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Taylor Swift makes it a full month at No. 1 in Australia with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (via Universal), now the longest reigning of her four re-recorded albums.
Swift’s latest hit LP holds off Stray Kids’ Rock-Star (Ing/Universal), unchanged at No. 2, while homegrown rapper Chillinit bags the highest score of the week with his mixtape 420DNA (Virgin Music Australia/ Universal), new at No. 3. The Sydney artist (real name: Blake Turnell) adds to his collection of top 10 appearances on the ARIA Albums Chart, which includes The Octagon (No. 2 peak in 2020), Full Circle (No. 3 also in 2020) and Family Ties (No. 5 in 2021).
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Drake’s For All The Dogs (Republic/Universal) vaults 21-4 on the latest ARIA Chart, published Friday, Nov. 24, following the release of the Scary Hours edition, which gathers six additional tracks. The original release of For All The Dogs collected a single week at No. 1 in Australia last month, for his fifth leader.
Following two sold-out shows at Perth’s Optus Stadium, Coldplay enjoys a chart spike for Live In Buenos Aires (Parlophone/Warner), soaring 43-7, for a new peak. Released in 2018, the live album had a previous best of No. 18. Coldplay will return to Australia in 2024 for five shows across Australia and New Zealand, with dates confirmed at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium (Oct. 30 and 31), Sydney’s Accord Stadium (Nov. 6 and 7) and Auckland’s Eden Park (Nov.13), for their first tour here since 2016. Live Nation Australia is producing the swing Down Under, with PinkPantheress and Emmanuel Kelly in support.
Dolly Parton played a part in the 2023 ARIA Awards celebrations on Nov. 15, where the country icon virtually presented the best country album award to Fanny Lumsden. Parton has her own party on the ARIA Chart this week, as Rockstar (Big Machine/Universal) debuts at No. 16. The collaboration-stacked set becomes her 15th top 50 album in Australia, ARIA reports, a feat that stretches back to 1979 when Great Balls Of Fire peaked at No. 48. Parton has two top 10s, with a best of No. 7 for 2014’s Blue Smoke.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Jack Harlow retains top spot for a second week with “Lovin On Me” (Atlantic/Warner), equaling the two-week stint at No. 1 for “First Class,” from 2022. “Lovin On Me” leads an unchanged top 3, ahead of Tate McRae’s “Greedy” (RCA/Sony) and Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” (RCA/Sony), respectively.
Tate McRae, the Canadian singer and songwriter, enjoys a third ARIA Chart hit with “Exes.” It’s new at No. 15, for the highest debut on the latest frame.
Further down the tally, Olivia Rodrigo lands another top 40 with “Can’t Catch Me Now” (Geffen/Universal), new at No. 29. “Can’t Catch Me Now” appears in the latest film in The Hunger Games franchise.
And finally, Ocean Alley’s 2018 single “Confidence” (The Orchard) returns to the top 40 after one-time Triple J Hottest 100 winner went viral on TikTok. “Confidence,” which won the national triple j countdown in January 2019, reenters at No. 40. The chilled-out tune has been used more than 51,000 times on TikTok, and got a bump when Ocean Alley jumped in on the trend themselves, posting a video that’s chalked up more than 7.6 million views. It’s one of six Australian-made cuts in the ARIA top 50.
Take That welcomes fans to This Life, the British pop favorites’ ninth and latest studio album.
Arriving at the stroke of midnight, This Life represents the third incarnation of Take That, now recording and performing as the trio of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen.
The new, 12-track set includes the first release “Windows,” and is embedded with “that feeling of spreading your wings, letting out the old and bringing in the new,” says Donald.
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The sessions for This Life began early this year at Nashville’s historic RCA Studios A, with nine-time Grammy Award winner Dave Cobb behind the desk. Along the way, This Life evolved at studios in New York, Los Angeles, London and Barcelona, with additional production from Jennifer Decilveo (Hozier, Miley Cyrus).
