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Tears have been happily flowing from RAYE ever since she found out she scored her first three Grammy nominations on Friday morning (Nov. 8). The English singer-songwriter earned nods for best new artist, songwriter of the year, non-classical and best engineered album, non-classical for her work on Lucky Daye‘s album Algorithm. This marks the first […]
A few years ago, Tom Hardy met Eminem backstage at a show and it didn’t go quite as the British actor expected. Hardy stopped by DJ Whoo Kid’s Whoo’s House Podcast a couple weeks ago and told the G-Unit affiliate about the time he met the Detroit rapper for the first time. “I went to […]
November is here, and while the weather is getting colder, the new music is keeping things hot. To kick things off, Karol G teamed up with Feid, DFZM, Ovy on the Drums, J Balvin, Maluma, Blessd and Ryan Castro, a.k.a. the “Colombia gang” for a new jam-packed collaboration, “+57,” named after the Colombia area code. […]
Shaboozey has a lot of reasons to dance on Friday (Nov. 8), with the 29-year-old breakout country star nabbing five nominations for the 2025 Grammys.
In addition to best new artist and best melodic rap performance for his “Spaghettii” duet with Beyoncé, Shaboozey’s smash hit single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was recognized for best country solo performance, best country song and, last but not least, song of the year. When his name was announced in the latter category Friday, the initially nervous-looking singer — as captured by his guitarist Stephen Musselman and reposted by Shaboozey on Instagram Stories — let out a huge cheer and jumped up from his seat, bursting with joy.
“Let’s go!!!!” he cheered while doing a happy dance as his friends applauded.
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Shaboozey also tweeted Friday, “GRAMMY NOMINATED BOOZEY!!!!!!!! I LOVE Y’ALL, THANK YOU @RecordingAcad !!!!” In another post on X, he simply wrote, “We did it!!!!”
The Virginia native’s nods are well-earned. After his star skyrocketed following Bey’s Cowboy Carter — for which he lent his talents to two tracks — Shaboozey quickly leveraged the opportunity into lasting success with “A Bar Song,” which has spent 16 weeks (so far) at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Earlier this week, the track tied for the second-longest reign in the chart’s history, bested only by Lil Nas X’s 19-week rule with “Old Town Road.”
“That’s the homie,” Shaboozey said of Lil Nas in his October Billboard cover story. “We haven’t had deep conversations, but I can tell what’s happening to me now is probably very similar to what he experienced.”
Shaboozey is just one of many artists who received good news Friday, with Beyoncé leading the way with 11 nominations, followed by Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone with seven nods apiece and Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift with six each. Shaboozey shares the best new artist category with Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, Raye and Teddy Swims.
The 2025 Grammys will take place Sunday, Feb. 2. See Shaboozey’s tweets below.
In 2024, pop artists made their love for country music known, and, today, Grammy voters made their love known for those efforts.
Pop and R&B stars dominated the country Grammy nominations, including Beyoncé, who was the only artist to receive a nod in all four country categories. (Bey is the leading artist across the board with a record 11 total nominations for her country-influenced Cowboy Carter album.)
Post Malone also earned two country nominations, while Noah Kahan received one. Genre-blending Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (“Tipsy”) became the first song to go top 10 (and ultimately top three) on all four of Billboard radio airplay charts — Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay — received two.
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Even though country radio ignores her (and vice versa), country voters remain understandably infatuated with Kacey Musgraves — who earned three nominations, including for country album, solo performance and song. Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton are the only artists who primarily consider themselves country (and are embraced by country radio) to receive more than one country nomination.
It’s worth noting that this is the first time that two Black artists have been nominated in the best country solo country performance category since its formation in 2012 (it combined the previous genre-designated solo performances). In 2021, Mickey Guyton was the first Black artist nominated in the category. Other than Beyoncé and Shaboozey, voters in the country categories ignored a number of non-crossover Black artists who released lauded music this year, including Brittney Spencer, Guyton and Kane Brown.
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If it weren’t for Beyoncé and Shaboozey, country music would have been mostly locked out of the main four categories: album, record and song of the year and best new artist. Beyoncé is represented in album, record and song of the year, while Shaboozey is nominated for best new artist and song of the year.
