Head Trip 2026
Entertainment
Bad Bunny Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit Claiming Uncleared Sample on ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ Track
Bad Bunny has won a court order dismissing a lawsuit that alleged a track on his chart-topping Un Verano Sin Ti album featured an unlicensed sample from a Nigerian artist.
The case, filed last spring, claimed Bunny’s “Enséñame a Bailar” illegally sampled from a 2019 track called “Empty My Pocket” by an artist named Dera (Ezeani Chidera Godfrey). But on Monday (March 9), a federal judge tossed the case out of court because Dera essentially abandoned the lawsuit.
Judge Otis Wright had given the accuser until Friday (March 6) to get things moving, but Dera “failed to timely respond” by that deadline. “Accordingly, the court dismissed this action and all claims asserted therein with prejudice,” the judge wrote, using the legal term for ending the case permanently.
In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday, Bad Bunny’s attorney Karen L. Stetson said her superstar client had done nothing wrong because he clearly licensed the samples in question.
“As we stated when the case was filed, my client bought the rights to use the music at issue and were never provided evidence of the plaintiffs’ contrary claims of ownership,” Stetson said. “When plaintiffs were forced to provide evidence in the lawsuit, they chose instead to abandon the case, resulting in the dismissal and final judgment in favor of defendants.”
Dera and his record label, emPawa Africa, filed the lawsuit in May, claiming the sample was not just featured in “Enséñame” but “pervades the entirety” of the song. They claimed Bad Bunny and others had been notified, but had “turned a blind eye” to the problem.
“It is not very often that a musical artist of Bad Bunny’s caliber and sophistication uses someone else’s music without permission, and then ignores the person’s efforts to resolve the problem,” Dera’s attorneys wrote at the time.
The lawsuit was a big deal because Un Verano Sin Ti was a big deal — spending 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and more than 150 weeks total on the chart. “Enséñame a Bailar” was a hit in its own right, charting on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and earning 72 million views on YouTube.
Dera’s lawsuit was filed by attorneys from Manatt Phelps and Phillips LLP, a prestigious national law firm with a well-known music practice. But in January, the firm said it would withdraw from the case because of “irreparable differences” with its clients.
“As this lawsuit has progressed, disagreements with respect to legal strategy have emerged between Manatt and Plaintiffs,” Dera and emPawa’s lead attorney Robert Jacobs told the judge. “Due to these disagreements, the attorney-client relationship and communications have frayed. Plaintiffs and Manatt worked in good faith to resolve these issues, but, unfortunately, have been unable to do so.”
Without lawyers, both Dera and emPawa abruptly stopped litigating the case. The label was dismissed from the lawsuit for blowing deadlines last month, and Judge Wright warned the artist that he would face the same outcome if he didn’t respond by Friday.
“The court has become aware that [Godfrey], proceeding [without lawyers], has failed to diligently prosecute this case,” the judge wrote in February. “Indeed, since the Court relieved Godfrey’s former counsel, Godfrey has not filed any papers or otherwise appeared in this case.”
Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.
Entertainment
Goldenvoice to Host New Head Trip Fest at Coachella Grounds With Skrillex, Calvin Harris & More
Goldenvoice will produce a one time only dance megafest, Head Trip, Oct. 10-11 at the Coachella grounds in Indio, Calif.
Head Trip follows the tradition of 2016’s Desert Trip and 2023’s Power Trip, which each put on eye-popping lineups of classic rock and classic heavy metal, respectively.
Per this framework, Head Trip will feature two days of dance music greats, with Saturday’s bill featuring Calvin Harris, Chris Lake and Fisher performing as Under Construction, Peggy Gou playing b2b with Four Tet and Ben Sterling playing b2b with Seth Troxler. Sunday will feature Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex, Dom Dolla b2b Kettama, The Blessed Madonna and DJ Harvey.
Additionally, Floating Points will put on an installation called Sunflower Sound System that will operate all weekend long. Housed inside a domed tent, Sunflower Sound System will feature paneling made from mycelium and decorated with tapestries and original artwork by DJ and artist Josephine Chime. The space will be DJ’d by Floating Points and special guests.
Beyond this, Head Trip will feature all performances on the same stage, with no overlapping sets. Producers will appear in the order they appear on the lineup poster below. The main stage production will be designed by Romain Pissenem, the founder and director of creative production company High Scream.
Hotel packages for the 18+ festival start at $2,150 for a two night stay and GA tickets for two people. These packages are available now, with all packages including a festival ticket.
