genre pop
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Hours into their Billboard Women in Music photo shoot, the members of aespa are goofing off. High-pitched giggles reverberate through the studio as Winter, Karina, Ningning and Giselle tickle one another’s sides, talk in silly voices and play with the straps on their leathery stage outfits.
It’s mesmerizing to watch the four early-20-somethings be so, well, real, not just because they’re one of K-pop’s most polished acts — which they demonstrate by immediately snapping back into place once the photographer is ready again — but also because aespa has a particular penchant for the surreal. The SM Entertainment group debuted in 2020 with K-pop’s first lineup to feature both human and virtual members, pairing each girl with an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar as part of a cyberpunk musical metaverse marked by dark, 808-laced hyperpop and edgy-chic outfits.
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Ever since, the act has leveraged its niche into unprecedented crossover success — in November, mini-album Whiplash made it the first K-pop girl group to have six projects reach the Billboard 200 top 50, and it just wrapped its second global arena tour — and a reputation for being one of the genre’s “most adventurous and contemporary” groups, as its “Over You” collaborator Jacob Collier put it to Billboard in January.
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But going forward, 2025’s Billboard Women in Music Group of the Year also wants to focus on something potentially even more subversive: showing that beneath the personas, its members are just those real-life girls blowing off steam between camera flashes. “We’re not actual AI; we do have days where we don’t feel the best,” Giselle says once the foursome has squeezed together on a couch. “Our storyline can be fun to keep up with, but I want fans to look up to aespa for our human traits, too.”
Karina
Abi Polinsky
Why do you think aespa has made a name as trendsetters?
Giselle: There’s always going to be trends, but we don’t follow them because we can’t. We have our own story to tell that was set from the start.
Winter: We usually talk about ourselves more than love [in our lyrics]. We’re the main characters of our stories.
Karina: We’re honest. Of course, you have to be professional and present your best self, but we also try to show the not-perfect side. We’re not trying to filter everything or over-mask ourselves.
Giselle
Abi Polinsky
What’s next in aespa’s evolution?
Ningning: We did start out with our avatar concept, but now we’re also trying really hard to explore different concepts and themes. In the future, there may be moments where the fans don’t see the avatars.
Karina: We want aespa to be a really stylish group, not only in fashion and music, but also in terms of versatility and excelling in every genre. I also want all our members to shine individually when we’re together and even when we’re not together.
From left: Ningning, Karina, Giselle, and Winter of aespa photographed on February 10, 2025 in New York.
Abi Polinsky
Who are your favorite artists/dream collaborators at the moment?
Ningning: Doechii. I’d just really like to meet her.
Winter: Billie Eilish. She’s so good at expressing her honest feelings through her music.
Karina: Olivia Dean. Whenever I need to find composure, I listen to her.
Giselle: SZA. Her music is so hard to get sick of — and very relatable.
Winter
Abi Polinsky
As a girl group, how do you support one another?
Ningning: We’re all from different countries and environments, but we’ve been doing this for five years. They’re always there for me. Working with this mindset that we’re in this together makes it easier to handle challenging situations and emotions.
Winter: I don’t think we could’ve made it through this alone. We’ve had to overcome certain obstacles, but with each other’s support, we were able to move forward. (Karina giggles as Giselle starts poking her affectionately.) These girls are all very precious to me.
Ningning
Abi Polinsky
This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Dua Lipa is continuing her tributes to iconic Australian artists as she tours throughout the continent this spring. Just a day after Lipa covered AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” during her Radical Optimism tour stop at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, the pop superstar continued the covers for night two at the venue. On Tuesday […]
Alex Warren‘s career trajectory is anything by “Ordinary.” The rising superstar performed his latest hit on the Love Is Blind season 8 reunion on March 9 — marking the first-ever performance on the popular Netflix series — and the track has seen an impressive boost since the episode.
On Monday (March 10), “Ordinary” was Shazamed 56,000 times, up 306.8% since its release. Single sales spiked from an average of 180 a day to 420 on Sunday (March 9) and 577 the next day. Spotify global streams hit a career peak of 3 million daily on Tuesday (March 11), and the song hit No. 25 on the Spotify Global Chart. “Ordinary” also reached No. 5 on the iTunes Top Songs U.S. chart.
Meanwhile, on the Billboard charts, “Ordinary” jumped from No. 64 to 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated March 22. On the Global 200, it jumped from No. 37 to 26.
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“Alex is one of the most talented artists that I’m fortunate to work with, but he feels like he’s positioned to become part of the next freshman class of global superstars,” Kevin Weaver, president of Atlantic Records’ West Coast branch, tells Billboard, which is why Warren was the perfect artist in the Atlantic roster to pitch for a Love Is Blind performance.
