 1996 and later performed with Other Star People and The Shocker before rejoining L7 after the band reunited in 2014. Outside music, she also worked as a photographer, writer and visual artist.
L7 had announced in May that The Last Hurrah, the band’s farewell tour, would begin in October. Days before Finch’s death, the band said she had asked them to continue with the tour as planned.
Liam Gallagher had a blunt review of FIFA’s first World Cup final halftime show.
The Oasis frontman reacted on X during Sunday’s (July 19) performance at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., where Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the PS22 Chorus and the Muppets appeared during the Spain-Argentina final.
“This is like a bad trip,” Gallagher wrote.
He followed with another post, adding, “It’s a good job I’ve got my spiritual socks on or that halftime entertainment could have tipped me over the edge.”
The 11-and-a-half-minute show marked the first halftime performance staged during a FIFA World Cup final. Curated by Martin, the production opened with Madonna performing “Music,” her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 from 2000, before moving through performances from BTS, Bieber, Shakira, Burna Boy and more.
Shakira and Burna Boy performed “Dai Dai,” the official World Cup song and current Billboard Global 200 chart-topper, while BTS delivered “Dynamite” and Bieber performed an acoustic version of “Everything Hallelujah.” Dudamel also conducted musicians from the New York Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela through The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
The show closed with the PS22 Chorus, Martin, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and several performers returning to the field for a finale built around a giant “LOVE” stage formation and fireworks.
The halftime show brought one of the most music-heavy moments in World Cup final history to the middle of the tournament’s deciding match. It also placed FIFA closer to the kind of entertainment model long associated with the Super Bowl, where pop performance is built into the broadcast spectacle.
Gallagher’s reaction comes after Oasis’ return to stadium scale with the band’s OASIS LIVE ’25 tour, which included dates across the U.K., Ireland, North America, Mexico, Asia, Australia and South America. The band’s songs have also long lived inside football culture, with tracks including “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” becoming crowd staples far beyond rock audiences.
After a day of wildfire smoke that choked the air and thunderstorms that flooded parts of New York City, Sunday, July 19th dawned bright, clear and beautiful, the perfect setting for an event on which all eyes around the globe would be centered: the 2026 World Cup Final.
And with Spain and Argentina contesting the first all-Spanish-language final since the inaugural 1930 event (in which Uruguay bested Argentina), one word filled the air more than any other as fans began to mass around NYC’s Penn Station to take the trains or buses to New York, New Jersey stadium for the game: Vamos!
On the way to the stadium for the biggest — and most expensive — game of this month-long World Cup, Argentinian fans were singing loudly and joyously, with a sea of Lionel Messi jerseys far out-numbering those in Spain’s traditional red, with those supporters of La Roja nearly as unanimous as their counterparts in wearing the name and number of their 19-year-old superstar Lamine Yamal, a successor to Messi at the famed club Barcelona. But after a relatively simple transit situation (a relief after repeated warnings that things could get packed and hectic) that gave way to a media credential nightmare that left many media members stranded outside for hours in the early afternoon, Billboard made it into the stadium in time to catch the closing ceremonies, headlined by Post Malone, who closed up his brief set by bringing out Swae Lee for their smash hit single “Sunflower,” before the stadium settled into a pre-match tension that lasted until kickoff.
This, however, was not an ordinary World Cup Final: the 2026 edition was to be the first ever with a halftime performance akin in some ways to the Super Bowl, with superstars like Madonna, BTS, Shakira, Burna Boy, Coldplay, Justin Bieber, and more performing in a tight-knit 11-minute set at the half. Here, Billboard brings you through TK moments you may not have seen on TV during the high-profile event.
More new music from Gracie Abrams is arriving Sunday night (July 19). After unleashing new album Daughter From Hell on Friday, the singer-songwriter announced there are two additional tracks from the DFH sessions that fans will get to hear. Though they didn’t make the cut on the standard version of the album, “Out of Nowhere” and “Love Letter” are being made available as bonus tracks.
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The two songs will be up exclusively on iTunes Sunday night, and only “for a limited time,” Abrams shared in a social media post.
Her post included her personal thoughts on the songs, as well as her gratitude for those who’ve listened to Daughter From Hell and shared positive feedback. Abrams also offered a couple selfie video clips of herself giving a very short, but playfully dramatic, preview of “Out of Nowhere” and “Love Letter.”
“Hey SURPRISE,” Abrams wrote on her social media accounts on Sunday. “Daughter from Hell (Bonus Tracks) with OUT OF NOWHERE and LOVE LETTER will be available to download tonight at 6pm PT on iTunes for a limited time if you can believe it.”
She added, “I’m so moved to hear from those of you who are connecting with the record so far. Really truly your messages have made my heart grow ten sizes. Fingers crossed you enjoy these too. I personally love them very much.”
Daughter From Hell is Abrams’ third full-length studio album, which has her once again teaming up with producer/co-writer Aaron Dessner. The set, the follow-up to 2024’s The Secret of Us (which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart), was led by the single “Hit the Wall.”