Hilary Duff‘s “What Dreams Are Made Of” is a graduation staple — now, she can add commencement speaker to her lengthy resume.

On Wednesday (April 29), Duff addressed Northeastern University’s graduating class of 2026 at Fenway Park in Boston, delivering an inspiring speech that pulled nuggets of wisdom from her pop culture journey. She began her speech joking that she was “envious” of the graduates because her “formal education ended around third grade” due to her blossoming career as a child actor and then-teen superstar. From there, the “Roommates” singer reflected on some of the key lessons she learned as she navigated her career in entertainment.

“Just because something is a good opportunity or a good paycheck doesn’t mean it’s right,” she reminded the graduates. “By simply accepting what the world was offering to me, I was losing my own voice; I was reacting, instead of asking myself what I really wanted. That realization was a paradigm shift for me.”

“I knew I had to change my pattern of saying ‘yes,’ so I took a break from making music,” she continued. “Not because I didn’t know exactly what kind of album I wanted to make or what kind of stories I wanted to tell through my music, because I knew precisely what I wanted. But I somehow knew that I couldn’t authentically make it, yet.”

After reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with Dignity in 2007, Duff took a hiatus from her music career, shifting her focus to acting, production and penning her New York Times bestseller Elixir trilogy. She returned to the music scene with Breathe In. Breathe Out. in 2015, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Sparks” (No. 93).

“So I made a choice, and I took a step back. I pivoted. I rebuilt myself, I refilled my tank, I put effort into my relationships, into building my family and building a business,” Duff explained. “I waited until I was ready to meet the moment. I realized that saying ‘no’ wasn’t rejection, it was redirection… I took back control of what I was building, and I reclaimed my story. And I realized my own agency. I’m grateful I had the ability to take that pause… the key is that I was choosing where my energy went instead of letting others choose for me. Don’t forget to pause and appreciate how far you’ve come.”

If the stadium’s thunderous applause was anything to go by, Duff’s speech was a hit, adding another win to her collection this year. At the top of the year, Duff returned to the road on her Small Rooms, Big Nevers Tour, which led to the release of her latest album, Luck… Or Something. Co-written and co-produced with husband Matthew Koma, Luck hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and landed a radio hit in “Roommates,” which reached No. 25 on Pop Airplay.

Next month, Duff will kick off her Lucky Me Tour with two shows at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Fla. (June 21-22). The trek will take her to amphitheaters and arenas in major cities across North America, Australia and the U.K., including New York City, Toronto and London, before concluding with two shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes next year (Feb. 12-13, 2027).

Check out Hilary Duff’s complete commencement speech for Northeastern University’s graduating class of 2026 below.

KATSEYE isn’t coming all the way to Australia just to talk; the two-time Grammy nominated global girl group will also deliver a one-off performance next Friday, May 8, at Melbourne’s Festival Hall.

As previously reported, KATSEYE will make its first trip to these parts for a trip that, until now, was anchored on an exclusive fan Q&A experience in Sydney on May 6. The winner of the competition receives flights, accommodation and a double pass to the Q&A, while 29 runners-up will receive a double pass for the session.

The pop act’s itinerary just got bigger, with a one-off Australia show presented by Visit Victoria’s “Melbourne. Every bit different” campaign in collaboration with American Express, Live Nation, HYBE and Geffen.

Universal Music Australia is behind the contest and the concert, a 30-minute pop-up performance. American Express Centurion and Platinum Card Members can access a select number of priority tickets for the show via the Amex Experiences App from Wednesday, May 6.

KATSEYE is hot right now, thanks to the release of their Billboard Hot 100 hit single “Pinky Up,” and their eye-catching performances at Coachella. Since then, the group has been added to the line-up of performers for the 52nd American Music Awards, on a night where they have nominations in three categories — new artist of the year, best music video for “Gnarly” and breakthrough pop artist. The AMAs are set for Monday, May 25 in Las Vegas.

A new KATSEYE EP, WILD, is due out Aug. 14 via HYBE x Geffen Records. It’s the followup to 2025’s Beautiful Chaos, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and features Billboard Hot 100 hits “Gnarly” and “Gabriela.” In Australia, “Gabriela,” “Touch” and “Gnarly” are all certified platinum, while “Debut” and “Gameboy” are certified gold.

The girl group is currently a five-piece (Daniela, Lara, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae) while bandmate Manon is on a temporary hiatus.

If you thought Olivia Rodrigo‘s next album would be stacked with love songs, wrapped in emotions raked from both ends of the spectrum, some of which are inspired by HBO’s Sex And The City, then you’d be right.

