Dance
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Last week, the Recording Academy unveiled a flurry of rule tweaks that will be implemented at the 2025 awards. Among these 10 changes, three are directly related to the dance/electronic categories and a fourth also affects the dance/electronic categories.
One of the changes involves an award that was introduced to the Grammys just this year, with the “best pop dance recording” category now being called “best dance pop recording.” This tweak is not just a matter of aesthetics, but meant to make the category more accurately reflect the well-established style of dance pop music it was created to showcase.
The proposal for this name change, reviewed by Billboard, stated that “last year we conceded with Recording Academy staff to amend the award name to ‘Pop Dance’ rather than ‘Dance Pop’ for the purposes of classifying and defining: ‘what kind of Dance’. However, the result of this decision has been one of regular confusion and clarification. Numerous articles in mainstream media would either ‘correct’ or get ‘confused’ or ‘incorrectly label’ the Grammy Award.
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“The confusion,” the proposal continues, “has also led some people to question if this is a Pop category award, or a Dance category award. It is of extreme importance to the Dance/Electronic community, and the driving intention of the invention of the award, that it be recognized in the Dance category, albeit for the most Pop-leaning sounds of Dance music.”
With this new category functioning as intended during its debut this year, this new change is likely to only help the category establish itself as a home for electronic music with a pop lean, allowing space in the best dance/electronic recording category for more traditional electronic tracks and generally creating more space for dance/electronic music at the Grammys.
The next rule change involves the best remixed recording category, which has long focused on dance/electronic artists but was never an official dance/electronic category.
That changes in 2025, with this category being moved from the production, engineering, composition & arrangement field into the pop & dance/electronic field, a shift that makes sense given how deeply remixing is embedded in and largely synonymous with the dance/electronic realm.
To wit, the 2024 nominees in this category included tech house titan Dom Dolla and longstanding producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, with winners since the award was introduced in 1998 having included genre legends like Frankie Knuckles, Deep Dish, Roger Sanchez, Louie Vega, Justice, David Guetta, Skrillex and Tiësto.
The next tweak changes the name of the “best dance/electronic music album” to “best dance/electronic album.” The title change was made given that the word “music” was more or less considered unnecessary.
More crucially, this change also amends the definition of the category, which now states that “albums must be made up of at least 50% dance/electronic recordings to qualify.” This change is quite likely a result of the nomination of and subsequent win for Beyoncè’s Renaissance in 2023. Given that the album is not composed entirely of dance/electronic music, Renaissance‘s inclusion in the dance/electronic album category was the cause of major debate within the electronic music community.
Many felt it wasn’t a purely dance/electronic album, while others embraced it not only for its music but for how it shined a light on the Black and LGBTQ origins of the genre music itself. Given this definition change, however, it’s possible a similar album might be included in the dance/electronic album category going forward.
And while the final change is one that affects many categories, it’s especially significant for dance music. The tweak states that all eligibly credited featured artists with under 50% playtime will now be awarded a winners’ certificate for all genre album categories. These certificates previously went only to producers and engineers with less than 50% playing time; mastering engineers (if they weren’t also the artist) and immersive producers and immersive engineer/mixers.
“Most often,” the proposal for this change stated, “a Featured Artist would be a Vocalist that performed on one or multiple songs on the record, but didn’t achieve 50% playtime as a whole (otherwise they would be a Grammy winner).”
While featured artists could still previously get a certificate, this certificate did not come automatically, and many featured artists were unaware that they were eligible to apply for a certificate, which also previously cost $150. This was different from the process for contributors like engineers and producers, who received certificates automatically and didn’t have to pay the fee.
The Rules and Guidelines booklet for the upcoming 67th annual Grammy Awards sheds some light on certificates: “Individuals on a Grammy-winning recording whose roles are listed under Certificate receive a Winners Certificate from the Academy after the telecast but are not Grammy nominees or Grammy winners. These individuals can say they ‘worked on a Grammy winning project’ but are not ‘Grammy winners.’
“Additionally, those who worked in certain roles on Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects but are not nominees, winners or recipients of Winners Certificates can order a Participation Certificate. These can be ordered for a fee from the Academy website.”
The proposal, introduced by members of the electronic music community, argued that in dance, this difference “disproportionately affects female creators or people of color,” stating that “vocalists in the Dance/Electronic community are predominantly people of color and female.” The last four winning albums in dance/electronic category (Fred again’s Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022), Beyoncè’s Renaissance, Black Coffee’s Subconciously and Kaytranada’s Bubba) included 27 featured artists, 14 of whom are women and 21 of whom are people of color.
Given that the dance/electronic categories have had a dicey history in terms of representing women and people of color, this change opens up the category to recognize a more diverse group of artists. The change was co-proposed by Aluna, who last year expressed frustration about the number of white men nominated in the categories.
“You can say awards are bullshit but they ARE career builders,” the producer/writer/singer and label founder wrote upon the announcement of the new rule tweaks. “Today I got word that a change I fought for was implemented at the Grammys and I want to explain why it’s MASSIVE! As a Black woman in Dance music you get the message loud and clear; your value is as the Featured Artist not the main act. Labels, managers, leading (white male) artists in the field, festival bookers and media all tell us that our voices are incredibly valuable but investing in us as artists is rarely on the table.
