Morgan Wallen ran into some technical difficulties during the Denver stop of his Still the Problem tour on Friday night (May 29).

While seated at the piano to perform “Sand In My Boots” during the first of two shows at Empower Field at Mile High, the 33-year-old country superstar appeared frustrated after seemingly being unable to hear the instrument properly.

Wearing a Colorado Rockies Todd Helton jersey over a black shirt, matching shorts and a backward hat, Wallen abruptly stood up mid-performance and finishing the song a cappella and then went back and pushed the piano over. “Sand In My Boots” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in February 2022.

Fans seemed to embrace the candid moment, with many praising Wallen’s solo vocal performance in the comments section of an Instagram post featuring fan-captured footage of the incident.

“No piano needed..give it up!! Sound better without it!!” one person wrote. “Imagine he’s giving us this beautiful Acapella solo and all he’s thinking about is pushing that pos piano over,” another commented “This man doesn’t need any background music when he is unplugged. He is the ultimate a acappella singer,” a third commented.

As has become tradition on the tour, the “Last Night” singer opened Friday’s show with a walkout appearance alongside legendary Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway.

The concert also featured opening performances from Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock and Zach John King.

Wallen is set to return to Empower Field at Mile High for a second Denver performance on Saturday (May 30). After that, he’ll head to Pittsburgh for back-to-back shows at Acrisure Stadium on June 5-6. The singer currently has multiple U.S. stadium dates scheduled through August.

Wallen is touring in support of his latest studio album, I’m the Problem, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in May 2025. The project went on to spend 13 nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart.

President Donald Trump on Saturday (May 30) branded the federal judge who blocked his renovation of the Kennedy Center as “an anti Trump Hater” and predicted that the nation’s premier performing arts center he wanted to shutter for a two-year overhaul will “soon be closed, probably never to open again.”

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump fumed about the Friday decision from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who also ordered Trump’s name removed from the center. Clearly angered by his latest legal setback, Trump said it was “impossible for me to be treated fairly,” tying Cooper’s ruling to earlier losses, including the Supreme Court’s rejection in February of his sweeping tariffs.

His post aimed to make the case for the project but did not clarify whether he would continue to defend it in court. Hours after Cooper’s decision, Trump said he was backing away from the renovations and making arrangements to relinquish control to Congress of what, until the Republican president’s second term, had been known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The White House did not immediately clarify his position or say whether he would keep serving as the center’s board chairman.

Trump’s earlier post signaling a retreat from the center gave hope to artists who had been alienated by his takeover, said Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics lawyer who is involved in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s Kennedy Center plans.

“I have already heard from artists and from audience members alike who are excited about the Kennedy Center returning to non-partisan normality,” Eisen told The Associated Press in a text message on Saturday. “It’s early days yet but as and when the court’s order is implemented, including Trump’s name coming off the building and the Board otherwise complying with the law, I’m optimistic that the Center will begin the long journey back.”

Trump cites judge’s wife

Without offering evidence, Trump suggested that Cooper’s wife, lawyer Amy Jeffress, was to blame in part for the ruling. The president noted that Jeffress, a partner at the Hecker Fink law firm, is a former federal prosecutor who served as a counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. Cooper was nominated for the bench by Obama.

Trump also noted that Hecker Fink is representing former President Joe Biden in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts from the Democrat’s interviews with a ghostwriter that were obtained in an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator and as vice president.

Trump asserted that the Kennedy Center, named for the late Democratic president and opened in 1971, was “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested” and that the ”new Building would have been incomparable.”

Cooper said in his ruling that the center board’s March 16 vote to close the venue was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years. Cooper’s ruling halts those plans for now.

The judge also found that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said. Cooper ordered that Trump’s name be removed within two weeks.

President defends adding name to the center

Trump on Saturday said it was the board, not him, that added the Trump name to the center. “They thought it would be good for this dying Institution,” he wrote.

Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of trustees that named him chairman.

Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the project. One lawsuit was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation organizations. The other was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the board through her position in Congress. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected the other challenge.

Trump, in his post, also noted that Jeffress’ firm represented E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist whose claims against Trump won her a $5 million award in 2023 for sexual abuse and defamation after a jury agreed that Trump sexually abused her in a New York department store dressing room in 1996. Another jury in 2024 awarded Carroll an additional $83 million for defamation. Both awards are under appeal.

Jeffress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Is Taylor Swift involved in Toy Story 5? Fans are beginning to wonder after a mysterious “TS” billboard promoting the upcoming film appeared to offer some clues.

On Friday (May 29), a cryptic billboard featuring the initials “TS” were unveiled against the Disney/Pixar franchise’s iconic blue sky and white cloud backdrop. Swifties quickly took notice, with eagle-eyed fans counting 13 clouds on the display and speculating that the number could be a nod to Swift’s famously lucky number.

“13 clouds and ‘TS’? one fan wrote on X. “Swifties know that can’t be a coincidence. The theories are about to go crazy.”

Speculation intensified on Saturday (May 30) when Pixar shared an image of the billboard on social media, accompanied by an image of Toy Story character Jessie showing off some dance moves atop the outdoor display.

“She’s making those moves up as she goes!” Pixar captioned the Instagram post, a line that many fans interpreted as a lyrical reference to Swift’s 2014 hit “Shake It Off.”

“I’m dancin’ on my own (dancin’ on my own)/ I make the moves up as I go (moves up as I go),” Swift sings on the track, which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“SHAKE IT OFF REFERENCE, TAY STORY IS HAPPENING!!!” one Swiftie wrote in the comments.

“A NEW TAYLOR SWIFT SONG IN TOY STORY 5 IS ACTUALLY THE CURE TO HEAL MILLENNIALS,” another added.

“THE DISNEY SWIFTIE ADULTS ARE LIVING FOR THIS!!!” a third commented.

Adding to the intrigue, the cover art for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms appeared to have been updated at press time, with the original seagulls in the background replaced by clouds.

Billboard has reached out to Swift’s representatives for comment.

Earlier this week, Pixar announced that Bad Bunny has joined the voice cast of Toy Story 5 as a character named “Pizza with Sunglasses.”

The upcoming installment reunites several longtime franchise favorites, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Joan Cusack as Jessie. The animated movie follows the toys as they confront modern technology and compete for Bonnie’s attention against a high-tech device named Lilypad.

Toy Story 5 is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 19.

Check out Pixar’s post on Instagram below.

View this post on Instagram

Killswitch Engage have added a second Melbourne show to their 2026 Australian and New Zealand tour after the first date sold out in under two weeks — the latest sign that demand for the Massachusetts metalcore veterans is as strong as ever in a region they haven’t headlined since 2018.

The new show at the Forum falls on Monday, Nov. 9 — the night before the already-sold-out Nov. 10 date. Tickets for the added show and all remaining tour dates are available now via SBM Presents.

The run marks Killswitch Engage’s first headline tour of Australia and New Zealand since 2018 and their first visit to the region since September 2024, when they opened for Iron Maiden. British metal outfit Sylosis join as special guests across all dates — the Reading, England act made their Australian debut at Soundwave in 2013, returned for their first headline tour of the country in 2025, and arrive this time on the back of their latest album The New Flesh, released in February 2026.

The tour supports This Consequence, Killswitch Engage’s ninth studio album, released in February 2025 and their first since Atonement in 2019. Its lead single “I Believe” became the band’s first song to crack the top 10 of the U.S. Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, peaking at No. 4 and marking a commercial milestone for a group whose fanbase has remained loyal across more than two decades without ever fully crossing into mainstream radio territory.

