Category: Music

Olivia Rodrigo won’t be budged from the summit of Australia’s albums chart, as You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love (via Geffen/Universal) enters a second week at No. 1.

Earlier in the week, Rodrigo told Australian radio listeners that she hadn’t ruled out a tour down under. “I love going to Australia,” she explained to Nova 96.9’s Ricki-Lee & Tim, “and I hope to be back very soon.” She was last on these shores in October 2024 when when her GUTS World Tour routed into Sydney and Melbourne.

The top new release this week belongs to Australian rapper Chillinit (real name: Blake Turnell) with Wisdom Weed & Wordplay (Virgin/Universal). It’s his fifth studio album, it debuts at No. 5, and gives the artist his fifth top five placing.

Meanwhile, homegrown psychedelic rock act Pond splashes in the ARIA top 20 with Terrestrials (RKT), their 11^th studio album. It’s new at No.19 for the Perth, Western Australia outfit’s seventh top 50 appearance.

Further down the list, published late Friday, June 26, are debuts from Placebo (Placebo RE:CREATED at No. 40 via AWAL), Miles Smith (My Mess, My Heart, My Life. at No. 41 via RCA/Sony), Leah Senior (the independently-released Pt. Roadknight at No. 42) and Patrick Roberts (Del Gesu at No. 48 via Decca/Universal).

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Taylor Swift returns to the summit with “I Knew It, I Knew You” (Republic/Universal), thanks to the arrival of Top Story 5 in cinemas across the country. “I Knew It,” which is synced to the beloved animated Pixar franchise, debuted at No. 1 three weeks ago and rebounds 11-1 on the latest frame.

Also finding fresh wings is Tame Impala’s “Dracula” (Columbia/Sony). The platinum certified tune bounces 18-10 in its 35^th week on the chart and is one of three Australian-made cuts in the top 50 (G Flip’s “Bed On Fire” via AWAL gains 47-44 and The Kid LAROI’s “Girls” via Columbia/Sony dips 40-45). No new entries impact this week’s tally.

Alison Wonderland played a blinder, as she nailed her part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

As previously reported, the elite Australian DJ and producer got tapped to present the match ball for the FIFA World Cup game Thursday evening, June 25, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA — a vital contest that saw her countrymen match up with pool D opponents Paraguay.

“WHAT AN HONOR AND PRIVILEGE TO WALK THE BALL ONTO THE FIELD FOR THE AUSTRALIA VS PARAGUAY FIFA WORLD CUP GAME,” she writes in a social post. “Being stadium captain has to be one of the top moments of my entire life . GO THE ROOS.”

In an earlier post, sharing the news of her special honor, Wonderland (real name: Alexandra Sholler) asked her followers to “wish me luck.” She didn’t need it. There were no howlers, errors, blunders.

Wonderland might have been the Socceroos’ lucky charm. The team needed a win, or a draw, to ensure progress to the round of 32. When the final whistle was blown, the Aussies got through with a 0-0 result.

With that particular bucket list item ticked off, Wonderland can focus on her touring. She wraps up the North America leg of her latest jaunt this Saturday, June 27 at Foam Wonderland in Las Vegas, NV. Then, she takes her show on the road for performances in the United Kingdom and Europe, getting underway July 10 with the Wonderland Warehouse Rave in London, all of it in support of her fourth studio album, Ghost World (via EMI). 

Collaborators on Ghost World, which dropped in December 2025, include Nina Wilson, better known as EDM producer and artist Ninajirachi, plus DJ Dave and Erick The Architect. Wonderland produced the collection with Dylan Ragland, MEMBA and QUIX. Ghost World was mixed by Tom Norris and Tristan Hoogland and mastered by Dale Becker.

Wonderland is at right home on the stage, and can boast more than 800,000 headline ticket sales across her U.S. tours alone. In 2018, she carved her name in the history books with a headline spot at Coachella, her fourth performance in the California desert, and has seven-times headlined the “Temple of Wonderland” at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

There’s more Justin Bieber Swag for your collection.

At the stroke of midnight, the Canadian pop star shared the full live recording from his much-talked-about headlining performance at the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival, on April 11.

Released through Def Jam Recordings, Swag Live From Coachella (Weekend I) features guest spots from The Kid LAROI, Tems, Wizkid, Dijon, and Mk.gee, and stretches across 22 tracks.

It’s the companion to a performance that spurred its share of conversation on social media after Bieber spent some of the set playing and singing along to old YouTube videos of his catalog alongside his more recent hits. Whatever, it generated an impressive spike for Bieber’s streams, new and older. Following that first weekend slot, Bieber landed seven albums on the Billboard 200 at the same time, a career best for the most titles on the tally concurrently. Prior to that, the most he had on the chart at once was four, last achieved in January 2012.

Swag Live From Coachella (Weekend I) follows the Grammy Award-nominated seventh studio album Swag, which dropped July 11, 2025, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (dated July 26), and flooded the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 16 songs, led by “Daisies” at No. 2.  His first LP in four years, since Justice, Swag debuted at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums while the album track “Daisies” started at No. 1 on Top Streaming Songs. 

