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05 Feb 2024

Hot 100 Chart Reveal: Feb. 10 | Billboard News

Benson Boone joins the top 10 with “Beautiful Things,” Doja Cat’s “Agora Hills” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” are the only two songs that keep their exact spots from last week’s chart, and we have a new queen that everyone has been talking about at top of the top 10. Watch the video to find out who it is.

Tetris Kelly:
This is the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 for the week dated Feb. 10. SZA falls one spot to 10 with “Snooze,” while 21 rises one spot with “Redrum.”

Benson Boone joins the top 10 with “Beautiful Things” in his second week, “Agora Hills” stays put at seven, Zach and Kasey slipped one spot to six, and Tate McRae’s “Greedy” falls to five. Teddy holds steady at No. 4 with “Lose Control.”

Taylor’s “Cruel Summer” spends this week at No. 3. Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” falls to No. 2.

And debuting at No. 1 in her first week is Megan Thee Stallion with “Hiss.”

Watch the full video above!

05 Feb 2024

Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Hiss’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” lunges onto the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart at No. 1. The rapper notches her third leader with the debut of the diss track, following two in 2020: “Savage,” with Beyoncé, for a week that May, and Cardi B’s “WAP,” on which Megan Thee Stallion is featured, for four weeks beginning that August.

Plus, singer-songwriter Benson Boone scores his first Hot 100 top 10, as “Beautiful Things” bounds from No. 15 to No. 8 in its second week on the survey.

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Feb. 10, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Feb. 6. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

“Hiss” was released on Hot Girl Productions. (Megan Thee Stallion signed an agreement with Warner Music Group, with Roc Nation continuing to be involved in managing her, as announced Feb. 2.) The song starts as the 1,163rd No. 1 in the Hot 100’s 65-year archives, and the 75th to debut at the summit.

“Hiss” launches with 29.2 million first-week streams, 2.9 million radio airplay audience impressions and 104,000 downloads sold Jan. 26-Feb. 1, according to Luminate. In addition to the original version’s clean and explicit options released Jan. 26, an instrumental version and clean and explicit “chopped ‘n screwed” mixes arrived Jan. 31.

The single soars in atop both the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts. Megan Thee Stallion adds her fourth leader on the former, following “Savage” (one week at No. 1), “WAP” (10 weeks) and “Body” (one), all in 2020. She also lands her fourth No. 1 on the latter, after “Savage” (three weeks) and her Cardi B collabs “WAP” (two) and “Bongos” (one, last September).

“Hiss” concurrently opens atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same methodology as the Hot 100, marking Megan Thee Stallion’s third No. 1 on each ranking. “Savage” and WAP” ruled Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for a respective two and 10 weeks and Hot Rap Songs for three and eight frames, respectively.

Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” dips to No. 2 on the Hot 100, following a career-best four weeks at No. 1, while adding a third week atop the Radio Songs chart (75.9 million, up 3%). It leads Rap Airplay for a seventh week and Rhythmic Airplay for a sixth frame and ascends to No. 1 on Pop Airplay, where it’s Harlow’s second leader, after “Industry Baby,” with Lil Nas X, for one week in November 2021; “Lovin on Me” also topped Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay for two weeks beginning in January.

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” falls 2-3 on the Hot 100, following four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in October; Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” holds at its No. 4 high; and Tate McRae’s “Greedy” drops to No. 5 from its No. 3 best.

Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves, backtracks 5-6 on the Hot 100, after it reigned for a week upon its debut last September. It tops the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs charts for a 23rd week each and Hot Country Songs for a 19th frame.

Doja Cat’s “Agora Hills” is steady at its No. 7 Hot 100 high.

Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” jumps 15-8 on the Hot 100, becoming his first top 10. The song surges with 18.5 million streams (up 18%), 800,000 million in airplay audience (up 393%) and 8,000 sold (up 21%).

The 21-year-old Monroe, Wash., native previously charted two Hot 100 entries, each for one week: “Ghost Town” (No. 100, November 2021) and “In the Stars” (No. 82, May 2022). Notably, “Beautiful Things,” released on Night Street Records/Warner Records, becomes the first Hot 100 top 10 for the Night Street imprint, which Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds helms in partnership with Warner. (Imagine Dragons has tallied five Hot 100 top 10s.)

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, 21 Savage’s “Redrum” rises 10-9, two weeks after it debuted at No. 5, and SZA’s “Snooze” descends 9-10, after reaching No. 2, as it leads the multimetric Hot R&B Songs chart for a 28th week.

