CHARTBREAKER
True to her name, Mariah the Scientist’s songs are often the result of several months, and sometimes years, spent combining different elements of choruses and verses until finding the right mixture. But when it came time for the 27-year-old to unveil her latest single, the sultry “Burning Blue,” the R&B singer-songwriter was at a crossroads. So, she experimented with her promotional strategy, too — and achieved the desired momentum.
“Mariah felt she was in a space between treating [music] like a hobby and this being her career,” recalls Morgan Buckles, the artist’s sister and manager. And so, they crafted a curated, monthlong rollout — filled with snippets, TikTok posts encouraging fan interaction and various live performances — that helped the song go viral even before its early May arrival. Upon its release, Mariah the Scientist scored her first solo Billboard Hot 100 entry and breakthrough hit.
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Mariah Amani Buckles grew up in Atlanta, singing from an early age. She attended St. John’s University in New York and studied biology, but ultimately dropped out to pursue music. Her self-released debut EP, To Die For, arrived in 2018, after which she signed to RCA Records and Tory Lanez’s One Umbrella label. She stayed in those deals until 2022 — releasing albums Master and Ry Ry World in 2019 and 2021, respectively — before leaving to continue as an independent artist.
“Over time, you start realizing [people] want you to change things,” Mariah says of her start in the industry. “Everybody wants to control your art. I don’t want to argue with you about what I want, because if we don’t want the same things, I’ll just go find somebody who does.”
Mariah the Scientist
Carl Chisolm
In 2023, after six months as an independent artist, Mariah signed a joint venture deal with Epic Records and released her third album, To Be Eaten Alive, which became her first to reach the Billboard 200. She then made two Hot 100 appearances as a featured artist in early 2024, on “IDGAF” with Tee Grizzley and Chris Brown and “Dark Days” with 21 Savage.
“Burning Blue” marks Mariah’s first release of 2025 — and first new music since boyfriend Young Thug’s release from jail following his bombshell YSL RICO trial. The song takes inspiration from Purple Rain-era Prince balladry with booming drums and warbling bass — and Mariah admits that the Jetski Purp-produced beat on YouTube (originally titled “Blue Flame”) likely influenced some lyrics, too. She initially recorded part of the track over an unofficial MP3 rip, but after Purp caught wind of it and learned his girlfriend was a fan, he gave Mariah the beat. Mariah then looped in Nineteen85 (Drake, Nicki Minaj, Khalid) to flesh out the production.
“I [recorded the first part of ‘Burning Blue’] in the first room I recorded in when I first started making music in Atlanta,” Mariah says. “I don’t want to say it was a throwaway, but it was casual. I wrote some of it, and then I put it to the side.”
Once Epic A&R executive Jennifer Raymond heard the in-progress track, she insisted on its completion enough that Mariah and her collaborators convened in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in February to finish the song. By that point, they sensed something special. Mariah shared a low-quality snippet on Instagram, but Morgan — who joined as a tour manager in 2022 — knew a more polished presentation was needed to reach its full potential.
Morgan Buckles (left) and Mariah the Scientist photographed May 20, 2025 in New York.
Carl Chisolm
Morgan eyed Billboard’s Women in Music event in late March as the launchpad for the “Burning Blue” campaign. Though Mariah wasn’t performing or presenting at the event, Morgan wanted to take advantage of her already being in glam to shoot a flashier teaser than Mariah’s initial IG story, which didn’t even show her face.
The two decided on a behind-the-scenes, pre-red carpet clip soundtracked by a studio-quality snippet of “Burning Blue.” Posted on April 1, that clip showcased its downtempo chorus and Mariah’s silky vocal and has since amassed more than two million views, with designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s official TikTok account sharing the video to its feed. Ten days later, Morgan advised Mariah to share another TikTok, this time with an explicit call to action encouraging fans to use the song in their own posts and teasing that she “might have a surprise” for fans with enough interaction.
Mariah then debuted the song live on April 19 during a set at Howard University — a smart exclusive for her core audience — as anticipation for the song continued to build. Two weeks later, “Burning Blue” hit digital service providers on May 2, further fueled by a Claire Bishara-helmed video on May 8 that has over 7 million YouTube views.
“We’re at the point where opportunity meets preparation,” Morgan reflects of the concerted but not overbearing promotional approach. “[To Be Eaten Alive] happened so fast, I didn’t even know what ‘working’ a project meant. This time, I studied other artists’ rollouts to figure out how to make this campaign personal to her.”
“Burning Blue” debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 17, marking Mariah’s first time in the top 40. Following its TikTok-fueled debut, the song has shown legs at radio too, entering Rhythmic Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay — to which Morgan credits Epic’s radio team, spearheaded by Traci Adams and Dontay Thompson. “[The song] ended up going to radio a week earlier [than scheduled] because Dontay was like, ‘If y’all like this song so much, then play it!,’ and they did,” Morgan jokes.
With “Burning Blue” proving to be a robust start to an exciting new chapter, Mariah has a bona fide hit to start the summer as she prepares to unleash her new project, due before the fall. She recently performed the track on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and will have the opportunity to fan the song’s flames in front of festival audiences including Governors Ball in June and Lollapalooza in August. But as her following continues to heat up, Mariah’s mindset is as cool as ever.
“I’ll take what I can get,” Mariah says. “As long as I can use my platform to help people feel included or understood, I’m good.”
Mariah the Scientist
Carl Chisolm
A version of this story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Something fortuitous happened for Role Model during the second North American stop of his No Place Like Tour live run on Feb. 27. Jake Shane happened to be in Dallas at the same time — and with some last-minute coordination, the influencer ended up onstage with the singer for “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out.”
“People loved it — like, lost it,” recalls Role Model, chatting while still on the road. “We were like, ‘Why not do this every night? We don’t need a cameo. It will be fun to do a Justin Bieber “One Less Lonely Girl”-type of moment.’ ”
Throughout the tour, Role Model has welcomed one lucky fan onstage to dance around with the artist during the bridge of the sun-kissed pop-rock song. At one of two sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ The Wiltern in April, he welcomed friend Reneé Rapp to play the part.
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Later that month, when the 27-year-old made his late-night television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he scored an appearance from Bowen Yang for the role. The stunt resulted in viral social media moments, with the unintentional strategy helping sustain the song.
“Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” arrived on Feb. 14 as part of the deluxe edition of Role Model’s second album, Kansas Anymore. (As was much of the album, the song was co-written with close collaborator Noah Conrad, alongside Annika Bennett and Harrison Whitford.) The deluxe, titled Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye), featured four new tracks — but “Sally” emerged early on as “something we could jump off of,” says Sam Riback, Interscope Geffen A&M co-president and head of pop/rock A&R. “We were like, ‘Here we go.’ ”
By early May, Role Model made his Billboard airplay debut when “Sally” entered at No. 36 on the Alternative Airplay chart. The song also cracked the top 20 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and reached a No. 12 high on Hot Alternative Songs.
Riback first heard of Role Model, born Tucker Pillsbury, in 2018; at the time, Benny Blanco had an imprint with the label called Friends Keep Secrets, and one of its employees tipped Riback off to the then-unknown artist from Cape Elizabeth, Maine making music in his college dorm room. “I heard this demo, which we inevitably put out, of a song called ‘Minimal,’ ” recalls Riback. “It just immediately captivated me,” he says of the stripped-down, hip-hop inspired indie track. Later that year, Role Model signed to Interscope Records. (He signed with Best Friends Music for management in 2020, though parted ways with the firm this April).
Four years after signing, Role Model released his debut album, Rx, in 2022, where he showcased an edgier look and more alternative sound. But Kansas Anymore took a turn towards softer, more Americana-inspired indie-pop and highlighted his sensibilities as a songwriter.
“People who have been listening to me since 2017 have gotten to watch me slowly figure out music,” he says. “When I put out [‘Minimal’], that was really the first song I had made. I didn’t know what I was doing. So I feel like, truly, I did not find my sound until Kansas Anymore. It’s something I’m proud of and it feels like the most genuine thing I’ve made, ever.”
After the album arrived last July, Role Model was eager to stay in the sonic world he had built. While writing the album, he had two “rough ideas that were not fleshed out” but fit into the same universe. So he saved them (they ultimately became “Old Recliners” and “Some Protector”). But as he toyed with the idea of a deluxe, he knew he would need more: “I don’t wanna half-ass it,” he remembers thinking. Weeks after its release, he started writing again, and out came “Longest Goodbye” and “Sally,” the latter of which he calls “a new ending to the chapter…I think that this song felt like a breath of fresh air in that way of, ‘Oh, there’s somewhat of a positive spin here.’ ”
The most fun-loving song to come from the Kansas Anymore chapter, Role Model says “Sally” is “based off some truth,” with the song detailing his re-entry into the dating pool. “Lyrically, it was me being hesitant and doubtful,” he says, “not being sold on someone.”
Role Model
Daniel Prakopcyk
Role Model teased the track in the days leading to its release, and when he kicked off his No Place Like Tour dates in New Zealand/Australia in early February, added it to his set. “The very first time I did it, people were singing the words. It got louder and louder every show,” he says. “It was the bridge specifically, but it felt like a big moment in the set and the song wasn’t out yet. And that’s when I started to be like, ‘Oh, maybe this is bigger than I can imagine.’ ”
“[‘Sally’ is] an entryway for all these people to see what Tucker’s been building so sturdily over the past seven years,” says Riback. “He hasn’t skipped any steps and he has meticulously put together a fan base that I think is so onboard and along for the ride, wherever this goes next.”
In terms of the next onstage Sally, Role Model has his eyes on Kacey Musgraves, teasing that they’re on a few of the same festival lineups this summer, including Iowa’s Hinterland and Aspen’s Up In the Sky, both scheduled for August. “There’s gotta be some strings we can pull,” he says with a laugh. Riback adds: “We are always planting seeds and hoping things bloom into what we would like them to bloom into.”
In between legs of his tour, he’s also been writing a bit: “I finally had some days to lock myself in the studio again,” he says, “which was incredible and inspiring in itself.” But, much like his career, Role Model is not rushing a thing, calling his rise “a very slow incline — with bumps, of course.” He admires the way his tourmate Gracie Abrams, for whom he’s opened, has navigated her own career, saying she is “an amazing example…I feel like she has just skyrocketed and has handled it incredibly.
“It’s always scared me, the idea of a moment and a giant peak in a career, because it’s the hardest thing to keep up with,” he continues. “And I think oftentimes, you see it go away. So I’m trying not to live in it, but at the same time, I’m doing everything in my power to make sure it does stick around.”
This story appears in the May 17, 2025, issue of Billboard.
When they relocated to New York in 2023, Pierre and Henry Beasley of alt-pop duo Balu Brigada certainly didn’t expect they’d end up sounding like a Big Apple band from 20 years earlier.
“I used to be kind of cynical of that idea,” Henry says of the notion of a band’s music sounding like the place where it’s made. But as the brothers — originally from Auckland, New Zealand — started to record their new album in Harlem, they had to acknowledge that it didn’t sound like the music they had been making seven time zones over.
“You can hear the difference between [how the] aggression and tension and grit comes out in New York — and then New Zealand’s rolling hills kind of giving you a little more space to breathe,” Henry explains. (“More beachy vibes,” Pierre adds.)
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Ashley Markle
It is one of those more aggressive, tense and gritty songs that has taken Balu Brigada from a cult act trying to find its major-label footing stateside — the brothers signed to both Warner Music Australasia and Atlantic Records simultaneously in 2022 — to chart-topping radio hitmakers. “So Cold,” a spiky, slinky and above all Strokes-y single the duo released in June 2024, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart in March — a ranking more often dominated by legacy acts than a breakout outfit like Balu Brigada.
“So Cold” slotting in so easily in retro-dominated alt-rock radio playlists hardly happened by accident. Pierre recalls he and Henry (both multi-instrumentalists who share singing duties) loading up their YouTube accounts with videos of bands like The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand for inspiration while creating the song, which Pierre says originally had more of a The Police feel. “[We were watching] those guys playing big festivals, and having these big guitar riffs that people chant,” he recalls. “We leaned into that.”
Still, it took more than the spirits of such frontmen as Julian Casablancas and Alex Kapranos to turn the song into a No. 1 hit. First, the band posted an Instagram reel of “So Cold” in spring 2024, with a red jumpsuit-clad Pierre playing the bass while sitting in his Auckland bedroom. The clip caught fire on social media and attracted a ton of industry attention.
“We got so many crazy calls just from this one reel,” says Goldie Management’s Amy Goldsmith, who’s been with the band since seeing them play at a New Zealand barbecue in the late 2010s. “[Recording Academy CEO] Harvey Mason jr even rung [about] the boys and was like, ‘What is this band? I’m so excited about them.’ ”
Henry (left) and Pierre Beasley of Balu Brigada photographed March 19, 2025 in New York.
Ashley Markle
The reel also soon got the attention of Chris Woltman, longtime manager of alt-pop superstars Twenty One Pilots. “It was pretty obvious that [‘So Cold’ was] a smash,” he says of his first impression. That inspired him to dig deeper into the band’s streaming catalog — which includes a steady run of singles dating back to 2016, along with 2019’s Almost Feel Good Mixtape and EPs I Should Be Home (2021) and Find a Way (2013).
“I quickly found out over the next couple of days that it wasn’t just one song — they’d been writing these amazing tracks,” recalls Woltman. “It raised this question of, ‘This is an amazing song, and there’s all these other amazing songs. How can this band not be getting noticed?’ ”
From there, Woltman not only signed the band to his and Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph’s newly launched ARRO label, but hitched Balu Brigada to the Pilots’ then-upcoming Clancy worldwide arena tour. (ARRO has an artist venture with Atlantic for Balu Brigada, but Woltman says the label is otherwise independent.)
“We all came together and said, “There is something really compelling going on: They’re making great music. They have a vision that we think can be driven with discovery with our fanbase; they have a song in ‘So Cold’ that is the tip of the spear. If we come in and are their greatest advocate [and introduce] them to the Twenty One Pilots fanbase… we thought, ‘You know what, let’s give this a shot.’ ”
Despite the risk of attaching a relatively unproven band to such a major tour, they quickly demonstrated themselves to Woltman as highly capable: “I think what they just needed is a little bit of time on the field,” he says.
They got that playing time in the form of 66 shows, taking them all over North America, Latin America, Oceania and Europe, and putting them in front of over a million total Twenty One Pilots fans — known as Clikkies — who quickly took to the junior alt-pop duo. “There’s something special about the way that the fanbase has adopted Henry and Pierre,” Goldsmith says. “I think with the passion that the Clikkies have, they’ve [taken to Balu Brigada as] kind of like, ‘These are our new baby-band boys.’”
In the meantime, “So Cold” was starting to catch on at streaming services — helped by a music video with some winkingly White Stripes-influenced fashion and camera zooms, and a September synch in soccer video game EA Sports FC 25, after which the song’s weekly streams doubled. (To date, it has 12.2 million on-demand official U.S. streams through April 3, according to Luminate.) And Woltman and the team started pushing the song to alternative radio, sensing an opportunity to expand its success there. “In the alternative mix today, I think that radio still plays a role,” he says. “ ‘So Cold’ felt like it could be a big alternative radio track.”
Ashley Markle
A few weeks after Balu Brigada brought “So Cold” to Jimmy Kimmel Live! — the duo’s first appearance on American television — the song topped the Alternative Airplay chart dated March 29, in its 24th week on the listing. Woltman sees its success as validation of a long-term strategy that was nearly a year in the making.
“None of this is about an overnight moment,” he says, “as is always the case when you’re trying to build a legitimate alternative rock band. It’s not about a song; it’s not about a TikTok moment; it’s not about an influencer moment — it’s about the everything else.”
Currently, Pierre and Henry are putting the finishing touches on their debut album, expected later this year, which takes the band to new territory — including “some real emotional sensitive jams” and “some real obnoxious like pseudo-EDM stompers,” Henry says. But even though they’re nearly a year removed from the release of “So Cold,” and getting a step closer to their Strokes and White Stripes fantasies with their own upcoming headlining U.S. tour, they’re still enjoying following their breakout hit on its way up.
“Every day, it’s hitting a new peak,” Pierre says. “We’re both proud to watch our baby continue to be recognized.”
A version of this story appears in the April 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.
“It was an uncomfortable song to play my mom,” Leon Thomas admits of “Mutt,” a flirtatious track that mentions the urge to “pop a shroom to re-create the feeling.” “Mutt” marked the Grammy-winning songwriter’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a recording artist, following years of behind-the-scenes work that includes hits for Ariana Grande, SZA and more. And his mother loved it, too. “She told me this is going to be one of my biggest records. She spoke into existence.”
For Thomas, 31 — the Brooklyn-bred son of Black Rock Coalition parents, and the grandson of the late opera singer John Anthony — music and family have always been intertwined. His parents, who frequented CBGB, laid the musical foundation for the rock-infused soul he explores on Mutt, his sophomore album released last September.
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Since then, he supported Blxst on tour and embarked on his own headlining trek — but February in particular solidified Thomas’ turn from songwriting savant to front-facing R&B star. “Mutt” entered the Hot 100 on the Feb. 8 chart (and reaches a new No. 67 peak on the March 8-dated list); he made his live-TV debut with the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the same week; and then performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk later that month, where he dedicated 2022 single “Breaking Point” to his recently deceased grandfather (Thomas attended his funeral directly after the taping). “He was the anchor to my journey,” says Thomas. “I can tell he was with me musically.”
Leon Thomas
Raymond Alva
While his past month looks like a whirlwind of success, Thomas’ breakthrough has been nearly two decades in the making. At 13, with Broadway runs in The Lion King, The Color Purple and Caroline, Or Change under his belt, Thomas signed his first deal with Columbia Records. “I was walking into the boardroom playing Stevie Wonder covers and in-depth love songs,” he reflects with a laugh. “They were like, ‘What we gon’ do with this? Did you even hit puberty?’” Around that time, he made his theatrical debut in the 2007 film August Rush, which led to a Nickelodeon development deal that landed him roles on shows from The Backyardigans to Victorious.
As the deal was nearing its end and Victorious approached its 2013 series finale, Thomas explored his options, and received advice from Republic Records’ Wendy Goldstein, who was the label’s senior vp of A&R at the time. “Journeying through your twenties is you becoming everything that you need from everybody else,” she told him. “Those words stuck with me on some Spider-Man s–t,” he says today.
He spent the better part of the next decade learning the independent scene, studying under Babyface and Boi-1da (and by extension, Drake’s camp), and was briefly signed to Alex da Kid’s KIDinaKORNER. He met manager Jonathan Azu in 2019 and became the first act on his Culture Collective roster. Two years later, he landed a record deal with Ty Dolla $ign and Motown Records’ joint venture, EZMNY, after running into A&R Shawn Barron on a grocery run.
“I was kind of scared because signing under an artist can be either heaven or hell,” says Thomas. “Luckily, I’m stomping around in heaven right now.”
During his time at Motown, Thomas has experienced several different leadership regimes following restructurings by parent company Universal Music Group. Now under Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Tom March — who Thomas says “gets my vision and is down to support real music” — he was able to execute his ideal album rollout for Mutt.
The campaign kicked off last August — a year after his debut full-length, Electric Dusk — with the release of the album’s title track. A funky R&B midtempo tune that nods to Enchantment’s “Silly Love Song” by way of a Bootsy Collins-esque bassline, “Mutt” was the product of Thomas’ desire to “have a record that shows what I’m about: live music, funk and vulnerability.” Written in 2022, Thomas crafted “Mutt” on his living room floor while microdosing psychedelics and watching his dog and cat fight. “I saw the similarities between us and how we have good intentions but don’t always do the right thing,” he told Billboard last year.
The single’s steady chart climb is largely due to Thomas and Azu’s “all ships rise” business approach. Instead of exhausting resources on one song, they banked on word-of-mouth from his live performances to help people discover “Mutt” along with the rest of the album.
“We [noticed] the crowd’s reaction when ‘Mutt’ would play: the phones were always up, but they would really come out for ‘Mutt,’” says Azu. The song continued naturally gaining traction in R&B circles with those familiar with Thomas’ songwriting and production work. “Everybody knows how dangerous he is in the studio with other people’s work,” Azu adds.
Jonathan Azu (left) and Leon Thomas at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Courtesy of Culture Collective
Thomas launched a 13-date headlining tour in October at intimate venues across the U.S., and the trek doubled as a way to promote himself at radio. “A lot of program directors are just outside the Victorious demographic, but the people in the studios and offices are within that demographic, and so are [their] children,” says Azu. “Doing [that] work is so important for the foundation to go for adds.”
As “Mutt” climbs at three different Billboard airplay rankings (R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Adult R&B Airplay, where it hits a No. 7 best on the March 8 chart), Thomas is playing the long game. “I loved seeing how Lizzo kept promoting her hits and didn’t stop believing in them,” he says. A deluxe edition of Mutt is also in the works, and Thomas mentions potential collaborations with Kehlani, Big Sean and Halle Bailey in the hopper, in addition to a previously teased team-up with Stormzy. Plus, there’s a song on which Thomas plays every instrument.
“There [are] sides to me that I haven’t shown the world yet, so I’m spoon-feeding them,” Thomas says. “You need to hide the medicine in the candy. This deluxe is me stepping deeper into my purpose.”
A version of this story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
“It’s almost like, an anti-pop song,” María Zardoya, the leader of The Marías, says of “No One Noticed.”
Considering the sighing production, murmured harmonies and somber lyrical tone as Zardoya pleads with a lover for attention and reassurance, “No One Noticed” understandably did not lead the indie-pop band’s second album, Submarine, upon its release last May. Yet in the months since, the song has transformed into a viral breakthrough and the band’s biggest hit to date.
Zardoya says that none of the band members expected “No One Noticed” to become The Marías’ first solo Billboard Hot 100 entry. Its success not only strengthened the band’s commercial footprint — it validated their entire aesthetic.
“It gets you in your feels — it’s pretty emotional, and kind of slow,” she says of “No One Noticed.” “It gives me hope that people are still open to listening to a song over and over that makes them cry.”
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The Marías photographed on January 15, 2025 in New York.
Caroline Tompkins
The enduring hit isn’t the bilingual, Los Angeles-based quartet’s first visit to the Hot 100, previously reaching the chart thanks to Bad Bunny: in 2022, the band was a featured act on “Otro Atardecer,” a buoyant Spanish-language album cut from the superstar’s Grammy-winning album Un Verano Sin Ti that peaked at No. 49. “That was always our No. 1 song on our Spotify page, by far, and we thought it was going to be forever,” says drummer/producer Josh Conway with a laugh. “That was a pretty big pinch-me moment, when ‘No One Noticed’ surpassed it. And now it’s surpassed it by a lot.”
The origin of “No One Noticed” predates the Bad Bunny collaboration — as well as The Marías album that came before Submarine. Zardoya, a Puerto Rico native who grew up in Atlanta, formed The Marías in 2016 when she started writing songs with L.A. native Conway, before recruiting Jesse Perlman on guitar and Edward James on keys. Following a pair of indie EPs and steady work as a touring band, The Marías signed an Atlantic Records deal in early 2021 and released their debut album, Cinema, that June.
Zardoya says that the band started writing “No One Noticed” during the pandemic in 2020, chipping away at a demo before ultimately “putting it on the back burner for a while,” then revisiting it as a potential addition to Submarine. Part of the reason why it was shrugged off for years was because as the group searched for a breakthrough single, they thought that meant something with a quicker pace than the viscous dreaminess of “No One Noticed.”
“We were understandably getting a little pressure from the label, and I think that the first thing labels look at as being a ‘hit’ is something with tempo,” Zardoya explains. So the band focused the Cinema campaign around the sleek dark-pop single “Hush,” and released the danceable electro-funk track “Run Your Mouth” as the lead single to Submarine last year. Both made the lower reaches of the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
The Marías photographed on January 15, 2025 in New York.
Caroline Tompkins
Meanwhile, Mick Management’s Jonathan Eshak, the band’s manager who started working with The Marías between their two albums, identified a sizable live base for the band and prioritized streamlining their touring agenda for Submarine. “They could play pretty large rooms — not just in New York or L.A., but in markets that are a little less traveled,” Eshak says. “But a big mission statement from María, Josh, Jesse and Eddie was they didn’t want to be viewed as just a domestic act — they really wanted to speak to fans who are either Spanish-speaking, have ancestral roots in Latin America, or are in Latin America.” As such, The Marías kicked off their tour in support of Submarine with a four-night residency at Foro Puebla in Mexico City last June, before headlining across North America throughout the summer.
As they began presenting Submarine on tour, The Marías found it interesting that “No One Noticed” would elicit some of the evening’s biggest cheers; similarly, the band would hear from friends, and read fan comments, declaring the moody track as the album standout. By July, TikTok users had adopted the song — particularly its “Come on, don’t leave me, it can’t be that easy, babe/If you believe me, I guess I’ll get on a plane” breakdown — and when Billie Eilish posted a clip of herself singing along to “No One Noticed” on her Instagram story on July 17, streams began to skyrocket.
By early September, “No One Noticed” had reached the top 10 of the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. As the band was prepping for its first proper European tour for the fall, it was announced as an opener on the December leg of Eilish’s arena tour. “Billie showed love for ‘No One Noticed’ really early on,” says Zardoya, “so it was cool to perform that song live at her shows — I would dedicate it to her before we performed it, every single night.”
And as the crowd sizes increased, so did the song’s audience. Since serving as a summertime-sadness anthem thanks to its initial TikTok pickup, “No One Noticed” has crossed over to streaming platforms and even to radio. The song has 215.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams through Jan. 30, according to Luminate, and reached No. 4 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, No. 11 on Streaming Songs and No. 26 on Pop Airplay, where it hits a new high this week. “No One Noticed” has also peaked at No. 22 in 18 weeks on the Hot 100 and reentered the top 40 on the Feb. 1-dated chart.
The Marías are slated to perform at three South American editions of Lollapalooza in March before playing Coachella in April. Eshak says that, as the band prepares to play Submarine in front of oversized festival crowds, the rising interest in their catalog beyond “No One Noticed” demonstrates how much more growth they can achieve in 2025.
“There’s so much runway for this band,” he says. “Obviously a hit song’s a hit song, and we’ll take them where we can find them, but what I’m so excited about is how people are engaging with the band’s entire world.”
That world will also expand when the follow-up to Submarine arrives: The Marías spent some time at New York’s famed Electric Lady Studios in January and are planning on more sessions following their festival gigs in the spring.
“We were pretty surprised at how experimental things were in the studio,” says Conway of the recent sessions. “I think ‘No One Noticed’ helped pave the way for us to let our guard down a little and do whatever we want.”
Caroline Tompkins
This story appears in the Feb. 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Alex Warren is in the middle of packing when he logs on to Zoom, sitting in a bedroom with only a bed and some taped-up boxes behind him. It’s just before the holidays, and the pop singer-songwriter is preparing to move from Los Angeles to Nashville with his wife (and fellow Internet personality) Kouvr Annon. “We’re young,” he reasons, “so let’s go experience some other things and see what we like.”
The 24-year-old is accustomed to whirlwind life changes. His latest single, the piano-backed ode to resilience “Burning Down,” became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit in October, and signaled his breakthrough as a musician. Prior to making music his full-time gig, from late 2019 to 2022, he and Annon were major players in Hype House, a popular group of TikTok content creators that frequently collaborated and lived together. (They both starred in the 2022 Netflix docuseries of the same name, which lasted one season.)
Even before the Hype House disbanded the same year, Warren had already begun to pivot into a music career, a passion of his since he began playing guitar as a child. He released his aching, guitar-driven debut single, “One More I Love You” as an independent artist in June 2021, and the track quickly drew a following on streaming platforms. With a manager already in tow — Odd Projects’ Brian Sokolik, whom he first met four years ago through a former agent — the two began to field major label offers. Warren signed with Atlantic Records in 2022.
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“We were looking for a label that really understood Alex as a person and would teach him what works best,” Sokolik recalls. “Our first meeting with Atlantic, it was pretty obvious that it was home. They came in and were brutally honest about what was good and what wasn’t, but in a really productive, constructive way.”
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In the months that followed, Warren’s life, both professionally and personally, continued to accelerate: he dropped his first single under Atlantic, “Headlights,” in August 2022, and followed it with “Chasing Shadows” that December. He then kicked off 2023 by proposing to Annon before embarking on his first headlining tour. He continued releasing more singles through last year all while maintaining his content creation career, pumping out daily TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.
Over time, Warren has become more comfortable with his music reflecting his challenging upbringing. His father passed away when he was nine years old, after which he lived with his mother, who struggled with alcoholism and died in 2021. She kicked Warren out of the house just after he turned 18, and he spent the next five months homeless. Reflecting today, he’s grateful to be able to channel such painful experiences into his music.
“I recently started doing this thing where I write about those [experiences], and I try to take control in a way,” he says. “For me, something really beautiful is taking something so sad and dark, and what most would view as something that ruined their life, and turn it into something that can help people.”
Alex Warren photographed December 19, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
Last May, during a set of studio sessions in Los Angeles, Warren felt particularly inspired by such memories, and began to write with collaborators Adam Yaron, Cal Shapiro and Mags Duval. The result was “Burning Down,” which came together in just a day, among other tracks over the course of the productive week.
“I’ve always let people walk all over me, and ‘Burning Down’ was a song I always wanted to write, but never had the balls to do it,” he says of his biggest hit to date, released on Sept. 20, one week ahead of his debut album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1). Warren’s deep, husky voice frees himself from the blame of an unhealthy relationship over a stomping piano beat.
He put his social media savvy to good use to bolster the song’s hype leading up to its release, posting a number of videos to his 16 million TikTok followers lip synching to the song with Annon. From Warren’s perspective, there’s no gimmick in getting his followers — whom he affectionately calls his “friends” — to listen to his music.
“The drawback for a lot of musicians is that they don’t necessarily understand social media,” he says. “In my career, I have been so open with my friends who follow me. They know everything about me and we’re so connected and I love that. I’m thinking of these people while I’m writing these songs, because I’m thinking about what I would want to hear if I was still going through that.”
“He knows what his fans want and will respond well to,” Sokolik adds. “Alex will tell me, ‘I have an idea for a video. I’m going to tease this and see how people respond to it.’ If they respond the same way we are, then full steam ahead — and that’s exactly what happened.”