Then, last September, the surprise release of Swag II, which opened and peaked at No. 4 on the all-genres Billboard 200 list.

Missed it? The official livestream of Bieber’s performance on Thursday, June 25 enjoyed a special encore repeat on YouTube, and will repeat again today, June 26 at 7pm ET.

Stream Swag Live From Coachella (Weekend I) in full below.

Central Melbourne just got a high voltage artwork — a new Bon Scott mural, unveiled ahead of what would have been the late AC/DC frontman’s 80^th birthday.

Presented Friday, June 26, in AC/DC Lane, just minutes after Australia wrapped up its final round D match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the piece was created by Melbourne artist Era based on exclusive commemorative artwork by Mambo artist and Mental As Anything co-founder Reg Mombassa.

Born and raised in Scotland, Scott relocated to Fremantle, Western Australia with his family in 1952 when he was aged six. His Celtic roots are remembered with a lifesize statue, wielding the bagpipes, in Kirriemuir.

With a bad boy attitude, naughty grin and powerful pipes, Scott fronted several bands, most notably Fraternity and the Valentines, before he nabbed vocal duties with AC/DC.

Scott performed on the band’s first seven studio albums, including the legendary 1979 collection Highway to Hell. The album turned out to be his swansong. Just six months after its release, in February 1980, Scott died in London, at the age of 33, from what the official coroner’s report described as “acute alcohol poisoning” and attributed to “death by misadventure.”

AC/DC was one of the very first names read out for induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, saluted at a ceremony in 1988, alongside Dame Joan Sutherland, Johnny O’Keefe, Slim Dusty, Col Joye and Vanda & Young. Later, in 2003, the Aussie act was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. At every concert, AC/DC salutes their inspirational early frontman.

The rocker is gone, but won’t be forgotten.

“Fifty years ago, Bon Scott and AC/DC made Aussie rock history when they rolled down Swanston Street on the back of a flatbed truck – bagpipes in tow – for their iconic ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top‘ music video,” Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece told guests gathered Friday at Kinetic Cafe.

“This moment sparked a surge of cultural energy that still reverberates today. Melbourne is the undisputed home of live music in Australia, and AC/DC is part of our city’s DNA.”

The mural, he continued, is “a fitting tribute to two Antipodean cultural icons – and you couldn’t find a better home for it than here in AC/DC Lane.”

Collectors can bag their own copy on a poster, shirt, tote bag and more. Exclusive Reg Mombassa x Bon Scott 80 merch can be found at aus.bonscottofficial.com.

“The Scott family have been fans of Reg Mombassa’s artwork (and music) for many years. His visual style is an iconic piece of Australian culture. To have him create a special piece commemorating Bon’s 80th birthday is an honor and a thrill,” reads a statement from the rocker’s survivors.

Scott’s life and career was recounted in the 2022 documentary On The Brink, produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A batch of the vocalist’s candid letters chronicling life on the road, and the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, recently went under the hammer as part of RR Auction’s Marvels of Modern Music sale. The lot sold for more than $48,000.

Opening night of Lionel Richie’s Sing a Song All Night Long Tour didn’t go as planned, as the veteran singer called time early after apparently feeling unwell.

The Rock Hall-inducted singer announced an unexpected intermission almost an hour into the show Wednesday night, June 24 at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, The Minnesota Star Tribune reports. He didn’t return.

Just moments before, he told the audience he was feeling shaky on his feet while performing one of his uptempo numbers, the ‘80s classic “Dancing On The Ceiling.” Fan-filmed footage shows Richie taking an unscheduled rest on a step, persevering and trying to walk it off, then sitting again. “When you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down,” he reportedly said.

Richie is understood to have performed one more song, the ballad “Three Times a Lady,” only this time at the piano.

Following his exit from stage, Richie’s five band members reportedly stayed onstage, while pre-recorded music played softly over the sound system.

Then, at about 10:50 p.m., or 40 minutes after Richie had called for intermission, the title reports, saxophonist Dino Soldo broke the bad news. “Unfortunately, Lionel is not feeling well,” he reportedly told the audience. “He won’t be able to continue. Additional information will be available.”

The 26-date North America tour, with support from Earth, Wind & Fire, is due to continue Friday night, June 26 at United Center in Chicago, IL. At the time of writing, the status of that concert remains unclear.

Richie, now 77, released a new memoir last year titled Truly. In its pages, the veteran singer takes readers through his humble beginnings growing up in Tuskegee, Ala., during the Civil Rights movement, to his adventures as a member of The Commodores and his time spent growing up in 1960s Harlem. From there, Richie shares his highs, like being signed to Motown at just 19 years old alongside The Jackson Five, writing and recording “We Are the World” (a story told in the documentary The Greatest Night in Pop), the fear and excitement he felt going solo, and now, serving as a judge on American Idol.