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on Billboard’s social accounts, and all charts (dated Feb. 10), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Feb. 6).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

05 Feb 2024

Here’s Why Fans Think Taylor Swift’s New Album ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Is a Dig at Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift fans went into the 2024 Grammys thinking that, best case scenario, she might announce the release date of her long awaited Reputation (Taylor’s Version) during one of her acceptance speeches. Instead, the 34-year-old pop star dropped the bombshell news that she has a brand new album coming out — and its title is already attracting suspicion, at least where one Joe Alwyn is concerned.

Immediately after winning best pop vocal album for Midnights at the Sunday (Feb. 4) awards, Swift told the crowd at Crypto.com Arena, “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out April 19.”

“It’s called The Tortured Poets Department,” she continued in the moment, noting that the award was her 13th career Grammy. “I’m gonna go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you.”

Notably, the new project will be Swift’s first batch of fresh material since her high profile breakup from Alwyn, whom she dated for about six years (the star is now publicly in a relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce). And if fans weren’t expecting that her next album after Midnights would include songs about the Conversations With Friends actor before, they definitely are now, as many have noticed an interesting parallel between the title of Tortured Poets Department and the “Anti-Hero” singer’s former love interest.

It all dates back to a December 2022 interview between Alwyn and Normal People‘s Paul Mescal for Variety, during which the two actors reveal that the name of their WhatsApp group chat is “Tortured Man Club.” “It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn remarked at the time.

Tortured Man Club? Tortured Poets Department? Many Swifties clocked the immediate similarities between the two titles. In the hours since the Grammys wrapped up, the fanbase has been alight with memes pointing out the link between the two.

“joe alwyn and paul mescal in their gc rn,” one fan tweeted, paired with a video of Euphoria‘s Alexa Demie, asking, “Is this f–king play about us?”

“joe alwyn watching ‘the tortured man club’ chat reviving right now,” wrote another Swiftie, adding a Succession clip of Kieran Culkin’s character looking depressed as he stares at a computer screen.

See more reactions to Swift’s possible dig at Alwyn’s group chat name below.

05 Feb 2024

Head in the Clouds Festival Returns to New York in May 

Head in the Clouds festival is headed back to New York. For its second year, the music and arts festival will see headlining performances from Joji, (G)I-DLE, BIBI and ILLENIUM B2B DABIN.

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Head in the Clouds New York, put on by music and media company 88rising and concert promoter The Bowery Presents, will return to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens from May 11-12. The two-day festival will see additional sets from Balming Tiger, SPENCE LEE, Deb Never, Juliet Ivy, Young Posse, Wave to Earth, Wang OK, Awich, eyedress, dhruv, ATARASHII GAKKO!, thuy, Warren Hue, Lyn Lapid and Masiwei.

Producers promise to once again transform the stadium “into a beacon of Asian-centric music, art, and cuisine.” The event has renewed its partnership with non-profit organization Heart of Dinner, an organization directly addressing food insecurity, social isolation, and loneliness among Asian American older adults living in under-resourced communities. The festival will be donating a portion of ticket sales to Heart of Dinner and work with them on activating on-site.

The New York edition of the festival is the second iteration in North America after the event’s Los Angeles festival in partnership with Coachella promoter Goldenvoice. Head in the Clouds has also hosted festivals in Jakarta, Manila and China in recent years.

In 2023, the inaugural Head in the Clouds New York Music & Arts Festival marked a homecoming of sorts for 88rising, which was founded in New York City back in 2015. The New York debut welcomed NIKI, Rich Brian, Beabadoobee and more.

Presale registration kicks off today (Feb. 5) and will go through Feb. 12 at 10 a.m. ET. Ticket presale begins on Friday (Feb. 9) at 10 a.m. ET. General on-sale starts Feb. 12 at 10 a.m. ET and tickets can be purchased at the festival website.

05 Feb 2024

Oprah Winfrey Shares Sweet Backstage Moments With Taylor Swift, Celine Dion at 2024 Grammy Awards

There were several times during Sunday night’s (Feb. 4) 66th annual Grammy Awards where Oprah Winfrey gave Taylor Swift a run for her money when it came to cameras catching the media mogul jumping out of her seat and singing along enthusiastically to the performances on stage.

And on Monday morning (Feb. 5) Winfrey again proved that she’s just as big a fan as anyone else who was in the room via a series of private videos and photos the talk show icon shared on her Instagram Story. In one, Winfrey warmly greets Swift backstage, captioning the video “got to see some history be made — congratulations @taylorswift!” in response to Swift’s record fourth album of the year win during the show for her Midnights LP.

“Hello, how are you doing?” Swift asks Winfrey before enveloping her in a deep hug. “It’s so good to see you. You look gorgeous tonight.”