“There’s a sense of togetherness with this record, whether that’s us coming back together as a band or people wanting connection in their own lives,” says Owen in a statement introducing the new collection.
Formed in 1989 as a five-piece — Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams — Take That was one of the most popular acts of its generation, certainly in the U.K., where few acts can challenge their chart superiority.
Former bandmate Williams embarked on a glittering solo career a quarter century ago, and is currently on tour in Australia. Orange announced his departure from Take That in September 2014.
This Life is the followup to 2017’s Wonderland, which peaked at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
Until now, the group has racked up 12 U.K. No. 1 singles, and eight U.K. No. 1 albums, and a lengthy list of career highlights. The Brits had only one top 10 hit in the U.S., 1995’s “Back for Good,” which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Cutting an LP of new material was about “that feeling of getting back together as a band, and heading back out into the world again,” explains Barlow.
Take That is also a proven box-office juggernaut. Their record-breaking 2011 Progress tour (for which Williams returned to the fold) sold over 1 million tickets in less than 24 hours; the following year the lads performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics; and they hold the record for the most performances at London’s The O2, with 34 headline shows.
There are more concerts to come.
In 2024, Take That will embark on a tour in support of the new LP, spanning 41 dates across 15 cities in the U.K. and Ireland, with Olly Murs in support. Also, a run of pan-European outdoor dates, under the title This Life Under the Stars, are booked in June and July 2024.
Stream This Life below.
Mr Experience is now Mr Independent.
Donny Benét, the Australian singer, songwriter and bass-player, preps the release of Infinite Desires, the first through his new indie label, Donnyland Records.
Benét’s sixth studio album, Infinite Desires is due out Feb. 29, 2024, with distribution through The Orchard. The first cab off the rank is “Multiply,” with two more singles slated for release in the months ahead.
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A neo-disco banger, “Multiply” marks a new era for Benét, who, in addition to assuming label-chief duties, is once again self-managed. “I’m completely indie,” he tells Billboard.
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With Donnyland Records, Benét can “control how I release music,” which will include some “really cool side projects.”
Benét, who earned a master’s degree in jazz performance and, in “a past life,” was “an accomplished jazz musician,” he admits, will support the LP release with tours of Australasia, North America, the U.K. and Europe.
Infinite Desires is the followup to Mr Experience (via Dot Dash/ Remote Control Record), which opened at No. 26 on the ARIA Albums Chart in May 2020. Due to the spread of COVID-19, however, the Don’s touring ambitions were curtailed. That’s history, and Benét is keen to make up for lost time.
“We’ve dragged out Mr Experience as long as we can. And yeah, it’s had some time to breathe, which is cool,” he explains. “I’m looking forward to (playing songs from the album). I’ve only done one run in Europe with it. So, we’re not going to hang it up just yet.”
Benét is a reigning champion at the AIR Awards, his instrumental Le Piano, winning for best independent jazz album or EP at the 2023 edition in Adelaide.
Based in Sydney, Benét’s inimitable style and sounds have pulled the artist a global cult following; it’s a blend of string of groovy tunes with ‘80s panache, time-machine pastel suits, and a look that’s been described as that of a badass who stepped out of Grand Theft Auto.
Classic Don cuts include “Girl of My Dreams,” “Second Dinner,” “Santorini” and “Konichiwa,” which featured on The Weeknd’s Handpicked playlist showcasing 24 songs that inspired After Hours.
Benét warms up for his world tour with a handful of dates early December in New Zealand, followed by a run of concerts across the U.K. and Europe through March and April 2024. The North America jaunt is due to start April 23 at Mohawk, Austin, TX, and is followed by a homecoming lap in mid-2024.
Visit donnybenet.com for more.
SYDNEY, Australia — After posting another year of growth, and record revenue and distributions, APRA AMCOS is doubling-down on its call for a tax-offset to kick-start live music.
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The PRO last month posted “very strong” financials for the full-year 2023, with record gross revenue of A$690.5 million ($453 million), up 12% from the 2022 result, and net distributable revenue paid to songwriter and publisher members, affiliates and rightsholders up 11.4% year-on-year to A$595.2 million ($390 million), also a new benchmark — gains that are “indicative of a post-pandemic recovery.”
