Lauren Jauregui isn’t done teasing fans with glimpses of her new single.

The Miami native took to Twitter on Monday (Jan. 14) to share a snippet of the video that will accompany her second solo track, “More Than That.” In the 11-second-long visual, the song’s intro plays as a hazy image of a beautiful, young brunette swaying to the rhythm pans out.

Jauregui captioned the video with a date, “#MoreThanThatVideo out Friday, January 18th.”

See her teaser video below.

Lauren Jauregui✔@LaurenJauregui

#MoreThanThatVideo out Friday, January 18th

Rihanna has reportedly turned down a chance to headline the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in a sign of solidarity with exiled former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

According to US Weekly, the singer was offered the gig at the big game in February 2019, but she declined due to disagreeing with the NFL’s stance on players taking a knee during the National Anthem. The movement that was started by Kaepernick in 2016 as a symbol of protest against racial injustice in America.

Rolling Stone, citing a source close to Rihanna, later confirmed the report; a spokesperson for the singer had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time. Entertainment Weekly also reported that the NFL and CBS reached out to Rihanna first to play the prestigious, high-profile gig, with a source claiming, “the offer and exposure would have been great for Rihanna as she’s planning a new album and tour but she stuck to what’s right in her eyes.”

Electropop duo Frenship (James Sunderland and Brett Hite) has debuted a rousing new single titled “Wanted a Name” featuring Yoke Lore, premiering on Billboard today (Jan. 16).

The catchy synth-pop song, which was inspired by the quiet they found at home after returning from their first headlining tour in 2018, serves as a taste of the duo’s forthcoming debut album, due this year. A soaring chorus conveys a sense of longing as they sing, “Could you love me like you used to? Cause I still need you.”

Sunderland and Hite explain that they often find themselves wishing they could connect with fans again once they’re done touring.

“Our lives revolve around writing, touring and perfecting every element of what you see and hear from us, which fuels us and brings us happiness,” Sunderland tells Billboard. “In the midst of focusing on that, we don’t want to lose sight of what made us start making music in the first place.”

Hite adds that they “love” interacting with fans on the road. “The love and appreciation is flowing but, when the tour is over, it’s easy to wonder if that feeling will ever happen again,” he says.

Brooklyn native Adrian Galvin, who records as Yoke Lore — and joined the duo on their 2018 tour — says that the track is also about keeping that “spark of awe” alive. “As we make the road our lives and we make our instincts our livelihoods, we tend to sacrifice certain romances to which we were initially drawn,” Galvin says. “This song is about how to sustain the longing after we have achieved the goal.”

10 dates are on the move after Grande joined the roster for this year’s festival in Indio, California.

Ariana Grande has shuffled 10 dates on her upcoming The Sweetener World Tour after announcing a headlining slot at this year’s Coachella festival. The North American dates were originally slated to wrap up on June 26, but will now stretch until July 13 to accommodate rescheduled shows in Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Denver and Salt Lake City, according to a statement released on Monday (Jan. 14); those dates were initially scheduled to take place in April. In addition, shows in Omaha and Raleigh have been canceled.

The Sweetener tour will kick off on March 18 with a show at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York, with stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit before Grande takes the stage at Coachella on April 14 and 21. The tour will now wrap on July 13 at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Grande stepped in to replace Kanye West as the youngest headliner in the event’s history after the rapper insisted that Coachella erect a giant dome in the middle of the festival grounds, a structure that parent company Goldenvoice told Billboardwas impossible to erect in such a short time span and which would require a major rearrangement of the site.

Sweetener World Tour dates (rescheduled gigs in bold)

*New rescheduled dates bolded

March 18 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center

March 20 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden

March 22 – Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center

March 25 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena

March 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center

March 28 – Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena

March 30 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena

April 1 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre

April 3 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

April 5 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena

April 14 – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

April 21 – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

April 25 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place

April 27 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena

April 30 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center

May 2 – San Jose, CA @ SAP Center

May 3 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center

May 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center

May 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center

May 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum

May 11 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena

May 14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Arena

May 17 – San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center

May 19 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center

May 21 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center

May 23 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Chesapeake Energy Arena

May 25 – New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center

May 28 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena

May 29 – Orlando, FL @ Amway Center

May 31 – Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena

June 1 – Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena

June 4 – Chicago, IL @ United Center

June 5 – Chicago, IL @ United Center 

June 7 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena

June 8 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena

June 10 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center

June 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena

June 14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center

June 15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center

June 18 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

June 19 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

June 21 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena

June 22 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden

June 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center

June 26 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

June 29 – Indianapolis, IN @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse

July 1 – Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center

July 5 – Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum

July 6 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center

July 8 – St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center

July 11 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center

July 13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena

If you were looking for the most adorable #10YearChallenge post, it has arrived.