A second slide captured a very sweet moment between Winfrey and Celine Dion, in which the singer Oprah called an “old friend” in the caption stared into Winfrey’s eyes as they chatted and held hands to the strains of Celine’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” The clip ended with Dion whispering something unheard into Winfrey’s ear.

Dion made a surprise appearance at Sunday’s show at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to hand out the coveted album of the year trophy. Dressed in a long, burnt-orange coat and a chunky necklace, the singer soaked in a long, heartfelt ovation from the crowd in her first public awards show appearance since revealing in Dec. 2022 that she was diagnosed with stiff person syndrome. The rare neurological disorder is known for causing uncontrolled muscle spasms that make it hard to move. The diagnosis forced the “Power of Love” singer to postpone all of her 2023 tour dates, before ultimately canceling the rest of her tour. 

Dion appeared to be in good spirits during her moment onstage at the Grammys and reminded everyone in the audience to appreciate the the power of music. “Those who have been blessed enough to be here at the Grammy Awards must not take for granted the tremendous love and joy that music brings to our lives and to people all around the world,” Dion said.

The rest of Oprah’s Story included a backstage snap with Lenny Kravitz, as well as Kravitz giving Fantasia Barrino a deep good luck hug before the Color Purple singer’s return to the Grammys stage for a riveting tribute to late rock queen Tina Turner. Oprah, who was also a part of the in memoriam tribute to her old friend Turner, posted “how it started” footage of Barrino singing an a cappella version of Turner’s take CCR’s “Proud Mary” on American Idol in 2004; Barrino won that season of Idol.

Winfrey ended the Story with a clip in which she said she was glad she got all her tears out during Saturday’s rehearsal so that she could properly honor Turner on Sunday’s broadcast. “It was so much fun and I though Fantasia killed it,” Winfrey said.

05 Feb 2024

Jay-Z Defends Beyoncé During Dr. Dre Global Impact Award Speech #Grammys

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66th GRAMMY Awards - Show

Jay-Z doesn’t make many public appearances where he speaks these days, but that shifted majorly over the weekend. During his acceptance speech at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, Jay-Z took a slight shot at the Recording Academy and mentioned that his wife, Beyoncé, has a leading 32 Grammy Awards but has never won the coveted Album of The Year trophy.

Flanked by his daughter Blue Ivy, Jay-Z took to the stage but humbly thanked Dr. Dre, the man for whom the award is named. In a loose moment for both men, Hov is heard lavishing praise upon the veteran producer, who bashfully tried to keep the moment focused on the man on the stage.

From there, the rapper born Shawn Carter launched into a freewheeling speech where he mentioned Beyoncé, who looked on with a beaming smile, stating that he doesn’t understand how the Academy hasn’t voted for her to win the AOTY Grammy.

Jay then spoke about the nature of the award show itself, mentioning the historic win for DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince and their 1989 boycott of the ceremony. The Brooklyn bomber then made mention of how the pair went on to watch the Grammys anyway. He then turned the moment on himself after he boycotted the Grammys in 1998 for snubbing the last DMX, who had a monster year with two top-charting and acclaimed albums.

It didn’t end there as Jay continued to shoot from the hip, saying that some nominees will feel like they were robbed and that some might actually get robbed before wrapping it up and saying that some people probably didn’t deserve to be nominated.

Check out the speech from Jay-Z below. Keep scrolling for reactions from X, formerly Twitter.

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Photo: Getty

05 Feb 2024

SoundCloud Says Fan-Powered Royalties Are Working — and Not Just for Big Artists

A year into SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties, a departure from the traditional “pro rata” method of calculating streaming royalties, artists have a better understanding of their fan bases and a better chance to monetize their listeners, according to a new report by author, podcaster and economics professor Will Page.  

Fan-powered royalties — known more broadly as user-centric royalties — is a method for calculating streaming payouts to independent artists based on individual fans’ listening on SoundCloud. The traditional, pro-rata model divvies up a large revenue pool based on a track’s total number of plays. In that scenario, an up-and-coming artist shares the same royalty pool as the biggest superstar.  

User-centric royalties turn a big pool into smaller silos by splitting a listener’s subscription or advertising revenue based on only the tracks they streamed. If a listener streams only independent artists, most or all of the user’s subscription or advertising revenue will go to those artists. Since SoundCloud first announced fan-powered royalties in 2021, Warner Music Group and Merlin have agreed to use the calculation approach for their artists.  

