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01 Nov 2024

Tyler, the Creator Lands His First U.K. No. 1 Album With ‘Chromakopia’

Tyler, the Creator has landed his first chart-topping LP on the U.K. Albums Chart with Chromakopia.

Released on Monday (Oct. 28) – away from the standard Friday release date – the rap superstar’s eighth studio album still made up enough ground on Manchester band Courteeners to pip them to the top spot by 800 units across physical sales, downloads and streaming.

Chromakopia bests Tyler’s previous high of No. 4, which he achieved with both 2019’s Igor and 2021’s Call Me If You Get Lost.

Courteneers held the lead until Thursday (Oct. 31), according to an official release by the Official Charts Company, and follows their maiden No. 1 album last year with a reissue of debut album St Jude. Their seventh album, Pink Cactus Café, tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart and was the most purchased LP at independent record stores over the past week.

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Bastille’s Dan Smith’s first solo album & also features in the top 10, landing at No. 4. Three of the London band’s four studio albums – Bad Blood (2013), Wild World (2016) and Give Me The Future (2022) – have previously charted at No. 1.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet and Charli XCX’s Brat continue their lengthy runs in the top 10, finishing at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

Pop icons Tears for Fears debut at No. 6 with Songs for a Nervous Planet, their seventh top 10 on the charts and their second studio release since their 2022 reunion.

Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) returns to top 10 following the physical release of the expanded Mourner’s Edition; the record initially spent three weeks at No. 1 following its original release in August, and finishes the week at No. 8.

There’s a first top 10 placing for Aussie punks Amyl & The Sniffers, whose third album, Cartoon Darkness, slots in at No. 9, and Queen’s 1973 debut album, Queen I, reaches a new high of No. 10 following a 50th anniversary reissue.

Halsey’s The Great Impersonator finishes at No. 19; their previous high on the Albums Chart came in 2022 with If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, which finished at No. 5.

See the full Official Albums Chart here.

01 Nov 2024

Gigi Perez’s Breakout ‘Sailor Song’ Hits No.1 on the U.K. Singles Chart

Gigi Perez’s sensational breakout moment has reached new heights with her first ever No. 1 single on the U.K. Singles Chart.

The New Jersey-born, Florida-raised singer-songwriter has had a viral hit with “Sailor Song,” which recently peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. Perez ends Sabrina Carpenter’s nine-week run at No. 1 with “Taste,” and is the most-streamed song of the week in the U.K. with 5 million streams, according to the Official Charts Company.

Speaking to the Official Charts on her victory, Perez says, “There’s such a big hole in the conversations that we’re having in mainstream music. There’s an entire group of people – the queer community – who need representation.”

She adds: “Knowing that ‘Sailor Song’ is a vessel for that, it’s amazing. Thank you!” 

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ROSÉ and Bruno Mars rise to No. 2 with their collaboration “APT.” The song bests the BLACKPINK member’s own record after she became the first K-pop female solo act to land a U.K. top five single last week.

Gracie Abrams’ has secured two entries in the top five with the simultaneous success of “That’s So True” (No. 3) and “I Love You, I’m Sorry” (No. 4). The former jumps 16 places to land Abrams’ second top 10 hit in the U.K.

“Disease,” the first taste of Lady Gaga’s upcoming seventh studio album, lands at No. 7 to give the pop icon her 16th career U.K. top 10 single, and follows her successful “Die With a Smile” collaboration with Bruno Mars.

Elsewhere, Addison Rae has secured her first top 10 entry with “Diet Pepsi,” which lands at No. 10.

In addition to his first No. 1 LP on the U.K. Albums Chart, three songs from Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia arrive in the top 40. Album opener “St. Chroma,” featuring Daniel Caesar, becomes the rapper’s highest ever charting single in the U.K. at No. 15, while “Noid” lands a spot later at No. 16 and “Darling, I” finishes at No. 24.

See the full Official Singles Chart here.

01 Nov 2024

Ed Sheeran Beats ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Case at Appeals Court: ‘Basic Musical Building Blocks’

Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” did not infringe the copyright to Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On,” a federal appeals court ruled Friday (Nov. 1), saying the two songs share only “fundamental musical building blocks” that cannot be owned by any single songwriter.

In a ruling issued more than a decade after Sheeran’s chart-topping hit was first released, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected an infringement lawsuit filed by Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns a small stake in the rights to Gaye’s song.

