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What happens when Caribbean tropical rhythms meet the world of astrology, feminine energy, and spirituality? A colorful supergroup called ASTROPICAL is born.
The new band group created by Bomba Estéreo and Rawayana — two of the most beloved contemporary bands from Colombia and Venezuela, respectively — took the world by surprise just a week ago when it released the track “Me Pasa (Piscis)” while making the announcement that the song was just the first single of an entire project that was soon to come.
On Thursday (Feb. 6), Billboard Español can announce that the 12-track album — one for each zodiac sign — will be released on March 7. Or as Li Saumet from Bomba Estéreo says: “Before Mercury goes retrograde.”
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The LP, also titled ASTROPICAL, includes the songs “Brinca (Acuario),” “Siento (Virgo),” “Otro Nivel (Capricornio),” “Una Noche en Caracas (Tauro),” “Happy (Libra),” “Calentita (Aries),” “El Lobo (Cáncer),” “Llegó El Verano (Sagitario),” “Quién Me Mandó (Géminis)” and “Corazón Adentro (Escorpio)” — in addition to “Me Pasa (Piscis)” and the upcoming single “Fogata (Leo),” to be released on Feb. 20, and which Saumet feels “is going to be one of the most transcendental songs of this album.”
And they have already started scheduling live performances, beginning with the Vive Latino festival in Mexico City, where they are set to play on Sunday, March 16, and the Estéreo Picnic festival in Bogotá, where they will perform on Saturday, March 29.
In an interview with Billboard Español, Saumet and Beto Montenegro from Rawayana talked about zodiac signs, feminine energy, and the musical “child” that was born from their union.
For starters, how did this collaboration come about?
Saumet: I have an intuition, and I visualized. A little voice told me, “The time has come to make the song with Rawayana.” And I woke up and said, “I’m going to call Beto and tell him.” Since my team is close to his team as well, I asked for his phone number. And Beto got me right away and sent a track.
Montenegro: I told her yes, of course, but let’s book two days in the studio instead of one in case the first day doesn’t go so well.
Beto, were you already a fan of Bomba Estéreo?
Montenegro: I have loved what Bomba has done in their career; they are an icon and musically speaking, they are exceptional. And something was happening to me — like I was understanding the power of manifestation and discipline and work. When Li contacted me, it was one of those things. I was watching Bomba Estéreo at a sunset on a beach in Chile, in Pichilemu. We were the four Rawayanas watching Bomba and I told the guys it felt like: “Wow! It seems like this is what’s going to happen now.” And then Li contacts me a year later. We got together in the studio and in two days three songs came out, so from there we agreed: “Let’s make an EP, but let’s go to your house in Santa Marta.”
How was that process, and why is it called Astropical?
Montenegro: Li is so wonderful, full of flowers and light and spirituality. And throughout the process, the presence of the [zodiac] signs was there. It was like: “You are so Aquarius, you are so Capricorn”… her and her friends. So I tell her, “We have to do something that has to do with the stars,” because we had the whole process with this theme. And I tell her, “Honestly, I don’t follow astrology much, but I find it very interesting.” And it didn’t take long for her to say, “How about Astropical?” And I said, “Wow!”
When did all this happen?
Saumet: In January last year. I mean, a year — we literally had a child. In January he impregnated me, or I impregnated him, because from here you don’t know who impregnated who. And now the kid is coming out. And it’s nice because I’m lucky enough to coincide with people with whom I complement with musically and things come out, always trusting also in my intuition, which is accurate in the sense that I can complement something or contribute something nice and organically. I feel it has been incredible to work with Beto and the guys, because their energy is wonderful. He is Aquarius! I mean, my husband is Aquarius. Aquarians are beings that move me a lot because I am Capricorn and I am earth, I am always working and I have many ideas. But he takes those ideas of mine and complements them. When that comes together, it creates a wonderful mix.
