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Stephen Sanchez is infatuated with love — but he’s not interested in approaching it from a 21st century lens. “I think it’s a lost art to tell somebody that you’d pull the moon down for them,” he tells Billboard. Growing up listening to ’50s and ’60s records on vinyl in Northern California, he has always been drawn to an old-school charm within his own music. The inspiration ultimately led to his breakthrough hit, “Until I Found You,” which became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit and has remained on the chart for months.
Penned in May 2021, just six months after moving to Nashville, Sanchez felt there was something special about the heartfelt song straight away — and another six months after its release that September, it debuted on the all-genre songs chart at No. 100. Since, it has spent 23 weeks on the list, reaching a No. 38 high this October, and continues to climb elsewhere, hitting a new No. 3 peak on Billboard‘s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated Dec. 17.
Despite being more than a year old at this point, the timeless-sounding pop hit has experienced one resurgence after the next, be it through an Em Beihold version of the track that arrived this April, on TikTok or radio airplay. But even as the song still reaches new listeners, the 20-year-old isn’t slowing his output: in August, he released EP Easy On My Eyes; in November, “Missing You,” with Ashe, arrived; and in 2023, he’ll kick off the year with a new single, followed by his first headline tour and then a debut record that’ll come in the summer.
Below, Sanchez reflects on “Until I Found You,” teases an impending sonic shift in his music, discusses why he wants to “flirt with the audience” during his live shows and more.
Where did the inspiration for “Until I Found You” come from?
I was in a serious relationship at the time. There was a lot of back-and-forth toward the beginning because I was super fearful of it, and I pushed her away because of that. We had established a very solid friendship before then, and it isolated us from even having that. I moved to Nashville months later, we reconnected and I took her out on a date. The song is just reflecting that time: When I was without her friendship and loving, it was so hard. I just remember how shallow that time felt in my life. [When] I wrote the song, we were very much in love, and it made that moment of our lives more beautiful.
[With regard to its sonic inspiration], I grew up on ’50s music. My grandpa has this amazing property in San Jose, California, and there are two barns on either side and the house sat right in the middle. It’s on top of this hill, and you can oversee all of San Jose. In the mornings, they would make me breakfast, and then they would tell me to go out in the barn and pick through vinyl. My grandpa is 85 years old at this point, so the only records he has are records from the ‘50s and ‘60s. I would pick through vinyl and just get inspired. Even now, I still do that every time I go up there.
Was there a specific moment that you knew you had a hit on your hands?
I don’t think I ever thought that a song of mine would do this well and throw me in the position to be in the shoes of my heroes. However, on the other side of that, I think the moment when I felt like I had something that was really special … I was making very poor financial decisions when I realized it. I went to Carter Vintage [Guitars] in Nashville, and I bought this old Rickenbacker and old amp, and I wrote the song on that — I [already] had the first part, and then I finished the rest of it on that. That’s what gave it that ‘50s and ‘60s sound. I was playing around with other ‘50s covers — like Paul Anka and The Penguins — and then that song popped out. It felt like it was pulling from my roots in a very huge way.
How much tinkering was there between your initial vision and the finished product?
I think the main thing I couldn’t get over [was] how much reverb was being used. There are small, petty things that I always get caught up on within every song we’ve ever released, and I feel like that’ll be true to me for the rest of my life. It took a day or two to record the whole song and get it done, and then Georgia, whom the song is about, came in and sang on the song. It made it even more special — it’s a very amazing immortalized moment in life right there.
You’ve mentioned the song’s old-school charm. Was creating that more of a concerted effort or a happy coincidence given what you were listening to at the time?
I think it was just a happy coincidence. I really just love that music so much. As far as artistry goes, I think I’ve always fallen into the category where I feel extraordinarily safe picking up a guitar and hiding behind that and adept lyricism and all that stuff. That music makes life fun. It makes love fun. It makes it really emotional. I think it’s a lost art to tell somebody that you’d pull the moon down for them. For that to fall out in such a natural way, that feels very special, and this year, I’m chasing that — but also not trying to force it at all.
It definitely takes a specific tact to write a song that adequately captures all of the emotions that get wrapped into love.
Yeah, I think artists need to flirt with their lyrics more. Your audience at a show is essentially someone that you’re trying to win over. They’re the muse, and you’re flirting with them for an hour, trying to convince them to go out on a date with you. And the same way with a song, right? We should be flirting with our lyricism. We should be slow-dancing with it. We should be taking it out to dinner — metaphorically, of course. But just enticing it into this deep romance within ourselves, that way we’re not losing sight of true artistry. I think that it’s easy to jump on TikTok and sing a song for 30 seconds. But where’s the flirting? That’s a one-night stand. Where’s the meat of it?
Is there a standout experience from the song’s success that really resonates with you?
We played [Late Night with] Seth Meyers and my manager was there. My best friends were there with me. We showed up that day, and I almost threw up because I was so nervous. We got out there, and he was saying my name and we sang the song. And then we jumped on a plane and flew right back to Nashville and made it in time [to watch the performance on TV]. All of my friends were in my little 500 square foot apartment, and they were all crammed in my living room. We were all just cheering and screaming at, like, 12 a.m. It was so beautiful.
