Executive of the Week
When Playboi Carti released his long-awaited third album, Music, in the early hours of March 14, it was met with a tidal wave of interest — its songs immediately flooded the daily Spotify and Apple Music streaming charts, and it immediately became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a day in 2025. And the album — his first in nearly five years, since 2020’s Whole Lotta Red — will likely become his second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 when it officially debuts on the chart next week.
It’s been a long time coming, and fans were certainly ready. And Carti has been building anticipation for the release for an extended period, teasing songs on social media, putting up billboards in Los Angeles, dropping singles seemingly at random and debuting new tracks in live performances, including at Rolling Loud earlier this month. That was all according to plan. “It was always kind of teasing and never fully announcing, keeping fans engaged in the mystery until we finally announced the new album was dropping,” says Carti’s manager, Opium Records president/CEO Erin Larsen. And now, with Music poised to become the biggest release of Carti’s career, Larsen has earned the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Larsen breaks down some of the strategies behind the rollout of Music, and how the team helped build anticipation for the album. “Carti’s a perfectionist,” Larsen explains. “He wants to take his time building out the music and the world around it and really developing the sound for the album.”
This week, Playboi Carti released his latest album MUSIC, becoming the most-streamed album in a single day in 2025 on Spotify and likely leading to his second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Our pre-release campaign started in 2023 and that was the first time he revealed the “I AM MUSIC” logo alongside the first song release on Instagram. We focused on consistent branding throughout the longer campaign and creating different moments that tied in like the NBA jerseys, “I AM MUSIC” out of home, key press moments, teasing records during live performances, etc. It was always kind of teasing and never fully announcing, keeping fans engaged in the mystery until we finally announced the new album was dropping.
This is Carti’s first album in almost five years. Why the gap in projects, and what effect do you think that extended time between projects had on the anticipation for this eventual release?
Carti’s a perfectionist. He wants to take his time building out the music and the world around it and really developing the sound for the album. The music is a larger representation of his creative vision and I think every project he’s offered something different. He remains at the forefront of conversation when fans are wondering what direction sonically he’ll go with this album and we tried to create moments along the way to bring them into that process.
Playboi Carti photographed by Matthew Salacuse on Aug. 2, 2024 at Seret Studios in Brooklyn.
Carti has been teasing songs from this project in a variety of different ways, releasing videos solely to social media, performing unreleased songs at shows and dropping singles out of nowhere. How has that strategy helped to build towards the eventual release of the project?
This felt like an innovative approach on how to drop music. We didn’t play snippets. We dropped an entire song on YouTube or Instagram and fans tapped into those platforms to hear them because they weren’t available on DSPs. In the process, he built the hype up around the sound of the album, and we were able to see which tracks really resonated with people. The strategy really opened the conversation and made the fans feel like a part of the process.
After such an extended wait, and after a series of billboards that helped sow breadcrumbs, Carti announced the project’s release date the day before it came out. Why did you guys consider that to be the best way to announce it?
The “I AM MUSIC” branding became so integral in the rollout because it was synonymous with an upcoming Carti moment. We built the anticipation and continued to create moments to keep fans captive and engaged throughout the rollout. I think this approach intrigued new fans as well.
How do you build on this momentum moving forward for Carti?
We’re going to continue to drive awareness to the project, build the songs with strategic moments and continue to engage the core fans. His music always resonates well live and brings his vision to life, so touring will be impactful. We’ve got great partners at Interscope and will work with them to expose the music to different audiences, build records at radio, use digital marketing and socials as well as branding opportunities.
What moves the needle for an artist in 2025?
Beyond great music I would say authenticity, building a strong brand and finding a way to organically connect with your audience.
Wale Davies first met Nigerian singer Tems in 2018, shortly after she released her first single, the stirringly plaintive “Mr. Rebel.”
“Initially it was informal; I just liked her song, I was just helping her put it on sradio and connecting her with people in the industry in Nigeria,” says the artist-turned-manager. “I’m always attracted to music that makes me feel something, so when I heard the first single, what I felt was somebody singing for their life — she meant every word she was singing in that song.”
Davies, who co-manages Tems with Muyiwa Awoniyi, has been with the singer ever since — and has watched her grow into one of the biggest African artists on the planet. To name just some of her accolades: She’s landed 28 songs on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats chart, including 10 top 10s and two No. 1s; she’s collaborated with the likes of Drake, Beyoncé and Future and covered Bob Marley’s classic “No Woman, No Cry” on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack; she reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021 with a feature on Wizkid‘s inescapable hit “Essence,” which got a remix from Justin Bieber; she’s earned eight Grammy nominations, and became the first Nigerian to ever win two Grammys after taking home best African music performance for her single “Love Me JeJe” earlier this month; and this week, she became the first African female artist to hit 1 billion Spotify streams for her feature on the Future and Drake song “Wait 4 U,” which samples her 2020 single “Higher.” That’s to name just a few of her accomplishments.
It’s been a rapid-fire rise in just a few years for the singer, and one she’s had to handle in the public eye. “Just seeing her grow as a human being, first, has been the most remarkable thing,” Davies says. “She’s had a lot of fame thrust on her super early, and her adjusting to those changes and how everything came, and now working with the record label and getting global attention and big artists reaching out to you, and social media and all these different platforms and people, seeing her adjust to that and learn and grow and work on herself has been the most impressive thing.”
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Now, all that success helps Davies earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week. Here, he discusses Tems’ rise as an artist, the work that went into her 2024 debut album Born In the Wild, the record-breaking success of “Wait 4 U” and the rise of African music in the U.S. “I’ve worked in the music space in Nigeria for quite a long time, and I’ve never seen anybody grow and accelerate that quickly,” Davies says. “Seeing the change of where she was to where she is now, and the confidence and how she’s grown as a person, is as close to a miracle as I’ve ever seen.”
This week, with “Wait 4 U,” Tems became the first African woman to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
For Tems, her music is very personal to her and comes from a very personal place. So initially when we got the call [about the song sample], the first thing she said was, “What do you think?” And I said, hearing what they’ve done with the song, they honored it in a good way and it would appeal to a whole bunch of different, new people, and if the goal is to have people feel something from your music, as long as the music still represents that, and it opens the door to new people to hear it, I think it’s a great idea to do it. And she loved Future as well, she just wanted to see how that marriage would work, and it turned out beautifully. And with all the structure and all the business behind the scenes with the song, my job is to make sure that everything is done for the benefit of my artist, and making sure that, yes, we are coming from Africa, and yes, these are big global superstars, but that we’re well represented at the table as well.
You mentioned the sample is “Higher,” which is off her first EP For Broken Ears, which came out five years ago now. What is it about that song and that EP that has given it such staying power?