“I actually pitched the song to [Love Is Blind‘s music supervisor] Jon Ernst before it came out, and I told him it’s going to be a massive record. Fortunately, it all worked out great,” Weaver recalls. “Very early on — I think was actually during the pandemic — I was watching the first or second season of Love Is Blind, and I was just hearing these massive music cues in the show, and it was all library music. Seeing that the show was becoming incredibly popular on Netflix, I had a light bulb moment where I was like, ‘Why isn’t there contemporary music on this hit show that uses music in such an important way?’ How do we help support Jon and the series with with great songs that also benefit our developing artists?”
He added, “With ‘Ordinary,’ it felt like it was a natural fit. I know the background of the song, and Alex wrote the song based on his own personal relationship [with wife Kouvr Annon]. Knowing what the show is, hearing the song, I was like, ‘This is perfect.’”
Michael Parker, Vice President of A&R at Atlantic Records, agrees. “These are the things we always wanted to do,” he tells Billboard. “Now the people know the real Alex, the musician, and now he’s getting those opportunities that we always wanted. We’re getting to do the collabs we always wanted with other artists, and we’re getting to do the shows he’s always wanted to be on. It’s all the things that when you sign an artist and you dream, those are all the things that are on the dream list. And now he’s reached the place where he gets to do all those things.”
He continues, “The beautiful thing about Alex was, you see his social prowess and you see his marketing prowess — but then, you listen to the music. You could take one listen to the music and know he was going to be brilliant, and then you add everything on top of it, it just made him a dream to work with.”
Over on the Love Is Blind side of business, the show’s creator and producer Chris Coelen, music supervisor Ernst and executive producer Ally Simpson were immediately thrilled at the idea of including not only a performance on the show, but also Warren specifically. “We’re just so flattered and privileged to have had Alex and his team want to come and participate. It was amazing to see,” Coelen says, noting that having the performance happen within the on-set pods was particularly fun. “The pods are a really cool, unique, one-of-a kind environment. So, why not actually have a performance there?
Coelen says that Love Is Blind is “just getting started” on incorporating music more in the series. “Music has always been a big part of Love Is Blind. It’s something that we’ve always enjoyed connecting to the action that’s going on in the in the show,” he explains. “We decided that with the fifth anniversary of Love Is Blind and going into this most recent season, that we were going to really go all out and and use commercial music and really be able to spotlight some of the amazing songs that have been out there over the years. Music can be such a mood changer and shifter. It’s incredibly additive to the show, and there’s no going back now.”
Rewatch Warren’s performance of “Ordinary” on Love Is Blind below.
Pop singer-songwriter Sia has always been keen on keeping her personal life private — so private, that according to a new report, the singer welcomed her third child almost a year ago. According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, Sia welcomed a baby named Somersault Wonder Bernad with her now-estranged husband, Daniel Bernad, on […]
Ed Sheeran‘s next era is locked and loaded, with the pop star revealing Wednesday (March 19) that his new album and its lead single — a snippet of which he also premiered on Instagram — are ready to go. In a video, Sheeran hangs out in the studio with his producer, Ilya Salmanzadeh, as they […]
With Billboard Women in Music just around the corner, we took to the streets of Los Angeles to find out from fans who their favorite powerful woman in the music industry is and why. From Rihanna to Mariah Carey, we find out who the public loves! Who do you think is a powerful woman in […]
For the first time in the five-month span of the Top Gabb Music Songs chart, a song stays at No. 1 for more than one month.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” crowns the February 2025 tally as the most-played song on Gabb Wireless phones that month, reigning for a second month in a row after debuting atop the January 2025 tally.
Billboard has partnered with Gabb Wireless, a phone company for kids and teens, to present a monthly chart tracking on-demand streams via its Gabb Music platform. Gabb Music offers a vast catalog of songs, all of which are selected by the Gabb team to include only kid- and teen-appropriate content. Gabb Music streams are not currently factored into any other Billboard charts.
“Die With a Smile” reigns after rules on the monthly chart for Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” KSI’s “Thick of It” (featuring Trippie Redd) and Jelly Roll’s “Run It” in October-December 2024, respectively.
The Gaga/Mars duet concurrently reigned on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in February 2025, ruling the Feb. 1- and Feb. 15-dated lists, and appears at No. 2 on the most recent tally, dated March 22.
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Mars makes it a sweep of Top Gabb Music Songs’ top two, as his and ROSE’s “APT.” jumps 7-2 – a new peak after previously reaching No. 3 on the December 2024 ranking.