Formed in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1999, Killswitch Engage are widely credited as one of the architects of modern metalcore — a genre that has since spawned generations of bands and remains one of the most commercially viable corners of heavy music. Their 2002 debut Alive or Just Breathing, recorded with then-vocalist Jesse Leach, is still considered a genre landmark. The End of Heartache (2004) — recorded with Howard Jones, who had replaced Leach — debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold by the RIAA. Disarm the Descent (2013) — their first album with Leach back on vocals after Jones departed in 2012 — debuted at No. 7, and Incarnate (2016) reached No. 6, their career-best Billboard 200 position to date. Across their career they have earned three Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance — in 2005, 2014 and 2019 — and accumulated billions of streams, while sharing stages with Iron Maiden, Slayer, Slipknot, Mastodon, My Chemical Romance and Parkway Drive.

The Melbourne sellout continues a strong run of momentum for the band in Australia, where metalcore has long maintained a dedicated and vocal live following. With one Forum show already gone and the second expected to move quickly, fans in other cities are advised to secure tickets soon.

Killswitch Engage — Australia & New Zealand 2026 (with Sylosis)

Oct. 31 — Auckland, NZ — Powerstation

Nov. 1 — Wellington, NZ — Meow Nui

Nov. 3 — Brisbane, AUS — Fortitude Music Hall

Nov. 6 — Sydney, AUS — Enmore Theatre

Nov. 7 — Wollongong, AUS — Waves

Nov. 9 — Melbourne, AUS — Forum (new show)

Nov. 10 — Melbourne, AUS — Forum (sold out)

Nov. 12 — Adelaide, AUS — Hindley Street Music Hall

Nov. 14 — Fremantle, AUS — Metropolis Fremantle

BABYMETAL have released “from me to u (Jordan Fish Remix),” the second preview from their forthcoming METAL FORTH (DELUXE EDITION), due June 26 via Capitol Records.

Fish — keyboardist and producer best known for his decade-long tenure with Bring Me The Horizon — delivers the latest reworking of “from me to u (feat. Poppy),” following a Major Lazer remix released last month.

The deluxe edition expands the original METAL FORTH with three live performances and both remixes, and will be available digitally and on a limited zoetrope vinyl pressing that brings ten album icons to life in motion.

The release arrives alongside news of BABYMETAL’s 2026 World Tour, spanning North America and Latin America. The North American leg launches on Aug. 30 in San Diego, where the band will open for My Chemical Romance, before headlining their own run with support from Halestorm and Violent Vira. In Latin America, the band will play their first-ever stadium show in Mexico City, supported by I Prevail and Bilmuri. Tickets are on sale now.

METAL FORTH debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 upon its release last year, marking the group’s first U.S. top 10 album and the first time in history that an all-Japanese fronted act has broken into that tier of the chart. The album moved 36,000 equivalent album units in its first week — of which 33,500 were pure album sales — amassed over 200 million global streams, debuted at No. 10 on Spotify’s Top Albums Debut U.S. chart, and landed at No. 2 on the U.S. iTunes Download Album chart.

Internationally, it reached the top 10 in Germany — a career-best, improving on No. 24 for THE OTHER ONE and No. 18 for METAL GALAXY — and broke the top 20 in the U.K., with career-high positions also recorded in the Netherlands and France.

Formed in Tokyo in 2010, BABYMETAL — fronted by SU-METAL, MOAMETAL and MOMOMETAL — built their following through explosive live shows before breaking internationally, opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn and Lady Gaga en route to becoming one of the most distinctive and widely followed acts in global metal.

Stream “from me to u (Jordan Fish Remix)” below.

Irish star CMAT has shared a statement responding to misogynistic body-shaming comments following a performance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

Writing on Instagram on Thursday (May 28) the musician, born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, said she felt “compelled to wade in and speak for myself” following the abuse posted about her weight and body following a performance at the festival in Sunderland, England on Sunday (May 24).

“It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body,” she wrote. “I would love to stop but I cannot because it keeps happening, at an accelerating and worsening pace as I become more famous.”

