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One of the most multifaceted — and busy — artists working today, Jon Batiste sometimes seems like a superhuman — a seemingly inexhaustible bundle of exuberance, creativity and energy. The New Orleans-bred, Juilliard-trained pianist, singer, songwriter and composer. With his band Stay Human, he spent seven years gaining a huge audience as bandleader on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert; he’s led “love riots” through the streets of New York, playing melodica literally among the city’s inhabitants; he’s won an Oscar and a Golden Globe as co-composer of the score for Pixar’s Soul; and he’s of course won Grammys, five last year alone, including album of the year for his We Are.
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But as the moving new documentary American Symphony shows, Batiste, like so many artists, has a complex private life that his public rarely glimpses. Capturing an especially high-and-low-filled year in Batiste’s life, it interweaves Batiste’s experience as he composes the ambitious titular orchestral work for a Carnegie Hall debut, with the harrowing journey he and his partner, the author-artist Suleika Jaouad, find themselves on when, after a decade in remission, her cancer returns — all shortly before his astounding 11 Grammy nominations arrive.
Directed by Academy Award-winning director Matthew Heineman — who followed Batiste and Jaouad for seven months, filming over 1,500 hours of footage — and coproduced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, American Symphony opens in select U.S. theaters today before arriving on Netflix Nov. 29 (the film features a poignant new song, “It Never Went Away,” which Batiste wrote with Grammy-winner Dan Wilson, out now on Verve Records/Interscope). On Feb. 4, he could potentially make another significant showing at the Grammys, where he has six nominations, before heading out on his Uneasy Tour: Purifying the Airwaves for the People Feb. 16, supporting his latest album World Music Radio.
In the days leading up to his film’s premiere, he spoke to Billboard about opening up his and Jaouad’s lives to Heineman’s cameras, the importance of artists’ mental health, and why at this point he has to “chuckle” at the Grammy chatter around him.
In the film, we see your composing process up close, and it looks much more collaborative than the usual symphony composer’s may be. Is that your typical process? I’m always composing, and it’s not so different actually with a large-form but also longform piece. It was more about thinking about the form, from point A, B, C, D all the way to Z before starting, and then composing into a form that could shift and change depending on what discoveries I made along the way. When I’m writing songs or instrumental music or just a tune, it can happen in the moment, it doesn’t have to happen before I start. [For a symphony] there’s a lot more pre-planning, and then figuring out symbolically with American Symphony how I wanted to use the music as an allegory for certain values, the philosophy that was underpinning it.
If you think about the term classical music — which I love and has probably the biggest influence on my artistry, besides American music and jazz and New Orleans — every composer that comes from that tradition was drawing on the folk musics and traditions they grew up with, the country and time they lived in. The core quest with American Symphony was: if the symphony orchestra and symphonic compositions were to address America today, if they were invented today and I was the inventor, what would I be drawing from, what would I see in my culture and in the American landscape and the milieu I come from? That was really exciting.
Growing up in the generation where streaming music became the norm, electronic music and all the different technological advancements that we’ve come to now see as the norm — all these different approaches to collaboration and music in general that didn’t even exist back when Beethoven was making the seventh symphony or when Duke Ellington was around, but we can still use the lessons of those compositions. Duke, who’s one of my heroes, if he knew a certain musician in the orchestra had a specific approach to playing high notes, or playing ballads, or leading a section, he’d lean into that and compose toward that, and that’s something I always have a voice for. There’s so much you can speak to that many composers before me were speaking to, but I had a unique opportunity here to do a lot.
Creativity and creating art is clearly an important part of your relationship with Suleika, but at the premiere of American Symphony, it almost seems like a real surprise to her. When you’re at work on new music, do you play it for her?
She’ll hear pieces of things and I’ll play things for her typically in fragments, or in a state where the grandeur of what it will be isn’t obvious yet. As you saw in the film there’s a process of it coming to life that can only happen when I’m in the room with the other musicians. So it’s kind of hard to show that to Suleika in full before it happens, it just has to become what it is through a process of constant listening, refinement, composition. A piece like American Symphony is never meant to be completely finished, it’s meant to be a vehicle that evolves over many many years with different folks who can take ownership of all the themes of the piece, and the form and structure. Fifty years from now, if this is played in another part of the world by different musicians, it would be its own unique version.
