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Throughout much of Tame Impala‘s career, the Australian psych-rock group has been a critical darling as its following and stages have both increased in size. Yet, even as the act has littered Billboard‘s rock- and alternative-focused charts, it never reached the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 — until last month.
With the pop-leaning single “Dracula,” Tame Impala has officially sunk its teeth into the chart: Following a debut at No. 55 on the Oct. 11-dated list, it has lurked well beyond the shadows and scaled to a No. 33 high. Plus, the breakthrough may have opened the floodgates, as two other songs from the group’s recent album Deadbeat — released through Columbia Records on Oct. 17 — have since reached the Hot 100 (album opener “My Old Ways” and second single “Loser”).
It’s hard to point to one thing in particular as the spark for the act’s now-exploding mainstream appeal — frontman Kevin Parker’s extensive work on Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism likely didn’t hurt in bringing in an extended fan base, but it’s just as plausible that his characteristic warble and high-level production finally reached the masses at multiple formats (including TikTok) in a capacity that was long overdue.
Whatever the reason may be, coming to a finished product for “Dracula” was a years-long process, according to co-writer Sarah Aarons. The 31-year-old Melbourne native recalls that the two were tinkering away endlessly to get everything just right, still making fixes to the lyrics two hours after the mixes were due. “There was just something about it that bothered him,” Aarons says. “That crunch-time moment made us be like, ‘Alright, what is it? What are the lyrics? What’s the structure? Go.’ ”
She also lent writing assistance to fellow Deadbeat tracks “Oblivion” and “Afterthought” and is notably the only person outside of Parker credited as a writer or producer anywhere on the album. Aarons notes that the two would spend hours on end in the studio and on phone calls throughout the creation process for the album, growing a close friendship along the way — so much so in fact, that Parker even helped DJ her wedding earlier this year.
Below, Aarons reflects on creating “Dracula,” what makes Parker such a talent to work with in the studio and more.
How did you first connect with Parker?
He was in Australia, and I was in L.A., and there was something he was working on that I don’t think even ended up happening. Someone put us in touch and we had a FaceTime call, and I don’t think we even talked about whatever the thing we were supposed to do was. We just talked s–t. Then the next time he came to L.A. three or four years ago, we hung out and we had this thing where I was like, “I just got a puppy, do you mind if I bring my puppy to your studio? My puppy’s name is Peach.” And he was like, “My daughter’s name is Peach!” And they were both like three months old. It was a weird bonding moment.
Were you already working on “Dracula” or anything else from Deadbeat that long ago?
No. He knew he had to start something. I remember him being like, “Yeah, I should probably figure that out.” It was always like a joke that we all made — me and my wife are quite close with him and his wife. So when they’re in L.A., we would always bring it up and he’d be like, “Yeah, I’m going to have it done in three months.” And we’d all have an argument whether he’d do that. But I think that’s what makes his stuff so good. He really does take his time, and he’s really intentional about what it all sounds like.
“Dracula” took a long time, in the way that there are so many iterations of what it was. There was this one song that was what the chorus is — I call it the chorus, he calls it the pre-chorus — [sings] “In the end, I hope it’s you and me.” We’d worked on that a couple years ago. Then there was this song that we’d written called “Dracula” that his wife loved. One day he just sent me a thing, he was like, “I put the line from ‘Dracula’ into this other idea.” It was the [sings] “Run from the sun like Dracula.” He mashed that into that one line from this other idea, and I was like, “Oh damn, that’s kind of sick.”
It was a really long process in that way. Piece by piece, he’d be like, “Actually, now I think the song’s about this.” Sometimes he’d call me, and I’d be in London and it would be 11 p.m. for me and 9 a.m. for him. We just had so many moments where he’d be like, “The verse is bothering me.” And I’d be like, “Okay cool, let’s get into it.” But it’s funny because we wrote “Afterthought” two hours after the mixes were due. He just called me and he was like, “I have this beat and I feel like the album needs one more song.” And it literally ended up being called “Afterthought,” which is really funny.
“Afterthought” started two hours after the mixes were due?
Yeah. He had called me to finish “Dracula” — I was in London, he was in Australia. “Dracula” was the only song that wasn’t finished. He was mixing everything else and he sent me a picture of a whiteboard that had ticks on it of what he’s done and what he hadn’t — everything else was all ticked and then “Dracula” had no ticks. The beat was always the same, but it was more the lyrics and the structure [that changed].
How much does it impact the writing process to work with someone so well-versed on the production side of things as well?
Oh, it’s so much easier. Everything is him; it sounds so much like him. For me, it’s not easy to get a lyric past him. You can’t just say a lyric, and he’s like, “Cool, I’ll put that in there.” He has to feel the thing or it will not go in the song, whether it’s production, lyrics, melodies — anything. I love that because I’m like, “Oh cool, you’re making me have to really think what is best for you.” It’s not a song for everyone. It’s a song for [Tame Impala]. He’s expressing himself in so many aspects of the songs. When you’re with an artist and it’s like, “Oh, let’s get the producer to do (mimics the sound of a beat),” it’s so many cooks. With him, he’s just doing his thing.
How did the two of you finally come to terms with the final lyrics for “Dracula” given all of the changes over what sounds like a yearslong process?
It’s really interesting, because I’m a person that can keep writing. Like, “Cool, you want a different thing, let’s go!” I’ll do a different one. It’s really up to the artist, because for one person it might be one thing, and for one person, it might be another. There are certain things I might fight for — there were certain lyrics where the melody changed, and I was like, “Bro, you better keep that or I’m going to have something to say about it.” But other than that, he’s gotta hear it and go, “This is mine.”
I think it was the crunch time. It was like, “Cool, this mix is due in 45 minutes.” When you know you have a deadline, your brain just goes, “This is the right thing.” He called me and he went, “What about this melody?” And I was like, “Yeah! How did we not do that melody already? It totally fits the song.” We’d written lyrics so many times, we already had so many lyrics floating around our brains. We had so much of what we knew the song was that it kind of clicked.
You also co-wrote “Oblivion” and “Afterthought” on this album. As a writer, is it easier to work on several songs from the same project versus a one-off in terms of sculpting a cohesive voice or theme that an artist is looking for?
I totally feel that way. Every once in a while, you get one day with someone, and it’s just so hard. You’re just not built to be like that collaboratively, to me. I think the multiple songs is more just a result of the fact that we had fun making s–t. If he ever got stuck, he’d just be like, “F–k it, I’m calling Sarah.” I also heard everything else [on Deadbeat], because we would just chill in the studio and play stuff. That for me was super helpful. Also, knowing the person really well: I found that all my biggest songs the last few years have been people I’m super close with. That’s such a common thread for me at the moment. Music’s supposed to be fun. There’s a reason I’m not an accountant. I’d be bad at it.
As far as I can tell, you’re the only credited songwriter on this album, which is also produced in its entirety by Parker. Does that hold any special meaning to you?
I’m grateful that he called me for help. I’m super flattered. It all happened so naturally in such a friendly way — that’s my favorite thing. It’s funny how you can try as a songwriter so hard [and say], “Oh I want to work with this person and this person.” You can write a list of who you want to work with, but that’s not what gets you there. The universe has to put you where you need to go to make music with the people you should make it with.
A version of this story appears in the Oct. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.
There are few things more daunting for a rising star than following a breakthrough hit that just won’t stop breaking through. Such is the case for Benson Boone, whose 2024 smash “Beautiful Things” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, ended as the No. 1 song on the year-end Global 200, and, 70 weeks into its Hot 100 run, is still in the chart’s top 10.
But Evan Blair, the song’s co-writer and producer — and a regular collaborator of Boone’s, along with co-writer Jack LaFrantz — says that when the “Beautiful Things” dream team reassembled in the studio, they couldn’t feel the specter of their previous smash hanging over them.
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“I’ve been in situations in the past where [following such a big hit] has sunk us, and we haven’t been able to get out of the shadow,” Blair says. “But for whatever reason, [when we got back together], I don’t think we one time even talked about it.”
It also helps, of course, when you come up with new songs like “Mystical Magical.” Crafted toward the end of the recording sessions for Boone’s upcoming new album American Heart, the sparkling “Mystical Magical” finds Boone leaning into his increasingly fantastical stage persona, with a falsetto-laden chorus, lyrics about “moonbeam ice cream” and chirping synths reminiscent enough of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” that that song’s scribes were also given writing credits along with Boone, Blair and LaFrantz. (“Damn, it does sound like that,” recalls a laughing Blair of the group’s reaction when the similarity was first pointed out to them.)
The early response to the group’s new effort has been very positive. Despite the refusal of “Beautiful Things” to recede from the Hot 100’s top 10 — and despite the positive momentum behind his prior single “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” which has climbed into the chart’s top 30 — “Mystical Magical” became Boone’s fourth song to crack the top 40, and is still hanging around at No. 42, seemingly waiting its turn to officially become Boone’s single of the moment, as he backflips from one high-profile cultural moment to the next.
“I think that is a testament to Benson as an artist — he’s existing in culture in such a way that culture is interacting with him,” Blair says of the way his star collaborator has been able to move on from his breakout hit, even as his breakout hit has refused to move on from him.
Below, Blair talks about his work catching “lightning in a bottle” as Boone’s collaborator, why he never feels like he has to tell Benson no, and what fans might be able to expect from the rest of American Heart, out June 20.
Your relationship with Benson goes back further than “Mystical Magical.” How did you two come into each other’s orbit?
Benson is with Warner Records, and I’ve done a lot of stuff with them in the past. His A&R Jeff Sosnow has been a big part of my music career — and the first person to ever really give me a shot years ago — and he thought Benson and I would get along really well. He was right: The first session we ever did was “Beautiful Things.”
What was it about the two of you that clicked?
The main thing that drives it is that both of us put a priority on being friends as well as being musical partners. I can definitely take making music very seriously, and Benson…
Less so?
