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The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Nov. 22, as Taylor Swift and KPop Demon Hunters continue to rule the roost, we look at artists with good chances to break into the top 10 below them.
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Rosalía, LUX (Columbia): Few new pop sets this year have been either as hotly anticipated or as rapturously received as Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía’s ambitious new set LUX, which arrived on Friday (Nov. 7). That is, if you can even plausibly call the album pop: While the album certainly has its big melodies and catchy moments, it’s as influenced by opera, classical, jazz and showtunes as much as it is by any of the genres most directly feeding into contemporary top 40, and it’s sung in over a dozen different languages.
Still, LUX has proven dazzling enough to delight critics and fans alike — and given both its rapturous critical acclaim and its strong start on streaming, it seems likely to become Rosalía’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 to date. Aiding its first-week performance will be its availability for purchase in four different CD boxed sets — each including branded merch and a CD — as well two vinyl editions, one of which is signed by the artist.
Will it be enough to get Lux to the Billboard 200’s top 10 — which, somewhat surprisingly for an artist of Rosalía’s profile, she has still yet to even get near, peaking highest (No. 33) with 2022’s Motomami? With solid sales and steady streams, it certainly seems likely — with a top five debut also a possibility — though it depends on both how well the set maintains on DSPs, as other more-streaming-proven releases continue to perform at a high level.
But it helps that the set already seems to have something of a breakout hit: Yahritza y Su Esencia collab “La Perla,” which is still on both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Apple Music real-time charts, and climbing again on each.
Hayley Williams, Ego Death at a Bachelor Party (Post Atlantic): Hayley Williams’ first release on her new independent imprint Post Atlantic — can you guess which major label she recently parted ways with? — has had an extremely unconventional rollout. First, in late July Williams released 17 of its tracks to her website for free streaming, before uploading them to DSPs all as individual singles in early August. Then in late August, the set was collected on streaming as the full album Ego Death at a Bachelor Party, with two new songs joining the then-19-track set.
Now, the album has reached its (possibly) final form: Last week, Williams released Ego Death on CD and vinyl for the first time — while also re-releasing it to DSPs — all with the extra new track “Showbiz” now making the tracklist an even 20 songs. The set, which was very well received by fans and critics even with its somewhat jumbled release, should sell fairly well — with multiple vinyl variants on sale — and Ego Death should bound up from its No. 173 debut this week on the Billboard 200 (due to early availability of its vinyl in some indie stores), possibly even threatening a new peak in the top 10.
IN THE MIX
Sombr, I Barely Know Her (SMB/Warner): One of the year’s most exciting new breakout hitmakers is coming off a very big weekend, both scoring his first Grammy nomination (for best new artist) and making his debut appearance on Saturday Night Live as a performer. Keeping the good times rolling: the first physical release on CD, vinyl and cassette of his debut album I Barely Know Her, which should give the album a nice boost on the Billboard 200, from where it currently sits at No. 27 to somewhere around its original No. 10 peak.
Yeonjun, No Labels Part 1 (Big Hit): Also threatening the top 10 this week: the debut solo EP from Yeonjun, singer/songwriter in the chart-topping Korean pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER. The six-track set does not yet have a major presence on streaming, but is expected to sell very well, assisted by a litany of different CD variants, each including collectible paper goods, some of which is randomized per copy.
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New Kids on the Block are ready to spend the next year in a committed relationship with Las Vegas, ’til death 2026 do them part.
On Wednesday (Nov. 12), the veteran boy band — made up of Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood — headed to Las Vegas’ Little White Wedding Chapel to “recommit” to Sin City for 16 new dates of “The Right Stuff,” their debut Vegas residency, bringing their grand total of 2026 shows to 24. Clark County Commission chairman Tick Segerblom also gave NKOTB the keys to the Las Vegas Strip, so it sounds like they’re officially moving in to their new home of Dolby Live at Park MGM for the next year.
After kicking off the residency back in June, New Kids will have three more shows this week (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) before returning for previously announced February concerts starting on Valentine’s Day and continuing with the brand-new dates in June, July and October.
“What we’ve built here in Vegas, together with our incredible Blockheads, feels truly magical,” Wahlberg said in a statement announcing the news. “The energy in that room each night — the lights, the lasers, flying up to the balcony to see all our Blockheads dancing and singing along — is so far beyond anything we’ve ever done before. Vegas has been so welcoming to us, we couldn’t leave just yet! We are having the absolute best time and are so excited and honored to be asked to extend our stay here at the Dolby through 2026.”