“Burning Down” became Warren’s first Hot 100 entry, debuting at No. 76 on the Oct. 5-dated chart, and reaching No. 69 the following week. As the song continued to build both on streaming platforms and at radio, Atlantic’s A&R team reached out to Joe Jonas’ team to gauge interest in a potential remix. Jonas was already a fan. “He told us he heard the song, had it saved to a playlist on Spotify and wanted to jump in and do it with us,” Sokolik recalls.
The “Burning Down” remix arrived in December, with Jonas and Warren trading lines during verses before blending together seamlessly in the chorus. In the week following its release, the song (in all versions) was up 70% (Dec. 6-12) from the week before to 6.2 million U.S. official U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Since the arrival of the remix, “Burning Down” has also lifted on multiple radio-based Billboard charts: in January, the single hit new highs of No. 25 on Pop Airplay and No. 31 on Adult Pop Airplay.
Ahead, Warren is booked for a world tour that kicks off in February in Europe — and he has plenty of songs to come, teasing an impending Chapter 2 installment of his debut album. “I’ve always dreamed of this moment,” he says.
“There are very few people I’ve met in my life who are willing to do whatever it takes,” adds Sokolik. “Alex is one of those people. Whatever he puts his mind to, he will accomplish.”
Brian Sokolik, left, and Alex Warren photographed December 19, 2024, in Los Angeles.
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This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.
In March 2020, Elena Rose was a songwriter in her mid-twenties who had helped craft hits for Latin superstars like Becky G and Myke Towers. She was content with her day job, but as lockdown began to take hold, the Venezuelan American had an early-pandemic revelation.
“I really thought that the world was coming to an end,” she says. “When I saw that my voice had not been heard, it made me sad.”
While Rose continued to work behind the scenes — her songwriting credits to-date include Billboard chart entries and collaborations with Selena Gomez, Bad Bunny, Marc Anthony, and the Becky G-Karol G team-up “MAMIII,” which reached No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart — she made her singing debut as an independent artist that May with the Latin urban song “Sandunga.” She paired the release with a colorful music video that showcased her striking presence and alluded to her superstar capabilities.
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Today, the 29-year-old has fully realized her potential, breaking through in recent months on the Billboard charts as a performer with “Orion,” her collaboration with Panamanian star Boza.
Born Andrea Elena Mangiamarchi in Miami to Venezuelan parents, Rose grew up between Puerto Rico and Venezuela before returning to her hometown due to sociopolitical and economic crises in the South American country. No matter her location, she loved to sing anywhere and everywhere: initially, she began as a performer, singing in bars, restaurants and at parties.
She met mentor and producer Patrick Romantik in Miami in her early twenties, who brought Rose to the studio and taught her the ins and outs of the technology, while also letting her observe sessions to learn about the songwriting process. “And my years of silence began,” she reflects. “I remember they told me, ‘OK, you can be here, but we cannot feel you.’ ”
During that time, she watched writers and producers such as Servando Primera, Yasmil Murrufo and Mario Cáceres create hits including Becky G’s “Mayores” featuring Bad Bunny in 2019, which reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100. Along the way, she gained an informal music education as a hitmaker.
“When I worked in bars in Miami, the musicians were Ricky Martin’s percussionist, Alejandro Sanz’s pianist, the bassist who had played with Stevie Wonder,” Rose says. “It was my best school because they were people who had experienced music, understood it and wanted to preserve it.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
She continued to self-release new singles through the next few years, such as “La Ducha” and “Picachu” and made appearances at key industry events such as Billboard Latin Music Week, where she has participated every year since 2021 either as a panelist or a performer. In summer 2022, she signed a record label deal with Warner Music Latina.
“Her lyrics, her voice, her presence and the ability she has to convey emotions is unparalleled,” said the label’s president Alejandro Duque at the time. In September of the following year, she agreed to a management deal with OCESA Seitrack, whose artists include superstars such as Sanz and Alejandro Fernández.
“The day I sat down a year and a half ago to have dinner with her, I was blown away,” says OCESA Seitrack founder/CEO Alex Mizrahi. He adds today that he recognized her as “a diamond in the rough” with the potential of becoming “the next Karol G” in terms of success.
In the year-plus since then, she has released soulful solo songs, including the empowering “Me Lo Merezco” in March. But her collaborations with artists spanning genres on her November EP, En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas), and elsewhere have taken her to new markets — chiefly with “Orion.” Sophisticated in both its lyrics and production, the song is a captivating fusion of reggaetón, salsa and Afrobeats. It has an irresistibly playful bridge from Boza, and with Rose’s evocative writing, the single shows new layers to both artists.
“I made the song ‘Orion’ at a [writers] camp in Miami a year ago,” remembers Boza. “I heard it with the producer, Daramola, and the songwriters, Essa Gante and Omar, and at that moment we already knew that we needed a female voice. Together with my team, we thought of Elena.”
Adds Rose: “When this song came to me, I remember saying, ‘OK, it has a soul, it has something nice. If you allow me, I want to take it to my world and see how I can give it a little more of myself.’ I remember that was when I gave love to the chorus, changed the lyrics, and wrote my verse. I feel that, for me, the concept of ‘Orion’ became a source of information on emotional intelligence.”
The song was released May 29 on Sony Music Latin (Boza’s record label), with an official music video arriving the following day. Though Rose recorded her part separately, they got together to shoot the video in Panama, which has since tallied more than 105 million views on YouTube. “Orion” steadily began to take hold at radio as well, and by mid-September, it debuted at No. 20 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. Three weeks later, it arrived on the overall Latin Airplay ranking. It has held ever since on both, with “Orion” spending the last six weeks at No. 2 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. It has also reached a No. 15 high on Latin Airplay. “Working with her is like traveling to another planet,” Boza says of Rose.
As her public profile reached new heights fueled by the song’s success, so did her status within the industry: in September, she earned three Latin Grammy nominations, for song of the year for “Caracas En El 2000” with Danny Ocean and Jerry Di; best pop/rock song for “Blanco y Negro,” a LAGOS song featuring Rose; and best regional song for her hand in Becky G’s “Por El Contrario,” which she co-wrote with Latin hitmakers Edgar Barrera and Keityn. (The year prior, she was the only woman to be nominated when the songwriter of the year category was inaugurated.)