What about the song lends itself to being such a long-lasting hit?
Gosh, I just feel like it just won’t stop. (Laughs.) Every time there’ll be a time where it simmers down, I’m like, “Cool. That was a great run. Let’s release some more great music.” And then it’ll just pick right back up, and I get texts like, “It’s going off again!” I’m like, “Why? Why is it going off again?” The only comparison that I can give is that I have this old car, and sometimes it’ll start right up, and it’ll be amazing. And then sometimes, I’ll park it back in the garage, and the next day, it won’t start at all. I’m like, “Okay, cool. Maybe tomorrow!” It’s the same with this: it’s very exciting. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m really glad that it was this song, honestly. If it could’ve been any of [my songs], I love that it’s this one because it is very much my roots. I just love that it’s under Mercury Records, which was an old-school label, and they released old-school music, and this is an old-school song. That’s just so cool.
How has the process of creating and releasing music been impacted by having a label behind you?
It has just given me this immense state of peace. I think that Mercury is an amazing label because it’s run by people that I have real relationships with and that truly believe in me. It’s also an extension to a label [Republic Records] that believes in me. They put their entire being into artists’ projects and it just opens up this space that feels very safe and welcoming to an artist. As far as Mercury and Republic goes, they care about maintaining the integrity of their artists’ music. I truly believe I wouldn’t be able to do that with anyone else.
As you were putting together your debut EP, Easy On My Eyes, were there any core messages or concepts about you as an artist that you wanted to get across to listeners?
Sonically, I wanted it to feel very close. It felt very tender and sensitive within the singing and how we mixed it, but [there’s] also a little bit of lightheartedness in the sense that, when love feels very joyful, you feel that. I did want to feel that differentiating, rollercoaster vibe of sonics and thematics going on, but the whole thing is about love, of course — its beauty, its downfall and its kind of weird in-betweens. That’s a consistent human experience. Whatever your perception is of the circumstance you’re living in, whether it be love or lust, I want this record to feel accessible.
You recently announced your first headline tour, which will kick off in early 2023. What can we expect for that?
Having strangers that I don’t know come out and pay money for these shows … to play in front of them is going to be so exhilarating. I’m excited to dance. I used to go to concerts when I was younger, and the consistent thing I would imagine was feeling the music from the audience, but imagining that I was moving to it on stage. To get to do that for real now is so exciting. I want to make it so that there’s a dance with the audience that’s happening, in the same way that I was saying earlier with the songwriting. Bring them into a feeling. That’s the goal: have fun and flirt with the audience as much as I can.
Is there anything else we should be on the lookout for?
Man, we got a brand new bag coming. It’s going to be really great. We’re releasing a debut record, and it’s going to come out in the summer, and I don’t want to spoil much about it. But we have a new single coming out in January. I don’t want to spoil that, either, but it’s going to be an entire sound change. The whole thing has taken a flip. We’re not doing singer-songwriter, acoustic stuff anymore. We’re hanging up the guitar and swapping it out for a mic.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Dec. 10, 2022, issue of Billboard.
In the time since Meghan Trainor dropped her third studio album Treat Myself in January 2020, her life has completely transformed. That October, she revealed that she was pregnant with her first child. She released A Very Trainor Christmas the same month, and early the following year, the 28-year-old Nantucket native welcomed her son, Riley, with her husband, Spy Kids star Daryl Sabara.
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Now a mother, Trainor says that she has learned to focus more on “what actually matters” and being her most authentic self for her new baby. That has involved spending loads of time on TikTok, posting casual videos dancing with her family or sharing personal and hilarious tidbits about her life. “I’ve been more real and open than ever. I even talk about my love for MiraLAX online,” she jokes to Billboard.
The platform has also boosted one of her biggest hits in the past few years: her fresh take on doo-wop, “Made You Look,” first began to spread across TikTok thanks to a dance trend started by users Brookie and Jessie that has since become inescapable. Trainor has gotten in on the fun, and to date, nearly two million user-created videos on the platform have utilized the track as a backing sound. “Made You Look” reaches a new No. 24 high on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Dec. 3, marking Trainor’s highest-charting hit since “Me Too” reached No. 13 in 2016.
Below, the pop star tells Bilboard about the details behind “Made You Look” — including how she drew inspiration from a familiar hit to create the song — how music has changed over her decade-long career and what being a mother has taught her.
How did “Made You Look” come together?
It was one of the last songs I wrote for the album. I knew I needed my self-confident banger that I always do on my albums, and I was really studying “All About That Bass.” I was like, “Why did this work so well?” I think everyone just loves to sing along to a song that’s like, “I am awesome, I am the sh-t, I am hot.” Especially after having a baby, I was already struggling to love my body. I was covered in a C-section scar crossing over all my stretch marks and I was really struggling to like myself, but also like myself in front of my own husband.
My therapist had me stand in front of the mirror naked every day and the first day, I was shaking and hated it. By the third day, I noticed things that I liked about my body and I was like, “Wow, this is so powerful.” So, I was in the shower one day and I was like, “Yeah, they could dress me in all these fancy clothes, but when I’m at my grungiest and at home, that’s when my husband is like, ‘You’re the prettiest girl in the world. You’re the hottest.’ ” I wanted to put that in a song, and I wrote the chorus in the shower.