On Tuesday (Jan. 15), Dua Lipa posted a video to Instagram in which her younger self — presumably around 13 years old, since she’s now 23 — sings Alicia Keys’ “No One.” The video appears to be taken at some sort of school function, maybe a talent show, and the now-world-famous pop star gets some pretty great feedback from the audience for nailing the high notes of the chorus, as she shyly smiles at the applause.

The singer didn’t exactly follow the unwritten rules of the #10YearChallenge, which asks participants to share side-by-side photos of themselves a decade ago and today, but we all know what Dua Lipa looks like now, so we’ll take it. “My 10 year challenge… well almost –,” she captioned the video.

Dua Lipa just nabbed four nominations at next month’s Brit Awards, and is also up for her first two Grammy Awards at the Feb. 10 ceremony.

Sitting atop the Hot Tours recap dated Jan. 19 (see below) is Justin Timberlakewith the first 2019 reports from the Man of the Woods Tour. After taking the late months of 2018 off due to bruised vocal cords, he returned to the stage with a vengeance, grossing $7.4 million from three mid-Atlantic shows from Jan. 4-8 in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.

After being named the No. 6 tour of 2018 on Billboard’s Year-End Boxscore rankings, the Man of the Woods Tour crosses the $150 million threshold with a total of $155.5 million and more than 1.2 million tickets sold. Now out of recovery, Timberlake will play a stretch of rescheduled dates before wrapping the tour at Uncasville, Conn.’s Mohegan Sun Arena on April 13.

Meanwhile, the final North American reports are in for Latin superstar J Balvin’s 2018 Vibras tour. After supporting Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull’s massive 2014-15 run and limited headline touring in major markets, Balvin went wide, hitting familiar bases in New York and California, as well as new terrain in Texas, the Southeast and the Midwest. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, he grossed $11.5 million and sold 152,247 tickets from 26 shows.

Balvin has shown tremendous growth in a few repeat markets. After scaling from New York’s Best Buy Theater in 2015 ($73,342 from 2,150 tickets sold) to his 2017 gig at the Theater at Madison Square Garden ($385,456; 5,276 tickets), he sold out Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Oct. 20, 2018, eclipsing $1 million grossed from 12,154 tickets sold. Similarly, Balvin scaled from Boston’s House of Blues in 2015 ($97,667; 2,450 tickets) to the Boch Center in 2017 ($213,168; 3,011 tickets), and most recently to the Agganis Arena, grossing $350,223 from 4,761 tickets sold.

The highest-grossing engagement on his new North American tour was Inglewood, Calif.’s The Forum, where Balvin grossed $1.8 million and sold 23,728 tickets on Sept. 22-23, 2018. The Los Angeles-area arena was the only occasion on the trek where he played multiple nights in one market. In addition to his million-dollar plays in Inglewood and Brooklyn, Balvin crossed the $500,000 mark at the Oracle Arena (Oakland, Calif.), Allstate Arena (Rosemont, Ill.), and American Airlines Arena (Miami).

While J Balvin conquers North America, Sting and Shaggy take the 44/876 Tour to Eastern Europe, adding $4 million to their global haul. The $2.4 million from four Russian dates spanning Nov. 5-11 make the pair the country’s highest-grossing act of 2018, eclipsing Depeche Mode’s $1.9 million. This success isn’t as surprising as it seems when considering that Sting is the sixth-highest-grossing act in Russia in the history of Billboard Boxscore. Since beginning the 44/876 Tour in Bulgaria on June 19, the genre-defying duo has grossed $21 million with total attendance of 264,383.

Rounding out this week’s recap, French pop auteur Christine and the Queensmakes her Hot Tours debut with $1.3 million grossed from two shows on each side of the pond. Her two sold-out shows at Brooklyn Steel grossed $145,960, becoming her highest-grossing engagement in North America. Across the Atlantic, her two-night stint at Paris’ AccorHotels Arena grossed $1.1 million, enough to become the highest-grossing engagement of her career so far.

 

The band and the NFL waited nearly three months longer than usual to confirm the gig.