“Now, while I can’t change this culture overnight with my label Noir Fever,” the statement continues, “I saw that while being featured artists is our bread and butter, it’s someone else’s Grammy award so there’s a simple shift that could be made; Featured artists need the credit they deserve when contributing to Albums. In the past if you poured your heart into a song on another artists’ Album that won you still went home with nothing. Now I’m proud to share that every featured artist who has sung on a Grammy winning album will get a certificate.”
Life Is Beautiful is getting a makeover. The longstanding Las Vegas festival announced major changes for its 2024 event on Tuesday (June 25), with the event trimming down from a three- to two-day show and moving to a new site not far from the old one in downtown Las Vegas.
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While Life Is Beautiful previously happened across 18 city blocks in the downtown Arts District, this year’s show is happening at a smaller site on the other side of downtown’s Fremont Street Experience, a five-minute walk from The Arts District.
The lineup is also more focused this year, with the Sept. 27-28 party featuring 14 electronic acts including LCD Soundsystem, Justice, Peggy Gou, James Blake, Jungle, Jamie xx, Neil Frances, LP Giobbi, Thundercat and Badbadnotgood. Sets will not overlap, with performances starting in each evening at 5 p.m. and happening one after the other until 2 a.m. Tickets go on sale Thursday, June 27, at 10 a.m. PT.
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This year, the festival is called Life Is Beautiful Presents: A Big Beautiful Block Party. The event is now entirely owned by Rolling Stone, which first acquired a majority stake in the festival 2022. (Rolling Stone is owned by Billboard‘s parent company, Penske Media Corporation.)
Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner tells Billboard that “for a number of reasons, we had to explore new locations,” but that it was “super important” for the festival to stay in downtown Las Vegas.
While the festival team considered taking a year off from the event, they instead landed on this new format, although Wenner says “our intention is to bring back the full-scale thing” in the coming years. While this three-day, multi-genre format will likely return, “this block party concept is something we might do quite a bit of” as well.
For now, though, “it was exciting for us to put something a little more focused together that wasn’t so multi genre.” He says electronic music has always been a core element of Life Is Beautiful lineups, and that “if you look at the festival landscape, I think this is a product there should probably be more of, as opposed to these big box festivals where you’ve got huge pop acts that are all playing the festival circuit with little permutations on different [events].”
Las Vegas is of course a historically strong market for electronic music, although A Big Beautiful Block Party “is a little bit different than what you get across a lot of Vegas,” Wenner says. “It’s less EDM and more indie electronic — more instruments on stage, riskier. We feel there is room in the market for this lineup and not just pulling mega-DJs that play in clubs on the Strip together into one spot. This has a unique point of view.”
A Big Beautiful Block Party happens on the same days at San Francisco’s electronic festival Portola, which will also feature performances by Justice, LP Giobbi, Empress Of, Neil Frances and Jamie xx. Wenner says “seeing how well people responded to Portola was was a really good sign for us. it’s something they’re excited about.”
Wenner says that since he got involved in the festival, he’s been “kind of overwhelmed at how much support there is for Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas … I’d been told that, but to meet all the players and spend time in the community and talk to the small businesses that have been in and around the festival for for 10 years now, it’s been transformative. It definitely gives us a lot of appreciation and respect for what’s been built.”
Life Is Beautiful was founded in 2013 by Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos and an entrepreneur who had the vision to transform and revitalize the downtown Las Vegas community. Hsieh died in 2020 at the age of 46. Wenner says this year’s show “honors Hsieh’s legacy and the legacy of Life Is Beautiful and the spirit of it, while also evolving.”
While the festival looks different this year, the goal of A Big Beautiful Block Party is more or less the same as it’s always been.
“Bottom line,” Wenner says, “is we want to throw a f–king party.”
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
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Earlier this month, the story of a terminally ill dog named Kygo went viral, with the dog’s owner stating that it would be a dream come true for the pup to meet his namesake, Kygo the Norwegian electronic music producer.
That story resulted in Kygo the DJ inviting Kygo the dog (and his owner) to the human Kygo’s Palm Tree Music Festival, which happened in Southampton, N.Y., on Saturday (June 22).
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Happily, the dog and his crew made it to the show, with the Kygos convening backstage to pose for photos and swap merch. Kygo the DJ gave the dog a Palm Tree Crew bandanna, while Kygo the dog (and his owner) gifted a “Kygo Krew” hat and T-shirts with the dog’s face on it.
“That’s why I want a dog,” human Kygo said during the meeting, “just to have someone to come back home to and it’s just pure pleasure.”
The story originally went viral after the dog and its owner were featured on the dog-centric Instagram account The Dogist. The pup at the heart of the story is a seven-year-old husky, malamute, poodle and collie mix who’s been diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Earlier this month, his owner stated that “he doesn’t have much longer.”
Kygo the DJ & Kygo the dog at Palm Tree Music Festival New York 2024.
Johannes Lovund
The Dogist host Elias Weiss Friedman was also on site for the meeting, posting that Kygo the DJ “invited us all out to his concert in Southampton to meet up before the show. It turns out, despite not growing up with dogs or having one at the moment, Kygo fully understood the importance of a dog and what they mean to their person. I want to thank Kygo the man for making Kygo the dog’s second bucket list dream come true.”
The post also notes that Kygo the dog’s owner received a $10,000 donation from the animal-focused nonprofit The Brady Hunter Foundation to help pay for treatment costs.
