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Billboard JAPAN‘s “MONTHLY FEATURE” series presents various artists and works that have caught its eye. This month’s featured artist is Omoinotake, a three-person band that recently released their second major label album, Pieces.
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In January 2024, they released “Ikuokukonen,” which they wrote as the theme song for the TV series Eye Love You, which aired on TBS on Tuesdays. “Ikuokukonen” reached 2nd place in Billboard JAPAN‘s “JAPAN Hot 100” song chart. It became one of the big songs of 2024, staying in the charts and taking 3rd place for the whole year in the annual chart released in December. The band steadily expanded the scale of its activities, leading to its first appearance on NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen at the end of the year. Omoinotake had long vowed to create a hit song and perform in the Kohaku Uta Gassen, so 2024 was a tremendous year for the band—the year in which it achieved both of these dreams.
Their latest album, Pieces, contains 10 songs, including some previously released singles like “Ikuokukonen” and “Tsubomi,” the ending theme to the seventh season of the TV anime My Hero Academia. We talked to the three members of the band about this richly varied album full of songs that will make listeners want to dance and will bring tears to their eyes.
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Your goal in the past was to perform in the Kohaku Uta Gassen. What was it like actually standing on the Kohaku stage?
Leo Fujii (vocals and keyboard): We’d always talked about how we wanted to become a fixture in the Kohaku Uta Gassen, so it really meant a lot to us. I don’t usually get nervous during shows or TV appearances, but I have to say, I was super nervous during Kohaku. Having appeared on the show, my resolve to keep appearing year after year has only gotten stronger.
Before going on stage, did you talk to each other about what kind of performance to put on?
Fujii: The song we performed, “Ikuokukonen,” has a straightforward message, so we didn’t talk in particular about how to convey that message. We just wanted to do the song justice.
Tomoaki Fukushima (bass): I was so glad that this stage, which we’d longed to play on for so long, turned out to be such an excellent place. Taking that first step was a hard one, but it felt like I’d finally started moving forward with my life.
You achieved huge success in 2024, including the release of a hit song with “Ikuokukonen” and your appearance in the Kohaku Uta Gassen. How would you sum up the year?
Fujii: I’d say “whirlwind.” That’s really the only word for it. There was always this mountain of things that we needed to do in front of us, but personally, I was really glad about that. For a long time, the past 12 years, we’ve always had to take the initiative to get things going. We were able to maintain a high level of motivation through all of 2024, so it was a whirlwind year for us.
When did you start working on your latest album, Pieces?
Fujii: In around October.
Fukushima: Right. We’d first started talking about making a new album back in summer, though. We began by deciding on the album. Our basic concept was that, as a band, we can’t do anything if even one of us is missing. It’s when we each bring our own strengths together that we truly become Omoinotake, this solid, unified presence. That was really palpable in 2024, which is why we started out by deciding on the title Pieces.
So it’s an expression of the nature of the band.
Fukushima: There’s a lot of variation in the songs on the album, so we also looked at each of them as pieces. No matter what, we wanted to create a “Pieces” title track, and if possible we wanted to base the other songs on the album on the title, as well.
Fujii: We’ve focused on making songs you can dance to and songs you can cry to, so once we decided on the title Pieces, we wanted to make an album of songs to dance or cry to.
Hironoshin Tomita (drums): As one of the members of the band, I found the creation process really satisfying—I feel like I did everything I could in the making of the album. Everything from sound production to performing. When Leo made the demo, he left some space to work with. He was like “go ahead and do what you want with this.” I’m very satisfied with the riffs I wrote and how I performed them.
I know it may be hard to choose, but if you had to pick a song that you felt especially satisfied with, which would you pick?
Tomita: The part of “P.S.” before the second chorus.
You picked a really pinpoint spot (laughs). Did you start out planning for this to be the first song on the album?
Fujii: Yes, but we didn’t finish the lyrics until the very end. But, yes, we wrote it to be the first song.
How is it structured?
Fujii: We wanted to try something we’d never done before. We looked around a lot and came across this jungle beat, and were like, “Let’s try this.” Usually, jungle would have bass and synths and be more like dance music, but we didn’t want to do straight jungle. Instead Emoaki (Fukushima) played the root notes with a pick, rock-style, so we made it into Omoinotake’s own style of jungle. Then we were like, we should also mix in some pop-punk, which we’ve always been big fans of, so the last chorus has a pop-punk beat. It’s a really playful song.
The use of pop-punk in the song is really interesting.
Fujii: I was listening to Thundercat, and one of his songs had a kind of pop-punk beat. It really opened my eyes seeing someone who wasn’t from the pop-punk scene using this kind of rhythm in his music.
How did you write the lyrics?
