Music News

23 Feb 2024

Here’s How Amy Schumer Ended Up Getting a Lap Dance Onstage With Madonna: ‘I Thought It Was a Joke!’

Have you even really lived until you’ve gotten a lap dance from Madonna? Just ask Amy Schumer.

In a new interview with The Associated Press, the comedian hilariously recounts getting onstage with the Queen of Pop during her ongoing Celebration Tour.

“I did not know I was going up on stage, that is the truth,” she told the interviewer and Life & Beth co-star Michael Cera. “An hour before the show, I was backstage hanging with some of her team and a choreographer approached me and… I thought it was a joke! And then I realized, ‘Oh, I’m getting onstage with her and I’m getting a lap dance.’”

Lap dances — and similar sensual choreography — are a key element of Madonna’s latest tour, as are onstage celebrity appearances. Before Schumer, the Queen of Pop trotted out stars such as Diplo, Donatella Versace and FKA twigs during the ballroom segment of the show. Madonna invited Schumer onstage during her show at Madison Square Garden in New York on Jan. 23. The two stars judged Madge’s backup dancers as they strutted to “Vogue”; eventually, the strutting turned into grinding as Madonna wrapped her legs around one dancer while Schumer’s face was temporarily frozen in shock.

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Amused and intrigued by Schumer’s story, Cera quipped, “You needed a choreographer for that?” In response, Schumer replied, “They just want to make sure that, first of all, there’s consent. And also that you’re not gonna, like, freak out because you’re onstage at The Garden, you know?”

Of course, this isn’t Madonna’s time in lap-dance territory — who can forget her sultry shimmy for Maluma back in 2022? — but Amy Schumer can now join her in that arena. “Two times, not a big deal!” she teased. “But it was amazing, and God I just love her so much. Everybody needs to see this show.”

The Celebration Tour — which has hit a steady pace after a particularly rocky start that saw the production postponed due to the “Hung Up” singer’s hospitalization — is set to continue through the next two months, stopping in major cities such as Las Vegas (March 1-2), Los Angeles (March 4-11) and Houston (March 28-29) before concluding with five shows at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City (April 20-26).

Watch Amy Schumer’s hilarious interview below:

23 Feb 2024

Gen and the Degenerates Dance in the Face of Dystopia on Debut Album ‘Anti-Fun Propaganda’

Genevieve Glynn-Reeves, the 22-year-old British singer and lead for Gen and the Degenerates, is not looking for sympathy from older generations. Just cutting back on the constant invective and contrived concerns will more than suffice.

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“There’s so much criticism of like Gen Z and millennials from older generations about how we’re spending our time and the kind of things we value,” says Glynn-Reeves, who with her four bandmates — guitarists Sean Sloan and Jake Jones, bass player Jay Humphreys and drummer Evan Reeves — turn the tables on the naysayers on their debut album Anti-Fun Propaganda, out Friday (Feb. 23) on Marshall Records.

Through tracks like “Kids Wanna Dance” and “That’s Enough Internet for Today,” Gen and the Degenerates dissect the youth experience under the Internet bubble, where every momentary mistake and mishap is fed into an algorithm and archived in the cloud somewhere.

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That’s disconcerting for Glynn-Reeves, who notes her dislike for permeance: “I don’t even write the lyrics for my songs down. If they aren’t good enough to be remembered, they probably should be forgotten.”

A native of Cambridge, Glynn-Reeves met her bandmates at Liverpool John Moore’s University in 2019 and has been honing the band’s sound ever since, landing on a punky ’80s UK-meets-Manhattan’s Lower East Side style with fast-paced lyrical delivery and dancy themes reminiscent of Blondie, The Eurythmics and Duran Duran.

As part of the album release, the band is featuring their newest single “Girls,” a cheeky anthem skewering the TikTok talking heads who criticize “girly behavior.”

“I asked women on TikTok and femme-presenting people for weird misogynistic complaints that their ex-boyfriends have had about them,” Glynn-Reeves says. “It turned out to be all these stupid things like, ‘Oh my ex would complain when I wore heels that made me taller than him,’ so I made the lyric ‘I love it when their shoes make them taller than me.’ Because it’s so ridiculous for men who claim to want to date women to then just have all of these stipulations and criticisms about women.”

