Giving credence to the saying “it’s not me, it’s you,” Taylor Momsen is beginning to think that touring with AC/DC might be a hazard to her health. The Pretty Reckless singer posted a video on Wednesday (April 8) in which she received medical treatment from a doctor in Mexico after she was bitten by a venomous spider.
“When do my superpowers kick in? That’s what I want to know,” a nonplussed Momsen says with a smile as a doctor cleans a nasty-looking bite mark on her lower right leg while another member of the medical team gives her a shot in her left arm in what looks like a green room backstage.
The brief video ends with a snippet of the old “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can” cartoon theme song.
You see, this is becoming a habit for Momsen, who revealed in the caption that this isn’t her first bite on a tour with the Australian hard rock legends. “🕷️🕷️🕷️ So it wouldn’t be an AC/DC tour if I didn’t get bit,” wrote Momsen. “This time a massive spider decided to take a chunk out of me and its venom did a number on my system so had to have the wonderful doctors in Mexico come and deliver quite the shot before the show last night…add it to the list!”
The last time Momsen toured with AC/DC in 2024, she was bitten by a bat while on the road in Spain during a performance of, no joke, “Witches Burn” from her band’s 2021 Death By Rock and Roll album. In a clip from the time, a bat landed on the singer’s thigh and she didn’t notice it at first. But after spotting some fans pointing at her she looked down and said, “There’s a f–king flying bat on my leg right now … I must really be a witch!”
A crewmember helped her remove the flying menace, but not before it sank into her leg, which sent her to a Spanish hospital, where she had to get treatment and two weeks of follow-up rabies shots. “Thanks to all the staff at the hospital who dubbed me #batgirl after seeing it on the local news that morning…more footage to come…that’s one for the books!!!!,” she wrote at the time.
She was equally chill about her latest unexpected venom incident, doubling-down on her joke from 2024, writing, “Spider woman? Batgirl? 🕷️🕷️🕷️🦇🦇🦇 WTF 😬”
Momsen has a couple days to rest before hitting the stage to warm-up for AC/DC at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City on Saturday (April 11) and then again April 15. The band will then take some well-deserved time off before moving on to a European swing beginning with a June 5 show at the Rock Im Park festival in Nuremberg, Germany and then teaming back up with AC/DC in Charlotte, N.C. on July 11 for a North American summer stadium run in-between their own club shows.
Check out Momsen’s spider scene below.
Marc Jacobs is asking Sabrina Carpenter the right kinds of questions.
While conducting an interview with the singer for the April 7 issue of Perfect, the fashion mogul asked Carpenter how she would describe the importance of having a queer audience as a pop star in today’s day and age.
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“I don’t think pop music would exist if it wasn’t for the queer community,” Carpenter begins her thoughtful response. “I don’t think some of our greatest pop stars would exist if it wasn’t for the queer community.”
Carpenter goes on to shout out the LGBTQ+ people in her life: “I feel so deeply connected. I mean, some of my greatest friends and collaborators and artists that I know are a part of the queer community or are just so celebratory of it.”
The Coachella headliner then speaks on how having the community with her has affected her work, saying that she doesn’t think going on tour would be as fun without them.
“I feel so connected and grateful to be able to have them be a part of my journey, to be a part of the world,” Carpenter concludes. Jacobs, an out gay man, agrees with Carpenter’s stance, saying, “Life is much more [colorful] and fun with [the queer community],” and, “It’s important sometimes to say it. Especially now.”
Carpenter has long been incredibly vocal in her support of the LGBTQ+ community. In partnership with non-profit PLUS1, the singer raised over $1 million for mental health initiatives, LGBTQ+ rights and animal welfare last year. In doing so, The Sabrina Carpenter Fund became the nonprofit’s fastest-growing artist fund to date.
Carpenter has also platformed LGBTQ+ artists in her work. Last August she enlisted openly queer Academy Award-winning actor Colman Domingo for her “Tears” music video. The video was inspired by the queer cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show and featured Domingo playing Carpenter’s drag mother. When she debuted the track onstage at the VMAs the following month, Carpenter performed alongside drag artists and trans dancers who held up signs that read, “Protect Trans Rights,” “Support Local Drag” and “Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!”
Carpenter is set to headline Coachella on Friday (April 8). While we don’t know what surprises she might have planned for “her most ambitious show ever,” perhaps she’ll invite some drag artists from her past performances to the stage with her again.
