Grammys
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Spike Lee didn’t mince words when it came to sharing his opinion about Beyoncé‘s loss at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Speaking to The Guardian, the director explained that while he’s by no means “the male president of the Beyhive,” he does have “love and support” for the superstar. “Her album is amazing,” he continued. “I know she’s won multiple Grammys, but four times nominated for album of the year and she’s lost every time? No disrespect to those artists like Adele or Harry Styles who won – it’s not their fault – but that’s some straight-up bullsh–.”
She is the most-awarded artist in Grammy history, but Beyoncé has gone zero-for-four when it comes to album of the year nominations as a lead artist. The singer has also only ever one once in any of the Big Four categories — taking home song of the year in 2009 for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”
In his interview, Lee eventually widened the scope of his remarks to reflect on Black artistry as a whole. “We all know their work is great, because art speaks for itself,” the BlacKkKlansman filmmaker said. “But then it always comes down to this tricky territory of validation. Do black artists say ‘F–k it,’ or seek white validation and chase awards?”
While Beyoncé is still without a Grammy for album of the year, her latest single “Cuff It” reached a new high mark on the Hot 100 this week by leaping to No. 6 (chart dated Feb. 18).
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If you watched the 2023 Grammys, you probably know that Lil Wayne was honored with the Global Impact Award. What most people likely don’t know is that the award was reportedly going to none other than pop legend Janet Jackson, until things got too deep when Jantet’s people demanded CBS atone for villainizing her after the infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII half-time show incident with Justin Timberlake.
Actually, TMZ Sports noted that it’s unclear whether both Wayne and Jackson were supposed to receive the award or if Wayne got it once things went south with the “Control” singer. But what is clear is that since the half-time show where Jackson’s breast was exposed due to a wardrobe malfunction was broadcast by CBS, and CBS disinvited Janet to that year’s Grammys ceremony because of it, the network was going to need to make things right before Ms. Jackson (if you’re nasty) just lets bygones be bygones and graces the stage this year. Obviously, none of the above ended up happening.
From TMZ Sports:
Sources connected to The Grammys tell us … the Grammys wanted to bestow Janet with a Global Impact Award, but there was a snag. Recording Academy honchos wanted Janet to attend a pre-Grammy event with the Black Music Collective days before the main event to accept the award, but her schedule wouldn’t allow it. From there, we’re told discussions pivoted to a way Janet could receive the honor during the actual broadcast, but that presented another problem … CBS never made amends with Janet for making her persona non grata after the wardrobe malfunction
It was Super Bowl XXXVIII, broadcast on CBS, when Justin Timberlake ripped Janet’s top, revealing her breast. The network received a ton of flack over the incident, and CBS CEO Les Moonves pulled Janet’s invite to the Grammys that year. Our sources say Janet’s team and Grammy organizers began talking about ways CBS could either apologize or figure out a way to acknowledge how she was treated by the network, but things just got too complicated and talks ended.Honestly, Janet Jackson and her team should be commended for sticking to their guns and not allowing CBS or the Grammys to be blessed with her presence without first acknowledging the harm they caused. It just sounds like Janet chose herself over some janky award stage that didn’t want her when it wasn’t convenient. And that was the right choice.–
Photo: Getty
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Former MC Dee Barnes published a lengthy statement calling out the Grammys after they named what she deemed the “Ike Turner Award” after Dr. Dre.
In an op-ed published in Rolling Stone on Wednesday (Feb. 8), the journalist and rapper spoke out about the move by the Black Music Collective to bestow that honor. Barnes was assaulted by the producer and rapper when he was then a member of N.W.A. At the time, she was the host of Pump It Up!, a Hip-Hop show on Fox that ran for two years and was key to the rise of the culture. Dre issued an apology in 2015 to the New York Times, not naming anyone in particular.
In the op-ed, Barnes spoke about how she initially was welcoming of the Impact Award being given to industry legends Missy Elliott, Epic Records CEO Sylvia Rhone and Lil Wayne along with Dr. Dre. Her position changed once she learned that the award would be named after him.
