This May, only a handful of pop stars made major movement on the charts — including one with a historically huge Hot 100 album bomb, and one with a rare runaway breakout smash for 2025 — but we still saw some big names making big waves, with massive new tours and game-changing news announcements. And below the A-list, we also had some up-and-comers making themselves known as future players with rising hits and eye-opening album debuts that could portend even bigger things to come.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This week, we relive all of it through our extended look at the Greatest Pop Stars of May 2025. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard Charts team guests Trevor Anderson and Eric Frankenberg to share and debate our respective top five lists, while also naming some honorable mentions, some disappointments, and some artists who we’re looking forward to in the months to come. (If you missed our recaps of the first three months of 2025, you can find our January episode here, our February episode here, our March episode here and our April episode here.)
Among the topics discussed: Has the Cowboy Carter Tour produced viral moments on the level of the Renaissance World Tour yet? How did Taylor Swift revive Reputation multiple times without ever actually releasing a Taylor’s Version re-recording? Do the accomplishments of I’m the Problem and “What I Want” mean that Morgan Wallen is finally embracing being part of the larger pop universe? Whose breakout success means more for the future, Alex Warren or Sombr? And are we really gonna talk about a masked, anonymous British metal band on a U.S. pop stars podcast?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most memorable pop star moments of April, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
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