Fukushima: We’d finished writing the title track, “Pieces,” and we wanted to write lyrics that connected to it, while at the same time conveying the concept of the album to follow. We wanted the song to be an introduction to the album, but just serve as a pointer of the direction it would take. Then that theme would really resonate with the last song, “Pieces.”
Of all the songs on the album, do you think ‘Pieces’ is the most tied to that theme?
Fukushima: I think so. For “Pieces,” we decided to start by writing the lyrics. We already had a few singles lined up, and we’d already decided on the album’s title, but we knew that we needed to write a song that expressed where the band is now to close off the album. I think we succeeded in making a song that conveys the message of the album’s title.
Fujii: Actually, “Pieces” is the only song on the album that we wrote the lyrics for before writing the music. A few of the songs are tie-ups, but when we wrote the lyrics, we wrote them based on aspects that we and the tie-ups had in common. “Pieces” was different, though. Emoaki wrote the lyrics focusing purely on us, just writing about the band. We wanted to really treat the song right, and since the song is about us, we wanted to directly communicate our message. So we wanted to take great care when writing the lyrics, and then set them to music.
Tomita: When Emoaki sent me the lyrics, I thought they were wonderful. And then when Leo added the melody and completed the song, I was impressed again by how difficult it must be to divide up the roles of writing lyrics and writing music between two people. That balance felt like a testament to our band’s history.
You started out as junior high school classmates, and you’ve been together for over a decade. Do you plan to keep this same style of having different people handle the lyrics and the music?
Fujii: Yes, I think that’s the best approach for Omoinotake. For example, at the start of “Pieces,” there’s a line that goes “In this ash-colored town/I saw a black-and-white dream.” Those expressions, “ash-colored town” and “black-and-white dream,” have this shared meaning, so just by looking at the lyrics, you can be like “well, then, the melody’s got to be like this.” I think this vision for the music based on the lyrics comes from the fact that we have this shared history.
I’d like to talk a little about “Better Half (feat. JEONGHAN of SEVENTEEN) -Japanese ver.” I’ve heard that this collaboration came about because JEONGHAN’s team reached out to you. What did you think when they contacted you?
Fukushima: It was totally out of the blue. We were like, “You mean, that SEVENTEEN?” But the timing was really important for JEONGHAN, so we were overjoyed.
What back-and-forth was there between you about the song itself?
Fukushima: At first, I wrote it as more of an emotional, Omoinotake-like song. They got back to us asking for it to have a brighter feel. I was like “Wow, I’m really a downer, huh” (laughs). But we wrote a song with a really strong protagonist, which is pretty rare for an Omoinotake song, so that was very new for us.
Fujii: JEONGHAN sings with a really sweet voice, which made me feel like I could try a new approach in the way I sing, too. There’s some interplay in the bridge, and I’m very happy with the song, because I was able to create a melody that wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for this collaboration. We also thought about JEONGHAN’s voice a lot during the sound production. The finished song has a mellow feel. We also went with a dry drum sound, creating a good balance.
Tomita: Like Leo said, the overall atmosphere of the song is soft, but the drums are kind of crisp. It’s the kind of song that you can’t afford to underestimate. The simplicity of the song is the reason we were able to perform so tightly. For a drummer, it required a surprisingly stoic approach.
JEONGHAN released his own version of the song, “Better Half (feat. Omoinotake),” in Korean.
Fujii: That’s right. I sang on it in Korean, too. I don’t know the first thing about Korean, so I got pronunciation training to sing it.
I hope the song will further grow your listener base. The last time we interviewed you, you said that your goal for 2024 was to get into the top 10 in the hit charts. Right after that interview, you broke into the top 10 of the “JAPAN Hot 100” song chart. What is your take on the business side of music, like hit charts and sales?
Fujii: We’ve only released one hit song so far, so there are a lot of people who know our song but don’t know Omoinotake. That’s frustrating. I’m confident that we’re writing lots of good songs, but they’re just not reaching listeners. So we still have this powerful desire to create a lot of hits and have people listen to a lot of our music.
—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard JAPAN
Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is no longer appointed to the Order of Canada.
Her appointment to one of the country’s highest honors has been terminated by the Governor General, as announced in the Canada Gazette on Feb. 8. The termination Ordinance was signed on Jan. 3.
Sainte-Marie is one of the country’s most-celebrated musicians and has been a leader on Indigenous issues for decades, but her reputation has shifted over the last year. In the fall of 2023, a CBC Fifth Estate investigation cast doubt on her claims of Indigenous ancestry.
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Sainte-Marie had previously claimed she believed she was born on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan. She said she had been adopted by the Santamaria family that raised her in Wakefield, Massachusetts, attributing her adoption to the Sixties Scoop, a period in the 1960s when many Indigenous babies were taken from their parents and adopted by white families.