To get tickets to the newly announced shows, Fan Club pre-sale starts Monday at 10 a.m. PT, while Citi cardmembers will have access to pre-sale tickets starting Monday at noon PT through the Citi Entertainment program. Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers will have access to a pre-sale starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, while members of MGM Rewards will receive access to a pre-sale starting Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. PT. All pre-sales end Nov. 20 at 10 p.m. PT before the on-sale begins Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. PT.
A limited number of tickets for all previously announced performances are on sale now as well.
In addition to Wednesday’s quickie Vegas wedding, “The Right Stuff” residency also includes a different set of marriage vows each night: between the band and their fans. “Do you, New Kids, take these Blockheads to be your forever fans, so long as we both shall live?” Wahlberg asked his bandmates during the residency’s June 20 debut, to which they all responded: “I do.”
“Do you, Blockheads, take these New Kids to be your forever boy band, forsaking all other boy bands — that means *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, One Direction, all of them — so long as we both shall live?” Wahlberg cheekily asked the screaming crowd, who clearly had no trouble abandoning all those other groups to commit to New Kids on the Block once and for all.
See the full “Right Stuff” residency dates below:
Josh Homme, the much-celebrated lead singer for the Queens of the Stone Age, performed one of his most daring concerts yet in Los Angeles — his first in his adopted hometown after a health scare last year forced him to cancel a number of shows. A native of nearby Palm Desert, the 52-year-old Homme has said […]
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An appeals court has upheld Tory Lanez’s convictions for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, rejecting his arguments aimed at overturning his 10-year prison sentence.
Nearly three years after the singer (Daystar Peterson) was found guilty in 2022 of shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument on a Hollywood Hills street, a California appellate court affirmed the verdict in a ruling issued Wednesday (Nov. 12).
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Lanez and his supporters have long maintained his innocence, claiming there was insufficient proof that he was the shooter and that he received an unfair trial. But in the ruling, the appeals court said there was no reason to undo the verdict.
“Peterson contends the trial court committed a number of errors,” the appeals court wrote. “We find no prejudicial error and, accordingly, affirm Peterson’s conviction.” A spokeswoman for Lanez did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
The ruling came more than five years after the July 12, 2020, shooting, which happened as a driver was shuttling Lanez, Megan and her assistant/friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, when Megan got out of a vehicle and began walking away, Lanez shouted “Dance, b—h!” and fired a gun at her feet, striking her once.
Following the incident, Megan initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.
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During a blockbuster trial in Los Angeles court, Lanez’s lawyers tried to sow doubt over who had really pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Megan herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her, and neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.
Lanez and his supporters have refused to accept that verdict, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.” His legal team has filed multiple forms of appeal to challenge the verdict, each of which has now been rejected. They have also claimed publicly that new evidence exonerates him; Megan’s reps and prosecutors strongly deny that.
On appeal, Lanez raised a slew of arguments. He argued it had been unfair for jurors to hear the earlier interview with Harris, in which she placed the blame for the shooting on Lanez; he also argued prosecutors had improperly cited an Instagram post in which he appeared to say that Harris had not shot Megan.
In Wednesday’s decision, the appeals court rejected each of those arguments, including Lanez’s claim that prosecutors had “introduced racial bias into the proceedings” by referencing a tattoo of a gun on his chest.
“It was defense counsel who asked — both on direct and on redirect — if [a witness] had ever seen Peterson with a gun,” the appeals court wrote. “Neither of the prosecutors even mentioned Peterson’s tattoos — much less the tattoo of a firearm — in their closing arguments.”
Trending on Billboard Just a few days after earning her second career Grammy nomination — best African music performance for “Push 2 Start” — Tyla called upon her pop music foremothers to launch her We Wanna Party at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena on Tuesday (Nov. 11). Mounted in support of July’s WWP EP, the We Wanna […]
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In Jordan Davis’ 2023 single “Tucson Too Late,” the singer races to the airport, hoping to save a relationship.
His latest, “Turn This Truck Around,” reverses direction. In this case, he’s driving away, attempting to end a partnership. It’s similar in storyline to Glen Campbell’s 1968 release “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” though there are sharp differences. “Truck” sounds tougher and technology makes it more likely the woman he’s leaving can initiate a conversation that will make the guy cave.
“‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix,’ you’ve got to find a pay phone, even if you want to make the call,” Davis notes. “Now we’re carrying our phones around.”
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The only actual travel involved in writing “Turn This Truck Around” was the four songwriters’ commutes to Nashville’s Anthem Entertainment on Dec. 7, 2024, and the family trips they rekindled in conversation. Davis talked about chauffeuring his three kids (he and his wife, Kristen, have since added a fourth), and Warner Music Nashville artist Devin Dawson recounted a ride he and his twin brother, writer-producer Jacob Durrett, took to the Six Flags theme park in Vallejo, Calif., when they were young.
“My brother and I are in the back seat, just being little hellions and picking on each other and shit,” Dawson says. “I remember [Mom] saying, ‘Don’t make me turn this car around.’ ”
Those images didn’t take on significance until Jake Mitchell (“One Beer,” “Some Girls”) introduced a pulsing track he had developed with a simple chord progression. It had a Tom Petty air about it, and discussion about the driving beat led to talk about driving imagery. Dawson brought the earlier conversation back up with a slight revision to the vehicle, “Turn This Truck Around.” The work was fairly easy.
“It doesn’t feel like we talked about what the idea would be that much,” Mitchell offers. “It kind of just came out. And I feel like we didn’t put too much story in there. It’s more so just about that moment when you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it. Don’t go back.’ ”
The chorus melody emerged first, and Josh Thompson (“Drowns the Whiskey,” “Wasted On You”) provided the setup line, with the protagonist proclaiming he was on his way “long as your memory/ Don’t make me turn this truck around.” Davis wanted a starting line for the story, and they crafted one — “This time I said it and I meant it” — that indicated the relationship had been in trouble for some time. From there, they bounced back to the chorus before patching the whole plot together. Verse one provided a sense of the journey, focused on the brakes and the gas station stops. Verse two brought the listener inside the cab, where the singer wrestles with the love songs on the radio and fears that a text message will undermine his determination. It’s never clear if he’ll go through with the breakup or give in.
“I kind of love the little bit of open-endedness in that lyric,” Davis says.
They brought the tension to a climax in the bridge — though not the kind of bridge one encounters on the road.
“I’ve written with [people who] said bridges are made for burning and jumping off of,” Davis quips. “There are some songs where the bridge just feels like it’s useless, but this one I was pretty proud of. It really kind of helps the song out.”
It allows for a mention of “memory lane” — “ ‘Memory Lane’ had to be in that song,” Davis says — but it also uses musical elements to amp up the drama.
“The bridge is my favorite part of the song,” Dawson says. “I think it just really lets all that emotion spill out of the melody, and the way he sings it — [near] the top of his range there — it really dumps the desperation out.”
Mitchell produced the demo, which introduced several new ideas. He inserted sound effects of a door slamming, boots walking and an ignition starting, though none of those made it into the final product. And at Dawson’s suggestion, he employed a halftime feel on the bridge. They all thought they had a winner, and Mitchell didn’t want to take a risk that any element in the recording would turn off even one decision-maker who would be evaluating its potential.
“It’s usually got to go past A&R managers,” he reasons. “They play it for all kinds of people in their teams, and sometimes, whether people realize it or not, they can not like a song because of the way a vocalist says words. Even if they don’t think about it that way, they could just be like, ‘I don’t know about that one,’ and that one voice could make an artist doubt the song and not want to do it.”
Davis left the appointment confident that they had written a hit. He had never felt that way about a song before and never lost faith in “Truck.”
Producer Paul DiGiovanni (Travis Denning, Alana Springsteen) appreciated its Petty-like foundation — “My favorite artist of all time right there,” he says — and he made a point of highlighting the persistent eighth notes that were key to many of Petty’s recordings during a tracking session at Sound Stage on Music Row.
Mitchell’s demo had presented the song’s substance well — “He knocked it out of the park,” DiGiovanni says — and the final production essentially worked its way to the bridge.
“Some bridges are just like, ‘Hey, let’s change my brain chemistry for 10 seconds so you can put me back into the chorus,’ ” DiGiovanni explains. “That is the climax of the song. It’s the most desperate part and it’s a pretty long bridge. So I feel like that’s as important as the chorus in the song, and I knew we needed to put some emphasis on that.”
