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15 May 2024

Google Reintroduces Itself With Help From This Jay-Z Track

Yesterday, Google held its annual I/O conference keynote and, as expected, introduced a bevy of AI tools and products that it believes will completely transform the company as we know it today.

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Writing on the company blog, CEO Sundar Pichai explained how the 2023 launch of Google’s Gemini AI model was the start of a new era for the search giant. “A year ago on the I/O stage we first shared our plans for Gemini: a frontier model built to be natively multimodal from the beginning, that could reason across text, images, video, code, and more,” he wrote. “It marks a big step in turning any input into any output — an ‘I/O’ for a new generation.”

And to help introduce that new generation, Google made a commercial using one of the most beloved songs in Jay-Z’s catalog — 2003’s “Public Service Announcement (Interlude),” from his eighth full length The Black Album. The ad, called “Welcome to the Gemini Era,” premiered on YouTube and features clips from the keynote that highlight all the new products and functionalities that AI model will bring to consumers.

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The clip starts with the somber keys Just Blaze sampled from The Little Boy Blues’s “The Seed of Love” as Google’s homepage appears on screen. Then, as Jay bellows out, “Allow me to reintroduce myself! My name is,” the Google logo transforms to highlight new AI features.

The tenor of the yesterday’s presentation was that of rebirth. Each executive who took the stage explained how every Google product will be infused with the power of Gemini. Search, imagine and video generation, virtual assistants, and more will all inherit new features thanks to this company-wide AI push.

Outside of Gemini’s new multimodal capabilities, the most interesting part of the keynote for creators and artists involved the introduction of Veo, Google DeepMind’s generative video model. According to Kory Mathewson, a Google DeepMind research scientist, Veo is “trained to convert input text to output video.” And to help introduce that product, Google tapped Donald Glover who praised the technology because it will allow artists to “make a mistake faster, which is all you really want at the end of the day.”

You can watch the entire keynote presentation below.



15 May 2024

Reba McEntire Talks the ACM Awards, Keys to Awards Show Hosting: ‘Keep It Interesting, Keep It Running Smoothly and Show Up’

When Reba McEntire watched last year’s ACM Awards and saw her buddies and fellow country icons Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks co-hosting the show and leading the festivities, she knew she wanted to join in again on the ACMs fun.

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“They were so great, I was like, ‘I want to do that again!,’” McEntire told Billboard, just days before it was announced that McEntire will host the Academy of Country Music Awards for a 17th time on May 16, when the 59th annual awards show streams on Amazon Prime Video, returning to the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

“I was really anxious to get back on the stage,” she said. “Going back to Texas is always good for me — because that’s close to home, southeastern Oklahoma.”

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The ACMs, which launched in 1966, has highlighted country music’s biggest stars for nearly six decades. But the awards show’s team is still intent on breaking new ground: In 2022, the ACM Awards made history by becoming the first major music awards show to exclusively livestream when it shifted from CBS to Amazon Prime Video.

McEntire, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has 16 ACM Awards trophies to her credit, and nine ACM entertainer of the year nominations. She won the entertainer of the year accolade in 1994, and holds the most nominations for female artist of the year.

She says promoting new music and spending time with industry friends — as well as making new ones — are always big draws for taking part in the awards show ceremony.

“You get to go have fun with all your friends and buddies that you’ve gotten to know over the last 45, 50 years in the business and meet new people,” she said. “It’s the best place to get to meet the new artists, and that’s what I really enjoy getting to do. The last time I was at an awards show, it was Lainey Wilson. I got to hang out with her a bit, and Jelly Roll. Meeting new people and making new friends is what I love about the business.”

Having hosted a previous 16 ACM Awards ceremonies when the show was held in Las Vegas and various cities in California, McEntire knows well the work involved in preparing for hosting — from working with trusted writers to create and refine dialogue used for the evening, to balancing multiple outfit changes (McEntire says this year’s fashion theme will lean “a little more tough, sexy cowgirl”). She easily summarizes the essentials to being a great awards show host: “Keep it interesting, keep it running smoothly and show up. Be on time, be prepared.”

Of course, with live television, anything can happen. McEntire recalled how at the 2004 ACM Awards, producer Dick Clark assisted her in filling a time delay after performer Keith Urban’s guitar had been lost backstage.