The pop phenomenon stopped by NBC’s The Tonight Show on Thursday night, May 30, where she spilled the beans on her forthcoming album, tour and Saturday Night Live gig.

“I knew that I wanted this record to be about romantic love in more of a positive sense,” she says of You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, due out June 12 via Geffen Records. That’s considering her last two were “heartbroken and angsty,” in her own words. Expected love songs, “injected with a little bit of sadness and longing. And melancholy, because all my favorite love songs have that.” Those faves, she tells Jimmy Kimmel, include “Love Song” by the Cure, and “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey.

“Multiple songs” from her forthcoming album, she also reveals, are inspired by the complex relationship of lawyer Miranda Hobbes and former bartender Steve Brady, two central characters from Sex And The City. “It’s my favorite show,” she enthuses. “I think I watched every single episode maybe three times.”

It’s worth pointing out that Sex and the City concluded after six seasons on Feb. 22, 2004, a year to the month after Rodrigo was born.

Rodrigo’s new album is led by “Drop Dead,” which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking her fourth title to debut in the top spot. “The song is basically about an awesome first date,” she explains. “It’s the first step in the journey of You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl. The journey definitely like ebbs and flows. It goes in lots of different places from here, but this is the first chapter.”

Rodrigo will sing “Drop Dead” and a brand new one, when she appears on Saturday Night Live this weekend as both host and musical guest.

“It’s always been a huge dream of mine,” to pull double duty on SNL, she insists. If she has nerves, she’s not showing it. And she does have a lucky charm, a gift from Jack White, which he planted in her dressing room.

The 23-year-old pop star will support her next release with the Unraveled Tour, which currently stands at 65 arena date across North America, Europe and the U.K. this fall and winter beginning with a Sept. 25 show at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn. “I’ve been working so hard on it,” she says during her latest late-night interview. “I’m so stoked to play these songs live.”

With You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, she resisted the temptation of going with another four letter word after Sour (from 2021) and Guts (2023), both of which logged time at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. “I always knew if wasn’t going to be four letters.” She wanted to “break out,” and “didn’t want to be stuck in it,” she tells Fallon.

Watch Rodrigo’s appearance on late-night TV below.

Summer is never truly over — just ask Zara Larsson.

On the heels of her breakthrough artist win at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music Awards on Wednesday (April 29), the Swedish pop star kept the celebrations going with a special listening party for her remix album Midnight Sun: Girls Trip, on Thursday (April 30). Hosted by iHeartRadio and aired live on TikTok and radio stations around the country from the 450-seat iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles, the Girls Trip album preview gave Larsson’s biggest fans the opportunity to hear a sneak peek of the remix album hours before its release.

Larsson opened the night with an acoustic performance of her Hot 100 hit “Midnight Sun” before sitting down for a Q&A with iHeartRadio host EJ. The singer shared why she decided to expand what she called the “Midnight Sun universe.”

“I think music and culture in this day and age, it moves quickly, but I’m definitely not ready to move on from Midnight Sun, for a little while at least,” Larsson said. “And I just thought, have fun. It’ll be so fun.”

The singer also shared who inspired her to take on this venture.

“People have been doing it for a long time, but I was really inspired by [Charli xcx]. I was really inspired by [PinkPantheress],” she shared. “Even though a song is out, you can still have so many different worlds and sounds around the song. If a song is good enough, it can kind of be anything.”

Girls Trip features ten remixed versions of songs from the original Midnight Sun, with features from an incredible slate of women artists. Fans in attendance at the preview, watching live on TikTok or listening from the iHeartRadio app got to hear five of the songs in full.

Before each track, Larsson spoke about how the remix came to be, its sound and the person she tapped for the feature.

The first remix of the night was “Crush” featuring Eli. Larsson then played “Blue Moon” featuring Kehlani, an artist who she shared she was a fan of for a long time. Next up was “Hot & Sexy” with Tyla, the second of the duo’s collaborations following “She Did It Again” which came out earlier this month. “Hot & Sexy” was followed by “Pretty Ugly” with JT and Margo XS, a remix Larsson admitted she preferred over the original. Then came “Eurosummer” with Shakira, who Larsson shared she has loved since childhood.

“This is legendary status going on right here because [Girls Trip] was like a little bit the talk of the town — I mean at least in the small industry of music that I’m in,” Larsson said. “And one day I got a call, it was my A&R, and he was like, ‘Shakira heard about this project and she really likes ‘Eurosummer.” And I was like, ‘let’s go.’”

