Entertainment
Making An Impact: Meet the Women of Universal Music Group’s New Global Impact Team Focused on Positive Change

Musicians have often expressed a desire to make a difference in the world, through both their art and their actions. Now, the world’s biggest music company has assembled a powerful squad of corporate ninjas to help its artists get the job done.
In June 2024, Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge announced the creation of the UMG Global Impact Team to “enact and amplify the company’s vision for positive change through community engagement, environmental sustainability, events and special projects,” the company stated.
Music industry veteran Susan Mazo — who has been with UMG since 2014, is chief impact officer/executive vp and serves as the founding chair of UMG’s All Together Now Foundation and is a co-creator of the Amplifier Award, which recognizes artists committed to positive change — assembled the new team of specialized change agents.
The members of the Global Impact Team, who happen to be all women, include Mazo; UMG senior vp/head of sustainability Dylan Siegler; Kristin Jones and Arielle Vavasseur, co-founders of Inside Projects, a strategy and marketing agency that specializes in social impact; UMG senior vp/executive director of the Task Force for Meaningful Change Menna Demessie; UMG vp of global impact Markie Ruzzo; and UMG senior director of global impact and communications Sharlotte Ritchie.
“The strategy came from the highest levels of the company,” Mazo says, “working closely with Lucian Grainge and Will Tanous,” UMG’s executive vp/chief administrative officer and a member of the company’s executive management board. Mazo says they sought to form a team who “could help create change and awareness through the power of their networks.”
That team’s work led to the announcement last September of UMG’s 2024 Use Your Voice campaign, which built upon a similar initiative four years earlier and sought to increase voter awareness and participation in the November general election. UMG partnered with leading voter resource organizations including HeadCount, the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, When We All Vote and the Voto Latino Foundation.
Mazo notes that HeadCount has reported that Sabrina Carpenter got more voters engaged in last year’s election than any other artist the organization works with. HeadCount says Carpenter inspired 35,814 voter registrations and got another 263,087 voters to take other actions outside of registration, such as checking their polling location. The team also launched UMG sound practices for events, a guide for integrating sustainability into UMG initiatives.
In January, as wildfires devastated Los Angeles, the Global Impact Team supported UMG’s overall response. UMG partnered with groups and organizations including Support + Feed, Dodgers Foundation, World Central Kitchen and Bruce’s Catering to serve first responders and families in need. UMG merchandising company Bravado donated clothing to affected UMG employees and the fire departments in Pasadena and Santa Monica. The company canceled all of its Grammy weekend activities, donating and repurposing all resources including hotel rooms, catering, trucking and vendor resources to relief efforts. In addition, UMG’s All Together Now U.S. employee matching program had record donations following the announcement of a 150% super match for fire relief organizations. UMG’s efforts regarding wildfire relief are ongoing.
Most recently, the Global Impact Team helped UMG expand its four-year partnership with the nonprofit Music Health Alliance to launch the Music Industry Mental Health Fund. The initiative, announced in February, will provide comprehensive, high-quality outpatient mental health resources for qualified members and workers of the music industry. Mazo calls the expanded partnership “the most natural way to ensure continuous and effective mental health support for anyone working in our industry.”
Are the issues that the Global Impact Team addresses “of particular concern to the current generation of UMG artists? Absolutely,” Mazo says. “And we’re really taking the lead from what our artists are interested in and what our artists are talking to us about.”
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Entertainment
Myke Towers & Quevedo Set Charts Ablaze With ‘Soleao’

