Music

18 Apr 2024

Alek Olsen Rules TikTok Billboard Top 50, YG Marley Nears No. 1

Alek Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” ties Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me” for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, reigning for a fourth straight frame on the April 20-dated survey.

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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity April 8-14. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50. As previously noted, titles that are part of Universal Music Group’s catalog are currently unavailable on TikTok.

The reign of “Someday I’ll Get It” continues to mostly revolve around its previously discussed loss-based trend featuring deceased pets or family members, though more recent clips – still featuring animals – might also end on a decidedly happier note, too.

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The song concurrently accrued 3.2 million official chart-eligible U.S. streams toward the April 20 Billboard rankings (April 5-11); it falls to No. 25, after hitting a new peak of No. 18 the previous week, on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list.

Each of the weeks the song has ruled the TikTok Billboard Top 50, it’s had a different song at No. 2. That trend continues on the latest tally, with YG Marley’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” leaping 14-2. That’s a new peak for the reggae song, after a previous best of No. 7 on the April 6 chart.

The dog that’s the subject behind the TikTok account vikingo606 helps spur some renewed interest in “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” on the latest chart thanks to an April 11 upload asking, “y cuantos likes se gana mi carita? (and how many likes does my face earn?),” referencing other POV-style videos uploaded to the sound that have racked up big numbers on the platform (vikingo606’s boasts 9 million favorites so far).

G-Eazy’s “Lady Killers II,” No. 2 on the April 13-dated survey, falls to No. 3, followed by Artemas’ “I Like the Way You Kiss Me” at No. 4, a new peak after reaching No. 7 a week prior. That’s concurrent with a continued increase in chart-eligible U.S. streams, jumping 12% to 18.8 million listens (enough to boost it into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, leaping 23-16).

The biggest debut of the week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 belongs to Lay Bankz’s “Tell Ur Girlfriend,” which debuts at No. 11. The song was released in February but lands on the ranking via a dance trend incorporating its chorus. The viral dance helps the song balloon in chart-eligible U.S. streams, skyrocketing 94% to 5.7 million April 5-11. As a result, it debuts at No. 45 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list, her first appearance there.

The April 8 solar eclipse seen across North America boosts Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” onto the chart, bowing at No. 13. A four-week No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1983, Tyler’s classic was oft-used during the eclipse on social media, with TikTok videos using it to soundtrack footage of the phenomenon, memes and more.

See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.

18 Apr 2024

Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets’ Breaks Spotify Record for Most Pre-Saved Album Countdown

Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department is already breaking Spotify records, and it hasn’t even dropped yet. The streaming service announced Thursday (April 18) that the album’s countdown page has broken its record for most pre-saves, one day ahead of the project’s midnight release.

The news follows the countdown page’s launch on March 28, which invited Swifties to watch as each second leading up to Tortured Poets‘ April 19 release slowly ticked down. Since then, Spotify has updated the tab with links to the pop star’s merch as well as cryptic videos corresponding to clues revealed at Swift’s open-air library installation in Los Angeles.

The pop-up opened doors to Swifties earlier this week and features books, figurines, dried flowers, mysterious mailboxes and a display case that regularly updates to unveil a new lyric from the album. Some of its recent reveals include, “One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen” and “When she was leaving, it felt like breathing.”

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Spotify hasn’t shared the number of pre-saves Tortured Poets‘ page has garnered, but there’s no question that it’s high. Swift’s 11th studio record is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, teed off by the success of 2022’s Midnights, which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and snagged album of the year at the 2024 Grammys.

The pre-save record comes despite the fact that the singer hasn’t released any songs ahead of Tortured Poets, nor has she confirmed which of its 16 tracks will get the single treatment first. She did, however, confirm earlier this week that a music video is on its way, slated for an 8 p.m. ET release the day the album drops.

See Spotify’s announcement about Tortured Poets‘ new record below.

18 Apr 2024

Anne Wilson on Blending Country, CCM on New Album ‘Rebel’: ‘I’m Not Going to Change Who I Am’

Earlier this month, reigning CMA Awards entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson stood alongside contemporary Christian music star Chris Tomlin at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena as part of Tomlin’s eighth annual Good Friday Nashville concert.

