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13 Sep 2024

John Legend Slams Donald Trump’s ‘Hateful’ Claim That Haitian Immigrants Eat Pets in His Hometown

John Legend has long been open about his political views, as well as his opposition to Donald Trump. But after the presidential debate on Sept. 10 — during which the Republican candidate regurgitated rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio — it got personal for the EGOT winner.

In a video posted to his Instagram account Thursday (Sept. 12), two days after Trump’s first debate with Kamala Harris, Legend — who is from Springfield — shared his thoughts on the easily debunked claims about his hometown’s immigrant community. “Springfield has had a large influx of Haitian immigrants who’ve come to our city,” he explained. “Now, our city had been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs, we didn’t have enough opportunities.”

“Of late, during the Biden administration, there’ve been more jobs that opened up — more manufacturing jobs, more plants, factories — that needed employees and were ready to hire people,” the “All of Me” singer continued. “During the same time, there had been upheaval and turmoil in Haiti. Our demand in Springfield for additional labor met up with the supply of additional Haitian immigrants.”

After outlining how the federal government assisted the Haitian population in legally moving to the United States, Legend compared the situation to other international communities — Polish, Irish, Italian, German, Jewish and Jamaican, to name a few — who’ve also immigrated over the years in pursuit of the American dream. “All of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want for our ancestors,” he said into the camera.

“Nobody’s eating cats,” he added. “Nobody’s eating dogs. We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy, safe environment. Don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them.”

The post comes as Springfield finds itself thrust into the center of the 2024 presidential race thanks to the false pet-eating rumor, which started with a post in a local Facebook group that alleged a neighbor’s daughter’s friend had found their missing cat hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home. With anti-immigration sentiment being a core tenet of Trump’s platform, his campaign was quick to use the rumors as fuel for his third White House bid, as conservative outlets spread the false story online.

“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” a spokesperson for Springfield recently told CNN, while Mayor Rob Rue said Thursday that the hoax is “hurting our citizens and hurting our community.”

The Springfield controversy is just the latest topic Legend has spoken about amid the 2024 presidential race, with the musician being one of the earliest and most outspoken supporters of President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris’ campaigns this year. In a recent interview with BBC Newsnight, for instance, he opened up about the importance of reproductive healthcare — another hot-button issue in this year’s race — and detailed how it played a crucial role in his family in 2020.

“We were losing a pregnancy we wanted, a baby we wanted — we were losing him,” Legend recalled of Chrissy Teigen’s pregnancy loss four years prior. “We had to have abortion care to resolve that, to make sure that Chrissy didn’t die. She was bleeding profusely, and her life needed to be saved. We had to have abortion care to do that.”

Watch Legend call for peace in Springfield, Ohio, and share his thoughts on healthcare for women below.

13 Sep 2024

Luis R Conriquez’s Explosive Rise to Fame: The Man Behind Corridos Bélicos | Billboard Cover

Billboard cover star Luis R Conriquez rapidly rose to fame with his corrido “El Buho.” The talented singer opened up a new style of corridos by creating “corridos bélicos.” He shares how he rapidly rose to stardom, working with many of his friends/artists on ‘Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV,’ including Peso Pluma, Gerardo Ortiz, Ryan Castro and more!

Luis R Conriquez:

Luis R Conriquez, done. The Luis from two years ago is still the same as now because since I started in this, I’ve always been making music. I work hard, I mean, right now we are working, you know? After this, I can go record a video. Then go home and rest. Or I might want to do some vocals. I’m always looking for work. I always want to make music. I always want to try to have a lot of material, I want to create music so that people can listen to it. So I feel that I am still the same Luis R that I was two years ago. Maybe with more experience, and not making the same mistakes, or maybe I’ve just gotten over them. But it is different. I think that when… when I recorded the songs I had at that time, I felt that it was something new, that it was different from everything that was playing. And the day that I recorded it, I felt happy with it. I recorded a video and a new song after I joined Kartel Music, and I told Freddy and Leo, “You know what? I think this song will be a hit.” And it was. That song made me famous. It was called “El Buho.” It’s called “El Buho” and even now, I sang it yesterday, I released it four years ago and it still feels like a new song.

Keep watching for more!

