Another edition of Eurovision Song Contest – the pan-European Olympics of pop songwriting – has come and gone, but the competition’s impact lingers, with six songs appearing on the May 25-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. Nemo’s “The Code” won for Switzerland and leads all charting songs, debuting at No. 21, while also cracking the Billboard Global 200 at No. 52.

“The Code” arrives with 21.6 million streams worldwide, 20.8 million of which, or 96%, were from outside the U.S., May 10-16, according to Luminate. It crowns Billboard’s Switzerland Songs, while placing in the top 10 on rankings reflecting activity in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg and Sweden.

Eurovision runner-up Baby Lasanga’s “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”, representing Croatia, and fourth-place finisher Slimane’s “Mon Amour” (France) also debut on both global charts. The former is new at No. 64 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 139 on the Global 200, and the latter starts at Nos. 61 and 144, respectively.

Plus, third-place finalist “Teresa & Maria” by Alyona Alyona and Jerry (Ukraine) hits Global Excl. U.S. at No. 130 and seventh-place finisher “La Noia” by Angelina Mango (Italy) arrives one spot higher at No. 129.

One other Eurovision song appears on both global charts, but you won’t find it on the competition’s leaderboard. Joost’s “Europapa,” representing the Netherlands, was disqualified from competing after the singer threatened Eurovision’s production crew. The ban may have helped spur global consumption, as its No. 24 re-entry on Global Excl. U.S. comes just below the winning track’s debut, and it leads the Eurovision pack on the Global 200, one spot above “The Code,” at No. 51.

The global success of Joost’s entry, particularly on the Global 200, were U.S. sales and streams are part of the chart’s equation, is unique. On average, this year’s six Eurovision tracks drew 3.65% of their worldwide streams from the U.S. in the frame following the competition’s close, in line with last year’s 3.58%. But “Europapa” is an outlier, more than doubling that average. Of 23 million streams worldwide in the tracking week, 7.44% come from the U.S., marking the highest domestic share of any Eurovision song to have hit the global charts since 2021. The song’s spiked American activity is notable since its lyrics are in Dutch (while “The Code” is performed in English).

The total tally of six Global Excl. U.S.-charting songs improves upon the four from Eurovision’s 2023 haul and matches 2022’s six. Still, 2021’s competition remains unmatched with seven, including Måneskin, which won for Italy with “Zitti E Buoni.” That song got as high as No. 10 but proved an appetizer for the group’s “I Wanna Be Your Slave” and “Beggin,” which climbed to Nos. 8 and 2, respectively, later that year.

Beyoncé, Sony Music and others are facing a copyright lawsuit over her chart-topping hit “Break My Soul,” filed by a New Orleans group that says she sampled from a Big Easy rapper who had illegally lifted lyrics from their earlier song.

In a complaint filed Wednesday (May 22) in Louisiana federal court, members of Da Showstoppaz accuse Beyoncé (Beyoncé Knowles Carter) of infringing their 2002 song  “Release A Wiggle” on “Break My Soul,” which spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022.

Rather than stealing their material directly, the group alleges that Beyoncé infringed their copyrights by legally sampling the 2014 song “Explode” by the New Orleans rapper Big Freedia. That track, they say, illegally borrowed several key lyrics from their song.

“While Mrs. Carter … and others have received many accolades and substantial profits … Da Showstoppaz’s have received nothing—no acknowledgment, no credit, no remuneration of any kind,” the group’s attorneys wrote, also naming Big Freedia (Freddie Ross) as a defendant.

“Explode” was one of several high-profile samples on “Break My Soul,” which also heavily pulled from Robin S.‘s house song “Show Me Love.” After the release of the song, Big Freedia thanked “Queen Beyoncé” and said she had been “honored to be a part of this special moment.”

At the center of the new dispute is the phrase “release yo wiggle” and several related variants, which Da Showstoppaz call “unique phrases” that they coined in their song. They say Big Freedia — a well-known rapper in New Orleans’ bounce music scene — infringed their copyrights by using similar phrases in “Explode.”

