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10 Feb 2023

Chris Martin Praises Rihanna as the ‘Best Singer of All Time’

You can count Chris Martin among the millions of fans who can’t wait to watch Rihanna perform this weekend at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. In a new interview with Apple Music 1, the Coldplay frontman sang the pop star’s praises while reflecting on his own memories of performing on one of the world’s biggest stages with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars.

“I don’t know Rihanna very well,” Martin told host Zane Lowe on Friday (Feb. 10). “I’m mainly just a fan, and we have performed with her a few times, and you’re right, it is rarer and rarer for her to just sing, which is what makes it even more special, and in a strange way, it shows that she really, really wants to do it. No one can make Rihanna do anything at this point.”

“You have to be an idiot not to recognize that she’s the best singer of all time,” he continued. “I’m very biased because I’m such a big Rihanna fan. I mean, I think she could just walk out in sweatpants and sing, and that would be just great.”

The “Love on the Brain” singer has just two days left before she headlines the Apple Music-sponsored event between the game’s second and third quarters. This year, the Super Bowl will see the Kansas City Chiefs facing off with the Philadelphia Eagles at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 12) at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

In 2016, it was Coldplay who headlined. Wanting to do justice to the NFL’s 50th anniversary Super Bowl, the band brought out a pair of superstar guests — Bey and Bruno — to assist them.

“I felt really straight away, well, we have to ask Beyoncé because we had a song together at the time, but it hadn’t come out yet,” Martin recalled. “And then Beyoncé, we spoke on the phone and she said, ‘Should we do our song together?’ And I thought, ‘I don’t know. No one knows it yet, and maybe just do something that you want to do.’ And then she came up with ‘Formation,’ which was the best.”

Not everyone loved the final product of Coldplay’s efforts, however. The band was met with criticism from certain viewers, something Martin also opened up about with Lowe. “We got quite a hard time afterwards from some people who didn’t really like it, which was hard to take at the time,” he confessed. “But then at a certain point I realized, ‘Well, we did exactly what we wanted to do given all those limitations.’ We would do exactly the same way, I think. We would ask the same guests.”

“I don’t mind the fact that I’m going to be in a dance-off with Beyoncé and Bruno and lose, that’s the point,” he added. “Someone has to represent the non-dancing humans. So I think I sort of became really at peace with it a few weeks afterwards.”

10 Feb 2023

Executive Turntable: BMG Names Global Synch Head; Live Nation Taps Regulatory Affairs EVP

Allegra Willis Knerr was promoted to executive vp of global synch licensing at BMG, where she will manage the company’s synch licensing teams across the globe. The Los Angeles-based executive was previously senior vp of global synch licensing, a role she was elevated to last year. She’ll continue reporting to BMG chief content officer Dominique Casimir.

Willis Knerr can be reached at Allegra.Willis.knerr@bmg.com.

Dan Wall joined Live Nation Entertainment as executive vp of corporate and regulatory affairs. Wall has been a key advisor to the company for more than 12 years, previously offering guidance as lead outside counsel as a partner at law firm Latham & Watkins.

Kok-Siew Yeo was named managing director of Warner Music Taiwan. He will oversee Warner Music’s operation in Taiwan and work to strengthen the company’s position as an important player in the global Mandopop industry. Kok-Siew joins the company from Meta, where he served as creator partnerships lead. Based in Taipei, Kok-Siew will report to Warner Music Asia co-presidents Chris Gobalakrishna and Jonathan Serbin.

Vinit Thakkar was named managing director at Sony Music Entertainment in India. He joins the company from Universal Music India, where he served as COO of India and South Asia. (Via afaqs!)

Lou Al-Chamaa was named senior vp/head of A&R publishing at Avex USA. He arrives at the company following six years at Sony Music Publishing, where he served as vp of A&R.

Jennifer Hills and Sarah Desmond were promoted to co-managing directors of Universal Music UK’s brand partnerships and synch division Globe. Both were previously senior vps. Reporting to Hills and Desmond will be Adam Soffe, who is returning to Globe as vp/head of synch, creative, as well as Neil Mulford, who has been promoted to vp/head of synch, licensing.

Vickie Nauman, founder/CEO of music tech consulting company CrossBorderWorks, joined the advisory board of Barcelona-based Web3 music company KLOOV. The company works on digital collectibles, experiences and NFTs.

