CCM singer Mandisa, known for her 2013 hit “Overcomer,” has died at age 47. The Grammy winner died on Thursday, April 18, at her home. “We can confirm that yesterday Mandisa was found in her home deceased,” a representative for the singer said in a statement to Billboard. “At this time, we do not know the cause of death or any further details. We ask for your prayers for her family and close-knit circle of friends during this incredibly difficult time.” California native Mandisa launched her career as a contestant on American Idol‘s fifth season, and later collaborated with TobyMac and Kirk Franklin on TobyMac’s album Portable Sounds. She released her first album, True Beauty, in 2007. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Christian Albums chart. In 2011, Mandisa earned her first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Christian Airplay chart with “Stronger,” and earned a top 20 hit on the chart with “Good Morning” featuring TobyMac. In 2013, Mandisa’s song “Overcomer” spent 10 weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot Christian Songs chart and became a signature hit for the singer. Her Overcomer album also earned a Grammy for best contemporary Christian music album. She also earned six GMA Dove Awards nominations during her career. Trending on Billboard Mandisa also featured on songs including TobyMac’s “Lose My Soul,” Crowder’s “Let It Rain (Is There Anybody)” and Jordan Feliz’s “Jesus Is Coming Back.” Several CCM and gospel artists honored the late singer via posts on social media, including Brandon Heath, who wrote, “Love you, Disa. You were a force of love and encouragement in a difficult world. You were a sister and friend and I’ll miss you.” Natalie Grant wrote on Instagram, “Your smile and infectious spirit lit up every room. You were a true champion of others. I was the benefactor of your encouragement more times than I can count.Thankful for your music, your honesty and testimony that helped thousands upon thousands of people find the hope of Jesus. I loved sitting by you at awards shows so we could geek out at every performance. We were both true Christian music fans, and unashamed of it.” Mandisa was also an author, writing the book Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Find God’s Joy.

Nigerian Afrobeats artists Bnxn and Ruger talk about what their online beef was all about, how they made up, their new joint album called ‘RnB,’ what inspired them to make this joint album, their connection to Afrobeats superstar Burna Boy, the global recognition and growth for the Afrobeats genre and more! BnxnIt’s more about the […]

There are few people with more authority on fame than Paris Hilton and Sia. Both are longtime fixtures of global public consciousness: Sia for her music, songwriting and singular voice, Hilton for her mid-aughts party girl public persona, her reality series The Simple Life, her sprawling business, her 2020 documentary and 2023 memoir — both of which offered a revised look at what was happening behind the scenes for Hilton amid the apex of her fame — and of course, for her 2006 classic pop banger, “Stars Are Blind.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news All of this history amalgamates into “Fame Won’t Love You,” a collaborative track by co-written and co-sung Hilton and Sia out today (April 19.) A treatise on fame as an ultimately emptier vessel than real love, the chest-thumping anthem is the lead single from Hilton’s forthcoming second album. Her first LP in 18 years, the project is out in June and was executive produced by Sia. This meeting of minds came to be after a fortuitous meeting on New Year’s Eve 2023, when the two women, along with Miley Cyrus, gathered to perform “Stars Are Blind” on Cyrus’ holiday special. Trending on Billboard It was an encounter that lead to Hilton going to Sia’s house in L.A. to eat pasta, talk, hang out with the dogs and make music. Other songs from Hilton’s album, the title of which has not yet been announced, are intriguingly called “ADHD” and “Bad Bitch Academy,” with Sia saying that some of the music has a “cool early 2000s Britney” vibe. “Fame Won’t Love You” also comes ahead of Sia’s forthcoming LP, Reasonable Woman, which is out in May and will feature collaborates including Hilton, Labrinth and Chaka Khan. Talking to Billboard over Zoom, here Hilton and Sia discuss fame, the song they wrote about it, the “Stars Are Blind” renaissance and more. [embedded content] Let’s talk about this song. How you two end up working together? Sia: Well, we [performed on Miley Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve special] on the new year’s before last. Paris was so nervous, and I was so hot, because I had my wig on and it was boiling hot because it was in Miami. So Paris was dying of nervousness, and I was dying of heat. I went up to her and I was like, “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be amazing. You can do it.” Then she put her fan on me, and she made me cool. I just felt like our friendship was formed in that moment, where it was not a give/give relationship, it was a give, take, give relationship. It was the kind of reciprocal relationship that I only like to engage in. Then what happened? Sia: That night I said to Paris, “What’s your big dream?” and she said “To put out an album.” I was like, “Well, we can do that. I’ll source some songs, and write a couple songs, and I’ll try and help you put an album together, because you can totally do it.” She was very darling. She said, “Thanks for believing in me.” Paris, what do you remember from from that interaction? Paris Hilton: Well, when Miley called me and asked me to sing “Stars Are Blind” with her and Sia on New Year’s Eve, I was