Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
With RuPaul’s Drag Race bringing back their Rate-a-Queen system for season 17, Billboard decided to rate each of the new queens every week based on their performance. Below, we take a look at the emotional makeover challenge to see which queens became proud drag parents to their proud real parents. Spoilers ahead for episode 13.
It is a time-honored tradition on RuPaul’s Drag Race to have the queens put someone else in drag. The show has given us dozens of different permutations of this challenge — queens have made over veterans. athletes, members of the Pit Crew, even other eliminated queens.
But in the latest episode of the franchise (aired Friday, March 28), Drag Race decided to go for the emotional jugular, having the remaining contestants make over members of their actual family into members of their drag family. Reuniting with their moms or dads, the contestants put together a look, painted their parent’s faces and presented them on the runway for the judges, all while showing their family what it’s actually like to be a drag artist.
Much has been made over the year’s about Drag Race‘s attempts at sentimentality — fans and former contestants regularly make fun of RuPaul asking the contestants what they would say to their younger selves at the end of the competition. But this episode highlights what a subversive phenomenon Drag Race still is today. What other episode of modern television shows a trans drag performer working through a rocky relationship with her mother, a work-in-progress who is trying to be better after kicking her child out of the house? Given the combative and horrific political climate we find ourselves in today, this episode of Drag Race feels like a breath of fresh air.
Now, for the results: after winding up in the bottom the week prior, Sam Star took home her third challenge win for transforming her mother into Sassy Star. Frontrunner Onya Nurve and underdog Jewels Sparkles, meanwhile, wound up in the bottom for their makeovers of their dads. Lip synching to Amerie’s “1 Thing,” the duo delivered a stunning performance — so stunning, that RuPaul decided no one would be going home this week.
Below, Billboard takes a look back at episode 13 and ranks where our remaining contestants lie based on this episode and the season as a whole:
Orlando Bloom is taking things in stride amid rumors that his ex Katy Perry has moved on with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
On Friday (Aug. 1), satirical news site The Onion shared a fictional article on Instagram with the headline, “Orlando Bloom Spotted at Dinner With Angela Merkel.” The post featured what appeared to be an AI-generated image of the 48-year-old English actor enjoying a candlelit dinner with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 71.
“Just weeks after announcing his split with fiancée Katy Perry, English actor Orlando Bloom was photographed Friday dining with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel,” The Onion‘s mock report read. “’Angela kept Orlando laughing all night — he couldn’t keep his eyes off her!’said an insider source who spotted the pair sipping wine, slurping oysters, and splitting a decadent piece of chocolate layer cake at a Michelin-starred restaurant.”
Bloom took the joke in good humor, responding in the comments with several clapping emojis.
The spoof came shortly after Perry, 40, and Trudeau, 53, were spotted together on multiple occasions in late July, including dining out in Montreal and walking a dog through Mount Royal Park. Trudeau was also seen enthusiastically singing along to Perry’s hit “Firework” during her Lifetimes Tour stop at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
The sightings have sparked speculation about a possible romance, especially following confirmation that Perry and Bloom have ended their relationship after nine years. The couple, who share a daughter, Daisy Dove, have pledged to remain focused on co-parenting.
“Orlando and Katy have been shifting their relationship over the past many months to focus on co-parenting,” the pair’s reps told Billboard in early July, shortly after which the exes appeared together in a photo from a family vacation with their children. “They will continue to be seen together as a family, as their shared priority is — and always will be — raising their daughter with love, stability and mutual respect.”
Trudeau also went through a public breakup in August 2023, splitting from estranged wife Sophie Gregoire, with whom he has three kids.
Check out The Onion’s post on Instagram below.
Osheaga has a knack for booking budding superstars right as they blow up. Last year, it was Chappell Roan. This year, it was Doechii.
The Grammy-winning, Florida-born rapper took the stage on the first night of the Montreal music festival on Friday (Aug. 1), and it felt like a star-making performance. The Killers headlined the mainstage, but unlike Chappell Roan, who played for 40,000 people at 3:30 in the afternoon last year, Doechii did have the honor of closing out the festival on the secondary Forest Stage.
Her set was pushed back slightly to start at 10:10 p.m., meaning she was the final performer of the night before the noise curfew at 11 p.m. And for those who wanted to catch both acts, The Killers made it easy by playing their belt-along favorite “Mr. Brightside” as their first song and packing the first hour of their two-hour, 9:10 p.m. set with hits.
