The singer is asking a federal court in California to dismiss Maren Wade's trademark infringement lawsuit

Taylor Swift on June 11, 2026 in New York City.

Taylor Swift’s legal war with real-life Las Vegas showgirl Maren Wade took center stage again Wednesday, with the singer’s lawyers blasting Wade’s trademark infringement lawsuit as “meritless” ahead of an early October hearing on Swift’s bid to toss the case.

“Plaintiff’s overarching assertion that consumers are – or could be – confused into believing that Ms. Swift, a 14-time Grammy Award winner and global musical icon, is the source of or is associated with plaintiff’s podcast, book, or live cabaret performances at golf resorts and RV parks is nonsensical,” Swift’s lawyers wrote in their new filings obtained by Rolling Stone. “The court may dismiss where confusion is unlikely, and the court should do so here.”

In a pair of replies filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Swift’s lawyers again argued that her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, is a “quintessential expressive work” protected from trademark claims. They said album T-shirts and other promotional merchandise are similarly off-limits as “a logical extension of the expressive work.”

The lawyers also argued that Wade’s claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) improperly seek to apply the statute “extraterritorially to a Nevada plaintiff.” They said Wade had failed to “identify a single case where trademark infringement served as the basis of an unfair UCL claim,” contending that the cases she cited instead involved false advertising.

Swift’s lawyers further claimed that the Los Angeles federal court lacks personal jurisdiction over the singer because she is a Tennessee resident. They rejected Wade’s claim that Swift specifically promoted the allegedly infringing album in California when she appeared at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards to accept an Artist of the Year award. “Stretching an award show acceptance speech to constitute ‘advertising’ is ridiculous,” they wrote.

“Plaintiff’s claims were – and are still – baseless,” Swift’s lawyer Max N. Wellman and his co-counsel at Venable wrote in their main 16-page filing. “Having already amended once and still failing to plausibly allege any claims, plaintiff is not entitled to anything more. This case should be dismissed with prejudice.”

Wade sued Swift for trademark infringement in March and asked for an emergency moratorium on merchandise sales while the case plays out. Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Wade is a working performer who parlayed her 2014 “Confessions of a Showgirl” column in Las Vegas Weekly into a live show, a touring production, a book, a podcast, and her trademark. She claims that when Swift announced her album name, she was excited at first, but then the album’s overwhelming success quickly overpowered and drowned her out.

“‘Confessions of a Showgirl’ is not one mark among many for plaintiff. It is the only one she has,” her court filings, obtained by Rolling Stone, say. “[Wade] has built her professional identity under it for more than a decade, and she has no portfolio of alternative brands, no corporate backing, and no global marketing operation to compete for consumer attention. Defendants have all of these. That asymmetry is directly relevant to the equities, and it tips in plaintiff’s favor.”

At a hearing last May, Swift’s lawyer pointed out that Wade actually saw an opportunity when Swift named her album, and she seized it. He said Wade used hashtags related to Swift to direct traffic to her commercial website and asked people to follow her in her “Showgirl era.”

“There is absolutely no doubt that this woman, because of exuberance or trying to realize commercial gain, was very much affiliating herself with Ms. Swift for eight months while millions was spent to get this album out there, and it can’t be undone,” Swift’s lawyer J. Douglas Baldridge told the court. “It was eight months of not objecting to an expressive work while she glommed onto it.”

But Wade’s lawyer pushed back. He said his client spent 12 years building her own brand, writing a column, staging her own show, touring, publishing a book, and winning an “incontestable federal registration,” only to see her trademark “absorbed in real time into a multi-billion dollar commercial machine,” referring to Swift’s label partners, UMG Recordings and Bravado, who are co-defendants in the litigation. He said Swift, on the other hand, was a “sophisticated repeat trademark holder” who knew her attempt to get a trademark for her album didn’t succeed and who suspended her application rather than try to cure it.

“The hardship is not even close,” Wade’s lawyer Jaymie Parkkinen said. “They knew what they were doing, and they proceeded anyway.”

Taylor Swift attends the Songwriters Hall of Fame 55th Annual Induction and Awards Gala at Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 11, 2026 in New York City.