The final remix fans got to hear was a crossing of Swedish pop icons: “Puss Puss” with compatriot Robyn.

“This is my Swedish icon, legend Robyn. Who else would be on this song?” Larsson said as the track began.

In between songs, Larsson also took time to answer fan questions from the audience, viewers on TikTok and radio listeners. Many of the questions were appropriately trip-themed and the singer shared her preferred ways to take a girls trip, including being both driver and DJ.

“I think the music is quite important,” Larsson said of what makes for a perfect girls trip. “The girls trip starts when you get in the car, or on the train, or on the way to the airport.”

The Girls Trip experience ended with a celebration of Larsson’s 2015 Hot 100 track “Lush Life,” which has been gifted new life online thanks to a viral dance trend. The singer invited those fans who knew the choreography to join her on stage as they danced the evening to a close.

Midnight Sun: Girls Trip is out now. Stream it below.

The Black Keys peel back the lid on Peaches!, the Grammy Award-winning rock duo’s fresh dose of blues.

Dropping at the stroke of midnight, Peaches! (via Easy Eye Sound/Warner Records) is the Akron, OH natives’ 14^th studio album, and third in as many years.

The 10-track project emerged following frontman Dan Auerbach’s late father’s battle with esophageal cancer, which was diagnosed while he was staying at Dan’s Nashville pad. Bandmate and bestie Patrick Carney had the bright idea “that it would be good for Dan to have something to do,” something to lift his spirits while Dan’s dad’s health spiraled.

The studio beckoned, and Peaches grew. Its songs are said to reflect Dan and Patrick’s obsessive record-collecting habit, which they flaunt at their intimate Record Hang, all-vinyl parties. “I’d look for 45s specifically to play at the record hangs,” Auerbach explains, “but sometimes I’d find a song and think, ‘This might be fun for Pat and me to play live.’”

In support of the new collection, Auerbach and Carney share the official music video for album track “She Does It Right,” featuring a performance outside of Memphis’s Hernando’s Hideaway, directed by EJ McLeavey-Fisher and celebrated animator Kyle McCarthy.

The Black Keys are currently road-testing new material on their Peaches ‘N Kream World Tour ‘26, along with renditions of early favorites “Busted” and “Do The Romp,” plus classic hits “Gold On the Ceiling,” “Lonely Boy,” and “Howlin’ For You.”

The tour continues through October with stops along the way in New York, Chicago, Nashville, Paris, Milan and London, where the band has added a third headline show “due to demand,” on Sept. 2, reps say. The support acts for the ongoing tour are all signed to Dan Auerbach’s own Easy Eye Sound record label.

Peaches! is the followup to 2025’s No Rain, No Flowers, which peaked at No. 52 on the Billboard 200, their 14th appearance on the all-genres albums chart, a tally that includes a No. 1 with 2014’s Turn Blue.

Stream Peaches! below.

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

Last week, we featured Noah Kahan, Kehlani and Suki Waterhouse.

This week, Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter release “Bring Your Love,” which the pair previewed at Coachella weekend two; Kacey Musgraves releases her anticipated album Middle of Nowhere; and Sienna Spiro appears on the star-studded Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack, which is out now… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love”

After live-debuting this alluring and hypnotic dance-pop track during Sabrina’s weekend two Coachella headlining set — during which Madonna was a surprise guest, treating the audience to a bonus 10-minute set that also included “Vogue” and “Like a Prayer” — their collaboration “Bring Your Love” is finally out. The song is sure to is start summer early, as it’s essentially sonic bait to lure listeners out of the house and onto the nearest dance floor. And this is just the beginning; Madonna’s upcoming album, Confessions II, is out July 3.

Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere

Kacey Musgraves has said her new album was largely inspired by the Mexican community, which you can hear across its tracks — including the buzzy “Horses and Divorces.” The duet made headlines long before it arrived thanks to its unexpected feature from country icon Miranda Lambert. As Musgraves told NPR earlier this year: “We’d lost touch for years and wouldn’t consider each other friends. I saw her on Instagram one day, riding one of her horses, and I was like, ‘Well, we ain’t friends, but I guess we have two things in common, horses and divorces, that’s for sure…I just randomly reached out to her…We aired out any of the old laundry. We had some laughs and wrote the song in a matter of a few hours.”

Sienna Spiro, “Material Lover”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack features just a few original songs, including one from Sienna Spiro — which puts her in the company of superstars like Lady Gaga, Doechii. And while “Material Lover” (produced by Omer Fedi) is a title tailor-made for the film, the track stands entirely on its own as Spiro delivers her now signature warmth while singing about wanting the “real thing.”

