Category: Music

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After UFC 332 in Salt Lake City, the UFC heads to the UAE for UFC 333. Two prime fighters face off in the championship main event, as Australian fighter Alexander Volkanovski (28-4-0) defends his featherweight title against Russian Movsar Evloev (20-0-0).

And in the co-main event, Russian Petr Yan (20-5-0) takes on Georgian Merab Dvalishvili (21-5-0) for Yan’s bantamweight championship in a title bout.

On Saturday (Oct. 24), UFC 333 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with a start time of 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT.

How to Watch UFC 333 Live Online, at a Glance:

What Is the Main Event’s Walkout Music for UFC 333?

Although the UFC has yet to announce each fighter’s walkout songs for UFC 333, they usually go out to the octagon to the same songs during their matches. Volkanovski has walked out to “Down Under” by Men at Work, while Movsar Evloev prefers to walk out to “Melodies of the Mountain” by Sulambek Mamilov.

As for Yan, he typically walks out to “Stem for the Belt” by Noggano and Dvalishvili usually walks out to “Homeland” by Bani.

How to Watch UFC 333 Live Online

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After the free trial ends, your plan will automatically renew at the regular rate, but you can cancel any time. Check out entire UFC 333 fight card below:

Main Card, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT

Prelims, 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT

Early Prelims, 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT

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Shoppers can receive access to Paramount+ included with any Walmart+ subscription, the retail giant announced last September. A Walmart+ subscription is $98 for the annual plan (about $8.17 per month) after the 30-day trial.

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Drake rang in his 40th birthday with more than 400 guests, million-dollar prizes and a surprise performance from the Backstreet Boys — one day after adding another record to his already historic résumé.

The Toronto superstar celebrated at New York’s Casa Cipriani on Friday night (Oct. 23), hours before officially turning 40 on Oct. 24. According to TMZ, guests were treated to luxury giveaways including Chanel and Hermès handbags, while a game show held during the party offered cash prizes ranging from tens of thousands of dollars up to $1 million.

The night’s biggest musical surprise came courtesy of the Backstreet Boys, who performed for the crowd before Drake joined them onstage for their 1999 hit “I Want It That Way.”

Amid the spectacle, Drake took a moment to reflect on the milestone.

“Tonight isn’t about a tour, an album release, or a bunch of videos we shot,” he told the room. “It’s about being alive, staying alive.”

The New York celebration capped several days of birthday festivities that began back home in Toronto. Earlier in the week, Drake gathered with friends at the CN Tower, where he was surprised with a collage of photos and memories. Popcaan was among those in attendance.

Drake later traveled to New York with his mother and members of his entourage aboard Air Drake, his customized Boeing 767, and was spotted dining at SoHo restaurant Mamo on Thursday night (Oct. 22).

The Backstreet Boys appearance also carried some history. In July 2022, the group brought Drake onstage during their DNA World Tour stop at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage and introduced him as their “sixth member” before performing “I Want It That Way.”

Drake told the crowd that night that the song had soundtracked a formative memory at his bar mitzvah, when a girl he liked approached him and asked him to dance.

“That was the first time I ever felt acknowledged, and the first time I ever felt like I had a shot at being cool,” he recalled, before calling the track “one of the greatest songs of all time.” He joined the group for the performance, even weaving portions of his own “Hold On, We’re Going Home” into the Backstreet Boys classic. Four years later, the song returned as the soundtrack to another milestone.

Drake’s 40th birthday arrived alongside another major career milestone. On Friday (Oct. 23), the Recording Industry Association of America awarded him 30 new certifications, making him the first artist to surpass 350 million RIAA-certified units.

Views, “In My Feelings” and “Marvin’s Room” were all newly certified Diamond, while “God’s Plan” reached 2x Diamond status. His latest album, Iceman, also went platinum just five months after its May release. Drake now holds 18 Diamond plaques, extending his record for the most of any artist.

Billboard Canada has announced some more major global names for Billboard Canada Women In Music, where Cardi B will accept the Global Woman of the Year Award.

Summer Walker will accept the Global Visionary Award. Walker has broken barriers to build a modern global R&B success story based on boundless creativity and radical vulnerability. This year, Walker transformed her now-complete Over It trilogy into her first arena tour, the Finally Still Over It tour, which sold out venues around the world. The tour told the tale of her three albums, kicking off in Toronto and culminating with a special finale in the U.K., with two sold-out nights at London’s O2 Arena.

Celebrating the feat in a special moment captured by Billboard Canada and Billboard UK, Walker paid tribute to the bold and loyal team that has helped her achieve new heights as she has built her own path within the industry.

Bebe Rexha will be honoured with the Global Hitmaker Award, which recognizes her decade-spanning career and illustrious path from songwriter to one of the most versatile charting stars on the music landscape. From pop to electronic, country and R&B, she has shown an ability to craft songs that resonate with massive audiences including multiple No. 1s in Canada and the U.S.