One of the things I noticed very early on in Tems’ music is, each time I listened to her songs, I found new things and loved them even more. And that’s very rare with records, because after a while you can hear a record too many times. And even going on tour with her, having been in the studio with her working on these records for years, and then hearing them live, they still sound fresh and new, and I still feel something every time. I think people are trying to tap into their emotions and tap into things, and when music allows you a safe space to do that, it has a quality that’s timeless and lasts. The best music, you remember the first time you heard that song, and that’s timeless music. And that’s what it does — it evokes emotions, it helps you place it. So for me, “Higher” does that as well. It’s such a beautiful song. I heard it from voice note to this version to “Wait 4 U,” and each iteration of the song has been great.
“Wait 4 U” won her a Grammy, and then she just won another with “Love Me JeJe” a few weeks ago. That makes her the first Nigerian to have ever won two Grammys. What’s the significance of that for you?
We never really started out with the intention of global stardom or anything, she just really wanted to sing. She would joke at the beginning, “If I didn’t meet you guys, I would just be happy to sing in hotel lounges, just for people to hear my music.” But the way it’s gone and the way it’s grown and the way it’s resonated with people, what the Grammys do is they solidify the fact that you can still make music that is true to yourself and have it recognized globally.
“Love Me JeJe” was a strong choice for us to be the lead single from the project because it referenced something nostalgic to us, because the original “Love Me JeJe” song was one that we all grew up with in Nigeria, our parents loved the song, and so for us to be able to pay homage to that song was really special. We spoke afterwards — the original guy who sang the song, Seyi Sodimu, is also now a Grammy winner, 21 years after. So it was also giving him his flowers for doing something remarkable at a time when there wasn’t that much light being shown on our music and where we’re from. It just gives people the opportunity to dream — yes, you can get this global acclaim. And for us, it being the first song that she’s done herself by herself to win a Grammy, it just shows that the work is being seen and felt.
This song is off Born In the Wild, her official debut album. How did you want to roll that out and market it? And did you feel like you needed to introduce her with this project?
She had her first two EPs, she had “Wait 4 U,” she had “Free Mind,” “Essence” was a big song as well; all of this was without actually putting out a debut album. The phrase we would laugh about while we were recording was just trying to figure out a way to dance like you’re still in your little studio by yourself. Now we’re in bigger studios and there’s more opinions and more people. So it was trying to, first of all, block out all that noise and allow the artist to just be themselves, and then helping sometimes when they have internal noise telling them to do this or that. So it was trying to do something that felt really true to Tems. She listens to loads of different music, she creates loads of different music, and I think with the EPs you got certain glimpses of what types of music she makes, and with the album she wanted to lay it all out: Here are the different influences I have, some of them might be reggae, some of them might be Nigerian songs, some of them might be Sade Adu. So in all those different worlds, how do you connect that seamlessly?
And it was also important for us that we started the project back home. For us, we feel like there’s a lens through which people are able to look at Africa, look at an African woman and look at what a modern African looks like through Tems, whether through the way she portrays herself or carries herself, or through her music as well. So it was important that the first look we gave from the album was “Love Me JeJe.” We shot the video in Lagos, she was on a flatbed going through Lagos, which was surreal in itself because of the traffic in Lagos. It was a crazy moment.
Starting with “Essence,” she’s really been at the forefront of African music’s rise in the United States in the past couple years. How do you feel that’s progressing?
My theory is that we’re in a world now where we’re constantly looking for new things, consciously and subconsciously. I feel like with music you were hearing a lot of versions of the same thing you’ve heard before, and I think it came to a point, to me, where people started looking outwardly. Initially, I felt like the U.S. was very insular: U.S. music, U.S. charts. But once they started listening to new things, what people found was that there’s similarity and threads in everything. It’s called Afrobeats, but a lot of the songs Tems does are R&B songs. All of us grew up on American music, but also on Nigerian music and Jamaican music. Our music is more or less like a melting pot of all of our influences growing up, and I think there’s definitely a part of that that people will relate to because they’re mostly global references, and then you’re hearing Nigerian sounds that you may have never heard before which sounds new. So I think the rise of African music is extremely needed, and what people will realize is that they will find there are more artists in different genres playing in different spaces and different lanes, and it’s really a beautiful thing.
What’s next for you guys?
Tems has different ways she wants to express and showcase the music, so we’re finding different ways of how to push out the music. The project is already out, but what does it sound like reimagined, with different musical elements added to it or stripped back from it? She’s interested in exploring that more. At the same time, she’s always recording and working on new music. She’s got an interest in film, so that’s something we’re exploring.
And then on the business side, we’re trying to figure out, how do we utilize this position we’re in to create more opportunities back home? Our vision is in a lot of ways very global, but also very Africa-focused. Right now, we’re putting together an initiative to support young women producers on the continent, what that will look like, and that will be rolled out very soon. We just got involved in the sports world as well; that’s mainly to see how we can bring opportunities in sports back home to young people because we come from a place where we have to create opportunities for the younger generation ourselves. So that’s where our head’s at, and Tems is always recording. So there will be new music and new recordings and new versions of Born In the Wild out soon.
This week, all eyes have been on one of the biggest stages in the world: the Super Bowl. And while Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show rightfully has had many people talking, he wasn’t the only performer that stole the show at the NFL’s main event — New Orleans native Jon Batiste kicked off proceedings with a stirring, emotional rendition of the National Anthem, seated behind a multicolored piano on the Super Dome field.
And that was just the most high-profile moment for Batiste, the seven-time Grammy winner and former bandleader for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The day before the main event, Batiste also put on the Love Riot festival in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, which featured performances by him, Ledisi, Preservation Hall band, Flavor Flav, Dee-1 and more. And helping knit all that together was Culture Collective founder/CEO and Batiste’s business partner Jonathan Azu, who earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Azu — a Superfly and Red Light Management veteran, who also teaches music business at USC and is a governor of the Los Angeles chapter of the Recording Academy, among other endeavors — explains his role in helping Batiste secure those events during Super Bowl weekend, as well as the other projects he and Batiste have in the works. “When you’re working with someone as innovative as Jon,” Azu says, “the best thing you can do is give them the freedom to create and then support them and lead our internal team in bringing that vision to life.”
This week, Jon Batiste performed the National Anthem prior to Super Bowl LIX. How did that come together?
We received a call from the team at Roc Nation, which selects all Super Bowl performers, asking if Jon would be interested in performing the National Anthem in his native New Orleans. I was thrilled that he said yes — there’s truly no one better suited for the moment than him. Additionally, the other co-producers on the halftime and pregame performances, Diversified Production Services and Jesse Collins Entertainment, were teams I had recently collaborated with on NBC’s Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central in May of last year. Having just worked closely with them on a major live broadcast, I was excited to reunite for another high-profile moment only months later.
How did he want to present his rendition differently from others, and how were you guys able to pull that off?
Reimagining the National Anthem is always a challenge because it has been performed — at the Super Bowl alone — 57 times before. The goal was to create something that would not only stand out but also move people in a way they hadn’t experienced before. Jon is the perfect artist to take on this challenge, bringing a blend of musicality, storytelling and emotional depth. My role was to provide him with the tools, resources and space to develop and execute his vision. When you’re working with someone as innovative as Jon, the best thing you can do is give them the freedom to create and then support them and lead our internal team in bringing that vision to life.
The day before, he put on the Love Riot Festival in New Orleans. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
When Jon committed to performing at the Super Bowl, it was important to both of us to integrate a meaningful community outreach initiative into the weekend. Jon is from New Orleans, and my mother is as well, so I spent a lot of time there growing up. While most visitors during Super Bowl weekend stay in or near the French Quarter, we wanted to ensure we were making an impact in communities that don’t always receive the same economic boost — particularly the Lower 9th Ward.
To bring this vision to life, we sought a partner who shared our commitment to community engagement. We were fortunate to connect with He Gets Us, a faith-driven media campaign that was already involved in this year’s Super Bowl advertising. They became an invaluable partner in helping us realize the festival. My role was to work closely with their team to execute Jon’s vision seamlessly — overseeing guest talent coordination, production logistics, sponsorship integration and advising on the overall audience experience.
What were some of the toughest aspects of putting together that festival on Super Bowl weekend?
One of the biggest challenges was assembling available production teams and securing guest talent in the middle of one of the busiest entertainment weekends of the year. Super Bowl weekend brings an influx of major events, making it difficult to lock in resources and availability. However, we were able to navigate these hurdles and successfully produce the festival.
The end result was incredible — we had over 5,000 people come out for what turned into a beautiful day. The festival featured performances from guest artists like Ledisi, Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball, Preservation Hall, Flavor Flav and Dee-1, creating an environment that was both celebratory and impactful. From an executive producer standpoint, my role was to ensure everything came together in the right way, including logistical planning for artists to seamlessly move in and out of the festival while keeping the focus on community engagement.
You’ve worked at Superfly and Red Light before beginning to work with Jon. How has that past experience helped you to help grow his career?
Superfly and Red Light laid a strong foundation for me, both in terms of skills and relationships. Being among the first handful of employees at Superfly, the co-founders of Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and Outside Lands Music Festival, equipped me with the skill set, knowledge and relationships essential for organizing large-scale events in a city. My time at Red Light, where I operated as general manager, provided me with a deeper understanding of representing talent on significant stages, whether at festivals or high-profile events like the Super Bowl. Both experiences were instrumental in preparing me for the multifaceted demands of supporting Jon’s career.
He’s been a staple on late night television and won a Grammy for album of the year. How do you keep pushing his career forward?
Jon is the ultimate multi-hyphenate, and there’s truly no limit to where his career can go. I’m incredibly excited about what lies ahead for him, not just in music, but in business as well. We’re working closely to develop intellectual property and dynamic business opportunities that go beyond the stage. A great example is the launch of the new Jon Batiste Jazz Club at Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. Jon and his programming team are curating what happens on those stages 365 days a year, and Jon is involved in all aspects of the consumer experience — from what they see on stage to the artwork within the venue to the dining experience. This holistic approach ensures we’re not only expanding his artistic footprint but also building a lasting legacy.
What do you have in the works moving forward?
Like many of the talented individuals I work with, I’m a multi-hyphenate in the business world. In addition to Culture Collective, where I’m focusing on developing artists like Leon Thomas — whose album MUTT is skyrocketing — I have multiple business ventures on and off the stage. I partner with Jon Batiste and his company, JBI, to build out his multi-layered ecosystem around the world. In my partnership with Joe Killian, we are forging groundbreaking collaborations through our consultancy, Killian + Co., where we’ve spearheaded innovative, high-impact campaigns with artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, the Creator and Eminem for global brands like Ford, American Express and Julien’s Auction House.
In the academic space, I’m dedicated to cultivating the next generation of music executives. This includes my four-year tenure as an adjunct professor at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where I teach music business. I also serve on the Board of Trustees at Drake University, my alma mater, where I first started in music as president of the concert committee. Additionally, I help steer the Recording Academy into the future by serving as a governor of the Los Angeles chapter.
After the holiday period subsided, Atlantic Records kicked the year off with a bang, and are now setting records and breaking barriers because of it. The chief reason: the runaway success of Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.,” which this week spends its second week atop the Pop Airplay chart after becoming the first song by a K-pop artist to top that particular chart.
It’s a remarkable achievement for an artist, and a genre, that has been making waves in the U.S. for years now, first with BLACKPINK and now as a solo artist. And it’s not just on the U.S. pop airwaves that the song has been a massive success — this week, “APT.” spends its 14th week at No. 1 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart, tying the record for the longest-running No. 1 in that chart’s history, while also returning to No. 1 on the Global 200 for a 12th week, making it officially the No. 1 song in the world once again. And it helps Atlantic Music Group executive vp of promotion Brady Bedard earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
It’s not just “APT.” fueling this hot streak; Mars, despite not having released an album since the Silk Sonic team up with Anderson .Paak An Evening With in 2021 and without a solo album since 2016, has three songs in the top 20 of the Hot 100: “APT.,” (No. 3), “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga (No. 2) and “Fat, Juicy & Wet” with Sexyy Red (No. 17). It’s another big moment for Mars, who just took over as the artist with the most monthly Spotify listeners, passing 150 million in January.
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Here, Bedard talks about the success of “APT.,” how the global numbers have boosted domestic radio efforts and why Mars is having such a moment right now. “He’s one of the most talented, important, versatile artists of this century who continues to build one of the best catalogs in music,” Bedard says. “He continuously elevates both popular music and popular culture with hit after hit after hit — and judging by the world’s reaction we can all agree we are all better for it.”
This week, Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” spends its second week atop the Pop Airplay chart. It’s the first-ever song by a K-pop artist to reach that mark on that chart. What key decision(s) did you make to help make that happen?
It was the sum of all the parts. Rosé was in prime position to finally break out as a solo artist, and with the iconic touch of Bruno Mars it marked for a perfect collaboration. There was, unanimously, an irresistible energy to the song which translated in the immediate huge metrics in the U.S. and globally. Programmers ear-picked it from the start, as did their audience. Starting with our chart debut until reaching No. 1, the weekly airplay growth was textbook. It’s almost never a straight line to get to the top of any airplay chart, but this one was as close as it gets to perfect.
Has K-pop become more accepted at pop radio now, or was there something in particular about this song and campaign that made it particularly effective?
The answer really is both. Now more than ever K-pop is seen as part of the pop pantheon. Beata Murphy at KIIS in Los Angeles created a two-hour specialty show — iHeartKPOP with JoJo — that now runs across every iHeart Pop airplay station on Sunday nights. That didn’t exist a year ago.
In the specific case of Rosé, genres get “labeled” a lot in the pop airplay sphere based on the type of artist — that’s a K-pop artist, or that artist is a country or rock artist, etc — and while “APT.” is by a K-pop artist and that rightfully should be celebrated, when all those labels are stripped away at its core it’s just a really great pop song by an incredible rising pop artist.
At the same time, the song ties the record for the longest reign at No. 1 on the Global Ex-U.S. chart, at 14 weeks. How does that tangible global success help you in the promotions world?
The work the core team at the label provides is essential to what we do in promotion. Of course, starting with the music, Rosé’s Atlantic A&R Gelareh “G” Rouzbehani and then on to [VP of marketing] Jackie Wongso running point on the crucial marketing efforts, [executive vp of streaming and sales] Drew Maniscalo on the commerce side working in tandem with Liz Drummey and the global marketing team. With [Atlantic senior manager of digital] Kyle Viti pushing the massive digital footprint, and [Atlantic senior director of media] Ted Sullivan on the press side rolling out strategic media appearances all with identifiable eye-popping creative integration from [vp of creative] Trevor Newton in partnership with THEBLACKLABEL is nothing short of invaluable. The massive success their teams did here in the US and globally armed us with the information and positioning our promotion team needed to give our radio partners the confidence in this record week after week. We couldn’t have maximized what we did on the airplay charts without their expertise and insight.
Between “APT.,” “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga and the Sexyy Red-assisted “Fat Juicy & Wet,” Bruno has three songs in the top 20 of the Hot 100, even without having put out a solo album in almost a decade now. What makes him such an enduring hitmaker, and how do you help boost that on radio?
And look at the sonic array of those three songs! Radio is drawn to him in the same way everyone else is. He’s one of the most talented, important, versatile artists of this century who continues to build one of the best catalogs in music. He continuously elevates both popular music and popular culture with hit after hit after hit — and judging by the world’s reaction we can all agree we are all better for it.
How has the job of promotions at a record label changed over the course of your career?
Having great music and strong relationships remains core to the art of promotion. The shift is really in the strategy. In general, when I started 25 years ago, promotion teams pushed a song on the radio to work toward breaking an artist or song. Radio airplay drove the consumer into the malls and retail record outlets to buy the music — a model that worked for decades. In today’s dominant streaming and social media climate, once an artist or song is identified and verified as a winner inside of the various forms of data and metrics, then we amplify with the radio audience to take it to another level — bigger and with a long-tail effect. How much audience and how many formats can we reach in a campaign? How many songs can we reach with chart topping success? And then, once we get there, how long can we stay there? That makes the promotion work navigating radio and its hundreds of millions of weekly audience impressions as important as it has ever been.
What predictions do you have or trends are you keeping an eye on in the music business for 2025?
I predict we will continue to see a rise in more genre-bending hit songs finding their way across multiple airplay charts.
At this point in his career, Bad Bunny is way beyond breaking records. In 2020, he became the first artist to notch a No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an all-Spanish album, and he’s the only one to repeat the feat — not one, not two, but four times.
Now, Bad Bunny’s latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, has spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — and it currently seems poised to notch a third consecutive week atop the tally. Of his four No. 1 albums on the all-genre chart, it’s now the second longest running at the top spot; his 2022 set, Un Verano Sin Ti, collected the most weeks there with 13 non-consecutive weeks.
This week, Debí Tirar Más Fotos is also No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and the song “DtMF” is No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart for the second consecutive week. Bunny, in fact, occupies more than half the top 10 on the Global 200. On Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, nine of the top 10 songs are Bunny’s, including “DtMF” at No. 1.
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It’s an astounding showing, even for an artist as big as Bad Bunny. It’s also worth considering that Debí Tirar Más Fotos debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 following an incomplete debut tracking week due to his decision to release the album on a Sunday — Jan. 5 — in anticipation of the Jan. 6 celebration of Three Kings Day, which is a big deal in Puerto Rico and ties with the album’s love of Puerto Rico theme.
But Bunny quickly made up for lost time with a blitz of finely-tuned and very creative publicity efforts that ping-ponged from the U.S. to Puerto Rico, including his stint co-hosting The Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon, playing a surprise concert at a New York subway station, co-hosting a morning news show in Puerto Rico and surprising local podcaster Chente Ydrach with Puerto Rican parranda.
The final flourish was announcing a 21-date residency at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico, with the first several dates available exclusively to Puerto Rican residents.
A major architect in Bunny’s marketing and promotional strategy is Monica Jiménez, director of marketing and brand partnerships at Rimas’ Bad Bunny Division.
Jiménez, who worked with brands like Coty and Procter & Gamble before joining Bunny’s label and management company, works together with Rimas CEO Noah Assad on everything Bad Bunny and was pivotal in executing the artist’s complex vision. The success of Debí Tirar Más Fotos earns her the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
What exactly was your role in this album’s roll-out?
One of my duties is understand and bring to life the vision of the artist for the album. Benito is an artist who fully immerses himself in the many facets of a release process, including marketing, and it’s crucial to achieve what he visualizes for the project. I usually bring together the amazing ideas of the entire team and also look for new ideas to ensure a robust and strategic plan. I also focus on implementing the plan so it meets expectations, but above all, so it truly represents Benito’s essence as an artist and conveys the message of the project.
So, what was this message? And what was the overlying strategy for the album?
The strategy was telling a story through nostalgia and taking a message of love and appreciation for our upbringing, regardless of where or what that upbringing was. With this album, we underscored our pride for Puerto Rico, and we wanted the whole world to feel this same pride. That’s what we’ve presented in all our storyline and in everything we’ve done inside and outside the island. I think that’s what’s pushed such a special connection between the album and its listeners.
We’re closing in on a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, more than any other of Benito’s albums except for Un Verano Sin Ti. What do you attribute that success to?
DEBí TiRAR MáS FOToS has been a very special project. I think the entire world has seen and understood the essence of what the album wanted to communicate: Benito’s love for his culture and for his Latin people. I believe this has made the reception to the album different [from other albums].
This feels like more of a passion project than any of Benito’s previous albums. Do you think that has had an impact on people’s obsession with it?
Definitely. Benito has always been very vocal about his commitment and love for Puerto Rico. But here, he’s devoted an entire project to his island — not only conceptually but also musically, betting on root genres and on young, local talent like Los Sobrinos [the band on the album, made up of students from Puerto Rico’s Escuela Libre de Música] and Los Pleneros de La Cresta. It’s made people look at the project from another point of view and value it even more.
Benito did more promo for this album than any other. Why? And how did you convince him to do it?
I truly think his connection with the project made everything flow easier. He wanted to do it that way, to support the release in the way he did. The key is ensuring that what we do resonates with him, with his personality as an artist and with his vision. Once we have that, everything is easier.
Can you give me examples of marketing strategies that you thought were particularly effective?
Our strategy to reveal the song names generated a lot of buzz. We collaborated with Google Maps and Spotify, and as part of the collaboration, coordinates for each song on the album’s tracklist were revealed on Spotify, encouraging fans to dive into Google Maps for hidden clues. We not only looked for a different, interactive way to do this, but it led to many people discovering different places on our island.
Another major effort was the short film released prior to the album. The story it told [of an older man, played by filmmaker and actor Jacobo Morales, who reminisces of his life and love for Puerto Rico] was a great preamble to the album. It was an emotional, well-done piece [directed by Bad Bunny himself] that connected with many people in and out of Puerto Rico. Plus, those short previews of different tracks that were included in the video opened up an enormous conversation on social media on what people could expect from the album.
Does it surprise you that such a Latin album is the most consumed in the U.S.?
More than a “Latin” album, it’s about the [Puerto Rican] rhythms that make up the album. I’m definitely positively surprised, and as a Puerto Rican, it fills my heart. It’s a huge step for music as a whole.
What’s next with this album?
We never stop. There are many things coming up around the album. Plus the residency in Puerto Rico, which is something historic and will definitely be special for everyone who comes to visit and enjoy.
Country radio is a notoriously tough nut to crack: Song campaigns can often last a year or more, and the journey to the top can be arduous — only to maybe taste a week or two at the summit. So when a song sticks atop the chart for a month or more, it’s worth noting.
That’s what’s happened with Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph’s “High Road,” which this week spends its fifth week atop the Country Airplay chart — making it one of just six songs by artists with their first Country Airplay entries to spend five or more weeks atop the tally, and the first time two debutantes shared the honor. That’s a significant achievement on its own for RECORDS Nashville, the country imprint of Barry Weiss’ Columbia Records-affiliated label. But “High Road” reached the top immediately after a one-week No. 1 for George Birge with “Cowboy Songs,” another hit by the same label, giving RECORDS Nashville a run of six straight weeks atop the Country Airplay chart — and earning executive vp of promotion and commercial strategy Josh Easler the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Easler talks about the success of “High Road,” the difficulty of running two chart-topping radio campaigns simultaneously and how the Country Airplay format has evolved during the course of his quarter-century in the music business. “It’s been wild to watch the format diversify in sounds over the last 25 years, and especially in the last decade,” Easler says. “The radio side of things has changed so much it’s hard to even know where to start there.”
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This week, Koe Wetzel and Jessie Murph’s “High Road” spent its fifth consecutive week at No. 1 on Country Airplay. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
The first key decision that led to “High Road” being a five-week No. 1 goes back to the summer when we agreed on a partnership with Columbia Records to be the promotion arm for this song at country radio. We are grateful that Ron Perry, Peter Gray and the leadership team at Columbia came together with Barry Weiss and trusted us to take this song to country radio. Another key decision was the timing for the record to peak. We knew that if we could get into No. 1 ahead of the holidays, we would likely have a multiweek run at the top due to how few playlist changes happen over the holidays. It worked out perfectly.
The run for “High Road” came immediately after another RECORDS Nashville release, George Birge’s “Cowboy Songs,” spent a week atop the chart, giving RECORDS six straight weeks at No. 1. How significant of an achievement is that for the label?
Having the songs go back-to-back was a very significant achievement for the label, especially because it was the first Billboard No. 1 for all of the artists. It’s certainly the greatest airplay achievement for RECORDS Nashville so far. No. 1 airplay singles are difficult, so having back-to-back No. 1s is really special.
How difficult is it to run concurrent radio campaigns at country radio for different artists like that?
Great question. Part of what made concurrent singles doable was how different the artists and songs are. Although George Birge and Koe Wetzel are both from Texas, they are very different, both sonically and where they are in their careers. Koe was already a headliner when this project came out. His footprint in the musical landscape was already significant, and this No. 1 is another chapter in a robust story. George, on the other hand, is emerging as one of the most consistent hitmakers at country radio after the success of “Mind On You” in 2023 and “Cowboy Songs” in 2024.
Overall, only six songs by artists with their first Country Airplay entry have spent five or more weeks at the top. Why is that such a difficult feat, and what goes into keeping a song atop that chart for so long?
Getting to No. 1 is difficult; staying there for five weeks is very difficult and only happens if the song is a true bonafide smash hit record. Power rotations at radio are sacred. If a record spends multiple weeks at No. 1 it means the stations are leaving it in power for a long time, and that only happens for big hit records. What makes staying there so difficult is how hot the country format is right now. There were multiple monster records last year in our format. We were fortunate to have the timing we did, and it’s a testament to country radio supporting one of the biggest hits of the year.
How has the Country Airplay format changed over the course of your career?
I started professionally in the country format in the late ‘90s. I’m a child of the ‘80s and grew up on the music. I loved it, but it was very “one lane” at the time. It’s been wild to watch the format diversify in sounds over the last 25 years, and especially in the last decade. The radio side of things has changed so much it’s hard to even know where to start there. The biggest change in my opinion is how we have fewer and fewer gatekeepers with each passing year. Radio, understandably, has consolidated and programmers oversee multiple radio stations.
Over the past few years, the country genre has seemed to explode in popularity in pop culture and globally. What do you think is behind that, and do you see it continuing?
It’s so exciting to see what is happening to country music right now. The range of sounds and artistry is phenomenal. I do think this trend will continue for a few reasons. One is country radio is becoming more diverse. It’s great to see country radio leaning into more and more music that is coming at them from all kinds of different places. It’s no secret that country consumers are historically late adopters to newer trends, and the consumer behavior is catching up to modern music discovery outside of radio as well.
The country consumer is getting younger as well. If you haven’t seen a good club show recently from an emerging act, I highly recommend it. We are about to release an album by a newcomer, Ty Myers (The Select on Jan. 24), and it’s going to explode. He’s already selling out significant venues and the audience is very young — it’s incredible. Lastly, the quality of music being made in the core country lane and “fringe” lanes is excellent. There is so much talent out there right now, and with a plethora of ways to discover music, I don’t see this trend slowing down anytime soon. The circle will remain unbroken.
Last year, studio and production house OBB Media teamed up with iHeart to produce the annual Jingle Ball TV Special, the annual holiday event that airs on ABC each year as a two-hour broadcast. Featuring performances from some of the top artists in the business, the special is culled from the two live Jingle Ball holiday concerts held in New York and Los Angeles. Last year’s special, which aired Dec. 21, 2023, on ABC, landed as the No. 1 TV program among adults aged 18-49 and No. 2 overall on the night that it aired, with 9.5 million people tuning in — a 500% increase over the year prior. That marked the highest total viewers for the special since 2013.
This year, OBB and iHeart teamed up once again for Jingle Ball, which aired Wednesday (Dec. 18) on ABC and is now available to stream on Hulu. Featuring performances by the likes of Shaboozey, Benson Boone and Gracie Abrams, the special aimed to not only be a showcase for performances but an engaging presentation that went beyond just a filmed concert into “an experience and a show,” OBB Media founder/CEO Michael D. Ratner tells Billboard.
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Jingle Ball isn’t OBB’s only foray into the music world. This year alone, the OBB’s live division (the company also houses TV, film, music video, studio and branded content wings) produced a concert film for The Kid LAROI, the Hulu live special on the iHeart Music Festival, and, most recently, Sabrina Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas Netflix special, which highlighted the breakout star’s holiday fruitcake EP (which subsequently landed in the top 10 of the Billboard 200) as well as performances by Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Tyla, Shania Twain and more. And all that helps make Ratner Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Ratner discusses OBB’s work on Jingle Ball, the Carpenter special and what film and TV content can do for an artist’s career. “There’s a lot of clutter in the market,” Ratner says, “and content can be an incredibly powerful differentiator in helping artists pop, especially as the creation of content has become completely democratized.”
This week, OBB and iHeart worked to produce the annual Jingle Ball TV special, which aired Dec. 18 and is now streaming. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
Audiences don’t just want a concert, they want an experience and a show. OBB partnered with iHeartRadio to make sure that the two-hour special is dynamic, funny, tells a story, brings you closer to the artist and, most importantly, delivers great music.
What stood out to you the most about working on this year’s event?
I really think this year’s show represented the next wave of incredible talent stepping into the spotlight — from Gracie Abrams to Tate McRae, Shaboozey, The Kid LAROI and Benson Boone, it was a really exciting group. Also, filming live in arenas is always invigorating, and it was exciting to film the L.A. show in the brand-new Intuit Dome.
You guys also worked on Jingle Ball last year, which was the No. 1 rated TV program among adults (18-49) and No. 2 overall on the night when it aired. What did you learn from working on it last year that you were able to apply to this year, and how did you do things differently?
Last year we saw social media engagement for the show spike about 10 times more than the prior year, so we leaned into that even further this year, focusing on cutting more social clips to engage individual fanbases and help build a community-watching experience. Also with the Thanksgiving break falling a week later this year, our turnaround time to deliver the special after the L.A. and New York shows was shrunk to four days — and it’s already a quick turnaround — so we were even more efficient and streamlined on the backend to navigate editorial, artist approvals and delivery.
You guys also produced Sabrina Carpenter’s A Nonsense Christmas special on Netflix. How did that come together, and what was that like behind the scenes?
We’re constantly trying to push the boundaries and think about innovative ways to collaborate with exceptional talent. We — and specifically Simone Spira, who is a production and development executive here — had the idea internally at OBB to do a holiday variety music special with Sabrina, as we all loved the fruitcake EP and knew she could carry her own, given her authentic love of the holidays and that she could dance, sing, act and do it all. This all proved to be true as the show is everywhere — it’s dominating the internet, Sabrina surprised fans at the NYC premiere which was awesome, she was on Colbert, and it even made the SNL Weekend Update, which was a personal favorite moment for me, as I grew up watching SNL all the time.
How important can a TV special be for an artist’s career?
Incredibly important. But it’s not just the TV special — content that brings you closer to your fans and your community is an essential companion piece to the music. Whether it’s a TV special, thoughtful social content, or anything in between, content is going to continue to be a larger piece of an artist’s strategy. There’s a lot of clutter in the market and content can be an incredibly powerful differentiator in helping artists pop, especially as the creation of content has become completely democratized.
How important is music to what OBB Media does?
OBB is a storytelling company and we love making projects that are culturally relevant. Musicians have always been and continue to be key tastemakers and culture creators, so music is a key fixture in everything we do.
What’s next for you guys?
We have a VR special coming out on Meta Quest on Dec. 27 starring Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, which we filmed at the Forum during the SWEAT Tour. We love working on music projects in all of these different formats and mediums, and I think it’s a testament to how music is the throughline no matter how technology, viewing patterns and audience behaviors evolve. We’re also filming more of our Billions Club series with Spotify, and we’re excited for some major episodes with incredible artists that are coming soon. Looking ahead to 2025, we have some really big stuff coming that we can’t talk about quite yet, but stay tuned.
When Ella Langley’s “You Look Like You Love Me” featuring Riley Green hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Dec. 14, it became the first song by a woman in 2024 to top the tally.
It also achieved the feat in 20 weeks, which is a veritable sprint given how long it can take songs to reach the summit on the slow-moving chart. But there was no denying the sexy track’s catchiness and uniqueness with its spoken-word verses and the chemistry between Langley and Green.
Langley, who is signed to SAWGOD/Columbia Records out of New York and Green, who is signed to Big Machine Label Group’s Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment imprint, were already on tour together when the idea for the flirty duet came about. Langley and her co-writer, Aaron Raitiere, had written the song as a solo track, but “Ella and Aaron were wondering what it would be like with the male perspective,” says Ryan Dokke, senior vp of Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment. “She asked [Riley] if he’d be up for writing a verse or two and it turned out to be something pretty special. They debuted it on tour together.” The song is also featured on Langley’s debut album, hungover, which came out in August.
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The song, which the pair performed during the CMA Awards, snagged the Country Music Association Awards trophy for vocal event of the year over such powerhouse contenders as Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” and Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ “I Remember Everything.” That recognition helped propel the song from 7-1 on the Country Airplay chart and earned Dokke the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Dokke, whose team worked the song to country radio, talks about the steps that led to the song’s chart-topping success and what it means for rising stars Langley and Green.
Langley is signed to SAWGOD/Columbia and Green is signed to Big Machine Label Group’s Nashville Harbor. How did you work with Columbia in taking the song to country radio since Langley is the lead artist on the track?
Ella and I first met in 2021, and I knew immediately that I wanted to work with her in some capacity. When the potential opportunity to work with Columbia came into view, [BMLG founder/CEO] Scott Borchetta and [Nashville Harbor president/CEO] Jimmy Harnen immediately jumped in to land the plane. For me, I think having that relationship with Ella and her team as well as having Riley on the track made it easy for our team to dive in and get to work. [Columbia Records executive vp/head of promotion] Peter Gray and the entire Columbia team were fantastic partners. They placed complete confidence in our ability to move the song up the charts and cheered on the Nashville Harbor team the whole way!
The track jumped 7-1 on Country Airplay last Friday: the six-spot leap ties for the third-greatest to the top in the chart’s nearly 35-year history. What specific steps did you take to accomplish such a leap?
Ella and Riley delivering a BIG HIT song was certainly the biggest factor in its success at radio! Our promotion team at Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment (Andrew Thoen, Liz Santana, Stella Prado) worked really closely with our country radio partners. There were several viral moments along the way that helped the song have more opportunities., The buzz around the CMA Awards win and performance was certainly important, but one of the biggest factors in making this historic leap was Ella herself, putting in the work – especially in the final stretch. She picked up the phone and was on the air talking with stations well into the eleventh hour.
You mention the CMA Awards performance/win and the tour. What other moments helped build momentum?
There were several moments that created a lot of chatter: The performance [opening for Morgan Wallen] at Hyde Park in London, which drew the UK’s biggest country crowd in history, and even when they popped up at Loser’s Bar & Grill in Nashville with Jamey Johnson over the summer. Seeing the passion for this song following those performances was what drove the demand for it at radio and it just continued to grow from there. They performed it on the TODAY Show, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the CMA Awards and each time we saw the numbers spike.
“You Look Like You Love Me” is the first song performed/co-performed by a woman to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in 2024. Langley ends the longest break – 51 weeks – between women (including groups with prominent female vocals) topping the chart since a record 61-week shutout in 2003-04. What does that say about the difficulty women are still facing?
Honestly, I was surprised that Ella was the first of the year. With women like Carly Pearce, Lainey Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, Megan Moroney – who just won the CMA Awards’ best new artist and of course, Miranda Lambert who are all making and releasing culture shaping music and are filling arenas – it put me on my heels for a second. I’m optimistic that we’ll see more opportunities in the coming year. Just too much great music for there not to be.
This song includes spoken verses. Did you face any resistance at radio since that is more a throwback to the ‘60s and ‘70s? Did you think about releasing a version without the spoken-word parts?
The song started with such red- hot heat and had such undeniable passion from fans on the internet and it was immediately streaming so well, the spoken verses were never really an issue.
Green also has a top 15 hit with “Damn Good Day to Leave.” How are these two songs setting him up to take him to the next level in his career?
Riley is in such a great place and there is so much demand right now. It all comes down to building a connection with fans. These songs might connect to two different audiences, and he wins with both. He is wrapping his biggest year yet and already we can see 2025 being even bigger – with a red- hot album, sold out tours in the U.S. and the U.K., a rabid internet following, and the respect of his peers – Riley Green’s time is definitely here!
Will you have any continued involvement in Langley’s country radio work or was that a one-off because of Green?
I think right now we are still celebrating a BIG WIN. That question will answer itself in time. Regardless, the Nashville Harbor team is proud to have been a part of Ella’s introduction to Country radio and we will continue to be huge fans of Ella and her music. She’ll also be on tour with Riley next year, so we’ll be close by cheering her on either way.
Following the release of the anticipated sequel film, Moana 2, which in its opening week earned $225 million at the U.S. and Canada box office, the movie’s soundtrack proved to be just as big a hit, debuting in the top 10 of three Billboard album charts.
Featuring the voices of returning actors Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana) and Dwayne Johnson (Maui), Moana 2 also debuted a new musical pair in composing duo Barlow & Bear (Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear). Together, the two made history as the youngest and only all-women songwriting duo to create a full soundtrack for a Disney animated film. (Barlow & Bear stepped in for Lin-Manuel Miranda, who helmed the music for 2016’s original Moana.)
“They were brought on for their immense talent as musicians and storytellers,” says Tom MacDougall, president of Walt Disney Music and Billboard‘s Executive of the Week, who also A&R’d the soundtrack. “Where being younger did come into play revealed itself in their ability to understand the feelings Moana was having as a young woman trying to achieve great things and channeling that experience into the story.” (Moana 2 picks up three years after the original film left off; this time, Moana receives an unexpected call from her ancestors that brings her back to the ocean.)
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The celebratory opening week for Moana 2 is just the beginning of a busy year’s end for Disney, as MacDougall’s next soundtrack is already on its way. On Dec. 20, Mufasa: The Lion King will arrive along with its original soundtrack by Miranda.
And while MacDougall says “we simply release films when they’re ready,” he does believe there’s something special about the end of a year. “I do think [this period] represents a time of reflection, joy and family,” he says. “I can see how those emotions can get you in the mood to see characters sing.”
Moana 2 debuted in the top 10 on three of Billboard’s album charts (No. 2 on Kid Albums, No. 10 on Soundtracks and No. 10 on World Albums). What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
Our partners at the Disney Music Group and studio marketing know the “first responders” to our soundtracks live in these key categories and they look to service them early with sneak peeks, exclusives and lyric videos. As the films broaden out — like Frozen and Encanto — we look to capture all audiences on as many charts as we can, including the top song and album charts.
The first Moana soundtrack topped both the Kid Albums and Soundtracks charts for 54 and 62 nonconsecutive weeks, respectively. How are you and the team aiming for similar longevity with Moana 2?
We are always humbled by any charting, and don’t expect the past to point to future success but we do go to great lengths to find the core emotional situations that, dare I say, demand that these characters sing. My experience is that when we hit that mark — which I think we did with Moana 2 — success can follow.
What challenges did you and the team face in following up a musical smash like Moana?
Sequels to musicals are tricky as you need new adventures, obstacles and desires to sing about or it won’t feel like an evolution for the characters. With Moana being older and wiser, she has taken on more responsibilities to her community and her family which provided fertile ground for her to sing. And, of course, our demigod Maui is always finding reasons to sing, and Dwayne [Johnson] really pushed himself creatively to find yet another plateau for his talents as a vocalist for the new song “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?”
In addition to Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King arrives on Dec. 20. For any sequel or franchise continuation, when it comes to the music, what is the secret to balancing familiar sounds with new?
I think the secret to a musical sequel is to make sure you’re offering something new for the characters, the story and the music, but [that] doesn’t abandon what’s come before. Barlow & Bear represented the new on Moana 2, and [composers] Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina were the foundation of what came before that brought the warm familiar feeling audiences come to expect from the world of Moana.
For you, what’s the signal that the team has a hit on its hands?
Honestly, we don’t consider any film soundtrack to be a hit until the audience has spoken. There is often a slow period of absorption that seems to happen with music that doesn’t follow the near instantaneous assessment of box office success, so sometimes we just have to wait. With Moana 2 audiences have told us they want to spend a lot of time in that world, so I don’t think we’ll have to wait long to consider the soundtrack a hit.
How “far” do you see the Moana movies in particular going — are there any current plans “beyond” this sequel?
Having now worked on both films for over a decade of my career, I’m looking forward to just enjoying this moment of success and be grateful audiences have responded to these films in this unprecedented way. Can I get a chee hoo?
Merely existing in the world in the past few weeks would be enough for most people to know that the film adaptation of the beloved Broadway play Wicked is arriving in theaters today (Nov. 22).
Starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey, the musical film is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, with first-week box office projections of $100 million and a marketing campaign that includes everything from billboards to merchandise to late-night TV appearances and even its own category on Jeopardy! earlier this week.
But it’s impossible to separate the spectacle that is Wicked from its songs, and there has also been intense interest in both how the music is incorporated into the film and the construction of its soundtrack, given the original cast recording from 2003 won a Grammy Award in 2005 for best musical show album. And that’s something that NBC Universal president of music Mike Knobloch knew to take extra seriously. “The original cast recording is iconic, so priority number one was to not mess it up,” Knobloch tells Billboard. “It has also been a great opportunity to make a soundtrack for a beloved musical that will only be the second Wicked album in two decades. But while our primary mission was to make the film, we didn’t want the soundtrack to simply be a ‘copied and pasted’ byproduct.”
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To make that happen, Knobloch and original Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, along with the filmmakers, producers and the rest of their music team, got to work more than two years ago to make sure they struck the right notes. And as the film and its soundtrack finally make their way into the world today, Knobloch earns the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Knobloch discusses the work that went into helping Wicked come to life, as well as the marketing campaign behind the project and the state of musical films these days. “Wicked is the perfect example of how it all comes down to just making an excellent movie, whether characters on the screen are singing or not,” he says. “It’s got an engaging story, it’s timely and relevant — eerily so for something written 24 years ago — has performances that take your breath away, it’s visually stunning, exhilarating, innovative and multidimensional in a way that makes the state of the musical movie feel pretty epic right now to me.”
This week, the new film Wicked opened wide in theaters, and the official film soundtrack was released, featuring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and more. What role did you play in helping make this project come to life?
There’s no handbook for how to take an existing stage musical and adapt it for the screen, especially with the film’s scope and scale and lack of constraints compared to the stage, and how cherished these songs are to so many. I worked closely with the filmmakers, Jon Chu and Marc Platt, and composer Stephen Schwartz from the very beginning, starting with the critical task of putting together the right team of best-in-class creative and technical personnel so we could be equipped to make something really special. And then I pretty much assumed the role of the “music team coach” through every stage of production all the way through the delivery of the soundtrack.
When did the work for it first start, what challenges did you face and how did you overcome that?
We started in earnest very early in pre-production more than two years ago, and we had a lot to figure out, starting with the production methodology — how to go about equipping the production for live singing, developing the instrumental tracks, adapting the structure of the music to the requirements of the film and so on. We had to start with demos and record in phases in order to put Schwartz’s brilliant music up on the screen. This allowed the music to have the flexibility to follow the actors’ performances, which provided them a great deal of creative freedom.
We consistently found ourselves in uncharted territory, so we put a lot of emphasis on the “how to” from the jump so that we could drive the process as efficiently as possible — and especially make sure the cast and crew had what they needed well in advance of each day of filming. We did some atypical things, like building a bespoke recording studio tailored to our unique needs and routines, for example. The music team was entrusted with this huge responsibility to work closely together and realize the music of Wicked at a level that’s never been done before. It just required an intense level of teamwork and collaboration at every step.
There is a beloved recording made by the Broadway cast that won a Grammy in 2005 for best musical show album. How did you approach making the soundtrack different, or expand upon it, given that original material?
The original cast recording is iconic, so priority number one was to not mess it up. It has also been a great opportunity to make a soundtrack for a beloved musical that will only be the second Wicked album in two decades. But while our primary mission was to make the film, we didn’t want the soundtrack to simply be a “copied and pasted” byproduct. Stephen Schwartz worked extremely closely with executive music producer Stephen Oremus — who has also been the music director of the stage play since its beginning — producer and mixer Greg Wells, and the rest of the music team to make sure the album would be a standalone and complete aural experience.
So without the dialog — except for some snippets for narrative context — and the rest of the sound from the film, a great deal of time and effort went into balancing the vocals with all the orchestral and other instrumental elements and editing the songs together into a cohesive structure. A lot of care went into capturing cast vocals throughout filming that would be production-quality for the soundtrack so that it would reflect their true performances from the movie. This new soundtrack isn’t really meant to be compared to the Broadway recording since it’s a different medium, obviously — but everyone was extremely careful to be faithful to and respectful of what people know and love about the music of Wicked, as well.
How difficult is it to adapt a Broadway production to film, and how did you navigate that from a music point of view?
With genuinely brilliant talent like Ariana, Cynthia, Jonathan Bailey and the rest of the cast, combined with Jon Chu’s imaginative direction, the “adaptation” of the music really gets to be led by their amazing performances. There are orchestration choices, instrumentation and dynamics that differentiate what these songs sound like on stage versus onscreen. Of course, Wicked is a break-out-into-song musical, but something it does very well is to transition in and out of songs without having any of those obvious flags that make you think, “Oh, she’s about to sing something now.” It’s all very fluid and organic, and the musical “bed” was subsequently built to support the performances on the screen. John Powell coming in to score the movie with Stephen Schwartz was also a big part of differentiating the style, scope and scale of the storytelling on the screen. Their score is what glues it all together and makes it feel cinematic.
Wicked has benefited already from an extensive marketing campaign. What role did you play in that, and how have you seen that pay off?
Wicked, the film and the campaign, is just the biggest thing we’ve ever done. Accordingly, we needed a soundtrack partner that could rise to that level and bring an appropriate amount of supplementary marketing muscle to the campaign. We’ve had a great deal of soundtrack success with Republic Records over the years. For Wicked, we had the fortuitous advantage with Republic in that they are also the label to which Cynthia and Ariana are both signed. Our combined teams — along with Verve Records — have been working together since the beginning and our shared mandate was to swing for the fences and treat this soundtrack like an A-list artist record. That has really framed what we’ve done at every step to put together an impactful global campaign filled with “first-ever” initiatives and top-tier programs with partners.
Also, Ariana and Cynthia have been in the war room and a critical part of creative and strategic decisions alike. So it’s just been much different than a typical movie soundtrack of songs and/or score in terms of the level of anticipation, fandom and demand. That said, we are not leaving anything on the table with this global marketing campaign. It’s been a really special, once-in-a-lifetime, lightning-in-a-bottle experience and an honor to be part of it.
How do you feel about the state of the musical movie in general right now?
I feel great about it. Audiences show up for quality films of all genres and, as you may have noticed from our campaign, nobody is trying to disguise the fact that this is a break-out-into-song musical — but that isn’t singularly what defines it. Wicked is the perfect example of how it all comes down to just making an excellent movie, whether characters on the screen are singing or not. It’s got an engaging story, it’s timely and relevant — eerily so for something written 24 years ago — has performances that take your breath away, it’s visually stunning, exhilarating, innovative and multidimensional in way that makes the state of the musical movie feel pretty epic right now to me.
What other projects do you have on the horizon?
Following Twisters and The Wild Robot and Wicked, we have a diverse portfolio of projects in the pipeline: Our specialty shingle Focus Features is releasing Nosferatu and is also in production on a biopic that’s the true story of a Neil Diamond impersonator. We’re in production on another Super Mario Bros film as well as a Shrek reboot, and we’ve also got another Jurassic World film coming next year, a live-action How To Train Your Dragon to name just a few. And of course, Wicked Part Two!