“Dick was like, ‘Get out there and stall,’” she said. “I panicked. I mean, I got booed offstage in 1978 for telling jokes because I only had three songs to sing, so I think I have flashbacks of that when somebody says, ‘Get out there and wing it.’ I’m not [actor/comedian] Melissa Peterman — I cannot do that. So, Dick had to come out and help with it, and we got through it.”

Over the years, she’s learned a few key strategies for filling in any gaps.

“If anything does happen, they don’t have to depend on me to fill the space,” she said, “I’m going to have everybody mapped out in the audience that I will take a microphone down to, and they will be the ones to bridge the gap. There’s a lot of interesting characters in a country music industry party, so I will be making my rounds down into the audience.”

Through leading the ACM Awards more than a dozen times, McEntire has hosted in various configurations — both solo and co-hosting alongside artists including George Strait, Blake Shelton, Alan Jackson and John Schneider. Still, she does have a couple of bucket list people she would love to co-host with — including her beau, Rex Linn.

“I’d love to co-host with Rex. Rex is the biggest fan of music,” she said. “He and Melissa Peterman are two people who love music more than anybody. Boy, that would be fun. Melissa, Rex and me — the three of us hosting it? That would be a hoot. I would just sit back and have an iced tea and let them do all the work,” she quipped.

In addition to hosting, McEntire has over the years been responsible for some of the ACM Awards’ most prestigious and memorable performances, such as in 2007, when she performed “Because of You” alongside Kelly Clarkson. This year, McEntire will also perform her new single, “I Can’t,” which she called “a very strong woman’s song about standing up for herself.”

And yes — a new album is in the works, she says. McEntire worked on the project with producer Dave Cobb, who also worked on her 2021 album Reba: Revived Remixed Revisited.

“We’ve been working on it for over a year now, so not sure when it will be released, but I’m very proud of it,” McEntire said. “We wanted to do something a little more laid-back, with not so many instruments on it. But by the time we got more involved with it, we started putting more instruments back in and making it to where we like it.”

Ever a passionate music fan herself, McEntire says one of the projects she’s been listening to lately is Lauren Daigle’s Look Up Child. “I was listening to her album the other day. I love her singing and I got to sing ‘Back to God’ with her on the ACMs years ago — that was one of the highlights.”

McEntire added, “The ACMs have been very good to me, and the collaborations I’ve gotten to do, not only singing but hosting, have been very memorable.”

DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.

15 May 2024

Chicago Announces Celebration of House Music’s 40th Anniversary

40 years ago, a style of new music was emerging from Chicago. The sound was made for dance floors and played at clubs around the city including the Warehouse, a space after which the nascent genre — house music — was named.

Four decades later, house music is a global phenomenon heard in underground clubs, at massive music festivals and — via Beyoncè’s 2023 Renaissance tour — on stadium speakers.

This summer, the genre’s hometown of Chicago is celebrating house music’s anniversary and global impact with an official event series, House Music 40. The new run of parties and parades begins on May 29 with a free daytime party at Chicago’s Daley Plaza that will feature sets from hometown heroes Derrick Carter and DJ Heather. The event will be hosted by Mother Diva, a Chicago scene mainstay and the self proclaimed “Madam Ambassador of House.”

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Starting at 12 p.m., this lunch break party is co-sponsored by ARC Music Festival, which launched in 2021 as a platform to celebrate Chicago house and all varieties of the genre that came in its wake.

“I was raised on house music here in Chicago. It’s one of those rare global movements where we can still show our love and appreciation to a lot of the original pioneers and innovators,” ARC co-founder John Curley said in a statement. “House Music 40 understands that after everything those DJs have given us, it’s important for us as fans to give back. It’s impossible to fully thank someone for the gift of house music, but in every action we take with ARC we aim to keep letting them know that ARC is a living monument dedicated to them and house music everywhere.”

House Music 40 is a non-profit that aims to raise awareness of the contributions of Chicago house artists to the global dance scene and raise money for members of the Chicago house scene that are experiencing health issues.

Additional anniversary events this summer include the Chicago House Music Conference on May 31, the Chicago House Music Festival on June 2, the Inaugural House Music Parade and Festival on August 31 and other citywide celebrations.

