Interview
For the first time during her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, Shakira shared the stage with special guests. On Tuesday (March 25), during her fourth night at the iconic GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City, the Colombian superstar was joined by Grupo Frontera for a live performance of “(Entre Paréntesis),” a song from her 2024 album that gives its name to the tour.
“I really wanted to give you all a surprise,” Shakira told Billboard Español in an interview following the show. “Every day, I strive to give you something more because the Mexican audience has been so loyal, so loving, and has lifted me up every time I needed it. I wanted to surprise you with something that would fill your hearts. Having them on stage today was a true privilege.”
“(Entre Paréntesis)” joins “Ciega, Sordomuda” and “El Jefe” as songs Shakira has added to her extensive repertoire as a heartfelt tribute to Mexico, where she continues her historic seven-night residency at the GNP Seguros Stadium (formerly known as Foro Sol), which will conclude on Sunday (March 30). This milestone makes her the first female artist to perform this many shows at the venue, previously filled by artists like Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Metallica. In total, the residency will gather 455,000 attendees, according to promoter OCESA.
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But Grupo Frontera wasn’t the only guest of the night: Lili Melgar, nanny to Shakira’s sons Milan and Sasha, made a surprise appearance while the singer performed “El Jefe,” her collaboration with Fuerza Regida, in which Melgar is immortalized in one of the final verses. “Lili Melgar, this song is for you, for not being paid your severance,” Shakira shouted to the thunderous roar of her Mexican pack, undeterred by the rain during their reunion with the She Wolf.
Still emotional from the warm reception from her Mexico audience, the 48-year-old star revealed that there will be more surprises for the U.S. leg of the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran trek, which kicks off May 13 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“For the first part of the tour, I wanted the show to stay as it was, for the fans to experience the songs just as I conceived them,” she told Billboard Español. “But now I’ll be incorporating some surprises and special guests that you’ll see in the United States. It will be very exciting to share the stage with friends and colleagues.”
One year after the release of Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran — the Grammy-winning album that marked her triumphant first album in seven years — Shakira reflected on what this project has meant to her. The set reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart and No. 13 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Last Friday (March 21), the Colombian singer premiered the video for “Última,” her latest single from the album, filmed in the New York City subway and directed by close friend and photographer Jaume de Laiguana.
“I believe this has been a healing process for me and for many people — not just women, men too. I think together we’ve learned that you grow from setbacks, and that together we heal when we support each other,” she said. “That’s what the audience has done for me. They’ve given me strength when I felt weak, and I know I’ve done the same for them.”
On her historic current stadium tour — which began on Feb. 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and will still visit the Dominican Republic, Chile and Colombia before arriving in the U.S.— Shakira says that this series of shows has become something deeper and more intimate.
“These are more than just concerts. They’re very profound gatherings where healing happens,” she stated. “With each show, I feel stronger and happier.”
One is a Broadway veteran; the other a debutante. Natalie Venetia Belcon and Isa Antonetti are the stars playing legendary singer Omara Portuondo at different stages of her life in BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, the new Broadway musical about the Cuban artists who brought the acclaimed Grammy-winning album of 1997 to the world.
With Broadway credits including Matilda (Mrs. Phelps) and Rent (Joanne), Belcon is a Trinitarian-American actress and singer best known for originating the role of former child television star Gary Coleman in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. She had already played the Cuban icon knows as “La Novia del Filin” (“The Bride of Feeling”) during the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB off-Broadway run, receiving the 2024 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for the role.
Meanwhile, Antonetti is a “Latinx, indigenous, mixed race LGBTQIA+ actress and singer from the Greater Rochester, New York area,” as stated in the show’s playbill, and is currently completing her BFA in Musical Theatre at Carnegie Mellon University. With credits including Evita (NYCC), Macbeth (CMU), and A Chorus Line (OFC Creations), she recently made her film debut in Gift of Fear, and is excited to make her Broadway debut in BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB — “as it reflects her own experiences growing up performing with her father’s Latin band, Orquesta Antonetti.”
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Buena Vista Social Club was formed in Cuba in 1996, as a project organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González, who named the group after a popular music venue in Havana in the 1940s. To showcase popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero, and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, some of whom had been retired for years.
The group’s eponymous debut album was released in September 1997 and quickly became an international sensation. On the Billboard charts, it reached No. 1 on Tropical Albums, where it stayed at the top for 24 weeks and spent a total of 266 weeks on the chart. It also reached No. 1 on Top Latin Albums and World Albums, and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard 200. In 1998, it won the Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album, and the Billboard Latin Music Award for Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year by a Group. The Buena Vista Social Club album was also voted into the National Recording Registry in 2022 and the Grammy Hall of Fame last year.
With a book by Marco Ramirez, the Saheem Ali-directed Broadway show is inspired by true events, and features a band of international musicians to narrate the legendary story of the artists who brought the original album to life, going back and forth between the mid-90s and the 1950s. The company also features Julio Monge as Compay Segundo, Mel Semé as Ibrahim Ferrer and Jainardo Batista Sterling as Rubén González — with Da’von Moody, Wesley Wray and Leonardo Reyna as their younger versions, respectively. Renesito Avich plays Eliades Ochoa, and Ashley De La Rosa a young Haydee. Also performing are Angélica Beliard, Carlos Falú, Hector Juan Maisonet, Ilda Mason, Marielys Molina, and Sophia Ramos, among others.
Last Tuesday afternoon (March 19), dressed to the nines for the musical’s official Broadway premiere, Belcon and Antonetti sat with Billboard Español to share their experience giving life to one of the most beloved singers of Cuba. (Hours later, Omara Portuondo herself, now 94, would pay the cast a visit at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York City ahead of opening night. She was not available for press).
What did you know about Buena Vista Social Club before joining this musical?
Natalie Venetia Belcon: I have musicians for parents, and they introduced me to Buena Vista Social Club, the album. I was 26, 27, something like that.
Isa Antonetti: I also have musicians for parents, and they would play the music [with their band] or the music would play it in the background and I would never know what I was listening to, until my dad told me: “You should do some more research on this on this Cuban band that we love to play sometimes.” And I was like, “Okay.” So I heard [the song] “Chan Chan” and I heard a couple of their songs and I was just humming them all over the place. And then they kind of just stayed in my Spotify and I would listen to them once in a while.
In the musical, you speak in English but sing in perfect Spanish. Are you fluent? How did you achieve the accent?
Antonetti: I’m not fluent, but I do speak.
Belcon: My father’s side of the family is Spanish, [but] I don’t speak Spanish. When we moved up to this country, we moved to the South Bronx, which is, you know… [heavily Puerto Rican]. So I am used to hearing it. I just never had to speak it. But I treat languages like I would music — I go off of the sounds and the dialect coach, so I’m good like that, just repeating and recording and putting my earphones in and you know, listening to it all the time is how I learned, anyway.
Antonetti: I always think musicians have the ear. You could give me some sheet music and I could make my way around it, but I learned best by our dialect coach, you know, speaking it and sending us voice memos, making sure I’m pronouncing it the way that is authentic to this show.
Beyond the Spanish, how did you both prepare to play Omara at these two stages in her life?
Belcon: I’m lucky in the sense that the stuff that you see of her is of her older. And so I watched “Adiós” quite a few times and listened to the stuff a lot. I mean, I can’t even help it now, it’s just kind of, you know, on repeat, basically.
How about you, Isa? There’s not so much of Omara from that era.
