The superstar joined Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show and shared her thoughts on U2's upcoming song, "The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)"

"I don't know Bono," Rosalía told Jimmy Fallon. "But he texted me."

As revealed in Rolling Stone‘s recent U2 cover story, Bono is a huge Rosalía fan — so huge that he wrote a song about her, “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía),” for U2’s upcoming album, Carnaval De Luz, and texted to ask her for permission. In a new interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Rosalía told her side of the story. “I don’t know Bono,” she told Jimmy Fallon. “But he texted me. And he told me that he had this new project, this new song. ‘The Mirror Maker,’ I think it’s called.”

“He was asking me if certain words made sense,” she said, including one word that sounded something like “mamole.” “I was like, ‘I never heard this word. I don’t know what that means.’ I did some research, and it didn’t exist in standard Spanish. So I just told him, ‘You know, I don’t know, but feel free to invent your own language!'”

She called the whole thing “insane” and “mind-blowing,” noting that she grew up with U2’s music. “When I was a kid, I used to hear his songs,” she said, singing a bit of “With or Without You.” “He’s great. He’s a legend.”

“The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)” is the fourth track on Carnaval De Luz, U2’s first album of new material in nine years, out Nov. 13. Bono told Rolling Stone that the song was a departure for the band. “We normally just write songs about people in jail or dead people,” he said. “You know, dead heroes, or trying to get them out of jail. This is just celebrating somebody just because they’re an extraordinary artist.” He also mentioned that her 2025 instant-classic Lux hit some of the same themes he was trying to include on U2’s new album: “She’s arrived at the same point just before us, which is annoying and also really inspiring.”

Bono called a mutual friend, Penélope Cruz, for advice about on how to get in touch. “I called Penélope: ‘What am I gonna do?'” he said. “‘Just call her’ … I’m like, ‘I look like a stalker.'” He said Rosalía has “been really encouraging, and made me laugh a lot,” and that the two have bonded over their shared love of the poet Federico García Lorca.During her Tonight Show interview, Rosalía also talked about El Confesionario, the viral segment on her sold-out, just-concluded Lux tour where guests including Chappell Roan, Karol G, and Marcello Hernández joined her onstage to make confessions before the song “La Perla.” “So many people came throughout the whole tour, and it was really amazing to hear them,” she said. “I just love listening to other people’s stories, and it seemed like people were excited to share.”

Rosalía is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this weekend.

Olivia Rodrigo attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March in Los Angeles

Olivia Rodrigo originally planned to hit the stage at her inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in August in an iconic floor-length, flowing white gown. The singer-songwriter had purchased the exact vintage Gunne Sax maxi dress Meg White wore on the cover of the White Stripes’ 2003 album Elephant, released the same year she was born. But the heat had other plans.

Looking at the forecast for Great Park in Irvine, California, Rodrigo realized it was “too fucking hot,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “Maybe if I do Daisy Chain in the winter, I can wear it.”

Julien’s Auctions estimated the dress, which Tracee Mae Miller pulled from her closet for the shoot, to be worth between $4,000 and $6,000. When it went to auction, it sold for $25,600, an “exorbitant amount of money” per Rodrigo. But according to the listing, it did at least come with a copy of Elephant on CD.

Regardless, the White Stripes and Rodrigo are aligned in other ways. While the band fronted by Jack White couldn’t have been included on the all-woman festival inspired by Lilith Fair, Rodrigo stands proudly alongside White and other artists who aren’t shying away from using their platform to speak politics.

“When Lilith Fair was happening 30 years ago, women in America had more rights, had more autonomy over their bodies,” Rodrigo said. “I’ve always felt really protective of my young fans, and when I play a show and I look out into the audience and see young girls with their friends or their moms or their families, I feel such a kinship with them. And if I could be a small part in making the world a safer and better place for them to grow up and live, that’s what I want.”

