Madonna and Peggy Gou have just released the first official remix of Madonna’s Confessions II era, with the pop icon and the South Korean superstar DJ teaming up for a bouncy edit of the album’s lead single, “I Feel So Free.”

The edit has an ’80s throwback vibe. Think Stock Aitken Waterman and their production of Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round,” complete with addictive beats, thunderclaps and a synth bassline. Stream it below.

Confessions II is Madonna’s 15th studio album and a follow-up of her 2005 classic Confessions On a Dancefloor, which won the 2007 Grammy for best dance/electronic album. Stuart Price, the producer of this first album, is back working with Madonna for the reprise.

The original version of “I Feel So Free,” which was released on April 17, appears to be the opening track of Confessions II, as the remix comes just after the May 14 announcement of the Confessions II tracklist. This news was revealed in a guerrilla marketing campaign that saw posters posters go up in several major cities around the world. The track list from these posters appears as such:

Side 1
I Feel So Free
Good for the Soul
One Step Away
Bring Your Love
Danceteria
Read My Lips

Side 2
Everything
Love Without Words
Bizarre
School
Fragile
My Sins Are My Savior

U2’s visit to Mexico City this week continued to bring surprises on Thursday (May 14), when the legendary Irish band appeared alongside Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum at an event for the General Assembly of the Street Child World Cup in the Mexican capital.

The president took the stage at the Hidalgo Theater of the Mexican Social Security Institute to greet young participants of the international competition, which is focused on social inclusion and children’s rights. She was accompanied by lead singer Bono and guitarist The Edge, reveal videos shared on social media by Mexico City’s secretary of tourism, Alejandra Frausto.

Onstage at the venue, the head of state and the two members of the band greeted the audience before stepping down to take their seats. “My president,” Bono said to Sheinbaum, followed by a hug. The gesture drew an ovation from the attendees.

Later, Sheinbaum shared a video on her own social media accounts showing more details of her encounter with the musicians. “Hello, nice to meet you,” she told the pair in English.

“Nice to meet you, such a fan of yours”, The Edge responded. And Bono added: “My goodness, universal healthcare, you have raised the minimum wage, you come to the Street Child World Cup, you meet The Edge and myself. I don’t know how you have time.”

Mexico City hosted the 2026 Street Child World Cup this week, with 30 teams from around the world gathering for this year’s tournament, held May 6-14. “It’s a little NGO with a big kick for kids with all of the talent and none of the access,” drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said in a statement on U2’s website. “Our band are proud supporters.”

The Rock Hall-inducted outfit — also featuring bass guitarist Adam Clayton — returned to Mexico after a nine-year absence to film the music video for their song “Street of Dreams,” included in their upcoming studio album expected to be released at the end of 2026. Their highly anticipated return has already resulted in a formal invitation from the head of government of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, for the group to perform at the iconic Zócalo, the country’s main public square.

Mexico holds a special place in the hearts of U2’s members. The band has delivered some of its most memorable concerts in the Latin American country, including the performance documented in the Popmart: Live From Mexico City video, recorded in 1997 during their Popmart Tour. The last time the band performed in the capital city was in October 2017, three weeks after the powerful earthquake that struck central Mexico, as part of the 30th anniversary of their iconic album The Joshua Tree.

Bundle up, Drake season has returned. Not one, not two, but three albums arrived on Friday (May 15) courtesy of the 6 God.

In addition to Iceman, Drake is dropping Habibti and Maid of Honour alongside the heavily anticipated LP. The trio of projects comes on the heels of Drake’s Iceman episode four livestream, which went down on Thursday night (May 14).

Iceman boasts 18 tracks and features 21 Savage, Molly Santana and a reunion with Drake’s What a Time to Be Alive collaborator Future. Maid of Honour contains 14 songs and collaborations with Stunna Sandy, Central Cee, Sexyy Red, Iconic Savvy and Popcaan. While Habibti has 11 new songs and lifts from Sexyy Red once again, Loe Shimmy and Partynextdoor.

Drake’s ninth, 10th and 11th studio albums serve as his first since clashing with Kendrick Lamar in 2024 and 2023’s For all the Dogs, which went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 402,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate.

