Country
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When the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations were revealed on Tuesday morning (April 9), “Tennessee Orange” hitmaker Megan Moroney scored six nominations, including new female artist of the year and female artist of the year, making her the leading female artist nominee heading into the awards show on May 16 (she ties with Morgan Wallen for six nominations, while only Luke Combs has more nominations this year, with eight).
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“I was still in bed, because I just got back from the CMT Music Awards, so I started seeing my phone blowing up with the news,” she tells Billboard of learning of her ACM Awards nominations. “It’s crazy to me that I’m nominated for new female artist and female artist at the same time — I didn’t even know you could do that, so I think that was the most surprising.”
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Meanwhile, she also earns nominations in the visual media of the year and music event of the year categories, for “Can’t Break Up Now,” which she collaborated on with country group Old Dominion. That’s in addition to her nominations as both writer and artist for her college football-framed, star-crossed romance single “Tennessee Orange” in the song of the year category. She wrote “Tennessee Orange” with Ben Williams, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins.
“I’m also really proud of the song of the year, because I care so much about my songwriting and my songwriter friends,” Moroney says. “I think it’s all just insane. It is a dream to be nominated and to be the top female nominated this year, I’m just like, ‘What the heck?’”
These six nominations are a testament to the rocket ride the Georgia-born singer-songwriter has been on since she began releasing songs such as “Hair Salon” and “Wonder.” But it was “Tennessee Orange” that went viral in 2022 and Moroney was quickly signed to Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records. Currently, Moroney has two songs in the top 25 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart: “Can’t Break Up Now” and her own “I’m Not Pretty.” Her headlining Lucky 2.0 tour launches next month, while this spring and summer will also find Moroney playing stadiums, in support of Kenny Chesney’s Sun Down 2024 Tour, as well as a performance at massive country music festival Stagecoach. In September, Moroney will make the trek overseas for a 15-show headlining Georgia Girl tour in the U.K. and Europe.
All of it serves as evidence of the success of an artist who has managed to blend eye-catching, Southern-soaked glamour with live shows that have an intimate, confessional feel, and songs that poetically expose a spectrum of deep-seated emotions and musings.
Moroney says she’s grateful for the ACM Awards nominations, knowing that they are voted on by her industry peers. “I feel very embraced by the country music community, and that is the cherry on top,” she says. “My fans have been so supportive and showed up for me. So that the industry would recognize what we’re building together, it means a lot to me. And it’s reassuring to know that the songs that I’m writing and all the work that my team and I are putting in every day is paying off.”
The upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards will air on May 16 via Prime Video, streaming live across more than 240 countries and territories from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Moroney hasn’t yet given too much thought just yet to how she will celebrate if she takes home some one or more ACM Awards trophies, saying, “I’m just taking it all in today. But I think I would definitely celebrate with some tequila or something. My songwriter friends are going to be there and just getting to hang out with everyone that I don’t always get to see when I’m on the road is just such a treat.”
Building on the momentum of her 2023 debut studio album Lucky, Moroney recently began letting fans in on new music, including “No Caller ID” and “28th of June,” seeding an impending new album release.
“The album is 98%, maybe 99% done. I’m just kind of tweaking the mixes and stuff,” she tells Billboard. “There are no drastic changes in sound, but I do think the happy songs are happier and the sad songs are sadder. I think it’s a great look into the last year of my life and my songwriting.”
Though she says there are no straightforward collaborations on the album, she does hint, “I do have someone pretty cool singing some background vocals on one of the songs.”
Though her career is still on the ascent, Moroney has some big, sparkling dreams for expanding her empire: “I hope I’ll have a bar on Broadway, and I would love my own boot line, since I’m obsessed with boots, as everyone knows. That is definitely on my radar. I’m still in a building period right now with my career, but it’s something I think about and something we’re trying to plan for.”
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Eric Church‘s Nashville bar has officially responded to Morgan Wallen‘s arrest at the venue. The Chief’s official Instagram account shared a photo on Tuesday (April 9) of a new sign outside the establishment that reads: “Our pigs fly, our chairs don’t.” See the post here. The slogan is seemingly in reference to the chart-topping country singer getting […]
Jelly Roll had a big night on the CMT Awards stage on Sunday (April 7), but behind the scenes, Bunnie XO — who is the country star’s wife — got her moment as well. Backstage at the show – where the “Son of a Sinner” singer scored three major wins – the model brushed shoulders with actor-singer Billy Bob Thornton, leaving her totally in awe.
