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It looks like Britney Spears is staying put — for now. After telling fans that she was moving out of the United States to Mexico to escape “cruel” paparazzi, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the pop star actually isn’t taking the leap, according to a source. Spears had told fans in an Instagram video […]
Breaking Benjamin reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for an eighth time, ascending to the top of the Dec. 14-dated ranking with “Awaken.”
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It’s the Ben Burnley-fronted band’s first ruler since 2020, when “Far Away,” featuring Scooter Ward, led for three weeks.
The band first led Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2007 with “Breath,” for seven weeks.
Concurrently, “Awaken” bullets at its No. 4 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 4 million audience impressions, up 4%, in the week ending Dec. 5, according to Luminate. That’s the band’s best rank on the tally since “I Will Not Bow,” which led for four weeks in 2009.
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In addition to its mainstream rock radio success, “Awaken” is bubbling under Alternative Airplay. Breaking Benjamin is seeking its first appearance on the chart since 2015, when it notched two entries, “Failure” and “Angels Fall.”
On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated Dec. 7, reflecting the Nov. 22-28 tracking period), “Awaken” ranked at No. 5, after hitting No. 2 in early November; in addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 1.2 million official U.S. streams in that span.
“Awaken” is the lead single from Breaking Benjamin’s seventh studio album, whose title and release date have not yet been announced. Its predecessor, Ember, debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart in April 2018, while compilation Aurora led in February 2020.
All Billboard charts dated Dec. 14 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Dec. 10.
J. Cole‘s Inevitable podcast is the gift that keeps on giving as he gives his fans intimate details they may’ve not heard before.
During this latest episode, the North Carolina rapper tells a story about the time he played “Let Nas Down” for the legendary Queens MC after they boarded the same flight at a Houston airport.
His manager and right-hand man Ibraham “Ib” Hamad was listening to the newly recorded song, and as he was passing Cole his headphones back, Ib noticed Nas boarding the same flight.
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“Right in that moment, I was like, this is some divine sh–,” Cole recalled. “This is ridiculous, bro. I don’t believe in coincidences. I was like, this is a sign from God like, ‘Keep on your path, stick with it.’ Mind you, I’ve never met Nas before. I got on the plane and I was like, ‘I have to play him this song. I’m supposed to play him this song.”
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“I say ‘what’s up’ to him and I’m like, ‘Bro, I know this is gonna sound f—ing insane,’” he continued. “‘I just made this song f—ing two days ago. I can’t even explain to you how crazy it is that I’m seeing you right now, randomly on this flight. But I have to play you this song.’”
Nas agreed to hear it, but Cole admitted that he didn’t give him an opinion on the track when he was finished.
Adding, “I have no idea what he said and now, looking back, I have no idea how he felt or how I expected him to feel. All I knew was, ‘You’re right here. This is God.’ I’m sure he was on some sh– like, ‘Yo, that’s dope.’ I don’t remember us having a conversation about the song. But it’s just nuts that I even played it for him, that raw after it was done.”
Released in 2013, on his sophomore album Born Sinner, Nas and Cole dropped a remix entitled “Made Nas Proud” where he gave the young rapper some game and said he didn’t let him down.
You can listen to the episode here.
Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas (Make My Wish Come True Edition)” music video is the latest subject of Vevo’s Footnotes series, just in time for the holiday season. In messages printed next to shots from the 2019 visual for the Footnotes episode, posted Friday (Dec. 6), the superstar sheds light on its creative […]
Backstreet’s back — this time, with the Rockettes! The Backstreet Boys had some fun with the Radio City Rockettes in a new TikTok video from the iconic dance group. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the viral clip shared on Thursday (Dec. 5), Nick Carter, Howie […]
One of the most refreshing things about Jelly Roll and wife Bunnie XO‘s relationship is how open the country couple have been about their struggles and strife. Whether it’s the singer’s battles with addiction and obesity, Bunnie’s scary misdiagnosed aneurysm earlier this year or her battles with anxiety and depression after getting sober, both have been an open book with their fans.
Now, on the latest episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast, Bunnie discussed her longtime battle with OCD. “You guys have heard me talk about it on the podcast numerous time, but let’s discuss obsessive compulsive disorder,” Bunnie, 44, said on the NSFW episode. “I know some people joke about being a little OCD, but as someone who’s actually living with OCD, I’ll be the first to tell you it’s not a laughing matter.”
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She added, “It isn’t just being tidy or organized. OCD is actually having disturbing, unwanted thoughts that cause you overwhelming anxiety because they just feel so wrong, and you really don’t wanna be thinking about them.” The Mayo Clinic defines OCD as a “pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions. These obsession lead yo to do repetitive behaviors, also called compulsions.” Those compulsions can become so pervasive that they interfere with daily activities and can cause distress.
Bunnie described her OCD in similar terms. “It’s also repetitive physical or mental behaviors you do to try to make the anxiety from those thoughts go away,” she said. “But that just doesn’t work in the long run, and they just keep coming back. The idea that OCD is only about handwashing and organization is a complete misconception. OCD can latch on to anything, but it often focuses on the things we care about most, our relationships, religious beliefs, our hobbies and passions in an attempt to make the distress from their unwanted thoughts go away.”
The podcaster said she calls her OCD traits her “rituals,” which can be “incredibly time-consuming and exhausting.”
It’s not the first time Bunny has discussed her OCD diagnosis. Back in August 2023, she wrote in an Instagram post, “When I started this tour I was soooo scared, because as you all kno, I battle severe anxiety. Sobriety opened up a whole Pandora’s box of anxiety, OCD & depression j never knew j had until I had to stop covering up all the pain w/ pills & alcohol. I didn’t kno how I would feel on the bus, in the crowds or even just traveling everyday again because I hadn’t done a full tour w/ the hubby since 2019.”
Billboard Japan unveiled its year-end charts for 2024, and Mrs. GREEN APPLE is Artist of the Year, based on the Artist 100 ranking compiled from results of both the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts. Additionally, frontman and principal songwriter Motoki Ohmori (vocals and guitar) dominated the year-end Top Composers and Top Lyricists charts for the second year in a row.
This year, the three-man pop-rock band released a new song every month from April to August. “Lilac,” the opening theme song for the anime series Oblivion Battery, stayed at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs tally for 18 consecutive weeks, becoming popular as the trio’s new signature number. “Ao to Natsu,” the group’s hit from 2018, broke its personal record for most weekly streams on the Streaming Songs chart released Aug. 14 with 6,969,716 weekly streams, coming in at No. 4 for the week. Now in its 11th year as a band, Mrs. GREEN APPLE continues to expand its reach.
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The group consisting of Ohmori, Hiloto Wakai (guitar), and Ryoka Fujisawa (keyboards) also kept busy doing live shows, including collaborative concerts at the Yokohama Arena with other acts in May, a domestic stadium tour entitled Zenjin Mito to Weltraum in July that drew about 150,000 people in total, and a ten-show mini-residency at K-Arena Yokohama that ran from October to November. In recent news, the band released a new song called “Bitter Vacances” written as the theme for the upcoming live-action movie Saint Young Men, due in Japanese theaters Dec. 20. And to make the upcoming 10th anniversary of their major debut a magical year, they have just announced numerous plans, including a 100,000-person outdoor live concert over two days, the release of their best album ’10’, and their first solo performance in Korea. What were the band members feeling as they faced their music while racing through a super-busy year? Ohmori, Wakai, and Fujisawa chatted with Billboard Japan, looking back on a fruitful 2024 and sharing some visions for the new year.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE is No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s year-end Artist 100 chart for 2024. How do you feel about this result?
Fujisawa: I’m very grateful. I was so surprised that I teared up a little.
Wakai: We released a lot of songs this year, so I’m genuinely grateful that they’ve reached so many people in a proper way.
Ohmori: I topped the year-end Top Lyricists and Top Composers charts last year, and those results allowed me to believe in the things I create and the things we think are interesting, and work on them in a positive way for the past year. I’m happy to have received this kind of recognition in what was such a fun year. I hear from people that our songs are being used at sports days in schools ranging from elementary to high school, and that really gives me a sense of how well our songs are known and how they’re being received. I don’t really feel it when I’m going about my daily business, but when I hear that [the songs] are close to someone’s everyday life, it really hits home.
Wakai: They’re also being sung as choral pieces [in schools].
Fujisawa: From the end of last year to this year, we had a lot of opportunities to enjoy ourselves with our fans, like going on our own tour, performing live with other acts, and doing more headlining shows in the summer. It kind of surprised me that so many people knew about us.
There must have been many first-time visitors to your concerts.
Ohmori: Looking out from the stage, I did notice that people of all ages were in the audience. Like grandmothers bringing their grandchildren. It gives us confidence to know that we’re doing shows that families can feel safe and enjoy together.
The band has been busy touring and releasing new music this year. If you were to sum up the year, how would you describe it?
Ohmori: It was fun. Last year, it was like saying hello for the first time [after becoming a three-man band], but this year, I think we were able to reaffirm our unchanging relationship and stance on songwriting as we tried to live up to expectations and adapted to our changing surroundings. I was writing songs for our five-month consecutive release, but it wasn’t like I was pushing myself too hard and I can say that it was a very meaningful and enjoyable year.
Wakai: We really did a lot of things and it was really fruitful.
Fujisawa: Each member had more opportunities to flourish this year, and there were many moments when I saw the other two working hard and was like, “They’re so cool” and “I’m so proud of them.”
Wakai: There are a lot of YouTube videos of people covering “Lilac” on guitar, and personally, it felt like there were more instances where I felt like I was being recognized as a guitarist and that made me happy.
You added some original arrangements at your residency shows (Mrs. GREEN APPLE on “Harmony”) and they were awesome.
Wakai: The crowd seemed to enjoy it, so I was glad.
Fujisawa: While watching Ohmori working hard writing songs at a tremendous pace for the five consecutive releases, we also played those songs at that speed, adding our own arrangements as we went along, and also performed them live again and again. How each member has been able to face things with responsibility shows the growth of our band this year.
Ohmori: Speaking of growth, or something I’ve discovered, is that I’ve come to realize once again that writing songs isn’t something I do for something or someone, but only for myself, even though I’m the type of person who thinks it’s better to enjoy fun things together with everyone. Now that more people are listening to my music, there’s greater responsibility, but in the end I only release things that I feel are good, so I don’t feel any crazy pressure or stress and really enjoy making music naturally. Being able to reconfirm that was a personal growth for me. I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel pressure, but I still feel like I’ve been able to stay natural.
Are there any other motivations that drive the three of you?
Wakai: What we talk about a lot among the members is live performances. I feel that the main source of our energy and motivation is to do something that we can genuinely enjoy ourselves and have the audience also enjoy that, too.
Ohmori: That was notable in our The White Lounge tour.
Fujisawa: Like Wakai said, when we do something we find interesting and new, and see that the people on the receiving end are enjoying it, we want to update ourselves even more. Personally, there are a lot of things I find difficult and set me back, but seeing Ohmori and Wakai working hard gives me power.
So your bandmates are friends you can rely on and also rivals you can compete with.
Ohmori: They’re really important to me. In a good way, I don’t really have the sense that Mrs. GREEN APPLE is being burdened with expectations from the public. The three of us are just having fun making music together. That’s really all there is to it. We’ve been doing this since we were in junior high school, and I think that’s what makes us Mrs. GREEN APPLE.
Lastly, what are your prospects for 2025?
Ohmori: We celebrated our 10th anniversary [since formation] in 2023 and next year will be our 10th since our debut. It’s our anniversary year, so I hope we can be close to our JAMs [Mrs. GREEN APPLE fans]. We hope to keep challenging ourselves individually, and to make the ship that is Mrs. GREEN APPLE even bigger. We also want to do lots of shows.
Fujisawa: It’ll be ten years since our debut, so I want to express our gratitude to everyone next year.
Wakai: It’ll be the last year in our twenties for Ohmori and me, so I want to make the final year one without regrets and enjoyable.
—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan
Billboard Japan has unveiled its 2024 year-end charts, tallying the weeks from Nov. 27, 2023, to Nov. 24, 2024.
The No. 1 Song of the Year on the Japan Hot 100 is Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” The opening theme song of the anime series MASHLE Season 2 was released Jan. 7 and racked up 547,310,791 streams during the tallying period.
“We still feel like, ‘We’re able to make a living doing music!’” shares rapper R-shitei of Creepy Nuts upon hearing the news of topping the year-end charts, “We never planned to make songs that would be listened to around the world. It’s really just about expressing what we want to get out and releasing the pent-up expressions we’ve been holding in, basically.” DJ Matsunaga adds, “Now that we’ve returned to a lifestyle focusing on music, it feels like the irresponsibleness that I had before is back. Express bad stuff like it is. It feels like we’ve regained the courage to do that.”
Coming in at No. 2 for the year is “Bansanka” by 15-year-old singer-songwriter tuki., and Omoinotake’s “IKUOKU KONEN,” the theme song of the drama series Eye Love You, follows at No. 3.
Snow Man
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The No. 1 Album of the Year on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart is Snow Man’s RAYS. The fourth album by the nine-member group sold 1,183,100 copies during the tallying period and topped the CD Sales ranking as well.
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“We’re very happy that our fourth album RAYS has been crowned Billboard Japan Hot Albums of the Year 2024. We’re truly grateful to everyone who received our work and touched our music, and to the encouraging staff who were involved in the production,” says Snow Man member RAUL on behalf of the group. “RAYS has a very special place in our hearts because it can be interpreted as the culmination of the first chapter of Snow Man that sublimates the powers we’ve honed and the support we’ve received over the four years since our debut into music. It was challenging, but we always imagined our fans close by as we worked on it. We’re deeply touched that our precious fans have listened to it and given us so many positive comments.”
“The group will be celebrating the fifth anniversary since its debut in 2025, kicking off with a best-of album set to drop on Jan. 22, the day of our debut,” he adds. “We’re also currently planning to spend more time with our fans, so we hope you’ll look forward to it!”
At No. 2 is Kenshi Yonezu’s LOST CORNER, and at No. 3 is SEVENTEEN’s 17 IS RIGHT HERE.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE takes the top spot on the Artist 100 of the Year ranking compiled from the results of the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts. The three-man band charted 17 songs on the Japan Hot 100, including hits like “Lilac” and “Que Sera Sera.”
“I’m very grateful. I was so surprised that I teared up a little,” says Mrs. GREEN APPLE keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa. Guitarist Hiloto Wakai adds, “We released a lot of songs this year, so I’m genuinely grateful that they’ve reached so many people in a proper way.” Frontman and principal songwriter Motoki Ohmori notes, “I topped the year-end Top Lyricists and Top Composers charts last year, and those results allowed me to believe in the things I create and the things we think are interesting, and work on them in a positive way for the past year. I’m happy to have received this kind of recognition in what was such a fun year.”
Following at No. 2 on the year-end Artist 100 is back number, rising a notch from its position on the mid-year round-up. The three-man band charted 10 songs on the Japan Hot 100 including “Suiheisen” and “Takaneno Hanakosan.” At No. 3 is YOASOBI, the breakout hitmakers whose performance at Coachella in April made headlines in their home country.
As Japanese artists continue to branch out globally, Creepy Nuts’ music is reaching listeners on a global scale after “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became a long-running hit both in Japan and overseas. Total global streams for the hip-hop duo has jumped significantly and as a result, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” achieved 12 No.1s on Billboard Japan’s 2024 year-end charts, including the newly announced year-end Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart, which ranks songs from Japan that are being listened to in over 200 countries around the world excluding Japan.
Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 of the Year 2024
1. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” / Creepy Nuts
2. “Bansanka” / tuki.
3. “IKUOKUKONEN” / Omoinotake
4. “Idol” / YOASOBI
5. “Lilac” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
6. “Que Sera Sera” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
7. “Show” / Ado
8. “Kaiju No Hanauta” / Vaundy
9. “Ao To Natsu” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
10. “Dance Hall” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
Billboard JAPAN Hot Albums of the Year 2024
1. RAYS / Snow Man
2. LOST CORNER / Kenshi Yonezu
3. 17 IS RIGHT HERE / SEVENTEEN
4. THE VIBES / SixTONES
5. SPILL THE FEELS / SEVENTEEN
6. No.Ⅰ / Number_i
7. GIANT / Stray Kids
8. No.O -ring- / Number_i
9. SCIENCE FICTION / Hikaru Utada
10. +Alpha / Naniwa Danshi
Billboard JAPAN Artist 100 of the Year 2024
1. Mrs. GREEN APPLE
2. back number
3. YOASOBI
4. Vaundy
5. Official HIGE DANdism
6. Ado
7. Creepy Nuts
8. Kenshi Yonezu
9. King Gnu
10. Aimyon
Billboard JAPAN Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan of the Year 2024
1. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” / Creepy Nuts
2. “Idol” / YOASOBI
3. “SPECIALZ” / King Gnu
4. “NIGHT DANCER” / imase
5. “Shinunoga E-Wa” / Fujii Kaze
6. “KICK BACK” / Kenshi Yonezu
7. “Where Our Blue Is” / Tatsuya Kitani
8. “Yoru Ni Kakeru” / YOASOBI
9. “TOKYO DRIFT(FAST & FURIOUS)” / TERIYAKI BOYZ
10. “Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me” / Miki Matsubara
Early on in their Thursday night (Dec. 5) performance at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, NY, drag stars Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme told their crowd of a few thousand fans that they intended to do things a little differently this year.
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The pair have been performing together in various iterations of their annual Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show for the last seven years, with each successive variety performance becoming more involved, plot-driven and deeply meta than the last. Their 2023 show, as they point out during this year’s production, revolved around their show itself turning on and trying to kill them.
So for 2024, the dynamic duo told their audience that they just wanted to keep things straightforward — some lighthearted fun, some good laughs, and that winning parody combination of “a pop song you heard on the radio all year, plus Christmas,” as DeLa put it. Nothing fancy, just an easy, simple holiday show.
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What ensued, while it was of course not at all what the duo described at the outset of their performance, proved exactly why these Drag Race alumni make such a perfect pair on the stage. Across two acts and two hours, Jinkx and DeLa managed to not only encapsulate the manic brilliance of their now-historic run together, but to also deftly (and often bluntly) address and audience still reeling from the political chaos of the last month.
Fans of the The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show will have plenty to celebrate with this year’s iteration, as the pair keep on the tradition of building a loose narrative around a Christmas-themed concept. This time around, Jinkx delightfully informs the audience that they’re doing a Nutcracker riff (or “nut-gobbler,” as DeLa accidentally calls it), as the pair get shrunk down to toy-size and participate in the well-loved Christmas ballet. It’s a welcome shift, seeing the usually-grinchy Jinkx getting excited for the holdiays, while the often-optimistic DeLa gets her opportunity to make fun of the centuries-old ballet at every given opportunity.
The song parodies are also back, and arguably better than ever. Jinkx and DeLa once again meld their own original songs with new versions of holiday classics, American standards and a heaping helping of 2024 pop hits. A now Broadway-minted Monsoon flexes both her musical and comedic chops on the early standout performance of “Secular” (to the tune of Wicked‘s “Popular”) as she delights in leaving the more Judeo-Christian aspects of the season behind. Meanwhile DeLa stuns with a rendition of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” that sees the star crooning about missing snow in a globally warmed winter of unseasonably warm weather — although, when it happens this much, we really shouldn’t call it “unseasonable,” as DeLa points out.
The standout running gag from the show, though, comes in the form of the pair desperately trying to find an appropriately funny (and Christmas-y) Chappell Roan parody. DeLa tries her best early on — conjuring up clunky visions of a “Red Reindeer Place” and attempting to incite a “Femininomenon” in the city of Bethlehem — before Jinkx tells her to just give it up. But the pair finally triumph with their own, double-meta version of Roan’s breakout hit “Hot to Go,” this time singing about the difficulty of coming up with a Chappell parody before settling on spelling out “Hot Coco.”
While the show certainly has plenty of fun songs and hilarious jokes — Jinkx’s ongoing infatuation with and seduction by The Nutcracker had the Brooklyn audience in stitches — the show’s core comes into full focus during it’s second act, when both Jinkx and DeLa partially drop the facade of the show to look at the context they’re performing it in.
In an interview with Billboard back in October, both Jinkx and DeLa expressed their desire to get to the core of our current system of political division, and how those divisions have made the holidays and even harder time of year for everyone, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. “At a hard time of year, a bunch of people get to come together and look at some beautiful visuals, outfits, props and performances from our brilliant cast,” DeLa said at the time.
While I won’t give away the show’s clever plot, I can say that the Act II breakdown from Jinkx & DeLa landed exactly where they wanted it to. As the pair use the structure of their show itself to process Donald Trump’s re-election in November, they dig even deeper to get to the emotional crux that the audience at the Kings Theater was feeling. When Jinkx woefully declared that she — like many of us — was “so tired of caring,” DeLa delivered the needed reality check: “I’m tired of people not caring.”
The fabulous costume design and gifted background performers helped elevate 2024’s Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show to new heights, that’s for certain. But the thing that always made this zany show work is what worked best for the 150th time on Thursday night; a pair of best friends and talented performers who know exactly how to balance the real with the delightfully absurd.
Doechii is blossoming into a star. The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper checked off another box within her ascension on Friday (Dec. 6) by making her Tiny Desk concert debut at NPR’s headquarters. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Swamp Princess didn’t disappoint with her set either, […]