Drizzy has been teasing Iceman since 2025 and he’s been on another level with the marketing and rollout for the project compared to previous releases.

Most notably, Drake put up a massive ice block structure in downtown Toronto, which ended up being taken down days later by Toronto’s fire department for being a public hazard.

Before the structure was melted, a streamer named Kishka ended up finding an Iceman folder inside the installation, which revealed the album’s May 15 release date. Drake’s team hooked him up with a $50,000 payday for the discovery. He also turned his courtside seats at multiple Toronto Raptors games into frozen icicles.

As far as his previously released singles, tracks like “Dog House” didn’t make the cut for the albums, while “What Did I Miss” landed on Iceman and “Which One” earned a spot on Maid of Honour.

If Iceman or any of the other pair of albums top the Billboard 200, that will give Drake a record 15 No. 1s, which would break a tie with Jay-Z when it comes to rappers. Drizzy has the opportunity to occupy the top three of the Billboard 200 next week, which has only been done in the past by Michael Jackson. However, he’d be the first to hold the top three slots with debuts simultaneously.

Stream Iceman, Habibti and Maid of Honour below.

She might be outta love, but Anastacia is full of laughs.

The U.S. singer and songwriter with the huge voice makes an hilarious cameo in the new Australian comedy series Urzila, helmed by South Africa-born, New Zealand-based comedian and actress Urzila Carlson.  

In the new clip, Anastacia puts a squad of backing dancers through their paces ahead of her next single release, a “dancehall banger.” The class has one objective — the pop star needs to feel the heat.

Anastacia, herself a former professional dancer, overlooks the clear favorite Davis, despite his array of sweaty, flashy moves. Instead, she’s transfixed by Urzila’s offbeat choreography. It’s not so much that Urzila isn’t busting a move, no, she’s dancing to the beat of her unorthodox drum.  

Despite Davis’ protestations — he insists she’s from a “lesbian outreach program” — Anastacia loves what she’s seen. “Maybe I do agree, she wasn’t dancing very good. But I think she was dancing great,” says Anastacia, channeling Simon Cowell.

Urzila gets the nod, and she leads the chorography for that banger, ripping out a combination of finger guns, eyebrow lifts, keys searches, and “drunk aunty at a wedding” vibes.

Anastacia recently teased the sketch on her socials. “Such a joy being part of this!,” she wrote. “Thank you so much, Urzila Carlson, for having me – I had an absolute blast filming this skit with you. I’m beyond excited for you all to see it! As Urzila says: You’re gonna laugh your head off.”

Emerging in the early 2000s, Anastacia enjoyed superstar status in the U.K. and Europe with such hits as “I’m Outta Love,” “Left Outside Alone” and “Sick and Tired.” She has landed 12 songs in the top 40 of the Official U.K. Singles Chart, including three top 10s. Also, six of her albums crashed the U.K. top 10, including a No. 1 with her self-titled 2004 collection.

Urzila airs Wednesday evenings on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and on-demand at ABC iView. Watch Anastacia’s sketch here and below.

Duran Duran has standards, and they’re not slipping anytime soon.

The British new wave legends were, for the first half of the 1980s, the most popular band on earth, with the noisiest fans, and hits. One after the next. The awards came, including two Grammys, two Ivor Novellos, the Brit Awards’ Lifetime Achievement, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2022, their career was saluted with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

One item the band hasn’t ticked off is a session at Glastonbury Festival, the grandaddy of the U.K.’s camping festival circuit. Speaking with The Times of London, frontman Simon Le Bon is keen to change all that… but with one important condition. “We want the right slot,” he tells the broadsheet. “We shouldn’t be below anybody on the bill.”

The English singer, who was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King Charles in 2024, a nod to his services to music and charity, clarified his position: “so, we’ll hold out because we’re a headline act — that’s all there is to it.”

The band has been asked in the past, but it wasn’t an opportunity the artists leapt at. “Well, we want to,” he assures, “but not in a disco tent at 3pm, which is what we were offered.”