“Everybody wants to separate the art from the artist, and sometimes that’s just not possible,” she said, referring to his past history of abuse by saying “to name an award after someone with that type of history in the music industry, you might as well call it the Ike Turner Award.”
After speaking out about the struggles she’s endured, Barnes was shut out from the industry. Which led to her battling to house and provide for herself on a long-term basis. “The blacklisting I’ve faced still feels active, and it took me a long time to accept that,” she said.
Barnes likened her situation to the vitriol that Megan Thee Stallion endured after being the victim of assault by Tory Lanez. “I watched what happened to my little sister Megan, and it just was heartbreaking to me because we have not changed in all these years.” She ended the op-ed by revealing that she is working on a memoir and getting back into journalism, thanks to the support of Black women writers and journalists.
She also hoped for a chance to settle things once and for all with Dr. Dre in a face-to-face summit. “But I think that’s going to be the only thing to turn the tide, so to speak — if we have a come-to-Jesus moment in person, in public. Because everything happened publicly, it’s got to have closure publicly.”
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Legendary songstress Dionne Warwick spoke publicly for the first time on the passing of songwriter Burt Bacharach, whom she considered a “family member.”
On Thursday (Feb. 9), the singer released a statement through social media a day after the composer passed away at the age of 94. “Burt’s transition is like losing a family member,” she began. “These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner.”
“On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run-ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.” Warwick would follow up the statement by sharing a photo of the two via her Twitter account.
The Newark, New Jersey native first met Bacharach in 1961 while she was a backup singer in sessions for The Drifters along with her sister, Dee Dee Warwick, and her aunt, Cissy Houston. In his 2013 memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart, he recalled that meeting fondly. “Right from the first time I ever saw Dionne, I thought she had a special kind of grace and elegance that made her stand out,” he wrote. “There was just something in the way she carried herself that caught my eye. To me, Dionne looked like she could be a star.”
The two would collaborate with lyricist Hal Davis to create Warwick’s first single, “Don’t Make Me Over” in August 1962. That would begin an impressive run of 33 hits on the Billboard charts for Warwick which included “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” and “Walk On By.” These along with four other songs would be part of the top 10, making Warwick the biggest woman singer of the rock and roll era.
Bacharach and Warwick would have a falling out in the 1970s after David and Bacharach split, with the singer suing both men for breach of contract. She and Bacharach would reconcile, teaming up to create the hit 1985 single “That’s What Friends Are For,” which won the Grammy Award for Song of The Year – the only win for the composer out of the four times he was nominated.
Ben Affleck was there to support Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys Sunday (Feb. 5), and now, she’s returning the favor by promoting his new movie — but not without poking a little fun at his viral “happy face” in the process.
The actor has been the subject of good-natured jokes for years thanks to his seeming distaste for public events and his glum, “don’t wanna be here” default expression that’s been photographed and meme-ified time and time again. So when Affleck was spotted several times looking, well, miserable at the Grammys, he immediately started going viral all over again.
And while sharing the trailer for the Gone Girl star’s upcoming movie Air on social media, Lopez couldn’t resist making a joke of her own. “My husband’s happy face,” she captioned a homemade meme added to the beginning of the trailer, featuring a still image from the film of Affleck looking tense.
“AIR … cannot wait!” the “Let’s Get Loud” singer wrote Thursday (Feb. 9) of the film, which Affleck both directed and acted in.
J. Lo’s followers loved her gentle dig at the Good Will Hunting actor, with whom she said she had “the best time” at the Grammys in an Instagram post following the ceremony. “He was bored to death at the Grammys, but we all love him anyways….,” commented one fan, while another wrote, “God Bless Ben!!”
The internet’s fixation with “Sad Affleck” memes dates back to 2016, when shots of the Oscar-winning star looking downcast during an interview for Batman v Superman were picked up and passed around by folks on social media who felt both amused and endeared by his all too relatable expression. Every time he’s been photographed in a similar light — morosely fumbling with a large Dunkin Donuts order or taking a dispirited cigarette break, to name some examples — the meme-making continues.