The Super Bowl halftime show has traditionally been one of the most coveted gigs in music, with speculation about which megastar will light up the game reaching Oscar-worthy levels in the run-up to the late-fall announcement.

So why did the NFL and Maroon 5 wait nearly three months to confirm that the California pop group would be taking the stage in Atlanta on Feb. 3 at Super Bowl LIII with Travis Scott and Big Boi? Billboard reported in September that M5 would headline the set, which comes mid-way through what is annually the most-watched block of TV real estate. But neither the band nor the NFL would comment on the record at the time. Or for several months afterward.

The first official confirmation from the notoriously controlling league and the radio-friendly band came on Sunday (Jan. 13), less than a month before the big game. The word finally came after months of reports that everyone from Rihanna to Cardi B, Adele, JAY-Z and P!nk had passed on the unpaid performance for various reasons, from scheduling conflicts to a reluctance to dance, and, most importantly, as a show of solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a prominent activist now best known for taking a knee during the National Anthem in 2016 in protest of racial inequality in the U.S. That move, of course, led to Kaepernick’s exile from the league and a raft of similar protests from fellow players.

In contrast, the two previous halftime performers, Lady Gaga in 2017 and Justin Timberlake in 2018, were announced on, respectively, Sept. 29, 2016 and Oct. 22, 2017.

In the interim, a change.org petition urging M5 to drop out of the show has garnered more than 85,000 signatures, soaking up a lot of the media coverage that would normally have been reserved for the headliner hyping what is surely a bucket list opportunity for the veteran group with a squeaky clean image.

Before Sunday’s announcement, Jeff Rabhan, former artist manager (Jermaine Dupri) and current chair of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, said he suspected that the league decided to hold off on making a formal statement as long as possible to avoid further controversy and keep the focus on the playoffs for now. “They chose an old-school way of dealing with it: just don’t talk about it and maybe it will go away,” he said. “Which doesn’t work.”

While Maroon 5 released a one-minute video on Sunday (Jan. 13) hyping the performance, they have not yet made any public statements or appearances promoting it. That’s in contrast to Scott, who told Billboard on Sunday — just before the NFL’s release — that he would not accept the invitation until the league agreed to join him in donating $500,000 to a social justice cause. Spokespeople for the NFL and headline halftime sponsor Pepsi had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.

A source with first-hand knowledge of the discussions, however, described the long wait to announce the band’s performance as “frustrating” for all the artists, especially since most of them have been confirmed for weeks, or even months. All three acts have ties to Irving Azoff’s Full Stop Management, though neither rapper has ever appeared on a Maroon 5 album; Levine is featured on “Mic Jack” from Big Boi’s 2017 Boomiverse solo album. Cardi B, featured on their current smash, “Girls Like You,” pointedly will not be appearing with the band, but rather playing an ancillary show sponsored by Bud Light on the night before the game alongside Bruno Mars.

What explains the eerie silence from the typically amiable, press-friendly M5 front man Adam Levine? “It’s probably coming from Maroon 5’s people, who didn’t want to allow the message to get out so they had weeks and weeks of hate mail and torture,” says a long-time publicist (unaffiliated with the band) who predicts the furor will likely continue, but not necessarily stick to the Grammy-winning band with more than 20+ million in career album sales. “It’s moronic on the one hand that they’re even doing it — it’s not the biggest gig of your career when more than 50 percent of the world hates you for making the choice. I think it hurts their brand and it’s a total mistake on their part. But in the scheme of things in terms of America right now, people will probably forget it as soon as it’s over.”

What would the publicist have done if they’d been in an early meeting about the show? “I would say as a publicist we recommend you don’t do this,” the publicist says, adding that they would likely have pursued the same tactic that the band and their reps have: months of radio silence. “It doesn’t matter how huge a stage it is, there’s a bigger upside to say you passed [on it]. If it’s a done deal, though, I would say: Don’t call attention to the fact that you’re doing it, because there’s no upside to that. Just let the gig happen, let those who know know and treat it like a regular TV booking, which you might not really publicize that much.”

Levine appeared on Ellen in November, nearly a month after the news first emerged, and the singer played coy with DeGeneres during an appearance that should have been his first promotional push for the typical halftime media blitz. “It’s a great event, and there’s going to be a band performing or an artist of some kind performing halftime… and it’s going to be great regardless of who it is,” Levine said cryptically. “Whoever is lucky enough to get that gig is probably going to crush it.”