Record Store Day 2026 will honor a longtime record store enthusiast this year with its coveted Record Store Legend award. The 77-year-old recipient, born in West Bromwich, England, has been frequenting record stores his whole life, most recently visiting brick-and-mortar locales in West Virginia; Kansas City, Missouri; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Austin, Texas. The vinyl-loving Englishman has even made a few albums himself over the years, releases you might find at a record store near you if you flip to the sections marked “Led Zeppelin,” “Robert Plant” or even his old covers band, “The Honeydrippers.”
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Yes, Robert Plant—an eight-time Grammy winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and a Kennedy Center Award recipient—was announced as the 2026 Record Store Legend on Wednesday (April 8).
“Record stores have always been a part of my life. For me, once you get to the physical record it’s because you really want to know and be a part of what the artist was considering,” Plant said in a statement. “And I know, as a guy who’s been making records since 1966, people want to take home something very special, to enjoy all the elements of what an artist has put together. We want a connection between the music and the art of the whole thing.”
In advance of the 2026 Record Store Day festivities on April 18, Plant visited the delightful Spillers Records—which Billboard profiled in 2023 as the world’s oldest record store—in Cardiff, Wales, where he now boasts a permanent Record Store Legend plaque.
“The universe already recognizes Robert Plant as a legend, as proven by the legacy of his decades of recording and performing,” Spillers Records’ Ashli Todd said in a statement. “But record shops of the world will know firsthand that above all, Robert Plant is a connoisseur of his craft whose appetite for musical discoveries has not waned with the passage of time. We could wax lyrical all day about what a passionate record shop supporter Robert Plant is, so suffice to say, it is our honor to be the chosen custodians of his Record Store Legend plaque.”
Record Store Day reliably has a celebrity ambassador each year—2026’s is Bruno Mars—but doles out the Record Store Legend award sparingly. Only Elton John and Johnny Marr have received it before.
You can watch a video of Plant’s visit to the legendary record store below and see what exclusives RSD 2026 has to offer on the organization’s website.
Madonna is unfortunately no stranger to ageist comments, having received them for years. However, today she has a new superstar defending her.
In a video posted to TikTok on Wednesday (April 8), Doja Cat spoke up for Madonna against people who say that the pop legend is “too old” to be onstage. In the nearly two-minute-long, selfie-style clip, Doja expresses being “tickled and bothered” by commenters who tell Madonna “to stop” in response to TikToks of the singer performing.
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“It’s interesting to me because, it’s like, you’re telling a musician who makes music, who performs it as a job, to stop doing it?” the rapper says. “I’m trying to wrap my head around that.”
Doja then begins to question if these hate comments against Madonna are because the “Vogue” singer is “an older woman who feels sexy.”
“Is that why you want her to get off stage? Because you feel threatened by an older woman who can do her job forever?” Doja asks before saying that Madonna has something she loves doing that other people are paying to see and also enjoy with the singer. Doja then mocks the haters saying that maybe they don’t like Madonna performing because they have “something personal happening in there” and that “nobody else knows it and only you do.”
“Is that why you’re upset? Aww,” she jests before breaking out into laughter. “I’m sorry, it’s not funny.”
Doja then begins wiping away fake tears while commenting that “it is sad” and saying she’ll cry alongside them.
“I’m so sorry,” she faux cries out, ending the video.
Most recently, Madonna hit the stage for an intimate performance at a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Milan last month. Previously, the legend concluded her record-breaking Celebration Tour where she performed at sold-out venues and arenas across Europe and the Americas before concluding with a free show on Rio De Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for over 1.6 million attendees.
Doja’s most recent performance was at the Global Citizen Move Afrika festival in South Africa in March, after months of touring in support of her Billboard 200 No. 4 album Vie. Tour Ma Vie resumes on May 19 in Dublin, then making its way across Europe before coming to the U.S. and concluding on December 1 at Madison Square Garden.
Watch Doja Cat’s full Madonna defense below.
They were born to express themselves. And over the course of a yearslong feud with one another, Lady Gaga and Madonna did exactly that.
In 2011, a disagreement between two of pop’s biggest stars began when Gaga released her LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way.” Madonna fans were quick to point out the track’s melodic and lyrical similarities to Madonna’s 1989 classic “Express Yourself.” It didn’t take long for Madge herself to join in on the conversation, with the Queen of Pop going on public record the next year and calling “Born This Way” “reductive.”
And thus, years of public rivalry between the two was ignited.