The case argued that Sheeran’s song copied a chord progression and rhythm from Gaye’s, but the appeals court said the lawsuit was essentially seeking “a monopoly over a combination of two fundamental musical building blocks.”

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“The four-chord progression at issue—ubiquitous in pop music—even coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands,” a panel of appeals court judges wrote. “Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”

Looking at the two songs more broadly, the Second Circuit also ruled that Sheeran’s track was clearly not similar enough to Gaye’s to amount to copyright infringement: “Neither the melody nor the lyrics of ‘Thinking Out’ Loud bears any resemblance to those in ‘Let’s Get It On.’ Undeniable and obvious differences exist between them.”

Sheeran has faced multiple lawsuits over “Thinking,” a 2014 track co-written with Amy Wadge that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately spent 46 weeks on the chart. He was first sued by the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the famed 1973 tune with Gaye. That case ended in a high-profile trial last year, resulting in a jury verdict that cleared Sheeran of any wrongdoing.

The case decided on Friday is a separate lawsuit filed by SAS, an entity owned by industry executive David Pullman that controls a different one-third stake in Townsend’s copyrights — meaning a one-ninth stake in the rights to Gaye’s iconic track. In May, weeks after the big jury verdict, a federal judge tossed out the SAS lawsuit, ruling that it was seeking an “impermissible monopoly over a basic musical building block.”

In upholding that decision on Friday, the Second Circuit echoed the earlier ruling’s concern about overprotecting copyrights and threatening future songwriting.

The chord progression and harmonic rhythm at issue in the case are “garden variety” elements that had been used in numerous songs, the appeals court said, pointing to evidence that they had appeared in “Georgy Girl” by The Seekers and “Since I Lost My Baby” by The Temptations — two tracks that predated Gaye’s song by years. The appeals court noted that there is a “limited number of notes and chords available” and that “common themes frequently reappear.”

“In the field of popular songs, many, if not most, compositions bear some similarity to prior songs,” the court wrote, quoting from a treatise on copyright law. “So while a similar chord progression and harmonic rhythm may create a similar sound and feel, that is not enough.”

The ruling is a major victory for Sheeran, but the battle over “Thinking” isn’t quite over yet. SAS also has another lawsuit against Sheeran pending, advancing an unorthodox effort to cite a more expansive copyright covering the sound recording to “Let’s Get It On” rather than the written music. That case has been paused while the earlier lawsuit played out.

In a statement to Billboard following Friday’s decision, SAS owner Pullman criticized the appeals court for citing “two songs out of over 60 million registered songs” in its analysis. And he stressed that the decision had not addressed his company’s arguments relying on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision about federal regulatory power.

Sheeran’s attorney, Donald Zakarin of the law firm Pryor Cashman, told Billboard that he and his clients were “gratified” by the court’s ruling: “This ruling is consistent with the jury’s rejection of any claim of infringement in the [earlier] case, finding that Ed and Amy independently created ‘Thinking Out Loud.’”

01 Nov 2024

Ariana Grande Said Being a Pop Superstar Was Not Enough, She Had to ‘Earn’ Her ‘Wicked’ Role


Ariana Grande says she absolutely had to “earn” the right to play Glinda in the upcoming two-part big screen adaptation of Wicked. Speaking to Sentimental Men podcast hosts Quincy Born and Kevin Bianchi this week, Grande said she’s “always been a Wizard of Oz person,” but despite her global pop fame — including nine No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits — and deep knowledge and love for the original 1939 Judy Garland movie The Wizard of Oz and the 2003 Tony-winning Broadway production of Wicked, it was not a given that she’d land the gig in director Jon M. Chu’s fantastical re-imagining.

“People sometimes say to me, ‘you had to audition?’ Of course, are you out of your gourd?,” she said about earning the right to step into the beloved role opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. “It’s Wicked! And it requires a totally different skill set than people know me for and have ever seen me do anything like,” she explained. “It’s Wicked! That’s the most respectful thing! It has to be earned… period!”

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If anything, Grande said her pop stardom could have worked against her in certain ways. “When you have this characterized persona that’s out there and people know you very well as this one thing, is this person going to be able to erase that and disappear into a character?,” she said, stressing that nothing about her playing Glinda is about herself, but only about inhabiting the beloved character.

During the pod recording where the singer apologized several times for her dog Myron’s incessant barking, Grande told the hosts that she has often turned to the Broadway Wicked original cast album for comfort and a “safe space” if she is nervous or needs to warm up her voice.