Rodrigo “one hundred percent” saw Daisy Chain Fields as political. The event, which she organized over the course of a year-and-a-half and jokes felt more like a wedding, donated net earnings in the amount of $10 million to nonprofits benefiting women and girls, including National Domestic Workers Alliance, Planned Parenthood, National Institute for Reproductive Health, and more. Melinda French Gates later matched the donation, bringing the total revenue raised to $20 million.

“Daisy Chain is a real example to me of how it actually is a real power that you can use for good,” Rodrigo said. “I can call Karen O and ask her if she wants to be a part of this festival. I can try and rally all these troops together to raise $20 million for these causes that I really care about.” She also sees the festival as a celebration of joy. “I think the two things can exist at the same time, they kind of have to.”

She added, “I think young people have lost hope in our leaders and lost hope in each other. I really wanted to galvanize people and be evidence of what can happen when you come together and are part of something and contribute.”

The Backstreet Boys are adding even more dates to their Toronto residency.

The group announced two additional Rogers Centre concerts on February 26 and 27, expanding their Into The Millennium – HOMECOMING: Live in Canada residency to eight officially announced dates. The new shows come just two days after the band added February 14 and 21 to the original four-date run.

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The Backstreet Boys cited “overwhelming demand” for the latest additions. The Toronto residency now runs February 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26 and 27, with all eight concerts, their only shows in North America, taking place at Rogers Centre.

The shows are built around Millennium, the group’s 1999 blockbuster, with the concert production featuring hits including “I Want It That Way” and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”.

General public tickets for the newly added shows are scheduled to go on sale Friday, October 9 at 10 a.m. ET.

Toronto will also host the Backstreet Boys YYZ Terminal, a temporary fan experience inspired by the airport imagery on the Millennium album cover, with official merchandise, photo opportunities and fan events planned throughout the residency.

Sean "Diddy" Combs

Sean Combs has been ordered to pay nearly $500,000 in legal fees after losing his defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal for its 2025 Peacock documentary, Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.

A New York state judge ordered the Bad Boy founder to pay NBCUniversal’s high-paid lawyers $477,700 for bringing the unsuccessful suit, which was dismissed in April. (Combs filed an appeal.) Although Combs owes nearly half a million dollars, that is a significant reduction from the $990,000 legal bill the attorneys originally sought, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

A representative for Combs did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

Combs had filed the $100 million lawsuit against the network in February 2025, claiming the documentary promoted conspiracy theories and “maliciously advanc[ed] the unhinged narrative that Mr. Combs is a serial killer” by highlighting the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and his ex-partner Kim Porter.

“[The documentary] shamelessly advances conspiracy theories that lack any foundation in reality, repeatedly insinuating that Mr. Combs is a serial killer because it cannot be a ‘coincidence’ that multiple people in Mr. Combs’s orbit have died,” the 17-page lawsuit claimed. “[Amplifying these claims] with absolutely no evidence or logic to stand on and in the face of clear evidence to the contrary – Defendants spread fake news of the most damaging kind.”

But earlier this year, a judge rejected Combs’ claim that he was defamed, noting in a 12-page decision that the documentary makers did not act irresponsibly or defame him.

“It is inconceivable as to how the Documentary created additional damage to [Combs’] reputation, which was already tarnished by the numerous lawsuits, domestic violence video, press coverage, and a criminal indictment before the Documentary’s publication,” the judge wrote.

This isn’t the only hefty legal bill Combs is facing. Last month, his longstanding civil lawyers who had been representing him in the NBC case, as well as numerous sexual assault lawsuits, withdrew from their representation of the multi-millionaire. They cited a “total breakdown in cooperation and communication” and at least six months of outstanding legal bills.

Combs is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after he was convicted last summer of transportation to engage in prostitution charges. He was acquitted of the more serious offenses of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

His current release date is scheduled for March 2028, a recent change after he was reportedly caught using a contraband cell phone to scroll on Instagram.

Olivia Rodrigo, Slayyyter, and Olivia Dean are likely nominees for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2027 Grammys.

Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 16, “Rolling Stone” is breaking down 11 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.

The Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance was introduced 14 years ago, merging Best Female, Male, and Instrumental Pop Vocal Performance into one category. Among its biggest winners are vocal powerhouses Adele and Olivia Rodrigo, though the category is not without its surprises. Lola Young won for her quietly powerful performance of “Messy” in 2026, beating out nominees Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter, while 2025 saw Miley Cyrus’ ubiquitous “Flowers” win the accolade. Best Pop Solo Performance can be a space where the Recording Academy recognizes — and perhaps awards — artists with songs that truly connect with the world, regardless of vocal chops.

Brooke Reese, the host of Apple Music’s Global Chart Show, says that beyond radio play and chart domination, audiences appreciate an evocative and vulnerable performance, which doesn’t always require jaw-dropping vocals. Music fans want pop music that makes them feel something, whether it’s to get up and dance, quietly weep, or scream along. When it comes to this year’s nominees, “People need authenticity,” Reese says. “I think we’re all just craving that.”

Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)”Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”Slayyyter, “Brand New Chanel$”Sombr, “Homewrecker”Harry Styles, “American Girls”

Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)”The British pop singer had a major breakthrough last year after winning Best New Artist, and is already shaping up to be a Grammy favorite. Her sophomore effort The Art of Loving was released last September, after the eligibility period ended for the 2026 ceremony, so all those songs are fair play, including the bossa nova swooner “So Easy (To Fall in Love).” “Olivia Dean is an artist I love and adore, [I] just knew there was something special about her,” Reese says. “The minute that The Art of Loving came out, I felt like there was nothing like it at the time.” Dean’s vocals are syrupy sweet and evocative, fitting the idea of what many would consider a true “performance,” and the track has been everywhere in the year since it was released. Grammy voters will have a hard time not falling in love with Dean’s charm.

Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”Rodrigo had already been writing Grammy-winning love songs since her debut in 2021; “Driver’s License” won this award in 2022 and she’s poised to take it home again with “Drop Dead.” Rodrigo’s third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love displayed a marked maturity in her artistry and its lead single, “Drop Dead,” melds her greatest sensibilities into an infectious lovesick ditty. Her voice on the starry-eyed chorus helps check off the capital-P performance criteria, and she gets kudos for letting her inner theater kid come out on the quirky second verse. Her tangible growth, too, should resonate with the Recording Academy (the Livies certainly notice it). “[Rodrigo is] one of those young female artists who knows exactly who she is and exactly the stories she wants to tell,” Reese says. “She’s grown through her last few projects, especially into this one.”

This year’s nominees are a series of battles: Olivia versus Olivia, America versus England, the old versus the new guard. Dean and Sombr were among last year’s nominees for Best New Artist, though their recorded work fell outside of the eligibility period, so we may end up seeing pop’s newest voices usurping seats in the category from the genre’s biggest voices (Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, etc.). “We’re gonna see a big wave of [Best New Artists nominees] because they were just on the cusp of huge moments with their music,” Reese says. “I feel like we’ll see more of them at the 2027 Grammy Awards. “

More than ever, Reese says, people are connecting with authenticity. “With social media, there’s nowhere to hide. You can’t not be who you are … The more authenticity we’re getting from artists and their performances, the more people are going to connect with it.” That’s why she believes soft-rock sad boy Sombr may receive a nomination in this category and beyond. “He is one of my favorite artists right now,” she says. “There’s something so brilliant in his vulnerability.” She also recognizes he’s taken naysayers’ opinions as a challenge to improve on his craft. “Instead of letting it break him, he took it and said, ‘OK, let me prove to you why I’m doing what I do.’”

That’s also why Reese believes electroclash star Slayyyter could nab a nomination. Slayyyter was ready to hang things up as she released her third album Wor$t Girl in America this spring, but the combination of a fiery Coachella performance, TikTok trends, and an album stuffed with good-ass pop music led to one of the year’s most notable breakthroughs, seven years after she dropped her debut mixtape. “Brand New Chanel$” will appear on her companion follow-up to WGIA$, and is one of her most accessible (and best) songs yet. “I feel like this is [Slayyyter’s] time,” Reese declares. “Slayyyter has never changed who she is or the type of music she’s made. In the likes of Charli XCX, she’s never strayed from who she is to fit in.” Reese also notes Slayyyter spent years cultivating her sound and fanbase without once sacrificing her true self. “Everybody finally caught on.”

