djfrosty

05 Jun 2024

RM’s ‘Right Place, Wrong Person’ Debuts at No. 1 on Top Rap Albums Chart

RM achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart as Right Place, Wrong Person starts in the summit of the list dated June 8. The project, released May 24, earned 54,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week week ending May 30, according to Luminate.

For Right Place, Wrong Person’s debut-week total, traditional album sales contribute 43,000 units, while streaming activity (SEA) provides 7,500 units, a figure that equals 10.16 million official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Track-equivalent album (TEA) units comprise the remaining 3,500 balance.

Elsewhere, Right Place, Wrong Person opens at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200, where it becomes RM’s third solo entry on the chart. His Mono. mixtape peaked at No. 26 in 2018, while Indigo reached a No. 3 best in 2022. BTS, of which RM is a member, has collected 15 charting titles on the Billboard 200, including six No. 1s.

Trending on Billboard

Thanks to Right Place, Wrong Person’s strong individual track sales – the album has the most TEA units of any title on this week’s Top Rap Albums chart – six of the project’s cuts arrive on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart. Here’s a recap:

No. 2 – “Nuts” (4,000 sold)
No. 3 – “Right People, Wrong Place” (3,000)
No. 4 – “Groin” (3,000)
No. 5 – “Domodachi,” with Little Simz (3,000)
No. 6 – “Out of Love” (3,000)
No. 7 – “? (Interlude),” with DOMi & JD Beck (3,000)

Activity surrounding Right Place, Wrong Person drives RM 55-4 to a new career high on the Billboard Artist 100, which measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption – album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming – to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of the most popular artists. As RM rockets into the top five, he outdoes his prior best showing of No. 6 from December 2022, concurrent with Indigo’s peak on the Billboard 200.

05 Jun 2024

Ice Spice’s ‘Y2K’ Finally Has a Release Date: See the NYC-Themed Cover Art

Ice Spice’s Y2K debut is one of the most anticipated albums of the year, and The Bronx native has finally revealed when fans can expect the project to land in their headphones.

The 24-year-old gave the hip-hop world a jolt of energy without any coffee when she announced on Wednesday (June 5) that her debut album will be arriving on July 26.

“HIIIII >.< Y2K ☆ THE ALBUM WILL BE DROPPING JULY 26TH !!!! pre-save the link in my bio now ;**,” she captioned the post on social media.

Trending on Billboard

Paying homage to her Big Apple roots, Ice Spice also revealed the NYC-themed cover art for the project, which finds her rocking revealing jean shorts along with green boots, her hands on a concrete wall as she stands outside a subway station next to a fire hydrant. Y2K is spray painted in hot pink on a trash can.

Ice Spice has released a pair of album singles heading into Y2K this year. She kicked off 2024 with “Think U the Shit (Fart)” and the more recent Sean Paul-sampling “Gimmie a Light.”

The “Munch” rapper announced in March that she finished recording for Y2K and told Billboard around the same time that she put her all into the LP. “I think this is some of my best work,” she said while teasing that “it’s not going to be too long — it’s going to be sweet and to the point.”

Ice Spice was honored with the Hitmaker award at the 2024 Billboard Women in Music event after notching four top 10 hits on the Hot 100 in ’23. At the ceremony, she explained that fans will be getting some “bops” on her debut. “You can expect a lot of bops. I really pushed myself on this album,” she shared. “The sounds is different. It’s similar, but different.”

 Ice Spice’s first EP, Like..?, was released in January 2023. The project (which got a deluxe release in July) peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200.

Check out the Y2K cover art below and look for the album on July 26.

