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01 Dec 2022

Dolly Parton Duets ‘9 to 5’ With Kelly Clarkson, Recalls First Time Hearing Whitney Houston Sing ‘I Will Always Love You’: Watch

Hello, Dolly! Kelly Clarkson had country music royalty on The Kelly Clarkson Show Thursday morning (Dec. 1), with Dolly Parton stopping by to help sing a duet of her 1981 smash “9 to 5” and reminisce on the first time she ever heard Whitney Houston‘s iconic cover of “I Will Always Love You.”

Clarkson kicked off the “9 to 5” performance by singing its first few lines as a solo, before surprising her audience with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who strutted on stage in her trademark blonde updo and sky-high heels. The two exchanged smiles and harmonies back and forth as members of the crowd clapped excitedly to the famous beat.

The two vocalists had teased their duet a day prior in a sneak peak video, and a few months before that, they teamed up to record a studio version of the track for the documentary Still Working 9 to 5.

Following their performance, the pair sat down on The Kelly Clarkson Show couch to chat, at which point the “Stronger” singer asked Dolly to recall the first time she’d heard Whitney Houston’s infamous cover of her 1974 classic “I Will Always Love You.” Houston had recorded the track to serve as the theme for Mick Jackson’s 1992 film The Bodyguard, in which the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” musician also starred.

“When they were doing the Bodyguard movie, they had chosen another song for the theme song,” Dolly explained. “Someone came out with that very song right when they were about to put the movie out.”

In a rush to find another great theme song to replace the scrapped original, Dolly says the film’s producers requested permission to use “I Will Always Love You.” “They called me to see if they could use it and I said yes,” she continued. “And I didn’t hear anything else about it. I didn’t know if they had done it.”

The “Jolene” singer went on to tell a shocked Clarkson that this had been the last she’d heard about the song’s use — until much later, when she heard the opening bars to her own song playing on the car radio. But it wasn’t her voice singing. It was The Voice.

“I was just driving along, and I had the radio on,” Dolly recalled. “It’s one of those things, it was like a dog hearing a whistle. ‘What is that?’ That’s the first time — they hadn’t sent it to me or nothing. When it went into, ‘And I …,’ I just freaked out.”

“I had to pull over to the side, because I honestly thought I was going to wreck,” she added. “It was the most overwhelming feeling, and you know how great that was.”

Watch Dolly Parton and Kelly Clarkson sing “9 to 5” and discuss Whitney Houston below:

01 Dec 2022

Drake Is Top Dance/Electronic Artist for 2022: The Year in Charts

Drake reigns as Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Artist for the first time in 2022, thanks to the success of his underground house-focused album Honestly, Nevermind. The set also finishes as the year’s Top Dance/Electronic Album.

With just the singular performance of Honestly, Nevermind, Drake edges out Lady Gaga as the Top Dance/Electronic Albums Artist, who closes the year at No. 2 off the strength of her five charting albums during the chart year. Gaga is also No. 2 on the overall Top Dance/Electronic Artists list, after ending 2020 and 2021 at No. 1.

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

Honestly debuted at No. 1 on the July 2-dated weekly edition of the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, amassing 19 weeks at No. 1 in the chart year. Drake sat at the summit every week since except one, when Madonna bowed at No. 1 with her career-spanning remix collection Finally Enough Love on September 3. Drake’s 19 weeks at the top were second only to Lady Gaga’s 25 with The Fame: no other album totaled more than one frame at No. 1 in the 2022 chart year.

Drake also completes 2022 at No. 3 on the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Artists chart, with 10 Honestly tracks, the most of all acts, finishing the year in the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 50, led by “Massive” at No. 11. “Falling Back,” which became Drake’s first Hot Dance/Electronic Songs No. 1 (July 2), comes in at No. 15 on the year-end list. The album spawned six additional top 10s (eight in total) during the year, with year-end finishes as follows: “Texts Go Green” (No. 17), “A Keeper” (No. 18), “Calling My Name” (No. 19), “Currents” (No. 22), “Flight’s Booked” (No. 23) and “Overdrive” (No. 40).

Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.

Speaking of the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, Elton John and Dua Lipa hold the No. 1 spot with “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix).” The inventive pop/dance remixed track, which references John classics “Rocket Man” and “Sacrifice,” spent 32 weeks at No. 1 on the weekly chart during the year, almost three times as many as any other song (Beyonce’s Grammy-nominated “Break My Soul” was next, with 11 weeks at No. 1; more on her below).

“Heart” first hit No. 1 on October 23, 2021, compiling four frames at No. 1 prior to the chart year; its 36 total weeks at No. 1 are second only to the 69 chart-topping weeks achieved in 2018-20 by Marshmello and Bastille’s “Happier” since the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart’s January 2013 inception.

Elton John also ends the year as the No. 1 Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Artist. He was the only artist to register more than one leader on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2022, as in September he teamed with Britney Spears to follow “Heart” with “Hold Me Closer,” which also referenced John’s hits, including “Tiny Dancer,” “The One” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” John is also the only act with more than one song in the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10, with “Closer” coming in at No. 9.

“Heart” also ends 2022 at No. 1 on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts, earning 32 weeks apiece at No. 1 during the year on both lists; the longest span of any song. Plus, John completes 2022 at No. 1 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales Artists chart, while Drake takes No. 1 honors on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs Artists.

Circling back to Beyoncé, she finishes 2022 as the No. 2 Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Artist, with her Renaissance album leading to her first four Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10s, including the aforementioned “Break My Soul,” “Summer Renaissance,” “Pure/Honey” and “Thique.” “Break,” with its interpolation of Robin S.’s “Show Me Love,” ends at No. 2 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs year-end list, as it earned top 10 finishes on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 2), Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (No. 4) and Dance/Mix Show Airplay (No. 8).

David Guetta, who was the No. 1 Top Dance/Electronic Artist of 2015, had another banner year in 2022, this time finishing at No. 6 on the list. Guetta earned 16 chart entries on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in 2022, the most of all acts (his 72 charted titles in the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart’s history leads all acts too). His collaboration with Bebe Rexha, “I’m Good (Blue),” became Guetta’s second career leader in October, spending seven weeks at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (a total which continues to increase at press time); besides “Heart” and “Break,” “Good” was the only song to spend multiple frames at No. 1 in 2022.

The Grammy-nominated “Good,” based upon an interpolation of Eiffel 65’s 2000 Eurodance smash “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” grabs the No. 6 spot on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. It was also No. 4 for 2022 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales list, with Guetta also garnering a No. 4 finish on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales Artists chart.

Shifting gears, Acraze is the No. 1 Top Dance/Electronic New Artist, with his breakthrough hit, “Do It To It,” featuring Cherish, securing top 10 finishes on both the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (No. 6) and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 7) tallies. “Do It” did it at No. 3 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for 12 weeks, from December-March, and the track even crossed to the Billboard Hot 100, darting as high as No. 65 in January.

Kordhell comes in second on the Top Dance/Electronic New Artist list, as his viral hit “Murder In My Mind” made it to No. 7 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in October. Another viral act, Dxrk, ranked third on the Top Dance/Electronic New Artist tally, with his “Rave” reaching No. 9 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in May.

Sickick was fourth on the Top Dance/Electronic New Artist list, thanks to two viral tracks: “I Can Feel It” (which mashes up Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” and Michael Jackson’s “Remember The Time”) and “Frozen,” Madonna’s 1998 Ray of Light electronic ballad which began as a remix and became a collaboration with Madonna, Fireboy DML and 070 Shake.

Meanwhile, Doja Cat clawed her way to No. 1 on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay Artist listing, with six titles hitting the chart during the year (only second to Guetta’s seven), including top 10s “Get Into It (Yuh)” and “Vegas.” Consistency and longevity was Doja’s strategy, as all six of her songs peaked between Nos. 10 and 12, with three logging 20 weeks or more on the chart.

Harry Styles shined bright as the No. 2 Dance/Mix Show Airplay Artist, with his “As It Was” ending as the No. 1 Dance/Mix Show Airplay Song. Next on that year-end list, at No. 2, is Kx5’s first offering, “Escape,” featuring Hayla. “Escape” spent eight weeks at No. 1 from April-June; only “Cold Heart” reigned for longer. Kx5, the team of Deadmau5 and Kaskade (new as an entity in 2022), also finishes at No. 5 on the Top Dance/Electronic New Artist list.

01 Dec 2022

Bad Bunny Levels Up & Makes History in 2022: The Year in Streaming Charts

When Bad Bunny appeared at No. 24 on 2021’s year-end Streaming Songs Artists chart, he found himself in a fairly elite group of acts who primarily record within Latin genres and in the Spanish language to make the annual list. What was more: he did so by virtue of multiple entries on the weekly Streaming Songs ranking. His predecessors, Luis Fonsi (No. 19, 2017) and Daddy Yankee (No. 25, 2017), made that year’s rundown solely on the strength of the Justin Bieber-featuring global phenomenon “Despacito,” also that year’s top-streamed song. Conversely, Bad Bunny’s 2021 included a slew of entries, including a pair of No. 2-peaking songs on the weekly survey (“Dakiti,” alongside Jhay Cortez, in November 2020 and “Yonaguni” in June 2021).

But the artist born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio leveled up in 2022 with May’s Un Verano Sin Ti. The streaming juggernaut of an album – by way of the streaming popularity of its songs –lands him at No. 1 on 2022’s Streaming Songs Artists chart.

In doing so, Bad Bunny becomes the first artist who records primarily in a language other than English to rule the year-end ranking, besting the likes of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen and Drake at Nos. 2-5, respectively. (The annual year-end Streaming Songs Artist recap began in 2013.)

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

2022 saw Bad Bunny land his first weekly Streaming Songs No. 1, the two-week ruler “Me Porto Bonito” with Chencho Corleone. Exemplifying the long-tail virality of Un Verano, the song didn’t even hit No. 1 until its 10th week on the ranking and was still in the top five well into October.

Six songs from the album debuted within the top 10 upon release week (May 21, 2022), too, with “Titi Me Pregunto” (No. 4) remaining in the top five or 10 through October, too.

In 2021, two Bad Bunny songs – “Dakiti” (No. 13) and “Yonaguni” (No. 62) – appeared on the year-end Streaming Songs ranking. 2022 finds him with eight, including his first top 10s: “Bonito” (No. 5) and “Pregunto” (No. 6).

The year, however, wasn’t all about Bad Bunny on streaming services – no matter what it may have felt like at times. After falling off Streaming Songs Artists entirely in 2021, Taylor Swift roars back with a vengeance at No. 2, her first time in the top 10 since she was No. 4 in 2015 and her highest year-end rank since it began being tabulated.

Chalk that one up to two different albums in the tracking period – one with fully new material, the other rerecorded. Her Red (Taylor’s Version), released in November 2021, boasted a weekly No. 1 in “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” and a collection of top 10s, while the release of November 2022’s Midnights marked the second time ever that an act occupied the entire top 10 of Streaming Songs in a single week, paced by “Anti-Hero.”

The sheer volume of Swift material to make the chart throughout 2022 is so staggering, in fact, that on the year-end song ranking, she appears just once – at No. 66 – with “All Too Well.”

An artist like Glass Animals took a separate approach. “Heat Waves” ranks as the No. 1 entry on the year-end Streaming Songs tally, while the band appears at No. 10 on the artists ranking, all by virtue of just one charting song on the weekly survey.

Originally released in 2020, “Heat Waves” first made the weekly Streaming Songs in April 2021 and had broken into the top 10 by the end of the 2021 chart year. The song never actually rose higher than No. 3, but it spent the entirety of the weeks Jan. 29-May 7, 2022 anywhere between Nos. 3 and 8, and largely in the top 20 after that. Basically, the song – which now holds the record for the most weeks spent on the Billboard Hot 100 in its history (91) – refused to go away, and even when it felt like it wasn’t everywhere anymore, it was still in the periphery.

“Heat Waves” becomes the second song in a row to reign over the year-end Streaming Songs chart despite having not been released in that chart year, following Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” which ruled in 2021 after premiering in March 2020. The similarities don’t stop there, either – guess where “Levitating” peaked on the weekly Streaming Songs? That’s right, No. 3. Steady wins the game.

Harry Styles appears at No. 3 on the year-end Streaming Songs Artists survey after never ranking higher than No. 15 (2020). His 2022 finish was buoyed by two-week No. 1 “As It Was,” the year’s overall No. 2 (and, due to “Heat Waves,” the highest-ranking song actually released in 2022).

He’s followed by Morgan Wallen, who backs up being No. 11 in 2021 by rising to No. 4 on the Streaming Songs Artists roundup. All that despite not releasing an album in the tracking year; many of the country star’s streams came from 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album, plus a trio of newly released singles and a featured role on Lil Durk’s “Broadway Girls.”

Wallen is the first act releasing music primarily in the country genre to appear in the ranking’s year-end top 10, let alone top five. And he paces a slew of artists from the genre who make the 25-position list; he’s followed by newcomer Bailey Zimmerman (No. 16), veteran Chris Stapleton (No. 22) and newer-guard acts Walker Hayes, Zach Bryan and Luke Combs at Nos. 23-25, respectively. Last year? It was just Wallen and Combs.

2022 also marks the return of Disney film franchises to the year-end chart, particularly its top 10. Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” a 13-week No. 1 at the start of the year, ends up at No. 7 on the Streaming Songs tally, following in the footsteps of Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go” from 2013’s Frozen, the No. 5 on the year-end 2014 list.

01 Dec 2022

Billie Eilish Says Falling in Love Is Hard For Her: ‘It’s a Spooky Thing’

Billie Eilish opens up about her love life, kind of, in a new cover story interview with High Snobiety. The typically private singer recently confirmed in a Vanity Fair interview that she is dating The Neighbourhood singer Jesse Rutherford and that she’s “really excited… really happy about it,” noting that she is now snuggling up with a man she considers the “hottest f—ing f—er alive.”

Speaking to Snobiety, Eilish, 20, was a bit more circumspect about her love life, avoiding mentioning her 31-year-old partner while speaking in more general terms about the head-spinning concept of amour. “Falling in love is hard for me,” she said. “It’s a spooky ting, love. It’s really spooky.”

For the most part, the piece focuses on Eilish’s fashion evolution over her past 7 years in the public eye, with the singer best known for her baggy, unisex look noting that “when I meet people who don’t care about clothing — what they wear and how they wear it — it boggles my mind.” Over the past few years, Oscar winner Eilish has begun to dip her toe into higher fashion — turning heads at the 2022 Met Gala this year with her upcycled Gucci gown — even though she definitely has conflicted feelings about the importance some in the industry put on outer appearance.

“There’s a performative nature to fashion week that really pisses me off, because I’m like, ‘Please pay attention to the clothes,’” she said, noting that fashion is a “driving force” for her, as well as a way to connect with people. “People saw me as this 15-year-old, a kid, who wore this kind of stuff, looked this kind of way, acted this kind of way, said this kind of way. I felt like I couldn’t change. That’s why I went so far to the other side,” she said of her early look. “I was trying to prove, ‘Hey, f–k you guys, I can do whatever I want.’ Now I can look really masculine if I want, and really feminine if I want, and it’s not gonna be a f—ing headline.”

All that trying on different sartorial attitudes was a fun game, but that’s all it was to Eilish, duh. “It’s not that you wear one thing, and that’s your new style — you f—ing keep wearing a bunch of s–t,” she said. For the record, the currently raven-haired Eilish said she feels sexier when she dresses masculine, though her side ramble into being a blonde last year did not turn out how she’d expected.

“When I was blonde, people treated me differently. People completely changed their demeanor [around me],” she said. With a new fragrance, Eilish No. 2, the singer said she feels like she’s earned the public’s trust and can expand her empire to include more non-musical ventures. “I think that people have taken me more seriously because I’ve had this more masculine [way of dressing] throughout my career,” she said. “If I had been more feminine and girly, people would’ve been a lot less respectful of me.”

01 Dec 2022

Greg Kurstin Is the Top Hot 100 Producer of 2022: The Year in Charts

For the second time in his career, Greg Kurstin is the No. 1 Hot 100 Producer of the year.

Thanks to his work with Adele, Maren Morris and Tate McRae, he returns as the year’s top producer for the first time since 2016. Kurstin scored nine entries on the Billboard Hot 100 as a producer during the 2022 chart eligibility period, including Adele’s 10-week No. 1 “Easy On Me.”

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

Here’s a look at all nine of Kurstin’s production credits on the Hot 100 during the 2022 tracking period, which all contribute to his placement on the year-end ranking—Kurstin is the sole credited producer on eight of the songs below, helping boost his chart points (as he does not share chart points with any other individuals):

Peak Position, Artist Billing, Title (producers in addition to Kurstin)
No. 1, Adele, “Easy On Me”
No. 5, Adele, “Oh My God”
No. 18, Adele, “I Drink Wine”
No. 23, Adele, “My Little Love”
No. 44, Adele “Cry Your Heart Out”
No. 44, Tate McRae, “She’s All I Wanna Be”
No. 52, Maren Morris, “Circles Around This Town”
No. 53, Adele with Erroll Garner, “All Night Parking (Interlude)” (Joey Pecoraro)
No. 80, Tate McRae, “Chaotic”

Kurstin’s 2016 finish as the year’s top producer was also partly powered by Adele. He ruled the year thanks to his work on Adele’s 10-week leader “Hello” and “Water Under The Bridge” (No. 26 peak), plus Ellie Goulding’s “Something In The Way You Move” (No. 43), Sia’s four-week No. 1 “Cheap Thrills” featuring Sean Paul, and Kelly Clarkson’s “Piece By Piece” (No. 8).

Kurstin has been a consistent hitmaker on Billboard’s charts since the late 2010s. His first production credit to chart on the Hot 100 was Lily Allen’s “F*ck You” and “The Fear,” which debuted at Nos. 68 and 91, respectively, on the Feb. 28, 2009 chart. Since then, he’s earned nine top 10s as a producer and four No. 1s: “Hello,” “Cheap Thrills,” “Easy On Me” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” in 2012.

Just below Kurstin on the year-end Hot 100 Producers ranking, Dr. Luke (real name: Lukasz Gottwald) finishes at No. 2, thanks to seven production credits on the Hot 100 during the eligibility period. Three of those tracks reached the top 10: Doja Cat’s “Need To Know” (No. 8), Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 3) and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” which spent a week at No. 1. Doja Cat and The Weeknd’s “You Right” came close, peaking at No. 11. Dr. Luke has earned 18 No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 in his career, the third-most of all time (as of this writing) after George Martin and Max Martin, who each have 23.

Plus, Joey Moi finishes at No. 3 on the year-end producers list, largely thanks to his work with Morgan Wallen. Two hits by the country singer-songwriter and produced by Moi reached the top 10 during the chart eligibility period: “Don’t Think Jesus” (No. 7 in April) and “You Proof” (No. 5 in October).

Rounding out the top 5 Hot 100 Producers: Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley closes the year at No. 4, thanks to his production of his record-breaking hit “Heat Waves” (the year’s No. 1 Hot 100 Song), and MAG (real name: Marco Borero) finishes at No. 5, thanks to multiple production credits on the Hot 100, all of which were by Bad Bunny, including the top 10 hits “Moscow Mule” and “Me Porto Bonito,” with Chencho Corleone.

01 Dec 2022

Lin-Manuel Miranda Is the Top Hot 100 Songwriter of 2022: The Year in Charts

Lin-Manuel Miranda has already won a slew of impressive accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize, Grammys, Tonys and Emmys and now he can add yet another distinction to his resume: he’s No. 1 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songwriters chart.

The multifaceted talent finishes the year at No. 1 thanks to his work on Disney’s Encanto soundtrack, including its five-week Billboard Hot 100 leader “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” credited to Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the Encanto Cast. Miranda is credited as the sole songwriter on the track, helping boost his chart points (as he does not split chart points with multiple writers). During its 20-week run on the chart, “Bruno” earned the distinction as the biggest Disney song of all time, based on Billboard’s Greatest Of All Time methodology.

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

In total, Miranda earned eight songwriting credits on the Hot 100 in the 2022 chart year, all from Encanto, which all contributed to his placement on the year-end ranking. Here’s a look at where each song peaked on the Hot 100—Miranda is the only credited writer on each song:

Peak Position, Artist Billing, Title
No. 1, Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
No. 8, Jessica Darrow, “Surface Pressure”
No 20, Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz & Encanto Cast, “The Family Madrigal”
No. 27, Diane Guerrero & Stephanie Beatriz, “What Else Can I Do?”
No. 36, Sebastian Yatra, “Dos Oruguitas”
No. 48, Stephanie Beatriz, “Waiting On A Miracle”
No. 71, Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz, John Leguizamo, Adassa, Maluma & Encanto Cast, “All of You”
No. 100, Carlos Vives, “Colombia, Mi Encanto”

Prior to 2022, Miranda had only landed seven songs on the Hot 100 as a songwriter (he’s billed as an artist on four of them). He first charted in July 2016 with “Love Make The World Go Round” with Jennifer Lopez (No. 72 peak), and then with four songs from Moana soon after: Opetaia Foa’l and Miranda’s “We Know The Way” (No. 93 peak), Alessia Cara’s “How Far I’ll Go” (No. 56), Dwayne Johnson’s “You’re Welcome” (No. 65) and Auli’I Cravalho’s “How Far I’ll Go” (No. 41). After that, he charted with “Almost Like Praying,” featuring Artists for Puerto Rico (No. 20) and “Found / Tonight” with Ben Platt (No. 49)

His work on the Moana songs helped Miranda finish as the No. 28 Hot 100 Songwriter of 2017.

Miranda is also credited as a producer on all eight of his Encanto chart hits. “Colombia, Mi Encanto” was produced by Miranda and Carlos Vives, while the other seven entries were produced by Miranda and Mike Elizondo.

Miranda’s production work enables his finish as the No. 12 Hot 100 Producer of 2022, while Elizondo finishes just behind him at No. 13.

Just below Miranda on the year-end Hot 100 Songwriters ranking, Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley finished at No. 2, thanks to his writing credit on the band’s “Heat Waves.” The song spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in March-April and spent 37 weeks in the top 10 (beginning on Nov. 13, 2021—the beginning of Billboard’s chart year). The song also made history in October when it passed The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” as the longest-charting song in the Hot 100’s 64-year history, with 91 total weeks spent on the chart.

As “Heat Waves” debuted on the Hot 100 in January 2021, Bayley finished 2021 as the No. 8 songwriter of the year.

Plus, Taylor Swift finishes at No. 3 on the Hot 100 Songwriters recap, thanks to a whopping 50 songwriting credits on the Hot 100 during the chart year, which all contributed to her year-end placement. The songs encompass many of the tracks from Red (Taylor’s Version), which she released in November 2021 and her new LP Midnights, which debuted in the next-to-last week of Billboard’s 2022 chart year, helping boost her final totals.

Of the 50 songs helping Swift’s year-end placement, 11 reached the top 10 on the weekly Hot 100 and two hit No. 1: “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” and “Anti-Hero.”

Rounding out the top 5 of the year-end Hot 100 Songwriters ranking, Harry Styles finishes at No. 4 (thanks to 13 writing credits, including the No. 1, “As It Was”) and Doja Cat close out at No. 5 (eight writing credits).

01 Dec 2022

Morgan Wallen Is Taking the World One Night at a Time for 2023 Tour

Fresh off his 55-city Dangerous Tour, Morgan Wallen is set to launch a massive new tour in 2023, the country star announced Thursday (Dec. 1). His One Night at a Time World Tour, produced by Live Nation in North America and Frontier Touring for Australia/New Zealand, launches March 15 with concerts in New Zealand and Australia. The trek will return to the United States for a run of shows beginning April 15 at Milwaukee’s American Family Field, and wraps Oct. 7 at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash.

Wallen will welcome several openers for various shows on the tour, including HARDY, ERNEST, Bailey Zimmerman and Parker McCollum. The U.S. leg of the tour includes stops at Boston’s Fenway Park, Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, St, Louis’ Busch Stadium and Detroit’s Ford Field.

“Man, what a year 2022 has been with the Dangerous Tour. I had the time of my life, and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that my fans connected with the Dangerous album the way they did,” Wallen said via a statement. “I’ve had so many people ask me if I wanted to take some time off, but the truth is, I have been writing and making so much music in my off-time because I feel as inspired as I ever have. It feels like new songs are pouring out of me, and I love that feeling. We are going to run it back next year with the One Night At A Time World Tour. Bigger venues. New countries. Bigger memories. See y’all there.”

Wallen also announced that he will release a three-song sampler as a teaser for the new music he’s been working on in the studio. One Thing at a Time — Sampler is made of the tracks “One Thing at a Time,” “Tennessee Fan,” and “Days That End in Why.”

“I’m not quite done making this new album, so I’m going to keep making it through the holiday break and early January to chase this inspiration,” Wallen said in a statement. “I promise I won’t wait too long to reveal the album details. To hold you over, I’m dropping three new songs today as a sampler of what I’ve been working on. Can’t wait to take it one night at a time in 2023.”

As with his Dangerous Tour, $3 of every ticket sold for his upcoming U.S. shows will benefit the Morgan Wallen Foundation, which has supported organizations including Greater Good Music, Children Are People, the Salvation Army and the National Museum of African American Music.

There are no official pre-sales in the U.S. for the tour.

Morgan Wallen’s 2023 One Night At A Time World Tour U.S. Dates:

Sat, April 15 Milwaukee, WI American Family Field*#
Thurs, April 20 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
Sat, April 22 Oxford, MS Vaught-Hemingway Stadium*# ^ ON SALE FRIDAY, 12/16
Thurs, April 27 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
Fri, April 28 Moline, IL Vibrant Arena
Sat, April 29 Lincoln, NE Pinnacle Bank Arena
Thurs, May 4 Jacksonville, FL VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
Fri, May 5 West Palm Beach, FL iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
Sat, May 6 Tampa, FL MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Thurs, May 18 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium*
Sat, May 20 East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium*$
Wed, May 24 Austin, TX Moody Center
Fri, May 26 Houston, TX Minute Maid Park*#
Fri, June 2 Atlanta, GA Truist Park*$
Sat, June 3 Panama City Beach, FL Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam^
Fri, June 9 Virginia Beach, VA Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
Sat, June 10 Myrtle Beach, SC Carolina Country Music Fest^
Thurs, June 15 Pittsburgh, PA PNC Park*#
Sat, June 17 Philadelphia, PA Citizens Bank Park*#
Fri, June 23 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field*$
Fri, June 30 Detroit, MI Ford Field*#
Fri, July 7 St. Louis, MO Busch Stadium*$
Sat, July 15 San Diego, CA Petco Park*#
Thurs, July 20 Phoenix, AZ Chase Field*#
Sat, July 22 Los Angeles, CA SoFi Stadium*#
Thurs, Aug 3 Detroit Lakes, MN WE Fest^
Sat, Aug 12 Columbus, OH Ohio Stadium*#
Fri, Aug 18 Boston, MA Fenway Park*$
Sat, Aug 26 Washington, DC Nationals Park*$
Sat, Oct 7 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome

Morgan Wallen 2023 International Tour Dates:

Wed, March 15 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena #
Sun, March 19 Ipswich, QLD CMC Rocks ^
Tues, March 21 Sydney, NSW Qudos Bank Arena #
Fri, March 24 Melbourne, VIC Rod Laver Arena #
Sat, Aug 5 Camrose, AB Big Valley Jamboree^
Sat, Sept 16 Toronto, ON Budweiser Stage
Mon, Sept 18 London, ON Budweiser Gardens
Thurs, Sept 21 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre
Fri, Sept 22 Quebec City, QC Videotron Centre
Sat, Sept 23 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
Thurs, Sept 28 Winnipeg, MB Canada Life Centre
Fri, Sept 29 Saskatoon, SK SaskTel Centre
Sat, Sept 30 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
Wed, Oct 4 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena

*Stadium dates
^Festival dates
#HARDY
$Parker McCollum
ERNEST and Bailey Zimmerman on all dates

01 Dec 2022

Tems & ‘Essence’ Top First-Ever Afrobeats Year-End Rankings: The Year in Charts

Tems tops the first-ever year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Artists ranking, representing the best-performing acts on the genre’s song charts for 2022. The singer-songwriter’s victory parade extends to the year’s Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs recap, where she shares top honors with Wizkid for “Essence” and claims three more songs in the year-end top 10.

The Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart launched for the chart dated April 2, 2022, and ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the U.S., ranked by a weighted formula incorporating official streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers, as compiled by Luminate.

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

Behind Tems, Burna Boy finishes second on the year-end artist recap, spurred by 27 charting songs during the chart year, the most of any act. Among the haul is the genre giant’s “Last Last,” which became his first No. 1 on the U.S. Afrobeats chart in July. The song’s appeal, though, crossed barriers: It also topped the U.S.-based Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and was likely familiar to listeners thanks to its sample of “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” a 2001 hit for Toni Braxton. “Last,” meanwhile, is far from that on the year-end songs recap, where it places at No. 5.

Rounding out the top five artists, CKay comes in third, with Wizkid next in line and Asake taking fifth place.

Crossover Hits Capture Songs Crown: As mentioned, Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, is the first year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs champ. In a testament to its endurance, the smash ruled for two weeks in July this year, despite a 2021 release and peak on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October 2021. The global hit bowed at No. 3 on the first edition of the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart and spent its first 34 weeks inside the top five.

Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran’s “Peru” ranks second on the year-end songs recap. Like “Essence,” the popular remix too became a crossover smash stateside, with a No. 7 peak on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and No. 53 high on the Hot 100.

Crossover hits fill out the remaining top spots on the inaugural songs recap, with CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” – the first No. 1 hit on the weekly chart upon its April launch – at No. 3. The tune rolled to a No. 26 best on the Hot 100 and captured the No. 1 perch on both the weekly Rhythmic Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay lists in the year.

Tems’ “Free Mind” wraps 2022 in fourth place on year-end U.S. Afrobeats Songs. The track, which originally appeared on the singer’s For Broken Ears EP in 2020, found a renewed audience and buzz in 2022 in the wake of “Essence” and she and Drake’s featured spot on Future’s “Wait for U,” a No. 1 Hot 100 hit this year. Thanks to that revival, “Mind” climbed to No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart this year and No. 46 on the Hot 100.

In addition to “Essence” and “Free Mind,” Tems lands two more tracks in the year-end top 10: “Higher” at No. 7 and “Found,” featuring Brent Faiyaz, at No. 10. She, Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran are the only acts with multiple entries in the top tier. In addition to his “Last Last” smash, Burna Boy closes at No. 10 with “For My Hand,” featuring Ed Sheeran.

01 Dec 2022

Republic Is the Top Label of 2022: The Year in Charts

For a second straight year, Republic Records is No. 1 on all three of Billboard’s leading year-end label rankings: Top Labels, Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels. The company achieved the triple for the first time in 2021.

Republic has triumphed on the year-end Top Labels tally in six of the last eight years, and as the top Hot 100 Label in nine of the last 11 years.

Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts

During the 2022 tracking year, Republic placed 72 albums on the weekly Billboard 200 chart, including the most that reached the top 10 (23) and top 40 (40) of any label. Among those were five No. 1s: Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights, Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind (released via OVO Sound/Republic) and Stray Kids’ ODDINARY and MAXIDENT (JYP/Imperial/Republic).

Billboard’s year-end music Top Labels chart represents aggregated metrics for labels’ performance on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart combined during the 2022 charts tracking year: Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022-dated charts. Any activity registered before or after an album or song’s chart run isn’t considered in this ranking. The individual Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels rankings represent the same measurement, but for each specific chart, during the same tracking period.

For a second consecutive year, and third time in the last four years, Republic lays claim to half of the year-end top 10 Billboard 200 Albums. Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (Big Loud/Republic) is No. 3, Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Red (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 4 and 5, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (OVO Sound/Republic) is No. 9 and The Weeknd’s The Highlights (XO/Republic) is No. 10.

On the weekly Hot 100 during the chart year, Republic placed more chart entries (119), top 40 hits (60), top 10s (21) and No. 1s (five) than any label. The company also boasts the year-end No. 1 Hot 100 Song in Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic). It’s the third time in the last five years where the year’s top Hot 100 Song is from Republic, following The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (XO/Republic, 2020) and Drake’s “God’s Plan” (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic, 2018).

01 Dec 2022

‘Red Hot + Riot’: Reflections on AIDS in Africa on Benefit Album’s 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago, Red Hot released the album Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti, a tribute to the great Nigerian musician Fela Kuti who succumbed to complications related to AIDS five years earlier in 1997 at the age of 58. Fela was more than a musician. He was an activist and spiritual leader who fused American funk with African rhythms to create Afrobeat, which is more popular today than it was during his lifetime. Red Hot was invited by the Kuti family to produce the album with access to his publishing and master recordings (courtesy of Knitting Factory Records who had recently acquired his catalog).

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The project kicked off with a superstar session brought together by Questlove led by D’Angelo and Fela’s son Femi Kuti. The musicians were a mix of Femi’s band Positive Force and the Soulquarians who often backed D’Angelo and Questlove (notably James Posner and Pino Palladino) along with Nile Rodgers, Macy Gray and others covering the song “Water No Get Enemy.” The idea for the project began with a conversation with Questlove at sessions for an earlier album – Red Hot + Rhapsody – where the Roots were collaborating with Bobby Womack on “Summertime.” Quest suggested that Red Hot should do a tribute album – track by track – to Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On, but we couldn’t clear the rights. Fela’s death and music was in our head, so we went back and suggested taking the Riot title and making an album raising awareness about AIDS in Africa.

The next session we produced after “Water No Get Enemy” was Baaba Maal covering Fela’s “Trouble Sleep.” We had built a studio, Fun Machine, run by Andres Levin, in the office on Spring Street where Red Hot’s sister company had grown to be a successful digital studio. You could see the World Trade Towers from the studio the day we recorded: September 10, 2001. They weren’t there the next day. Because of the struggle keeping the company going in the aftermath of 9/11, Andres copied the sessions onto disc so I could listen to them at home. I carefully saved all of them as well as the ProTools sessions. Because of that, the 20th anniversary release of Red Hot + Riot not only puts it on streaming platforms for the first time but also two hours of bonus material — including the acoustic Baaba Maal session and a cover of “Sorrow Tears and Blood” by Bilal, Common and Zap Mama that was never finished back then, but completes the album twenty years later.

From the first Red Hot album, Red Hot + Blue, we included African musicians and talked about the terrible impact of the HIV pandemic on the Continent. But it was hard getting people to pay attention to the issue and to African music at the time. A Fela tribute wasn’t the obvious choice back then that it is now. It was an uphill struggle to get label support and the right mix of artists to do it. But we did.

Red Hot projects have always been hard to pull off. The music industry is charitable but doesn’t often support charity records that compete with commercial releases. When we did Red Hot + Dance, we got caught up in the struggle between George Michael and his label. It was hard to get Nirvana to donate a track to No Alternative and even more difficult to deal with their label, who didn’t let us use the band’s name on the packaging or marketing materials. Ironically that became our best marketing strategy of all time: the album with the hidden Nirvana track. But our struggles are nothing really compared to what it has been like for people with AIDS or the LGBTQ+ community.

Fortunately, over the past few decades, things have improved in the U.S. Medication allows people to live with HIV (thanks in large part to activists at ACT UP and TAG that that Red Hot helped fund in the early 1990s) and just recently two people who identify as lesbians were elected governors for the first time. But sadly, that’s not the case in much of the Global South. It’s shocking that HIV infection in sub-Saharan African remains at roughly the same level as when we released Red Hot + Riot in 1992. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 71% of people living with HIV, a devastating reality where 75% of global HIV related deaths and 65% of new infections occur. Of the 38.3 million people living with HIV worldwide, 27.3 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa; 7.8 million of the 27.3 million infected people are in South Africa including about 6.3 million young adults and children. To put that in context, 11% of humans live in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it accounts for over 71% of the global impact of AIDS in terms of infections and mortality.

The stigma around men who have sex with other men, women’s lack of resources and agency and the vilification of sex workers and drug addicts has inhibited progress to aid the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Often ignorance is used to distance the culture from topics like intimate partner violence, sex education, the LGBTQ+ community and women’s lack of agency and access to care. Unfortunately, young women and girls bear the brunt of the impact from cultural silence and their pain and misfortune is passed onto future generations. The HIV/AIDS epidemic’s root is the intersection of structural and cultural setbacks in awareness, acceptance, understanding and treatment. Music hasn’t been able to change that – even supercharged with Fela’s Afrobeats and activism – but it remains a powerful force to raise awareness and make people reflect on the devastation of this preventable disease around the world.

According to the CDC, AIDS in Africa peaked in 2002, the year Red Hot + Riot was released, at 4.69 million people infected the prior year. Now, 20 years later there remains over 25 million people infected with HIV on the Continent. To put that in context, the total number of COVID cases in Africa is projected to be about 4 million, with around a hundred thousand deaths. The estimated annual deaths from AIDS in Africa in 2018 was 470,000. In a global context, worldwide deaths from COVID to date is the tragic number of 6.61 million people. Over 40 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

In “Water No Get Enemy,” Fela Kuti embodied a philosophy larger than his music. “If your child dey grow, a water he go use/ If water kill your child, na water you go use.” Fela symbolically compares an institution to a parent who continues to use water after their child drowns. Regardless of setbacks, the community must continue to provide solutions for our social ailments. Fela conveys that living necessities are non-negotiable regardless of circumstance. The charge to support vulnerable people fighting against global pandemics is non-negotiable.

We cannot let the silent continue to suffer. “Ko s’ohun to’le se k’o ma lo’mi o,” Fela writes. “There is nothing you can do without water.”

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