She added that she is “not being defiant. I am not choosing to look like this or weigh this much as some kind of punk rock act of liberty. I simply have a body, one that I would of course like to change in order to fit in and avoid all of this abuse, but I have had extreme difficulty in doing so. I don’t get a say in whether or not I want to be brave, I simply have to sit here and take it.”

In her statement, she shared screengrabs from a Substack essay from Front Row Feels which “summed up a lot of what is causing my deep sadness.” CMAT also wrote that she had deleted much of her access to social media following ongoing abuse; in 2024, the BBC closed comments on a performance clip by CMAT at the Big Weekend event in Luton following similar abuse. 

She concluded, “With all that being said, I am at the same time very very happy and grateful every day to have the job that I have. the feeling of seeing all your dreams come true after so many years of constant grinding towards them….. chefs kiss. but the success is increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that I would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if I was thin.”

A number of stars including Olivia Dean – who performed after CMAT at the event – showed support on the Instagram post. Brandi Carlile commented, “Been a while since I was in a bar fight but I’d have one over CMAT.”

“Take A Sexy Picture of Me,” a song from her third album Euro-Country touched on the subject of body image; the LP won the best album prize at last week’s Ivor Novello Awards (May 21).

When Zane Lowe speaks into the mic, his audience outnumbers the population of his homeland.

Lowe hails from New Zealand, a 5 million-strong nation with a rugby obsession and a seriously healthy music scene. Like many of his countrymen and women, this Kiwi is well travelled. Now based in Los Angeles, Lowe has served as Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor of Apple Music 1 since 2015.

Prior to joining Apple in the United States — the world’s biggest company by market cap — he called London home, with stints at BBC Radio 1, XFM and presenting “Gonzo” on MTV 2.

Apple doesn’t publicly release real-time or exact daily listener numbers for Apple Music 1. The platform does, however, boast over 112 million paid subscribers globally, and the station, is known to be one of the largest continuous radio broadcast networks in the world.

With that, Lowe is a flag bearer for NZ. In the worlds of music and broadcasting, his is the most recognizable Kiwi accent on earth, and his guests are the biggest artists in the business. None of it is a fluke. The likes of Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, RAYE and countless others have experienced Lowe’s relaxed but well-researched interview technique.

He’s the Rock Star Whisperer.

Lowe recently visited Australia, where he participated in an exclusive on-stage conversation last Sunday, May 24, with triple j Mornings host Lucy Smith at Sydney’s City Recital Hall, part of Vivid Minds’ Creative Trailblazers series. His tips for a life in music and media? “Never expect the talent to be happy to be there,” he told Smith. Also, “nerd the f*** out,” “really care,” and most importantly, “listen to the music.”

Billboard.com also caught up with the broadcaster, talent-spotter and artist, for a glimpse at a career that has taken him from the Land of the Long White Cloud to the one of the biggest gigs in music.   

Billboard: Do you remember when the door opened up for you?

Zane Lowe: Yeah, very clearly. I was at working at Max TV in Auckland, and, you know, we were doing shows and having a great time making this free-to-air music channel. It was really fun. I was beginning to wonder what else there is. Is there something else I could keep doing for a long time, you know? And I got this email from a guy called Brent Hansen. An email was so new back then. It was the strangest; the way he said it was like, “saw your tape. Love, dad?” We’re good friends now. To this day I don’t know why he finished his emails “dad,” which I thought was really endearing and really cool. But it probably was an acronym for all I f—ing know. It was just funny. And I just remember thinking, “what tape, how, who? What?” It was just so short and open-ended.  

That was the moment, the first time I felt that feeling of, like, the unknown and what was possible really grabbed me. Dude, this could be a life-changing moment if you let it and focus and nurture it.

Subconsciously, I think that’s where I was like, you can do it.

[Hansen went on to serve as president of MTV Europe.]

Who are the top Aussie and Kiwi bands lighting you up at the moment?