This is an ongoing issue with the Grammy nominations and one that the Academy is working on by trying to up votership in the country community — but the numbers are just very rarely in country music’s favor to land slots in the all-genre categories.
For the last 10 years, and not including today’s nominations, only four country artists have received album of the year nominations (and that’s including more Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile) and there has only been one winner: Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018. Only two country songs have received nominations for song of the year, and none for record of the year. Best new artist has fared the best, with eight artists nomination over the past decade, but no winners (the last country winner was Zac Brown Band in 2010). Song of the year goes to the songwriters, so the shutout remains all the more baffling — since for the past two years, two predominantly country songwriters have received two of the five slots in the songwriter of the year, non-classical, category. Shout out to Jessi Alexander and Jessie Jo Dillon.
The relative shut-out in the big four categories remains for 2025, even while country enjoys a surge in popularity and dominates the Hot 100, with such titles as Post Malone and Wallen’s “I Had Some Help,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Wallen’s “Love Somebody” spending more than half the year combined at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Speaking of Wallen, he remains a third rail for Grammy voters. He finally received his first ever Grammy nominations this year for “I Had Some Help” with Malone, but the undeniable hit was locked out of song and record of the year and relegated solely to the country categories. (The Grammys’ more than 12,000 voters can all vote in the main four categories, but then are limited to 10 categories across three genre fields in an attempt to make sure voters stick to their areas of expertise when casting their ballots).
So it will be up to Beyoncé and Shaboozey to represent country music in the main categories (all of which are presented on air, while country is often relegated to the pre-telecast) on Feb. 2 and maybe Beyoncé will finally get her long overdue album of the year win.
In other noteworthy and happy nominations, country pioneer Linda Martell, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry, receives her first Grammy nomination at the age of 83 — in the best melodic rap performance category, for “SPAGHETTII,” by Beyoncé featuring Martell and Shaboozey.
Jessica Nicholson provided assistance on this story.
This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music from artists including Jasiel Nuñez, Marc Seguí, Danny Ocean and Elena Rose, to name a few. Emerging Mexican singer-songwriter Jasiel Nuñez released his new album, titled La Odisea, offering two parts to his set: corridos and sad corridos. For the LP, […]
Muni Long now has a chance to bring home a second Grammy for best R&B performance. The singer-songwriter received a second nod in that category during the Recording Academy’s unveiling Friday (Nov. 8) of its nominee slate for the 67th Grammy Awards — this time for the live rendition of her hit song “Made for Me (Live on BET).”
Long also leads this year’s slate of R&B Grammy nominees, scoring three additional nods: best traditional R&B performance (“Make Me Forget”), best R&B song (“Ruined Me”) and best R&B album (Revenge). She received her first Grammy win at the 65th awards ceremony for her vocal work on her hit “Hrs and Hrs.”
After Long, these R&B stars are tied at two nominations apiece in the R&B categories: Chris Brown, Coco Jones, SZA, Lucky Daye, Kehlani and Lalah Hathaway. Also receiving nods were Jhené Aiko and Childish Gambino.
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It’s a strong Grammy showing for Brown this time around. In addition to nods for best R&B performance (“Residuals”) and best R&B album ( 11:11 [Deluxe]), he also picked up a third nomination in the best African music performance category for “Sensational,” also featuring Davido and Lojay. Tems, one of the other four artists vying against Brown in that category (with “Love Me Jeje”), is also up for best R&B song (“Burning”).
Continuing a comeback heightened by this year’s Super Bowl halftime performance and tour, Usher garnered a best R&B album nomination for his first solo project since 2016, Coming Home. Also of note is Marsha Ambrosius’ nod for best traditional R&B performance for the song “Wet,” giving the singer-songwriter her 10th Grammy nomination. The track is featured on Casablanco, executive produced by Dr. Dre and Ambrosius’ first new studio album since 2018.
SZA continues to reign with hit “Saturn,” which received nods for best R&B song and best R&B performance. Also gaining key recognition this year: Kehlani for best R&B song (“After Hours”) and best progressive R&B album (Crash); Lucky Daye for best traditional R&B performance (“That’s You”) and best R&B album (Algorithm) plus Coco Jones for best R&B song and best R&B performance (both for “Here We Go (Uh Oh).” Jones won her first Grammy for best R&B performance for “ICU” this past February. Kehlani is also the featured guest on Jordan Adetunji’s breakout hit “Kehlani,” which is nominated in the best melodic rap category.
In the category of unexpected nominations are such names as longtime indie favorite Avery*Sunshine (So Glad to Know You) and buzzing artist Durand Bernarr (En Route), both for best progressive R&B album. Among the unexpected snubs: Bryson Tiller, 4batz, PartyNextDoor and Tyla, though THR reported that the singer’s self-titled debut album had been moved from best R&B album to the best pop vocal album category.
The 67th Grammy Awards are set to air Feb. 2 on CBS.
This week in dance music: Illenium shared the genuinely tear-jerking backstory of his 2021 track “Brave Soul,” and while half the nation experienced another reason to cry, Moby offered some sage advice after election day. Meanwhile, a new Avicii documentary is coming to Netflix on New Year’s Eve, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan made a cool $28 million on their recent Sweat Tour, Shygirl took us backstage on that run with her Sweat Tour photo diary, Dubfire told us why all is well in the state of techno and the 2025 Grammy nominations were announced, with Justice, Zedd, Charli, Kaytranada, Four Tet and a gaggle of other scene stars getting nominated in the best dance/electronic categories.
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And through all of it, the beat goes on. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Major Lazer & M.I.A., “Where’s The Daddy?”
“Where’s the Daddy” is an old/new venture, with the track dating back to the earliest days of Major Lazer, when the internet was looser, the algorithms but a glimmer in the eyes of the world wide web and Diplo and M.I.A. were working together on her second album, Kala, while also dating. These most O.G. members and affiliates of Major Lazer, the first iteration of which of course also included British producer Switch, reunite 15 years later with the official release of “Where’s the Daddy.” The track is classic early day Major Lazer — a woozy, stoney, dancehall-influenced production that sounds like both Major Lazer, Kala and everything else the artists were releasing around this time. M.I.A. is here with her signature singsong vocals, with lyrics that seem to find her searching for her baby daddy, with the song laced with a sample of a crying baby.
To make the point crystal clear, M.I.A. appears pregnant in the music video — in which she, Diplo and Switch drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway in L.A. in a Tesla Cybertruck, uniting old sounds and old pals with a nod to an impending dystopic future in which pregnancy is a government mandate and transportation is provided by Emperor Elon. The song is out in conjunction with the 15-year anniversary of Major Lazer’s culture-shaking 2009 debut, Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do, a deluxe re-release of which is coming out next week (on Diplo’s Mad Decent, natch) with a collection of additional unreleased tracks and remixes.
“Major Lazer’s origin story is a jumbled-up mess,” Diplo says in a statement. “It reads more like a villain story. I knew about Switch from being the weirdest and hardest DJ in London, and he was interested in my local scene in Philly — Spank Rock, Amanda Blank, Santigold, Plastic Little. M.I.A. got mixed up in the project when me and Dave were summoned by XL Recordings to make beats for her. I failed miserably, but I made a mixtape, Piracy Funds Terrorism, and Dave had a few bangers around town. We made too many beats for her, so we decided to go record them in Jamaica because the artists there are extremely talented, and the productions were cutting edge. We made this Major Lazer album down there and started a little movement that ended up with a few billion streams. It’s cool to put out ‘Where’s the Daddy?’ now because M.I.A. was the third daddy of Major Lazer.”
Deadmau5, “Re_Jaded”
Like Major Lazer, Deadmau5 is digging into the archives this week, re-releasing his 2007 track “Jaded” on an EP that also includes a new edit by Volaris, a new ambient remix by Deadmau5 along with his own new Re-Jaded” edit. This latter production sands off all the harder edges of the already beautifully smooth progressive house original and forms it into a 12-minute opus that’s quintessential classic ‘mau5. The project is out on Mau5trap.
Qrion, “Keep on Moving Up”
Texas-born producer Qrion releases the fourth single from her forthcoming album, We Are Always Under the Same Sky. “Keep on Moving Up” stacks up layers of synth into a bright but weighty house track, which balances the same ebullience and depth in its themes. Qrion sings about keeping on “moving up, moving up while I”m young,” with the track written about getting sober following a period of addiction after her father passed away. She says the song is about “hitting rock bottom and challenging myself to conquer small goals, gradually working my way up to larger ones. The lyric ‘Don’t Know Where I’m Going’ reflects the uncertainty of my first year of sobriety after rehab, capturing the struggle and growth of finding my path forward.” We wish her well on this path, which includes the release of We Are Always Under the Same Sky via Anjunadeep on January 17.
