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Normani is happier than ever now that she’s less than two weeks away from dropping her long-awaited debut album, but back in her Fifth Harmony days, she definitely wasn’t getting as much dopamine.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published Wednesday (June 5), the “Motivation” singer got candid about her bittersweet feelings toward her challenging girl group days. “I’m grateful for all of it, even the moments where I might’ve felt inadequate or less than,” she told the publication. “It definitely has a lot to do with why I am the way that I am.”
“It definitely took a toll on my confidence,” she continued. “Would I do some things differently or wish that some things were done differently? Of course, but I also don’t want to sit here and make it sound like it wasn’t part of my story.”
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Normani first found fame after her X Factor audition led to her being placed in 5H with Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello. There were often reports of inner-conflict, and the Georgia-born, Houston-raised singer has been open in the past about the racism she experienced when so-called fans pitted her against her bandmates.
“We were babies,” she says now of her former groupmates. “We were so innocent and I think that is the struggle, to your point, of just us having to face reality under very unrealistic circumstances. I always say we did the very best we could with what we had, so that I’m proud of.”
“There’s so much that I don’t even remember because I suppressed it,” Normani added. “That’s just my way of protecting myself from having to deal with everything. But what I do remember is it wasn’t all bad. Like yeah, we struggled, but it was also really beautiful in what we accomplished together.”
After many years of delay, Normani’s first solo album Dopamine is set to drop June 14. In the interview, she revealed that the record was partly inspired by Brandy — whose vocals are featured on the LP — as well as Janet Jackson. “They’re literally the reason why I do what I do and why I’m able to be in the position that I am in: Black women,” she told the publication. “They redefined the standard of beauty, but also just the standard in music.”
“I’m f—ing strong despite everything that I’ve endured,” she added. “[Dopamine‘s] a testament to my strength and my resilience and my discipline. I’m a lot more sure of myself, a lot more comfortable. I’ve done a really good job at navigating and getting back to who I am and recognizing the beauty. I’m trusting myself a lot more.”
As the dust continues to settle a month out from the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, many of the diss records remain in fans’ playlist rotations. The Dallas Mavericks held practice ahead of traveling to Boston on Tuesday (June 5) for game one of the NBA finals against the Boston Celtics, and the team opted […]
The next generation of female rappers have taken the music world by storm, taking the hip-hop genre to new heights. To celebrate, Billboard compiled a list of the top 10 female rappers leading the genre at the moment, repping stars from newcomers Sexxy Red, Ice Spice and Flo Milli — whom have each clocked Hot […]
Kendrick Lamar feels like celebrating. After besting Drake in a rap battle for the ages, he’s putting on a concert for Los Angeles with the help of pgLang and Free Lunch. Lamar just announced The Pop Out: Ken and Friends slated for Juneteenth (Wednesday, July 19) at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., marking his […]
Before Russell Crowe became an Oscar-winning actor starring in such films as A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator and L.A. Confidential, he was a musician. Crowe picked up his first guitar when he was six and has always made music alongside his more famous day job.
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The Australian performer will release his newest album, Prose and Cons, with his band Indoor Garden Party on Friday (June 7). This is not some vanity project, he tells Billboard. “This is an actual band of musicians. They play together,” he says. “We feel things out, we work out what works best and then we go and play them live and if another opportunity comes up, we discuss in our next rehearsal and adjust accordingly.”
The album is based in rock, but strays into other genres on such tunes as the fiery revival stomp, “Let Your Light Shine” or the country-tinged anthem, “Time & Kindness.”
The set came together over a multi-year period. “It’s been like a five-year process since we started playing around with the songs,” he says. “Probably of the original 11 or 12 songs I thought I was going to record, there’s maybe one or two that survived and the rest are songs that have come along.”
Crowe did the interview from his home studio in Australia, in front of a wall of classic guitars spanning the 1950s through the 1970s that he has acquired over the years, including a candy-apple red Fender Stratocaster “that’s played on a few Billboard Top 10 singles in its time,” he said.
