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25 Nov 2024

6 Must-Hear New Country Songs: Randy Houser, Kane Brown, Hudson Westbrook, Kashus Culpepper & More

In this week’s crop of new music, Randy Houser and Miranda Lambert team for a solidly country tune about time and desire, while Kane Brown and Katelyn Brown reunite for a steamy pop-country track. Elsewhere, LANCO teams with Cory Asbury on a tender song about parenthood, Hudson Westbrook issues his self-titled EP, Kashus Culpepper dips his commanding voice into ultra-soulful territory, and Kameron Marlowe offers his own spin on a previous hit for singer-songwriter Cam.

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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country releases of the week below.

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Randy Houser feat. Miranda Lambert, “Still That Cowboy”

Randy Houser welcomes Miranda Lambert for this duet, featuring on Houser’s upcoming Note to Self Deluxe album, out in January. Mississippi-born Houser’s rugged voice crackles with power, enough to make most male country vocalists envious, and he smartly teams with Lambert, possessor of one of the genre’s most distinctively country voices. Written by Houser with Josh Hoge and Matt Rogers, this sultry slow-jam finds Houser singing about the hope that time, age, and new life phases haven’t dampened his lover’s desire. Lambert’s smooth twang adds a reassuring harmony that further elevates this top-shelf track.

Kashus Culpepper, “Pour Me Out”

This Navy veteran and Big Loud Records artist decamped to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record this righteously bluesy outing, where the angst in his gravelly voice is heightened by the song’s poetic simplicity in relating bitter romantic realization on lyrics such as “If you don’t wanna drink me baby, Don’t sip me baby/ Just pour me out.” As with his previous releases including “After Me?,” Culpepper’s masterful vocal is undeniable. He wrote “Pour Me Out” with Ben Burgess and Diego Urias.

Hudson Westbrook, Hudson Westbrook

Texan singer-songwriter Westbrook has surged into country music’s modern-day mainstream thanks to songs including “5 to 9.” His seven-song, self-titled EP is a succinct but solid collection, featuring the smoldering heartbreaker “House Again,” and the fiddle-laden, romantic throwback “5 to 9,” while he willingly trades the mellowing effects of alcohol for the thrilling feel of being with his new love in “Dopamine.” Westbrook’s voice is a blend of grit, twang and Lone Star State confidence, and he’s a co-writer on many of his songs. This is a very promising start for Westbrook.

Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown, “Body Talk”

This married couple previously earned a No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit in 2023 with the swirling, pop-inflected and gratitude-filled “Thank God.” They return with another pop-heavy groove on this sensuous, dance-worthy track that further evinces that Katelyn’s airy, velvety vocal is a standout, and when paired with Kane’s vocal, brings out the grittier, sultrier notes in his voice. This song leans decidedly more pop than country, but brings out the best in both vocalists. “Body Talk” will be featured on Kane Brown’s upcoming album The High Road.

LANCO and Cory Asbury, “We Grew Up Together”

Country group LANCO teams with Contemporary Christian artist Cory Asbury for this tender, self-reflective pondering on how both parents and children undergo seasons of growth over the years. “You ain’t the only one who’s gonna make mistakes,” LANCO’s Brandon Lancaster sings, offering the perspective of a father singing to a child. The song was written by Asbury along with LANCO’s Brandon Lancaster, Chandler Baldwin, Tripp Howell, and Jared Hampton. “We Grew Up Together” is from LANCO’s upcoming album We’re Gonna Make It, set for January.

Kameron Marlowe, “Burning House”

Kameron Marlowe puts his own sultry spin here on Cam’s near-decade old hit “Burning House.” The pared-back production and understated, polished instrumentation provide a lush vessel for Marlowe’s pain-filled, octave-leaping voice. Marlowe’s earned a smattering of chart placements with songs such “Burn ‘Em All” and the Ella Langley duet “Strangers,” but this dynamic ballad places his captivating voice front and center.

25 Nov 2024

Gracie Abrams Thanks Swifties After Final Toronto Eras Tour Shows With Taylor Swift: ‘So Loud and So Generous and So Kind’

Gracie Abrams has had the adventure of a lifetime opening for Taylor Swift on the singer’s Eras Tour over the past year. But with the end of the global outing just two weeks away, Abrams took some time on Sunday (Nov. 24) to reflect on the latest chapter in her wild ride.

“Torontoooooo ❤️? I will never ever forget those six shows. You were so loud and so generous and so kind,” Abrams wrote alongside a series of snaps from the six-show run at the Rogers Centre in Toronto that kicked off on Nov. 14 and wound down on Saturday (Nov. 23). “Thank you for hanging out with us while we waited for @taylorswift who brought me to tears every single night the past two weekends……Cassandra x mad woman x I did something bad forever good night.” The latter was a reference to the rapturously received mash-up Swift performed during night five in Toronto, which included the only The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology song (“Cassandra”) that Swift had not performed yet live.

The pictures in the roll included Abrams waving to the crowd from stage and singing a duet with Swift on a surprise mash-up of Taylor’s 1989 tune “Out of the Woods” and their joint track “Us” from Abrams’ The Secret of Us album during the Nov. 16 show. Elsewhere in the roll, Abrams posed in front of a mural of a maple leaf and hugged Swift on stage amid other shots from the Toronto shows.

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Abrams has spent the past year, on-an-off, on the road with Swift on the history-making tour. She first took the stage in Arlington, TX in March 2023 at the beginning of the outing alongside Beabadoobee and Gracie, then jumped on shows throughout the first run of North American dates through an August 8 show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. She hopped back into the mix last month when Swift returned from Europe for a trio of gigs at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, followed by shows in New Orleans and Indianapolis in the run-up to the final Canadian concerts.

25 Nov 2024

Chappell Roan Calls This Her ‘Fav Music Video’ — and It’s Not What You Think

Everyone has that one music video that they go back and watch over and over again. That’s certainly true for Chappell Roan, and her pick might surprise you.

In a post to her Instagram Stories on Sunday (Nov. 24), Roan shared a clip of “my fav music video” — a Sims version of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” music video. As the 2009 hit played over clips of Sims characters imitating a shot-for-shot remake of the iconic clip, Roan sang along in the background.

As the Sim version of Lady Gaga stood up to prepare her eye-patched love interest (played in the original video by Alexander Skarsgård) a drink, Roan audibly declares that “this outfit is iconic” as she giggles with someone offscreen.

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This isn’t the first time Roan has shared her deep love for Gaga’s work. On the red carpet at the 2024 VMAs, Roan singled out Gaga’s “Alejandro” as a music video that changed her life, saying that “I had not seen the things that she was doing in the video before.” She added that Gaga’s VMAs performances (along with those from Britney Spears) inspired her. “They’re just, like, above and beyond,” she said.

The feeling is mutual. Gaga herself listed Roan as one of the artists she regularly listens to, alongside Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Kesha, in a September interview with Vogue. “I mean, I really love them. I go on the internet and, like, cry,” she said. “I’m not only cheering them on, I want them to know that my heart is in it with them. And I want them all to feel really happy.”

25 Nov 2024

Daniel Craig Applauds Chappell Roan’s ‘Guts’ to Speak About Toxic Fans: ‘Celebrity Kills You’

If anyone understands what it means to have a very sudden fandom thrust upon you, it’s former James Bond star Daniel Craig. Now, the star of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer is giving praise to Chappell Roan for the way she’s handled fans who don’t respect her boundaries.

In a new interview with The New York Times, Craig said he’s been watching Roan with some keen interest, especially when it comes to the way that she addresses toxicity online. “I really admire the guts to say those things,” he said, adding that he understands her experience. “Celebrity kills you. Really, it’s a terrible, terrible thing that can happen and I think you’ve got to really fight against all of the things that it throws in your face, because it’s so easy to be tempted.”

The Knives Out actor added that the problem of juggling art and celebrity has devolved thanks to the rise of social media. “Generating and maintaining that brand is about how much exposure you have,” he said. “You have to do social media, and I can’t do that. I even regret emails I send.”

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Earlier this year, Roan made headlines when she called out inappropriate behavior from her fans via social media posts. In a pair of TikToks, the “Pink Pony Club” singer made it clear that regardless of whether or not “abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous,” she would not be quiet about such behavior. “That doesn’t make it OK. That doesn’t make it normal. That doesn’t mean I want it, doesn’t mean I like it.”

Craig is also far from the first celebrity to speak up in support of Roan. Just last week, Miley Cyrus told Harper’s Bazaar that she wished people would “not give her a hard time,” and added that “it’s probably really hard coming into this business with phones and Instagram.”

25 Nov 2024

Elton John Describes How Losing Eyesight Has Affected His Songwriting: I’m Kind of Stuck in the Moment’

Elton John has been plagued by a series of health issues over the past few years. But in an interview with Good Morning America on Monday (Nov. 25), the indefatigable Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon said an eye infection he suffered this summer has turned into the loss of vision in his right eye, which is impacting his ability to create.

John, 77, told Robin Roberts that “it’s been a while” since he’s worked on new music, something he’s been unable to figure out because of his poor eyesight. “I unfortunately lost my eye sight in my right eye in July because I had an infection in the South of France,” said John in the interview during which his eyes were somewhat obscured by a pair of green framed eyeglasses with a yellow tint to on the lenses. “It’s been four months now since I haven’t been able to see. And my left eye is not the greatest.”

Roberts flew to England to talk to John about his new doc, Never Too Late, noting that at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year he teased a new album, a project whose future is now up in the air due to his poor vision. “There’s hope and encouragement that it will be okay,” John said. “But I’m kind of stuck in the moment, because I can do something like this, but going into the studio and recording… I don’t know. Because I can’t see a lyric, for start.”

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John said he’s working on getting his eyesight back, but the infection has “floored” him for the moment because he can’t see, or watch anything. When Roberts suggested that, after all his health struggles, John is “still standing” — as he sang on his 1983 hit “I’m Still Standing” — the singer had to agree. “I’m so lucky. I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he said.

John has released 32 studio albums during his half century-long career, with the most recent being 2021’s Regimental Sgt. Zippo, a Record Store Day reissue of an shelved album from the late 1960s.

John has been open in the past about his various health struggles, including hearing loss, knee and hip replacement surgery, as well as prostate cancer and a the implantation of a pacemaker to treat an irregular heartbeat. He recently told Rolling Stone: “I don’t have tonsils, adenoids or an appendix,” in reeling off his many surgeries. “I don’t have a prostate. I don’t have a right hip or a left knee or a right knee. In fact, the only thing left to me is my left hip.”

Never Too Late, directed by R.J. Cutler and John’s husband, David Furnish, will begin streaming on Disney+ on Dec. 13.

Watch the full interview here.

25 Nov 2024

Toni Braxton and Cedric the Entertainer Extend ‘Love & Laughter’ Las Vegas Residency: Exclusive

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Toni Braxton and award-winning actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer are expanding their Love & Laughter limited Las Vegas engagement.

Six more dates are being added to the pair’s residency at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Beginning in February 2025, the extended run’s dates are: Feb. 14-15, May 9-10 and July 11-12. 

Love & Laughter is a pairing that Arlington Global Entertainment CEO and Braxton manager Kenneth Crear had been brainstorming for a few years before its initial launch this past April. “Cedric and Toni have such a good friendship and their onstage chemistry reflects that,” Crear tells Billboard. “The Love & Laughter residency is popular because you are taking two iconic individuals and bringing them together in a way that is nowhere else on The Strip. We are so thankful to our partners who have supported us fully from the start.”

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“I’ve been having the best time doing these shows and so excited we get to continue into 2025,” adds Braxton. “Sharing the stage with Cedric is seriously so much fun. I mean, he’s a comedic genius but also he’s like a brother to me so it all feels seamless and really fated. Cedric is the Baron and me, I’m the Baroness. It’s a royal night of love and laughter.”

Echoing Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer says, “From the very beginning, we knew this idea was something special. Toni and I have been friends for years; we’d often laugh and talk about the idea of doing a Sonny & Cher, Donny and Marie-style Vegas show. Both of us have been performers for many years, so the idea was incredibly appealing. We’ve both been extremely pleased with the audience’s reactions, and we’re grateful to see Las Vegas embrace the show so much that it’s been extended for many more performances.”

Tickets for Love & Laughter’s extended run go on sale Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. PT. For more information, visit the Ticketmaster website.

25 Nov 2024

John Mayer Launching ‘How’s Life’ Interview Series on SiriusXM With Billy Joel Chat

John Mayer is launching a new interview series, “How’s Life,” on his Life With John Mayer channel on SiriusXM and he’s kicking it off in style. The debut of the interview series in which Mayer will speak to some of the music industry’s biggest names will feature an in-depth sit-down with Billy Joel premiering at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday (Nov. 28).

Not only does Joel, 75, chop it up with Mayer about some of his career highlights and biggest songs, but he also discusses a never-before-heard tune from his archives.

In a preview clip (see below), Mayer talks to Joel about songwriting, with the Piano Man answering the host’s probing question about where the songwriter goes when he stops writing new songs; in February, Joel released his first new song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On.”

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“Where does the writer go… is the writer present when you’re listening to new music, do you listen as a writer?” Mayer asks Joel. “Do you go, ‘oh, you’re gonna put a minor fourth there? Are you really gonna put a minor fourth chord?’ Do you think like a writer still even if you’re not writing?”

“Yeah, he never goes away,” says Joel. “The writer thing is a curse that you take with you throughout life. And when I listen to material, or listen to other people’s songs the writer is always at work. ‘Well, I would have done it this way.’ Or, ‘why did he go to that chord?’ And constantly trying to improve on what you did.”

Joel describes how as a young writer you don’t edit yourself as much, but as you mature you get better at it, until you get so proficient that “you’e gotten good enough so that nothing is good enough.”

Mayer’s most important question — especially for Joel fans who are constantly saying their prayers to the pop gods that the singer will get back to writing radio-friendly songs — was whether Joel ever writes lyrics or lyric ideas on his phone. “I never write down lyrics until I’m actually songwriting,” Joel says. “I start from the music first, always.” The only exception? His very wordy 1989 class “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

Mayer will be on air all day on Thanksgiving, beginning at 2 p.m. ET, when he will start taking calla and playing music in the lead-up to the Joel chat. Future guests on the show include Shawn Mendes and Maren Morris. Mayer’s year-round SiriusXM channel Life With John Mayer can be found on Ch. 14. or anytime on the SiriusXM app.

Watch a preview of “How’s Life” with Billy Joel below.

25 Nov 2024

Father John Misty Has Jokes and Response Track After Kendrick Lamar Treads on Album Release Day

Father John Misty saw all the jokes and the conspiracy theories on Friday (Nov. 22) about how his album release schedule has eerily been synched up with Kendrick Lamar‘s music drops over the past 12 years and he responded in the only way he knows how: with a diss track and jokes.

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Okay, not a diss track in the Drake sense, but rather the first wide release of the shaggy folk rocker “God’s Plan,” which he originally issued on Bandcamp last month and which fans gleefully suggested was a soft rock shot fired at the Pulitzer Prize-winning MC. FJM uploaded it to his Instagram on Saturday with no commentary and lyrics that didn’t provide much direct linkage to Lamar. “A man’s life, God’s trash/ There’s no law but the old law, baby/ Pettiful, nothing dies/ Said by ass-drawn kamikaze/ Year zero in the summertime,” FJM sings on the track; he reposted it on X, adding three coffin emoji.

The comments did the heavy lifting: “the heart part 7,” wrote one fan in a joking reference to Lamar’s new track “Heart Pt. 6” (itself a response to rival Drake’s “The Heart Pt. 6” diss track about Lamar), with another adding, “Kendrick diss track?,” and a third admitting, “A Kendrick FJM beef is something I would’ve said could’ve only come to my imagination in a fever dream and yet here we are. Life is beautiful folks.” Leaning into the fake beef, commenters also wondered why Lamar was “real quiet since this post,” warning “u have 24 hours to respond” and asking “@kendricklamar you’ll let this slide???”

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Fans immediately heaped meaning on the post, considering that sleuths did the math and figured out that Father John and K.Dot have released new albums in the same year for more than a decade, including in 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 — though not on the same day — until now.

On Friday, Lamar dropped the instant classic GNX with no advance notice, stealing some thunder from FJM’s new LP, Mahashmashana. Misty got the joke, writing on X on Friday, “Not now I’m furiously scribbling my seeming response” to the odd coincidence, adding, “It’s okay only other times it’s happened was 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022.” He also showed he had a good sense of humor about the unbalanced chart competition, writing, “Hm how do I tell em my albums don’t chart.”

In addition to the tweets and song, FJM had some more fun with the Freaky Friday release date action, reposting DJ Bean’s mash-up cover featuring the artwork from both men’s LPs and a second in which he was PhotoShopped into Kendrick’s car. Even Misty’s label, Sub Pop Records, got into the action, uploading an edit of the cover to the singer’s album with the Lamar DAMN. font.

The eternally arch, laconic Misty took the whole thing in stride, though Lil Wayne appeared to respond to a lyrical reference on the opening GNX track “wacced out murals” with a bit of heat. On the song, Lamar references his love for Wayne’s classic Tha Carter III album and wonders if his hard work — which includes landing the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show slot in Weezy’s hometown of New Orleans next year — had “let down” the fellow MC.

“Man wtf I do?!” Wayne wrote in his response on X. “I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”

Listen to FJM’s “God’s Trash” below.

25 Nov 2024

Zayn Malik Pays Tribute to Liam Payne At First Show Since Former Bandmate’s Death: ‘Love You, Bro’

On the first night of his Stairway to the Sky tour on Saturday (Nov. 23) Zayn Malik paid tribute to his late One Direction bandmate Liam Payne. According to fan photos and videos, the homage to the singer who died at age 31 after a fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Oct. 16 came near the end of Malik’s show at the O2 Academy Leeds in West Yorkshire, England.

The nod to Payne that filled the screen behind Malik as the singer’s 2024 Room Under the Stairs track “Stardust” played over speakers, reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024 Love You bro,” with a giant red heart just below.

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Malik attended Payne’s funeral three days before kicking off his tour, where he joined his fellow former 1D bandmates, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, in paying their respects to their late comrade. In addition to issuing their own solo statements, the group’s members issued a joint statement in the wake of Payne’s shock death, writing: “We’re completely devastated by the news of Liam’s passing. In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say. But for now, we will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly. The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever. For now, our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and the fans who loved him alongside us. We will miss him terribly. We love you Liam.”

Malik postponed the kick-off of his first official solo tour following the news of Payne’s passing.

To date, the Argentinian National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office has charged three people in connection with Payne’s death; none of the suspects have been named publicly. An autopsy confirmed that Payne suffered devastating internal and external bleeding and multiple traumatic injuries from his fall. According to a translated copy of the toxicology report, in the days leading up to his death, Payne reportedly had “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” in his system.

Check out a picture of the tribute below.

25 Nov 2024

Lana Del Rey Announces Dates For 2025 U.K. and Ireland Stadium Shows

Lana Del Rey has announced a string of stadium shows in the U.K. and Ireland for summer 2025.

The U.S. star’s tour will kick off at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in Wales on June 23, before heading to Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin and wrapping up at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 3. See the full run of dates below.

These shows will be some of the biggest that Del Rey has performed, with the capacity at London’s Wembley Stadium expected to reach 90,000 fans. Tickets for the shows go on sale on Friday (Nov. 29) at 10 a.m. (GMT) from Live Nation’s website.

Del Rey last performed in the U.K. in August 2024, headlining the dual Reading & Leeds Festivals, following shows in 2023 at London’s Hyde Park and at Glastonbury Festival. The upcoming shows in 2025 will constitute her first full tour in the U.K. and Ireland since 2017.

Over the past year Del Rey has been teasing her upcoming record Lasso, which is set to be her first country project. Speaking to Vogue in August, she said that she hoped to have two singles out by the end of 2024, and has expanded on the sound adding that it won’t be a ”huge departure” from her previous records, but that would still be a “classic country, American, or Southern Gothic production.”

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Earlier this year Del Rey wed alligator tour operator Jeremy Dufrene in a private ceremony in Louisiana. In an Instagram comment in October, Del Rey commented on the shock news for her fans saying, “Jeremy is the one and only. And amazing. And we’re very happy.”

Lana Del Rey U.K. and Ireland 2025 tour dates 

June 23 – Cardiff, Wales @ Principality Stadium
June 26 – Glasgow, Scotland @ Hampden Park
June 28 – Liverpool, England @ Anfield Stadium
June 30 – Dublin, Ireland @ Aviva Stadium
July 3 – London, England @ Wembley Stadium