Those healthy results came with a gut-punch.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the organization found that 1,300-plus live music venues and stages across Australia were lost, or roughly one-third fewer licensed premises where artists can perform medium to smaller gigs.
At the presentation of those annual results at the APRA AMCOS HQ in Sydney, the organization’s CEO Dean Ormston urged the federal government to commit to a live music venue tax offset to act “as a catalyst in jump-starting live music nationally.”
This week, Ormston and APRA AMCOS reiterated those calls.
“For the current wave and the next generation of music creators to develop their skills and become export-ready, we need to provide them with the resources at home and build a sustainable live music ecosystem,” says Ormston.
A live music venue tax offset, he continued, would revitalize the country’s network of small live music venues.
Meanwhile, the music rights management body has confirmed the make-up of its board, following held two annual general meetings held Tuesday (No. 21) in Sydney.On the APRA board, writers Mark Callaghan and Jonathan Zwartz and publishers Jaime Gough (Concord Music Publishing ANZ) and Matthew Capper (Warner Chappell Music Australia) retained their positions. Jenny Morris and Damian Trotter (Sony Music Publishing) were named as chair and deputy chair of the APRA board, respectively.On the AMCOS board, directors Trotter and Heath Johns (BMG) retained their positions. Karen Hamilton (120 Publishing) is a new director appointment to the AMCOS board, while Philip Burn, chairman and CEO of Hal Leonard Australia, stepped down following ten years as a director, and was thanked for his service and expertise.
APRA and AMCOS board directors are elected by their respective memberships through a secure ballot. The process and results of the elections are audited and verified by APRA AMCOS’ independent auditors, KPMG.
Those elections were held in light of the society’s “Year In Review,” which reported a “dramatic” 400% year-on-year gain in license fees for concerts and festivals to A$31.9 million ($20.9 million), an all-time high, while international income from affiliate societies spiked 17.7% to A$70 million ($45 million), a new record.
Despite inflation and the rising cost of living, Aussie and Kiwi music fans flocked to shows. Notable tours included internationals Ed Sheeran, Elton John and Harry Styles, notes APRA AMCOS, plus Grammy-winning Sydney-EDM act RÜFÜS DU SOL, Crowded House, award-winning NZ acts L.A.B., SIX60 and more.
APRA AMCOS represents over 119,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members. Click here for its “Year In Review.”
Next year could be a watershed moment for contemporary R&B at the Grammys, particularly in the General Field. With SZA leading all nominees at the 2024 Grammy Awards with nine nods and Victoria Monét (seven) and Coco Jones (five) right on her heels, a new class of R&B powerhouses is looking to make a major splash on Music’s Biggest Night.
At the top of 2023, Beyoncé became the most-awarded act in Grammy history thanks to her triumph in best dance/electronic album for her seismic Renaissance album. That same record — which won three additional Grammys and spawned a pair of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits — reigned victorious at the Soul Train Awards, where it secured the “Cuff It” singer her fourth album of the year win at the ceremony.
The Soul Train Music Awards launched in 1987 with a star-studded ceremony co-hosted by Dionne Warwick and Luther Vandross. Intended to celebrate the best in R&B, soul, rap, jazz, and gospel music, the Soul Train Music Awards predate any Grammy categories honoring rap and R&B albums. The Recording Academy introduced best R&B album (along with such other “genre album” awards as best pop album, best rock album and best country album) in 1995, with best rap album arriving the following year.
So, just how often do the winners of the Soul Train Music Award for album of the year sync up with the Grammy winners for best R&B album, best progressive R&B album and best rap album? While Soul Train cannot always be used as a proper precursor there is certainly considerable overlap between the two shows.
Every Soul Train Music Awards ceremony since 1995 — barring 2020 — has found the show’s album of the year winner getting, at the very least, a nod in its respective genre category at the corresponding Grammy ceremony. There have been 15 instances in which the Soul Train album of the year winner won the Grammy for their respective genre category. But there’s a catch.
For the the ceremony’s first nine years (1987-1996), album of the year was split into male, female, and group, with additional categories for rap, jazz and gospel albums. From 1997 to 2003, the awards were consolidated into a single R&B/soul or rap album of the year category. In 2004, Soul Train experimented with dropping genre specifications, presenting an award simply titled “album of the year.” They returned to the male, female, group split from 2005 to 2007, ultimately settling on one album of the year category from 2009 onwards.
Here’s some more Soul Train Music Awards lore: the 2008 ceremony was canceled due to the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Luckily, the 2023 WGA strike ended in time for this year’s Soul Train Music Awards.
This year’s Soul Train album of the year nominees are SZA (SOS), Victoria Monét (Jaguar II), Coco Jones (What I Didn’t Tell You – Deluxe), Babyface (Girls Night Out – Extended), Burna Boy (I Told Them…), Ari Lennox (age/sex/location), Janelle Monáe (The Age of Pleasure) and Summer Walker (Clear 2: Soft Life – EP).
The 2023 Soul Train Music Awards will air on Sunday, Nov. 26, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and BET Her. SZA, Summer Walker and Usher lead all nominees with nine nods each.
Here’s a brief overview of which albums have triumphed at both the Soul Train Music Awards and the Grammys.
1995
Brian Jonestown Massacre has abruptly ended its tour of Australia, following an intra-band fracas that broke out onstage earlier in the week, video for which has gone viral.
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Anton Newcombe’s psychedelic rock outfit has canceled the last leg of its 11-date tour, which was scheduled to wrap-up Friday night (Nov. 24) at University of Wollongong UniBar, in New South Wales, with The Laurels in support.
Eight of those shows were sell-outs, including the scrapped dates Wednesday at Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, and Thursday at Northcote Theatre, Melbourne.
There is no official statement to share at this time, a rep for the tour promoters, Principal Entertainment, tells Billboard. Though it’s easy to draw a conclusion.
During the band’s gig Tuesday (Nov. 21) at The Forum Melbourne, their ninth show on their swing Down Under, Newcombe and his revolving cast of bandmates became unstruck in a bizarre — and very public — display.
In fan-filmed clips doing the rounds of social media, Newcombe is seen rumbling with guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt after telling him to leave the stage.
“Cut off this guy’s mic, put down my guitar, party’s over captain,” Newcombe remarked, adding: “get to f***. we actually don’t need you. Go. Put my guitar down on the stage and think about what’s happening. Unplug.”
Van Kriedt can be heard saying: “You better think about this one, man. Because this is forever,” before putting his guitar down and wandering offstage.
Push then came to shove. Newcombe hit Van Kriedt over the head with a guitar, escalating a scuffle that saw security step in and call off the concert. “Undefeated, god bless this country,” Newcombe told the audience, as the house lights went on, the curtains fell and boos rang out.
As frontman of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe is 20 studio albums deep into a career, one in which commercial success has been outweighed by his reputation for unpredictable and eccentric behavior.
To most casual fans, Newcombe is best remembered for his colorful, central role in DIG!, the 2004 documentary which follows the love-hate relationship between the frontmen of Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols, and the bands’ contrasting career trajectories.
Brian Jonestown Massacre is touring in support of 2023’s The Future is Your Past, released locally through A Recordings/MGM Australia.
Jack Harlow has his third No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart thanks to “Lovin on Me,” which debuts atop the ranking dated Nov. 25. In the tracking week of Nov. 10-16, “Lovin on Me” earned 22.2 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate. That’s in its first week of release, though prior to its […]
Mitski continues to reign over the charts with her track “My Love Mine All Mine,” while Jack Harlow breaks into the chart’s top five with his song “Lovin on Me.” Rania Aniftos:Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” ranks atop the TikTok Billboard Top 50 yet again, while Jack Harlow’s viral hit “Lovin on Me” makes […]
Bad Bunny makes history on the latest Latin Songwriters chart (dated Nov. 25), as he becomes the first person to spend 100 weeks at No. 1.