As uncluttered as the arrangement feels, it adds small touches and extra voices throughout, many of them felt subliminally. It includes, for example, a quiet, filtered-out synth part that sounds like wood blocks at the end of the choruses and a barely audible pulse synthesizer and Hammond B-3 that operate as a danger signal at the bridge’s conclusion.
“It just builds as it goes,” DiGiovanni says. “Like the background vocal stacks — the first chorus, there’s four; the second chorus, there’s six; the last one, there’s 12. It’s just things to pad it and give it a little bit more beef as it goes on.”
Despite the angsty bridge, it was one of the easiest vocal performances of Davis’ career. “Usually, I go in and cut vocals for two hours,” he says. “I went in to just sing two songs one day, this being one of them. It was like 20 minutes. Paul is looking at me like, ‘All right, man. Anything else? You good?’ That was a good day.”
So was April 5. He played “Turn This Truck Around” live for the first time during the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The audience responded as if it was familiar, and it confirmed Davis’ belief it should be a single. MCA Nashville released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Oct. 13. Fans may respond as if the song is preordained; the results of the storyline are not.
“The hero in this song — I love the fact that he’s not 100% sure that he’s the hero,” Davis says. “Eventually, her memory is going to catch up to you, no matter how far you drive.”
Trending on Billboard 50 Cent can’t deny that he’s still into Vivica A. Fox — even if his former flame said she would advise her younger self not to date the Grammy-winning rapper. Late Monday night (Nov. 10), the “Many Men” rapper took to Instagram to respond to Fox’s viral comments. “Either way I’m a […]
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Herb Alpert says he’s returned to holiday music as another thing to do — and for all the right reasons.
“I just like making music,” says the iconic trumpeter, composer and record company executive, who delivered Christmas Time Is Here, his third holiday set, on Nov. 7. “That’s what I do to stay healthy. I like to record, and if I can find a song that haunts me for some reason and do it in a way that’s different, that people haven’t heard before…that’s what I like to do. I picked out a bunch of songs, and even though I’ve recorded a couple of these songs before I felt I could put another spin on them.”
Holiday albums have certainly been good for Alpert during his 67-year recording career, which has put him in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and earned him a National Medal of Arts. Alpert’s first seasonal effort, Christmas Album in 1968, went gold, per the RIAA; 2017’s The Christmas Wish hit No. 2 on the Jazz Albums chart and No. 5 on the Top Holiday Albums chart.
“They sell every year,” Alpert notes. “You put ’em to rest for 11 months and they come back like they’re almost fresh. They’re good songs, and when you pick good songs, I think people appreciate that.”
Alpert tried a few different things with some of the 12 tracks on Christmas Time Is Here. Particularly notable is his new cover version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein standard “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, which Alpert kept melodically faithful within a revamped arrangement. “I always liked that melody,” he explains. “It’s written in 3/4, like in a waltz time. I found a way to do in 4/4 that seemed like it fit the song. There’s been so many recordings of (the song), but this one certainly doesn’t sound like something that’s been overplayed.” Alpert, who’s joined by keyboardist Jeff Lorber on several of the songs, also lent a New Orleans flavor to the staple “Jingle Bells” and incorporates some vocals into the mostly instrumental set on tracks such as “Sleigh Ride” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
“It takes relaxation and not thinking too hard,” he says of the process. “I’m not trying to make a hit record that’s going to sell a zillion copies. I’m just trying to make something that feels good to me. I’m always looking for that. That’s my goal, to make music that feels good. So when I hit on a type of arrangement just felt right, felt interesting, that’s when I felt like (the songs) deserved to be done again.”
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most contemporary selection on the set but one that’s certainly been on Alpert’s radar since its 1994 release. “I always thought it was a really good song, good melody, nice lyric — it didn’t surprise me that record of hers did so well,” he says of the perennial Billboard Hot 100 topper. “It’s always melody first; like Quincy Jones once said, you can take the greatest singer in the world, and if the song’s not there the record won’t be any good.”
Christmas Time Is Here comes in the midst of a variety of celebrations for Alpert during the past year-plus. During September of 2024 he released 50, his — wait for it — 50th studio album. This year, meanwhile, he turned 90 (on March 31) and has been commemorating the 60th anniversary of his breakthrough Whipped Cream & Other Delights — his first of five No. 1s on the Billboard 200 — by touring with a reconstituted Tijuana Brass, which hit the road again Nov. 9 with dates booked into next summer.
