State Champ Radio guts
Olivia Rodrigo’s deluxe edition of her sophomore album Guts arrived on Friday (March 22), and we’re obsessed. The 21-year-old, Grammy-winning star announced the news of Guts (Spilled) during the first night of her two-show stand at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday night (March 19), surprising the crowd by unfolding a sign that read “Guts Deluxe Out […]
We’re “Obsessed” with Olivia Rodrigo’s album era, and now fans are getting a new music video. The 21-year-old pop star took to Instagram on Wednesday (March 20) to tease the music video for her fan-favorite track, “Obsessed,” which is set to appear on the upcoming deluxe version of her sophomore studio album, Guts. In the […]
Olivia Rodrigo is just months away from spilling her Guts on tour, and the Grammy-winning pop star shared some insight on how she’s prepping for her 57-date run. “I’m getting it all together right now, brainstorming everything,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes […]
Olivia Rodrigo is gearing up for her arena tour in support of her sophomore album Guts, and the star opened up about what her touring life is like with People. “I sleep so much when I’m on tour, it’s kind of crazy,” she told the publication. “There were some nights where I was just so […]
Before Olivia Rodrigo takes her latest album GUTS on tour, she’ll play the project in full at a one-off concert Monday night (Oct. 9) at LA’s Theatre at the Ace Hotel. The concert is exclusively for American Express card holders as part of their Member Week. According to AmEx, concertgoers will be immersed in the […]
Chipotle is grateful all the f—ing time that Olivia Rodrigo has some great lyrics in her new album, Guts. So much so, that the chain restaurant referenced one of the album’s best lines in its new Instagram post over the weekend. In “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” Rodrigo laments that “everything I do is tragic […]
Olivia Rodrigo is proving that artists don’t need expensive technology or a sprawling staff to make sure their lowest-priced tickets end up in the hands of fans — and not scalpers.
Ticket brokers were crawling around Rodrigo’s website on Wednesday (Sept. 13), assessing their odds of scoring tickets for the superstar’s freshly announced Guts World Tour, which kicks off in February at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. An early spring tour headlined by Rodrigo is a pretty good bet for ticket resellers based on the singer’s continued chart success: “Vampire,” the first single from her new album, Guts, is currently enjoying its 10th week on the Hot 100, while the set’s second single, “Bad Idea Right?”, debuted in the top 10 last month. Meanwhile, the album itself earned more than 126 million on-demand streams in its first four days of release. More importantly, her 2022 Sour trek was an underplay first run tour — Rodrigo had kept her ticket prices reasonable, averaging about $75 a ticket — that saw demand far exceed supply and drove prices into the stratosphere.
For Guts, Rodrigo is taking a simple, innovative step to protect what she is calling “Silver Star tickets,” a two-seat package she’s selling for $40 a pop to individuals her team can verify as fans.
Needless to say, scalpers will want to get in on that. A $20 ticket to a high-demand concert can generate a big markup and quick profits, especially compared to tickets priced between $50 to $200 — the price range for the Live Nation-booked tour. Tickets in the $50 to $200 range, meanwhile, will leave some room for markup on resale sites but make profitability less certain, especially on top-tier tickets.
To pull this off, like a game of cat and mouse, Rodrigo’s team must keep the Silver Star tickets out of scalper’s hands for the program to be a success. Few details about how this will work have been made public, but Rodrigo’s registration site hints that the singer’s team will directly select fans to participate. The real innovation, however, is a requirement that fans pick up their $20 tickets at will call on the night of the show; only then will they learn where their seats are located.
That’s not too different from how box offices used to use will call-only pick up to fight scalping, but where that strategy would typically aim to protect the most expensive tickets this time it’s being used on the cheapest. The limited number of tickets involved here will also help keep from overwhelming staff, whereas previously such a strategies became an unmanageable burden. Meanwhile, not knowing the section or row of a ticket makes it very difficult to sell it on secondary sales websites like StubHub, which requires scalpers to list tickets in the general vicinity of where they are located.
The plan isn’t fool-proof — when it comes to resellers, nothing is — but it places enough hurdles in front of scalpers that most will hopefully be deterred from taking advantage of a program that’s meant to get discount tickets into the hands of fans who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to see Rodrigo in concert. And if the strategy is successful, it’s easy to see it being duplicated by other artists, whose biggest frustration with ticketing tends not to be that their best seats are landing on the secondary market, but that seats affordable to their younger and less economically advantaged fans are ending up there too.
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: Olivia Rodrigo’s album gets off to a roaring start on streaming — while also sending folks back to a Disney-era Miley single — as TikTok helps to resurrect an ’00s Cee Lo hit and make a viral phenomenon out of FamousSally & YB’s debut.
Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” Sinks Its Teeth into Guts Gains
[embedded content]
When Olivia Rodrigo returned in June with “Vampire,” the sweeping lead single to her sophomore album, she also returned to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as the song debuted at No. 1 and became her third career chart-topper. “Vampire” has remained in the top 10 of the chart in the weeks since its release, coming in at No. 9 this week — but last week’s release of Guts has sent streams of “Vampire” flying high as listeners play the dramatic single in the context of the full-length, and a return to the top of the Hot 100 may be in play.
In the first four days since Guts was released last Friday (Sept. 8), “Vampire” earned 12.95 million official on-demand U.S. streams, nearly a 97% gain over its streams from the previous Friday-to-Monday tracking period, according to Luminate. “Bad Idea Right?,” the second single from Guts which has thus far peaked at No. 10 on the chart, is lower down the current Hot 100 at No. 26 — but has earned an even greater streaming uptick, to 13.14 million streams from Sept. 8-11 (up 150%).
Of course, the streaming increases of Rodrigo’s two pre-release singles from Guts demonstrate just how many streaming users have checked out one of the most highly anticipated albums of 2023. In the first four days of its release, Guts has earned over 126 million on-demand streams, with album opener “All-American Bitch” and “Get Him Back!” (which just received a new music video and MTV VMAs performance) scoring 12.54 million and 12.27 million streams during that time period, respectively. Guts is streaming so well that fans have revisited Rodrigo’s first album: Sour has earned 15.28 million total streams from Sept. 8-11, up 21% from the previous Friday-to-Monday period. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
An Olivia/Miley Comparison Helps “Start” a Cyrus Streaming Bump
[embedded content]
Speaking of Olivia Rodrigo, the release of Guts has seemingly helped out the streaming totals of a song from a different pop superstar with teen Disney ties. Upon the release of Rodrigo’s sophomore album, some social media users pointed out that the hook to “All-American Bitch” recalls the sound of “Start All Over,” the guitar-heavy Miley Cyrus song from her 2007 post-Hannah Montana album, Meet Miley Cyrus.
While the sonic similarities are debatable, enough listeners have checked out (or returned to) the early Cyrus pop-rock track to yield a sizable bump in its weekly streams. In the first four days since Guts was released, “Start All Over” earned 278,000 official on-demand U.S. streams — more than 10 times its streaming total from the previous Friday-to-Monday period (23,000), according to Luminate. As Rodrigo’s Guts prepares to make its chart bow, Cyrus has her own hit in the upper reaches of the Hot 100, as “Used to Be Young” comes in at No. 16 on this week’s Hot 100 chart, one week after a No. 8 debut. – JL
In the Cut With My Twin, Streams Are Rising: FamousSally & YB Score Big With “Wassup Gwayy”
[embedded content]
Buoyed by a cheeky finger-pointing shoulder shimmy — which has its own multilayered meme history — FamousSally & YB’s “Wassup Gwayy” has seen an eye-popping surge in streams this month. According to Luminate, the bubbly hip-hop track collected over 394,000 official on-demand U.S. streams between September 1-7, a massive 404.7% increase from just over 78,000 streams four weeks prior from August 11-17.
On TikTok, the official “Wassup Gwayy” sound boasts over 1.1 million videos. The sound specifically highlights the first two lines of the song’s chorus, which find the duo rap-singing “What’s up, Gwayy? In the cut with my twin, we be vibin’/ Classy b—h, but they know I be outside with it.” In virtually every TikTok using the sound, users do a little shoulder shimmy with their pointer fingers and thumbs oriented in the shape of an “L” while they highlight their closest and dearest partners-in-crime. The trend has gotten so popular that a fan even got Drake to participate in it backstage at his It’s All a Blur Tour in Las Vegas, NV (Sept. 2).
According to their official artist pages on streaming services, the self-released “Wassup Gwayy” appears to be the debut single from Famous Sally & YB. Should the song’s streams continue to rise, it could also become their first Billboard chart hit.
“I’ll Be Around” for Two Decades: Dance Trend Spurs Gains for CeeLo Green ‘00s Hit
[embedded content]
Regional dances are as American as apple pie, and Baltimore is up next for a turn in the national spotlight. Thanks to the recent TikTok virality of the Baltimore strut, a 19-year-old CeeLo Green song has seen a resurgence on streaming. According to Luminate, the track — which served as a single from 2004’s acclaimed Cee-Lo Green… Is the Soul Machine – earned over 1.36 million official on-demand U.S. streams from Sept. 1-7. That’s a whopping 497% increase from a little over 227,000 streams five weeks prior (Aug. 4-10).
On TikTok, the Timbaland-assisted track has become the go-to sound for users to show off their mastery, or lack thereof, of the effortlessly smooth Baltimore strut. The official “I’ll Be Around” sound currently has over 106,000 posts, with everyone from social media food influencer Keith Lee to the Duke men’s basketball team trying their hand at the dance.
“I’ll Be Around” reached No. 52 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in 2004; it’s in a six-way tie for his longest-charting song on the ranking (20 weeks). – KD
Season’s Gainings: 9/11 Remembered
[embedded content]
This Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of the horrific attacks on September 11th, 2001, an anniversary that always gets those old enough to remember to relive the memories of that terrible day. Those who wanted a soundtrack for their recollections turned in large numbers to a handful of the 9/11-themed country anthems that resounded with many at the time: Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” gained 351% to 124,000 official on-demand U.S. streams from the previous Monday, according to Luminate, while Darryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten” rose 414% to 48,000. And Lee Greenwood‘s ‘80s ballad “God Bless the U.S.A.,” which gained new relevance post-9/11, also rose 42% to 72,000 streams. – AU
Olivia Rodrigo rationalizes a late night meet-up with an ex on her Guts track, “Bad Idea Right?,” which followed “Vampire” as a single.
“Bad Idea Right?” entered Hot Rock & Alternative Songs at No. 1, becoming her second overall entry and second No. 1 single on the chart. The song also peaked at No. 10 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
If you need a guide to follow along with Olivia Rodrigo’s “Bad Idea Right?,” find the lyrics below:
(Hey)
Haven’t heard from you in a couple of monthsBut I’m out right now and I’m all f—ed upAnd you’re callin’ my phone, you’re all aloneAnd I’m sensing some undertoneAnd I’m right here with all my friendsBut you’re sending me your new addressAnd I know we’re done, I know we’re throughBut, God, when I look at you
My brain goes, “Ah”Can’t hear my thoughts (I cannot hear my thoughts)Like blah-blah-blah (blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah)Should probably I should probably, probably notI should probably, probably not
Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightF— it, it’s fine
Yes, I know that he’s my exBut can’t two people reconnect?“I only see him as a friend”(The biggest lie I ever said)Oh, yes, I know that he’s my exBut can’t two people reconnect?I only see him as a friendI just tripped and fell into his bed
Now I’m gettin’ in the car, wreckin’ all my plansI know I should stop, but I can’tAnd I told my friends I was asleepBut I never said where or in whose sheetsAnd I pull up to your place on the second floorAnd you’re standing, smiling at the doorAnd I’m sure I’ve seen much hotter menBut I really can’t remember when
My brain goes, “Ah”Can’t hear my thoughts (I cannot hear my thoughts)Like blah-blah-blah (blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah)Should probably I should probably, probably notI should probably, probably not
Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightIt’s a bad idea, right?Seeing you tonightF— it, it’s fine
Yes, I know that he’s my exBut can’t two people reconnect?“I only see him as a friend”(The biggest lie I ever said)Oh, yes, I know that he’s my exBut can’t two people reconnect?I only see him as a friendI just tripped and fell into his bedOh, yes, I know that he’s my exCan’t two people reconnect?
The biggest lie I ever saidI just tripped and fell into his bedMy brain goes, “Ah”Can’t hear my thoughtsThe biggest lie I ever saidMy brain goes, “Ah”Can’t hear my thoughtsI just tripped and fell into his bed
ThoughtsBlahThoughtsBlah
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Daniel Leonard Nigro, Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo’s new album is here, and it’s only “logical” that you hit play as soon as possible. Guts, the sophomore studio effort from the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star, officially arrived on Friday, Sept. 8. Rodrigo has been teasing the follow-up to Sour for over a year now. After dropping Easter […]