In a clip Bunnie posted to TikTok one day after the ceremony, the camera follows her as she walks up to the actor and gives him a big hug. “Hi, I’m Jelly’s wife,” she introduces herself, to which Thornton says, “I know. How are you, honey?”
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“Aw, it’s so nice to meet you,” the Goliath star adds.
“I almost fainted meeting Billy Bob Thornton because he knew who I was,” Bunnie wrote of the encounter, noting in her caption, “Ok this made me starstruck.”
That night, Jelly Roll took home video of the year, male video of the year and CMT performance of the year, all for his song “Need a Favor” — after which he closed out the show with a performance of “Halfway to Hell.” Later, Bunnie celebrated her husband’s achievements with an emotional post on Instagram, calling him “the maestro of misfits.”
“You are not an overnight success story, this has been 20 years in the making,” she added at the time. “Papabear your voice is an instrument of healing & the world is your choir. I LOVE YOU IN THIS LIFETIME & EVERY OTHER ONE IM LUCKY TO BE BY YOUR SIDE IN.”
As the Dumb Blonde Podcast host revealed in a TikTok a couple days before the CMTs, it’s a miracle she and Jelly even made it to the show at all. After their plane took flight en route to Austin, Texas, it suddenly turned around and made an emergency landing due to a malfunction, according to Bunnie.
“CMT i swear we’re coming 😭,” she captioned the clip.
Watch Bunnie XO meet Billy Bob Thornton below.
While Beyoncé makes history on Billboard’s latest charts with her new album, Cowboy Carter, many of the set’s featured guests score their first Billboard Hot 100 appearances.
Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey, Linda Martell, Willie Jones and Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter all earn their first entries on the chart dated April 13 thanks to their credited billings on the album.
Adell, Spencer, Kennedy and Roberts all debut via their team-up on Beyoncé’s cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbiird.” The song debuts at No. 27 with 14 million U.S. official streams and 7,000 downloads sold in its first week, according to Luminate. It also opens at No. 6 on Hot Country Songs.
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The update is also just the second, and top-charting, version of the song to hit the Hot 100, after the Glee cast’s version spent a week at No. 37 in 2011. (The Beatles’ original, from 1968, was never released as a single and therefore wasn’t eligible to chart at the time.)
Not only does “Blackbiird” earn the four up-and-coming singer-songwriters their first Hot 100 visits, but it’s also their first overall appearances on Billboard’s charts.
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Adell, from Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Star Valley, Wyo., released her debut LP Buckle Bunny in July 2023 via Columbia Records. The set’s standout track “Love You a Little Bit” has garnered 27.2 million on-demand official U.S. streams to date. In an interview with Billboard at the CMT Music Awards (April 8), Adell said of singing alongside Beyoncé, “It’s been a grind and just to have someone of that caliber reach down and lift [me] up, it’s really, really special and I’m just very honored.”
Spencer, from Baltimore, released her debut album, My Stupid Life, in January via Elektra Records. She initially broke through with her EPs Compassion in 2020 and If I Ever Get There: A Day at Blackbird Studio in 2022.
Kennedy, an Alabama native, has released more than a dozen songs on streaming services since 2020, including the five-track Tiera in 2021 on Big Machine Label Group. The set includes a collaboration with three-time Hot 100-charting artist Breland.
Roberts hails from Alabama and California, and released her debut studio project, Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1, in 2023 on ReynaRed Records/EMPIRE. She has been releasing songs since 2019.
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Shaboozey lands his first two Hot 100 entries: “Spaghettii” with Beyoncé and Martell, and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” with Beyoncé. The tracks debut at Nos. 31 and 61, respectively. Shaboozey has been releasing hip-hop-inspired country/Americana-focused songs for a decade and has dropped two full-lengths in that span: Lady Wrangler in 2018 and Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die in 2022. In 2019, he scored a placement on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack with “Start a Riot” with Duckwrth.
While Martell is a first-timer on the Hot 100, she’s one of the most commercially successful Black female country stars in history. The country pioneer, 82, became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1970, and charted three singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1969-70: “Color Him Father” (No. 22 peak), her cover of Duane Dee’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (No. 33) and “Bad Case of the Blues” (No. 58).