Bandmates Nick Rhodes and John Taylor contribute to The Times’ feature story, in which they recount fame, talk drugs, and discuss the wonders — and horror — of technology. “Anyone who thinks AI will go away is certifiably insane,” says Rhodes, the band’s founding keyboardist.

The next chance for Duranies to see their heroes at Glastonbury would be in 2027. The event is taking a fallow year in 2026, in order to give the site, the Eavis’ dairy farm a year off, a pause that rolls around once every five years.

Duran Duran will get some outdoor action this summer, when the band headlines BST Hyde Park on July 5. It’s the setting of their triumphant concert in 2022, which gathered an estimated 70,000 fans.

Just last month, the band dropped “Free to Love,” a neo-disco collaboration with longtime producer and friend Nile Rodgers, and their first new music since their 16^th and latest album, Danse Macabre, which opened and peaked at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Chart in 2023. Duran Duran recently competed a residency in Las Vegas, ahead of run of U.K. and Continental European shows, starting June 19 at Denmark’s Heartland Festival.

Madonna, Shakira and BTS will perform during halftime of the World Cup final game, Global Citizen announced first thing Thursday (May 14).

The Sunday, July 19, match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will mark the first time the FIFA World Cup final has ever featured a halftime show. Billboard understands that the show will clock in at 11 minutes.

The news was announced in a social video starring Coldplay’s Chris Martin alongside Sesame Street‘s Elmo and Cookie Monster, as well as Kermit, Miss Piggie and more from The Muppets. The unlikely crew even calls up BTS on FaceTime in the video — watch below.

Shakira’s name had already been linked to this year’s World Cup – hosted in North America, with tournament games across the United States, Canada and Mexico – with the announcement of “Dai Dai,” her official 2026 World Cup song with Burna Boy. It will be Shak’s second official FIFA World Cup song following “Waka, Waka (This Time for Africa)” recorded for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Colombian superstar kicks off her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour 2026 dates in June, with July 14 and July 20 in New Jersey and New York, respectively, surrounding the World Cup final at MetLife.

Madonna is also gearing up for a busy July, with the Queen of Pop’s Confessions II album – the sequel to her 2005 classic Confessions on a Dance Floor – arriving July 3. She’s so far released lead single “Bring Your Love,” her duet with Sabrina Carpenter, which they live-debuted during weekend 2 of Coachella last month, as well as “I Feel So Free.”

BTS made a major return to music earlier this year with the March 20 release of their sixth studio album ARIRANG, the South Korean group’s first project since they went on hiatus for each member to complete their military service. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 and stayed there for three straight weeks – their first multi-week No. 1 on the chart. Last month, they kicked off their ARIRANG WORLD TOUR in Goyang, South Korea, before bringing the trek to the U.S. on April 25. They have international dates scheduled through next March.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup final halftime show is being curated by Global Citizen along with Coldplay’s Martin, with plans to raise money for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which is working to raise $100 million to expand access to education and football for children worldwide. The fund has already raised more than $30 million, with $1 from every ticket sold to World Cup matches being donated throughout the tournament. The advocacy organization and Martin similarly teamed up for last year’s Club World Cup final halftime show, which was headlined by Doja Cat, J Balvin and Tems.

Last week, FIFA announced that Katy Perry, Future, Tyla, LISA and Anitta are slated to perform during the 2026 World Cup opening ceremonies set for the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Perry will headline the opening ceremony in Los Angeles ahead of the U.S. men’s national team’s first game against Paraguay on June 12. Future will also take the SoFi Stadium stage for a performance along with DJ Sanjoy.

While this marks the first time the World Cup final has had a halftime show, two of the July performers have previously headlined the Super Bowl halftime show; Madonna took center field at the 2012 Super Bowl, while Shakira co-headlined with Jennifer Lopez in 2020.

The highly anticipated return of the Irish band U2 to Mexico City this week to film the music video for their single “Street of Dreams” has resulted in an official invitation from the capital’s head of government, Clara Brugada, for the group to perform at the iconic Zócalo, the country’s main public square.

On Tuesday (May 13), Brugada met with the members of the famous quartet during the filming of their music video in the streets of the city’s Historic Center. There, the official handed the band a document, as shown in a video posted on her social media. The letter was received by Bono, vocalist and leader of the renowned group.

“This is an invitation for you to play in our wonderful square, which is the Zócalo,” Brugada said in Spanish, as shown in the video. “You are welcome, and we would love it very much.”

Previously, Bono had expressed to Brugada his desire to kick off their next world tour in Mexico City, a place that holds a special place in the hearts of the quartet, which also includes The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.

“We’re working on that,” the singer said in English. “In our dreams, we could begin our tour here.”

He added: “We love the city.”

The Zócalo is considered an emblematic location of great significance — a plaza filled with symbolism where politics, social movements, culture and religion converge. It is the second-largest public square in the world, only behind Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In March, Colombian superstar Shakira set a new record for the largest audience ever gathered for a free concert at the Plaza de la Constitución (the Zócalo’s official name), drawing 400,000 attendees.

The meeting between Brugada and U2 took place at the Casino Metropolitano in the Historic Center of the capital, a spokesperson for the city government confirmed to Billboard Español. During the meeting, the official presented each member of the band with a figure of an axolotl, an amphibian species native to central Mexico, as seen in the video.

Later, Brugada shared a message on her social media accounts with photos alongside the band. “Welcoming U2 to our capital is a celebration of music, connection and the excitement that is felt in every corner of this city,” she wrote in her post. “We are a city open to the world, vibrant and full of stories that are shared from the stage to the streets.”

The band participated on Wednesday in the second day of filming for the “Street of Dreams” music video, a song that will be part of their upcoming album, set to be released later this year.

The day before, performing atop the roof of a school bus decorated with graffiti by artist Chavis Mármol, the quartet played their new song — featuring choruses in Spanish — surrounded by a large crowd in the city’s Historic Center. The occasion also marked the first appearance of drummer Larry Mullen Jr. alongside his bandmates after years offstage recovering from neck and back surgeries.

Mexico holds a special place in the hearts of U2’s members, as it’s where they’ve delivered some of their most celebrated performances, including the concert captured in the video Popmart: Live From Mexico City, recorded in 1997 during the Popmart Tour.

The last time U2 performed in Mexico City was during the 30th-anniversary tour of their iconic album The Joshua Tree in October 2017, just three weeks after the powerful earthquake that struck central Mexico.

Young Thug knows what it’s like to be sitting behind bars awaiting your day in court. Thugger took to X on Wednesday (May 13) with a message in support of Lil Durk, calling for the Chicago rapper’s freedom.

“Free smurk please god,” he wrote.

Fittingly, Brian Steel, the powerhouse attorney who represented Young Thug in his YSL RICO case, filed to join Lil Durk’s legal team in March and represent him in his federal murder-for-hire case.

Steel facilitated a plea deal for 15 years of probation and time served to get Thugger out of jail in October 2024 after the YSL rapper spent over two years behind bars.

“I get very close to my clients. I meet their families,” Steel told Billboard in an interview in March. “Because if I’m going to defend somebody, I gotta be invested. I gotta believe in the person. I gotta make it where if I lose this case, it’s going to ruin my life.”

He continued: “I just want to help people, ethically and zealously. And I don’t want to hurt anybody, and God willing, something good will come out.”

Steel was also part of Diddy’s defense team in April, which saw the embattled Bad Boy mogul sentenced to 50 months in prison for violating federal prostitution laws.

Lil Durk was arrested in October 2024 on murder-for-hire charges, as federal agents apprehended the OTF rapper before they believed he was headed to catch a private flight to Italy.

Durk’s trial was set for April, but has once again been delayed to Aug. 20. Prosecutors allege that Durk plotted to have rival rapper Quando Rondo killed during a Los Angeles shooting in 2022. However, Rondo’s cousin, Lul Pap (Saviay’a Robinson), was killed during the crossfire.

Prosecutors believe that Durk ordered the hit to have Rondo taken out in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), who was the rapper’s frequent collaborator.