Your C-section scar is how you gave birth to your son, though. That’s so special.
Exactly. I was at the point where I would say to my husband, “Please don’t look at it. Don’t look at my scar!” He’s like, “That’s my favorite mark there ever was. That’s where my boy came out of. That’s the most special thing in the world!” I had never thought about it like that.
How is making music different for you since having your son?
It’s more important now. I guess I’m also more mature, because I’m older and been through more, so now, I’m at an age and point in my life where I’m like, “Here’s what actually matters and here’s what doesn’t. I’m not going to stress anymore.” I really had to work with my therapist on what I can and can’t control. These stretch marks are here, [I have to] get used to them and learn to love them because I can’t control whether they go away or not. In my songwriting, I try to put in that “let it go” vibe.
What was your reaction when “Made You Look” started blowing up on TikTok?
I was so surprised, because it’s so hard to get a song to be successful on TikTok. You don’t want to be out there every day like, “Check out my new song!” I like being vulnerable on that app, and I feel weird being on there just to promote my music. This song was important to me, though, and I knew it would help people with their confidence.
When I saw the dance from the TikTokers Brookie and Jessie, [it] was so fun and they made it look so cool. It was hard to learn, but now that I know it, I do it literally every day. I love the dance so much. It blew up and popped off, but now I see people doing other stuff to the song. I saw a girl who was learning how to be a chef, someone practicing how to cut a vagina while giving birth and a horse giving birth to my song. That’s the coolest part of TikTok. The whole world is on there.
What are some of the biggest differences you see in music trends and on the Hot 100 over the course of your career?
Obviously, TikTok rules the world. For the last album, I was like, “I’ll do every piece of promo you want me to do. If this works, I’ll do it.” But it didn’t work. So, for this album, I made a priority to do “TikTok days” and make content. This app allows for a whole day of fun work for us, and it doesn’t feel like work. I get to be at home and make videos that go viral, and it still helps my music and connect with strangers all over the world. I went live on TikTok this morning and people from Ethiopia were in there. People are like, “Hi from South Dakota! Hi from South Africa!” And I’m like, “Oh my God!” It’s just the best app to connect with everyone globally.
I’ve been more real and open than ever. I even talk about my love for MiraLAX online. The best part of that is that it seems to be what everyone likes. They like me being myself. That’s easy to do for me, rather than [being] like, “Oh, I’m a celebrity that no one can touch, and I wear Gucci and Prada. Don’t talk to me.” It’s easier and more fun this way. Finally, for the first time in a long time, I really, really love my job again. I love promoting music again.
It also feels like you found a renewed love for music on Takin’ It Back.
Yeah! My last album I was chasing radio so hard and was going more pop because I was trying to run away from the doo-wop stuff. I was like, “No, I can do all the genres! I love pop! I love dance!” Then, I was like, “Alright, let’s do the doo-wop. Let’s give the people what they want.” I realized, then, my love for it. I wrote the verses of “Made You Look” over lunch while laughing. We were like, “Oh, it should be, ‘Call up your chiropractor just in case your neck breaks from looking at me.’ ” We were having a ball.
One thing that definitely hasn’t changed through your albums are your messages of empowerment.
I’m trying to do that for everyone out there. The best reward is [that] I’ve been getting letters from fans that start with, “Your music helped me so much growing up.” That’s better than any compliment ever.
What are you excited for with the holidays coming up? You’re a big Christmas fan and even have a holiday album.
Yes, my decorations are already up and I put up the tree. I’m also trying to get pregnant. I’m trying to have four kids and get them out. I don’t know if we’ll tour next year, because touring is so exhausting and brutal still.
Especially if you do get pregnant.
I mean, I don’t know if I’m as cool as Cardi B. The icon that’s like, “Sure I can tour and perform and do SNL pregnant.” I don’t know if I’m as strong as her. I remember being pregnant and being like, “I really should lay down.” I was pooped, so I don’t know if I want to sign up for a tour and then get pregnant while doing that. It’s a big debate, but if something happens and I can open for someone or do a short run, I would love to do something like that. I also want to put out a book about pregnancy. After giving birth, I feel like I can do anything. So, I’m just picking new goals and making new dreams.
What’s the biggest thing you learned through motherhood?
Mom guilt is [a] very similar pain to struggling with loving yourself. I’m a very hard critic on myself in everything I do. With loving myself and music and my talent, I’m my worst critic. I noticed that mom guilt is a very similar feeling. Immediately, I had the worst mom guilt because I started working right away and I was like, “Oh, he’s saying ‘dada’ first and it’s probably because he doesn’t know me!” That’s not the case at all. I had to learn, “Hey, be easy on yourself. You’re doing the best you can and that’s all that matters.” Watch out for mom guilt, and just know that I have it too and I’m working on it.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Nov. 19, 2022, issue of Billboard.
It’s ostensibly a big morning for Greg Kurstin. As we speak in the sunlit lounge of his Hollywood recording studio, the Grammy nominations are being announced — and as is often the case, the veteran producer’s name is connected with a few very big artists expected to make significant showings.