When “Color Him Father” peaked at No. 22, it marked the highest charting song by a Black woman in the chart’s history at the time. She has released one full-length project: Color Me Country, which peaked at No. 40 on the Top Country Albums chart in 1970. In a review of the set, Billboard praised, “She has a terrific style and a true feeling for a country lyric.”
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Willie Jones, from Shreveport, La., debuts for the first time with his Beyoncé team-up “Just For Fun.” He has released two studio albums: Right Now in 2021 and Something to Dance To in June 2023, the latter on Sony Music. He also competed on The X Factor in 2012 and appeared on the Netflix reality show Chasing Cameron in 2016.
Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter also debuts on the Hot 100 for the first time thanks to “Protector” with Beyoncé. At six years old, she passes her older sister, Blue Ivy Carter, to become the youngest charting female artist in Hot 100 history.
As previously reported, Cowboy Carter debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States March 29-April 4 – the biggest one-week total of 2024. She becomes the first Black woman ever to lead Top Country Albums in the chart’s 60-year archives.
Beyoncé has a massive week on Billboard’s charts, thanks to her latest LP, Cowboy Carter. Along with charting 23 songs from the album on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated April 13), she ups her career total from 85 entries to 106. As such, she becomes the 17th artist, and only the third woman, to have logged 100 or more titles since the chart began in 1958.
Cowboy Carter debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (and the Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts) with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the March 29-April 4 tracking week, according to Luminate – the biggest one-week total of 2024. She also becomes the first Black woman to lead Top Country Albums.
Here’s a look at all 23 of Beyoncé’s entries on the latest Hot 100, all of which are debuts except where noted. (The 27-track Cowboy Carter also includes four mostly spoken-word interludes.)
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No. 2, “Texas Hold ‘Em” (up from No. 11; peaked at No. 1 for two weeks)No. 6, “II Most Wanted,” with Miley CyrusNo. 7, “Jolene”No. 16, “Levii’s Jeans,” with Post MaloneNo. 26, “Bodyguard”No. 27, “Blackbiird,” with Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy & Reyna RobertsNo. 30, “Ameriican Requiem”No. 31, “Spaghettii,” with Linda Martell & ShaboozeyNo. 37, “Daughter”No. 38, “16 Carriages” (re-entry; returns to its peak)No. 39, “Ya Ya”No. 42, “Protector,” with Rumi CarterNo. 44, “Tyrant,” with Dolly PartonNo. 51, “Riiverdance”No. 52, “Alliigator Tears”No. 54, “My Rose”No. 59, “Just for Fun,” with Willie JonesNo. 60, “II Hands II Heaven”No. 61, “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’ ” with ShaboozeyNo. 63, “Flamenco”No. 65, “Desert Eagle”No. 70, “Oh Louisiana”No. 87, “Amen”
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Beyoncé’s 106 career Hot 100 hits are the 13th-most overall and the third-most among women, after only Taylor Swift (232) and Nicki Minaj (148). (She charted 14 additional hits as a member of Destiny’s Child in 1997-2005, and five as half of The Carters in 2018.)
Here’s a look at all 17 artists in the 100 Hot 100 Hits club:
329, Drake232, Taylor Swift207, Glee Cast186, Lil Wayne185, Future157, Kanye West148, Nicki Minaj138, Lil Baby117, Chris Brown115, Travis Scott109, Elvis Presley (whose career start predated the Hot 100’s inception)108, Lil Uzi Vert106, Beyoncé105, Justin Bieber105, Jay-Z104, YoungBoy Never Broke Again103, 21 Savage
Notably, Beyoncé (106) surpasses the total Hot 100 hits of her husband, Jay-Z (105). They have harmoniously charted three songs together, led by her first entry, “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde” (billed as by Jay-Z featuring Beyoncé Knowles), which hit No. 4 in December 2002.
Of Beyoncé’s 106 career Hot 100 hits, 61 have reached the top 40; 24 have hit the top 10; and nine have gone to No. 1.
Thanks to their guest appearances on Cowboy Carter, eight artists earn their first Hot 100 entries: Tanner Adell, Willie Jones, Tiera Kennedy, Linda Martell, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey, Brittney Spencer and Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter. At six years old, Rumi is now the youngest-charting female artist in Hot 100 history. She breaks the record previously held by her sister, Blue Ivy Carter, who was seven when she debuted as featured on Beyoncé, SAINt JHN and Wizkid’s No. 76-peaking “Brown Skin Girl” in 2019.
