Music News

12 Oct 2022

How Super Bowl Halftime Shows Lead to Super Sales, From Michael Jackson to Dr. Dre

Ever since Michael Jackson ushered in the blockbuster era of the Super Bowl halftime show when he headlined in 1993, nearly every performer who has graced the stage on sports’ (and TV’s) biggest night has enjoyed sizable boosts in sales and streams. Looking to continue this tradition is Rihanna, who is set to hit the midfield stage early next year when she headlines Super Bowl LVII. 

With few exceptions, Super Bowl halftime headliners have seen a sizable commercial uptick over the last 30 years. In 2002,  U2 saw sales for three of the band’s key albums (All That You Can’t Leave Behind, The Joshua Tree and Best of 1980-1990) more than double in the week following the performance. In 2004, Janet Jackson — in spite of, or perhaps because of, the singer’s infamous “Nipplegate” controversy — saw a similar jump. Particularly large sales gains were also seen for Paul McCartney in 2005, Prince in 2007, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in 2008, Madonna in 2012, Katy Perry and Missy Elliott in 2015, Coldplay and Bruno Mars in 2016 and, in 2017, Lady Gaga, who saw a whopping 1,000%  gain in digital album and song sales on Super Bowl Sunday alone.

In 2022, the halftime show — headlined by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige — averaged 103.4 million viewers across television and streaming in the U.S., according to NBCUniversal, which aired the event. The game itself garnered 112.3 million viewers – its best showing in five years.

Super Bowl halftime performances in the last 30-plus years have spurred some impressive boosts in sales and streams – and on Billboard’s charts. Ahead of Rihanna’s 2023 Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 12, here’s a look back at some of the biggest halftime show winners since 1993. (Sales and streaming data for the U.S. only, according to Luminate.)

12 Oct 2022

Angela Lansbury’s Best Music Moments

Angela Lansbury, who died Tuesday (Oct. 11) at the age of 96, never had a Billboard Hot 100 hit and never personally received a Grammy nomination. But, in a long string of Broadway and movie hits, she introduced many songs that are widely known and loved. Among them: “Beauty and the Beast,” the title song from the 1991 Disney film of the same name, which won an Oscar for best original song and a Grammy for song of the year.

Impressively, Lansbury received career-capping honorary awards from three of the four EGOT awards shows. She was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1996, received an honorary award from the Motion Picture Academy in 2013 and received a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement just this year. (Nothing like cutting it close, Tonys!)

Lansbury won four Tony Awards for best actress in a musical – which is still the record in that category – putting her ahead of fellow Broadway legends Mary Martin and Gwen Verdon, with three wins each. Lansbury won for Mame, Dear World, a revival of Gypsy and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. What’s more, Lansbury received a 1985 Emmy nomination (outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program) for a performance of Sweeney Todd on PBS’ Great Performances.

The original cast albums from Mame and Sweeney Todd won Grammys for what is now called best musical theater album. The award for Mame went to its composer/lyricist, Jerry Herman. The award for Sweeney Todd went to its composer/lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, as well as album producer Thomas Z. Shepard. Two of Lansbury’s other cast albums – for revivals of The King and I (1978) and A Little Night Music (2010) – were also nominated in that Grammy category.

Several of Lansbury’s cast albums and soundtracks registered on the Billboard 200. Among them: Beauty and the Beast, which reached No. 19 in 1992; Mame, which hit No. 23 in 1966; Sweeney Todd, which reached No. 78 in 1979; and Dear World, which reached No. 128 in 1969.

Lansbury was also an always-welcome host of awards shows. She hosted or co-hosted the Tony Awards five times, more often than anyone else, and hosted the Emmy Awards once (in 1993). Lansbury received an Emmy nomination for the first time she solo-hosted the Tonys (in 1987). The nod was for outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program.

In Lansbury’s memory, here are just a few of her greatest music moments.

12 Oct 2022

Colombian Singer Andres Cuervo Dies

Andrés Cuervo, the Colombian artist behind the hit single “La Receta,” died last week in Paris, according to a statement that his publicity agency JAQUE shared with Billboard on Tuesday (Oct. 11).

According to the agency, headquartered in Colombia, the 40-year-old singer died of a heart attack Wednesday (Oct. 5) in his apartment in Paris, where he had been residing. A few weeks ago, the singer and model had participated in New York Fashion Week, where he walked the runway for fashion designer H.cubel. “Closing the runway and representing Colombia with great pride ,” he captioned a carousel of photos he posted on Instagram.

Born in Barranquilla in 1982, Cuervo began to sing at a very young age, influenced by pop and rock music, and had a knack for songwriting. At 20 years old, he released his first studio album, Tras De Ti (2008), which put him on the map not only in his native Colombia, but across Latin America. With Este Soy Yo, released five years later, he had a breakthrough in Mexico and other countries. His latest production, Historias de Amor (2015), was packed with pop-rock ballads.

His first No. 1 on Billboard was thanks to “La Receta,” which topped the Tropical Airplay chart in 2015. His second entry on the Tropical Airplay tally was “Vivirla Bien” with Osmani García, which peaked at No. 15 in 2018. He also collaborated with Colombian pop star Fanny Lú on his single “No Pidamos Perdón.” Most recently, he had released songs such as “Creo En Ti” and “My Sexy Girl.”

12 Oct 2022

Christina Aguilera Announces New ‘Beautiful’ Music Video: ‘Put Your Mind, Body & Soul First’

Christina Aguilera is celebrating 20 years of her studio album Stripped, and to honor one of career’s biggest singles, the pop superstar revealed on Tuesday (Oct. 11) that she will be unveiling a brand new music video for “Beautiful.”

“In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of Stripped and World Mental Health Day, I’m honored to share a new music video for Beautiful,” she wrote on Twitter, noting that the clip will be arriving on Oct. 19. “Tune out and turn in. Take your space, log off, put your mind, body, and soul first.”

In the accompanying teaser clip, a group of young girls are seen at desks, applying heavy makeup in front of a phone attached to a ring light.

“Beautiful,” released in 2002, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated February 1, 2003 and spent 27 total weeks on the chart. Stripped — which, in addition to “Beautiful,” includes songs like “Fighter,” “Dirrty” and “Can’t Hold Us Down” — also peaked at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, and it spent an impressive 79 total weeks on the chart.

The pop star famously received backlash when she introduced fans to “Xtina” for Stripped, dying her hair black, posing nude on magazine covers and overall flaunting a more sexually explicit persona for her 2002 album. “I hope I paved the way and helped set the ground rules that women can be any version of themselves they wanna be…and proud of it,” Aguilera told Cosmopolitan in 2018.

11 Oct 2022

Eric Andre Sues Over Drug Search Program at Atlanta Airport

Comedians Eric André and Clayton English are challenging a police program at the Atlanta airport they say violates the constitutional rights of airline passengers, particularly Black passengers, through racial profiling and coercive searches just as they are about to board their flights.

Lawyers for the two men filed a lawsuit Tuesday (Oct. 11) in federal court in Atlanta alleging that they were racially profiled and illegally stopped by Clayton County police at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The two men, well-known comedians and actors, say officers singled them out during separate stops roughly six months apart because they are Black and grilled them about drugs as other passengers watched.

“People were gawking at me and I looked suspicious when I had done nothing wrong,” André said in an interview, calling the experience “dehumanizing and demoralizing.”

While the stated purpose of the program is to fight drug trafficking, the lawsuit says, drugs are rarely found, criminal charges seldom result, and seized cash provides a financial windfall for the police department.

Clayton County police officers and investigators from the county district attorney’s office selectively stop passengers in the narrow jet bridges used to access planes, the lawsuit says. The officers take the passengers’ boarding passes and identification and interrogate them, sometimes searching their bags, before they board their flights, the lawyers say in the lawsuit.

The police department calls the stops “consensual encounters” and says they are “random,” but in reality the stops “rely on coercion, and targets are selected disproportionately based on their race,” the lawyers argue.

Clayton County police spokesperson Julia Isaac said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Police records show that from Aug. 30, 2020, to April 30, 2021, there were 402 jet bridge stops, and the passenger’s race was listed for 378 of those stops. Of those 378 passengers, 211, or 56%, were Black, and people of color accounted for 258 total stops, or 68%, the lawsuit says.

Those 402 stops resulted in three reported drug seizures: about 10 grams of drugs from one passenger, 26 grams of “suspected THC gummies” from another, and six prescription pills without a prescription from a third, the lawsuit says. Only the first and third person were charged.

Those 402 stops also yielded more than $1 million in cash and money orders from a total of 25 passengers. All but one were allowed to continue their travels, and only two — the ones who also had drugs — were charged, the lawsuit says. Eight of the 25 challenged the seizures, and Clayton County police settled each case, returning much of the seized money, the lawsuit says.

Carrying large quantities of cash doesn’t mean someone is involved in illegal drug activity, the lawyers argue in the lawsuit, noting that people of color are less likely to have bank accounts and are more likely to carry large sums when they travel.

English was stopped while flying from Atlanta, where he lives, to Los Angeles for work on Oct. 30, 2020, the lawsuit says. André had finished a shoot for HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones and was traveling from Charleston, South Carolina, to his home in Los Angeles on April 21, 2020, when he was stopped after a layover in Atlanta.

Officers blocked them as they entered the jet bridge and asked if they were carrying illegal drugs, the lawsuit says. Both were asked to hand over their boarding passes and identification. An officer said he wanted to search English’s bag, and English agreed, believing he didn’t have a choice.

“I felt completely powerless. I felt violated. I felt cornered,” English said at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta. “I felt like I had to comply if I wanted everything to go smoothly.”

André complained about his stop right after it happened. Clayton County police said at the time that it was “consensual.”

“Mr. Andre chose to speak with investigators during the initial encounter,” the department said in a statement posted on Facebook. “During the encounter, Mr. Andre voluntarily provided the investigators information as to his travel plans. Mr. Andre also voluntarily consented to a search of his luggage but the investigators chose not to do so.”

André said he felt a “moral calling” to bring the lawsuit “so these practices can stop and these cops can be held accountable for this because it’s unethical.”

“I have the resources to bring national attention and international attention to this incident. It’s not an isolated incident,” he said. “If Black people don’t speak up for each other, who will?”

One of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, NYU School of Law Policing Project co-founder Barry Friedman, encouraged anyone else who has had similar experiences to get in touch.

The lawsuit names Clayton County and the police chief, as well as four police officers and a district attorney’s office investigator. It alleges violations of the constitutional rights that protect against unreasonable searches and seizures and against racial discrimination.

The comedians seek a jury trial and ask that the Clayton County police jet bridge interdiction program be declared unconstitutional. They also seek compensatory and punitive damages, as well as legal costs.

11 Oct 2022

Kanye West Makes Anti-Semitic Claims & Slams Planned Parenthood in Unaired Footage From Tucker Carlson Interview

Kanye West sat down for a bombshell two-part interview with Tucker Carlson last week, and on Tuesday (Oct. 11), even more footage from the controversial sit-down came to light.

In one clip that Fox News left on the cutting-room floor, shared by Vice, the rapper reveals that he was vaccinated when questioned by Carlson about the COVID-19 pandemic and associated healthcare response. Later in the interview, Ye goes on a tangent about Planned Parenthood, calling founder Margaret Sanger “a known eugenics” (Planned Parenthood has roundly denounced West’s claim that Sanger was a eugenicist) who created the organization “with the KKK to control the Jew population.”

“When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are,” he went on. “This is who our people are: the blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.” (Ye seems to be mixing up his Old Testament stories, given that it’s the 12 tribes of Israel, with Judah being one of the ancient prophet Jacob’s 12 sons.)

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Ye’s fixation on Judaism didn’t stop there, though. The rapper also stated, “Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something. I mean, that’s probably like a bad example and people are going to get mad at that sh–,” before pausing to add, “I probably want to edit that out.”

The Yeezy designer also brought Hanukkah into the discussion when discussing his four kids with ex-wife Kim Kardashian. “I was biting my tongue on my political opinion because I thought it would be better for my children. And now you look up, and my kids are going to a school that teaches Black kids a complicated Kwanzaa,” he told Carlson, going on to vaguely add, “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” (He’s possibly making reference here to anti-Semitic conspiracies that Jewish businessmen puppeteer the global financial system.)

Elsewhere in the unaired footage, Kanye bizarrely made claims that LVMH — the parent company of Louis Vuitton — “killed” late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, that “professional actors” and “fake children” were put in his house to manipulate and “sexualize [his] kids,” and that the Kardashians “kidnapped” his daughter Chicago on her birthday. (Khloé Kardashian has already hit back at the latter accusation, saying that Kanye was actually the one who requested dual birthday parties for the now-4-year-old.)

Watch unaired footage from Kanye’s Fox News interview on Vice.

11 Oct 2022

Blake Shelton Announces He’s Leaving ‘The Voice’: ‘This Show Has Changed My Life’

Blake Shelton — who has been a coach on NBC’s The Voice since it premiered in 2011 — won’t be turning his red chair around for much longer. The country superstar revealed on Tuesday (Oct. 11) that he will be leaving the singing competition after next season.

“This show has changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me,” Shelton wrote in a statement posted to social media. “It’s been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns and I want to thank everyone at The Voice from NBC, every producer, the writers, musicians, crew and catering people, you are the best. It takes a lot of work, passion, and adult beverages (Ha!) to pull off a live show twice a week.”

He continued, “I’ve made lifelong bonds with Carson and every single one of my fellow coaches over the years, including my wife Gwen Stefani!”

The singer concluded his statement by thanking the contestants and the fans. “It would not happen without you,” he wrote.

While Shelton will be departing The Voice, fans will get to enjoy his banter for a while longer, as season 22 is in the midst of its knockout rounds, and season 23 is just around the corner after that. As coach, the “Boys ‘Round Here” singer remains the statistically best coach in terms of winning seasons — having crowned a champ from his team in eight of the show’s 21 seasons.

In addition, NBC revealed its coaches for season 23, which includes Shelton and The Voice veteran Kelly Clarkson. Newcomers Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper will also join the judges panel.

See Shelton’s full statement posted to Twitter below.

11 Oct 2022

Mark Hoppus on Blink-182 Reunion: ‘I Feel Like a Weight Has Been Lifted Off My Shoulders’

Blink-182 are finally getting back together. On Tuesday (Oct. 11) the pop-punk trio announced a reunion with former bandmate Tom DeLonge for an upcoming global tour and single.

While joining After School Radio on Apple Music Hits, the band’s singer/bassist Mark Hoppus shared his excitement over the news. “Yes, it’s happening. Blink-182, world tour, new music, new album. Tom’s back. Man, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. That was a burden to carry that secret for so long,” he shared.

On keeping that secret, Hoppus also revealed a sweet anecdote from just days ago, when he was asked by a fan when a reunion would happen. “I was at the Dodgers game the other night, and a fan came up. It was a guy and his wife, probably late twenties, early thirties.” the musician recalled. “We take our picture, and he’s like, ‘I love your band. Grew up on your band.’ He’s like, ‘Dude, is there any way, any way at all?’ And I’m like, ‘Any way for what?’ And he’s like, ‘Is there any chance of a Blink-182 reunion tour with Tom back in the band at all?’ And he had such hope and desperation in his eyes, and I just wanted to put my hand on his shoulder and say, ‘My friend, just you wait. Just wait three, four more days.’”

Hoppus jokingly added, “I should have taken his name and should have just posted it on Instagram, been like, ‘This is for you Steve. Great idea.’”

Blink-182’s tour is slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico at the Imperial GNP festival. They hit North America on May 4 with a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and those dates will run through a July 16 gig in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena and then move on to Europe in September and Australia/New Zealand in early 2024.

The group’s new single, “EDGING,” is coming on Friday (Oct. 14), commemorating the trio’s first time in the studio in 10 years.