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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jamie Foxx Shuts Down Conspiracy Theory That Diddy Tried to Kill Him
Jamie Foxx suffered a serious medical emergency in 2023, which he later confirmed to be a stroke. During the time of uncertainty surrounding the mystery illness, plenty of rumors swirled on social media, including Diddy's alleged involvement. Foxx shut down the rumors that Diddy tried to have him killed during an interview earlier this week for The Hollywood Reporter with Hasan Minhaj, Chelsea Handler, Roy Wood Jr., Seth Meyers and Sarah Silverman. More from Billboard Diddy Trial: 6 Biggest Moments So Far, From Freak-Off Details to Suge Knight to Kid Cudi's Torched Car Roger Nichols, Grammy-Nominated Co-Writer of 'We've Only Just Begun,' Dies at 84 Julión Álvarez Postpones Stadium Show in Texas After Not Being Able to Enter the U.S. 'I'm in f—ing perfect shape. [I saw things like,] 'Puffy tried to kill me.' No, Puffy didn't try to kill me. When they said I was a clone, that made me flip,' he said. 'I'm sitting in the hospital bed, like, 'These b—h-a– motherf—ers are trying to clone me.'' The 57-year-old admitted he was heavily sedated with drugs during his hospital stay — and he says he doesn't recall weeks of it — and he snuck in a cell phone, which saw him indulging in the salacious rumors around his health. 'I was doing so many jokes in the hospital,' he continued. 'That's the only way I could get through it. I'm a comic, so even when I was heavily sedated, and they gave me OxyContin, Dilantin and morphine at the same time.' Foxx previously addressed the rumors of Diddy having him killed and his friendship with the Bad Boy mogul during his What Had Happened Was Netflix special in December. 'The internet said Puffy was trying to kill me, that's what the internet was saying,' he said. 'I know what you thinking, 'Diddy?' Hell no, I left them parties early.' Combs' reps dispelled the rumors of Diddy having any involvement in Foxx's health crisis in October, which they said were 'outlandish, ridiculous and baseless.' In April 2023, Foxx's daughter revealed that her father was hospitalized for a 'medical complication' while filming the Netflix movie Back in Action in Atlanta with Cameron Diaz. Jamie Foxx eventually explained that a 'brain bleed' led to him having a stroke after only saying he had a 'bad headache.' A nurse said he only had a five percent chance of surviving the medical crisis. The Oscar-winning actor spent nearly a month in the hospital as doctors ran a myriad of tests and watched his condition closely. He told the audience at his Netflix special that he came 'within an inch of his life' while battling the health scare. As for Diddy, Combs is currently on trial for his sex trafficking and racketeering case, which is expected to last into July. He potentially faces life in prison if convicted on all charges. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
7 Things We Learned From Talking to EDC Las Vegas 2025 Performers
Every year, over half a million music fans flock to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for three nights to dance under neon lights to tunes spanning almost every imaginable dance music subgenre. While Electric Daisy Carnival just wrapped its 29th year, it somehow still finds ways to reinvent itself and grow — not just grow in crowd size, but in cultural and physical reach. Just before opening the gates to the festival on May 16, the event's producer Insomniac invited select guests to Hotel EDC at the Virgin Hotel to celebrate their latest international expansion. Partygoers celebrated with Gorgon City to highlight Insomniac's next international destination, Medellín, where EDC Colombia will launch in October 2026. More from Billboard Roger Nichols, Grammy-Nominated Co-Writer of 'We've Only Just Begun,' Dies at 84 Julión Álvarez Postpones Stadium Show in Texas After Not Being Able to Enter the U.S. Jamie Foxx Shuts Down Conspiracy Theory That Diddy Tried to Kill Him Inside the festival, we saw more representation on the lineup via the Ubutu stage, which created a dedicated space for Afro-house for the first time in the festival's 29-year run. This year the fest also added a dinner theater activation where guests were treated to a cocktail hour with an acrobatic showcase, followed by dinner featuring a dance troupe and ending with dessert and live singing. With the festival approaching its 30th year, Billboard spoke to a handful of DJs, from legendary headliners to this year's first-timers, to hear from their perspective on how EDC continues to grow and how they personally make each year better than the last. Here are seven takeaways from their words of wisdom. Tiësto is without a doubt one of the biggest names in dance music. He's played EDC every year since the festival moved from California to Las Vegas in 2011. You would think he's turned every possible stone the fest has to offer, but this year, the legend was excited to play Circuit Grounds, a fan-favorite stage, for the first time. Circuit Grounds offers more screens to visually bring the audience into new and unexpected tracks like Tiësto's upcoming collaboration with Sexyy Red on the F1 soundtrack, 'OMG!' Backstage the artist rhetorically asked us 'Who would have thought Tiësto would have collabed with Sexyy Red?… No one. Absolutely no one. And it's an amazing track.' Also bringing the unexpected this year was EDM titan Kaskade. He brought his b2b act with Alison Wonderland to the Cosmic Meadow stage after the artists debuted as a duo at EDC Orlando last year. This time around, they expanded their sound to include some of Wonderland's signature trap tunes. 'For me, it's just about playing stuff we love and trying to figure out that bridge in between,' Kaskade told us. 'We've only played a handful of shows so we're still discovering that as we play out more together.' When you've played EDC for as long as Tiësto and Kaskade, who's performed at the festival for two decades, you have to continue making changes to your solo sets. Tiësto reserved a special set for the mainstage, closing out the three-day festival with a set that saw a return to his trance roots. Rising German producer Marlon Hoffstadt introduced 'The Godfather of Trance' before his In Search of Sunrise Set, named after his legendary 1999 compilation album. Tiësto told us the time was finally right for such a moment, saying 'I reconnected with the sound I started with back in the day, and I feel like it's a full circle moment. When [Insomniac Events founder] Pasquale [Rotella] asked me 'Will you do a sunrise set?' and I thought 'Yeah, the time is right now.'' For Kaskade, his solo set was sprinkled with pieces of his decades-old hits. Many DJs' styles evolve over time, and Kaskade says he still struggles trying to resurface his former fan-favorites but admits, 'People online will like this. There's sometimes when there's somebody hitting me up like 'You haven't played this song in 10 years!' and I'm like 'Oh yeah. That is a good song. I should remember to bring that out.'' So, if you're waiting for more tracks from his 2008 album Strobelite Seduction to make it into his next set, like us, keep posting. The electric sky still shines just as bright, if not brighter, almost 30 years later. Alison Wonderland is still amazed at the impact that EDC has had on her and her friends after playing the festival 10 years later. She reflected on her first time playing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and crying, telling the audience 'I started in my bedroom and now I'm here.' A decade later, she's still humbled by her EDC experience saying that she can't believe she is sharing the stage with Kaskade. But there's nothing that could prevent her from taking the stage at the Electric Daisy Carnival. 'In fact, I actually love EDC so much that at 9 months pregnant I played main stage,' she said of this set that happened in 2023. With over 500,000 people attending the festival every year, it's the perfect opportunity for an artist to not only reach their fans but also expose themselves to a group of people who have potentially never heard their sound. Just ask Ben Nicky. We caught up with the British producer 10 minutes after his first set at Kinetic Field on Saturday night before he made his way to Neon Garden for a b2b set with Maddix. Walking into his trailer, he was already on his computer working on a track because he's aware of how every set offers its own opportunities. 'I'm like a DJ's DJ,' he said. 'I'm always changing something. Mainstage you've got your big fanbase there, but you've got another fifty to sixty thousand people who might not know you or be more into commercial stuff. So, you have to tailor and play more well-known vocals. Whereas in the trance tent, I can get away with more dark and underground stuff.' Ben meticulously tweaks every element to fit the crowd he's trying to appeal to, and the crowd at EDC is some of the most knowledgeable when it comes to dance music. Brazilian star Alok told Billboard that means you can't phone it in. 'I feel like people here each year are more and more educated,' he said, 'so, it's not easy to please them. So you really have to bring stuff that makes sense and not obvious.' He knows a thing or two about keeping an audience on their toes. He just had a buzzed-about Coachella performance, for which he hired dancers with two-tone arms to create eye-catching live visuals. While some DJs meticulously plan their sets, others prefer to 'just rip it' in the words of Tape B. He started playing EDC in Orlando while doing his undergrad in Florida. Now that he's worked his way up to EDC Las Vegas, he attended a programming meeting for the first time ahead of his solo set on Friday. When it came to his joint set with dubstep super DJ, Crankdat, they planned to start their set with their unreleased collab but keep it loose otherwise. He told Billboard about the planning that went into the set saying, 'Met up with Crankdat. Worked on our back-to-back for a little bit. Got songs kinda together. We're mainly freestyling it tonight. So, it's going to be very interesting, but very fun.' One of the most exciting aspects of attending EDC Las Vegas is the massive amount of unreleased music you'll hear. REZZ said she was most excited to give fans a taste of what direction she's taking her project next. 'I'm super excited for this year. I'm playing like, seven new songs, more than half of which I've never played before.' Check TikTok to see fans' live reactions to some of this new music. It's become customary for DJs to head to Las Vegas with a ton of unreleased music. Riot Ten used it as a chance to treat his most dedicated fans to an early listen of his new album, Requiem For a Riot, before it drops in a week. Other artists may opt to test out some tracks they're workshopping to see how the crowd reacts, like DJ Snake who played his upcoming song 'Paradise' for the audience at AYU dayclub, not once, but twice, to make sure it went off every time. With this year's addition of the Ubutu stage, Afro-house had a major presence at the festival for the first time. Francis Mercier noted that EDC is 'the home to different types of music from hip-hop to dubstep to house to now Afro house. It's a place where you can hear all different types of music.' This new stage opened the door for artists like Karaba, who hails from Montreal, Canada, to play a stage at EDC Las Vegas for the first time. Making the most of these opportunities is key, according to Morten. His first time playing the fest was in 2016 when he thought no one would see him spinning at one of the art cars. When he took the stage he was surprised by the energy. 'It doesn't matter what stage you're at, the party and the crowd is incredible.' Since then, he's played solo sets, b2b with David Guetta and this year played Kinetic Field with Artbat. If you really want to see how quickly you can ascend to greatness, you just have to look at Cloonee's trajectory. He admitted that EDC wasn't really a festival you thought about as someone who grew up in England. After living in the States for a few months, he found himself nervously playing the Stereo Bloom festival back in 2022. This year he played Circuit Grounds right after Tiësto,z who said he wasn't going to play Cloonee's hit song 'Stephanie' with InntRaw and Young M.A because it would be this year's most played song and you don't play the most played song before its creator takes the stage. Meanwhile, the advice Cloonee would give himself before playing Stereo Bloom in 2022 is, 'Calm down because you've got bigger ones to do.' Catch more of Billboard's EDC Las Vegas coverage on Billboard's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Channels. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Julión Álvarez Postpones Stadium Show in Texas After Not Being Able to Enter the U.S.
Mexican star Julión Álvarez has postponed his Saturday show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, after not being able to enter the United States, according to the artist's team. Álvarez — alongside the show's promoter CMN and his management/booking company Copar Music — issued a statement Friday (May 23) explaining that, 'Due to unforeseen circumstances,' he was 'unable to enter the United States in time for the event.' More from Billboard Why Canceling Michelada Fest Will Leave a 'Gaping Hole' in Chicago's Summer Season: 'Our Culture Is Being Targeted' Roger Nichols, Grammy-Nominated Co-Writer of 'We've Only Just Begun,' Dies at 84 7 Things We Learned From Talking to EDC Las Vegas 2025 Performers Adding, 'With nearly 50,000 tickets sold, this sold-out show was set to be an unforgettable night for fans. Both CMN and Copar Music, along with Julión's team, are actively working to reschedule the performance as soon as possible. Julión Álvarez extends his heartfelt thanks for your patience and continued support, and he looks forward to reuniting with his Texas fans very soon.' In a video message posted on Instagram, Álvarez further explained that his work visa had been cancelled. 'It's a situation that is out of our hands. It's the information I have and what I can share.' In April, the regional Mexican star, known for hits like 'Póngamonos de Acuerdo' and 'Te Hubieras Ido Antes,' made his grand return to the United States with three historic sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The shows in L.A. saw Álvarez perform in the U.S. again, eight years after a legal process that began Aug. 10, 2017, when the U.S. Treasury Department singled out the singer for alleged money laundering and links to drug trafficking. This caused the closure of his social media accounts and the rejection of U.S. companies to work with the Chiapas-born singer, and kept him away from stages in this country. In May 2022, the charges were dropped and Alvarez announced in a press conference that everything had been 'cleared up.' The three shows in L.A. and the one in Texas this year were setting him up for his upcoming 4218 Tour in the U.S., although the tour dates had yet to be announced. While it's unclear why Álvarez was not able to enter the U.S., the news comes at a time when international artists have faced a visa situation that has impacted a handful of regional Mexican acts and events. Earlier this month, Michelada Fest in Chicago was canceled over artists' visa uncertainty. Today's press statement mentions that previously purchased tickets 'will be honored for the new date,' but if unable to attend the rescheduled concert, 'refund details will be provided.' See Álvarez's message to his fans below: Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Justin Bieber Joins SZA for Surprise Performance of ‘Snooze' at L.A. Concert
Justin Bieber made a rare onstage appearance with SZA during her concert at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on May 23. The surprise collaboration took place during the second Los Angeles stop of SZA and Kendrick Lamar's co-headlining Grand National Tour, which launched in April. More from Billboard Kendrick Lamar & SZA Preach Love Over Hate During 1st LA Stop of Grand National Tour: 5 Best Moments Roger Nichols, Grammy-Nominated Co-Writer of 'We've Only Just Begun,' Dies at 84 Julión Álvarez Postpones Stadium Show in Texas After Not Being Able to Enter the U.S. Bieber, who is currently working on new music, stunned the packed crowd as he joined the five-time Grammy nominee for a flirty rendition of 'Snooze.' The pop superstar previously featured on the acoustic remix of the track, originally released on SZA's 2022 sophomore album, SOS. Wearing an all-black ensemble topped with a Balenciaga jacket, Bieber traded verses with SZA, kissed her hand multiple times, and danced with her throughout the sultry performance. The singer's wife, Hailey Bieber, showed her support by sharing a clip of the moment on her Instagram Story, captioning it, 'My 2 favorite artists.' 'Snooze' earned SZA her second No. 1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in July 2023, and also topped the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay tally. The unplugged version of the track featuring Bieber dropped in September 2023. The music video also stars Young Mazino, Woody McClain and Benny Blanco. This isn't Bieber's first time performing 'Snooze' live. In February 2024, he attempted a solo rendition during a surprise appearance at the NHL All-Star Draft in Toronto, according to Rolling Stone. Friday's performance at SoFi Stadium marked the first time Bieber and SZA have performed the song live together. Bieber has made several surprise appearances at concerts in recent years, including a performance of 'Private Landing' at Don Toliver's L.A. show in October 2024, and a cameo during Tems and Wizkid's Coachella 2024 set to perform the 'Essence' remix. He hasn't played a full solo concert since September 2022. During the first night of the Grand National Tour's Los Angeles stop on Wednesday (May 21), SZA brought out surprise guest Lizzo for a live performance of their 'Special' remix. SZA and Lamar are set to play one final show at SoFi Stadium on Saturday. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