Antonetti: It’s so funny because I was thinking about it and I remember in the rehearsal room when they had the pictures up, it’s just like one picture of Omara when she was younger. I would do some research, I would look to see if there’s some videos of her when she was younger with like her sister and with her quad. And so I would use that, and I would also talk to [Associate Music Director] David Oquendo and ask what is the essence of someone who’s 19 in Cuba? You know, and I would try and bring that to her as well.
What was the biggest challenge of portraying a vocalist known as “La Novia del Filin” [The Bride of Feeling]?
Belcon: Well, today, it’s going to be [hard] to not pass out when I meet her. I hope my understudy is ready, ’cause I might be in the ER with IV (Laughs). The challenge is, even though this is a fable, to make sure that we are still being respectful and not making up somebody entirely. And to have a semblance of who she is, to have it resemble her as much as possible.
Antonetti: Absolutely. I could just quote what she said. All of it!
But this is your Broadway debut so, for you, what was the biggest challenge?
Antonetti: Besides the genuine general things about Broadway being exhausting through the rehearsals and the previews — you know, that it’s challenging in its own way. I think for the show specifically, it’s keeping making sure the time period stays in your body when you step on stage. I’m playing someone in the 1950s, so that’s different than how I would play someone else. I think the challenging part is remembering when you step on stage that you are a different person and you’re being respectful and you’re bringing life to something. It’s challenging and rewarding and all of the above.
At some points during the musical, your characters meet, creating really emotional moments. Any favorites for you?
Belcon: I think it might be [Ibrahim Ferrer and Portuondo’s duet] “Silencio,” when the younger two are up top on the malecón (pier) and Ibrahim comes in and then I’m having all the memories of things. That and, not necessarily my favorite but I think in my head the most important, which is how it all starts when she — again, it’s a “Do I go left or right?” It’s a crossroads: “Do I make the album or not?” Then she chooses and it’s a butterfly effect; it kind of affects everything and everybody else.
Antonetti: I would say “Chan Chan” — it’s had different iterations since we started rehearsal and I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of that number even longer because it’s so emotionally devastating, but I love the moment and I only get to see it from behind the stage of the malecón. I get to see Natalie come in and Angélica [Beliard] do this beautiful dance move where she transfers the trauma into Natalie. Just remembering it, that moment, I’m telling you, I need like three hours to recoup.
Belcon: I need three drinks! (Laughs)
What did you both learn from Omara Portuondo in this process, as a person and as an artist?
Belcon: I mean, to say that she’s strong is an understatement. There needs to be a better word — maybe it needs to be “I am Omara,” right? You know, she’s been through a lot, just a lot, and came through it all and succeeded. More than succeeded. Just the time period, what was happening [in Cuba], and she not only survived that, she thrived regardless.
Antonetti: As a person, as an artist… She is more than just those words. Whenever I think of her, it’s like what you said, strong is an understatement. She is just this powerful being that can take my breath away.
After months of rehearsals, how does it feel to see the whole show finally come together on Broadway?
Belcon: I had a little bit of a heads-up cause I’ve done it once before [off-Broadway.] I think it is different in the bigger space, definitely, but that’s always a fantastic payoff moment. All the hard work and the not sleeping and all the rest of it, when you see everything fall into place, you know, those moments when you see the younger and the older [characters together], it’s always the payoff. They’re emotional moments. They are.
Antonetti: There are moments where I just have to hold myself back because I am an emotional person. And I was like, “This is a dream and it’s coming true and I have to be grounded in that or I’ll freak out.” It’s like what I told someone else outside: It has been exhausting, but it is worth every inch and ounce of that exhaustion. Absolutely.
Actors Natalie Venetia Belcon and Isa Antonetti on the red carpet as they arrive to the Buena Vista Social Club musical opening night on Broadway on March 19, 2025, in New York City.
Andy Henderson
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Source: Kendrick Sampson / Kendrick Sampson
Many people recognize Kendrick Sampson, 37, as a talented, charismatic TV and film actor—with leading roles in Issa Rae’s cultural phenomenon Insecure, and 2022’s meet-cute romcom, Something from Tiffany’s, among others. But alongside and intertwined with building a prolific career in Hollywood, the multi-hyphenate entertainer is building something else: Black Power.
Source: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
Through his organization BLD PWR, Kendrick Sampson is laying the foundation for a movement that centers joy, art, pleasure, and creativity—all Black birthrights to claim—while also walking through the fire this time.
“I started BLD PWR to give radical changemakers a place to belong—building solid, grounded relationships between grassroots movements and the entertainment industry,” Sampson tells CASSIUSLife in an exclusive interview. “We wanted to create a safe space where we could navigate the messiness of community-building, work through our differences, and create new art and pop culture movements that support true freedom and health.”
“BLD PWR is for the misfits like me,” Sampson continues. “The ones who want to change the world and are willing to get our hands dirty, make mistakes, and do the real work needed to create beautiful art that shifts culture toward the healthiest and freest version of our story.”
Yes, there is power in the wells of revolutionary storytelling and radical truth-telling—a people power rooted in Black freedom and liberation. Movement elders often teach us that if we allow the machinations of white supremacy to steal our joy, what beloved poet and ancestor Amiri Baraka calls in Wise I our “oom boom ba boom,” then they’ve already won. If we buy into the narrative that Black bodies, steeped in generations of trauma, only have the right to bleed, not dance, then our enemies have won. If we fall victim to the lie that we can only use our voices to wail in grief, not sing, then our enemies have already won.
As this capitalist system cracks and splinters, fault lines exposing themselves before it all comes tumbling down, it will be the misfits, the time-travelers, who reach into the past to see the future. It will be the artists and teachers, dancers and musicians, healers and apothecaries, poets and storytellers, who will remind us that a new world is not only possible but that it already is and already was.
“Storytelling, like civilization, originated as an Indigenous practice in Africa,” says Sampson. “Story is at the core of community-building—it’s how we build civilization, culture, and belonging. The more control we have over our story, the more control we have over our health.”
“Hollywood has done an effective job convincing us that storytelling and art are ‘just for entertainment,’ but stories shape movements, shift perspectives, and inspire change,” he continues. “That’s why people manipulate and twist narratives—it’s a tool of control. Abusive systems use stories to justify harm and maintain power.”
BLD PWR disrupts that narrative by not only making the connections plain but also by providing insights into the film industry that can shape movement building.
“At BLD PWR, we recognize that everything needed to build a film is the same thing needed to build a healthy community,” Sampson explains. “Think about it—storytelling requires:
• Carpenters
• Medical staff
• Consultants
• Legal teams
• Food & water services
• Educators
• Housing & infrastructure
• Electrical & tech crews
• Transportation
• Performers, artists, and camera operators
• Managers, government support, payroll, and community organizers
“It’s literally community-building.”
Sampson went on to say, “Some films require thousands of people to come together to bring a vision to life. That’s not different from activism. I used to think that acting and organizing were separate, but they’re not—they’re the same thing. Storytelling is activism. For so long, I was told ‘It’s just acting’—but it’s never just acting. Stories are powerful, and those who claim they aren’t are the same people using stories to manipulate, control, and shape minds. They just don’t want you to tell the truth because it messes up their game.”
So, what do we do about it?
“More than ever, we must reclaim our stories—protect them, heal them, and nourish them,” Sampson says fiercely. “Right now, we’re seeing book bans, attacks on Black history, and AI being weaponized to rewrite truth. Social media is controlled by some of the most disconnected, dishonest, and abusive people, making it even more critical to get back to the basics: talking to each other, passing down truth, and keeping our stories alive.”