13 Sep 2024

Janet Jackson Reveals Mortifying Wardrobe Malfunction in Front of Queen Elizabeth II: ‘I Couldn’t Believe It Happened’

Janet Jackson is opening up about another wardrobe malfunction. In an interview with British Vogue in which the 58-year-old pop icon flipped through a look book of some of her most iconic costumes, Jackson stopped on one of the military-inspired looks from her 1989 Rhythm Nation album.

“Funny story. I was performing for the Queen of England, and we were doing Rhythm Nation,” Jackson said of the late British monarch who died at age 96 in Sept. 2022. “Sure enough, as soon as I squatted, my pants split right up my booty crack.” Jackson said she “couldn’t believe” her terrible luck before realizing it was worse than she imagined.

“Then I started feeling air back there, so I knew it had really happened,” she said, revealing her quick-thinking fix for the sartorial nightmare. “I never turned my back to her, which, some of the choreography, I was supposed to. I just faced forward.”

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The story from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is extra poignant given the other wardrobe malfunction she is most commonly associated with. As you may recall, back in 2004 Jackson performed with Justin Timberlake at that year’s Super Bowl halftime show in Houston, during which JT famously ripped off a piece of Jackson’s costume, exposing her nipple for 9/16th of a second.

The moment that was probed in a 2021 New York Times Presents documentary led to a raft of complaints from viewers, as well as fines and significant professional implications for Jackson. For years, many fans and pundits noted that Timberlake appeared to emerge from the pre-social media viral moment with little or no backlash, while Jackson’s career was dealt a blow from the incident after her videos were pulled from Viacom properties including MTV, VH1 and CBS and she was uninvited to that year’s Grammy Awards.

The Super Bowl slip dubbed “Nipple-gate” also introduced the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” into common parlance and, in the wake of the #FreeBritney movement that blew up in 2019, led to Timberlake issuing public apologies to both Jackson and his ex Spears for the way he’d treated them.

“I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments, and concerns and I want to respond,” Timberlake said at the time after the 2021 Framing Britney Spears documentary portrayed the “Cry Me a River” singer as acting callously following his split with Britney in 2002. “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right. I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism. I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed.”

Jackson is gearing up to launch her Las Vegas residency with back-to-back performances on Dec. 30 and New Year’s Eve at Resorts World Las Vegas.

Watch Jackson describe her royal de-pantsing below.

13 Sep 2024

Miranda Lambert’s ‘Postcards From Texas’: All 14 Tracks Ranked

Miranda Lambert returns with her 10th studio album today (Friday, Sept. 13), and in the process, she’s revisiting and celebrating her Lone Star State roots even as her career propels forward, as her new album is her first since signing with Republic Records, in conjunction with Big Loud, earlier this year.

For more than two decades, Lambert has been defiantly and triumphantly carving her own sonic territory, setting herself apart by skillfully writing and recording songs that detail life’s idyllic and messy moments, capturing both blazing zeniths of confidence and hazy shadows of doubt — always with a tumbleweed spirit. The result has been seven Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s, and and seven albums that have reached the pinnacle of the Top Country Albums chart.

On previous albums, this three-time Grammy winner has veered from country’s glam-rock edges to its moody, soulful precipices. But on her latest, she’s in classic Lambert form — though the spunky, something-to-prove edge of her early albums has cemented into a surefooted, calm-yet-keen creative spark, as she bends every note and lyric in her distinct Texas twang.

The sounds emanating from this project’s 14 songs are entrenched with stinging wit and shot through with unadulterated frankness, as Lambert worked at Arlyn Studios in Austin, co-producing the album with longtime collaborator Jon Randall. On her latest, Lambert and her collaborators etch detailed imagery of the neon-lit honky-tonks, homey back porches, pastures and stretches of open spaces that embody where the album was created.

Many of the songs here center on loving and leaving, acknowledging free-spirit ways, while it’s understood that allegiances to country music and the Lone Star State are likely to outlast just about everything else.

“I have not made a record in Texas since I was 18, my little independent album, so this is full circle – coming back home to the root, to kind of start fresh with a new label and sound and some new band members I haven’t played with,” Lambert said via a release before the album’s drop. “Being back home and really remembering why I love country music, it’s already leaning way more country which I love.”

Billboard ran through Postcards From Texas upon its arrival on streaming services, ranking all 14 tracks from the project below.