05 Jun 2024

The 10 Hottest Female Rappers Right Now

Billboard complies its first-ever Hottest Female Rappers List based on quality of records, chart success, buzz within the culture, notable business endeavors and partnerships, and touring success…

From left: Doja Cat, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj & Sexyy Red

From left: Doja Cat, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj & Sexyy Red

Illustration by Alice Lagarde

In the last few years, women have been behind the wheel in driving hip-hop forward. Though the rap game reveled in watching two male behemoths, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, collide this spring, the catalyst for this year of competitive rap began when Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion engaged in lyrical warfare at the top of 2024. Though the two clashed in a spirited battle, the tides have settled, as both later embarked on record-setting arena tours.

Aside from delivering bristling raps on the competitive front, the rap game has enjoyed a front-row seat in the past calendar year to the rise of Sexxy Red, Ice Spice and Flo Milli, who have each clocked Hot 100 top 20 hits in the past 12 months. Then, rap technicians like Grammy-nominated MCs Rapsody and Tierra Whack further solidified their status as cerebral markswomen, with captivating rhymes on their acclaimed 2024 full-length releases. Even fresher names like Anycia and Karrahboo are looking to elevate in rank and contend amongst their contemporaries.

With an array of talent percolating, Billboard has created a list of the current hottest female rappers in the game. Covering the first six months of 2024, Billboard’s criteria for selecting the following ten artists are based on quality of records, chart success, buzz within the culture, notable business endeavors and partnerships, and touring success. Then, by December, Billboard will create a final list based on the overall achievements of that calendar year, crowning the hottest female rapper of 2024.

Look below and see who cracked Billboard’s first iteration of the hottest female rappers list.

05 Jun 2024

Benson Boone Signs With WME

Singer-songwriter Benson Boone has signed with WME for global representation in all areas.

Boone gained popularity with the release of his viral hit “Beautiful Things” in January. The track has been an international hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 for seven weeks and leading the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for eight weeks, according to Luminate. “Beautiful Things” also reached No. 1 for one week on the Streaming Songs chart, has been No. 2 on Radio Songs for the last six weeks and topped the Pop Airplay chart for four weeks. Additionally, it has ranked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 17 weeks.  

Since his debut in 2021, Boone has landed four additional tracks on the Hot 100 chart including “Ghost Town” at No. 100, “In the Stars” at No. 82, “Cry” at No. 60 and “Slow It Down” at No. 40.  

Boone’s album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in April and has held in the top 15 in its first eight weeks on the chart. In 2024 alone, his songs have registered 830.8 million official U.S. on-demand streams through May 30, according to Luminate. 

Trending on Billboard

The 21-year-old rising star is currently on a headlining world tour following last year’s sold-out trek across the United States and Europe. It was recently announced that Boone will open for Taylor Swift on the international leg of her The Eras Eour at Wembley Stadium on June 23. In addition to his solo trek, Boone is also slated to take the stage at major festivals including Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits later this year.

Boone continues to be managed by Jeff Burns of Reynolds Management. 

05 Jun 2024

James Blake Talks ‘Anarchistic’ Campaign Behind His First Single Since Going Indie

James Blake is “the freest [he’s] ever felt,” tells Billboard over a recent Zoom call.

After about twelve years spent signed to Polydor Records, the producer/singer is now independent and experimenting with new ways to release his music to “match the speed of the internet,” he says.

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Blake released “Thrown Around,” his first single since he left Polydor. “I know it was an anarchistic move… Sunday’s a terrible day to release music, but I thought it was fun to try now that I can,” he laughs.

Part of Blake’s new post-label experiment includes paying creative collaborators both upfront (where applicable) and in “points,” or a percentage of the master recording royalties, so that everyone is “incentivized to push the song and to win together,” he says. Points on the master are typically only allotted to producers of a record, but Blake is going further, offering points to non-producing songwriters and his creative director, Crowns & Owls.

To pull it all off, Blake turned to Indify, a music company that lives by the slogan “artists are founders” and could benefit from raising capital for their releases similar to the way start-ups do. Instead of traditional label deals, Indify is a “service marketplace” for artists to meet strategic angel investors on a song-by-song basis, says CEO/co-founder Shav Garg. Interested acts select from an online leaderboard of angels – including music businesses like Thrice Cooked Media, Golden Kids Group and ATG and musically inclined Silicon Valley execs like Alexis Ohanian – to build their set of partners based on success metrics and the investors’ bios.

