Does Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in music for 2025 include Tom Jones, Jelly Roll, Willie Nelson, Pink, Jimmy Page, Johnny Mathis, Mick Jagger, or anyone? No, that's not true: There is no such TIME Magazine list. While musicians are sometimes included in the publication's annual list of most influential people, there is no specific list of 100 musicians. Facebook pages administered from Vietnam posted false claims listing dozens of musical artists as 2025 honorees, but none of them are on the real list.
One example of the claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared by the Classic Crooners Facebook page on October 13, 2025. It featured a fake Time cover image with a caption that read:
CONGRATULATIONS: Music Legend Sir Tom Jones Has Been Named One of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in Music for 2025 -- But the Story Behind the Milestone Might Surprise You...
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Dec 19 18:04:35 2025 UTC)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
Time magazine is well-known for publishing an annual "TIME 100 Most Influential People" list, which included two musicians -- Ed Sheeran and Hozier -- in the 2025 list (archived here).
But there is no such thing as a "TIME 100 Most Influential People In Music" list as claimed in these posts.
A Google search (archived here) for "Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in Music" found a long list of these fake claims, all with the same roots in Vietnam. While Google's Gemini "AI Overview" noted that there is no such thing as the "People in Music" list, it was fooled into repeating the fake claims as fact.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google.com)
A Facebook search (archived here) found dozens of posts making near-identical claims about a long list of musicians, including:
- Jelly Roll
- Tom Jones
- Ringo Starr
- Paul McCartney
- Stevie Wonder
- Jimmy Page
- Pink
- Johnny Mathis
- Smokey Robinson
- Mick Jagger
- Steve Perry
- Rhonda Vincent
- Linda Ronstadt
- Yungblud
- James Hetfield
- Teddy Swims
- Kid Rock
- Dave Mustaine
- Celine Dion
- Joe Jonas
- Luke Bryan
- Neil Young
- Randy Owen
- Josh Groban
- Brian May
- Joan Baez
- Don Reid
- Leann Rimes
- Eric Clapton
- Miranda Lambert
- Shania Twain
- Brandon Lake
- Barbra Streisand
- Abba
- Andrea Bocelli
- Elton John
- Donny Osmond
- Steven Tyler
- Stevie Nicks
(Image source: Lead Stories video scroll of Facebook search)
These fake posts are all tied to an AI-assisted network based in Vietnam. The post's caption also includes a link to an article (archived here) making the claim on a website that includes an acknowledgement on its "terms and services" page (archived here) that it is based in Vietnam.
Meta's transparency data shows the Classic Crooners Facebook page is managed from Vietnam.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook)
The Vietnam connection is significant, since fact-checkers, including Lead Stories, have identified a major source of AI-generated false stories coming from a single operation based in that Southeast Asian country. We have published at least 70 fact-check articles focused on this content.
Lead Stories has published a primer -- or a prebunk -- on how to identify these kinds of fake posts exported from Vietnam. It's titled "Prebunk: Beware Of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities -- How To Spot 'Viet Spam'"
