Madonna Leads Week’s Best New Music: Friday Music Guide

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to New Music Friday’s most essential releases each week — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

Last week, we featured sombr, Phoebe Bridgers, Steve Lacy with SZA and more.

This week: Madonna drops her anticipated Confessions II; rising star Sienna Spiro releases her anticipated debut album, Visitor; and Riley Green shares his latest collaboration… plus much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Madonna, Confessions II

After months of hype and world building, Madonna’s Confessions II finally pulls up to the club this Friday. The icon’s 15th studio album since 1983 and her first since 2019’s Madame X, Confessions II returns her to the throbbing beats and writhing rooms of 2005’s Confessions on a Dancefloor. While that album leaned hard into disco via classics like “Hung Up” and “Sorry,” Confessions II is more upscale dance-pop and lush electronica, with songs like “Good for the Soul” and “One Step Away” pairing layered, cerebral productions by Stuart Price (who also produced the original album) with Madonna’s philosophical musings about how “the dancefloor is not just a place, it’s a threshold, a ritualistic space where movement replaces language.” 

But despite its heady tendencies, the album certainly possesses the dance world’s spirit of playfulness and fun, with “School” functioning as a slinky little ass-shaker and “Danceteria” running down a typical night at the song’s namesake club in New York City, where Madonna did her first performance in 1982. And as the original Confessions contained as much emotional nuance as it did kickdrum, so too does this new one live up to its title, via deeply personal songs about motherhood (via a collaboration with Lola Leon, Madonna’s daughter), the sting of betrayal and all flavors of romance. We’ll confess, we love it. — KATIE BAIN 

Sienna Spiro, Visitor

After breaking big on and off the charts with the emotive “Die on This Hill,” fast-rising soulful pop artist Sienna Spiro releases her debut album this Friday (July 3). Titled Visitor, the project includes that smash hit as well as previously-released singles “You Stole the Show” and the quasi-title track “The Visitor.” Spiro co-wrote the album alongside collaborators including Omer Fedi and Michael Pollack (both of whom also co-produced several tracks) among others. — LYNDSEY HAVENS

GAYLE, “junebug!”

Three years ago now, in 2023, pop singer GAYLE scored a Grammy nomination for song of the year with breakout single “abcdefu.” She went on to release two EPs and contribute a track to the Barbie soundtrack, in addition to opening on tours for Taylor Swift and Tate McRae. Now, after some time away, the rising artist is back with new music — and a big announcement. Her debut album Observing Choas, will arrive later this year; until then, lead single “junebug!” hints at the direction she’s heading in, complete with an uptempo rock-pop riff that perfectly captures the carefree chaos that kicks off summer. — L.H.

Billy Strings, “Burn the Other End”

While he’s earned a reputation for his lengthy, improv-heavy concerts, the Michigan bluegrass artist has also quietly become one of today’s sharpest recording artists, racking up three Grammy wins for best bluegrass album since 2021. Like Strings’ best studio work, “Burn the Other End” manages to condense the spooky, psychedelic bluegrass of his sprawling live sets into a more traditional song structure. But the single is also darker in spirit and style than much of Strings’ work; in announcing the forthcoming T-Bone Burnett-album it appears on, So Much For Goodbyes, Strings said he made the record to honor his mother, who died of a drug overdose last year. (Eagle-eyed observers will see another legendary Wolverine State guitar virtuoso in the credits: Jack White, who along with Burnett provides “gang vocals.”) — ERIC RENNER-BROWN

Riley Green feat. Hannah McFarland, “Go Again” 

Is there any male country artist who has cornered the co-ed duet market in recent years like Green between the two collabs with Ella Langley and his current tune with Carly Pearce?  Here, he and tourmate/fellow Alabama native McFarland attempt to keep the streak going with “Go Again” from his forthcoming album That’s Just Me. (They also duetted on the deluxe version of “Don’t Mind If I Do”). In the low-key, genial acoustic track solely written by Green, after a one-night stand the two lovers contemplate parting ways as planned or wonder if they should “go again,” both in and out of bed. More sweetly sexy than the full-on blow torch of Green’s “Worst Way,” but still steamy. — MELINDA NEWMAN