Where does this leave pop prince Harry Styles, who swept at his last Grammys with Harry’s House? Like so many before him, Styles found transcendence at the techno club on his newest album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, and previously won Best Pop Solo Performance for “Watermelon Sugar.” This combo of dominance and vulnerability means he could take the category once again with “American Girls,” where he struts to the discotheque looking for love (and with tears in his eyes). Either way, the trend report of the 2027 Grammys is this: vulnerability is in.

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Anika Nilles spill rehearsal secrets and more in our new interview

Soon after Rush's debut Los Angeles dates for the Fifty Something, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and touring drummer Anika Nilles sat down with Rolling Stone for their most in-depth interviews yet on the band's miraculous return. (The band's new touring line-up in the wake of the 2020 death of drummer Neil Peart also includes keyboardist Loren Gold). Those interviews spawned a cover story in collaboration with Rolling Stone Canada — but there was even more from the conversations. Read Lee, Lifeson, and Nilles' joint interview below for the first time, or watch our new YouTube video..

Anika, I was reading that at some point you struggled with stage fright. I know that's probably something you had mostly overcome, but how does that play into the highest-pressure night of your life, night one of this tour?Anika Nilles: I felt some pressure, but I was always focused on the music and get everything sorted, and I was trying to not let all the pressure come too much into my brain. But I also have some calming routines which I trained through the last six months, which were definitely helpful on the first night.

People noticed on the camera that you had a moment with your drumstick at the beginning of "Xanadu" that you miraculously recovered from without anyone hearing — a millisecond, and you didn't let it faze you. But what was going on in your head at that instant?Nilles: Maybe, not fuck up this fill. And then I saw this stick flying around over the toms, and I just [caught] it back.

Geddy Lee: Nice one. When we were rehearsing, towards the early part of rehearsing, if one of us would make a mistake, we would stop and we'd play the song again. Towards the end of rehearsals, we began just to play through any mistake or whatever mishap that might happen, because we had to be prepared for that to happen during a show. You have to just push through it, so that was helpful I think.

When something like that happens but you recover so magnificently, does it actually add to your confidence? Or does it kinda add to your jitters for the rest of the show?Nilles: No, I think it happens that you drop a stick, and as a drummer, you're used to it. You just take the next one as soon as you have the chance.

There's been much discussion about your first five days together, your first rehearsal, and that the final day was when you locked in on the feel. We talked about what it was like from their perspective. Anika, what was it like from your perspective? What did you need to realize to lock in?Nilles: Good question. Actually, I think it helped a lot that we talked about Neil and about his playing and his playing style and how you felt it as musicians playing with him. So that definitely helped me to understand what I have to change and how I have to settle in. It was less what to play. It was really more about how to play it. And to adjust, it took me a little bit to understand it in detail. Also maybe because we didn't know each other.

Lee: Yeah. It was all so new for both of us.

Nilles: Yeah. Exactly. But I got it on the last day.

Lee: She did.

I also know that when you played with Jeff Beck he never told you to really worry about in any way replicating parts from the way previous people played with him. It was much looser. And so I wonder if there's also a mentality shift that had to take place.Nilles: As I prepped for the first session, I wasn't sure if I should prep every little detail, like one-to-one, or if I have the main parts down but have some freedom here and there. So I came somehow prepared — in the way I would prepare. But after the first session, the path to go was way more clear and parts I have to focus on. But it was for sure different. Jeff is more improvisational in general, and I think Vinnie [Colaiuta] played never the same on a gig. So I had way more freedom. It was fewer compositions in the drum parts. It was definitely more improvisational in general, which is the huge difference to Rush and Neil compositions on the drums.

