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When it comes to pop music track records, Cirkut’s illustrious résumé in the genre speaks for itself.
As a sought after electro-pop producer and songwriter, the 38-year-old artist born Henry Walter has spent the last two decades churning out hits for artists like The Weeknd (“Starboy, “Die For You”), Rihanna (“Where Have You Been”), Katy Perry (“Roar,” “Dark Horse”), Miley Cyrus (“Wrecking Ball”), Charli XCX (“360”) and dozens of others. But as he explains to Billboard, he goes out of his way to not get too comfortable with his success.
“I never want to rest on my past accomplishments, and that vibe of ‘Oh, do you know all my work? Do you know all my hits?’” he explains. “That doesn’t mean anything to me. Whether I’m working with the biggest star in the world or the newest artist, you have to prove yourself over and over again.”
By his own definition, Cirkut has done just that: Over the last month, the producer has helped launch two artists into the upper echelons of the Billboard Hot 100. His work with veteran hitmaker Lady Gaga on her dark pop single “Disease” sent the song to a No. 27 debut on the chart. Meanwhile K-pop sensation ROSÉ earned her highest-charting solo single with “APT.,” featuring Bruno Mars, arriving at No. 8, thanks in no small part to Cirkut’s catchy production. He earned writing credits on both tracks as well.
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The producer attributes the successes of both Gaga and ROSÉ to their singular ideas of what they want in their music — a trait he looks for in all the artists he works with. “When an artist doesn’t really know what they want to say, or is like, ‘I don’t know, just make me a song,’ that doesn’t interest me,” he says. “The best artists always have some kind of vision, whether it’s how they see the visuals coming together, how they want the guitar to sound, or how hard the kick drums hit.”
Below, Cirkut breaks down the writing processes for both “Disease” and “APT.,” why Lady Gaga stands out in a crowded field of pop stars, how an ad-libbed drinking game inspired ROSÉ’s hit song, and what he envisions for the future of pop music.
Let’s go all the way back to the beginning — when and how did you first get involved with Gaga and her team for this project?
It happened sometime last year — I had been working with [“Disease” co-writer/co-producer] Andrew Watt for a while. We [had] worked on a few different things together, and one day he called me and said, “What do you think about working with Gaga?” He said that we would be a great fit to do this project together. So, I met Gaga for the first time in the studio, and it was amazing. I was really excited to work with her, we were off to the races as soon as we met.
What immediately appealed to you about the prospect of working with Gaga?
I’ve been a fan over the years, she is just a legendary artist. There’s only one Gaga, and she has influenced so many of the artists who are out now. I think her music paved the way for so many people. Selfishly, I did want to see what I could accomplish with her. Just the thought of wondering what a Gaga record would sound like if I produced it was really exciting from the get-go.
When you look back on the inception of “Disease,” was there a stated goal with that song? What were you aiming to accomplish?
It was just one song in a collection that we worked on together, but fairly early in the process, we all loved it and knew that it would be some kind of cornerstone of this body of work. “Disease” [is] a daring record to me. It’s very aggressive. I wouldn’t say it’s a safe, “nice” song to ease you into things. I was spending some time with my mom the other day and she asked what I’d been working on — I threw on the music video for “Disease,” and she was just stunned and saying “oh my God” a lot. It’s a very in-your-face kind of record.
I do all kinds of music, but I love aggressive electronic music. When Watt and I get together, something just kind of happens — with his rock background, we end up bringing in a lot of heavy guitars, and I wanted to make it this cool, industrial synth dance record. When you listen to the final result, I’m pretty happy with how we melded those two things.
What do you remember from the studio sessions with Gaga here — were there any particular moments where it felt like things really locked in for you?
We all huddled up at the beginning to see if we had any common ground when it came to taste in music and the places we wanted to go with the sound. She was very instrumental in leading that discussion. We all wanted to make something that still felt like it was decidedly Gaga, but always asking the question of “What does that sound like today?” That’s always a challenge, especially with artists who have established themselves so firmly in pop culture, to figure out that balance. Do you do something so different that you move away from the things that you are known for? But if you just do the same thing that you’ve been known for, does that end up feeling like a “more-of-the-same” type situation? I wanted to make sure that we brought the essence of Gaga into this song and all of the things that are so great about her — the drama, the theatrics, that in-your-face sound — but still putting a fresh spin on it. That said, you also cannot overthink things too much on something like this. Ultimately, you just have to get in there and have fun.
We definitely had a synergy in the studio. In the beginning, it is kind of a trial run [with a new collaborator]. It felt a little bit like she was feeling me out, trying to figure out where I was coming from when it came to production. But then there was kind of a breakthrough moment — I had been working through something over my headphones, and when I played it out loud, she was just like, “Oh my God, Cirkut, that’s crazy.” And as soon as that happened it was like, “Great, I got through to her.” It’s not like she was difficult to impress, but I wanted us to be on the same page. I treat every project I work on like that — you have to approach it from the mind of being a student always, rather than a know-it-all. I’m always learning from new people.
You’ve worked on massive hits from artists like The Weeknd, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Kesha and Charli XCX. As someone who has been in the room with so many of these major pop stars, how does Gaga stand out amongst that pack?
I think something all the great artists that I’ve worked with have in common is that they all have a vision. Whether it’s fully realized or not doesn’t matter — there is always intention and direction behind the art that they’re making. Even if that’s not fully fleshed out, I find that to be really important. There is always an opinion.
Gaga is very much like that — she is very interested in the sonics of everything. She would say, “Maybe try a different drum here,” or she would hop on the synths and start playing things. She’s a musician and a visionary, and she knew all about the attack, decay, sustain and release settings on a synth. She is all about the details, which definitely sets her apart from a lot of artists. Also, the passion that she puts into her work is amazing. She really lives and breathes and eats and sweats and bleeds this music.
“Disease” is not the only track of yours currently on the Hot 100 — ROSÉ’s “APT.,” featuring Bruno Mars debuted at No. 8 debut earlier this month. Tell me a little bit about how you got involved on that song, and what ROSÉ and Bruno were like to work with?
I don’t try to say, “Oh, I knew this would be a hit,” because I simply do not have that kind of foresight. But I thought this one was a really great, fun, catchy song, and I really loved working with Rosie. I was so excited when she had played the song for Bruno and I heard that he was getting involved, because I genuinely feel like he took it to another level.