Now in 2026, the singer has taken greater creative control of her career, going independent and partnering with EMPIRE, a decision she describes as not just a business one, but a personal one, “embracing every part” of herself. Her 2026 album Dirty Blonde hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance Albums chart and reflects Bebe’s newly heightened creative ambition, which includes making music videos for every song on the album.

Chxrry will accept the 2026 Billboard Canada Rising Star Award.

It has been four years since the Scarborough-born, Los Angeles-based act (formerly Chxrry22) made history as the first female artist signed to The Weeknd’s XO record label. Chxrry has continued to build her audience, playing both intimate and stadium-sized concerts during her opening stint on The Weeknd’s record-breaking After Hours Til Dawn tour. This year, she played 16 sold-out shows across the globe, including two stops in Toronto.

The celebration will be hosted by Leandra Earl and Kylie Miller of The Beaches, the breakthrough Toronto band that was recognized as last year’s Women of the Year.

The band celebrated the major breakthrough that began in 2023 with “Blame Brett” and continued through their 2025 album No Hard Feelings and their graduation to an arena-level band. They have remained true to themselves and proudly worn their home country on their sleeve, all while continuing to build an impact that transcends beyond it.

In addition to being major honourees last year, they were undoubtedly the life of the party, celebrating with the other honourees and creating a viral moment as they shared their surprise while congratulations played from Elton John, Kid Cudi, Charlotte Cardin and more. Following the Women of the Year honour, they also became the first group to receive the Global Force Award at Billboard Women In Music in Los Angeles. They described the win, which recognizes their representation of Canada on the world stage, as a “dream come true.”

Kylie and Leandra’s charm has also breathed new life into their breakthrough hit “Blame Brett” as the guitarists lead a viral stage move that has become a viral staple during the band’s live sets. From Rebecca Black and the Off Campus cast, to their own parents, the “Blame Brett hops” have become a fan-favourite moment and taken over stages of all sizes, from festivals like All Things Go to the arenas where The Beaches opened for Louis Tomlinson this spring.

Read more here. — Billboard Canada

Drake Finances New Album From Canadian Rapper k-os 

The return of Canadian hip-hop veteran k-os is imminent — and it’s fuelled by one of the country’s biggest global stars.

BLackneck will release on Oct. 30. It’s the genre-blurring Canadian rapper’s first full album in over a decade, and it has a major credit: Drake.

The new seven-track LP finds k-os reconnecting with the influence he’s left behind — the ambition of a Canadian artist willing to think beyond the country’s borders while also representing where he came from — and it took one of its biggest benefactors to bring it to life.

Drake is credited as an executive producer on the project. Though he wasn’t behind the boards, the Toronto star bankrolled the whole project while offering encouragement to k-os to make the album only he could make.

“Drake was like, ‘please make me a k-os record, please, please, please.’ That’s all he wanted,” k-os tells Billboard Canada over the phone from Mayne Island in B.C., where he’s putting the finishing touches on the mix for the album.

By a ‘k-os record,’ he means an album that takes big swings and doesn’t pigeonhole itself to one genre or perspective — a vision that inspired a young Aubrey Graham as he was building his Drake persona.

He grew up watching k-os on Canadian music video channel MuchMusic in the 2000s, when k-os was making his name as a major name in Canadian hip-hop. They collaborated on the songs “Faith” part one and two in the early 2010s, and remained friendly ever since. They first reconnected, k-os says, in 2021 or 2022 when they saw each other at a club. They re-exchanged phone numbers and Drake asked him to send him some music.

“He was like ‘dude, clearly you’re still good at this,’” k-os remembers. “‘I want to put you into a situation where you can make some music.’”

Drake spoke to Matte Babel, the former MuchMusic VJ who now works closely with Drake as the chief brand officer of his entertainment company, DreamCrew.

Babel has been managing the project with k-os, with Drake as the “chief financier,” says k-os.

“He’s like ‘oh, he wants to go to this big studio? He wants to get this string section?’ It’s hard for a label to spend that on an artist these days,” says k-os, who was formerly signed to major label Universal Music Canada and indie label Dine Alone. “If you’re a new artist and you just get signed off of streams, you tell them you want the Vancouver String Orchestra, they’re going to say ‘we’re not paying for it.’”

But Drake is able to pay for it, bringing him back to a musical situation he was in when he was a major label artist in a pre-streaming world.

Read more here. — Richard Trapunski

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Criticizes Tate McRae’s Victoria’s Secret Performance: ‘Nothing Empowering Here’

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau is criticizing Tate McRae’s debut performance of “Housewife.”

The Calgary-born pop sensation took the stage at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show on Sunday night (Oct. 18) to perform her new single “Housewife” live for the first time, along with her hit singles “Sports Car” and “Dear God,” wearing a sleek red lingerie ensemble that drew criticism from the author and mental health advocate formerly married to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Under Billboard Canada‘s Instagram post of the performance, Grégoire Trudeau writes, “Really? This is what we need to do now to make a mark as an artist? I like her music and she’s talented but I see nothing empowering here; more like falling into the mold of people pleasing.”