But if Kurstin is at all nervous, he doesn’t show it. Whether out of politeness or commitment to his “maybe boring” daily routine — drop his two kids at school, come back to the studio, make hits, get home in time for dinner — Kurstin, 53, neither tunes in to the broadcast nor checks his phone as the nominees are announced.
Instead, Kurstin has the same focus as always: the music that got him here. A lifelong pianist, he amalgamates his considerable abilities on a range of instruments, his love of jazz and his history as both a session musician and band member (Geggy Tah, The Bird and the Bee) into an improvisational accompanist’s approach to pop music. The artists who’ve called on him as producer — a wide range including Paul McCartney, Sia, Beck, Halsey, Foo Fighters and Maren Morris — look to Kurstin not for a distinct, signature sound, but for his ability to bring out the best within them.
The most famous of those collaborators, of course, is Adele. Since her 2015 album, 25, and its smash “Hello,” she and Kurstin have had a prolific creative relationship — one that continued in 2022 with 30. He co-wrote, produced or co-produced six of the 12 tracks on the album, which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. One of those was lead single “Easy on Me,” which tied “Hello” for Adele’s longest No. 1 run on the Billboard Hot 100 (10 weeks) and led Radio Songs for 15 weeks — her personal best and the sixth-longest in the chart’s history.
All of that went a long way toward making Kurstin Billboard’s top Hot 100 producer of 2022. And by the end of our conversation, the nine-time Grammy winner (including two for producer of the year, non-classical) will rack up another five nominations: best pop vocal album; song, record and album of the year (all for 30); and best country album (for Morris’ Humble Quest, which he produced). But here in the studio — emitting cool dad vibes in jeans and a T-shirt — he’s immersed in the 9-to-5 that produces that award-worthy work, insulated from much of the buzz it has generated.
“Sometimes I’ll do a song with an artist,” Kurstin says, “and I’ll be like, ‘I wonder if that song did well?’ And then you go see their show and it’s like, ‘Oh, these people know the song!’ ”
It seems like you have the luxury of choice, in terms of artists you agree to work with. Besides your track record of hits, what do you think they’re looking for from you?
I’d like to think that they’re coming to me because I want to support their vision and learn where they’re going musically and try to achieve that somehow, to bring out the best song they could possibly need at this point in their career. Everyone is different. A lot of people I work with are people I’ve worked with before, over and over, and so there’s a lot of history there, too.
You’ve said that artists come to you for the support you provide during the process, rather than for a particular sound.
I don’t think I necessarily have a sound or a particular style that’s recognizable. People have said to me, “I could tell you did that song,” and I’m like, “Really?” I just bring it all back to when I was just a side musician accompanist working with a singer. I would try to support what they’re doing and not be a distraction, but to bring out the best emotion by finding the right chords and the right arrangements. I translated that to production, in a way.
Adele’s songs in particular are so intensely personal. To what extent are you helping her unpack that emotion?
I’m definitely there to navigate that emotional terrain. I have to find the right sequence of chords or the beginning of a song that ignites something in her and whatever lyric she’s wanting to write that day. So, I will search. Sometimes it takes a long time; sometimes it happens immediately; sometimes it’s at the very end of the day. Usually, I’ll just improvise, trying to imagine where she wants to go.
Are there conversations happening as you work?
We don’t really discuss it… I get on the piano and then I’ll get a sense of, “Oh, she likes this little bit I’m playing right now,” so I’ll stay there. Sometimes I do that for an hour or two while she’s formulating lyrics, and I just know I don’t want to move; I don’t want to change anything, because if she’s writing, I feel like it’s going well. So I’ll stay where I am. It’s like a meditation. Also, it’s amazing how much she remembers — just a little seed we started like, a year ago, she’ll say, “What about that little thing we did?”
Is the pressure around a new Adele album something you have to try to tune out?
Yeah. I mean, it’s so hard for me to tune it out. It definitely stresses me out, in a very positive way. There’s excitement, but there’s also just the feeling of like, “I don’t want to be responsible for something not performing.” That’s just me. I probably would take it personally, which I shouldn’t, but a lot of us artists have issues where our self-worth is wrapped up in our performance. But I try to stay grounded and healthy and just know it’s out of my control… Grammy time brings up a lot of those feelings again, because the attention on the album starts coming back.
Despite your accomplishments, you keep a low profile. What’s your day-to-day life like?
My days are pretty normal. I mean, aside from that I work with these extraordinary artists. I take the kids to school, then go to the studio. I just focus on the thing I’m working on, try to do a good job with that, then try to get home by dinnertime. That’s pretty much my life, which is kind of unusual in my line of work. A lot of producers work on the opposite time frame. When I’m going to bed, they’re starting.
For me to be healthy, I have to have a schedule, a structure. The way my mind works, it will start to race, and if I work too late, then I have trouble sleeping and that messes up my next day. Artists are happy to adapt to working that schedule. I want to do a great song for them and send them on their way so they can have a life and go out at night to do whatever they want to do. I’m totally friends with a lot of artists I work with… but I don’t want to keep someone longer than they want to be there.
You mentioned the anticipation you feel around Grammy season. What is your relationship with the awards?
It’s a crazy experience to be invited or involved, and I know I won’t be invited forever. There will be a point where people will be like, “OK, you can go now.” (Laughs.)
Eventually they’ll show you out the back door.
Exactly. Like, “We’ve had enough of you.” While it’s happening, I’m just going for the ride. It feels very good for your work to be recognized. I don’t take it lightly when people are voting for stuff I’ve worked on. I have fun when I go, although it makes me nervous when I’m there, because I hate speaking in the microphone, but that’s also a good problem to have.
Where do you keep the nine Grammys you’ve already won?
They’re in the bedroom, kind of staring at me. If I’m in a bad mood, I can look up and be like, “Come on! Chin up.”
All that said, do you want to check and see if you’ve been nominated this year?
(Looks at phone.) OK, I got best pop vocal album, song of the year, album of the year, country album and record of the year. So there’s that!
This story will appear in the Dec. 10, 2022, issue of Billboard.
Musicals, whether onstage or onscreen, take time — lots of time — to develop. For Lin-Manuel Miranda, the story of 2022’s Encanto really began six years ago, on opening weekend for a different Disney animated musical, Moana. Miranda was a late addition to that film’s three-person musical team, and he had seen “how seriously and faithfully [Disney] took the responsibility of representing a culture we don’t see onscreen a lot” — in Moana’s case, that of the Polynesian islands — and “making sure that part of the world would be proud,” he recalls. So he told Tom MacDougall, then executive vp of music for Disney Animation and Pixar, “Listen, I know you guys have some Latin-themed things up your sleeve. If there’s going to be a Disney Latina princess, I’ve been training all my life!”
That opening weekend, MacDougall cryptically told Miranda: “You’ll be there from the beginning on the next one.” And with Encanto, he kept his word. “We don’t just go celebrity to celebrity for people to write these shows,” says MacDougall, now president of Walt Disney Music. “But there was a project being talked about that was going to happen in Latin America, and I said, ‘Hey, Lin wants to do this, we love him — what would a full Lin show look like start to finish?”
The answer: a historic hit. Miranda’s eight songs for the Encanto soundtrack all charted on the Billboard Hot 100, leading him to spend 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 Songwriters chart and to ultimately be named Billboard’s top Hot 100 songwriter of 2022. Much of that was thanks to the unlikely and explosive leader of the pack: the intricate, multicharacter showstopper “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” which spent five weeks at No. 1 and, according to Billboard’s GOAT methodology, is now the biggest Disney song of all time.
Of course, don’t tell that to the “Surface Pressure” hive, whose passion for strongwoman Luisa’s reggaetón-inflected solo pushed it to a No. 8 peak, or to the teary masses who sent the poetic “Dos Oruguitas” (sung entirely in Spanish by Sebastián Yatra) to No. 2 and No. 36 peaks, respectively, on Hot Latin Songs and the Hot 100. “It’s pretty unorthodox in terms of a musical,” MacDougall says of Encanto. “That ‘Bruno’ would become one of the most popular songs of all time, that all the songs would be in the top 100 — we would have never expected it.”
But if that sounds like the foundation for a new blueprint for Disney blockbusters, think again. Miranda, 42, insists there’s no formula for Encanto-level success, paraphrasing the late Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim: “Surprise is the thing you’re chasing. If you can bottle surprise, you can have a career in this business.”
You were in the throes of writing Encanto’s music in spring 2020. What was it like essentially putting this soundtrack together in lockdown?
In retrospect, I do think some of the lockdown seeps into the songwriting. There’s a reason “Surface Pressure” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” which were written in April and May of 2020, respectively, resonate in a different way. At the core of “Surface Pressure” is this question of, how do I keep my family safe — and who am I if I can’t? I think that’s a variation of what every parent felt then. And then “Bruno” — I was locked up with my in-laws. There is a subtext there of, “What are we allowed to talk about in front of your mother?” (Laughs.) My brother-in-law was living with us at the time — he works in real estate, and we barely saw him, he’d just work in his corner, he’d join us for dinner, he’d go back to his corner. When I showed him the rough storyboard and the song started, he was like, “Is this about me? Am I the uncle in the walls?” (Laughs.)
The level of input from the larger creative team is pretty high in the world of animation. How did that typically play out?
Our call was every Friday night at 9 p.m. my time, which meant I could tuck in my kids and then wake myself back up and do the call. I felt comfortable bringing in half songs — like, “Here’s the first two verses of ‘Bruno.’ Is this a good direction? Should I keep going?” I don’t think there’s one song in this where I was like, “This is it, it’s done.”
Well, other members of the creative team do talk about “Bruno” as if you started playing it for them fully formed. What’s your side of that story?
I knew the vibe for it very quickly. This was a song that was my pitch: Can we please do a family gossip number? I knew it was just going to be like (Miranda plays the piano bassline.), which felt very Afro-Latino, rhythmic, spooky. The challenge was to get something simple yet [distinctive] enough that you could put a lot of different stories on top of it. It was really one long night of writing it.
You have a longtime friendship with Bobby Lopez [who, with wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, wrote the music for Frozen, Frozen II and Coco]. Does someone like him provide a kind of creative support system when you’re working on a project like Encanto?
You learn quickly that there’s very few people you can talk to about this kind of gig. My friendship with Bobby goes beyond songwriting — we went to school together, he’s been a mentor to me my whole career. There was a moment when I was struggling with something in Mirabel’s song “Waiting on a Miracle,” and it was this really specific shop talk of like, “I think this is the right song for the right moment but it’s not doing this thing you’re so good at that I want it to do — it’s not lifting off at the end in the way I want it to.” So I sent it to Bobby and Kristen and they were like, “Give us a couple hours,” and they got on a Zoom with me and were like, “Go up a whole step not a half step, have her sing this note.” It was a very music theory mathematical thing and it made all the difference in the world. That’s the kind of thing you can only ask someone who’s been in this space before you and knows the lay of the land.
“Bruno” is now the biggest Disney song of all time. What are your personal top Disney songs of all time?
No. 1 is “Under the Sea.” I mean, it’s like Sebastian making the case for a way of life and presenting us with a world so much more beautiful than our own! I wanted to go f–king live under the sea! “Out There,” from Hunchback [of Notre Dame] — Stephen Schwartz wrote the lyrics. “Into the Unknown” from Frozen II, that song is outrageous in setup and execution. “When She Loved Me” by Randy Newman — Toy Story 2 is among my favorite movies of all time, full stop. That was really a big inspiration for “Dos Oruguitas.” And I agree with everyone on the internet about the entirety of Tarzan. You know that meme that’s like, “Phil Collins didn’t have to go that hard but he did.” (Miranda starts belting “Strangers Like Me.”) Well, he did, and we’re all the better for it. It should not go that hard! (Laughs.)
You’ve admitted that you didn’t think “Bruno” would become the big Encanto hit. Why do you think it did?
I didn’t think it was going to be a big song because group numbers never are — with the exception of “Summer [Nights]” from Grease. But I also think there’s something to the fact that music has stratified to a big extent, and TikTok is a big part of the reason this song was such a hit. Every verse and chorus of this is like a bite-sized TikTok number. I didn’t have TikTok when I wrote it, but you realize after the fact, “Oh, if Camilo’s your favorite guy, you can listen to that bit,” and each bit became its own kind of hit. It was amazing that sections of “Bruno” were becoming popular.
“Dos Oruguitas” soundtracks Encanto’s tearjerking montage. Was that always the plan?
I mean, that was the hope. Some of it is what it isn’t: It isn’t a moment of Abuela singing to Mirabel, because Abuela singing, “Your grandfather was shot” — that’s a trauma too deep to sing. I looked at the imagery in the film of the butterfly that leads them to the miracle, and I had the idea of these two caterpillars in love and the change that has to happen. You have to undergo metamorphosis and trauma to become who you are, and you have to trust that you’ll still be yourself on the other side of whatever hard things come your way. And once I had that, I wrote it pretty quickly — though the speed of my Spanish is not the speed of my English, so it took longer to find the right words.
Then there’s “Surface Pressure.” Were you aware of all the people rooting for it to surpass “Bruno” on the charts?
I love it. I mean, there’s not a lot of precedent for that tune. In my head I was trying to cross a really tough reggaetón song with like, “[The] Lovecats” by The Cure, the quietest vocals I can imagine on a pop song. I think we had the song before we cast the role, but the drawing of Luisa existed, so I knew she’d have a deeper voice, and I was like, “Please, please, please find me an alto.” And Jess Darrow has such a wonderful and distinctive voice. The character never doesn’t sound like herself, and I love that about it.
To me it’s the most recognizably Lin song in this movie. It just feels like what naturally comes out of you. Was it that organic for you to write?
I don’t know…what I sound like? Ask any composer, they don’t know what their moves are. But I guess that’s what I sound like! I think the internal rhyminess of the verses and choruses, for sure. It was an early one to try to write; I was feeling my way towards it in an organic way. The hardest one is always the “I Want” song. Mirabel’s was originally called “I’m More Than What I’m Not,” and it was very poppy. It was a bop! But it was just not right.
Is there one song that you wish found a wider audience?
I would be insane to complain about any of them. But I’ll tell you, my expectations were upended. My expectation was that “Colombia, Mi Encanto” would be the easiest song to pull out of the story — it’s just a love letter to Colombia, it namechecks towns, it’s Carlos Vives singing it — so I just thought, “Maybe at soccer stadiums they’ll play this!” [It peaked at No. 100 on the Hot 100.] To see the character-iest, most involved-in-the plot songs rise to the top was an amazing and welcome surprise.
Does Encanto’s chart success feel like a unicorn situation? Or can it serve as a model for how Disney thinks about animated musicals in the future?
Well, I think once you think you have a template, you’re dead meat. Look at the two songs that had the most success: what people embraced was what’s new. As long as Disney’s musicals can continue to push on the template of what a Disney musical can be, I think they’ll be a success. It’s when we get hip to it — “Oh, here comes the sidekick song” — that we feel like we’ve seen it before. I think the lesson is to find the musical moments we haven’t seen before, and that’s true of theater as well. I know I’m here because Howard Ashman was here, and he felt like musical theater had a lot to teach animated movies about how music and animation could coexist. Everything I’m doing builds on what he knew and practiced with Alan Menken during that golden era I was lucky enough to be a kid during. And our job is to continue to push that envelope.
There is a rumor that a demo exists of you singing all 10 “Bruno” parts. Will we ever hear it?
Uh, yes, it exists — I mean, there’s me demos of all of them. But I also know why you want it, you jerks! You want to make funny TikToks with my face on them, and I will not give you the satisfaction! So they will stay on my computer, thank you very much. You want to make your funny little memes! (Laughs.) I will not be here for your meme-ery.
This story will appear in the Dec. 10, 2022, issue of Billboard.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” reigns as the No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, following its sizzling, record-breaking run on the weekly ranking, which blends streaming, radio airplay and sales data.
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Meanwhile, Bad Bunny tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists recap. He charted all 22 newly released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti on the Hot 100 in the album’s explosive first chart week in May, including four in the top 10.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
“Heat Waves” tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart after it completed the longest climb to the weekly Hot 100’s summit in the chart’s history: 59 weeks.
The first Hot 100 leader (and entry) for British quartet Glass Animals – Dave Bayley, Edmund Irwin-Singer, Drew MacFarlane and Joe Seaward – debuted on the Jan. 16, 2021-dated chart and spent five weeks at No. 1 this March-April. Released in June 2020, the track subsequently topped weekly alternative, pop and adult radio airplay tallies, and, helping spark its multi-format crossover, connected prominently on TikTok.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
“The song is about nostalgia and the past, and remembering and missing people,” Bayley mused upon the single’s Hot 100 coronation. “I think through the last couple years, and still now, people have been missing their loved ones, and not everyone’s been able to just go visit their parents, or their best friend. It’s been quite difficult … that’s my hunch as to why people have gravitated towards this song.
“I almost feel like it gives us a little bit of breathing room,” Bayley added of the song’s success. “I think there’s often a lot of pressure to keep putting things out. But because this has kept going, it’s given us the confidence to just keep doing what we were doing.”
“Heat Waves,” released on Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic Records, went on to spend a record 91 weeks on the Hot 100 overall.
“When I wrote this song, I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly,” Bayley further shared when “Heat Waves” rewrote the Hot 100’s new longevity mark. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe.”
“Heat Waves” is the first year-end Hot 100 No. 1 by a group (of more than two members) since The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” in 2009. Plus, until this year, no British group had led the year-end list since The Police with “Every Breath You Take” in 1983. (Among duos, U.S.-based Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped the 2013 tally with “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz; among non-solo British acts, in between Glass Animals and The Police, Wham! wrapped at No. 1 for 1985 with “Careless Whisper.”)
“Heat Waves” is also the No. 1 title on the 2022 year-end Streaming Songs chart.
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” places at No. 2 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, after it ruled the weekly Hot 100 for 15 weeks, the fourth-longest command in the chart’s history. The single also tops the year-end Billboard Global 200, Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Pop Airplay Songs charts.
The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” ranks at No. 3 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart and leads the year-end Radio Songs and Adult Pop Airplay Song tallies; Adele’s “Easy on Me” finishes at No. 4 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs survey and is the No. 1 title of the year on Adult Contemporary Songs; and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” places at No. 5 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking.
Rounding out the top 10 of the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart: Jack Harlow’s “First Class” (No. 6); Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 7); Bieber’s “Ghost” (No. 8); Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin” (No. 9); and Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” (No. 10), also the top title on the year-end Digital Song Sales chart.
While Lipa landed the No. 1 spot on the 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart with “Levitating,” John scores his highest yearly placement since “Candle in the Wind 1997″/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight” was No. 8 in 1998 (after finishing at No. 1 in 1997).
Bad Bunny crowns Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart. He sent all 22 newly-released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti, released on Rimas Entertainment, onto the Hot 100 in the album’s first chart week in May, including four in the top 10. Among those four, “Me Porto Bonito,” with Chencho Corleone, finishes highest on the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap, at No. 20.
Bad Bunny also rules the year’s overall Top Artists chart, while Un Verano Sin Ti is 2022’s No. 1 title on the Billboard 200 Albums year-end retrospective.
Doja Cat places second on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart, having notched three new top 10s on the weekly Hot 100 during the year, followed in the top 10 by Styles (No. 3); Sheeran (No. 4); Morgan Wallen (No. 5); Taylor Swift (No. 6); Bieber (No. 7); Drake (No. 8); Future (No. 9); and Lil Baby (No. 10).
Meanwhile, Republic Records tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Labels chart. The label defends its 2021 title, after it also led during the last decade in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
Burl Ives blasts back onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Dec. 3), as his holiday standard “A Holly Jolly Christmas” re-enters the ranking at No. 10.
The track’s revival can be attributed to annual gains for yuletide hits during the holiday season. The song debuted on the Hot 100 during the 2016 holiday season, 52 years after its release, and has re-entered every year since. The song first hit a No. 4 high over the 2019 holidays, and has returned to its peak in each of the last two years. This year is especially notable in that it brings the song’s highest re-entry, as it becomes the first holiday song ever to re-enter in the top 10.
How rare is it for songs to return to the Hot 100 all the way in the top 10? Pretty rare. In the chart’s 64-year history, “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is just the ninth song to re-enter directly in the top 10.