like, “Oh my god.” I was planning on just going with my husband to Maui and having a nice, relaxing New Year’s Eve. Then when I got that call I was like, “This is too iconic to say no to. I have to do this.” And you were nervous? Paris Hilton: I was so nervous, and Sia and Miley were so kind and supportive and made me feel so comfortable, and we just killed it out there. The next day Sia asked if I wanted to fly home with her on her plane, and we went and she said, “You were born to be a pop star.” I said “That’s always been my dream.” She was like, “Well, what about if we did a record?” I was so excited, because I’ve always been such a huge fan. Sia is the greatest songwriter of our time. She’s so brilliant, so talented, and just so amazing. So this has just been a dream come true. She’s one of the kindest, sweetest angels, and I feel that she really came into my life for a reason. @parishilton I told you I had another surprise! 😉 I had so much fun singing #StarsAreBlind on @Miley Cyrus New Years Eve Special with Miley & @Sia ! 🥳 The perfect way to ring in 2023 and celebrate my new version of this iconic song. 🎶🎤👸🏼💖🪩 I can’t wait to show you all the other exciting things I’m working on. This is only the beginning! Happy new year! 🎊 #LovesIt #Sliving #StarsAreBlind 💫 ♬ original sound – ParisHilton Obviously the song is about how fame can’t give you real love. As two extremely famous people, what’s your take on that message? Paris Hilton: For me growing up, I put so much of my self worth and happiness on things like fame or beauty and things that in the long run don’t matter as much as family. Now, with becoming a wife and a mother with my son and my daughter, I know what’s important in life and what really makes me feel happy. Because all the thought things I thought were so important often times left me feeling really empty and alone. What’s brought me deep fulfillment in life now is just building my family with [husband] Carter [Reum] and deepening my relationships with my family and friends… Seeing that so many people put so much of their happiness or self worth on fame or striving to be famous, I just want to let them know that, yes, there’s amazing parts of it, but it’s not everything. It won’t bring you true happiness. There’s the line in the chorus that goes “fame won’t love you like a mother.” You’re both moms — how has becoming mothers changed your relationship with fame? Sia: I’ll say it’s better than any drug. It’s better than anyone laughing at my jokes. It’s better than anyone clapping at my singing. It’s better than getting an award. It’s better than singing with someone I’ve admired for a million years. It’s better than all of that. It’s enriching. Paris Hilton: I’m going to cry. Oh my god. Paris, as Sia was saying, being a pop star and making another album was a longtime dream for you. Why is it happening now? Paris Hilton: I’ve just been focused. I have my media company, 11:11 Media; I have my 30 fragrances, my 19 product lines. I’ve been running my businesses and being a mogul. But music has always been my passion; music is the thing that has always made me happy. It’s what I love to do. I love being a businesswoman and entrepreneur, that is fantastic, but the thing that makes me most happy is being on stage performing and making music. What are your strongest memories of the recording session? Paris Hilton: Being in the studio with Sia at her house, I literally didn’t even know I could sing the way I did. She brought something out of me that nobody ever has. Because I never ever really felt comfortable with people in the studio. No one really knows this, but I’m actually a very shy person, like painfully shy. But with her, I just feel so comfortable so I really sang in ways that I never knew were possible. Sia: You really let your freak flag fly. It was amazing. You just put your fists down and sort of of stomped on the ground and sang in the loudest voice I’ve ever heard you sing. It was so beautiful. It was like a liberation of sorts. Paris, what was that like for you to know that there was more to your vocal range? Paris Hilton: I feel like this whole past year has been about reclaiming my voice — emotionally, physically, in every single way. It was almost like my real voice came through to my music instead of the voice that everyone would expect, the sexy, kind of breathy baby doll voice. Your 2020 documentary revealed a lot about your history that the public didn’t know about. Did releasing that film help you find your voice and a new level authority? And did it change your relationship with fame, in terms of people knowing more about where you’re coming from? Paris Hilton: Oh, yeah. I will always be so grateful to Alexandra Dean, the director, for just being there for me and having me trust her [so I could] open up to her. Because that was the first time I was actually real. That documentary changed my life and took me on this journey from then, to doing my memoir, and now with all my advocacy work. My entire life has changed in so many ways. And again, like with this song, I realized the most beautiful thing about me is my heart. Sia: Yes! Paris Hilton: It has nothing to do with beauty or fame. It’s all about the inside and being kind. That’s a message that’s really important to me. I want to make being kind iconic. Sia: I watched that documentary before I really knew Paris, and it made me feel me feel trauma bonded to her. When I did finally meet her, I felt like I was meeting a real person, because the breathy voice thing — she’s in on the act. Anyone that doesn’t know has been fooled. She knows what’s going on, and it’s so amazing to see what a f—ing genius she is in real life. It’s amazing to see when she has to do