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H.E.R. officially wants you to call her by her name. The singer, who was born Gabriella Wilson, appeared on Good Morning America Wednesday (Dec. 7) to discuss how it feels to be starring as Belle in ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, and why the project has since led her to go by her birth name.
Host Michael Strahan introduced the singer, kicking off the interview by using her legal name, and inquired about her decision to go by that.
“I’ve been re-finding my voice. Now I’m not wearing glasses. I can’t be acting and wearing glasses, so I think it’s time for people to really get to know the person behind H.E.R.,” the singer explained. “H.E.R. is me, but at the same time it’s a new chapter of my life, and I think I’m really finding that connection and I’m allowing people to see under the layers a little bit.”
The conversation then pivoted to the Oscar winner and five-time Grammy winner being the first Black and Filipina woman to take on the part of Belle.
“I never thought I could be a Disney princess,” she said of the project, which airs on ABC Dec. 15. “Of course every little girl wants to be a Disney princess, but I’ve never seen one that looks like me — so I get to be that to little girls now.”
“And that’s such a huge deal on top of being a producer on Beauty and the Beast, which is crazy,” she continued. “I got to do a lot of the new arrangements and work with Alan Menken, the original arranger and producer. It’s been an amazing experience just learning so much about myself, and it’s been a lot of fun honestly.”
H.E.R. will be one of several high-profile stars appearing in the project. Josh Groban will play the Beast, while Shania Twain (Mrs. Potts), Martin Short (Lumiere), Joshua Henry (Gaston), David Alan Grier (Cogsworth) and Rita Moreno (narration) will round out the cast.
Watch the interview in the above video.
Steve Greenberg, founder/CEO of S-Curve Records, produced “The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968,” and box sets devoted to Stax artists Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. He wrote album notes for “Stax ’68: A Memphis Story.” Below, he reflects on a 30-year friendship with Stax co-founder Jim Stewart, who died Dec. 5.
I first met Jim Stewart when I was producing the 9-CD Complete Stax/Volt Singles:1959-1968 box, which came out in 1991. While consulting with him over the phone about the project, he mentioned that legendary Stax songstress Carla Thomas still lived in Memphis, and that he’d really love a chance to work with her again on a record—something he hadn’t done in over 20 years. Almost immediately, I flew down to Memphis, meeting Jim and Carla at the stately Peabody Hotel to discuss the possibility of making a record together. The record never materialized, but a bond began to form between Jim and me.
What initially struck me about Jim was his humility: Here was a man who’d co-founded one of the greatest R&B record labels of all time—who, in addition to running the label, was in the studio producing such classic recordings as Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” and Rufus Thomas’ “Walking the Dog.” Perhaps even more impressively, he created an environment at Stax where Black and white musicians could work together in complete equality, all the while situated in the heart of the segregated South during the most tumultuous years of the civil rights movement. Yet, Jim possessed none of the hubris or self-regard typical of many who have achieved greatness or attained legendary status.
Nor did he express an ounce of bitterness, even though his career could be described as a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches-to-rags story: From a modest upbringing in rural Tennessee, he started a record label in 1957 with his sister Estelle Axton originally called Satellite before rebranding as Stax (St+ Ax) in 1961. A string of hits by the likes of Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MGs, Redding and many more artists brought worldwide fame to Stax, and the label was flying high. But in 1968 Stewart learned that a distribution contract he’d signed with Atlantic’s president Jerry Wexler a few years earlier—without consulting an attorney—had somewhere in the fine print given Atlantic permanent rights to the entire Stax catalog. This calamity occurred nearly simultaneously with the death of Stax’s biggest star, Redding, in a plane crash, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, just a short distance from the Stax studio, causing parts of that city to go up in flames and hastening the demise of the air of racial harmony at the label.
Taken together, these tragedies would have been enough to cause most record companies to shutter. But, together with his new partner, the civil rights activist turned record promo man Al Bell, Jim started Stax Records again from scratch, with the label achieving even greater commercial and critical success in its second incarnation. As the ‘70s dawned, Stax, under Bell’s leadership, became deeply identified with the cause of Black empowerment, and Jim decided it was time to exit, selling his interest to his partner. Now a wealthy man, Jim could have ridden off into the sunset, but a few years later, when Stax began to experience serious financial difficulties, Jim reinvested most of his assets in the label, not being able to bear the idea of his baby’s demise. By 1976, the label declared bankruptcy and closed. Stewart lost nearly everything; his home and possessions were sold at auction in 1981.
When I first met Jim that night at the Peabody, I imagined he harbored no small amount of ill will towards Atlantic Records, the label that had taken away his catalog and was now putting out the box set I’d produced. But no, he said, he didn’t hold any sort of grudge, and when I invited him to come to New York for the launch party celebrating the release of the box set, he was only too happy to do so. The New York event featured a concert by legendary Stax performers and was attended by Atlantic Records veterans who’d been around during Stax’s Atlantic period, including label founder Ahmet Ertegun. Jim offered some remarks from the podium—his first public appearance in nearly two decades—and spoke of what a pleasure it was to see old friends, and what an honor it had been to get to work with such great artists and to have been in business with Atlantic. He even referred to Jerry Wexler as “my hero.” He was the embodiment of grace.
Even after Stax closed, Jim continued in the music business. In the late ‘70s he opened a recording studio in Memphis with former Stax guitarist Bobby Manuel. Eventually, they started the Houston Connection record label, scoring a top 15 Billboard R&B hit in 1982 with former Stax artist Margie Joseph’s “Knockout!” They never had another national hit, but Jim kept at it, producing records locally.
The release of the Stax box brought Jim back into the music industry’s field of vision, and he began to make regular visits to New York, always stopping by to have lunch and to pitch me his newest discoveries. I remember he had a fun record called “Mud Ducks” by Memphis rapper Yan-C which we almost signed when I was head of A&R at Big Beat Records, but in the end the only record I ever worked on with Jim was Lea’Netta Nelson’s “That’s the Way,” a great slow R&B jam that I signed in 1994 when I was an A&R guy at, of all places, Atlantic Records. I had high hopes for that record, but looking back, I think Atlantic only let me sign it as a token gesture to Jim, and it received no attention, only seeing release as a radio promo single. I spoke to Jim shortly after that record disappeared without a trace, and he told me he was retiring from the music business.
Eventually, Jim received his due as one of the great label chiefs of the 20th century. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and made one final public appearance at Memphis’ Stax Museum of American Soul Music in 2019, where he was feted by such Stax legends as Carla Thomas and Al Bell in a special salute.
The last time I spoke to Jim was a phone interview with him for the liner notes of 2019’s “Stax’68” box set, a collection chronicling Stax’s annus horribilus and its aftermath, produced by A&R man/music historian Joe McEwen. Jim was in good spirits, with a sharp recollection of events that happened more than 50 years earlier. He was better off financially, partially due to producer royalty payments for the Stax singles he produced, which began to be paid in the 1990s. Even looking back on that trying year of 1968, he remembered it with fondness. “Most importantly,” he told me, “We still loved what we were doing. We believed it was going to be okay.”
This world will miss you, Jim Stewart. You were a great label executive, a producer of classic records and you believed in the dignity of all people. And you really appreciated that you got to do it at all.
Kevin Bacon scores his first career entry on a Billboard songs chart as “Here It Is Christmastime,” from The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, debuts at No. 7 on Holiday Digital Song Sales, No. 10 on Rock Digital Song Sales and No. 27 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart (all dated Dec. 10).
The song, on which he’s co-billed with the Old 97’s, debuts with 2,000 downloads sold in the Nov. 25-Dec. 1 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The Guardians special, in which Bacon plays a fictionalized version of himself, premiered on Disney+ Nov. 25.
While Bacon makes his first solo appearance on a songs ranking this week, this isn’t his first-ever appearance on any Billboard chart. He charted for the first time in 2014 with his band The Bacon Brothers — his folk-rock group with his brother, Michael. The group’s album 36 Cents reached No. 19 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart and No. 42 on Heatseekers Albums.
As for the Old 97’s, the Rhett Miller-fronted group has scored success on Billboard’s charts since 1999. The band has sent seven albums onto the Billboard 200, climbing as high as No. 30 with Most Messed Up in 2014. The act has also logged three top 10s on Adult Alternative Airplay: “Murder (Or a Heart Attack)” (No. 6 peak in 1999), “Nineteen” (No. 9, 1999) and “King of All the World” (No. 8, 2001).
Old 97’s also debut one additional song from the Guardians special: “I Don’t Know What Christmas Is” opens at No. 4 on Holiday Digital Song Sales, No. 5 on Rock Digital Song Sales and No. 15 on Digital Song Sales.
The Guardians franchise has generated prior action on Billboard charts, thanks to its array of classic hits from the 1960s and ’70s. The soundtrack to the first film, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2014, while the sequel’s soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2, reached No. 4 in 2017. The first film’s soundtrack has also spent 141 weeks in the top 10 of the Vinyl Albums chart (including one at No. 1), the second-longest run after The Beatles’ Abbey Road (263).
2022 is coming to a close, and Billboard celebrated the music of the year by compiling our 100 ranked, favorite songs.
From TikTok-viral hits like Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend” and Gayle’s “abcdefu” to new tracks from top artist like Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” there was a little something for every type of music lover this year.
We want to know which 2022 hit is your favorite. Check out our picks here, and let us know by voting below.
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This story is part of Billboard‘s The Year in Touring package — read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
At some point during Daddy Yankee’s ongoing La Ultima Vuelta tour, which kicked off this summer, publicist Mayna Nevarez looked around and took stock of what was happening around her.
“I was with him at sold out arenas in Seattle, Denver, Sacramento and, I swear, it brought tears to my eyes,” says Nevarez, who owns Nevarez PR in Miami and has been Yankee’s publicist for over 15 years. “For so long it was cities like Miami, Los Angeles, New York — big Latin hubs — and we forget that the United States is so much more than that.”
Daddy Yankee is no stranger to big tours; in 2007, for example, he played 17 U.S. shows, and in 2019, he played a fabled 12 sold-out dates at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico. But La Ultima Vuelta (The Last Tour) has been his biggest trek by far, selling over 1.1 million tickets for a $125.3 million in gross ticket sales during the tracking period, from Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022, landing him at No. 13 on Billboard’s Top Tours tally.
Yankee’s numbers point to Latin music’s potential for big touring success beyond Bad Bunny and beyond the cities that were long considered Latino strongholds. In 2022, Latin artists of all sizes and genres filled arenas, theaters and festivals, underscoring the huge potential and growing presence of Latin music across the country.
The fray, of course, is led by Bad Bunny, who tops this year’s Top Tours chart with a $373.5 million gross across 65 shows in arenas and stadiums with a combined attendance of nearly 2 million. Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of the 15 U.S. markets that it played, including Yankee Stadium, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The North American leg of tour averaged $11.1 million per show — the biggest per-show average gross by any artist in any genre in Boxscore history (dating back to the late 1980s).
At this moment in time at least, Bad Bunny is “a unicorn,” says Henry Cardenas, de CEO of CMN, which promoted Bunny’s U.S. tour in partnership with Live Nation. “No one does what he does.” But at a touring level, “What Bad Bunny really did is take Latin music to industry execs who aren’t Latin, and make them realize there was a viable market,” says Nelson Albareda, founder and CEO of marketing and promotion company Loud and Live.
Loud and Live, which is owned by Albareda, is a prime example of Latin’s growth in touring. The entertainment, marketing and promotion company was launched four years ago and in 2019, pre-pandemic, produced around 50 shows. This year, it came in at No. 14 on the Top Promoters chart, with $96.5 million in gross ticket sales for 386 shows.
“Overall, touring is definitely stronger, and shows are doing better, including in emerging markets like Seattle, Salt Lake City,” says Albareda. “Secondary markets are here to stay and it’s not just the A acts. It’s not a fluke. I think you’ll see the Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Raleigh, Salt Lakes also do well. The Latino population is now much greater and definitely they’re in every city.”
This allows for vertical growth that may not be always visible on the touring charts. Loud and Live’s roster, for example, includes touring stalwarts like Ricardo Arjona, who ends the year at No. 63 on the Top Tours list ($31.5 million gross on 32 shows), but it also includes rising star Camilo, who just fell short of the Top 100, grossing $11.4 million and selling 149,000 tickets in 28 shows.
Tours by smaller acts, says Jorge Juarez, co-founder of management and promotion company Westwood Entertainment, can still yield impressive margins. Rising Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan, for example, played 23 markets on his first U.S. tour, selling some 7,000 tickets per market at an average $100 ticket price, per Juarez. And regional Mexican acts have seen a surge in ticket sales as well.
“There’s been a general tendency of growth here for the last two years. Certainly, a lot of factors post-pandemic that gave a surge, but we were already on a trend of growth,” says Hans Schafer, senior vp of Latin touring for Live Nation. “It was inevitable that we would reach this point one way or the other […] The sort of evolution that we’re seeing in different genres within Latin is all adding to that. More music, more new artists. Better production at all levels. Connectivity with multigenerational fans.”
On top of that, the growth of the U.S. Latino population and its middle class cannot be discounted as a factor in the overall growth of touring and consumption. According to Nielsen’s “The Evolving Hispanic Consumer” study from 2021, in the next 40 years Latinos will contribute more growth than any other U.S. population segment, contributing 53% of population growth in the next five years and 58% of the growth to 2060. In terms of buying power, from 2010 to 2019, Hispanic buying power increased by 69%, outpacing non Hispanics (41%).
According to a Pew Research Center Statistical Portrait of Hispanics published in July 2022, Latino demographics have grown “in just about every corner of the nation. While California, Texas and Florida hold about half of the U.S. Latino population, the fastest growth rates are in states like North Dakota (up 148% between 2010 and 2020) and South Dakota (up 75% over the same period).”
The growth has profound impact at many levels. In the last decade, for example, Latinos became the largest racial or ethnic group in California for the first time, a fact that explains why cities like Sacramento and San José are now major touring destinations for Latin artists of all stripes.
The direct result of a Latin population with acquisition power can be seen at the new SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and hosted its first full stadium shows with Los Bukis, the romantic Mexican group that had its heyday in the 1990s, on Aug. 27 and 28, 2021. The stadium also hosted two nights of Bad Bunny this last September.
“The way we position ourselves is, we’re in Los Angeles, we’re in Inglewood, we’re 50% Latino,” says Adolfo Romero vp of programming for SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park and YouTube Theater, which has held sold out shows by the likes of Rosalía and Mexican rockers Caifanes this year. “We looked at many different artists [for SoFi opening night] and when we saw this opportunity with Los Bukis, we were very aggressive. I think it kind of opened the eyes to the industry to see that Latin acts could do stadiums. That led us to do two nights of Grupo Firme in 2022, and now we have two nights of Bad Bunny.”
Romero says that when he booked Los Bukis for what would be their first-ever U.S. stadiums, the prospect of selling over 70,000 tickets for a Mexican nostalgia act didn’t make him loose sleep. “I come from [major league] soccer. If we can sell 70,000 plus for soccer here, what’s the difference?” he says. “It’s the same demographic. We have disposable income. A lot of our community was working in the service industry. Now, many of their kids are college grads.”
Irving Azoff‘s latest signing to his Iconic Artists Group is “The King of Cool,” Dean Martin.
On Wednesday (Dec. 7) Iconic Artists Group announced a new agreement with The Dean Martin Family Trust to “manage, develop and expand” the legendary singer and actor’s legacy to new generations. The deal encompasses Dean Martin‘s name, image and likeness along with a range of rights from his career, including the trust’s interest in his self-titled variety shows and specials, the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast series, feature films and sound recordings from his time with Capitol and Reprise Records.
Over the course of his career, Martin, who died in 1995, sold over 50 million albums worldwide and appeared in 85 films and numerous TV shows, according to Iconic Artists Group’s press release. His hit songs include “That’s Amore,” “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” “Volare,” “You’re Nobody till Somebody Loves You” and “Everybody Loves Somebody.”
Martin rose to fame alongside Jerry Lewis, with whom he had a massively popular show at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey beginning in 1946. The live show launched them as an in-demand duo, and they went on to team up for a total of 16 feature films and a string of appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
After splitting professionally with Lewis, Martin went on to host the hugely successful Dean Martin Show from 1965-74, for which he received two Emmy nominations for outstanding variety series. That was followed by The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a series of 54 specials that aired from 1974 to 1984.
Martin was posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
“Dean Martin was America in film, recordings, nightclubs, comedy & TV,” said Azoff in a statement. “He was the epitome of coolness. It is both an honor and privilege to welcome this cherished American talent to our Iconic family.”
Martin’s long-time business manager and trustee of The Dean Martin Family Trust, Laura Lizer, added, “Dean Martin’s work and cultural influence across so many media platforms, including music, television, movies, radio, and live performances, makes his diverse catalog and legacy one of the most unique assets in entertainment history. Aligning the Dean Martin Family Trust with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group secures Dean’s legacy for generations to come.”
Founded in January 2020, Iconic Artists Group has made several attention-getting deals over the last couple of years. In January 2020, the company purchased a controlling interest in The Beach Boys‘ music catalog, including sound recordings, select musical compositions, brand and memorabilia. The company also signed a partnership with the family of Nat King Cole to sell asset rights from his estate, acquired Linda Ronstadt‘s recorded music assets and purchased the catalogs of former Crosby, Stills & Nash bandmates David Crosby and Stephen Stills in separate deals.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ video for “Californication” has officially reached one billion views, YouTube announced Wednesday (Dec. 7).
The now-classic visual, which finds the quartet replacing their own avatars in an open-world video game as California is shaken by a massive earthquake, becomes the Chili Peppers’ first video to achieve the viewership feat. According to YouTube, the video has so far averaged 290,000 daily views in 2022.
“It’s the edge of the world and all of Western civilization/ The sun may rise in the East at least it’s settled in a final location/ It’s understood that Hollywood sells Californication/ Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging/ Celebrity skin, is this your chin, or is that war you’re waging?” Anthony Kiedis croons on the opening verse as drummer Chad Smith’s character snowboards down a mountain shirtless in the video.
As title track off the rockers’ seventh album of the same name, the song was originally released in June 2000 as the fourth single off the studio set after “Scar Tissue,” “Around the World” and “Otherside,” and became their sixth chart-topper on the Alternative Airplay chart.
This year, Red Hot Chili Peppers returned from a six-year hiatus with not one, but two albums: April’s Unlimited Love and October’s Return of the Dream Canteen. Next year, they’re set to embark on a world tour filled with both festival and stadium gigs. They’ll be joined on the global trek by everyone from The Roots, Iggy Pop and The Strokes to The Mars Volta, St. Vincent, Thundercat, King Princess and more.
Revisit the music video for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Californication” below.
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Dec. 17): As holiday titles and heavy hitters vie for the top of the December charts, new albums from a star hip-hop producer and a couple of K-pop hitmakers join in the merriment.
Metro Boomin, Heroes & Villains (Boominati Worldwide/Republic): You might have thought the big album releases were starting to wind down for 2022, but Metro Boomin begs to differ. The Atlanta-via-St. Louis producer has been one of the biggest behind-the-scenes names in hip-hop for a decade, and new album Heroes & Villains shows off his Rolodex, with enough star collaborators — Future, Young Thug, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Gunna, even narrator Morgan Freeman — to justify an accompanying short film.
After dominating streaming charts on Spotify and Apple Music over the weekend, the set appears due for a big debut on the Billboard 200 — perhaps even one to challenge the producer’s Republic label-mate Taylor Swift and her five-week No. 1 Midnights for the chart’s top spot. (He hit No. 1 in 2020, with 21 Savage full-length team up Savage Mode II .) Though its consumption is mostly digital, Metro did release a CD version of Heroes & Villains to select physical retailers — and also debuted a deluxe “Heroes Version” of the album to streamers and digital retail on Monday, adding instrumental versions of each track.
RM, Indigo (Big Hit): Singer/songwriter/rapper RM released his solo debut, Indigo, on Friday, a varied album that features marquee R&B names Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak, as well as veteran Korean hitmakers Tablo and Park Ji-yoon. BTS, the world-conquering group which RM previously achieved stardom with, scored five No. 1 albums over the past half-decade, from 2018’s Love Yourself: Tear to this June’s Proof.
His chart bow for Indigo this week will have to come without help from a physical release, as the set’s CD packages — which often move big numbers for Korea’s biggest pop acts — are not due until Dec. 16. Earlier this year, RM’s bandmate J-Hope entered the Billboard 200 at No. 17 with his own solo album debut Jack in the Box, also only from the support of a streaming and digital retail version of his album. (Jack has yet to be released on CD in the U.S.)
ITZY, Cheshire (JYP Entertainment/Dreamus/Republic): Korean pop quintet ITZY hit the Billboard 200’s top 10 for the first time in July with their sixth EP Checkmate. This week, they aim to return to the top tier with sixth EP, Cheshire, featuring advance English-language single “Boys Like You” — though technically it’s already in its second week of release, since the streaming and digital retail version of the set dropped last Wednesday (Nov. 30).
Cheshire’s chart performance will depend mostly on sales of its physical editions, which went on sale Friday. Like many K-pop releases, the CD came out in collectible deluxe packages (13 total, including versions exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Target and the group’s official webstore), each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (such as photocards and a poster).
IN THE MIX
Backstreet Boys, A Very Backstreet Christmas (K-BAHN/BMG): The classic boy band’s first holiday set made its Billboard 200 debut back in October, but should surge on the chart this week following its Dec. 2 vinyl debut (and the approaching season). It’s only reached No. 17 so far, making this week its best chance of keeping alive Backstreet Boys‘ double-digit streak of consecutive top 10 albums.
Arcangel, Sr. Santos (Rimas Entertainment): Veteran reggaetón and Latin trap hitmaker Arcangel made a splashy return last Wednesday alongside perhaps the biggest male pop star on the planet with the Bad Bunny collab “La Jumpa.” That song should give Sr. Santos, the single’s 18-track parent album released on Friday — which also features appearances from Myke Towers, De La Ghetto and Bizarrap — a nice head start in consumption for this week.
Ivan Cornejo, Dañado (Manzana Records): Regional Mexican star Ivan Cornejo charted at No. 149 on the Billboard 200 in June with sophomore set Dañado, which has since climbed as high as No. 64 thanks to its stellar streaming performance. The seven-track mini-album received a deluxe reissue on Friday, with three new bonus tracks, which should give it a big boost from its current chart perch of No. 145.
Malibu Babie’s path to becoming a sought-after producer started when she was just five years old. Growing up in Olympia, Washington as the daughter of construction workers, the producer would record herself playing the piano and later hand the CDs out to her friends.
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It wasn’t until her senior year of college, though, while studying political science at Vanderbilt University with the thought of going on to law school, that she decided to pursue music professionally. “I was standing in my apartment and I remember being like, ‘Man, every time I think about law school my stomach sinks,’ and all of a sudden I heard a voice in my head go, ‘Well, that’s because you’re not supposed to be a lawyer,’” recalls Malibu Babie. “You’re supposed to be a musician. You’re supposed to write songs and sing them.”
She quickly added an elective songwriting class to her schedule, for which she wrote and played an original song to the class on piano. Her professor took notice, and suggested she work as a studio intern for a company called ZMG on Music Row, in the heart of Nashville’s music and entertainment industry.
Malibu Babie — whose moniker was inspired by her blonde hair and slim physique, and who signs off emails as “Beat Barbie” — spent the next six years mastering her craft and trying to make her mark on the industry. This year, she finally did, producing two Hot 100 hits, one of which topped the chart.
And while success came fast, Malibu Babie affirms it hasn’t been easy. “Whether you’re new or whether because of your gender or whatever, people underestimate you for sure,” she says. “But I realized quickly, if I did the work and if I came into the studio and knocked the socks off of whoever was in the room…they would give me the respect of their business people.”
Nicki Minaj, “Super Freaky Girl”
Malibu Babie’s persistence and hard work led to her producing a Hot 100 hit for Nicki Minaj this year with “Super Freaky Girl,” which samples Rick James’ 1981 smash hit, “Super Freak.”
“This is a [title] I had in my manifestation journal for years,” says Malibu Babie. “I was just doing a beat day with two of my favorite-ever collaborators, and when we landed on that sample we were like, ‘Okay, this is a big sample. Like, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right,’” she recalls. After several hours spent fine-tuning the beat, it ended up in the hands of LunchMoney Lewis, a close friend and collaborator. “The idea came together and gets played for Nicki, and within 24 hours, she writes the whole song.” What came next was even more surprising: Malibu Babie received a phone call of the rapper laying down a verse in real time. “I was like, ‘Holy fuck, is that Nicki’s voice?’ And then it all happened so fast.”
The No. 1 hit helped Malibu Babie become the first and only woman to debut at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as a producer this century. And though she and Nicki have yet to meet in person, Malibu Babie says, “I’m so grateful to her.”
Megan Thee Stallion, “Her”
Nicki Minaj isn’t the only megastar for whom Malibu Babie helped score a Hot 100 hit. Also this year, the producer cooked up the beat for “Her” off Grammy award-winning Megan Thee Stallion‘s second studio album, Traumazine.
“This was the last idea of a 6-8 hour session — I usually like to call them Hail Mary ideas,” says Malibu Babie. “They’re always the best work because all the pressure’s off.” She says in this instance, she didn’t even mean to play the bassline now heard at the start of the song. “I just started adding pieces, like hi hats to get the hip-hop thing and a little house, and just kind of playing with the balance of the two and adding the slot machine for fun,” she continues.
Though she and her collaborators wrote over the beat, once it landed in Meg’s hands (they sent the demo to her team) the Houston native rewrote the whole song — while on tour. “I honestly was not sure if it would fit her vibe at all, because it was pretty different,” admits Malibu Babie, “so for that one to get placed and be successful too was like, ‘Wow, it pays to take chances.’”
Malibu SZN Vol 1 Mixtape
Now, Malibu Babie is taking a chance on herself. In November, she released her Malibu Babie SZN Vol 1 mixtape, with the viral Instagram and TikTok breakout, “Barbiegurl.” She’s teasing its upcoming music video, saying she hopes it sparks “confidence and joy. That’s all I want, to make people happy.”
She says that kind of attitude is key to her work as a producer, and she encourages all women wanting to explore and enter the field to just jump in. “Be confident in your abilities and to literally tune out all the noise,” she offers. “I’m hoping that [my own music] will inspire women to know they can be any type of way. You can be feminine, you can be masculine, you can identify however you want, dress however you want, look however you want. As long as you have the talent, that’s all that matters.”
Music featured in the first season of Netflix’s new series Wednesday dot the Billboard charts dated Dec. 10 following the show’s Nov. 23 premiere.
That even includes a No. 1, as The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” rules the Alternative Digital Song Sales list on the strength of 2,000 downloads in the Nov. 25-Dec. 1 tracking week, according to Luminate, up 2,229% from a negligible amount the previous period.
The ruler marks The Cramps’ first No. 1 on a Billboard chart. The rockers, active for three decades until the death of singer Lux Interior in 2009, are often cited as inspirations partially in the psychobilly genre but had never found much chart success, scoring a lone appearance on the Alternative Airplay tally in 1990 with the No. 10-peaking “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns.”
“Muck,” which can be heard on the band’s 1981 sophomore effort Psychedelic Jungle and is a cover of a tune initially recorded by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads in the ‘60s, prominently features in an episode-four dance scene featuring Wednesday’s titular character, portrayed by Jenna Ortega.
In addition to its bump in sales, “Muck” earned 817,000 on-demand U.S. streams Nov. 25-Dec. 1, a bound of 2,705% from 29,000 Nov. 18-24.
While “Muck” is the only song featured in Wednesday to top a Billboard chart dated Dec. 10, it wasn’t the most streamed. That distinction belongs to Beach House’s 2015 offering “Space Song,” heard in episode three. The song earned 4 million streams, a 41% boost. Those metrics launch it onto Alternative Streaming Songs at No. 15, a new peak for the song and its first appearance since January and February of 2022, when it charted due to TikTok virality, and it also starts at Nos. 14, 16 and 20 on Hot Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, respectively, where older songs are able to appear if in the top half of chart points and with a meaningful reason for their re-entry.
Other major gains include those for Apocalyptica’s cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” which jumped 817% to 1,000 downloads and 506% to 166,000 streams; Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien (179,000 streams, up 67%); and Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” (168,000 streams, up 55%).
And though it’s not heard in the series per se, Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” has received tangential gains due to TikTok edits of the aforementioned “Goo Goo Muck” dance scene in which creators replace the song with Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way cut.
From Nov. 25-Dec. 1, “Mary” earned 2 million streams, a 411% increase.