Ahead of its release, McRae described her song to Jimmy Fallon as an empowerment anthem, one that’s “kind of about a woman who can’t be contained.” The Canadian pop star has explained the song is about wanting to be her own provider, to be rich, successful and her own housewife. “I just wanna make a lot of money/ be my own housewife/ You could be the one I’m calling honey/ Be my sex on the side,” she sings over the song’s mellow, 2000s-inspired production.

The viral hit is already breaking career records for the Canadian artist, having earned McRae’s largest streaming debut to date with 5.67 million streams in one day and landing at No. 1 on the Global Spotify chart. Her previous record was held by “Tit for Tat,” which garnered 4.31 million streams in a day and landed at No. 3 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, becoming her second-highest-charting solo hit in Canada. “Housewife” is McRae’s first new single of the year and her first since releasing her Canadian and U.S. No. 1 album So Close to What and its deluxe edition in 2025.

McRae’s performance has been the talk of the internet, with many fans raving over her catwalk strut to “Sports Car,” as well as the brief moment she shared with Gigi Hadid while performing “Housewife.”

Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

What is Paris Hilton‘s costume for Halloween 2026? It’s Britney, b—h (again)!

In photos exclusively shared with Billboard on Friday (Oct. 23), the mogul debuts her spooky-season tribute to longtime friend and pop icon Britney Spears, specifically channeling her performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2001. In the snaps by Brian Ziff, Hilton models a re-creation of the Princess of Pop’s green bandeau and bejeweled shorts — and yes, she even topped it off with an albino Burmese python resembling the one Spears famously carried on her shoulders on the awards show stage 25 years ago.

“Britney is one of the most iconic artists of our generation, and ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’ will always be such a legendary moment in pop music,” Hilton tells Billboard exclusively. “The song, the choreography, the fashion — it was everything. I’ve loved re-creating her different looks over the years because each one represents such a special moment in music history.”

She added: “Britney is not only an icon, but also a dear friend, and I’ll always love celebrating her and the incredible impact she’s had on all of us.”

This isn’t the first year Hilton has transformed into Spears for Halloween. In 2025, the DJ sported a shiny red jumpsuit and a teased ponytail to emulate the “Oops!… I Did It Again” music video, and the year before that, she re-created Spears’ schoolgirl look in the “… Baby One More Time” visual. In 2023, she celebrated Hallow’s Eve in a blue flight attendant getup à la Brit in the 2003 “Toxic” music video.

At this point, it’s clear that Hilton is one of Spears’ biggest fans — and the love goes both ways. The singer wrote in her The Woman in Me memoir that the Simple Life alum was “one of the people who was kindest to me when I really needed kindness.”

“I was crying when I read that,” Hilton later said of the passage on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “That really touched me. She’s just so strong. I love her so much, and I’m just so proud of her.”

See photos of Hilton as Spears circa 2001 below, and revisit the full VMAs performance.

You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just chopped it. Ariana Grande is now rocking a bob, which she showed off for the first time in a Friday (Oct. 23) post on Instagram — and boyfriend Ricky Alvarez is all for it.

The pop superstar shared a string of selfies in her post, holding the camera sideways and gazing into the lens. But instead of pulled into her signature ponytail or swept up in the chic bun Grande’s been wearing lately, her hair stops short a few inches above her shoulders, the ends flipping upward in a peppy swoop.

Grande let the new look speak for herself, captioning the photos with a simple heart and tagging hairstylist Brandon Pietsch.

The comments quickly filled up with famous friends complimenting the Grammy winner’s makeover, with Gigi Hadid writing, “rlly cute !!!!!!!!!” and Victorious costar Daniella Monet typing, “Natural cutie.”

But Alvarez’s comment was definitely the most forward. “i wanna ask you out,” the photographer wrote.

Grande and Alvarez first dated back in 2015, meeting when he worked as the the singer’s backup dancer. They split sometime in 2016, but rekindled their romance a decade later, with fans spotting them together throughout summer 2026 amid the Wicked actress’ Eternal Sunshine Tour and Petal album rollout.

“Wrote some songs about Ricky/ I’m tryna make him my last,” Grande sang at her final show of the trek, meaningfully tweaking a lyric in her 2018 seven-week Billboard Hot 100-topper, “Thank U, Next” to declare her reignited love for Alvarez.

Petal arrived on the last day of July and debuted atop the Billboard 200. It spawned Grande’s 10th Hot 100 No. 1, “Hate That I Made You Love Me.”

After the music video for the album’s title track dropped, however, an outpour of comments on her body and appearance flooded the internet. Her rep revealed that she’d be taking a step back from the spotlight shortly afterward, citing “endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”

The break has involved dropping out of the West End revival of Sunday in the Park With George — which would-be costar Jonathan Bailey has also since pulled out of — and scaling back public appearances. She will, however, participate in Focker-in-Law promo as the film’s Nov. 25 premiere draws closer, as Billboard confirmed in September.