Richie’s 2025 tour Say Hello to the Hits Tour was a hit, grossing $17.8 million with 118,000 ticket sales across 25 dates in Europe and Las Vegas, according to Billboard’s year-end Boxscore charts. That result was good enough for a top 10 spot among the highest grossing R&B tours of the year, coming in at No. 9.

Suno announced the launch of a new artist incubator program, Spark, on Thursday (June 25), offering selected independent artists monetary grants, marketing and access to Suno songwriting camps.

Participating artists will retain creative control and commercial rights of their works, and a Suno spokesperson notes that the size of these grants range depending on where an artist is in their career and could count in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Marketing support will be also tailored to each artists’ needs but could include influencer marketing, advertising and digital exposure, support in creating visuals and art, events, activations, press opportunities and more.

The Suno spokesperson also clarifies that Suno will not play a role in the process of selecting or using a distributor — that part is left up to the artists’ discretion.

“Again and again, emerging artists tell us the same thing: they need more than tools. They need support, exposure, and new ways to turn their creativity into opportunity,” reads a blog post from Suno’s chief music officer Paul Sinclair and head of creative economy and monetization Rosie Nguyen. “Spark’s goal is to help more artists turn ideas into finished projects, connect those projects with fans, and build new opportunities to grow their careers both on and beyond Suno.”

Artists must be at least 18 years old, must be a singer, songwriter or producer releasing music under their own name and must be an independent artist to participate.

In the past year, Suno’s songwriting camps have become a key piece in Suno’s strategy to reach out to musical talent and introduce them to their generative AI products, which can create songs from scratch based on simple text prompts. In January, Suno invited Billboard to witness one of their camps in action at an undisclosed studio in Los Angeles, which featured talents like Timbaland, Om’Mas Keith (Frank Ocean, Eryka Badu, Jay-Z), and Gino the Ghost (Sabrina Carpenter, The Chainsmokers, Saweetie) among others. At the camp, professionals used Suno for song ideation and then recreated the Suno work piece by piece with human musicians who added in their own improvisations and flair.

In an episode of Billboard On the Record, Suno CEO Mikey Shulman was asked about whether or not Suno had interest in becoming a record label in the future. He replied: “No. I think about us as trying to build the music superapp. We want the best version of every part of music that could possibly exist, so the creation thing was a big goal…[and] the best consumption experience is not something that I think exists today. I don’t know exactly what it is but it is something that is more engaging than things that exist today, and so we want to go make that. I think the record label is just separate from that. [Labels are] important, like I said before, people think we think the record label is going to go away. That’s obviously not true. I think they are way too culturally important. It’s just not the thing that is ultimately end user facing that we have opinions on how to make way better.”

The new program arrives just weeks after Suno announced a new $400 million Series D funding round, led by Bond Capital, leading to a post-money valuation of $5.4 billion. Despite investors’ confidence in the AI music company, Suno continues to fight copyright infringement claims from much of the music industry establishment.

It is currently being sued by Universal Music Group and Sony Music in a $500 million copyright infringement lawsuit in which the major labels allege Suno has trained on their copyrighted sound recordings without proper consent and authorization. (Warner Music Group was previously part of that lawsuit, but it settled its side of the lawsuit and made a licensing deal with Suno in late 2025). GEMA, the German collection society, and Koda, the Danish collection society, are each also in active litigation against Suno for copyright infringement.

Earlier this week, Hagen Berman, a national plaintiffs’ class-action law firm, joined a lawsuit driven by independent artists who claim their copyrighted music was used to train Suno’s models, constituting copyright infringement.

Read Sinclair and Nguyen’s full blog post about Spark below:

Introducing Spark: Supporting the Next Generation of Independent Artists

Making it as an independent artist isn’t easy. Every day, we meet talented artists with great ideas, unique perspectives, and a clear vision for their music, but who may not have the resources or connections to take the next step.

At Suno, we want to help create a future where more artists have the opportunity to develop their craft, find their audience, and build sustainable creative careers. That’s why we’re launching Spark, a new incubator program designed to help independent artists bring their music projects to life through grants, mentorship, and dedicated marketing support.

Independent artists have always played an outsized role in shaping music and culture.

Spark is shaped by what we hear from artists. Through artist partnerships, product feedback sessions, community programs, and writing camps, we’ve worked closely with musicians, songwriters, producers, and creators at every stage of their careers.

Again and again, emerging artists tell us the same thing: they need more than tools. They need support, exposure, and new ways to turn their creativity into opportunity.

Spark’s goal is to help more artists turn ideas into finished projects, connect those projects with fans, and build new opportunities to grow their careers both on and beyond Suno.

How Spark Works

Beginning today, interested artists can apply to participate in Spark [link to landing page/application]. In order to be eligible, applicants must:

Each artist selected for Spark will receive a grant to support their creative process, additional funding for marketing, be invited to collaborate with established artists at our writing camps and have the opportunity to give feedback on new features Suno is building. Artists will retain creative control and commercial rights of their works.

Looking Ahead

One of the best parts of working in music is discovering artists at the beginning of their journey. We can’t wait to meet the talented creatives who join Spark, hear what they’re working on, share their stories, and learn from them along the way.