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CBC‘s investigation produced a birth certificate for Sainte-Marie which lists her presumed adoptive parents as her birth parents. It also features interviews with Sainte-Marie’s family members calling her claim to Indigenous identity “an elaborate fabrication,” and contextualizes Sainte-Marie’s career within a phenomenon of high-profile public figures who have fabricated Indigenous identity.
As a young adult, Sainte-Marie was adopted by Emile Piapot and Clara Starblanket Piapot of the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan in accordance with Cree law and customs.
Sainte-Marie issued a statement around the investigation. “For a long time, I tried to discover information about my background,” she wrote. “Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about, is that I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know.”
In a follow-up statement, she affirmed her truth. “I have never lied about my identity,” Sainte-Marie said, adding that the investigation included “mistakes and omissions.”
The investigation prompted calls from some Indigenous groups and artists for major organizations to rethink their celebration of Sainte-Marie.
In a career spanning six decades, Sainte-Marie has won an Oscar and a Golden Globe (both for co-writing “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman), the Polaris Music Prize, seven Juno Awards (including four in categories honoring aboriginal or indigenous music), and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, in addition to her appointment to the Order of Canada. She was first appointed to the Order in 1997, and in 2019 was made a Companion of the Order, the highest level within the Order.
Sainte-Marie, 83, had a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972 with “Mister Can’t You See.”
A group called the Indigenous Women’s Collective called on the Junos to rescind Sainte-Marie’s 2018 award for Indigenous Album of the Year, with Cree opera singer Rhonda Head supporting the call.
The Canada Gazette provides no detail on the termination of Sainte-Marie’s Order of Canada. The Order of Canada Termination Policy states that an Advisory Council can recommend termination to the Governor General if an appointee’s conduct departs significantly from their standard of public behavior and may undermine the credibility of the Order.
CBC reports that in its 50-year history, Sainte-Marie is the ninth person to have their appointment to the Order terminated.
This story was originally published by Billboard Canada.
Canadian rocker Bryan Adams’ sold-out show at Perth, Australia‘s RAC Arena was unexpectedly canceled on Sunday night (Feb. 9) after a massive fatberg—an accumulation of fat, grease, and rags—caused a significant blockage in the city’s sewer system.
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The unforeseen issue led to water overflow near the venue, making it unsafe for concertgoers to attend.
Fans were left waiting outside the venue for hours as updates trickled in. Initially, the delay was attributed to a leak in the septic tanks, but at around 9 p.m.—the time Adams was scheduled to take the stage—officials confirmed the show’s postponement.
“Last night’s concert could not proceed due to an external Perth Water Corporation issue, which was unable to be fixed in time. The issue, which impacted all of Wellington Street, meant that it was deemed unsafe for patrons to enter RAC Arena,” Frontier Touring said in a statement. “Tickets will be automatically refunded in full (including refundable ticket purchase, if relevant) to the original payment method used for purchase and patrons do not need to take any action.”
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“Patrons should allow approximately 30 business days for the refund to appear in their account. (Please do not contact Ticketek regarding your refund.)”
“The cancellation of show is bitterly disappointing, and we thank fans for their understanding that while every effort was made for the show to proceed, this matter was outside of the control of Bryan Adams, Frontier Touring and RAC Arena.”
The Water Corporation, which manages Perth’s water and sewage systems, confirmed the blockage was due to a fatberg. CEO Pat Donovan explained the situation to 6PR on Monday morning: “I assure you that our people worked really hard to clear a large blockage, which is called a fatberg, in one of our key water mains under Wellington Street.”
He added that while alternative solutions, such as transporting the wastewater away, were explored, officials ultimately concluded they would not be able to keep up with the needs of 16,000 attendees inside the venue.
Adams, who is in Australia as part of his So Happy It Hurts tour, is set to continue with scheduled performances in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne later this week.
While Adams himself has yet to publicly comment on the incident, the unexpected cancellation will undoubtedly go down as one of the most bizarre reasons for a postponed arena show in recent memory.
Drake’s Anita Max Win Tour in Australia continues to generate headlines Down Under, and his first Melbourne show at Rod Laver Arena on Feb. 9 was no exception.
Midway through the set at Rod Laver Arena on Feb. 9, the Canadian rapper surprised two audience members with a combined $50,000 in cash gifts during his performance. The moment, which was caught on video that has since circulated on social media, occurred when Drake spotted a sign in the crowd that read “Adonis for President,” a reference to his seven-year-old son.
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“You’re showing a lot of love to my son,” he told her. “On behalf of me and Adonis … we’re going to give you 25 grand for your family.”
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To another fan whose sign read “Kiss me, it’s my birthday”, the rapper said, “I can’t really see you from here… It’s a tough read on the kiss, but what I am gonna do is I’m gonna give you 20 grand and I’m gonna pay for a birthday dinner for you and all your friends.|
“And if you want, you can come back to the show again. Both of y’all, if y’all want, we’ll get you tickets,” he told both lucky fans.