At this point in his career, Keith Urban is a singing competition pro. He was a vocal coach on three seasons of the Australian edition of The Voice, and spent four seasons as a judge on American Idol.
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That’s why he was the perfect selection for a mega mentor on season 25 of NBC’s The Voice, helping the contestants prepare for the Knockout Rounds starting on April 8. “It’s such a family vibe on The Voice,” the “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer tells Billboard, noting that he loved working with coaches Chance the Rapper and John Legend, as well as his fellow country stars Reba McEntire and Dan + Shay.
As a veteran of the singing competition space, he knows that mentorship is personal, opting against “blanket advice” for the contestants. “You have to meet each artist where they’re at. What’s consistent is knowing what advice to take or to discard,” he explains. “I’m sure the coaches would agree that nobody has all the answers. Particularly, if you’re doing something unique, chances are that nobody understands yet. A lot of artists get a lot of ‘You have to change this and change that.’ Sometimes, you don’t have to change anything at all. You have to keep working and make a better version of what already is.”
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Navigating advice from all directions is a “challenge” Urban himself experienced throughout his career, adding that it’s important to be selective with your inner circle. “You can be really stubborn and immovable on certain things but that’s going to keep you stuck. Then, other times, you’d hear someone’s advice and think maybe that’s what you should do and you do it and then you find yourself to be lost and that the advice didn’t work for you,” he says. “For me, the most important thing was having people around me that I trust. Honestly, even family and friends will often have a little bias — positive or negative. You can have some friends that are super jealous or they might have a bias and they’ll give you advice that’s actually not very good. Having people around me that I really, really trust their opinions helped the most in my career.”
As for McEntire and Dan + Shay’s country takeover on The Voice, Urban isn’t surprised. “It’s reflective of the growing popularity of country music as a genre, not just nationally but all around the world,” he says proudly. “It’s extraordinary watching it take off like it’s doing.”
While he’s helping aspiring artists at the beginning of their careers, the four-time Grammy winner is continuing his own illustrious career, as he’s slated to soon release a new album, which will include the songs “Straight Line” and “Messed Up As Me.”
“It’s always fun for me,” he says when asked how he stays passionate about making music after all these years. “I know it sounds crazy, but I get more excited now to write a song than I ever did. Even making the current record was a crazy mix of fear, excitement, discovery, curiosity, passion — just everything. I went through everything with this record, because I’ve never made this record. I’ve never seen this day. We’ve had plenty of fun but we’ve never had this one. And that’s just how I live my life. Every single day is a brand new blank canvas.”
He also stressed the importance of staying in touch with how he felt when he was first beginning his journey in music. “A quick example is when I went into the record company to play my new album the other day for about 50 people,” he recalls. “I wanted to print out the lyrics to every song and while it was a lot of work, I didn’t want to have somebody do it and I wanted to do it myself. So, I stapled all the lyrics together and put together this massive presentation. It felt like putting up my own posters at the beginning of my career. If you lose that feeling, you do start to become jaded and you get bored and your passion just disappears. For me, my passion stays so long as I keep doing the things I did at the beginning and it keeps it exciting.”
Catch Urban during The Voice Knockouts, which begin on Monday (April 8) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, before it streams the following day on Peacock.
Kelsea Ballerini took the stage at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday night (April 7) to perform her throwback hit, “Love Me Like You Mean It,” but not everyone was a fan of her bold fashion choice. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The 30-year-old country […]
When Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles was asked on the the red carpet at Sunday night’s (April 7) 2024 CMT Music Awards if she’d listened to Beyoncé‘s Billboard 200 No. 1 album Cowboy Carter the answer was a no-brainer. “Of course! Who hasn’t?” Nettles said in mock horror about the country-leaning collection that secured Bey’s eighth […]
Azealia Banks is never one to mince words, and she’s revived a decade-old feud with Lily Allen as she came to Beyoncé’s defense.
The “212” rapper took to her Instagram Stories over the weekend to call out the British pop star for her criticism of Bey’s Cowboy Carter album, and she recalled a play-by-play of an alleged phone call between herself and Allen that took place a “few years ago.”
