Chappell Roan
By the time Temple University director of athletic bands Dr. Matt Brunner finally listened to Chappell Roan’s music, many of the young adults in his life — students, band alums, even his son’s girlfriend — had already implored him to check her out.
When he did play the singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, he quickly realized why they’d been so adamant. “I started listening and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is awesome. I absolutely have to do this,’ ” he recalls excitedly months later. “Everything about it just worked.”
By that, Brunner means Roan’s glitzy dance-pop tracks seemed tailor-made for a marching band — full of the catchiness and energy the format demands, plus the kind of melodies that begged to be amplified by high brass and drum line-ready percussion. Still struck by how fast the arrangement came to him, Brunner orchestrated a 10-minute halftime medley of the pop star’s music that his marchers eagerly learned in just three rehearsals ahead of the Owls’ September football game against Utah State at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.
Trending on Billboard
Their work paid off before they even stepped onto the field. “Some people said, ‘I’m coming to the football game just to see the show,’ ” Brunner says with a laugh, recalling how the student section later came to life doing Roan’s viral “Hot To Go!” choreography along with the band. With that energy behind it, Temple bested Utah State, 45-29.
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
That kind of stadium-rocking enthusiasm is exactly what motivates collegiate band directors all over the country — whether at major state schools like Temple; smaller, private institutions; or historically Black colleges and universities — to adapt current chart-toppers for halftime shows, stand tunes (keeping the bleachers hyped during timeouts and between plays) and pep rallies every year. Having evolved far beyond their 19th-century military band origins, marching ensembles are now key fixtures in the spectacle of college game days, tasked with engaging fans and generating the kind of hype that will inspire the team, reflect well on the school and, ultimately, manifest in more ticket sales. One of the best ways to serve that mission, the directors of seven different ensembles tell Billboard at the end of their 2024-25 football season, is to incorporate fresh pop music into their repertoires — a goal that’s easier said than done.
For starters, not all pop songs are created equal in the world of marching bands. Directors have numerous considerations to make when vetting potential selections, from crowd appeal — which many of them measure by surveying students, patrolling the Billboard Hot 100 and tracking Spotify streams as early as spring to determine what will be trendy in the fall — to whether they can secure the necessary licensing, budgeting anywhere from a few thousand dollars to five-digit sums for rights-buying each year.
They also must weigh if a hit has enough longevity to justify the time spent getting permissions and then arranging and teaching it to 300-plus marchers. Notre Dame director of bands Dr. Ken Dye still ruefully remembers a “Macarena” draft his ensemble never got to play before the dance craze fell out of favor in the ’90s. He also notes with a laugh that he tries to steer clear of tracks with inappropriate lyrics, to avoid repeating the time he received a stern email “from the boss” over a performance of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Turning 180 this year, The Fighting Irish’s college marching band is the oldest in the United States and also represents a Catholic university. (So far, nothing has hit Dye’s inbox over the “motherf–ker” bomb in Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which he paired with Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” for a 2024 halftime.)
But checking those boxes isn’t enough if a song doesn’t first have the musical foundation of a good marching band tune. University of Southern California (USC) band director Dr. Jacob Vogel says that compelling, stackable melodies; harmonies; basslines; and background elements are crucial ingredients, emphasizing how important variation is for filling stadiums with sound. “I refer to it as the enveloping nature of music,” he explains. “Why do people turn music on so loud in their car? So they feel like they’re inside of it. When I put our arrangements together, I want to make sure the band also has that enveloping nature.”
Fortunately, pop’s current crop of upbeat, melodically driven hits led by the likes of Roan and Carpenter offers those elements in abundance. But Vogel remembers two eras that definitely did not: the Adele-style power ballads of the mid-2010s, which were simply too slow for marching, and the EDM crossover phase before that, which was laden with dubstep dance breaks that band instruments couldn’t replicate.
Hip-hop, band directors say, has always been case by case. Horns can’t mimic the spoken quality of rap, but they can do a track justice if it has a prominent instrumental — like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which Southern University’s Human Jukebox covered this season. “ ‘They not like us, they not like us’; we wouldn’t be able to musically execute that,” director Dr. Kedric Taylor explains. “But we are able to musically execute ‘bum bum ba bum,’ ” he continues, singing the chromatic four-note string theme that anchors Lamar’s hit and got new heft courtesy of Southern’s screaming horn line.
Once songs are selected and parts assigned, directors and their staff can design field routines — an art form that, at times, is as straightforward as mining a song’s lyrics for ideas. Vogel’s students at USC formed a deck of cards while playing Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” at halftime, while Brunner, fully aware of a particular lyric’s cheeky double meaning, had his Temple marchers take the shape of a rabbit during Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova” after spelling out her first name. “I can play dumb,” he says with a laugh. “I figured that the people that knew about it would love it and the people that didn’t would be like, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ ”
Temple University Diamond Marching Band performs at the Temple Owls game against Utah State on Sept. 21, 2024 in Philadelphia, PA.