Grande also recalled that she first saw Wicked on Broadway when she was just 10, feeling “very, very, very fortunate” to see the original cast at a time when it was the show that “everyone was talking about.” In addition to repeatedly seeing the show on the Great White Way, after bidding way too much in a Broadway Cares Equity Fight AIDS auction for a backstage tour, the budding star was gifted a “little wand” and “magical body wash” by star Kristin Chenoweth.

How obsessed was she? At one point Grande erased every single song on her iPod with the exception of the Wicked soundtrack, further proof that this dream gig might have been in the stars all along. And, when the first murmurings about the film version reached her desk before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the singer said she told her team that she was willing to immediately pull the plug on her 2019 Sweetener world tour so she could go home and start on voice and acting lessons.

“‘I’m gonna turn this s–t out,’” Grande said she told her team more than a year before her August 2021 audition. “‘This is all I want. It’s done.’” Though they appreciated her enthusiasm, Grande said her management politely said no way to cancelling the tour at a time when the singer thought she might be brought in to read for both lead roles.

She knew, however, that Glinda was the part she was destined to inhabit. When Chenoweth gave her the thumbs up, Ariana said she lost it. “We had talked about it for years and years and years, but me finally confessing to her that I wanted to go in for Glinda was like a whole different thing,” Grande said about asking Chenoweth for guidance on how to really nail the part and make it her own without resorting to an impersonation.

“I said, ‘Hey, I think they’re doing this now, and I think that I wanna go for Glinda,’ and she went into the bathroom and closed the door and started crying,” Grande said beginning to tear up herself at the memory. “It was the sweetest thing in the world. Oh my god, it makes me emotional. It was so cute. She was just like, ‘I was hoping this would happen. I love you, and I trust you with it, baby girl.’ She was like, ‘Just do your thing. Just do your thing. You are so funny and you have great instincts and no one knows that.”

The first part of the movie that also co-stars Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Jonathan Bailey and Marissa Bode, opens in theaters on Nov. 22.

Watch Grande talk Wicked below.

01 Nov 2024

Billboard Arabia Cover Interview: The Voice Bridging Generations of Arabic Music


Interviewing an artist of Angham’s caliber presents a unique challenge and a thrill, merging anticipation with the weight of her legacy. Angham is, after all, a towering figure in Arabic music, an extraordinary voice whose career bridges the classical foundations of Arabic song with its modern evolution over two dozen studio albums. This was not just an interview – it was an exploration into the journey of authentic art that has shaped contemporary Arabic music.

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As expectations filled the air, they quickly dissipated when Angham appeared in white, radiating a captivating smile. Angham takes in all opinions and comments with a calm demeanor, soothing the room’s tension. When she begins to speak, the atmosphere transforms: her words reflect a powerful personality, expressing complex ideas with simplicity and an undeniable charm that enchants her audience.

There’s no doubt that Angham has emerged as one of Egypt’s most impactful modern voices. Her journey began in the late 1980s, nurtured by her father, the renowned musician Mohamed Ali Suleiman, whose guidance and influence helped unlock her early talent. With training in music and piano, she developed a solid foundation in the musical arts, initially singing traditional Tarab (classical Arabic music) pieces that bore her father’s distinct artistic signature, such as the album Ila Ana (Except Me), in parallel with her collaborations with classical composers of Khaleeji music such as Talal Maddah, Suleiman Al Mulla and Sami Ihsan. Yet, in the late 1990s, after professionally parting ways with her father, Angham redefined her path.

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She embraced a modern style closer to Arab pop and reached a major milestone with the 2001 album Leih Sebtaha (Why Did You Leave Her?), marking her first collaboration with composer Tarek Madkour and Sherif Taj. The early 2000s also saw Angham experimenting with Latin pop, in the release of one of her most prominent hits, “Sidi Wasalak” (Why Aren’t You With Me?), and with it she established her new artistic identity, which she continued to grow and develop while absorbing new musical trends, and integrating them into the context of her own musical experience and identity. Through these works, she expanded her reach to a broader audience, solidifying her status as a central figure in the Arab music scene and maintaining her role as a bridge between Arabic music’s rich history and its present.