Doechii’s stage set was decked out to fit her Swamp Princess persona, covered in greenery and a large, elevated swampy platform for her to stand on. The crowd was packed in, so the fans stuck at the back still had a visual feast. “I look good from the nosebleeds,” she rapped from her 2025 hit “Nosebleeds,” and this show proved it.
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
For a full hour, Doechii kept the energy up. She rapped a mile a minute, all live with almost no reliance on a backing track. She showed off her full skill set, from pure hip-hop to sung R&B/pop hooks, and comedic banter to thought-out stagecraft. She brought unbridled charisma, taking time to dance and twerk and show off some vogue moves as well. She showed off a reverence for classic hip-hop, rapping over Wu-Tang’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” and later screaming over a distorted guitar sample — almost veering towards nu-metal. She showed she can do it all.
The audience stayed captivated, rapping along and matching her energy throughout. It was Doechii’s first time in Canada, and you could tell she was impressed by the reaction. “As an artist, you can get so much hate and negativity,” she said. “Then you go out in real life and see your real fans.”
She took some time to thank her gay fans, her female fans, and the fans who brought their boyfriends. “If your boyfriend hates female rappers, then leave him immediately,” she said.
Seeing all the phones out, she seized her moment. “Ya’ll can’t be scared to stand up for what you believe in, you can’t be scared to say what matters,” she said. “Free Palestine.”
Doechii performs at Osheaga 2025 in Montreal.
Charlotte Rainville @jailli
Doechii broke out her biggest hit, the Billboard Hot 100 top-10 charting “Anxiety,” and thanked all her fans for streaming it. The “Somebody That I Used To Know” sampling song is a bit of an outlier in her catalogue, but it’s a viral TikTok favourite, and she’s found a way to fit it perfectly into her set. After playing the song, she thanked Gotye for approving the sample.
The true highlight of the set was “Denial Is a River.” The song, which features Doechii rapping with her internal monologue, took on a whole new call-and-response dimension with fans chanting along to every word.
It felt like she was still just getting started when, midway through the next song, the beat cut out. “F— that, they cut me off!” she yelled. She put her thumbs down, inciting the crowd to boo, then threw her hands up. “Whatever,” she said, walking off the stage.
Unfortunately, Osheaga has a hard 11 p.m. noise curfew. It’s clear the next time she’s back, she’ll have to have a longer headliner-length set.
Doechii performs tonight (Aug. 2) at Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she’s teased a special guest. If Osheaga was anything to go by, her set will likely be all over social media soon.
This article originally appeared on Billboard Canada.
Olivia Rodrigo was joined by surprise guest Weezer during her headlining set at Lollapalooza 2025.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the 22-year-old pop superstar made her debut on the second day of the Chicago music festival at Grant Park. Toward the end of her evening set, she surprised the crowd by inviting Weezer to join her on stage.
In a fan-captured video on TikTok, Rodrigo shared with the crowd that Weezer was the first band she ever saw live.
“You always remember your first concert. It’s a very, very special moment,” the “Drivers License” singer said. “I remember my first concert. It was a very memorable night. I watched this incredible band and I am so over the moon, because that incredible band is actually here tonight to play a few songs. Will you please say hello to Weezer?”
Weezer then joined Rodrigo for performances of their classic hits “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So,” both from the group’s 1994 self-titled album. She played guitar and harmonized alongside frontman Rivers Cuomo during the collaboration. Check out clips from the performances here and here on X.
This marked Weezer’s first Lollapalooza performance since they headlined alongside Widespread Panic in 2005.
This isn’t the first time Rodrigo has brought out surprise guests during her recent festival appearances. She recently invited David Byrne onstage at New York’s Governors Ball to perform Talking Heads’ 1983 hit “Burning Down the House,” and welcomed The Cure’s Robert Smith at this year’s Glastonbury Festival to perform “Friday I’m In Love” and “Just Like Heaven.”
During her Lolla set on Saturday, Rodrigo opened with “Obsessed” and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” and also performed hits including “Driver’s License,” “Traitor,” “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Love Is Embarrassing.”
The Chicago festival continues Saturday (Aug. 2) with headliners Rüfüs Du Sol and TWICE, followed by closers Sabrina Carpenter and A$AP Rocky on Sunday.
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