Music News

16 Mar 2023

The Cure’s Robert Smith Rages Against the Ticketmaster Machine Over Added Fees: ‘I Am Sickened’

After warning fans in a tweet spree earlier this week that Ticketmaster’s “Verified Fan” system was “far from perfect,” The Cure singer Robert Smith continued his Twitter rant on Thursday after his band’s 30-date Shows of a Lost World North American tour went on sale.

“I AM AS SICKENED AS YOU ALL ARE BY TODAY’S TICKETMASTER ‘FEES’ DEBACLE,” Smith raged in his latest all-caps broadside against Ticketmaster. “TO BE VERY CLEAR: THE ARTIST HAS NO WAY TO LIMIT THEM. I HAVE BEEN ASKING HOW THEY ARE JUSTIFIED. IF I GET ANYTHING COHERENT BY WAY OF AN ANSWER I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW.”

Smith’s tweet came as fans complained that despite the band offering reasonably priced tickets for the outing and making sure the tickets will be non-transferable to minimize resale and keep prices at face value, in some cases the added-on service fees, facility charges and order processing fees added up to more than the cost of entry.

By making the tickets non-transferable, scalpers will be unable to purchase tickets and then resell them for a profit since the original owner will have to be present to enter the venue. For fans who purchase tickets but can’t make it to the event, they will be able to resell the ticket on a face-value ticket exchange.

Before the VF onsale, Smith assured fans that he was doing everything he could to alleviate ticketing pain points, including avoiding platinum packages and dynamic pricing, referring to those practices as “a bit of a scam.” But when he saw the complaints about the service charges during Thursday’s onsale, the singer could not hold back; at press time a spokesperson for Ticketmaster had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.

Following up on his “scam” tweet, on Wednesday (March 15), Smith explained, “I HAD A SEPARATE CONVERSATION ABOUT ‘PLATINUM’, TO SEE IF I HAD MISUNDERSTOOD SOMETHING… BUT I HADN’T! IT IS A GREEDY SCAM – AND ALL ARTISTS HAVE THE CHOICE NOT TO PARTICIPATE… IF NO ARTISTS PARTICIPATED, IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST.”

If nothing else, Smith implored his fans to avoid buying tickets secondhand from scalpers, writing, “I HAVE BEEN TOLD: StubHub has pulled listings in all markets except NY, Chicago, Denver (IE. CITIES IN STATES THAT HAVE LAWS PROTECTING SCALPERS). PLEASE DON’T BUY FROM THE SCALPERS – THERE ARE STILL TICKETS AVAILABLE – IT IS JUST A VERY SLOW PROCESS… I WILL BE BACK IF I GET ANYTHING SERIOUS ON THE TM FEES… IN THE MEANTIME, I AM COMPELLED TO NOTE DOWN MY OBVIOUS RECURRING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM THOUGHT… THAT IF NO-ONE BOUGHT FROM SCALPERS… THEN.”

The Cure’s efforts to combat resale ticketing comes after a season of in-demand tours facing astronomical price increases due to dynamic ticketing and scalpers. Ticketmaster is currently facing government inquiries into its handling of the disastrous Taylor Swift Eras Tour presale, which left many fans outraged when service delays and website crashes (caused in part by bots) prevented many of them from securing tickets.

See Smith’s tweets below.

16 Mar 2023

Posthumous Coolio Album, ‘Long Live Coolio,’ Features Too $hort, Naughty By Nature’s Treach

Fans will get a taste of the final music recorded by Coolio on Friday (March 17) when the first single from the “Gangsta’s Paradise” star’s posthumous album hits streaming. The song, “TAG ‘You It’,” features legendary West Coast MC Too $hort and it will preview the full-length, LONG LIVE COOLIO, whose release date has not yet been announced.

Coolio died at 59 in Sept. 2022 of suspected cardiac arrest; to date no official cause of death has been announced. According to a statement announcing the project, the first single from rapper’s follow-up to 2009’s From the Bottom 2 the Top was produced by and also features the rapper’s longtime friend DJ Wino. The statement about the collection and the video for “TAG” — which will also drop on Friday — says it was originally intended for release while Coolio was still alive and that they pay “homage to 90s hip-hop… the song is catchy, raunchy, and raw in all of the right ways. Paired with an extravagant video, this song is certain to create controversy and buzz.”

Indeed, the boxing-themed visual featuring a bevy of video vixens twerking finds $hort and Coolio dropping R-rated rhymes over a bouncy West Coast beat and the chorus, “Freeze tag, you it/ Freeze tag, she’s it/ Freeze tag, you it never gone be yours cuz it’s all about the bag.” After $hort’s predictably bawdy first verse, Coolio pulls up for his own NSFW run, including the lines, “Still livin’ with yo mama no plan to move though/ Common hoe, average hoe, Obama hoe/ She full of drama bro/ Find you a real one funky feel one/ One you can trust not have to kill one.”

Following his death, Coolio’s longtime manager, Jarez Posey, confirmed that the rapper (born Artis Leon Ivey Jr.) was found on the floor of a bathroom at his friend’s house and pronounced deceased at the scene.

Coolio placed six hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, including the No. 1 smash “Gangsta’s Paradise,” featuring L.V, from the film Dangerous Minds. The single spent three weeks atop the list in 1995 and finished as the year-end No. 1 song on the Hot 100. It also ruled the Hot Rap Songs list for 11 consecutive weeks. The track would go on to win the Billboard Music Award for single of the year, and a Grammy Award for best rap solo performance. In 2021, “Gangsta’s Paradise” ranked among the 100 Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs.

16 Mar 2023

Sydney Sweeney Pulls a Gas Station Stick-Up on Halsey in Tense First Trailer For ‘Americana’

Halsey is not in the mood for anyone’s b.s. in the first look at director Tony Tost’s heist drama Americana. In a 90-second sneak peek that dropped on Wednesday (March 15), the singer — rocking a 1970s-style choppy shag cut and all-black ensemble — is minding her own business while filling up her orange muscle car when she’s interrupted not once, but twice.

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“Beautiful day today,” says Paul Walter Hauser’s (Black Bird) character Lefty to Halsey’s Mandy. “Still, they say it might rain. Any big weekend plans?,” he continues. Mandy is clearly not interested, snapping back, “Hey buddy, today is not the f—ing day.”

The confrontation is interrupted by Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria), whose character Penny Jo sticks a gun into Mandy’s back demanding the mythical Native American artifact that she and Lefty were planning to steal. “Do you have the artifact?” Penny Jo asks as Mandy looks back over her shoulder in annoyance.

“I thought you were sweet,” she says, her face softening in seeming condescension. “Do you have it?” Penny Jo repeats more menacingly as Mandy suggests she might have the object, or maybe not. “Give it to me,” Penny Jo demands. “No,” Mandy says as she finishes pumping, walks away and dares Penny to “shoot me” nonchalantly.

Americana marks Halsey’s big screen debut and according to Deadline, the movie follows waitress Penny Jo and lonesome cowboy Lefty as they plan to swipe the mythical “Lakota Ghost Shirt” from some criminals to fund Penny’s Nashville dreams. “Things get complicated when the lead criminal’s long-suffering girlfriend (Halsey) decides to take the artifact for her own personal reasons,” reads a description.

“It’s one of my favorite scenes because none of these characters are smooth, experienced criminals in the slightest, and I love how Sydney, Paul, and Halsey all play their desperate intentions and discomfort to quietly comedic effect,” Tost told Deadline. The film, Tost’s first major feature, also stars Eric Dane, Simon Rex, Zahn McClarnon and Gavin Maddox Bergman. Americana is slated to make its world premiere at 2:30 ET on Friday (March 17) at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX during SXSW.

Check out the Americana sneak peek below.

16 Mar 2023

Jack White Posts Loving Poem Honoring Former White Stripes Drummer Meg White, Calling out ‘Demons, Cowards and Vampires’

Jack White often prefers the inscrutable, twisty gesture over the obvious, spell-it-out one. Which is why the singer/guitarist’s seeming counterpunch to a blow-up about his former White Stripes bandmate Meg White’s drumming skills is a chef’s kiss “nothing to see here, and, by the way, you are wrong” response.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, earlier this week political journalist Lachlan Markay opined in a since-deleted tweet that “the tragedy of the White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer… I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having a sh—y drummer.”

That unprovoked broadside against the timekeeper who has all-but-vanished from public view since the dynamo duo called it quits in 2011 drew a torrent of support for Meg from, among others, Roots drummer Questlove, Against Me’s Laura Jane Grace, Jack White’s ex-wife singer/model Karen Elson and many others; Markay has since apologized for the comment he said was “petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.”

But it was Jack White’s pointed, subtle rejoinder on Wednesday night (March 15) — in the form of a poem, of course — that shut it down in an artful manner. Check out the text of White’s poem below.

“To be born in another time,
any era but our own would’ve been fine.
100 years from now,
1000 years from now,
some other distant, different, time.
one without demons, cowards and vampires out for blood,
one with the positive inspiration to foster what is good.
an empty field where no tall red poppies are cut down,
where we could lay all day, every day, on the warm and subtle ground

and know just what to say and what to play to conjure our own sounds.
and be one with the others all around us,
and even still the ones who came before,
and help ourselves to all their love,
and pass it on again once more.
to have bliss upon bliss upon bliss,
to be without fear, negativity or pain,
and to get up every morning, and be happy to do it all again.”

The poem was accompanied by an image of Meg White peeking out from behind a curtain of hair while thwacking a kit featuring the duo’s signature peppermint swirl color scheme. The White Stripes are among the nominees for this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

16 Mar 2023

Jelly Roll Headlines CRS’s Lively New Faces Show

You certainly can’t blame even the most confident of artists for feeling a little nervous when performing before hundreds of radio programmers who can control their fate. 

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So it was completely understandable that many of the developing acts playing at the 2023 New Faces show, which closed out Country Radio Seminar in Nashville Wednesday night (March 15), expressed jitters. 

“I’ll be honest with y’all, I always get a little nervous before a show, but I’m f—ing trembling tonight,” said Stony Creek/BBR act Jelly Roll, who closed the show. This sentiment came from a man who recently sold out Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. “It’s not often you get to play for the people that changed your life,” he added, expressing largely the same words as his fellow Class of 2023 members.

Like Jelly Roll, Arista’s Nate Smith has already scored a No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, but he admitted to butterflies as well. “I’m shaking… I guess I’m alive,” he said. “Thank you country radio for letting me do this for a job.”

Hosted by Nights With Elaina syndicated radio host Elaina Smith, the evening opened with a tribute to Charlie Monk, co-founder of CRS and a 40-time host of the New Faces show, before Stoney Creek/BBR artist Frank Ray took the stage.

The smooth-voiced crooner started with “Country’d Look Good on You,” which the former cop took to No. 17 on Country Airplay in 2022. He multitasked on the next song, the beachy “Tequila Mockingbird,” breaking into Redbone’s 1974 hit “Come and Get Your Love” halfway through, while taking a shot of tequila from the audience. The energetic Ray followed with his new single, out March 20, the kiss-off song “Somebody Else’s Whiskey.” Next came party ode, “Y’all Showed Up,” before he concluded with “Streetlights,” which showed off his Latin roots, as he incorporated salsa dancers on stage and switched from English to Spanish, while adding bits of Luis Fonsi/Justin Bieber’s smash “Despacito” into the lyrics.

Big Machine’s Jackson Dean, who is on the road with Blake Shelton, followed Ray with his own brand of intense, brooding country rock, opening with an extended version of the thumping “Wings,” before segueing into unreleased track “Heavens to Betsy,” which he declared, “this is a damn good one.” His set included current single, “Fearless,” a mid-tempo love ballad (or as close as Dean gets to a love song).  “Y’all have changed my life and the life of my band up here,” he said, thanking the radio programmers in the room. “Thank you for changing my life,” he said before he and his tight band broke into his swampy, driving No. 3 Country Airplay hit, “Don’t Come Lookin’”

Mercury/UMG Nashville act Priscilla Block, who is opening for Shania Twain on her spring tour, kicked off her set with “My Bar,” her feisty tune about not letting her ex run her off from her favorite watering hole, which reached No. 26 on the Country Airplay chart. She kept the drinking songs coming with stomping “Off the Deep End.” Discovering her glittery blue guitar was unplugged, she got a big laugh when she told the audience, “If this thing wasn’t a little bit of a shit show, y’all would probably be disappointed.” She found her stride on mid-tempo, twangy “Me Pt. 2,” written after she saw her ex boyfriend with his new girlfriend. She followed with “Just About Over You,” the TikTok viral song that helped her land her major label deal after it soared to No. 1 on iTunes Country Chart in June 2020. “I’ve always believed in myself, I was just waiting for other people to start believing in me,” she said before thanking Mike Dungan, outgoing CEO/chairman of UMG Nashville, for signing her. She finished by shot gunning a beer and throwing the can into the audience.

Smith’s rock leanings showed even before he hit the stage through his opening video that included Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle,” Skrillex’s “Bangarang” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” The leather jacket-clad Arista/Sony Nashville artist  took the stage with up-tempo track, “Name Stores After,” a tune off his self-titled debut coming April 28. Segueing into an impassioned performance of ballad “Wreckage,” Smith confessed his nerves, but it certainly showed no affect on his vocals, as he launched into the moving “Better Boy,” a recently-released track from the upcoming set before he powered through his recent two-week Country Airplay No. 1 “Whiskey on You,” showing off his considerable vocal power. 

The evening ended with Jelly Roll, who took the audience to church with his songs of sin and redemption, storming onto stage screaming, “What’s up, mother f—ers?”

He raised  the energy level in the room with the pulsating, “Halfway to Hell,” before moving into his current single, the rocking “Need a Favor,” which includes the trenchant line “I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.” His January chart-topper “Son of A Sinner,” inspired one of the few singalongs of the night as radio programmers raised their phones in unison to film Jelly Roll, who jumped into the crowd to kiss Tracy Lawrence, who has received the Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award only moments before. 

The Stoney Creek artist brought out Brantley Gilbert and Struggle Jennings for the intense-mid tempo propulsive hypnotic “Behind Bars” — as in “most of my friends are behind bars” — one of two songs on his June 2 debut, Whitsett Chapel, with guest features. He closed with “Save Me,” a song that he released a few years ago, but will get a new life on the new album. Singing in his upper register, Jelly Roll, who kicks off a 44-city headlining arena/amphitheater tour in July, pled for someone to save him from himself on the emotional power ballad. His raw authenticity gained him a well-deserved, standing ovation. 

The New Faces acts, who are voted on by full-time employees involved in the programming, promotion and distribution of country music, must meet eligibility requirements, which include charting one, but no more than five, top 25 singles on any Mediabase or Luminate country chart. 

Past New Faces artists include George Strait, Kathy Mattea, Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes, Brad Paisley, Zac Brown Band, Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Combs, Brothers Osborne, Jimmie Allen and Lainey Wilson.

15 Mar 2023

Here Are Jimmy Fallon’s Best Pranks, From ‘The Voice’ Auditions to ‘Game of Thrones’ Spoilers

Jimmy Fallon loves a good prank. The late night talk show host is known for playing tricks on his fans and famous friends, and most recently made his way into The Voice auditions.

On March 7, Fallon pretended to blind audition for the NBC singing competition’s coaches Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper, delivering a performance of Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).”

Clarkson, Horan and Chance all turn around to take a peek at who the mysterious singer is, but Shelton remained unfazed by the prank. Saturday Night Live alum then walks offstage and presses the country star’s button for him. “You broke the rules!” Shelton jokingly scolds him, grinning when he sees Fallon’s face.

However, The Voice mischief is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Fallon’s pranks. We’ve rounded up five of our favorites, which you can check out below.

15 Mar 2023

MAMAMOO Announce First-Ever U.S. Concerts: See the 9 Cities on Their Arena Tour

Nine years into MAMAMOO‘s career as a leading, chart-topping K-pop girl group, the quartet has announced their first-ever tour dates for the United States.

As the next step in the act’s “MY CON” world tour that traveled across Asia in late 2022 and early 2023, Whee In, Solar, Moon Byul and Hwa Sa will visit nine arenas for their inaugural Stateside tour. The U.S. leg begins in New York on May 16 before wrapping in Los Angeles on June 4. Venue information wasn’t immediately available at press time beyond shows in arenas.

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The tour dates will mark MAMAMOO’s live Stateside return as well. The group has not performed in the States since appearing at the 2019 KCON Los Angeles festival. The trek is presented by Mammoth Inc. and Sugar Monkey Live.

The new “MY CON” tour dates follow the group’s latest EP, Mic On, released in November of last year, which included the single “Illella” that peaked at No. 5 on Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart. Beyond group activities, the members have remained active with their solo music and projects. Solar and Moon Byul even teamed up as a duo for MAMAMOO+ for 2022 single “Better” and have new music together coming out later this month.

Tickets go on sale on at 10 a.m. local time on March 29 via Ticketmaster. See the full U.S. tour dates below.

MAMAMOO 2023 MY CON U.S. Tour Dates

May 16 – New York, NY
May 18 – Baltimore, MD
May 20 – Atlanta, GA
May 22 – Nashville, TN
May 24 – Fort Worth, TX
May 27 – Chicago, IL
May 31 – Glendale, AZ
June 2 – Oakland, CA
June 4 – Los Angeles, CA

15 Mar 2023

Will Rihanna Get Her Flowers at 2024 Grammys After Oscar Loss?

Rihanna slayed at the 2023 Oscars on Sunday with a classy performance of her soulful ballad “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She didn’t win the Oscar for best original song – the award went to “Naatu Naatu” from RRR – but RiRi will likely have more chances to win for the song at next year’s Grammy Awards.

“Lift Me Up,” which Rihanna co-wrote with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, is a front-runner for a nomination for best song written for visual media.

“Lift Me Up” could also wind up with record and/or song of the year nominations. Rihanna has been nominated for record of the year three times, for “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z), “Work” (featuring Drake) and as featured artist on Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.”

If “Lift Me Up” is nominated for song of the year, it would mark Rihanna’s first nod in that category. Her only songwriting nods to date are for “Run This Town,” which won best rap song, and “Kiss It Better,” which was nominated for best R&B song.

“Lift Me Up” will also probably be nominated in a performance category – either best R&B performance or best traditional R&B performance. (The final decision on where to slot performances that seem to be on the border between two categories is made by a large screening committee. They base their decision on the sound of the performance, as they perceive it, not chart position or the artist’s image.)

Rihanna has been nominated in R&B performance categories twice, for “Needed Me” and “Hate That I Love You,” a 2007 collab with Ne-Yo. She has yet to be nominated for best traditional R&B performance.

“All the Stars,” from the first Black Panther, was nominated for Grammys in four categories (though it didn’t win in any of them). The smash by Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA was nominated for record and song of the year, best rap/sung performance and best song written for visual media.

The Recording Academy announced earlier this month that the eligibility year for the 66th annual Grammy Awards will end on Aug. 31, one month earlier than usual. So the eligibility “year” will consist of just 11 months.

Rihanna may or may not release her long-awaited ninth studio album by Aug. 31 – she has another “project” in the works just now – which would change the Grammy conversation around her. Rihanna’s best year at the Grammys in terms of nominations was 2016, when she amassed eight nods. (Alas, she lost them all.)

The early front-runners for record of the year nominations, in addition to “Lift Me Up,” include Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” SZA’s “Kill Bill” and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.”

This wouldn’t be the first time “Anti-Hero” and “Lift Me Up” have tangled. By holding at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week last November, Swift’s smash kept Rihanna’s ballad from debuting in the top spot and becoming her 15th No. 1 single. Instead, “Lift Me Up” debuted and peaked at No. 2. “Anti-Hero” went on to log eight total weeks at No. 1 – the record for a Swift single.

15 Mar 2023

Justin Bieber Gives a Smiley Facial Mobility Update After Ramsay Hunt Diagnosis

It’s been nine months since Justin Bieber revealed that he’s suffering from partial facial paralysis due to Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and the star seems to be recovering well.

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In a video shared to the “Love Yourself” singer’s Instagram Stories on Wednesday (March 15), Bieber is seen jamming along to Tems’ “Ice T,” urging fans to “wait for it.” At the end of the clip, the superstar smiles from ear-to-ear, proving that he has regained mobility in his face. Watch the video before it disappears here.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Ramsay Hunt syndrome happens when a case of the shingles impacts the facial nerve near the ear. It can cause a painful rash as well as paralysis and hearing loss. The medical center also explains that Ramsay Hunt is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, but that quick treatment can reduce the risk of complications.

Last summer, Bieber paused his Justice World tour as a result of the diagnosis.
“I wanted to update you guys on what’s been going on,” he explained in a video at the time, pointing out that he couldn’t blink from one eye, move his nostril or smile from one side of his face. “Obviously, as you can probably see from my face, I have this syndrome called Ramsay Hunt syndrome. And it is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves and has caused my face to have paralysis.”

He continued by assuring that he will recover. “I’m doing all these facial exercises to get my face back to normal and it will go back to normal,” he shared. “It’s just time, and we don’t know how much time it’s gonna be. But it’s gonna be OK, I hope. I trust God. I trust that this is all gonna … it’s all for a reason, I’m not sure what that is right now.”

15 Mar 2023

Lasso Breaks Down 5 Essential Tracks on New ‘Eva’ Album

Lasso presents his fourth studio album called Eva, a tribute to everything a woman represents — and its release date on Thursday (March 16) perfectly ties in with Women’s History Month.

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“Eva (Eve) is a metaphor,” he tells Billboard of the album’s title. “She’s a woman who represents all these relationships that I am having with her. Theoretically, Eve was the first woman, and I found it super beautiful and poetic.”

On the 12-track set, the Venezuelan singer-songwriter delivers a mix of pop, ballads and alternative tunes, most of them inspired by ’70s and ’80s music. The only collaborative effort is the remix of “Ojos Marrones” with Sebastian Yatra, which came together organically thanks to the original song’s success on TikTok. Lasso entered the Billboard charts for the first time in 2022 when “Ojos Marrones” peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard Global 200 chart and at No. 39 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, both dated Sept. 17. The song also earned him his first and only entry on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart (dated Sept. 10).

The first track to make it on Eva was “Corriendo con Tijeras,” the last addition was the title track, and “Plastico,” “Algodon” and “Los Hombres Son Todos Iguales” were three of the most challenging tracks to work on, he admits. 

But above all, “It’s an album where I worked a lot and they are songs that have a lot of humanity,” he explains. 

Below, Lasso breaks down five essential tracks on Eva.

Lasso

Lasso

Universal Music Mexico

“Ojos Marrones”

“Without a doubt, this would be the first due to the fact that this is a song that became a worldwide hit and it’s a song that is alternative and has no collaboration — part of the particularity that it’s not something that happens a lot in the Latin scene today. Normally the things that go viral are reggaeton or some kind of collaboration. It’s something that surprised me a lot and until today I don’t know how it happened but I am honored and very happy that I was able to experience the first hit of my career.”

“Corriendo Con Tijeras”

“It’s a nice metaphor for a toxic relationship in the sense that it is based on a saying that we say a lot in Venezuela. I really like words and phrases that evoke something different and interesting. I believe that’s the work of an artist and composer. I know running with scissors is dangerous but it’s fun. There are a couple of lines in this song that are not only cool but also relatable.”

“Los Hombres Son Todos Iguales”

“It seems to me a great phrase [all men are the same] that has some truth. There is a lot of pain behind it, a lot of satisfaction, a lot of frustration, and a lot of reality. The song is an exploration between a boy and a girl who are each talking with their points and their arguments. Both are right but at the same time, they are not. I really like the lyrics that go beyond a beautiful melody and remain with you and that make you feel in some way.”

“Perdon Pero No Te Perdono”

“It was the song that my team liked the most. Each of the phrases in this song is tweetable, they are powerful phrases. It has a great title and says many things. It has many hooks and many things that can get stuck to you. There is one that I like that says: ‘Who sends me like an idiot to wait for love from someone with a hole in their chest.’ The beautiful thing about this song is that you always have the responsibility because it’s your life and you can choose who to be with.”

“Eva”

“It’s my favorite song on the record and to this day I still hear it a million times and I’m moved. It’s a song that came out so fast and I think the lyrics are one of the best things I’ve ever done. I am very critical of myself and I hate 70% of my catalog or more, depending on whether you catch me on a good day or a bad day, but this song has this simplicity and depth that one should look for in ballads. It’s a song that talks about exploring being alone in paradise but what good is it if I can’t share it with someone? In general, it’s the essence of the album. Sometimes you’re wrong, and sometimes you’re right.”