Nina Musolino joined Page 1 Management as a manager out of the company’s Nashville office. She will work closely with senior director Danielle Middleton in New York as she signs and manages talent. Musolino reports to Page 1 founder and CEO Ashley Page. She was most recently a publisher and artist manager at Forward Music in Nashville. Musolino can be reached at nina@page1management.com.

Jay Cruze was hired as director of Southeast promotion and marketing at Big Machine Records out of Nashville. Cruze succeeds Jeff Davis, who retired last year. He most recently worked at iHeartMedia, where he helped develop and implement national programming for the company’s country platforms. Cruze can be reached at Jay.Cruze@bmlg.net.

10 Feb 2023

Dionne Warwick Remembers “Dear Friend” Burt Bacharach

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Photo of Burt BACHARACH

Source: JMEnternational / Getty

Legendary songstress Dionne Warwick spoke publicly for the first time on the passing of songwriter Burt Bacharach, whom she considered a “family member.”

On Thursday (Feb. 9), the singer released a statement through social media a day after the composer passed away at the age of 94. “Burt’s transition is like losing a family member,” she began. “These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner.”

“On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run-ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.” Warwick would follow up the statement by sharing a photo of the two via her Twitter account.

The Newark, New Jersey native first met Bacharach in 1961 while she was a backup singer in sessions for The Drifters along with her sister, Dee Dee Warwick, and her aunt, Cissy Houston. In his 2013 memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart, he recalled that meeting fondly. “Right from the first time I ever saw Dionne, I thought she had a special kind of grace and elegance that made her stand out,” he wrote. “There was just something in the way she carried herself that caught my eye. To me, Dionne looked like she could be a star.”

The two would collaborate with lyricist Hal Davis to create Warwick’s first single, “Don’t Make Me Over” in August 1962. That would begin an impressive run of 33 hits on the Billboard charts for Warwick which included “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” and “Walk On By.” These along with four other songs would be part of the top 10, making Warwick the biggest woman singer of the rock and roll era.

Bacharach and Warwick would have a falling out in the 1970s after David and Bacharach split, with the singer suing both men for breach of contract. She and Bacharach would reconcile, teaming up to create the hit 1985 single “That’s What Friends Are For,” which won the Grammy Award for Song of The Year – the only win for the composer out of the four times he was nominated.

10 Feb 2023

Walter White aka Bryan Cranston Keeps It Thorough In New KITH Classics Campaign

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Bryan Cranston x KITH

Source: KITH / KITH

Walter White aka Heisenberg may be fictional, but Bryan Cranston is repping in reality as KITH has tapped the Breaking Bad actor to star in their Spring/Summer 2023 collection’s campaign.

After surprising everyone by tapping Jerry Seinfeld for their Fall 2022 collection, KITH went out and got themselves the king of cooked crystals to be the face of their upcoming KITH Classics collection and man can Cranston stunt! Sporting some spiffy attire out in the desert such as patchwork overshirts, paisley pattered button downs and pretty sleek bomber jackets, Walter Whit – ahem, Bryan Cranston seems like he wasn’t just built for this particular campaign, he’s taken it over.

Looking like a man who’s left a life of hustle and grit in the rearview mirror, Mr. Cranston is sure to help move a lot of these pieces thanks to the superb style and photography that captures his OG swag.

Check out the collection below and let us know if you’ll be checking for any of these when they drop on February 10th on KITH.com and KITH flagship stores.

10 Feb 2023

Mariah Carey Drops ‘It’s a Wrap’ EP After Song’s Viral Revival

Surprise, dahhlings! Mariah Carey revealed a special treat for her fans on Friday (Feb. 10) in the form of a new EP celebrating her 2009 deep cut “It’s a Wrap.”

“lIT’S A WRAP!!” the icon shared on Instagram announcing the release, “by popular lamb demand, EP out now!”

The four-track project contains the original album cut from 2009’s Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel and the Mary J. Blige-assisted remix originally included as a bonus track on 2014’s Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse, as well as a TikTok-friendly sped-up version and a new three-minute edit of the song.

The EP’s arrival comes on the heels of Mimi turning the fan favorite into a viral hit thanks to the “It’s a Wrap” TikTok challenge she launched after the start of the new year. In addition to giving Carey a dose of post-holiday glee as she watched thousands of Lambs lip-synch to the song, the challenge also gave “It’s a Wrap” a massive streaming bump, earning more than one million weekly streams as of the start of February.

Prior to the kiss-off’s unexpected revival, the singer-songwriter wrapped up her absolute domination of yet another holiday season with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” returning to the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks from the middle of December through the beginning of January. The chart achievement marked the modern holiday classic’s fourth year topping the chart since it first became Carey’s nineteenth career No. 1 in 2019.

Check out Mariah’s announcement and stream the It’s a Wrap EP below.

10 Feb 2023

Here’s Why Penn Badgley Thinks This Taylor Swift Hit Is ‘Perfect’ for His ‘You’ Character

The lyrics in Taylor Swift‘s “Anti-Hero” hit home for a lot of people, but when you look at them through the perspective of a serial killer? They take on a whole different meaning. Just ask Penn Badgley, the actor behind frequent murderer Joe Goldberg on Netflix’s You, who recently caught the pop star’s attention for lip-syncing her Midnights lead single dressed as his character in a viral TikTok.

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The success of Badgley’s “Anti-Hero” TikTok (nine million views and counting) is made even more impressive when you consider that it was the very first video he ever posted on his account. But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Gossip Girl alum explained that it was actually Swift’s track that inspired him to start his TikTok career in the first place.

“I thought for years, ‘I’ll get a TikTok when the time is right,’” he told the magazine in an interview published Friday (Feb. 10). “And then when Taylor’s record came out, it just seemed the song wouldn’t have worked with anybody else. Me. Joe. Anti-Hero. Taylor Swift? It just was the perfect moment.”

Swift has described “Anti-Hero,” her longest-running No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as being like a “guided tour through all the things I tend to hate about myself.” In his TikTok — on which the “All Too Well” singer herself commented “OMG!!!!” — Badgley dons Joe’s trademark baseball cap and hilariously sings the track’s self-deprecating main hook, “I’m the problem, it’s me.”

As You fans can attest, Joe (who goes by Jonathan Moore while hiding out in London in the Feb. 9-released fourth season) is definitely the problem in almost every scenario. And just like Swift, he often struggles internally with his insecurities and personal demons — his just happens to be a psychological inability to stop stalking, kidnapping and gruesomely murdering people in his life.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to play Joe,” Badgley explained in the new interview. “And so I bring that to it in a way. Joe is always struggling with who he is, and what he’s doing,” he says. “There’s always like three levels of lies with Joe no matter what’s happening.” 

Watch Penn Badgley sing along to “Anti-Hero” below:

10 Feb 2023

Every Song Ranked on Paramore’s ‘This Is Why’

Perhaps no album from a band in recent months has been as anticipated as Paramore‘s sixth studio set, This Is Why. The group, which currently consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro, released their poppier, ’80s-tinged LP After Laughter in 2017 and later, took a break that resulted in the trio trading the sadness behind their rose-colored glasses for anger — and for what feels like the first time, political discontent.

“Everything is political, and it’s either politicized to a degree that maybe isn’t fair or it just inherently is political,” Williams said in the group’s recently Billboard cover story. “Even if I tried to not say one word about anything political [on the album], I think it was just in the DNA. It was in every conversation.”

And the group tackles the issues seamlessly, albeit with a new groove that sounds equal parts fresh and familiar to new and old fans alike. This Is Why‘s title track (also the first on the record) establishes the band’s mission statement, critiquing society’s lack of empathy and the human tendency to be unyielding with our beliefs. Follow up singles “The News” and “C’est Comme Ça” expands, with the former heaving an exasperated sigh at current events and the latter taking the aftermath with a resigned shrug of the shoulders. The preliminary songs the band offered — and the album as a whole — cut the weight of their themes with a danceable, punk leaning edge.

While there are no definite skips on the album, certain tracks of the group’s newest offering in years do stand out a bit more than others. Here is a preliminary opinion on every song that appears on Paramore’s This Is Why.

Want more on Paramore’s new album? Click here to read Billboard’s cover story with the band, in which they talk at length about This Is Why.

10 Feb 2023

Missy Elliott and Jack Harlow Beyond Hyped For Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show: ‘It Will Be Incredible’

Even stars get starstuck, especially when talking about Rihanna. Missy Elliott and Jack Harlow weighed in on what they hope to hear and see from RihRih on Sunday (Dec. 12) when she takes the stage for the halftime show at Super Bowl LVII. And, as you might expect, they’re anticipating nothing but the best.

“I expect nothing less than the best from Rihanna,” Elliott tells Billboard. “When Rihanna steps out she will most definitely give 200%. I know she’s working hard and I can’t wait to see it. I know it’s going to be incredible.”

Elliott and Harlow — who co-star in a Doritos commercial along with Elton John that will air during the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs — say they will be on the couch awaiting the big moment just like everyone else.

“Sheesh. I mean, what an icon,” says Harlow about Rihanna’s step into the halftime performer pantheon. “I can’t wait to see what she’s got planned. I know it’s going to be show-stopping. It’s amazing to have someone that’s such a legend still fully relevant and completely important to what’s going on at the moment. I think Rihanna’s incredible.”

As for what songs he wants to hear? Harlow isn’t picky. “The whole catalog,” he says. “Everything.”

Elliott — who performed with Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz during halftime at the 2015 Super Bowl — says game day is a huge event in her house, which is why she’s excited for Rihanna to join the exclusive halftime veterans club.

“My cousins are all Super Bowl fanatics,” Elliott ays of her family’s reaction when the rapper/songwriter/producer got the call for Perry to huddle up for that year’s extravaganza. “I knew it was big, but not to the magnitude that my cousins was like, ‘Oh my God, do you understand what is about to happen?’”

They were so hyped, in fact, that even industry veteran Elliott says she got a bit scared. That said, Elliott thinks it’s only fitting that a huge star like Rihanna is taking the biggest stage during the year’s most tuned-into event. “Doing the Super Bowl is amazing because I don’t think there’s a bigger platform of people that are watching you,” Elliott says. “I was on a high.”

Super Bowl LVII will air on Fox at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.

10 Feb 2023

Rihanna’s Top 30 Songs on the Billboard Hot 100

You can’t talk about game changers in the music industry without talking about Rihanna. Whether you know her as the Caribbean Queen, the “good girl gone bad,” RiRi or simply Rih, the Barbadian singer has come a long way since her pre-Roc Nation days. Case in point: Robyn Fenty is the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner as the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles, making her the first headliner since Apple Music took over the Halftime Show.

In 2005, Rih dropped her first single “Pon De Replay” off her debut album, Music of The Sun. At just 17, the singer was already experiencing her first major hit: the reggae-influenced club track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 27 weeks on the chart. But she quickly proved she was no one-hit wonder: The following year, her track “SOS” spent three weeks crowning the chart. Now, she has dozens of charting hits under her belt — including 14 No. 1s and features with Drake, Britney Spears, Eminem and more.

Though mainly known as a hitmaker, her talents go beyond music-making — she launched her Fenty Beauty line of cosmetics and skincare products in 2017 and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty in 2018. Plus, RiRi’s fashion consistently turns heads (in the best way possible) — whether she’s red carpet ready or simply taking a stroll around town.

With a Navy of fans who will wait a lifetime for the Barbadian singer’s next release — and her 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance — there’s no doubt that Rihanna has made her mark on music. Take a look back at her biggest hits on the chart below.

Rihanna’s Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits ranking is based on weekly performance on the Hot 100 (through Feb. 8, 2023). Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower spots earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates during various periods.

10 Feb 2023

20 Queer Love Songs to Listen to This Valentine’s Day: Lil Nas X, Kehlani, VINCINT & More

Whether or not you celebrate, whether you find it sweet or mawkish, Valentine’s Day is good for one thing — grand, sweeping declarations of love.

Every year as Feb. 14 approaches, many significant others consistently try (to varying degrees) to turn their love lives into a scene from their favorite romantic comedies. Whether they’re channeling Heath Ledger from 10 Things I Hate About You to perform Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” with a full marching band, or evoking the spirit of Say Anything’s John Cusack for a simpler, boombox-assisted rendition of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” Valentine’s Day is the day to tell your partner — and everyone else in their general vicinity — just how much you fancy them.

Naturally, the catalyst for many a romcom romantic gesture is the music that accompanies it. Some love songs are just naturally thought of in moments like this — Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” Beyoncé’s “Love on Top,” Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are” and John Legend’s “All of Me” come to mind as perfect soundtracks for Valentine’s Day romanticism.

But what about artists from the LGBTQ community? In the extensive history of romcoms, queer folks don’t usually get to have their voices represented when it comes to the saccharine storytelling genre — so why not show your support by tracklisting your Valentine’s Day with songs from a community that often finds itself left out of the proceedings?

Below, Billboard lists 20 loves songs performed by LGBTQ artist for you to jam out to this Valentine’s Day.