ARC Music Festival returns to Chicago this Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at the city’s Union Park. The lineup includes Carter and DJ Heather, Marshall Jefferson, Dennis Ferrer, Armand Van Helden, Disclosure, Chicago-born star Honey Dijon, genre icons Carl Cox playing b2b with Green Velvet, German techno pioneer Sven Väth, a redux set from Kaskade, current phenom Dom Dolla, grime veteran Skepta and many more.

House Music 40

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15 May 2024

Post Malone & Morgan Wallen’s ‘I Had Some Help’ Becomes Instant Smash, Boosts Both Artists’ Back Catalogs

Welcome to Billboard Pro‘s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

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This week: Post Malone and Morgan Wallen see their whole catalogs lifted by their massive new collab, Tinashe gets involved with a hilarious TikTok trend around her new hit and an ’80s Johnny Cash single gets an unlikely second life soundtracking a viral pet trend.

‘Help’ Is on the Way: Post Malone & Morgan Wallen Earn Massive Streams Ahead of Hot 100 Debut



Considering how Morgan Wallen dominated the charts in 2023, and how Post Malone has been an in-demand collaborator for music’s biggest superstars in recent months, it should come as no surprise that their new team-up “I Had Some Help” is off to a fast start at streaming. Yet the country duet is exceeding even the loftiest expectations out of the gate — not only challenging for a No. 1 debut on next week’s Hot 100, but also for one of the biggest streaming weeks of 2024, while also lifting up Posty and Wallen’s respective back catalogs.

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In its first four days of release (May 10-13), “Help” scored 44.8 million U.S. official audio streams, while also earning 59,000 in digital sales, according to Luminate. We’ll see where the single’s first-week streaming total finishes in a few days, but the number likely won’t be too far off from Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” which currently holds the 2024 one-week streaming belt with 76.2 million streams. Meanwhile, “Help” has boosted Post Malone’s streaming catalog outside of the new single by 10% — 34.4 million streams from May 10-13, up from 31.3 million from the previous Friday-to-Monday tracking period — and Wallen’s by a little under 7% (102.6 million streams, up from 96 million streams), as fans click from “Help” to both artists’ past hits on streaming platforms.

And don’t look now, but Wallen may have another hit spinning off from his 2023 blockbuster album, One Thing at a Time: “Cowgirls,” featuring ERNEST, has been steadily climbing in streams over the past six weeks, from 5.6 million streams during the chart week ending Apr. 4 to 9.6 million streams during the week ending May 10, while entering the top 20 on Country Airplay. “Cowgirls” also climbs to a new peak of No. 6 on Hot Country Songs this week, which means that Wallen could have a pair of collaborations, one old and one new, in the top 5 of next week’s tally. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Tinashe Courts Summer Streaming Hit with Meme-Assisted “Nasty” 



Eight years after her last Billboard Hot 100 entry, Tinashe could be gearing up for another big pop moment, should her sultry new “Nasty” single continue its streaming ascent. 

According to Luminate, “Nasty” — a taste of her forthcoming BB/ANG3L Pt. 2 — Quantum Baby LP, collected over 705,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams during the period of May 10-13. That marks an impressive 48% increase from just over 475,000 streams the previous weekend (May 3-6). 

Tinashe’s core fans greeted “Nasty” with fervent enthusiasm when it arrived on April 12, but a recent meme – that comes with its own built-in choreography – has helped the grow the song’s profile across a wider range of listeners. On April 27, X user @grruessome posted a re-posted a 2023 TikTok from user @nate_di_winer, replacing his clip’s original music (Hey Choppi’s “Blind”) with Tinashe’s “Nasty.” That post garnered over 10 million views on X, setting the stage for a true viral moment. While other songs, including Kendrick Lamar’s Hot 100-topping “Not Like Us,” have been laid over the clip, social media users can’t get enough of the Tinashe version. 

On TikTok, Tinashe tried her hand at the dancehall-inspired choreography with her own three consecutive TikToks, featuring her donning Nate’s signature white t-shirt and black-rimmed glasses combo. “Me trying to convince everyone this is the song of the summer,” she captioned one post, with subsequent videos teasing a potential “Nasty” remix. The official “Nasty” sound boasts nearly 15,000 clips on TikTok, with most users recreating the dance moves executed by Nate and his dance partner, TikTok user @_sheekz. 