Add to that that my birthday (Jan. 18) and his birthday (Jan. 21) are close, so there are the signs. Then the planets align. I mean, it’s all very crazy, even to me as someone who believes in that. I feel that everything that is happening is organic, we haven’t planned it. Of course, there is a general plan, because fortunately, we are very clear about what we want and we have good ideas, but it has been very organic and very nice. It has been like a complement not only vocally, but also lyrically. I feel that the whole image and the whole concept has been complementary and it has been nice because he says he has learned a lot from me, but I have learned a lot from him too.
How do you complement each other?
Saumet: Well, Beto is a millennial, and I am timeless. [Laughs.] I am very open to changes, and he is very aware of what is happening. That was one of the things that attracted me a lot to this new process with Rawa, it inspired me like, wow! Because artists are always reinventing themselves, it’s not something you do or you don’t — you have to do it as an artist. But what people from younger generations have a lot, more and more, is that they reinvent themselves all the time: One day they are one thing or the other o everything at the same time.
They don’t let themselves be typecast…
Saumet: No, they don’t. And that has always caught my attention, because in a way, when I started making music, I did that. I made music that no one else was making and it was weird and people said, “What is this? Or I don’t know, a haircut or something. I mean, very atypical things at that time, because I have always been very atypical and I feel that he has a very good intuition at the work level and he is also very logical, he has like a very masculine energy, which is cool. The Aquarian is always a being who is between heaven and earth, that is, someone who is a bit made to do great things. And well, I am very spiritual, but also very hardworking, very disciplined, so I feel that we complement each other in that: intuition with thought.
What have they learned from each other?
Saumet: I’ve learned to listen, to trust. I’ve learned a lot! From the way he treats work, which I always had at a certain level and now I see from a different perspective, like interacting more. I don’t know how to explain it. Something I’ve seen from Beto in these months that I have been with him, is that he opens up a lot, and I have always opened up a bit but closed, very much respecting my space. I feel that it shouldn’t be like that, that there should be a balance.
I feel that this interaction makes things move forward as well, because it’s always an exchange of energy, and he is very good at that. He takes the leadership and he goes out and he makes it happen. I’m a bit shyer sometimes. When I’m on stage it’s another thing, but in terms of — I don’t want to say the word, lobbying, I’ve learned from him that when you open up, other things open up for you as well.
Montenegro: What happened to me, in the moment I am personally living now, is that the arrival of Li has been like an encounter with spirituality. It’s like a rain of flowers mixed with a strong feminine presence. I mean, I feel super feminine in this process. I have been working with men for many years, and working with a team of girls, where we are debating things or making decisions, I am delighted.
I think God is sending Li to me so I can connect with that, with spirituality. In the creative process, I tell my team: “Here the boss is Li. We are here; let the feminine power take over us.” And I really like that she is a person who has managed to design a life full of colors. She says she is reserved, but she shows a very interesting openness. And I think maybe the mix works because of that. I also think, when you hear her voice, it’s an explosive thing and maybe my voice is a bit sweeter. You can feel that in terms of sound.
Any fun anecdotes from this last year working together?
Montenegro: Well, our birthdays celebration was crazy.
Saumet: Ahhh, it was great! We went to San Sebastián in Puerto Rico, where we were actually doing a listening of the album, and we celebrated every day.
Montenegro: It was like a That was like a fair. We danced… The cultural interaction has been very interesting, but I feel that if we weren’t singers, Li [still] would be my friend. We like similar things. I mean, we celebrated our birthdays and I felt like when parents bring two little kids together to share a birthday, with the same friends. Our friends [ours and hers] are all alike. We are different nationalities, but we are all the same specimen.
Saumet: It was lovely. We did karaoke, salsa lessons. We had a great time.
What can we expect next?
Saumet: A song that I really like, called “Fogata (Leo),” which I feel is going to be one of the most transcendental songs of this album. It comes out on Feb. 20. It also has a beautiful video. I feel that when we made it — I don’t remember if I was on mushrooms or not, I don’t think so. But I remember that it was something magical; that song generated a super nice energy for me.
What is it about?
Montenegro: Well, “Fogata” is like a request of what we want for when we are not around anymore.
And when is the full album due?
Montenegro: March 7th.
Saumet: Before Mercury goes retrograde!