Ricky Swalm
Other parts of the field plan are far less intuitive. Directors must always think mechanically about the relationship between drill and music to ensure that their bands’ sound isn’t compromised by the spacing, timing or direction of any on-field configurations. The list of errors to avoid is endless, as University of Michigan assistant director of bands Dr. Richard Frey illustrates: “Where you place the tubas relative to the melody ends up being critical. If the drums are on the 10-yard line, we’re in big trouble. If you’re backward marching at 172 bpm, the sound’s not going to be great.”
But that painstaking attention to detail pays off on game day, when the marchers finally get to show off their hard work and see how it fires up fans in real time. Their pop arrangements are usually mixed in with classic hits and school songs, but Auburn University director Dr. Corey Spurlin — recalling how the student section sang and danced to Carpenter’s “Espresso” throughout the 2024 season — can attest that the more recent tracks are particularly useful for engaging the crowd. And as long as collegiate marching bands can do that, he says, the ensembles, and not recorded music, will remain “the soundtrack of college football.”
“When people come to the stadium, you want that experience to be worth the investment,” Spurlin says. “Bands are the key cog in being the sight — and sound especially — of college football and making people feel like they’re part of the pageantry. The percussion, the brass, the woodwinds — that’s what we associate with the sport. You can’t get that in your living room.”
Incorporating popular music also helps bands promote themselves and their schools far beyond campus. Many of the directors interviewed here scored viral moments for their shows this year, and one group, Jackson State University’s Sonic Boom of the South, even caught the attention of an artist it covered: Tyler, The Creator, who retweeted a video of the band’s speaker-busting rendition of “Sticky” in November and wrote, “THIS IS WHY I ARRANGED IT THAT WAY … MY HEART IS FILLED.”
“That’s what arranging is all about,” director Dr. Roderick Little says proudly of the rapper’s reaction. “Music is such an important vehicle because it can be interpreted by different musicians a thousand different ways.
“I’m just happy that our program was the one to bring his vision to life,” he adds. “I hope that it brings about new opportunities for marching bands so we can continue to create this art form and ultimately provide opportunities for our students — because we have a lot to offer.”
This story appears in the Feb. 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Chappell Roan has well and truly made her presence felt in Australia, with her sleeper hit “Good Luck, Babe!” effortlessly topping triple j’s Hottest 100 poll for 2024.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
When Roan was announced as the winning song on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 25, the 26-year-old became only the third solo female artist to top the countdown (after Billie Eilish in 2019 and Doja Cat in 2023), and achieved the feat with most votes ever cast for a song in the No. 1 spot.
The result is hardly surprising, of course. It’s become a massive hit for Roan on a global scale, earning her six nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Solo Performance, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year for the track, alongside the coveted Best New Artist trophy. Meanwhile, it peaked atop Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, and reached No. 4 on the Hot 100. In Australia, it matched that feat, and currently sits at No. 12 – one placing higher than its appearance on ARIA’s 2024 End of Year chart.
Trending on Billboard
Roan’s impressive result was followed by Australia’s own Royel Otis, who achieved the silver medal position thanks to their cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor”, performed as part of triple j’s own Like a Version cover series. The performance has truly helped put the Sydney duo on the map, with the track reaching No. 35 in Australia, and topping Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart – the first Like a Version cover to do so.
Billie Eilish finished in third position with “Birds of a Feather”, taking out a new record in the process. Eilish, along with fellow pop icon Charli XCX, both managed a record-breaking eight appearances in the countdown, including their own collaboration as part of Charli XCX’s “Guess” remix at No. 6. This impressive achievement comes only one year after Australia’s G Flip broke the previous record, with their seven songs overtaking an 18-year record set by Wolfmother in 2005 and matched by Spacey Jane in 2022.
Eilish’s strong showing also sees her become the artist with the most historical appearances in the annual poll, with 25 songs since her debut in 2017. She steals the crown from Adelaide hip-hop favorites Hilltop Hoods, whose 24 all-time entries have been achieved between 2003 and 2023.
The top five was rounded out by Lola Young’s “Messy” at No. 4, and Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” at No. 5. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish and Charli XCX’s “Guess” at No. 6, while Dom Dolla’s “Girls”, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”, G Flip’s Like a Version cover of Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer”, and Fred again.. and Baby Keem’s “leavemealone” capped off this year’s top ten.
Despite her ubiquitous appearance within the world of popular music, the perennial Swift also made her own debut appearance in the countdown this year, showing up as a featured artist on Abrams’ “Us.” at No. 71. Famously, Swift had been barred from the countdown in 2014 after a BuzzFeed-led campaign to get “Shake it Off” in the poll was supported by KFC, with triple j saying it was “not legit for other media to try and troll the poll”. The station later said “Shake it Off” would have reached No. 12 had it not been dropped, ultimately leading to unconfirmed rumors Swift had been banned from ever appearing in the countdown.
The 2024 edition of triple j’s Hottest 100 also left a sour taste in the mouth of Australian music-lovers, with the full countdown featuring the lowest number of homegrown artists in almost three decades. With only 29 Australian artists appearing across the full list of songs, it’s the worst showing for Aussies since the 1996 list. Only the debut poll in 1993 and its 1994 follow-up are worse, with 24 and 26 Australian artists, respectively.
This year’s countdown was the result of almost 2.5 million votes cast by the listeners of the station, making it an increase on last year’s 2.335 million showing, but far less than 2019’s record of 3.21 million responses.
All told, 26 artists made their triple j Hottest 100 debuts over the weekend, including Abrams, Shaboozey, Doechii, BABYMETAL, and Tommy Richman.
Read more here.
The fourth annual ASCAP Foundation Holiday Auction is back, with some of the biggest names in music contributing items to the sale.
Launching on Wednesday (Dec. 4), the annual auction is the latest to be launched by ASCAP, which aims to support music education and talent development programs throughout the U.S. This year, more than 70 exclusive items and experiences – the most in the auction’s history – have been donated by some of ASCAP’s top music creators.
Items in the auctions include a signed vinyl copy of Chappell Roan‘s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess album; a behind-the-scenes studio tour and dinner with producer Jermaine Dupri; a signed merch package from Olivia Rodrigo; and a package of two VIP concert tickets for Usher’s upcoming European tour, including a meet-and-greet and travel vouchers.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Elsewhere, signed guitar from Jack Antonoff, Peter Frampton, and Steve Vai are on offer, along with a set of books signed by Patti Smith, and VIP concert tickets for artists such as Gracie Abrams, Deftones, Graham Nash, and more.
Trending on Billboard
Other artists involved in the auction include Tate McRae, Reneé Rapp, Bernie Taupin, Max Martin, Noah Kahan, Sara Bareilles, Chris Stapleton, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Coheed and Cambria, Huey Lewis and The News, and numerous others.
“It’s been an absolute joy to work with ASCAP’s top members to dream up unforgettable experiences and one-of-a-kind gifts to delight music fans this holiday season,” says the ASCAP Foundation Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton. “With over 70 items from music legends, chart-topping artists and more, this year’s auction is bigger and better than ever.
“We are unbelievably grateful to the ASCAP community for these incredible contributions that will help us raise the funds we need to continue supporting the next generation of music creators.”
ASCAP’s annual auction is live now via Charity Buzz, and runs through to December 18.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and Charli XCX’s Brat reach new highs on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart (dated Aug. 17) as the sets climb 4-3 and 10-5, respectively. Both titles also post new one-week highs in streaming-equivalent album units earned, as well their biggest streaming weeks.
Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time logs an eighth non-consecutive week atop the tally, and Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2 flies in at No. 6 as the only debut in the top 10.
The 50-position Top Streaming Albums chart ranks the most-streamed albums of the week in the U.S., as compiled by Luminate. Titles are ranked by streaming equivalent album (SEA) units, where each SEA unit equals 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. If an artist has multiple albums containing the same song, SEA units for that song are generally assigned to whichever album sells the most by traditional album sales in a given week.
Trending on Billboard
One Thing at a Time holds at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums with 60,500 SEA units (down 3%; equaling 83.11 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department bumps 3-2 with 57,500 units (down 3%; 75.43 million on-demand official streams of its songs); it previously spent 11 total and consecutive weeks at No. 1 (May 4-July 13-dated charts).
Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess steps 4-3 with 55,000 SEA units (up 18%, equaling 72.66 million official on-demand streams of its songs), hitting a new peak. It’s the best week, by SEA units and on-demand streams, for the album. The set, which debuted on the tally dated April 27 at No. 34, has been bumping around the Nos. 4-6 positions on the chart in the last six weeks.
Roan has four songs – three from Midwest Princess – on the latest Streaming Songs chart (dated Aug. 17), and all four hit new peaks. The three Midwest tracks gaining new ground are “Hot To Go!” (22-14), “Pink Pony Club” (31-21) and “Red Wine Supernova” (43-32). Meanwhile, the non-album cut “Good Luck, Babe!” climbs 5-4.
Zach Bryan’s former Top Streaming Albums leader The Great American Bar Scene falls 2-4 with 50,000 SEA units (down 16%; equaling 65.53 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs).
Charli XCX’s Brat bounces 10-5 with 49,500 SEA units (up 49%; equaling 65.17 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). It’s the best week, by SEA units and on-demand streams, for the album. The set surges following the Aug. 1 release of the “Guess” remix, featuring Billie Eilish. “Guess” was originally issued as a solo Charli XCX cut on the deluxe edition of the Brat album. Eilish was added to a new remix on Aug. 1. All versions of the song are combined for charting purposes, and contribute to the Brat album’s SEA total.
Three Brat tunes are on the Top Streaming Albums chart: “Guess,” which debuts at No. 6, “Apple,” new at No. 39 (continuing to bask in its gone-viral dance trend), and “360” (38-41).
The lone debut in the top 10 of the new Top Streaming Albums chart is Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2, at No. 6 with nearly 46,000 SEA units (59.44 million on-demand official streams of the 16 songs on the streaming edition of the album).
On Saturday Night Live’s May 18 season finale, Sabrina Carpenter appeared in a sketch as Daphne from Scooby-Doo, watching in horror as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Fred tore the face off James Austin Johnson’s villain. (The gag: Apple Face ID — Never Get Ripped Off Again!) The sketch was a prelude to Carpenter’s two theatrical performances as musical guest. First, she sang her then-new single, “Espresso,” which had debuted the month prior before her main-stage Coachella set and had already soared into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200; then a medley of her first two Pop Airplay top 10 singles, “Feather” (No. 1) and “Nonsense” (No. 10), both released in the preceding year-and-a-half.
Two days later, Justin Eshak and Imran Majid — the co-CEOs of her label, Island Records — gathered their staff at Island’s Manhattan headquarters to rewatch the episode. “She’s just a pro; it was an incredible moment,” Majid says later that afternoon of the 25-year-old singer, who first tasted fame as a Disney Channel actress in her early teens. “For a lot of artists, the idea of translating their performance to television is hard,” Eshak adds. “But because she has so much experience with it, it just felt so much more natural and comfortable for her.”
Trending on Billboard
At the time, the buzz from Carpenter’s SNL debut, coupled with the instant global success of “Espresso,” felt like a mountaintop. After the initial success of “Nonsense,” which reached No. 56 on the Hot 100 in February, “Feather” hit No. 21 and topped Pop Airplay in April. Then “Espresso” exploded, reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100 in June and spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Global 200.
But Carpenter’s momentum has only picked up since. In late June, “Please Please Please” debuted at No. 2 on the Global 200, simultaneously giving her the top two songs in the world. (She maintained that feat the following week, when “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” flipped spots atop the chart.) It also bowed at No. 2 on the Hot 100, making her the first soloist — and second act overall, joining The Beatles — to have her first two top three Hot 100 hits concurrently reach that territory with no other billed acts. The next week, it hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts.
It was the kind of setup that executives dream of: one song building on the next to keep scaling new heights. “We always felt ‘Please Please Please’ had this level of sophistication that really sets her up in a different lens; there’s a bit of Dolly Parton in that song,” Majid says. “But it feels like everything we hoped and dreamed the one-two punch would be.” Or, as Island vp of A&R Jackie Winkler puts it, “ ‘Nonsense’ walked so ‘Feather’ could jog, then ‘Espresso’ ran so that ‘Please Please Please’ could start a stampede.”
Imran Majid, Sabrina Carpenter and Justin Eshak attend Universal Music Group’s 2024 After Party presented by Coke Studios and Merz Aesthetics’ #SmartTox on Feb. 4, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Jordan Strauss
That stampede has set the stage perfectly for the Aug. 23 release of Carpenter’s album Short N’ Sweet and the launch of her North American arena tour in the fall, which sold out in every market within two weeks of its late-June announcement. But already, her success has been one of the biggest artist stories of the year so far, and a big feather in the caps of Eshak, 44, and Majid, 42, who took over the esteemed 65-year-old Island in January 2022 after jointly running the A&R department at Columbia Records for three years.
Carpenter is just one example of how the duo has revitalized Island. In mid-June, following her massive performance at New York’s Governors Ball festival, Chappell Roan’s September 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 in its 12th week on the chart — just the second time this decade that an album broke into the region for the second time after that long of a climb. And in the first week of July, Roan’s single “Good Luck, Babe!” — which became her first Hot 100 hit when it debuted on the chart in April and is not on Midwest Princess — hit No. 10 on the Hot 100 after its own 13-week climb.
Call it the summer of Island. While the likes of Carpenter, Roan, The Killers, Brittany Howard and Remi Wolf are dominating festival stages, their songs are setting new personal high-water marks on the charts. The buzz started building earlier this year: Howard’s first album for Island, What Now, arrived in February to critical praise; that same month, the biopic Bob Marley: One Love, about Island’s most famous artist and featuring James Norton as label founder Chris Blackwell, grossed over $179 million, according to Box Office Mojo. (Island was not involved in the making of the film but did release an album “inspired by” the movie alongside Tuff Gong Records, which featured artists like Kacey Musgraves, Wizkid and Leon Bridges covering Marley classics.) The Last Dinner Party, originally signed by Island U.K.’s Louis Bloom, released its debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, and was named “Britain’s hottest new band” by The New York Times Magazine in March; in April, Hulu released a well-received documentary on Bon Jovi — which has spent its entire 40-year career as part of Island — before the band’s latest album, Forever, debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in June; and alt-pop powerhouse Wolf released her heralded sophomore album, Big Ideas, on July 12. The year ahead also promises new music from Carpenter and Roan, while Shawn Mendes, one of the label’s few reliable hit-makers over the past decade, is in the studio.
“Nowadays, everything’s about culture, and company culture, and the philosophy of how you’re doing things, and Island is definitely a label that’s wired differently,” says Nick Bobetsky, who manages Roan. “They’re not the ambulance chasers, they’re not the TikTok-moment chasers. They’re really committed to supporting their artists in a way that’s really true to those artists, and that is rare in today’s climate.”
Brittany Howard (left) and Justin Eshak at Brooklyn’s Electric Garden Studios in 2023.
Courtesy of Island Records
For Eshak and Majid, it’s validation of the culture that they’ve sought to build since taking over the Universal Music Group (UMG) subsidiary in 2022 — and a testament to the work they’ve done overhauling a label that had slipped down the pecking order as the marketplace evolved in recent years. While the Island Records they inherited — home to Marley, U2, Traffic, Grace Jones and Cat Stevens, among others through the years — may have been rich in history, its more recent track record had been spotty at best, disjointed at worst. Island finished 2021 with a current market share of 0.67%, a number that had fallen steadily over the previous five years, from 1.5% in 2018, according to Luminate.
“We weren’t walking in here inheriting hits. We had to rebuild a roster, which sounds easy but takes time, and no one really knew what the label proposition was,” Majid says. “So we had to go out there and project what that is at a very competitive time.”
But Island’s small roster and small staff allowed it to focus on developing talents like Carpenter and Roan — and to provide that raison d’être that the label had seemingly been missing. That has often meant leveraging the live side of each artist’s career to help catapult new records: The popularity of Carpenter’s “Nonsense,” for instance, was built through the fan response to the city-specific outros she added to each of her opening performances on Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, while “Espresso” and “Please” were launched in tandem with her Coachella and Governors Ball performances. “It’s really difficult to break through as an artist anymore unless you have a holistic artist proposition,” Eshak explains.
The label built its strategy for Roan, too, on her live aesthetic; Eshak and Majid tell the story of seeing her perform for the first time at New York’s Bowery Ballroom and how the energy of the crowd struck them more than any of the metrics they had seen on socials or streaming. “The enthusiasm that existed in the crowd was just insane,” Eshak continues. “I remember thinking, ‘How do we tell the story about what happened in Bowery Ballroom to the rest of the world? Because if we can do that, then she’s going to break.’ ”
Imran Majid, Chappell Roan and Justin Eshak attend Universal Music Group’s 2024 After Party presented by Coke Studios and Merz Aesthetics’ #SmartTox on Feb. 4, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Jordan Strauss
The small-but-mighty ethos is a cue Eshak and Majid took from Blackwell, whom they visited at his Goldeneye resort on Jamaica’s north coast shortly after starting at Island. “When we took this job, we had such a reverence for Island and its history,” Eshak says. “Hearing Chris Blackwell talk about artists that historically worked on Island, they would weave their way through culture. The artists that are having success now are fan-driven, have unique artist propositions, and you just [have to] support them in the right way. This label has always stood for creativity and for artistry and for things that may not seem obvious but weave their way through culture.”
In some ways, no label is as beholden to, or in the thrall of, its founder as Island. Since being spun back off as a stand-alone label from the combined Island Def Jam in 2014, successive heads of the company have invoked Blackwell, who left in the late 1990s, when articulating their philosophies. “I wanted to go back to the idea of Chris Blackwell-era Island: an artist-driven label that was a major, but in an intimate manner,” then-president David Massey told Billboard in 2016 about his approach. In 2019, his successor, Darcus Beese, told Billboard, “How I run my business is literally how I think Chris would run his business.”
Eshak and Majid are similar, often invoking the spirits of Blackwell and the label itself — though with their own spin. “It’s not a throwback company by any means; it’s very progressive and market-focused,” Majid says. “But it’s also about curation. If we’re going to have success in this market and with a new generation of artists, you want artists that feel like they love being a part of the company, and you want people that want to work here. And that was kind of what Chris built at Island Records.”
“I’m so happy that Justin and Imran have continued to honor the heart and culture of the label,” Blackwell, 87, tells Billboard. “Looking back, I remember the rush of excitement when I discovered an act, signed them and saw their massive success. Well done, guys.”
Imran Majid, Chris Blackwell and Justin Eshak (from left) at Pebble Bar in Manhattan in 2022.
Kevin Condon
Eshak’s and Majid’s careers have often run parallel over the past 18 years. Both started at Universal Republic under Monte and Avery Lipman in the mid-2000s, when the company had just 23 employees and a small roster; Eshak then spent time at Mick Management before the two reunited in 2013 in Columbia’s A&R department, where they rose to co-heads of A&R. While they seem a study in contrasts — Majid, a New Jersey native, is more outgoing and gregarious; Eshak, from Houston, is more reserved and measured — they’re united by a shared passion and sense of purpose for their artists and their staff, the business and the music, as well as an awareness of their own complementary strengths.
Through their industry arcs, Eshak and Majid have seen the business from Republic’s then-scrappy-upstart vantage point, as well as through the legacy lens of Columbia, one of the oldest and most decorated labels in history. The current iteration of Island, with its immense, venerated catalog and relatively small staff, is something of a combination of the two. “The team at Island is our extended family,” says Janelle Lopez Genzink, Carpenter’s manager. “Every member of the team’s laser focus on delivering in each of their areas has helped us experience these monumental wins.”
But the progress toward this point has not been linear. The duo first needed to overhaul Island, even amid a broader restructuring by UMG. The first two years of Eshak and Majid’s tenure didn’t include much improvement in market share as they reshaped the roster, while UMG shifted Island into Republic Recording Company in early 2024, alongside Republic Records, Def Jam and Mercury, providing resources through its Corps team, with the Island chiefs now reporting to Monte Lipman. Yet despite the reshuffle — and maybe partially because of it and the groundwork laid in those early years — Island has more than doubled its current market share, from 0.62% at the end of 2023 to 1.3% through the end of June.
“Both Imran and Justin are top graduates of ‘Republic University’ from back in the day and have always exemplified the passion, drive and ambition to become leaders in this business,” Republic Recording Company founder and chairman Monte Lipman tells Billboard. “Avery and I couldn’t be more proud of their success in creating such an amazing culture for both artists and executives at Island Records.”
Island’s artists appreciate that culture, too. Carpenter calls Eshak and Majid “collaborative and supportive partners” who “encourage an open dialogue, which is important to me.” “It’s very rare that the higher-ups trust the artist fully,” Roan adds. “It proves Justin and Imran’s method that trusting in the artist results in success and longevity — even outside of music.” And Jon Bon Jovi, whom Majid calls “our Bruce Springsteen,” says the two “truly care about their artists and are supportive and passionate in achieving a shared vision.”
“Certain things are always true: great artists, great artistry, great songs, artists with clear vision,” Eshak says. “But on the business side, it’s almost the opposite, where we’re in a business of constant change. You have to be willing to reinvent yourself and reteach yourself things all the time in this business. And I think, ultimately, the labels that are successful have that approach: They understand culture, they understand what actually moves the needle in the marketplace, and they’re constantly evolving.”
Island’s latest evolution is still developing, with several more emerging artists in the pipeline, Grammy hopes on the horizon and a new partnership with Virgin Music to sign regional Mexican star Carín León — the label’s first true foray into Latin music, which was announced in late June. But for the moment, Majid says, there’s a chance to simply take a breath, look around and appreciate how far they’ve come. “It’s two-and-a-half years of going seven days a week to just catch a break,” he says. “To have a moment like this that we don’t take for granted and we’re very sober about — it’s very fulfilling.”
This story will appear in the July 20, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Sabrina Carpenter is in the midst of a major battle, and her fiercest competitor is none other than herself.
As the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart reaches its midweek point, Carpenter’s smash hit “Espresso” remains piping hot and is neck-and-neck with “Please Please Please” (both via Island Records) as both singles vie for the coveted No. 1 spot.
“Espresso” debuted straight in at No. 6 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart upon its release, and on May 3, 2024, it became Carpenter’s very first U.K. leader. It also marked the highest-charting U.K. No. 1 about caffeine in 24 years, since All Saints’ 2000 hit “Black Coffee.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Meanwhile “Please Please Please,” the second single from Carpenter’s sixth studio album Short ‘n’ Sweet, toppled Eminem‘s “Houdini” back in late June to secure Sabrina her second U.K. No. 1 single in less than two months, while “Espresso” stayed at No. 2. In doing so, Sabrina set a new Official Chart record, becoming the youngest female artist in history to hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Official Singles Chart in the same week.
Trending on Billboard
In other U.K. singles chart news, rising star Chappell Roan is also making waves. Her catchy and heartfelt single “Good Luck, Babe!” (via Island) is poised to hit a new peak at No. 4, up from its debut in the top 10 last week.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data published by the Official Charts Company, Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” (via EMI) is expected to re-enter the top 10 at No. 10, riding the wave of excitement from her The Eras Tour. Swift’s ability to keep her music relevant and engaging is once again on full display, as fans continue to support her timeless hits.
Dua Lipa, fresh off her headline performance at Glastonbury Festival, is seeing her track “Illusion” (via Warner Records) re-enter the top 20, currently at No. 13. The festival’s influence is also boosting Coldplay, with their new song “feelslikeimfallinginlove” (via Atlantic) set to reach a new peak at No. 21. Both acts have clearly benefited from their standout performances, drawing renewed attention to their latest releases.
BTS icon Jimin is aiming for his third top 40 U.K. single with “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” (via Big Hit Music) featuring rapper Loco, with the track projected to land at No. 18. Inspired by The Beatles‘ iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the K-Pop star’s latest solo effort sees him once again collaborate with renowned producers Pdogg, GHSTLOOP, and EVAN, who previously worked on his debut solo album, FACE.
Stay tuned for the final chart results at the end of the week to see which tracks secure their positions.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Chappell Roan’s tour glam includes a $15 eyeshadow palette and viral setting powder from the LGBTQ-owned brand KimChi Chic Beauty.
Roan’s makeup artist, Ali Scharf, shared details on the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s tour glam, which incorporates KimChi’s Sapphire Jewel Collection.
KimChi Chic Beauty
KimChi Chic Beauty Jewel Collection Eyeshadow Palette Sapphire
The eyeshadow palette is made up of nine “blendable, smooth and velvety” matte and glitter shades available in sapphire, ruby, emerald and diamond.
Trending on Billboard
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Also on Roan’s glam list: KimChi’s The Most concealer ($12.50) and the TikTok-favorite Puff Puff Pass Set & Bake Powder ($19).
KimChi Chic Beauty
KimChi Chic Beauty Puff, Puff Pass Set & Bake Powder
The beauty brand, currently offering up to 25% off for Pride Month, can be found backstage at Roan’s Midwest Princess Tour. The 26-year-old singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released in 2023.
Roan’s breakout single “Good Luck, Babe” debuted at No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 and rises to No. 16 on this week’s charts.
With show-stopping performances at Governors Ball and on the The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, opening for Olivia Rodrigo on the Guts tour and a co-sign from Elton John, Roan’s star shows no signs of slowing down.
The Midwest Princess Tour stops in Seattle Washington on July 19 and the Lollapalooza after party in Chicago on July 31. Roan is scheduled to take the stage at several summer music festivals including Lollapalooza, Hinterland Music Festival, Outside Lands and All Things Go Festival. The tour heads to Europe in September.
Want to see her live? Tickets to the tour are available at StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek and Ticketmaster.
Months into writing a new song with Chappell Roan in 2023, Dan Nigro hit a wall. The Grammy-winner songwriter-producer had tried just about everything he could think of with the bubbling under pop phenomenon — boosting the production, cleaning up the lyrics, adjusting the key — and yet the song still didn’t have that special X factor they were looking for.
“We kept on getting so frustrated,” Nigro tells Billboard. “We knew that something about it was really special, but we could not figure it out. Was it the key? Was it the verses that needed to feel more spunky?”
But once the duo found what they were looking for in the stratospheric chorus, the song transformed into Roan’s runaway hit, “Good Luck, Babe!” Since the song’s release in April, Roan (born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) has become one of the most talked-about voices in mainstream pop music. The single marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 77, and has risen to No. 16 on the June 29-dated chart, with three of her other songs — “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” — populating the lower half of the list. Meanwhile, her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, reaches a career-high at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
Trending on Billboard
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a track co-penned by Nigro is finding such breakaway success. Over the last several years, the songwriter has cemented himself as one of the most sought-after writers in the business, helping write hits for pop artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek, Conan Gray and others. But in working with Roan, Nigro says he’s found something especially exciting.
“When we made [her May 2020 single] ‘California,’ which was the second song we wrote together, I had this feeling like I was a part of something deeply special,” Nigro says. “It felt magical and deeply relatable … and really important, [because] she was making it so that it felt important.”
Nigro breaks down the “intense” process of writing “Good Luck, Babe!,” its runaway success over the last two months and why he knew early on that Chappell Roan was destined to be “a superstar.”
Tell me about the beginning of the process with “Good Luck, Babe!” — where did the original idea for the track come from, and when did you begin working on this?
Kayleigh, Justin [Tranter] and I actually started the idea in November of 2022. We wrote a scratch idea — it was just a verse and a chorus. The idea was originally called “Good Luck, Jane” — Kayleigh was really set on having it be a name.
It’s a song we wrestled with for a while. We laid down a demo, and the two of us felt like it wasn’t right. We knew something was special about the song, but we couldn’t tell what it was that we were getting wrong. So, we worked on it for a day, we put it away, and then a few months later, she came in for something else, and she was like, “What about that one song we wrote? I feel like there’s something there.”
[embedded content]
Kayleigh’s voice is crazy across all of her songs, but it feels like she is in rare form on “Good Luck, Babe!,” where she’s almost expressing the entirety of her vocal range on one song.
Absolutely. When we opened it back up, we really narrowed in on the chorus and decided that some of the words needed to be in full voice. And then all of a sudden, we listened back and went, “Okay! I think we’ve figured it out!” Once we finally got it, it was such a relief. That song was so intense, and it was definitely one of the hardest songs to get right.
Kayleigh and I are not the people who go in the studio and write a song in one day. We take our time with it, comb over the lyrics and then forget about it for a month and come back to listen with fresh ears. A lot of times when you’re working on a song, in the midst of working on it, you tend to get really excited about it, and then you look back later and go, “Oh, that wasn’t as good as we thought it was.” Luckily, Kayleigh is so good at having that insight and knowing [when] to take a step back and reflect on it. She’s so incredible at having that self-awareness. She’s also such an incredible singer — which is a great thing, but because she often sounds really good singing any song, figuring out the difference between something being really good and being amazing can be tricky.
I know Kayleigh has said this song was “a b-tch to write,” and that very much tracks with what you’re describing here.
For sure. Though, it’s funny: To me, it wasn’t actually that much of a b-tch to write. I feel like it was the production and the process that was really tough. Actually writing the song was quite fluid. I remember she came over one day, and I was like, “Well, now we need a bridge.” She wrote the bridge all on her own in like two minutes. She said, “Put the pre-chorus chords on,” I looped it, and she just got on the mic and went for it. I was trying to keep looping the chords more because she just kept singing, and I was like, “No, we have to go further!” It was amazing.
You mentioned that the original version of the song you wrote with Justin had really different verses lyrically — what would you say fundamentally changed between that first draft and the final version?
I don’t exactly remember what the verses were to begin with, just because it’s been so long since we wrote them. But I do remember that we wanted the words to feel more effortless. We wanted to make sure it had that casual, cool, laid-back feeling to it. The lyrics were a little bit more pointed, a little more cutting. We chilled it out, and then she was sitting on the couch at one point, and she said, “I just want to have a line in there about my arms reaching out of a sunroof.” It was so funny.
At what point in this process, if at all, did you think that “Good Luck, Babe!” was going to be a hit?
When a song is difficult to get right, especially from the production side of things, I become so self-conscious of it that I can never see it super clearly. Also, “Good Luck, Babe!” is so dramatic — I tend to keep my productions pretty minimal for the most part. But “Good Luck, Babe!” is such an epic production — there are like 100 string parts! When I’m adding that much production, I tend to feel like I’m doing too many things. So, I don’t think there was any point in that process where I was like, “Oh, this one’s going to be a hit.”
I remember she texted me the day the song came out, just being excited about the song. Then her manager texted me and said, “This one feels special, this feels different right now.” That is, to me, the crazy thing about being able to see the numbers in real time: You have absolutely no way of knowing, and then within 12 hours, people can tell you, “Oh yeah, audiences are really liking this one.”
[embedded content]
It seems clear that “Good Luck, Babe!” really cemented this cultural moment for Kayleigh: The song has climbed into the top 20 of the Hot 100, “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Pink Pony Club” have all entered the Hot 100, and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess continues to climb on the Billboard 200, reaching the top 10.
It is crazy to watch. This feels like … I don’t want to say “destiny,” that’s the wrong word to use. It all happened for a reason. This song was made during the making for Rise and Fall, and to me, it felt like it could have easily been on the record. I’d like to think that because it came out at a different time, it held a different meaning and it was a different vessel for the album. Whereas, if it came out with the album, then the record would not be what it’s doing right now.
Why do you think this moment is happening right now, rather than with the album’s release last September?
All I can say is, three or four days into meeting her, I was convinced she was a superstar. I was so enamored by the way she thought about music, and I could not believe I was a part of it, because it felt magical and also deeply relatable. When we made “Pink Pony Club,” that was the record where it felt like we were making something actively powerful. It was that sort of feeling where you get the sense that you’re making a song that people need. I’ve always felt that something like this was going to happen for her; the question was just when it would happen.
The fact that she’s so phenomenal live means people are finally able to see in real time how good she is. That then becomes this word-of-mouth thing, and it’s wonderful to see her have such old school success. I’ve told so many people, “This is the way things used to be — you would have to see the artist live, and you see them be good at what they do and then spread the word.” She’s so good at what she does that the system is working again! It really is that simple.
That’s an important point — while a lot has happened in the last two months, this wasn’t “overnight” success. Chappell had been steadily growing before “Good Luck, Babe!” blew up.
I totally agree, it’s not “overnight” success in any way — even since the record came out nine months ago, every single day, the numbers were steadily going up by like a percentage each week. It just took so long to get to the point where enough people were talking about it every day for it to become exponential.
You’ve had a lot of success working with pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray and Caroline Polacheck — is there anything about working with Chappell that feels different than your other collaborators? Or what things feel similar in the way you work with all of those artists?
If I’m being honest, I always feel weird when asked to compare people. I think the important thing is that she’s incredibly articulate about what she wants out of a song, and we have a great relationship when it comes to creating music. We’re writing songs together, but we’re also producing them together, and she’s in the room for a bunch of it. There’s a really good language between us when it comes to making music. I can understand what she’s looking for, and if I’m not getting something right when I’m producing, she can step in. She’s so good at explaining exactly what she wants, and it makes for a really good flow in our working relationship.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
-
Pages