Alex and Ged, what did you guys learn about the drum parts to Rush songs that maybe you hadn't quite grokked until you had to communicate them to someone new?Lee: We were learning what Anika was learning. We were realizing how different Neil's feel is from other styles of play. So through Anika's experiences, we were understanding Neil's composition better and better. And sometimes Anika would write me and say, "What time is this part in?" And I would go, "Fuck, I don't know!" So I would go back and listen to it, and I would count it out. And I realized that we wrote parts as musical passages, and we would do a weird musical passage in an odd time signature, but we wouldn't need to count what that time signature was, 'cause we would just glue a bunch of phrases together and we knew it intrinsically. We knew it inherently. And whenever we rehearsed it, we just rehearsed the part. So having to explain that to Anika was really hard for me, and I had to go back and say, "Well, wait a second. Let me listen." And then I would say, "Well, I think there's a bar of eight or a bar of six." She'd go, "Well, I think it's all in seven," or it was the other way around I think. So it was a re-education for me.

Lifeson: And it was more apparent how Neil, by spending so much time, he would just shift his weight so subtly on the front or the back and consistently, like just leaning this way or just leaning this way. That's all in between the big stuff. And it becomes really the glue, the basic glue that keeps everything all together. And that became much more apparent.

Lee: And the cymbal work. And how in that first rehearsal, some of the cymbals you were using were just… so wrong. They were just so wrong. Who would have thought? Never seen it. That the wrong cymbal would affect the way a song sounds so drastically. So that was a re-education for me. Or an education, not a re-education.

I noticed in the two soundchecks I saw that you did "Subdivisions" both times. Is there something about that song that's especially tricky?Lifeson: It's seemingly a simple, straightforward song, but it isn't. The drum arrangement is very complex.

Ever shifting, right?Nilles: It is a lot of subdivisions. It's a lot of counting. A lot of different shifts here and there. You don't hear it. It sounds so natural. And you think it's straightforward, except— it totally is not.

Lifeson: But when I play the guitar part, for example, my guitar part is very straightforward. But when I'm standing in front of Anika, I hear all of this movement that rolls to the entire song. It's fascinating from that perspective when you're standing there hearing it and the drums are behind you. And that feel that goes on.

I think these guys said that they kind of thought of that song as relatively straightforward because they were just so used to it, and you were like, "It is not."Lee: Yeah, because so many of the parts sound the same. Right? But they're not played the same by the drums. So for her, at first, she had to let the song get into her DNA to understand the second time we play that part, for Alex and I, it's the same part, same notes, but— not for her.

Geddy once talked about how early on, Rush was thinking about more math than groove, and then by the '80s and '90s started to think more in terms of groove. But the thing is, you do all of Rush's catalog. So what's it like for all of you to have to switch between the different bands that this one band really has been?Lee: For me, it's refreshing. I really like that we're doing that because the set keeps changing and keeps giving your brain a rest from one style to another, so one style doesn't become oppressive, you know? It's like when we play "[Passage to] Bangkok," I can't wait for the middle section 'cause I know I can just turn around and lock in with Anika 'cause it's the weirdest part. I mean, people don't realize, I don't think, how weird that part is. It's like we're riding a camel, that song. And it's really fun. So that's from my perspective. I don't know from a drumming perspective. It must be really difficult to keep shifting gears.

Nilles: Actually, especially on that song and that section, it's the most chill section for me because I just play 4/4 and you guys have to flip around.

Lee: Oh, we have to move around, yeah.

Nilles: You have to do the work.

Lee: We have to do the counting.

Neil was becoming influenced by Stewart Copeland and reggae and all sorts of other things. Listening, you must have realized, "Oh, I'm doing a whole different thing for these songs."Nilles: Yeah, it was definitely a shift in styles while preparing all the songs. But especially with the '80s era, I felt immediately the most connected because I love the '80s.