“The infringing phrase ‘release yo’ wiggle’ and several other substantially similar phrases are featured prominently in the song and evenly spread out across Explode’s two-minute and forty-seven second runtime,” the group’s lawyers wrote. “Any reasonable person listening to ‘Release A Wiggle’ and ‘Explode’ would conclude that the songs are substantially similar.”

Such allegations could face long odds in court. Copyright law typically does not protect short, simple phrases, and a court could potentially dismiss the case on the grounds that Big Freedia was free to use such lyrics even if The Showstoppaz used them first.

But the group’s lawyers aren’t concerned, saying they “have a copyright to their unique and distinctive lyrics” that was clearly infringed by Big Freedia:  “The coined term and phrase ‘release a/yo wiggle’ has now become closely synonymous with Big Freedia, thereby contributing to Big Freedia’s fame. However, Big Fredia did not compose or write the phrase, and Big Freedia never credited Da Showstoppaz as the source.”

According to the lawsuit, Da Showstoppaz first learned about Big Freedia’s song when they heard “Break My Soul.” They say they notified Beyoncé and others of the alleged infringement infringement last month, but that she has refused to take a license.

Reps for Beyoncé and Sony Music did not immediately return a request for comment on the allegations.

Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough won a court order Wednesday blocking a looming foreclosure sale of the late singer’s historic Memphis home Graceland, after her attorneys argued that the bizarre effort to sell the home was “fraudulent.”

At a hearing in Memphis court, Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins granted Keough’s request for a preliminary injunction that will block the mysterious foreclosure proceeding – initially set for Thursday – until he can rule on her case, according to court records reviewed by Billboard.

As reported by CNN, the judge said during the hearing that Keough would likely win her arguments — and that allowing the sale of the legendary mansion to go through in the meantime would cause her so-called irreparable harm.

“The estate is considered unique under Tennessee law, and in being unique the loss of the real estate will be considered irreparable harm,” Jenkins said in the hearing.

In a case filed in Tennessee court last week, Keough alleged that the foreclosure was triggered by phony demands from a company called Naussany Investments – an entity that allegedly claims her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, borrowed $3.8 million and used the famed mansion as collateral.

The alleged loans are recorded in documents supplied by Naussany that feature Lisa Marie’s signature, but Keough’s lawyers say those records are “forgeries” and that she “did not in fact sign the documents.”

“These documents are fraudulent,” Keough’s attorneys write in their May 15 complaint, obtained by Billboard. “Lisa Marie Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments.”

Naussany (Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC) could not immediately be located for comment on Wednesday’s order. An attorney for Keough also did not return a request for comment.

When Elvis died in 1977, his daughter Lisa Marie inherited his estate, including Graceland — a tourist mecca that pulls in millions of dollars a year in revenue. Until her death last year, she served as trustee of the Promenade Trust, an entity that controls the Memphis mansion. When she passed away, Keough assumed that same role and took control of the property.

According to the lawsuit, Naussany alleges it made the multi-million dollar loan to Lisa Marie in 2018 and recorded the transaction in Florida. But Keough’s lawyers say that Naussany is “a false entity created for the purpose of defrauding the Promenade Trust,” orchestrated by a man named Kurt Naussany who has sent “numerous emails seeking to collect the purported $3.8 million debt.”

Keough’s attorneys say the evidence “strongly indicates the documents are forgeries” – most notably, that the notary who allegedly signed off on the transaction has confirmed that she did not do so. “Indeed, she confirmed she has never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any document for her.”

Following Wednesday’s ruling, the case will now proceed toward more detailed litigation over the Keough’s allegations, and eventually toward a final ruling.

“War!” a singer once shouted. “What is it good for?” Well, that depends. In the music business, what can seem like grand ideological conflicts are usually just messy public negotiations over money. That doesn’t mean they’re not brutal, though. And sometimes the amounts at stake turn out to be very much worth fighting over.  

