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With the return of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the time has come for us to consider an important question asked throughout ages long past — what song do you think they’re going to lip synch to in the premiere?
With a Drag Race premiere, it’s not even a foregone conclusion that we will definitely get a Lip Sync For Your Life — back in season 9, for example, when guest judge Lady Gaga oversaw the queens’ first challenges, there was no elimination or winner lip sync. Then again, when season 13 rolled around, we got six lip syncs in the premiere episode as every queen faced off in pairs.
Assuming we’re getting at least one lip sync battle — be it For Your Life of For The Win — in season 15’s two-episode MTV premiere, we can also assume whose song we will be hearing. With Ariana Grande stepping in for her second stint as a guest judge, it’s safe to say that we will likely get a new rendition to one of her tracks.
It’s a position that Grande is very familiar with; the singer once held the record for most songs lip-synced on the show (other than Ru, of course). Today, she’s tied with Whitney Houston for second place, both having eight of their songs performed on the show and its All Stars seasons, while Britney Spears has had nine tracks earn their place on the main stage in 11 different lip syncs.
Which of Ariana’s songs can we expect to hear during the premiere? Tom Campbell, an executive producer of the show since its conception, told Billboard last year that RuPaul has final say over what songs make it onto the show, and he takes a lot of aspects into consideration. “He will reject songs because they’re the wrong tempo, they don’t build, there’s all of these factors he’s thinking about,” he said.
Billboard decided to offer up a few suggestions — below, we list out 10 songs by Ariana Grande that we would love to see featured in an upcoming lip sync on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15:
Wave that checkered flag, Drag Race fans, because the competition is about to begin.
On Friday (Jan. 6), RuPaul’s Drag Race is set to return for its 15th season, with a bigger batch of queens and an even bigger cash prize — the latest season is set to feature a record number of 16 queens competing for $200,000 and the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.
Along with its new set of queens, the season will also feature a vast array of celebrity guest judges ready to offer their expertise and advice to the competitors on how to get ahead. Ariana Grande will appear in the season’s premiere episode on Friday, with subsequent episodes set to feature stars like Janelle Monáe, Maren Morris, Hayley Kiyoko, Orville Peck, Ali Wong, Amandla Stenberg, Harvey Guillén, Julia Garner and Megan Statler.
Fans used to viewing the show on VH1 will also have some adjustments to make with season 15 — for the first time in the franchise’s history, RuPaul’s Drag Race will now be aired exclusively on MTV. In a statement released with the news back in December, co-CEOs of World of Wonder (the production company behind Drag Race) Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey said that they were “delighted” to see the show make the move. “Drag Race is about universal themes of love, self expression, and acceptance — and there has never been a more important time than now for these ideas to be expressed internationally,” they said.
With MTV’s storied history as the primary home for the most iconic music videos of all-time, Billboard asked the 16 queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 to select their favorites. Below, the queens explain their picks, from Lady Gaga to Beyoncé and beyond:
Most Billboard readers have at least a rough idea of the top albums and songs of each year but may be less familiar with the top box-office hits from each year. Fortunately, boxofficemojo.com has that information for each year dating back to 1977.
So what do we learn scrolling through the list of top-grossing films for each year since Jimmy Carter became president and Elvis Presley died? One thing that comes across loud and clear is the degree to which sequels and franchises have come to dominate the marketplace. Just four of the year-end box-office champs were films that were not part of franchises (or did not spark a franchise or a reboot of some kind). Those four films that stand alone are E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ghost and Titanic.
Star Wars is the top franchise on this recap, with six installments that have been the year’s top-grossing film. Batman is runner-up, with four installments that finished first for the year. Spider-Man is third, with three installments that yielded the year’s top box-office hit.
James Cameron and George Lucas are tied as the only directors who each directed three films that took the year-end crown. Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Tony Scott, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Stanton and Robert Zemeckis are tied for second place, each having directed two year-end champs.
John Williams is far and away the top film scorer. The legendary composer scored 10 films that took the year-end box-office crown. Danny Elfman and Alan Silvestri have each scored films that finished first four times. (Hans Zimmer will join them if Top Gun: Maverick, on which he teamed with Harold Faltermeyer and Lady Gaga to provide the music, finishes first for the year.)
