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Playboi Carti is having himself a busy week. Not only is the eccentric Atlanta rapper expected to finally drop his third album this week, he also interviewed FKA Twigs for i-D’s latest cover story and revealed that the unlikely pair go way back. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
Briarcliff Entertainment is making a movie for all the sneaker heads. The company unveiled its trailer for Sneaks on Thursday (March 13), a fun animated adventure that takes place in New York City. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins-directed film follows […]
Jack Harlow‘s 2020 breakout hit “Whats Poppin” becomes his first Diamond-certified record by the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA announced on Thursday (March 13). The Diamond plaque also doubled as a birthday present, considering the news arrived on Harlow’s 27th birthday. Diamond certification is given to artists whose songs have moved 10 million units. According […]
King Vamp is back. Playboi Carti has finally announced that his highly anticipated I Am Music album will be released on Friday (March 14). Fans of Carti can collectively exhale temporarily and celebrate the “trim” moment, as he’d call it, with the countdown clock starting toward Friday. Carti shared posts to X and Instagram late […]
Mayhem, Lady Gaga’s long-awaited new studio album finally arrived on March 7 via Interscope Records, and within a week, fans have already decided on their favorite tracks. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Billboard shared a poll earlier this week asking the Little Monsters to vote for […]
British dance duo Everything But the Girl will perform its first live shows in 25 years in London this April.
The duo, made up of husband-and-wife musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, will perform at east London’s 300-capacity MOTH Club on April 6 and 7. The news was first shared to the pair’s mailing list on Thursday (March 13), and tickets sold out instantly.
Everything But the Girl’s official website has confirmed that the pair will perform as “as a part-acoustic part-electronic duo accompanied by Rex Horan on double bass.” They shared more details on their website, promising, “No club bangers, no huge arena, just a chilled folk-tronic vibe,” and said that they will perform songs from the EBTG catalogue, as well as Thorn and Watt’s solo material. The show will be billed as Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn, the website confirms.
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The pop duo released its most recent album, Fuse, in 2023, and credited the LP with getting them excited about playing live again. “We loved making Fuse together in 2022, and we wanted to do something else,” Watt wrote on the pair’s website. “And that slowly turned into a conversation about playing live again.”
“When we pictured how, we realized we just wanted to play a few songs – including some we’d never done before – in a small club,” added Tracey. “Front room, friends and family vibe. If the shows go well we intend to do more.”
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The pair last performed live in 2000 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Everything But the Girl formed in 1982 in Hull, Yorkshire, and has released 11 studio albums. The group was on hiatus for 24 years between 1999’s Temperamental and 2023’s comeback album Fuse; the pair married in 2009.
They’ve had 12 top 40 singles in the U.K., and achieved two top five albums on the Official Albums Chart. Following a remix by Todd Terry in 1995, their single “Missing” was a worldwide hit and spent 55 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2. “Missing” also hit No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Airplay Charts, and No. 2 on the Billboard Dance Singles Sales. EBTG’s follow-up single “Wrong” (1996) also landed on the Hot 100, topping out at No. 68.
Sebastián Yatra surprised his nearly 30 million fans on social media when he appeared in a video with Tom Hanks.
The short clip, published on Wednesday (March 12) and captioned “hey @tomhanks,” shows Yatra and the Hollywood actor having a conversation. “Hey, Tom. What song do you think would go good on these videos?” Yatra asks him.
“That’s not even a question … ‘La Pelirroja,’” Hanks replies, cuing a snippet of Yatra’s upcoming single of the same name.
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The promo video features some of the Oscar-winning actor’s timeless movie clips, including Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Cast Away, The Terminal, Saving Private Ryan and A Man Called Otto, to name a few, as a preview of Yatra’s heartfelt ballad about an unattainable love plays in the background.
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“It’s a story that took me a long time to finish,” Yatra previously told Billboard. “The song never mentions ‘the redhead,’ but it has a bit in common with ‘Tacones Rojos’ in terms of the lyrics, which is that romanticism with a bit of naughty lyrics.”
Noting that no specific lady inspired the song, the Colombian singer shared that it’s very sentimental. “It’s one of those songs you put on and it sets the soundtrack to your life,” he said. “It’s one of those songs you literally play and you feel like your life is flashing before your eyes. The redhead represents that person we’ve all had in life, the one we like, but she’s with someone else.”
“La Pelirroja,” out on March 20, is part of Yatra’s upcoming studio album, which he confirmed to Billboard will be very pop and a “celestial experience.”
Watch the teaser with Hanks below:
In the words of its members, Los K’comxtles is “a living tribute” to the evolution of rock in Mexico. Led by Rubén Albarrán of Café Tacvba, the rockabilly supergroup is a multigenerational project that “bridges the past and the present to project it into the future,” the sextet’s vocalist tells Billboard Español.
In addition to Albarrán, Los K’comxtles is comprised of veteran musicians Rafael Acosta (Los Locos del Ritmo) and Rafael Miranda (Los Sleepers), both of whom were part of the famed Mexican rock scene of the 1950s and ’60s; Gato Rockabilly and Christian K’comxtle (Los Gatos) from the ’80s; and Choco Cizaña (La Cizaña) from the ’90s.
“It started with the idea of creating a rock n’ roll group, perhaps as an antidote to all the music we hear on the radio nowadays, which is basically the same and sounds identical — pasteurized, digitized, everything driven by an electronic click,” explains Albarrán. “Our approach leans more toward something organic, more natural, something that moves and vibrates the way only rock n’ roll can. That was the core idea.”
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The band emerged in 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since released four singles on digital platforms. Among them is a reimagined version of a classic by Los Sleepers written 64 years ago, “Ojos de Araña,” as well as original songs — the most recent being “Mar de Amor,” whose music video premieres Friday (March 14). The video was filmed in Acapulco, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, which was devastated by the powerful Hurricane Otis in October 2023. “Mar de Amor” is described by the sextet as “a tribute to its beaches, sunrises, sunsets, human warmth, courage and a recognition of its people who fight and persevere.”
These and other songs can be heard live Sunday (March 16), when Los K’comxtles makes its debut at the Vive Latino festival, where the group will perform on the Carpa Intolerante stage. “Vive Latino is a huge showcase, and it’s a great opportunity for us to show off our rock n’ roll heart,” says Miranda.
For Albarrán, this musical project also represents an opportunity to honor the work of musicians such as Acosta and Miranda, who, alongside their bands Los Locos del Ritmo and Los Sleepers, confronted a conservative, “authoritarian and repressive” Mexican society. In their youth, these “martyrs of rock n’ roll,” as he calls them, endured criticism for the way they dressed, the type of songs they wrote and the rebellious spirit with which they chose to live, despite all obstacles.
“They confronted that society with great freedom and determination, committed to making music and living in a way they believed was transforming society — and they truly did transform it with their art and their way of being, to the point where we now enjoy many freedoms that we sometimes take for granted,” says the vocalist.
For Miranda, rock n’ roll has always been an act of resistance and a musical genre that has accompanied youth in their social struggles and artistic expressions.
“When we started out (in the ’60s), we were chased by the police for having long hair, wearing leather jackets, or playing this style of music,” he recalls. “We overcame those adversities, and others that came our way, but we were always convinced that rock n’ roll was our life. And here we are, still going strong.”
She’s fine, people. Jennifer Hudson just broke down what really happened at the New York Knicks game where she got smacked by a rogue basketball, from the moment it happened to the aftermath.
“First of all, I wanna say: I’m OK!” the talk-show host began on The Jennifer Hudson Show Thursday (March 13).
“It happened so quick,” Hudson continued, laughing incredulously. “I’m like, ‘What the hell done popped me? Someone must’ve hit me. Of all the people to hit, you hit Jennifer Hudson. Really?’”
The episode comes more than a week after the vocalist went viral over the mishap at the March 4 Knicks vs. Golden State Warriors game, where she was sitting courtside and chatting with partner Common when suddenly, a rogue ball came out of nowhere and smacked her in the head. Player Miles McBride then came crashing into her, after which the point guard and a ref checked to see if Hudson was all right as she sat there, stunned.
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“So the ball did actually hit me,” Hudson recounted. “All of a sudden, there’s people standing over me, like, ‘You OK?’ I’m like, ‘Let me just come to for a second. Let me just gather my thoughts.’ The poor basketball player, he wanted to end the whole game.”
“My sweet love was like, ‘OK, you all right? Would you like to leave?’” she continued, referring to Common. “And I’m like, ‘I’m good, just let me sit here and gather myself. ‘Cause the last thing you wanna do is get up and go running somewhere.’ No, you need a moment.”
Hudson also added that she was better prepared for the blow than most because she’s “a boy mom.” “What that means is, I have been on the basketball court many a days playing with these children, so they trained momma well to be able to take the game,” said the Dreamgirls actress, who shares son Daniel with ex David Otunga. “I was ready.”
Though Hudson assured the crowd that she’s OK numerous times, one person was still concerned: McBride. In fact, the point guard ended up sending the American Idol alum a bouquet of flowers and an apology video, which she played for her audience.
“Just wanted to say I’m sorry for running into you at our game last week,” McBride said in the clip. “I was in the zone trying to make a play, trying to bring some energy, and unfortunately, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just saying I’m sorry, got you a little something — hope we can be cool after this.”
Hudson ended the segment by sharing what lesson she’s learned and plans on applying next time she sits courtside: “Bring a helmet.”
Watch Hudson talk about getting hit in the head with a basketball above.
“Good Luck, Babe!” hitmaker Chappell Roan is opening up about her new self-described country song, “The Giver,” which arrives later on Thursday (March 13).
Roan recently made the media rounds, visiting Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast on Thursday (March 13). With hosts Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson, the musician opened up about creating the new country-leaning bop — and also made her intentions clear.
“I’m trying to really articulate that it’s not me trying to cross genres and be like, ‘Hey, you know, look at me.’ I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song,” Roan said. “That’s not what I feel like I’m doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”
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Roan also noted, “I wrote a country song not to invade country music, but to really capture what I think, the essence of country music is, for me, which is nostalgia, and fun in the summertime, and the fiddle, and the banjo feeling like country queen. It makes me feel a certain type of freedom that pop music doesn’t let me feel. I think it’s interesting and I had to do it. I had to do it for myself to know what is it actually like to write a country song and perform it next to ‘Casual’ or next to ‘My Kink Is Karma’ or next to ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ — I just had to do myself justice.”
The Missouri native referenced the title of her 2024 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, saying, “Well, and I can’t call myself the Midwest princess and not acknowledge country music straight up. That is what is around me in the grocery stores. That’s what is playing on the bus … I know that my heart really wanted to write a country song.”
Roan previously shared her thoughts on writing “The Giver,” and said she grew up surrounded by country music as a child. “I have such a special place in my heart for country music. I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars,” she wrote in a March 4 Instagram post. “Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album??? My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on c–try xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”
Over the past few years, Roan has gained pop music acclaim thanks to songs including the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit “Good Luck, Babe!” and top 10 hit “Pink Pony Club.” Roan also picked up a Grammy win for best new artist earlier this year.