The latest industry imbroglio is the National Music Publishers Association’s conflict with Spotify — call it the Battle of the Bundle — which could be worth about $150 million next year. On March 1, Spotify added access to audiobooks to its standard subscription to create a product that it says qualifies as a bundle under the terms of its 2022 legal settlement of the Phonorecords IV rate-setting procedure with the NMPA. Then, as the settlement says it can do, it allocates part of the subscription cost to the audiobook piece of the bundle in order to qualify for a lower payment to publishers. 

Whether or not Spotify has a legitimate bundle, it sure has chutzpah — converting all of its U.S. subscribers to bundle customers is a bold move. Now it also has a war on its hands. Already, the NMPA has sent the company a cease and desist for alleged unlicensed content and the allied Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) filed a lawsuit about the bundling.

This is only the response to the attack, though. By trying to cut payments to publishers, Spotify essentially attacked the NMPA, with which the streaming services settled, as well as its president and CEO David Israelite, who actually seems to enjoy this kind of combat. Just to be clear, I don’t think that Israelite literally loves fighting, but I do think he gets a certain satisfaction out of being good at it — he was a champion college debater and he’s a talented amateur poker player. He’s the kind of opponent who thinks strategically, sees several moves ahead and fights on a number of fronts at once. 

The obvious fight will be the lawsuit filed by the MLC, which is likely to be long and expensive — think of it as a long slog of a ground war. The expense of that will be borne by the streaming services, though, since they fund the MLC’s operations under the provisions of the Music Modernization Act. But Israelite will attack on other fronts as well. The cease-and-desist letter marks the beginning of probing attacks, each one small. Spotify now licenses the works it uses but are there a few hundred uses of some works that might have slipped through the cracks? At a maximum of $150,000 per work in statutory damages for willful infringement, those oversights add up fast. Just as important, a slowdown in licensing for other uses, including video, could keep Spotify from moving forward with some of its plans to compete with Apple and Amazon.  

Israelite will also move forward with what one might call sanctions, by trying to organize different parts of the music business against Spotify, much as Universal Music Group did with TikTok. Most years, the June NMPA Annual Meeting includes the music business version of Two Minutes Hate for an online company that’s not paying or underpaying rightsholders. That’s in less than a month. It’s hard to know how successful this will be, but it seems reasonable to assume that Spotify is going to have a much harder time booking acts to play its party during next year’s Grammy Week.  

Israelite has also said he plans to take the fight to Capitol Hill with a legislative proposal to give publishers and songwriters more negotiating power. (If war is just the continuation of policy by other means, as Carl von Clausewitz has it, can’t the reverse also be true?) The odds of passing this legislation soon don’t seem all that high — right now the odds of passing any legislation soon don’t seem all that high — and if publishers and songwriters had the power to make it happen, they would have been trying already. But it starts a conversation that the NMPA wants to start, and it opens a front where the NMPA can fight at an advantage, partly because Israelite, a former Hill staffer, would fight on his home turf. Could the NMPA could get a hearing on the topic of songwriter pay that would embarrass Spotify? The company could argue that it needs margin relief, and it does, but how would that look on TV? 

If this sounds like an incredibly elaborate and expensive way to figure out the definition of a bundle, you’re missing the point. Because it is, but also because no one cares. The point, for the NMPA, is to force Spotify to concede, through some combination of litigation, legislation and PR. Strong spotlights create a harsh glare. From Spotify’s perspective, looking for copyright infringement that fell through the cracks might seem like an aggressively-literal reading of the law. But isn’t an automatic bundle aggravatingly literal in its own right?

There’s also a theory that Israelite needs to get music publishers out of a situation he got them into, since he backed the 2022 settlement that allowed for bundles, but this is unfair. Under the decision in the rate-setting case before this, Phonorecords III, bundles were allowed and could be accounted for by subtracting the value of one from the total price, then using the remainder to calculate royalties. Under the Phonorecords IV settlement, bundles must be accounted for proportionally, which is far from ideal but a bit better. Obviously, Israelite and the NMPA thought they could get a better deal by settling the case than fighting it out in court, at great expense, and the NMPA board approved it. Arguably, they’d have ended up fighting either way.  

That brings up another question: Phonorecords IV only covers the period through the end of 2027. Before that, both sides will go back to rate court, each more inclined to fight and less apt to settle. Whatever happens, the publishers will lose predictability and Spotify will look bad, especially compared to its rival streaming services. There could be a long, grinding Cold War that really will be good for nothing. 

An Earth, Wind & Fire tribute act will pay the legendary R&B group $750,000 in damages for using its trademarked name in ways that a federal judge called “deceptive and misleading.”

The payment, announced in a court filing Tuesday, will effectively end a year-long lawsuit in which the band alleged that the tribute act — “Earth, Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion” – infringed the trademark rights to the famous name by suggesting it was the real thing.

Earlier this year, the federal judge overseeing the case sided with Earth, Wind & Fire, ruling that the tribute act’s conduct had been “deceptive and misleading.” A trial had been scheduled to figure out how much Legacy Reunion would need to pay, but the two sides reached an undisclosed settlement on that question last week.

In Tuesday’s filing, the judge disclosed the total that Legacy Reunion had agreed to pay –  $750,000, plus interest — a rare step following settlements, which are typically kept private. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.

Earth, Wind & Fire has continued to tour since founder Maurice White died in 2016, led by longtime members Philip Bailey, Ralph Johnson and White’s brother, Verdine White. The band operates under a license from an entity called Earth Wind & Fire IP, a holding company controlled by Maurice White’s sons that formally owns the rights to the name.

Last year, that company filed the current lawsuit, accusing Legacy Reunion of trying to trick consumers into thinking it was the real Earth, Wind & Fire. Though it called itself a “Reunion,” the lawsuit said the tribute band contained only a few “side musicians” who had briefly played with Earth, Wind & Fire many years ago.

“Defendants did this to benefit from the commercial magnetism and immense goodwill the public has for plaintiff’s ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ marks and logos, thereby misleading consumers and selling more tickets at higher prices,” the group’s lawyers wrote at the time.

Tribute acts — groups that exclusively cover the music of a particular band — are legally allowed to operate, and they often adopt names that allude to the original. But they must make clear that they are only a tribute band, and they can get into legal hot water if they make it appear that they are affiliated with or endorsed by the original.

Ruling on the case last month, Judge Federico A. Moreno said the evidence pointed “overwhelmingly” in the band’s favor. In particular, the judge cited angry social media posts and emails from fans who attended the “Reunion” shows because they thought it was the original band — proof of the kind of “actual confusion” that’s crucial evidence in a trademark lawsuit.

“It is not a far cry to think that an average consumer looking for an Earth, Wind & Fire concert would believe that they could acquire that experience from either plaintiff or defendants,” the judge wrote.

Following Tuesday’s order, the only remaining issue in the case is an injuction permanently banning Legacy Reunion from infringing the name. That issue will be subject to future rulings clarifying exactly what it will cover.

What were the most notable highlights regarding the sonic characteristics of hits on Billboard’s Streaming Songs, Radio Songs and Digital Song Sales charts in 2023?

AI-powered hit song analytics platform ChartCipher has released its latest report – its first encompassing the Billboard Hot 100’s three weekly component charts – spotlighting key findings from surveys dated Jan. 7 through Dec. 30, 2023.

In October 2023, ChartCipher launched publicly, as announced jointly by MyPart and Hit Songs Deconstructed. The platform utilizes analytics from 10 of Billboard’s most prominent charts dating to the start of the 2000s: the Hot 100, Streaming Songs, Radio Songs, Digital Song Sales, Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Pop Airplay and Country Airplay.

Here are three takeaways from Chart Cipher’s newest report, reflecting performance on the Streaming Songs, Radio Songs and Digital Song Sales charts for 2023.

Which Genres Led Each Metric

“Hip-hop/rap and pop both commanded the lion’s share of streaming, each accounting for 27%” of all Streaming Songs entries in 2023, ChartCipher’s report notes. “Country followed at one-fifth and rock, at 19%.

“When it came to radio airplay, pop music dominated the airwaves with a 37% share,” per the report’s analysis of the Radio Songs chart for 2023. “Country also maintained a strong presence on the radio with a 31% share. Hip-hop/rap completed the top three, capturing 23% of airplay.

“The rock genre led digital sales with a 35% share,” ChartCipher reports of the Digital Song Sales survey over 2023. “Pop followed close behind at one-third. Country rounded out the top three at one-fifth of songs.”

Country, Latin & Rock on the Rise

Country, Latin and rock made noteworthy gains in streaming, among other metrics, on the Hot 100’s component charts in 2023.

“Radio has been a stronghold for country music, though it experienced a slight but steady decline between 2019 and 2022, falling from 33% to 27%. However, in 2023, it rose back to 31%,” ChartCipher reports. “Digital sales for country music have been relatively stable, fluctuating between 19% and 24%. Notably, country music surged on the Streaming Songs chart in 2023 to one-fifth of songs, more than double its 2022 presence.”

Regarding Latin, while the genre’s share has been “consistently low” across all three metrics over the last five years, per ChartCipher, it saw “significant growth on Streaming Songs, rising from a steady 1% of the chart between 2019 and 2021 to 6% in 2023.”

As for rock, the genre experienced year-over-year growth across all three Hot 100 component charts in 2019-22, according to ChartCipher. While it “slightly dropped” among radio hits, “rock’s prominence continued to increase in streaming and digital song sales in 2023,” from 12% in 2022 to 19% in the former metric and from 32% to 35% in the latter.

Meanwhile, hip-hop/rap and pop have experienced setbacks. “Since 2020 there has been a clear downward trend in hip-hop’s streaming presence, from 53% in 2019 to 27% in 2023,” ChartCipher reports. Still, “hip-hop’s radio presence declined between 2019 and 2022 before rebounding to nearly one-quarter of songs in 2023.”

For pop, despite taking top honors in streaming (tied with hip-hop/rap) and airplay, as noted above, the genre slipped across all three metrics in 2023. Its 37% share on Radio Songs marks a fall from a leading 54% in 2022, ChartCipher notes. Pop also backtracked slightly from a 38% share of all Digital Song Sales hits to 33% and from a 28% take of Streaming Songs entries to 27% year-over-year.

Brighter Ideas

“Brighter timbres have seen consistent growth” in songs across all three metrics that contribute to the Hot 100 over the last five years, ChartCipher states of titles’ overall tones, with brighter sounds consistently more prevalent in sales and airplay hits than highly streamed songs.

Still, among Streaming Songs, Radio Songs and Digital Song Sales hits in both 2023 and the past five years, “brighter-timbred songs saw the greatest growth in streaming,” according to ChartCipher. Their prominence in the metric more than doubled from 16% of entries in 2019 to 37% in 2023, including a vault from 27% in 2022.

Such hits in 2023, covering a wide range of genres, included “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice with Aqua; “Bubbles Up” by Jimmy Buffett; “Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma; “Fast Car” by Luke Combs; and “Snooze” by SZA.

This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.

This week: Spotify faces a lawsuit over allegations that it “unlawfully” chose to reduce royalty payments to publishers and songwriters; Earth, Wind & Fire reaches a settlement over how much it’s owed in damages by an unauthorized tribute band; Elvis Presley’s granddaughter sues to protect Graceland from a “fraudulent” foreclosure; and much more.

THE BIG STORY: Spotify Taken To Court Over Royalties

Weeks after Billboard estimated that Spotify would pay roughly $150 million less to songwriters and publishers over the next year, the streaming giant is facing a legal battle over the move.

In a lawsuit filed last week, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) claimed Spotify had “unilaterally and unlawfully” chosen to cut its royalty payments nearly in half by “erroneously recharacterizing” the nature of its streaming services to secure a lower rate.

“The financial consequences of Spotify’s failure to meet its statutory obligations are enormous for songwriters and music publishers,” the MLC wrote. “If unchecked, the impact on songwriters and music publishers of Spotify’s unlawful underreporting could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

At issue in the lawsuit is Spotify’s recent addition of audiobooks to its premium subscription service. The streamer believes that because of the new offering, it’s now entitled to pay a discounted “bundled” royalty rate under federal law. But the MLC says Spotify’s interpretation is legally incorrect and represents a “clear breach” of its requirements under the law.

This is the second lawsuit of the past six months for the MLC — an entity created by Congress in 2018 to collect royalties under the Music Modernization Act. After the MLC filed a similar case against Pandora in February, that streamer argued that the group was supposed to operate as a “neutral intermediary” and was “not authorized to play judge and jury” or pursue “legal frolics.”

For the full breakdown of the new case against Spotify — including industry reactions and access to the full complaint filed in court — go read Kristin Robinson’s entire story here.

Other top stories this week…

TRADEMARK TRIAL AVERTED – Earth, Wind & Fire reached a settlement with a tribute act that used the R&B group’s name without permission, avoiding a looming trial over how much the unauthorized group would have to pay in damages. The agreement came months after a federal judge ruled that the tribute act — “Earth, Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion” — had infringed the band’s trademarks.

LIVE NATION CASE EXPLAINED – With an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation from the U.S. Department of Justice expected soon, Billboard‘s Dave Brooks dove deep — breaking down the particulars of the looming case, explaining how it might affect Live Nation and recounting recent federal efforts to crack down on anti-competitive practices at tech giants like Google and Apple.

COURTHOUSE ROCK – Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking a “fraudulent” foreclosure sale of the late singer’s historic Memphis home Graceland. Keough’s lawyers say the sale foreclosure was triggered by phony claims that her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, borrowed $3.8 million and used Elvis’ famed mansion as collateral.

UMG DROPPED FROM DIDDY CASE – Universal Music Group (UMG) and CEO Lucian Grainge were dismissed from a lawsuit claiming they “aided and abetted” Sean “Diddy” Combs in his alleged sexual abuse — a move that came after the lawyer who filed the case admitted there had been “no legal basis for the claims.” The sudden reversal came as UMG’s lawyers argued that the accusations were so “offensively false” that they planned to take the unusual step of seeking legal penalties directly against the accuser’s lawyer.

SAMPLE SETTLEMENT – Kanye West reached a settlement with the estate of Donna Summer to resolve a copyright lawsuit that accused him of “shamelessly” using her 1977 hit “I Feel Love” without permission in his song “Good (Don’t Die).” The case, filed in February, claimed that West “arrogantly and unilaterally” used her music even though he had been explicitly refused a license.

NAME GAMES – Members of the 1980s new wave band The Plimsouls won a legal ruling against the group’s guitarist over the trademark rights to the band’s name. The case was the music industry’s latest battle over the names of classic rock groups, including Journey, Stone Temple Pilots, Jefferson Starship, the Rascals, the Ebonys, The Commodores and The Platters.

Elevation Worship’s “Praise,” featuring Brandon Lake, Chris Brown and Chandler Moore, ascends to No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart dated May 25.

During the May 10-16 tracking week, the song drew 6.2 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.

Elevation Worship frontman Brown co-wrote the song with Lake, Moore, Pat Barrett, Cody Carnes and Steven Furtick.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based Elevation Worship rolls up its fourth Christian Airplay chart-topper. It’s Lake’s third and the first each for Brown (in an individually credited role) and Moore.

“Praise” dominates the multimetric Hot Christian Songs tally for an 11th week, having become the collective’s third leader on the list. Brown told Billboard upon the song’s coronation in March, “It is such an honor to be No. 1 again. We’re blown away by what God has done with ‘Praise,’ and we’re thankful for everyone who has streamed, tuned in and shared the song. We hope it is a great reminder of all the reasons to praise God not just for what He’s done, but for who He is.”

In addition to its airplay, “Praise” collected 3 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads May 10-16.

Concurrently, the single leads the Christian AC Airplay chart for a second frame.

Mitchell, McClurkin Lead Gospel Airplay

On Gospel Airplay, VaShawn Mitchell’s “See the Goodness,” featuring Donnie McClurkin, rises to No. 1.

The song, which Mitchell wrote solo and co-produced with Thomas Hardin Jr., marks Mitchell’s fourth Gospel Airplay No. 1. The Chicago singer-songwriter previously reigned with “Lifted Up,” for a week in July 2021; “Joy” (seven weeks, 2017); and “Nobody Greater” (nine weeks, 2010-11).

Mitchell logged his first Gospel Airplay entry as featured on GMWA Mass Choir’s No. 8-peaking “Only a Test,” which began his tally of seven top 10s to date, in 2005.

McClurkin, from Copiague on Long Island, N.Y., adds his third Gospel Airplay chart-topper among seven top 10s. His debut entry, “I Call You Faithful,” became his first No. 1, for seven weeks, in 2005. He led again with “I Need You” for a week in 2017.

Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, the actress Riley Keough, has filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking a looming foreclosure sale of the late singer’s historic Memphis home Graceland, calling the proceedings “fraudulent.”

In a case filed in Tennessee court last week, Keough alleged that the foreclosure was triggered by phony demands from a company called Naussany Investments – an entity that allegedly claims her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, borrowed $3.8 million and used the famed mansion as collateral.

The alleged loans are recorded in documents supplied by Naussany that feature Lisa Marie’s signature, but Keough’s lawyers say those records are “forgeries” and that she “did not in fact sign the documents.”

“These documents are fraudulent,” Keough’s attorneys write in their May 15 complaint, obtained by Billboard. “Lisa Marie Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments.”

The foreclosure sale for Graceland had been scheduled for Thursday, but according to court records, Keough’s attorneys won a temporary restraining order last week blocking any sale until the judge can rule on the dispute. A court hearing is set for Wednesday on Keough’s efforts to secure a longer-term injunction blocking the sale.

Naussany (Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC) could not immediately be located for comment. An attorney for Keough declined to comment. News of the lawsuit was first reported Monday by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

When Elvis died in 1977, his daughter Lisa Marie inherited his estate, including Graceland — a tourist mecca that pulls in millions of dollars a year in revenue. Until her death last year, she served as trustee of the Promenade Trust, an entity that controls the Memphis mansion. When she passed away, Keough assumed that same role and took control of the property.

According to the lawsuit, Naussany alleges it made the multi-million dollar loan to Lisa Marie in 2018 and recorded the transaction in Florida. But Keough’s lawyers say that Naussany is “a false entity created for the purpose of defrauding the Promenade Trust,” orchestrated by a man named Kurt Naussany who has sent “numerous emails seeking to collect the purported $3.8 million debt.”

Keough’s attorneys say the evidence “strongly indicates the documents are forgeries” – most notably, that the notary who allegedly signed off on the transaction has confirmed that she did not do so. “Indeed, she confirmed she has never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarized any document for her.”

Xavi earns his second No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “Corazón de Piedra” advances from No. 3 to lead the May 25-dated ranking.

“Corazón de Piedra” takes the top spot as the Greatest Gainer of the week, with 7.8 million audience impressions on U.S. reporting radio stations during the May 10-16 tracking week, according to Luminate. That’s a 27% gain from the week prior. Last week’s leader, Shakira and Grupo Frontera’s “(Entre Paréntesis),” slips to No. 2 after falling 15% in audience, to 6.3 million.

All charts dated May 25 will post in full on Billboard‘s website on May 21.

To date, the biggest supporters for “Corazón de Piedra” among reporters to the Regional Mexican Airplay chart reporting panel are KOND Fresno, Calif., KISF Las Vegas and KLNO Dallas, all with over 400 plays for it since its release, followed closely by WOJO Chicago and KHOT Phoenix (with all five stations owned by Univision).

Thanks to “Corazón,” the Mexican singer-songwriter nabs his second No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay, just three months after “La Diabla” earned him his maiden champ on the Feb. 10-dated list (the latter dips 24-38 on the latest chart, with a 31% drop in audience, to 2 million). In between his two chart-toppers, the Phoenix-based 19-year-old reached No. 20 with “La Víctima” (chart dated March 2).

Beyond its Regional Mexican Airplay coronation, “Corazón,” released March 23 through Interscope/ICLG, reaches a new peak on the overall Latin Airplay tally, jumping 9-5 in its seventh week.