13 Sep 2024

How Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ ‘Die With a Smile’ Became a Global Smash

In the middle of August, with precious little warning, two of the biggest artists in the world decided to take hold of the pop-music narrative. On the night of Aug. 15, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars unleashed their collaborative ballad “Die With a Smile,” complete with a Dolly Parton-inspired music video released the same evening, as well as a surprise duet performance at Mars’ show in Los Angeles, blanketing the Friday release day with a full-court press in the first few hours of the song’s release.

As the week went on, a digital campaign began to factor in as well, and the work paid off: “Die With a Smile” debuted at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and No. 2 on both the Global 200 and the Global Excl. U.S. charts in its first week. But since then, the song has only grown, particularly around the world — this week, “Die With a Smile,” which is credited to Gaga’s label Interscope but is receiving a helping hand from Mars’ label Atlantic, spends its second week as the biggest song in the world, topping both of Billboard’s global charts midway through September. And that worldwide success helps earn Interscope Geffen A&M senior vp/head of pop/rock marketing Adrian Amodeo the title of Billboard’s Executive of the week.

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Here, Amodeo, discusses the initial rollout of the song, how Interscope and Atlantic worked together and how the Interscope global strategy — which has also seen huge success with Billie Eilish and Karol G, as well as with BTS’ Jimin — has helped the company reach new heights around the world. “We don’t want to just put out records in other territories,” Amodeo says. “We want to build real campaigns that are extensions of our domestic campaigns and also build into local cultures and communities on the ground and online.”

This week, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile” is No. 1 on both of Billboard’s global songs charts for the second straight week. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?

First off, it was an enormous team effort across two amazing artist teams. We have two of the most important pop stars on the planet who wrote and recorded an absolutely incredible song and were involved in every detail of the rollout. We knew it was going to be a special moment once the song came out, but also knew we had to build a campaign that honored two superstars and their incredible artistry. We wanted to show the power of these two stars together and show that Gaga and Bruno are at the top of the game, with a ballad, in the midst of what has been an incredible summer of pop music. 

When we first heard the song, Kirsten Stubbs, our co-head of digital marketing, flagged that Bruno happened to be opening the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles around the time the song was coming out, so we immediately put the wheels in motion to make a performance be a key moment in our campaign. The genuine connection the world saw between the two of them, and the content we were able to capture and spread, really set the tone for the entire campaign. It was lightning in a bottle with the release of the song, the video and the performance that night. But we knew we had to keep building a runway for the song and eventize the release around the globe, so we treated it like an album rollout, not just as a single. 

The song debuted at No. 2 on both charts, before ascending to the top spot a week later. What went into such a huge global impact right out of the gate?

Our international team has been so integral — every territory made it a priority to make this the biggest song in the world. Before the song came out we were fortunate to have all of the label heads from around the globe into our studio where we unveiled our plan for the track. We were able to play the music and explain our global vision, but more importantly we had Gaga and her team in the room to be part of those conversations with us. It really energized everyone to be part of a process like that. The subsequent local campaigns and partner support our teams have put together have been really amazing. 

I’m proud of what the team pulled off for the fans around the world, too. The out-of-home campaigns became important fan experiences, anchored by an eight city storefront experience that paid homage to the song, the artwork and the video. Combined with all the billboards around the globe, it just felt huge — and, more importantly, we got it to travel online. A great job by Kevin Rankin and Jessica Staats for driving that with all the teams around the globe. The themes of the song have also helped build an incredible TikTok world for the song, which has been fun to watch and really helped take it to another level globally. Our ability to conceive of and execute such a complex global campaign is really a core strength of Interscope and Universal Music Group. 

This music video also had a big impact, with its throwback theme and Dolly Parton-esque vibe. How important has it been to the song’s success, and what do you see as the role of the traditional music video these days?

The music video has been so important, if not the most important part of this campaign. It was co-directed by Bruno, which continues to exemplify his artistry and shows the trust that Gaga put in him as a partner in this whole process. Again, that genuine connection can’t be overstated. Beyond being an incredible video, it also inspired every inch of our creative. The single art, the outfits they wore on stage at the Intuit Dome, the global out-of-home; everything has intentionally been cohesive and respectful to the aesthetic world built by Gaga and Bruno. The music video also kicked off a powerful viral moment with the fans recreating Gaga’s dance and inspired fans to recreate the looks online, at shows, and at the clubs — our influencer marketing team was quick to identify this and amplify it globally. It has been so amazing to see and we fully expect Gaga-Bruno to be one of the most seen Halloween costumes this year. We’re already getting ahead of that.