While everyone from comedian Amy Schumer to the NAACP and Rev. Al Sharpton have spoken out about the booking over the past four months, Maroon 5’s team appears to have taken the road suggested by the publicist: near-total silence. (A spokesperson for the band declined to comment on the record.)

Gaga’s appearance was announced relatively early, followed less than two weeks later with the “Shallow” singer telling Carson Daly that she wanted to “Push the Envelope” and was launching a “Guest of Honor” contest with sponsor Pepsi that December. “I’m absolutely honored to be doing the Pepsi halftime show. We’ve already been thinking of all the different ways we can make this a special experience for all the NFL fans,” Gaga said at the time. By this time in January 2017, Gaga was taking fans behind the scenes for the set she said, “I’ve been planning since I was 4.”

Even with the drama surrounding Timberlake’s return to the Super Bowl following 2004’s notorious “Nipple-gate” performance with Janet Jackson, and hot-take controversy over whether he would invite Jackson back as a sign of good faith, didn’t fully overtake the NFL’s typical “nothing to see here” narrative. Timberlake hit the late night shows to promote his halftime, joking with Stephen Colbert in late November and dropping the first in a series of BTS videos in mid-January.

Vic Oyedeji, who began the Maroon petition drive and was also behind the #NoKaepernickNoNFL petition urging people to boycott the NFL until Kaepernick was signed by another team — which racked up more than 208,000 signatures — tells Billboard he started the Maroon drive because he knows the halftime show is the highlight of the Super Bowl, regularly besting the actual game in ratings. “When Rihanna turned it down and Amy Schumer and JAY-Z spoke out I knew I had to create a petition to see what folks had to say about it,” he says. Oyedeji says he’s very pleased with the effect and the conversation he’s sparked, even after the news that the show will go on as planned.

“I have mixed emotions about it and I’m kind of disappointed that they decided to perform,” he says. “But I’m glad that that stage has now been tainted, and anyone who performs on it starting this year is — in effect — aligning with the NFL. And that’s why these artists backed down, and now it will be harder to find artists to perform. I’m very proud of that.”

“They [the NFL] got spooked by the petition and they did what they always do: they thought, ‘If [the Maroon 5 booking is] a total win for us, we don’t need the controversy,'” says Rabhan. The former major label A&R exec, who has attended several Super Bowls — including 2003’s, where former client Michelle Branch played a pre-game set alongside Santana and Beyoncé — says he spoke to a very prominent member of Atlanta’s hip-hop community before the announcement who said the NFL “didn’t even try” to make a sincere effort to reach out to the city’s large African-American music community to land a headliner who better represents the city’s rich R&B and rap history.

He also notes that he didn’t fully agree with the aim of Oyedeji’s petition. “It wasn’t asking for anything except to put pressure on them [Maroon 5],” he says. “Do they not want anyone to play? Is it boycotting Maroon 5? Because they haven’t done anything wrong here, they’re just a band in the business of performing for people. As a manager, that’s a difficult situation, because in general I believe in communicating.” When the petition first came out with its plea to Maroon 5 to take an opportunity to “stand on the right side of history” and choose the players over the league, Rabhan says the group had an opportunity to say “we support this and it’s important to us… we’re big football fans and we stand behind Colin, we support everyone’s opportunity for freedom of speech, we support the players and we’re not choosing a side.'”

What would he have counseled if he was their manager? In Rabhan’s book, getting out in front of a controversy is best policy, rather than avoidance, which he believes only stokes the fires. None of it surprises him, though, as Rabhan mentions that he’s worked with the NFL Players Association in the past at Tisch and has gotten a first-hand taste of the “iron fist” the league’s owners rule with. “By not accepting it or caving to the pressure you don’t forward the movement at all and you’re not changing minds,” he says. “But to say nothing, or not take a stand, that’s the [traditional] playbook and that’s where the NFL has gotten hurt over the years.”

The longtime producer of the halftime show, Ricky Kirshner, and the longtime director, Hamish Hamilton, as well as more than half a dozen prominent publicists who’ve worked with past halftime performers declined to speak on the record with Billboard about the glaring delay in the Maroon 5 announcement.

In light of the weekend confirmation, Rabhan sent Billboard an updated perspective on Monday (Jan. 14): “I’m glad the NFL finally realized that bringing Pepsi into Coca-Cola’s hometown was dangerous enough,” he says of the No. 2 cola brand entering Coke’s corporate backyard, and the wise decision to add ATLien Big Boi to the roster. “But not having someone from ATL’s rich musical history share the stage with Maroon 5 would force every self-respecting southerner to take a knee as well.” Additionally, a number of other prominent ATL acts will be playing Super Bowl adjacent parties during the week, including Migos, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Lil Yachty, Lil Baby and Future.