“Australia, I love y’all. Melbourne, this is real love,” Drizzy added.
Later in the show, the “Energy” hitmaker told fans: “It really touches my heart that—through all of that, you still take your hard-earned money, and you spend some of that money on tickets to this show to see this kid from Canada get up here and talk s–t. I really appreciate you. I would be nothing without you.”
These moments follow similar instances earlier in the tour. At his Perth show, Drake handed out another $40,000 to fans in the crowd.
“Put the light on this family right here… For both of y’all, I’m gonna give you $20,000 each to go wherever you want in the world because that’s what we do out here in Perth,” he said as per The Music. “You gotta show love… You see, it’s nights like these that we can never take for granted; it’s 14,000 people inside one building, and we all got here safe.”
He continued, “I pray to God that you’re healthy; I pray to God that you’re happy, but I promise you that everybody in this room is not happy. There’s a lot of people in here that might be going through some shit, you know, it might be a f—d up time for you.
“Maybe you don’t get treated right by your parents or your boss, or maybe you don’t have that many friends. Maybe your boyfriend is f—-d up; maybe your girlfriend is a little toxic; you never know what the next person is going through, so this is what I want you to do… I want you to turn to somebody that you don’t know, and I just want you to give them a hug [and] say something nice to them.”
Prior to his first official concert in Perth, he also made an appearance at Melbourne’s Maison Batard’s Le Club, performing a surprise 90-minute set featuring deep cuts such as More Life’s “Do Not Disturb.”
Musically, the Anita Max Win Tour showcases a broad range of Drake’s catalog, blending chart-topping hits with fan-favorite deep cuts. His Melbourne setlist included tracks such as “Hotline Bling,” “Rich Baby Daddy,” and “Jimmy Cooks,” alongside earlier classics like “Marvins Room” and “Over.”
The production features an expansive floating catwalk stage that spans the arena, allowing for an immersive experience. His entrance at the Perth show, where he walked through a cloud of smoke wearing a hoodie adorned with bullet hole graphics, immediately sparked speculation among fans regarding its intended symbolism.
Drake’s Melbourne performance took place one day before Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, during which the Grammy-winner performed “Not Like Us,” the viral Mustard-produced track widely believed to be a diss toward Drake. The moment, which featured guest appearances from SZA, Serena Williams, and Samuel L. Jackson, quickly became a focal point of online discussion.
Despite the ongoing discourse surrounding Lamar’s performance, Drake remains focused on his tour, with upcoming Anita Max Win Tour dates in Sydney and Brisbane through March. Beyond his Australian tour, Drake’s upcoming collaborative album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, is set for release on Valentine’s Day.
Over the weekend, he teased a new track, “Crying In Chanel,” sharing a clip of PARTYNEXTDOOR in front of a wedding chapel while the song played. “Shorty right here crying in the middle of Chanel,” Drake sings in the snippet. “Are those tears of joy? I can’t tell.”
$ome $exy $ongs 4 U marks another chapter in Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s decade-long musical partnership, which began with 2013’s “Over Here” and through hits like “Recognize” and “Loyal.”
The Weeknd continues his streak of dominance on the ARIA Albums Chart, debuting at No. 1 with his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
This marks his fifth consecutive studio album to top the chart, following Beauty Behind The Madness (2015), Starboy (2016), After Hours (2020), and Dawn FM (2022). His 2021 greatest hits collection, The Highlights, which peaked at No. 2 in 2021, also sees a boost this week, rising to No. 8. The album, which The Weeknd has described as the final installment in a trilogy, arrives amid speculation that he may retire his moniker and release future music under his real name, Abel Tesfaye.
Meanwhile, Luke Combs’ ongoing Australian tour has reignited interest in his catalog. His 2017 album This One’s For You reaches a new peak at No. 5, surpassing its previous best of No. 7, while his latest album, Fathers & Sons, re-enters the top 10.
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Luke Combs continues to see a major surge on the ARIA Albums Chart thanks to his ongoing Australian tour. His 2017 album This One’s For You climbs to No. 5, hitting a new peak after previously reaching No. 7 in both 2019 and 2022. His latest album, Fathers & Sons, also returns to the top 10, moving up from No. 13 to No. 11.
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Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, British singer-songwriter Lola Young holds onto the No. 1 spot for a second consecutive week with “Messy,” continuing an unprecedented run of female artists dominating the top position since mid-August 2024. This streak has included No. 1 hits from Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Rosé (with Bruno Mars), Gracie Abrams, and Mariah Carey.
Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” remains strong in the runner-up position at No. 2, while Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” holds at No. 3. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ collaboration “Die With a Smile” sits at No. 4, with Chrystal’s “The Days – Notion Remix” rounding out the top five.