The Grammys were no exception. “Sad Affleck” lovers had a ball cracking jokes about the frowning actor being a symbol for “every introvert everywhere.” One person tweeted, “however bad of a day you’re having, I promise you’re not as miserable as Ben Affleck at the Grammys right now.”
See Jennifer Lopez’s customized trailer of Ben Affleck’s new movie below:
Dwayne Johnson dished in a new social media post Wednesday (Feb. 8) about just how wonderful it was to finally meet Adele at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
“What a legit and warm surprise at the top of the show!” he wrote of surprising the superstar at her table with help from Grammy host Trevor Noah. “And beautiful full circle moment calling her name and handing her the Grammy at the end of the night. ‘Get up here best friend.’”
In a separate interview with Variety, the wrestler-turned-movie star opened up about how he pulled off the surprise, explaining, “We were trying to figure out something to do that was going to be fun and surprise her, and we had kicked around ideas all week. The key to a surprise like that is to actually keep it a surprise. Myself and the Grammys went to great lengths to make sure that Adele was authentically surprised in the moment, and she was.”
As he referenced in his Instagram post, Johnson was later able to present Adele with the award for pop solo performance, and reflected on that in the interview as well.
“Talk about the universe meeting our friendship halfway: I get up onstage and I open that Grammy envelope and it said ‘Adele,’” he said “So that’s why I was able to say, ‘Get up here best friend, Adele!’ It was such a special night. And she’s such a special, iconic, brilliant, inspiring artist who has inspired a generation and who will continue to inspire generations to come. I love that woman.”
Check out Johnson’s sweet post about Adele’s Grammys surprise below.
Two titans of industry set incredible records this week, but according to Magic Johnson, only one of them got the recognition they deserved. In a series of tweets, the 63-year-old basketball star called out the Grammys for not doing more to celebrate Beyoncé‘s historic win over the weekend, comparing it to the NBA’s fanfare around LeBron James’ new scoring record.
“Over the weekend I was very disappointed with the lack of tribute and recognition the Recording Academy showed Beyoncé after she became the most decorated artist in Grammy history with 32 Grammy awards,” the former Lakers point guard wrote Wednesday (Feb. 8).
“It should have been a much bigger moment and celebration for her, her family, and her fans from around the world,” Johnson added. “I don’t know if something can be done but to me, it was extremely disrespectful to Beyoncé and all of her work as an artist.”
Bey took home four Grammy awards Sunday night (Feb. 5), putting her trophy count at 32 and making her the most awarded artist in the show’s history. Both host Trevor Noah and James Corden, who presented the “Break My Soul” singer with the record-setting best dance/electronic album award, made special mention of the major feat during the ceremony. All eyes were also on Beyoncé when she delivered her acceptance speech through tears, during which she thanked the Recording Academy.
When James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record of 38,387 points while playing against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday (Feb. 7), however, the NBA paused the game to play a celebratory video in James’ honor. They also had Abdul-Jabbar on hand to ceremoniously embrace James on the court and present his successor with an honorary basketball. To be fair, the Academy could not have had the previous all-time Grammy winner on hand to honor Beyoncé. Classical conductor Sir Georg Solti, who long held the record, died in 1997.
“THAT is what a real tribute to celebrate a historic moment should look like,” Johnson tweeted of the NBA’s festivities for James.
See Magic Johnson’s tweets about Beyoncé’s Grammys treatment below:
THAT is what a real tribute to celebrate a historic moment should look like.— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) February 8, 2023
Over the weekend I was very disappointed with the lack of tribute and recognition the Recording Academy showed Beyoncé after she became the most decorated artist in Grammy history with 32 Grammy awards.— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) February 8, 2023
It should have been a much bigger moment and celebration for her, her family, and her fans from around the world. I don’t know if something can be done but to me, it was extremely disrespectful to Beyoncé and all of her work as an artist.— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) February 8, 2023
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated Feb. 18), as TOMRROW X TOGETHER’s new EP drops in sales in its second week, new albums from Shania Twain and Raye look to seize the Billboard 200’s top spot, with SZA’s SOS still lurking.