The fourth Hamptons iteration of Kygo’s traveling Palm Tree Music Festival featured performances by artists including Swedish House Mafia, Sofi Tukker, Purple Disco Machine and Kygo himself. The producer’s fifth studio album, Kygo, was released this past Friday, June 21.
See the Dogist’s update on the meeting of the Kygos:
An new album by late producer Sophie will be released Sept. 24. This project marks the first time new music from Sophie has been released since the boundary-pushing Scottish producer died after an accidental fall in Greece in January 2021. She was 34 years old. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
This week in dance music: the queen Charli XCX ascended to No. 1 on Dance/Electronic Albums with Brat, tracks from which also currently make up a third of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and Lorne Padman was named president of Steve Aoki’s venerable Dim Mak label.
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It’s also a big day for big name releases. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Zedd feat. Bea Miller, “Out of Time”
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It’s been [checks watch] nine years since Zedd’s last studio album True Colors, and while he’s released a flurry of singles since — including his 2018 Maren Morris collab “The Middle,” which hit No. 5 on the Hot 100 — the album cycle is finally rumbling back to life for the artist born Anton Zaslavski. The lead single from his forthcoming Telos, coming August 30 through Interscope Records, is “Out of Time,” an urgent, elegant affair that leans hard into indie pop (a realm his buddy Porter Robinson is also currently exploring) while maintaining a firm electronic backbone. It all serves as a foundation for Bea Miller to go HAM on vocals, with the whole production building to a place that’s more a crescendo than a drop. The Telos tour starts September 6 in Los Angeles.
TSHA & Rose Gray, “Girls”
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With the bouncy, punchy, electro-flavored “girls” TSHA delivers the lead single from her second album Sad Girl, coming in September via Ninja Tune. A collaboration with singer/songwriter Rose Grey, the song rides the line between pop bop and the kind of blissful dancefloor track that facilitates getting out of your head and fully into physical motion. So it shall be all summer long for TSHA, who’s playing a run of dates across the U.S. and Europe — which includes Michigan’s Electric Forest this weekend, and a residency at Hï Ibiza through the end of August.
Rüfüs du Sol, “Music Is Better”
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Three years after Surrender, which won a Grammy for best dance/electronic album, the Rüfüs trinity is back with music that, like a dancefloor ouroboros, is about the joys of music itself. “Music sounds better when we’re together,” sing’s the Aussie trio’s Tyrone Lindqvist, with the sentiment melding with the group’s signature lush melodic house. The single comes after a surprise Rüfüs set at SoCal’s Lightning in a Bottle last month and ahead of the group’s only currently announced show, a headlining slot at Portola in San Francisco this September.
Jamie xx feat. Robyn, “Life”
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Dance royalty Robyn swaggers onto Jamie xx’s forthcoming album, In Waves, with their brassy, Latin-leaning “Life.” Sophisticated yet unapologetically fun, the song is the third single from the LP and one which the U.K. producers says he “made pretty fast (for me) and loved it from day one. When I first heard Robyn’s vocal it was at 6am after finishing playing at Pacha in Ibiza, it was the perfect moment. Robyn and I have spent time working together and hanging out for some years now, it’s always a joy and always inspiring, I’m so glad and grateful that she is a part of In Waves. Thank you Robyn for bringing this track to life!”
Purple Disco Machine & Chromeo, “Heartbreaker”
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Both Chromeo and Purple Disco Machine have managed to make the camp factor of their respective public images work, given that their music has always been great enough to support the kooky but intellectual brands of fun. So, putting these two acts together is something you’d expect to totally work, and it does. On “Heartbreaker,” PDM’s slick disco fuses with Chromeo’s modern funk, with the three guys together leaning into pop while also keeping it nuanced and characteristically groovy. “He brought this demo to us, and it basically produced itself,” Chromeo says of working with the German producer. “We hope that our lyrical twists and synth touches add a little chrome je-ne-sais-quoi to his winning formula.”
“Working with Chromeo on my album is a real moment for me in my career,” adds Purple Disco Machine, who also just announced a new album coming in September. “Both as a ‘fanboy,’ as I’ve followed these guys for years and they are a real influence on Purple Disco Machine, but also as a ‘producer,’ as 10 years ago I couldn’t even dream about a day when I would go into the studio with Dave and Patrick and make a record together. And…probably only these guys could get me singing and dancing in a video!”
John Summit & Kaskade feat. Julia Church, “Resonate”
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Call it bromance, call it mentorship, call it power in numbers, but the musical tag team of John Summit and Kaskade firms up today with the duo’s first collaborative single, “Resonate.” Coming after Summit opened for Kx5 at the Coliseum in 2022 and then played b2b with Kaskade at Hard Summer 2023, the song hails from Summit’s forthcoming LP, Comfort in Chaos, falling in the same dreamy, progressive house singalong sonic wheelhouse as the album’s previously released tracks. Vocals here come from Julia Church, who also sings on Comfort In Chaos‘ previously released Sub Focus collab “Go Back.” Summit is also headlining Madison Square Garden next weekend.
Mind Against, “Love Seeking”
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The Italian duo give a warm and experimental take on disco with their latest, “Love Seeking.” Out on DJ Tennis’ Life & Death label, the song is like a very cold glass of rosé at 6:00 p.m. on a summer Friday, slowing down midway before warming back up to a warm, sensual swirl that’s the sonic and spiritual opposite of the duo’s typically dark and more pummeling output, but which proves they can do both equally well.