Having already climbed to No. 30 on Spotify’s Viral 50 USA ranking, things are certainly looking up for “Nasty.” – KYLE DENIS

Adorable Pet Trend Revives 40-Year-Old Johnny Cash Song 



The timelessness of Johnny Cash’s music is practically a universal truth, but now we have proof that even his less-beloved works can still find ways to resonate anew. Thanks to an adorable TikTok trend, Cash’s “The Chicken in Black” — which the country icon once called “intentionally atrocious” — is experiencing a massive streaming boost. 

During the period of May 3-10, “Chicken” earned over 1.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams, posting an astronomical 5,656% increase from the 24,000 streams it pulled just a month earlier (April 5-11). The exponential week-over-week growth of “Chicken” is due to a TikTok trend in which users hold up their pet (or baby) and pretend to use them as a gun while acting out the lyrics to the song’s chorus. Cash sings, “I said, ‘Stick ’em up everybody, I’m robbing this place’/ Drop all of your money in my guitar case/ Don’t nobody move and don’t nobody reach for that door.” 

Cash released the amusing song as a single back in 1984 and it reached No. 45 on Hot Country Songs. The song’s streaming boost has also translated into an uptick in digital downloads, with 751 copies sold during May 3-10, a whopping 18,675% increase from just 4 copies sold during April 5-11. On TikTok, the official “Chicken in Black” sound boasts nearly 217,000 clips, with racoons, dogs, goats, cows, birds and babies all joining in on the fun. 

With Songwriter, his 72nd studio album and fifth posthumous studio LP, due next month (June 28), Cash is still collecting hits and blessing the world’s ears over 20 years after his tragic passing. – KD

15 May 2024

Flavor Flav Slams Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker After Controversial Commencement Speech

Flavor Flav thinks Harrison Butker needs to take a step back. Following the Kansas City Chiefs kicker’s controversial commencement speech at Kansas liberal arts college Benedictine University over the weekend — during which the athlete advised women to focus on being homemakers rather than building careers — the rapper took to X Tuesday (May 14) to offer up some advice of his own.

“Sounds like some players ‘need to stay in their lanes’ and shouldn’t be giving commencement speeches,” Flav tweeted.

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The next day, the “Shake Your Booty” artist returned to the platform to write, “God is Good,,, imma man of faith and am grateful for all the opportunities I have in my life to support women and their choices. My whole team is women with a WoManager and LawyHers and am blessed to be surrounded by great women in life.”

Flav’s tweets come as Butker’s Saturday (May 11) speech has been blowing up online, particularly thanks to the kicker’s use of Taylor Swift lyrics in his remarks. Referring to the pop star only as “my teammate’s girlfriend” rather than by her name, he went on to quote her Midnights single “Bejeweled.”

“Familiarity breeds contempt,” he said while admonishing church leaders who he thinks gain too much satisfaction “from the adulation they receive from their parishioners.”

Elsewhere in the commencement address, Butker condemned everything from abortion to birth control, President Joe Biden, Pride month and “the cultural emasculation of men” before directly telling female graduates, “I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you.”

“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all of the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?” he continued. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

Billboard has reached out to the NFL and Kansas City Chiefs for comment.

Swift, on the other hand, has been vocal for years about her support of the LGBTQ community and her feminist beliefs. Flavor Flav has long been a fan of the “Anti-Hero” singer and refers to himself as the “King Swiftie,” and he attended her Eras Tour show in Detroit as well as the Eras Tour film premiere in Los Angeles last year.

See Flavor Flav’s tweets below.

15 May 2024

Watch Olivia Rodrigo Handle an ‘Embarrassing’ Wardrobe Malfunction Like a Pro

Good 4 U, Olivia Rodrigo! The 21-year-old superstar had a small wardrobe malfunction during her show at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday (May 14), but she handled it flawlessly.

