Music News

29 Apr 2024

Gracie Abrams Announces New Single ‘Risk’ & Album ‘The Secret of Us’: Here’s When They Arrive

Gracie Abrams‘ new album is a secret no more. That’s because the 24-year-old rising pop star announced Monday (April 29) that her sophomore record, The Secret of Us, is arriving this summer, led by the single “Risk,” which drops later this week.

The “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” singer broke the news with a post on social media, unveiling the project’s cover — an up-close headshot of Abrams with “The Secret of Us” scrawled in yellow font at the top. “the album that I made with some of my favorite people (!!!!!!!!!!) is yours JUNE 21 and the first single ?RISK? comes out on MAY 1!” she wrote in her caption.

“We had real, true fun writing this album,” Abrams continued, confirming that her frequent collaborator, The National’s Aaron Dessner, produced the LP. “There were also the occasional tears … The music is yours in basically five seconds and we cannot wait. I. Love. You.”

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The announcement comes a little over a year after the songwriter dropped her long-awaited debut album, Good Riddance, which debuted at No. 52 on the Billboard 200. Featuring singles “Block Me Out” and “I Know It Won’t Work,” the project was also produced by Dessner, and the duo later recorded live acoustic performances of tracks on the album together for a special edition vinyl.

The Secret of Us will also follow a successful run of Eras Tour shows supporting Taylor Swift, a gig Abrams will resume this fall when the “Anti-Hero” singer circles back for a brief second U.S. leg. In November, the “21” artist was nominated for her first Grammy in the best new artist category, which went to Victoria Monét. Shortly afterward, Abrams teamed up with fellow nominee Noah Kahan for a remix of his Stick Season track “Everywhere, Everything,” making her Billboard Hot 100 debut at No. 79.

See Abrams’ album announcement below.

29 Apr 2024

Cher, Donna Summer & More Earn Streaming Bumps Thanks to ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Lip Syncs

With season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race officially over, fans finally know who won the crown. But which recording artist managed to win in terms of streaming bumps?

Throughout the latest season of the franchise, songs featured in lip syncs have earned a 28.1% increase on average in total on-demand streams, including UGC (user-generated content), according to Luminate.

The song that earned the biggest bump of the season was Cher‘s “Dark Lady,” which featured as the Lip Sync For Your Life song for episode four (aired Friday, Jan. 26). On the day the episode aired, “Dark Lady” earned 9,180 streams; the following day (Jan. 26), on-demand streams for the song spiked to 38,183, marking a 315.9% increase in on-demand streams for Cher.

Janet Jackson’s “What About” also earned a triple-digit percentage increase in streams thanks to Drag Race. After being featured as one of the lip-sync songs in April 12’s “Lalaparuza” episode, the song shot from 1,056 streams to 3,946 streams, netting Jackson a 273.7% increase.

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Meanwhile, two Donna Summer songs nabbed similarly impressive streaming bumps thanks to a pair of lip-sync showdowns on this season of Drag Race. “This Time I Know It’s for Real,” Summer’s song used in a lip sync on April 12, secured a 180.9% increase in on-demand streams the day after the episode aired. “Dim All the Lights,” used in the episode 11 lip sync on March 15, also earned a 96.4% increase in on-demand streams the day following the episode.

The finale episode of season 16 (aired Friday, April 19) saw the franchise crown Nymphia Wind as America’s Next Drag Superstar following a heart-racing lip sync to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” (which earned a 56.5% bump in streams the day after being featured on the show). The queen made history with her crowning, becoming the first-ever East Asian winner of the American franchise.

Speaking to Billboard shortly after her victory, Wind said it felt “crazy to be able to live this out for my community and my country,” adding that “it really means a lot to me to be able to live this.”

29 Apr 2024

Benny Blanco Says SZA Once Ate an Entire Tray of His Banana Pudding

SOS — Benny Blanco‘s banana pudding is so good, SZA couldn’t Ctrl herself around it. During an appearance on the Monday (April 29) episode of SiriusXM’s The Sporkful podcast, the producer told host Dan Pashman about the time the “Kill Bill” singer ate an entire tray of his banana pudding while they were supposed to be working on music together.

“We were at my house, and she went down to get a drink and she saw something in the fridge,” Blanco recalled. “She had one bite. It was in a big like sheet tray. And then by the end of the day, there was no more banana pudding left.”

“She would just, like, sneak down for bites,” he continued. “And then every time she came to the studio, she needed a banana pudding. Then it was like, ‘Oh, wait, what else do you make?’ Then it was like, lasagna … We wound up cooking more than making music, you know?”