Zara Larsson, Midnight Sun: Girls Trip

Zara Larsson’s collaborations album, Girls Trip, has arrived — and it delivers on that title. Released as a disc two to her 2025 album Midnight Sun, this girl-powered new edition features 10 fresh takes on the original 10 tracks. With a roster of guests including PinkPantheress, Shakira, Robyn and more, Girls Trip takes an already poptastic album to the next level.

Bella Poarch, “Ribcage”

Opening with a gorgeous string section, “Ribcage” quickly takes a turn toward alternative pop as Bella Poarch sings of watching her thoughts “turn to dust and decompose.” As Poarch said in a statement, “Ribcage” is about “the parts of yourself you try to protect and the parts that still feel everything. Writing this song helped me process a lot of emotions I didn’t fully understand before. It’s a very honest piece of me, and it felt like the right way to begin this new chapter.” The haunting track previews more new music to come.

As Lizzo promised, she is “reclaiming” the word “b–ch” on the title track to the singer’s upcoming album of the same name. Lizzo dropped the boldly titled single on Friday (May 1), giving fans the first taste of her third studio LP, which is due on June 5.

The song, which interpolates singer Meredith Brooks’ strident 1997 Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 single of the same name, is the second taste of the album, following on the heels of the smoldering love-me-or-leave-me “Don’t Make Me Love U.”

In a statement describing the inspiration for the follow-up to 2022’s Special, Lizzo said, “Reclaiming the word ‘b—h’ is power — it’s taking a label once used to diminish women and turning it into a declaration of confidence and unapologetic self-love. So many incredible women in music have used the word for positivity, like Meredith Brooks and Missy Elliott. It was only fitting to name my album Bitch because it has become my favorite word when using it on my own terms and because I am 100% that b—h!”

A preview of the song posted on Thursday (April 30) featured an intro from Katt Williams, who warns, “It’s a line, if you cross it, that’s your motherf–kin’ ass!,” a bit taken from the comedian’s 2024 Woke Foke comedy special in which he defended Lizzo against her detractors. The singer included Williams’ follow-up wisdom in the caption to the snippet, “You can be fat, you can be black, but you can’t be no fat black B—H, BITCH drops tonight yall ready?!” in the sneak peek that also included a short bit of the bouncy refrain, “She’s a b—h, She’s a b—h, OK?”

Lizzo first coined the latter phrase on her diamond-selling 2017 single “Truth Hurts,” in which she pronounced herself 100% that … one. She doubled-down on the upcoming LP’s profane title with the provocative cover art, which shows the singer’s right hand flipping the bird, with a miniature version of her subbing in for the middle finger, arms held high above her head in triumph.

The album’s Spotify preview page reveals that it is slated to feature 12 tracks, whose titles include “A Toast,” “Happy 2 Be,” “Don’t Make Me Love U,” “Bitch,” “She Stole My Man,” “Whose Hair Is This,” “Little Black Cat,” “Sexy Ladies, “That Grrrl,” “Too Nice,” “Like a Crime” and “Goodmorning!”

Check out the video for “Bitch” below.

After surprise-debuting the song during Sabrina Carpenter‘s headlining set at Coachella April 17, Madonna dropped the dance floor-ready “Bring Your Love” on Thursday (April 30). The track that unites the iconic pop stars from across generations is from Madonna’s eagerly anticipated 15th studio album, Confessions II, due out on July 3.

“Don’t comment on my ideas/ I don’t want your judgment or your expectations/ Don’t wind me up like a toy/ Your vision of me is a killer of joy,” the women sing on the first verse of the song, with Madonna taking the first two lines before Carpenter comes in and they then team up for the dreamy pre-chorus to the song featuring an incessant, “Vogue”-like beat.

“I know where the bodies are buried/ Don’t try to shut me out/ Don’t try to distract me with numbers/ I did it all for love/ Bring me Sabrina, you’ve got something to say about it?” they sing as they unite for the chorus: “Bring your love, ’cause you cannot shake me/ Bring your love, ’cause you’ll never break me/ Bring your love, ’cause you cannot take me down.”