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In a clip circulating TikTok, the singer is fittingly performing “Love Is Embarassing” when the laces of her bandeau top broke. The Grammy winner is then seen grabbing her top, preventing it from falling off, and catching the attention of one of her dancers, who swoops in to help fix it — all while the group maintains their high-energy choreography.

“Love’s embarrassing as hell,” Rodrigo sang in the chorus while her dancer helped her out, laughing at how well the lyrics fit the situation.

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The “Vampire” singer is currently in the midst of her trek’s European leg, which began April 30 in Dublin. It follows her initial run of shows in North America, which featured stops in Palm Springs, Calif., New York City, Toronto and more cities.

Rodrigo recently revealed the Asian and Australian legs of her popular tour. The Asian leg of the Guts World Tour kicks off Sept. 16 in Bangkok, Thailand, and will find Rodrigo traveling through Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Soon afterward, Rodrigo will play two shows in Melbourne followed by two in Sydney in October.

The new dates will mark the pop star’s first time touring in both places, bringing her up to a total of 82 shows globally by the time the endeavor ends later this year. She’ll be joined for all four Australian shows by rising alt-pop star Benee. See the full list of tour dates here.

15 May 2024

Will Morgan Wallen Give Post Malone the ‘Help’ He Needs for Another No. 1 Debut?

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated May 25), even with huge breakout hits cluttering the top of the charts, a big new collab may threaten to zoom past all of them.  

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Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (Republic/Mercury/Big Loud): Undoubtedly the biggest debut of the week will come from these genre-spanning Republic labelmates. While 2010s superstar Post Malone’s commercial fortunes have largely been declining this decade – 2023’s Austin became the first LP of his career to not spawn a single top 10 Hot 100 hit – he’s been buoyed this year by collabs with arguably the three biggest names in contemporary popular music: Beyoncé (the Cowboy Carter standout “Levii’s Jeans”), Taylor Swift (the Tortured Poets Department lead single and two-week Hot 100 No. 1 “Fortnight”) and now Morgan Wallen.  

Post’s latest star teamup looks like it might be on its way to following “Fortnight” to the Hot 100’s apex. “I Had Some Help” — apt title – reached the top of the daily and real-time charts on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes shortly after its release on Friday (May 10), which is no small feat in this crowded a time for pop music. And while brand-new songs usually struggle to be competitive in the radio department, “I Had Some Help” has received such an instantly massive embrace on the airwaves that it’s actually already ahead of most of its primary competitors there: It’s drawn 17.3 million all-format airplay impressions in its first four days of wide release (May 10-13), according to Luminate, and made immediate-enough impact on country radio to debut at No. 18 on this week’s Country Airplay chart with just one day’s worth of plays (May 9).

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In another week – like, say, virtually any other week in May from 2020 to 2023 — “I Had Some Help” would be a no-brainer No. 1 debut. But of course, this has been an unusually loaded season for pop music, and “Help” will have to maintain its early momentum throughout the week to secure an entrance at pole position. If it does start atop the Hot 100, it will already mark the fifth different song to best the chart in the last six weeks, and the 13th different song total through 20 chart weeks this year – compared to both 2022 and 2023, where there were just seven total through the first 20 chart weeks.

Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): It’s a little ridiculous that “Not Like Us” is really going to have to work to defend its title on the Hot 100 next week, since it debuted atop the chart with just five days of tracking this week and shouldn’t be slowing down much in its first full week of consumption. Ten days after its release and the song is still pulling over five million daily streams on Spotify in this country alone – a gargantuan number for most songs even on release day – and it remains atop both the real-time Apple Music and YouTube Trending Music charts, an absolute streaming juggernaut across the board.  

Where it’s lagging behind “I Had Some Help,” though, is in sales and on radio. The song has fallen out of the top three on iTunes, as “Help” has reigned on that chart since mere hours after its release, a clear front-runner to top Digital Song Sales next week. And while the rest of the culture has already adopted “Not Like Us” as the Song of the Late Spring, radio has been a little slower to get on board: The track drew 6 million in all-format audience from May 10-13, barely a third of the reach for Post’s and Wallen’s latest, although it’s a contender to make next week’s 50-spot Radio Songs listing.  