Jon Batiste in “American Symphony.”
Courtesy of Netflix
We see a lot in the film how you have to constantly navigate between the public face you show the world and what you’re contending with privately, with Suleika’s illness. Especially when the public seems to expect you to be this joyful person at all times, that seems really challenging.
It’s really something that I’ve struggled with for awhile. And I value parts of it as well — the idea of being able to bring folks a sense of uplift-ment in dark times, as a performer, an entertainer, an artist is something I value. But in general it’s been a struggle to navigate the humanity of being all those things. A lot of times I think that’s the case, which is one of the reasons why such an invasive film like this, and the vulnerability required of our family to share what you see, is something we wanted to move forward with. Sometimes pulling the curtain back is an opportunity for us all to tap into our humanity and not only see me in a certain way and realize, “Wow, these are things we all go through.” We can all grow from seeing it and have a deepened respect for this person we admire.
Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste in “American Symphony.”
Courtesy of Netflix
You’re incredibly open in the film about therapy, and about the mental health aspect of being an artist on the level you are. What was behind your decision to be open about this?
I hope it’ll be a beacon for a lot of artists. I fear that when people are successful, especially in a public sense, it creates an illusion of ease. I don’t ever want to make anyone feel lesser, or any artist feel like because they’re struggling in this crazy business with their mental state and fortitude that they’re not just like everybody else. Especially folks who are successful, you never know what somebody has given up or decided to do to get to where they are. We’re all just human beings dealing with the same set of things. It’s better if we show it more, rather than hide it away in a curated social media presence.
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Your stunning performance of “Freedom” at the 2022 Grammys is in the film — contextualized with a very clear picture of what you and Suleika were going through at the time, which makes seeing its exuberance especially astounding. Watching it now, what do you see?
It’s tough to watch the film. I don’t have a good barometer because I’ve only seen it a handful of times over the course of the edits. I do have a sense of what the film is like, and living through those moments, the Grammys performance was very much a lot of catharsis, and also a lot of vindication. Just being present in the moment was a difficult thing for me to do given where Suleika was and how much I wanted to be there with her, but also knowing how much she wanted me to be in the moment I was in. So the performance was a great way of zeroing into the moment and, as it always is for me, just channeling and trying to lift the present to a place of transcendence to what we do on the stage. And that moment in particular was more like that than winning the awards we won — it was just a real manifestation of what I do, and what all those artists in there, what I imagine drives them: the performance, not the awards.
Jon Batiste accepts the album of the year award for “We Are” onstage during tat the 64th Annual Grammy Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 3rd, 2022 in Las Vegas.
Christopher Polk for Variety
We hear in voiceover some of the detractors who were rather loud in the wake of your big Grammy wins. How aware were you of that narrative in the moment, and how did you approach including it in the film, which I assume wasn’t easy?
I’m at a point, to be frank, that I don’t really care. These are things I’ve gotten used to in terms of creating music and doing things that are speaking to the culture, doing things that are counterculture, things that are perceived to be one way when they’re completely the opposite of that. I’ve been perceived to be an institutionalist, and to be not institutional enough. To be a person who is too sophisticated, and to be someone who is dumbing down what they do too much. To be a person who is a part of a fix in the system, someone who comes out of nowhere, and also as the industry darling or the vet or the favored one, who’s constantly had privileges. What that tells me overall, since I’ve been doing this from the age of 15 in New Orleans, is just that I have longevity and I have impact.
Even the fact of the symphony upon its performance at Carnegie Hall — which I unabashedly will say was a cultural moment, if not just for New York then for our country, for music — for there to be no critical review or discussion that was remotely intelligent discourse, with so many firsts [achieved with it that] I’ve lost count? I’m just so used to it. Twenty years in, you just kind of chuckle about it. Eventually, maybe, people will catch on, but I don’t really do it for that. Ultimately it’s just a matter of doing what I’m doing and doing what I love.
The new Broadway cast recording of Merrily We Roll Along debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart (dated Nov. 25). The show stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez – all of whom have been a part of at least one top 10-charting Cast Album previously. (Groff, notably, performs on both the Nos. 1 and 2 titles on the latest Cast Albums chart – as Merrily We Roll Along bumps Hamilton: An American Musical from the top slot down to No. 2.)