While it is difficult to pin any one of Angham’s albums over the other, another massive success for Angham was her album Hala Khassa Gdean (A Very Special Case) with hit songs “Ya Retak Fahemny” (I Wish You Understood Me), where we hear her nuance for emotional complexities of love develop more with each work, in addition to her vocal delivery and performance. With 29 studio albums under her belt, Angham’s prolific body of work has found a home in the hearts of her listeners year after year, where she has come to be known for her unique ability to sing a range of emotional experiences found in each stage of love.

Billboard Arabia’s conversation for the October cover began with her latest album, Tigi Neseeb (Let’s Leave). Each song, a journey into the depths of emotion, allowed Angham to share pieces of herself and the untold stories embedded within the lyrics. She describes the album as a story, explaining, “This album is like a story with a beginning and an end. It’s filled with stories of people and situations – very real and relatable. What ties it all together is the music, the expressive kind I resonate with.”

Angham’s musical expertise shines through as she discusses her talent for weaving stories from real-life experiences — narratives that listeners might recognize from their own daily lives or even feel personally connected to. She notes, “The album is like a drama; it’s as if you’re witnessing the stories of many people around you. Sometimes, you see yourself in the narrative, or you recognize two or three others whose stories you’re familiar with. It’s that simple, yet it’s a core reason for my success.” Angham unveils that the key to her songs’ success and uniqueness lies in her deep connection with her audience and the relatable stories they share. Each song she performs embodies a sense of authenticity, forging a personal bond between the music and the listener, as though she shares in the daily experiences.

She approached her latest album, Tigi Neseeb, not as a fixed blueprint but as a dynamic journey filled with transformations and experiences. “I wouldn’t lie to you and say I knew exactly what I was going to do; the album developed gradually, with changes in lyrics and musical arrangements. There was a plan, but it evolved for the better.”

After discussing her latest album, Angham elaborates on her artistic choices and musical collaborations. With dozens of albums under her belt, she articulates her philosophy regarding song selection, highlighting the stage’s pivotal role in her decisions: “I’m always focused on how a song will translate on stage; my choices are guided by this aspect because the stage is my essence. My concert is my soul.” Angham expressed her enthusiasm for direct audience interaction, an essential element in her creative process. “When I choose a song and its arrangement, I consider how it will start, end, and engage the audience; I’ll re-record as many as two or three times to reach that perfect ending that commands applause.”

For Tigi Neseeb, Angham maintained a thoughtful balance between longtime collaborators and fresh names she worked with for the first time. She sustained her successful collaborations with producer Tarek Madkour and lyricist Amir Teima, with whom she’s worked for over 20 years, crediting these long-standing collaborations with upholding her distinctive musical identity. At the same time, she brought in new, unexpected collaborations. In her conversation with Billboard Arabia, Angham highlights the album’s surprise: collaborating with Akram Hosny, initially an Egyptian comedian, who contributed songs like “Khalik Ma’aha” (Stay With Her) and the title track.

Angham

Angham

Sharbel Boumansour/Billboard Arabia

On her album, Angham also introduced new vocabulary into her piece with lyricist Mostafa Hadouta, whose background in mahraganat music added a fresh layer to the song “Mowafaqa” (l Agree). Unpacking the album’s rich collaborations, she also praises three poets she worked with for the first time on Tigi Neseeb, including Hala El Zayat, whose song “Howa Enta Meen” (Who Are You Anyway) achieved remarkable success, landing in the No. 9 position on Billboard Arab Hot 100. Tigi Neseeb’s performance on the Billboard Arabia charts proves its remarkable success, with 10 out of 12 songs finding a home on Billboard Arabia’s Hot 100.

But Angham isn’t just a singer, performer and classically trained musician — she is also a businesswoman. In her interview, she unveils her most ambitious endeavor to date: her own production company, Sowt Masr (The Sound of Egypt), which launched with its debut album, Tigi Neseeb. Established between 2014 and 2015, the company initially aimed to produce her personal projects, yet Angham’s vision extends far beyond her own artistic ambitions. She expresses, “Deep down, I aspire to nurture new voices, and with time, I will make that happen.” Angham emphasizes that her role as a producer is not merely to finance projects but to guide emerging talent on the right path. Her insight highlights a transformative view of the producer’s role – one that encompasses organizing and creatively directing rather than just providing funding.

Looking ahead, Angham was unequivocal about her commitment to continuous innovation. “As I speak, I’m actively engaged in new projects. Music constantly flows through my mind, inspired by the words I hear and read, along with new songs and fresh collaborations,” she shared. Her boundless ambition drives her to enhance her artistic repertoire through collaborations with new composers and artists who can add their flair to her work.

