Music

Akon and Ne-Yo have been on the road together as part of their Nights Like This tour, a collaboration Akon says has been a long time coming.

“Me and Ne-Yo go back 20 years,” he tells ABC Audio. “We always wanted to do something together eventually … but our careers always took us in two different directions.”

This time, however, their schedules and goals aligned, allowing them to finally bring the idea to life. “It just so happened that we were in a cycle to both go out on our own tour. And we just had so much in common as to what we wanted to do, all the way down to the timeline,” Akon says. “So it was like, yo, this could be the perfect time for us to come together and really do this big tour.”

He adds that if they had gone on separate tours first, their schedules wouldn’t have allowed for them to collaborate in this way, which is why they decided to put things in motion.

“This is our moment, you know what I mean? So we was like, let’s do it, man, share the same stage, go back and forth with our hit records and just throw the biggest party everybody’s ever seen for our culture around the time that we was coming up and doing music,” Akon explains.

After performing in Europe and the U.K., the North American leg of the Nights Like This tour begins Wednesday in Vancouver. Asked what fans can expect from the show, which supports his latest album, Beautiful Day, Akon kept the details under wraps.

“You gotta … buy the ticket and find out,” he teases. 

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Now that we’re halfway through 2026, Rolling Stone has rounded up this year’s releases into a new ranking called “The Best Songs of 2026 So Far.“

The top 10 includes Charli XCX at #1 with “SS26,” from her upcoming album Music, Fashion, Film. The magazine calls the track “hilariously brutal.” Ella Langley’s mega-smash “Choosin’ Texas,” which Rolling Stone describes as “a sparkling entry in the tear-in-my-beer canon,” sits at #3.

In at #4 is Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead,” a song the mag says “captured the feeling of being so deliriously head over heels that you feel literally sick.”

The #5 song makes the cut but is not a single: “Season 2 Weight Loss” by Harry Styles, in which the singer contemplates whether his fans would love him for who he truly is rather than the idol they believe him to be. Rolling Stone says it’s “one of the smartest, most intriguing records” he’s made to date.

Bruno Mars’ comeback single “I Just Might” lands at #8. According to Rolling Stone, it’s “the kind of effervescent pop-funk sugar that’s made him one of the most popular showmen in pop music.”

Beyond the top 10 are songs including sombr’s “Homewrecker,” The KID LAROI’s “Thank God,” Bella Kay’s “iloveitiloveitiloveit” and Gracie Abrams’ “Hit the Wall.”

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The band ME., featuring former Taking Back Sunday members Mark O’Connell and Eddie Reyes, has released a new song called “Grown Man.”

“The song isn’t just about love. It’s about trust,” O’Connell says of “Grown Man.” “It’s about second chances. It’s about finding someone who believes in you when you’ve forgotten how to believe in yourself.”

You can watch the “Grown Man” lyric video streaming on YouTube.

“Grown Man” will appear on the debut ME. album, titled All Good Things, due out July 24. The record also includes the previously released song “Special.”

“We are not the same guys we were 25 years ago,” Reyes says. “ME. is about growth. It’s about creating something new.”

Reyes, a founding member of Taking Back Sunday, parted ways with the band in 2018. O’Connell had drummed in TBS since 2000 before announcing his departure in early 2025.

Taking Back Sunday’s most recent album is 2023’s 152.

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Teyana Taylor wants to set the record straight: She says she was not prevented from joining the New York Knicks on the court following the team’s championship win.

A video of the moment surfed online with the caption, “They wasn’t tryna let Teyana Taylor on the court. San Antonio Trippin!” 

“A few things here,” Taylor wrote in the comments. “I was minding my business on FaceTime then I start walking towards the proper entrance and was actually stopped by the first young lady you see talking to me.”

“I think she was just a little overwhelmed, lol. It was a lot happening,” Teyana went on. “She was def over doing her job but at least she was doing it!”

Teyana added that it was difficult for anyone to access the court that night and clarified she had the credentials necessary to be there but wasn’t “willing to rush or trample my way in.” According to Teyana, she made it onto the court about a minute after the video was recorded.

“I was perfectly fine,” she said. “I had an absolute blast.”

Teyana has posted photos of her from the celebration. She reflected on the Knicks’ championship run and described the team’s journey as one of resilience, much like her own.

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Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Marc Anthony, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, U2’s Bono and The Edge are all set to perform at the Grand Opening Ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center. The event will be livestreamed globally at 11 a.m. CT on Thursday. Barack and Michelle Obama will be giving speeches.

Teddy Swims has shared a live performance of a new song called “Break Up in Reverse,” which is likely to appear on his as-yet unannounced new album. “So excited to share this song with you !!” he wrote on Instagram. Teddy also recently announced the opening acts for his upcoming Ugly Tour, which include Natasha Bedingfield.

Lola Young’s hit “Messy” was named song of the year and top streaming song at the ASCAP London Music Awards, held in the British capital on Tuesday.

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Olivia Rodrigo’s costars in her video for “stupid song” are a troupe of New York ballet dancers, including New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck. Tiler also choreographed the spot and told Billboard what that experience was like.

Olivia walks through the streets of New York City in the video, before being joined by the ballet dancers who dance around her and frolic with her in the park. They shot it in Manhattan from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. in one day, because the dancers had to get to rehearsals by 11:30 a.m.

“When we were sitting between takes and talking, she wanted to know everything,” Tiler said of Olivia. “She was like, ‘Oh my God, you guys have a show tonight?!’ And she ended up sending us all a bouquet of flowers to the theater before our night show. It was so nice. And I could just tell she was fascinated by the whole ballet world.” 

Tiler said she’s the one who insisted that the dancers wear pointe shoes. However, she was forced to have all the white tutus she brought to the set dyed pink because Olivia was “adamant” about the color.

But Tiler says she and the dancers are up for recreating the performance with Olivia anytime. As she told Billboard, “All of us girls had such a fun time with her, if she did ever want that to happen, we would so love to do that.”

Meanwhile, “stupid song” is currently soundtracking the trailer for the new film Heartstopper Forever.

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