ONE TIME FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY
Source: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
If there’s one thing Sampson is going to do—besides pursue justice with a passion—that’s party with a purpose. A favorite son of Houston, Texas, specifically Missouri City, he’s made it his mission to strengthen the bonds of human connection and community by curating spaces where Black folks can be free to find our rhythm in systems that try to bury us.
To that end, each year, he uses his birthday celebration, “Who All Gon’ Be There”—because Black folks have to know before we even think about planning to leave the house—to pour back into the communities that raised him in H-Town, Mo City, and LA. He also makes certain that it’s a guaranteed back-bone twisting, hip-shaking, soul-stirring, line-dancing, solo cup sipping, Black ass good time.
“‘Our joy is resistance’ has become like a slogan—but it’s not a slogan, a talking point, or a self-help tip,” Sampson tells CASSIUS. “We are in a war for our stories, our freedom, and our people’s futures. America has always functioned as an occupying force—a settler-colonial system designed to keep us controlled through false narratives.
“But joy is a war strategy. It’s our North Star—a reminder of what we deserve, what we fight for, and the world we want to create. People get so caught up in what liberation will look like, but you can feel liberation right now through joy. That’s why the systems we fight against try so hard to strip joy away.”
Years before WAGBT grew into a major annual fundraiser for BLD PWR, Sampson envisioned what it could be.
“When I was 18 years old, I moved to LA alone. I prayed for Black mentors in entertainment, and for a long time, I thought I didn’t have them—but I did. Just not in the way I expected,” he says.
“I met Ben Guillory, who co-founded Robey Theatre Company with Danny Glover, Sampson said. “They led me to the legacy of Paul Robeson, one of my greatest inspirations to this day. Through them, I learned about Toussaint L’Ouverture, the resistance leader of the Haitian Revolution, and why Hollywood actively fights to erase figures like him from our stories.
Sampson added, “I met Richard Lyons, an acting coach who forced me to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and reenact a scene from Spike Lee’s Malcolm X film. I met Nate Parker, who was developing a short film about Nat Turner at the time. So those became my Black mentors: Paul Robeson, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Nat Turner, and Malcolm X.
“At the same time,” Sampson recalls, “I met Pastor Frank Wilson from Fifth Ward, Texas, who taught me about giving back on birthdays. My first Christmas in LA, he took us to serve at a shelter for unhoused people in the community. I’ll never forget what he said: “How would you like it if someone came to your birthday party and asked for gifts? Well, that’s what people do to Jesus every year—say they’re celebrating his birthday but only asking for things for themselves.”
“That moment transformed my thinking. I left that shelter feeling more whole than ever—rooted, aligned, and connected to something bigger than myself. From that point on, I dedicated my birthday to giving back. What started as small gatherings at shelters grew into an annual tradition—first with foster youth, then assisted living communities, and now full-fledged community fundraisers,” Sampson concludes.
WHO ALL GON’ BE THERE?
Source: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
If you are not familiar with The Session, a monthly R&B jam session in Houston created by the visionary Isaiah Parks, then please rectify that immediately. The live music scene in the city is already second to none, with supernovas like Marium Echo holding court several nights a week in front of mesmerized audiences. What Parks has done, though, is take that intoxicating, vibrant, sexy feeling one gets at the hole-in-the-wall and elevate it into the stratosphere.
By bringing together sangers like Desz, who has a voice that transports listeners to another dimension with its otherworldly power and beauty; Patrice Dominique, whose raspy growl and pitch-perfect tone reaches deep into your heart and your memories with each note; Spud Howard, king of the jukebox, who will one day be mentioned in the same breath as Johnnie Taylor, and Kirk Richmond, whose buttery rich vocals conjure tears and smiles on demand, Parks has created something sacred. The Session is a place of healing, joy, love, laughter, and community. It makes sense, then, that Sampson and Parks have partnered to bring Who All Gon’ Be There (WAGBT) x The Session R&B Jam from the Third Coast to the West Coast.
On March 9, at Axelrad Beer Garden in Houston, Sampson was joined not only by his community, friends, and family but also by his chosen family, including hometown hero and Hip-Hop luminary, Trae the Truth; Issa Rae, who toasted him with her very own Viarae Prosecco; Carl Payne, who was in town directing Je’Caryous Johnson’s Games Women Play; and Amber Riley, who sang a stunning rendition of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor.”
Source: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
Now, this Sunday, March 23, Who All Gon’ Be There (WAGBT) x The Session R&B Jam touches down in Los Angeles, bringing that sticky, sweet southern heat to the City of Angels.
Lucille Clifton teaches us that we must “celebrate that every day something has tried to kill us and has failed.” Yes, we are living in occupied territory surrounded by people terrified and envious of Black brilliance, power, beauty, ingenuity, creativity, and joy. But they did not create our joy, so it will never be theirs to destroy.
And believing, living, breathing, sharing, and fighting for that truth, collectively and internally? That’s how we build power.
“When we lean into joy, it’s a release, a reminder, and a reunion with our freest selves,” Sampson teaches us. “It’s about building spaces where we can breathe, laugh, and celebrate our power—not just spaces of struggle. That’s what WAGBT is about.”
To support BLD PWR, donate directly at www.bldpwr.com/donate.
This support helps fund:
• Community organizing initiatives
• Programs for Black storytellers and filmmakers
• Grassroots movement-building
• Activism, education, and leadership development
Your contributions fuel real change, ensuring that art, storytelling, and activism remain powerful tools for liberation.
1. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 4
Source:De’Andre Silas
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2. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 5
Source:De’Andre Silas
Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 5 birthday,houston,kendrick sampson,bld pwr
3. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 7
Source:De’Andre Silas
Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 7 birthday,houston,kendrick sampson,bld pwr
4. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 8
Source:De’Andre Silas
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5. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 9
Source:De’Andre Silas
Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 9 birthday,houston,kendrick sampson,bld pwr
6. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 17
Source:De’Andre Silas
Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 17 birthday,houston,kendrick sampson,bld pwr
7. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 16
Source:De’Andre Silas
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8. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 6
Source:De’Andre Silas
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9. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 15
Source:De’Andre Silas
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10. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 14
Source:De’Andre Silas
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11. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 11
Source:De’Andre Silas
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12. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 12
Source:De’Andre Silas
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13. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 4
Source:De’Andre Silas
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14. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 22
Source:Semetra Samuel
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15. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 29
Source:Semetra Samuel
Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 29 birthday,houston,kendrick sampson,bld pwr
16. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 23
Source:other
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17. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 24
Source:Semetra Samuel
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18. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 25
Source:Semetra Samuel
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19. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 26
Source:Semetra Samuel
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20. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 27
Source:Semetra Samuel
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21. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 28
Source:Semetra Samuel
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22. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 30
Source:Semetra Samuel
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23. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 20
Source:De’Andre Silas
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24. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 21
Source:Semetra Samuel
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25. Kendrick Sampson BDay Party R&BJams with The Session 18
Source:De’Andre Silas
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LaVar Ball first emerged on the scene as a larger-than-life figure who touted the basketball skills of his three sons as the next big thing in professional sports. Recently, LaVar Ball went through a medical procedure to remove his foot and explained in a new column piece that complications from diabetes led to the decision.
LaVar Ball, 57, penned an exclusive column for the April/May issue of SLAM magazine with Ball gracing the covers of the publications with his sons LiAngelo aka Gelo, LaMelo, and Lonzo. Ball’s relentless promotion of his sons and their athletic exploits made the Ball family one of the most intriguing names in sports and both Lonzo and LaMelo have flourished in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Hornets respectively.
