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Megan Moroney is clearing the air about the longtime rumors that she dated Morgan Wallen. The country star is the latest guest on the Call Her Daddy podcast, where host Alex Cooper directly asked her if she dated the “Last Night” singer. “Never exclusively,” Moroney replied. “I have tried to avoid that in every single […]
Billboard JAPAN interviewed Official HIGE DANdism for the latest edition of its “MONTHLY FEATURE” series, highlighting today’s leading artists and works. The four-man band recently released Rejoice, its first album in almost three years.
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Starting with their breakout 2019 release “Pretender,” they have created countless hits, become a beloved band throughout the country. Their October 2022 release “Subtitle” was an especially big success, claiming the No. 1 spot on five of Billboard JAPAN‘s charts for the first half of 2023, such as the “JAPAN Hot 100” chart. Rejoice, their new album, contains a total of 14 songs, including “Subtitle” and “Mixed Nuts,” the opening theme of the SPYxFAMILY anime.
Billboard Japan spoke to all four members of the band about what led to the creation of this new album and the growing support they’re enjoying from overseas fans.
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When did you first start working on the overall image and concept of your new album?
Satoshi Fujihara: When we finished our last album, Editorial, we were talking about making our next album a more joyful one. The last album had shined a spotlight on deep-down feelings and melancholy about the future, we wanted to change the mood and go in a happier direction next.
How have the past three years, since your last album, been for you, as a band?
Fujihara: Our fan base has been growing since 2019. When we started out, I thought I might find that uncomfortable, but over the past three years, I’ve become comfortable with the fact that I live a kind of unusual life, in a good sense. A very blessed life. At the same time, it’s also felt like we’ve been able to expand our potential, always striving to create even better music, but not in a stoic way — instead, we’ve been able to do that while having fun. It’s been an extremely fruitful and pleasant three years.
Daisuke Ozasa: I think over these years we’ve become more confident in the music we like, our own individual character, and the kind of music that has shaped us through the years. I think that all comes out through the music on the album.
Masaki Matsuura: The discussions we had while creating the new album were relaxed and at ease. I think that was a sign of just how much we grew over those three years.
Makoto Narazaki: Of course, I want to get better, and I want to record good songs. But in the past, I felt like I had to hold myself up to a really high standard, while now I feel like I can just be myself. I think that the whole group’s atmosphere has changed in the same way. It feels more open, with more room to breathe. There’s this sense of “Why don’t we just try to have fun with everything we do?”
I’m sure you put a lot of care into the arrangements of the songs on the album, and how the songs develop, but you’re saying that one of your driving forces was a more simple sense of “It might be fun if we did this” or “It could be interesting if we did that”?
Fujihara: Exactly. Without that, it would just be a copy-and-paste job. I think that approach of arranging songs is a more natural style for us.
I think one of the things that makes Official HIGE DANdism’s music so appealing is that it goes in directions that the listener isn’t expecting. Your songs take on all kinds of musical challenges.
Narazaki: One of the biggest and most prominent examples of that is the structure of our songs, but we’re also taking on new challenges with our tone and in other areas which maybe listeners won’t notice. Songs are more fun if there’s some playfulness to them, and it’s great to listen to a completed song and be like, “that sounds really cool.” When you can do that, there’s the potential for doing it with different concepts, as well, which presents its own new challenges. I find that really satisfying.
Which are each of your favorite songs on the album?
Narazaki: For me, it’s probably “TATTOO.” We all got together in the studio, started up the DAW, and we were looking at the demo data on Satoshi’s computer, talking about how we wanted the song to sound. The demo had these vintage synth and keyboard sounds. It may just be me, but I find those kinds of sounds cheesy but at the same time kind of cool. Like, they put me at ease when I hear them, or they strike my fancy at the time. They’re timely, in an odd way. That’s why I like “TATTOO.” “Nichijo” and “Get Back To Jinsei” have a similar feel. If you think of each song as a stew, then it’s like they’re different stews but they have similar spices. They have that same sense of place in time, that same kind of nostalgic flavor. After working on them, when we worked on the other songs (on the album), I got that same sense of cool cheesiness and that same nostalgic feeling.
Fujihara: For me, it’s “Sharon.” In terms of musical theory, what we’re doing is a little fiddly, but the end result is incredibly natural. I’m very happy with how it came out. Now, we’re rehearsing it in preparation for live shows, and the power of the band really comes across. In a way, it’s a very dependable song — I can feel comfortable giving myself up to the music, which makes it one of my favorites.