Gaga and Bruno are two of the biggest superstars on the planet, and are signed to different labels. How did this song come together, and how did the marketing plan work across two companies?

The making of the song is Gaga and Bruno’s story to tell, but it’s very well documented that they have wanted to work together for a long time. [Interscope chairman/CEO] John Janick’s relationship with Bruno goes back for many years and the trust that Bruno and Gaga put in John can’t be overstated. [Atlantic Music Group chair/CEO] Julie Greenwald was an absolute force as well. Her energy and passion for the song helped drive both teams to be great. With so many relationships and teams in place we were truly able to hit the ground running. We spent about six weeks planning the song together and the relationship was great with all of our departments working hand in hand, on Zooms, calls, texts, DMs, voice notes and faxes. We’re still going.

Alongside Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” Interscope has three songs in the top 10 of the Global 200, and those three make up three of the top five on the Global Excl. U.S. chart. What is IGA’s overall global strategy and why are these songs working so well around the world right now?

We’re very fortunate to work with incredible artists and incredible partners. It starts with the teams, but the vision is always global from the start. We don’t want to just put out records in other territories. We want to build real campaigns that are extensions of our domestic campaigns and also build into local cultures and communities on the ground and online. Our teams literally stay across all the creative, creator campaigns and local moments to make sure it’s a unified creative marketing rollout with a local touch. The way we’ve also been able to integrate partners like AmEx and Sony into our global rollouts has been a testament to the 360 approach we take globally. 

Jimin’s “Who” is also in the top 10, by the way, and I can’t emphasize enough the importance of our relationship with HYBE. We are thrilled with our new HYBE x Geffen global girl group, KATSEYE. Building a global girl group with such an important partner has been an incredible undertaking, but a big part of our vision for the future. It’s been amazing to see them grow exponentially on streaming and socials as PopStar Academy: KATSEYE, the eight-episode series that tracks their journey, keeps growing on Netflix. They’re currently in Korea on a huge promo trip that will take them to Japan and the Philippines, too. 

Where do you see the biggest growth opportunities for Interscope around the world right now?

Our relationship with our artists continues to be our biggest opportunity. What we can bring to them in building their global brands is our core strength, so we must continue to emphasize and build what we have, while reinvesting into new strategies. Direct to consumer and [customer relationship management] strategy is so important, and we continue to build those globally with our partners at Bravado and Fame House. We’ve built a company culture where it feels like one team with them, and that’s so important in helping to create global artist brands. Our collective ability to communicate with the fans directly around the globe is critical. We’re really focused on that, while we also continue to strategize emerging markets.

Last Week: How Sabrina Capped Her Rise to Stardom With ‘Short N’ Sweet’

13 Sep 2024

How U.S. Construction Workers Fueled Luis R Conriquez’s Rise

There’s a uniqueness to Luis R Conriquez’s humble beginnings. The gas station worker-turned-hitmaker, now known as the king of corridos bélicos, began writing songs for an unlikely group of early listeners who turned into some of his first clients.

Soon after writing his first corridos in his early 20s, the Sonora-born artist started getting direct messages on Instagram from construction workers in the United States who were wondering if he could write corridos about them.

“If it wasn’t for Instagram I wouldn’t have been known. Instagram was how I got my first jobs,” Conriquez told Billboard‘s Griselda Flores in his latest cover story. While an odd request to get, it was, after all, a source of income for Conriquez, who worked at a gas station and made music on the side. “I asked them to send me a short summary describing themselves so I could get inspired,” he continued. “I’d write, record and send it to them.”

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Conriquez admits he didn’t even know how much to charge them. At the time, he explained, “I was my own manager at the time, my own distributor, collecting my own money.” So, initially, he charged $150 per corrido, but as demand grew, he tripled his fee. “The most I asked for was $1,000 for a corrido.”

The “Si No Quieres No” singer-songwriter has since only fueled the regional Mexican music movement after catapulting to stardom once he signed with Kartel Music in 2019, an also up-and-coming indie label based out of Santa Maria, Calif. Its founders, Alfredo “Freddy” Becerra and Leonardo Soto, discovered Conriquez at an audition in Mexicali, Baja California.