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The “Eastside” musician — who worked on “Nobody Gets Me” and “Special” on SZA’s 2022 Billboard 200-topping album SOS — also revealed that he and the R&B-pop star now have a “bartering system” when it comes to food and music. “There was a time when SZA said, ‘I’m not coming over unless you have spicy rigatoni cooked for me,’” Blanco said. “And she was, like, halfway joking, but halfway serious. ‘Cause I’ll bark demands at her. I’ll be like, ‘We need to get this vocal done.’ And she’s like, ‘We need to eat the spicy rigatoni!’”

The new interview comes ahead of Blanco’s new cookbook Open Wide, which hits shelves Tuesday (April 30). While promoting the project in a Wall Street Journal interview last week, the hitmaker gushed about how he and his girlfriend, singer-actress Selena Gomez, like to bond over their passion for food and enjoy making dinners for their families.

Blanco also told the publication that he was the “last one to know” he was in love with the Rare Beauty founder. “It’s crazy how your partner could just be sitting there the whole time, right in front of your eyes, and you don’t even notice,” he recalled. “Then you have that Clueless moment where you’re like, ‘Wait, I’m in love.’”

Later, he told SiriusXM that he and Gomez have not yet gone on a double date with Taylor Swift, the Only Murders in the Building star’s longtime best friend, and Travis Kelce — but he has bumped into the “Anti-Hero” singer recently. “I just saw [Swift] at [Los Angeles restaurant] Sushi Park a week ago,” he said. “I ran into her right before Coachella a week ago.”

Listen to Blanco talk about SZA enjoying his banana pudding below.

29 Apr 2024

Charlie Puth Finally Responded to Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Shout-Out

It’s about time! On Sunday (April 28) Charlie Puth finally appeared to respond to the unexpected shout-out he got on Taylor Swift‘s Billboard 200 No. 1 album The Tortured Poets Department. And while his nod to the lyrical reference on the album’s title track was low-key, the “Light Switch” singer’s Instagram Story post said it all with one simple image.

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After Swift posted an image of the herself in the studio with TTPD scrawled in sharpie across the CD version of the sprawling collection, Puth put his own spin on it by grabbing one of the other studio images of a smiling Swift at work with the album’s title scrawled in black marker across the front. The Story didn’t have any sound or message from Puth, 32, but it was appeared to be Puth’s way of subtly thanking Swift for the kind words.

On the song Swift sings, “You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” she sings on the title track that many fans have speculated features veiled references to Taylor reported brief 2023 fling with The 1975’s Matty Healy.

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Puth’s image came from Swift’s celebration of TTPD‘s record-setting run after Taylor learned that the album marked her 14th debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, tying her with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among solo artists in the nearly-70-year history of the chart; only the Beatles, with 19, have more No. 1s.

The Tortured Poets Department earned 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week week ending April 25, with traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) making up 1.914 million of that sum. Vinyl comprised an astonishing 859,000 of the total, with the deluxe, 31-track deluxe version generating 891.34 million on-demand official streams.

29 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Make Romantic Entrance in New Mahomies Charity Gala Highlight Reel: Watch

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were featured together for only a split-second in 15 and The Mahomies Foundation’s new Instagram reel, but of course, they still stole the show.  

Posted Sunday (April 28), the video compiles clips from the organization’s Las Vegas charity gala, which the “Anti-Hero” singer attended alongside the Kansas City Chief tight end over the weekend. The snippet that has fans buzzing, though, shows Swift and Kelce elegantly walking into the venue side-by-side, holding hands and looking stunning in their evening attire. 

One commenter joked that the romantic moment would have “terrorized wattpad,” a popular fan-fiction hub, in 2013. Another person echoed countless other admirers by saying that the couple is the “closest thing america has to royalty.” 

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Founded by Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2019, 15 and The Mahomies is “dedicated to improving the lives of children” and supporting initiatives that “focus on health, wellness, communities in need of resources and other charitable causes,” according to its website. Though Swift is visible in only the one clip, the charity’s reel also shows Kelce laughing with friends during its weekend golf fundraiser and dutifully catching footballs from Mahomes mid-gala. 

Not featured is the moment the New Heights podcaster auctioned off four tickets to an upcoming Eras Tour show for $80,000 on behalf of his girlfriend, whom he referred to as his “significant other” in the moment. 

While she was in Vegas, Swift also got the news that her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, had made a historic debut atop the Billboard 200, opening with 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week. “I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album. 2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS??” she tweeted shortly afterward. “Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.” 