Billboard’s Top Cast Albums chart ranks the top-selling musical cast recordings of the week in the U.S., based on traditional album sales, as tracked by Luminate. The new Cast Albums chart dated Nov. 25 reflects the sales week ending Nov. 16.
Merrily We Roll Along has music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, with a book by George Furth, based on the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1981 for a brief run, and the 2023 production is its first revival on Broadway. It’s slated to run through March 24, 2024.
The new iteration began off-Broadway in 2022 at the New York Theatre Workshop, with the same leading cast, and played through Jan. 22, 2023. It then began previews on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on Sept. 19, and officially opened on Oct. 10.
Groff has now been a part of three No. 1s on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart: Merrily We Roll Along, and the original Broadway cast recordings of Hamilton: An American Musical (2015) and Spring Awakening (released in 2006, peaked at No. 1 in 2007). He’s also been a part of the top 10-charting albums A New Brain (2015 New York cast recording; No. 3 in 2016), Little Shop of Horrors (the new cast recording; No. 7, 2021). Groff won a Grammy Award for best musical theater album for Hamilton, and garnered a second nomination for the same category for Little Shop of Horrors.
Radcliffe starred in the 2011 Broadway revival of How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, which saw its cast recording reach No. 2 that same year. He also scored a Grammy nomination for best musical theater album for the project.
As for Mendez, she’s appeared on five top 10-charting sets on Cast Albums: Grease (the new 2007 Broadway cast recording, No. 4), Everyday Rapture (original Broadway cast recording; No. 8, 2010), Dogfight (original cast recording; No. 2, 2013), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel (2018 Broadway cast recording; No. 2, 2013), Godspell (the new 2012 Broadway cast recording; No. 1) and now Merrily We Roll Along. Mendez also scored a Grammy nom for best musical theater album, for Carousel.
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).
At age 90 and with more than seven decades of music under his belt, Texas native Willie Nelson is busier than ever. The 12-time Grammy winner was recently inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 3 and in September, he released Bluegrass, his first full-length album of bluegrass-styled music. The album has earned Nelson a Grammy nomination for best bluegrass album, leading into the 2024 ceremony.
On Dec. 17, CBS will present the music special Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Celebration, honoring the music icon with performances and collaborations from Nelson as well as Gary Clark Jr., Snoop Dogg, Miranda Lambert, Norah Jones, George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Keith Richards and Nelson’s sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson. More top-tier stars will host, including Jennifer Garner, Chelsea Handler, Woody Harrelson, Ethan Hawke, Helen Mirren and Owen Wilson.
Nelson’s innovative songs, unique performance style and jazz-inspired, behind-the-beat style of phrasing, has made the iconoclast one of music’s most widely beloved artists, with 20 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. His catalog of hits he penned for other artists includes “Night Life,” “Hello Walls,” “Crazy,” “Family Bible” and “Funny How Time Slips Away.” He earned his first top 10 country hits as an artist in the 1960s with “Touch Me” and “Willingly,” but it was 1975’s Red Headed Stranger that would garner Nelson his mainstream breakthrough. The album’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” would earn Nelson his first Grammy award, and his first No. 1 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart.
In 1976, Nelson’s music was part of the compilation album Wanted! The Outlaws, which also included Tompall Glaser, Waylon Jennings, and Jessi Colter; the album became country music’s first album to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Nelson and Jennings’ hit collaborations include the 1976, three-week Hot Country Songs chart No. 1 hit “Good Hearted Woman” and 1978’s four-week No. 1 “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”
A testament to his musical fluidity, Nelson’s albums over the years have paid homage to his Texas honky-tonk roots, but also included projects of pop standards (1978’s Stardust), tributes to Lefty Frizzell (1977’s To Lefty From Willie), Kris Kristofferson (1979’s Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson), Cindy Walker (2006’s You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker), Frank Sinatra (2021’s That’s Life) and George and Ira Gershwin (2016’s Summertime), and albums recorded with Ray Price, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard and Webb Pierce.
Nelson was named as the inaugural honoree of the Country Music Association’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Three years later, Nelson became the first country artist to earn the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Here, we look at Willie Nelson’s 25 biggest Billboard hits, from “Blues Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” to “Beer For My Horses.”