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In addition to pulling one of those guitars down when he’s feeling inspired, Crowe met a luthier who now makes bespoke custom guitars for him and his friends. “We’re doing some insane things, man. One of the guitars we made is purely out of woods from Australia,” he says. “We made that for Ed Sheeran and gave it to him. He just turned around, grabbed it and sang a song which I’ve got on video. And that song, which hadn’t been released, two months later was like at the top of the charts around the world.”
Crowe and the band will embark on his first U.S. tour in more than a dozen years in August and the hand-picked stops will include Los Angeles’ acclaimed Whisky-A-Go-Go. Before Crowe hits the U.S., the band will have embark on a short European jaunt that includes the prestigious Glastonbury Festival in England alongside headliners SZA, Coldplay and Dua Lipa. The festival takes place June 26-30.
Billie Eilish has more Hit Me Hard and Soft tricks up her sleeve, and the superstar teased a music video for the album’s fan favorite track “Chihiro” on Wednesday (June 5). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the clip, Eilish is seen running down a hallway. […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro‘s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
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This week: Eminem’s new single debuts to massive numbers and a big catalog (and sample) bump, a deep cut on Billie Eilish’s latest flies past its lead single, Apple Music brings Miseducation to the masses and more.
Eminem Makes Streaming Magic for “Houdini,” “Abracadabra” & More
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A full 25 years into his superstar career, Eminem still knows how to make an entrance. The rapper has been teasing his upcoming The Death of Slim Shady album since late April, and on Friday (May 31), fans got their first taste of it with comeback single “Houdini.” Em showed with the single that he certainly has not lost his taste for provocation at age 52 – the song proved immediately controversial for its jokes about Tory Lanez’ shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, as well as other borderline-offensive lyrics – nor his more recent affinity for reviving classic rock staples, as the song heavily lifts from Steve Miller Band’s 1982 Hot 100-topper “Abracadabra.”
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The song’s impact has been similarly instantaneous, both in terms of its own consumption and in its lifting of associated cuts. “Houdini” has already racked up over 30 million official on-demand U.S. streams through Wednesday (June 3), according to early reports from Luminate, while also selling over 36,000 copies – both tremendous four-day numbers for any artist in 2024, let alone one twice the age of many contemporary superstars. The song has also elevated the rest of Eminem’s discography, with his non-”Houdini” catalog notching nearly 46 million streams combined over those four days, a 38% rise from the equivalent period the prior week. (A big part of that gain comes from 2002’s “Without Me,” whose iconic “Guess who’s back, back again” intro “Houdini” resurrects, and which is up 56% to over 3.1 million streams for those four days.)
Of course, Steve Miller is eating off the “Houdini” success as well: The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s eponymous band’s biggest Hot 100 hit more than doubled its streams over the same period, up 101% to 613,000. And yes, even that other recent hit of the same title is getting some spillover from the deluge: Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” was up 8% in streams over that period, to just over 2 million. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” Spreads Wings on Streaming
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Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft has been heating up the Billboard 200 with career-best numbers, but lead single “Lunch” – already a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – isn’t the only song listeners are throwing their weight behind.
According to Luminate, “Birds” earned 25 million streams during its parent album’s first week of release (May 17-23), good enough for a No. 13 debut on the Hot 100. The following week (May 24-30), those numbers dipped just 2.7% to 24.3 million streams, helping the song rise one spot to its current Hot 100 peak of No. 12.
Of course, Eilish’s entire new LP has been pulling monster streams, but social media users’ affinity for the song’s lovey-dovey lyrics have helped “Birds” pull ahead of the pack. On TikTok, the official “Birds of a Feather” sound plays in over 170,000 clips, with the most popular videos using the song to showcase their romances and friendships. The live performance video of “Birds” — filmed at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside brother and collaborator FINNEAS – is the most-viewed Hit Me Hard and Soft live clip with 2.4 million views; its accompanying TikTok clip boasts a further 3.1 million views.