See Swift and Kelce hold hands at the 15 and Mahomies Foundation benefit – plus a few fan reactions — below. 

29 Apr 2024

Weeknd Pledges $2 Million to Provide 18 Million Loaves of Bread to Families in Gaza

The Weeknd has pledged another $2 million from his XOP Humanitarian Fund to the World Food Programme’s humanitarian response efforts in war-torn Gaza. According to a statement released on Monday morning (April 29), the money from the artist who now goes by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, will be used to provide more than 1,500 metric tons of fortified wheat flour, which can be used to make more than 18 million loaves of bread to feed more than 157,000 Palestinians for a month.

Tesfaye, a United Nations World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador, previously donated $2.5 million — the equivalent of four million emergency meals — to the WFP’s Gaza response in Dec. 2023. That initial pledge provided 820 metric tons of food parcels to more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks, according to a statement. The singer is also asking his fans to donate to WFP’s efforts in Gaza, where experts say that more than one million displaced Palestinians face dire food shortages six months into Israel’s punishing response to Hamas’ deadly surprise attack in which the militant group murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250 men, women, children and elderly citizens.

“We are very grateful for Abel’s continued support as WFP works to respond to the urgent hunger crisis in Gaza,” Barron Segar, WFP USA president/CEO said in a statement. “Hunger is a human-made problem, and as such, it is solvable. We have enough food in this world to feed everyone; all we need is the funding and safe access to make it happen. Thanks to Abel’s designation, families and children will receive the food they so desperately need.”

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To date, Tesfaye, his partners and fans have raised more than $6.5 million for the Fund, with the singer directing $4.5 million toward Gaza relief.

The UN reported last week that after nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment WFP’s Geneva office director said, “people cannot meet even the most basic, food needs. They have exhausted all coping strategies, like eating animal fodder, begging, selling off their belongings to buy food. They are most of the time destitute and clearly some of them are dying of hunger.” Experts said that the dire situation in Gaza is verging on a famine, with an estimated 30% of children under two now described as acutely malnourished or wasted and 70% of the population in the north facing “catastrophic” hunger.

29 Apr 2024

Morgan Wallen & Post Malone Debut New Song ‘I Had Some Help’ During Stagecoach: Watch

When Morgan Wallen headlined the Sunday (April 28) lineup at Indio, Calif., country music festival Stagecoach, he performed many of his signature hits, but the Grammy-nominated singer also had some help surprising the audience during his festival-closing set on the Mane Stage.

Wallen brought out Post Malone, who joined Wallen for a new song called “I Had Some Help.”

Post Malone previously teased the uptempo track on social media, highlighting lyrics such as “I had some help/ It ain’t like I can make this kind of mess all by myself/ Don’t act like you ain’t help me pull that bottle off the shelf … they say teamwork makes the dream work.”

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Of course, this wasn’t Wallen and Posty’s first joint performance; back at November’s CMA Awards, they were joined by Hardy to honor the late Joe Diffie with renditions of “John Deere Greene” and “Pickup Man.”

Also, Post Malone had his own set at Stagecoach on Saturday, performing a slate of country cover songs and welcoming Brad Paisley, Sara Evans and Dwight Yoakam to assist his throwback country set. Yoakam joined for “Little Ways,” while Paisley and Posty collaborated on the former’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her (the Fishin’ Song)” before they also offered up Vince Gill’s classic “One More Last Chance.” Evans joined Post Malone for her own “Suds in the Bucket.” He opened with a version of Tyler Childers’ “Whitehouse Road,” and offered up renditions of Tim McGraw’s “Don’t Take the Girl,” Randy Travis’ “Three Wooden Crosses” and honored the late Toby Keith with a rendition of “Who’s Your Daddy?”

Post Malone closed out his set by having Paisley return to the stage as they offered up ’90s country classic “Chattahoochee” by Alan Jackson.

Following Post Malone’s CMA Awards performance, rumors have swirled that he is making his own country record, something he confirmed during a livestream interview on Twitch, though no concrete information has been released on such a project.

“Country record is coming. I keep singing a song that we made while I was in Nashville. It’s so f–king sick, but it’s not out,” he said during the Twitch livestream.

Watch clips from Morgan Wallen and Post Malone’s performance of “I Had Some Help” at Stagecoach below:

29 Apr 2024

SEVENTEEN’S Jam-Packed ’17 Is Right Here’ Greatest Hits Album Is Here: Stream It Now

K-pop group SEVENTEEN dropped their anticipated greatest hits album, 17 Is Right Here, on Monday morning (April 29), along with the futuristic video for the lead single, “Maestro.” The two-CD, 33-track compilation pulls together the Korean versions of eight previously released Japanese singles, 20 singles from the 13-man band’s Korean releases, as well as four new tracks and a digital-only instrumental version of the boy band’s 2015 debut single, “Adore U.”