Willie Nelson’s 25 Biggest Billboard Hits recap is based on actual performance on Billboard’s weekly Hot Country Songs chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower ranks earning less. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
“Heartbreak Hotel” (with Leon Russell)
Eric Nam reveals five things you didn’t know about him to Billboard! Eric Nam:Hey, this is Eric Nam, and here are five things that you probably don’t know about me. No. 1: My jersey number in high school for soccer was the number 18. I just like that number. No. 2: Here’s a random story […]
After Bad Bunny and Harry Styles ruled the 2022 year-end global rankings, 2023 is all about the ladies: Taylor Swift finishes as the No. 1 Billboard Global 200 Artist and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Artist, while Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is the No. 1 title on the year-end Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. recaps.
While the 2023 year-end tracking period began with the Nov. 19, 2022-dated chart, Cyrus rang in the calendar year almost immediately, with the Jan. 12 release of “Flowers.” By the end of the month, it debuted atop both global charts, and made itself at home. The song reigned for 13 weeks on Global Excl. U.S. and for 12 on the Global 200, tying Harry Styles’ “As It Was” for the longest run at No. 1 on the former list (dating back to its Sept. 2020 launch).
Explore All of Billboard’s 2023 Year-End Charts
Throughout the year, “Flowers” appeared on 39 of Billboard’s Hits of the World charts and topped lists in 26 international territories, including those in Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. In North America, it crowned the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 for eight non-consecutive weeks, winding up No. 2 on its year-end tally.
Eight songs appear in the year-end top 10 of both global lists. In addition to “Flowers,” there’s Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down,” “SZA’s “Kill Bill,” Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” The Weeknd & Ariana Grande’s “Die For You,” Sam Smith & Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue),” and last year’s champion, Harry Styles’ “As It Was.”
The Global 200 top 10 is rounded out by Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage at No. 9 with “Creepin’” and Morgan Wallen at No. 10 with “Last Night.” On Global Excl. U.S., the two final missing pieces are Tom Odell’s “Another Love” at No. 9 and Jung Kook’s “Seven,” featuring Latto, at No. 10. Last year, both charts’ top 10s contained the same songs, albeit in slightly different order.
Both lists’ top 10s are performed entirely in English. In each of their three annual recaps so far, “Dakiti” by Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez is the only non-English song to hit the top 10, at No. 6 for both in 2021. Still, six non-English songs topped the weekly Global Excl. U.S. survey during the 2023 tracking period, up from four in 2022 and three in 2021. This year’s haul includes the first Japanese-language song the reach the summit, via YOASOBI’s “Idol.”
Bolstered by the hangover success of last year’s Midnights, plus the July release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift finishes as the No. 1 Billboard Global 200 Artist and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. Artist. In all, she landed 54 songs on the former survey and 46 on the latter. In addition to new hits like “Anti-Hero” and “Karma,” featuring Ice Spice, Swift’s year on the charts was bolstered by buzz surrounding The Eras Tour. Though the trek never went beyond North America in the tracking period (the tour continues throughout next year, traveling from continent to continent), global buzz via word-of-mouth and social media spring boarded various hits across Swift’s eras onto the charts.
As the tour continues, so likely will her global chart success. Already in the 2024 tracking period, she has hit No. 1 on the Global 200 twice – first, with 2019’s “Cruel Summer,” and then with “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” one of 19 top-40 debuts from 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
Aside from Olivia Rodrigo as 2021’s No. 1 year-end Global 200 Artist, Cyrus and Swift are the first artists from the mainland U.S. to crown annual global recaps. BTS (South Korea) and Dua Lipa (U.K.) covered the other three in 2021, and Bad Bunny (Puerto Rico) and Harry Styles (U.K.) reigned over 2022.
Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd appear in the top 10 of both charts’ artist lists for the third year in a row. While global-chart-era hits like “Shivers” and “Save Your Tears” have been key to their sustained success, they’ve each maintained consistent weekly marks for older titles like “Perfect” and “Shape of You” for Sheeran and “The Hills” and “Starboy” for The Weeknd.
Just as Styles repeats in both top 10s with last year’s champ, “As It Was,” Bad Bunny is back on both artist tallies, at No. 2 on Global 200 Artists and No. 3 on Global Excl. U.S. Artists. Like Swift, he is setting himself for a successful 2024, as 19 songs from Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Manana debuted on each chart in the first week of the ’24 tracking period, including “Monaco” at No. 1 on both.