Ninajirachi. Australian is really exciting right now. I feel like for every single style of music or whatever you want to call it these days, there’s somebody who’s got a place in that room really effectively. Nina’s crushing in the dance space, I love what Genesis Owusu is doing. I love the whole coming out and taking a look at the wider world and taking his approach at it.

I love Way Dynamic. It’s a very uniquely tasteful Australian experience to me in the sense that the sound design is so impeccable. It’s got that Kevin Parker attention to detail, like it’s got to sound so authentic and rich and warm before you even get drawn into the songs, which are beautiful.

Kiwis wise, I love Mokomokai. I love what Manu and those boys are doing on a rap level. I really like the Beths, Vera Ellen, and that kind of Flying Nun-inspired, in some cases affiliated, sound. And Office Dog, a very cool kind of indie that feels familiar to me from when I grew up, but it feels very modern and very great. And I love, obviously, the Payments.

These bands mean a lot to me. I love that feeling of very tasteful looseness. So I’m really into that.

We’re really good at pop, man. We’re really good at really weird pop. I mean, there’s before-Lorde and after-Lorde. There’s pop music before Ella (Yelich-O’Connor), and pop music after Ella and Joel (Little). Since then, Benee and the Ratbags (have emerged).

We do pop music in a really unique way. It’s weird. We do good weird pop. I just went to Split Enz. They are our No. 1 pop band of all time, and they are the weirdest f—ing pop band of all time. You can’t tell me “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” is not one of the weirdest pop hits of all time. Or “Dirty Creatures,” it’s just so weird and spooky and odd. We tried growing up during a time when that’s all over the radio. You’re just instantly in Weirdland. You feel like you’re in another planet.

We do we do. I think we lean into our isolation in that regard in a cool way, and we use the space that we have away from the rest of the world and away from trends and whatnot. And we use that space wisely. We push into areas that are really weird. We just always have.

What is your tip to fellow Antipodeans who might want to follow in your path?

If there’s inspiration in that, then that’s beautiful. Grab that. My life is really only designed from the vapors of inspiration that I’ve been lucky enough to inhale? I just hyperfocus on what moves you on what is like the No. 1 thing. There’s been on my mind a lot recently. Philosophy reasons, generational reasons, my mom, and also our kids, a lot of swirling change and the order of things, right? And it’s made me really think about, like, at this point in my life, where did it start and how am I here? And in a really nice way.

And I boiled it down to something that’s like a pin prick, the smallest little dot of something that is yours. It moves you, it speaks to you more than anything else. That is the closest thing to the beginning of purpose that you can think of. And the only thing I know that works in life, and this just is, for me, to create as much space and grace to expand on that as you can, to make that dot as big as you can. That’s it.

And how does that speak to your work ethic? Do you feel that you’re a workaholic?

Yeah, well, I was a workaholic. I’m not a workaholic anymore. I try to work smart, smarter, than harder, but I work hard, you know.

But if you enjoy it and you’re not wasting time by only working hard, then it doesn’t feel like hard work.

If I’m tired or I’m over-travelling or I’ve got too many things going on in my brain, I recognize it’s a byproduct of loving what I do, not a byproduct of doing something I don’t want to do, or wasting time.

I’m also really conscious of time because, again, I’m in that really interesting transition of the changing of the guard. With my parents getting older and now in the final phases of their life, and watching our kids kind of starting to really go on their journey in earnest. Realizing the importance of acknowledging and appreciating time in a different way. And I don’t really want to be beholden to it anymore the way I used to be. But also I don’t pretend to try to control it either. So I just I’m trying to make the most of it.

You’ve made some cracking records with Breaks Co-Op and Urban Disturbance. Is there any more of that to come?

Yeah. I’ve actually made an album, man. We’ll announce it soon, my first album in 10 years. It’s not a Breaks record. It’s a me record. I won’t go into describing it too much because, in this particular case, even though I do that for a living, I think I’d better let the music speak for itself. But I’m really proud of it. I will say this just to offset any assertions that maybe I’ve decided to create kind of, you know, a big collaborative montage of relationships in music.