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Fresh single “MAESTRO” will be followed by the hip-hop team’s “LALALI,” the performance team’s “Spell” and the vocal team’s “Cheers to youth.” The edgy “MAESTRO” visual, directed by Han Sungsoo, drops group members Woozi, S. Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon, Jeonghan, Jun, DK, Joshua, Hoshi, Dino, The8 and Seungkwan into a sleek future scape filled with dancing robots and mechanical dogs in which they bust out high-energy choreo with their machine companions and conduct a gothic symphony orchestra through the hip-hop-influenced track’s dance attack.

“Aligning with the group’s core message around solidarity, this captivating dance R&B track illustrates how together, we can orchestrate our own universe like a ‘maestro,’” read a statement announcing the clip. To further the message, it aded that the video is set in a dystopian future where “anything, including music and art, can be easily created with technology.”

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According to the band’s label, 17 Is Right Here got more than three million pre-orders as of April 19. During a press conference announcing the album on Monday, SEVENTEEN also announced plans for a world tour int he fall, with the full roster — including U.S. dates — to be announced later.

Listen to the album and watch the “MAESTRO” video below:

29 Apr 2024

Here Are Six Things to Know About ‘Million Dollar Baby’ Singer Tommy Richman

Tommy Richman has taken the internet by storm in the last few days after releasing his new song, “MILLION DOLLAR BABY.” Released Friday (Apr. 26), the record is already firing on all cylinders on streaming because of its funky sound and Richman’s seamless vocal riffs. 

Last week, Richman first teased the track on TikTok using a VHS-style recording of him and his team grooving to the record. It has since earned 9.5 million views on the popular social media platform, and is quickly creeping into the conversation of possibly being a song of the summer contender. 

With an undeniable bass and sticky hook about winning a girl over, “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” could be foreshadowing Richman’s future success, as he sings: “You rep my city for so damn long/ But you still don’t notice me, my sound next/ VA next, I’m at they neck, I’m runnin’ up a check.” 

Despite his small discography to this point, Richman is equipped to make noise. A shifty singer who can jump between alternative and R&B with the drop of a hat, Richman has a formidable team behind him — most notably Brent Faiyaz after the two joined forces last year through the singer’s creative agency, ISO Supremacy. 

“In launching my new label ISO Supremacy and partnering with PULSE Records, we’ve created this platform to give artists like Tommy Richman a creative home with the ability to scale global impact and a team that is accessible who keeps creativity at the forefront. We’re going to continue to make history,” added Faiyaz. 

Here are six things about the “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” singer Tommy Richman.

29 Apr 2024

Blue Ivy Carter Joins Beyoncé in ‘Lion King’ Prequel ‘Mufasa’: Watch the Trailer

Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Carter aren’t just mother and daughter anymore — they’re costars. Disney unveiled a new trailer for its upcoming Lion King prequel Mufasa Monday (April 29), confirming that both the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer and her 12-year-old firstborn are lending their famous voices to the project.

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The teaser doesn’t offer any sneak peeks at the duo’s voice work, but it does feature a sequence of dynamic animated scenes from Mufasa’s journey as he transforms from lion cub to king of all the light touches. The end titles reveal the main cast — Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Mads Mikkelsen and Thandiwe Newton — followed by “Introducing Blue Ivy Carter with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.”

The film will find Bey — who also shares twins Rumi and Sir with husband Jay-Z — reprising her role as Nala, which she first debuted in 2019’s Lion King, a 3D remake of Disney’s original 1994 cartoon. Blue Ivy will play Kiara, the daughter of Nala and King Simba, who is voiced by Donald Glover.

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In 2019, the 32-time Grammy winner also spearheaded a curated soundtrack titled The Lion King: The Gift, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It featured the song “My Power,” for which Blue Ivy often joined Bey in choreography onstage during the superstar’s Renaissance Tour shows, making the young star’s role in Mufasa even more fitting.

“I was so glad that both Beyoncé and Blue Ivy were down to do it, and watching them work together was just really special,” director Barry Jenkins told ABC of the casting. “Beyoncé is this larger-than-life figure, but when she’s working with her daughter, when she’s in the room with her daughter, she’s a mom first. So much of that energy bled into the film.”

Watch the Mufasa trailer below.