Will Clarke, Midnight Mass
Longtime scene fixture Will Clarke releases his debut album, Midnight Mass, on Armada Music. The 13-track project is as it sells itself — music to find salvation to in the afterhours. Styles oscillate between buzzy IDM (“Breakthrough,” “Summit”), classic gospel house (“Weekend Love”) and the style of moody progressive house Clarke helped popularize in the last few years as a co-writer on the 2023 deadmau5/Kaskade hit “Escape.” Vocalists including blythe, Karen Harding, Georgia Meek all help bring femininity and soul to the tracks, with blythe’s turn on the album-closing “You Alone” delivering a classic makeout music moment.
Bedouin feat. Iveta, “Better Than This”
After rinsing the tracks all summer at their Pacha Ibiza residency, Brooklyn-based duo Bedouin releases its two-track Into the Wind EP. The project opens with “Better Than This,” a simmering YOLO goes tot he club track about getting loose tonight and dealing with the aftermath tomorrow. The pair have been working on the song for a year, and you can feel the work in the style and meticulous structure of this one. “It’s a song about embracing the present moment, because that’s all we truly have,” they say. “As we journey forward, it’s the mystery of that path that keeps us alive.”
Elena Rose always lived in her own world that, throughout the years, became a sacred home, her creative hub. Now, the home she built on the clouds is ready to receive visitors through the release of her debut EP En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas) released via Kira Records/Warner Music Latina.
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The eight-track set, which translates to “On the Clouds (With My Friends),” is symbolic for Elena, who prior to kicking off her artist career penned hits for artists including Rauw Alejandro, Bad Bunny, and Selena Gomez.
“It was a year of working on this project that for me represents a letter of introduction to the industry as a solo artist,” she tells Billboard. “It’s a project that embraces my most vulnerable side but at the same time, it sets a mark on what kind of artist I want to be in the industry.”
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Each song in En Las Nubes—some indie rock, some funk, some ballad, some música llanera—is backed by the Venezuelan artist’s potent and enchanting vocals sending messages of love, resilience, and hope. In songs such as “Me Lo Merezco” and the Neutro Shorty-assisted “Catira,” for example, Elena focuses on the importance of self-worth, self-love, and self-esteem.
“I really want to be a part of your lives. To accompany you to create beautiful memories with each song that comes out, but at the same time I want to encourage you not to have to walk alone,” she explains. “This year was very important to solidify the message of Guerrero de la Luz – the fan army is getting bigger. People are getting the message. They are really conscious and mindful, and in the end I continue to learn from the people who follow me. We are making this beautiful and intentional journey.”
And while she’s accompanied on the journey by some of her closest musical friends including Alvaro Diaz, Greeicy, and Scarlett Linares, the most challenging song to pen for Elena was “Guatapé” (named after the vibrant town in Colombia).
“While in Colombia for Christmas, a friend had to disconnect his brother because he was very sick. At the same time, I was in a relationship with someone from there and we made the decision to end it,” she elaborates. “Putting these two stories together showed me that love has so many colors. Loving a lot means you have to say goodbye. There are situations that you can’t control and you have to let them go. I really cried a lot writing this song.”
En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas) is released just days before the 2024 Latin Grammys, where Elena is a three-time nominee including the coveted song of the year for “Caracas En El 2000” alongside Danny Ocean and Jerry Di.
“I would love to win!” she gushes. “It would be a very nice gift and a reason to make Venezuela smile at a time like this. It would also make Venezuelans feel happy to embrace their identity. This song has made the world know about Venezuela and its details.”
Stream and listen to En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas) below:
Bhad Bhabie is responding to negative rumors about her weight with a health update. The 21-year-old “Gucci Flip Flops” rapper (real name Danielle Bregoli) took to her Instagram Stories on Thursday (Nov. 7) to explain, “I’m sorry my cancer medication made me loose [sic] weight. Im slowly gaining it back. So stop running w the […]