Why This Spring Is Stacked With Major Pop Releases

Grande’s seventh full-length will arrive more than three years after 2020’s Positions — her longest span between albums. Positions followed her definitive one-two punch of Sweetener and Thank U, Next, both of which she supported on her Sweetener world tour, her biggest trek to date that grossed $146 million and sold 1.3 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore. Sweetener and Thank U, Next soundtracked a highly public time in Grande’s life; she was coping with the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and newly engaged to Pete Davidson, which they ended after a few months. Eternal Sunshine puts her back in the familiar territory of fending off the opinions of fans and haters alike. Lead single “Yes, And?,” which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, dives right into the headlines with lyrics like “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply” and “Why do you care so much whose — I ride?” Following Eternal Sunshine, Grande will return her attention to the movie Wicked, with part one set for a November release.

Though Musgraves debuted in 2013 as a country artist, her acclaimed third album, 2018’s Golden Hour, cemented her status as a certified pop star and won the album of the year Grammy. Its follow-up, the airy breakup treatise Star-Crossed, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (one spot higher than Golden Hour) but didn’t achieve the same level of critical acclaim. With Deeper Well, Musgraves returns to the stripped-down singer-songwriter model that worked so well before. The title-track lead single arrived after country and folk collaborations with Zach Bryan (the Grammy-winning Hot 100 chart-topper “I Remember Everything”) and Noah Kahan (“She Calls Me Back”) and falls right in line: Musgraves sings of people with “dark energy” who waste her time and chronicles her Saturn return, declaring, “I’ve gotten older, now I know/How to take care of myself/I’ve found a deeper well.”

Shakira’s forthcoming album will end a seven-year lapse for the superstar, who last released an album in 2017 — El Dorado, which spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart. The new album’s title nods to the fiery lyrics from her Bizarrap session last year, in which she declared: “Las mujeres ya no llora, las mujeres facturan,” which loosely translates to, “Women don’t cry anymore, they make money.” The session, “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” was one of two Hot 100 top 10 hits for Shakira in 2023, alongside “TQG” with Karol G. As she told Billboard in her September cover story: “Now I can release music at a faster clip, although sometimes I think being a single mom and the rhythm of a pop star aren’t compatible … It’s constant juggling because I like to be a present mom … and aside from that, I have to make money.”

One of the biggest winners on Super Bowl Sunday wasn’t a football team. In a Verizon commercial that aired during the game, Beyoncé announced new singles “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” along with the forthcoming release of Act II, the second of three parts to her Renaissance album series. The seemingly country-inspired project is off to a strong start as “Texas” scored Beyoncé her first Hot Country Songs hit, debuting at No. 1, while “16 Carriages” entered at No. 9. 2022’s Renaissance scored Queen Bey her fourth album of the year Grammy nomination and seventh Billboard 200 chart-topper. (All seven of her solo albums have entered at No. 1.) Meanwhile, her Renaissance world tour was 2023’s top-grossing trek, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. The stage is set for Act II to keep breaking records — and, with new sonic direction, breaking boundaries, too.

Rogers co-produced her third album with Grammy-winning producer-songwriter Ian Fitchuk, who also had a hand in Musgraves’ Deeper Well. (Both albums were worked on at New York’s Electric Lady Studios.) Don’t Forget Me’s contemplative title-track lead single prominently features Rogers’ raw vocals and even more revealing writing. As she chronicles a fling, of whom she pleads, “Don’t forget me,” she contrasts her own reality with those of friends who are heading toward marriage. “To me that sounds so scary,” she confesses. Rogers’ 2019 debut, Heard It in a Past Life, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 while its follow-up, Surrender, entered just outside the top 10 at No. 12.

At the 2024 Grammys, while accepting the best pop vocal album award for Midnights — her 13th Grammy win, of course — Swift announced that her next album was already on the way. She said she wanted to thank her fans by spilling a secret she had been keeping for two years — and then revealed the title and release date of her forthcoming 11th album. She shared the cover art that night and soon after revealed the tracklist, which includes features from Post Malone and Florence + the Machine. Despite the major reveal, fans are still hungry for yet another anticipated Swift release: Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the rerecorded take on her 2017 album. There’s no doubt it’s on the way, but that’s one secret Swift isn’t quite ready to share. 

This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.