Speaking of taking a knee, Oyedeji tells Billboard he’s come up with the perfect answer for how M5 and their collaborators can rise above the noise, a suggestion he added to his petition page on Monday. “I have nothing against the band, this isn’t about them and they just got caught in the crossfire,” he says. “I’m saying the only way for them to preserve their reputation is to take a knee during their set to show the hundreds of millions of people watching their solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and the players who are protesting police brutality.”

What else could help tamp down the stigma? “A great performance with Travis [and Big Boi],” says the veteran source familiar with the machinations of halftime shows, who doesn’t expect M5 to make any statement during the show. “People are gonna hate online either way.”

 

“This is a tricky year for it [playing the halftime show] and I’m not sure what the right answer is,” says a veteran music industry source familiar with the mechanics of Super Bowl halftime performances; the source spoke to Billboard two days before the official announcement. “The announcements are always dictated by the NFL, but it’s way different this year because it’s in Atlanta — the de facto home of hip-hop — and there are issues there because of stories about how they reached out to hip-hop acts and they didn’t want to perform.”

Add to that the poor optics of two black hip-hop artists — Scott and Big Boi (born Antwan Patton) — performing in majority African-American metro Atlanta following the NFL’s roll-out of a controversial new Anthem policy before the 2018-19 season, which many saw as an attempt to silence any on-field protests. Those suggested rules, widely panned but currently on hold and yet to be enforced, would force players to either stand (and face a team fine for any display deemed disrespectful) or stay in the locker room. Together they create what the source deems a “very difficult” situation for Levine and the band members, all but one of whom are white.

“I don’t know what else they can do. If they’d known what the reaction would be maybe they would have thought twice about it, but it’s one of those feather-in-your-cap, check it off the list things. Who wouldn’t want that?” says the source. “It’s an unfortunate combination of the year and the city.”

Among the growing wave of talent vying for the top spot in the increasingly competitive and international world of K-pop, SF9 are set on proving that 2019 will be their year for mainstream fame and global recognition.

After a 2018 that saw them score two more Top 10 entries on Billboard‘s World Albums chart, individual promotions in TV, radio and fashion, plus the group tackling genres like progressive dark-pop on “Now or Never” and ’60s rock via “Mamma Mia,” SF9 says they’re more than ready to take on the new year in a big way.

Ahead of their new album and tour, which will launch early this year, the members Young Bin, In Seong, Jae Yoon, Da Won, Ro Woon, Zu Ho, Tae Yang, Hwi Young, and Cha Ni sat down exclusively with Billboard to discuss their excitement over their fast-growing stardom, success, 2019 plans, and more. Keep watch on the ninesome as they trailblaze ahead of their K-pop careers.

Watch the video for “Now or Never,” and check out our Q&A after the jump.

First and foremost, congratulations on everything you guys have accomplished in 2018! SF9 is doing so well all over the world. How does it feel to finally have that kind of response to your music?

We are just honored to be recognized by people that love music, and do what we do. We will continue to try our utmost best to meet, and more importantly, exceed everyone’s expectations this year by giving great performances, and consistently work together as a whole to improve.

What can we look forward to in 2019? 

If there is one thing we, SF9, would like to accomplish as a group is to have our first No. 1 song on multiple music charts, and [be on] music TV programs. Also, we are working on our new album and tour! We can’t reveal the dates yet, but it will be very soon and we are extremely excited to share our new material with our fans worldwide. 

What was the most memorable moment for SF9 in 2018?

The year was both challenging and memorable for us, but we were beyond excited and grateful to have had our first solo concert in Seoul. We were so overwhelmed by the amount of support and love we got from our fans. It was super special. We were also thrilled that we were able to meet our fans — Fantasy — in many different countries. It definitely made us want to engage more with our fans; we realized that there’s nothing more important to us than quality time spent with Fantasy.

Is there anything you want to say to your fans?

We want to truly thank our fans for their consistent support and love. We don’t have words to describe our gratitude towards Fantasy! We promise to deliver and show more of us in 2019. We will prepare and bring new performances and music to make you guys proud. We wish you nothing but health and happiness, and WE LOVE YOU!