There are, of course, cards for Kendrick Lamar still to play to get the edge on “Help” — a video for the song has been rumored, and a potential remix featuring another of Drake’s old foes would undoubtedly do big business upon release. But with the headline-dominating feud largely dying down the past week, it may feel like overkill for Lamar to continue pushing his enemy-vanquishing smash – and once the first-week sales die down for “Help,” “Not Like Us” may regain the advantage after next week anyway.  

Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby” (ISO Supermacy/PULSE Records): “Don’t forget about me!” croons Tommy Richman in smooth, rich falsetto. As much as next week’s Hot 100 race is a showdown between longtime chart heavyweights in Kendrick Lamar and both Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, you can’t count out the No. 2 song in the country in the decision, either. “Million Dollar Baby” has actually regained the top spot on Spotify’s daily chart – also with over 5 million plays daily — while remaining in the top three on Apple Music and iTunes, already rivaling Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” for the biggest breakout hit of 2023 from a previously chart-unproven artist.  

However, radio has been a little slower to get the memo with Richman than with those other two artists’ breakthrough smashes. The song is growing on the airwaves, but only gradually: The song drew just 3.4 million radio impressions from May 10-13, already up from 1.9 million over the prior week (May 3-9), but still well short of its primary competitors. It seems near-impossible that top 40 can resist “Million Dollar Baby” forever, so its moment may still be coming down the line — it could debut on the Pop Airplay chart next week — but while it is at its (truly insane) streaming and sales peak, it may still be difficult for the song to find its way over the top.  

IN THE MIX 

Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE/Magnolia Music): Another one of the feel-good breakout stories of 2024 is country singer-songwriter and Cowboy Carter alum Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and remains one of the best-streaming and best-selling songs in the country this week. Radio, again, is just joining the party: “A Bar Song” drew 5.5 million radio impressions from May 10-13, up from 5 million the prior week, and in a pop landscape this crowded (and only getting more crowded), it will likely need an extra boost to further break through.  

Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” (Island/Republic): Want a growing hit that radio is fully embracing? Look to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” already a No. 4 hit so far on the Hot 100, which climbs 20-13 on the Pop Airplay chart this week, and is up 21% in all-format audience May 10-13 over the equivalent four-day period the prior week. Radio should only continue to grow for that song as the weather heats up, but its streaming and sales are slipping behind the competition – and with a new major release joining the mix seemingly every week this season, “Espresso” may need to make a big move while it’s still hot. 

Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone, “Fortnight” (Republic): Remember her? Taylor Swift’s blockbuster The Tortured Poets Department only got a week of cultural ubiquity before the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud stole back the spotlight, and while “Fortnight” has reigned on the Hot 100 for two weeks already and is still streaming and selling fairly well (and also moves into the top 10 on Pop Airplay this week), it does feel a little like its moment has already passed. Whether Swift’s next move is to continue to push “Fortnight” or try to boost one of the certified fan-favorite Poets tracks up to its level — “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” ranks second-highest on this week’s Hot 100, at No. 15 – remains to be seen, but you’d be a fool to assume you’ve seen the last of Swift in this discussion this season. 

15 May 2024

Melinda Newman Presents Seth England With Executive of the Year | Billboard’s Country Power Players 2024

Billboard’s Executive West Coast / Nashville editor Melinda Newman presents Seth England with Executive of the Year at Billboard’s Country Power Players 2024.

Melinda Newman:
Before we have the next presentation, I’d like to acknowledge the winner of Billboard‘s Country Power Players Choice Award, voted on by the members of Billboard Pro. This year’s recipient is WME’s Jay Williams. Congratulations, Jay. As WME Nashville celebrates its 50th anniversary, Jay has helped turn it into the powerhouse that it is.

I’d also like to congratulate the recipient of this year’s Legend Award, Linda Martell. As many of you know, Linda Martell was the first Black woman to ever play the Grand Ole Opry in 1969. And her 1969 hit “Color Him Father” was the highest charting track on Hot Country Songs by a Black woman until Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” reached No. 1 in February. Linda is unable to be here with us tonight, but she sends her regards, and you can read our exclusive interview with her and more about her and Jay’s achievements in the current issue of Billboard.

Now it’s my pleasure to present Billboard‘s Country Power Players Executive of the Year to Big Loud CEO, Seth England. With such acts as Morgan Wallen, Hardy, Ernest, Hailey Whitters and many more, Seth has shown that Big Loud can make a very big noise.