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Standing between them onstage was “My Jesus” hitmaker Anne Wilson. The trio of artists playing to the Nashville audience served as a literal representation of Wilson’s new album, Rebel, with its aim of fully intertwining the two genres via a country sound enmeshed with faith-filled lyrics. Both Tomlin and Lainey appear on Rebel, which comes out Friday (April 19) via Capitol Christian Music Group and Universal Music Group  Nashville.

In 2021, Kentucky native Wilson broke through with “My Jesus,” a song she wrote following the death of her older brother Jacob. The song spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart, making Wilson the first female soloist to top the Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart’s launch in 2003. Subsequent singles included the top 5 Christian Airplay hits “Sunday Sermons” and the top 25 hit “Hey Girl.”

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After she released her debut Capitol Christian Music Group album, My Jesus, which sonically dipped into the grooves between CCM and country, Wilson recalled getting messages from both country and Christian music fans.

“Some would say, ‘We don’t listen to Christian music, but we love your music. It sounds country.’ And then others would say, ‘We love country music, but we don’t play it in the car because we don’t want our kids listening to it, but we let them listen to you — the in between,’” Wilson tells Billboard, while seated at UMG Nashville’s office. “That was encouraging for me to hear, and showed me that’s where we were heading.”

As she began writing for the album in late 2022, Wilson says “the songs that were coming from my heart were leaning more country.” To that end, she’s set about expanding upon her CCM radio success, releasing music aimed at both country and CCM audiences, with her current top 5 Christian Airplay hit “Strong,” as well as country-aimed “Rain in the Rearview.” The songs filling out Rebel flit between themes well-known to country listeners, such as family (“My Father’s Daughter”), Sunday morning church, rural living and the struggles of life on the road (“Milestones”), but also songs that delve deeper into spiritual themes of prayer (“Sinner’s Prayer,” “Praying Woman”), redemption (“3:16”), and worship (“The Cross,” featuring Tomlin).

UMG Nashville Chair/CEO Cindy Mabe also saw the potential in a CCM-country connection and reached out to Wilson’s team in 2023.

“She said, ‘We want to give her an opportunity to take a song to country radio and to expand her reach,’” Wilson recalls. “It was out of the blue, but it made sense. I basically have two record labels, which is amazing. Double the people, double the ideas. It’s been great having so many different people helping with this album.”

Wilson, Zach Kale, CCM singer-songwriter Matthew West and The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston wrote ‘Rain in the Rearview’ in August 2023 and released it the following month.

“Writing it, producing it and releasing it in like five weeks was very fast, but it’s been cool to see the reaction and how my music has been able to go to both country and Christian platforms and be appreciated in both,” Wilson says.

Certainly, songs of faith have been mainstays in country music from its inception, from the gospel classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” made famous in country circles by The Carter Family in 1935, to Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy-winning “Something in the Water.” But the past five years has seen a particular surge, with more than a dozen country-CCM collaborations released from artists including Dolly Parton, Zach Williams, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Colton Dixon. Tomlin teamed with FGL for a CCM album featuring country artists, while Steven Curtis Chapman released a bluegrass-tinged project and Underwood issued a hymns album.

With Rebel, Wilson fully fuses the two genres. She co-wrote every song on the 16-track project, reuniting with her core team of co-writers in West and Jeff Pardo, who crafted “My Jesus” with Wilson, and expanding her writing circle, bringing in top-tier country writers including Nicolle Galyon, Emily Weisband, Trannie Anderson and Casey Beathard.

“It was really life-giving as an artist; this album felt very free-spirited, like I can write about my faith, but also about different things, too,” say Wilson, who is part of both the Opry’s NextStage Class of 2024 and the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2024.

She teams with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer Lainey Wilson (no relation) on “Praying Woman.”

“I loved working with her,” Anne says. “I met Lainey on Instagram in 2020. Then we met [in person] last year, and we wrote the song the same day … We were talking about our moms, and we both remember our moms praying a lot when we were kids, getting on their knees and praying for things, and we got to write a song to honor our moms and talk about what it means to be a woman who prays and faith.”

She says Lainey is “like a big sister,” explaining, “The thing I love about Lainey’s story is she worked for so many years, lived in a camper and all these things and never changed who she was. She trusted that she was going to keep being herself and something was going to happen one day, and it did. She’s told me multiple times, ‘Don’t change for anyone or anything.’”

