Music

20 Jul 2024

Taylor Swift Is ‘Completely Blown Away’ by ‘Tortured Poets’ Spending 12 Weeks at No. 1 on Billboard 200

Taylor Swift is celebrating her recent success on the Billboard charts.

On Saturday (July 20), the 34-year-old pop superstar thanked Swifties for helping her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, reign for 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

“I also wanted to say to everyone who’s supported The Tortured Poets Department, I am completely blown away by what you’ve done,” Swift wrote on Instagram alongside a gallery of recent Eras Tour photos. “It stayed at #1 for the first 12 weeks of its release and that’s never happened to an album of mine before, not even close!! You’re just the greatest.”

Earlier in the week, Swift’s 31-track collection surpassed Whitney Houston’s 1987 album, Whitney, to become the only album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200. It also marked a career-best for Swift, whose 1989 and Fearless releases spent 11 weeks each at No. 1. Only two other albums have spent at least their first 12 weeks at No. 1: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life.

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Swift’s celebratory social media post arrived after her trio of Eras Tour concerts at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, from July 17-19.

“Those 3 Gelsenkirchen crowds were AMAZING, and so thoughtful??? There were signs and paper hearts, the ‘betty’ wave, and tons of DIY “willow” orbs made out of balloons + phone flashlights. Thank you!!!” Swift wrote on Instagram.

The “Anti-Hero” singer’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, has been in the audience for all of her performances in Germany. Fans spotted the Kansas City Chiefs tight end dancing along to the concert and proudly filming his superstar girlfriend singing “So High School” at her opening night in Gelsenkirchen, and escorting her out from the backstage area at night two.

Next up, Swift will travel to Hamburg for two concerts at the city’s Volksparkstadion from July 23-24 and Munich’s Olympiastadion from July 27-28. Paramore will open on each of the dates. Once the European leg of her Eras trek is over, she’ll return to the U.S. and Canada for one final victory lap in November and December.

See Swift’s post on Instagram here.

20 Jul 2024

Brazilian Singer Ayres Sasaki Fatally Electrocuted After Hugging Wet Fan at Concert

Brazilian singer Ayres Sasaki has died after being electrocuted during a live performance in Brazil.

The 35-year-old musician died almost instantly after hugging a soaking-wet fan during a concert on July 13 at the Solar Hotel in Salinopolis. The contact between the two triggered a nearby cable to jolt, causing the fatal electric shock, according to The Mirror.

It was not immediately known why the concert-goer was soaked, but Salinópolis Police are investing the incident. The Pará Civil Police say that witnesses have given statements and they have requested expert reports, Istoé Gente reports (per People).

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On July 14, the Solar Hotel shared a statement through social media, saying that the facility is cooperating with the investigation.

“We are fully dedicated to providing support to his family and taking the necessary measures. We reaffirm our commitment to fully cooperating with the competent authorities for the proper clarification of the events,” the hotel wrote in a translated message on Instagram. “Our thoughts and condolences are with Ayres Sasaki’s family and friends at this difficult time.”

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In addition to being a singer, Sasaki was also a newly married architect and urban planner. He is survived by his wife id 11 months, Mariana.

On her Instagram Story, Sasaki’s spouse shared her thanks for the support she’s been receiving following her husband’s untimely passing.

“I would like to thank you for every message of affection and comfort, for every prayer during this difficult time that we are going through,” Mariana wrote, per Istoé Gente. “I haven’t been able to read all the messages yet, but as I feel better, I will respond to each one. Thank you.”

20 Jul 2024

Farruko Set for 2024 Premios Juventud & More Uplifting Moments in Latin Music

From career milestones to new music releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.

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Premios Juventud’s 2024 Lineup

Earlier this week, Univision announced a new wave of artists confirmed for the 2024 Premios Juventud set to take place Thursday, July 25 in San Juan, Puerto Rico via Univision. Farruko, Lenny Tavárez, Joss Favela, Chris Jedi, Gaby Music, and Corina Smith, who will make her PJs debut, will all take the stage at the coveted awards show. This year’s nominations are led by top nominees Maluma, Carin Leon, and Peso Pluma, with seven nods each. Premios Juventud recognizes artists and young people for their “extraordinary accomplishments in society, celebrating music, new artists, community and creators,” according to a press release.

The Good Bunny Foundation

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Bad Bunny’s “Good Bunny Foundation” continues its mission to educate the youth in Puerto Rico through art, music, and sports. For a second consecutive year, the foundation returned with its “Un Verano Contigo” summer camp in San Juan and Ponce. In Ponce, the camp included interactive activities with the Juan Morell Campos Institute, the Charles H. Terry Sports Complex, and the Escuela Libre de Música. In San Juan, the camp included workshops at the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and the San Juan Sports School / Rebekah Colberg Sports Center, among other destinations.

“For us at the Good Bunny Foundation, it’s a priority to identify talents in our society who can imagine a professional future in their area of ​​interest, whether in the arts, sports or music,” said José “Che Juan” Torres, Director of the Good Bunny Foundation in a press statement. “We want to inspire young people through a fun summer, while continuing to provide them with the support, resources, contacts and connections to continue their development. Even providing them with extracurricular experiences that serve as a reference in a university application.”

Bad Bunny's

Bad Bunny’s “Good Bunny Foundation” offers educational “Un Verano Contigo” initiatives in Puerto Rico

Fundación Good Bunny

Selena Foundation Gives Back

In other positive news, The Selena Foundation has teamed up with the Corpus Christi Police Department to help give school supplies to students of all ages and grades in the community. “The Selena Foundation is honored to be the main sponsor for this amazing program called ‘Operation Safe Return,’” Selena’s sister, Suzette Quintanilla, shared the news on her Instagram account, and in a video message, she encouraged Corpus Christi locals to donate supplies such as paper, crayons, notepads, and pencils. Watch the video below.

Fania Records’ 60th Anniversary

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the iconic Latin label Fania Records, and in celebration, El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan, New York will host a one-day, free community event called “Fania Mania.” On Thursday, July 25, from 6 to 9 p.m., people of all ages will be able to enjoy Afro-Latin and salsa music by DJ Gia Fu. New York City will also declare a special “Fania Day” with a Proclamation presentation in honor of the label’s impact and history. For more information, visit here.

Fania All Stars

Fania All Stars

Courtesy of Craft Latino

19 Jul 2024

Rory Feek Marries His Daughter’s Teacher, Surprises Her With Special ‘I Do’ Song at Wedding

Congratulations are in order for Rory Feek, who married his 10-year-old daughter Indiana’s teacher, Rebecca — who is also a longtime family friend — in a romantic ceremony on July 14.

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The country star opened up about the ceremony on his blog, noting that the duo tied the knot under a “timber-frame pavilion here in Greycliff, Montana,” adding that his daughter played a major role in getting the two married.

“We knew marriage was a possibility,” Feek shared in his post, “it wasn’t something that either of us felt like we could seriously talk about. Mostly because up until that time Indiana only saw Rebecca as ‘Miss Rebecca her schoolteacher and our friend.”

He then recalled Rebecca telling him about a conversation she had with Indiana in March. “I asked Indy, and she told me that she said, ‘Ms. Rebecca, I think you should marry Papa,’” he noted. “Of course, I was happy, but caught off guard and told her that that was something we’d all have to start praying about.”

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Rory said that Indy told him and Rebecca: “My Mama’s been gone a long time. And if she marries you, maybe she could be my new mother.”

In 2016, Rory’s first wife Joey Feek died after a battle with cervical cancer. The duo performed under the name Joey + Rory. She was first diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, and Rory revealed in the fall of 2015 that they had decided to end treatment.

During Rory and Rebecca’s nuptials, the country star surprised his new wife with a song called “I Do.” See the full blog post here.

19 Jul 2024

Watch Benny Blanco Convince Selena Gomez to Try a Watermelon Pickle Sandwich

Benny Blanco is the latest victim of a social media “doom scroll.”

The producer took to TikTok to share that after “four hours” of scrolling online after taking part in some marijuana, he “came upon this f—ing watermelon sandwich. There’s no bread, like the watermelon is the bread.”

The clip inspired him, and he took fans along the journey of making and trying the sandwich, which includes cheese, pickles, balsamic and basil in between two slices of watermelon. When the recipe was complete, Blanco took a bite and after taking a moment to ponder the flavor, he concluded that the concoction is “not bad.”

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He wasn’t done yet. He then called on girlfriend Selena Gomez to try out the bizarre combination. “I don’t want to [try it],” she reluctantly says. “I’m not going to like this, but I love pickles.”

After taking a bite, the “Single Soon” singer is seen hilariously shaking her head in disapproval as she walks off-camera.

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The video is the latest in a string of TikTok trends the sweet couple has been taking part in recently. Earlier this month, Gomez shared a clip in which she and Blanco answer a series of “Who’s Most Likely To?” questions about their relationship. The duo revealed who eats the most (Blanco), who takes longer to get ready in the morning (Blanco), who is more romantic (both) and more.

Most notably, they revealed who said “I Love You First,” with Gomez smiling wide as she sweetly pointed to herself. Watch it here.

19 Jul 2024

Jack White Secretly Released an Album & Third Man Records Shops Are Sneakily Giving It to Customers

Jack White has some tricks up his sleeve. The rocker seemingly released a brand new album on Friday (July 19), and employees at Third Man Records’ retail shops have been secretly slipping it into customers’ bags.

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According to Stereogum, a fan on Reddit posted in White’s subreddit forum that they received a mysterious vinyl in their bag titled No Name at Third Man Records’ retail location in London’s Soho neighborhood. “Picked up a tee from third man soho today and the guy on the tills put this in my bag too…. I asked and thought maybe it was his demo or something aha but he didn’t seem to have a clue, saying he’d just been told by ‘management’ to give it out to customers),” the post reads. “I’m not gonna have access to a record player until after work sooo curious to know if anyone else has seen this/it means anything to anyone? Maybe I’m overthinking the blue.”

The same thing happened to another user in the same forum, who visited Third Man’s Nashville location. “I can totally confirm that is a new Jack White album,” the Redditor wrote. “I gave it a listen and it’s pretty good.” 

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The album reportedly contains 13 songs. White’s last album was 2022’s Entering Heaven Alive, which included singles “If I Die Tomorrow,” “Love Is Selfish” and “Queen of the Bees.” The project arrived just three months after his Fear of the Dawn album dropped.

19 Jul 2024

Two Posthumous XXXTentacion & Juice WRLD Collabs Could Be on the Way

The late XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD have two songs that are ready to see the light of day, according to Lil Bibby and DJ Scheme.

Bibby — who heads the label that reps Juice WRLD, Grade A Productions — took to his Instagram Stories and posted a screenshot of a group chat between his team and XXX. DJ Scheme posted the IG Story on his X account, asking, “Who’s ready?”

A few minutes later, Scheme sent out another tweet, saying, “Confirmed two songs are coming out.”

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Both artists were working together before they suddenly passed away. Juice WRLD died of an overdose in 2019 and XXX was shot to death during an armed robbery a year prior in 2018.

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In 2020, Scheme — who was XXX’s DJ and a close friend to Juice — sent out the tweet below implying new music from the two and responded to a fan who told him to “keep his word” by saying, “Working hard to make this happen as we speak.”

However, Juice WRLD’s ex-girlfriend Ally Lotti threw cold water on Scheme’s tweet, telling a fan on social media who asked about a possible collab, “I was there when he recorded the verse for jah.”

Adding, “This happened over a year and a half- two years ago y’all. This wasn’t new info. Doubt it’ll come out. I’m guessing if it was it would have already been. so idk but i have video from that night. J made two or three song a we were in a hotel room over seas.”

Juice WRLD released a two-song EP in honor of his friends XXXTentacion and Lil Peep after the former had passed.

The rumored songs won’t be the first time the late rappers have had their work released posthumously. XXX’s team released albums Skins in 2018 and Bad Vibes Forever in 2019 while Juice’s team dropped albums Legends Never Die in 2020 and Fighting Demons in 2021, respectively.

XXXTentacion’s debut studio album 17 made our list of the 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time.

19 Jul 2024

Country Albums Make Up Half of Billboard 200 Top 10, Led by Zach Bryan

For the first time in over a year, and only the sixth time in the modern era, half of the top 10 albums on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart (dated July 20) are country albums.

Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene leads the country party at No. 2 on the July 20-dated Billboard 200, followed by Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (No. 3) and Dangerous: The Double Album (No. 6), Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going (No. 8) and Bryan’s self-titled album (No. 10).

Country albums are defined as those that have appeared on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. The list began in 1964.

In the modern era – since the Billboard 200 chart began using electronically monitored tracking information from Luminate (then-SoundScan) on the May 25, 1991-dated chart – there have been only six instances where at least half of the top 10 were country titles.

Here’s a look at each of those weeks and the country sets inside the top 10 on the Billboard 200 —

July 20, 2024:
No. 2, Zach Bryan, The Great American Bar Scene
No. 3, Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time
No. 6, Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album
No. 8, Shaboozey, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going
No. 10, Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan

June 10, 2023:
No. 2, Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time
No. 5, Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album
No. 7, Luke Combs, Gettin’ Old
No. 9, Zach Bryan, American Heartbreak
No. 10, Bailey Zimmerman, Religiously. The Album.

Oct. 5, 2013:
No. 2, Justin Moore, Off the Beaten Path
No. 3, Chris Young, A.M.
No. 6, Luke Bryan, Crash My Party
No. 8, Keith Urban, Fuse
No. 10, Billy Currington, We Are Tonight

Oct. 30, 2010:
No. 2, Darius Rucker, Charleston, SC 1966
No. 4, The Band Perry, The Band Perry
No. 6, Kenny Chesney, Hemmingway’s Whiskey
No. 8, Zac Brown Band, You Get What You Give
No. 9, Toby Keith, Bullets in the Gun

Nov. 17, 2007:
No. 1, Eagles, Long Road Out of Eden
No. 3, Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride
No. 5, Josh Turner, Everything Is Fine
No. 6, Robert Plant / Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
No. 10, Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good

Jan. 23, 1993:
No. 2, Garth Brooks, The Chase
No. 3, Billy Ray Cyrus, Some Gave All
No. 8, Reba McEntire, It’s Your Call
No. 9, George Strait, Pure Country (Soundtrack)
No. 10, Brooks & Dunn, Brand New Man

Currently, the Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. From May 25, 1991 – Dec. 6, 2014, traditional album sales, as electronically monitored and tabulated by Luminate, were the sole measurement to rank albums on the chart. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram

19 Jul 2024

JoJo Siwa Celebrates Beating Out Taylor Swift, Katy Perry & Ariana Grande for Most YouTube Dislikes

JoJo Siwa is finding small victories wherever she can. In a new TikTok posted Thursday, the 21-year-old aspiring pop star celebrated beating out top artists such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande in one not-so-triumphant category: this year’s most dislikes on a female artist’s music video (so far).

In the clip, Siwa — sporting a characteristically loud outfit that includes a bedazzled construction vest — energetically reads out a list of 2024’s least-loved visuals from female stars. According to her numbers, which are corroborated by an online dislike viewer, Grande attracted 290,000 thumbs-downs for her Billboard Hot 100-topping “Yes, And?,” while Perry won second runner-up with 330,000 on her new single “Woman’s World.” (The Dr. Luke-produced track has since shot up to an estimated 550,318 dislikes as of press time.)

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Increasing her volume, the Dance Moms alum then announced that Swift’s “Fortnight” had attracted 350,000 dislikes since topping the Hot 100 in May. And then…

“Your No. 1 first place overall goes to…,” Siwa tells the camera, practically screaming as she draws out the faux suspense. “‘Karma,’ JoJo Siwa, with an astonishing, record-breaking 3.1 million dislikes!”

“I am the only person that can say I beat Taylor Swift on a list of something,” she adds, shutting her laptop and shrugging. “I’ll take it.”

“WHAT A DAY TO CELEBRATE. KARMA BROKE A RECORD. 900% MORE THAN 2ND PLACE. A WIN IS A WIN,” Siwa captioned the clip.

The So You Think You Can Dance coach’s choice to find a silver lining comes about three months after she dropped her polarizing single “Karma,” which has since earned countless memes and even a Saturday Night Live sketch. The track appears on her new EP Guilty Pleasure, which dropped July 12.

“I think I just want to make it more clear that gay pop is a genre,” she told TMZ of her new musical era in April. “I am not the inventor of gay pop, for sure not. But I do want to be a piece of making it bigger than it already is. I Want to bring more attention to it.”

Watch Siwa’s TikTok below.

19 Jul 2024

Sabrina Carpenter Teases ‘Espresso’ Performance in VR Concert Trailer

That’s that Me-ta, espresso! Meta premiered its new trailer for Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming VR concert, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 19 exclusively in Meta Horizon Worlds’ Music Valley.

In the clip, Carpenter is seen dancing around onstage to her Billboard Hot 100 top five hit, “Espresso,” alongside her dancers against a vintage hotel-looking backdrop.

Fans can stream the VR concert in Music Valley, one of the Meta Horizons Worlds available on Meta Quest headsets. The Music Valley concert series gives fans front-row access to music concerts in an immersive, virtual reality space that lets you watch VR concert live and interact with other concertgoers.

Recently, the 25-year-old pop star discussed the reactions to the slightly awkward syntax of her hook’s lyric: “That’s that me espresso.”  “So much of what I like is the punchline,” she explained to Sean Evans on Hot Ones. “If people don’t know the punchline, it’s like, waste. That’s how I feel about ‘me espresso.’ I’ve heard a lot of people that were like, ‘She should’ve said, That’s that blonde espresso, duh.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, yes. That is another song as well that deserves its spot in the world, but this one for me … ‘me espresso’ just felt like the right thing to say, and it rhymes with the line before it.” 

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“I just think it’s so funny,” she continued, shrugging. “Maybe everyone’s right.” 

Sabrina Carpenter: A VR Concert in Music Valley is set to stream on July 19 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Watch the trailer below.