Steve Aoki‘s longstanding Dim Mak label has a new president, with Lorne Padman — the imprint’s vp for the last decade — assuming the position. In the role, the Los Angeles-based Padman will oversee strategy for the imprint, which was founded by Aoki in 1996 while he was a student at UC Santa Barbara.
The current Dim Mak roster includes producers like Henry Fong, Chyl, Ookay, Deorro, Cash Cash, Cheyenne Giles, Sikdope, 4B and more, with upcoming releases from Ray Ray, Mila Falls, Nostalgix and Aoki and Afrojack’s collaborative Afroki project, among others.
“Throughout Lorne’s ten years as vice president, he has been an integral part of the label’s success story,” Aoki tells Billboard. “His ability to cultivate strong relationships within the industry has been critical in elevating the reputation of Dim Mak’s brand. I’m confident that Lorne’s leadership and hard work will continue to steer the label toward further growth and excellence.”
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Padman tells Billboard that for him, the label’s health and vibrancy is demonstrated by the fact that artists from across the roster collaborate often, without being pushed to by management. “For me,” he says, “that’s an indication we must be doing something right, if we’re creating an ecosystem of talent that all want to work with each other and get along socially and musically.”
These artists make many different styles of electronic music, with Dim Mak focused less on cultivating a specific sound and more on releasing compelling, relevant output. The idea, Padman says, is to offer a “complementary roster of different sounds, from really fresh underground and cool and new. But also, a bit like a financial portfolio, you can’t only be taking moonshots, you also need to have some established things that will guard our reputation and can also financially open the possibility of being able to take swings at emerging artists.”
Taking swings is built into Dim Mak’s business model, with the label’s New Noise imprint having released music from a totally new artist every two weeks for the last decade. This structure offers artists with what is often their first official release, providing them with the Dim Mak visibility boost while helping the label identify emerging sounds and trends. Altogether, Padman says, it’s “an avenue to market for development artists that are potentially too small for some other other labels.”
Padman brings decades of experience to the role, having DJ’d in Australia for 18 years. (“With only six Saturday off,” he says.) He was part of the development teams for the first releases by Avicii and The Chainsmokers and also has experience in management, radio, television, production and songwriting.
This history gives him the ability to speak the same language as artists and offer feedback in technical terms. But, he says, “I only ever feel like I have 49% of the vote” regarding the creative decisions any artist or member of the team — which includes staff across A&R, video, marketing, social media and art direction — should make.
“I want the artists to feel good and empowered, and I definitely don’t want to feel like Dim Mak is a distributor and that we’re not adding any value,” he says. “But at the same time, I don’t want them to feel like they’re being told what to be, because they have to choose that themselves.”
Padman’s previous label experience includes a run as national promotions and label manager at Australia’s Vicious Recordings, where he was working when he met Aoki. “At that time I felt Vicious was quite successful,” Padman says, “then Steve said something to the effect of, ‘But no one’s wearing a Vicious t-shirt.’ That stuck in my head. People will wear Dim Mak shirts and get Dim Mak tattoos, but no one’s wearing Sony or Warner or Universal or Republic shirts. There are labels and lifestyle labels. I always have to keep cognizant of the fact that Dim Mak is a lifestyle label.”
Padman also has a close working relationship with the dance/electronic categories at the Grammys, having co-authored proposals including the one that introduced the Dance Pop category to last year’s awards.
“I’ve always felt that it’s about reputation more than anything really,” he says of his and Dim Mak’s position in the wider industry ecosystem. “I’ve always felt like that if I can live my life through the four principles [of coaching expert Dan Sullivan] of showing up on time, doing what I say I’ll do, finishing what I started and saying please and thank you, then I’m going to be referable.”
Charli XCX blankets Billboard’s June 22-dated dance charts following the release of her sixth studio LP, Brat. The set opens at No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums (her first leader there), while all 15 of its standard-edition tracks – plus two bonus cuts – cover Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.
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Brat debuts with 77,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 13, according to Luminate. That marks the biggest week of Charli’s career, by units. It also earns her highest rank on the all-genre Billboard 200, where it starts at No. 3.
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The album’s first-week sum includes 30,000 copies sold on vinyl, fueling its No. 1 debut on the Vinyl Albums ranking.
Brat drew 46.72 million on-demand official streams of its deluxe edition’s 18 songs, equaling 37,000 SEA units (streaming-equivalent albums).
Brat was released on June 7 with 15 tracks and its deluxe edition arrived three days later. The deluxe edition was aptly titled Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not, dominates Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, with 17 of its 18 titles appearing on this week’s 50-position chart. That gives Charli more than one third (34%) of the dance chart’s total real estate. Only Skrillex has ever logged more simultaneous entries, when he had 20 songs on the March 4, 2023-dated edition.
Thirteen of Charli’s 17 appearances are debuts, led by “Talk Talk” at No. 5. Four more new cuts crack the top 20, including “Sympathy Is A Knife,” “365” and “Everything is Romantic,” all between Nos. 10-14.
Charli released a handful of singles in the lead-up to Brat, and those make big moves. “360” is the week’s Greatest Gainer/Streaming, up 95% to 6.6 million clicks, pushing it from No. 7 to a new peak of No. 3. “Von Dutch” is the Greatest Gainer/Sales, buoying 25-7, returning to its debut-week high. Plus, “Club Classic” and “B2B” both re-enter the list at new peaks, back at Nos. 11 and 19, respectively.