Rose has continued to prioritize her collaborative efforts, releasing both the country-tinged ballad “A Las 12 Te Olvidé” with Ha*Ash and a Latin pop song infused with cumbia and urban rhythms, “Pa’ Qué Volviste?” with Maria Becerra, as non-EP singles in November. And while her success with Boza has made her a recognizable face in Panama — Rose coyly says that a recent flight she was taking was delayed after the co-pilot requested a photo with her — Mizrahi teases that more duets are on the immediate horizon, which aim to bolster her following in other countries.
In the coming months, there are plans for releases with Camilo and Morat (both from Colombia), Sanz (Spain) and Los Ángeles Azules (Mexico). She is also scheduled to perform at both Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Chile in March 2025. “The goal is to bring Elena’s music to the world,” Mizrahi says, “to make her a global artist.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
A version of this story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
When rumors of a lingering rift between two of KATSEYE’s six members reached the girl group this summer, they quickly turned the chatter into a viral moment. “We’re literally fine lol,” read the caption on a photo of Lara and Manon holding hands and posing on a backdrop of dolphins and rainbows, playing into a […]
When rumors of a lingering rift between two of KATSEYE’s six members reached the girl group this summer, they quickly turned the chatter into a viral moment. “We’re literally fine lol,” read the caption on a photo of Lara and Manon holding hands and posing on a backdrop of dolphins and rainbows, playing into a then-current TikTok trend around Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson’s “Symphony.”
“One thing I love about this group is how Gen Z we are,” says Manon. “We saw all of that and were like, ‘Okay, funny. Let’s do this TikTok and put an end to this.’” The 11-second post has since compiled more than 5.4 million views.
The savvy social media approach is just one of the effective strategies that the rising group and their team at HxG (HYBE x Geffen Records, which represents a joint venture between the Korean-entertainment conglomerate and Universal Music Group) employ to hook new fans. Another, naturally, has been with the music: KATSEYE’s latest single, “Touch,” packs crisp drum-and-bass production, twinkling electro-pop flourishes and a swirl of pop-R&B harmonies into two minutes and ten seconds. Co-produced by Cashmere Cat (Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Charli XCX), the hit has latched onto U.S. radio and helped to build the group’s following stateside.
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Sophia
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Megan
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KATSEYE was formed from HYBE and Geffen Records’ ambitious Dream Academy competition in 2023. The YouTube series sought to create a genuinely “global” girl group, and of a reported 120,000 applicants from around the world, 20 were selected to head to Los Angeles and prepare in the style of the infamously rigorous K-pop training methods before competing for a spot in the group. The multiweek contest concluded that November, with the six final members representing a culturally diverse lineup: Manon, 22 (from L.A.); Lara, 19 (Zurich); Daniela, 20 (Atlanta); Megan, 18 (Honolulu); Sophia, 21 (Manila, Philippines); and Yoonchae, 16 (Seoul, South Korea).
A subsequent Netflix series, Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, documented the behind-the-scenes journey of whittling down the 20-person training camp into its final form — including all of its biggest trials and tribulations — and creating a natural curiosity for viewers to check out the group’s music. Wisely, in the days leading to the eight-episode competition series’ premiere on the streaming service in August, KATSEYE released its debut EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong). The five-track project has writing contributions from HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk, Ryan Tedder and Justin Tranter (with the former two earning production credits as well), debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, and appeared on the Billboard 200.
The group’s aptly titled first single “Debut” arrived in late June to kick-start the project’s rollout, but even then, the members were even more excited for their next release, the alt-pop smash “Touch.” “It was all of our favorite when we first heard it,” says Daniela. “We just had that gut feeling.” Adds Manon: “Our creative director Humberto [Leon] kept telling me, ‘‘Touch’ is the one, just wait and see.’”
From left: Sophia, Daniela, Manon, Megan, Lara and Yoonchae of KATSEYE photographed October 29, 2024 in Los Angeles.
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Manon
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The group made a strong push on social media for the song when it arrived on streaming services on July 26. In hopes of creating a viral dance trend, KATSEYE executive creator Son Sungdeuk crafted choreography designed to be both simple and memorable. Small, TikTok-friendly moves — like the chorus’ pinky-to-thumb touching gestures — were intentional hooks meant to attract fan engagement. “I feel like it’s not so hard for people to learn,” says Daniela, adding that the “little booty pop” — which Sophia interjects is “my favorite!” — was another move to draw in listeners. “I was like, ‘People are going to gag.’ It’s so cute.”
KATSEYE’s multi-pronged digital focus for the song included partnering with fan bases in the K-pop world, such as a TikTok post of Manon and Yoonchae dancing to “Touch” with Heeseung and Ni-ki of ENHYPEN (a boy band under HYBE sublabel Belift Lab). The video has 27 million views to date, while three other clips showcasing “Touch” on the group’s account have more than 15 million. Importantly, such success helped prove that KATSEYE was ready to thrive in more traditional stateside promotions.
“We had our eye on radio but knew we needed key levers to feel confident it was the right time to go,” says Mitra Darab, president of HxG at HYBE America. “We would see significant growth weekly not only at DSPs [digital service providers], but in TikTok and Reels creates and their social growth. We also knew we needed a big cultural moment to bring awareness to the group, which we achieved with the Netflix documentary. Once that was released, all our goals started to fall into place.”
Daniela
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From left: Lara, Daniela, Megan, Manon, Yoonchae and Sophia of KATSEYE photographed October 29, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
To gauge their appeal in the U.S., KATSEYE held a meet-and-greet and performance at Minneapolis’ Mall of America in October to connect with the growing fandom, collectively known as EYEKONS. Thousands of fans showed up. “Mall of America proved to us that this isn’t just about ‘Touch,’” says Darab.
“I think we built a fanbase that is just like us,” Lara adds. “EYEKONS are so funny; they have the same humor as all of us. I feel like they are the types of people that we would be friends with in real life.”