But everything is not what it seems — not even clear and publicly made digs lobbed at one another. In the years following the OG disagreement, Lady Gaga and Madonna have gone on to both throw a few verbal punches at one another and extend olive branches to their rival. Like most petty disagreements —especially ones clearly stoked by the drama-driven celebrity gossip machine — the feud between the two artists eventually calmed down. Seven years after it began, the drama was officially declared dead when the stars posed for a pic together at Madonna’s exclusive Oscars afterparty in 2018.
Now, 15 years after the initial dispute, Lady Gaga and Madonna are rumored to be collaborating on a new song for the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack. While we don’t know the truth yet, we do know that Gaga (with Doechii) is featured on the soundtrack with the original song “Runway” and Madonna’s 1990 smash “Vogue” appeared in the original movie and has soundtracked much of the sequel’s pre-release promo.
As we impatiently await to see if a collaboration is real or just another rumor added to all the gossip surrounding these two pop legends, Billboard is taking a looking back at the timeline of Lady Gaga and Madonna’s relationship.
Looks like Journey almost went their separate ways two years ago.
In a new statement posted to Facebook on Monday, Journey co-founder and lead guitarist Neal Schon seemingly replied to frontman Arnel Pineda‘s claims that he was prohibited from quitting the band twice.
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“There’s been some recent press and speculation that doesn’t reflect the full picture,” Schon writes.
Though he does not specify what recent press he’s referring to, his statement comes days after a March 31 Rolling Stone feature on his band that quotes Pineda sharing that he almost didn’t join Journey on their current farewell tour. Pineda claims that in 2024, he asked his bandmates to confer with him if they decide to do farewell shows and discuss the schedule with him. He cites age and “personal problems” as major factors in his decision to tour or not. He then alleges that the band went ahead and scheduled the 60-date tour without consulting him.
“It is what it is now…. But then, I was really not happy with how they scheduled this tour,” Pineda says in the article. He then claims that he sent an unhappy email to his bandmates to which they didn’t reply. In response to the silence, Pineda says he told the other Journey members not once but twice that he wanted to leave the group and retire. Again, they did not respond, Pineda alleges.
The article then shares that both Schon and Pineda recognized that quitting the band is not as simple as it seems. They both say that their contract with live entertainment giant AEG prohibits the band from touring without Pineda. It’s a sentiment that is also echoed in Schon’s Facebook statement.
“Touring at this level involves many moving parts, and decisions are made collectively with our team, including management, agents, and promoters,” Schon writes before acknowledging that with any band that’s been around for a long time, different members may feel different pressures in different ways. He then says that he personally did not prohibit anyone from leaving the band. “For clarity, no one was ever prevented by me from making their own personal decisions.”
Schon continues by citing the same AEG contract that was brought up in the Rolling Stone feature: “At the same time, we were all advised by our representatives that there are contractual obligations tied to touring that need to be honored.”
The guitarist concludes by saying his focus is on providing fans with “the best possible experience and keeping the music alive.”
Journey’s Final Frontier Tour is set to continue into August with dates across the U.S. and a stop in Vancouver.
Cardi B doesn’t play when it comes to her money, and she noticed a couple of suspicious charges on her American Express card, which led her to reveal she was the victim of credit card fraud.
Even though she’s in the midst of the madness of life on tour, Cardi is still keeping tabs on her expenses. The Bronx native hopped on Instagram Live on Monday (April 6) to detail how she found out that four people had her credit card and went on a little shopping spree for $60,000 at Saks and Apple within an hour.
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“I got clear pictures. As soon as I saw that notification, I was like, ‘Saks $40,000, what the f—?’ Then, when I saw that Apple sh–, because like who the f— is spending $20,000 at Apple? If I get your address before the people doing this investigation, because they got pictures of y’all, I’mma get y’all beat the f— up,” she said. “Word to my mother, I’m gonna get my n—as to spank the sh– outta y’all.”
Cardi continued: “Y’all went to Chase, y’all went to Saks, y’all went to Apple. B—h, y’all going to jail… I got clear pictures of motherf—–s trying to get money out of a Chase… Y’all tried it. I got clear pictures of y’all in Saks and I got clear pictures of y’all in Apple. One thing about me, I don’t play about my f—–g money.”
It’s still unclear how they obtained her AMEX card numbers. The Grammy-winning rapper then described the looks of the alleged thieves that she claims to have photo evidence of. “One of you is bald-headed, with a very thick beard,” she asserted, before again promising that the culprits will be going to jail.
Cardi is in the home stretch of her Little Miss Drama Tour, which will be making stops this week in Philly, Washington, D.C., Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Not every hitmaker stays in one lane. Pharrell Williams has taken on several across the Billboard Hot 100.