In year-end recaps for 2021 and 2022, Bad Bunny was the only Latin act to reach the top 10 of any of the four global charts. This year, he is joined in the top 10 by Peso Pluma (No. 6 – Global 200 Artists; No. 7 – Global Excl. U.S. Artists), plus Feid and Karol G, at Nos. 8-9, respectively, on Global Excl U.S. Artists.
NewJeans is the highest-ranking K-Pop act, at No. 9 on Global 200 Artists and No. 4 on Global Excl. U.S. Artists.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Nov. 19, 2022, through Oct. 21, 2023. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the November-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
Just one month after making his first Billboard chart appearance, 310babii is now officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist. The Los Angeles-based rapper scores his first career entry on the Nov. 25-dated Hot 100, as “Soak City (Do It)” debuts at No. 100. The song, released in June on sal.vo sounds, enters with 5.2 million […]
Stray Kids are officially Billboard Hot 100-charting artists, as the group scores its first entry on the Nov. 25-dated list with “LALALALA.”
The song, released Nov. 10 on the group’s new album ROCK-STAR, debuts at No. 90 on the Hot 100 with 6.1 million U.S. streams and 3,000 downloads sold in the Nov. 10-16 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The set launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 224,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week. It’s the group’s fourth No. 1 (encompassing all of its entries), after ODDINARY (in 2022), MAXIDENT (2022) and 5-STAR (2023). Stray Kids become the first act to debut their first four chart entries atop the chart since Alicia Keys in 2001-07, when she achieved the feat with Songs in A Minor (2001), The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), the live set Unplugged (2005) and As I Am (2007).
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All four of Stray Kids’ albums have topped the Billboard 200 in a span of nearly 20 months. That’s the fastest accumulation of four No. 1s since Taylor Swift notched four in just under 16 months with Folklore, Evermore, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) between August 2020 and November 2021.
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While “LALALALA” earns Stray Kids their first career entry on the Hot 100, the group has already made a mark on several other Billboard charts. The act scored its first overall appearance on the chart dated Nov. 18, 2017, when “Hellevator” debuted and peaked at No. 6 on World Digital Song Sales. Since then, the group has charted 52 total hits on World Digital Song Sales (as of this week), the third-most in the chart’s 13-year history, after BTS (148) and EXO (81). Of Stray Kids’ 52 entries, four have hit No. 1: “Mixtape : OH,” “Maniac,” “Case 143,” and, as of this week, “LALALALA.”
The group has also charted 16 titles on World Albums, tied with Red Velvet for the fifth-most among K-pop acts, after GOT7 (19), SEVENTEEN (18), BTS (17) and TWICE (17). Of those 16 sets, four have hit No. 1.
Stray Kids have also logged seven songs on the Billboard Global 200 and 15 on Billboard Global Excl. U.S.
Stray Kids are the seventh K-pop group in history to chart on the Hot 100. They follow Wonder Girls (who earned their first entry in 2009), BTS (2017), BLACKPINK (2018), TWICE (2021), NewJeans (2023) and FIFTY FIFTY (2023).
Stray Kids, signed to JYP Entertainment, comprises Bang Chan, Changbin, Felix, Han, Hyunjin, I.N, Lee Know and Seungmin.
Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered.
These 10 tracks from artists including Lauran Hibberd, Ariana and the Rose, Shygirl and more will get you energized to take on the week. Pop any of these gems into your personal playlists — or scroll to the end of the post for a custom playlist of all 10.
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Shygirl feat. Cosha, “Thicc”
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“Thicc” thumps, ceaselessly and irresistibly, in the way that all great club music pulses through your veins; British producer Shygirl has experimented with dance’s pressure points throughout her career, but her new single featuring Cosha delivers a straight hit to the listener’s pleasure center. The track should be a staple of crowded dance floors in the coming months, as well as an immediate pick-me-up in your headphones after a long day. – Jason Lipshutz
Biig Piig, “Watch Me”
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“It’s a song to feel yourself unapologetically and to strut to,” Biig Piig explains in a press release for new single “Watch Me.” “Telling the world, ‘I am that bitch, watch me.’” While the Irish artist showcases that confidence in her commanding vocals on the track, “Watch Me” adopts an industrial whirr that turns hypnotic in its back half, particularly as the drums kick back in to emphasize the darkly lit, alluring production. – J. Lipshutz
Lauran Hibberd, “Mary”
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UK pop artist Lauran Hibberd has bulldozed her way back into our lives with three minutes of undeniable sunshine: “Mary,” a pop-punk anthem of the highest degree, swivels through hooks and blurted-out double-date details with aplomb, and Hibberd tosses out plenty of charisma along the way. Can the Warped Tour return solely for “Mary” to serve as its authoritative new soundtrack? – J. Lipshutz
gglum, “Easy Fun”
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Having recently signed to Secretly Canadian, gglum’s first few singles present a bold new vision of indie-pop, mixing guitar fuzz, sweetened hooks, classic emo flourishes and drum-n-bass undertones. “Easy Fun” takes a few listens to wrap its arms around you, but the attention to detail sets the track apart, with each moment containing carefully considered pieces of instrumentation moving in conjunction with each other. – J. Lipshutz
Ryder Beer, “Can’t Take It”
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Ryder Beer, the younger brother of Madison, makes an attention-grabbing studio debut with “Can’t Take It,” an emotionally charged slice of synth-pop that demonstrates his gentle voice and ability to attack spaces of silence within complex production. The highlight comes at the very end, as the track concludes with the dangling question, “Where do we go?”; Beer will provide an answer soon following this strong start. – J. Lipshutz
Crawlers, “Call It Love”
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British rock band Crawlers took off in 2021 thanks to their viral hit “Come Over,” and the British rock band has sustained momentum since; as it gears up for the February release of its debut album, The Mess We Seem To Make, second single “Call It Love” proves why. The aching alt-rock song sounds like how it feels to be the last pair on the dance floor — a sign of time well spent, and also of a bittersweet impending end. – Lyndsey Havens
Lloyiso, “I Hate That I Care”
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The latest from rising soul-pop artist Lloyiso is reminiscent of the 2010s amped-up electro-pop hits à la Disclosure’s “Latch” — and much like that song’s vocalist Sam Smith, Lloyiso possesses the same passion and soul that makes his vocal delivery all the more convincing, especially on lines like, “Don’t care if I lose / I’ll fight for you.” Just one listen is all it takes to believe him. – L.H.
Frost Children, “Marigold”
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Frost Children’s 2022 LP Spiral was a genre-hopping affair touching on electro-pop, hyperpop and bratty emo, but the sibling duo’s 2023 album Hearth Room is as soft and inviting as the furry pups on its album cover. Accessible doesn’t mean predictable, though, and songs like “Marigold” demonstrate that you can balance sweet harmonics with compelling sonic flourishes, creating sturdy indie-pop delights that deserve repeat listens. – Joe Lynch
Ariana and the Rose, “Cosmic Lover”
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As staccato, arpeggiated synths a la “I Feel Love” dance around the speaker channels, Ariana and the Rose urges you to “f—k the noise, come on boy” and hit the interstellar dance floor on “Cosmic Lover.” The video arrives with a remix from Initial Talk that transports you back to NYC’s famed Danceteria circa 1983 – a time-travel loop we’re happy to get lost in. “The music video, remixes and tour feel like a perfect way to close out this [Lonely Hearts Club] album, I cannot wait to be singing these songs with everyone at the shows,” says Ariana. – J. Lynch
Evanescence, “Breathe No More”
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Twenty years has passed since Evanescence released its 2003 debut, Fallen, and now a few vault tracks have been given their chance to shine amid the record’s 20th anniversary re-release. The newly remastered version of “Breathe No More” is one of them — originally relegated to a B-side, the piano-driven track channels the greatness of the tragic yet touching ballads “My Immortal” and “Hello,” allowing Amy Lee’s crystal-clear vocals to delicately soar over twinkling keys. Whereas the prior two tracks found Lee grappling with painful memories and death from a child’s point of view, “Breathe” is a hard look in the mirror following a toxic relationship, as Lee wonders if she likes the person she has become. – Starr Bowenbank
Peso Pluma introduces his band while backstage at his Billboard Music Awards performance at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy. Peso Pluma: Here is the boss, music director, and the double bass and second voice, most bad ass producer. This is Iván Leal also known as “Parka.” On this side, we have […]