Anika, Jeff Porcaro was one of your big heroes, right? There is another band from the '70s who in their own way are seen as the pinnacle of technical intensity, which is Steely Dan, who Jeff played with. I've never heard whether you guys are fans of that band, or what your take is.Lee: I'm a huge fan of Steely Dan. Almost named my daughter Aja after that record. I love that record so much. I wore it out. So I was a big Steely Dan fan.

Lifeson: And has there been anybody more versatile than Skunk [Baxter]? I mean, so many styles in his playing and intelligence.

Lee: What amazed me about Steely Dan was how commercial they were. At the same time, just fucking really complex and interesting, you know? They were the exception of the rule that proves the rule, whatever that expression is, you know? They were able to be challenging, to think like jazz artists, and yet produce music that was easily consumed. So I think that's a kind of amazing feat.

As the '70s turned into the '80s, you took on some of that, which is compressing that complexity into something slightly more accessible.Lee: Yeah. From 14 minutes to 7. [laughs]

Anika, with Jeff as one of your kind of home bases, were there things from his style that seemed like they were congruent with Neil? Or did all the lessons you learned from someone like him have to be kind of tossed out the window or put aside?Nilles: I have to say, I always listen to music and play it along with music. And Jeff was the first drummer I really checked out a little bit more in detail. But in general, I have to say I always just got inspired by drummers. I sneaked into a specific groove and tried to make it my own, but I always slide it off in a different direction — with my own ideas, so I cannot really say that I studied a drummer. I never did that otherwise.

Until this.Nilles: Yes, exactly. Until this. And that's a whole different thing, you know? And now I don't know, I have a little bit of Neil in me. We'll see how that progress because that's the first time I really, really studied, and other drummers playing so much in detail. So it's the first time for me.

They were saying that you said yes, but you didn't fully realize what that yes meant. Were there moments when you were like, "This is so much more than I even could have imagined"?Nilles: Well— [hesitates]

Lee: It's okay to just say yes!

Nilles: Yes, I went through that a couple of times, during the last year I would say. But I can remember the first time I started off learning "Xanadu," which was second session I think, to prepare for. It took me three days to learn the song in a way so that everything was there when I played it, and I was like, "Whoa, when I need three days for one song, this will take me forever, and I have no off day until I fly back." But luckily the more I studied the music and Neil's playing, the more I understood of course, and I got faster through it because I knew the tasks. I knew where I have to have attention on. And so all the epic songs I went faster through it than through "Xanadu."

Lee: I would get some interesting texts from Anika. She would say, "So the opening of 'Xanadu,' is that free time?" She needed to know how to count certain things that we wouldn't even think about counting because we knew the nuances of each other's parts so intimately that we had cues in each other's playing. But she hadn't had enough familiarity yet. She couldn't possibly have played off of those cues yet. And now I think you can, but back then she wanted an explanation of how long she should stay in this part. So I thought those were really interesting questions. And they were really interesting 'cause I would go back and I would listen to the songs and try to imagine them with your experience, like what you were going through. And I had the opportunity to reevaluate how we had written our music and how do you translate Rush to someone else? And the first experience we had was when we did those Taylor Hawkins tributes, and I remember trying to explain, you know the one section early in "YYZ" — I was trying to explain that part to Omar Hakim. And Omar's a pretty darn amazing drummer. But I didn't know how to explain it because we just played it. And so he had a really interesting technique. He said sort of, "Sing it to me." And then I would sing it to him a couple of times, and then he would go, "Ah, okay." And then he would just play it. And then he'd say, "Again." And we'd play it. "Again." And I think we played it, like, 10 times in a row. And then he just went, "Yep." I said, "Okay, let's see if that holds." Which, of course, it did, but so extrapolate that to 42 songs, and there's moments in almost all of our songs that kind of defy musical notation that have to be discussed.

I interviewed Steve Howe sometime in the last couple years, and we were talking about Yes recording all their hardest, most classic songs, and he said, "Well, of course we did it in little sections, and then we'd move on." And all I was thinking was how you guys pushed through almost every song back then in one take. And if you had known that, would you have done it differently?Lee: Yeah, I would have! 'Cause we thought they just knocked it out.