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Maren Morris shares five things you didn’t know about her music-making process backstage at Billboard’s Women In Music 2024. Maren MorrisI’m Maren Morris. And these are five things you don’t know about my music. I cannot record vocals drunk, the second any alcohol touches my lips, it sounds awful. So I don’t know, I wish […]
“Ever since Rent, I have made it a priority to originate roles and shine a light on new work,” Idina Menzel tells Billboard. “It takes lots of patience and fortitude, but there is truly nothing as rewarding as seeing your kernel of an idea fully realized with a group of people you love and admire so deeply.”
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The Broadway icon’s latest project in that vein is the new musical Redwood, currently playing at La Jolla Playhouse in California. For Menzel — who plays Jesse, a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who finds herself as a personal crossroads and finds unexpected answers in the forests of Northern California — the show is an especially personal creative endeavor. “The story of a woman at a turning point in her life paralleled with the resilience, wisdom and strength of the redwood tree was one that spoke to me deep in my soul,” Menzel says. “Nature’s power to heal and connect us as human beings is essential in this turbulent world we are living in.”
Idina Menzel backstage during REDWOOD at La Jolla Playhouse.
Courtesy of Idina Menzel
Menzel, who released her latest album Drama Queen in August of last year, isn’t just the star of the production. She co-conceived Redwood with director, writer and co-lyricist Tina Landau (recently of Broadway’s inventive SpongeBob SquarePants musical) over the course of many years, delving deeply into the development of Jesse as a character.
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Menzel and Landau also “knew we wanted to find a new young composer who could bring a fresh take to musical theater” for the show, bringing in Kate Diaz for a score that Menzel describes as having “a beautiful, earthy and soulful quality as well as expansive and cinematic. When I perform Kate’s music, I am able to use all the different colors in my voice. I’m not just shooting for the rafters. I’m expressing myself similarly to how I express myself in my own songwriting.” (Diaz also co-wrote the lyrics with Landau).
While the La Jolla run of Redwood ends March 31, the show has its sights set on Broadway — which certainly seems more likely than not with Menzel and her creative collaborators on board. “We knew we wanted the production to be cutting edge and unconventional,” Menzel says. “We have encouraged one another to dream big, break rules, and not compromise our creative ideas. There’s a deep sense of creative freedom and trust in how we work.”
Here, Menzel exclusively shares with Billboard a live recording of her performing “Great Escape,” recorded during a performance of Redwood.
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Bebe Rexha offers advice to her younger self, talks about learning from Kylie Minogue’s Grammy win & more backstage at Billboard’s Women In Music 2024. Bebe Rexha: Advice I would give my younger self is to, and I see it a lot of times because I’ve helped a lot of other artists, younger artists that […]
Ariana Grande is back with another big week on Billboard’s charts (dated March 23), thanks to her new album, Eternal Sunshine.
The set soars in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking her sixth career leader, with 227,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (March 8-14), according to Luminate – the biggest one-week sum of 2024.
All 12 chart-eligible songs from the album also land on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love),” which launches at No. 1, marking her ninth career leader.
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Here’s a recap of Grande’s Hot 100 entries on the latest chart (all songs are debuts except for lead single “Yes, And?,” released before Eternal Sunshine).
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Rank, Title:No. 1, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”No. 10, “Yes, And?” (up from No. 31; debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Jan. 27)No. 16, “The Boy Is Mine”No. 17, “Supernatural”No. 23, “Eternal Sunshine”No. 25, “Bye”No. 28, “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again”No. 30, “True Story”No. 37, “Imperfect for You”No. 38, “Intro (End of the World)”No. 39, “I Wish I Hated You”No. 55, “Ordinary Things,” feat. Nonna
“We Can’t Be Friends” earns Grande her ninth Hot 100 No. 1, and second from Eternal Sunshine, following “Yes, And?”
With 11 debuts, Grande ups her total to 85 career Hot 100 entries. She ties Beyoncé for the third-most among solo women in the chart’s history, after only Taylor Swift (232) and Nicki Minaj (148). Grande first hit the Hot 100 with her debut hit, and first of 22 top 10s, “The Way,” featuring Mac Miller, in April 2013.
Notably, Grande’s grandmother, Marjorie Grande, scores her first career Hot 100 entry thanks to her featured billing – as Nonna – on “Ordinary Things.” At 98 years old, she makes history as the oldest living person to have appeared on the chart.
One other member of the Grande family has also reached Billboard’s charts: Frankie Grande, Ariana’s brother (and, thus, Nonna’s grandson), spent a week at No. 35 on the since-shuttered Billboard Twitter Top Tracks survey in July 2017 with “Queen.”
One week after her arrival on Billboard’s charts, Dasha becomes a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, thanks to her breakthrough viral single “Austin.”
The song, released in November via Version III, debuts at No. 74 on the March 23-dated Hot 100 with 6.7 million official streams (up 65%), 84,000 in radio airplay audience (up 173%) and 2,000 downloads sold (up 116%) in the U.S. March 8-14, according to Luminate.
The track also jumps 31-17 on Hot Country Songs, which uses the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100.
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Dasha is based in Nashville, via San Luis Obispo, Calif. Gains for “Austin” have been sparked by TikTok, where she boasts over 400,000 followers. Seemingly boosted by the rising wave behind Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” – which tops Hot Country Songs for a fifth week – “Austin” soundtracks a line-dance trend started by Dasha. The song has been featured in over 300,000 videos on the platform. Billboard reported that in the tracking week ending Feb. 15, in which Beyoncé released “Texas Hold ‘Em” midway through, “Austin” vaulted from 82,000 official on-demand streams the week before to over 830,000 – up 916%. The next week (ending Feb. 22), the song grew 182% to 2.3 million.
Airplay-wise, SiriusXM is championing the song on TikTok Radio and its country-formatted The Highway. Terrestrially, Country Airplay chart reporter KBAY San Francisco leads in early exposure for the track.
“Austin” is on Dasha’s new eight-track LP What Happens Now?, released Feb. 16. Before that, she released the collection Dirty Blonde in January 2023, via Quadio Records, and her six-track EP $hiny Things in 2021.
Dasha, who co-wrote “Austin,” also surges from No. 29 to No. 11 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart.
Lainey Wilson tells herself to prepare for the journey when giving advice to her younger self backstage at Billboard Women In Music 2024. Lainey WilsonSome advice I would give to my younger self is stay true to yourself. Be kind, roll up your sleeves. It’s gonna be a scary, scary ride but hold on tight […]
Illenium helped close out SXSW 2024 with a performance that was quite certainly one of the week’s heaviest when he played the third and final show of Billboard’s annual THE STAGE at SXSW concert series on Saturday, March 17. While the evening forecast in Austin had called for thunderstorms, the weather cooperated and no storms, […]
Maren Morris says she would have told her younger self to take care of herself and “to take a break” backstage at Billboard’s Women In Music 2024. Maren MorrisSome advice I would give to my younger self would be, give yourself a break and know that it’s okay that not everything happens to you at […]
Our Woman of The Year, Karol G, opens up about being a night owl, what life on tour is like, talks through her creative process and more backstage at 2024 Billboard’s Women In Music.Karol G:Hey everyone, this is Karol G and here are five things that you don’t know about me, musically.
Okay, one, I have my phone full of voice notes like really strange about me talking about videos, strategies, things that I want to do, a lot of voice notes about music. I record myself like singing and doing the instrumentals and doing like everything with my voice so those are like really crazy to hear, but they’re really good.
Okay, number two! I love to write stories for videos that maybe I will never do. I have like a bunch of stories of videos that I will love to do and I think I find the right songs for every story of videos that I have.
Number three, my most creative moment in life is like maybe after 2 am, in the morning, until 6 am in the morning. I’m a really nighty person, night person. I don’t know, nighty?
I am a night person. My ideas and my creativity usually comes at night. I don’t sleepvery well because of this.
Number four. My days. A Karol G show day is a very heavy day. I have a lot of things to do. I am not able to get on stage if I don’t do sound check, I have to stretch so I can go out there and crush it without injuring anything, I have to prepare my voice so I can sing well and get all dressed up. So a show day is a day of full of work.
And number five is that this is the first time a Latina has won Women of the Year. I am very excited. I’m very excited and that is something that you don’t know about me and now you know!Watch the full video above!
Australian pop star Kylie Minogue emphasizes the importance of one’s own uniqueness when giving advice to her younger self backstage at Billboard’s Women In Music 2024. Kylie MinogueSome advice I would give my younger self would be that there is one you. You may want to be a better you. I think you need to […]