We worked together probably three days in a row in the studio, and I think [“APT.”] was one of the last ideas we started. It was the end of the night, we had just done a song or two, and we were like, “Might be time to go home.” And Rosie was sitting there and just sort of chanting to herself, “apateu, apateu.” I think it was [co-writer] Theron [Thomas] who stopped her and asked what it was. She said, “It’s just a Korean thing, it’s basically a drinking game.” All of us were immediately like, “Why is that not a song?” We took that and put together a very quick hook. It was kind of random — I love it when stuff like that happens! It’s not always planned. It’s not always, “We’re going to get in the studio and make a mega hit featuring Bruno Mars.” Sometimes it’s a spontaneous session based on a drinking game. Sometimes somebody is whispering something in the corner, and it becomes this incredible hook.
As someone who has been as vital as you are in creating these massive pop moments throughout your career, how do you view the direction pop music is headed today? What are you seeing in the pop space right now that feels like something that will continue on into the future?
More than ever, almost anything goes. Nowadays, because there’s so much music out there, listeners are so discerning. They like what they like, and it is up to us — creators, producers, songwriters, artists — to show people fresh, new things that they haven’t heard 1,000 times already. Sure, there are trends that go in and out of style, but sometimes, it can be about just changing one thing, and all of a sudden you’ve got a fresh new sound.
Honestly, I try not to think about all of this too much because it can be a little overwhelming. The “next sound” could literally be anything. I really try to just create and not think about the future because that can ultimately remove the spontaneity of it. Messing around and stumbling upon something you love is kind of the random magic that happens. In the age of [artificial intelligence], I think that’s a tool that is here to stay, whether people like it or not, and I do think it could help when it comes to creativity in the studio. But, at the end of the day, it’s the human element of production and songwriting that succeeds. People care about authenticity, they want something that’s real, and listeners are not stupid.
A version of this story appears in the Nov. 16, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Someone pour Shaboozey up a double shot of whiskey, because he’s continuing to dominate the charts with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” seven months after its release. The smash hit is at No. 1 for a 17th total week atop the Billboard Hot 100. Over the chart’s 66-year history, the song is now the longest-leading No. 1 […]
By the time surging newcomer Zach Top released his debut country album, Cold Beer & Country Music, in April, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter was already seeing a groundswell of support from fans and his fellow artists. With his unabashed devotion to traditional country sounds on songs like “Bad Luck” and “There’s The Sun,” matched with his unmistakably country drawl, the singer-songwriter from Sunnyside, Wash., has drawn comparisons to such ’90s country luminaries as Alan Jackson, Doug Stone and one of his musical heroes, Keith Whitley.
Top, who is signed with label Leo33 and managed and published by Major Bob Music, has been on tour with reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson since May. He was a guest at Dierks Bentley’s early September headlining show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and most recently teamed with bluegrass luminary Billy Strings to release a trio of collaborations for Apple Music.
As Top’s “Sounds Like the Radio” continues to grow on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, reaching a new No. 16 high on the Nov. 9-dated list, another track from Cold Beer & Country Music has also grown into a chart hit: “I Never Lie.” After the slow grooving, sarcastic song became his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 in September (it has since reached a No. 68 high), his team pushed “I Never Lie” to country radio. It debuted on Country Airplay in late October, giving Top two songs simultaneously on the ranking — a feat more typically reserved for arena- and stadium-headlining stars in the genre.
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He’s up for new artist of the year at the CMA Awards later this month, and his rising career has led to additional dates to his 2025 Cold Beer & Country Music Tour, which launches Jan. 16 in Nebraska, with openers Jake Worthington and Cole Goodwin.
Billboard caught up with Top to discuss “I Never Lie” reaching new chart heights, as well as his thoughts on his upcoming CMA Award nomination for new artist of the year and who he thinks will take home the entertainer of the year honor.
“I Never Lie” was included on your debut studio album, Cold Beer & Country Music. How did the song come together?
I wrote it with Carson Chamberlain and Tim Nichols. I have one of my more clever rhymes on there, with the “Angel” and “April” rhyme in the first verse [“You still look like an angel/I heard you’re doin’ fine, got promoted back in April”]. We cut it pretty old-school with the band, and I sang and tracked the vocals as they were playing. They never hear the song until the day we record it. I’ll have an acoustic recording of it on my phone, and they hear it once or twice, and that’s it. It’s two or three takes and we play it like we feel it. We might overdub a thing or two or add some fills, but it’s all played live, nothing computerized about it. Carson produced it and [engineer] Matt [Rovey] mixed it up.
What has been your reaction to it connecting with fans on this level?
It may be the countriest song on the record. It sticks out and there’s nothing but steel guitar on there — you haven’t heard a song like that, sonically, in a long time. I think people have had an appetite for my kind of country for a little while, and we’re getting a dose of it. Songs like “Sounds Like the Radio” and “Cold Beer & Country Music,” you would expect those to be hits because they are up-tempo. This song goes in the face of what’s out there right now.
When did you first realize the song was a hit?
We had been playing it in live shows, so people already knew it. Around April 5, we had our album release show, and over the last four months, it has really taken off. Our fans know every word of every song on the album — they are not just waiting to hear one song. It gives me chills every night when we play that first riff [of “I Never Lie”]. They don’t need to hear no words, they know it from that first note.
“I Never Lie” debuted on Country Airplay in late October, giving you two current hits on the Billboard chart, including the top 20 hit “Sounds Like The Radio.” How does that feel?
I’m excited, because you don’t see that a lot with an artist as new as me. I’m proud to have the success so far and not be just a one-hit wonder.
You’ve also gained traction on TikTok with “I Never Lie.” What is your approach to social media?
I don’t get on social media much. There is a girl named Cheyenne in my band who has TikTok and she’ll tell me about videos that have “I Never Lie” or other songs in them. I was never very into social media — it was just a tool to get music out there. Early this year, I turned it all over [to my team]. I don’t have the apps on my phone, and I don’t think I have the logins. It can suck you in, scrolling through, and I think it’s probably healthy for me to stay off it.
You are nominated for new artist of the year at the CMA Awards on Nov. 20. What do you remember about finding out about your nomination?
It’s funny because I got a couple of texts that said, “Congratulations,” and I was like, “It’s not my birthday. What’s going on?” They sent me screenshots and filled me in. There are a bunch of big artists on that list, and I’m proud to be in this group.
Who do you think will win entertainer of the year at the CMA Awards?