“Okay @lilyallen you’re going to stop right there and sit this one out,” Banks wrote over an accompanying Billboard story regarding Allen framing Bey’s country pivot as “quite calculated.” Banks also brought up an alleged phone conversation between the two.
“Shall we discuss that phone call to me – a few years ago – obviously off your face – crying and sobbing asking me to forgive you for randomly being racist?” she wrote in part.
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Billboard has reached out to Allen for comment.
Allen name-dropped Banks on the April 4 episode of her Miss Me? podcast while dissecting Beyoncé’s Dolla Parton “Jolene” cover.
“I read a comment from Azealia Banks where she was like, ‘Stop talking about Jay-Z as if anyone wants to f–k him,” Allen said, laughing. “Literally, no one’s even looked at him for about 10 years, relax.”
Co-host Miquita Oliver then asked Allen if she found the Brooklyn rap mogul attractive, and she replied, “I mean, I’m attracted to power, so yes? But maybe not physically,” said the singer, who is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour. “I don’t want my current husband to get upset, but it’s not really the physical I go for.”
Allen continued to dig into Beyoncé’s decision to explore a country album with Cowboy Carter.
“It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen mused. “I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover. I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?”
Allen continued: “The front cover is her in a cowboy hat, riding on a horse. She was wearing a blonde wig and a cowboy hat [at the Grammys]. It’s a bit about challenging these institutions that have thus far rejected Beyoncé as the icon and institution she is herself.”
Azealia Banks’ and Lily Allen’s history runs deep, as they previously feuded in 2013 while engaging in a Twitter beef that ended with Banks dissing Allen’s ex-husband Sam Cooper and saying he looked like a “thumb.”
Regardless of any critique, Beyoncé galloped to the No. 1 album in the country — her eighth in her discography — with Cowboy Carter topping the Billboard 200 with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Luminate.
Tanner Adell is just a few years into her country career, but on Sunday night (April 8) at the 2024 CMT Music Awards she was elated to celebrate her first chart-topper on the Billboard 200. When Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly mentioned that Adell was featured on Beyoncé‘s eighth No. 1 album, Cowboy Carter, the Kentucky native could not suppress a giant smile as she said, “apparently.”
Adell — who sings alongside Bey on the interpretation of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” (which in Beyoncé’s version is titled “Blackbiird”) — said “it feels incredible. Congratulations to Bey, she’s worked so hard — especially just… Act I, now we’re Act II and I can’t wait for Act III. I’m just starting out and it feels pretty amazing to have one of my… not even one of my, my favorite artist on the planet know my name, put me on this album and now it’s debuted at No. 1. It’s very special.”
Pitching things forward a bit to the 2025 Grammy Awards, Kelly noted that if Cowboy Carter is nominated for the elusive album of the year prize that Beyoncé — the most-decorated artist in Grammy history — has never yet won, Tanner could get a major moment in the sun. Rendered speechless, Tanner smiled and said, “I guess?”
“I’m an independent artist, it’s been a grind and just to have someone of that caliber reach down and lift us up it’s really, really special and i’m just very honored,” said the singer who released her debut album, Buckle Bunny, last summer.
Cowboy Carter debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart dated April 13, debuting with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4 according to Luminate; the album marks the singer’s eighth No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Cowboy Carter also has dibs on the biggest week of 2024 to date, marking the largest opening frame since Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) bowed with 1.653 million units in November.
Another contemporary Black country act who had high praise for Bey on Sunday was Reyna Roberts, who also lends her voice to “Blackbiird,” along with Brittney Spencer, Adell and Tiera Kennedy. “Absolutely! I believe it. I’ve always believed that I was going to history, not sure in what capacity,” said “Stompin’ Grounds” singer Roberts of possibly being part of a major moment if Bey is finally fitted for the AOTY crown next year. “I’m just grateful that Beyoncé allowed us to be part of her dream and her project. This is phenomenal, I can’t even describe how excited and happy I am.”
On the CMT red carpet, tAdell also showed of the new “Blackbiird”-inspired tattoo on her arm, noting that Roberts got her own version as well to commemorate their unexpected place in the Bey universe. “We all did it in our own style kind of how we wanted to,” she said showing off the bird image ink on her right forearm. “We just felt like this is a really big moment and something to commemorate the experience of being able to work together with someone that we all look up to very much.”