Jessica Simpson celebrated eight years of sobriety in November, and she took a moment to reflect on her journey of overcoming alcoholism during her Monday (June 1) concert in Highland, Calif.

“I didn’t understand all of the traumas that I was holding onto. And it was really painful once I started searching in myself to find what I could reveal,” the singer and fashion designer said. “I became somebody that I was afraid of, somebody I did not know and understand.”

The 45-year-old continued: “I was a mother and I felt I wasn’t being a good role model and it wasn’t until a year later that I realized that the drinking wasn’t numbing my pain, it was actually causing more. It was a crutch that was wasn’t working.”

Simpson provided context about her trials and tribulations to get to this point of sobriety before introducing a new song to perform titled “Give It All Away” during Monday’s concert.

“In all honesty, I’m a work in progress and I celebrate each and every day that I feel alive and in my body and I’m very proud of myself so it felt right to share this song with you,” she added. “I want all of you to know that you should have a little grace for yourself and everything is gonna be okay if you just give it all away.”

The “Take My Breath Away” singer, who’s a mother of three, celebrated crossing eight years of sobriety on Nov. 1. The powerful decision to get back in control came after a drunken Halloween in 2017 where Simpson realized she had to change her ways, which she detailed in her 2020 memoir Open Book.

“8 years ago today I made the choice to confront, to confess and to let go of the self-sabotaging parts of my life that I was choosing,” Simpson wrote to Instagram. “Making that decision allowed me to fully live in the pursuit of God’s purpose for my life. Alcohol silenced my intuition, blocked my dreams and chased my circulating fears of complacency.”

She went on: “Today I am clear. Today I am driven by faith. Both fear and faith are something that we feel and may not see, I’m so happy I chose faith over fear. It was not in the fight that I found my strength, it was in the surrender.”

Jessica Simpson returned to music in 2025 with a pair of EPs: Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1 and a Pt. 2 sequel. The former reality TV star is back on the road touring the U.S. with upcoming shows in Bethlehem, Pa., Waterloo, N.Y. and Kettering, Ohio, later this month.

It’s been 15 long years since R.E.M. called it a day. Michael Stipe isn’t looking back.

The Rock Hall-inducted singer stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night (June 2) for a performance of “I Played the Fool,” the theme song for the new Steve Carrell HBO comedy Rooster.

For the late-night spot, Stipe, bathed in green static light and wearing a beard that would make Santa envious, was joined by a full band featuring Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and musician Andrew Watt, who co-produced Paul McCartney’s new solo album The Boys of Dungeon Lane and composed and produced the original score for Rooster.

Since R.E.M. officially disbanded in 2011, Stipe has released several solo songs including “Your Capricious Soul” (2019), “Drive to the Ocean” (2020) and “No Time For Love Like Now” with Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine side project (2020).

There’s still no word on when his long-awaited debut solo album will be released into the world. Stipe did touch on it in April during an interview with Stephen Colbert on the late-night talk show’s now-defunct Late Show. “One of the songs is the sound of a tree hearing itself for the first time,” he said at the time, cryptically, explaining that a friend had recorded the sound of a tree in his backyard in Georgia and then played it back to said tree for a song he described as Daft Punk-like. He added that he would be including his version of the standard sea chanty “Drunken Sailor” on the unnamed LP.

R.E.M. did reunite, briefly, in 2024 when the Athens, GA natives — Stipe, Mike Mills, Bill Berry and Peter Buck — got the old band back together to sing “Losing My Religion” at the Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in New York, on the night of their induction. Prior to that, the band’s last full public concert was in November 2008 in Mexico City, although the foursome did play a private party in 2016.

Watch Stipe and Watt’s performance on ABC’s Kimmel below.

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.”

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.

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.

Peabo Bryson — the Grammy-winning and hitmaking singer of legendary love songs — has died at age 75, his rep confirmed to Billboard. Bryson had suffered a stroke over the weekend and was under medical care.

“With broken hearts and profound sadness, the family of two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and balladeer, Peabo Bryson, announces his passing,” a statement from Bryson’s family reads, adding: “He transitioned peacefully at 5:00 p.m. ET on the evening of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him.”

Over his decadeslong career, Bryson placed 12 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, starting with “Lovers After All,” his 1981 duet with Melissa Manchester, and including three top 10 hits. He topped the chart in 1993 thanks to his recording of Disney’s “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)” with Regina Belle. Bryson had previously found success with another Disney classic, recording “Beauty and the Beast” with a then-23-year-old Celine Dion and reaching No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 1992.

Those two Disney success stories also brought Bryson his two Grammy wins out of eight nominations, with both duets taking home best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal in back-to-back years (1993 and 1994).

“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” Bryson’s family shared in a statement. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

One of the last posts on Bryson’s social media accounts was an April carousel of family photos celebrating his 75th birthday. “This is 75!!,” the photos are captioned. “Thank you for all my well wishes,” he added with a heart-hands emoji.