By October, “Touch” had appeared on several of Billboard’s international charts, including in the Philippines, Canada, Taiwan and Malaysia and cracked the upper half of the Billboard Global 200. It also reaches a new No. 32 high on the U.S.-based Pop Airplay chart dated Nov. 16, and the song has 229.9 million official on-demand global streams through Nov. 7, according to Luminate. “We couldn’t help but put so much heart into it,” says Sophia. “We really could feel that this was going to bleed through to the fans.”
Yoonchae
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Lara
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While planning is already in full swing for 2025, KATSEYE is now preparing for a performance, which will feature the Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders, at the 2024 MAMA Awards in Los Angeles on Nov. 21 — marking the first time the eminent K-pop awards show will take place in the U.S. — and slots on iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball tour (visiting Dallas and Boston in December). “We don’t want to move on from ‘Touch’ just yet, but we’re never not working,” Manon says, true to her word as they talk to Billboard over a Zoom video call from their L.A. rehearsal studio. “A black box with a white light where we spend most of our days,” they crack, all in dance gear.
For KATSEYE, that drive is for a greater good. The young women see KATSEYE’s multicultural makeup as a starting point to shake up the sound of pop worldwide. “It’d be so nice to incorporate that within our music so it’s something different than we’ve been hearing before,” says Megan. “It’s such a superpower that we all come from different parts of the world.”
A version of this story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
At the end of 2022, pop singer-songwriter Mark Ambor felt lost in his music career. Despite recently signing a record deal and releasing his debut EP, Hello World, something didn’t feel right.
“I fell into this routine of teasing a song, [and] if it did well, putting it out, but I was feeling like I wasn’t saying anything I really mean,” he remembers. “I wasn’t digging deep or singing about things important to me.”
To clear his mind, Ambor, 26, embarked on a months-long international backpacking trip with his then-girlfriend — and returned feeling grounded with a whole new wave of inspiration for songs. He quickly wrote the whimsical, acoustic “Good to Be” and now refers to it as the first time he was musically “genuine and fully expressing myself.”
Just a few months later, he struck gold: While playing guitar in his bedroom, he wrote the lyrics, “You and me belong together/Like cold iced tea and warmer weather,” which would become the instantly catchy hook to the cozy, uplifting “Belong Together,” his ultimate breakthrough and first Billboard Hot 100 hit.
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Meredith Jenks
Ambor grew up with a musical background in Pleasantville, N.Y., playing the piano from a young age at his parents’ request. Though the skill took a backseat in high school, he rekindled his love for the instrument as he approached graduation, trading the classical pieces he previously learned for modern-day pop songs. He proceeded to pen his first song that summer, as he grappled with the emotions of having to leave his small hometown to attend Fairfield University in Connecticut. “I didn’t want to leave home,” he says, “and I tried to write a song to get those feelings out.”
He then returned to work that night as a barback and casually sent the song to his parents in a group chat. “My mom was like, ‘Dad and I love this song. Who’s the artist?’ ” he recalls with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Mom, what do you mean?’ It’s me!”
Ambor self-released a few songs while obtaining a marketing degree in college, and upon his graduation in 2020, decided to take six months to completely immerse himself in chasing his dreams as a musician before considering a different job. “COVID happened after I said that,” he recalls. “I got to spend time working on music at home.”
Thanks to a suggestion from a friend, he joined TikTok later that year. He steadily began to grow a following with his cool guy next door vibe: People gravitated not only toward his big smile and curly brown hair, but to his voice and disarming demeanor as well. He soon began posting covers — including breathtaking renditions of Coldplay’s “Yellow” and Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” — as well as a few originals, and ultimately caught the attention of then-independent manager Kyle Thomson, who admits he’s a “sucker” for a great voice over a piano melody and asked Ambor to send a few demos.
“It was so early on in both of our careers,” says Thomson. “I was excited to dive into something that I felt was going to be a fun project to build.” By the end of 2020, Ambor had signed a management deal with Thomson.
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Like Ambor, Thomson knew that some of his artist’s early work wasn’t playing to the singer-songwriter’s strengths. “At the beginning, he told me he wanted to make early 2000s festival, opera-rock music, like Passion Pit or Grouplove,” he says. “I was like, ‘That doesn’t make sense for what I think your qualities are. Why would you take your natural, raspy voice and distort it with synths?’ What he meant [initially] was that he wanted to make music that made him feel the same way that those bands made people feel.”
But after hearing “Belong Together” for the first time, Thomson knew that Ambor had succeeded in his mission. On the heels of his release of “Good to Be” in October 2023 — and its growing popularity on a global scale — Ambor began to tease the forthcoming new track in late December. And following a few months of building hype on TikTok, “Belong Together” arrived on streaming services on Feb. 16.
Ambor continued to stoke the fire well after its release, posting many videos on the platform of him walking the streets of major European cities while on tour and singing its dialed-up final chorus, several of which have compiled more than 10 million views each. Per Thomson, user-generated content and influencer marketing was crucial in making “Belong Together” “as big as humanly possible.”
By May 11, the single debuted at No. 87 on the Hot 100. It later reached a No. 74 high — and has spent 21 weeks and counting on the ranking. It has also reached Nos. 24 and 20 peaks on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Pop Airplay charts, respectively. “Belong Together” has earned 141.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 610.2 million official on-demand global streams through Sept. 26, according to Luminate.
“It has been really surreal to write something that is so heartfelt and authentic to myself and then feel it resonate around the world the way it has,” Ambor reflects. “The way a song can mean something to a fan that’s different than my own experience, but it’s their own story that they’ve attached to a song of mine … that part blows my mind.”
Meredith Jenks
In August, Ambor’s debut album, Rockwood, arrived through Hundred Days/Virgin Music Group, despite some hesitation from the rest of his team to put out a full project too quickly. (Ambor notes the success of “Belong Together” helped in convincing them otherwise.) He split with the label soon after its release, and while he doesn’t divulge much on specifics, he emphasizes trusting his gut while continuing to grow his career.
“I think people sometimes get too caught in the industry of it all,” he says. “Maybe I’ll sign to a major; maybe I’ll stay independent forever. What really matters is putting out good music and meeting and talking to the fans.”
“He has the best work ethic of anyone I’ve ever met,” adds Thomson. “Mark thinks that he can be Taylor Swift, and I’m not going to stop him.”
A version of this story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.