Generally, songs make steady runs up and down the Hot 100, though in more recent years it’s become more common for titles to debut at high ranks thanks to splashy streaming debuts and then decline, with many also regaining their footing on the chart as their radio airplay solidifies.
Hot 100 rules prevent most catalog titles from returning or debuting if below No. 50. Descending titles are removed from the Hot 100 after 20 weeks on the chart if below No. 50 or after 52 weeks if below No. 25. To re-enter after having graduated to recurrent status, a song must garner enough chart points, with a notable reason for its resurgence.
This is all to say that, for older titles, it’s generally difficult to re-enter the Hot 100 and compete with newer songs generating hefty radio airplay and streaming figures. It’s even tougher to suddenly re-enter in the top 10.
The select songs that have achieved the feat of re-entering the Hot 100 in the top 10 have, for the most part, gained newfound interest after artists were prominently in the news, performed on massive stages or scored a notable synch, as Kate Bush did earlier this year when “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” was featured in Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Here’s a look at all nine songs that have re-entered the Hot 100 in the top 10, listed chronologically:
Additional reporting by Gary Trust
Artist Billing, Title, Chart Date (Hot 100 Re-entry Rank):
Late singer-songwriter Christine McVie, who died Nov. 30 at age 79, left a great impression on Billboard’s charts through the decades, thanks to her pure pop/rock sensibility that often lifted Fleetwood Mac, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band in which she was a longtime member, to incredible heights.
For most of Fleetwood Mac’s hitmaking career, McVie was one of its three primary singers and songwriters, alongside Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Notably, McVie wrote and sang lead vocals on three of the band’s top four biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – including the group’s biggest song, “Hold Me.”
Billboard has exclusively compiled McVie’s top 10 biggest hits on the Hot 100 chart, based on actual performance on the weekly survey. Included were any charted songs by Fleetwood Mac that McVie wrote and on which she sang lead vocals, as well as her solo recordings outside the band.
McVie’s biggest Hot 100 hit is the 1982 Fleetwood Mac song “Hold Me,” which was released as the first single from the band’s Mirage album. It spent a staggering seven weeks at its peak of No. 4 on the weekly Hot 100 chart – a then-record for that peak rank. McVie sang lead vocals on “Hold Me,” and it was written by McVie and Robbie Patton. (Overall, “Hold Me” is Fleetwood Mac’s biggest Hot 100 hit, while the group’s No. 2 hit is its lone chart-topper on the weekly Hot 100 – 1977’s “Dreams,” penned by Nicks, who also sang its lead vocal.)
McVie’s second-biggest all-time Hot 100 hit is “Little Lies,” which was released in 1987 as the third single from Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night album. McVie had lead vocal duties on the cut, and she co-wrote it with her then-husband Eddy Quintela.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” – which was solely written by McVie, who shared lead vocals with Buckingham – is her third-biggest Hot 100 hit. The track became one of four top 10-charting singles from the mega-successful Rumours album. The set spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – still a record for any album by a group.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Say You Love Me” and “You Make Loving Fun” (both singularly written by McVie, who sang lead) round out McVie’s top five biggest Hot 100 hits. The former was released in 1976 as the final single from the band’s self-titled album. It was also the first to feature the lineup of Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Nicks, Christine McVie and her first husband John McVie.
The Buckingham/Fleetwood/Nicks/McVie/McVie lineup would release five studio albums (from 1975’s self-titled set through 1987’s Tango In the Night) and two live albums (1980’s Live and 1997’s The Dance). All four of the act’s No. 1 albums were by that famed lineup, with the self-titled set, Rumours, Mirage and The Dance all topping the Billboard 200.
Christine McVie’s 10 Biggest Billboard Hits recap is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
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Billboard News stepped into Diddy’s home and sat down with the legendary artist to discuss his single “Gotta Move On” with Bryson Tiller reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. Plus, Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” tops the Hot 100 once again.
Drake was feeling a little petty with the release of the new Hot 100 tally on Monday (Nov. 14), and shared his thoughts cryptically via Instagram Stories.
The rapper shared the latest Hot 100 top 10 dated Nov. 19, 2022, in which he has eight debuts, including seven with 21 Savage, as the pair’s collaborative project Her Loss launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. However, the No. 1 spot remains Taylor Swift‘s “Anti-Hero” for a third week, and the No. 10 spot was taken by Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ sultry collab, “Unholy.”
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In his screenshot, Drake left “Unholy” unscathed, but covered Swift’s achievement with a series of emojis. “@21savage congrats my brother,” he captioned the post. The “Midnight Rain” superstar has yet to respond to Drizzy’s “anti-hero” moment.
With Drake having claimed nine of the Hot 100’s top 10 spots on the chart for a week in September 2021 (concurrent with the chart start of his album Certified Lover Boy), he is now the only artist to have logged at least eight songs in the top 10 twice.
Two weeks ago, “Anti-Hero” soared in at the Hot 100’s summit, as Swift made history as the first artist to hold the survey’s entire top 10 in a single frame.
Back in April, Drake sent the Internet ablaze when he posted a throwback picture with Swift on his Instagram account. The snap is the last in a five-pic carousel with the motivational message: “They too soft to understand the meaning of hard work.”