Today, Conriquez has become a go-to collaborator for regional Mexican and nonregional Mexican acts alike, including Nicky Jam, Ryan Castro and Peso Pluma. With 1.42 billion on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate, he has 20 entries on Hot Latin Songs, and most recently scored his first Billboard Hot 100 entry with “Si No Quieres No,” a collaboration with up-and-comer Neton Vega. His Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV, released in January, earned him his first entry and top 10 on any albums chart, debuting at No. 5 on Top Latin Albums and No. 3 on Regional Mexican Albums. It also became Conriquez’s Billboard 200 entree with a No. 36 debut.

He is set to headline the RUMBAZO 2024 event in Las Vegas this weekend. Conriquez will perform on Saturday, Sept. 14. See the schedule here.

Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.

13 Sep 2024

LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes & More Remember Fatman Scoop at Celebration of Life Ceremony

To those closest to him, he was Isaac Freeman III, but around the world, he was renowned as Fatman Scoop. Hip-hop’s premier hype-man and entertainer, Scoop died on Aug. 30 after collapsing on stage at a show in Connecticut doing what he loved — rocking the crowd. He was 56.

Less than two weeks later, Scoop’s peers, friends and family gathered not far from the Harlem projects he was raised in, at the famed Apollo Theater on Thursday (Sept. 12) for a celebration of life ceremony.

Hundreds filed into the legendary venue and felt the full spectrum of emotions. There were laughs shared from funny stories, heartfelt moments, tears shed and some partying to music along the way.

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While Scoop showed up for so many whenever called upon in his decorated life, plenty of recognizable faces returned the favor to be in attendance at the ceremony. For perhaps the final time, Scoop and his recognizable bark brought people from different walks of life together for one last party.

Sway Calloway played MC for the night, while fellow Harlem native Teddy Riley, Jim Jones, A$AP Ferg, Busta Rhymes, DJ Webstar, Angie Martinez, Kid Kapri, Ron Browz, DJ Enuff and more either spoke or performed in some capacity throughout the evening. Other familiar faces spotted in the crowd included LL Cool J, Maino, DJ Self, Treach, Datwon Thomas and more.

Beyond the hits such as “Be Faithful,” Grammy award wins and working with the likes of Missy Elliott and Mariah Carey, there were a few characteristics that continued to pop up in people’s pensive stories on Thursday, which spoke to Scoop’s infallible nature as a great human being past his art.

For one, he was always a phone call — or voice note text message — away and came through for his friends, even if it didn’t come with a bag. Two, Scoop doesn’t get enough credit for how prolific of an MC he was before charting a different path as a trailblazing entertainer. “[Scoop] told me one story how he was supposed to be the first Biggie. And, like, Biggie jacked his style,” Ferg said, which drew laughs from the audience.

Three, he never had issues or beef with anyone in the industry. “Fatman Scoop is probably one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever met on this planet,” Busta Rhymes declared. “I don’t think I’ve ever ran into Fatman Scoop having an off day. I’ve never seen him angry, I’ve never seen him upset, I’ve never seen him perspire and worry about things outside of when he was on that stage busting a–.”

And four, the man stayed fresh and kept a bottle of Scope mouthwash on him at all times. “We had a crowd of people around and some girls were around, and Scoop was around and all the girls gave him the attention,” Teddy Riley said. “Why? He had the cologne. He had the cologne game on lock, but he had the Scope game on lock, and that’s why girls wanted to be around him. He didn’t have bad breath. I said to myself, ‘If I do that, would I be biting?’”

Fatman Scoop’s contributions to Missy Elliott and Ciara’s “Lose Control” earned him a Grammy award and a top five Billboard Hot 100 hit (No. 3) in 2005. Outside of music, he made waves as a reality star and overnight host at Hot 97, where he claimed to bring the first video camera into the station.

Hip-hop will be a bit quieter without Fatman Scoop’s signature raspy and resonant shout, but his life of the party legacy is etched into rap lore. Scoop is survived by his two children — Torrance and Tiana Freeman — and brother Kendall “Young Sav” Freeman.

13 Sep 2024

Chart Rewind: In 2014, Charli XCX Thundered to No. 1 With ‘Boom Clap’

A decade before Brat summer, Charli XCX roared to No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart with “Boom Clap.”

The song began a three-week reign on the list dated Sept. 13, 2014, and marked her first No. 1 on her own and second overall. She first led as featured on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” for three weeks beginning that June.

Powered by their explosive choruses, the songs became Charli XCX’s second and third Pop Airplay top 10s, after Icona Pop’s fellow anthemic hit “I Love It,” on which she’s also featured, rose to No. 3 in June 2013.