Taylor Swift is zeroed in on making new music. The superstar just announced a new single “Patient Zero,” which arrives on Sept. 25

“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single “Patient Zero” will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!),” the singer wrote on her social media accounts.

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According to Swift’s website, the new track is related to her most recent album The Life of a Showgirl but has not officially been described as a bonus track. The singer’s website also updated from a sparkly orange to a dark gray and featured three new CD single versions of “Patient Zero.” Each version features a different cover of the singer wearing black. Similarly, in an Instagram post announcing the track, the superstar was also wearing a black high-neck tank top. She also changed her profile picture across social media, which has signified a new era for the singer in the past.

The news comes after Swift spent the last 24 hours ramping up her Easter eggs. On Monday, Sept. 21, a third piece of paper appeared on the “My Letter” page of Swift’s website underneath the letter she wrote in May 2025 and the original Showgirl track list. Some believed it would be an announcement for the re-recording of Taylor Swift, her self-titled debut which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

On Tuesday morning, the singer updated her Instagram bio to read, “And, baby, that’s sh0w business f0r y0u.” Similarly, lyrics from Showgirl were updated on Apple Music with words using the letter “O” swapped for zeroes.

“Patient Zero” marks the second bit of new music from Swift this year. In June, she released “I Knew It, I Knew You” as part of the Toy Story 5 soundtrack. The new song will arrive on the heels of an exciting achievement for Swift. On Sunday, she will be honored at the MTV Video Music Awards with the inaugural Artist Director Honors award.

Nearly 50 years after the Battersea Power Station appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd‘s Animals, Apple has transformed the decommissioned building into a music venue.

Apple Music Hall will function as both a live music space and production facility, where musicians can record their performance on multitrack. The venue boasts a 38-foot wide stage, a 48-speaker spatial sound system, 16 or more cameras, and a 600-capacity crowd. Essentially, artists can exit with a Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video from a single show.

“Apple’s deep love for music dates all the way back to the very beginning, from the launch of the iPod to the long-running iTunes Music Festival to the debut of Apple Music,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content, said in a statement. “Today, with the opening of Apple Music Hall, we are once again taking an unprecedented step further in our commitment to artists and fans by supporting live music in ways only Apple can do.”

Animals was released on Jan. 21, 1977, and its legendary cover — the Battersea Power Station, with a George Orwell-esque inflatable pig seen floating in the sky — symbolized industrial greed and the voracious appetites of capitalism (famously, the pig balloon flew away).

The image was created by Hipgnosis Studios’ Storm Thorgerson, and assisted by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, who updated the cover for the Animals 2018 Remix in 2022. “Animals is one of my favorite albums by Pink Floyd just because of the stories attached,” Powell recalled in 2022. “I remember going to Battersea Power Station and it was a dump. It was full of coal and debris and broken cars. It was just absolutely horrid. I knocked on the door and a lad answered. I said I was looking for someone important and the chap went, ‘Well, thats me,’ and I said, ‘I want to fly a pig.'”

Performances at Apple Music Hall will be livestreamed globally, while fans can access tickets on the venue’s website.

It’s official: almost a year since it was first released as a single in October 2025, Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” is the longest running Number One song in Billboard Hot 100 history. The classically country tune written by Langley with Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick and Joybeth Taylor has passed tracks by Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, and now former leader Mariah Carey (and Christmas itself) to cement itself as the new record-holder with 23 weeks atop the chart. Carey, whose “All I Want For Christmas Is You” could retake the top slot once holiday season begins, has yet to comment.

Coming in at Number Two is Stella Lefty and “Boston” (which just became a Number One song on country radio) with Wallen’s “Been By Now” at three. With all three slots taken by country artists, it’s clear that the genre’s wave of dominance is not going anywhere soon.

It’s a cherry on top of a record-breaking year for Langley. The Alabama native made history when “Choosin’ Texas” hit Number One on the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts at the same time in February. Langley is also the top nominee at the 60th Annual CMA Awards, with a total of nine, including entertainer of the year, and her sophomore LP, Dandelion, just returned to the top of the album charts. Even Drake is trying to get in on the action, teasing a potential “Choosin’ Texas” remix.

“Everyone can relate to wanting something that doesn’t want you back, whether it be a relationship or a job,” Langley told Rolling Stone about why the song of the summer has resonated so widely. “I’m giving my heart to people a lot. And that’s scary to constantly do, because no one wants their heart broken.”