that, when she doesn’t have to do that. Her vast range is quite inspiring. You mentioned performing “Stars Are Blind” on New Year’s Eve. I just recently watched Promising Young Woman, and of course that song was used so brilliantly in that film. Paris, what has it been like to experience this resurgence of love for that song? Paris Hilton: “Stars Are Blind” has always been such a huge part of my life. It’s like, the anthem of my life. To have people love it and for it to be so timeless, and for people to say it’s their favorite song and it’s the song they got married to, or it being in films like [Promising Young Woman], it just makes me feel so proud. Sia: I love that songs, and that’s also why I said to you on the plane “You were born to be a pop star. I don’t know why you stopped.” We rectified it. Paris, your album comes out in June and Sia your album is out May. In terms of streaming numbers and charts and all that stuff, what does success for these two albums look like for you both? Sia: Oh, I don’t care about that stuff. If it comes out and then touches one person, groovy. What about you Paris? Paris Hilton: This is a dream come true, and doing this with Sia. My fans have been waiting since my last album. This is dedicated to all of them. I just want to make music that makes people smile and feel great and feel empowered and maybe cry. Sia: Okay, I want that too. I want that too for my fans! Paris Hilton: Music is so healing. Music has saved my life in so many ways, so to be able to make it for my fans and celebrate something that I love to do so much and now have the most incredible memories of Sia and all of our friends making this record… For me, that’s a huge success already.

HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Rick Kern / Getty One of Rap’s brightest stars has found himself in trouble again. NBA YoungBoy has been arrested on weapons and drugs. As reported by Variety magazine, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native was booked on several charges Wednesday, April 17. According to police records, NBA YoungBoy (Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) was brought in by the Cache County Police Department for possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of a controlled substance, forgery, identity fraud and attempting to procure a drug prescription. According to KSL, he is also suspected of participating in a “large-scale prescription fraud ring.” The FBI also allege that he holds a high-ranking position within a local Louisiana gang. This is not the first time the “Right Foot Creep” performer has landed himself in the long arm of the law. In 2014, he was arrested for robbery and served six months at a detention center. He was also accused of opening fire at a crowd on South Baton Rouge in 2016, assault in 2019 and a multitude of other charges throughout the years. In 2020, he was booked on federal gun charges which resulted in him being placed on house arrest. In December 2023, a judge eased his house arrest allowing him to participate in mental health programs pre-approved by the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services Office. No bail has yet to be set for NBA YoungBoy’s most recent charges.

Taylor Swift had a number of surprises in store for fans when she dropped her anticipated 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on Friday (April 19). Among them the late night bombshell that it is actually a double album, coming in at a heft 31 tracks over two hours. But it was frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National who provided one of the biggest reveals about the roiling, emotional collection in an Instagram post just hours after the album dropped. “I’m so excited and honored to share that I have contributed to my dear friend and collaborator @taylorswift‘s brilliant 11th album — a 31 song double album / anthology called The Tortured Poets Department,” he wrote in the post that also featured a snap of a smiling Swift in the studio and images of the album’s moody black and white cover. Trending on Billboard Dessner revealed that he and Swift began working on the songs back in 2022, after they dropped their two 2020 pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore, and seemingly after she recorded her 2022 album Midnights. “We started working on these songs over two years ago and it feels like they have kept us company and evolved in beautiful and unexpected ways through so much life lived during this process,” Dessner wrote, marveling at the fact that the duo have now recorded more than 60 songs together over the past four years, including 17 on the new album. “I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer,” he wrote. Dessner also thanked another one of Swift’s most stalwart collaborators, Jack Antonoff, giving him kudos for his “open hearted and open door collaboration with me through all these many projects”; Dessner and Antonoff roughly split co-producing duties with Swift on the album. The multi-talented songwriter/producer/composer also thanked his twin brother and fellow National bandmember, Aaron Dessner, engineers Laura Sisk, Jonathan Low, James McAlister, Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and Bella Blasko and musicians Glenn Kotche (Wilco drummer), Benjamin Lanz (synths, trombone) and Rob Moose (viola, violin), among many others. “It’s not lost on me how lucky I am that this is my job and I feel so grateful to be a part of creating this vast, magically detailed and symbolic world of songs Taylor has crafted that we all get to inhabit and enjoy,” Dessner wrote. “Keep searching and you’ll find some new detail, layer or sliver of meaning with each listen.” Check out Dessner’s post below.