On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, “I Love It” hit No. 7; “Fancy” dominated for seven weeks – and earned top honors on the season-ending 2014 Songs of the Summer chart; and “Boom Clap” stormed to No. 8.

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Notably, “Boom Clap” marked the fourth consecutive Pop Airplay No. 1 by an artist in a first chart visit as a lead act, following three fellow enduring hits: Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” Magic!’s “Rude” and Nico & Vinz’s “Am I Wrong.”

“Discovering new artists is one of the many things that keeps radio great,” Tommy Chuck, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia’s Tampa and Sarasota, Fla., stations, told Billboard upon the chart coronation of “Boom Clap.”

New acts or not, “great songs win,” said Erik Bradley, Audacy brand manager. “And hits like ‘Rude’ and ‘Boom Clap’ are incredible songs.”

“Boom Clap” was released from Charli XCX’s album Sucker, which reached No. 28 on the Billboard 200 in January 2015. The song was also fueled by its synch in the hit film The Fault in Our Stars.

In 2016, the Cambridge, England-born artist hit the Hot 100’s top 10 as a co-writer of Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love,” while in 2019, her co-write “Senorita,” recorded by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, spent a week at No. 1, marking Charli XCX’s second leader as a writer, after “Fancy.”

In 2022, Crash became Charli XCX’s first Billboard 200 top 10, peaking at No. 7. This June, Brat bounded in at its No. 3 best. The Atlantic Records release has yet to depart the chart’s top 15 and has earned 585,000 equivalent albums in the United States through Sept. 5, according to Luminate. (Meta moment, especially for this post: “I used to never think about Billboard/ But now, I’ve started thinking again, wondering about whether I think I deserve commercial success,” she muses on the set’s reflective track “Rewind.”)

Meanwhile, Brat single “360” becomes Charli XCX’s first Pop Airplay top 10 since “Boom Clap,” rising a spot to No. 10 on the Sept. 21-dated chart. In addition to notching her fourth top 10 on the tally, she scores the list’s highest new entry, as fellow Brat track “Apple” debuts at No. 36.

Looking back for Billboard’s July cover story, Charli XCX called Sucker “an attempt at what Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour was able to do much better. My vision wasn’t fully realized. I was 19 years old. Whilst I think a lot of the songs that I was doing then were good songs, I wouldn’t necessarily have listened to them if it was another artist releasing them. I think I knew that at the time, but I also think I knew that that was OK. At that time, I was writing for a lot of other people, and I wanted to be doing that. I knew I probably wouldn’t have been in those [writing rooms] had ‘Boom Clap’ and those songs not happened the way they happened.”

13 Sep 2024

Donald Trump Releases Knock-Off Taylor Swift Eras Tour Shirts as ‘Trump Era’ Campaign Merch

Donald Trump doesn’t have Taylor Swift‘s support in the 2024 election, but that isn’t stopping him from using her brand to boost his campaign.

On Thursday (Sept. 12) — two days after the 34-year-old pop star emphatically backed Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential race — the Republican candidate’s team announced that it was selling “Trump Era” T-shirts inspired by the tiled graphic design on much of Swift’s Eras Tour apparel. Featuring a grid of photos of the twice-impeached president, each tinted with almost the exact same colors arranged in the very same pattern as the “Karma” singer’s design, the politician’s new clothing item is selling for $36.

“Calling all Swifties for Trump,” reads a tweet from the former president’s headquarters. “Get your Trump Era shirt today.”

Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.

Though the pop star hasn’t reacted to the former president’s new merch, Swifties have. “This is a disgrace of a shirt. I hope she strips Donald of everything he has for infringement. @taylorswift13 @taylornation13 GET HIM!” one person tweeted in response to the campaign’s post about the shirt.

“im excited for trumps new era, i heard it’s called the ‘lawsuit era,’” another responded.

“This deserves a cease and desist!” yet another Swiftie tweeted, tagging the pop superstar, official fan page as well as her publicist.

Trump isn’t the only party in the 2024 election capitalizing on Swift’s popularity, with the Harris-Walz camp also recently unveiling Eras-inspired friendship bracelets on the Democratic ticket’s website. One key difference, however, is that the VP’s campaign actually has the support of the 14-time Grammy winner, who broke her silence on the election Sept. 10 with an Instagram post praising Harris for being a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”

Swift also cited Trump’s past use of AI-generated images falsely portraying her as a MAGA supporter — another way he’s tried to exploit her image this election — as one of the reasons she felt it important to speak out. In response to the pop superstar’s endorsement of his opponent, the ex-POTUS said, “I was not a Taylor Swift fan, it was just a question of time.”