No song hits the chart’s top 10 for the first time, though Drake’s “God’s Plan” returns to the region, rising five spots to No. 7 (the song’s peak so far remains No. 4, achieved on the November 2024 tally).
In fact, though all but four songs make some sort of movement on the 25-song February 2025 list versus their January 2025 ordering, just one is a debut: Forrest Frank’s “Drop!,” which bows at No. 19. It’s the first song to appear on the chart that was released in 2025, as it premiered on Jan. 24. The tune started at No. 18 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs survey dated Feb. 8 and appears at No. 33 on the most recent ranking.
See the full top 25 below.
Top Gabb Music Songs
“Die With a Smile,” Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars (=)
“APT.,” ROSE & Bruno Mars (+4)
“Beautiful Things,” Benson Boone (+1)
“Thick of It,” KSI feat. Trippie Redd (-2)
“Face 2 Face,” Juice WRLD (=)
“Run It,” Jelly Roll (-3)
“God’s Plan,” Drake (+5)
“Slow It Down,” Benson Boone (=)
“Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter (+1)
“Stargazing,” Myles Smith (-1)
“Golden Hour,” JVKE (re-entry)
“Deja Vu,” Olivia Rodrigo (-1)
“Butterfly Effect,” Travis Scott (+3)
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” Luke Combs (-7)
“Too Sweet,” Hozier (-1)
“Love Somebody,” Morgan Wallen (-1)
“Heat Waves,” Glass Animals (re-entry)
“Let You Down,” NF (=)
“DROP!,” Forrest Frank (debut)
“Stressed Out,” Twenty One Pilots (+3)
“Bones,” Imagine Dragons (-4)
“Enemy,” Imagine Dragons (-1)
“Saturn,” SZA (+2)
“Wildflower,” Billie Eilish (-4)
“Hope,” NF (re-entry)
DROPS FROM JANUARY 2025: “Popular,” Ariana Grande; “Defying Gravity,” Ariana Grande feat. Cynthia Erivo; “I Always Wanted a Brother,” Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somolu, Aaron Pierre & Kelvin Harrison Jr.; “Lil Boo Thang,” Paul Russell
Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez captured a retro feel with their new “Sunset Blvd” music video, and song was inspired by the newly engaged couple’s first date. “This song felt like such a moment in time where you’re just fully lost in someone and you’re past that point and you’re like, ‘OK, I’m not scared […]
BLACKPINK‘s LISA dropped a high-energy YouTube Music Nights Special Stage Performance video for her solo single “FUTW” on Tuesday night (March 18). The visual is a static shot of the singer and six backup dancers on a stage framed by blood red columns, with all seven women wearing variations on black leather bikinis. Explore See […]
BTS‘ j-hope is setting ARMY up for his latest masterpiece with a second tease of the upcoming solo single, “Mona Lisa.” The official 30-second teaser of the song due out on Friday (March 21) continues the fine art-theme of the previous sneak, which peeled back a nine-second taste of the tune’s smoothed-out R&B vibe.
In the new look, Hobi sits on a long white bench in a mostly blank-walled gallery space in bedazzled acid-washed jeans, black boots, a black leather jacket and backwards baseball hat, elbows on his knees as he contemplates the silence. The only action comes when he turns around to look at the series of five photos of a woman in various states of profile, each of which is being blown around by a fan behind the singer.
There is no music in the teaser, and the only action comes with j-hope stands up and an unseen hand smears his face with white paint as the song’s title pops up on screen.
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Last week, j-hope shared a brief preview of the song, containing a buzzy, glitched-out beat and wavering bass line with inaudible vocals. In a statement, the singer’s label, BIG HIT, described the hip-hop/R&B song as exuding his “smooth, laid-back charm… expand[ing] his musical spectrum, solidifying his status as one of the most dynamic and sought-after global artists.”
It continues, “‘MONA LISA’ is a love song that pays tribute to celebrating one’s unique beauty. It explores an infatuation towards a person whose beauty is one of a kind.” It was, of course, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic masterpiece of the same name with the legendary sly smile, with the track likening “the praise for the alluring person to the timeless masterpiece. It conveys that what truly moves someone is not external beauty, but rather the distinctive characteristics that make each person special.”
BIG HIT promises that the bouncy tune “seamlessly blends a groovy rhythm with a funky chord progression, creating an irresistibly refreshing sound,” noting that “as the song builds, the chorus toward the end invites an infectious sing-along, amplifying the uplifting, feel-good atmosphere.”
“Mona Lisa” is the follow-up to Hobi’s recently released digital single featuring Miguel, “Sweet Dreams,” which will debut at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated March 22.
Check out the official “Mona Lisa” teaser below.