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08 Dec 2022

What Is Stiff-Person Syndrome? Celine Dion’s Neurological Disorder Explained

Celine Dion revealed in an emotional video posted to Instagram on Thursday (Dec. 8) that she is battling a rare neurological disorder called “Stiff-Person Syndrome.”

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“As you know, I’ve always been an open book. And I wasn’t ready to say anything before,” said Dion in the solemn, brief clip. “But I’m ready now… ’I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time, and it’s been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.”

Due to the severe muscle spasms that Dion says “affect every aspect of my daily life,” she will not be able to re-start her tour in Europe in February as planned. All of her spring 2023 dates will move to 2024 and 8 of her summer 2023 shows have been cancelled.

Following Dion’s announcement, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about the lesser-known disorder.

What Is Stiff-Person Syndrome?

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Stiff-Person Syndrome, or SPS, is a very rare neurological disorder that has features of an autoimmune disease. “SPS is characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms,” per NINDS, which also notes that the disorder affects twice as many women as men and science does not yet understand what causes it. The disorder is also often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia or anxiety.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, SPS only affects one or two in a million people.

What Are the Symptoms of Stiff-Person Syndrome?

“Abnormal postures, often hunched over and stiffened, are characteristic of the disorder,” according to NINDS. Those with SPS can also be unable to walk or move or might be triggered into a spasm or fall due to loud noises.

Are There Treatments for Stiff-Person Syndrome?

The current treatment is a regimen of anti-convulsants and valium and intravenous treatments aimed at reducing stiffness and lowering sensitivity to touch, noise and stress. The preferred treatments can improve symptoms, but a cure is not yet known and sufferers are often subject to frequent falls because of a lack of the usual defensive reflexes.

08 Dec 2022

Jenni Rivera’s Best Songs: ‘Inolvidable,’ ‘De Contrabando’ & More

Jenni Rivera‘s untimely passing left a void in Latin music. At the time of her death in a plane crash in Mexico on December 9, 2012, Rivera, 43, was at the peak of her career and the single most successful woman in regional Mexican and on the Billboard Latin charts.

With anthems such as “Inolvidable,” “De Contrabando,” “Basta Ya” and “Resulta,” Rivera was able to create a blueprint for herself in a male-dominated genre, and was on the verge of a major crossover, with a residency in Las Vegas in the works and her very own television series. Still, the regional Mexican icon may no longer be here but her presence on and off the Billboard charts looms larger than life.

Ten years after her tragic death, Rivera’s legacy is very much alive thanks to her five children — Chiquis, Jacqie, Michael, Jenicka and Johnny who spoke at length about their mother at this year’s Billboard Latin Music Week — and her empowering anthems sang by a strong yet vulnerable woman for women from all walks of life. She’s also been an inspiration for the new generation of regional Mexican acts such as Grupo Firme, who’s frontman Eduin Caz told Billboard of her influence on him.

With more than 30 entries on the tally on the Regional Mexican Airplay, fourteen of those hit the top 10, and 25 songs on the Hot Latin Songs chart, Billboard‘s Latin editors have chosen Rivera’s 10 best songs (in no particular order). From “Ovarios” to “La Gran Señora” and “Las Malandrinas,” check out the list below.

08 Dec 2022

Amber Riley Thinks Lea Michele ‘Would Probably Say That She Doesn’t See Race’

Amber Riley stopped by Ziwe on Wednesday (Dec. 7) and spilled some tea about Lea Michele and her time on the set of Glee.

The Dancing With the Stars season 17 champ weathered Ziwe’s trademark style of awkward questioning with grace during the sit-down, but that didn’t stop the host from trying to get to the bottom of her take on working with Michele — starting with asking Riley if there was a “race war” on Glee.

“Now speaking of getting down in the muck, you said that one of your famous co-workers wasn’t racist. Did you mean that she was?” Ziwe asked, leading Riley to burst into uncomfortable laughter before dodging the question by responding “Next question? I don’t even know how to answer that. Umm … I don’t know which co-worker you’re talking about — I’ve had so many.”

Undeterred, Ziwe conveniently had a clip of Riley’s pandemic-era interview regarding the headline-making allegations that Michele bullied cast member Samantha Ware on the set of the FOX musical series. (“I am not going to say that Lea Michele is racist,” she insisted in the clip, though the Funny Girl star’s first name was bleeped out in the replay.)

“Would you say that your famous co-worker doesn’t see race and is, in fact, rude to all of her co-workers?” the host asked as a follow-up, and this time Riley gave more of a straightforward answer.

“I think that she would probably say that she doesn’t see race, but as we discussed earlier, everyone does,” she responded before laughingly denying that her 2014 single “Colorblind” was about Michele.

Billboard has reached out to Michele for comment.

Later in the interview, Riley also got real about some of the macro- and micro-aggressions she’s dealt with in Hollywood, revealing that she’s been on the receiving end of many an inappropriate comment from other actors in the hair and makeup trailer. “‘Oh your hair … so interesting! Oh wow, can I touch it?’ Like, a lot of that,” she said.

Most recently, the newly engaged star took home the trophy as the Harp on Season 8 of The Masked Singer, becoming the first and only to win both the FOX singing competition and DWTS.

Watch Riley’s interview with Ziwe above.

08 Dec 2022

Omar Apollo on His Best New Artist Grammy Nod & That NSFW Viral Tweet

Omar Apollo — who kicked off his career in 2017 when he borrowed money from a friend to upload his first song to Spotify, the heartfelt “Ugotme” — went from working at McDonald’s and Guitar Center to becoming a Grammy nominee for best new artist at the upcoming Feb. 5 ceremony.

He’s one of the industry’s most exciting names thanks to his unique musical shapeshifting, effortlessly moving between viral tracks that drip with soul and R&B to overtly pop jams to alternative rock, reaching a crescendo with the release of debut album Ivory in April. Along the way, a generation of fans readily see themselves in Apollo, from his proud Mexican heritage to his authentic openness about his sexuality.

Hot off his nationwide Prototype tour, Apollo spoke candidly to Billboard about the evolution of his sexuality (including his trials and tribulations and that recent viral tweet), as well as his close relationship to his Mexican culture and the new video for his Hot 100 hit “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).”’

Congratulations on being a best new artist Grammy nominee! What does that mean to you?

It’s such an honor to even be nominated. I mean that’s insane. I was definitely very, very excited. I called my parents and told them the news, and so many friends reached out. It was a crazy feeling.

Where were you that morning? Did you watch the announcement?

I was watching it in my hotel room in Atlanta. Me and my team were watching it. My manager tackled me, and I fell on the bed. Everyone was “Ahh!!” They were recording it, it was so funny. And then I really had to use the bathroom, so I kicked everyone out and called my dad. He was so excited; he had a little cook hat on. He was so excited, just saying congratulations and he started to say, “You’ve been working so hard.” Dad stuff. And then I called my mom and she was super excited, and we started talking about what we’re going to wear.

How did your tour go? You played the biggest rooms during the biggest run of your career so far, but I know you had to cancel a date because it was taxing on your voice.

Yeah, totally. Oh my gosh, that’s the biggest stress, your voice. I have a lot of things I do on the road to be able to take care of it, but I’m going to have to go harder on this next tour to really, like, have a regimen. Your voice is these two little vocal folds in the back of your throat that are so, so, so sensitive and delicate, and touring is so not delicate. And, you just have to be able (to get through it). Right down to the food you eat.

As anyone who’s seen your tour can attest, you really don’t encompass one genre. There’s R&B-forward songs like “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All),” but you also have more alt rock, hip-hop, pop and you even threw in some traditional Mexican songs. Was it a conscious decision to have a discography that zig-zags through genres, or just the general evolution of your music?

I grew up on soul and R&B and that’s where my soul and heart is. I also just have a general interest in music itself. I can’t help but attempt to try out all of these different styles. I grew up rapping and I did that before I started singing. That turned into writing and all that. Honestly, it’s a discovery. There was a point in time I was putting things out because they felt good.

The traditional Mexican songs have become a highlight of your show. What made you incorporate them into the tour in the first place? You performed them when you were a kid, right?

Yeah, so I was in Ballet Folklórico, which was like a Mexican folk ballet. So I wasn’t singing; I was dancing to very similar music when I was in third grade or something like that. So it’s always been a part of my life and I grew up watching videos of Folklórico and stuff like that, so I was like, this feels genuine to me, this feels like something I want to do at my shows. I just had to try it. It turned into being this moment in the show where I would amplify (the culture).

An artist like Selena grew up in Texas and (at least at first) didn’t speak Spanish, but her heritage was important to her and it seemed like she represented the Latin community in the States. Meanwhile, you’re from Indiana and tapping a similar fanbase. What does it feel like to juggle that part of your heritage, and do you feel a responsibility?

I was born and raised in Indiana; my parents came from Mexico with the intention of having a better life here. Some things my parents would always tell me were to not forget where I came from, so the family and our traditions and the culture has always been super important. It’s its own culture, because it’s mixed with this American culture. To have this visibility…. A lot of the people who come to the show are all Latin. It’s great because that’s something I wanted growing up. An artist who represented my people, who looked like me and could actually have my story of how my parents came here and their kids could be successful. There are so many different ways success can be. It’s just wonderful to know that my parents’ intentions were pure, true and I was able to change my family’s life forever.

Speaking of Hispanic culture, I want to talk about your partnership with Buchanan’s Whisky, which you always post about on social media. It’s a brand that is popular with the Latin community, and I know it’s one that’s close to your family.

Yeah, well I only really like to partner with brands that are authentic to me and my family, my uncles, my friends all drink it. So it’s been a brand I’ve already been connected with and I really love how they celebrate the Mexican culture. When they asked me to support 200 Percenters, which is 100 percent Hispanic and 100 percent American [their 200% Futuro Fund which raises money for Hispanic and Latin organizations], it just felt like a no-brainer. Honestly, it was great to tour with them. They joined a few of the dates and had some stands for drinks, so I’m excited for everything that’s to come with them.

What does your family think? For the Buchanan’s drinkers this must be a dream. Free Buchanan’s for life!

Yeah, totally! They just sent my dad a bottle; he was so excited. I was with him when he received it. He tells everyone.

Your queerness is also a major part of your identity. I wanted to ask you about your viral tweet in which someone accused you of queerbaiting and you had a NSFW response and you clarified, in an NSFW way, “No, I’m actually gay. This isn’t just some marketing thing.” What made you tweet that?

I’m gonna be honest with you man, that tweet had zero thought. I saw the tweet and thought, this is actually comical because it’s so untrue. So opposed to being defensive, I just thought of something…. Twitter is literally a place where I have so many tweets like that. It’s kind of funny that it keeps being brought up because it was my little vulgar moment! (Laughs) What did Jay-Z say? “What you eat don’t make me sh-t.”

I think the shocking thing is not that you tweeted it, but the fact that it wasn’t too long ago that an artist would hide the fact they were gay as much as they could. But there you are being 100 percent honest, essentially saying: “I’m gay, this is what gay people do, what are you gonna do about it?” The gay community reacted to that like, “Yes!”

I’m totally aware of the privilege we have now to be ourselves and still have a career. Honestly it had a lot to do with me growing up in Indiana which is very conservative. Everyone is always tiptoeing around it. As opposed to trying to defend myself, I embraced the sexual aspect of it. I don’t normally think when I go on Twitter, it’s reactions. Everything on there is just a bunch of reactions. But people thought I was queerbaiting before (early in my career). I wasn’t super open about my sexuality, but people were hearing things. In Indiana people were saying “He’s not even gay, he’s just doing that to be artist-y.” I always thought it was funny because the reality of my life is not that; it’s not a choice, it’s just what I am. You have to laugh at things like that. I didn’t think I was going to get this far in-depth talking about that tweet.

I remember my first time writing about being gay in a public forum; it was a milestone for me considering it was something that was so personal. Do you remember your first time incorporating it into your music?

Yeah… I don’t know if I ever said this, but I put out music when I was 18 and it was a song called “Beauty Boy.” That was the first time I ever said anything about it. I made it subtle. I didn’t say, “This is my gay song!” I just kind of put it out. I was feeling confident; my friends knew, I told them and they were like, “Do it.” In my town it started to get a lot of criticism and it got back to my family. I started getting really discouraged because the way it was received didn’t make me feel good…. It’s still kind of tough to talk about it. So (after that) I stopped putting pronouns in my music for a couple years, I think. But then I just realized, I can’t let other people’s opinions influence my life. I can’t let them dictate my life. That’s silly. I grew up very religious, so I was dealing with that too. Eventually, I put out a song called “Stayback” and the video had…. homosexual undertones. I remember being terrified. It was really hard for me. I almost didn’t put it out, but luckily my friends were very supportive. It wasn’t that I wasn’t out; I had been out for years. But when you come from this very conservative, Catholic upbringing… I experienced a lot. There’s a lot of things people don’t know about. Those things just stay with me. To be able to go and talk and be myself is a blessing. I’m very fortunate and I don’t take it for granted.

It’s a personal evolution for everyone, but for you your personal evolution has doubled as an artistic evolution through dealing with that. But culture is a mirror held up to society, and you’re giving other people who have gone through those same experiences a voice.

I mean, that sort of thing makes me really happy. It feels like that was, like, robbed from me. I didn’t get to experience this open, high school love. That was type of thing that I had to experience later in life. I had to develop it later. So yeah, it’s a lot.

In The Velvet Rage it says if you’re gay, even if you experienced dating with a member of the opposite sex, you inevitably have to do it all again at some point with a member of the same sex.

The Velvet Rage! That’s a good book.

Tell me about the video for “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All),” which just came out and has so far collected over six million views on YouTube. You’re insulated in this room and then there’s a collapse. What was your thinking behind its concept?

Honestly, I hate explaining things just because it kind of puts it in a box. Literally, in the video it was a box I built (laughs). But I was working with these directors, rubberband [jason sondock and simon davis]. Super talented producer and cinematographer. Everything couldn’t have gone better and it was a great day. The video was made to amplify what is being said in the song. I always had a tough time with videos, things like trying to work in a love interest. But the directors were so talented and they thought everything through. We worked really hard on the edit and coloring and tried to get to feel how I wanted it to. It was perfectly executed. I love it.

08 Dec 2022

What Happens to Songwriters When AI Can Generate Music?

If you think 100,000 songs a day going into the market is a big number, “you have no idea what’s coming next,” says Alex Mitchell, founder/CEO of Boomy, a music creation platform that can compose an instrumental at the click of an icon.

Boomy is one of many so-called “generative artificial intelligence” music companies — others include Soundful, BandLab’s SongStarter and Authentic Artists — founded to democratize songwriting and production even more than the synthesizer did in the 1970s, the drum machine in the ’80s and ’90s, digital audio workstations in the 2000s and sample and beat libraries in the 2010s.

In each of those cases, however, trained musicians were required to operate this technology in order to produce songs. The selling point of generative AI is that no musical knowledge or training is necessary. Anyone can potentially create a hit song with the help of computers that evolve with each artificially produced guitar lick or drumbeat.

Not surprisingly, the technology breakthrough has also generated considerable anxiety among professional musicians, producers, engineers and others in the recorded-music industry who worry that their livelihoods could potentially be threatened.

“In our pursuit of the next best technology, we don’t think enough about the impact [generative AI] could have on real people,” says Abe Batshon, CEO of BeatStars, a subscription-based platform that licenses beats. “Are we really helping musicians create, or are we just cutting out jobs for producers?”

Not so, say the entrepreneurs who work in the emerging business. From their perspective, generative AI tools are simply the next step in technology’s long legacy of shaping the way music is created and recorded.

“When the drum machine came out, drummers were scared it would take their jobs away,” says Diaa El All, founder/CEO of Soundful, another AI music-generation application that was tested by hit-makers such as Caroline Pennell, Madison Love and Matthew Koma at a recent songwriting camp in Los Angeles. “But then they saw what Prince and others were able to create with it.”

El All says the music that Soundful can instantly generate, based on user-set parameters, like beats per minute or genre, is simply meant to be a “jumping-off point” for writers to build songs. “The human element,” he says, “will never be replaced.”

BandLab CEO Meng Ru Kuok says that having tools to spark song creation makes a huge difference for young music-makers, who, so far, seem to be the biggest adopters of this technology. Meng claims his AI-powered SongStarter tool, which generates a simple musical loop over which creators can fashion a song, makes new BandLab users “80% more likely to actually share their music as opposed to writing from zero.” (Billboard and BandLab collaborated on Bringing BandLab to Billboard, a portal that highlights emerging artists.)

Other applications for generative AI include creating “entirely new formats for listening,” as Endel co-founder/CEO Oleg Stavitsky says. This includes personalized music for gaming, wellness and soundtracks. Lifescore modulates human-made scores in real time, which can reflect how a player is faring in a video game, for example; Endel generates soundscapes, based on user biometrics, to promote sleep, focus or other states (Lifescore also has a similar wellness application); and Tuney targets creators who need dynamic, personalized background music for videos or podcasts but do not have a budget for licensing.

These entrepreneurs contend that generative AI will empower the growth of the “creator economy,” which is already worth over $100 billion and counting, according to influencer Marketing Hub. “We’re seeing the blur of the line between creator and consumer, audience and performer,” says Mitchell. “It’s a new creative class.”

In the future Mitchell and El All both seem to imagine, every person can have the ability to create songs, much like the average iPhone user already has the ability to capture high-quality photos or videos on the fly. It doesn’t mean everyone will be a professional, but it could become a similarly common pastime.

The public’s fascination with — and fear of — generative AI reached a new milestone this year with the introduction of DALL-E 2, a generator that instantaneously creates images based on text inputs and with a surprising level of precision.

Musician Holly Herndon, who has used AI tools in her songwriting and creative direction for years, says that in the next decade, it will be as easy to generate a great song as it is to generate an image. “The entertainment industries we are familiar with will change radically when media is so easy and abundant,” she says. “The impact is going to be dramatic and very alien to what we are used to.”

Mac Boucher, creative technologist and co-creator of non-fungible token project WarNymph along with his sister Grimes, agrees. “We will all become creators and be capable of creating anything.”

If these predictions are fulfilled, the music business, which is already grappling with oversaturation, will need to recalibrate. Instead of focusing on consumption and owning intellectual property, more companies may shift to artist services and the development of tools that aid song creation — similar to Downtown Music Holdings’ decision to sell off its 145,000-song catalog over the last two years and focus on serving the needs of independent talent.

Major music companies are also investing in and establishing relationships with AI startups. Hipgnosis, Reservoir, Concord and Primary Wave are among those that have worked with AI stem separation company Audioshake, while Warner Music Group has invested in Boomy, Authentic Artists and Lifescore.

The advancement of AI-generated music has understandably sparked a debate over its ethical and legal use. Currently, the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a work created solely by AI, but it will register works created with human input. However, what constitutes that input has yet to be clearly defined.

Answers to these questions are being worked out in court. In 2019, industry leader Open AI issued a comment to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, arguing that using copyrighted material for training an AI program should be considered fair use, although many copyright owners and some other AI companies disagree.

Now one of Open AI’s projects, which was made in collaboration with Microsoft and Github, is battling a class-action suit over a similar issue. Copilot, which is AI designed to generate computer code, was accused of often replicating copyrighted code because it was trained on billions of lines of protected material made by human developers.

The executives interviewed for this story say they hire musicians to create training material for their programs and do not touch copyright-protected songs.

“I don’t think songwriters and producers are talking about [AI] enough,” says music attorney Karl Fowlkes. “This kind of feels like a dark, impending thing coming our way, and we need to sort out the legal questions.”

Fowlkes says the most important challenge to AI-generated music will come when these tools begin creating songs that emulate specific musicians, much like DALL-E 2 can generate images clearly inspired by copyright works from talents like Andy Warhol or Jean Michel Basquiat.

Mitchell says that Boomy may cross that threshold in the next year. “I don’t think it would be crazy to say that if we can line up the right framework to pay for the rights [to copyrighted music], to see something from us sooner than people might think on that front,” he says. “we’re looking at what it’s going to take to produce at the level of DALL-E 2 for music.”

08 Dec 2022

Daft Punk’s ‘Homework: Remixes’ Debuts on Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart

Daft Punk debuts on Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Dec. 10) with Homework: Remixes at No. 17. The limited edition two-LP Record Store Day release earned 2,000 equivalent album units, with nearly all from physical sales, Nov. 25 (its release day) through Dec. 1, according to Luminate.

The set supports the 25th anniversary of the original Homework album, which spent 18 weeks on the Billboard 200 in 1997-98 (peaking at No. 150); it predated the June 2001 inception of the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Homework: Remixes contains original remixes of Homework hits “Around the World,” by Masters at Work and Todd Terry; “Burnin’,” by DJ Sneak and Ian Pooley; and “Revolution 909,” by Roger Sanchez and Junior Sanchez, among others.


Homework: Remixes is Daft Punk’s 11th charted title on Top Dance/Electronic Albums. The act’s six No. 1s are tied with The Chainsmokers’ total for the second-most of all acts – and the most among duos or groups. Only Lady Gaga and Louie DeVito have more (seven each).

Daft Punk also improves on the latest list with Random Access Memories (9-7, up 15%) and Discovery (23-16, up 3%). Random, the act’s longest-running title with 369 chart weeks and counting, reaped 21 weeks at No. 1 in 2013-14. Discovery, released just prior to the chart’s start in 2001, hit No. 4 that year and made it to No. 1 at last, following the announcement of the act’s dissolution, in 2021.

‘All’ in Top 10

Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, Alok, Sigala and Ellie Goulding lift into the top 10 with “All by Myself” (15-10). Alok’s third top 10, Sigala’s sixth and Goulding’s 10th, the song is scoring core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, iHeartRadio’s Evolution and Channel Q, among others. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)

On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, “Myself,” which samples Depeche Mode’s 1990 smash “Enjoy the Silence,” motors to a new peak (33-26). The track earned earning 629,000 U.S. streams, up 38%, in the wake of the Nov. 25 release of its club mix.

More ‘Good’ News

Speaking of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha reign for an 11th week with “I’m Good (Blue).” The total ties Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” for the second-most weeks at No. 1 in 2022; Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” spent 22 of its total 36 frames at No. 1 this year, after first reigning in October 2021.

“Good,” which earns top Airplay Gainer honors with 62.9 million all-format radio airplay audience impressions (up 8%), also matches Guetta and Rexha’s longest commands on the chart, as his “Hey Mama,” featuring Rexha, Nicki Minaj and Afrojack, dominated for 11 weeks in 2015.

“Good” leads the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts for a 12th week each, with 10.1 million streams and sold 5,000 downloads sold in the tracking week.

08 Dec 2022

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2022: Introduction & Honorable Mentions (Staff List)

In 2020, Billboard‘s staff revealed its picks for the greatest pop star of every year dating back to 1981 (the first year of MTV, essentially the birth of the modern pop era), with essays making the case for each as the biggest, brightest and most important star in their solar system that calendar year. After adding BTS as the greatest pop star for 2020, we decided to expand the project a little bit. Last year, we counted down our picks for the 10 greatest pop stars of the year, with full essays for everyone from No. 10 (Bad Bunny) to No. 1 (Taylor Swift), as well as bonus write-ups for our picks for Rookie (Olivia Rodrigo) and Comeback (WILLOW) of the year, and even 10 close-but-not-quite honorable mentions.

This year, we’re doing it all over again. Over the next week and a half, we’ll be revealing our top 10 with one or two new year-in-review essays daily, until we name our No. 1 next Friday (Dec. 16). And just like last year, we’ll also make our picks for Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year, which we’ll unveil tomorrow (Dec. 9) before launching into the proper countdown.

But first, a reminder that unlike with our Year-End Charts, we don’t use hard numbers or chart positions to determine these Greatest Pop Stars. They’re important to our determinations, of course — but so are more intangible factors like cultural importance, industry influence and overall omnipresence. (And of course, playing the whole season helps: If you took some months off to start or end of the year, or had a long break in the middle, that’s not helping your MVP argument.)

If you’re joining us for the first time and still don’t quite get what we mean, you’ll understand better once we start counting down. Before that, though: the honorable mentions. These 10 artists still all had huge years, but for whatever reason couldn’t quite get over the hump — because they didn’t cross over quite far enough, because their impact was too contained to the chart metrics, or simply because they didn’t hang around for enough of the year. Here they are, presented in alphabetical order:

21 SAVAGE

21 Savage

21 Savage

Prince Williams/Wireimage

Their Year in Pop: Talk about a late-season surge. 21 Savage had an OK first half of 2022, with fun guest appearances on Latto’s “Wheelie” and Pharrell Williams’ “Cash in Cash Out,” and even a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 thanks to his well-received appearance on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind closer “Jimmy Cooks.” But none of us would’ve considered 21 Savage a Greatest Pop Star contender until November, when he teamed up with Drake for the blockbuster Her Loss album, briefly feuded with Nas (and then quickly reconciled via a collab single), and then stole the show in early December on Metro Boomin’s star-studded Heroes & Villains, with a gleeful verse playing Diddy to The Weeknd’s Mario Winans on breakout cut “Creepin’.”

Why Not Top 10? As many big moments as he had this year, the great majority of them were featured assists or alongside bigger names, without Savage having to do much of the heaviest lifting. If we had a Best Supporting Pop Star distinction, though, it’d be Savage’s to lose — pretty much every year, really.

BLACKPINK

BLACKPINK

BLACKPINK

YG Entertainment

Their Year in Pop: The biggest girl group in the world had another triumphant year in 2022, topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time in their career with their BORN PINK album, besting the Global 200 songs chart twice (with advance singles “Pink Venom” and “Shut Down”), storming the VMAs stage and continuing to break nearly every YouTube record possible.

Why Not Top 10? Their stateside resumé is still lacking That One Single — the unavoidable hit that lingers around streaming and radio forever, ensuring that even your local librarian knows who they are — but given how little they seem to need that kind of stateside crossover support to keep making pop history, it’s doubtful they’re sweating it much.

ED SHEERAN

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran

Jamie McCarthy/GI

Their Year in Pop: Sheeran didn’t release a new album in 2022, but that didn’t stop him from having two of the top 15 songs on our Year-End Hot 100 — with 2021 holdovers “Bad Habits” (No. 13) and “Shivers” (No. 5). But Sheeran’s year was arguably more impressive for the way he spread himself around as a special guest, scoring Hot 100 hits alongside artists from the worlds of rap (Russ’ “Are You Entertained?”), reggaetón (J Balvin’s “Sigue”) and Afrobeats (Fireboy DML’s “Peru”), all while trekking the globe on yet another impossibly lucrative world tour. And lest it be lost to time, let’s not forget there was a Pokémon song in there somewhere, too.

Why Not Top 10? Though Sheeran remains unmissable on radio and one of the world’s biggest live attractions, he doesn’t quite have the same culture-wide impact he did at his mid-’10s peak — particularly during an in-between year, album-wise.

ENCANTO CAST

Encanto

Encanto

DISNEY

Their Year in Pop: If we cut these rankings off in April, you can bet you’d be seeing Mirabel, Abuela, Luisa, Pepa, Félix, Bruno, and the rest of the Family Madrigal in the top 10. For those three months, they were everywhere — including on the charts, where Stephanie Beatriz and Diane Guerrero were suddenly as unavoidable as Dua Lipa and Doja Cat. But also on TikTok, at award shows (with Megan Thee Stallion at the Oscars!), and most of all, at your little cousin’s birthday party, where you’d better believe they had memorized all six parts of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and were just dying to act them all out at once for you.

Why Not Top 10? While the Encanto cast helped fill the void left by the absence of most of our major pop stars early in 2022, eventually those stars returned, and we didn’t hear much from the Family Madrigal again after that.

GUNNA

Gunna

Gunna

Jamie McCarthy/GI

Their Year in Pop? If you didn’t spend the opening months of 2022 not talking about Bruno, chances are good you instead spent it pushin’ P, as Gunna’s Hot 100 top 10 smash (alongside Future and Young Thug) gave the year its first great pop catchphrase. Acclaimed parent album DS4Ever also debuted at No. 1 — even beating out Dawn FM, the much-anticipated new set from 2021’s sixth-greatest pop star — and earned Gunna a music guest spot on SNL in April.

Why Not Top 10? Unfortunately, what was looking like a true level-up year for the rapper born Sergio Kitchens was cut short in May, when he was arrested (along with Young Thug) on a controversial RICO indictment — for which he’s still in jail, as he awaits his January trial.

KAROL G

Karol G

Karol G

Pablo Escudero

Their Year in Pop: Every year, Latin pop star Karol G burrows her way a little further into the U.S. pop mainstream. Though she didn’t release an album in 2022, she did release three singles — “MAMIII” with Becky G, “Provenza” and “Gatúbela” with Maldy — all of which debuted in the Hot 100’s top 40, with “MAMIII” becoming her highest-peaking hit to date (No. 15). That song also won hot Latin song of the year, vocal event at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards — one of three awards Karol picked up on the night. And you know an artist has reached a level of true stardom when they can make headline news merely by changing the color of their hair.

Why Not Top Ten? A big album to cash in on her crowing pop clout would certainly help her case, as would a crossover single on American top 40 radio — though as a Latin star you’ll see in our top 10 has shown, the latter’s not necessarily a pre-requisite for stateside superstardom anymore.

KENDRICK LAMAR

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar

Renell Medrano

Their Year in Pop: For about two weeks in May, the country belonged to Kendrick, as his long-awaited comeback (following the twin triumphs of 2017’s DAMN. and 2018’s Black Panther soundtrack) was trumpeted first with the release of “The Heart Part 5,” a Marvin Gaye-interpolating one-off with an jaw-dropping, deepfaking music video that instantly took over the internet. Then five days later, he made his full return with fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, drawing rave reviews and debuting atop the Billboard 200 (while simultaneously charting each of its 18 tracks on the Hot 100).

Why Not Top 10? Neither Mr. Morale nor any of its cuts stuck around the culture the way Lamar’s last two efforts and their accompanying hits did. But it’s hardly been forgotten about — Lamar earned eight nominations for the 2023 Grammys, while Mr. Morale and its lead single “N95” finished in the top 10 of our staff’s year-end albums and songs lists, respectively.

LIL BABY

Lil Baby

Lil Baby

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Their Year in Pop: Lil Baby notched a staggering 39 titles on the Hot 100 this year — a tally that nonetheless basically registers as light work for one of the most prolific major rappers of the 2020s. Most of those of course came from his Billboard 200-topping October effort It’s Only Me, though he also scored big hits in support of DJ Khaled (“Stayin’ Alive”), SleazyWorldGo (the “Sleazy Flow” remix) and even Ed Sheeran (the “2step” remix), while also notching a pair of big debuts alongside Nicki Minaj early in the year — including the No. 2-bowing “Do We Have a Problem,” tying for the highest Hot 100 peak of his career.

Why Not Top 10? Despite the dozens of Hot 100 visits, Lil Baby didn’t have a single quite as unavoidable as his My Turn-era 2020 hits “Emotionally Scarred,” “The Bigger Picture” or “We Paid” this year, as the buzz around It’s Only Me faded much quicker than for its predecessor.

TEMS

Tems

Tems

Jeff Spicer/GI for BMI London Awards

Their Year in Pop: One of the breakout stars of 2021, thanks largely to her star-marking turn on Wizkid’s global smash “Essence,” Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems defied the odds by having an even bigger 2022 — without even releasing any new music of her own outside of a Bob Marley cover for the Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Still, she appeared on one of the year’s biggest hits when Future sampled her 2020 From Broken Ears cut “Higher” for his own Hot 100-topping “Wait for U” — even scoring her an artist credit on the track — and also earned her first major solo hit when TikTok (and eventually R&B radio) resurrected her “Free Mind,” from the same 2020 EP. You know you’ve got the juice when Queen Bey is calling you in as one of just a handful of featured guests on her new album, with the legendary Grace Jones as a co-star, no less.

Why Not Top 10? She’s still yet to even release an official full-length debut — so we’ll have to see how the Afrobeats sensation fares when all eyes are on her for actual brand-new music of her own.

THE WEEKND

The Weeknd

The Weeknd

Brian Ziff

Their Year in Pop: While The Weeknd’s March 2020 LP After Hours was such a blockbuster that he was still enjoying its victory lap well into 2021, this January’s Dawn FM did not have quite the same reach or endurance. But critics were kinder to the album than the masses (it finished in the top 10 of the Billboard staff’s year-end ranking), and we still saw plenty of Abel this year between his long-awaited After Hours til Dawn stadium tour, a series of typically eye-popping Dawn FM visuals, and the TikTok and radio resurrection of 2016 Starboy cut “Die for You,” a bigger chart hit than anything he actually released in 2022. (And his year’s not over yet: Next week, he’ll debut “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength),” his Swedish House Mafia-co-produced theme to the much-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water.)

Why Not Top 10? After a year where you play the Super Bowl and celebrate having the biggest Hot 100 hit of all-time, there might just be nowhere to go but down.

08 Dec 2022

Sony Music Latin Unveils New Headquarters in Puerto Rico

Sony Music US Latin has officially opened its new headquarters in Puerto Rico, Billboard can confirm today (Dec. 8). 

The multinational record label, which has had its facilities on the island since 1980 (formerly CBS Records), is relocating to the modern office complex Ciudadela in Santurce, where the label’s artists will have access to a press room, recording studio, content creation room for networks, and other benefits.

“These new offices are a tangible demonstration of what Puerto Rico represents for Sony and for Latino culture,” Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music US Latin tells Billboard via email. “In addition, this expansion will allow us to provide a better service and support our current artists even more.”

Reaffirming its commitment to Boricua talent, Victor Manuelle, Pedro Capó, and Luis Figueroa were some of the Sony artists present at the inauguration, alongside Gallardo and Tuti Bou, vp and general manager of Sony Music US Latin (Puerto Rico Branch). 

“After 42 years of having founded our company in Puerto Rico, today we celebrate this new stage,” Bou adds. “At Sony Music PR we are proud to be the only established multinational committed to the development of our music and culture. The space is modern, and spacious, and in which we have our own recording studio to continue developing, promoting, and discovering new talent. Sony Music Puerto Rico will continue to be ‘The House of Artists.’”

In addition, the label has commissioned a mural from the renowned artists of The Stencil Network in support of the urban development in Santurce.

Sony Music Latin

Sony Music Latin offices in Puerto Rico

Dianeris Nieves/Sony Music Latin

08 Dec 2022

Jazmine Sullivan’s ‘Hurt’ Wraps 6 Month Ride to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart

Jazmine Sullivan achieves her second No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as “Hurt Me So Good” tops the list dated Dec. 10. The new champ advances from the runner-up slot after a 13% jump in weekly plays that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the week ending Dec. 4, according to Luminate.

The new champ strengthens Sullivan’s status as a leading act at the adult R&B format. Though the singer-songwriter posted four top 10 hits on the format from 2008 through 2015, she only claimed her first No. 1 last year, with “Pick Up Your Feelings,” which ruled the list for two weeks. Despite the relatively brief reign, the track proved a longstanding hit with audiences – it logged 44 weeks in the top 10 and finished 2021 as the No. 2 song on the year-end Adult R&B Airplay recap. In addition to unlocking the keys to the Adult R&B Airplay summit for Sullivan, the single and its parent EP, Heaux Tales, won the performer her first Grammy award in February.

“Hurt” appears on the extended version of the EP, entitled Heaux Tales: Mo’ Tales: The Deluxe, which was released in February.

Like its chart-topping predecessor, “Hurt” has established a long-term relationship with listeners. “Hurt” hits No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay in its 28th week on the list, becoming one of nine tracks to require at least that much time to complete a chart-topping run on the radio ranking in the 10 years. Here’s the crew it joins:

Most Weeks to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay in the Last 10 Years
41, “I Want You Around,” Snoh Aalegra, Reached No. 1 on March 14, 2020
32, “Permission,” Ro James, Sept. 10, 2016
31, “For the Rest of My Life,” Robin Thicke, Jan. 11, 2014
29, “Keep You in Mind,” Guordan Banks, June 11, 2016
29, “She…,” Stokley, April 25, 2020
28, “Call My Name,” Avery*Sunshine, Dec. 27, 2014
28, “U Say,” The Bonfyre featuring 6lack, Feb. 8, 2020
28, “So Done,” Alicia Keys featuring Khalid, March 13, 2021
28, “Hurt Me So Good,” Jazmine Sullivan, Dec. 10, 2022

Elsewhere, “Hurt” ascends 18-13 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs through audience listenership on both adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. There, the single adds 13% more audience in the week to reach 7.6 million in the week ending Dec. 4.

Radio gains, in turn, help the song’s standing on the Hot R&B Songs chart, which combines radio airplay with streaming and sales for its calculations. On that list, “Hurt” pushes 23-19 in its second chart week.

08 Dec 2022

Taylor Swift Reveals the Badass ‘Game of Thrones’ Character She Identifies With

Winter is coming … swiftly. Named to The Hollywood Reporter‘s 2022 Women In Entertainment Power 100, Taylor Swift revealed to the publication Wednesday (Dec. 7) that the fictional character she identifies a lot with is Game of Thrones‘ Arya Stark.

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“I realize I don’t know how to use a sword and I’ve never had to rise up from near death to go on an epic revenge mission,” quipped the 32-year-old pop star. “But I have been in the music industry for over 15 years, so …”

This isn’t the first time Swift has shared her love for HBO’s hit fantasy drama. In fact, she once revealed that her 2017 album Reputation was inspired, in part, by Arya and her sister, Sansa Stark. “So much of my imagination was spent on Game of Thrones,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “At the time, I was making reputation and I didn’t talk about it in interviews, so I didn’t reveal that a lot of the songs were influenced by the show.”

The single “Look What You Made Me Do,” for example, is “literally Arya Stark’s kill list,” according to Swift. And “I Did Something Bad”? Inspired by a GoT plot line in which Arya and Sansa — played by Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, respectively — conspire to kill another character on the show, Littlefinger.

The 11-time Grammy winner also shared in the Women in Entertainment Power piece which Hollywood figure she’d like to trade places with. Instead of naming a fellow singer-songwriter, she shouted out director Guillermo Del Toro.

“Imagine having that imagination, that visual vocabulary and that astonishing body of work,” she said of the Shape of Water filmmaker. “To have such a diverse storytelling range but to somehow put your distinctive artistic fingerprint on every film. And yet, it feels like he’s still so curious and enthusiastic about his work. I can only imagine that a day in his mind would be fascinating.”

Mindy Kaling, who was also featured on the Women in Entertainment Power list, had a much different answer to the same question. She said she’d like to trade places with Tay’s assistant, because “you know they got seats to her concert.”