On the ARIA Vinyl Albums Chart, Hurry Up Tomorrow lands at No. 1, proving its demand across all formats. Luke Combs’ Fathers & Sons follows at No. 2, with Birds of Tokyo’s Universes at No. 3, Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us at No. 4, and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft at No. 5.
Poppy has put her own spin on “Taste,” Sabrina Carpenter’s sultry viral hit, delivering a stripped-down yet edgy reinterpretation for Like A Version, the long-running cover series from Australian radio station triple j.
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The performance, which was recorded during her recent Australian tour with Bad Omens, also featured an unexpected nod to The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself,” seamlessly woven into the chorus. “I love her voice, and I think she’s very pretty,” Poppy said of Carpenter, explaining her song choice. “And the song is really fun to sing, so here we are.”
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Dressed in a sleek all-black outfit, Poppy’s performance brought a darker, moodier edge to “Taste,” stripping back its glossy pop production in favor of a more industrial-tinged arrangement.
Adding to the intrigue was the masked presence of Jordan Fish, formerly of Bring Me The Horizon, handling production duties. The unexpected interpolation of “I Touch Myself”—an Australian classic originally released in 1990.
“The first time I heard [‘Taste’], I thought it sounded like ‘I Touch Myself’, which is also my favourite karaoke song, so combining it made sense,” Poppy said of her choice to add the twist to Carpenter’s track.
The cover arrives as both Poppy and Carpenter celebrate major career milestones. Poppy was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 2025 Grammys for “Suffocate,” her collaboration with Knocked Loose that reached number 50 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Meanwhile, Carpenter took home her first two Grammy Awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.
“Taste” has been a breakout moment for Carpenter, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song, featured on her album Short n’ Sweet, which held No. 1 for four weeks on the Billboard 200.
Poppy, meanwhile, continues to push genre boundaries, evolving from her early YouTube days into an avant-garde force within the metal and alternative scenes.
Poppy’s Like A Version session adds to a long history of memorable covers on the program, which has hosted artists like Billie Eilish, Arctic Monkeys, and Childish Gambino reworking unexpected tracks. Whether this signals a future collaboration between Poppy and Carpenter remains to be seen, but for now, the metal provocateur has put her own mark on one of the year’s biggest pop hits.
Watch Poppy’s Like A Version cover of “Taste” below.
Number_i’s “GOD_i” rules this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Feb. 5.
After dropping Jan. 27, the latest single by the three-man group produced by member Yuta Kishi hit No. 1 for downloads, video views, and radio airplay, while coming in at No. 16 for streaming. The track launched with 60,058 downloads, which is second-most for the group following the top first-week figure for “GOAT” (64,321 units). Other songs by the trio have climbed this week due to the new single’s release, with “BON” rising 87-86 and “INZM” 97-91.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Darling” holds at No. 2. Streams for the new single by the three-man band are up to 102% week-over-week, rising a notch to No. 1, and the track also hits No. 5 for downloads, No. 2 for radio, and No. 3 for video. “Lilac” by the hitmakers follows at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100, and while points for the former No. 1 song have been on the decline after peaking on the Jan. 15 chart, the song has coasted along in the top 5 for over 9 months since hitting No. 3 on the chart dated Apr. 24 last year.
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Kenshi Yonezu’s “BOW AND ARROW” debuts at No. 4. The theme song for the anime series Medalist was downloaded 29,132 times to hit No. 2 for the metric, while coming in at No. 7 for streaming, No. 8 for radio, and No. 19 for video.
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Hinatazaka46’s “Sotsugyo shashin dake ga shitteiru” bows at No. 6 with 496,191 CDs sold in its first week (No. 1 for the metric), while BEYOOOOONDS’s “Do-Did-Done” also charts for the first time at No. 7 with 99,460 CDs sold (No. 2 for the metric).
Notable chart moves outside the top 10 include Gen Hoshino’s first new single in a year called “Eureka” hitting No. 11 and Creepy Nuts’ “doppelgänger” jumping 56-23. The brand-new girl group HANA, born from the audition project No No Girls, launches at No. 36 with its pre-debut track “Drop.” The track hit No. 6 for downloads and No. 54 for streaming.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, here (https://www.billboard.com/charts/japan-hot-100/). For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account (https://twitter.com/BillboardJP_ENG).
Irama continues to grow, and very rapidly too – like a stone that rolls slowly and picks up speed, as he himself defined the way he would like his songs to go. His participation in the Sanremo Festival, scheduled for February 11-15, is already the 29-year-old’s sixth. For bookmakers he is among the potential winners. However, the song he presents in Sanremo – which will also be released in Spanish for the Latin American market – is titled “Lentamente,” which means “Slowly.”
