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.

Whether or not you have a chance to see them on their current tour, BTS is making sure fans everywhere can tune in to watch one of their performances live and on the big screen.

The group is aiming to make one of their performances at South Korea’s Busan Asiad Main Stadium accessible to ARMY members around the world with BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’ IN BUSAN: LIVE VIEWING. The concert will be shown in theaters worldwide for one night only, on June 13.

On Thursday (May 28), BTS shared the official trailer for the cinematic event to give supporters a glimpse of the explosive performance they can expect to see.

Featuring footage from other cities on their tour and soundtracked by the song “Fya” latest album ARIRANG, Jung Kook, Jimin, V, Suga, RM, Jin and J-Hope bring an electrifying vibe to the trailer. Following live cinema broadcasts from Goyang and Tokyo earlier in April, the Busan show marks the third event of the BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’.

Tickets for the cinema screening became available on the same day the trailer was released, giving fans the opportunity to purchase them immediately. On the official BTS website, fans can find participating movie theaters and buy tickets for the event.

BTS began their tour in April to promote their latest album ARIRANG, which marked their official comeback after completing mandatory military service in South Korea following their 2022 hiatus and spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. Their performance in Busan will also mark their first show at the stadium since announcing their temporary departure from music to serve their country. The BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’ spans approximately 11 months and includes 80 concerts across 34 cities.

The septet will take a brief break from the tour in July, as they are set to perform at the FIFA World Cup Final halftime show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey alongside Shakira and Madonna on July 19.

Milli Vanilli are among the artists to drop out of the Donald Trump-affiliated Great American State Fair shows slated for Washington, D.C., in honor of America’s 250th birthday. The “Girl You Know It’s True” act announced Thursday (May 28) that they won’t be performing in any capacity at the Freedom 250 concert.

The duo — which was slated to perform June 26, according to a release from Freedom 250 — claimed that any Milli Vanilli being used in advertisements should be considered to be a tribute band and they have no association with the event.

“The original/real vocalists of Milli Vanilli, Jodie Rocco, Linda Rocco, Brad Howell, John Davis, and Charles Shaw will NOT be performing their hits live at The Great American State Fair,” Milli Vanilli wrote. “Others using the name ‘Milli Vanilli’ that appear on the advertisement should be considered a tribute band with no association vocally or musically to our sound or songs.”

Per Freedom 250’s announcement, Milli Vanilli was slated to hit the stage on June 26 alongside Vanilla Ice and Young MC. However, the “Bust a Move” rapper also announced that he’s dropping out of the festival. “I have informed my agents that I will not be performing,” Young MC said in a statement on social media.

The Time frontman Morris Day also distanced himself from the festival while announcing that he won’t be performing at the Great American State Fair.

Freedom 250 is a 16-day festival in D.C. running from June 25 through July 10 at the National Mall. Other performers on the bill include Flo Rida, Bret Michaels, The Commodores and Martina McBride.

Originally comprised of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, Milli Vanilli rose to prominence in the late 1980s.

Producer and Milli Vanilli founder Frank Farian recruited Brad Howell, John Davis, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco and Linda Rocco to provide vocals on Milli Vanilli tracks. “My sister and I were shocked to see our name, ‘Milli Vanilli,’ as one of the performers,” Jodie Rocco told The Associated Press. Pilatus died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose in 1998.

Milli Vanilli is best known for Billboard Hot 100 top five hits like “Blame It on the Rain” (No. 1), “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” (No. 1), “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” (No. 1), “Girl You Know It’s True” (No. 2) and “All or Nothing” (No. 4).

Find Milli Vanilli’s statement below.

Official Statement from The Real Milli Vanilli regarding @Freedom250 featured performances. pic.twitter.com/DCRcwgdk5t

— Milli Vanilli (@MilliVanilli) May 28, 2026

PETA has publicly called out Lizzo for her new partnership with Chili’s, which finds the star promoting the restaurant chain’s baby back ribs despite previously being vegan.

Sharing a video that stitches together Lizzo’s new commercial for Chili’s with graphic footage of pigs suffering from abuse and mistreatment by handlers in the meat industry, PETA wrote Wednesday on Instagram, “PIGS WANT THEIR RIBS BACK.”

“It’s about damn time you found a conscience, @lizzobeeating,” the animal rights nonprofit continued in the caption. “The truth hurts, right? Here’s the truth behind your @chilis jingle: using the flesh and bones of an animal who was violently killed as an ‘instrument’ is beyond grotesque. What happened to you?”

Billboard has reached out to Lizzo’s rep for comment.

The severe message comes shortly after the singer’s Chili’s campaign launched, featuring Lizzo performing an updated version of the “Baby Back Ribs” jingle alongside a giant rib prop while playing a rib flute. In an interview with Billboard about the partnership, the Grammy winner — who was vegan for a few years before announcing in 2024 that she’d begun eating meat again — said, “I think that I’m very sensitive about the way I deliver personal news to the world.”

“When I announced that I was no longer vegan, and that I was consuming animal protein, I was so nervous that I would hurt people’s feelings or let people down,” she continued at the time. “But it was important for me to say that back then, because of things like this now, where, you know, it would have been super jarring for me to be a vegan in 2021, and then 2026, I’m eating a big old rib and playing a rib flute. So what I said back then to make sure that I cleared the air, and that any decisions I make now, you know where I’m coming from.”

Noting that she’d be a food influencer if she weren’t a musician, Lizzo also explained that the Chili’s team-up shows off her “fun, love-to-eat foodie side” rather than her “health advocacy side.”

The Grammy winner is currently gearing up to release her new album, Bitch, on June 5. And despite the backlash from PETA, Lizzo is having fun with her baby back ribs era, posting a TikTok of herself showing off a plate of the Chili’s dish on Thursday (May 28).

See the video below.

@lizzo

Did u eat ur baby back ribs today? 🌶️ @Chili’s Grill & Bar

♬ original sound – Amari F

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 
 
This week: A buzzy steamy streaming TV romance enters the arena as the new synch show to beat, a pop legend gets a catalog bump from her new docuseries, and a Dominican rapper enters the Song of the Summer race.

‘Off Campus’ Blows Up Streaming Totals for Classic Rock & New Alt-Pop Favorites 

What do you get for the Heated Rivalry superfan in your life who already has everything? How about another steamy TV romance adapted from a book series in which hockey features prominently? While Amazon Prime’s Off Campus might not be quite the cultural sensation that Rivalry became earlier this year, it seems on its way to comparable popularity — and one way you can tell is how, like its predecessor, it’s making a streaming hit out of nearly every song featured on its soundtrack. 

The rom-com series — which features an even higher synch-per-episode rate than Heated Rivalry — is based around contemporary alt-pop and alt-rock, but also includes a good number of 20th-century throwbacks favored by its two protagonists, Hannah (Ella Bright) and Garrett (Belmont Cameli). And already, plenty of songs both old and new are seeing the benefits from their prominent usage on the show’s first season. 

Among the classic rock songs getting boosted are Elton John’s 1974 anthem “The Bitch Is Back,” which is up 577% in weekly official on-demand U.S. streams to 1.2 million for the tracking week ending May 21 (according to Luminate), and Warrant’s 1990 hair metal smash “Cherry Pie,” up 122% to 1.1 million. Meanwhile, similar gains are being seen over the same timespan for newer artists G Flip (“Bed on Fire,” up 4,263% to 647,000), The Beaches (“Edge of the Earth,” up 735% to 1 million) and Audrey Hobert (“Sue Me,” up 103% to 1.1 million). 

And this is likely just the beginning: All of these songs are still climbing in daily streams, as more and more potential viewers jump on the Off Campus bandwagon. It’s all sure to make the show one of the most in-demand synch placements on television for its second season — which it was renewed for before season one even aired. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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‘Off Campus’ Also Turns Jennifer Lopez’s and Pitbull’s ‘On the Floor’ Into a Global Smash (Again)

Another song given a viral lift by the explosive first season of Off Campus, Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor,” featuring Pitbull, returns to the Billboard charts, as the song debuts at No. 117 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 80 on the Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated May 30).

“On the Floor” sees a resurgence following a steamy scene starring the character Allie (Mika Abdalla), dressed as J.Lo, and Dean (Stephen Kalyn), dressed as Tom Cruise’s character Maverick from the Top Gun films, who dance to Lopez’s 2011 hit at a Halloween party. Lopez later joined the moment on social media, teaming up with Abdalla to re-create part of the scene and dance to the song.

“On the Floor” opens at No. 117 on the Billboard Global 200 chart, totaling 15.1 million streams worldwide during the May 15-21 tracking week, according to Luminate. The streaming surge gives Lopez her second entry on the chart, following “Pa’ Ti” with Maluma in 2020 (No. 106 high). For Pitbull, “On the Floor” marks his third chart visit, his highest being the No. 106-peaking “Give Me Everything,” featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer (2025); it ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for a week in 2011 (with the global charts having begun in 2020).

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday (May 27), Lopez revealed to Kimmel that her socials team had alerted her to the buzzy situation. “I was like, ‘what?!’ It was like out of the blue.” And with that, she went a little deeper into the consumption of digital music. “The music business, everything has changed because people discover (from different sources),” she opined. “My kids are listening to all kinds of music that I’ve never even heard of. And some stuff that is classic, like The Beatles. Listen, great music lives forever, as we know, but it lives in a different way now because they can find it easily.”

The song also remains a milestone in both artists’ chart histories: It marked one of Lopez’s 10 top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 — where it peaked at No. 3 in 2011 among her 32 career entries — and stands as one of Pitbull’s 10 top 10s among 45 total entries. – PAMELA BUSTIOS

Read more about the viral surge of “On the Floor” and Lopez’s response to it. 

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Dominican Rapper Lil Naay Scores Fast-Rising Hit With “Mood Brazil” 

Let the 2026 song of the summer race begin! Dominican rapper Lil Naay has entered the fold with “Mood Brazil,” a catchy fusion of dembow and Brazilian baile funk that also recalls the synths strings of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” 

According to Luminate, “Mood Brazil” earned over 644,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in its first full week of release (May 8-14). That number spiked by nearly 50% the following week (May 15-21), with “Mood” collecting over 957,000 official streams. 

“Mood Brazil” officially hit streaming services on May 8, but its journey to TikTok virality began nearly a month prior. On April 16, user @/system0069, an account that appears to exclusively post Lil Naay edits, shared a clip laying “Mood Brazil” over a montage of in-studio behind-the-scenes footage, garnering over 960,000 views. Over the next few weeks, the song’s infectious beat began to soundtrack a plethora of clips — from dance challenges to thirst traps to actual Lil Naay performances— and, by April 22, Lil Naay started posting with the same audio, bringing the official “Mood Brazil” sound to over 1.1 million posts. “Mood Brazil” also plays in over 8,000 Instagram Reels, while its official music video has garnered over 6.5 million views in just two weeks. 

As the summer continues to heat up, keep an eye on “Mood Brazil” and its steady ascent. — KYLE DENIS 

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Kyle Minogue’s Catalog Streams Are Up 25% Following Netflix Docuseries Premiere 

Global pop sensation Kylie Minogue got the Netflix docuseries treatment with KYLIE (May 20) — and fans have returned to her decadeslong catalog to celebrate. 

During the docuseries’ first four days of availability (May 20-23), Minogue’s catalog netted 2.47 million official on-demand U.S. streams, up over 25% from the 1.97 million official streams it collected the same period the week prior (May 13-16), according to Luminate. Her classic pop smash “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” which remains her most recent Billboard 200 top 10 hit (No. 7 in 2002), is also up 11.7% in streaming activity to 1.2 million streams across the same timeframe, making it by far her most-played song over the past weekend. 

The three-part KYLIE docuseries traces the life and career of the Aussie pop legend. Helmed by Michael Harte — who also directed the buzzy 2023 Beckham docuseries — KYLIE also arrived a week before her Tension Tour concert film, which made her the first female solo artist to perform a total of 21 times at London’s iconic O2 Arena. The two-time Grammy winner also released a new song titled “Light Up,” co-written with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, to celebrate her new docuseries. — KD