Oh, hello. I’m not done talking about you. You can hang out up here. I’m just gonna say some nice things about you. Seth started as an intern at Big Loud Shirt publishing 18 years ago, and was willing to do anything including pulling up weeds outside Craig Wiseman’s office.

Keep watching to learn more!

15 May 2024

Kehlani Announces Fourth Studio Album ‘Crash’: Here’s When It Arrives

Kehlani announced on Wednesday (May 15) that she’ll release her fourth studio album, Crash, on June 21.

Less than 24 hours after the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter teased the LP’s title with a bevy of crash-related tweets, they also revealed the incredibly intricate album artwork on social media, which features them sitting atop a demolished red car while their legs are covered in a metallic, almost mermaid tail-like apparatus.

Kehlani (real name Kehlani Ashley Parrish) dropped “After Hours” as the first single from Crash in April, and the record — which samples Cordel “Scatta” Burrell’s “Coolie Dance Riddim” and was produced by Khris Riddick-Tynes and Alex Goldblatt — reached No. 14 on Rhythmic Airplay and No. 40 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Kehlani released the “After Hours” music video last week, which was set in Las Vegas. She teased a 30-second snippet of her upcoming single “Next 2 U” last week. “when y’all want it,” Kehlani wrote on Instagram and X.

Crash comes two years after her third album, Blue Water Road, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and No. 8 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Prior to Blue Water Road, Kehlani dropped their Billboard 200 No. 2 sophomore album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t in 2020 — which is their highest charting album to date — and their debut album SweetSexySavage in 2017. She’s also previously dropped three mixtapes: Cloud 19 (2014), You Should Be Here (2015) and While We Wait (2019).

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See Kehlani’s Crash album announcement and artwork below.

15 May 2024

How to Watch the 2024 ACM Awards on Prime Video

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The brightest stars in country music are getting ready for the 59th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire.

The show will air live from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday (May 16) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT (7 p.m. CT) and will stream exclusively on Prime Video and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.

The ceremony will feature a tribute to Toby Keith performed by Jason Aldean.

Other performers include Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Gwen Stefani, Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, Noah Kahan, Avril Lavigne, Miranda Lambert, Post Malone, McEntire, Parker McCollum, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton and Nate Smith.

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Presenters include Alabama, Breland, Tyler Cameron, Jordan Davis, Sara Evans, Carin León, Little Big Town, Ashley McBryde, Dion and Rozene Pride, Noah Reid, Richard Sherman, Charissa Thompson, Randy Travis, and Clay Walker. Amber Anderson and Kelly Sutton will host the AMC Awards red carpet.

The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions. (DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.)

Keep reading for details on how to stream the ACM Awards from anywhere.

2024 ACM Awards: How to Stream for Free

You don’t need an Amazon Prime membership to stream the 59th Annual ACM Awards live on Prime Video. Simply click below to begin streaming the show live on Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET.

The show will rebroadcast on Friday, May 17, at 8 p.m. ET on the Amazon Music App and Amazon’s Freevee.

Interested in becoming a Prime member? Even though you don’t need Prime to ACMs, the membership comes with several perks such as free shipping and free access to Prime Video and Amazon Music. Launch your free 30-day trial to Amazon Prime here.

Aside from award shows, music documentaries and concert specials and original series such as The Idea of You, Fallout, Them, Citadel, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Boys, Invincible, and The Rings of Fire.

The ACM Awards red carpet kicks off at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. A full rebroadcast will be available to stream for free on Amazon Freevee starting Friday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Prime Video is available to stream on a smart TV, phone, computer or notebook device via the Prime Video app (use ExpressVPN to access Prime Video internationally).

After the first free month, your Prime membership will renew at $14.99/month or $139 a year, if you chose the annual plan. The membership also includes exclusive deals such as unlimited photo storage; access to Prime reading and Prime Gaming. Want more savings? Amazon Prime offers 50% off for qualifying students and SNAP/Medicaid recipients.

Besides streaming exclusive programs, Prime Video subscribers can add channels such as Max, Paramount+, Starz and Showtime, plus buy and rent movies and stream everything from one platform.