I think Lainey [Wilson] would be a good pick. She puts on a hell of a show and is a great entertainer. And [Chris] Stapleton, I saw his show at [Nashville’s] Nissan Stadium, and I had not seen his show before and it’s pretty old-school with the band up there. He sings and captivates people with his voice and music, so he gets my vote, too.
A version of this story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.
By the mid-2000s, Swedish songwriter and producer ILYA — who was then in his late teens — was “grinding, grinding, grinding” without gaining much momentum. It wasn’t until years later, thanks to a fortuitous meeting, that his career finally took off.
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ILYA, now 38, recalls how meeting producer Shellback changed his life, as the latter introduced him to the acclaimed and mysterious Max Martin. Soon after, ILYA scored his first smash hit co-producing and co-writing on Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea’s 2014 collaboration “Problem,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. His working relationship with Martin — and Grande — has continued, most recently on the pop star’s sixth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, Eternal Sunshine.
The album produced two Hot 100 No. 1s: lead single “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love),” both of which credit ILYA. But those are from far the only hits he’s had a hand in this year; ILYA’s 2024 credits also include Conan Gray, Coldplay and Tate McRae, the latter of whom ILYA helped score her highest Hot 100 debut to date with “It’s ok I’m ok.”
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“It wasn’t that long after [McRae’s 2023 second album] Think Later that we were in the studio again,” says ILYA, who reveals that they ideated her current smash before Think Later even arrived. “It was just an idea that just popped back into our life and we were like, ‘Actually, let’s finish this thing.’ It’s just been continuous since that.”
You’ve worked with Tate before. What is your metric of, “I want to keep this relationship going?”
Nowadays, it’s just good vibes. I don’t want to be stressed at work because I’ve been doing it for such a long time now. So my main thing is just like, can we just have fun in the studio?
When did sessions start after her 2023 album, Think Later?
It was a little continuous because she loves writing and being in the studio. “It’s ok I’m ok” is one of those records where it was like, “Let’s just have fun; let’s make something weird.” I think it shows a brand-new side to her. The more I’ve worked with her, the more I feel like she knows herself as an artist. This one was [started] before Think Later — she knew that it wasn’t right for that moment, but she picked it back up and we really worked to make it into her vision of what she was seeing the song as. That, to me, is really amazing to see.
Tell me more about how the song came together.
The chorus started as a joke. We were in Sweden writing, and when she’s in the studio and so focused, she doesn’t want to eat or drink anything. She’s just like, “I need to finish this song now.” Me being the way I am, I’m always like, “Do you want something to drink? Do you want something to eat?” And she would be like, “It’s OK, I’m OK,” [always] in the same note. And I was just like, “Wait, that’s actually kind of catchy.” And now it’s a song. I like it because it came from her — that’s how she says it.
Do you have a favorite part of this song?
It’s harder for me to listen in that sense, because I’m a part of the song. But I do love when people pinpoint little details that you’ve put there on purpose. I love that.
You have to let go of analyzing. Once the song is out, depending on how people [react] to it, I’m also affected on how I’m listening. If a song comes out and it doesn’t work or it’s not a big thing, then I’m trying to analyze why it wasn’t instead of just enjoying the song. But nowadays I’m a little bit better at that.
Your credits in 2024 include other notable projects such as Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine. With the Grammys approaching, what are your hopes?
I think next year’s Grammys [ceremony on Feb. 2] is going to be insane. I’m hoping we’re going to get nominated, but it’s going to be such a competitive year. It might be the best Grammys in a long time in the sense of who’s going to be nominated and what potential performances there might be. There was so much good music this year.
This article originally appeared in the Oct. 5 issue of Billboard.
Sitting in her childhood bedroom and noodling on her guitar in February 2024, 24-year-old Gigi Perez was thinking about the scope of her songwriting. She’d been ruminating for a while on the idea of a frantic kind of love, and how to connect it to her lyricism. “When that person is so constant in your life, it’s kind of like you fall into it, and you have nothing else to grasp on to,” she tells Billboard. “It came from that desperate place.”
All of a sudden, a line popped into her head: “Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor.” As she kept strumming and writing out new lines to add to the chorus of her growing song, the singer-songwriter realized she wasn’t the only one listening. “My door happened to be open, and my little sister walks by and says, ‘Oh, Gigi, that’s really awesome,’ ” she recalls.
And as the idea has moved from work in progress to completed product, it’s clear that the world feels the same way. After Perez began teasing the track in earnest on her TikTok in the spring, users quickly latched onto the hook, clamoring to hear a full version. They finally got to hear it on July 26, when Perez unveiled “Sailor Song,” a stirring, emotionally raw ballad that sees Perez turning her feelings of longing into a sweeping, queer-coded love song. The song debuted on the Aug. 31-dated Billboard Hot 100 at No. 98, and it has since spent six weeks on the chart, reaching a No. 46 high on the list dated Sept. 28.
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For Perez, the sudden, rapid success of “Sailor Song” feels like a culmination of all the work she’s put into her independent career — and one that enabled her to accept a record deal with Island Records in September. “I feel truly ready for this,” she says. “And I know exactly what I’m looking for.”
Perez walks Billboard through the writing process of “Sailor Song,” explains why she learned how to produce her own work and breaks down what it means to have a queer love song making waves in modern pop culture.
When did you first start working on “Sailor Song”? What was the original idea that led you to making this?
A lot of the process for me is typically just having my guitar and freestyling, and that’s mostly how the songs come — I was in that progression of writing, and I just said, “Kiss me on the mouth and love me like a sailor.” So, I kept going; I had the chorus done that night.
It really just stayed as a chorus for a while, and the lyrics had changed. There were certain little words that changed the meaning of what [the song] was. Once I had written the verses, I pulled a melody from another song I had written and put that into this song. It really is one of those things where it was a puzzle putting it together, but there wasn’t much resistance. Other times, in order to get something like that, you have to really dig for it.
I love a song that is good at creating imagery without having to explicitly spell out the imagery — the use of the sailor as an image almost makes the song feel mythical in scale, which is really effective.
There’s something about this thought — and I don’t know if it’s because I grew up by the water and spent so much time in my childhood at the beach — that little by little, these beach and sea and water themes just kept appearing in my songs. It’s really sweet because I was thinking, “How do you compile the things that are on your heart and that you want to say in a way that makes sense?” It wasn’t until “Sailor Song” that I looked back and was like, “There’s been a whole path being laid subconsciously,” which is very cool.
I was struck by the fact that your voice sounds like it’s in the distance on this track — what did your setup look like when recording and producing “Sailor Song”?
I went into this chapter of my life [feeling] in my soul like I hit a point where I wasn’t collaborating with people because I wanted to, but because I relied on it. There was a lack of expression on the production side, [but] I think things ended up falling together perfectly. I moved back home, and in the same way I taught myself the guitar, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and messaged the collaborators who I really admired to ask them questions about producing. It was a lot of throwing things at the wall and learning little things here and there. Like, how does EQ [equalization] really work? What is a compressor? I was allowed time to really experiment with production and recording. It makes me feel the same way that I felt when I was 17 — that’s something I keep coming back to: That first rush of recording, when I was just doing it with my high school band, and we were just uploading files on Spotify and SoundCloud.
As far as the recording and what happened, I use an SM7 [microphone], and I started doing this thing [while recording my voice] where I do three vocals and I pan [one] a little bit to the left, [one] a little bit to the right and one right in the middle. And then I threw in certain kinds of reverbs that give it a roomy kind of sound. I also have an amazing mixer, Matt Emonson, and he just takes it away from there. I just wanted something that felt really intimate and yet really big.
Once you started teasing this song on TikTok, it blew up and fans were itching to hear the full thing. What was that like for you to witness in real time?
I was really happy. I feel like I’d gotten to a certain point where I just started enjoying music again in a way that I truly felt like was honoring my happiness. That was the main principle that I felt through being independent and being able to work on music in a different way. And then when I saw that people were really enjoying it, I was like, “That’s so genuinely awesome.” It was a slow burn in terms of getting to where it’s gotten to now but to know that it was something that really pulled on people means everything to me.
One of the things in life that I’ve struggled with — and part of why I decided that I wanted to be an artist — is the feeling of loneliness that comes with the lie that no one understands you. I think about the artists that changed my life in that way, and one of the first gay projects that I had that with was Troye Sivan’s [2015 debut album] Blue Neighbourhood. That changed my life. I couldn’t even imagine that somebody could be there for me during a time when I couldn’t express or understand what I was feeling. I didn’t grow up in a space where that was something that existed, and if it did, it was very taboo. It’s so beautiful now that there’s so much media that really highlights the gay and queer experience. Kids need that. Actually, people in general, not just children. There are still people all around this world [who] live in an online world and escape through music. It’s very special to me that, in any capacity, I could be a part of that.
To that point, it feels like queer messaging in music is having a genuine moment this year where songs that are about queerness are hitting the charts in a major way. What is your reaction to that level of visibility in the mainstream?
I think we’re only scratching the surface right now. Representation is so, so important. It’s the thing that gives people the courage and the ability to dream that you can do whatever. You, as a person, can take up space. I think there’s an identity part of it, and then there’s just the actual human part of it, and those two things are very important to me. Every queer artist is going to share their story and their identity differently. I’m only one person, and my message is only going to connect [with] and reach the people that it’s meant to. That’s why I think it opens up the bridge [for other artists], and I’m really excited to see everything that’s happening in queer music.
You recently signed to Island Records — what has the transition from independent artist to being signed at a major looked like for you so far?
I feel so blessed. It’s been such a weirdly spiritual experience, in terms of things happening behind the scenes. It feels like this thing is really guided. I didn’t know a year ago that any of this would happen, and I think I had a very clear vision where I said, “I’m going to stay independent, and this is the way I’m going to do it.” The fact that that has changed [means] I’m so grateful for all of the experiences that I’ve had over the last few months to lead me to this moment. They’re going to be an amazing home.
A version of this story appears in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.
How do you think my life has been these past few months?” Shaboozey asks with a wry smile.
The 29-year-old multihyphenate artist — one of 2024’s biggest breakout acts — has twisted my question and flipped it back on me, his measured poker face masking the tornado of emotions he’s feeling. There’s no hiding that he’s tired; we’re speaking the day after September’s MTV Video Music Awards, where he snagged two nods (including best new artist), and its star-studded afterparty, where he mingled with the likes of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. Some hours later, he went to Brooklyn for his Billboard cover shoot, soundtracked by Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton. Now we’re grabbing lunch in a hotel restaurant, where Shaboozey has finally settled down with a half-dozen Prince Edward Island oysters and some fries.
The VMAs were just the latest marquee moment in a year full of the kind of highlights most artists dream of achieving over their entire careers. A year in which his appearances on Beyoncé’s culture-shifting Cowboy Carter (on “Spaghettii” and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’ ”) were just the beginning of his string of feats. A year when Shaboozey went from a supporting stint on a Jessie Murph tour to his own headlining North American tour. A year when his own “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” notched a historic 12 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. And a year that could still get even bigger if “A Bar Song” gets likely-looking Grammy nominations for record and song of the year; or if the album it’s on, the Billboard chart-topping Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, gets album of the year and best country album nods; or if Shaboozey himself contends for best new artist.
At his core, Shaboozey (or Boozey, to his friends) exudes the calm cool of a rebel who always knew his outside-the-lines plan would lead him to glory. Still, America’s favorite new cowboy admits that he doesn’t always “feel prepared for this stuff. You just kind of get thrown in it.”
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With “A Bar Song” — which has racked up over 771 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate — Shaboozey became the first bona fide Black outlaw country star, a status he has been working toward achieving for a decade. The son of Nigerian immigrants, the artist born Collins Obinna Chibueze grew up just outside Woodbridge, Va., the second of four children. Though he spent two years at boarding school in Nigeria, Shaboozey spent most of his childhood in Virginia, including his high school years, when his football coach’s misspelling of his surname evolved into his nickname and now-stage name.
“It could be a little confusing at times,” he says of growing up Nigerian American in Woodbridge, a Washington, D.C., exurb that was markedly more rural in his youth than it is today. “Hearing your name [mispronounced] during attendance was always a thing; you felt like you had to make it easier for everyone else to understand.” Most Black children of immigrants know such experiences (microaggressions, really) well, and some are also familiar with another phenomenon that marked Shaboozey’s childhood: the endless words of support from parents who understood the importance of reminding their children of their power in a society actively trying to strip them of it. “If I’m going to do anything,” Shaboozey — whose surname means “God is king” in Igbo — pledges today, “I’m going to make sure I’m damn good at it.”
Vintage t-shirt, Wales Bonner pants.
Eric Ryan Anderson
Growing up in Virginia — the home of all-time greats like Patsy Cline and Missy Elliott — also meant that Shaboozey was always aware of the intersections between diverse music genres and styles. But first and foremost, he rooted himself in his father’s playlists, where he encountered country legends Don Williams and Kenny Rogers. As a kid, “outside of MTV and BET, I wasn’t getting the specific names of the artists my parents played around the house and spoke about,” Shaboozey says. “It was all just music to me.”
He didn’t just latch on to the music his father played — he was also enamored with the aesthetic of his pop’s old photos. “Every time I saw a picture of him, he was always in Wranglers. He always gave ‘young country guy,’ ” Shaboozey recalls. From Wrestlemania to Westerns, American culture and its archetypes are exported to, and emulated in, nearly every corner of the globe. Still, most media about cowboys disproportionately features white men, which can feel incongruous to those who feel connected to cowboy culture’s actually multicultural history — and it’s for those people whom Shaboozey wanted to create a unique soundtrack.
At 19, Shaboozey moved to Los Angeles — his first time truly living beyond Virginia — with the goal of writing scripts, making movies and recording music. Shortly after, in 2014, he scored his first quasi-viral moment with his piano-trap banger “Jeff Gordon.” (Shaboozey is a big NASCAR fan.) Around that time, he was also delving into the catalogs of rock icons like AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, indoctrinating himself into the school of Prince and studying the folk roots of Bob Dylan and John Prine.
“In that [period of] discovery, I found country music to be the thing that resonated with me in a really strong way,” he says. “Me being from Virginia, me loving the style and the way of life and the things they talked about. It all seemed very peaceful. It seemed like I could be real.” Even more importantly, Shaboozey began to realize that Lil Wayne and Rogers could be complementary, not opposing, influences. Finally, he understood: “This is who I am.”
When Shaboozey first tried to launch a country album, the project bricked. Two years before the release of his 2018 debut album, Lady Wrangler, he had joined forces with writer-producer Nevin Sastry for Wrangler — which remains shelved to this day.
Shaboozey and Sastry met in 2016, and their connection was so strong and immediate that within a month, Shaboozey moved into Sastry’s apartment. Before completing the “more rap-adjacent” Lady Wrangler, Shaboozey decided to put Wrangler to the side because “something in my head told me, ‘The world ain’t ready for this,’ ” he says. In a sense, he was right. Lady Wrangler (released on Republic Records) arrived in the aftermath of “Daddy Lessons,” Beyoncé’s first country music foray that was rejected by the Recording Academy’s country music committee for the 2017 Grammys and that she performed with The Chicks at the 50th annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, one of the most controversial moments in the event’s history; and a few months before Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus rewrote the rules of country, pop and hip-hop with 2019’s “Old Town Road.”
“The rap we looked at on TV was always glamorized,” Shaboozey recalls. “That wasn’t the reality for everybody. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t write music in that world. I found country music could teach people that the little things in life are where the value is. Just having a working truck that you can take your girl in to ride to a cliff and watch the sunset is enough.”
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Eric Ryan Anderson
Sastry and Shaboozey have now collaborated on all three of the star’s full-length projects, but it was 2017’s “Winning Streak,” a woozy trap fantasia gilded in Western aesthetics, that helped Shaboozey land a deal with Republic and release Lady Wrangler. The label dropped Shaboozey following that album’s release (Shaboozey is tight-lipped as to why; Republic did not respond to a request for comment by press time), and soon after, the coronavirus pandemic changed the path of his life. In 2020, Shaboozey met Abas Pauti while playing basketball with mutual friends; after the two got to know each other, Pauti immediately offered to move across the country once Shaboozey told him that Virginia was the place he “needs to be in order to be the artist he wants to be” — a display of commitment that inspired the then-budding star to make Pauti his manager.
They remained in L.A., and by the following year, Shaboozey signed to indie label EMPIRE — which had previously worked with Black country artists like Billboard chart-topper Kane Brown — after a successful pitch from Eric Hurt, vp of A&R publishing, Nashville, at the company. “We understood what he was trying to do and we loved it, but obviously, it wasn’t anything that was out at the moment,” EMPIRE president Tina Davis says of her first impression of Shaboozey and his music. “It’s a feeling you get when artists on a [certain] level come into your presence. It’s kind of like the air goes out of the room. His presence was so full and prominent, I knew he was going to go somewhere.”
Standing at around 6 feet 4 with broad shoulders and lengthy wicks, Shaboozey is a dark-skinned Black man who wears his racial identity with pride. He’s a magnetic presence in any room he enters, though not in a domineering way. But his often stoic face can conceal the “manic, creative energy,” as Sastry puts it, that lies behind it — which he harnessed to finesse his sound and style going into his second and third albums.
On Cowboys Live Forever, Shaboozey joined forces with rising producer Sean Cook (one of the talents behind Paul Russell’s “Lil Boo Thang”), with whom he wrote three songs in three days. “In the studio, he likes to ride on music,” explains Cook, who later co-produced “A Bar Song.” “Sometimes he’ll get on the mic and I’ll loop the guitar, and he’ll freestyle melodies and conceptualize lyrics. Other times, he’ll sit in the booth and write the song as he goes; on the newest album, he actually brought in some guitar ideas himself.” With Cowboys Live Forever, Shaboozey intensified his country bent and enhanced his narrative-driven, cinematic soundscapes that straddle hip-hop and Americana-steeped country.
That genre-agnostic approach culminated with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” 2024’s longest-running Hot 100 No. 1. Written and recorded in November 2023, near the end of the Where I’ve Been sessions, “A Bar Song” — which interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 smash, “Tipsy,” and was borne out of Shaboozey’s desire to flip an aughts song — didn’t even need a final mix for those who heard it to recognize it as a hit. Pauti, who was in the studio the night Shaboozey recorded the song, immediately texted Jared Cotter, a Range Music partner who joined Team Shaboozey as co-manager in 2022: “We got one.”
For her part, EMPIRE’s Davis was so instantly enthralled by the track that she shifted her attention from getting the album to the finish line to clearing the “Tipsy” interpolation. J-Kwon, whose “Tipsy” reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, was so thrilled with Shaboozey’s country flip of his track that “he was listening to the record for three weeks straight, not clearing it because he thought the song was already out,” as Shaboozey tells it with a glimmer of childlike glee in his eye. Once J-Kwon eventually cleared the track, it primed the path for “A Bar Song” to become the first song by a Black man to simultaneously top Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay — and the longest-running No. 1 debut country single since Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel” in 2006.
Although “A Bar Song” dropped after Shaboozey’s dual appearances on Beyoncé’s historic Cowboy Carter, the whistling track was instrumental in helping him secure those coveted features. When Shaboozey performed the then-unreleased song at Range Showcase Night at Winston House in Venice, Calif., in early 2024, the crowd loved it so much that he played it again. According to Cotter and Pauti, in that crowd was one of Beyoncé’s A&R executives, Ricky Lawson, who instantly knew Shaboozey would be perfect for the record Beyoncé was then working on. Shaboozey says he was initially invited only to write on Cowboy Carter; then, Beyoncé asked him to record some verses, one of which included his freestyled outro on “Spaghettii” (with Linda Martell, which peaked at No. 31 on the Hot 100), and he appeared as well on “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’ ” (No. 61).
The “Beyoncé bump,” as Cotter calls it, spurred Shaboozey’s team to advance the release date of “A Bar Song” a couple of weeks to April 12. “In this world of virality and quick hits, we wanted to be closer [to Cowboy Carter’s release] and be able to capitalize [on the exposure] with what we thought was a hit,” Cotter says. Early in its gargantuan run, “A Bar Song” usurped Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” atop Hot Country Songs, making the collaborators the first Black artists to earn back-to-back No. 1s in the chart’s nearly 70-year history.
“It just feels great to see a true talent like Shaboozey win,” a representative from Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment tells Billboard. “He has a clear sense of the artist he always was, and now the world knows it. To see him dominate the country space is a win for all those Black artists who have been authentically honing their craft for a long time now.”
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Eric Ryan Anderson
As “A Bar Song” came to dominate the summer, it continued to help Shaboozey notch major milestones. When he played the BET Awards for the first time in June, J-Kwon joined him for a whimsical, saloon-set mashup of “A Bar Song” and “Tipsy.”
“Traditionally, I feel like country music wasn’t really accepted in that space as much,” says Shaboozey, who became just the second Black male solo country artist to play the BET Awards (after Brown in 2020). “I even felt — whether that’s my own insecurity or [self-judgment] — ‘Is this thing really connecting with people?’ as I’m performing the song. That’s my biggest fear… when I’m feeling out of place in this space. But that’s what I want to do with my music: be disruptive and show people that music is progressing.”
Shaboozey and J-Kwon’s performance was well-received — including by rappers such as Skilla Baby, French Montana and Quavo, all of whom gave him words of support at the show or hit him up in the days following. “I love hip-hop; I’m a part of their community, too,” Shaboozey reiterates — and he’s right.
Shaboozey is as country as he is hip-hop, as evidenced by the featured artists he tapped for Where I’ve Been. While Texas country-rocker Paul Cauthen helps bring the house down on “Last of My Kind” — ESPN’s new Atlantic Coast Conference college football anthem — Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug appears on the fiery hip-hop party track “Drink Don’t Need No Mix.” But while Shaboozey could promote songs from this album that don’t cater to country audiences, he doesn’t currently plan to. “Shaboozey is a country artist — that’s what he’s passionate about,” Cotter stresses. “What we’re seeing across all genres is artists don’t need to be in one box. Shaboozey is the first one that’s genuinely both in hip-hop and country music; he can rap as well as he can sing. We’re definitely going to promote that because it’s who he is. It’s not a new thing that we’re trying.”
“[Shaboozey] is a little bit of everything,” Davis adds. “That’s what separates him from everyone else. I think Taylor Swift shows that you don’t have to stick with one genre — you can try them all and push them all.”
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Eric Ryan Anderson
But Nashville and its leading industry players have not been so uniformly open-minded regarding Shaboozey’s generally genreless approach, or his appearance. “They kept wondering if other songs were country on his album or if it was just going to be one song and then all of a sudden, he’s a street thug,” Davis recalls. “I think it’s both [his sound and appearance]. Obviously, if you looked at him walking by and he didn’t have a belt buckle and cowboy boots, you’d swear he was doing something different. I think it’s just the stereotype of what people see, but having those conversations and sharing the whole album made things a little bit easier.” While Shaboozey is acutely aware that he’s “definitely a new artist in [the country] space,” he says he now feels embraced by Nashville — and vows that his “next project is going to be even more country, even more dialed in.”
And Shaboozey has made inroads with the country establishment, including at a pair of country music awards shows. He scored 12 nods at the People’s Choice Country Awards and two nominations — new artist and single of the year — at the CMA Awards. At the latter ceremony, Shaboozey is just one of three Black performers to be nominated, alongside Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter of The War and Treaty. “There’s a weight that comes with it,” Shaboozey acknowledges, adding that Michael personally called to congratulate him — and also to recognize that “Man, it’s just us.” (Significantly, Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter didn’t receive any CMA nominations. “All I know is that she made a great body of work and I know she’s proud of that,” Shaboozey says of the snubs.)
The crossover success of “A Bar Song” has conjured comparisons to “Old Town Road,” another country-rap joint that ruffled more than a few feathers back in 2019 — and Shaboozey has found kinship with Lil Nas X. “That’s the homie,” says Shaboozey, who connected with Lil Nas at the previous night’s VMAs. “We haven’t had deep conversations, but I can tell what’s happening to me now is probably very similar to what he experienced.”
For Shaboozey, the VMAs were a “fishbowl” experience, where he was aware of outsiders looking at Lil Nas and him, waiting for the two to interact and acknowledge how their stories intersect. “It’s like everyone is like, ‘Do they know?’ ” he quips. And while the VMAs are technically genre-agnostic, Shaboozey did feel a bit of a disconnect with the audience. “Love the VMAs, but sometimes it felt like they weren’t there for me, to be honest,” he says with a droll chuckle, noting how some audience members seemed almost embarrassed to cheer for him after screaming for more top 40-facing pop stars. “But there were more Black folks and people working the event that were showing me love, and that’s what it’s about.”
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Eric Ryan Anderson
He knows, however, that these awards shows are all a prelude to February’s Grammys. In addition to best new artist and record and song of the year for “A Bar Song,” Shaboozey will likely contend for best country song and best country solo performance. Should he take home a trophy in the country field, he would become just the fifth Black act to do so, joining Charley Pride, The Pointer Sisters, Aaron Neville and Darius Rucker, who tells Billboard, “We’re fortunate to have Shaboozey in country music.” Shaboozey’s team confirms that it will submit Where I’m From and its songs in the country field, and the campaign includes stops at “the right looks,” according to Pauti, including The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (where he recently performed his new single, “Highway”), a sit-down interview with Gayle King, an intimate L.A. showcase and meeting Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.
“I think it’s something for me to bring home to everybody,” Shaboozey muses about his potential first Grammy wins. “This is the peak of the mountain as far as recognition comes. This is a long-standing ceremony, it’s history and tradition, and hopefully we’re able to take it home. That childhood fear of never winning anything is still there. It would mean the world to win one of these things, but if not, the year we had was crazy. If not now, it’ll come. We in the club now.”
“The Grammys are always going to matter to me,” says EMPIRE founder Ghazi, whose commitment to a genreless future brought him out to Nashville years before he crossed paths with Shaboozey. “From being a 14-year-old making my first records to now being a seasoned executive, I never lost sight of that journey, and the Grammys never [lose their] luster.”
As Shaboozey picks at his final few French fries, I take in the man sitting across the table from me, who, though he’s currently relaxed in the booth of a Brooklyn eatery, has more than a little of a classic gunslinger’s gleam in his eyes. When he picks up his final oyster, it feels nothing short of poetic. A few years ago, it would have been borderline unimaginable to see someone like him at the zenith of country music, yet here he is — reshaping signifiers of so-called authenticity and injecting them with the street-smart swagger of the contemporary hip-hop gangster. A distinctly 21st-century manifestation of the spirit of Marty Robbins, channeled through a voice and persona equally steeped in Stanley Kubrick, Garth Brooks and Juvenile, Shaboozey is a lone star — a true outlaw who has effectively rewritten the rules of a land that’s actually his to reclaim.
And like any genuine outlaw, he never breaks eye contact while making plain his message: “I’m just making music I love,” Shaboozey says. “It’s cool being recognized, but I’m making music for a group of people that are usually underrepresented. I’m going to keep doing that. It’s good to be that guy — those are the people who are remembered.”
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Alex Warren has already forged a successful career as a popular YouTube creator and member of the Hype House TikTok collective, and now he’s also a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist.
Warren makes his first appearance on the Hot 100 (dated Oct. 5) with his new single “Burning Down.” Released Sept. 20 on Atlantic Records, the song debuts at No. 76 with 6.6 million official U.S. streams and 3,000 downloads sold through Sept. 26, according to Luminate.
The song’s first-week reception can be partly attributed to interaction on TikTok, where Warren teased it leading up to its official release. To date, the song has soundtracked over 90,000 clips on the platform. Warren boasts over 16 million TikTok followers and his videos have amassed over a billion likes.
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While “Burning Down” becomes Warren’s first Hot 100 hit, he has been climbing charts with another single: “Carry You Home” returns to its No. 36 high on Pop Airplay and places at No. 32 on Adult Pop Airplay, after reaching No. 27. It has also reached No. 19 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
Warren earned his first overall chart entry in April with “Save You a Seat.” The track debuted at its No. 11 high on the Digital Song Sales chart date April 13, as Warren bowed on Emerging Artists; he bounds to a new No. 2 best on the latest list.
“Carry You Home” and “Save You a Seat” have also both benefitted from exposure on TikTok. The latter has been used in over 144,000 TikToks and the former in over 20,000.
Both songs, along with “Burning Down,” appear on Warren’s debut studio album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1), released Sept. 27.
Warren signed to Atlantic in August 2022. “Growing up with the cards I was dealt, I never thought pursuing music would be a possibility,” he told Billboard at the time. “I’ve always dreamed of working with a record label and have admired Atlantic’s roster of artists for so long. I remember my first meeting with Atlantic so clearly because they immediately believed in what I had to say. They wanted to guide me and surround me with an experienced team to take my music to the next level and I’m so excited to do just that.”
Addison Rae is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, thanks to her single “Diet Pepsi.” Released Aug. 9 on ARXOXO/Columbia Records, the song debuts at No. 86 on the Sept. 21-dated Hot 100, becoming her first career entry on the chart. It arrives with 5 million official U.S. streams (up 9%) and 487,000 all-format radio […]
Spring of 2022 brought out the superstars: Over the course of three consecutive weeks, Future released I Never Liked You, Bad Bunny put out Un Verano Sin Ti, and Kendrick Lamar returned from a five-year break with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Future and Lamar launched four songs apiece in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 during their albums’ debut weeks, while Bad Bunny scored three.
But few of these tracks endured. Nine of them fell out of the top 10 in their second week on the chart. A month later, Future’s “Wait for U,” a melancholy hip-hop ballad with Drake and Tems, served as the only lasting reminder of this blockbuster spurt in the top 10.
That July, Steve Lacy carved out a notably different path on the Hot 100. He is not nearly as well-known as Future, Bad Bunny, or Lamar; as a result, his breezy new wave single “Bad Habit” debuted on the Hot 100 in the lowest possible position. It climbed the chart for five weeks before reaching the top 10. It then remained there for 18 weeks, ultimately peaking at No. 1.
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Songs like “Bad Habit” are becoming hard to find — 75% of 2024’s top 10 hits debuted in that lofty environment as of the third week of July. Ironically, though, the tracks that launch on the upper reaches of the Hot 100, like Future’s “Puffin On Zootiez” and Lamar’s “N95,” tend to be easy come, easy go. They don’t remain as long as the hits which take time to get into that exclusive atmosphere.
Since 2000, the average single that debuts in the top 10 hangs there for roughly six weeks. In contrast, tracks that take two to eight weeks to ascend to that position linger for more than 11 weeks.
This dynamic has become more extreme in the heart of the streaming era. Since 2015, singles that start out in the top 10 last 6.3 weeks on average, while tracks that take two to four weeks to reach the top 10 last more than twice as long — 12.7 weeks. And songs that take five to eight weeks to ascend to the top 10 do even better, lasting for an average of 13-plus weeks.
Singles that erupt high on the chart and then sink immediately are maybe thought of as viral one-offs — tracks plucked out of obscurity, usually by the masses on TikTok, incorporated into millions of videos, streamed by curious listeners, and then discarded. In truth, most of these short-lived top 10 hits are album cuts from superstars like Taylor Swift and Drake.