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“It tells a carnal story: the destruction of a love that is seen as eternal and instead ends. Slowly, and on both sides,” is how he introduced it. “It has a British atmosphere given by the Hammond organ, but also a very Italian melody: I wanted to present a song different from the usual.”
Irama (stage name of Filippo Maria Fanti) may seem cold and distant only if you look at it from afar. Up close, this multi-platinum artist is humorous and kind. He has his very precise ideas, especially when it comes to music. He says: “This song simply moves me deeply, which is why I presented it for the contest. In the studio I wrote down the melodies with my authors and producers, but without thinking about Sanremo.”
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Didn’t you have [Sanremo] as your goal?
No, I wouldn’t have wanted to go back to Sanremo. My record company [Warner Music Italy, ed.] and my team were warned. But then I kept listening to the song, even at night, and I liked it more and more. So at a meeting – where it is rare for me to participate – I played this song. Everyone cheered.
You had other plans at first?
Right. I wanted to focus on the tour and my new album, but Sanremo is a great opportunity to make everyone listen to your music. I’m interested in that.
“Lentamente” will also be published in Spanish for the Latin American market. How do you think you will be perceived there?
I still have to build everything in that world, but I sense a certain interest. I would like my music to have as international a vision as possible.
Have you read the journalists’ reviews?
Just because they sent them to me. It’s not something I like to do.
Was there anything that wasn’t understood, in your opinion?
Someone wrote that the songwriter is only Blanco, and this in itself is madness, because I always co-write my own songs. Then I read other things that didn’t convince me. Perhaps journalists have always seen me as too distant, which happens much less with normal people. It’s a shame. I would like to communicate well with everyone.
What does it depend on?
Sometimes we focus too much on appearances. It seems to me that we look more at aesthetics than emotion. But my songs are way more linked to the latter. I would like my songs to be conceived as boulders that roll slowly and gain speed. This was the case for my previous song “Ovunque Sarai.” However, if they had given me excellent reviews, I would have been worried: all my successes were born from low marks.
Maybe you’re not a person who opens up to everyone.
When I was a child, they taught me a certain type of education and respect for each other’s space. I don’t allow myself to joke too much with those I don’t know well, and this lack of lightness is interpreted as coldness or even arrogance. But I don’t think I’m cold.
Irama
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At the Sanremo Festival you will also sing the cover of “Say Something” by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera. Was it difficult to choose the song to reinterpret?
A lot, because I’m not an interpreter: there are never covers in my albums. It’s a completely different sport. For this reason, I looked for a song with a style not too different from mine.
When will you release your new album?
I don’t know yet. Many people, when they meet me on the street, no longer ask me for a photo but ask me when my album gets released. There was also a WhatsApp group called “Album 2024” which quickly became “Album 2025.” Until it’s perfect, an album shouldn’t be released. And, for me, albums are never perfect. When I really think I’ve done everything possible to publish the best work possible, then I release it.
Do you want to explore any genre in particular?
It will be a more serious record, I think. However, it will be played a lot with analog instruments, because it is influenced by live performances which are growing more and more.
Where are you writing now? Once upon a time you went to Salento, in Southern Italy, for many days.
True. Years ago, we went there, to places that didn’t cost much. I remember that in a house we even had a stable with a pig inside! Now I love going to beautiful places, perhaps with a swimming pool and a garden, also because I generally don’t take holidays. But then I lock myself in a closet to write. I tried to write in Sardinia, for example, but how do you do it? If you find yourself in front of a sunset you look at it, not write! I think the same thing about concerts: why shoot a video without actually watching the live performance?
Who did you see in concert last year?
Just friends of mine. I went to support them, even singing myself: Annalisa, Riccardo Cocciante, Blanco.
How come you don’t like to go on holiday?
I really can’t. I’ve done it in the past, I went to Thailand, for example. At most I can last four days. After that, I feel useless, I feel like I’m wasting my time.
Would you like to change?
My dream is to get to make music inside a nature reserve, surrounded by the animals I love so much. I wish I could get to a point where I make music more slowly and sporadically.
No one ever answers yes — are you going to Sanremo to win?
I believe that there really isn’t anyone from the new generation who is too attached to the competition. Maybe it was once important to someone, but now it really isn’t. Of course, it’s a great moment if you do win and then go to Eurovision, with that incredible opportunity to make yourself known there too, like Måneskin did. But the challenge is the last thing on your mind.
Irama
Andrea Ariano/Billboard Italia
Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale has been in the music industry for over three decades, but even he admits he’s baffled by how young artists can sustain themselves financially in today’s streaming-driven landscape.
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Speaking on Canada’s Q with Tom Power, the rocker didn’t hold back on his concerns about the modern music business.
“I’ve been a musician my whole life, and I’m at a loss to explain to someone how to do it, how to build from the ground up, how to get a career in that,” Rossdale said. “It’s just terrifying because how do musicians, how do young bands get paid? I can’t work it out.”