Angham is not just an artist; she embodies a modern classic Arabic voice and serves as a vital link between musical generations. With her album Tigi Neseeb, its diverse collaborations and her production venture, Sowt Masr, she demonstrates her remarkable ability to adapt and innovate while remaining true to her artistic roots. The interview concluded on an inspiring note, envisioning a bright future not only for Angham but also for emerging artists who may find her label Sowt Masr a springboard to new horizons in the music industry. As she continues to pave the way, Angham’s legacy promises to illuminate a path for the next wave of talent and Arabic music at large.

Angham

Angham

Sharbel Boumansour/Billboard Arabia

01 Nov 2024

Donald Trump Calls For Liz Cheney To Face Gunfire, Former Congresswoman Calls Him Unstable

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President Trump Signs Bills That Nullify Measures Put In Place During Obama Presidency

Donald Trump is having quite an interesting week with the election just mere days away. During a media event, Donald Trump suggested that Republican politician Liz Cheney face enemy gunfire, prompting the former congresswoman to refer to Trump as unstable.

Donald Trump was in Glendale, Ariz. on Thursday (October 31) for a talk with Tucker Carlson, and the former president covered a wide range of topics while taking shots at his critics. During the chat with the conservative pundit, Trump made a violent suggestion regarding Cheney after discussing her position on war.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said.

Continuing his salvo against Cheney, Trump suggested that Cheney and other politicians in Washington are far too comfortable in engaging in war tactics from the halls of Congress and would inspire battles with dozens of other countries.

“You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,” Trump added.

Cheney caught wind of Trump’s comments and took to social media to address the verbal jab.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant,” Cheney wrote on X in a caption with the chat in question shared in a video from Aaron Rupar.

Trump’s ire towards Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, was further stoked after she publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

On X, formerly Twitter, we’ve gathered reactions to Donald Trump and his violent barbs toward Liz Cheney.

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Photo: Getty

01 Nov 2024

How Yeat Scored His First No. 1 Album on the Billboard 200 With ‘LYFESTYLE’

This week, one of hip-hop’s rising stars hit a new milestone in his career: With the release of his latest album, LYFESTYLE, Yeat landed his first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 89,000 equivalent album units, following up on the No. 2 debut of his last album, 2093, back in February.

It’s a big achievement for Yeat, who has seen his career steadily project upward, reaching the top 10 of the Billboard 200 with each of the five albums he’s released since he began working with Field Trip Recordings in 2022. This one also came with another big milestone: In its first week, LYFESTYLE, released in conjunction with Capitol, sold 60,000 units, outstripping the entire sales volume of his prior catalog to date so far (35,000) due to a combination of vinyl albums, his first-ever CD release and exclusive songs on various digital variants. And the success of the album earns Field Trip founder/CEO Zack Bia the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

Here, Bia — who has also served as Drake’s tour DJ for the past two years — discusses Yeat’s commercial glow-up since they began working together, what sets this project apart and why they leaned into a sales strategy for the first time with this new album. “Ultimately, it will actually just be the next stepping stone of an achievement that allows us to jump into even bigger live show experiences and wide-reaching ventures outside of just the music,” Bia says.

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This week, Yeat scored his first career No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with LYFESTYLE. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?

My main role is always just to help bring his vision to life. Making sure that all the elements between the music, the visuals, the live show and the world-building as a whole are synergetic. Creating unique eras for each project that his fans can bask in. 

Over the course of his career, each of his albums has debuted higher than the previous one, with February’s release 2093 coming in at No. 2 prior to this new chart-topper. How have you worked to build his career steadily through the years?

The goal is always to elevate with every album. Learn from previous rollouts and apply and adjust to the next one. He’s so prolific and puts out music at such a high velocity it’s just about continuing to go bigger with every release but in a way that stays true to the core audience. Our goal has always been to just add to the burning core fan base and with every release this group just gets bigger and stronger.

What sets this project apart from the rest of Yeat’s catalog, and how does it help you build from here?

This project I think comes at a time where after a meteoric rise he finally decided to lean back into the “lifestyle.” Reaping the rewards of his hard work, and I think the fun he’s having translates into the music. This project is braggadocious and polished and sets him apart and into a next category after reaching No. 1. Ultimately, it will actually just be the next stepping stone of an achievement that allows us to jump into even bigger live show experiences and wide-reaching ventures outside of just the music. 