Alok has a new musical alias, Something Else, with which the Brazilian superstar marks a significant departure from his usual, more pop-leaning work, Billboard can exclusively announce.
“When you think about Something Else, the idea that I had, [it’s that] I really love to connect with people. Sometimes when you get into a certain level of your career, [you find] you cannot fit into these places. I feel that Something Else gives me the freedom to express my creativity in different places,” Alok tells Billboard Español in a Zoom call. “It gives me the opportunity to go to places where Alok wouldn’t fit, but my heart fits. Even though Alok is my name, it’s my project, I really respect what we have build up with Alok. That’s always gonna be my main goal. But I also feel that my heart fits into other places as well.”
Known globally for his electrifying electronic pop anthems that have captivated millions, Alok, who launched his career 20 years ago, is branching outside of pop territory, and returning closer to his “psych trance and underground” roots. He debuted his latest venture Something Else to fans last year at global festivals such as the Universo Paralello in Brazil and the Zamna Tulum Festival in Mexico.
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The announcement of his new project arrives with the release of “Miçanga”, a tropical house remix of an eponymous BaianaSystem track of which Billboard Español offers the first exclusive stream. Created under his new moniker, the artist joins Stephan Jolk and Kawz in this collaboration with BaianaSystem, five years after the release of the original song. “I felt that this [song] could really fit in our universe,” he says. “[BaianaSystem] does very solid conceptual work that is singular and unique.”
The inspiration for the new DJ/producer project arrived when he performed at his brother’s wedding in Thailand for about a small group of 50 family and friends. “We just started to play, and it was all about the vibe. It was all about just being there and connecting in a very introspective way. I missed that so much,” he says. “I don’t wanna say [Something Else] is one kind of style of genre. I just wanna be like, it’s something else from the ‘Alok’ and ‘pop’ that you saw at Belém.”
Last November, Alok — famed for pioneering and popularizing Brazilian bass on a global scale — performed a massive concert at the Mangueirão Olympic Stadium’s parking lot in Belém, Pará in northern Brazil, to kick off the one-year countdown of COP30 which will take place in said city this year. Just 100 miles south of the equator and close to the Amazon rainforest, 250,000 attendees arrived to experience is AUREA show, where he stood above a ten-story-high pyramid stage.
The “Hear Me Now” hitmaker gave his fanbase a taste of his more experimental side with his 2024 album, The Future Is Ancestral, where he collaborated with the Yawanawa tribe of Brazil, and other indigenous poets, scholars and musicians. “It’s also totally, completely different from what Alok releases,” he adds.
“With Something Else, with ‘Miçanga,’ for example, it’s just a place where I don’t have to be pressured. I can just do stuff that I like, even though I know they won’t work in the same [way] as Alok’s songs,” he adds. “But at the end of the day, I feel that as a DJ, and all DJs, we are here to serve. We’re here to please people. And to do stuff that we believe, stuff that we like.”
In April, the two-time Latin Grammy nominee will make his Coachella debut.
Check out Something Else, Stephan Jolk, and Kawz’s “Miçanga” featuring BaianaSystem below.
A vulnerable Machine Gun Kelly opens up about his troubled relationship with his mother in a raw conversation with Bunnie XO on the eighth season opener of her popular podcast, Dumb Blonde. “I would like to say for the record I love my mom dearly and I misrepresented her a lot early in my career,” Kelly […]
Andra Day is making her Blue Note Jazz Club debut. The Grammy winner and Academy Award-nominated actress will perform for the first time at the New York City venue on May 6. The one-night-only engagement will consist of two showtimes, the first beginning at 8:30 p.m. and the second starting 10:30 p.m. Ticket information is […]
Coco Jones could be enjoying a very special Friday once 2024 Grammy nominations are announced, but she and her fans can kick off their celebrations a little bit earlier: Billboard can exclusively reveal that Coco Jones will be MTV‘s Global PUSH Artist for November.
The announcement comes less than a week after Jones marked the one-year anniversary of What I Didn’t Tell You, her debut EP with Def Jam. That project and its accompanying North American headlining tour helped the powerhouse vocalist transition from Disney star to award-winning R&B dynamo. In the past year, Jones has picked up best new artist honors from both the BET Awards and the NAACP Image Awards, as well as a whopping six nominations at the upcoming Soul Train Music Awards (Nov. 26), including album, song and video of the year.
