Connect with us

Entertainment

How Did Our 2025 Pop Star Rookie of the Year Olivia Dean Take Over the World So Quickly?

Published

on

This podcast episode is part of the Billboard editorial staff’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 list. Find all our essays and podcasts related to the list here.

At the beginning of 2025, Olivia Dean was still a mostly unfamiliar name to stateside pop fans. She’d seen some success in her U.K. home country with 2023 debut album Messy, but even there, the singer-songwriter was still more of a critical favorite than a proven hitmaker. But when 2025 hit, Dean turned it on early, and the next 12 months proved one long crescendo that has climaxed with her beginning the new year as one of the biggest artists in popular music, on either side of the pond.

This 2025 Rookie of the Year spotlight episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast looks at Olivia Dean’s 12-month journey from burgeoning cult favorite to global pop superstar — find Thomas Smith’s essay on Olivia’s brilliant rookie season here — with a key assist from Billboard U.K.’s Sophie Williams, who helps explain to host Andrew Unterberger how Dean was able to kick her career into such high gear so quickly. We marvel at her 2025 accomplishments, and look forward to what she still might have left on this album campaign in her year to come.

Along the way, we discuss the most important questions of 2025: How did a fill-in gig opening on a rock star’s stadium tour end up being Olivia’s real-life A Star Is Born moment? Why does the BRIT school seem to have a monopoly on the country’s most pivotal pop exports? Is a particular L.A. pop-rock trio still seething about the success of “Man I Need”? Is there a better word for her 2025 than “nice”? Is “Baby Steps” really the secret weapon of The Art of Loving? Was the fourth Bridget Jones movie really the biggest movie of the year in the U.K.? And most importantly: Is Olivia Dean already setting up for a 2026 that’s gonna be even bigger than her 2025?

Check it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of some of the greatest moments of Dean’s 2025 — all of which are discussed on the pod — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for complete podcast coverage of this year’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 list!

And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:

Transgender Law Center

Trans Lifeline

Destination Tomorrow

Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe

Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

NFL Player Keion White Shot Following Alleged Argument With Lil Baby at a Nightclub

Published

on

By

NFL player Keion White was shot early Monday (Feb. 9) following an alleged argument with Lil Baby at a San Francisco nightclub.

According to ABC7, White was shot in the ankle at Dahlia’s, where the 49ers defensive lineman was hosting a Super Bowl party.

SFPD responded to calls for gunshots around 4 a.m. PT on Monday, according to ABC7. The San Francisco Standard viewed the police report, which, according to the publication, said a witness told law enforcement that White got into an argument with Baby as the rapper and his entourage tried to enter the private event, and was then shot, hours after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.

Billboard has reached out to reps for Lil Baby and the SFPD for comment.

“Any violent incident in our city is unacceptable, and I’m hoping Keion recovers quickly. I’ve spoken with SFPD and 49ers leadership — we are all grateful to our SFPD officers for their quick response,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said on X. “As always, I will continue working with San Francisco law enforcement to ensure our neighborhoods and our residents are safe.”

According to the San Francisco 49ers, White underwent successful surgery on his ankle and the injuries are not expected to be “career-threatening.”

“A preliminary investigation revealed a verbal altercation occurred between two groups inside a business,” San Francisco police said in a statement, per ESPN. “The victim was injured when shots were fired by an unknown suspect.”

No arrests have been made yet, and no suspects have been named by the San Francisco Police Department.

Lil Baby was spotted attending Super Bowl LX with his son, Jason. On the music side, Baby has already notched collabs with Tkandz as well as Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez in 2026. The Atlanta rapper’s “Mrs. Trendsetter” held at No. 89 on last week’s Billboard Hot 100.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Don Toliver Scores His First No. 1 Hit on Hot Rap Songs Chart

Published

on

By

Don Toliver’s busy week across Billboard’s charts includes the rapper-singer’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot Rap Songs list, as “Body” debuts atop the ranking dated Feb. 7. The new champ, on Donnway & Co./Cactus Jack/Atlantic Records, captains his collection of 17 tracks this week’s chart. They’re all from his new album, Octane, which storms in at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart with 162,000 equivalent album units.

Don Toliver

Don Toliver Scores First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘OCTANE’

Don Toliver 'Octane'

Don Toliver’s ‘Octane’: All 18 Tracks Ranked

Billboard The Stage at SXSW

Don Toliver, Junior H & Mau P to Headline Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW 2026

The 17-track parade marks the most cuts that Don Toliver has posted on the Hot Rap Songs chart in a single week, and makes him only the sixth artist to claim 17 or more simultaneous appearances. He joins Drake, who has done it twice, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Baby, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott in the chart’s 34-year history.

“Body” owes its coronation on the multimetric Hot Rap Songs chart, a weighted combination of streaming, radio airplay and sales data in the United States, almost entirely to 14.3 million official on-demand streams for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, according to Luminate. Thanks to that sum, it sparks a No. 1 debut on the Rap Streaming Songs chart. In the remaining categories, “Body” had 106,000 radio audience impressions and a negligible amount of song downloads.

With “Body,” Don Toliver achieves his first Hot Rap Songs No. 1 after 30 prior appearances. The performer previously peaked twice at No. 3 through featured roles: He and NAV guested on Internet Money and Gunna’s “Lemonade,” which reached the bronze in November 2020, while his and Future’s supporting turns on Metro Boomin’s “Too Many Nights” led to the same prize in December 2022. As a lead artist, his own “Tiramisu” set his previous career high of No. 6 in September 2025.

Similarly, “Body” leads Don Toliver’s ledger on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (No. 3) and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (No. 14).

With “Body” on top, here’s a recap of all 17 Don Toliver tracks on Hot Rap Songs. Among them, 15 are debuts, while “ATM” and “Tiramisu” nab their second and third weeks, respectively.

  • No. 1, “Body”
  • No. 2, “E85”
  • No. 4, “ATM”
  • No. 5, “Secondhand,” feat. Rema
  • No. 6, “Rendezvous,” feat. Yeat
  • No. 8, “Tiramisu”
  • No. 9, “Rosary,” feat. Travis Scott
  • No. 10, “Call Back”
  • No. 11, “Gemstone”
  • No. 12, “Excavator”
  • No. 13, “Opposite”
  • No. 17, “All the Signs,” feat. Teezo Touchdown
  • No. 18, “Tuition”
  • No. 19, “K9,” feat. SahBabii
  • No. 22, “TMU”
  • No. 24, “Sweet Home”
  • No. 25, “Pleasure’s Mine”

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Baby Keem Announces ‘Ca$ino’ Album Release Date & Previews Kendrick Lamar Collaboration

Published

on

By

Baby Keem is back. Keem announced plans for his upcoming album, Ca$ino, on Tuesday (Feb. 10), and the sophomore LP is slated to arrive on Feb. 20.

Harry Styles

Looking Ahead: A Release Calendar of Upcoming Albums in 2026

Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar attend the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team 2024 Livery Reveal on February 08, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Cash App)

Here’s How Kendrick Lamar & Baby Keem Helped Inspire ‘Thunderbolts’

J. Cole

J. Cole Addresses Apologizing to Kendrick Lamar on ‘Birthday Blizzard ’26’ Freestyle

“Ca$ino Feb 20, 2026 Limited Edition Vinyl Available Now,” Keem wrote on Instagram. The 25-year-old revealed the LP’s cover art, which features a photo of a young Baby Keem with the parental advisory sticker.

Ca$ino boasts 12 tracks, including collaborations with his cousin Kendrick Lamar, Too Short, Momo Boys and Che Ecru.

With the four-plus-year layoff, fans are anticipating Keem’s return. “Took your time bro this better be a classic,” one person commented. Another added: “USED TO PRAY FOR TIMES LIKE THIS!”

Keem also released a Ca$ino documentary on YouTube to accompany the announcement. The Booman I doc features appearances from plenty of Keem’s family members describing his upbringing, including an appearance from Kendrick. “I understand the hardships before he was born. Knowing his mom, that’s my first cousin,” he said. “I already knew what she was going through, just the history of our family in general. We don’t call ourselves the hillbillies for nothing.”

Lamar continued: “Section 8, welfare … This is a story of a warfare environment and a warfare psychologically trying to change our generational curses.”

There’s also footage of Keem in the studio working on his collab with Lamar, “Good Flirts.” “Walking in the party, I don’t feel nobody/ What the f—k,” K. Dot raps on the hard-hitting track. “Is it fake, is it love, probably/ I smell something.”

Baby Keem’s debut album, The Melodic Blue, arrived in September 2021 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. He released a deluxe for the LP in October 2022 featuring Lil Uzi Vert and PinkPantheress.

Continue Reading

Trending