Myke Towers and Quevedo propel “Soleo” to the top of Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart as the song jumps a spot to No. 1 on the list dated Aug. 9.
Their first collab, “Soleao” (which translates to “sunny” in English), was released May 20 on One World International/Warner Records/Warner Latina. It leads the way in its ninth chart week, after an 11% growth in audience impressions, to 9.1 million, across U.S. panel-contributing Latin radio stations in the tracking week of July 25-31, according to Luminate.
Towers claims his 15th Latin Airplay champ, and third consecutively of 2025, after one-week rulers “Otra Noche,” featuring Darell (February), and “Degenere,” featuring Benny Blanco (May).
Further, Towers adds to his satchel of wins as he accomplishes a third trio of No. 1s in a single year. Rewind to 2021, when (after landing two early chart-toppers, for that matter) the Puerto Rican delivered a streak of three straight No. 1s: “Bandido,” with Juhn; “Pareja del Año,” with Sebastián Yatra; and “Bésame,” with Luis Fonsi, that June, August and November, respectively. In 2024, Towers replicated the success with another trio of consecutive No. 1s: “Borracho y Loco,” with Yandel; “La Falda”; and “La Capi,” between that February and May.
Meanwhile, Quevedo makes a comeback to No. 1 on Latin Airplay. He previously led, for four weeks, with “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52,” with Bizarrap, in 2022.
Beyond its Latin Airplay coronation, “Soleao” likewise lifts 2-1 on Latin Pop Airplay. There, Towers tallies a third No. 1 and Quevedo, his first. Further, the song adds a second week atop Latin Rhythm Airplay.
Banda Carnaval Ignites Regional Mexican Airplay: Elsewhere on the Latin charts, Banda Carnaval secures its eighth No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay, and second of the year, as “Ya La Hice” bounds 9-1 with 6.6 million audience impressions, up 47%, in the tracking week. The act’s “Pude” led for a week in March.
“We are deeply grateful to our fans for taking ‘Ya La Hice’ to No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart,” Banda Carnaval tells Billboard. “This song represents a very special moment for us, and seeing it connect with people in this way fills us with pride and emotion. Thank you to everyone who has made it their own, to the composers for this great story, and to our team who continues to believe in our music. Let’s go all the way with Síganme Tirando!”
“Ya La Hice” earns Greatest Gainer honors, awarded to the song with the largest week-over-week increase in impressions at the format. Leading the charge during the tracking period are Univision stations, with standout support from KSCA-FM Los Angeles, KLNO-FM Dallas, and WOJO-FM Chicago.
Entertainment
Ice Cube’s ‘War of the Worlds’ Film Has a 0% Rating on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ & Cube’s Son Is Weighing In

Ice Cube‘s latest movie is off to a slow start on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. According to 15 critics (and counting), War of the Worlds so far has a zero percent rating on the Tomatometer scale, while thousands of moviegoers have given it at 14 percent rating on the Popcornmeter.
One review in particular, from Variety‘s Peter Debruge knocked the film for essentially doubling as a commercial for Amazon, writing, “Even with a Prime subscription, you have to sit through two minutes of ads to watch 90 more of what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon,” while another from The Telegraph‘s Ed Power wasn’t really into all the screen time Cube got, saying, “It is silly, shoddy and features far too much of rapper-turned-leading man Ice Cube staring at a computer screen while looking as if he’s working through a reasonably urgent digestive ailment.”
An adaptation of H. G. Wells’ classic 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, this version is an Amazon Prime production directed by Rich Lee and also starring Eva Longoria. Cube plays Will Radford, a surveillance expert at the Department of Homeland Security, and most of the movie takes place on his computer screen as he deals with a hacker and an alien invasion while trying to keep his family out of harm’s way.
The synopsis on Prime Video reads as follows: “A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name. Renowned actress Eva Longoria is joined by iconic rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with Michael O’Neill and Iman Benson, for a thrilling out-of-this-world adventure that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.”
Cube’s son, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr., replied to a tweet on X of a video clip from the movie in which an Amazon Prime delivery person tells Cube’s character to cop a USB from Amazon, so he can deliver it via Prime Air with a drone. “I truly can’t believe this adaptation of War Of The Worlds is actually a real film with a real budget and Ice Cube is actually in it,” a fan posted, with Jackson replying that the movie was “Shot during the pandemic. Released 5 years later.”
Billboard has reached out to Ice Cube’s team for comment.
Entertainment
Cara Lewis Group Hires Ashley Ventura, Who Will Bring Bhad Bhabie & More to the Agency

Cara Lewis Group (CLG) has hired agent Ashley Ventura, who will bring her clients to the independent agency.
“CLG is an obvious fit for her talents,” said founder/CEO Cara Lewis in a statement. “The entire Cara Lewis Group team is thrilled to have her as a valued addition. We look forward to continuing our mantra of artist development, creating stars and long lasting careers.”
Ventura has worked as an agent in the hip-hop and R&B space for more than five years, previously working at MAC Agency. A press release announcing her hire described her as a “proven” leader and “one of the newest, most exciting agents in the industry.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining the Cara Lewis Group and to continue pushing culture forward alongside such a respected team,” added Ventura. “This new chapter marks an exciting step in my journey, and I’m looking forward to building with incredible artists and creating what’s next.”
Ventura will be bringing a number of talented artists to the CLG roster, including hip-hop icon French Montana and reality TV star and rapper Bhad Bhabie. Her other clients include Atlanta rapper Anycia, Bay Swag, Bktherula, Gashi, K Camp and Kentheman, all of whom are following her to CLG.
CLG’s roster currently includes Eminem, Travis Scott, Khalid, Don Toliver, Clipse, The Roots, Russ, Jill Scott, Ludacris, Ice Spice, BIA and Erykah Badu. Lewis is one of the most successful independent agents in hip-hop, having spent more than 20 years at William Morris as a partner, where she built the urban-pop division before joining CAA’s music department.
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