Stella Lefty, “Good at Leaving”

Lefty continues leaning into country music with this chugging track about her ability to “get gone without a warning,” because she’s far better at goodbyes than hellos. The “Boston” singer surrounds her lilting vocals with subtle pedal steel, mandolin and mainly acoustic guitar in the infectious tune that is going to stay in your brain much longer than she’s going to stick around. The official release comes after Lefty has been performing the song in concert and it has become a fan favorite. — M.N.

Rubén Blades, SUPERMAMBO

For his new album, Rubén Blades — Billboard’s 2026 Indie Icon — blends the magical worlds of music and comics. Across a mix of 17 tracks and interludes, SUPERMAMBO narrates the story of an afrolatino superhero from The Bronx, who’s elegant and knowledgeable, and whose superpower is to make people dance. Narrated by the Panamanian star, the set perfectly weaves storytelling and tropical rhythms with the intention of demonstrating the super powers of Latin culture. SUPERMAMBO — produced by Felipe Fournier and Jeremy Bosch — includes collabs with Oscar Hernández, Shae Fiol and Mariachi Flor de Toloache. — JESSICA ROIZ

Judeline, “Besito”

Judeline’s “Besito” — produced by Lil Chick, Sacha Rudy, Phil, Tuiste, and Gede da O — starts off with crashing ocean waves before transitioning into a futuristic pop song powered by experimental synths and ethereal vocal harmonies. Dubbing it as her official summer tune, the Spanish artist seductively sings about lust and desire: “I’m still thinking about yesterday’s kiss […] I want to kiss you again,” she chants. In the lyrics, she also encourages her crush to enjoy her while she’s in her 20s and living life intensely. A conceptual music video filmed by Lilian Hardouineau in France, demonstrates Judeline doing a dreamy-yet-sultry performance on the beach at night. — J.R.

Zeds Dead, “Return to the Return (of the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness)”

Zeds Dead’s Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness was one of our favorite albums of 2025, and now the pair go back indeed via their new Return to the Return (of the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness). Chopping up the original into bits and pieces and transforming it into a journey of ambient, breakbeats, UKG, drum & bass, turntablism, and more, the new version is both a sequel and full reimagination of the original that captures the heady, experimental tendencies that have long been the duo’s signature. Zeds Dead headlined Red Rocks last night, and will do so again this evening. — K.B.

Ken Carson, xperience 

Just over a year after earning his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album with 2025’s More Chaos, Ken Carson has returned with xperience. The Atlanta rap star teased the album’s dizzying, and at times slightly industrial, rage-rap and trap soundscape at his 2026 Rolling Loud headlining set (May 10) — and later on his @xperimenting0_0 Instagram page — and the 22-track set delivers. Featuring appearances by Playboi Carti, Destroy Lonely, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug and 2hollis, xperiment solidifies the 26-year-old as a true niche superstar, particularly one who can converse with his fanbase in the creation of the music while still packing surprises at nearly every turn. — KYLE DENIS 

Destin Conrad, “Nervous“

Last year, Destin Conrad followed up his Love on Digital debut album, which Billboard named the No. 1 R&B Album of 2025, with an impressive alternative jazz EP called Whimsy. Ever the shapeshifter, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter has delved into dancehall for “Nervous,” the first taste of his upcoming reggae album. His catalog has always had a subtle thread of Caribbean music, thanks to his Jamaican-born mother, and “Nervous” turns up the heat with a sizzling, Louie Lastic-produced riddim. The syncopated dancehall production pairs nicely with Destin’s seductive, layered background vocals, making for one heater of a summer anthem. — K.D.