SoundCloud singles out an artist’s biggest fans and gives artists the tools to engage with those supporters through person-to-person messaging. With the help of tools that help artists engage directly with their fans on the SoundCloud platform, a small number of what SoundCloud calls “true fans” will provide an “outsize” share of an artist’s royalties. (Page did not define “true fan” or explain the threshold that separates them from less passionate ones.) The combination of the engagement tools and the fan-powered royalties “make this true fan game the most desirable to play,” wrote Page.  

The promise of fan-powered royalties is a more sustainable business model for up-and-coming and working-class musicians. For SoundCloud, a well-known springboard for young musicians’ entry into the big leagues, a model that benefits independent artists over major-label superstars would help cement that platform’s credentials in the creator community.  

So, Page offered three case studies that examined artists in different stages of their careers. In 2022, Rapper Lil Uzi Vert opted into fan-powered royalties and gave SoundCloud an exclusive on the track “Space Cadet” from his Red & White EP. As a result, according to Page, “more of Uzi’s listeners became true fans, and those true fans made up an even greater proportion of the overall revenue.” With fan-powered royalties and insights from the platform, true fans accounted for 6.5% of the rapper’s audience in July 2022, up from 5.2% in the previous month, as well as 71.8% of his revenue, up from 54.6%. The audience he gained was engaged: 6% of them were true fans, 69% were classified as engaged and only 9% were passive listeners.  

To show that fan-powered royalties can help a mid-tier, independent artist, Page offers the example of Kelow LaTesha, a rapper with about 14,000 SoundCloud followers. LaTesha used fan-powered royalties to reach more listeners. True fans’ share of her revenue jumped to 45.7% in July 2022 from 32.2% in June 2022. The number of true fans increased, but because she gained a greater share of passive listeners, LaTesha’s true fans accounted for 1.4% of her listeners, down from 1.7%.  

The do-it-yourself case study, focusing on EDM producer/DJ ShortRound, improved both his true fans and his revenue from those fans. From June to July 2022, true fans’ share of DJ ShortRound’s SoundCloud audience climbed from 3% to 4.4% and their share of his revenue jumped from 77.7% to 82%.

SoundCloud’s adoption of fan-powered royalties pre-dated a larger effort to make streaming more financially viable for labels and artists. Universal Music Group partnered with streaming service Deezer in 2023 to improve payouts to professional musicians while reducing payouts to background noise and other types of audio content that arguably provide less value to listeners. In Europe, politicians are calling for “fairer models of streaming revenue allocation” for artists.   

SoundCloud’s approach might not be the best approach for all streaming platforms, but the handful of case studies is evidence that the approach works for SoundCloud. The combination of fan-powered royalties and creator tools “opens a new path to prosperity that the entire music industry should understand,” wrote Page. 

05 Feb 2024

Jay-Z Drinks Out of His Grammy Award Following Speech Defending Beyoncé: Watch

Jay-Z wanted to celebrate his Dr. Dre Global Impact Award win at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards with a drink, and he ended up filling his trophy with a shot of D’USSÉ.

After taking the Crypto.com Arena stage on Sunday night (Feb. 4) with his daughter Blue Ivy to defend Beyoncé with a candid acceptance speech that is sure to ruffle the feathers of the Recording Academy, Jay turned his gramophone into an expensive cup.

Footage emerged of the Brooklyn rap icon with a smile on his face as he poured some of his cognac into the trophy for a celebratory shot.

“That’s hilarious, man,” an onlooker said while Jay posed for photos with his newest accolade after taking a sip.

During his viral acceptance speech, Jay spoke his truth and jabbed the Recording Academy when it came to his wife never winning album of the yeardespite boasting the most Grammy Awards of all time.

“I’m just saying, we want y’all to get it right. We love y’all; we love y’all; we want you to get it right, or at least get it close to right, and obviously it’s subjective,” he said as Blue Ivy stood next to him. “Because it’s music and it’s opinion-based, but some things — I don’t want to embarrass this young lady [Beyoncè], but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year, so even by your own metrics that doesn’t work. Think about that: the most Grammys and never won an album of the year. That doesn’t work.”

“Some of you are going to go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed, some of you don’t belong in the category — when I get nervous I tell the truth.”

“But outside of that, we’ve gotta keep showing up,” he continued. “And forget the Grammys for a second, just in life — as my daughter sits and stares at me nervous as I am — just in life, you’ve gotta keep showing up and keep showing up. Forget the Grammys.”

“You’ve got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve, until they call you ‘chairman,’ until they call you a ‘genius,’ until they call you ‘the greatest of all time.’ You feel me?”

Watch Jay-Z’s entire speech below.