Across decades, he has crafted hits as a writer, producer and performer, starting as one-half of The Neptunes and later as a solo star. At a time when producers rarely received the spotlight, Pharrell’s signature often came not through a vocal tag, but through a now-familiar four-count intro, producing songs you can instantly recognize, including “Milkshake” by Kelis and “Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious)” from the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
His first Hot 100 No. 1 came as a co-writer and producer on “Hot in Herre” by Nelly in 2002, marking an early breakthrough for The Neptunes’ minimalist, rhythm-forward sound. He soon stepped further into the spotlight as a performer, joining Snoop Dogg on “Drop It Like It’s Hot” in 2004, which topped the charts with Pharrell as a featured artist. By the 2010s, Williams was credited as a performer, writer and producer on “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I., which reigned atop the Hot 100 for 12 weeks in 2013. The song’s success helped usher in his biggest solo moment: “Happy,” originally featured in Despicable Me 2, became a 10-week No. 1 in 2014 and cemented Pharrell as a chart-topping artist in his own right.
Beyond his recordings, Williams has gone on to push himself creatively in other ways — from starring in the 2024 animated LEGO documentary Piece by Piece, which explores his beginning and career, to even being appointed men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton.
In honor of the man who can do it all, here’s a look at every Hot 100 No. 1 hit he’s helped create.
Summer is almost here and, from the looks of it, Ariana Grande can’t wait. The singer and Oscar-nominated Wicked: For Good star posted a series of pics on Monday (Apr. 6) from rehearsals for her upcoming Eternal Sunshine tour with her dancers.
In the first pic, Grande flashes a bright smile as she sits on the floor flanked by her dance team, her legs crossed in front of her, feet clad in ballet flats with a caption reading, “See you in two months @brighterrdays.” Subsequent pics show the crew in a dance studio chilling out, including a sideways close-up of Grande’s face bathed in red and a group shot of the singer surrounded by 10 of her crew as they all flash smiles and lean in.
The final two snaps are close-ups of all their feet pushed into a tight circle.
Grande announced the tour in support of her 2025 Eternal Sunshine album last August, revealing the dates for her first run of show since 2019’s Sweetener world tour. “I think my fans know that music and being on stage will always be a part of my life,” she told Variety in 2024 when asked whether she planned to tour Eternal Sunshine in between her work on the Wicked films. “I think the next few years, hopefully we’ll be exploring different forms of art, and I think acting is feeling like home right now.”
The 41-show run is slated to kick off with the first of three shows at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif. on June 6 and include stops in Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Boston, Montreal and Chicago before a hop over to London for a 10-night run at the O2 Arena in London from Aug. 15-Sept. 1.
Global Citizen is taking its music events even more, well, global. On Monday (April 6), Billboard can exclusively reveal the performers at Global Citizen’s first-ever music event in Japan — Global Citizen Live: Tokyo.
Nine-piece Japanese boy band &TEAM will headline the big day. &TEAM is the first Japanese group to sign with the Korean record label HYBE. The band first debuted in late 2022 with First Howling: Me and in the years since has gone on to top the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, be included in a Grammy Museum exhibit on HYBE and win an MTV Video Music Award in Japan.
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Also hitting the stage are Ai and Yuki Chiba. Ai is a Japanese-American singer, songwriter and rapper and was the first woman to be signed to Def Jam Japan. Ai has had collaborations with artists like Snoop Dogg, The Jacksons and Chaka Khan and now serves as a Global Citizen Cultural Champion. Yuki Chiba was the first-ever Japanese artist to perform at the MTV VMAs. Chiba is a singer, rapper and producer who has collaborated with artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Feid and Big Sean. Radio personality Chris Peppler will join the performers as the host of Global Citizen Live: Tokyo and more acts will be announced in the coming weeks.
Since its founding in 2008, Global Citizen has deployed nearly $50 billion in movements worldwide. The platform’s mission has been amplified by campaigns and events in the entertainment industry, including its regular live music events. Over the years, Global Citizen’s concerts have brought some of the biggest names in music to the stage, including Beyoncé, BTS, Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more.
Global Citizen Live: Tokyo will take place June 18 at the Tokyo International Forum. Leading up to the event, fans can earn points towards rewards like free tickets by downloading the Global Citizen app and taking action on some of the issues the platform advocates for such as global health and climate change. Tickets are available for purchase now from eplus and LAWSON TICKET. Funds from tickets from Global Citizen Live: Tokyo will go towards the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative to provide at least 100,000 children worldwide with better education access before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.