Fans of BTS, Cardi B, Lainey Wilson and more aren’t going to want to miss this year’s iHeartRadio Music Festival, which announced its 2026 lineup on Tuesday (June 2).

Taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the two-day event will also feature Benson Boone, Zara Larsson, Goo Goo Dolls, Kenny Chesney, Major Lazer, Muse, Snoop Dogg and Weezer. More acts will be announced leading up to the festival on Sept. 18-19.

“The iHeartRadio Music Festival is all about bringing together the biggest artists across every genre for two unforgettable nights, and this year’s lineup truly reflects the incredible diversity of music today,” said chief programming officer Tom Poleman and president of entertainment enterprises John Sykes in a joint statement. “From global superstars to fan-favorite icons, we’re excited to once again deliver an unmatched live and streaming experience that reaches millions of fans everywhere.”

Tickets for the Ryan Seacrest-hosted festival will go on sale to the public at 2 p.m. ET on June 12 via AXS online. Capital One cardholders will have access to an exclusive presale kicking off June 10.

Those who can’t make it in person also have the option of streaming the performances on Disney+ and Hulu.

This year’s festival continues a pattern of star-studded lineups, with Jelly Roll, Tate McRae, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran and more A-listers playing the iHeartRadio Music Festival in 2025. In 2024, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, Doja Cat and Dua Lipa were among the artists on the bill.

More information about this year’s event can be found on iHeartRadio’s website.

BTS have added a third Melbourne show to their Australian tour leg of BTS World Tour ‘ARIRANG,’ responding to overwhelming presale demand with a new date at Marvel Stadium on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

The addition brings the Australian run to five shows — three nights at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne (Feb. 10, 12 and 13) and two nights at Accor Stadium in Sydney (Feb. 20 and 21).

ARMY Membership presale for the new Melbourne date opens Wednesday, June 3 at 10 a.m. AEST. General on sale for all five Australian shows begins Thursday, June 4 at 10 a.m. AEST for Melbourne and 1 p.m. AEST for Sydney via btsworldtourofficial.com. Only ARMY Membership holders who registered in advance will be eligible for the presale queue, and a Global membership number — a nine-digit number beginning with “BA” — is required for access.

The Australian dates are part of what is already shaping up to be the largest global K-pop tour of all time, spanning stadiums across Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. The production features a 360-degree, in-the-round stage design placing fans at the centre of the experience while expanding overall stadium capacity.

It marks BTS’ first headline tour together since the Permission to Dance on Stage tour, which included 12 sold-out shows across Seoul, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The tour supports ARIRANG, BTS’ fifth studio album, released in March 2026. The record debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the group’s sixth No. 1 on the chart since 2020. The seven-member group — RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook — are five-time Grammy nominees and were named TIME’s Entertainer of the Year in 2020.

BTS World Tour ‘ARIRANG’ — Australia 2027

Feb. 10 — Melbourne, AUS — Marvel Stadium (new show)

Feb. 12 — Melbourne, AUS — Marvel Stadium

Feb. 13 — Melbourne, AUS — Marvel Stadium

Feb. 20 — Sydney, AUS — Accor Stadium

Feb. 21 — Sydney, AUS — Accor Stadium

Bryson Tiller has announced The Neo Trapsoul Tour, a 61-date world tour launching Aug. 27 in West Valley City, Utah with support from Majid Jordan, Ty Dolla $ign and Austin Millz on select dates.

The North American leg runs through Nov. 1 in Seattle, hitting major stops including Madison Square Garden in New York on Sept. 13, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on Aug. 29 and Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Oct. 25. A European leg follows from Nov. 17, with dates in Zurich, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin and a run of U.K. arena shows closing at London’s The O2 on Dec. 7.

The tour wraps with five Australian and New Zealand dates in January 2027 — Perth’s RAC Arena (Jan. 19), Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne (Jan. 21), Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (Jan. 23), Brisbane Entertainment Centre (Jan. 25) and Spark Arena in Auckland (Jan. 27). Artist presale opens Wednesday, June 3 at 12 p.m. local time, with general on sale from Friday, June 5 at 12 p.m. local time. VIP packages are available via vipnation.com.

The tour follows a landmark stretch for the Louisville, Kentucky singer. Last October he celebrated the 10th anniversary of his debut album T R A P S O U L and released the double album Solace & The Vices, with The Vices leaning into high-energy rap-driven production and Solace embracing a more soulful R&B sound.

He also teamed with Chris Brown on “It Depends,” which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B Digital Song Sales chart, peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, earned two Grammy nominations, two BET Award nominations, an American Music Award and an NAACP Image Award. A new album is forthcoming, preceded by the recently released single “IT’S OK.”

Tiller broke through in 2015 with the diamond-certified “Don’t” and his 3x platinum debut T R A P S O U L, which helped define modern trap R&B. His follow-up True to Self (2017) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — making him only the second artist in chart history to debut at No. 1 with a streaming-only release — while A N N I V E R S A R Y (2020) opened at No. 5 and his 2024 self-titled album landed in the Billboard 200’s top 20.