As for Young Thug, the Atlanta native spent last weekend at Rolling Loud Orlando, where Thugger popped out at multiple sets, including Ken Carson’s headlining set to close out the festival.

The late, disgraced Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is the subject of a new two-part documentary, commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The film, Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator, will debut Tuesday, June 9, and will feature interviews with survivors who’ve never before spoken publicly of his crimes. The series is said to capture the full story of Harris’ double life, charting his rise from suburban Perth, Australia to the heights of fame and influence in the United Kingdom, while revealing the pattern of abuse that unfolded behind the scenes for decades.

Prior to his downfall, Harris was a popular figure on TV, the airwaves, and charts across the U.K., the U.S. (“Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963) and his homeland, Australia. In the mid-2000s, he was once commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth II, a sitting that was turned into a documentary.

His U.K. chart hits included “Two Little Boys” (Columbia), which has the distinction of being the very last No. 1 in that market in the 1960s. “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” reached No. 9 in the U.K. back in 1960, and he had a No. 3 hit with “Sun Arise” in 1962. Decades later, in 1993, he enjoyed another U.K. top 10 appearance, when his cover of “Stairway to Heaven,” a spin-off from the Australian TV show Money or the Gun, reached No. 7.

Harris’ spectacular fall from grace began in 2013, when he was questioned and arrested police under Operation Yewtree, the investigation into sexual abuse among members of the English media elite, including the late Jimmy Savile. Following a trial in 2014, Harris was found guilty of various indecent assaults on women and young girls between 1968 and 1986, and was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. He was released in 2017, but denied any wrongdoing and never issued an apology to his victims.

He died in 2023 at the age of 93. “In the years since, the silence that once protected him has begun to lift,” reads a statement from the ABC, announcing the new series, which “gives voice to those who were previously unable to, as they share their experience on their own terms.” Harris’ death “has finally lifted a veil of fear once cast by this powerful figure, and survivors who long feared retribution are at last able to speak.”

Prior to the Yewtree investigation, Harris moved within the highest circles in Britain, his adopted home. Along the way, he was named as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

It was a similar scenario in his country of his birth, where Harris was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. ARIA has since scratched his name from the record books.

Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator will air 8.30pm AEST on ABC TV, with both episodes available to stream on ABC iView.

U2 is back on the streets, this time in Mexico City where the legendary Irish rock band is shooting a new music video.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. were snapped in the Mexican capital where they’re shooting a music video for the new track, “Street of Dreams,” lifted from their yet-to-be announced next studio album, due for release later in 2026.

The Rock Hall-inducted band was spotted Tuesday, May 12, rocking out on top of a school bus, graffitied by local artist Chavis Mármol, with hundreds of fans gathered for the special event.

It’s not the first time U2 has brought the streets to a standstill. In the late ’80s, the group famously recaptured the spirit of the Beatles’ “Get Back” with a performance on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, footage of which appears in Meiert Avis’ music video for “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The clip went on to win the Grammy Award for best performance music video at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards, and its parent album, 1987’s The Joshua Tree, was a monster, confirming U2 as a hitmaker, a stadium act and, without argument, the biggest band of its time.

This week also sees Mexico City host the 2026 Street Child World Cup, with 30 teams from across the globe in town for this year’s tournament that kicked off May 6, and wraps up this Thursday, May 14. “It’s a little NGO with a big kick for kids with all of the talent and none of the access,” chimes in U2 drummer Mullen. “Our band are proud supporters.”

U2’s next album is the followup to 2023’s Songs of Surrender, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.

The group has been notably active of late, and with the release in April of the Easter Lily EP, Bono shared an update on that next record. “We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, ‘unreasonably colourful’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives. We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world,” the singer explained in a written statement.

The Dublin fourpiece “will attempt hoopla and fanfare at a later date to remind the rest of the world we exist but in the meantime,” Bono continued, “this is between you and us.”

U2 has landed 34 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including two leaders, along with eight No. 1s on the Billboard 200 chart. Induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame came in 2005. U2 had the honors of being the first band to play the Sphere in Las Vegas, which they inaugurated in September 2023 with the residency, U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.