What I Didn’t Tell You houses Jones’ very first Billboard Hot 100 hit, “ICU.” The DJ Camper-helmed ballad spent 20 weeks on the ranking, peaking at No. 62. The track, which also received a remix from fellow Disney alum Justin Timberlake, topped both Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and R&B Digital Song Sales.
“‘ICU’ really fell into my lap, I feel, because I was so surprised… what I ended up doing that day in the studio… I heard this track by Camper, and I could not skip it,” Jones says in a press release announcing the PUSH news. “Then I had to get really vulnerable and tell this story that I feel like people can relate to: when you love someone and they didn’t do anything wrong to you but you guys are just wrong for each other.”
“ICU” marked a new frontier for Jones’ career, becoming her first RIAA Platinum single and introducing her to scores of new listeners. The song’s success also gave way to the deluxe edition of What I Didn’t Tell You, which arrived earlier this year (Jan. 20) and featured three new songs in addition to the previously released “Simple” (with Babyface).
“I think my favorite line is the first line ‘something about your hands on my body’ because I just feel like it snaps people’s attention… I feel like it gives me a southern twang,” Jones says. “It reminds me where I’m from and it surprised people that I could go that low. It is just a really good line to me. It’s really solid.”
As MTV’s featured Global PUSH Artist for the month of November, Jones will partner with the entertainment iconoclast all month to discuss her roots, the stories and memories behind her music and the artists and eras that inspire her. For Jones, The Cheetah Girls were a formative part of her childhood, specifically the song “Cinderella,” which she hails as a “girl power anthem.” “I was the biggest Cheetah Girls fan,” she gushes. “That was my first concert ever actually and I thought they asked me to come up on stage, but my mom said no.”
Jones is also set to debut two exclusive performance videos for “ICU” and “Double Back,” the latter of which she credits to the “Brandys, Aaliyahs and Destiny’s Childs” of the ’90s and describes as “one of the best songs to get [her] makeup done to or to do [her] makeup to.”
The MTV PUSH initiative aims to connect fans across the globe with a new music artist every month through live performances, exclusive broadcast premieres of music videos, interviews and video content. Previous MTV PUSH artists include Lizzo, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, SZA, Chloe X Halle, H.E.R., Jack Harlow, Jorja Smith, BROCKHAMPTON and more.
Watch an exclusive clip of Coco Jones performing and talking about “ICU” above.
Erika Jayne’s love affair with Las Vegas started with a playbill. When she was just a child, the future reality star’s mother and stepfather took a weekend getaway to Sin City and brought back a program for Lido de Paris, the famous revue boasting topless showgirls that ran for decades at the now-demolished Stardust Resort and Casino, as a souvenir.
“I fell in love with this program,” Erika tells Billboard from her home in Los Angeles. “So much so that when I did my book report, we had to pick a city and I picked Las Vegas.”
Bringing her beloved program filled with topless performers didn’t exactly go over well in her Georgia classroom, but the then-elementary schooler flooded her class with dice and other Vegas-themed paraphernalia instead, only to learn after she gave her report that the glitzy metropolis wasn’t actually the capital of Nevada. (For the record, that’s Carson City.) But the point remained: Erika officially had her sights set on Vegas.
This summer, that longstanding dream of seeing her name in the lights of Sin City will be fully realized as Erika launches Bet It All on Blonde, her very own residency at House of Blues Las Vegas inside the Mandalay Bay.
“It just feels right. It is right. It’s over the top like Erika Jayne,” the blonde bombshell said of bringing her act to the famous Strip starting Aug. 25 for a run of 11 dates over five weekends through Dec. 2. “Fantasy, love, escape, glitz, glamour and fun — that’s what we’re gonna bring to you and I’m so f—ing excited.”