Last weekend (May 31-June 3), “Birds” collected 15 million streams, a 14% jump from the 13.1 million streams it earned over the same period the weekend prior (May 24-27) – signaling that the love for the song has clearly extended beyond the novelty of a new Billie album.
With the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist in its pocket and clear grassroots love, Billie could be eyeing her next chart smash with “Birds.” – KYLE DENIS
Listeners Get Educated on Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation’
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Apple Music had much of the music-listening world on the edge of their Twitter accounts two weeks ago, as the streaming service slowly rolled out its list of the top 100 albums of all time. The wide-ranging list, which accounted for everything from Miles Davis’ epochal 1959 jazz LP Kind of Blue to SZA’s R&B blockbuster SOS from just 18 months ago, inspired a great deal of conversation and debate over its rankings, including for what it ultimately unveiled as its No. 1: Ms. Lauryn Hill’s iconic 1998 solo masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
The 16-track set, which includes such classic singles as “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex Factor” and “Everything Is Everything,” rose from 6.3 million official on-demand streams for the tracking week ending May 16 (before the announcement) to over 8.1 million the week ending May 23, according to Luminate, with the announcement made on May 22. The bump from that lasted through week ending May 30, as the album rose again to 8.7 million streams – a two-week gain of nearly 38%. (The set also nearly doubled in sales over that period, from just over 900 for the week ending May 16 to nearly 1,800 for the week ending May 30.)
“I’m grateful that it connected and continues to connect with so many people,” Hill related to Apple Music after its ranking was revealed. “Thank you tons to every careful listener, thank you to every casual listener, and love to all the artists and those who support them fighting the good, courageous, and noble fight of presenting the art you love to a world that desperately needs it.” – AU
Lomiiel’s “Hay Lupita” Turns Dance Trend Into Streaming Smash
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If TikTok is consistent about anything, those users are going to dance. Dominican rapper-singer Lomiiel is the latest artist to land a streaming hit by way of a dance trend on the wildly popular app.
The Brazilian funk-inflected dembow song has earned over 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the tracking week of May 24-30, according to Luminate. That’s a 180% increase from six weeks ago (April 11-18), during which the track pulled just 863,000 streams. “Hay Lupita” has steadily increased in streams over that timespan thanks, in large part, to its viral dance trend.
The low-effort, hip-rocking dance appears in countless clips on the app, with Lomiiel’s self-uploaded audio boasting over 760,000 posts. Like any true viral song, uses of “Hay Lupita” have surpassed dance videos, with users placing the track over “fit check” videos and fancams of San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatís Jr. alike.
Lomiiel first posted a snippet of the track on Feb. 26, with the full track hitting DSPs on March 28. The official music video – which has garnered 18.3 million views – arrived on April 15, just four days before “Hay Lupita” earned its biggest single-week streaming increase to date. During the period of April 19-25, the song earned 1.3 million streams, up over 50% from the period of April 11-18.
With plenty of room to grow, it looks like Lomiiel’s new hit is just getting started. – KD
4batz is hitting the road soon for his first-ever headlining tour, Thank You, Jada Tour, which he announced Wednesday (June 5). “A n—a finally going on tour. Presale drops tomorrow hit dat link in bio to get early access. See yall on tour,” he wrote on Instagram with two bat emojis. The nine-date jaunt will […]
With her eclectic fusions of Música Mexicana and Latin pop, Ana Bárbara has not only molded the Regional Mexican genre but righteously earned her title of La Reina Grupera (the queen of grupera music). In celebration of her 30-year career that has ultimately defined the grupero genre through 11 studio albums and various Billboard hits, […]
Denzel Curry announced on Wednesday (June 5) that he plans on dropping King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2 on July 19, and released the mixtape’s lead single “Hot One” featuring TiaCorine and A$AP Ferg. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The song, produced by FNZ and SkipOnDaBeat, was […]