Ozasa: I like “B-Side Blues.” It’s the first song that the whole band has recorded in a single take in about five years. The whole album isn’t exactly packed with notes, but this one has even fewer notes than most, so the feeling of each of our performances comes across very vividly. It’s also a beautiful song for bringing the album to a close. The word Rejoice has this image of profound, powerful joy. The album starts off with extremely energetic songs, like “Get Back To Jinsei.” But as the album progresses, the joy it expresses comes closer to home. Little by little, it becomes more personal, more about the things we value in our own lives. The album ends with “B-side Blues,” which truly expresses this personal joy.
Matsuura: Of all the songs on the album, the process of recording the drums took the longest for “Mixed Nuts,” so it left the strongest impression on me. It has a lot of jazz elements, and the tempo is fast, making it a hard song to play. I don’t have a jazz background, so I had someone who used to play jazz show me the ropes. There were a lot of cases like that, where I was studying new things, and when I’ve jammed with other musicians, sometimes they’ll ask how I played my part on “Mixed Nuts,” or they’ll say they think it’s a really interesting song. It’s the kind of song that spurs a lot of talk as a drummer, and was a ton of fun to play.
I expect you’ve been hearing from overseas audiences, too. Tell us about what their reaction has been like.
Fujihara: Yes, we’re getting a lot of messages on social media from overseas fans, in languages we can’t read, asking us to come to their countries and perform. It’s a strange feeling, but also a wonderful one. We did once play in Korea, a long time ago. There were only like three people in the audience. That makes all the feedback we’re getting from overseas audiences now feel that much stranger.
On Billboard JAPAN’s Global Charts, songs like “Pretender” are also very popular in Korea. They’re ranking highly in various countries throughout Asia.
Fujihara: Every time we hear a fan saying they’re waiting for us to play a show in their country, it makes us want to go there and perform even more. We haven’t done any overseas shows since that show in Korea, but lately we’ve been talking about how it would be nice to perform overseas sometime in the near future.
—This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared on Billboard Japan
THE RAMPAGE from EXILE TRIBE’s “24karats GOLD GENESIS” soars to No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, rising 49-1 on the chart dated July 31.
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Digitally released in June, the track debuted at No. 40 on the list dated June 19 after collecting points in downloads, streaming and radio airplay. The CD version went on sale July 24 and sold 326,342 copies in its first week, powering the track to No. 1 after seven weeks on the Japan Hot 100 where it consistently performed well mainly in radio leading up to this week.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE‘s “Lilac” holds at No. 2, still leading streaming for the sixth straight week. Overall points for the Oblivion Battery opener have increased slightly, with the track coming in at No. 7 for downloads, No. 3 for video, No. 98 for radio, and No. 9 for karaoke.
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Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” is back at No. 3, rising a notch after points for radio increased from the week before. The viral hit has been charting in the top 5 for 28 consecutive weeks.
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STARTO for you’s “WE ARE” rises to No. 4. The charity single by the project featuring 75 members from 14 groups under STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, including King & Prince, SixTONES, and Snow Man, launched with 209,847 CDs to hit No. 2 for sales, but didn’t chart in any of the other metrics of the Japan Hot 100’s methodology.
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Kocchinokento’s “Hai Yorokonde” continues to rise, moving 10-8 on this week’s chart. The track continues to hold at No. 1 for video for the fourth week in a row, and climbs 12-9 for downloads, 16-13 for streaming, and debuts at No. 75 for karaoke. Incidentally, while the video for “Hai Yorokonde” is being watched mostly in Japan (60%), it’s also being consumed in other countries including South Korea (8%) and the U.S. (5%), and the number of views in the latter two countries has been increasing in recent weeks, according to Luminate.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from July 22 to 28, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Taylor Swift‘s fan-favorite track “Long Live” could use an addendum: “Long live all the mountains we moved, *plus all the hilltops Swifties overran to join in on the Eras Tour fun.“
Following two performances in Munich, Germany, over the weekend, the 34-year-old pop star gushed in an Instagram post about the headline-making crowds she drew both nights. In addition to the enormous audience gathered inside Olympiastadion, tens of thousands of other unplanned viewers flocked to a nearby park both Saturday (July 27) and Sunday (July 28) in hopes of catching a glimpse of the three-hour-plus show happening in Olympiastadion.