See the lineup below:
Entertainment
Chicago’s ARC Music Festival Announces 2026 Lineup & Expansion to Four Days
Chicago’s ARC Music Festival will expand from three to four days in 2026, the festival announced Tuesday (March 10). The fest is happening Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 4-7, at the city’s Union Park.
“This is something the team has been talking and dreaming about since we expanded from two days to three back in 2022,” ARC partner and lead talent buyer John Curley tells Billboard. “Every year booking the festival, we run into one little problem: we have more incredible artists that we want to book than we have slots on the festival. Expanding to four days allows us to go deeper with our programming.”
As such, in tandem with the expansion news, ARC has also dropped its 2026 lineup, which features a long list of producers, including Sara Landry performing her Eternalism show, Ki/Ki, The Blessed Madonna, Nia Archives, Michael Bibi, Chris Stussy, Anyma, Underworld, Cloonee and Chase & Status.
The event will also include a series of special b2b and b3bs, along with a new stage area dubbed The Midway, which takes its name from Chicago’s historic public park Midway Plaisance and nods to both the city’s Midway International Airport and the architectural legacy of the original Midway Gardens, an indoor/outdoor entertainment complex in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
And as has been ARC’s tradition since the festival launched in 2021, the bill features a list of house music pioneers, with the festival itself intended to celebrate the city’s history as the genre’s birthplace. This year this contingent includes Green Velvet, Honey Dijon and Derrick Carter.
Tickets for ARC Music Festival 2026 go on sale March 13.
“Six years in, and ARC really feels like it’s in its own lane,” says Curley. “There’s a global energy to the weekend, but ARC is still very much a Chicago festival in its DNA. That energy gives ARC a character you don’t really find anywhere else.
“It feels like a family reunion for the global house and techno community,” he continues. “Artists really lean into that, you can feel them bend their sound toward Chicago, see the emotion in their eyes as the sun sets into the skyline. There’s a feeling of legacy when artists play here that gives every set more weight and more staying power.”
See the lineup below:
ARC Music Festival 2026
Courtesy of Infamous PR
Entertainment
Bruno Mars Tops Hot 100 & Global 200 With Different Songs: How Rare Is That?
There’s a lot of Bruno Mars on the March 14-dated Billboard charts. His newest album, The Romantic, debuts atop the Billboard 200, becoming his first leader in 13 years. Its nine tracks infuse multiple rankings, with the entire tracklist populating the worldwide Billboard Global 200 and U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100. He tops both lists simultaneously, but, in a rarity, with different songs.
With “I Just Might” rebounding for a third week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and “Risk It All” debuting atop the Global 200, The Romantic becomes the first album ever to lead both charts with different tracks at the same time. (The Global 200 launched in 2020; the Hot 100 dates to 1958.)
Even within the U.S., these Mars tracks show their strength differently. “Might” scores a third week atop Radio Songs, up 6% to 72.5 million radio airplay audience impressions in the week ending March 5, according to Luminate. “Risk” starts at No. 1 on Streaming Songs, debuting with 23.2 million streams. “Might” rebounds to No. 4 on Streaming Songs, while “Risk” has yet to appear on Radio Songs; “Might” remains Atlantic Records’ priority radio single from The Romantic, although “Risk” is already new on both Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay.
“Risk” leads “Might” in streams in the U.S. (23.2 million vs. 18 million) and internationally (28.9 million versus 25.5 million). It is ultimately radio that flips the script and puts the latter track, in its eighth week, atop the Hot 100. The Global 200 (and Global Excl. U.S. chart) does not include airplay data, allowing “Risk” to reign without the radio handicap of its fresh release.
While The Romantic stages an unprecedented chart takeover, Mars has done it before. He became the first artist to top both tallies with different songs last year, when “Die With a Smile,” with Lady Gaga, and “APT.,” with ROSÉ, split honors for two consecutive weeks in January 2025. “Smile” later appeared on Gaga’s MAYHEM, and “APT.” on ROSÉ’s Rosie, though neither track wound up on a Mars set.
The only other act to pull double duty was Kendrick Lamar, the following month. In the wake of his multiple Grammy wins and Super Bowl LIX halftime set, 2024’s “Not Like Us” returned to No. 1 on the Feb. 22, 2025-dated Hot 100 and the Global 200. The following week, it held atop the Global 200 while his SZA duet “Luther” took over the Hot 100 for the first of 13 weeks at No. 1. The latter track is on Lamar’s GNX, while the former remains unattached to an album.
Not only did Mars lead with split tracks for two weeks last year compared to Lamar’s one, but he has now achieved the feat with a second pair of songs. Further, as both “Might” and “Risk” are solo tracks, he becomes the only artist to simultaneously top the Hot 100 and Global 200 with different songs on their own.
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