Trending on Billboard

Artists using Indify cede a percentage of streaming royalties for a given song until investors recoup the up-front funding and aid they offer. (Indify takes a 15% cut of the investor’s share of profits after recoupment and no investor is allowed to keep 50% or more of the streaming royalties after recoupment).

Founded in 2015, Indify is seen as a tool to “add gas to the fire,” as Garg puts it, on viral moments from independent artists. The company has had success stories include up-starts like Armani White, Pink Sweat$ and Anees, but Blake is by far the biggest artist to use the platform yet. “We’ve proven thus far that Indify can help artists go from, 20 to 70, but one of our goals has been taking an artist from 70 to 100, like major labels do,” says Garg. “I can tell James is willing and ready to lead the way for the next generation of artists and to take the jump, trying something like this first.”

Blake and Garg first bonded at a U.S. Open tournament several years ago and reconnected through Blake’s management when Blake began talking openly about his newfound independence and desire to handle his career differently going forward. Before “Thrown Around” dropped, Blake’s indie experiment included a partnership with superfans app Vault.FM to provide fans with unreleased demos for a monthly subscription. Garg and Blake aligned on the idea that “at a label, your music is subsidizing a million departments,” Blake says. “It’s a huge moving ship to steer, and it’s a bloated business with crazy overheads. I don’t want to pay for the CEO’s mansion in the Cayman Islands.”

Blake also felt there was a “lack of transparency” about how money was being spent on his behalf while signed to a label and that he didn’t have “much choice” in picking his team within the building, even if those assigned to him “didn’t really seem to understand” his project.

After going back and forth about what single to release as his first drop with Indify, Blake made “Thrown Around” and felt instantly that it was the right introduction to this new phase of his career. It’s easy to see why. The song (released May 26) and its video depict Blake as an artist desperate to get his music to go viral by any means necessary. At the end of the video, Blake is bloodied and bruised by all the ways he has dangerously attempted to feed the algorithm, and he ultimately learns that none of it was enough to sustain his art.

“James signed up online and used Indify just like anyone else does,” says Garg. Blake ultimately opted to pair with a combination of Good Boy Records and Stellar Trigger Marketing to build out his team for “Thrown Around” after finding them on the Indify leaderboard. Good Boy co-founder John Zamora says that “before the song came out, we already recouped the deal we did with James. We secured a pretty big synch, though I can’t say more than that.” Good Boy specialized in film/TV (or “synch”) licensing opportunities for Blake, but the company also connected with him over a shared interest in providing better compensation for songwriters.

In the last few years, songwriters’ dwindling payments in the streaming economy have made headlines, and a few indie labels have stepped in with a proposed solution to offer “points” for the songwriters who, unlike producers, typically don’t make money on the master recording side. As Billboard reported in December, this new cohort of companies includes Good Boy, The Other Songs, Facet Records and Nvak Collective. Some producers, like Good Boy co-founder Elie Rizk and Tre Jean Marie, have also been giving away some of their points to their songwriter collaborators. Now, with “Thrown Around,” Blake is joining the movement.

Stellar Trigger was brought into Blake’s Indify deal to aid with digital marketing. “Things have changed since I started,” Blake says. “Back then, it was quite easy to be mysterious. I mean, you have a whole generation of producers wearing masks. I think it’s pretty difficult to maintain that now and still get your music out there. It’s not the way it works anymore.”

Though Blake stopped short of wearing a mask, his early career characterized him as a mysterious musical genius with a “sad” disposition – an image he’s railed against in recent years. In a recent Instagram Reel, Blake wrote that he was “practicing looking sad for those who want me to be sad so that I make sad music forever,” in a cheeky dig at his fans.