“And they say this while having no standards for themselves,” Jones added.

“We should celebrate those things and put them in a positive light and see them as desirable,” Glynn-Reeve added. “As a queer person, I would love to date a woman like that; that sounds brilliant.”

Anti-Fun Propaganda is available in Spatial Audio via supported streaming platforms. The album can be found on Spotify here. Fans can purchase limited-edition vinyl bundles of the album here. The band is currently on the road with legendary Celtic punks Flogging Molly across the U.S. The complete list of dates can be found below.

Feb. 23 – Charles Town VA, Hollywood Casino Event Centre
Feb. 24 – Jim Thorpe NY, Penn’s Peak
Feb. 25 – Huntington NY, The Paramount
Feb. 27 – Winston-Salem NC, The Ramkat
Feb. 28 – Chattanooga TN, The Signal
March 1 – Nashville IN, Brown County Music Centre
March 2 – Madison, WI, The Sylvee
March 3 – Green Bay WI, EPIC Event Center Green Bay
March 5 – West Des Moines IA, Val Air Ballroom
March 6 – Davenport IA, Capitol Theatre
March 8 – Kansas City, MO, Uptown Theatre
March 9 – Mulvane, KS, Kansas Star Casino
March 10 – Lincoln, NE, Bourbon Theatre
March 12 – Boulder, CO, Boulder Theatre

23 Feb 2024

Watch ‘The Voice’ Coaches Feel the ‘Love’ With Soulful Group Cover to Kick Off Season 25

The Voice coaches are bringing a little church to the singing competition’s set ahead of Monday’s season 25 premiere.

For the show’s traditional season-opener group performance, John Legend, Reba McEntire, Chance the Rapper and Dan + Shay got together to sing a soulful rendition of Jackie DeShannon’s “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” With the country duo’s Dan Smyers on guitar, all five of the coaches took turns singing lines from the song as a huge gospel choir surrounding the stage provided ethereal harmonies.

“All the world will be a better place/ For you and me,” the collective sang, each star’s unique voice contrasting with the others. “You just wait and see, wait and see.”

DeShannon peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” in 1969.

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This season of The Voice launches Monday (Feb. 26), with Legend, McEntire and Chance all returning form previous panels. It’ll mark Smyers and Shay Mooney’s first time as coaches — the pair have previously been involved with the show as guest advisors — and the two will share a spinning chair and button. And yes, they’re aware that the setup might pose some challenges.

“When we were flying out [to L.A.] for the first time, we looked over at each other’s like, ‘Should we come up with some kind of strategy, like two taps on the knee is a yes?’ We didn’t realize when they started taping that there’s cameras on you from every angle at all times, you’re miked up,” Mooney told Billboard Friday. “If one of us is really feeling it, we’ve given each other permission to go ahead and smash that button and turn that chair around. But the two chairs, one button [thing] is an interesting dynamic.”

Watch the coaches perform “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” above.

23 Feb 2024

Watch Travis Kelce Pass Out Guitar Picks to Fans at Taylor Swift’s Sydney Eras Tour Show

Travis Kelce: football star, podcaster and now, professional guitar pick distributor.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was in attendance at Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour show in Sydney on Friday (Feb. 23), and in between dancing along to his superstar girlfriend’s set and hanging out with friends in the VIP tent, he passed out guitar picks to fans at Accor Stadium.

In one fan video, Kelce puts his football skills to use by intercepting a friendship bracelet thrown at him from a Swiftie. In return, he takes out a pick and tosses it to a fan.

In another clip, the Ohio native — whose two wrists are visibly decked out with handmade beaded bracelets — walks up to a line of fans mid-show, seemingly pulls more picks out of his pocket and hands them out.

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The role of passing out guitar picks to fans at shows has traditionally been occupied for Swift’s entire career by her father, Scott. But clearly, Kelce is joining the family business.

Toward the end of the concert, No. 87 got a shout-out from the “Anti-Hero” singer, who once again changed her “Karma” lyrics to: “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.” Swift previously made the lyric change when Kelce attended her show in Buenos Aires.

Kelce has been in Australia with the 14-time Grammy winner since Wednesday. On Thursday, the couple went to the Sydney Zoo together and were spotted holding hands and taking selfies.