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The 58-year-old rocker, who is preparing to hit the road with Bush this spring alongside Rival Sons and Filter, He went on to describe the industry’s longstanding financial imbalance, calling it “the same deal—artists getting screwed, record companies making a fortune.”
While streaming may offer exposure, Rossdale pointed out that it doesn’t always translate to sustainability. “Maybe you get one song with loads of streams, but we know that barely pays.”
“You just do the best you can. And you can obviously make money touring, but it takes a while to build up a catalog, so if you wanna come and see you, that’s a crap shoot.”
Rossdale, who rose to fame in the ’90s when CD sales and MTV airplay could catapult a band into the mainstream, pointed out the stark difference between then and now.
“I think it’s much, much harder now, and it was nearly impossible then. So, I don’t know what the odds are, but they don’t feel good for young musicians, which breaks my heart for them because we always need music.”
He added,”We always need people’s opinions. A.I. can take care of many things, but you talk about people relating to other people, it’s by writing that brutally painful, honest lyric that other people can relate and get strength from.”
Rossdale isn’t alone in his concerns. Artists across genres have been speaking out about streaming payouts, with industry veterans and rising stars alike calling for better compensation structures. The issue has even led to policy debates, as musicians advocate for reforms in how streaming revenue is distributed.
Rossdale rose to widespread fame as the frontman for British rock outfit Bush, who reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with their 1994 debut album, Sixteen Stone, which included charting singles such as “Comedown” and “Glycerine”. Two years later, they would best their previous accomplishments and top the chart with 1996’s Razorblade Suitcase. Their latest album, The Art of Survival, arrived in 2022.
Bush will embark on a North American tour this spring, kicking off in April. Tickets are available now.
Billboard Japan’s Women in Music initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work, in the same spirit as Billboard’s annual Women in Music celebration that has continued since 2007. This interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry is one of the highlights of Japan’s WIM project.
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The eight members of CUTIE STREET sat down with writer Rio Hirai for the latest installment of the series. The J-pop girl group’s debut single, “Kawaii dake ja dame desu ka?” (which roughly means, “isn’t it enough to just be cute?”) took off on social media and hit No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s Heatseekers Songs chart, then went on to peak at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100. The members — Risa Furusawa, Aika Sano, Kana Itakura, Ayano Masuda, Emiru Kawamoto, Miyu Umeda, Nagisa Manabe, Haruka Sakuraba — come from different backgrounds, including not only those who aspired to be idol performers from the beginning, but also those who started off being an influencer, actor, dancer, and student. The women shared their thoughts on the message of their debut single and what it means to be an idol.
You all come from different backgrounds. Why did you decide to become an idol performer, and what does being in this line of work mean to each of you?
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Risa Furusawa: I’ve wanted to be an idol performer since I was eight years old. I loved AKB48 and would dance along watching TV and buy their CDs to show my support. My mother knew this and encouraged me to go in for auditions, but even though I took part in many, I couldn’t get a chance at becoming an idol for quite some time. I worked as a model and influencer before making my debut as a member of CUTIE STREET, so it feels like my wish has come true and the second chapter of my life has begun. Being an idol is something I’ve always wanted that I’ve now miraculously achieved.
Kana Itakura: I’ve been taking dancing lessons since I was little and think that’s where it all began. Dancing led to doing modeling gigs and I used to upload videos on YouTube. Before becoming involved in CUTIE STREET, there was a period when I was a bit worried about what I should do in life, but was given a chance to take part in the audition just as I was thinking about what I could do with the dance experience I’d gained up to that point. I have friends who work as idol performers, but being one had never crossed my mind until then. So being a member of CUTIE STREET is a challenge for me.
I always aspired to “be cool” (before joining the group) and “cute” (kawaii) was something I looked at from the outside to find comfort. After becoming someone who expresses “cuteness,” I realized that there were many elements packed into that one word. Everyone is cute, but they all have different colors. Right now, I’m trying to find what my cute is.
Emiru Kawamoto: I began longing to become an idol who sings and dances on stage after seeing the anime Pretty Rhythm when I was little. AKB48 was also popular at the time and idol groups were all the rage in Japan. My dream has always been to be an idol performer, and I’ve lived my life determined to not give up on that. In reality, stanning your favorite someone or something isn’t essential for life, unlike things related to food, clothing and shelter, but it’s something that colors your world. It was for me, so I do what I do hoping that I can add color to someone’s life too.
Miyu Umeda: I was already an idol performer before joining CUTIE STREET. I got involved in this line of work after being offered the position and became more passionate about it as I kept at it. It was really fun. But that group disbanded before I could do work that satisfied me. I couldn’t give up on my dream of being an idol, so I took part in the CUTIE STREET auditions. After actually trying it, I thought, “This might be my true calling!” I think being an idol is meaningful if someone sees what you do and becomes motivated, like, “I’ll hang in there tomorrow too.”