“This is the most connected I’ve ever felt with the way my music is being pushed,” Blake tells Billboard. To brainstorm, he’s been in constant communication with Stellar Trigger co-founder Ryan Peterson to build the multimedia storytelling of “Thrown Around.” “We wanted it to be meaningful. There’s a lot of narrative here, with James leaving the major label and coming to independence,” says Peterson. “I’m constantly texting ideas back and forth with him.”

The story told in the “Thrown Around” music video was teased out, piece by piece, in meta social media posts about how artists have to make social media posts. Whether or not the song ever hits the Billboard Hot 100 is unclear, but Blake maintains that “Thrown Around” is still “more successful than any previous single campaign” of his career.

More importantly, it serves as proof that digital storytelling, lean budgets, equity incentives and the freedom to pick partners on a song-by-song basis can lead to creative and financial success in today’s market. Now, he’s in talks with his team about working together again for a follow-up single.

“I feel we’ve made something groundbreaking [with ‘Thrown Around’],” says Blake. “I’m excited for the future.”

05 Jun 2024

How La India Revolutionized Salsa Music & ‘Never Looked Back’

Although it’s one of her greatest hits, La India was hesitant about recording “Ese Hombre,” the 1994 song that ultimately became a certified anthem for Latin women across generations. “I thought the lyrics were too harsh,” the Puerto Rican-born star says today. “I love men and I didn’t feel anger towards them. I thought, ‘How am I going to sing this?’”  

Finding inspiration from one of her favorite artists (Rocío Jurado, who sang the song in the ’70s) and a nudge from renowned hitmaker Sergio George (who produced her breakthrough 1994 album Dicen Que Soy, home to “Ese Hombre,” and assured her the song would be a hit), La India belted the lyrics, about a man who is “a false, vain clown who is also mean and spiteful,” over her signature blend of salsa with an R&B and hip-hop sensibility. Singing with so much conviction, and with her unmatched vocal prowess, she inevitably became the voice of a generation, and a fixture in salsa music.  

The track peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart, where it ruled for five weeks. In fact, she has a total of 11 leaders on that tally, most of any woman artist. Over on the Tropical Albums chart, she’s had 15 career entries – also the most for any female act – with six reaching No. 1, including Dicen Que Soy, which also featrures her timeless Marc Anthony duet “Vivir Lo Nuestro.”

Trending on Billboard

Born Linda Caballero, the 55-year-old artist comes from a musical family. Both her mother and grandmother were singers and took notice of La India’s vocal abilities early on. “My grandma nurtured me with music,” says La India, who grew up in the South Bronx area in New York listening to myriad genres, including hip-hop, salsa, pop and rock. “At five [years old], I could sing songs from beginning to end, a cappella and on key.” In her teen years, she joined freestyle and house music group TKA, and says she’s “very proud” of the dance projects she released in her early 20s.  

But salsa was her destiny, she adds.

“When I transitioned into salsa, everyone around me was scared at the beginning — but I wasn’t,” she says. “It was just a matter of me feeling the difference between downbeat and upbeat clave. So, I went in with my style: bringing soul, R&&, hip-hop to salsa music.”  

Considered “La Princesa de la Salsa” — a moniker bestowed upon her by the great Celia Cruz, known as “La Reina of Salsa,” who La India humbly calls her godmother — La India’s powerful vocals drew the attention of stars like Eddie Palmieri, who she met in a studio session and who produced her first salsa album in 1991, and the iconic Tito Puente, with whom she went on to record a Latin jazz album. Then she teamed up with Sergio George for Dicen Que Soy, which won tropical/salsa album of the year by a female artist at the second annual Billboard Latin Music Awards.  