With 60,000 units, this week was Yeat’s biggest sales week of his career and outsold the entirety of the rest of his catalog to date. What was your approach to the sales aspect of this? And why go down the CD road for the first time?

I think the demand was always there, we just didn’t always cater to it. We are so precious with the music oftentimes we didn’t even have the time to make physical product on such short timelines. After putting out a massive project top of the year, there wasn’t a rush necessarily to force this one out. We could finally take our time to build product around it and lean into giving people actual things to collect: large-format vinyl to listen to and hang in their collection, or collaborative merch with designers he’s admired. Also rewarding people for buying into it, exclusive songs and different offerings that only were available to people who really paid attention and wanted to collect them. 

What is your approach to digital marketing? And how have you been able to leverage TikTok for Yeat’s singles?

Yeat is so prolific in music making but is reclusive as a human in general. The rest of the internet can do the documenting and interacting for him. We never try to spark anything on TikTok out of the blue; all we can do is let the people pick. It’s very democratic in that sense, whatever song they champion then we can go lean into [it] and try to spread it wider. 

How has the music industry evolved over the course of your career?

To echo the answer from the previous question, I believe that every era of social media has been intrinsically tied to the popular music of that era. Whether the music blew up on the platform of that time or it was big culturally and then translated back to that platform. I think in my time we’ve seen the most digitally-native fandoms yet, so learning to balance both living online but then translating it to live experiences and vice versa, real-life moments that then live online. I think in a time of virality we’ve swam the opposite way and tried to just stay true to chipping away piece by piece at growing something. But granted, this is the time of the quickest evolution in music history. When else has it been possible to make a song on your phone, upload it that night, and go viral the next day?

I would like to thank everyone on our team that works tirelessly and selflessly towards this common goal of uplifting a truly amazing artist. I know this is just a little small recognition that I received but I appreciate it and want to share my gratitude to everyone on our internal team and to [Capitol chairman/CEO] Tom March and the entire Capitol Records family. Also, new BNYX music soon.

01 Nov 2024

New Mini-Doc Goes Behind the Scenes at Justice’s 2024 Coachella Performance: Watch

Seventeen years before Justice brought a boundary-smashing stage setup to the Outdoor Stage at Coachella 2024, they were just two young producers from France wondering if their work would ever translate into a real career in live music.

For the duo — Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé — the answer became a definitive oui after their 2007 debut performance at Coachella, which was also their first ever live performance.

Now, the two are looking back on their four Coachella performances — which happened at the fest in 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2024 — in new mini-documentary produced by the festival. The eight-minute visual, titled …And Justice for All: Coachella Edition, is comprised of archival footage and new interviews with Justice, their team and a few of the many people who helped put the show together at Coachella 2024 this past April.

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“I remember after we played our first set we felt so relieved,” de Rosnay says of the duo’s 2007 set in the doc, “because we had spent the four previous years thinking, ‘Maybe we are just meant to make remixes and not even albums,’ and then here we were in the desert thinking, ‘Well, maybe we are actually a real band.’”

The doc puts a special focus on duo’s 2024 performance on Coachella’s Outdoor Stage. Justice and their creative team spent six months working with seven computer scientists to make the show, which they’ve toured the world with over the last six months. The doc features an interview with the group’s longtime technical director Manu Mouton.

The documentary was directed by photographer and filmmaker Connor Brashier, who’s worked on projects with artists including Shawn Mendes, Niall Horan and Kygo. The film was produced by Goldenvoice’s Ike Adler, Mikhail Mehra and David Prince as part of a new initiative at Coachella focused on creating original content.

“As this piece became to come together, I quickly realized I was making this for my younger, nerdy self, who dug for hours and hours trying to find out more about the people and processes behind the iconic Justice shows both past and present,” Brashier tells Billboard. “I hope someone out there is as giddy as I was to see a few of these monumental Coachella performances in HD and meet a small portion of the magician-like talents who played a part in putting them all on.”

Watch the mini-documentary below:

01 Nov 2024

Álvaro Díaz on Where He Was Creating ‘Sayonara’ & ‘Ramona Flowers’ | Behind the Photo

Álvaro Díaz shares where he was when Sayonara dropped, why he loves vinyls and more in Behind the Photo presented by Billboard and Walmart.

Álvaro Díaz:
I’m Álvaro Díaz and this is Behind the Photos with Billboard. This was in Kyoto earlier this year — one week before dropping Sayonara and a few minutes before tasting the best ramen in the world. That’s what I remember most about this photo, the ramen in Kyoto. Top!

This is Alvarito and Ace Ventura, Milkman’s dogs in Milkman’s studio. Comet and Rocket. There they are! Comet and Rocket, they are almost mine. Shoutout Milkman! Dog lover, Alvarito!

My photographer’s favorite photo, Waiv, doing the E-Mode. This was when we got the vinyls for Sayonara. My dream since I was little was to be able to have vinyls like the ones you used to buy. My dad is a fan of vinyl. We used to come out of basketball games to buy salsa vinyls and stuff. Having my own vinyl is like a crazy experience, that’s what this is, that’s what this represents. If you don’t have it, go buy it! This is one of my favorite places in the world. This is in Medellin. This is with my brother Manuel Lara and we are making ‘SAYONARA.’ In fact, I think it was “Ramona Flowers” that we were working on at the time. ”Ramona Flowers” was the first song that came out of the album, so this is a very important photo. 

01 Nov 2024

Latto Brings ATL to NYC With Halloween Night ‘Sugar Honey Iced Tea’ Tour Stop: 5 Best Moments

In 2022 — the same year “Big Energy” became her first Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit — Latto got her first run at performing in arenas when she served as one of the openers for the North American leg of Lizzo‘s Special Tour. Just two years later, the Clayton County emcee headlined a major New York arena on her own when she graced Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Halloween (Oct. 31) for the fifth stop of her Sugar Honey Iced Tea Tour.

Latto’s latest trek is in support of her third studio album of the same name, which debuted atop Rap Albums and reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200. A sprawling love letter to the sonic fabric of Atlanta rap, Sugar Honey Iced Tea features the Hot 100 hits “Big Mama” (No. 92), “Sunday Service” (No. 100, with Megan Thee Stallion & Flo Milli) and “Put It on Da Floor Again” (No. 13, with Cardi B), as well as collaborations with Ciara, Coco Jones, Hunxho, Teezo Touchdown, Young Nudy and Mariah the Scientist.

The night began with a brief performance from Karrahboo — who brought out Gio, an Atlanta-based model attached to Lil Yachty‘s Concrete Boys collective — and a particularly heartfelt set from Mariah the Scientist. “Let’s just make it to the end so I can get on this jet!” she quipped mid-set, one of several times she alluded to the good news that rocked the hip-hop world mere hours before she took the stage: Young Thug, Grammy-winning rapper and beau to Mariah the Scientist, was sentenced to 15 years probation and no prison time after pleading guilty in the two-year criminal case alleging that he was the leader of a violent Atlanta street gang.

With Thugger coming home, Mariah implored that fans “burn [their] ‘Free Thug’ shirts” and start saying the phrase backward (“Thug free!”). Buoyed by an extra boost of passion and energy sourced from the Young Thug news, Mariah the Scientist rocked Barclays Center with a set that smartly played on the emotional vulnerability of her catalog. She’s been very open about continuing to ride for her man no matter the outcome of the case, so songs like “Spread Thin” felt especially poignant as they blasted through the arena.

Latto finally took the stage around 10:30 p.m., kicking off her set with the viral Sugar Honey Iced Tea opener “Georgia Peach.” From the classic first verse of “Georgia on My Mind” to the retro advertisements and tongue-in-cheek video interludes, Latto delivered an incredibly streamlined visual interpretation of the Sugar Honey Iced Tea aesthetic, which she described in her July Billboard cover story as “Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Lil’ Kim and Kelis… but obviously with a Southern hip-hop twist. They have very feminine energy, but masculine in the sense of confidence.”

In a nod to the holiday, Latto donned a Playboy bunny Halloween costume as she ripped her way through a setlist that prioritized her rap catalog. Though two of the biggest songs of her career are “Big Energy” and “Seven,” her Hot 100-topping collaboration with Jung Kook, Latto largely shied away from her pop fare, opting to focus on her recent hip-hop hits like “Brokey” and “Back Outside” and her earlier rap bangers like “Muwop” and “B—h from da Souf.” Despite a bit of sickness working against her, Latto delivered a remarkably high-energy show that featured tight choreography, an emphasis on live rapping and multiple levels of fan engagement — from the freaky Jumbotron moment of “Copper Cove” to the audience poll that gave way to heartfelt renditions of “Prized Possession” and “S/O to Me.”

Here are the five best moments of Latto’s Sugar Honey Iced Tea tour.