In the SLAM column, the patriarch of the Ball family gets candid about the complications from diabetes that led to the amputation of his foot, which caused him to face his mortality. However, he found strength not only in the success of Lonzo and LaMelo on the court but also in Gelo’s big hit “Tweaker” which he references several times throughout the piece.”
From SLAM:
When I was in the hospital and “Tweaker” was starting to become a global hit, I had a couple of FaceTime conversations with Gelo, but I was kind of slurring because I was all drugged up with all the medication they were putting in me. It was hard for me to really dial in on what I was trying to say. Even though I was kind of slurring with my speech, Gelo understood what I was trying to say. I remember just telling him, Keep doing your thing. And make sure you take care of your brothers. Just make sure all of y’all are together. Cause the more you guys are together, the better I feel. That’s all I kept thinking about when I was in the hospital—my boys being together.
Read the story in full here.
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Yung Miami and Sean “Diddy” Combs were involved in a brief but intense romantic situation that observers openly coveted and applauded for the unattached way the pair carried their union and their openness about sex. After Yung Miami famously stated on her show that she was a fan of “golden showers,” the rapper and podcast host has since walked back that stance in a new interview.
Yung Miami was a guest on Stepping into the Shade Room with host Thembi Mawema, and the pair discussed a number of topics related to her career, her recent birthday celebration, and, of course, all things involving her former group, the City Girls.
Mawema, flipping the script, asked the “Rap Freaks” star some scandalous questions in a version of Miami’s Resha Roulette game and was questioned about the infamous moment in 2023 on Caresha Please with Trina where she expressed a love for “watersports.” However, it looks like Caresha was just poddin’ and talking mess.
‘I always go back to that interview and say, ‘Why the fuck did I say that?’” Miami says. She added, “I’m the type of person that’s like that. Like, I say some sh*t and then I’m just like, ‘What?’ I have a bubbly personality. I can tell y’all a thousand times, English, Spanish, and French [that] no man has ever peed on me.”
Last year, Miami clarified that she didn’t let Diddy perform a golden shower on her. However, the chatter persisted all the same.
Check out the full Yung Miami interview with Stepping into the Shade Room below. Hop to the 52-minute mark to see the comments mentioned above.
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Billy Corgan has spent over three decades reshaping alternative rock, carving out a legacy as bold and uncompromising as his music.
From the dreamy haze of Siamese Dream to the sprawling ambition of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness—a No. 1 Billboard 200 smash—his work plays like a fever-dream diary, each album a restless search for meaning in a world that refuses to stay still.
With The Magnificent Others, The Smashing Pumpkins frontman’s latest foray into long-form storytelling, Corgan channels that same restless curiosity into candid, unfiltered conversations with some of music’s most fascinating figures. Featuring legends like Diane Warren, Gene Simmons, Sharon Osbourne, Tom Morello and Wolfgang Van Halen, the podcast isn’t just a name-drop fest—it’s a deep dive into music’s untold stories.
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“It’s really not that different from how I am in my personal life,” Corgan tells Billboard. “I’ve been lucky enough through the years to talk to so many well-known and successful people, and so it’s not that different to what I would ask if I was just sitting around a dinner table.”
“Some people take umbrage with the fact that I insert myself or tell stories, but that’s just how I talk,” he continues. “I don’t do this professionally—I didn’t go to school for it. It’s not like I wrote for a fanzine for five years before jumping in. I went straight to the highest level, talking to some of the most famous people in the world.”
Fans have noticed the difference. “My favorite compliment was people writing me saying, ‘I haven’t heard an interview like that for Gene Simmons in 25 years.’”
His approach has led to moments that even surprise him. In a recent episode with Diane Warren, the legendary songwriter revealed that, after writing over 1,500 songs, her process is still entirely instinctual.
“I expected some kind of formula, but she just said, ‘I feel it. I’m looking for that song that makes the hair rise up on your arm,’” Corgan explains “It’s very similar to Rick Rubin—Rick will openly say, ‘I don’t know anything about recording. I only know what I’m attracted to and what makes me feel something.’
“So here are two people at the top of their field who don’t have an intellectual overlay to their work. They trust their instincts, and somehow that translates to the common public in a way that’s more universal than anything I’ve ever done. And that shocks me—like, how do you just roll out of bed and know what the right song is?”
For Corgan, these conversations aren’t just about craft—they’re about legacy. He’s spent his entire career pushing against the weight of his own past, sometimes at great personal cost.
“Celebrity culture basically influences the zeitgeist to the point where if you don’t play along, something’s wrong with you,” he reflects. What followed was a period of exile where he felt stripped of status and dismissed in ways that undermined his accomplishments.
“There was a period where I completely resisted nostalgia, and I was punished for it,” he admits. Punished in a way that was actually very cruel. Not only was I stripped of my celebrity or my status, I was sort of mocked. The best way I could explain it, if you and I were just sitting around a table, is they tried to take away from me the things that I actually did, right? It wasn’t enough that I wrote those songs and didn’t want to play them—it was like, ‘We’re not even sure he wrote those songs.’”
Eventually, he found peace with it. He realized that celebrating his past didn’t mean being trapped by it.
“I found some kind of balance in there, where I can play the songs that people want to hear—and by the way, I wrote them, so it doesn’t hurt me,” he says. “At the same time, I can balance it with new material. And once I found that balance in the last six, seven years, it’s been super positive energy around me, around the band, around the shows. So I feel very good that I made the right decision, because I do want people to have a good time.
“For every person that wants to talk about Siamese Dream, there’s just as many people that want to talk to me about the album that didn’t sell—because the album was good, it just didn’t sell,” he says. “But in the pop world, it’s sell or not sell. Sell or don’t exist. That’s a Faustian bargain.”
The fracturing of musical culture particularly fascinates him. Where The Smashing Pumpkins emerged in an era when alternative rock briefly became the mainstream – with Corgan appearing on magazine covers alongside other alternative figureheads – today’s landscape is infinitely more splintered.
“People use the term ‘digital ghetto,’ and I think what they mean is that things exist in a particular zip code digitally,” he explains. “You could drop a name that all your friends know as the hottest thing in the world, and your five neighbors would be like, ‘Who?’”
He contrasts this with his formative years, when cultural touchstones were truly universal. “I sat at tables in 1986 where grandma was debating Madonna. Because what Madonna did on MTV, everybody saw it. That’s not how it was in the ’80s or the ’90s. Everybody knew Madonna.”
“I don’t know if the pop stars of today, outside of maybe Taylor Swift,” he says, explaining, “Her future will probably look a lot like Madonna’s, in that it will have a very long tail, and they’ll follow her until the end. But for a lot of the rest of them? I don’t think we have any idea what’s going to happen.”
And, of course, there’s Britney. “I think it’s fair to call Britney the prototypical pop siren of the 21st century. Britney set the f—ing new template,” he declares.
For Corgan, his own legacy isn’t just a professional concern—it’s personal. He wants to make sure his children understand his place in the world.
“My son was surprised when I told him not everyone likes my music,” Corgan says, laughing. “I told him, ‘Look, it’s cool. Not everybody likes what Daddy does, but a lot of people do.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Well, I think you’re the best.’”
“I want my son to understand my perspective of my musical and artistic life, so that when he encounters other people’s opinions of me, he’ll have formed his own version of it,” he explains.
But beyond sentimentality, he’s thinking about the long-term future of his work. “I want to make sure that if anything happens to me, my affairs are put in order in a way that my children cannot only benefit from my hard work but also know what to do with it,” he says.
“There’s at least 100 unreleased songs. And I think I’ve released 350 or so at this point. So understanding that those are valuable things—they have to be protected like works of art.”
At this point in his career, Corgan isn’t chasing approval or trying to rewrite the past. He’s found his balance—honoring the legacy he’s built while continuing to explore what’s next. Shortly after the conversation, he announced A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, a reimagining of the landmark album as an opera, set to debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Nov. 21.
“People associate me so strongly with the Pumpkins,” he reflects. “It’s hard for them to imagine me apart from it.”
Jordan Firstman did not set out to turn videos of him reading inherently ridiculous sentences into a running, viral piece of internet lore — it just turns out he’s exactly the right person to spin twisted confessions into comedy gold.
“I think I just have the kind of personality where nothing really shocks me,” he tells Billboard over Zoom, before quietly chuckling to himself. “I think I have something wrong in my brain where I cannot understand that people would be shocked over something.”
Firstman has been posting his Instagram series Secrets — in which his followers submit anonymous sentences disclosing some of their wildest personal tidbits — since the pandemic. Taking simple messages ranging from the mundane (“I voted third party”) to the truly absurd (“I k-holed in a guys bathroom on the 1st date n robbed him”), the comedian started to slowly transform some of his favorite secrets into short songs. Next month, the singer will bring his long-running gag to a brand new format with his debut album.
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Secrets, due out Friday, April 4th via Capitol Records, takes those same direct messages from fans and transforms them into brand new songs — the first of which (“I Wanna See My Friends’ D–ks”) fans will get to hear on Thursday (March 14). Spanning genres and subject matters, the album plays back to front as a raunchy, raucous ride through Firstman’s unique comedy lens. Plus, he adds: “The songs sound f–king amazing.”
Below, Firstman chats with Billboard about the origins of his Instagram series, how he scored a major label record deal and why modern pop stardom requires singers to have comedy chops.
Take me back to how the Secrets Instagram series started: what made you want to take your followers’ deepest, dumbest secrets and turn them into content?
It was a very pandemic thing; I had the idea to use the questions box to ask [for secrets]. I actually was kind of making songs out of them pretty immediately, just by myself with no beats or anything. I think the character limit means you cannot get into full stories, so they just felt like these little soundbites that were great to make fun of. To this day, who knows what’s real and what’s not, but I try to just use the ones that feel real.
I know you’ve referred to this as your “indie” series behind something like your very successful Impressions series — at what point did you realize that Secrets was really hitting a nerve with your audience?
It’s such a social media answer, but this was a way to just have this immediate connection with your following. I’m far from the first person to do this — there was stuff like PostSecret back in the day. Kind of like comedy, you cannot own the style, but you can own how you do it. So, I think what’s made it stick with my followers is just, I guess, my own sensibility and my own take on things.
At what point did the idea occur to you that those songs you were making could become an album?
I guess about a year or two ago, I had just been compiling these free MIDI files of different genres, and I would just play them in my apartment when I was bored. I have this friend, Brad Oberhofer, who is a brilliant musician, and I asked him if he would want to do one live with me, and that was the beginning of the new era of Secrets. We just kind of became a great team, and the songs were really fun. It wasn’t until this summer that I was like, “Ok, so we should start recording a couple of these and see what we get.” It became clear within a week or two that there was something there. I asked a couple other friends to start helping out, and within that first month, I think I had 10 or 12 songs recorded, I had a record deal, and it all happened really fast.
How do you go about selecting which submissions make for the best songs, versus which ones are just good for normal Secrets submissions?
When I’m doing them with Brad, I probably get anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 secrets every time I do it. And so there is this kind of pressure every time we do it, so I do get drunk. [Laughs.] It’s kind of the only way I can move that fast, because we usually do these in about an hour, and we’ll do anywhere from 10 to 20 mini songs. The more we’ve done, the more we’ve wanted more production in there, so it’s not just us and a guitar, it’s us having this very fast live setup. We just scroll really fast, and whatever pops up, we just do it. It’s become a very instinctual thing. Like, yeah, “My Sister’s Tryna F–k & She Needs to Chill” is obviously a country song. Obviously! But we’re working so fast that we don’t have time to think about it.
But then on the album, luckily, all of the secrets are logged [on Instagram]. So I’ve gone through my archive and I found so many good ones. I’d say a little less than half of the album are secrets that I haven’t made songs out of yet, but that I was like, “Oh, this is a perfect premise for a song.”
In working with Brad, as you’ve been putting these together, have you started to kind of find the sound that you’re most comfortable with? Or is the eclectic genre approach very much the point?
There is a major level up that happened on the album. It’s truly every genre — there’s an amazing jazz song, there’s a Nirvana-style song, there’s a funk song, there’s a post-punk song, there’s a Central Cee-type song where I rap. We’re probably missing, like, classical? But on the deluxe, I do want to have an insane song title, and then just have it be classical music with no lyrics.
Was there any part of this process that proved to be a challenge for you?
The songs are kind of gendered, and the titles immediately tell me if it’s a boy or a girl singing it, and so there are some songs that are absolutely girl songs. I do, however, have a male voice, so it became a question of, “How do I sing this song from a woman’s POV?” On at least one of the songs, we do pitch me up a little bit, but it’s still my cadence. There’s one almost-Lilith Fair-style ’90s lesbian song that was really challenging to find the right vocal tone for.
Let’s talk a little about the record deal — how did that process start, and why did you go with Capitol?
So basically, I have four main producers now — Brad, Blake Slatkin, Zach Dawes and Sega Bodega. I have really good people, so now the songs sound f–king amazing. But Blake and I had a session, and within an hour, we had the single, done and ready to go. We knew it was a f–king smash. After that, we sent the record over to Capitol. I went in literally the next day to play them a couple of songs, and then they were just like, “Yeah, we would like to do this with you.” I didn’t even really meet with other people, because it was like, “They get this, and they’re going to do it in the right way.” They understood it so well immediately, so we just went for it.
I remember the next week, I went into a big boardroom with the chairman of Capitol and president and the vice president, and I played them “My Sister’s Tryna F–k & She Needs to Chill.” And they got it! It was very aligned, the whole experience just felt right. I don’t know, sometimes there’s this rhetoric [from artists] of “F–k the labels,” and I’m sitting here like “I don’t know, they’ve been great!” [Laughs].
Comedy music has been picking up some steam over the last couple years, with people like Bo Burnham and Tom Cardy earning big viral songs in the genre. Why do you think this genre is having that moment right now?
I think music is now bigger than it’s ever been, and then comedy is so inherent to music right now. Like, you can’t really be a musician right now if you don’t have a sense of humor. Look at Sabrina Carpenter — in a way, she is making comedy songs! And Lil Nas X! With social media, everyone has almost had to turn into a comedian to thrive.
It’s interesting — this is definitely a comedy album, for sure, but it’s almost some songs more than others [are comedy songs]. When I think about what I’m doing, to me, it’s not in line with most of the comedy albums that have been out lately. I would actually compare it more to something like Bloodhound Gang — they’re real songs that are also funny. The joke isn’t the main part of the song, but they are still funny.
This is a huge time for you with this album, the success of English Teacher, your upcoming role in Rachel Sennott’s comedy series — what are some things that you’re still hoping to accomplish in the months and years to come?
It’s a big year of firsts for me, and I kind of just have to do the work. I’m excited to see what sticks. You can’t be attached to any real outcome, but I don’t know. Everyone who hears this music just really likes it, and so I have a good feeling about this. It’s been a slow and steady build, and it’s starting to feel like the projects this year are the things that I’ve been really prepared for. So, I’m just excited to see the response.