05 Feb 2024

Watch Taylor Swift Congratulate Boygenius at the 2024 Grammys

Taylor Swift is proud of her boys. After she and Boygenius both took home multiple awards at the 2024 Grammys on Sunday (Feb. 4), the 34-year-old pop star joined the indie rock trio — comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus — for a celebratory round of photos in the press room.

In videos, Swift bursts with excitement as she steps out from behind a curtain and wraps Bridgers, her “Nothing New” collaborator who joined her on a slew of Eras Tour dates last year, in a big hug. She then embraces Dacus and Baker before lining up with the band in front of red carpet cameras, each of them holding their shiny new gramophones.

In another clip, Bridgers seemingly consoles an emotional Baker, while Swift asks Dacus if she can pose with one of her Grammys resting on the “Night Shift” singer’s head.

Earlier that night, the members of Boygenius became first-time Grammy winners, taking home three awards: best rock performance and best rock song for “Not Strong Enough,” as well as best alternative music album for The Record. The “Anti-Hero” singer also won big, scoring best pop vocal album and album of the year for Midnights.

Swift has long been a champion of the “Cool About It” supergroup, which formed in 2018 before reuniting for a breakthrough year in 2023. Upon the release of the band’s now Grammy-winning debut album, the singer took to Instagram Stories to write that The Record is “genuinely a masterpiece.”

“If you don’t already have it on repeat I’d go ahead and do thatttt,” she added at the time.

See Swift congratulate Boygenius in the Grammys press room below.

05 Feb 2024

(G)I-DLE Break Down Their ‘2’ Album Track-by-Track

“There is a phrase, ‘If you have no expectations, there will be no disappointment,’” (G) I-DLE’s Minnie explains when it comes to her mindset for the group’s newest full-length album. “I actually didn’t want to have high expectations, but it will be great if we get good results.”

In 2022, (G)I-DLE embarked on a bold new chapter with its first full LP, I NEVER DIE from 2022. The pivotal moment marked a creative renaissance for the group — with the single “Tomboy” named Billboard’s best K-pop song of the year — and propelled it to new chart heights with hit albums and signature singles. Less than two years later, (G)I-DLE is already back with its second full-length album, aptly titled 2, that shows the group’s heavy involvement in writing and producing songs discussing female empowerment, trusting one’s instinct, destiny, and love.

“Since a lot of people are waiting for (G)I-DLE music, we wanted to come out with a new concept that no one expected,” leader Soyeon says of the LP promoted by the bold and bass-driven single “Wife” (that’s gone viral for its lyrics and breaking into the general public, more on that below) and the booming, big-room anthem “Super Lady.”

Despite a packed 2023, which included the release of their Korean EP I Feel and their debut English EP HEAT — which peaked at Nos. 41 and 25 on the Billboard 200, respectively — (G)I-DLE wasted no time returning to the studio.

“I started working on our songs when we were heading towards the end of our world tour,” says Minnie. “Although I did not have enough time, I worked on the songs non-stop and was able to make ‘Vision’ and 7Days within 10 days.” Shuhua adds, “Whenever we had a free moment, we practiced and recorded our songs.”

The album also marks a significant milestone for member Miyeon, who contributed lyrics for the first time.

“Excluding my solo songs, this is my first time participating in the lyric-making for (G)I-DLE album,” the vocalist shares. “I had so much fun and was able to work with a lot of excitement since it was my first time. Although some parts were lacking, this whole process was a new experience, and I am really glad that our [fandom] NERVERLANDs liked it as well.”

Throughout the creative process, (G) I-DLE’s members took active roles in also shaping the album’s direction, from refining choreography to fine-tuning the concept.

“We all were involved together,” Soyeon says. “We communicated with the choreographer to revise the details while learning the choreography for our title track single ‘Super Lady’ because I wanted to do something that wasn’t so obvious.” Yuqi adds that “most of the choreography and concept were centered around Soyeon, as she is the producer of the group, but all of our members gathered together to share our opinions.”

While high chart rankings are undoubtedly a goal, the quintet also emphasize the importance of connecting with listeners.

“First, I want to thank you for listening and showing a lot of love towards our songs,” Miyeon says to those tuning in. “When preparing for this album, I thought, more than ranking on the charts, I hope each and every person who listens to (G)I-DLE songs can relate to our songs and enjoy them.”

Yuqi sums things up by saying, “Of course, it would be great to rank high on the charts, but I don’t go around thinking about rankings when making music. I want (G)I-DLE music to be delivered to as many people as possible. That’s the biggest and most meaningful goal!”

Read on for (G)I-DLE to break down every track of their new 2 album, track-by-track, below: