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Taylor Swift runs a tight ship. Following their surprise Dead Poets Society mini-reunion in the pop star and Post Malone’s “Fortnight” music video in April, both Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles opened up in separate interviews about keeping their cameos a total secret from everyone — including their kids.
First, Hawke appeared on The Late Show Monday night (May 6), where host Stephen Colbert wasted no time in asking the actor about his collaboration with Swift. “I think she wanted to hide a little Easter egg about Dead Poets Society,” the Before Sunrise star explained. “Josh and I, we laughed ourselves silly the whole day. We felt like the biggest rock stars in the whole world.”
“You can’t imagine what it’s like to walk through an airport with a friend you’ve known for 35 years, who you grew up with, and watch all the young people in the airport with their Eras sweatshirts on … and we got something on them,” he continued, recalling his and Charles’ voyage to Swift’s top-secret filming location. “We’re going to meet the queen ourselves.”
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Hawke also revealed he signed an NDA prior to shooting the project, meaning he couldn’t tell either of his young daughters — Clementine and Indiana, whom he shares with his wife, producer Ryan Shawhughes Hawke — about the endeavor.
“You tell my teenage daughters that I’m going to meet Taylor, and everybody at school’s going to know,” he told Colbert. “When they did find out, the look on their face was one of profound disappointment. [They were like,] ‘Don’t pay attention to my dad, my dad’s an idiot, you should be calling me.’ Taylor belongs to them. I can’t have that on them.”
Stopping by The Tonight Show the next day, Charles told Jimmy Fallon that he also kept the video hidden from his children before it dropped April 19, the same day Swift’s Billboard 200-topping album The Tortured Poets Department hit streaming services. “They’re just blabbermouths and they’ll go talk about it at school,” he said, laughing.
“Finally, right before it aired, I did tell my son because he’s so full of hot air,” added Charles, who shares two kids with his wife, author Sophie Flack. “He makes up so much stuff, I knew no one would believe him anyway. He said, ‘Dad, I actually told someone. They didn’t believe me, you were right.’”
The Good Wife alum also revealed that Swift had first reached out to Hawke’s oldest daughter, Stranger Things star Maya Hawke — whom he shares with ex-wife Uma Thurman as well as 22-year-old son Levon — in order to connect with the two Dead Poets Society leads. The actors co-starred in the Peter Weir-directed classic in 1989, nearly 30 years before they would reunite to play mad scientists conducting experiments on Swift’s character in “Fortnight.” The Post Malone-assisted track has since spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Taylor knows Ethan’s daughter Maya and reached out to her,” Charles recalled. “I think it’s a little tip of the cap to Dead Poets Society, other tortured poets. Once I got over thinking [Ethan] was punking me when he first called me — I said, ‘Dude, are you bulls–ting me right now?’ It just seemed like such a fun idea.”
“I will tell you this, [Swift’s] an incredible director,” Charles added. “My favorite kind of director ’cause she knows what she wants. I was already a fan of her music, but if any of you ever get to meet her, your fandom for her will just go up through the roof. She’s just such a genuine, cool, approachable person.”
Watch Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles open up about their “Fortnight” cameos below.
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If Jinkx Monsoon has proved anything over the last few years, it’s that she’s a bit of a chameleon. Whether she’s performing as a corrupt jail warden or a bombshell leading lady, the drag star can play just about anyone — including the embodiment of music itself. In an exclusive clip from the upcoming second […]
The Little Mermaid is back! Disney announced Wednesday (May 7) that its animated musical series Disney Jr.’s Ariel — inspired by the Halle Berry live-action Little Mermaid movie — will arrive on the platform at 9 a.m. ET/PT on June 27 and the next day on Disney+.
Additionally, Billboard can exclusively reveal the fun-loving, adventure-filled theme song for the series below. Set in the Caribbean-inspired fairytale kingdom of Atlantica, the series follows mermaid princess Ariel (Mykal-Michelle Harris) as she embarks on underwater fun with her family and friends, including King Triton (Taye Diggs), Ursula (Amber Riley), Flounder (Gracen Newton) and mermaid friends Fernie (Cruz Flateau) and Lucia (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro).
In addition to the TV show, Walt Disney Records will release a digital soundtrack on June 28. Music is in integral part of the series, with Anthony M. Jones (Tone), Sofia Quinn, Olivia Waithe, Chantry Johnson, Michelle Zarlenga and Rosemarie Tan all part of the songwriting team; Emmy winner Christopher Willis as composer; and Sean Skeete, a dean at Berklee College of Music, the Caribbean music consultant. Plus, show-inspired items including dolls, playsets, role-play, costumes, apparel, books and more from Disney Consumer Products will be available for purchase this summer.
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Also on Wednesday, Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Melissa Villaseñor (Saturday Night Live) and Ron Funches (Undateable) were announced as recurring cast members on the series.
‘Disney Jr.’s Ariel’
Disney Junior
In addition to the premiere episode airing June 27 on Disney Junior and later on Disney Channel, an initial batch of eight episodes will be available on Disney+ the following day (Friday, June 28). Plus, a new series of two-minute shorts, called Disney Jr.’s Ariel: Mermaid Tales, will be featured across Disney+, Disney Channel and Disney Jr. beginning Wednesday, June 5, to build excitement around the new show.
The new series comes about a year after Bailey starred as the classic Disney princess in the 2023 Little Mermaid live-action film. In the movie musical, the spirited mermaid swims to shore (against her father’s wishes) and saves a prince from drowning, ultimately making a deal with sea witch Ursula to become human. Jonah Hauer-King played Ariel’s love interest, Prince Eric. Melissa McCarthy starred as Ursula and Javier Bardem played King Triton, Ariel’s father and Ursula’s estranged brother. Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay rounded out the cast as Ariel’s friends Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle.
Ariel is executive produced by Lynne Southerland and is produced by Wild Canary in association with Disney Jr. Watch the opening credits and hear the theme song exclusively via Billboard below.
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What does life as an LGBTQ+ professional in the music industry actually look like in 2024? That’s the question that non-profit diversity development organization Queer Capita is seeking to answer with a new survey. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The organization recently unveiled the State of […]
When fans of Imagine Dragons got wind that the group was releasing a new version of their single “Eyes Closed” alongside J Balvin, some expressed trepidation. This, after all, is an important track: the lead single from the band’s upcoming sixth album (Loom, due out June 28). What the heck; was there really going to be reggaetón mixed in with Imagine Dragons’ usual pop-rock?
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Never fear. The resulting track, where Balvin completely eschews reggaetón beats for hard-hitting verses over the rock groove — with Imagine Dragons actually redoing a section of the song — has managed to strike all the right notes, and turn one plus one into 3.
“I didn’t know I needed this til I saw it AAAAAAA,” wrote @AsaltodeMedianoche on Youtube.”This is insane. I didn’t expect that this was gonna sound so epic with him,” wrote another fan.
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Which begs the question: How the heck did Imagine Dragons end up collaborating with J Balvin? And how does this remix sound so darn good?
Balvin and Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds spoke with Billboard and told us how it all went down.
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How It Started
Reynolds: I met with the guys [bassist Ben McKee and guitarist Wayne Sermon] when we were working on the song [late last year] and it just felt like something was missing when we were in the studio. We really don’t often do collaborations, but this song in particular, [we felt] it really needs something to complete it. The three of us were in a room and we talked about things we were listening to and what was inspiring to us, and all of us were like: ‘J, love his music.” We reached out to him and within a week [it came together].
Balvin: I was in Rumania in a concert, and Chris Knight from my management team said, check this out. He didn’t even say it was Imagine Dragons: He said “Yo, they want you on this song, tell me what you think.” And I said, “Play it.” And when I heard that voice — and the production is mind-blowing, the production is so ahead — I was like, “We’re recording this tomorrow.”
I was going through a dark moment — that [kind where] you don’t know how to handle a certain moment, and it was [like], “This is perfect for what I’m feeling now; and I can express myself really easily.” And also, normally when people think about doing songs with Latinos that do reggaetón, they thought I was going to switch the beat and put it in reggaetón, right? And of course that was the fear of a lot of fans. And when they heard the song they [found out], “Oh, they kept it in the same vibe.”
And it’s because I love to jump with different genres. In this case, I’m a big fan of Imagine Dragons and I gotta give my best and follow the vibe — and say the same thing they’re saying, but of course in Spanish. We don’t want to be talking about different topics in the same song.
I just needed to let it out! The best that could have happened to me is when I received that song. Oh, I have these feelings right now. Thank God someone just sent me a great song to let it out, and be open and honest about how in a certain moment of my career people wanted to see me fail, or I went to a dark moment that I thought that it was going to be — and then, I can do this with my eyes closed. I’ve been in this game so long that it makes me stronger every day. Doesn’t mean I’m the strongest; I still have a lot of weak things, I’m still healing. But now I know how to swim way more and better in the maze, with my eyes closed.
The Process
Reynolds: It was the first version. There were no changes. It was just like, he got it. I had a feeling he would catch the vision, just because I was familiar enough with his work to know that he can do a lot of different things. And sure enough, [the song] doesn’t need anything [after he finishes recording]. No changes. Mix it. Send it out.
Balvin: Sometimes less is more. And I felt that was what I wanted to say, those were the flows we wanted to bring. The verse was perfect to me. I love the song. And this is what I can give to them. It’s about the quality, not quantity. What if I gave another verse but it didn’t really stick out? I’d rather make one verse that is really concise and precise.
Reynolds: We just left openings throughout the song, showed him different versions and really left it up to him to go as long or short as he wanted. We’re like, “You do you.” And sure enough, he sent it back, and we were like, “That’s it.” The only thing I changed was, I rewrote the bridge after he sent his part back, because there was a specific melody in it that I really loved that he did in the pre chorus.
Balvin: We were super happy when we heard that melody. We were like, “He did that melody, man!”
Rapping in Spanish
Balvin: You know I’m always a big supporter of “just keep it in Spanish,” because that’s the way I connect with the people. And it’s not going to sound the same when you really want to express your feelings in your own language. So, of course Spanish, and the guys agreed with that. I think it’s all about feeling and even the people who don’t understand Spanish, they know that we really flow in that instrument the way it should be. And I feel super proud of it and I feel grateful that [I worked with] one of my favorite bands and, also to meet Dan.
Reynolds: The way this band has always operated is we always try to make music that we like and make decisions that feel good to us. Fans are always not going to love certain songs, that’s just part of life. And I think the worst thing you can do as an artist is try to cater to that. That’s when you fail as an artist. You try to create something a critic will like, something a fan will like, and then nobody likes it, and then you also feel bad about yourself because it wasn’t’ even honest. So, for us, it was, “Man it would be really cool to work with J on this song. And it would be really cool to have multiple languages in a song.”
I think It’s a reflection of where music is today. One of the blessings we have as a band is being able to play all over and experience all different people from different cultures and languages; even when people don’t know what I’m saying, they feel it as if English was their first language. The second I heard J’s verse I knew, even though my Spanish is three years of high school, the feeling that I got from it was all that matters.
Balvin: They were expecting maybe that I would bring some reggaetón, but to me it’s crazy, because I respect art and I know when I can add reggaetón. This is like the Mona Lisa, it’s a beautiful piece of art. Don’t touch it a lot. We gotta do music that we feel is right, otherwise you’re a sellout. I was honest with me, and I have no regrets about any word that I say in the song. This is what I wanted to do and I’m proud of it and I gave my 1000% percent.
Finally Meeting
Balvin: When I met Dan I had no expectations because you don’t know. Sometimes you don’t want to meet your idols, right? You get there, and he was super humble, and he’s huge [in height] so I was just looking up at him like, ‘Yo, what’s up.’ But he’s really down to earth and I’m grateful for the way you treated me, guys. I felt like home.
Reynolds: I think that really speaks to Jose and who he is as a person. You never know what to expect when you’re working with a really big artist. Are they going to have big egos, what’s that going to feel like? And it was obvious when I met him, “Oh this is just a really good, normal human being.” It was all about, “Do we make a great video together?” And we were both open to direction and guidance, and there were no diva vibes. It was really refreshing.
It didn’t surprise me, though. I’d done enough research about J to know a little of who he was and where his heart was and to see him in person felt like the unvierse just put this together. It was very serendipitous and easy. It was just two artists having fun together which is what it should be.
The Big Picture
Balvin: I’m just grateful because I’ve always been a huge fan and the guys gave me the opportunity to keep expanding our sound. Because it’s not about J Balvin, it’s about our culture. The fact that they care about a Latino artist, is something that makes me really proud about our culture.
“Hey, huh, baow.” If that idiosyncratic synthesis of scatting and the Milwaukee lowend style isn’t already on loop in your head, it certainly will be by the time the summer of 2024 comes to a close.
Taken from the ridiculously catchy hook in “Bad Bitty,” the rump-shaking breakout single from rising Milwaukee rapper J.P., those onomatopoeias are emblematic of both the 19-year-old’s laid-back approach to music making and the storied history of vocal performance that informs his singing-rapping style.
Earlier this spring (March 20), Billboard highlighted “Bad Bitty” in our weekly “Trending Up” column, which takes a look at songs that are on the verge of truly exploding. Predictably, the love for “Bad Bitty” quickly surpassed flash-in-the-pan TikTok status, with the danceable track collecting over 21 million official on-demand U.S. streams through May 2, according to Luminate, and spending six weeks on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, peaking at No. 27. Not only did the song’s viral success significantly broaden J.P.’s audience, he also proved to himself that he was capable of making another hit on his own.
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In 2022, J.P. had a smaller viral moment with “Juicey Ahhh,” another lowend-rooted track that has pulled over 3.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams through May 2. For J.P., born Josiah Gillie, the sound and success of his songs reflect the way he moves based on feeling.
“I don’t write any of my music, it’s more of a feeling-type thing,” he tells Billboard. “Whatever songs you hear from me, if it makes you feel some type of way, you can automatically put two and two together, and that’s how I was feeling when I made the song.”
One thing about J.P. — who’s also balancing a student-athlete career (he’s a power forward for the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point Pointers) with completing his musical performance major (with a vocal emphasis) — he’s always having fun. Just check out the countless TikToks he makes, leaning into his innate goofiness while still selflessly promoting his music at every turn. His effervescent records are undoubtedly party tracks, but his unique blend of soulful jazz, gospel-informed vocals and Milwaukee’s high-octane bass-heavy style have resulted in a sound that is on the fast track to dominate the summer and shine a more national spotlight on Cream City’s long-bubbling rap scene.
In a lively conversation with Billboard, J.P. opens up about his favorite “turnt” church songs, remaining self-made and independent, and his plans beyond “Bad Bitty.”
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Where are you right now? How’s the day going?
I’m doing good. I just arrived at my hotel in LA, I’m walking into my hotel right now. I have a meeting with the CEO of Warner Records and [I’m gonna] go see PinkPantheress.
We’re basically one month away from this being the summer of “Bad Bitty.” How has it been for you watching this song grow so quickly over the past few weeks?
I really been locking in on stamping myself and stamping the moment, and making sure that it’s not just a viral song that just dies down in the next two months. [I want to make] it a household song and put more of a character out there – well, not the character, because it’s actually me. People are starting to actually fall in love with the person behind the music and not just the song “Bad Bitty.”
[Over] the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of ups and a lot of good things going on. I’m just extremely grateful and humble to go through this and figure it out as we go.
Where did you cut “Bad Bitty?”
“Bad Bitty” wasn’t created in the studio. I made “Bad Bitty” on my phone and headphones… just like all the rest of my other music. It’s an app called BandLab, so I did that in the dorm room by myself. There wasn’t anybody in the room. My brother [Myles Gillie], who’s also my manager, was in the other room. Recently, I’ve moved to the studio.
Talk to me a bit about the Milwaukee lowend sound. How would you describe that style to those unfamiliar with it?
Milwaukee lowend, man, it’s definitely something different, but it makes you want to move. You got the fast taps and the fast hits that’s coming your way, so it has this bouncy feeling that makes you want to move in some type of way. I took [that sound] and I added myself to it and created a whole new genre of music because it’s not like regular lowend rap. I put it in there because I’ve always been a singer, but everybody doesn’t really want to hear that off the rip. There are plenty of R&B artists, so if you’re not Chris Brown or Usher, people don’t really want to hear you right now. I just took the R&B and I brought it to the lowend. It just created a contagious feeling, and now we’re here.
Where do you hope the lowend sound goes from here? Do you plan to continue using it in your own music?
Lowend music is more or less about rapping about driving fast cars and stealing cars and things of that nature. That’s not really my jig, I don’t do that. First of all, I’m big as a b—h, I’m the first target! So, stealing cars was never really my thing. So, I just took it and flipped it. I just kept the beat-type s—t. If there’s anything lowend about my music, it’s the beat.
As far as how I’m delivering the music, that has nothing to do with lowend at all. That’s just me. It’s my style on the lowend beat, and anybody from Milwaukee would say the same.
There’s a lot of momentum in the Milwaukee rap scene right now. How is the scene to working together to put each other on? What does that community look like?
The community is great right now. In every city there’s a lot of hate, there’s a lot love, but the city is the city, and there’s a lot more love than hate. The artists that are blowing up from the city, it’s well-deserved for them.
It’s just a testament [to the fact] that there’s actually talent in Milwaukee, because the artists that blow up are all different. They all have different sounds. They rap about different things, but they’re all from Milwaukee. You won’t turn on Chicken P and turn on one of my songs and hear a correlation, but we’re both from Milwaukee.
Have you ever felt like Milwaukee has a kind of underdog status in comparison to other scenes across the country?
One thing that I love to see out there [in New York] and that I notice about them is [that] they all show love to whoever got the hot hand. Regardless if you from Queens, the Bronx, uptown, it don’t matter. If you got the hot hand, they gonna get behind you — because at the end of the day, you’re New York.
In Milwaukee, it’s not like that all the way. It’s like a crab-in-a-barrel city. Everybody don’t want to see you win. Some of them wanna say, ‘Oh yeah, he got there, but he messed up.’ Like I said, every city has that. And Milwaukee isn’t like a New York City, where there’s so many people you can get damn near the whole nation behind you.
It’s already a small city, and you would think that by being a small city that everybody would come together, but it’s not like that all the time. But it’s okay, because the lovers and the haters will get you there.
When and how did you settle on your stage name?
My real name is Josiah. My nickname for Josiah is Jody. In Milwaukee, it’s popular to add the letter P to the end of your name — because it’s like a Milwaukee thing. This was way before all that “Pushin P” s—t. Even if you look at some of the artists from Milwaukee, like Chicken P, Myaap, etc. “P” is like “player,” but everybody player, so everybody just adds P to the end of their name.
My name was always Jody P as far as [an] artist name, but I decided to shorten it up and just put J.P. because it was a little easier. It had more of a lil ring to it.
You’re currently in college majoring in music. Why did you choose that major? What are your earliest musical memories?
I don’t have a crazy musical background, but I’ve always been a musical child. I always thought it was normal for me, but apparently, it isn’t normal for everybody. Things that had to do with music, I always caught on to. It was always very easy for me to do. I’m real good at looking at something and listening to it and mimicking it all the way down to where it’s in my arsenal. When I went to college, I knew I didn’t want to stop singing, so I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna audition for the voice area music. I went and auditioned and I made it.
I accidentally auditioned for the vocal jazz scholarship; I was thinking it was a part of the actual music area audition. I ended up doing that too, and I got a vocal jazz scholarship. That was kinda my deal.
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Who do you remember listening to growing up around the house?
I grew up and spent a lot of time around my grandmama. As a baby, I used to watch a lot of musicals. I was watching a lot of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz. That flowed over into artists like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, all of those people. I got my vibrato from listening to [classic pop] singers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jackie Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald – I don’t know why, but everybody from that era always had hella vibrato. Just listening to [them] over and over and over again, I subconsciously learned how to master vibrato.
I didn’t realize all of that stuff wasn’t normal to have in your arsenal until I got to college. [I saw] a lot of kids that have been doing music their whole life, get into their vocal lessons and struggle to do this or struggle to hold this note or struggle to activate their vibrato. And I’m like, Just do it like this. But I’m in my head like, I’ve been doing this since I was seven.
It’s funny you mention that you grew up with your grandma because a lot of people online clocked that from your mannerisms. Do you embrace having an old soul?
People been saying I have an old soul since I was like five years old, especially the older people. They always welcome me like, You’ve been here before. [Laughs.] It was definitely something I was already used to, and I know I got an old soul, but that’s just how I’m maneuvering and grooving. That’s just me.
What’s your favorite class you’ve taken for your music major so far?
Probably actual vocal lessons with Professor Susan Bender. She just retired my sophomore year, which is this year, but she has an amazing, beautiful voice. I’ve never had vocal lessons, so I auditioned after the basketball season of my freshman year. I didn’t become an actual voice area student until the beginning of my sophomore year. I got to work with her and she was amazing.
You’re also a student-athlete. Have basketball and music always coexisted in your life like this?
I didn’t really start taking basketball serious until my eighth grade year [when I got] added to my first AAU team called Sports Academy. They paid for my jerseys and all that other good stuff. Then my freshman year of high school, when one of my assistant varsity coaches was a part of the Running Rebels, [I joined through] this thing called Be the Change program that was also founded in Milwaukee. That was when I started actually playing and taking basketball serious.
As far as music, I used to always make music, but I’d keep it on my phone. My assistant coach, he was one of the day ones that always had to listen to the bulls—t that I was putting out. I was horrible quality and s—t, but I had just started making music, so he would tell me if that s—t was a—or not to what I needed to fix. So, shoutout to him.
You’re balancing a rising career, athletic commitments, academic commitments, your own personal life, etc. How are you keeping everything together right now?
At this time right now, you definitely learn to lock in and key in to the people that actually are there for you, because now you can’t really be friends with everybody like how you used to be. As much as you want to be, you can’t. You can’t be a regular person no more. You gotta move a little different, because everybody has a hidden agenda now.
I’m praying, man, really keeping myself sane and making sure I’m not letting what’s going on run my life. I’m not letting that control and consume me. The biggest thing right now, is staying completely humble, because that’s what got us here in the face.
You’ve had a couple of viral media clips recently, including a No Jumper appearance, in which the hosts tried to clown you for standing in your truth regarding your past sexual experiences. What’s it like navigating the hip-hop industry considering how historically inhospitable the space has been for those who fall outside of the heterosexual norm?
I’ve never really been the person that cares what anybody else has to say. I personally feel like whatever I got to say is law, so whatever the hell come out of my mouth, if I said it, then that’s what the hell means something. If you heard about something that’s going on, you’re like, That’s some Jody s—t. It’s like Damon from Friday [After Next]. You’re not gonna walk up to Damon and be like, Oh, you gay, cuz. You leave him alone type s—t.
I definitely know that it’s not a normal thing [in hip-hop], but it takes a certain type of individual to embark on this journey the way I do. I know a lot of people, [had they] been in my seat, would have been on suicide watch. Everybody can’t take that, especially at the degree that I’m [getting it.] The whole world got something to say, but it don’t matter — because at the end of the day, nobody with a brain is going to walk up and say something to me about it. And if they do, I’m a young man that knows how to speak and talk through situations. If you need clarity, I can give you clarity, but I really don’t owe you anything. I can give it to you, if that’s what you’re looking for.
You gotta know how to take you on the chin, boss. Why would you want to become a detriment to yourself over something that I did five years ago? That doesn’t make sense. You gonna have the people that be funny, but you gotta know that that it comes with that. You’re gonna have people that’s gonna laugh about you. You’re gonna have people that’s going to repost and say this and say that, but it’s alright, bro. That’s the name of the game.
That lil head-bobbing dance also helped “Bad Bitty” go viral. Where did that come from?
That is something that I actually do, that’s not something that I made-up. If I’m in the club and somebody playing a song that I like, I’m gonna bob my head like that too. What happened was, when I first made the video to that “Bad Bitty,” it was somebody in the comments that was like, “Oh, the head bob is contagious.” So what I did was, I took the comment and made a video to the comment and just did it again.
Once I seen that that was the pickup, I just like took it and ran with it. I’ve been doing that same s—t since I was like nine, in church listening to church music.
Speaking of, what’s your favorite church song?
It all depends on if you trying to be on some calm s—t or if you trying to get turnt!
I’m tryna get turnt, what’s in your praise and worship bag?
Okay so Byron Cage, “The Presence of the Lord is Here,” that s—t crack. “The Blood Still Works,” that s—t gets you going. “I’m Sold Out,” “Great God” by Deitrick Haddon, “Praise Him In Advance” by Marvin Sapp, “Best In Me” by Marvin Sapp, “Listen” by Marvin Sapp, “They That Wait” by Fred Hammond!
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You’ve previously spoken about how some of the vocal elements of “Bad Bitty” are kind of like your version of scatting. Who are your favorite singers when it comes to scatting?
I [don’t] really have a favorite scatter. I just knew it was like thing. I know Ella Fitzgerald is cold at scatting, Lalah Hathaway is a cold ass scatter. That’s damn near all I know, but I know they good at it. [Laughs.]
Are you thinking of signing to a label? Have you gotten any offers yet?
I’m not in a rush to do anything. We have some offers on the table, but I’m not really in a rush. Everything going on with me right now [is] organic. The majority of things that I’ve done all the way up to this point, a lot of labels are paying for their artists to do these things. I did this just off of pure networking and organicness, if that’s the word.
Are there any careers you’d like to emulate?
I don’t think there’s anybody I would like to emulate off the rip, but I do have some inspirations. I think Jay-Z is one of the biggest ones, because I noticed how he kept his group tight-knit and gave them jobs. He could have got the best person in [each] area, but he gave opportunities to the people that was around him and kept his circle tight. Lil Baby keeps a lot of same people around too.
I’ve been hearing whispers of a potential “Bad Bitty” remix or two. What’s up?
I ain’t gonna say too much, but it’s up in the air. It might come two weeks from now, might come tomorrow. It’s definitely gonna be [fire] when [it] do come out. Since we’re all here talking about remixes and who’s gonna be on there, I just want to put out into the universe: If I could get Coi Leray on there, that would be great. Let’s put that out there to the universe tenfold, and hope that comes back.
You can definitely be expecting a project coming towards the end of May or early June, right in that sweet spot of summer. I got music videos on the way. I got another single that’s going to be on the way as well with the music video following up behind that. We moving and grooving. We’re here and we stamping our name.
When was the last time you made a bitty hit her knees?
No comment. You tried to slide that in there smooth! [Laughs.]
Long before the days of working together on Killers of the Flower Moon or The Irishman, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro first teamed up more than 50 years ago on Mean Streets. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In celebration of five decades of the […]
North West has landed a high-profile gig as part of the cast of the upcoming Disney+ original special The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl. The 10-year-old eldest child of Ye and Kim Kardashian was announced as the latest addition to the star-studded line-up of the live concert special that will be filmed over two […]
For most of his professional career, British singer Olly Alexander has been known in the specific context of his band. Starting in 2012, the singer made up one-third of the U.K. pop group Years & Years, garnering critical acclaim and a massive audience over the course of nearly a decade.
But in 2024, Alexander is ready to truly reintroduce himself, this time as himself. “I loved being in Years & Years and I loved the journey that we all went on. But it just felt like this was the time to really put that all in the past and move on,” he tells Billboard. “It was kind of scary, but that’s always a good thing, I think, to be a little challenged by what’s ahead.”
At the outset of the year, Alexander released his first single under his own name since the group became his solo project in 2019. On first listen, “Dizzy” feels like a natural progression for the 33-year-old singer-songwriter’s sound, boasting a modernized, electro-pop melody that flows like a retrofitted, unreleased deep cut from the ’80s. But “Dizzy” is much more than just a continuation for Alexander — it’s an opportunity to reintroduce himself to a hundreds of millions of new listeners.
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Along with its role as Alexander’s first release under his own name, “Dizzy” also serves as the United Kingdom’s official entry in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. With the event’s grand final set to take place in Malmö, Sweden on Saturday (May 11), Alexander will be one of 26 contestants vying for the competition’s top spot. American fans wishing to tun in to the final can do so on Peacock, starting live at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday — they can also cast their votes on Eurovision’s official voting website.
For Alexander, performing at the decades-long song contest is a dream come true. “I’ve loved Eurovision since I was a kid,” he says. “It feels like it’s just growing all the time with younger audiences, and I feel like it’s just such an amazing opportunity for any artist.”
The singer says he’s known he wanted to participate in Eurovision for “a few years now,” but that 2024 provided an unmissable opportunity for him as an artist. “I was working on a lot of new music about a year ago, and my producer Danny L Harle was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if one of the new songs we’re making could be taken to Eurovision?’” he recounts. “So we just sent a few of the songs to the U.K. Eurovision selection team, and everyone really loved ‘Dizzy.’”
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If there were a checklist for what you expect to hear in a winning Eurovision song, “Dizzy” would tick off nearly every box. The song, written by Alexander and Harle and produced by Harle and Finn Keane, offers an upbeat tempo, glittering synths, instantly memorable vocals and a clear aesthetic vision, as Alexander revels in the bewildering stages of early romance.
“It is probably the best, easiest time I’ve had making music,” Alexander explains of the song. “It felt very harmonious in the studio, because I think Danny and I share a love of a lot of the same references — we were drawing inspiration from a book of medieval poems, from Greek tragedies, from all over. It was such a liberating time spent together.”
With his first performance at Tuesday’s semi-final (May 7), Alexander proved that the time in the studio was well-spent. Taking to the stage at Malmö Arena, the singer and four scantily-clad backup dancers confined themselves to a small set designed after a grungy locker room. With well-timed camera tricks and some creative positioning from Alexander and his dancers, audiences watched the room spin and shift its gravity constantly, giving credence to the song’s vertiginous title.
It’s a memorable performance for the UK, which in recent years has seen its fortunes in the annual competition dwindle. While the country has won Eurovision five times and placed second a record 16 times, their last win came in 1997, with Katrina and the Waves’ “Love Shine a Light.” In 2022, Sam Ryder became the first contestant from the U.K. to earn second place since 1998, while 2023’s entrant Mae Muller finished second-to-last in the final.
While Alexander and the U.K. are not currently favored to win this year’s competition — betting odds currently give “Dizzy” a 1% chance at the top prize — the singer says that the beauty of Eurovision lies in its unpredictability. “There was obviously this long period where the U.K., frankly, had its feelings hurt a little bit by not doing very well,” Alexander chuckles. “But with all this new attention for Eurovision, it’s become a situation where it feels like anything could happen. Things could change in a moment.”
Alexander is referring to Gen Z, and their unabashed love for the event as a campy, dramatic spectacle. Especially after acts like Måneskin and Duncan Laurence earned massive virality on TikTok thanks to their performances, Alexander remarks that success at Eurovision in 2024 looks much different than in its nascent years. “The level of awareness has really been raised by the TikTok generation,” he says. “It’s breathed a bit of new life into the contest.”
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That awareness among younger generations is also bolstered by the contest’s track record of supporting LGBTQ+ voices long before it was popular to do so — past winners including Dana International, Conchita Wurst, Duncan Laurence and Loreen all identify as LGBTQ, which Alexander says isn’t a coincidence. “Yes, Eurovision is an ultimate celebration of joy. But it also just celebrates people for who they are, and can often feel like a safe space in that way,” Alexander explains. “People can really wear their hearts on their sleeves with these massive performances.”
Part of Eurovision’s appeal, Alexander points out, has long been the contest’s seemingly “apolitical” approach — founded in 1956, the original aim of the song contest was to bring Europeans together following the devastation of World War II. Today, the contest’s permanent motto bears that same ideal: “United in Music.”
Yet even with its history of nonpartisanship, Eurovision 2024 finds itself mired in controversy. Israel is set to participate in the annual song competition, despite calls from around the world to bar the country from competing due to the ongoing war in Gaza. Many cited the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) 2022 decision to ban Russia from competing in Eurovision after the country invaded Ukraine as a precedent for removing Israel from the 2024 competition, but the EBU’s director general Noel Curran made it clear in a January statement that Israel would be allowed to participate in the contest.
Before he was announced as an entrant in Eurovision, Alexander made his position on the continuing conflict clear — in October 2023, the singer signed an open letter from Voices4 London, an LGBTQ+ activist group calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and referring to Israel as an “apartheid regime.” The letter opened the singer up to a wave of backlash, including an anonymous source for the UK’s Conservative Party telling The Daily Telegraph that Alexander’s selection as the country’s representative at Eurovision was “either a massive oversight or sheer brass neck from the BBC.”