Well, Benson can too. But I think there’s something about the two of us — and then the three of us, with Jack [LaFrantz] — there’s an environment of like, “Let’s also have some fun.” Benson is such a musical super force that he’s almost like this lightning in a bottle that I have to try to catch every day in the session. He’ll sit at the piano, or him and I will start creating something that seems to come from nowhere. He’s one of those artists where you don’t know where he’s getting these ideas. It’s like he’s got some sort of channel that [only he’s] getting. It’s my job every day to try to capture it and make it into something that sounds good and can be recorded.
“Beautiful Things” [is] a great example — with time signature changes and very bizarre arrangements. I get to let him just kind of go wild, and it really tests musical ability and years of production experience to be able to not mess with that, but also to put it in a container and somehow harness it. And for me, it’s the most fun challenge, because he’s just straight inspiration. And I get to play with it.
You said that you guys recorded “Beautiful Things” on the first day that you worked together. Have you been working together regularly since then?
It’s been pretty consistent since then. I knew from the first time we worked together — and Jack also being a part of that — that there was something really special here. The creation part of it felt very easy, which is not a feeling that comes very frequently. There was just something about the chemistry between the three of us where it seemed pretty clear that we were only at the beginning of something.
“Beautiful Things” was done at the tail end of his last album, and then there was a break where he went on tour. We were continuing to work together a little bit after that, but he wasn’t really around for a lot of writing until later when we started on this album. We worked together a lot for the last year.
In what part of the process did “Mystical Magical” come into it?
Towards the end, actually. [At] the beginning of the process, we got a good chunk of the best work. There was so much inspiration, and Benson had such a clear idea of what he wanted to do. And then “Mystical Magical” was kind of the last one that we put in the pile. I don’t remember ever saying, like, “Oh, this has to be a single.” We try not to say that kind of thing — but we all knew it was really great.
We were in Utah at June Audio [Recording Studios], and at that time, we were supposed to be finishing songs. All of the powers that be were calling me before the session, and they’re like, “You guys got to buckle down and finish these songs.” And I was like, “Don’t worry. We’ll do it.”
Just the way that the three of us work together — we’re almost always going to try to start something new, even if we are supposed to be doing something else. We’ve had so much luck together that it would be almost stupid not to try. What if the next “Beautiful Things” happens? It feels possible every time we’re together.
I don’t know that it was always apparent that Benson had this kind of flair to him. It seems like, as he’s kind of coming into his own as a performer, the music is starting to match that a little bit better. Could you tell that he had this more fantastical side to him?
Not in such a hyper-specific way where I could be like, “I feel like you’re going to be a little bit more jumpsuit-y on the next album.” But there’s something so alive in him that is very apparent when you meet him, that it doesn’t at all feel surprising when you’re like, “Oh, he wants to do that? He’ll be great at it.”
When [other] artists come to me and they’re like, “I’m going to do this,” you can kind of be like, “I see what you want to do, but maybe we could go somewhere else.” With Benson, he’s so easily able to accomplish things that it felt very natural to me. Even as far down to his piano playing — a lot of the best songs on this album came from him sitting down at the piano, and he would play these little riffs that were like, “Did you just make that? I could have sworn it was, like, a Hall & Oates classic piano [riff].”
What was the first part that poured out of him that ended up becoming “Mystical Magical”?
On that Utah trip, I think we had four days in a row at the studio. The first three, candidly speaking, were not that fruitful. We weren’t finding the answer to some of these songs, and we were having a lot of fun as friends, but we weren’t really getting done what we needed to get done. On the fourth day, perhaps through a bit of frustration, we just said, “You know what? F–k it. Let’s just have some fun and get back to what we do best.” It ended up being the very beginning of “Mystical Magical.”
It started out very differently from how it ended up, but the bass line in it was something I was playing — and it almost felt like a My Morning Jacket song or something. That bass line is now what is in the verse of the song, and it’s a midtempo, funky sort of thing.
We couldn’t really get out of the verse into a chorus that that excited us for a long time, and then Jack and Benson said, “Let’s just try the piano.” Benson starts playing it with these staccato eighth notes high up on the piano. They looked at me, I looked at them, and I said, “When you’re right, you’re right, boys.” We record that plucky piano, and it just made sense all of a sudden. We got Benson in the booth to start singing it, and as he went on, this performance got more whimsical — and I answered that in the production.
A day that started in frustration ended in being one of the best music making days we’ve ever had together. It felt like when that chorus moment happened, it was just unfolding in front of our eyes.
Who came up with “moonbeam ice cream” lyric?
I can’t recall exactly, but I’m going to say Jack. Jack is often coming up with these very bizarre things that you’re like, “Is that a thing? Because if it’s not, it should be.” That happened a number of times on this album.
When you heard that, were you guys just like, “Yes, absolutely, let’s go with that”?
Absolutely. We all had that moment where we’re like, “Does it make sense? Does it matter?” And you know, to us, it made sense. But I’m also big on letting people decide on their own what it means.
Is it difficult to make headway with a new song when your older song is still percolating the way “Beautiful Things” is?
It can be, but with Benson, no. With Grammys performances and Coachella, he’s carving a lane so effectively that it doesn’t feel like that at all. I tell this to people all the time: [They say,] “Oh, congratulations on ‘Beautiful Things.’ ” And I’m like, “You can have an amazing song that’s going to be a hit — but do you have the artist that can carry it?” Benson carried it and then threw it into the stratosphere like a Hail Mary. Having Benson behind the songs every time feels like you’re doing something new and meaningful. So we’re kind of immune to that so far because of the artist we have.
I know you say you can’t really talk that much about the rest of American Heart, but do you feel like it comes from the same place as “Mystical Magical”? Or is it a little bit more of a swerve than people realize?
I wouldn’t say it’s a swerve. “Mystical Magical” is the most mystical and magical song on the album. It is definitely the most of that thing; it’s as far as we go in that direction. My two favorite songs on the album are still yet to come, which is super exciting. But I think in terms of a sonic palette, there’s still a lot of synths, there’s still bold choices. I think people who like the first two [singles] will only love the forthcoming ones even more. There’s some that are a little more emotional, for sure. I’m just super-pumped for people to hear them.
A version of this story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Nearly a decade after indie R&B tastemakers and college students across the country first swooned over her self-released EPs and early collaborations with Monte Booker and Smino, Ravyn Lenae has earned her first Billboard Hot 100 hit with “Love Me Not” (chart dated April 12).
Lenae, who signed to Atlantic Records in 2016, originally released the bouncy, soulful, rock-inflected song in early May 2024 as the lead single from her sophomore studio album, Bird’s Eye. Thanks to a wave of TikTok momentum — one that’s also benefitted Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover,” a kind of foremother to “Love Me Not” — the single steadily grew throughout the late winter and early spring and now reaches a No. 70 on this week’s Hot 100 (dated April 26). The Dahi-produced track also became the landmark 25th production credit for the Grammy-winning hip-hop/R&B producer.
With “Love Me Not” securing Lenae her long-awaited breakout moment, the song’s success also previews what’s shaping up to be the biggest year of her career. In April, the Chicago-bred singer-songwriter bewitched both weekends of Coachella-goers, perfectly priming both in-person and virtual audiences for her forthcoming stint as an opener on Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour. She’ll also visit her hometown for Lollapallooza (July 31-Aug. 3), where she’ll continuing playing sets built around Bird’s Eye, which Billboard staff named the No. 3 Best R&B Album of 2024.
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“I’m just happy for all artists who have been in this 10-plus years and are feeling the love and the benefits of so much time and effort and hard work,” she gushes to Billboard the day before her Coachella debut. “It’s a lot of that happening right now at the 10-year mark. The 10-year thing is real!”
In a conversation with Billboard, Ravyn Lenae talks her slow-burning success, drawing inspiration from Janet Jackson, gracing the Hot 100 for the first time with “Love Me Not,” and witnessing the power of TikTok firsthand.
Where were you when you found out “Love Me Not” hit the Hot 100?
I was at home watching TV, and my manager called me and told me that it was a real thing. I had a great day that day. I had great tacos, I called my mom, everything was going right. The weather was beautiful. I had a really emotional talk with Dahi and thanked him for being such an important person in my life and doing this with me and believing in me and challenging me.
Was there a specific moment in which you decided that you wanted to pursue music professionally?
I would say when I was in high school and I started putting music out on SoundCloud and I saw how much of a response I got. That made me feel like, “Oh, this is something that not just resonates with me, but people actually like this and they’re looking forward to the next thing that I do.” I think that gave me an inkling. Once Noname took me on tour [in 2017], that’s when I realized it was a possibility to do something I love every single day and be able to pay my bills too.
What was the inspiration behind “Love Me Not?”
That song was one of the first ones that we landed on for Bird’s Eye. I remember when Dahi played me the beat, I was like, “This is something I feel like I haven’t heard in such a long time.” For some reason, it reminded me of when I heard “Hey Ya!” [by OutKast] for the first time. That mix of soulfulness with pop sensibility that anybody could sing and dance to and feels like it could have came out in any era — that’s my favorite type of song.
Lyrically, I like to play with relationships and the push and pull of knowing you love somebody even though you know it can’t work. That really elementary approach to writing is one of my favorite things. I love when the lyrics feel a little sad, but the music feels upbeat, or even the inverse. [“Love Me Not”] has all the qualities of a really timeless song to me, so I knew that one had to be on [the album] and be the first [single].
Why did you decide to release “Love Me Not” alongside “Love Is Blind”?
“Love Me Not” was something that I really, really loved and I was excited for my fans to hear. But I also knew that it was a branch-out from the type of colors I dabbled in on [2022 album] Hypnos. I thought to support that, I should have something that felt like the most “Ravyn Lenae” song ever. “Love Is Blind” was a good pairing for people to see where I was going with [Bird’s Eye while] still rooted in my R&B bag, my sensuality and my yearning lyrics. I wanted people to understand where I was going, but also where I am and where I’ve been at the same time.
How did the how did the Rex Orange County remix come together? When did you know that you wanted to do a remix?
I knew I wanted a remix for the song a few months after I dropped it. I remember us talking about a feature on the song originally, so it was always in my head that I thought I heard another perspective on the song, especially a male perspective, almost like a duet type of feel. But I couldn’t think of who it was going to be, and I don’t like to decide things quickly.
My manager [John Bogaard] sugested Rex [Orange County], and I thought he was the perfect voice and perspective to add to the song and introduce it to a whole other audience.
The success of “Love Me Not” has been a real slow burn, not unlike your career in general. Are there times you wish everything would just click or are you content with the journey of it all?
I am constantly on a journey of balancing both of those extremes because it feels like two sides of my brain. One that’s like, “Get on the train!,” and the other part of me — like when I talk to my mom and my manager — [understands] that timing is everything. I have to trust that. I have to believe that. I have to stay patient and diligent and focused, and things will start to turn over for me. We’ve seen it over and over again.
I just saw Doechii [with whom she collaborated for 2022’s “Xtasy” remix] a few days ago in San Antonio. I hadn’t seen her since this major shift [in her career], so it’s been a while since I’ve been able to catch up with her. I was like, “Girl, when you won your Grammy, I started bawling!” I didn’t expect that [emotional response] to happen, but whenever I see those glimpses of hard work paying off, it reassures me that I’m on the right path. That’s what I’m holding on to right now; I’m trying not to get ahead of myself and stay right where I’m at and be happy about that.
I’m just happy for all artists who have been in this 10-plus years and are feeling the love and the benefits of so much time and effort and hard work. It’s a lot of that happening right now at the 10-year mark. The 10-year thing is real!
What else do you have planned for “Love Me Not?” You’ve been showing fellow Bird’s Eye track “Genius” a lot of love on TikTok recently.
I hope that I’m able to keep getting “Love Me Not” in new ears. I want that song to keep growing and reach as many people as possible. “Genius” is another one that I think has really strong potential to reach those super-large audiences. I’m just gonna keep pushing, working, performing, meeting people and being a good person. Beyond that, I’m working on new music that I’m so excited about.
What was your experience on the artist side watching TikTok help blow “Love Me Not” up?
Before it happened, I would have really negative thoughts like, “Maybe that type of viral moment isn’t in the cards for me.” You’re making TikToks and you feel like [they’re] not reaching anybody and you’re just putting stuff out into the void.
This was an exercise of me stepping outside of my comfort zone in a good way. Seeing people discover me and this song and then dive into my whole discography has really [shown that TikTok is] such a beautiful tool. Even beyond me, just seeing how accessible it is for people’s lives to change overnight.
I can’t help but draw similarities between “Love Me Not” popping off right now and also Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover” having a revival. What do you think it is about these songs that are pulling in listeners right now?
I literally asked myself this the other day. I’m like, “This is too much of a coincidence!” First of all, “Someone to Call My Lover” is one of my favorite songs, so when I saw that happening it really felt like a shift. Janet is one of my biggest inspirations; she’s been able to blend R&B, alternative, rock and pop in the most beautiful, seamless way. I aspire my career to be like that too. I think people are just open to a mishmash of sounds and don’t care really who it’s coming from. Even the fact that [TikTok users] mixed “Love Me Not” with [Solange’s] “Losing You,” there’s definitely a shift happening. I think people want that soulful pop back.
What can you tell us about the new music right now?
Tricking my listeners into liking things that they probably wouldn’t have liked otherwise is something I’m really into. I’m always finding new ways to push and find new colors in my voice, get a little uncomfortable and get a little more raw. Pulling back those layers is something that I try to do with each song and each album.
A version of this story appears in the April 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Influential French electronic duo Justice has been a staple in the dance/electronic community since the early 2000s, but the pair finally earns its first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (chart dated Feb. 15) with a new collaboration with The Weeknd, “Wake Me Up.”
Released Feb. 7 on The Weeknd’s new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, the song opens at No. 45 on the Hot 100 with 10.9 million official U.S. streams, 1.4 million radio audience impressions and 1,000 downloads sold in its opening week, according to Luminate. The set launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 490,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week, the largest opening figure since Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department in May 2024.
“Wake Me Up,” the first cut on Hurry Up Tomorrow, interpolates the classic title track from Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller and Georgio Moroder’s “Main Title” from the 1983 film Scarface. The late Rod Temperton, who wrote “Thriller,” is credited as a co-writer of “Wake Me Up,” along with The Weeknd, Justice, Belly, Mike Dean, Johnny Jewel and Vincent Taurelle; The Weeknd, Justice, Mike Dean, Johnny Jewel produced it. Moroder, notably, is credited as a featured artist on Hurry Up Tomorrow track “Big Sleep,” which just misses the Hot 100, opening at No. 3 on the list’s Bubbling Under ranking. He has charted two songs on the Hot 100: “Chase” (No. 33 peak in 1979) and “Reach Out,” featuring Paul Engeman (No. 81, 1984).
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Justice, which comprises Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, first appeared on Billboard’s charts with Cross, which debuted at No. 1 on the Top Dance Albums chart dated July 28, 2007. The project is noteworthy for including hundreds of samples, helping usher in the bloghouse era and, later, the EDM boom.
The duo has charted six additional projects on Top Dance Albums, including four other top 10s: A Cross the Universe (No. 8 peak in 2008), Audio, Video, Disco (No. 4, 2011), Woman (No. 1, 2016) and Hyperdrama (No. 1, 2024).
Justice has also charted three hits on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: “D.A.N.C.E.” (No. 13 peak in 2013, from Cross), “One Night/All Night,” with Tame Impala (No. 10, 2024) and “Neverender” (No. 8, 2024).
“Neverender” won best dance/electronic recording at the 67th Grammy Awards. It’s the pair’s third Grammy win, joining trophies for best remixed recording, non-classical for “Electric Feel (Justice Remix)” in 2009 and best dance/electronic album for Woman Worldwide in 2019. Cross was nominated for best electronic/dance album in 2008, while its breakout song “D.A.N.C.E.” earned a nod for best dance recording.
Justice’s collaboration with The Weeknd was first teased more than a year ago, when a demo leaked online. In an interview ahead of the release of Hyperdrama, Justice’s longtime manager Pedro Winter told Billboard that the duo had been inspired to partner with collaborators who felt like authentic fits.
“Justice has been a band saying ‘no’ to everything, exactly like when I used to work with Daft Punk,” he said. “They really wanted to focus on their own music. Now it has been a 20-year career, so it’s time to open the door and work with other people,” adding “Of course, a lot of [their fans] will not get the Justice sound … but out of those millions, let’s try to grab the attention and love of some of them.”
In his autobiography Q, Quincy Jones wrote, “Numbers 2, 6, and 11 are my least-favorite chart positions.” It doesn’t take a Jones-like genius to determine why. Each song that peaks at those ranks, despite a clear vote of public favor, can come with a sliver of disappointment as a song’s creators and performers just miss […]
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” secured a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Jan. 25, 2025, and Mars is ready to party. “THANK YOU ALL!” he wrote alongside a cheers emoji and a screenshot of this week’s top 10 on the chart. “I’m headed to the studio […]
Imogen Heap has been releasing music for nearly three decades, winning two Grammy Awards and influencing a generation of music stars. As of this week, she’s officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, thanks to a streaming revival for her 2005 song “Headlock.”
The song, which appears on Heap’s 2005 sophomore LP, Speak for Yourself, debuts at No. 100 on the Hot 100 (dated Jan. 25) almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.9 million official U.S. streams (up 11%) in the Jan. 10-16 tracking week, according to Luminate. It also holds at its No. 10 high on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
The song has been generating renewed interest in recent weeks thanks to a viral social media trend involving the psychological horror thriller video game Mouthwashing. Fans use the song to soundtrack various edited compilations of gameplay footage. The track has been particularly active on TikTok, where it has soundtracked over 135,000 clips on the platform to date.
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Speak for Yourself became Heap’s breakthrough album. The set also includes “Hide and Seek,” which gained traction at the time via its sync in the climactic scene in the second-season finale of The O.C., in which Marissa Cooper shoots Trey Atwood. The scene and the song were later parodied in a 2007 Saturday Night Live digital short by the Lonely Island, helping broaden its reach and turning the song into a meme. The cut was later used in other dramatic scenes in Degrassi: The Next Generation and Normal People. The song’s familiar bridge (“mmm, whatcha say”) culminated in a prominent sample – as the main hook – in Jason Derulo’s 2009 hit “Whatcha Say,” which spent a week at No. 1 on the Hot 100; Heap is credited as a co-writer on Derulo’s song.
Though “Headlock” is now Heap’s first charting Hot 100 hit as a recording artist, the U.K. native has earned one additional entry on the survey as both a co-writer and co-producer: Taylor Swift’s “Clean (Taylor’s Version),” from her 1989 (Taylor’s Version), reached No. 30 in November 2023. Heap also co-wrote and co-produced the original “Clean,” from Swift’s 1989 in 2014, but that version didn’t hit the Hot 100.
Speak for Yourself debuted at No. 182 on the Billboard 200 in November 2005. It climbed to No. 145 the following February, fueled in part by the popularity of “Hide and Seek.” The album’s influence expanded to its track “Just for Now.” The song was sampled on A$AP Rocky’s “I Smoked Away My Brain (I’m Gods x Demons Mashup),” featuring Heap and Clams Casino, in 2018. The collab hit No. 35 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Heap has charted two additional albums on the Billboard 200 in her career: Ellipse – which soared to No. 5 in 2009 – and Sparks (No. 21; 2014). Her instrumental cast recording The Music of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child: Parts One and Two reached No. 2 on the Classical Albums chart in 2018.
“Headlock” isn’t Heap’s only song currently charting on Billboard’s lists: She also appears as half of electronic duo Frou Frou (with Guy Sigsworth) on the pair’s “A New Kind of Love,” which ranks at No. 35 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, a week after reaching No. 30.
“For ‘A Bar Song’ to still be doing what it’s doing is insane,” an awestruck Shaboozey told Billboard in November about his breakout song’s then-16-week-long run atop the Billboard Hot 100. “[It’s] crazy how much the song carried on its own. We don’t even do anything and it’s like, ‘Hey, you’re aiming for a 17th week now!’ ”
Of course, monthslong No. 1 smashes don’t just happen on their own — but “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which has achieved 19 weeks at No. 1, wasn’t the only country single to reach the peak this year. Between Post Malone’s Morgan Wallen-assisted “I Had Some Help,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” and Wallen’s own “Love Somebody,” country has topped Billboard’s all-genre singles chart more than any other genre this year. Shaboozey’s and Post Malone’s smashes are the only 2024 releases to log more than three weeks atop the chart — a notable feat, considering that the former is a country newcomer and the latter is a pop/hip-hop crossover star.
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“I Had Some Help,” which arrived in April and debuted atop the Hot 100, marked the first major release of Post Malone’s country music foray, which Grammy Award-nominated producer Louis Bell describes as a “natural transition” from the singer-songwriter space of the artist’s 2023 Austin album. “We want each project to flow into the next,” he tells Billboard.
Posty’s pop-country jam started with massive streams and sales, perfectly setting the stage for the arrival of the album F-1 Trillion, which opened in the penthouse of the Billboard 200 (dated Aug. 31) with 250,000 units, according to Luminate. All 18 songs from the album’s standard edition reached the Hot 100, including 15 collaborations with country powerhouses like Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley and Chris Stapleton — a testament to the Nashville goodwill that the Grammy-nominated pop star had accrued during his formal entry into the country space.
Historically, country music has been vigilant about newcomers immersing themselves in the genre’s roots, and Post got his boots dirty to prove his bona fides. He and Bell, who co-produced every track on F-1 Trillion, began working on it in November 2023 in Nashville right before the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards — foreshadowing the four nods that “I Had Some Help” would earn at the awards show the following year.
The two collaborators worked on the first few songs of the F-1 Trillion sessions with country superstar Luke Combs. “Post started saying that it [made] sense to collaborate on a lot of these records because he wanted to show Nashville how much he loves country and shine a light on the people who are in the city that inspired him,” Bell explains. “That was always the vision from the top down.” By inviting Nashville heavyweights such as Tim McGraw to collaborate in person, Post made sure that “word spread pretty quickly of how legitimate [he] was and how much he knew about the genre.”
To fully transition into the new style, he and Bell also implemented a new approach to their creative process: mulling over stories and concepts at the onset of a session instead of building out beats and melodies they had already been tinkering with.
The month before “I Had Some Help,” Post covered Hank Williams at Nashville’s iconic Ryman Auditorium, and in the months following the song’s release, he performed his first songwriter’s round at the Bluebird Cafe, played a set of classic country covers at Stagecoach 2024, made his Grand Ole Opry debut and brought out Blake Shelton as a surprise guest at his first-ever stadium show.
While Posty had to overcome his pop profile in his quest for crossover success, Shaboozey, a newcomer to the mainstream, had to establish who he was. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” served as the fourth single — but was the first to get a radio push — from his third studio album, Where I’ve Been Isn’t Where I’m Going, which topped the Folk Albums and Independent Albums charts. With no major country collaborators, Shaboozey’s project didn’t come with the overt approval of the Nashville establishment — but it did arrive on the back of two appearances on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter in March, helping to spur eye-popping early consumption for “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” now nominated three times over at the 2025 Grammys ceremony.
“It was a bit of a fast and furious [situation],” says Heather Vassar, EMPIRE senior vp of operations, Nashville. Country radio programmers “were already familiar with Shaboozey’s name, but we had a very global, multiformat approach. When we decided to launch at country radio, we made sure they understood him and the whole project. The more authentic conversations we had, the more receptive they’ve become, and they’ve been incredible.”
Harnessing the power of his interpolation of J-Kwon’s 2004 Hot 100 No. 2 hip-hop smash, “Tipsy,” Shaboozey was able to expand the reach of “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and tap into more diverse segments of country’s listenership. The track’s whistling instrumentation kept it squarely in the country genre, while its rap-sung flow and Birkin name-check kept it accessible for hip-hop and top 40 audiences — and those who had been newly corralled into the post-Cowboy Carter country wave. Shaboozey also made his Nashville rounds, playing The Nashville East and Spotify House at CMA Fest.
“The beauty of our country ecosystem — outside of select playlists — is that genre lines have been less of a concern,” Spotify country editor Claire Heinichen says. “Pop-country was the dominant subgenre for most of the 2010s. We knew the audience would really resonate with [these] songs. The data spoke for itself.”
It will be difficult for country songs to replicate the Hot 100 dominance of “I Had Some Help” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” without the boost of 2024’s larger paradigm shift. Yet Posty’s emphasis on adhering to country traditionalism and Shaboozey’s plays to more underserved country music listeners provide equally strong blueprints for future crossover hits.
This story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Prior to 2024, Sabrina Carpenter had spent most of her career trying to score a crossover pop hit. Following her years as a Disney Channel star and recording artist on the Disney-owned Hollywood Records in the 2010s, she transitioned from younger-skewing tunes to pop that targeted adult listeners; her 2022 album, Emails I Can’t Send, didn’t produce any hits upon its release, but the album’s “Nonsense” belatedly turned into a viral smash, and “Feather,” from its deluxe edition, became Carpenter’s first top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 21.
Those singles hinted at a breakthrough moment for Carpenter — and in 2024, the floodgates opened. She earned her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet; headlined her first arena shows; and earned her first Grammy nominations, including in album, record and song of the year and best new artist. Yet the songs that became her sought-after smashes weren’t just her first Hot 100 top 10s — they remained in the upper tier for long enough to make chart history.
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From the Hot 100 charts dated Sept. 7 through Oct. 26, Carpenter boasted three songs — “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste” — in the top 10, making her the first artist this decade to score a run of as many as eight weeks with at least three simultaneous top 10s on the chart. Although a few artists, including 50 Cent and Drake, have juggled three songs in the top 10 for more than eight weeks, only Carpenter, The Beatles and Justin Bieber have done so as solo-billed acts. And Carpenter now owns the longest such streak among women, surpassing Cardi B, who had three concurrent top 10s for four weeks in 2018.
Alex Tear, vp of music programming at SiriusXM and Pandora, says that, between a significant longtime fan base and the momentum leading up to 2024, Carpenter was always primed for a major year. “The audience appetite is amazing,” he says. “She really came into focus with the masses, but she had her Disney audience. When she was on Hollywood Records 10 years ago, she was grinding, she had a loyal following, she had a great presence and she was strong onstage.”
While songs like “Nonsense” and “Feather” didn’t become inescapable, both turned into slow-growing hits that introduced Carpenter’s melodic instincts and tongue-in-cheek wordplay to radio listeners and swelling audiences. Before “Espresso” made its live debut at Coachella, for instance, fans flocked to see how Carpenter was going to end “Nonsense” during her set, since she had been flooding TikTok feeds with her customized, often R-rated outros in concert.
“Her musicality and personality blow me away every time that we work together,” Amy Allen, who co-wrote every song on Short n’ Sweet (and is now nominated for the songwriter of the year, non-classical Grammy), told Billboard in August. Island Records vp of A&R Jackie Winkler told Billboard earlier this year, “At the core, the music Sabrina makes is perfectly reflective of who she is as a person, and all the quirks and character are what give her such a strong musical identity.”
That identity was on full display with “Espresso,” which zoomed into the top 10 upon its April release and peaked at No. 3, and continued with “Please Please Please,” which became Carpenter’s first Hot 100 chart-topper in June. When Short n’ Sweet arrived in August, opener “Taste” was positioned as an immediate standout (with a music video co-starring Jenna Ortega) and has climbed to No. 2.
Tear notes that the timing of those releases helped let each one breathe as a focus track and gave listeners time to latch onto their hooks before Carpenter presented another mainstream offering. And as the songs lingered in the top 10 for weeks, their respective sounds — with “Espresso” as her summer-ready synth-pop confection, “Please Please Please” her glittery alt-country riff and “Taste” her guitar-heavy ’80s pop anthem — were different enough to help her avoid oversaturation on streaming playlists and in radio blocks.
“Espresso” and “Please Please Please” have both topped the Pop Airplay chart, while “Taste” is still climbing, peaking at No. 3 so far. “Pop channels can kill a song by playing it over and over again,” Tear says. “I really like the fact that we have multiple choices that are very popular with our audience, that we can alternate with, therefore diminishing burn [and] giving a better variety of Sabrina.”
The trio of singles settled into the top 10 of the Hot 100 just as Carpenter kicked off her Short n’ Sweet tour in September, performing all three hits to arena audiences and reposting fan videos from the shows. And multiple hits were highlighted when the Grammy nominations were announced Nov. 8: “Espresso” scored a record of the year nod while “Please Please Please” will compete for song of the year.
The 2025 Grammys ceremony will showcase Carpenter’s immense 2024, but don’t expect her run of hits to dry up as the calendar flips. As the Short n’ Sweet tour is set to continue in Europe in March, “Bed Chem,” a sensual rhythmic pop track from the album, may also reach a new Hot 100 peak, as the song has climbed to No. 30 on the chart.
“I don’t know how many albums come out where you can go, ‘OK, this is five or six [hits] deep,’ ” Tear says. “It’s not going anywhere.”
This story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Mustard is celebrating a major Billboard Hot 100 accomplishment. Seven of the tracks off Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album GNX hit the top 10 of the all-genre songs chart this week, two of which were produced by Mustard — “TV Off” and “Hey Now” featuring Dody6, which hit No. 2 and 5, respectively. The producer took […]