Shania Twain, Queen of Me (Republic): Few artists in the history of popular music have a resumé of hit albums to match Shania Twain’s: She’s released three RIAA Diamond-certified albums, including 1997’s double-Diamond Come on Over. No one would expect her Queen of Me, released Friday (Feb. 3), to reach similar sales heights decades later — though her last album, 2017’s Now, topped the Billboard 200, albeit with a ticket bundle that undoubtedly contributed to her first-week sales of 134,000.
Twain won’t receive any such boost for Queen of Me — those bundles were eliminated from Billboard chart calculations in Oct. 2020. But she will be helped by multiple vinyl and CD variants, including exclusives for both Target and Walmart (the Target CD has 2 bonus tracks, while Walmart’s CD has an alternate cover). Her webstore and indie retail are also selling a signed CD, while her webstore also has a couple of deluxe box set editions with a signed CD and T-shirt inside. Plus, she’s still riding the momentum from her Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl, which resulted in a catalog-wide spike for the country-pop legend last August.
Raye, My 21st Century Blues (Human Re Sources): After going through a high-profile dispute and breakup with former label Polydor, British soul-pop singer-songwriter Raye went indie and landed the biggest global hit of her career, with the 070 Shake-assisted (and TikTok-launched) heartbreak lament “Escapism.” That single has topped the U.K.’s Official Charts and climbed to No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting the stage for her debut studio album My 21st Century Blues.
Raye has a couple of vinyl variants available for Blues, including a signed edition sold on her webstore as well as a signed CD and a cassette tape that are also listed for sale there. She and Twain are already locked into a battle for No. 1 in the U.K., so it’s possible that any additional measures — including extra last-minute new promotions and album variants — will spill into their race on the Billboard 200.
Harry Styles, Harry’s House (Erskine/Columbia): The album of the year winner at Sunday’s Grammys may see a gain on the charts this week thanks to renewed streaming interest: Second single “Late Night Talking” was the biggest mover on Spotify’s US Daily Top 200 on Monday, while four other songs re-entered the chart. The album currently sits at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, so the increase will likely be enough to at least get it back into the chart’s top 10. (Beyoncé’s Renaissance is currently 11 spots below it at No. 24 — and in addition to the boost it should receive post-Grammys, that album will also benefit from a spate of “Cuff It” remixes recently released for sale on Bey’s webstore, which were also just made available on digital retailers this Wednesday.)
Lower on the chart, another artist should also benefit from a Grammy bump: best new artist winner Samara Joy. While she’s unlikely to contend in the Styles-Beyoncé regions of the chart, her Linger Awhile album should appear somewhere this week, marking her first-ever entry on the Billboard 200.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: Just like she did 33 years earlier, Bonnie Raitt rides a surprise Grammy win to a big commercial boost, while a rising tide lifts all 2023 Morgan Wallen singles and a new remix proves that two viral sensations are better than one.
And “Just Like That…,” Bonnie Raitt’s Post-Grammys Sales & Streams Are Way Up
Few Grammy watchers expected Bonnie Raitt to take home song of the year at Sunday’s (Feb. 5) awards — perhaps least of all Raitt herself, as judged by her heavily memed surprised reaction to the announcement — for the devastating, self-penned title track to her 2022 album Just Like That. The song was easily the least commercially visible of the 10 tracks nominated, the other nine of which were all top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. (Raitt has not reached the Hot 100 since 1995.)
That lack of commercial profile for “Just Like That” to that point, however, has just meant that there’s plenty of curious listeners now intrigued enough by the song’s big Grammy win to check it out for the first time. The song absolutely blasted off on streaming services following its song of the year victory, spiking from just over 10,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams two days before the Grammys (Feb. 3) to a whopping 697,000 the Monday after (Feb. 6) — a gain of around 6,700%, according to Luminate.
Click here to read the full story over at Billboard Pro.
Morgan Wallen’s New Hits Are Big Enough to Boost His Older Ones
Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is most likely going to be one of the biggest albums of 2023, if its pre-release tracks are any indication: As noted earlier this week, nine songs have been released so far from the 36-song project, and seven of them have already hit the top 10 of the Hot Country Songs chart. The trio of songs that Wallen issued last week — “Last Night,” “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book” — are doing so well, in fact, that their releases have spurred notable streaming gains for a pair of the country star’s previously released hits.
Since its Jan. 31 release, “Last Night” has established itself as the breakout hit of the new three-pack, with daily U.S. official on-demand streams exceeding 3.38 million through Feb. 5 and peaking at 4.68 million on Feb. 3, according to Luminate. The track debuted at No. 3 on Country Streaming Songs, and became Wallen’s ninth No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. Meanwhile, “Everything I Love” and “I Wrote the Book” have each been logging seven-figure daily streams since their releases, peaking at 2.22 million and 2.26 million, respectively, on their release dates.
Yet the new trio of songs have also generated enough interest around Wallen to boost streams for the One Thing at a Time title track, which was released in December, as well as “Thought You Should Know,” a promotional single unveiled in November. On the day that the three-pack was released, U.S. on-demand streams for “One Thing at a Time” jumped 88% to 1.45 million, while “Thought You Should Know” scored a 42% uptick to 1.47 million streams. Both songs’ daily streams hovered above the 1 million mark through Feb. 5.
One Thing at a Time is due out Mar. 3, and Wallen has announced a stadium tour in support of the follow-up to 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album. “Last Night” should have a major chart bounce during its first full tracking week — we’ll see how much his other songs continue to benefit alongside Wallen’s latest hit.
Song’s a Hit: PinkPantheress Song Boosted to Breakout Status by Ice Spice Remix
Before 2023, pop&B singer-songwriter PinkPantheress and rapper Ice Spice were two of the decade’s most exciting young artists yet to score a Billboard Hot 100 hit, both finding TikTok success, social media buzz and critical acclaim for their early singles but not yet quite getting all the way overground. Ice Spice got on the board this January, however, with the release of her Lil Tjay collab “Gangsta Boo” (debuting at No. 82 on the Hot 100) from her Like..? EP — and now she might be the key ingredient in getting PinkPantheress her first entry there, too.
Ice Spice adds a guest verse for the new remix to PinkPantheress’ streaming hit “Boy’s a Liar” — titled “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” — which debuted last Friday (Feb. 3). Since the release of the new version (which for Billboard chart purposes, gets grouped along with the original when it comes to consumption numbers), daily official on-demand U.S. streams of “Boy’s a Liar” have steadily ballooned from 464,000 on Feb. 2 (the day before) to just under 3 million on Feb. 6, a 541% gain, according to Luminate. As the numbers keep growing, “Liar” seems on pace to become easily the biggest chart hit yet for both artists — and perhaps one of pop music’s biggest breakout stories of early 2023.
Thousands of people saw an optimistic message written to Beyoncé in the Los Angeles sky following the 2023 Grammys. But it wasn’t until Wednesday (Feb. 8) that fans learned who, exactly, was behind the note.
Billboard can confirm that The Recording Academy and CBS jointly gifted Queen Bey with the skywriter message, which read “BEYONCE, YOU MADE MUSIC HISTORY” in all caps.
Additionally, the two organizations also conjured up the Grammys-themed drone light shows spotted over Los Angeles in the days leading up to the awards show.
“We (RA/CBS) did do a drone activation,” Sean Smith, executive vice president of The Recording Academy, confirmed to Billboard. “We couldn’t fly Sunday due to high winds so we did one last pass Monday.”
The glass half-full approach to Beyoncé’s night at the Grammys could make more than a few members of the Beyhive raise a collective eyebrow, considering the superstar’s 2022 studio set, Renaissance, lost out the award for album of the year to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
While Beyoncé now holds the record as the most-awarded artist in the Grammys history, she’s still 0 for 4 when it comes to The Recording Academy’s top prize, having been nominated for 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce, 2013’s Beyoncé and 2016’s Lemonade in addition to Renaissance. In fact, when it comes to the Big Four categories, she’s won only song of the year in 2010 for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).”
Bey’s husband Jay-Z was among those who thought her latest house-inspired opus deserved to win in the crowded race for album of the year, telling TIDAL ahead of the ceremony, “They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”