It’s just me. There are no guests and no one else on it at this point, on this particular album. And I’m really excited to share it. And it definitely is the best thing I’ve ever been a part of, so I’m really proud of.

I get energized creating. So, for me, I actually find that if I’ve got a few hours at the end of the night, or into the night, or in the weekend or whatever, to be able to create some music or create some space to create, that is doing the opposite of expelling energy. It’s like when you’re driving an electric car and you pump the brakes and it adds more to the battery. That is what making music is for me. It’s actually adding battery life. It may take time, but it puts all the right energy in the bank for me when I’m making music. It’s a very happy place.

Vivid Minds’ Creative Trailblazers is part of the broader Vivid Sydney festival, which runs through June 13, and is owned, managed and produced by the New South Wales government, Destination NSW and Feel New Sydney.

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 Gracie Abrams, Drake and Maluma.

This week: Ariana Grande releases the lead single from her anticipated upcoming album petal; aespa drops LEMONADE – The 2nd Album; and Labrinth delivers a cosmically-timed new project… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Ariana Grande, “hate that i made you love me”

Ariana loves a good bit — and she does them well. For longtime fans, her ongoing “maybe I will, maybe I won’t” approach to making more music has kept us on our toes; but thankfully, it never lasts too long, and petal is the latest proof. Despite Grande previously describing the album as “a little feral” in a video she shared on Instagram, lead single “hate that i made you love me” doesn’t sound that way at all. With plinking production that evokes a video game bubbling under water, the savagery is in the songwriting. “I’ve held your projections when you’ve felt so insecure/ Tell me why is it this way/ Why you so hate to see women endure/ Is it really my fault?” questions Ari, showing off her range with quiet confidence. And sure, one could argue “made you love me” is about a romantic partner — but dig deeper and it becomes about anyone who has ever loved (or hated) Ari enough to a point of detriment. And too often, it’s hers.

aespa, LEMONADE – The 2nd Album

Just one month ago, K-pop four piece aespa announced its second studio album, LEMONADE — the group’s first full-length in two years — that arrives today. With features such as G-DRAGON, Ty Dolla $ign and Becky G (who guests on the hyperpop title track), LEMONADE takes aespa to the next level — and right on time. As aespa prepares for its world tour, which extends through 2027, its clear that their high-powered production isn’t the only thing moving full steam ahead.

Jungle, “The Wave”

Like clockwork, at the first whiff of warm summer air and first sight of a delayed sunset, Jungle are right back at it. With a new album fittingly titled SUNSHINE on its way (out Aug. 14), the alternative dance act has shared the first taste with “The Wave.” The groovy, feel-good track delivers on all of Jungle’s best qualities, and sets the bar for more — and much-needed — good vibes ahead.

Labrinth, “THE LIVING”

As Euphoria’s current third season nears its finale on Sunday (May 31) — a season that has notably aired without composer Labrinth’s music after he pulled it from the series citing alleged mistreatment — the artist is filling that void with the release his Cosmic Opera Act II. Standout track “THE LIVING” opens with a bluesy guitar riff that become the song’s backbone as Labrinth tinkers around across intricate layers of sound, as he does. The result is a captivating, full-bodied track that, to no one’s surprise, would sound right at home soundtracking a show or film.

Violet Grohl, Be Sweet To Me

Sure, the last name may be familiar but the sound is entirely her own. With Violet Grohl’s debut album, the budding rocker makes a name for herself as a skilled vocalist, songwriter and producer. And the result is a knockout album that doesn’t let up across its 11 endearing tracks. On Be Sweet To Me Violet not only shows off what she’s capable of, but quickly cements her status as a torchbearer for rock’s current class.

Ariana Grande’s Petal era has officially commenced.

On Friday (May 29), the Grammy-winning superstar released “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” the lead single from her forthcoming eighth studio album, Petal.