Speaking to Billboard in March, Alexander makes his feelings on the matter clear: “[Israel’s participation] is basically a decision that’s not at all under my controI. All I hope and pray for is peace and an end to the fighting as soon as possible.” As for his signature on the open letter, the singer says he doesn’t regret speaking up. “I wanted to express my solidarity with the people of Palestine. I support a ceasefire, and that was why I signed the letter.”
But just one week after his Billboard interview, Alexander began receiving criticism from those supporting a ceasefire in Gaza. Queers for Palestine, an LGBTQ+ activist organization calling for an end to the ongoing attacks in Gaza, published an open letter signed by over 450 queer artists, activists and organizations in late March asking Alexander to boycott Eurovision. “We share the vision of queer joy and abundance you’ve offered through your music, and share your belief in collective liberation for all,” the group wrote. “In this spirit, we ask you to heed the Palestinian call to withdraw from Eurovision … There can be no party with a state committing apartheid and genocide.”
Alexander ultimately responded — both in a personal message and in a message from multiple other contestants — to the call in April, saying that he would not be boycotting the event, and instead using the platform provided by Eurovision to “call for peace.” In a documentary with the BBC titled Olly Alexander’s Road to Eurovision ’24 (originally aired Sunday, May 5), Alexander spoke at length about his internal conflict with the decision.
“The backdrop to this is actual, immense suffering. It’s a humanitarian crisis, a war, and it just so happens that there’s a song contest going on at the same time that I’m a part of,” he explained through tears. “People should do what’s right for them — if they want to boycott Eurovision, if they don’t feel comfortable watching, that’s their choice, and I respect that, you know? Eurovision is … meant to be an apolitical contest, but that’s, like, a fantasy.”
In his conversation with Billboard, Alexander makes sure to point to the team of people surrounding him and their unyielding help. “I told them that I was going to do this, that it was important for me to use my voice,” he says. “And they said that they would support me no matter what.”
Regardless of how Alexander places at Saturday’s event (the U.K. automatically qualifies for the final as a member of the “Big Five” contributing countries), he remains assured that the path laid out before him can lead to even further success. The singer is currently plotting out his forthcoming new album (executive produced by Harle), which he describes as “very cohesive, and pulled very much from the ’80s, but also veering into ’90s pop.”
With a list of past collaborators including Elton John, the Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue, the singer says he’s learned plenty about what it means to find success in the music business while still remaining true to who he is. “It was nice to understand that you can have a long career, be at the top of your game, and still be a genuinely decent person,” he explains. “To have the insane legendary careers that all of them have had … there’s a reason that all of them are still at the top of their game; they’re so easy to work with.”
He’s also keeping an eye on his acting career — after starring in Russel T Davies’ critically acclaimed period drama It’s a Sin and earning career-first nominations at ceremonies like the Critics’ Choice Awards and the National Television Awards, Alexander says he’s open to continuing to act.
But most of all, Alexander says that win or lose, Eurovision provides him with an opportunity to present his most authentic self to the world at large. “It was right to start this new chapter and do Eurovision all under my own name,” he says. “It really did feel like it’s now or never.”
NBC has given the green light to a series order for Reba McEntire‘s upcoming comedy Happy’s Place, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the series, McEntire portrays Bobbie, who inherits a restaurant after her father’s passing, but finds out that her new business partner in the venture is a half-sister she didn’t know she had (played by Belissa Escobedo). The show will join the network’s 2024-2025 season.
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Other castmembers include McEntire’s former Reba series cohort Melissa Peterman, as well as Tokala Black Elk, Rex Linn, Cheryl Francis Harrington and Pablo Castelblanco. Kevin Abbott is the writer on the series and will produce with Michael Hanel, Mindy Schultheis, McEntire and Julie Abbott, with the new series reuniting much of the team that produced six seasons of the series Reba from 2001-2007. Schultheis and Hanel were also executive producers on McEntire’s 2012-2013 series Malibu Country, while Abbott also contributed to the series.
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Recently, McEntire’s acting credits have also included roles on Young Sheldon, as well as portraying Sunny Barnes on season three of Big Sky, and her starring role in the Lifetime film Reba McEntire’s The Hammer. These are in addition to her role as a judge on the NBC singing competition The Voice.
In other McEntire news, the multi-faceted entertainer just released a new song, “I Can’t,” which she performed on The Voice. She will also serve as host for upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony, returning to guide the ACM Awards show for a record 17th time. During her career, McEntire has amassed 16 ACM Awards wins, and has earned nine nominations for the ACM’s entertainer of the year accolade, including notching a win in the category in 1995.
McEntire recently told Billboard of hosting the ACMs, “It’s a lot of fun. No. 1, you get to promote your new music, and No. 2, you get to go have fun with all your friends and buddies you’ve gotten to know over the past 45-50 years in the business, and you get to meet new people. It’s the best place to get to meet the new artists.”
Hear McEntire’s “I Can’t” below:
