billboard news

Ahead of this weekend’s CMT Awards, Billboard is putting a spotlight on five country artists you should watch. This episode is ‘Cowboy Carter’ featured artist, Brittney Spencer.

Tetris Kelly
Brittney Spencer is the voice that’s taking the country world by storm. And from viral star to ‘Cowboy Carter’ collaborator. We’re breaking down why you need your eyes on her. Brittney first picked up buzz when she covered a song by the Highwomen.

Tetris Kelly
Country artists everywhere loved and praised it. She eventually released ‘Compassion.’ She was one of the four talented black women selected to be on Beyonce is meaningful rendition of the Beatles’ “BLACKBIIRD,” so stay tuned for more Britney whose talent is bigger than the soul.

Child star turned pop star and former Dance Moms star Jojo Siwa opens up to Billboard about her new song “Karma,” the music video, dancing in the music video, why she decided now is the time to drastically rebrand herself, her transition from child star to grown pop star, how Miley Cyrus inspired her child star transition, the new genre gay pop that she’s creating, wanting to marry Billie Eilish and more!

Jojo Siwa
Like it or not, you’re gonna look it’s scary though putting you’re putting yourself out there but like people are not going to like it. People aren’t going to be mad at me, for sure. Hey everyone, I’m JoJo Siwa and this is Billboard News.

Tetris Kelly
“Karma’s a b-tch” and I guess I should have known better because look who is sitting with me. Hey what’s up Jojo, how’s it going?

Jojo Siwa
Best f–king day of my life!

Tetris Kelly
The song is out, it’s out! It’s in the universe, how are you feeling?

Jojo Siwa
I have s–t a brick every single day for the last three weeks, since we started teasing it. It’s been a brutal, brutal tease process. The internet has gotten very mad at me the Internet has taken me a frickin wringer, the ups and the downs. But at the end of the day, I made the art that I wanted to and I am so happy so proud. So, so excited to bring this version of pop music back this music, this music video, this style of production. This is everything I’ve ever wanted, you know, I’ve been waiting 10 years to get into this world. I don’t care that music videos aren’t trending anymore like this. They weren’t trending either before Lady Gaga did them. And then all of a sudden boo ya, Lady Gaga becomes Lady Gaga.

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It’s Thursday April 4th and Ice Spice and Cardi B are proving there’s no feud after Ice shares a series of photos with the “Like What (Freestyle)” rapper. Offset wishes Quavo a happy birthday on Instagram, seemingly shutting down rumors that the two have been beefing. Chance the Rapper and Kirsten Corley announce they are divorcing after five years of marriage. JoJo Siwa stops by the Billboard News studio to talk about her new single “Karma,” the music video and the inspiration behind her new track! We look back on how well Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” did on the Billboard charts, Alek Olsen continues to top the Billboard TikTok Top 50 and highlight another country artist, Willie Jones, ahead of the CMT Music Awards this weekend.

Tetris Kelly
Cardi and Offset prove there’s no beef while Chance The Rapper announces his split, we get ready to sit down with JoJo Siwa, talk about the top songs on TikTok. Take a look back at the Hot 100 and tell you a country artist you need to watch. Happy Thursday, April 4th, and welcome to Billboard News. We have a jam-packed show today but boy, is it fun. Let’s kick things off with the news. Here’s three things you need to know in rap: Cardi is no stranger to internet beef and when she got into it on Twitter, some fans thought Ice Spice caught a stray. But Ice Spice said, “There was no offense,” and Cardi asked her to drop the pics they took at the Vanity Fair party. Then Ice blessed our timeline with these snaps. Nothing but love here, we love to see it and I’m sure most people love to see it too.

Speaking of rap beef, if you thought Offset and Quavo were on the outs, these Migos prove they’re still amigos. Offset posted a birthday message to his bandmates saying “Happy G day, my brother love you for life!” With a throwback photo of them and Takeoff so if you thought there was drama here don’t worry it’s far from messy. And Chance the Rapper and his wife Kirsten have decided to go their separate ways. Chance posted the following message to IG to let their followers know they’re getting divorce, saying, “We came to this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together. God has blessed us with two beautiful daughters, we will continue to raise together.” I can’t even imagine having to navigate something like this on such a public stage. But we wish them the best.

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Ahead of this weekend’s CMT Music Awards, this week Billboard is putting a spotlight on five country artists you should watch. Today’s is ‘Cowboy Carter’ featured artist Willie Jones.

Tetris Kelly
From ‘X-Factor,’ to Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter.’ Willie Jones has all the swag and the voice to match it, which is why he’s one of our country artists to watch.

Tetris Kelly
If you’re looking at the future of country look no further than Willie Jones, representing Louisiana you can hear the church and the back porch in his soulful voice that we first heard on ‘X Factor’ in 2012. Fast forward to his debut album right now. And the way that he used Country, Hip-Hop and Pop seamlessly. It’s no wonder Queen Bey needed him on a track and their voices blended perfectly. So head to a dive bar and look out for more Willie Jones.

Billboard’s very own Tetris Kelly asked artists like Jelly Roll, JoJo Siwa, Lainey Wilson, Doechii, Agnez Mo and more at the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2024 red carpet to see which genre they’d like to try to switch to and make an album if they could.

Tetris Kelly
With Beyoncé flipping it up with ‘Cowboy Carter,’ you know doing country music, what’s the genre you feel like you could jump into and make an album?

T-Pain
I’ve been doing country since like, man, 2012 I think, so you know I’ve been writing a lot of country songs. I’ve been doing a lot of things in that space for a long time, so I’m glad there’s more of our culture coming and mixing and just having a good time.

Jelly Roll
Me and Joyner Lucas have a big record out right now. It’s just incredible, man. I love hip-hop, always been a hip-hop fan too — you know me, man. I move like water, baby.

Lainey Wilson
Probably with the way that I talk and the way that I sing, I’m always gonna be country. But I mean, I’m all about kind of stepping outside of my comfort zone and as long as it’s telling a story and making people feel something to make people feel at home, you can call it whatever you want to call it. We’ll see what happens.

Tetris Kelly
I want to see some dance pop from you, Lainey.

Lainey Wilson
I don’t know now. I can do the stanky legg and that’s about it.

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