The lead single, co-produced by Madonna and Confession II collaborator producer Stuart Price, got its world debut when Madonna did an unannounced pop-out during Carpenter’s Coachella set during the 26-year-old singer’s performance of “Juno,” at the song’s pose moment. The track then cut to Madonna’s iconic 1990 single “Vogue” before bouncing into “Bring Your Love.” The song will appear on the upcoming Confessions II, the long-awaited sequel to Madonna’s 2005 dance classic, Confessions on a Dance Floor. The pair closed out the miniset with a run through Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”

The pair hyped the single’s release earlier in the week with a joint Instagram post in which they posed cheek-to-cheek in a black-and-white picture alongside the caption, “We’ve got something to say about it ♥️.” The post earned a big thumbs-up from pioneering New York techno DJ/producer Kevin Saunderson, who wrote, “This has that timeless dance DNA a little Detroit, a little @innercitydetroit soul, all magic. Respect, Madonna.”

The Carpenter collab follows on the heels of the first full taste of Confessions II, the bubbling electro pop heat mirage “I Feel So Free.”

Listen to “Bring Your Love” below.

Rick Ross and French Montana have collided on a handful of tracks as rap titans of the 2010s, but now they’ll be foes on the Verzuz stage.

Rozay and the Bronx native are slated to clash for a Verzuz battle on May 7, according to Complex. It’s all going down at the Apple Music Studios in Los Angeles, as the match-up will stream live on Apple Music starting at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Rick Ross already touched the Verzuz stage when he faced off against 2 Chainz in August 2020, which saw Billboard‘s scorecard give the Biggest Boss a slight edge and the victory. Next month’s battle will mark French’s first time as a headliner in a Verzuz battle.

Rozay and French Montana have joined forces for plenty of hits over the years, so it will be interesting to see who takes ownership of anthems like “Stay Schemin,” “Pop That” and “Marble Floors” in the battle. They’ve also teamed up on tracks such as Rozay’s “Nobody” and “Minks in Miami,” the latter of which arrived in March.

“This will be Rick Ross easiest win ever,” former Hot 97 producer Scottie Beam declared. Tyrese, who faced off against Tank in a March Verzuz battle, is also backing Ross. “Let’s goooooo!!!!!!!!! I promise I Love French….Rick Ross got this one,” he wrote in Complex‘s comment section.

A fan on X joked that this could turn into a Drake concert with both artists boasting potent Drizzy collaborations. “This is gonna be a battle of who got the best Drake features,” they wrote.

Tune into the Rick Ross and French Montana Verzuz on May 7.

The rumors of a a rift between Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift have been greatly exaggerated. At least according to Bleachers leader Antonoff, who visited Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show on Tuesday (Apr. 28) to plug his band’s upcoming fifth studio album, Everyone For Ten Minutes, and swat away those whispers about why he wasn’t involved in the production and songwriting of Swift’s most recent album, last year’s The Life of a Showgirl.

“I only feel grateful for the work that has happened,” Antonoff said of his decade-long association with Swift, which began on her 2014 1989 album and has spanned 11 albums in total before she re-teamed with Max Martin and Shellback on Showgirl. “Maybe it’s only because I write my own songs and sing them, but I understand that need to have different collaborators and jump around.”

Antonoff, who has written and produced on albums by Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Sabrina Carpenter, The Chicks, St. Vincent and many others, said his widely varied resumé is proof that jumping around is a totally healthy thing to do. “I don’t think it’s normal to have the same collaborators over and over,” he told Stern. “And when I’ve had it with people, I think it’s a weird miracle.”

Swift had Antonoff’s back as well in her interview with The New York Times for the “30 Greatest Songwriters” issue of the weekend magazine. “Jack Antonoff is a collaborator of mine and one of my best friends,” she said, bringing up the same example Antonoff did on Tuesday in explaining their special relationship.

“We established this thing that we love to do, and we call it the ‘rant bridge’,” she told the Times. “It’s basically like stream of consciousness, endless pouring-out of emotion, intrusive thoughts, blended with metaphor, with discussion, with shouting. You want this rant bridge to feel the most intense of what that feeling is that you’re trying to establish over the course of the song, and you want it to be kind of a crescendo.”

In Antonoff’s explanation to Stern, the “rant bridge” was key to such Swift hits as “Cruel Summer,” which he explained came together thusly: “You spend a whole song — verse and chorus — you know, being super poetic and dancing around something … and then you get to this bridge, and you just crash the f–k out. At that point you’ve earned it, so it’s almost like you can be so free. It’s something that I feel like is one of our very special things … We kind of egg each other on.”

Antonoff also touched on his very Jersey upbringing, the song he considers to be the greatest recording ever made (the Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”), how his former band Fun.’s biggest hit, “We Are Young,” nearly ended up on the Kanye West/Jay-Z Watch the Throne album, as well as the song he wrote for his high school sweetheart, actress Scarlett Johansson and the love-at-first-sight meet-cute with his wife, actress Margaret Qualley.

Check out Antonoff on Stern below.