“It’s the most innovative album of the 90s. It changed my life,” La India says. “It was huge on radio, and from there on we never looked back.” It’s an album that she also “spiritually dedicated” to Cruz, her idol. “Throughout her years of great music and excellence, she never saw me as a rival. She welcomed me into salsa tropical and said, ‘You’re going to hold your own and you’re the princess of salsa’ – she blessed me with that. In a genre dominated by men she opened doors for me. I look upon her for my strength. I continue to celebrate her, and I know she would be proud of me today.”  

Set to be honored with the Pioneer Award at Billboard Latin Women in Music 2024, La India has, across four decades, gifted women with anthems that make them feel powerful, something she doesn’t take for granted.  

“I knew that through my singing, I was born to make people feel emotions,” she explains. “When I sing, I don’t just sing to sing. We’re here to do music that will last forever, and I’m proud of that.”  

Billboard Latin Women in Music 2024 will air exclusively on Telemundo Sunday (June 9) at 9 p.m. ET, and will also be available on the Telemundo app and on Peacock.

05 Jun 2024

Inside the Growing War Over Merch Fees at Venues: ‘Bands Are Getting Ripped Off’

Artists at country singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde’s level of popularity can sell $16,000 to $20,000 worth of T-shirts and hoodies when they play 1,500-capacity venues. Layne Weber, director of merchandising and fan engagement for McBryde’s management company, Q Prime, says some venues took a 20% to 25% cut of her merchandise sales during her spring tour — which is standard in the industry but, he says, exorbitant for services rendered at many clubs. “I went to a show the other night and the merch table was next to the bar,” Weber says. “The merch seller was having to compete with the bartender who’s trying to sell the drinks. That was a venue taking 20% of the sales.”

Weber’s complaints, which many artists and their representatives share, are at the center of a long-running live-industry debate over merch percentages. For decades, artists, venues and promoters have haggled behind the scenes over percentages as part of every show contract, but they contend the stakes are now much higher. “Ever since we’ve come back from COVID, the merch numbers have gone through the roof for all genres of music,” says Crom Tidwell, owner of Crom Tidwell Merchandising in Nashville. And with so much money at stake, artists want a larger percentage of their own profits.

Trending on Billboard

“Bands are getting ripped off,” says Barry Drinkwater, executive chairman of Global Merchandising Services, which handles merch for top metal acts such as Iron Maiden and Guns N’ Roses. He adds that the venue’s cut particularly hurts small acts, which tour on slimmer margins and often operate their own merch tables. “They need the money that gets them food, gets them to the next show,” he says. “Then the promoter wants to charge them 20% of the gross.”

Live Nation has expressed sympathy for this point of view. Last fall, trumpeting an endorsement from Willie Nelson, the world’s biggest concert promoter unveiled its On the Road Again program, which eliminates merch-selling fees for artists at its clubs and provides a per diem of $1,500 in gas and travel cash for artists, among other benefits. Earlier this year, Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino told Billboard that the program had “already helped support 3,000 developing artists,” and a statement that Live Nation issued on May 22 said, “We’re incredibly proud of how On the Road Again is supporting thousands of artists and their crews, with 100% merch profits, $1,500 cash nightly for gas and travel costs and more. Developing artists are the future of live music, and we’re proud to keep this program rolling strong.”

Complaints over merch fees are not limited to clubs, however. At arenas, stadiums and other large venues, in-house concessions staff take over merch sales, and the 20% to 25% cut goes largely to these services. And at least one venue takes an even bigger chunk. Drinkwater says New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG) charges artists 30% of their merch sales, plus credit card fees. He also notes that percentages can be higher in the United Kingdom. (A representative for the Garden declined to comment.)

Whether artists are handling their own merch tables or relying on in-house staffers, managers say they’re often unsatisfied with the services they get, given the cost.

“I don’t feel they’re worth 25% of the revenue,” says Rick Sales, who manages Slayer, Ghost, Mastodon and others. “It’s not good value for the money spent.”

