{"id":843157,"date":"2026-09-10T17:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T17:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/843157\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T17:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T17:26:14","slug":"greatest-pop-stars-of-august-2026-olivia-rodrigo-karol-g-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/843157\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Pop Stars of August 2026: Olivia Rodrigo, Karol G & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLabor Day has come and gone, and with it ends a packed summer in pop stardom. August in particular brought with it some very big new album releases, some very exciting new hits, and some very loud pop discourses \u2014 along with the very sad passing of one all-time music legend, and the debut of one historic-feeling concert festival at month\u2019s end, led by one of the leading lights of all 2020s popular music. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

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See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week on the\u00a0Greatest Pop Stars\u00a0podcast<\/a>, we catch up with all the stars who defined August 2026 in pop stardom. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by\u00a0Billboard\u00a0staffers Danielle Pascual and Eric Frankenberg to share and debate our respective August top five lists, while also naming some honorable mentions, some disappointments, and some artists who we\u2019re looking forward to in the final third of the year. (If you want to listen back to our first seven 2026 recaps, or any of our 2025 episodes, you can\u00a0check them all out here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong the way, we answer all the most pressing questions about August in pop stardom: How big a deal was the Daisy Chain Fields festival for cementing Olivia Rodrigo as the leader of her pop star generation? Has the runaway success of Karol G\u2019s \u201cBby Wow\u201d already validated the relatively soft debut of its parent album? Which of the Steve Lacy and Tame Impala Spider-Man synchs made more sense as a breakout moment? Is KATSEYE making the pop music of the future? Did we expect the outpouring of grief and adulation from all corners following Dolly Parton\u2019s death? Does everyone just need to take a breath before talking any more about Stella Lefty? And most importantly: Who\u2019s leading the Greatest Pop Stars of 2026 discussion with four months to go in the year?<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck it out above, and subscribe to the\u00a0Greatest Pop Stars\u00a0podcast<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0(or wherever you get your\u00a0podcasts<\/a>) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom! (Also read the new r\/Popheads zine<\/a>, spearheaded by many-time Greatest Pop Stars guest AJ Marks.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts \u2014 if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:<\/p>\n

\n\tTransgender Law Center<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTrans Lifeline<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tDestination Tomorrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tGender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tHuman Rights Campaign \u2013 In Your Area<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on\u00a05Calls.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you are struggling with disordered eating, please contact the\u00a0National Alliance for Eating Disorders<\/a>\u00a0at (866) 662-1235. You can also visit their websites for resources, help, and more information.<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Day has come and gone, and with it ends a packed summer in pop stardom. August in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,497,181894,216,2294,356989],"class_list":["post-843157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-pop","tag-greatest-pop-stars-podcast","tag-music","tag-podcasts","tag-who-won-the-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}