While the K-pop scene is an ever-evolving landscape whose definition has expanded beyond a specific genre of music, Yves wants her career to change preconceived notions that tend to separate K-pop idols from being considered complete artists.
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Back in November 2017 when Yves (born Ha Soo-young) was first introduced to the world as the ninth member of LOONA through the dark, atmospheric synth-pop throbber of single “New,” the star may have unknowingly set a standard of experimental excellence that would define her solo career years later. An exploration of newfound artistic expression and identity, a now-unshackled Yves released two EPs last year in Loop and I Did (both of which made Billboard‘s mid-year and year-end best K-pop albums lists) with singles like “Viola” and “Loop” featuring Lil Cherry embracing the club-ready sounds that defined some of 2024’s best records as different album cuts explore everything from racing and acoustic rock as well as airy R&B and soft electronica. To date, I Did has 6,000 equivalent album units of activity through Feb. 20, according to Luminate, with its songs collectively registering five million official on-demand U.S. streams. Furthermore, Yves’ most streamed song in the U.S. is “Viola,” which has 2.16 million official on-demand U.S. streams.
“I always had my own image,” Yves shares backstage at the Brooklyn Paramount ahead of the opening U.S. date of her Apple Cinnamon Crunch tour. “But as my solo career is developing, I think I was able to explore more and show more of myself. I feel like I can express a lot of things now that I couldn’t.”
Embracing the multifaceted flavors of the tour’s unique name, Yves begins the show in a punky, funky black mini-skirt and top for the first half of the show, which includes Madison Beer and Avril Lavigne covers before changing into an all-white ensemble reminiscent of any classic millennium pop star look.
While the 27-year-old connected with fans in person on tour across Europe and the States (and will hit Latin and South America in April), Yves wants all aspects of her career to speak to anyone who feels like an outsider. “What I’m trying to pursue is to become a person where I can freely express myself in the world where there is a lot that can cloud one’s perspective,” she adds. “I really don’t want to put myself in a box.”
As she takes center stage fully on her own as a soloist, Yves seems ready to shine brighter than ever. Read on for more insights from Yves’ concurrent journey of solo stardom and self-discovery.
You’ve performed in the States in the past, but it is your first time as a soloist. How has the tour been going and how are you feeling ahead of your first U.S. concert?
At first, I was very scared. Because on stage all of the members are gone, right? It’s just me. So, I’ve been very nervous, but now I think I can enjoy. I’m 70 percent ready out of 100.
From music to fashion to even social media presence, you’ve been sharing what feels like a totally refreshed person. What has been happening in these past months? Are we seeing the real you?
I always had my own image. Back when I was a part of LOONA, whenever I was wearing my own clothes — so, not the clothes that the company wanted me to wear — my members weren’t able to recognize me in public. But as my solo career is developing, I think I was able to explore more and show more of myself. I feel like I can express a lot of things now that I couldn’t before because I have opportunities, so as I develop more and more, you can see more and more of myself.
One of your biggest changes was signing with PAIX PER MIL. I’ve heard K-pop companies may kind of force an image on an idol or artist, but it seems like they give you a lot of creative freedom?
When I was first searching for agencies to join, most of them told me that I have to be either part of a girl group or they didn’t think I can make it as a solo in meetings. But when I went to PAIX PER MIL, the producer, millic, sent me a long message and told me that I have potential to become a solo artist. So, I was really touched by the message that he sent and also that he believed in my image. So, I trusted him and he trusted me.
I was with my first label for almost eight years and in an idol group so I was obligated to think, “Are these clothes right for me? Can I wear this? Can I pose this way? Can I take a picture like that?” I was unsure about what to do with myself. But the label [PAIX PER MIL] really pushed me to point where I could just express myself and just fully show my version of me. So, I think that’s how my label really supported me. It’s a lot easier to have fun now.
You came out so strong with “LOOP” featuring Little Cherry, “Viola” was one of the best songs of last year but there’s also rock, you’re recording in different languages you, is this the music you personally listen to?
When I was first making the LOOP EP, my musical spectrum wasn’t as big as of now. I used to listen to the same songs that I’ve always listened to, but my producers, millic and ioah, really helped me to expand my musical spectrum. It was kind of like homework, where they’d assigned me to listen to some music that they recommended or sometimes they’d share what kind of music they’re listening to. One thing that I remember is the day that they asked me to make a playlist of what I wanted to do in my solo career so I was able to collect the music that I wanted to perform as an artist and make my choices for my music. So, I think as of now, I can confidently say that I am doing what I want to do in terms of my music taste.
Do you remember what songs were included?
So many songs! When I was a part of LOONA, I felt that I was a member who is good at ballads rather than the kind of dance-pop that I’m doing right now. But when I was collecting the music from my playlist, I was able to collect some funky sounds, alternative sounds, rock sounds, all the different kind of experimental sounds that I’ve never dealt with [as a singer]. That’s when I discovered Caroline Polachek and other artists that I’m into right now.
You have great taste and it’s great you could develop your sound. But on the other side of things, why didn’t you want to go to a group or re-debut in another formation?
During my one year break [in 2023], I was able to interact with my other members of LOONA as well as keep communicating my fans. When I was talking to my fans, they were really the ones who convinced me to pursue a solo career. They really supported me for who I am, my choices, and what I wanted to do. So, I think that kind of really pushed me to become a solo artist. Also, when I was talking to other members of LOONA, we all wanted to reach a happy path for all of us and attempt challenges we hadn’t done before because we were going through a lot together. So, there are the solo artists like me and Chuu, but also other girl groups that were formed with LOONA members.
Despite the hard time, it seems like everyone from ARTMS and Loossemble to even Jade Jeong has loving memories of LOONA. Do you feel the same?
Of course. I’m not sure exactly how to put this in English, but it’s kind of like a sore finger. I feel like, you know, I have to have a finger, but also it kind of hurts and will always give me those memories of my past.
My, one of my favorite lyrics from you is on “Hashtag,” which is “Don’t care what’s fake and who you are/ Yeah, In my world, it is only you and me, babe.” What is your perspective these days on what you wanna personally share, whether it’s your social media, your lyrics, fan interactions?
What I’m trying to pursue is to become a person where I can freely express myself in the world where there is a lot that can cloud one’s perspective. I’m also trying to be a confident person who can make my opinions clear without losing my taste. There is a lot of social media and channels to communicate these days which means there’s a lot of information and opinions. It’s gotten to the point where if you’re a little bit different, people criticize or blame them for being different rather than being accepting for who they are. I think that’s the most important part to consider in this world of social media. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like that.
What kind of message would you give to someone who maybe is being criticized or not accepted and needs the kind of confidence you always show?
It’s a huge world. To the people who feel that something is different, even if you feel like you’re alone or you’ve isolated and locked yourselves in, I should share that when you look around, in fact, there are so many people who think like you, share the same beliefs and don’t deny their existence because of people who criticize them. And just like you or I would say, I always want to support you for who you are and don’t feel discouraged or insecure for being different. Don’t stop.
I love that message. Is there anything else you want to share right now?
I don’t know about the mindset abroad, but in Korea there’s a certain boundary of what is an idol and what is an artist. But I’ve honestly always been an artist and an idol equally since I was in LOONA. I want to be in both. It’s an ongoing process and I really don’t want to put myself in a box when I want to be part of both. I think that’s the message that I really wanted to share here.
It’s obviously been a major year for Cynthia Erivo. The star, who portrayed the iconic Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, is in the running for best actress in a leading role at this year’s Oscars ceremony and her inimitable vocal ability has been the inspiration behind many social media users attempting to recreate her otherworldly vocal run at the end of the film’s “Defying Gravity” number.
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But she’s not done just yet. Erivo chatted exclusively with Billboard about her brand new single, “Replay,” which arrived on Friday (Feb. 28) and marks her first solo release since 2021. “I’m sort of leaning into vulnerability these days,” she says with a laugh, and that sentiment is clear on the Justin Tranter co-written track, which delves into the emotional rollercoaster of being human. “I’m a constant work in progress, and I can’t keep fears at bay,” she opens the pop-leaning track with, before proclaiming in the chorus: “My mind is like a record, setup on auto-replay.”
“I’ve always wanted to be a music artist outside of being an actress, and my journey to it has just been different,” Erivo explains. “Some people come to it pretty early and some people come to it when the time is right, and this is the time for me.”
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With that in mind, the 38-year-old artist wants to introduce herself musically on her own terms, as the upbeat pop production of “Replay” leads listeners away from the ballads that they might be used to her belting for films in the past — to hopefully see Erivo as Cynthia, not as some of her famous onscreen roles. “I think people are really used to me singing a particular kind of way and particular kind of songs, but those songs are other people’s songs. Working on this music has been sort of a stream of consciousness that ended up being the page,” she says. “I think sometimes we’ll apply genre to a person, when the person hasn’t actually given you the genre that they are. I just happen to love to sing, but sometimes you don’t want to make big sounds, and you actually just want to tell a story, and that was what ‘Replay’ was about.”
She continues, “The song gives people the opportunity to get to know me a lot better, to get to know what goes on in my head from time to time, to get to know what I’ve thought in the past and sometimes even now, and the things that I have experienced. It’s almost like a personal lullaby that tells people who I am and that I’m human too, just like everybody else.”
Beyond its relatable and clever lyrical content, the production of “Replay” was just as personal to Erivo, inspired by the 90s Brit-pop she grew up with. “As a Brit, I wanted to bring something that felt particularly English, from my time, because I felt like we haven’t heard anything that feels like that in a while,” the London native explains.
“Everything that you hear in there — all the backing vocals, all of the pads, all of the whistling, even some of the percussion — that’s all me,” she adds enthusiastically. “I’m using my nails for what would sound like a clap. The whistle in the background is actually me whistling. The vocal padding and that vocal arrangement, that’s all me. If you listen carefully, you’ll feel the tempos speed up and then slow down again. It’s on purpose. It starts at 89 beats per minute, goes to 94 beats per minute and goes right back to 89 beats per minute, because it feels like what the heart rate does. It speeds up when things are getting a little bit strange, and then it comes back down.”
With her passion about “Replay” so evident, it’s no surprise Erivo is gearing up to release a full-length album, which she began working on in August 2023 and throughout her time filming Wicked. “I have to say that this is probably one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had in my life. I’ve written albums before, and it didn’t feel like this,” she says. “I knew the things I wanted to talk about and I knew the stories I wanted to tell. I knew the colors that I wanted in it — literally and figuratively, because some of the songs literally are based on a color. Like, what color do I want to write? Green! Then, one day I want to write about sex and, one day, I want to write about love or, today, I want to write about heartbreak, or maybe something in the color of blue.”
Overall, Erivo is ready for this next chapter in her career, keeping her heart on her sleeve as she always does and has become beloved for. “I want people to see that I’m a musician, like a person who understands the language of music implicitly and is willing to use it in loads of different ways,” she says. “It would be easy for me to sing a big ballad. Trust me, there’s a ballad on this album. But, more than anything, I love the making of music, the creating of music. I love using the music to tell the story. My story.”
Listen to Erivo’s “Replay” here.
At Taemin‘s concert at Kings Theatre in New York, the opening show for the K-pop star’s first U.S. tour as a soloist, the 31-year-old thrusts, lunges, and splays his body in an assortment of impromptu, interpretive positions that captivate the sold-out venue. A less experienced performer could have easily fumbled committing to such dauntless dancing. However, with more than half his life in the K-pop spotlight, Taemin appears as if he’s in complete control of every aspect of the theater stage and his body – seemingly aware of how each strand of his dirty blonde, slightly off-center middle part will land on his head after every move.
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Throughout his 17 years in the game, Taemin has long voiced his adoration of Michael Jackson with hit singles like “MOVE” and “Press Your Number” boasting clear MJ inspiration. But Michael didn’t become the King of Pop simply as a member of the Jackson 5, but years later when he broke out into a solo artist, eventually rising to universal acknowledgment and acclaim with Thriller, his fifth solo record, and solidifying his legacy in music history. Similarly, Taemin’s first U.S. live trek sees the star in a breakout moment of sorts.
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After 16 years signed as a soloist and member of boy band SHINee under SM Entertainment, Taemin opted not to renew his solo contract with the legacy label in March 2024 and signed with the relative newcomer BPM Entertainment. In under a year since his management change, Taemin released his most creatively involved work yet via his Eternal EP, launched his first-ever global trek in the Ephemeral Gaze world tour, and took on his first hosting job for the boy band competition series Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace. Yet it’s not just the work that defines this past year as Taemin’s breakout moment but a shift in how he approaches work.
“Before, I felt like I was just executing tasks,” a cheery Taemin shares during a morning Zoom call from Seoul during his few days off from touring. “But now, I’m leading it and taking care of the different details…I feel now I’m becoming more independent.”
While feeling more powerful than ever as an artist, Taemin knows loads of eyes are on him, which inspired the concept of the Ephemeral Gaze tour but also serves as a reminder for viewers to see that his attitude has never shifted.
“I’m still doing the same performance, I’m trying to give it my all and I don’t like the attitude of just because you’re popular, you want to take some things easier,” he says. “No, even my body breaks, if I dislocate the shoulder; I want to give it my 100 percent and more as long as people come to cheer and see me.”
With packed houses at the tour’s multiple theaters, as well as one night at the Kia Forum arena in Los Angeles, for Taemin’s first U.S. tour, fans could see his empowered nature, his creative commitment, but also his humbleness to deliver the same amiable aura that resonates through this webcam chat.
After performing the sultry album cut “Not Over You” from 2023’s Guilty EP, Taemin took a breather to speak with the NYC crowd. The artwork for Taemin’s Ephemeral Gaze world tour plastered across the LED screens behind him catches his eyes, and he looks back at the audience and smiles, saying, “I’m Taemin.”
Of course, everyone knew who he was — the screams and cheers confirmed as much — but this new chapter of Taemin’s artist journey could indeed be a new person greeting us. Get to know Taemin today in the interview below.
Billboard: You performed concerts in South America at the top of February, and on Feb. 13, you’ll have five concerts across the U.S., but you’re back in Korea right now. What are you doing between legs?
Taemin: There are many tasks and work that I need to do in Korea that have been piling up, so I’m working on that, having different meetings and going through different schedules during my short time here. This might sound funny, but during my time off, I’m actually adjusting to New York’s time. I had just gotten used to Latin American time, and now I’m in Korea, but I’m about to go to the U.S. soon, so I’m adjusting my body for the New York time zone. But especially for this tour, where there are not many days in between, I had a lot of business I needed to take care of
How has your solo world tour experience been so far?
This is actually really my first time doing this kind of tour as a solo act, so I did have my doubts and concerns, like, “Can I successfully pull this off?” In a way, it is uncharted territory and, as you know, I did tour with groups including SuperM, but it has truly been a while, so I also had concerns about that. However, when I started performing, wow, did the fans embrace me. I felt like I could really feel their love and longing so wholly — like I felt their emotions so directly. So, with this warmth, I’ve been able to really actively interact with fans.
Do you have different versions of the show depending on the continent or country?