“I know that I will find my way from you like flowers from a tomb,” the vocal powerhouse croons on her new single, which was co-produced by Max Martin, ILYA and Grande herself. Listed as the second track on Petal, “Hate That I Made You Love Me” also marks Grande’s first non-soundtrack single since 2025’s “Twilight Zone.”

Grande first announced Petal via her official Instagram page on April 28, later describing the 12-track set as “little feral.” “It’s definitely from a place I’ve been maybe too shy or polite to tap into before,” she said in a video clip. “This kind of just feels like, ‘F–k it.’” Petal is set to arrive on July 31 through Grande’s BabyDoll Music imprint label, exclusively licensed to Republic Records. The new album drops in the middle of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, which kicks off on June 8 in Oakland, Calif., and wraps with 10 shows at London’s O2 Arena in September.

On Wednesday (May 27), Grande shared a creepy new teaser for the official music video for “Hate That I Made You Love Me.” The clip opened with Weapons actor Justin Long peering into the rearview mirror, slightly adjusting it to reveal Grande’s piercing brown eyes staring back at his frightened face. The full video is set to premiere on Monday, June 1 at 8 a.m. PT.

Petal is the official follow-up to Grande’s last LP, Eternal Sunshine, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 in 2024 and spawned a pair of Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers in “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends.” Notably, the album returned to the top of the Billboard 200 the following year after the release of its Brighter Days Ahead deluxe edition, which spawned the Hot 100 top 20 hit “Twilight Zone” (No. 18).

Since that album’s release, Grande joined fellow Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo in leading the Wicked and Wicked: For Good soundtracks, which both reached No. 2 on the Hot 100. At this year’s Grammys (Feb. 1), the two multihyphenates won best pop duo/group performance for their instant-classic rendition of “Defying Gravity.” Grande will return to the silver screen this fall with Focker-in-Law, alongside Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller.

Stream “Hate That I Made You Love Me” now.

Finally, Boards of Canada are back.

With the album Inferno, which arrived in full at the stroke of midnight via Warp Records, the Scottish electronic duo brings to an end a 13-year drought. Only the most optimistic of fans had new BoC music marked on their calendars for 2026, and yet here we are. Inferno arrives as Europe swelters through a heatwave, as the world burns.

As previously reported here, the 18-track double set plays to 70 minutes, and leads with the previously-released cuts “Introit” and “Prophecy At 1420 MHz.”

Inferno just might be Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin’s most experimental work since 2002’s Geogaddi, With multiple listens, and only when the raw excitement and thrill of a new BoC album is reset to simmer, the collection very much sounds like the work of Boards of Canada. It’s expansive, at times joyful, and exotic, at others post-apocalyptic. If you’ve looking for a disco-house mix, walk on.

Standouts include “You Retreat In Time And Space,” which captures the ambience of an ancient British cathedral; “Arena Americanada,” a familiar, inquisitive number; and the inviting “Age of Capricorn,” whose mysterious and marvelous sampled voice will have fans clambering down the rabbit hole.

On “Father And Son,” BoC explores the cult in what is perhaps their most dialogue-driven work, a back-and-forth of samples, sewn into a quilt of electronica.

Inferno is the followup to 2013’s Tomorrow’s Harvest, a collection that peaked at No. 7 in the United Kingdom, for their first top 10 entry, and at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, their first appearance on the all-genres U.S. albums chart.

A comeback of sorts came in 2019 with “XYZ,” a previously-unreleased tune from their Peel Session of July 1998, which appeared on a new Warp Records 30th anniversary package, WXAXRXP Sessions.

Boards of Canada’s Sandison and Eoin are siblings, a universe-building pair that is both enigmatic, secretive and adored by connoisseurs of minimal electronic music. They rarely perform, almost never speak with the press. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

Inferno will be available on special edition limited red translucent 2xLP vinyl in triple-gatefold sleeve with a 16-page booklet, along with standard black 2xLP vinyl, as well as CD and digital formats. Visit boardsofcanada.com and Warp.net for more.

Stream Inferno below.