The avalanche of Brat tracks nearly triples Charli’s history on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, where she’d previously charted 10 songs. Notably, the new album’s “Von Dutch” and the other pre-release singles marked her first solo unaccompanied entries on the list. “360” scores her highest rank as a lead artist, while she had topped the chart in 2013 via her featured turn on Icona Pop’s “I Love It.”
Brat isn’t the only new release impacting this week’s dance charts. Kaytranada’s Timeless debuts at No. 2 on Top Dance/Electronic Songs with 21,000 units, while also hitting No. 2 on Top R&B Albums, No. 6 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 28 on the Billboard 200.
Nine of the album’s tracks debut on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, topped by “Witchy,” featuring Childish Gambino, at No. 12. Other entries include collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Don Toliver, and PinkPantheress.
For most of rap music’s history, homophobic language – whether in lyrics or interviews, coming from artists or executives – was completely acceptable. (On more than one occasion in the ‘90s, I left a sitdown with a major rapper feeling an implied f-slur in my direction). Of course, it wasn’t only rap – offhand queerphobia was ubiquitous in mainstream culture.
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Major progress has been made since then, yet (as with culture at large) recent years have seen a palpable backslide in the discourse, even as we’ve enjoyed increase visibility for trans and gender-nonconforming persons. High-profile people engage in nonchalant trans erasure, misuse pronouns, promote stereotypes and freely drop the f- and t-slurs – and defend their right to do so.
So for an artist previously seen as male to announce they identify as nonbinary, and begin presenting in a genderfluid way, it’s a big deal. That’s what Tyler Brooks — the 23-year-old rapper, singer and producer who records as skaiwater — did early last year in an understated, matter-of-fact post. It was something they needed to do, and they received massive support from fans – clearing the way for skai to move forward and get back to making music with as few boundaries as possible. On Friday (June 14), the result arrives: gigi, a thrilling mashup of flavors and styles that is sweet, raw, open, funny and soulful. It’s the sound of musical and personal liberation.
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Since they first began posting music in their late teens, as a kid of Jamaican heritage living in Nottingham, England, skai has been a work-in-progress. During their early years (which produced nearly 30 singles and EPs), they created melodic trap with an emo bent. But 2022 proved to be both a commercial breakout, with the TikTok-fueled success of “#miles” followed by “eyes” and the full-length rave — as well as a pivot from rap toward more club-ready sounds.
gigi doubles down on that move. An exploration of “different pockets of Black dance music” is how skaiwater has described the inspiration for gigi. While the LP is certainly danceable, it might also be described as future soul. That’s especially true of the opening track, “real feel,” and sparkling recent single “wna torture me tn?” on which skai’s Auto-Tuned vocals are nearly blown-out and married to classic ‘70s soul. “Play” is a sugary standout recalling the PC Music collective; “richest girl alive” feels primed for half a dozen remixes; and “choke” offers dancehall vibes and a lyric about “the dark side.” The album even features a verse by Lil Nas X, a longtime friend and champion, on “light!”
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“Back in 2018 skai was the first artist to work with me,” Montero posted when the track came out. “So this a real full circle moment. And i’m so excited to watch her grow as a musician and a person!”
But unlike Lil Nas X, skaiwater is not spoiling for a crusade. “gigi is not a coming out,” clearly states the bio for the new album. skai is simply living their life honestly in Los Angeles, their home since April 2023. And for the last year, they’ve been accompanied by Biggi, an adorable caramel-colored cockapoo who’s featured on eight single covers and gets a cameo in the ”light!” video.
While Biggi dozed by their side, skai opened up to Billboard about their influences, musical pivots, online commentors who have a problem with nonbinary individuals, Lil Nas X and more.
Congratulations on this beautiful record. I liked rave a lot too, but I feel like you’ve made another step forward. Unlike rave, where you had to be back in England for months after its release and maybe you weren’t able to support it in the way you would have liked, gigi seems different.
It definitely feels different. Honestly, I feel like the past couple of weeks I’ve started to feel like it’s the first time where I’ve woke up and learned what I was supposed to be doing as an artist, every day. Not just creating, but also getting the music heard. It definitely feels completely different than when rave came out. Rave was me letting the world have its way with what I was doing. [laughs] So I definitely wanted to be intentional and strategic about how I was putting out music this year.
That last album also marked a real musical shift for you into more dance-oriented music, with “#miles” and “eyes.” Do you feel like gigi is yet another change?
I honestly don’t feel like gigi is as much of a pivot as I took with rave. Rave was really my first time experimenting with a full project of something outside of rap. I was trying to make a dance album. But I think with gigi it was just taking restrictions off of myself and just opening the doors more to what I can create as an artist.
In a statement you said gigi was “inspired by different pockets of Black dance music, asking myself how I could elevate the genre in my own way.” Can you expand on that?
When I was younger, at least, I grew up around a lot of garage music, bassline music, drum & bass, that’s what I was around when I was super young, when it came to Black dance. At least in that space, in Nottingham. And then when I started traveling out here, I saw like the Philly scene, like house; the New Orleans bounce scene; and the Chicago house scene too, and just how Chicago paved the way for house music. And I felt like there was a connection and community when it comes to a lot of those scenes. It showed me how similar things can be even when they’re so far away.
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It’s funny you should mention Philly because while it is a club record, there are places, like “wna torture me tn?” and “princess” and the opener “real feel,” where it reminds me of a space-age take on old Philly Soul, like 1970s O’Jays, Stylistics type of thing. Those artists weren’t on your radar of influences were they?
The O’Jays were, for sure. When I first started the project we were going through a lot of different soul references, R&B influences. Even from before, when I started rave, I started honing into that side of my sh-t, because that’s what I always really wanted to do. I have always been a melody person, a writing person.
You’ve many times cited Kanye West as being a musical influence, and that is still apparent. What hasn’t gotten as much attention is that going back a few years you’ve also mentioned Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, SZA…
Mm-hmm.
And that’s interesting to me that people didn’t pick up on that because honestly, it’s not every day that a young – I’m gonna use the word “male,” because I think that’s how you were perceived at the time —
It’s okay. Yeah, I mean, socialized as a male, growing up, for sure.
But for a young male artist to cite women in R&B as influential. In 2019, you even had an EP called After God Fear Eve. I mean, hello? If the idea of you saying you were nonbinary made some people’s jaws drop, I don’t know – maybe they weren’t paying attention, a little bit?
At all, bruh! [laughs] And that’s one thing that’s maybe been a shock for the past year and a half, people really just must not have been paying attention. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But honestly, I think you’re right – maybe you pick on it more, but I’ve definitely got a lot of that early soul and R&B influence from my mother, and her side of the family. And, I think maybe me, not knowing the verbiage, but me identifying as a nonbinary person from very young – I think a lot of men just feel like it’s feminine to like R&B.
And regarding the feminine, or nonbinary, energy embodied in gigi. As I understand it, that name refers to the goddess Gaia?
So, when I started the project, I was starting a project called Gaia. And just my initial reason for it, before I started on any of the music, just a balance between masculine and feminine energy. Being a male-presenting artist in rap, but also playing on that line, I was naming the project after Gaia, which is a goddess of earth [in Greek mythology]. So, as it evolved into whatever it is, we now just kind of ended up with gigi. “Gigi” is kind of a nickname for that, and I just kind of for the era of the music that I am making and putting out.
While the melodic, emo trap of your early years has given way to much more of a dance orientation, one thing that hasn’t changed is that Auto-Tune remains your friend.
[laughs] Yes.
But here on gigi it’s to the max, almost like your vocals are willfully buzzy and blown-out at times. It’s really striking, and cool.
I feel like I had to go back to a lot of my early influences. And I think a part of that was punk, maybe not punk music, but the punk sentiment. The way I’ve been mixing recently, I am trying to make sure that I am staying on my own pivot. I feel a punk sentiment is important just to art in general, but also just to keep it running through my music. I mean, as you say, Auto-Tune is my friend, but it’s definitely a creative choice. I feel like I could hold my own without it.
You new bio makes a point of saying “gigi isn’t a coming out” but rather an opening up to new artistic possibilities.
Yes.
And lyrically, in fact, it’s more these images of fraught relationships, with you on either end. The specificity of some lines – “I put that bitch through hell, I put that b-tch through college” or “F–k would you burn my sh-t for no reason?” or “Take my money, send me to my f–king grave” – sound like you have one person in mind.
Relationships definitely mean a lot to me. They’re a big part of my life. I think I can be on the good and bad end of the stick, but I’m definitely overly self-aware and emotional, so I will definitely put whatever I’m going through into the music. And yeah, I feel like all my music refers to an individual, for sure.
So, one individual? Was there a muse for this record?
Well…no I wouldn’t say every song on the new record is. I wouldn’t say that. But there is definitely an individual in mind for every song.
You told Rolling Stone that operating as a nonbinary artist in a more alternative space, things are freer but also leaves open the possibility for the “mishandling of messages”?
Yeah. I feel like just things can be misconstrued, or taken the wrong way, very easily these days.
Misconstrued in terms of image? Like you put out a picture or video of yourself looking more feminine and everyone has an opinion on it?
Yes, and that’s what I’ve had to realize, bruh. It’s that you kind of have to just let things fly. You can’t control how people feel. But my identity, at least from a public perspective, very much just comes from my everyday life. I don’t feel like I’ve ever had to amplify it or do too much. I feel like if anything, two years ago I was at my home, feeling like, “People don’t know just straight-up who I am!” kind of thing. A lot of the moments that have helped me grow the most have just been me documenting me, being myself.
So you don’t ever feel the need to correct people or be like, “No, this is what ‘nonbinary’ is…”?
No, because I can’t control it. I mean there’s eight billion people on earth, the majority all have internet, we all have opinions. We all grew up different ways, learning different things, around different people, seeing different things that we’re never all gonna feel the same. But no – I just don’t have the energy. Nobody in the world has the energy to convince eight billion people of who they are. They can just be themselves. I feel like that’s the best you can do.
Recently I actually think there’s been a been backsliding from the progress that had made over time. Fans might get pressed because Carti appears to be wearing a thong, or people going after Dwyane Wade for supporting his trans daughter. How does a nonbinary artist navigate that world?
You know what, bro? I mean, it’s definitely something that is prominent in the space. But I’ve never been one to care about how people feel about me. You know what I mean? At least from an ignorant perspective, ‘cause I can recognize ignorance. If someone is just ignorant and that is why they don’t f–k with me, well then, just stay over there, kind of thing.
You seem able to let that sh-t roll off of you, a lot.
Yeah ’cause there’s more to me than – I don’t know bruh, it can seem serious, or it can seem very silly, you know, ’cause it’s the internet — and life and humans and opinions. People always are going to feel something. For me it just feels like it’s an easy thing for people to be upset about. People are always going to feel some way, and find some reason to like or dislike something. And yes, it’s wrong. But I think we as humans are to blame for our miseducation. And I feel like a lot of issues we have come from a fear of the unknown, and just miseducation, or not seeing, meeting or knowing. And that’s speaking to all different types of people. Whether it’s a race thing, a gender thing, a sex thing.
You’ve known Lil Nas X for a long time now – he features on “light!” and he’s obviously one of the most entertaining, no-f–ks artists on the planet. Not to conflate being nonbinary with being gay, but has Montero’s approach and attitude in any way offered a blueprint for you? Or – maybe there is no blueprint?
Yeah, I wouldn’t say “blueprint,” ‘cause I feel like we do think differently, but the journey I’ve watched him go on, I definitely have learned from him. I don’t know if there is a “blueprint” kind of thing. I’m just trying to create.
Different artists seem to have different ways of dealing with their own journeys.
A hundred percent. We’re all human beings. I think what you were saying about the back step in progress – I think progress takes longer than we think it does. And I think seeing different types of queer artists – especially in this space – I think it helps people understand we’re not just one group. We’re all just – everybody is just literally people.
This week in dance music: Miami’s III Points announced its full 2024 lineup led by Massive Attack, Justice and Disclosure, a book featuring never-before-seen images of Avicii was released in Europe, we spoke with the founders of The Circuit Group about how they’re helping electronic artists create independence through their intellectual property, and father/daughter duo Floorplan discussed what it’s like playing clubs and festivals as a family act.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And to all that, we add the best new dance tracks of the week.
Trending on Billboard
Tokimonsta feat. Cakes da Killa & Gawd, “Switch It”
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The announcement of a new and forthcoming Tokimonsta album comes with a bonus prize in the form of “Switch It.” The lead single from the L.A. producer’s seventh studio LP, Eternal Reverie, the track is a punchy, house-meets-hip-hop party starter that features vocals from SoCal R&B duo Gawd along with previous Toki collaborator Cakes da Killa, who lights an already hot track on fire with his characteristically rapid-fire verse.
“Exploring my take on dance music is a risk,” Toki writes in conjunction with the release, “but I’m entering my unapologetic ‘do what feels good’ era (as someone who’s overly apologetic, this is a big deal.. amirite?) Thnxxx.” To that we say no, thank you, and add that Eternal Reverie is coming through Tokimonsta’s Young Art Records in conjunction with a 26-date tour that starts at San Diego’s CRSSD festival this September.
SG Lewis & Tove Lo, “Heat”
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The duo — who worked together with Nelly Furtado on last month’s “Love Bites” — come in hot in multiple ways with their shimmery club anthem “Heat,” which puts Lo’s singular voice on display over a brightly pulsing production. (And please head over to YouTube to watch the song’s happily carnal and Pride-centric video.) The track comes from the duo’s four-track collaborative EP Heat, which had a packed release party last night in West Hollywood and is out through Lo’s own label, Pretty Swede Records.
“We share a lot of fans in the queer community, and this EP is very much inspired by the energy we feel from the crowd,” she says. “We wanted to celebrate that with these four bangers. Sam and I met on the dance floor, and I think when we first worked together we felt that special creative connection that rarely happens. So after making a few songs together that ended up on both our albums, we felt like we had more to give to our mutual fans who, like us, love to dance in sweaty warehouses.” The project features additional production from fellow tastemaker Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
Sofi Tukker & Heidi Klum, “Spiral”
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Self-proclaimed party animal Heidi Klum returns to the scene with her second dance project of the year: a starring role in the video for Sofi Tukker’s latest, “Spiral.” A singalong anthem about a relationship in its downward trajectory phase, the song is built around urgent Eurodance production and Sophie Hawley-Weld’s ever-silky voice, coming with a cheeky music video that features Weld and Klum having a sort of post-breakup slumber party, complete with frilly robes, catwalking and sex toys used as microphones. The track is the second single from Sofi Tukker’s forthcoming album, Bread, out this August.
Carlita, “Planet Blue”
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A piano house anthem as bright and enjoyable as summer sunshine, “Planet Blue” is the latest from Turkish/Italian producer Carlita. She says she worked on the song in her head during “countless rides on Lime bikes to my London studio sessions,” adding that playing it at settings including Space Miami and Manchester’s Parklife Festival over the last few months “has been an indescribable joy for me.” The track is out via Counter Records and and features vocals from Cleo Simone.
Mathame, “I Will Find You”
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The rising Italian duo bring the Pure Moods vibe with their latest, “I Will Find You.” The brothers started working on it six years ago, taking inspiration, they say, from “music we listened to in the early 2000s in Italy, that underground world of parties and unrepeatable moods that only those who have lived can understand.” What that sounds like in practice here is cinematic and sweeping progressive techno with a celestial vibe, an edge of darkness and a memorable and sort of haunting melody.
“Thank you,” they add, “to all the legends of Italian progressive techno for making us fall in love with this when we were kids and went dancing, much more than ten years ago.” They’re being literal, as the song is a take of a 1993 version by late Italian DJ and vocalist Franchino, whose own release was an edit of the Clannad theme song from the 1992 Daniel Day Lewis film The Last of Mohicans.
The flurry of commemorative material that’s been released in the wake of Avicii’s 2018 death expands today (June 13), with the release of a new photobook, Avicii: The life and music of Tim Bergling.
The book comes from publisher Bokförlaget Max Ström, which producers large-format photobooks, and features more than 200 images of the artist born Tim Bergling. Through these photos, many of them which have never before been made public, the book traces the artist’s life from his childhood in Sweden to global superstardom. See exclusive images from Avicii: The life and music of Tim Bergling, below.
The book, which is currently available in Europe (with a U.S. publishing date to be announced soon), was created in collaboration with the Tim Bergling Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Bergling’s parents, Klas Bergling and Anki Lidén, in the wake of his 2018 death. Based in Sweden, the organization advocates for mental health wellness and suicide prevention among young people.
Trending on Billboard
The new book comes days after the debut of a new Avicii documentary, Avicii – I’m Tim at the Tribeca Festival in New York City. The book includes a foreword by Swedish journalist Måns Mosesson, the author of the 2022 Avicii biography Tim: The Official Biography Of Avicii. Read an exclusive excerpt of this foreword about the producer’s time at an Ibiza rehabilitation facility in 2015 below.
Tim Bergling at three years old. Photo from the book “Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
PrivateAvicii Music AB
The moment of reckoning arrived deep in the Ibizan woods, surrounded by tall pines and fragrant orchards. Following a difficult conversation with concerned friends and colleagues, Tim Bergling entered rehab in the autumn of 2015, just as his second album Stories was finally released.
At long last he had time to catch up on his sleep at the facility, which was located on a converted farm. The garden, with its bright palm lilies and hibiscus bushes, stretched out beyond his window. A few stone steps led down to the consulting rooms.
Tim built a little campsite for himself up on the rooftop, staff helped him lug a sun lounger up there. At dusk he would gaze out over the Mediterranean shrouded in autumn mist, considering his life and all the experiences that had led him to that particular place.
One day, the treatment director took a book off the shelf in the consulting room. It was by Eckhart Tolle, a German self-help author. Entitled The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, it set out the principles of living in the present moment, also called mindfulness.
Tim liked what he read. He sought out the roots of these ideas and learned that much of Tolle’s writings drew on ancient Buddhist teachings – concepts that Tim enjoyed discussing in therapy. The Eastern practice was based on paying attention to the sensations flowing through one’s body, recognising difficult or embarrassing feelings without judging or repressing them. By acknowledging stress, the idea was that one could gradually free oneself from it.
Tim practiced sitting silently in meditation. He tried to tune in to every smack against the punching bag down by the pool. Boxing also helped him to let go of what had become a highly destructive lifestyle. During his nightly excursions among the wild rabbits in the surrounding woods, a new idea started to emerge in his head. It was a decision even he had not anticipated. An idea that would previously have seemed so impossible, he would have waved it away before it had a chance to establish itself in his consciousness.
He would stop touring.
It was a drastic move, but it immediately felt right. Playing live sets did not benefit him as a person. They were just a source of stress and drained him of joy. He would probably always love making music. In fact, that was one of the reasons why he needed to make a change. If he stopped touring, that would free up energy for composing music, which was what he really longed to do.
He also decided to split from his manager Arash Pournouri. Their relationship had been growing increasingly fraught for some time. After three months in rehab, Tim Bergling left Ibiza in great shape and full of confidence. He posted an announcement on Instagram for his three million followers.
My path has been filled with success, but it hasn’t come without its bumps.I know I am blessed to be able to travel all around the world and perform, but
I have too little left for the life of a real person behind the artist.
A new life began to take shape. Tim continued travelling around the world, but he no longer did so as a one-man entertainment industry. Instead, he hung out with monkeys on Madagascar, took selfies with gorillas in Uganda and floated on a barge along the Amazon deep into the jungle.
In the spring of 2016, he embarked on a special bus trip with a bunch of Swedish musicians. They set off from the west coast of the USA and headed east. They stopped off in national parks and carried their instruments across the rugged terrain. In the great outdoors, they wrote elegant, laid-back songs filled with rediscovered freedom. Many would later end up on Avīci (01), an EP Tim wanted to centre on the human condition. He outlined how he wanted the project to be presented. Ambitious films, inspired by the teachings of Buddhism, would trace a human journey from darkness into light.
This was his focus now: people’s destructive thought patterns and ways to break out of them. How to emerge from addiction and find a peaceful existence.
A new life, in other words.
Bergling in the southern Swedish province of Skåne, where his family had bought a run-down cottage with a view of the sea in the fishing village of Skillinge. Photo from the book Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
Private family photo
In April 2012, Bergling sent this photo to his mom Anki from the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthélemy. This was also Bergling’s first post on Instagram. Photo from the book Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
Private/Avicii Music AB
Avicii’s crew started taking a private plane in the summer of 2012 to save time getting from one gig to another. Their 10-seater Cessna sported decals that read “Air Vicii” and “Ash Alliance.” Photo from the book Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
Rukes/Avicii Music AB
A performance in Osaka, Japan, on June 4, 2016. Photo from the book Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
Sean Eriksson/Avicii Music AB
Bergling photographed in Nevada while filming a 2015 commercial for Volvo. Photo from the book Avicii, The Life and Music of Tim Bergling” Max Ström Publishing 2024.
Gustav Johansson