“What a magical experience it was playing in Munich,” she began her post, sharing photos of her performances as well as a snap of the park’s hills teeming with Swifties. “The crowds of 74,000 people a night in the stadium were so passionate, and so generous to us. And I had no idea before I got to Munich that there’s a huge park behind the stadium, but around 50,000 people came out and listened to the show from the hillside both nights.”
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“I’ve been watching so many videos of the crowds out there fully participating in the show from afar, all that joy,” Swift added. “I’m feeling really grateful for the unexpected memories this tour has created. We have 11 shows left on the European leg of the tour, kicking off *August* with 3 shows in Warsaw!”
That accent on “August” is a nod to the 14-time Grammy winner’s beloved Folklore song named after the month. Fans online have already started celebrating the approach of “August” season, and the song — which has so far peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 — has been known to receive a boost in streams during the eighth month of the year.
As Swift mentioned, her European Eras dates are coming to an end soon, with just three stops left in Warsaw, Vienna and London. In October, she’ll swing back to North America for final laps through the U.S. and Canada before closing out the trek for good in December.
Unfortunately, her joyful Munich shows were quickly followed by tragedy in Southport, England, where three children died and 10 others were wounded in a deadly stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class Monday (July 29). According to The Associated Press, Merseyside police took a 17-year-old boy from Cardiff into custody after arresting him on the scene.
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock,” the “Anti-Hero” singer wrote in a message on Instagram Stories the following day. “The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Charli XCX seems to be joining forces with another pop brat. The superstar revealed on Wednesday (July 31) that she has a remix of her Brat track “Guess” on the way, teasing her collaborator in a black-and-white photo posted to Instagram. “Guess?” she captioned the post, in which she’s seen posing in a white mini-skirt […]
Lil Yachty has developed a close bond with Drake over the last few years, and he’s had a front-row seat to the 6 God’s recent career moves as a collaborator.
Boat stopped by the Flagrant podcast with Andrew Schulz on Wednesday (July 31), where he claimed that Drake was “genuinely unfazed” by the Kendrick Lamar feud, and has been able to tune out the deafening noise and “Not Like Us” trolls coming from the outside world.
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“He’s still that n—a. They both still that n—a. What’s gon’ change? They both gon’ do they thing,” he said. “I talked to him and that sh– didn’t bother him. As it shouldn’t — he’s the f—ing guy. If I had $700 million you couldn’t talk to me either.”
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While Yachty still kept in contact with Drake, he was actually overseas in Europe when the battle with Kendrick was reaching its peak.
“I never saw him down. I never saw him kicking his f—ing foot holding his head down, to the point where I stopped talking to him about it because I felt like I was the one bringing him the negativity,” Yachty continued around the 1:36 mark.
He continued: “I was bringing the cloud when I’d be like, ‘Man, I hate that this person said this.’ I was showing him sh– he hasn’t seen. Then I realized I’m bringing you the negativity, let me stop. I just realized his energy wasn’t down, so I wasn’t going to try [to bring him down].”
Earlier in the episode, Yachty and the co-hosts debated why a contingent of hip-hop fans were “energized about the elimination of Drake,” as Ye put it in April.
The “Minnesota” rapper hypothesized that people had Drake fatigue and were tired of seeing him winning and dominating the rap game for over a decade.
“I think people just hate on Drake because he’s the guy,” he speculated. “It’s also because he f—ed everyone’s bi–h. He’s also that guy, though. All the records, all the numbers. He’s the one.”
However, Lil Yachty regretted inserting himself into the commentary surrounding the beef. “I just wish I had never spoke on it,” he admitted.
Kendrick Lamar actually name-dropped the Atlanta native to jab at Drake on the scathing “Euphoria.” “Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a f— ’bout who you hang with,” Lamar raps on the diss track.
50 Cent had a similar theory to Yachty when it comes to his belief about Drake’s rap peers being jealous of his success.
“Look, our culture loves to see you go up because it’s confirmation that they can go up,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “But when you stay up — ‘I want this sh– forever, man’ — they go, ‘Well, goddamn. When you going to come down? If you don’t come down, I ain’t going to have my chance to go up.’ And then it’s these clouds that come over you, and that cloud is doubt, a shadow of doubt that doesn’t come from material or your work ethic.”
50 continued: “It’s doubt from the artist community, where they say, ‘I don’t know, his new sh– is cool, but it’s not his first sh–.’ They do that to you and Drake’s just experiencing what you experience as a backlash from success, from the consistency he’s delivered over and over. I don’t see a loss for Drake. The people who bought Drake material are going to buy Drake material when his next song comes out.”