Watch Travis Kelce pass out guitar picks below.

23 Feb 2024

Pharrell Teases Upcoming Miley Cyrus Collaboration Is Coming ‘Soon’

Pharrell and Miley Cyrus have another banger on the way. Skateboard P teased a collaboration with Cyrus that appears to be titled “Doctor” on his Instagram on Friday (Feb. 23).

Pharrell gave listeners a snippet of the groovy tune while driving but only hinted that the track would be coming “soon.”

“I could be your doctor and I could be your nurse/ I think I see the problem, it’s only gon’ get worse/ I need my medication just show me where it hurts/ I need to rock you baby before your body burns,” Miley sings.

This isn’t the first time Pharrell has previewed “Doctor”: The song was played as part of Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Fall-Winter 2024 Collection presentation in Paris last month.

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Per Rolling Stone, the track was possibly meant to land on Miley’s Bangerz album from 2013 but didn’t make the cut. An unedited demo version of the song leaked in 2017.

The Neptunes legend produced a handful of songs from Bangerz and the duo reunited a year later in 2014 for G I R L‘s”Come Get It Bae.” The funky anthem peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I have this theory about Disney artists: They have the best work ethic ever,” Pharrell told The Hollywood Reporter of linking up with the Hannah Montana star in 2013. “She had inquired about working with me, but I had inquired about looking for her—we found each other at the same time.”

The year is off to a fantastic start for Cyrus, who took home her first two Grammy Award victories earlier this month when her Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Flowers” won record of the year as well as best pop solo performance. Cyrus had previously been nominated for two Grammys before collecting her first trophies this month.

Listen to a preview of the upcoming Pharrell and Miley collab below.

23 Feb 2024

Normani Opens Up About Parents’ Cancer Treatments: ‘All I Wanted to Do Was Be There for Them’

Normani is gearing up to release her long-awaited debut solo album, and opened up about the ups and downs of her past few years in a new Who What Wear profile.

In the wide-ranging interview, the star revealed that while her solo hits like “Motivation” and “Love Lies” were taking off, her parents were privately battling cancer. “F— all of this,” she said of her career after learning of the diagnoses. “This is bigger than the music. It’s bigger than what I’m trying to accomplish. This is life or death. All I wanted to do was be there for them.”

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However, she added that her music ultimately ended up being a positive part of healing. “Honestly, music got them through the cancer treatments,” Normani recalled. “I remember being on FaceTime with my mom while she was undergoing chemo and her asking me, ‘How’s the studio today? How’s the music coming?’” she says. At this moment, tears start to form in her eyes. She stammers a bit but goes on to say, “As hard as it was for me to not be with them as much as I wanted to, ultimately, pushing through made the circumstances of the last few years feel a bit lighter for my parents.”

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Normani announced last week she’ll be releasing her debut album, Dopamine, this year. She posted the album artwork on Instagram, which features the black-leather bikini-clad singer riding on top of a black rocket. “cryingg typing this rn. DOPAMINE THE ALBUM,” she captioned the post. The announcement of her long-awaited first full-length project arrives after fans noticed the ex-Fifth Harmony member had cleared her Instagram.

Normani has yet to reveal Dopamine‘s release date, but according to the rapidly changing date counter on the aforementioned website, it will be released in 2024.

23 Feb 2024

Goyo, WOS & More: Which Is Your Favorite New Latin Music Release This Week? Vote!

This week, Billboard‘s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — feature fresh new releases from artists such as Goyo, WOS, Wisin and Gabito Ballesteros, and more.

The regional Mexican music takeover continues. This time, it’s reggaeton star Wisin who experiments with the gene in “Un Shot,” a collaboration with emerging música mexicana artist Gabito Ballesteros. It’s Wisin’s first-ever regional Mexican track, which comes as the genre globalizes thanks to a new generation of acts, which includes Ballesteros. The track is a corrido tumbado with hard-hitting urban beats that also meshes Ballestero’s dulcet vocals and Wisin’s raspier tone. “Un Shot” narrates the story of a man who’s drinking his sorrows away after a break up.