“Next Thing You Know” hitmaker Jordan Davis joins on “Country Gold,” a tender, breezy ode to the riches found in the simplicity of family, friends and rural living. They first collaborated during the ACM Honors last year, performing Davis’s hit “Buy Dirt.”

“He’s such a good guy,” Wilson says. “When I wrote ‘Country Gold,’ and it felt like it could be a collaboration, the first person I thought of was him. He said, ‘Yes,’ and I think his voice adds the perfect touch. It’s one of the more straight-forward country songs, just with valuing small-town life.”

“Milestones,” written with Galyon and Hungate, delves into the trade-offs that come with life as a musician on the road. “I remember Nicole asking me, ‘How are you?’ And I was like, ‘Good,’ but she was like, ‘No, how are you really?’ And I just started crying, and telling her all these things that I’ve been going through, and the pain of missing milestones. You hold it in one hand, the incredible opportunities I’m getting, and then in the other hand is all the milestones you have to miss; it’s just this exchange. But I think anybody can relate to that in a sense. My team’s really good about giving me grace for that, too. I’m a people-pleaser; I don’t like to disappoint. But I think it’s about figuring out what are the most important moments in my life and making sure those stay on the calendar, and then everything else works around it.”

Meanwhile, “Red Flag” serves as an older sister of sorts to the song “Hey Girl” from Wilson’s My Jesus album.

“All the little girls love ‘Hey Girl,’ and we thought, ‘What’s the grownup version of that song?’ After you’ve told them about their identity in Christ and loving themselves, the next thing is a boy that comes into the picture. I’ve never written a song about a boy — because, thankfully, I’ve never had a bad breakup story — but my mom had always told me about red flags: ‘Look for this and don’t look for this.’ This song ended up being like a continuation of ‘Hey Girl,’ to encourage them and tell them what to look for.”

While sonically and thematically, the album stitches together the threads tying country and Christian music, the title track stems from her struggles to meld the two genres.

Wilson had been taking that title into writing rooms for a few years, but says, “No one wanted to write the song. They were like, ‘How do we write a song called “Rebel” when you are this five-feet, little sweet Christian girl who’s not a rebel at all?’… At one point, I had a song go to [Christian] radio and they said it was too country for them to play it, though the message was very faith-based. I remember being frustrated, as any artist would, but it fired me up to want to write this album. A lot of the reason we called it ‘Rebel’ is I decided I’m just going to be who I am. I’m not going to change who I am to please Christian radio and I’m not going to change who I am to please country radio.”

To that end, her upcoming summer dates will include a mix of Christian and country festival performance slots — with Wilson playing the same set of songs, whether playing to a more country-leaning or CCM-leaning crowd. One thing Wilson is looking forward to is appearing at some country festivals where Lainey Wilson is also playing: “So hopefully, we’ll try to perform [“Praying Woman”] together,” she says.

Wilson is also set to lead her second headlining tour in the fall.

18 Apr 2024

Cash Cobain on His Hit ‘Fisherrr’ and What We Can Expect from a Slizzy Summer

The Summer of Slizzy is upon us.  

As soon as the weather starts to get nice, New York City becomes a playground. People from all walks of life are seemingly outside eating, drinking, smoking and blasting music. And one song that’s sure to be in heavy rotation this summer is Cash Cobain’s “Fisherrr” featuring Bay Swag. You already hear the song coming from cars as they pass by, or being used in countless Instagram Reels and TikToks, usually accompanied by its official dance, The Reemski.

Cash has teased the track on social media, feeding fans little bites here and there, but it wasn’t until he and Bay performed the song on the YouTube series From the Block that the song took off. The Instagram clip and the YouTube video each have one million views and the song currently has 3.6 million plays on Spotify. There’s also whispers of a “Fisherrr” remix being in the works with a certain New York City superstar. I’ll let you work out who that may be for yourself. 

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With the song of the summer already locked down, Cash Cobain has the city on smash. I was one of the hundreds of people waiting in line for almost two hours to get into his Irving Plaza show on April 1. The lines wrapped around the block and the anticipation was intoxicating. The air was buzzing with rumors of a Drake appearance, and questions about what the hell was taking so long while little clouds of weed smoke popped up like NYC chimneys in the wintertime.