When artists with large followings release new full-lengths, it’s now common for many of the tracks on the album to debut immediately on the Hot 100 — as devoted fans engage with it for the first time and play it all the way through, sometimes more than once. Listeners have always been eager to devour new releases from their favorite acts, but this activity wasn’t trackable on a song level before the adoption of streaming, other than via sales or occasional radio play courtesy of individual DJs who happened to like a particular album cut.
The initial burst of post-release-week enthusiasm — the thrill of the new — is very difficult to sustain, however, and many of these songs depart the upper reaches of the Hot 100 rapidly. From 2000 to 2015, around 13% of top 10s fell out of the top 10 after one week; that number has rocketed upward, topping 40% in each of the last four years.
Gaining listeners’ interest is hard enough at a time when there is unprecedented competition for attention. Holding on to that attention for extended periods, or building it over time, may be even harder.
Songs that manage this tend to look a lot like singles from the pre-streaming era, in that they have sustained promotion campaigns behind them. The influence of radio on their trajectory is often especially noticeable.
While streams and sales of sought-after projects typically bunch up near a release date and then diminish, airplay tends to rise over time, as more stations see a song working and start to play it, and then play it more often, in tandem with label promotion. A similar progression happens with radio formats, which will often plunder successful tracks from each other, further amplifying their impact on the chart.
“A lot of times, the pop format will just look at other formats and see what’s bubbling up — like a Hozier or a Noah Kahan — and then say, ‘You know what, that feels like a pop record, let’s give it a shot,'” explains Tom Poleman, chief programming officer at iHeartMedia. “Then you can make something a super mass record.”
Many young executives believe airplay has little to no impact on streaming levels, but radio’s slow-burn timeline helps songs climb the Hot 100 — and sustain their position near the top. In fact, from a label’s point of view, this is one of airplay’s primary remaining benefits, as radio continues to face increased competition from streaming services and short-form video platforms. (Some executives also believe airplay can help artists sell tickets and earn brand deals.)
Take Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy):” When it skipped from No. 2 to No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated July 27, streams and sales were down — 6% and 24%, respectively, according to Luminate — but radio listening was up 11%. Shaboozey’s hit drew 77.2 million in airplay audience, as compared to 39 million official streams and 16,000 sales.
For the next two weeks, streaming and sales kept slipping, while airplay audience kept growing, albeit at a declining rate — up 10% in week three, and 6% in week four — and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” stayed at No. 1. “Radio can still very much move the needle,” says J Grand, an A&R veteran. “Certainly not as much as a decade ago, but I don’t think the fall off is as precipitous as people are making it out to be.”
Promoting songs to radio is costly, however, and radio generally plays fewer current tracks than it used to. It’s good for commercially minded artists, then, that airplay is not the only way to extend a song’s life high on the charts. While the influence of music videos has lessened considerably in the age of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, a well-placed clip can still ignite a single. (Though videos can be expensive too.)
Lamar’s “Not Like Us” sprang back to No. 1 nine weeks after it initially came out thanks to its music video, which was widely anticipated due to the avalanche of attention around his nasty public feud with Drake. Streams of “Not Like Us” jumped 20% and sales climbed 16% at a time when they would typically be falling.
And adding a star collaborator to a remix remains a tried-and-true technique for counteracting decaying chart position. Wizkid’s “Essence,” a swaying, flirty collaboration with Tems, grew gradually for months during 2021. “The people connecting first with the song in the States were largely either from Africa or the diaspora,” says John Fleckenstein, COO of RCA Records, which released and marketed the track. “We literally went city by city, focused on targeted radio and digital campaigns to get to those populations.”
But the big boost for “Essence” came when Justin Bieber joined the fight, appearing on a remix that August which bolstered streams, sales, and airplay all at once. Bieber’s presence catapulted the song from No. 44 on the Hot 100 to No. 16. In October, “Essence” glided into the top 10 — again with help from airplay, which kept climbing even as streams and sales decreased.
Engineering the long climb that eventually made “Essence” — or “Bad Habit” — inescapable is increasingly a lost art. But while the majority of top 10 Hot 100 hits now debut on the upper reaches of the chart, the danger of flaring brightly is burning out quickly. As Nick Bobetsky, who manages Chapell Roan, likes to say, “there’s much more meaning in momentum than in a moment.”
Sevdaliza, Pabllo Vittar and Yseult each score their first career placement on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Aug. 3), thanks to their viral collaboration “Alibi.”
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The song, released June 28 on Twisted Elegance, debuts at No. 95 almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.6 million official U.S. streams (up 18%) in the July 19-25 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The song has been steadily gaining thanks to a viral dance trend on TikTok, which began in the spring before the song’s official release. It has taken off in recent weeks, with the cut having soundtracked over 1.5 million videos on the platform to date. That virality sparked the song’s No. 21 debut on the July 20-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart and its jump to No. 8 the following week.
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Notably, “Alibi” includes lyrics sung in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish and reworks the song “Rosa,” first recorded more than a century earlier and popularized by late famed Colombian musician Magín Díaz.
“Alibi” concurrently reaches the top 10 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (11-9) and climbs 19-16 on the Billboard Global 200.
Sevdaliza, from Tehran, Iran, is a Dutch-Iranian singer-songwriter-producer who has been releasing music for over a decade. In that span, she has released two studio albums: ISON, in 2017, and Shabrang, in 2020. Before “Alibi,” she charted one track: “Ride or Die, Pt. 2,” featuring Villano Antillano and Tokischa, reached No. 43 on the Hot Latin Songs chart this May. It also peaked at No. 66 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 112 on the Global 200.
Pabllo Vittar is a Brazilian drag queen and singer. She becomes just the second drag queen ever to hit the Hot 100, after RuPaul, who charted three songs in the 1990s: “Supermodel (You Better Work)” (No. 45 peak in 1993); “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” with Elton John (No. 92, 1994); and “Snapshot” (No. 95, 1996).
Vittar first appeared on Billboard’s charts in August 2017, thanks to her featured appearance on Major Lazer’s “Sua Cara,” also featuring Anitta. The track reached No. 26 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, as well as No. 22 on World Digital Song Sales. She has charted one additional song: “Modo Turbo,” with Luisa Sonza and featuring Anitta, peaked at No. 71 on Global Excl. U.S. and No. 126 on the Global 200 in January 2021.
As for Yseult, “Alibi” is the French singer-songwriter and model’s first charted song. She initially rose to prominence after competing on the French reality competition Nouvelle Star in 2013-14, where she finished second.