Nagisa Manabe: I’ve always liked singing and dancing, but never really took the plunge. But the COVID pandemic made me take a fresh look at my life and I decided to try doing things I really want to do. That’s when I encountered CUTIE STREET. I’ve always been the curious kind and the things I wanted to do have changed a lot over the years. Now that I’ve started my idol career, it feels like it’s something that allows me to express the things I want to express and also the core of who I am. I’m totally hooked on it. Being an idol performer is the first thing that’s made me feel strongly, “I really I want to do this!”
Aika Sano: I used to perform in plays and musicals. I discovered the joy of singing and dancing there, and thought, “I want to do more of this,” so I took part in the CUTIE STREET auditions. Now that I’ve actually started working as an idol, I sometimes think, “I didn’t really understand idols before.” I’ve discovered how fun it is and now want to work even harder at it. As an idol, you have a closer relationship with your fans, and you might hurt them with your actions but you can also make them happy. Being able to directly feel that you’re being a support for someone or that you make them happy is encouraging.
Ayano Masuda: I also belonged to the same idol group Miyu used to be in. I met many fans during my time in that group and when we disbanded, they told me things like, “I was happy (to support you)” and “Let’s hang tough together from now on, too.” Because of those fans, I wanted to do better at my performances and work harder on social media posts so that more people got to know us, and I changed a lot. Being an idol performer is really fantastic and my life became a lot more fun.
Haruka Sakuraba: I think being an idol requires strength, both mental and physical. Being drawn to the strength of other idols has personally saved me in the past. Idols have the power to help people, to be a source of inspiration for someone, to give someone the energy to live, so I want to be an idol like that.
What’s the message being conveyed by your song, “Kawaii dake ja dame desu ka?” (“isn’t it enough to just be cute?”)
Kawamoto: The phrase “Isn’t it enough to just be cute?” might sound a bit pushy and harsh, like, “It’s good enough to just be cute, isn’t it?” In fact, we’ve received comments saying, “Of course just being cute isn’t enough” and “That’s not acceptable in society.” But I think that what “isn’t cute” for one person may be cute for someone else, and that the lyrics convey the message, “Let’s accept and love all the things about ourselves that aren’t cute.” There are lots of positive phrases in the lyrics, like, “I can be really cute if I go all out” and “play up your strengths” and “compared to my big dreams, these mistakes are small.”
How did you feel when the group received this song?
Kawamoto: Our concept is “KAWAII MAKER,” a group that has come together to create “kawaii” and share it with the world. This song conveys the message that there are many different kinds of “kawaii,” so I thought it was perfect as our debut single.
Being a woman is one of the central themes of this interview. How does being a woman affect your life?
Itakura: I preferred cool things over cute things since I was little. That’s probably why I don’t like being told what to do because I’m a woman… I don’t think that just because you’re a woman you have to be cute, and that just because you’re a man you have to be cool. I think people who pursue what they like regardless of gender are wonderful, and I’ve come this far thinking it’s fine to do what you want to do and be who you want to be.
How have you resisted conforming to values that tell you what to do because you’re a woman or a man?
Itakura: I think I’m the type who doesn’t get swept away easily and have stuck to my own beliefs. When I used to upload videos to YouTube, there were more male YouTubers than female, but I thought that women can do it, too. Even now, I belong to a female idol group, but I want to make an effort to compete equally with other groups, regardless of gender.
Sano: I’ve always wanted to be born a woman again in my next life because I enjoy the variety in makeup and fashion, but nowadays it’s normal for men to get their nails done and gender differences are becoming more irrelevant in that sense.
When considering your future career, is there anything you’d like to see happen to make it easier for women to thrive in your line of work?
Masuda: If being a woman is affecting how I work now, I think it’s probably my physical strength. Men tend to be bigger than women and I admire the power and impact of their performances. Even off the stage I sometimes have to ask male crew members to carry heavy loads, but I want to be able to carry them myself. Maybe I should start doing some strength training. [Laughs] Improving our strength is one of the issues we’re facing as a group, actually.
So not only will CUTIE STREET “just be cute,” but you’ll also be stronger from now on as well! Are there any women who give you courage and empower you?
Manabe: There’s a calligrapher, Shoko Kanazawa, who I recently learned about in class at school. She has Down’s syndrome, but became completely independent at 30 years old and has a career as a professional calligrapher. I think she’s someone who also personifies the advancement of working women in society. After learning about her, whenever I feel that I can only do something up to a certain point, I now think maybe it’s not my own abilities that are holding me back, but that my own preconceptions are making me feel that way. Although it’s not as prevalent as before, the idea that “a woman can only do so much” still exists, so I hope I can change that through my own actions and words.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan