A year after pulling the plug on their festival early after The 1975 singer Matty Healy slammed Malaysia‘s anti-LGBTQ laws as “f–king ridiculous” before sharing a long kiss with bassist Ross MacDonald, Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes Festival has announced its return. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The two-day event at Resorts World Awana in Genting Highlands will take place on July 20-21, Joji and Russ headlining the first night, along with a lineup featuring Alec Benjamin, Haven, Peach Pit, Ylona Garcia, Cherry Bomb, Spooky Wet Dreams, Bad Habits and more. The second day will be topped by J Balvin, who will be joined by Peggy Gou, Bibi, Henry Moodie, Tiger JK & Yoon Mi Rae, Forceparkbois, Talitha, Capt’n Trips and the Kid and more. Tickets for the festival go on sale at 11 a.m. on Friday (May 10) here. Trending on Billboard Future Sound Asia’s director of entertainment, Wan Alman, spoke to the NME about the event’s return, declining to comment on The 1975 due to ongoing legal action against the group while emphasizing that the festival is not banned and will return this year. “To be honest, this year has really been one of the most challenging festivals to plan – and not for the reasons you might think. It’s not really anything to do with what happened last year, but this year has been an especially challenging time for festivals around the world in general,” Alman said, citing the cancellation of Australia’s Splendour in the Grass and what he claimed were lineup backlashes facing other festivals. “It’s been really tough booking acts for festivals all around the world. Not everyone will get a great line-up like Coachella or Splendour, and when you don’t get a great line-up, people don’t buy tickets,” he added. “I think a major cause of this is that artist fees have skyrocketed. I think it’s going to be unsustainable but it’s just getting higher and higher every year.” Despite cancelling the second and third days of last year’s event over Healy’s comments, Alman said the Malaysian government was “quite supportive” of this year’s return. “They want to work with us hand-in-hand to make sure that that sort of thing doesn’t happen again and that the live music industry and the festival industry isn’t adversely affected by what happened,” he said. The festival has been working with local authorities to come up with a standard operating procedure to deal with a similar incident in the future. And though he said the 1975 dust-up did not inform their booking choices this year, Alman stressed that the decade-old festival did more due diligence this time to make sure the acts they slotted were “not controversial.” That said, event organizers do have a “kill switch” they can enact that immediately cuts off audio, video and stage lighting should there be another incident, something Alman called “the very last resort.” See the full lineup for the 2024 Good Vibes festival below.

Nine singers progressed, and three were eliminated Tuesday night (May 7) on NBC‘s The Voice, as the live round once again dished up its share of drama. Earlier, on Monday night, each of the Top 12 hit the stage and sang for their lives in the competition. On this occasion, America voted while coaches Reba McEntire, John Legend, Chance the Rapper and newbies Dan + Shay were on hand to give input. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news During Tuesday night’s Top 9 announcement, the four singers with the lowest vote count were returned to the stage. The prize – the “Instant Save,” bringing with it entry into next week’s semi-finals. For their last chance, Nadège hit “Smooth Operator” by Sade; L. Rodgers performed Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me,” Zoe Levert covered Kacey Musgraves’ “Slow Burn,” and Tae Lewis’ tackled “The Church on Cumberland Road” by Shenandoah. Trending on Billboard There could be only one. Team Dan + Shay’s Lewis got the nod. “That was like a finale performance,” Dan Smyers told Lewis. “We are so proud of you, how far you’ve come. I hear it in your voice, I see it in your eyes (and) I feel it in your soul. You want to be here. You deserve to be here.” The 32-year-old Goldsboro, NC native joins Bryan Olesen (Team Legend), Maddi Jane (Team Chance), Madison Curbelo (Team Dan + Shay), Asher Havon (Team Reba), Karen Waldrup (Team Dan + Shay), Serenity Arce (Team Chance), Josh Sanders (Team Reba) and Nathan Chester (Team Legend) in the semis. Perhaps it’s beginner’s luck. Perhaps they’ve got the secret sauce. What we do know is that Dan + Shay lead the way, representing three of the final nine contestants. Watch Tae Lewis’ performance on season 25 of The Voice below. [embedded content]

Austin’s South by Southwest conference and festival is heading to the United Kingdom, marking the first time that the world-famous event has been held in Europe. Due to take place over one week in June 2025, the inaugural edition of SXSW London will follow the same format as its Texas-based forerunner and feature “inspiring and challenging” keynote talks, music performances and showcase leading innovations in tech, gaming and film, organizers said in today’s announcement. Names and details of who will be appearing will be announced in the coming months. Held annually in the city of Austin since 1987, SXSW has grown to become one of the biggest events in the global music calendar, attracting hundreds of thousands of musicians, creatives, filmmakers, media companies and music industry executives to the state of Texas every March. Trending on Billboard Amy Winehouse, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Wet Leg are just a few of the music artists who played the festival early in their careers. Previous guest speakers have included Dave Grohl, U.S. president Barack Obama, Steven Spielberg, Michelle Yeoh and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, while Twitter, Foursquare and Airbnb are among the tech start-ups that SXSW famously helped launch. Next year’s debut of SXSW London continues the event’s global rollout, which began in 2023 with the launch of an Asia Pacific edition in Sydney, Australia. The second installment of SXSW Sydney takes place Oct. 14-20 with the main U.S. SXSW festival and conference scheduled for Mar. 7-17 in Austin. The addition of a new London edition makes the event series “an indispensable three-stop tour for the global creative community,” said organizers in a press release. Although 2025 will be the first time that a SXSW-branded event has taken place in Europe, the organization did team up with Mercedes-Benz to host an annual conference, called the me Convention, between 2017 and 2019 in Germany and Sweden, targeted at the tech, design and creative communities. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring the SXSW experience to London,” said SXSW co-president and chief brand officer Jann Baskett in a statement. He called next year’s planned event “an incredible new opportunity to highlight the elements that make SXSW unique in one of the most vibrant cities in Europe.” Randel Bryan, managing director of SXSW London, said the festival “will build on Austin’s incredible legacy” by providing “a platform for the next generation of creative talent.” While detailed plans for SXSW London are yet to be announced, organizers said the event will be held in dozens of venues, art galleries and clubs in the East London district of Shoreditch and will have its own “distinctive personality,” reflecting the U.K. capital city’s “internationally renowned cultural life and creativity.” Alongside keynote talks and music showcases, the conference will include “boundary pushing” visual arts, design and fashion programming, with exhibitions and interactive and immersive experiences taking place in public spaces across East London. The city’s proximity to other major creative and tech centers in Europe will also shape programming as organizers look to attract creative talent from across the continent. Commenting on the announcement, London mayor Sadiq Khan called the plans “a historic opportunity” for the city “to once again bring the world’s most exciting talent together.” In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW had signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism will be hard to catch in the U.K. chart race. Based on midweek sales and streaming data captured by the Official Charts Company, the British pop singer’s third studio album has a healthy lead. Radical Optimism is outselling the next-best-placed LP, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, by 2 to 1, and should storm home for Lipa’s second leader. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Assuming it continues on its path, Radical Optimism will become Lipa’s first album to debut at No. 1. Her self-titled 2017 debut Dua Lipa peaked at No. 3 and has logged 354 weeks on the frame, while her sophomore effort from 2020, Future Nostalgia, climbed to No. 1 in its second week. Future Nostalgia logged four weeks at No. 1, and has now clocked 203 weeks on the Official Chart – and counting. Radical Optimism is already a U.K. hit, yielding three top 10 singles chart entries: “Houdini (No. 2 peak), “Training Season” (No. 4) and “Illusion” (No. 9). Trending on Billboard With Dua Lipa’s latest effort flying high, Swift’s Tortured Poets looks set to dip 1-2 after two weeks at the chart penthouse. It’s TayTay’s 12th U.K. No. 1 album. Meanwhile, Hampshire, England rock artist Frank Turner is on track for a podium finish with Undefeated. It’s new at No. 3 on the Official Chart Update, and is set to become Turner’s sixth U.K. top 10 appearance. Kelly Jones, frontman of Welsh indie-rock favorites Stereophonics, could nab his solo career best with Inevitable Incredible, his second LP. Inevitable Incredible is on course for a No. 4 start, well ahead of the No. 8 best for his debut solo effort Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day from 2020. As a member of Stereophonics, Jones has eight U.K. No. 1s. Finally, Scottish indie-pop act Camera Obscura is peering in on a first-ever U.K. top 10 appearance with Look To The East, Look To The West, their first studio album in over a decade. It bows at No. 10 on the chart blast, and should give Camera Obscura a third U.K. top 40. All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, May 10.

Myke Towers captures his highest-charting hit yet on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart as “Adivino,” with Bad Bunny, debuts at No. 2 on the list dated May 11. It’s the 52nd chart hit for the former, and 11th to reach the top 10. For Bunny, the collab marks his record-extending 75th top 10 out of 170 total chart hits (again, a record). Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Adivino,” released April 25 on One World International/Warner Latina, traces its No. 2 debut on Hot Latin Songs almost entirely to streaming activity. The song logged 9.9 million official U.S. streams in the U.S. during the April 26-May 2 tracking week, according to Luminate. That sum yields an equal No. 2 start on Latin Streaming Songs, Towers’ highest debut, and it equals his highest charting song (“La Jeepeta,” with Nio Garcia, Anuel AA, Brray and Juanka). Trending on Billboard As “Adivino” launches at No. 2 on Hot Latin Songs, which blends streaming data, airplay, and digital sales for its results, it pushes Xavi’s former No. 1 “La Diabla” from 2-3, following its 14-week domination which started in January. The track marked the second-longest run at No. 1 this decade (Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” dominated for 19 consecutive weeks in 2023). Meanwhile, FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s “Gata Only” remains at No. 1 four a fourth consecutive week. By reaching No. 2, Towers outpaces his career-best, as he previous topped out at No. 3 on the multi-metric tally with both “La Jeepeta” (Nio Garcia, Anuel AA, Towers, Brray and Juanka), and “Caramelo” (Ozuna, Karol G and Towers), a week from each other in August 2020. Benito, meanwhile, scores his first debut on the chart since the Oct. 28, 2023-dated list, when he landed 19 concurrent debuts alongside the release of his Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana album, including the entire top 10, led by “Mónaco.” The track spent 10 weeks at No. 1 – the second-most of any No. 1 in 2023, trailing the 19 weeks of “Ella Baila Sola.” Notably, as “Adivino” becomes the third song to debut at No. 2 or higher in 2024 –after two Peso Pluma songs– Bad Bunny extends his record for the most top 10s, with 75. On the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Adivino” opens at No. 63, Towers’ highest-debut yet. Only one other Latin song ranks higher: FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s “Gata Only” continues its winning streak, as it rallies 58-44 on the Hot 100 and continues at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs for a fourth turn. While streaming activity fuels the bulk of “Adivino’s” high start, sales assist its launch in the upper tier: the 1,000 downloads sold in the tracking week targeted for a No. 1 debut on Latin Digital Song Sales. [embedded content]