Lucas and Williams are the only director/composer team to collaborate on three year-end box-office champs. Six other such teams have collaborated on two year-end champs: Spielberg and Williams; Zemeckis and Silvestri; Scott and Faltermeyer; Cameron and James Horner; Burton and Elfman; and Stanton and Thomas Newman.
Top Gun: Maverick took the box-office crown for 2022, with a domestic (U.S. and Canada) gross of more than $718 million. The rest of the top five consisted of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Avatar: The Way of Water and Jurassic World: Dominion.
Let’s scroll back through the films that had the most success at the domestic box office (that’s the U.S. and Canada) in each calendar year since 1977, when Annie debuted on Broadway, Laverne & Shirley was the top TV show and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours dominated the Billboard 200.
While 2022 was undoubtedly the year BTS shocked the world with their announcements of moving onto a “Chapter Two” and planning their individual military enlistments, there’s still a massive amount of records, achievements and moments that demonstrate why BTS are superstars without precedent in the global music industry.
While the K-pop superstars have been breaking chart and attendance records for years, 2022 saw new triumphs from the septet. From never-before-achieved feats with the Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry to breaking box-office and concert-gross records (not to mention hanging out in the Oval Office), 2022 was literally one for the history books.
Even as the group announced plans to look forward to a new chapter in their career and embark on solo releases, BTS continued to achieve greatness as a septet and as individuals. RM, Jin, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, V and Jung Kook all had major moments to celebrate. From four members making their debuts on the Hot 100 to internationally recognized festival and collaboration moments, the guys were thriving on a global scale.
While 2023 will certainly look different in terms of how BTS operates—and dominates—within the music industry, there’s no denying that this past year was huge for the guys. We already know that solo music, collaborations, documentaries, TV specials, commemorative stamps and more are on the way for next year. But before we look forward to all that, let’s reminiscence and celebrate the band’s 22 most significant achievements from 2022 below.
The K-pop industry is heavily focused on one single per release. Whether it’s an EP, LP, deluxe version, greatest hits or anything in between, K-pop artists tend to define releases by one central song. But thanks to how listeners now curate their own playlists and soundtrack stellar social-media moments with music, the single is not necessarily the only song on a release to get attention.
In addition to K-pop having more worldwide eyes than ever, today’s listening habits demand more material from artists and more quality material on par with the singles already getting expensive investments and heavy promotional pushes.
Luckily, these 25 artists below not only delivered on their title tracks and singles but created bodies of work that deserve further exploration beyond the glossy music videos. From TVXQ!‘s Max Changmin, BTS‘ J-Hope, and Red Velvet‘s Seulgi letting listeners into new parts of their minds with their solo efforts, to AKMU’s Lee Chahyuk adopting a whole new character with his concept album Error, plus RM creating a musical museum to honor his twenties on Indigo, there was a lot to dig into this year. Meanwhile, unexpected viral sensations came from B-sides by (G)I-DLE, TREASURE and ENHYPEN, proving that these artists packed their records with songs and messages to connect even further with fans.
From satisfyingly short EPs to the more in-depth full-length albums, each of these releases stood out thanks to the artists reaching for something beyond a quick hit single. Read on for Billboard‘s staff picks for the best K-pop albums of the year.
It has been 10 years since Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views. In addition to pushing K-pop into the global stratosphere, the vibrant video (now with more than 4.6 billion views, as of Dec. 2022) kickstarted the video-streaming platform’s official Billion Views Club — which has grown to become a landmark achievement for artists and industry leaders alike.
Over 300 music videos have entered the club since its inception in 2012 and several have surpassed Psy’s history-making visual. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” reigns as the most-viewed music video on YouTube, crossing 8 billion views just five years after its release. Also lapping Psy are Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” with 5.8 billion views, Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” featuring Charlie Puth with 5.7 billion views, and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” featuring Bruno Mars with 4.7 billion views, all as of Dec. 2022.
A number of superstar musical acts have had multiple videos surpass a billion views — including Justin Bieber, Adele, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. Colombian singer-songwriter J Balvin has entered the Billion Views Club 12 different times, making him the artist with the most videos in the coveted club.
In 2022 alone, more than 50 music videos earned their first billion views. While some musical acts made their triumphant return to the Billion Views Club, others earned their first entries ever. The Weeknd added his fifth video with a billion views thanks to “Save Your Tears,” less than two years after its premiere. On the other hand, Cyndi Lauper reached the milestone for the first time with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” 39 years after its initial release (though it wasn’t uploaded to YouTube until 2009).
To celebrate a decade of billions, Billboard revisits all 51 music videos to enter YouTube’s Billion Views Club in 2022 below.
After the pandemic quarantine lifted, the Billboard Latin team continued its tradition of hosting interviews via Instagram Live, resulting in our social media franchise “Live with Billboard Latin.” Moderated biweekly on Thursdays, the Billboard Latin editors invited some of today’s hottest music acts for a 15- to 30-minute interview about their current projects, as well as to answer fan questions.
The series kicked off with CNCO, who spoke to us about their exciting plans for 2022, and later on in the year, we caught up with the Latin boy band at the Latin American Music Awards. Throughout the year, fans connected on Instagram with artists such as Mexican sisters Ha*Ash, who talked about their comeback tour; Latin pop crooner Mario Bautista, who celebrated his first-ever Billboard hit; Puerto Rican perreo duo Jowell & Randy, who premiered their single “Toro”; and most recently, Argentine rapper Trueno, who shared his excitement with Argentina headed to the World Cup finals.
With many exciting “Live with Billboard Latin” episodes, we have compiled the most-viewed interviews this year, which include our chat with Argentine singer Emilia Mernes, a laid-back conversation with Tokischa and Ozuna, and of course, CNCO. Below, see the top episodes from our 2022 live interviews:
After a decade of counting down the year’s best K-pop songs at Billboard, 2022 brought refreshing and remarkable shifts in how these lists usually shape up.
Undeniably, this was the year of the girl group. More than half of 2022’s entries are from female troupes who now lead the scene in taste and trends. From established queens like Girls’ Generation and KARA celebrating milestone anniversaries to rising rookies including IVE, NewJeans, and LE SSERAFIM kicking in the industry door, the spectrum for excellence ran the gamut.
That’s not to say the boys weren’t bringing their best. In fact, cuts from BIGBANG, Zico, BTS, plus Ha Sung Woon and Jimin blew up big time without traditional music videos or typical promotional tactics. Even for those tracks riding on a viral trend, these were expressions of the artists that audiences won’t look back on as novelty tracks or cringey viral sensations best left as clips on TikTok.
Not to mention, K-pop has more eyes on it than ever worldwide, and it seemed like the artists delivered knowing the world was watching. Stray Kids and (G)I-DLE shared personal and powerful messages in their biggest singles yet, while BLACKPINK spotlighted how traditional Korean instruments fit inside their latest pop anthem.
2022 was the time for K-pop artists to express themselves vocally, thematically and artistically in ways previously seen, and it undoubtedly paid off in full. Read on to see who we think did it the best with Billboard‘s list of the 25 best K-pop songs of the year.
With the holiday season in full swing, we’re surrounded by the wonderful world of holiday music. Despite the deluge of Christmas tunes such as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Hanukkah music is a lane that not many musicians have jumped into. But some of us surely do have a few star-lit videos, songs and concerts.
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I usually come up with one menorah, or hanukkiah, worth of solid options to put in YouTube rotation, but with the rising antisemitism in recent months by an extremely famous rapper who surely won’t be invited to any Hanukkah parties for the next decade, I came up with two Hanukkahs worth of songs for you.
Time to fry up some latkes!
1. Gangstagrass & Kosha Dillz, “Happy Chinooka (A Hanukkah Song)”
This year we can celebrate the joy of Smokey Robinson’s famous pronunciation of Chanukah. I mean Hanukkah. “How you spell it, how you sound it, it don’t matter how you gonna pronounce it.” The spelling of Hanukkah in English isn’t as important as the educational story we learn. “It started back in 164 BC in Jerusalem with my clique the Maccabees, they got attacked by Greeks….” This odd collaboration, where bluegrass meets hip-hop meets an animal farm in a Brooklyn bar, is a surefire way to creatively bring eyeballs to the holiday, alongside the first ever group of animals against antisemitism. “Happy Chinooka” isn’t a “Puppy for Hanukkah,” but who needs a puppy from Daveed Diggs when you can have an alpaca from Kosha Dillz and Gangstagrass!
2. Nissim Black, “Victory”
If you haven’t heard of Nissim Black, he is probably the most unique man to see during Hanukkah. He plays everything from the Chosen Comedy Festival in Miami for thousands of people to a show at the Grove in Hollywood, and his new song details his personal journey with God and the fight knocking out an Assyrian Greek soldier. A big theme is darkness to light, and you can tell the video was thought out perfectly in this boxing ring.
3. Matisyahu and Brady Watt, “King Without a Crown”
When Matisyahu shot on the scene back in the 2000s, the world drastically changed by seeing an Orthodox guy move crowds of tens of thousands. I’d say you had to be there to see it, but I remember it like it was yesterday. After all these years he just released this collaboration with Brady and it hits perfectly for the time we are in. Matisyahu literally has the name of the main character of the Hanukkah story, and he does the biggest Hanukkah festivals in the world. He is doing his annual Festival of Light tour with two shows at NYC’s Brooklyn Bowl Dec. 21-22. If you ever wanted to see the largest mishmash of a community ever, mixed with a mosh pit, it is at a Matisyahu show and I suggest you go.
4. Yo La Tengo, “Eight Candles”
Probably the most epic group to really crush the Hanukkah scene is our good friends Yo La Tengo. (I am actually not friends with them IRL but I do feel so.) I feel like if there was a romantic evening with that special light in your life, you’d light them up for her or him. I feel the chill of a rainy holiday under an awning. If you dig this, go see them at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom any of the nights of Chanukah. Yes, even on Christmas, as that is also Chanukah.
5. Six13, “Elton Johnukah”
I got to say this is the cleverest spin-off since I did a TV show party with Lil Jon called Lil Jonukah. Now, “Elton Johnukah” might be the only thing to beat it. They flip his “I’m Still Standing” lyric to “we’re still standing,” which is true. Most of the stories of the Jewish people are “we won, we eat,” and I surely eat standing up at Chanukah parties so that is epic to me.
6. Sarah Aroeste, “Hanuka”
Jews come in a variety of colors and looks. Ladino is a beautiful language that goes overlooked but not to the wonderful Sarah Aroeste, who brings her Ladino flair to the fields of Israel. Best part of this is that you can now Google “Ladino lessons” and see the entire translation in the YouTube description. Reminds me a bit of A-WA meets salsa music meets Hanukkah. She’d be the perfect opening act for Yo La Tengo.
7. Zusha, “Chanukah Is Here”
Imagine a bunch of men in black and white hats who mix up the jam band vibes with dance music at a late-night Coachella set. These guys are sort of that deal. They literally say the same thing over and over again but it is kinda the vibe of Chanukah if you jump into Crown Heights.
8. Ari Dayan, “Love”
There should be more representation of Jewish women artists, and a big thing about Hanukkah party music for me is that the song doesn’t necessarily need to be about Hanukkah (but it is cool to know the act is Jewish). The holiday season is about showing love so what better way to do that than with a song called “Love” by Ari Dayan? She mixes a lot of comedy with music and has an old Jewish man dancing in this video you might recognize as Jaddy, aka Brett Gelman. We all need a Jaddy for Hanukkah (not a puppy).
8. Too $hort, “The Hanukkah Song”
“Judah Maccabeatch” is the best reference to a Jewish warrior. Not only is Too $hort one of the best rappers and an influence on my music, but many of us would say he is the only man with a Hanukkah song that has transcended time as long as Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukkah Song.” I first heard about it in 2012 when it came out, and the only thing that could make the Matzo Ball better would be this man performing this song. “It’s even better than Yom Kippur, I got seven gifts and I want one more.”
9. Adam Sandler, “The Hanukkah Song“
Why not have it in here? You are going to listen to it anyway whether you want to or not, and even Too $hort was inspired by this man. It has set the golden standard for Hanukkah songs and earned the praise of music’s biggest Jewish stars.
10. Barbra Streisand, “Avinu Malkeinu”
One of the most iconic voices ever. She needs no introduction, but she does need to be here and at every dinner table playlist.
11. Nissim Black x Kosha Dillz, “The Hanukkah Song 2.0”
I had to include it: This will go down in history as the only Hanukkah video filmed on Thanksgiving last year in Times Square. When a song gets played on Paul Rosenberg’s Hanukkah Radio (yes, Eminem’s manager), it is a requirement to share it with the world.
12. Eden Derso, “Tamid”
If you need to bump the hottest Israeli rapper in the streets it must be Eden Derso. Tamid, for those who don’t know, means “always.” We always need strong bars like this, even if you don’t know what she is saying.
13. Joel Waggoner and Julia Mattison, “A Cutesy Country Hanukkah”
I’m not sure how I discovered this gem but I was hoping for Luke Combs to do the same thing. If anyone can find these people, I’d hire them for my Hanukkah party alongside some cloggers.
14. Kurstin x Grohl: The Hanukkah Sessions 2021, “Blitzkrieg Bop”
If anyone can do Hanukkah no wrong it is Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin with this Ramones cover. “Ay! Oy! Let’s Goy!” The level of lyrical flip there is so suitable for today. Dive into all their covers (this is their night two); they even got some Lisa Loeb with death metal vibes (or in this case, life metal vibes). It is amazing to see live, which I was fortunate enough to experience when performing at Bottlerock Napa, one of the dopest music festival experiences ever.
15. Run the Jewels, “A Christmas F–king Miracle”
There has to be one song that is talking about the crossover of our holidays for this playlist on Christmas Eve. If I can use this as my warm-up song for when I perform at TAO restaurant in NYC for open bar (seltzer for me) and sushi on Erev Christmas w/ Temple Emanu-El, I’ll be ecstatic.
16. Westside Gravy, “Diaspora”
Last but not least — a song about identity. I think we are at a time to chat identity and spotlight Black and Jewish folks like Westside Gravy, who tackles important topics that are hard to talk about. As we know there have been plenty of articles about Kanye, but no one is spotlighting the musicians caught in the middle. Great for a Hanukkah playlist anywhere in the world.
If 16 sufganiyot jams aren’t enough, I made a Spotify playlist with tons of songs that you can listen to. If you are in NYC, be sure to party with us live at TimeOut Market for “How Do You Actually Spell Chanukah?” and light the menorah with Holocaust survivor Sami Steigman, Shabbat Drop and more on Dec. 20. I will be giving out free sufganiyot.
Rami Even-Esh, aka Kosha Dillz, is a Billboard-charting rapper based in Brooklyn and also a cast member on Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘n Out, seasons 18-20. In his spare time, he raises money for Holocaust survivors in need, and recently went viral for dissing Kanye West with his song “Death Con 3.” Say shalom on Twitter.
In 2022, dance albums were a bigger part of the cultural conversation than they’ve been in years. Not only did several artists finally release the passion projects they’d worked on in isolation during the covid years, marquee acts dropped long-awaited follow-up albums, and two of the biggest pop artists in the world both released dance-focused LPs within weeks of each other.
Exploring different influences and dimensions of house music, Drake and Beyoncé brought dance music to mainstream audiences – and the top of the Billboard 200 – with force not seen since the peak EDM years. These efforts also likely brought at least a few mainstream ears to the deeper realms of the sprawling dance space.
Listeners nostalgic for the golden age of EDM were also blessed with LPs from a few of their faves, too. And while releases from the likes of Swedish House Mafia and Krewella didn’t match the commercial success of their earlier works, artists in the post-EDM era prioritized artistic reinvention over streaming numbers, finding success and expanding their legacies in the process.
Whereas the typical path to a dance artist’s debut album runs through a marathon of club and festival dates, prodigious debuts from artists like Shygirl and Ariel Zetina arrived in the aftermath of DJ sets being confined to Zoom. While house masters Honey Dijon and The Shapeshifters were reliable delights during our collective coronaraving years, each seized this moment to flex their bonafides on long-anticipated LPs, which proved well worth the wait.
As in years before, 2022’s best dance albums demonstrate true diversity – of race, gender, age, nationality, and style – unmatched by any other genre. Here’s to all the artists who gave us long-players for the living room, for the dancefloor, for old heads, for new fans and for everyone in between.
These are our 50 favorite dance/electronic albums of 2022, presented alphabetically by artist.