Meanwhile, Peruvian icon Gian Marco teams up with Catalina García (Monsieur Periné’s lead vocalist) in the captivating ballad “Tú.” The acoustic collaboration, a fourth preview of Gian Marco’s upcoming album Aún Me Sigo Encontrando, fuses the pair’s voices in a sublime performance, giving life to a beautiful Andean song accompanied by the distinctive sound of the charango, a typical instrument of this South American region.

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Other new releases include Goyo’s edgy hip-hop song “Insomnio,” WOS and Gustavo Santaolalla’s cumbia masterpiece “Melancolía,” and LAGOS and Elena Rose’s pop release “Blanco y Negro.”

Last week, Farruko’s “Rasta Reggae (Jamming)” won the poll with over 50 percent of the votes. Gaby Moreno’s new album, Dusk, followed with 33 percent of the votes. Which your favorite new Latin music release of this week? Vote below!

23 Feb 2024

Shane Gillis Really Wants to Be Like 21 Savage in New ‘SNL’ Promo

Shane Gillis is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend (Feb. 24), and in a series of new promos for the episode, the comedian felt inspired by musical guest 21 Savage’s style.

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In one of the clips, Gillis is seen wearing a pair of sunglasses just like 21 Savage is. SNL castmember Kenan Thompson calls him out, noting, “Are we going to talk about the sunglasses? Are you trying to be like 21 Savage?”

While Gillis denies that he’s trying to look like the rapper, he immediately gets excited when 21 Savage tells him he looks “aight.” “Really? Thank you 21,” Gillis gushes, before giving the camera two thumbs up.

Ariana Grande and Kacey Musgraves will both promote their upcoming March album releases by performing on Saturday Night Live next month. Musgraves will join Anyone But You actress Sydney Sweeney when she hosts the March 2 episode, while Grande will join host Josh Brolin on the March 9 episode.

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Watch the new promos below. Catch the full episode on Saturday (Feb. 24) at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, before it streams the next day on Peacock.

23 Feb 2024

Blink-182’s ‘One More Time’ Ties Record for Longest Alternative Airplay No. 1 Run

A seven-year-old record on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart has finally been tied: blink-182’s “One More Time” spends its 20th week at No. 1 as of the March 2-dated survey, tying the mark for the longest reign in the tally’s 36-year history.

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It equals Portugal. The Man’s “Feel It Still,” which ruled for 20 nonconsecutive weeks between July and December 2017.

“One More Time” has remained at No. 1 on Alternative Airplay every week since its initial rule (Oct. 21, 2023) – the longest streak in the chart’s history, having exceeded the 18 straight frames (of 19 total) for Muse’s “Madness” in October 2012-February 2013 and Foo Fighters’ “The Pretender” (encompassing its reign) in September-December 2007.

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Most Weeks at No. 1, Alternative Airplay
20, “One More Time,” blink-182 (2023-24)
20, “Feel It Still,” Portugal. The Man (2017)
19, “Madness,” Muse (2012-13)
18, “Monsters,” All Time Low feat. Blackbear (2020-21)
18, “The Pretender,” Foo Fighters (2007)
17, “Uprising,” Muse (2009-10)
16, “High Hopes,” Panic! at the Disco (2018-19)
16, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Green Day (2004-05)
16, “It’s Been Awhile,” Staind (2001)
16, “Scar Tissue,” Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999)

Blink-182 ties for the longest Alternative Airplay command over a quarter-century after the band first hit the chart with “Dammit (Growing Up)” in October 1997. “What’s My Age Again?” reached No. 2 in July 1999, becoming the group’s first of 16 top 10s, while follow-up “All the Small Things” became the first of the band’s five No. 1s in December 1999.

“One More Time” has led Alternative Airplay since its fourth week on the chart; it debuted at No. 29 on the Sept. 30, 2023, list, followed by a rise to No. 3 and then No. 2 before beginning its reign. In that time, two songs have hit No. 2 highs: Green Day’s “The American Dream Is Killing Me” for 11 weeks and, most recently, Cannons “Loving You” for the last five frames.

Concurrently, “One More Time” falls from its nine-week run atop Rock & Alternative Airplay to No. 4 with 5.2 million audience impressions Feb. 16-22, according to Luminate. The song peaked at No. 2 on Mainstream Rock Airplay in November 2023 and No. 36 on Adult Alternative Airplay in December.

The song has crossed over to pop radio formats, as well. It peaked at No. 13 on Adult Pop Airplay, the band’s highest rank in its career, surpassing the No. 24 best of “I Miss You” in July 2004. It’s also the trio’s first-ever Adult Contemporary entry, having reached No. 27.

“One More Time” is the second single and title cut from blink-182’s 2023 ninth studio album, following “Edging,” which ruled both Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay beginning in 2022. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart dated Nov. 4, 2023, and has earned 247,000 equivalent album units to date.

All Billboard charts dated March 2 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

23 Feb 2024

Shinsadong Tiger, No. 1 K-Pop Hitmaker and Producer of EXID & TRI.BE, Found Dead at 40

Shinsadong Tiger, a chart-topping and award-winning K-pop producer and songwriter, has passed away, his entertainment label confirmed on Friday (Feb. 23). The cause of death is currently unknown. He was 40.

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Following local reports that Shinsadong Tiger (neé Lee Ho-yang, also known professionally as S.Tiger) was found collapsed in his Seoul workplace, his representative agency TR Entertainment confirmed the news that “Producer Shinsadong Tiger suddenly left our side on February 23, 2024.”

In the statement on social media, TR Entertainment requested refraining from “speculative reports for the bereaved families” and that funeral proceedings will be held quietly only by family, relatives and colleagues.

TR Entertainment also represents TRI.BE, Universal Music Korea’s first K-pop group crafted in collaboration with Shinsadong Tiger and signed with Republic Records in the U.S. On Tuesday (Feb. 20), TRI.BE released a new single “Diamond” and b-side track “Run,” both produced and co-written by the late producer. TR shared that TRI.BE is canceling and postponing its promotional schedule while promising to return for more television performances “since it is the last album that Shinsadong Tiger prepared and released with TRI.BE during his lifetime.”

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TRI.BE was Shinsadong Tiger’s latest act after previously crafting and producing girl group EXID, who unexpectedly exploded in popularity two years into its career with the S.Tiger-produced single “Up & Down” in 2014 after a fan-recorded live performance went viral. Shinsadong Tiger produced seven EXID songs that charted on Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart until the group went on hiatus in 2020.

Lee Ho-yang began his work as a songwriter in 2005 and came to helm some defining tracks of the genre throughout his nearly two decades of work with artists. With a sound that could blend electro-pop and Korea’s traditional trot genre to singles that embraced everything from orchestral production to Afrobeat, his works are tough to pinpoint musically but point to K-pop’s evolution.

Between 2011-2013, Lee produced four No. 1s on the (now-discontinued) K-Pop Hot 100 in T-ara’s “Roly-Poly” and “Lovey Dovey,” Trouble Maker’s “Now” and Ailee’s “U&I.” Meanwhile, his work like “Fiction” by boy band Beast won Song of the Year at the 2011 KBS Song Festival awards, while several of his creations with EXID, T-ara, HyunA and WJSN all were named in Billboard‘s 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s.

Shinsadong Tiger’s productions also had a knack for reaching wider audiences beyond Korean-music fans. In addition to EXID’s aforementioned breakout hit, HyunA’s “Bubble Pop!” from 2011 was an early YouTube smash and made the star the first K-pop soloist to break 100 million views on a music video. Later, “Bboom Bboom” by MOMOLAND helped break the rising girl group to the top of the charts in 2018, while its 626 million YouTube views make it one of the platform’s most-viewed K-pop videos ever.

Dalsooobin, a member of the girl group Dal Shabet whose singles like “B.B.B (Big Baby Baby)” and “Fri. Sat. Sun.” were produced by Shinsadong Tiger, shared her condolences and the former single’s album cover on her YouTube channel. Damjun, a member and songwriter-composer for his boy band LIONESSES, wrote “Thank you for your masterpieces” on Threads.

U.K. producer duo LDN Noise (who have helmed tracks with the likes of EXO, Chris Brown, NCT and NMIXX), Los Angeles-based Softserveboy (SEVENTEEN, Gwen Stefani, ENHYPEN, P1Harmony) and Damuer H. Leffridge (whose clients have included T-ara and B2K) all shared their condolences on Instagram. At the same time, L.A.-born Jae Chong (Uhm Junghwa, BoA, JYJ, Jolin Tsai, BIBI) called it “truly sad news” on the platform.