Music News

09 Feb 2024

Chuy Montana, Corridos Singer of Street Mob Records, Killed in Mexico

Chuy Montana, an emerging star in the booming corridos scene, was found dead in Mexico on Wednesday (Feb. 7).

His body was discovered along the highway connecting Rosarito to Tijuana. According to The San Diego Tribune, Fernando Sánchez, Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, told local outlets that Cárdenas’s body bore multiple gunshots and was found handcuffed; law enforcement believes that he had been kidnapped prior to death.

Billboard has reached out to Tijuana police.

The Tijuana native, whose real name is Jesús Cárdenas, was part of the music roster at Street Mob Records, a label spearheaded by Jesús Ortiz Paz (JOP), the lead vocalist of Fuerza Regida.

“On behalf of Street Mob Records, we deeply regret the passing of our colleague and brother Chuy Montana,” wrote the label in an Instagram post Thursday. “We stand in solidarity with his family during this time of grief. We kindly request understanding and respect from the media at this difficult moment.”

The label and its artists have contributed significantly to the corridos tumbados and belikeada movement, subgenres of regional Mexican music that have gained notoriety in recent years. Montana’s career was marked by a significant online presence, boasting 816,000 monthly listens on Spotify. He often performed with his guitar for audiences in traffic lines at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing point, where he was discovered by JOP.

According to Punto Norte, a newspaper in Mexico, investigators believe that Montana may have attempted to escape his captors, leading to a chase and eventual fatal shooting. Responding officers found shell casings at the scene, according to the publication; Montana had gunshot wounds to his head and arms.

Montana’s music, particularly his 2023 single “Porte de Scarface,” had enjoyed success, amassing more than 22 million plays on Spotify. His collaboration with Fuerza Regida, “Polvos de Chanel,” also highlighted his rising status in the music industry.

The artist’s death has also raised concerns over the safety of artists in genres associated with contentious themes.

In October 2023, Fuerza Regida was threatened with death by means of a narco banner left in Tijuana. Following the appearance of the threat, the San Bernardino group canceled its concert at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, as did Peso Pluma weeks earlier, after having received the same death threat on a tarpaulin signed with the initials CJNG, alluding to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

Tijuana has taken steps to address the glorification of violence in music by banning narcocorridos in public performances, a measure reasserted by Mayor Montserrat Caballero in light of recent events.

The death of Chuy Montana adds to the ongoing trend of violence against artists in the corridos and narcocorridos genres that dates back to Chalino Sánchez’s murder in 1992. Other stars who have fallen victim to violence in the genres include Valentín Elizalde, Ariel Camacho, Zayda Peña, Sergio Gómez, Javier Reyes “El Príncipe del Corrido,” and more.

09 Feb 2024

Grammy-Winning Japanese Conductor Seiji Ozawa Dies at 88

Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa died at his home in Tokyo on Feb. 6, 2024, due to heart failure. He was 88 years old.

A private funeral was held with his close family in accordance with the deceased’s wishes, with a memorial service scheduled at a later date.

Ozawa was born in 1935 in Shenyang, China. After studying under Karajan and Bernstein, he served as the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia Festival, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony.

In 1973, Ozawa was appointed as the thirteenth music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He became the first Asian music director at Wiener Staatsoper in the autumn of 2002, a position he held until spring 2010.

Among the many awards and accolades Ozawa has received in Japan and internationally include the Asahi Prize (1985), the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class  (2002), the Mainichi Art Award (2003), the Suntory Music Award (2003), honorary membership of the Wiener Staatsoper (2007), France’s Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (2008), Foreign Associated Member in the Académie des BeauxArts de l’Institut de France (2008), the Order of Culture in Japan (2008), Giglio D’Oro by Premio Galileo 2000 Foundation of Italy (2008), the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association (2011), the Akeo Watanabe Foundation Music Award (2011), and the Kennedy Center Honors (2015), as well as an honorary doctorate from Harvard University (2000) and Sorbonne University (2004).

In 2010, he also became the first Japanese to be bestowed an honorary membership to the Vienna Philharmonic.

Ozawa won Best Opera Recording at the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016 for Ravel: L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, recorded at the 2013 Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, in which he conducted the Saito Kinen Orchestra.

The same year, he was named an honorary member of the Berlin Philharmonic and an honorary citizen of Tokyo.

He has been an elected member of the Japan Art Academy since March 2022.

09 Feb 2024

Friday Music Guide: New Music From Usher, Kacey Musgraves, Noah Kahan and More

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

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This week, Usher heads home before heading to the stadium, Kacey Musgraves digs deeper and Noah Kahan puts a bow on stick season. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Usher, Coming Home 



All eyes will be on Usher on Sunday night, when the veteran hitmaker takes the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show in Las Vegas, and undoubtedly he’ll be unfurling several of the smashes from across his discography. Yet if you’re pre-gaming with “Yeah!,” “U Remind Me” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love,” be sure to make some time for his excellent new studio set Coming Home, which crystallizes his popular R&B approach and adds new layers — from the sumptuous hit “Good Good” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage to the booming braggadocio of “Cold Blooded” to the Afrobeats-adjacent warmth of “Ruin” — making for Usher’s best album since 2012’s Looking 4 Myself.

Kacey Musgraves, “Deeper Well” 



“Deeper Well,” the first taste of Kacey Musgraves’ highly anticipated fifth studio album of the same name, may be lyrically preoccupied with dark energy, changes inspired by a return of Saturn and misconceptions of the world, yet Musgraves operates with calm, pillowy purpose, the finger-picked guitar guiding the country star towards the answers she craves. At the heart of a song about experiencing maturation and accepting transition is an artist worth evolving with, and on Deeper Well, it’ll be fascinating to hear where she grows next.

Noah Kahan, “Forever” 



Stick Season was a breakthrough period for Noah Kahan, who most recent studio album was buoyed by deluxe editions and new songs that helped the singer-songwriter score a best new artist Grammy and book arena dates. Stick Season (Forever) will be the final iteration of the project, and in addition to new collaborations with Brandi Carlile and Gregory Alan Isakov, the expanded set features “Forever,” a tender new folk anthem that marries Bon Iver-esque falsetto yearning with the declarative songwriting that highlighted Kahan’s hit “Stick Season” and “Dial Drunk.”

Maggie Rogers, “Don’t Forget Me” 



“I wanted to make an album that sounded like a Sunday afternoon,” Maggie Rogers explains in a new letter to fans previewing her third album, Don’t Forget Me. While the rest of the full-length arrives in April, its lovely title track does indeed possess a coziness that still provokes a mid-day sing-along: Rogers’ storytelling winds through the song’s mix of guitar and piano before her voice doubles and soars on the hook, resulting in a track that sounds both fresh and like the return of an old friend.

Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton, “Purple Irises” 



Before Gwen Stefani reunites with No Doubt at Coachella this spring, she’ll trot out “Purple Irises,” a new country-pop duet with her beau Blake Shelton at a Super Bowl tailgate performance this weekend; such is the duality of the pop star, who can return to her earliest hits while also sounding far removed from them on this swaying love song. “It’s not 1999, but this face is still mine / The way you look at me, I swear my heart hits rewind,” she sings, before Shelton’s burly delivery arrives and forms an equilibrium on the track.

Editor’s Pick: Madi Diaz, Weird Faith 



Madi Diaz is barreling toward stardom after a long build-up — the Nashville singer-songwriter got tapped to open for Harry Styles’ tour, then join his live band, following the release of her fifth album — but Weird Faith, her first album since gaining a slew of new fans, exceeds any new hype she’s gathered, as a collection of complex love songs that’s often breathtaking in its artistic clarity. Diaz knows exactly how to approach stunners like “Same Risk” and the Kacey Musgraves duet “Don’t Do Me Good,” allowing her emotions to patiently expand until they knock the listener over.

09 Feb 2024

Beyoncé’s Shiny ‘Renaissance’ Horse Shows Up in New Verizon Super Bowl Commercial Teaser

Saddle up, BeyHive. Those rumors about a Beyoncé cameo in Verizon’s 2024 Super Bowl commercial just got a lot more serious. 

Two days after first sending fans into a frenzy with a teaser seemingly hinting at the superstar’s involvement, the company has now dropped a second clip ahead of its highly anticipated Super Bowl ad – this time with an unmistakable reference to Beyoncé’s music. In the Friday (Feb. 9) video, actor-comedian Tony Hale stands in front of a blank green screen next to a life-size horse sculpture covered in silver sequins, just like the one the “Break My Soul” singer rides on the cover of her 2022 album Renaissance. 

“So should we be in a Super Bowl commercial? Yay or nay?” Hale asks the statue of the horse, which fans have lovingly dubbed Reneigh. “Get it? OK, this is a problem.”

At the end, a snippet of what sounds like Beyoncé’s “My House” plays and the date of the Super Bowl appears. Fans previously noticed the same song in Verizon’s Wednesday (Feb. 7) teaser, which also stars Hale.

In the first teaser, Hale stands at an outdoor lemonade stand juicing lemons into a pitcher. “She wants me to squeeze all these lemons by myself?” he says. “This better work.” 

At the time, the Hive quickly clocked the trailer as a possible nod to Bey’s 2016 album Lemonade. “The Lemonade references? My House playing in the end? Verizon being one of Renaissance World Tour’s sponsors?” one fan tweeted at the time. “Are we really going to see thee Beyoncé in a commercial during the Superbowl?” 

Whether or not the 32-time Grammy winner is involved – although at this point, it certainly seems like she is — Verizon’s commercial will air during the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast Sunday (Feb. 11).  The game will find the Kansas City Chiefs defending their 2023 title against the San Francisco 49ers at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, with Usher headlining the Halftime Show 11 years after Bey first took the event’s stage. 

See Beyoncé’s Renaissance horse star in Verizon’s new teaser below. 

09 Feb 2024

André 3000 Says Ludacris ‘Took’ His Role in the ‘Fast & Furious’ Movies during ‘Colbert Questionert’

André 3000 is an enigma. The reclusive former OutKast MC has kept a low profile for much of the past 20 years, popping up for an occasional guest verse or movie role when he’s not wandering the Earth playing one of his arsenal of flutes.

But on The Late Show on Thursday night (Feb. 8), the rapper-turned-jazzer hung around to take the “Colbert Questionert,” the random series of queries from host Stephen Colbert meant to delve into the unexplored recesses of the enigmatic flautist’s soul.

As always, Colbert opened with the easiest question: what is the best sandwich? In the perfect response, 3000 offered up “a friend bologna sandwich,” adding some crucial cooking tips, including cutting slits into the lunch meat so it doesn’t bubble up in the pan.

As for his first concert, of course André — currently on tour promoting his first new solo album in more than two decades, the rap-less, all-instrumental flute jazz collection New Blue Sun — had the coolest answer: a Fresh Fest hip-hip jam in his hometown of Atlanta featuring Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Whodini. “My mama took me,” Dre bragged, as Colbert tried to earn cool points by revealing that his mother had also taken him to his first show, the slightly less hip Captain & Tennille.

Colbert quickly corrected himself, though, a remembered that it was actually 1970s/1980s fluglehorn/trumpet giant Chuck Mangione. That selection that clearly appealed to the host’s woodwind-loving guest, who then scatted along with Colbert on a duet of Mangione’s signature 1978 jazz-pop classic “Feels So Good.”

3000 ran through a series of other provocative answers to questions such as “What is the scariest animal?”(humans), the requisite “Apples or Oranges?” (oranges) and “What do you think happens when we die,” which was more complicated. “We just kind of transfer to another body… the energy doesn’t go anywhere,” André said. “These are just kind of space suits, or Earth suits we walk around in… I think that energy goes into something else or to another we can’t even imagine.”

As for why he has never appeared in any of the Fast & Furious movies, veteran actor 3000 joked he would have “but I think Ludacris took the role!” Turns out he wasn’t joking. He said he did audition for a spot in the long-running, rubber-burning franchise, but was aced out by his fellow A-town MC Luda. He’d still come back for a later chapter, perhaps for the as-yet-unwritten one Colbert suggested: Too Fast, Too Flute.

The sire of Stankonia then proclaimed that his favorite smell is a baby’s breath, “when they’re new and it don’t stink yet,” while dubbing cigarette smoke his least favorite odor. Also, for the record, André is not a cat or dog person, but that’s just because he’s hardly ever home. Plus, if you heard how badly he screwed up the ant farm he got when he was a kid you’d understand why that is.

And finally, asked to name the one song he’d want to listen to on an endless loop, Three Stacks thought long and hard and said “something by [John] Coltrane.” He kind of punted on summing up the rest of his life in five words, though, grinning as he rambled, “somewhere doing something with my hands, building something, drawing something, sculpting something, chiseling something… in a workshop somewhere… making physical things that will last 1,000 years.”

Watch André answer the Questionert below.

09 Feb 2024

Zach Bryan Partners With Bud Light to Sponsor His ‘Quittin Time’ Tour

Bud Light will sponsor Zach Bryan’s North American Quittin’ Time arena and stadium tour that kicks off March 6 at Chicago’s United Center.  

The move builds on Bud Light’s partnership with Bryan that launches tonight (Feb. 9) as the singer/songwriter kicks off the second year of the Bud Light Backyard Tour with a concert at the Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as part of the beer brand’s Super Bowl LVIII activities.  

“I’ve been drinking Bud Light since I was old enough to drink and partnering with them now after all the songs I’ve written while swigging them is full circle for me,” said Bryan in a statement in November when the Super Bowl concert was announced. “When Bud Light asked if I would be involved, I didn’t hesitate after I learned the immense amount of support going into Folds of Honor, fallen service members, first responders’ families and loved ones. It is a privilege and honor to provide help in any way to veterans and all the people who make this country as great as it can possibly be.” 

Bud Light launched its Backyard Tour concert series last summer with shows by Midland, One Republic and Dashboard Confessional, among others. “We wanted to go bigger in 2024 and I don’t think you can get any bigger in country music than Zach Bryan right now,” says Todd Allen, Bud Light’s vp of marketing. 

Bryan was named Billboard’s Top New Artist of 2023, landing No. 1s on both the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart and Hot 100 songs survey. Bryan, who charts on both the rock and country charts, is the first country act to be the year’s Top New Artist since Billboard began compiling the Top New Artists category, combining performance on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, in 1977.

As the exclusive beer partner for the 78-show Quittin’ Time tour, Bud Light will execute a number of tie-ins at concert dates, including sampling, ticket giveaways and experiential activations. 

One of the primary elements of the partnership involves Folds of Honor, a non-profit that provides scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled service members and first responders. Bud Light’s parent, Anheuser-Busch, has worked with Folds of Honor for more than 14 years, donating more than $22 million to the organization. “Throughout the duration of the tour, we will be donating a portion of the proceeds from Bud Light sold to Folds of Honor,” Allen says. He adds that Bud Light is working through the details with Bryan, who served in the Navy for eight years, on his participation with Folds of Honor. “He’s been an incredible partner to help bring this to life,” he says. 

“Music has been in Bud Light’s DNA for decades and we’ve always been at the center of delivered epic experiences. We’ve had amazing partnerships over the years across music, across sports, across culture. And then this just makes sense,” Allen says of the Bryan tie-in. “Zach has been a longtime Bud Light fan and drinker. Having him be part of our Bud Light Backyard Tour with the Super Bowl show on Friday night is incredible and we look forward to continuing to bring great experiences to our fans in partnership with the Quittin Time tour.”

The alliances with Bryan, one of country music’s biggest rising stars, comes at a time when Bud Light continues to recover from the backlash and sales hit the brand took starting last April after aligning with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Kid Rock, John Rich and Travis Tritt condemned the brand (though Kid Rock was seen drinking a Bud Light in August). Other country acts, like Bryan, stood up for the transgender community, while superstar Garth Brooks declared in June that his Friends in Low Places bar in Nashville would sell Bud Light.

When asked how linking with Bryan could help Bud Light regain country fans it may have lost, Allen said, “We’re here for all  21+ Americans and we care deeply about all of our fans. Music, and country music in particular, allows us to connect with millions of people out there who enjoy Bud Light in stadiums, bars and venues across the country. Partnering with Zach Bryan, one of the hottest names in country music, is just a great opportunity for us to continue to connect with our fans across country music.”

Bud Light’s music activities for 2024 include tie ins with Stagecoach and Lollapalooza, as well as a country music program with Live Nation.

09 Feb 2024

Usher’s King of R&B Crown Fits Perfectly on ‘Coming Home’ Album: Stream It Now

Usher is firmly in his zone on his long-awaited ninth album, Coming Home. The 45-year-old R&B veteran who is gearing up to take the stage for the halftime show at Sunday’s (Feb. 11) Super Bowl LVIII dropped the 20-track, guest-packed collection on Friday morning (Feb. 9) and it is everything you’d want from the “Yeah!” singer.

On his first studio album since 2016’s Hard II Love, Usher serves up all the low-boil seductive jams you’d expect, from the simmering not-together-but-it’s-fine single “Good Good” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage to the bubbling miss-you-much ballad “Kissing Strangers,” on which he croons, “How we go from strangers kissing to kissing strangers?”

After opening with the finger-snap, Michael Jackson-meets-Afrobeats Burna Boy collab “Coming Home,” Usher shows love to his hometown in the Billy Joel-interpolating, Latto-featuring “A-Town Girl,” which flips the Piano Man’s tony East Coast-repping 1983 hit “Uptown Girl” into a dirty south homage to a woman who knows how to twerk and skate.

There is, of course, plenty of heartbreak (the brooding “Cold Blooded” with The-Dream), disco-fueled confident swagger (“Big”), Eurosynth midtempo exhortations to keep the party going (“Keep on Dancin’”) and straight-up all-night-long sex jams (“Stone Kold Freak”).

The collection is packed with a parade of guest vocalists and rappers, from the meditative H.E.R. collab on “Risk It All” from The Color Purple soundtrack, to the seductive “Ruin” with Nigerian rapper/producer Pheelz, on which serial seducer Usher laments that his ex “ruined me for everybody,” even as he boasts that other women keep blowing up his phone. The album ends with the remix of Usher’s collab with K-pop icon Jung Kook from BTS on the latter’s earworm single, “Standing Next to You.”

And, not to worry, Ush has plenty of slow jams for those couple skates (“I Love U,” “Please U,” “Luckiest Man”) on the collection as well. Super Bowl LVIII will take place on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and air on CBS and stream on Paramount+, Sling TV, Hulu+Live TV and FuboTV.

Stream Coming Home below.

09 Feb 2024

Post Malone ‘Very Nervous’ About Super Bowl LVIII Performance: ‘I’m Just Gonna Do My Best’

Post Malone has seen a million faces and he’s rocked them all. But 115 million faces? “Nerve-wracking, I’m very nervous,” Posty told Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis during an interview on Thursday (Feb. 8) when she asked how he felt about singing “America the Beautiful” before Sunday’s (Feb. 11) Super Bowl LVIII.

“But excited. I’m excited. It’s just fun and super-epic to be able to go out and sing a song so many beautiful artists have sang before,” Malone, 28, said as he shared the stage with his fellow pre-gamer performers, Reba McEntire and Andra Day. As always, Posty — who noted that while he’s a well-known presence at the gaming tables in Las Vegas this will be his first Super Bowl — said he’s just going to give it his all and try to please the audience in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and the many millions watching at home.

“I’m just gonna do my best, just do my best, and give it what I got,” he said. “My dad told me, ‘You’ll never make everybody happy. So just be yourself and do your best at everything you do.’ Do it your way and do it with love,” Malone added in answering a question a youth correspondent in the audience about the best advice he’s ever gotten.

While Malone will tackle “America the Beautiful,” McEntire is on tap to sing the National Anthem and Day will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Veteran Anthem singer McEntire said she’s been getting ready by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the shower and just making sure she’s totally prepared and knows all the words. “Just to be prepared and know that everybody’s going to be singing it with me,” she said. Malone said he does the same, singing his part all the time around the house. So much so, he joked, that his family “just tries to get me to shut up.”

Usher will perform the halftime show at the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Super Bowl LVIII will take place on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and air on CBS and stream on Paramount+, Sling TV, Hulu+Live TV and FuboTV.

Watch Malone’s interview below (begins at 10:00 mark).

09 Feb 2024

5 Takeaways From Ye & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures Listening Experience’ in Chicago

On Monday night (Feb. 5), Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign shared a vague post on social media that hinted at a listening event in Chicago for Vultures, the artists’ first joint project as hip-hop duo ¥$. “Vultures United Center Chicago 02 08 24,” the post read without any additional details.

It was at first met with skepticism, given that the United Center did not have the event listed on their schedule and the multiple times the album’s release date has shifted. But once it was listed on the venue’s website first thing the following day — with tickets going on sale at 3 p.m. local time — fans were eager to get their hands on a golden ticket. Before 6 p.m., the album release party, dubbed Vultures Listening Experience, had officially sold out.  

Anticipation was high among fans, excited for an early listen of the long-awaited album, which was initially supposed to be released Dec. 15 and was then moved to Dec. 31, then Jan. 12. While it was expected to drop midnight Friday (Feb. 2), as of press time, the album has yet to drop.  

Around 7 p.m., fans — mainly young teens who opted for oversized, dark-hued hoodies or a puffer, cargo pants and their favorite sneakers — crowded around the United Center just as rain and thunderstorms cleared. Before doors opened, Billboard spoke to a trio of friends who drove to Chicago from Virginia. Mauricio, the group’s de facto spokesperson, had a one-word response when asked what his expectations were for this event. “Visuals,” he said categorically. “This guy (Kanye) is really about portraying an image and aesthetic and vibe. The music is just kinda the background.”

Next to Mauricio and his buddies was Sterling from New Hampshire. “As soon as the event went on sale on Tuesday, I was able to buy a $235 ticket but it was a battle with Ticketmaster because the site would go down,” he explained. “My jaw would hit the floor but I eventually got in. Then, I bought a Greyhound ticket, took the bus, booked a hotel and spent almost $1,000. I’ve been waiting to see Kanye for 10 years. I’m just happy to be in the same building as him.”

A little past 8 p.m. gates finally opened and people were allowed inside the venue where official merchandise — black tees and white sweatpants and shorts stamped with a Vultures logo — was sold. Once you made your way inside, you were hit with a foggy view of the barely visible stage erected from an open space surrounded by white flags with the Vultures logo.

Chance the Rapper was in attendance and made a grand entry with an entourage in tow waving at the fans who recognized the hometown hero. Once settled in, he, like everyone else there, patiently waited for the listening session to begin. And it did around 10:10p.m., an hour after it was scheduled to start.

The crowd roared at the sight of Ye and Ty who walked up on the stage. Some of the songs that played throughout the night included “Burn,” “Paperwork,” “Everybody,” “Carnival,” “Vultures,” “Hoodrat,” “Paid” and “Talking/Once Again,” which featured a special performance by North West. Undoubtedly, the 10-year-old’s appearance onstage was one of the best moments of the night with the entire venue cheering her on as she rapped alongside her superstar father.

While the 12 songs that were played throughout the listening session were met with rave and approval by fans who nodded along to every beat, they were in disbelief when the music ended and lights at the venue went on signaling that the show had ended. As if on cue, the confused crowd checked their phones once the event was over. To their surprise (or perhaps not), the album hadn’t been released.

Ye and Ty are expected to host another listening event today in New York’s UBS Arena. Below, a list of the takeaways from Chicago’s Vultures Listening Experience event:  

08 Feb 2024

Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton Team Up for ‘Purple Irises’ Duet: Stream It Now

The ultimate power couple is back. Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton teamed up on Friday (Feb. 9) to release their newest duet, the retro-tinged “Purple Irises.”

The song comes just two days after the couple announced the track with the 1970s-inspired cover art, in which Stefani is seen lounging on a couch in a denim jumpsuit, chunky-heeled shoes and a bra, while Shelton sits on a chair in jeans and a denim shirt with leather epaulets while strumming a guitar.

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“But if someone comes along and tries to love you like I love you/ Don’t know what I’d do/ Don’t want to lose you/ If someone comes along and tries to take you tries to make you/ Don’t let ’em change your mind/ Wonder why you took a risk/ On a broken heart you cannot fix/ No I never knew a love like this/ Now we’re pickin’ purple irises,” the couple sings on the country pop ballad.

“Purple Irises” is hardly the first musical collaboration from the lovebirds. The announcement of the latest duet comes just days after Shelton dropped his six-track Love Language EP, featuring the previous Stefani collabs “Nobody But You” and “Happy Anywhere,” as well as “God Gave Me You,” “Sangria,” “Honey Bee” and “A Guy With a Girl.” The duo also released their festive hit, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas,” in 2017.

Shelton and Stefani met on the set of The Voice, when they were both coaches on the reality singing competition series. They tied the knot in 2021, and have been going strong ever since. 

Listen to “Purple Irises” below.