Drake and Kendrick Lamar exchanged diss tracks from April into early May. Billboard hailed K. Dot as the victor, and he’s gotten the last laugh with his “Not Like Us” diss dominating the Billboard Hot 100, where it stands at No. 3 on this week’s chart after spending two nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
Listen to the full podcast below. The pair of Drake segments take place around the 51-minute and 1:33 marks.
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Hiba Tawaji has been turning heads since she debuted her stage career in 2008 as the protagonist in the musical The Return of the Phoenix. Written by the late Mansour Rahbani and composed and directed by his sons, Oussama and Marwan, the musical was the latest addition to the Rahbani Brothers’ established legacy in musical theater. Hiba cemented her position as a pillar of this legacy, starring in the last four musicals made by the Rahbanis.
In parallel with her theatrical debut, she launched her solo career in 2011 with the release of her first album La Bidayi Wala Nihayi (Neither the Beginning Nor the End), which was followed over the years by three other albums: Ya Habibi (My Darling) in 2014, Hiba Tawaji 30 in 2017, and her most recent Levanting pop album Bad Sneen (After Years) in 2023. Armed with a fierce passion for her work throughout this journey, Hiba Tawaji found herself celebrating one milestone after another, not least of which was her impressive participation in the French version of The Voice in 2015. Meanwhile in 2017, she made history as the first female singer to perform on a public stage in Saudi Arabia, after the announcement of the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision in 2016. Another milestone was achieved in 2019, when Hiba was selected by Disney to dub Princess Jasmine’s speaking and singing voice in the French version of the blockbuster Aladdin. The film’s success in topping the French box office for several weeks propelled Hiba beyond her established roots in the Lebanese music scene, helping her make a significant mark on the global market.
Billboard Arabia caught up with Hiba Tawaji after her first concert at Paris’ legendary L’Olympia theater in May, and she told us about the profound and memorable moments that she experienced during the concert, revisiting the milestones of her career that eventually brought her to this world-renowned stage. One such moment during her concert at L’Olympia was sharing the stage with her husband, trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, who has been a great support for her throughout her musical career, as well as knowing that her son was in the audience. This strong connection to her family and their continuous support made that night one of the most meaningful and impactful of her career, which Hiba believes was paved with the support of her partners and her personal vision of art, experience and passion.
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In her interview, Hiba speaks at length about her long professional partnership with Oussama Rahbani and its significant role in the development of her musical and theatrical career, providing her with a strong foundation that allowed her to unleash her creativity and excellence over the past 17 years. Rahbani, who directed the L’Olympia concert, played an instrumental role in bringing Hiba to where she is today.
Hiba recounts how their special partnership began, saying: “I met Oussama in my first year of university studies in acting and directing in Beirut. A friend of mine was a dancer in the Arabesque troupe, which performs the choreography in most of the musicals that Oussama Rahbani produced and wrote, and she knew that I have a passion for music and a lifelong dream to sing. She also knew how much I admired Oussama and everything he does, so she arranged for me to audition for him. That’s how it all started, and to this day our partnership continues. We are hand in hand on this journey, sharing the same vision, dreams and ambitions. We share our commitment to what we do, our loyalty, and of course we have great communication, because that’s the key to a long-running professional relationship like ours, where good communication and the space to express yourself are crucial. Throughout all these years – 16 or 17 years now – Oussama has been a huge support, and he keeps pushing me to challenge myself and go further.”
With all these years comes great experience, but Hiba never lost her passion. Despite her numerous achievements, her focused mindset and motivation are always pushing her toward bigger and better things on the horizon. “Of course, with experience, you are more capable to act better in certain circumstances and to know yourself better – where you stand, who you are,” she says. “You truly understand your capabilities, you become more mature in your choices and decisions, in the way you express a feeling or speak your mind without fear, in the way you express yourself, really. Experience is definitely key in our field of work, but the one thing we must not lose sight of is the spontaneity, the passion that drives us. I still have this passion, and if anything, it keeps growing. I’ve never felt that because of my experience, my art or work has become routine. On the contrary, I believe an artist’s passion grows with experience, dreams go further, and the efforts and responsibilities increase because you start asking yourself: after all I’ve done, what better things can I do now? I always challenge myself so I can reach further.”
Yet the road to success needs more than a focused and positive mindset. Hiba believes a positive and supportive entourage is key to an artist’s success. “I think artists alone cannot do everything. It is very important to be surrounded by the right people who support you and care about you and your image, people who give you good advice and know when to give advice. Not everything is always perfect or good.” She added: “I always try to be surrounded by people who truly love me and whom I love, whom I’ve known for years, because I like to maintain relationships on the long term. I like to form connections that last. This is how you attract positive energy; when you are spontaneous and natural and your relationship with art and people isn’t just for personal gain.”
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–This story was written for Billboard Arabia by Omar Bakbouk
They’ve been changed for good! Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande had a heartwarming moment when they got to see their Mattel Barbie dolls inspired by their Wicked characters in person for the first time.
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The fourth-longest-running Broadway show of all time, Wicked pulls inspiration from both the stage musical and the best-selling Gregory Maguire-penned novel of the same name. Grande, who topped the Billboard 200 this year with her Eternal Sunshine LP, is set to star as Glinda the Good Witch, with Erivo, a two-time Academy Award nominee, taking on the iconic role of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West.
In the clip, Erivo and Grande — fittingly dressed in green and pink, respectively — approach the table that their dolls are sitting on. “It’s perfect,” Grande says while picking up Glinda. Both actresses are then pleasantly shocked when the Elphaba doll began singing “Defying Gravity” upon being picked up.
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“Sorry, I need a moment,” Grande joked, stealing the Elphaba doll to listen to the song. “They’re so tall!”
“Taller than us, that’s for sure,” Erivo agreed. Both Grande and Erivo are five feet one inch tall.
“What a dream come true to be realized as Elphaba and Glinda in the form of Sweet Little dolls. Little Cynthia and little Ari are pleased,” Erivo captioned the post, which you can see here.
The rest of the principal Wicked cast will feature Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Olivier winner Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, Emmy nominee Bowen Yang as Pfannee and Emmy nominee Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
The first part of the Jon M. Chu-directed adaptation arrives in theaters on November 22.
Maria Becerra has announced she’s taking a break from social media to focus on her mental health amid panic and anxiety attacks she’s experienced while on tour in Europe.
On Tuesday (July 30), the Argentine hitmaker began her emotional X post with, “I’m leaving this social media platform.” Later in the thread, she explained that she’s “detoxing” from not only X, but all social media.
“I have struggled a lot with my mental health on this European tour, it feels horrible, I have experienced everything from crying spells to anxiety and panic attacks,” she wrote in Spanish. “It’s waking up every day and reading thousands of offensive things about me and talking about my personal life and the way I dress — as if I’m committing some crime and deserve the worst when it’s just MY TASTE to dress. They pick on my physique on a daily basis, on everything! I understand that this is part of the fame.”
She continued: “I understand that many of you want to help and advise me and you of all people know that I listen to you and care a lot about what you think. But to get to the point of insulting me like you do is unacceptable to me. I will no longer tolerate this because it’s not good for me. I understand that things like this will continue to happen to me. But I’m not going to continue being a masochist having a social account where you enter and it’s just reading horrible things. I’m out of here. Thanks to all who support me and send me their love.”
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Signed to Warner Music Latina, in a joint venture with 300 Entertainment, the singer-songwriter is currently touring in Spain and will then head to Latin America to continue her world trek. She’s set to kick off the U.S. leg of her stint in October, with stops in New York, L.A. and Dallas, among other major cities.
The 24-year-old artist — known for fusing pop, cumbia villera, bachata and reggaeton — broke out in 2019 with her EP 222. Two years later, she released her debut album, Animal, featuring collaborations with artists such as Cazzu, Becky G and Tiago PZK. The set earned Becerra a Latin Grammy nomination for best urban music album.
Most recently, she teamed up with Gloria Trevi for “Borracha.” She’s also set to participate in Billboard Latin Music Week, as announced on Wednesday (July 31).
“I will get back to my cell phone when I feel able to do it. For the moment it has only caused me anxiety and panic,” she ended the X thread.
Read the original post in Spanish below:
Me voy de esta red social. He luchado mucho con mi salud mental en esta gira por Europa, se siente horrible todo esto, experimente desde ataques de llanto hasta ataques de ansiedad y panico.Es despertarme todos los dias y leer miles de cosas ofensivas sobre mi hablando 👇🏽— LNDA 🇦🇷 (@MariaBecerra22) July 31, 2024
After months of slowly revealing songs from his upcoming debut country album, F-1 Trillion, Post Malone has dropped the full 18-song slate of songs that will be included on the upcoming album, out Aug. 16. The titles and features were first officially revealed in a full-page ad in The Tennessean. Post then shared a photo […]