Erika Jayne
Courtesy Photo
Those six individual keywords make up what the singer refers to as the guiding “ethos” of her stage persona, whom many fans first met when she joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast back in 2015. Erika Jayne became an instant fan favorite upon her introduction to the Bravosphere, and in her seven seasons and counting, Bravoholics have watched the dance-club diva perform in gay clubs in San Diego, Chicago and New York City, to far-flung locales like Mykonos. In season 9, she even headlined her very own tour, which included a sold-out show at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles attended by her fellow Housewives.
But even before she was living out her fantasies in front of Bravo’s cameras, Erika had already gained a passionate, mainly LGBTQ+ fanbase and a string of dance-driven chart hits — including nine No. 1s on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart. It’s an undeniable accomplishment she notes hasn’t fully translated in the minds of Housewives fans, even as they’ve watched her record music, hold auditions, cast dancers and film music videos for singles like “How Many F–ks” (her most recent No. 1) and “Xxpensive” on the show.
“They’re all special,” the self-described “musical theater kid” says of her nine chart-toppers, the number of which actually rivals the likes of Christina Aguilera (10), Britney Spears (11), Kylie Minogue (14) and Lady Gaga (15). (Madonna, meanwhile, holds the unparalleled record on the chart, as revisited on Her Madgesty’s excellent 2022 compilation Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones.)
“Like, think about ‘Roller Coaster,’ which was in 2007 or 2008 or whenever it was,” Erika continued. “You know, it was my first record out. And I just remember creating in the beginning with such freedom and making music that I liked to dance to. … As I think here, there are so many [songs] that I wish had a bigger look. But now they will, ’cause they’ll be back in the show.”
As she prepares for her residency, the RHOBH star has no qualms about taking a cue from recent smash engagements like Spears’ Piece of Me, Aguilera’s The Xperience or Gwen Stefani’s Just a Girl to find inspiration for what makes a Vegas show sparkle. “Obviously, it’s going to be Erika Jayne,” she says. “But let’s be honest: Everybody’s looking at Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez. Those women have done a great job. And I’m gonna do a great job too.”
It’s also a safe bet to expect Erika’s preparations for Vegas won’t simply stay in Vegas, either. Expect to watch the process play out on season 13 of RHOBH, which is currently in production, and possibly beyond the Bravo franchise too, into a spin-off of its own. “I remember watching Blonde Ambition and being so fascinated by the inner-workings of a tour,” she says, referencing Madonna: Truth or Dare, the 1991 documentary directed by Alek Keshishian that brought fans behind the scenes of Madonna’s now-iconic, boundary-breaking Blonde Ambition Tour. “I want to give the fans a different look at my artistry, putting a show together, where I am in my life, outside of Housewives.
“Because it has its own life,” she continues. “You know, the show, the residency, everything that goes into it. The personalities around it, the pressure. Making the show is fascinating to a lot of people. It certainly is to me. And I think that that needs to be captured.”
Along with past cuts like “Give Me Everything,” “Stars” and “Painkillr,” the Pretty Mess author promises her residency will also include new music filled with “big, anthemic, fun moments,” which she’s currently hard at work recording in the studio, as well as covers of some of her favorite songs by other artists. “It’s a new era of Erika Jayne,” she teases. “And I think that’s important because the journey continues on as a musician, as an artist. Things have changed, but I will never not be happy onstage. Does that make sense? I will never not celebrate onstage, I will always have a good time and always bring the party. But it’s just a new party.”
What’s changed exactly? Well, first the pandemic ravaged the world, bringing Erika’s thriving performing career to an abrupt and devastating halt just weeks after she’d made her celebrated Broadway debut playing Roxie Hart in Chicago. (“I think that anyone that calls themselves a performer should have to go to Broadway. … Every night I stood onstage, I just was honored to be there.”)
Then, as anyone who’s followed the drama on RHOBH or read the news in the past two years knows, her personal life imploded as she was caught in the legal riptide of her estranged husband Tom Girardi’s very public fall from grace. The onetime powerhouse of the L.A. legal and political worlds, who earned his reputation winning high-profile cases like 1993’s Anderson et. al. v. Pacific Gas & Electric — which inspired the movie Erin Brockovich — stands accused of misappropriating at least $2 million in funds meant for the families of victims of a 2018 airplane crash in Indonesia, funneling more than $20 million in additional victim compensation to the LLC created for Erika’s entertainment career and various other financial crimes. He has since been disbarred, placed in a legal conservatorship, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and lives permanently in a memory care facility.
Erika, meanwhile, has maintained she had no knowledge of Girardi’s misdeeds — a controversial plot point that has fueled much of the can’t-miss drama on the past two seasons of RHOBH. Last fall, she won a decisive victory in a $5 million lawsuit filed against her for allegedly “aiding and abetting” her husband, with the judge finding no evidence of “wrongdoing” on her part, per the L.A. Times.
Determined to come out on the other side of her world being upended, Erika says the title of Bet It All on Blonde symbolizes not only the next chapter of Erika Jayne, but also her hard-fought independence and steadfast commitment to herself.
“Look, I think it’s no secret what I’ve been going through these last couple years,” she says. “And you do, in life, have to bet on yourself. Especially in this business. You have to be willing to take risks, and Vegas is a betting town, so I bet it all on myself. I rolled the dice and I’m cashing in.”
Tickets for Erika Jayne’s Bet It All on Blonde residency go on sale Monday (April 24) at 10 a.m. PT via the House of Blues Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay or Ticketmaster, or by calling (702) 632-7600. A special fan presale will begin Thursday (April 20) at 10 a.m. PT with additional presales for members of MGM Rewards, MGM Resorts’ loyalty rewards program, as well as House of Blues, Live Nation and Ticketmaster customers will start one day later on Friday (April 21) at 10 a.m. PT. All presales will end Sunday (April 23) at 10 p.m. PT before the general on-sale.
Delilah Belle is still getting used to calling herself a singer. As the 24-year-old model prepares to share her very first single, “Nothing Lasts Forever,” with the world, she’s spending a bizarrely cold Los Angeles day sending out invitations to her release party.
“I don’t think it’s hit me yet, really,” she confesses to Billboard of the song’s imminent unveiling, which is taking place at West Hollywood hotspot Hotel Ziggy on Friday night.
The hip location on the Sunset Strip is the perfect setting to mark Delilah’s reinvention as a nascent pop star — particularly given her reality TV roots as the daughter of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills firebrand Lisa Rinna. After all, the boutique hotel was also the site of a party hosted by DJ James Kennedy in the latest season premiere of RHOBH spinoff Vanderpump Rules — this was pre-#Scandoval — and also happens to be just down the road from what used to be L.A.’s iconic Tower Records flagship store.
Fans first met Delilah back in 2014 when her famous mom snagged a diamond in the fan-favorite fifth season of Bravo’s 90210 franchise. (Ironically, in her very first scene, Rinna implores Delilah and her younger sister Amelia Gray, “Tell me about Coachella,” after not allowing the then-teens to go to the festival.)
But just one look at the music video for “Nothing Lasts Forever” lets fans know that Delilah has certainly grown up since her earliest days in front of reality TV cameras. The visual for the downtempo ballad opens with the DNA designer sitting in a milky bath reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s “Lavender Haze” video before she jolts awake, singing, “Feelin’ like I’m dyin’ and it won’t pass/ Feelin’ like I’m lyin’ in a bloodbath/ I could pull the plug, let it drain out/ Or take another drug for the pain now” in a glossy soprano.
The song wades into weighty territory for a debut single, exploring Delilah’s physical and mental health struggles over the past few years. In November 2021, she went live on Instagram to detail living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety, as well as a particularly bad experience with a Xanax subscription, to her more than 1.6 million followers. (She now boasts, as of press time, closer to 2 million and counting.)
Yet despite its raw edge, the older Hamlin sister says she didn’t think twice about getting vulnerable with the song. “I’ve always been an open book and I’ve never been scared to really share what I’ve gone through.” she says. “That’s just not really who I am.”
Below, Delilah Belle chatted exclusively with Billboard about breaking into music, what she hopes fans take from “Nothing Lasts Forever,” whether she got any advice from her mom’s RHOBH bestie Erika Jayne and more.
What made “Nothing Lasts Forever” the right choice as your debut single?
I want this song to be something that everyone can relate to in one way or another. You know, I’ve written tons of songs about breakups, heartbreak, et cetera, but I feel like this song really is open to interpretation, and I want people to be able to just really relate to it in whatever way they need to in that moment. Because the meaning behind it really is “nothing lasts forever,” whether that be a breakup or really anything.
How did you start writing music in the first place?
I’ve always journaled my entire life and I’ve also always loved singing. And I knew that I wanted to be able to convey and tell my story through music. I thought, you know, “I have a platform. I could just put out an Instagram Story and talk about the struggles I’ve been going through.” But really, I thought that, creatively, the best way to go about telling my story would be through music. “I have a platform. I could just put out an Instagram Story and talk about the struggles I’ve been going through.” But really, I thought that, creatively, the best way to go about telling my story would be through music.
You said they’re up for interpretation, but the song’s lyrics deal with some heavy emotional themes surrounding mental health and anxiety. What inspired that?
Honestly, what I’ve been going through the past couple of years — really most of my life, as I can remember — I’ve felt a certain way. And they definitely are heavy, heavy lyrics. [Pauses] Yeah, I’ve struggled with my mental and my physical health the past couple of years and I wanted to be able to convey my struggles not so, like, blatantly. But at the same time, you know, they are heavy and they really do convey exactly how I was feeling.
Was that a vulnerable process for you to put those ideas down on paper? Did you feel ready to put all this out there?
You know, I honestly did feel ready to put all this out there. I’ve felt ready for a while, especially after I posted this video a couple years ago on my — I guess it was a Live, then I posted it to my IGTV, if that’s what it is. I’m so bad at technology, I literally don’t know what things mean. [Laughs] But yeah, I’ve always been an open book and I’ve never been scared to really share what I’ve gone through. That’s just not really who I am. So going through the process of writing and recording and being able to share my story through storytelling, through music was definitely a cathartic experience. It just felt right. Like, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at any time. I honestly could’ve shared more; I could’ve been even more open. It’s easy for me to open up, and I think it’s important to open up.
What do you hope listeners and new fans take away from the song’s message?
I really, really hope that people can resonate with the lyrics and take what they need from it. Because it’s so much more than just a song to me. I’ve been in very dark, dark moments in my life where I put on a song, or I’ll have the same song or, like, a playlist on repeat that just like that sad playlist. And those always make me cry, and when I’m in those moments, I want to be able to relate to someone else. Or I want to feel heard, I want to feel like I’m not going through this alone.
So number one, I want people to be able to, if they’re sitting on their bathroom floor or laying in bed, feeling like they’re dying and this moment won’t pass, I want them to be able to be like, “OK wait, someone else feels this way.” And whether someone looks up to me or thinks of me in a certain way, I want them to be able to be like, “Oh wait, Delilah also feels that way.” And if that can help someone, that would just be amazing. I want people to know that nothing lasts forever and I also struggle.
That’s something so many people struggle with and it can be hard to talk about and feel really isolating.
Yeah, and I think people can tell us over and over again that, like, “This too shall pass.” People can tell us all of these clichés, but in reality, it really does take wanting to change. And in my lyrics, I convey, like, “Same me, same girl, same behavior.” I was really just stuck in this one space until I realized, like, I have to change my thinking in order for my life to change…And when you change your thinking and your behavior, then you really do realize that nothing lasts forever.
Do you have any pop artists you looked to for inspiration as you dove into music?
I honestly didn’t know what my sound was going to be. I’ve written multiple songs and every song is, like, a different sound and could be considered a different genre. So when I think of someone who’s an inspiration to me as a musician, I think of how they tell their story. And I think that that’s something that’s really important to me and that’s such a beautiful thing. So I think of Lady Gaga, I think of Billie Eilish. Lizzo. I think of, you know, going back to Amy Winehouse. I even think of XXXTentacion in the way that he told his story through music, I just think it was very impactful. So I wouldn’t really say when I looked up to musicians I was trying to necessarily embody their sound, but more so the way that they told their stories.
Considering that you’ve known her for so many years, did you get any advice from Erika Jayne about starting music?
I don’t think I did get any advice from Erika. I don’t think I reached out, to be quite honest with you! [Laughs]
Well maybe we need her on the “Nothing Lasts Forever” remix.
Maybe we do, maybe there’s 10 remixes! I do think I invited her to my release party though. But no, honestly, I kind of did this alone with my little team that I created and love so much.
Tell me about the concept for the music video.
So the concept for the music video is…sick. [Laughs] I wanted it to be very elevated, ethereal, I wanted it to be high-fashion, I wanted it to be emotional, I wanted it to be so many things. So me, my creative directors and my team — we really thought about it and made it like a dream within a dream. We wanted it to be a work of art, honestly. And also, like I said with the song, open to interpretation. We didn’t want it to be too literal, and that’s what I love about it.
How did shooting the music video compare to all of your experience modeling?
When I model, I would bring emotion if that’s what was asked of me. But in the music video, in every shot I was thinking a lot, and thinking heavily about things that have happened throughout my life — and the last couple of years especially. So there was a lot of emotion filming it. I mean, I went through, I don’t know if it’s a hundred percent conveyed, but for me, I was very emotional filming that. And it was also kind of like acting? Which I’ve not really done in so long, since I was in, like, theater school when I was younger. It was awesome because it was something that I was kind of also directing. Obviously there was a director, my creative directors, but it was something that I was directing with my emotions and my thoughts. So it was a bit different in that aspect.
You’re definitely a little more in the driver’s seat than on a modeling shoot, I assume.
Yes, which I love because I’m very creative.
So can people expect more music coming soon from you? A full-length album, perhaps?
What can I tease? Hmmm. [Laughs] I’m definitely planning on a hundred percent releasing more music in the future. I… Yeah, I will leave you with that. Yeah, I don’t know yet. We’ll see.
Lance Bass sat down with Billboard News on Tuesday (Feb. 7) to spill all the tea about his new podcast, Lance Bass Presents: Frosted Tips, and whether *NSYNC fans might ever get the reunion they’ve always wanted.
Chatting with Billboard‘s own Tetris Kelly, the boy band veteran said he initially conceived of the project as a podcast that “really celebrated the fandom out there,” and it’s the perfect excuse for fans to take a time-traveling trip back to the heyday of the early 2000s.
According to the *NSYNC star, his other goal for the show was to use it as a vehicle for “telling stories we were never allowed to tell before.”
“We had to keep it very PG back in the day,” he said. “And there was a lot of stuff going down behind the curtain. There’s definitely a lot of secrets being told. It’s a really great look at the music industry, especially in that era. You know, how everything went down, what we all experienced. There’s so many similarities. A lot of the issues we were dealing with at the time were kept out of public view because we didn’t want the fans to know.”
So far, the podcast has featured Bass’ bandmates J.C. Chasez and Joey Fatone, as well as A.J. McLean of Backstreet Boys, Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees and Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block.
When Kelly asked about whether a reunion might ever be in the boy band’s future — especially after four-fifths of *NSYNC joined Ariana Grande onstage at Coachella in 2019 — Bass left the door open.
“Never say never,” he said. “I mean, who knew we were going to be doing Coachella a few years ago? I think it just has to be the right time; we all have to be inspired in the moment. But I do think the world needs something again from *NSYNC. I always feel bad that there was no ending, because we didn’t have a final show, we didn’t have a final tour, because we didn’t know it was the final days. I think we owe it to the fans to give them something at some point. I just hope it’s before I’m 80 years old,” he laughed.
Watch more from Bass’ interview with Billboard News, including his thoughts on modern boy bands like BTS, his favorite memories from his *NSYNC days and more, above.
(Exclusive) London On Da Track Is Seeking Primary Custody Of Daughter With Eboni–Alleges She’s Been “Emotionally & Mentally Damaging” To Their Child Whew chileeee! The energy between London On Da Track and his ex Eboni Powers isn’t giving holly or jolly this holiday season, Roomies! Eboni took her to Instagram story on Tuesday afternoon to […]
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