He added at the time: “But she’s a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”

See Trump’s new merchandise inspired by Swift’s Eras Tour below.

13 Sep 2024

How Reggaetón and Regional Mexican Music Found Surprising Common Ground

Back in October 2019, Bad Bunny, already a huge star, posted a video of himself on Instagram, drinking tequila and singing along to a song in Spanish set to strumming guitars. It was “Soy el Diablo” by Natanael Cano, the then-18-year-old making waves in regional Mexican music with his corridos tumbados, a subgenre blending hip-hop swagger with traditional música mexicana instrumentation.

That Bad Bunny would gravitate toward the sound at first seemed counterintuitive: Reggaetón, built on beats, tracks and loops, ostensibly has little to do with regional Mexican music, which is created mostly with live instruments.

But upon further consideration, it made complete sense. Corridos tumbados, like Bad Bunny’s blend of trap and reggaetón, are as much about attitude and lifestyle as they are about music. Within weeks, a remix of “Soy el Diablo,” featuring Bad Bunny, hit No. 16 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.

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The unlikely pairing at the time was revolutionary, and it set off a wave of collaborations between reggaetón and Mexican music acts that’s still going. Since “Soy el Diablo,” at least 14 songs that blend both genres have entered Hot Latin Songs — including Karol G and Peso Pluma’s “Qlona,” which shot to No. 1 in September 2023. And now, this year’s Rumbazo festival — taking place Sept. 13-14 in Las Vegas in partnership with Billboard — will reflect the kinship between the two genres; headliners Nicky Jam and Luis R Conriquez released a single together, “Como el Viento,” in 2023.

For Jimmy Humilde, the founder and CEO of powerhouse indie label Rancho Humilde (home to Cano and Fuerza Regida, among other Mexican music artists), Mexican and urban music are like brothers from another mother, and the new wave of Mexican music, much of it spawned on the West Coast, is inextricably linked to hip-hop and, by extension, to reggaetón.

“Hip-hop was my heart,” Humilde told Billboard last year of his upbringing, like that of many of his artists, in Los Angeles. “I was a huge fan of old-school hip-hop.” But Humilde was also a huge fan of bad boy Mexican corridos sung by the likes of Chalino Sánchez. Early in his career, when he started working with corridos singer Jessie Morales (also raised in L.A.), he had a simple yet brilliant idea: Instead of donning the traditional garb of boots and cowboy hat, “I told him, ‘Bro, why don’t you dress hip-hop, how you really dress? You don’t have to come out with a hat or a suit.’ ”

The notion of inserting hip-hop style into Mexican music slowly but surely became the norm for a new generation of artists that now includes Cano, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado and Yahritza y Su Esencia, who all dress more like rappers than singers of traditional Mexican music.

Actual cross-genre collaborations, however, only began in earnest after the Bad Bunny-Cano remix. In 2020, they went even further when Snoop Dogg (another Angeleno and a longtime fan of banda music) recorded “Que Maldición” with Banda MS (which went to No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs) and later joined the group onstage in L.A.

Then, in 2021, Colombian superstar Karol G released “200 Copas,” a veritable ranchera ballad. Colombians in general (and Medellín natives like Karol, in particular) have long been die-hard fans of ranchera and mariachi music — and later that year, Karol’s fellow paisa and reggaetón star Maluma also recorded a ranchera: “Cada Quien,” with Grupo Firme, which became his first No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.

“Being on a Mexican chart in the U.S., well, that’s a big deal,” Maluma told Billboard at the time. “I always dreamt of that. When I travel to Mexico, it’s like being at home. I feel part of it, and I am very grateful to Grupo Firme for making this possible.”

The growing list of urban/Mexican collaborations also includes the cover stars of this issue of Billboard. And while Nicky Jam and Conriquez’s “Como el Viento” didn’t chart, for Conriquez, it’s a sign of the future.

“If we’re intelligent about it, there will be more songs like this, because it’s an opportunity to bring the two genres together and for one to get into the other’s world,” says Conriquez, who has also already recorded with reggaetonero Ryan Castro. “I always thought reggaetón was global. But now, regional Mexican is global too.”

Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.