He continues his record-setting run thanks to 14 writing credits on the latest Hot Latin Songs chart, including “Monaco,” which tallies a fifth week at No. 1.
Here’s a look at all of Bad Bunny’s songwriting credits on the latest Nov. 25-dated Hot Latin Songs chart.
Rank, Artist Billing, Title:No. 1, Bad Bunny, “Monaco”No. 5, Bad Bunny & Feid, “Perro Negro”No. 11, Bad Bunny, “Un Preview”No. 12, Bad Bunny & Young Miko, “Fina”No. 16, Bad Bunny, “Where She Goes”No. 22, Drake ft. Bad Bunny, “Gently”No. 28, Bad Bunny, “Baby Nueva”No. 29, Bad Bunny, “Mr. October”No. 30, Bad Bunny & Mora, “Hibiki”No. 33, Bad Bunny, “Cybertruck”No. 38, Bad Bunny & Bryant Myers, “Seda”No. 40, Bad Bunny & Luar La L, “Telefono Nuevo”No. 43, Bad Bunny & YONVNGCHIMI, “Mercedes Carota”No. 47, Bad Bunny, “No Me Quiero Casar”
“Monaco” is Bad Bunny’s 14th career No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs (the fourth-most of all time), and his eighth to spend five-or-more weeks on top.
Across Billboard’s 13 weekly songwriter charts, Bad Bunny is just the second artist to spend 100 or more weeks at No. 1. Kirk Franklin, who has led Gospel Songwriters for 121 weeks, tallied his 100th week at No. 1 in March. “To have my music resonate with so many for 100 weeks is truly a humbling experience,” he told Billboard at the time. “I am grateful beyond words to those that love my music for their support and to everyone who has played a part in bringing my music to life.”
Reaching 100 weeks atop any of Billboard’s 13 producer charts is just as rare. Only two producers have achieved the feat: Joey Moi, with 122 weeks atop Country Producers, and Tainy, with 119 frames at No. 1 on Latin Producers.
Billboard launched the Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019, while alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Billboard Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
Meet Boys Are Rolling. The producing trio of Miles Sugarman, Crosby Spagnoli and Arno Sugarman are making a name for themselves by working with artists such as Joey Bada$$, Gunna, JID and Smino. The trio opens about how they came together, the projects they are working on, how they find artists to work with, the future of the group and more!Crosby Spagnoli:I definitely saw some people at the beginning were like, “Whoa, you guys made this.”
Miles Sugarman:It’s always, “You guys made this?” that’s always … Arno Sugarman:They always thought that we would pull up like somebody else’s beats or something.
Miles Sugarman:I’d say the simplest way to put it is Arno will start something, kind of get a great base idea down, we’ll then give it to Crosby. Crosby will polish it up, make it ready to then give to an artist, have it, like, song ready, and then I’ll get it to the artist. I’d say that’s the simplest way to put it.
Boys Are Rolling:Yeah.
Miles Sugarman:Me and Arno are brothers, so I guess we’ve known each other for quite a long time now and Crosby went to our high school. He and I did a music theory class together, and at the time, Arno was making beats on his computer, which wasn’t that popular, at least in my personal opinion. It didn’t seem that popular. And Crosby one day was like, “Oh, yo, like I make beats too, like, check this out.” I thought he was hilarious. I thought his music was really interesting, and because they were the only two that I personally knew that did that kind of, I guess, producing, I was like, “You guys need to meet.”
I find mostly bubbling artists, mainly through Spotify. I’ll check out artists that I really like, see who they’ve worked with or check their Instagram to see who likes them, and you’ll stumble upon something fantastic. Luckily, we now have, I feel like, enough credibility where I can DM someone who’s not, you know, completely blown up and usually we have a good success rate of who will hit us back. That’s my favorite part of this. It’s been like this is great. We want to work with them and actually have the ability to work with them.Watch the full video above!