Langley is well aware of how powerful it is to have women in country music breaking through the bro-dom: Dandelion includes a cover of Kitty Wells’ 1952 hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which was the first solo song by a woman to top the country charts. And Langley’s doing her best to make sure the success of “Choosin’ Texas” isn’t just relegated to her alone. On her current Dandelion tour, she made sure to spotlight other female musicians as her opening acts, including Gabriella Rose, Kaitlin Butts, Avery Anna, Laci Kaye Booth, and Madeline Edwards.

“Ella is such a role model for what skyrocketing with grace looks like,” Butts told Rolling Stone. “She’s put me up for an acting role in her iconic music video for ‘Choosin’ Texas’ and now she’s taking me on tour with her. That’s what I love about her, a win for her means a win for all of us women in country music because she’s one of the ones that’s turning around to help the next in line.”

StubHub Canada has been fined $20,000 by the Ontario government for breaking the province’s new ticket resale rules, and the company says it plans to fight the penalties.

The fines, issued earlier this month, consist of two $10,000 administrative penalties. According to Ontario’s Consumer Beware List, one involved StubHub facilitating a ticket resale without proof of what the ticket originally cost. The other involved a ticket being resold above Ontario’s new price cap. The government has not identified the events or specific tickets behind the penalties.

The rules are part of Ontario’s revamped Ticket Sales Act, which came into effect earlier this year. Among other changes, the law limits how much a ticket can be resold for and requires resale platforms to provide documentation showing the ticket’s original total price.

The company told The Canadian Press that it intends to appeal the penalties, arguing that the legislation does not clearly establish how platforms should obtain and verify the original price of the ticket. StubHub says it has been trying to comply with the new requirements while navigating what it considers gaps in the legislation.

This isn’t the first time StubHub has to face Canadian regulators. In 2020, the Competition Bureau reached an agreement with the company over ticket prices advertised without mandatory fees, resulting in a $1.3 million penalty. Ontario has said companies can face penalties of up to $250,000 for violating the new rules.

The Weeknd had a surprise waiting for Japan.

Kicking off the Asian leg of his After Hours Til Dawn tour at Belluna Dome on September 19, the superstar used opening night to unveil a brand-new, unreleased song.

Currently dubbed “Tokyo”, the track features Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi and samples her iconic 1995 song “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”, the opening theme from the famous anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.

It was a distinctly Japanese unveiling for the new material, bringing together music, anime and gaming in one performance. Takahashi first delivered “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” before Tesfaye joined her for the unreleased track, while visuals from NieR creator Yoko Taro played across the stage. Tesfaye later shared the performance online with the credit: “Presented by YOKO TARO. Featuring “YOKO TAKAHASHI”

The song has yet to receive an official release date, but its debut arrives at a particularly pivotal point in Tesfaye’s career.

“Tokyo” also marks the second unreleased track Tesfaye has unveiled on the After Hours Til Dawn tour, following “Rio,” his collaboration with Anitta, which debuted during his April 26 show in Rio de Janeiro.

Despite spending much of the Hurry Up Tomorrow era teasing the end of The Weeknd persona, Tesfaye now appears to be looking firmly towards what comes next.

In GQ Hong Kong’s new cover feature, Tesfaye elaborated on his current period as a kind of creative reset rather than retirement. “If I create under my own name one day,” he told GQ, “it won’t be about leaving anything behind. It’ll just be another evolution.”

That revolution is already beginning to take shape. Tesfaye further revealed that he has been revisiting Kiss Land, his 2013 debut studio album, and is currently working on a remaster. He said about his record, "it's the one project I never felt I executed exactly the way I envisioned” and that he’s now returning to it with the intention of bringing that original vision closer to life.

Kiss Land marked a significant shift from the unfiltered intimacy of his early mixtapes into a darker, more cinematic world. One that would eventually foreshadow the conceptual universes he built throughout the following decade.

Now, that past is colliding with whatever comes next, the Asian leg of the tour continues through Jakarta, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok and Hong Kong before wrapping up in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 4. The tour has already become the highest-grossing solo male tour in history, while Tesfaye continues to hint at what comes after.