Venue reps counter that long before fans step into their buildings, they negotiate deals with artists, including merch percentages. Not surprisingly, those with leverage receive favorable terms. “Every live performance is a negotiation,” a concert-business source says. “The band doesn’t like the merch percentage, find somewhere else to play.” Venue consultant Brock Jones, the former GM of Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, adds: “At the end of the day, venues have got to make money, too — electricity isn’t free, all that space isn’t free. Venues have to recoup those expenses. An 80/20 merch deal is absolutely fair when the venue is selling.”

Tidwell agrees that it’s a different story at arenas, which often are required to staff union employees at fixed salaries. “You’ve got to have a crew to facilitate the sales,” he says. “Somebody has to pay for the help.” But he also contends that artists complaining about high venue percentages in small venues have a point: “What are you doing for your 20%? You’re just providing a lobby and a table.”

Some small venues, still reeling from the pandemic, have expressed concern that Live Nation’s On the Road Again program might pressure them into following suit and giving up a crucial revenue source. “Temporary measures may appear to help artists in the short run but actually can squeeze out independent venues, which provide the lifeblood of many artists on thin margins,” the National Independent Venue Association said in a statement in September.

Arenas and stadiums are where the big merch money is. On her The Eras Tour last year, Taylor Swift made a reported $200 million on T-shirts and other goods sold at shows. In its 2023 financial report, Live Nation claimed “double-digit growth” in merch and concessions at the arenas it owns or operates, such as the Moody Center in Austin. Notably, the On the Road Again program does not apply to large venues. Drinkwater says the standard 20% to 25% cut applies and, like MSG, sometimes venues pass on credit card fees (usually 5%) to the artist. “We try with our artists to beat this down,” he says. “Sometimes we get a reduction if we can do big sales.”

05 Jun 2024

Listen to Disco Legend Sylvester Perform ‘Body Strong’ Off Forthcoming ‘Live at the Opera House’ LP

45 years ago, disco icon Sylvester performed what would ultimately become one of his most famous concerts to date at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House. The performance became the basis for his 1979 live album Living Proof, and served as the debut ground for his album Stars. And soon, fans can listen to the Queen of Disco’s performance in full.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

On Wednesday (June 5), Craft Recordings announced the release of Live at the Opera House, a new live album from the late legend that shares the famed concert in full. Today, fans are getting an exclusive sneak peak of what to expect with a new live cut of “Body Strong,” the exuberant disco track that Sylvester debuted during the concert alongside Martha Wash.

The new LP features more than an hour of unreleased music from the live concert, including a brief ceremony in which Sylvester receives the key to the city of San Francisco. The physical editions of the new album — available on both a 3-LP vinyl and 2-CD format — also come with recently discovered photographs from the evening, as well as brand new liner notes from Joshua Gamson, author of the biography The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco.

Trending on Billboard

“That Sylvester – an androgynous, openly gay, drag-loving, African American, falsetto-singing, unapologetically flaming man-diva influenced primarily by church women, Black blues singers, drag queens, hippies, and homosexuals – would be the central diva at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House in March of 1979 was as unlikely as it was inevitable,” Gamson writes in his new liner notes. “Aside from a few thousand souls, most of us missed it. It was a lot to miss, too: a peek into the career of an ahead-of-his-time artist, a poignant moment in San Francisco and queer history, a couple of hours of collective effervescence set to music.”

Sylvester’s Live at the Opera House arrives Sept. 6th via Craft Recordings. Listen to the exclusive single “Body Strong” and check out the full tracklist of the new live album below:



Live at the Opera House tracklist:

  1. Overture (Grateful/You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)/Dance (Disco Heat))
  2. Body Strong
  3. Medley #1: Everything Must Change / You Are My Love
  4. Medley #2: Could This Be Magic / A Song For You
  5. Blackbird / Sylvester Day Proclamation
  6. Happiness
  7. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)
  8. Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves
  9. I (Who Have Nothing)
  10. You Are My Friend
  11. Dance (Disco Heat)
  12. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
  13. Overture (Reprise)
  14. Never Can Say Goodbye

05 Jun 2024

Sorry Ariel, Taylor Swift Revealed Real ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ Inspiration in a 2008 Interview

Taylor Swift is the absolute best when it comes to playing the long game. For the latest proof just look to one of the fan favorites from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department‘s “But Daddy I Love Him.”