“It’s this new renaissance; I can’t believe what’s happening,” Alpert says. “I’m 90 years old and I’ve got this audience that wants to hear music that I did 60 years ago. I’m doing it for the right reasons; it’s something I have to do. It gives me energy; It gives me a reason to be. I like it, and I get a chance to make a lot of people happy. That seems like a good deal. I didn’t expect this to be happening at my present age.”
There’s more to come, he says. Alpert is planning to release a live album from the tour, though no release date has been determined. Meanwhile, he adds, “I’ve got a whole bunch of songs that are ready to be released,” again without a firm plan yet, and he’s confident there will be even more after that.
“That’s what I love to do,” he says. “I love to record. I love to work. I have a Logic (recording) system, and it keeps my brain working. I play the horn just about every day of my life. I’m a right-brain guy — I paint and sculpt and blow the horn. I’ve got this gift, and I love that I get to share it with people.”
On Wednesday morning (November 12), Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a new set of emails from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, in which he alleges that President Donald Trump had keen knowledge of his activities in abusing young women. The emails, taken from thousands of documents received by the committee, are part of the committee’s investigation into Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their ties to the president, who has denied knowing Epstein.
“These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president,” said Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee. The emails were from three conversations, one with Maxwell and two with author Michael Wolff, years after Epstein’s falling out with Trump and his 2008 plea deal in Florida on state charges of soliciting prostitution.
In the email to Maxwell, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” He then wrote that an unnamed victim “spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.” Maxwell replied, “I have been thinking about that.” Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of charges related to helping to facilitate Epstein’s abuse. The revelation comes as Democrats, citing a whistleblower, claim that Maxwell intends to ask Trump for a commutation of her sentence this week.
In one of the other email exchanges with Wolff, Epstein wrote of Trump: “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” In the third email exchange from 2015, Wolff had asked Epstein if he was prepared for CNN to ask Trump about their relationship, and advised him to not engage. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote, adding that it could “save him, generating a debt.”
The revelations come as the House of Representatives is set to vote on a funding bill passed by the Senate to end the government shutdown. House Majority Leader Mike Johnson is also expected to swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, whom he resisted swearing in after she won her election two months ago. It’s believed that once sworn in, she will be the final signature on a bipartisan petition forcing a House vote demanding that the White House release all of its files on Epstein, which it has adamantly refused to do.
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Cody Johnson and his wife Brandi Johnson welcomed their third child, and first son, last month.
During an interview with Lon Helton’s Country Countdown USA, Johnson revealed that the couple had welcomed their third child, son Jaycee Daniel Johnson, on Oct. 21. In May 2025, while on the red carpet at the Academy of Country Music Awards, Johnson revealed the couple was expecting their third child.
Jaycee joins the couple’s older children, daughters Clara Mae (born in 2015) and Cori (born in 2017). In May, Johnson told People about expecting his first son, “My girls… you can’t beat my girls, I love my two girls with all my heart. They’re 10 and 8, Clara and Cori, and I think I’m excited to watch them help raise this little boy.”
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Johnson also added that he felt “a lot better off now as far as career and financially, than I was when we had [our daughters]. He’s gonna get a horse a little quicker than my kids did. He’s going to get to do some things a little quicker than my daughters did.”
Heading into next week’s CMA Awards, slated for Nov. 19, Johnson is nominated for four trophies, including entertainer of the year and male vocalist of the year, as well as music video and musical event of the year (for “I’m Gonna Love You” with Carrie Underwood).
Last year, Johnson sold out his first stadium show at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. He recently had to cancel his remaining tour dates for 2025 due to a ruptured ear drum, but has plans to head out on the road again in 2026.
“It is with a very heavy heart I have to share the remainder of this year’s concert performances will not be able to happen. While battling a severe upper respiratory and sinus infection, I burst my ear drum. The severity of the rupture means I must undergo immediate surgery. The healing process will take many weeks, and it is not possible for me to sing during this time. Without the surgery my downtime could be months. I pray for full healing so I can get well and return to doing what I love. Thank you COJO Nation for the love and support now, and always,” Johnson said in a statement on his official site announcing the canceled tour dates.