There is a certain format, but let’s say depending on the vibe of the place, and especially the attitude of the fans, things change, I guess. I would say my expression or attitude towards the performance can change when I’m singing a ballad or just dancing…maybe today, I feel like taking advantage of the entire stage and walking around and exploring it. Ninety percent of the performance might be set, but it’s the 10 percent that widely differs according to my mood.
You mentioned you toured the U.S. with SuperM, I remember SHINee had some U.S. concerts and appearances, but now it’s a full U.S. tour for Taemin. So, what took so long?
I think my previous company had different market-based investments and made certain decisions. There could have been many different reasons, and that I don’t know clearly, but for some reason, we didn’t go to the States much. You mentioned the SHINee concerts from long ago and when we went there, I was pretty surprised. There were a lot of people waiting for and warmly embracing us. I felt not only touched, but how I really wanted to continue this and it felt like a shame that we didn’t. I was thinking a lot about the foreign fans waiting, which makes me feel thankful. I also don’t want this [experience] to be just forgotten as it would be a shame if it ends like this. So, I want to come back, but not just to have a single event; I’m talking about a series of long-lasting memories with all these people.
In under a year, you’ve performed across new countries, joined a new agency company, participated in new TV shows, and have new collaborators. Is there any big lesson that you’re thinking about throughout the tour?
Yeah, so many things learned. I mean, we can just even talk about what I’ve learned in promoting and the industry’s deeper inner workings. Before, I felt like, let’s say, I was executing tasks and just knowing that task. But now, in a way, I’m leading it and taking care of the different details. Not a whole concert, but I’m really learning the system, even when it comes to just the performance direction. I feel now I’m becoming more independent. Previously, I was a kid and now I’m learning what to do and how to care and think for myself.
Also not to mention, fans were waiting for a global tour and now I believe that it can work. To use a Korean expression, I’m no longer “a frog in a well.” I’m out in the real world. Internally, I feel even stronger and life is all about maturing as you gain experience. I feel like this is true for artists too because this idea of expression or creativity, it stems from experiences and I’ve been having numerous experiences.
We know you shine on stage, but seeing you as a composer on every Eternal song where you wrote more than ever was new. Can you relate anything from the recording process to these touring experiences?
Firstly, if I’m going to use this title as an “artist,” I really need to input the message into my music and express my emotions through this art. Although, of course, I had a great writers and producers helping me to prepare this album. We were tight on time so there are a lot of things I wish we could have maybe spent more time on and such, but one thing I do want to say that I’m very looking at it quite positively is that it is truly an album that I really put my thoughts, my emotions and my experiences onto. And this is how I want to proceed from now on. You could say, I’m not doing albums that I am told to do. I’m not like a student at a school, but I’m really talking about my experiences and thoughts through my art. The tour is the same way, this “Ephemeral Gaze” has a message how people have a lot of different views of me and I’ve done nothing but try to do the best performances, art and make great music. But people can always view me in a skewed way, so, I guess that’s just the life of an artist — you’re receiving infinite love and attention, but along with that you can be seen in a distorted view.
For example, during the concert you’ll see there are many eyes and I am under these in a way; the view and scrutiny of these eyes. But on the stage, you will see me performing and trying to do my best. I haven’t changed. I’m still doing the same performance, I’m trying to give it my all and I don’t like the attitude of just because you’re popular you want to take some things easier. No, even my body breaks, if I dislocate the shoulder, I want to give it my 100 percent and more as long as people come to cheer and see me. I’ll add that age does play a factor on you, but this is how I feel. This is my attitude.
I think it’s a good attitude to have. I remember an interview where you said you want to make classic songs, songs that can be nostalgic for years to come. What makes a song a classic?
So, music for just casual consumption are all great and they exist for a reason. The way I define something that’s, like, classic or everlasting is that it’s music I really feel and really sympathize with; something that gives me strength or comfort, it makes me relive memories. With that, I hope that my music can be a memory someone who can just take it and relive the memories by listening. Every musician has their own color and how you define and work on your color is a journey in itself. Everyone takes this approach differently — there are some people who can change directions, there are some who can explore and experiment, there’s some who keep going deeper into their specific color one piece at a time. I would say I’m more in the latter, going deeper and deeper, carving out a little bit deeper each time. I want to pioneer this as a gen-two [2nd generation K-pop] artist.
I also just want to add that the career of idols can be short and, often, there are a lot of idols that take a different path after. But I want to show that as a musician, you can really have this long run with this distinguished identity and I hope that this music eventually can give someone strength, comfort or hope, and help them relive memories. There are musicians like that for me like Michael Jackson. I mentioned earlier in this interview that I like doing things impromptu on stage and I also really see that in Michael Jackson. He had a song — what was it again? Oh, yeah — “Man in the Mirror,” where he was doing the performances in an impromptu [style] too. In a way, you can say the music wasn’t perfect. But the energy and passion? That was perfect. You don’t need to always be on pitch or on beat to have “perfection.” During those days, when they were lacking [sound] systems, he was just perfect. I would say he’s my role model. I still listen to his work.
Speaking of great performances, and in celebrating your kickoff U.S. date in New York, your first time performing in NYC was SMTOWN 2011 in Madison Square Garden. I was actually there covering for Billboard. Do you have fun memories from then?
I don’t remember the exact details like the press conference, it was over 13 years ago, but I remember Madison Square Garden. Doesn’t New York have those double-decker tourist buses? We rode that. And we went to the Times Square which was fun because we did it with all the artists in SM together. During that time, I was so jet lagged but I was like “No, I must do tourist activities.” My eyes could barely open but I was like “I need to be there. I need to look at Times Square with my eyes.”
Fast forward more than a decade later, it was cool to see you host the boy band survival show, Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace — perfect name for Taemin. What was your experience as an established senior to these newer generations of artists?
It was interesting to see them because I could see really the determination they had and the pursuit for their dreams. I feel such empathy, sympathy and warmth for them, and also at the same time, I understand the pain and anxiety they live with at the same time; it’s quite a mix. But I admire and respect them doing their best to show the best performance to their fans.
Actually speaking of that, I don’t know maybe it’s the K-pop industry these days or just the whole pop system but, wow, it’s really great how it developed but their skills are. When these guys become older, their skills will be even more extraordinary.
And they can be sensitive; they’re at an age when you’re young and can be sensitive, but I just hope they don’t get hurt because the entertainment business, like any other business, are also in the business to make profit. While artists are in a job where they have to expend their emotions, I just hope they don’t get hurt and I hope they can make connections with their fans or giving positive image to world. That’s the process that I see them going through.
You have wisdom from being in the industry for so long but have made many changes lately. How do you know how to trust people or find those genuinely supporting you in the entertainment business?
So, I used to trust people a lot. I used to believe and rely on people a lot and I think I’ve also been hurt because of that. I’m just trying to believe in myself more. I’m so grateful for the people that are there as the people who support me, and I’ll always be grateful for them, however instead of just simply relying on people and dependent on them, I’m trying to become stronger on my own and stand up with on my two feet.
Looking ahead, what does this year look like for you? Are you preparing things now so that when the tour finishes, you can get back to work?
[Laughs] Um, I have a lot planned. After the tour, I want to finish with the Korean encore concert, which we will have, then the SHINee album will come out and we will have a SHINee show. I will also have my own album coming out…it’ll be quite exciting…it’s not confirmed if it’s a full album yet, but my solo album will come out.
I’m excited for all of it. Your last U.S. stop is in Honolulu. If possible, I hope you get to relax a little in Hawaii.
I would like that too!