Initially it was assumed that the title was a winking nod to a phrase uttered by Ariel in the 1989 Disney animated classic The Little Mermaid, in which the smitten mermaid gave up her voice to be with Prince Eric. But, as it turns out, the film — which was released in the same year Swift, now 34, was born — was not the inspiration for the song after all.

In a resurfaced Popsugar clip from 2008, Swift described an argument with her father Scott that came after the then-19-year-old singer was apparently dating a man her parents didn’t care for. “This song, I wrote it right after my one epic teenage tantrum that I ever threw in my whole life,” Swift said in the clip. “And I remember screaming something, like, ‘But daddy, I love him!’ And running out and storming into my room and slamming the door and then I sat down on the floor and wrote this song.”

Trending on Billboard

The song she was referencing was “Love Story” from her second studio LP, 2008’s Fearless. On her current European leg of the Eras Tour, “But Daddy” is among the new songs Swift has added to the revamped setlist.

Watch the resurfaced clip of Swift describing the origins of “But Daddy I Love Him” below.

05 Jun 2024

Lorde Appears to Tease Fourth Album in Cryptic Post: ‘Use the Existing Tools Wherever Possible’

Lorde sure seems to be teasing her long-awaited fourth album. But in an Instagram post on Tuesday night (June 4) the 27-year-old singer raised more questions than she answered thanks to a series of cryptic pics and a caption filled with a jumble of indecipherable rune-like images.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Use the existing tools wherever possible,” Lorde wrote, followed by what looked like a ZapfDingbats spree, including a copyright symbol, three different L figures, the number four in parentheses and a recycling logo. “If the tools do not exist you are spiritually obligated to create them,” she added along with an even longer string of confounding images, with the repeated run of Ls, another 4 and a variety of stars, the number 27 and what appeared to be a Tarot card, the infinity symbol, a shark, a rabbit and an Egyptian figure.

What does it all mean? Lorde didn’t offer any explanation, and the accompanying photos didn’t really help, as they consisted of a pic of her in an all-black outfit staring over a balcony, then spitting off said balcony, holding a pill in her hand with the word “spit” imprinted on it, as well as a nightstand featuring a pile of books and an ashtray filled with gold jewelry and a close-up shot of her at a swimming pool. The post is currently the only offering on her Insta account, whose tagline reads, “THE THEMES ARE ALWAYS THE SAME— A RETURN TO INNOCENCE— THE MYSTERIES OF THE BLOOD— AN ITCH FOR THE TRANSCENDENTAL.”

Trending on Billboard

At press time there was no firm information on the follow-up to Lorde’s 2021 Solar Power album. In December, she offered an equally confusing update she posted an image of herself in striped pajamas in which she appeared to be listening to something while staring at the camera with the caption, “listening to myself.”

She teased a couple of new songs during a headlining gig at the Boardmasters Festival in the U.K. last summer, with song sleuths speculating that the tracks might be called “Silver Moon” and “Invisible Ink.” Responding to fans getting hyped up about what seemed like L4 season being right around the corner, Lorde wrote at the time, “We’re not CLOSE close you guys… i’m just getting so hype n needed to let u know .. start ur excitement on a low flame and bring it up to a gentle simmer .. we building stamina for this chapter.”

The singer, who is expert at staying out of the spotlight between albums, opened up in September in an emotional letter to fans in which she revealed that she was “living with heartbreak again.” The note described both emotional and physical pain, explaining, “It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself.”

Check out Lorde’s post below.