This week brought new releases from music superstars in the worlds of rock, pop, Latin, hip-hop, K-pop and beyond — but what was your favorite release of the week?

Kicking things off with pop royalty, Beyoncé surprise-released the R&B-tinged new single “Morning Dew (Donk)” last weekend. Switching gears to rock & roll, The Rolling Stones returned with their 25th studio album Foreign Tongues. In the rap space, Future delivered his new album The Real Me. And YEONJUN from K-pop quintet TOMORROW X TOGETHER is back with Part 02 from his No Labels series.

Other big drops: Suki Waterhouse’s third album Loveland, Teddy Swims’ new single “Break Up in Reverse,” The Linda Lindas and Hayley Williams’ team-up “Closer,” Chris Lake and Tiga’s “Party Time” featuring Aatig, Feid’s “A Xon De Que” and Coco Jones’ “Body So Tea.”

And that’s still not all! We also have Chris Avantgarde’s Hyperreal, Melanie Santiler’s “Gataza,” Jahmiel’s Against All Odds, Maddie Lenhart’s “Empty Room” and Wyatt Flores’ “Scared of Heights.”

All those choices, but which one is your favorite this week? Revisit our full New Music Friday Guide here, and make your selection below.

We don’t know all the details of what went down inside Madison Square Garden during Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s July 3 wedding last week, but now we know how much they had to pay so they could host the event in the thick of New York City.

During a press conference on Friday (July 10), NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked by a reporter whether Swift would be paying back the city for police overtime needed to support her wedding weekend events in Midtown Manhattan, and the politician confirmed that she already has.

“Taylor Swift … has paid already the cost of the permit that was lodged, which was over $160,000 for that event and for the response to that event,” Mamdani told reporters. “That was a permit that was finalized, I think, in just the days before the event itself.”

The security permit included street closures and traffic management around the famed arena, starting with a rehearsal dinner event on July 2 through the wedding itself on July 3.

Most details have been kept under wraps, but in a press release announcing Swift and Kelce’s marriage, Swift’s rep confirmed that the pop superstar and football player wore outfits designed by Christian Dior Haute Couture; that the couple did not have traditional bridesmaids or groomsmen, but Swift’s brother Austin was her man of honor while Jason Kelce was Travis’ best man; and that actor/comedian Adam Sandler officiated the nuptials.

Two performers at the event have been reported as well, with Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts confirming that Stevie Nicks took the stage, and People sharing that Paul McCartney performed The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for the first time since 1963 at the MSG wedding.

Return of the Mac. Drake has wagered a $1 million bet on Conor McGregor to win in his return to the ring this weekend at UFC 329.

Drake posted his betting slip on Instagram on Friday (July 10) featuring a seven-figure wager on Stake with the belief that McGregor will defeat Max Holloway in McGregor’s comeback to the octagon in Las Vegas on Saturday night (July 11).

Drake’s $1 million wager would net him $1.85 million for a total of $2.85 million if McGregor wins the welterweight bout. As of press time, Conor McGregor is an underdog in the fight with +180 odds, according to FanDuel.

McGregor and Drake have been friends for a decade now after the UFC fighter revealed they connected in 2016 and met at one of Drizzy’s Summer Sixteen Tour stops later that year.

“I’m a big fan of Drake. I had a meeting with Jimmy Iovine of Apple and he invited me to the show,” McGregor said in an interview with UFC’s Meghan Olivi. “I’d spoke to Drake before the first Diaz fight – he reached out and messaged me – and we’ve been in contact since then.”

McGregor invited Drake to join him on stage at the weigh-in for his fight against Khabib at UFC 229 in October 2018, which found the 6 God sporting an Irish flag in support of McGregor on his back.

Drake is no stranger to gambling. He’s been locked in betting on the FIFA World Cup, which included a $1 wager on Morocco in an attempt to jinx the African nation in their match-up against Canada, but that didn’t end up working out for Drizzy. He also posted a clip hitting a $30 million jackpot while playing in the Stake casino earlier in July.

On the music front, Drake released a trifecta of albums in May, with ICEMAN, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR debuting in top three slots of the Billboard 200. ICEMAN‘s “Janice STFU” also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Drizzy the most chart-topping hits of any male soloist.

Find Drake’s betting slip below.

Hilary Duff has been bringing Y2K nostalgia to every night of her Lucky Me Tour since it kicked off last month, and across two sold-out nights at the L.A.-area Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, on Wednesday and Thursday nights, she turned back the calendar to 2004 with a very personal throwback T-shirt.

Duff wore her very own 2004 concert tee for the occasion, which includes photos of the then-16-year-old pop star/actress on the front and the back and a full list of that year’s tour dates on the back. She also started selling a reprint of the tee at Forum merch booths and on her website.

As seen in Billboard‘s video from Thursday below, Duff wore the tee to perform her 2003 single “Why Not” from The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack and her Metamorphosis album. Duff also re-recorded the song for her (Mine) EP this year as a well as a Walmart-exclusive version of her most recent album, February’s Luck… or Something.

Billboard caught up with Duff backstage at the Forum for an Aperol Spritz meet-and-greet, where she was asked about a fan interaction she’ll remember long after her tour ends.

“A more recent interaction was actually with the sweetest 8-year-old who was excited to see me — but I do think her mom was even more excited secretly,” Duff laughed. “They told me it was her first concert and that I was also the mother’s first concert, which is an amazing full-circle moment while I’m in such a thick part of my own life, returning to music and motherhood.”

The Lucky Me Tour continues Saturday night in Mountain View, California, and extends through early next year in Mexico City.

BTS are bringing their immersive “BTS The City ARIRANG” experience to New York. The group announced on Friday (July 10) that following successful earlier editions in Seoul, Las Vegas, Busan and London, the traveling exhibition will open in New York City on July 24 and stay open through Aug. 3 in conjunction with the K-pop supergroup’s world tour in support of their ARIRANG album.

According to a release, “the citywide project will transform New York into an immersive extension of the concert experience, where fans can experience BTS’ music, storytelling, and artistry far beyond the concert stage.”

BTS is gearing up to perform at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on Aug. 1 and 2 and “BTS The City ARIRANG NEW YORK” will give ARMY a chance to check out a diverse group of attractions and experiences across New York, including at the Korean Cultural Center New York, where ARMY can customize their light sticks and another at Grand Central Terminal, where “THE CITY” banners will be displayed and fans can customize T-shirts. There will also be a Samsung Galaxy Experience booth at the Korean Cultural Center with a chance to get some limited-edition BTS THE CITY merch and craft one-of-a-kind stickers, as well as a display of some of the band’s iconic stage outfits from the “LOVE YOURSELF: SPEAK YOURSELF” concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Other experiences throughout New York include, a citywide stamp rally at Bank of Hope, as well as fan events including Random Play Dance with I LOVE DANCE and exclusive offerings from local partners such as Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer, Kim’s Kimbap and others. Some of the details of the experiences have not yet been announced, but the list includes a BTS pop-up shop and brand activations with a range of restaurants and hotels.

BTS’ tour in support of their ARIRANG album will hit Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany on Saturday (July 11) and Sunday (July 12).

Check out a map and schedule with the full list of “BTS The City ARIRANG NEW YORK” events here.

Colin Hay was on top of the world with Men At Work. And then, abruptly, he wasn’t. In time, the Scotland-born singer and songwriter would climb the mountain once again.

Hay has gone on to enjoy one of rock music’s remarkable second acts, both as a solo artist, as a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, and as a raconteur, his stories and music opening doors and minds everywhere.

Hay has the gift of the gab, an easy charm, and stories that easily beat what the rest of us can drum up. Few tales can compare to the meteoric rise of Men At Work which, for a moment in 1983, simultaneously had the No. 1 single (with “Down Under”) and album (Business as Usual) both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, a rare achievement for an act from Australia, then and now.

Speaking with two-time Grammy Award–winning producer and music executive Pete Ganbarg for the Rock & Roll High School podcast, Hay remembered the high times, some “classic blunders” made along the way, turning his back on booze, and the comeback.

“You always think that you’re handling things really well, but of course you’re not,” he says of Men At Work’s bright start. “We made a couple of classic blunders but I think more than anything else it just wasn’t a band that was destined to go the distance really in terms of the personnel. This is also in hindsight really, we may have had another couple of albums in us, but five musicians and one manager. The manager was my friend and a couple of the guys in the band wanted to sack the manager and he wasn’t gonna get sacked cause he was my friend. It very much turned into an episode of Survivor, who’s gonna get voted off the island.”

That situation “soured me on the whole thing,” he continues. “I thought, well what is the point of conquering the world together if you can’t enjoy it together. It should be enjoyed and honored together by all the people who did that and there were six of us who did it. I’ll never understand why they wanted to get rid of him. It was just stupid. Even to this day I still think it was stupid, so it was over pretty much.”

Men At Work completed two more albums, before calling it a day: Cargo (from 1983) and Two Hearts (from 1985).

Speaking with Ganbarg, Hay points to a moment in January 1991 that he got his life and career back on track. With a move to Los Angeles, Hay kicked the bottle. “That really was the start of my new life,” he explains.  

Hay doesn’t have any bad feelings, except for the bruising — and costly — copyright battle over the flute refrain in “Down Under,” which began in 2009 and concluded several years on, an “unforgivable” situation, he mentions. “It was horrible and it went for so long as well. It went for six years or something. There was nothing really I could do about it but defend it,” he reckons.

To make matters considerably worse, bandmate Greg Ham died in 2012, aged 58, two years after the Australian Federal Court ordered Men At Work to pay 5% of royalties earned from the song since 2002 and from future earnings.

“At the end of the day the sadness for me was the fact that Greg, who wasn’t in great shape anyway at that particular time, felt a sense of guilt about the fact that he played the line and yet he wasn’t sued,” Hay continues. “I was the one that was sued as the songwriter and EMI Music Publishing was sued also. And it had a great effect on my father, who had come to Australia as an immigrant and was so proud of what we’d done and I would play him the songs all the time before they were records so he knew the song was clean in terms of composition so smoke would come out of his ears…I’ll never forgive them for that.”

For the podcast, Hay discusses songwriting, resilience, how life’s great setbacks can ultimately lead to fresh starts, how Zach Braff introduced Hay to new audiences on Scrubs and Garden State, the unlikely fan in System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, and much more.

Listen here or rockschoolpodcast.com.

Jack White, the record label chief, business owner and scathing critic of the Trump administration, gets back to the business of rock ‘n’ roll with Frozen Charlotte, his seventh studio album.

Released through White’s Third Man Records, Frozen Charlotte dropped at the stroke of midnight on digital music platforms and houses the new single “Neighbors Blues,” the propulsive, previously-released “Dollar Bill,” and the tracks he performed on SNL earlier this year, “G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs” and “Derecho Demonico.” 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee unveiled the 13-track collection during the free, two-part online series Third Man Release Lab, in which his team peels back the layers on his label’s joyfully chaotic release process.

Frozen Charlotte was produced and mixed by the Detroit native, and took sonic shape at White’s Third Man Studio in Nashville with a roll call of familiar collaborators, including Patrick Keeler (drums), Dominic Davis (bass) and Bobby Emmett (keys).

White has assembled the band for North America tour dates in support of the album, which begin tonight, July 10, with a sold-out show at Washington, DC’s The Anthem and then continues through a two-night stand at Atlanta, GA’s Coca-Cola Roxy on Nov. 20-21. Highlights include two-nighters in a string of cities, from Brooklyn to Chicago, Charlotte, and Miami Beach, along with top-billing at Borderland Festival (Sept. 19) and Iron Blossom Music Festival (Sept. 20).

White and Co. will make an Atlantic crossing for more summer dates and festival spots in the United Kingdom and Europe, including two-night stands at London’s Eventim Apollo (Aug. 25-26) and Dublin’s 3Olympia (Sept. 1-2). Then, a visit to Asia for shows in Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai, China; and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The followup to White’s Grammy Award-nominated 2024 LP No Name, Frozen Charlotte is also available in physical formats, including CD, cassette, standard black vinyl, limited-edition “Zug Island Blue” vinyl (available via Third Man Records), limited-edition “Chrome” vinyl (available on tour), and limited-edition “Ice Blue” vinyl (available at independent record stores).

Stream Frozen Charlotte below.

The rock ‘n’ roll juggernaut that is the Rolling Stones continues to power on with Foreign Tongues (via Polydor/Universal Music), the band’s 25th studio album which arrives fully formed, 14-tracks in total.

The followup to the Grammy Award-winning 2023 collection Hackney Diamonds, the new set houses 12 new compositions, including the previously-released “Rough and Twisted,” “Jealous Lover” and “In The Stars” — plus a cover of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” and a nod to one of the Stones’ all-time influences, Chuck Berry, on the closing track “Beautiful Delilah.”

Brought to life during a fruitful and “exceptionally creative period” at Metropolis Studios in West London, the new release features contributions from a starry lineup of guests Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; longtime collaborators Darryl Jones, Matt Clifford and Steve Jordan; and late drummer Charlie Watts on “Hit Me In The Head,” his efforts captured during one of his final recording sessions before his death in 2021.  

“It was a very intense few weeks recording Foreign Tongues,” recounts frontman Mick Jagger. “We had 14 great tracks and we went as fast as we could. I like the room there as it’s not too big so you can feel the passion from everyone.”

The atmosphere in the room “was so creative,” remarks guitarist Ronnie Wood, “and the whole band was on top form throughout the whole process. Very often we nailed it on the first take. I hope everyone loves it.”

With Foreign Tongues, the Stones could enter rare territory on the Billboard 200. The Rock Hall-inducted group has 38 top 10 hits on the all-genres chart, and nine No. 1s. Another leader would lift the Brits into double-digit chart crowns. In their homeland, the Stones’ have nabbed eight leaders on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, including a No. 1 with Hackney Diamonds, winner in the Grammys category for rock album.

“The Foreign Tongues album has a continuity from Hackney Diamonds and it was great to be working in London again,” enthuses founding guitarist Keith Richards, “and to have that London vibe around us. It was a month of concentrated punch. To me, it’s all about the enjoyment of it.  I’m blessed to be able to do this and long may it last.”

A new Stones album tends to herald a new, global tour by this, the greatest rock band still doing it. Jagger has said he “can’t wait” to take the lads back on the road, though fans shouldn’t expect an imminent announcement.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years alongside Wood, Jagger was asked whether the Stones would ever tour again. “I’d love to go on tour, I can’t wait,” he said, before tempering expectations. “I don’t think it’s going to be this year. But hopefully it’s going to be as soon as possible.”

Those remarks come after the band scrapped plans for a U.K. and European stadium tour, on unconfirmed reports that Richards was unable to “commit” to the jaunt. Richards has since hinted at a potential return to the road in 2027, and Jagger’s latest comments are a good indication that the legendary outfit will head out once more.

Stream Foreign Tongues below.