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The NYPD was deep out there, too, but they didn’t bother anybody until the crowd grew impatient and tried to bumrush the entrance. That’s when the venue officially shut Slizzyfest down and Cash took all those remaining outside up the street to Union Square Park for an impromptu performance. Hip-hop started with park jams, so it’s dope to see a younger artist like Cash carry on the tradition. Being able to control a crowd is the definition of a true MC. 

I was talking to my tax guy who’s based in Atlanta as I was putting the finishing touches on this interview when he asked me what I was working on. I mentioned Cash Cobain, and he started laughing. He then sent me a screenshot of him listening to the Cash Cobain and Bay Swag performance on Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex show. When an accountant living in another part of the country is up on you, it’s safe to say you’re on the way to becoming a star. 

Billboard spoke with April’s R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month about making sexy music, working with the likes of Drake and Frank Ocean, plus much more.  

How does it feel to have the song of the summer already? I feel like “Fisherrr” is only getting bigger. That From the Block video took it to another level. 

It feels amazing. It feels like a moment. We haven’t had a real movement in New York in a little minute. 

The energy outside of your show at Irving Plaza was electric. It’s hard to put into words, but I haven’t felt that type of excitement outside of a show in NYC in a long time. Did feeling the love from the fans outside make you want to take them up the street to Union Square Park? 

They canceled my show, so I just wanted to give them something. I wanted to be seen. I was upset and decided to go outside, and everyone started gathering around me, so I started walking. I didn’t even realize Union Square Park was that close. As I’m walking, I was like, “Nah, I need to stand up or something, I need to be seen, I need some music.” You know Manhattan got them long ass blocks, so I see like a park. It was perfect. We had a good time, and nobody got hurt.

Let’s talk about the dance that’s been going viral: The Reemski. La La Anthony and her son did a video and so has former NBA guard Lance Stephenson. That’s when I knew “Fisherrr” was different. Were you going to do that dance during your set? 

Yeah, once a song gets a dance, it’s outta here. I be trying to do the dance, but I don’t know, I have to be in the mood. 

Can you describe Sexy Drill? Did you come up with that name? 

Everything gotta be sexy. I like sexy s–t. Chow Lee and Lonny Love really put Sexy Drill on the map. 

You and Bay Swag were on Hot 97 with Funkmaster Flex recently, which got some mixed reactions. Was that a big deal for you growing up in NYC? 

Flex? Hell yeah. The radio, period. It wasn’t a freestyle, though, it was more like a performance. We be saying little slick s–t in our raps, it may sound like we’re playing around, but when you say some slick s–t, you might catch someone’s attention. 

Flex seemed into it. That s–t was funny because he was making funny faces after certain lines. 

He was like, “I understand it, I don’t need to see it twice. Y’all some nasty motherf—kers.” 

You and Bay are like horny Jada & Styles with the back and forth. Your lyrics are always raunchy. Why are you so horny? 

[Laughs.] That’s just who I am for real. I wanna f—k all day. 

I should use that as the headline: “Cash Cobain Wants to F—k All Day.“

That’ll go viral. 

I’m not sure if people realize how versatile you are. You’ve worked with PinkPanthress. How did that link up happen? 

The managers did what they do. The managers were managing and managed to get us in the studio. We linked in LA in person, man, we were just cookin’ up, vibin’, talkin’ and stuff. That was my first time meeting her. 

You guys have similar styles, so it makes sense. 

Yeah, and I didn’t know she made her own beats. So, when I locked in with her, she was like, “Let me hop on the keys right quick” and I was like, “Huh, what? You make beats?” And she was like, “Yeah, I make all my stuff.” 

 
You guys plan on working together in the future? 

Of course. I want her on my album. 

Speaking of albums…i s “Fisherrr” the lead single? 

Nah, that’s for my Play Cash Cobain EP that should be coming out soon. “Dunk Contest” is going to be on there too, along with some other songs like “Candle” and “Act Like.” 

Ok, so is Drake going to be on the EP or the album? 

[Laughs.] He made the album cover for the EP, though!

Cover art for the upcoming Play Cash Cobain EP.

There were rumors that he was supposed to pop out at your show in New York. 

I don’t know about no rumors. He was already in town. He had a show [in] Long Island, and he posted the picture I’m using as the cover, so people put two and two together. 

So, what’s next for you? 

I have the Play Cash Cobain EP coming up and we’re just going to keep dropping music. We got some placements on the way. 

Anything you can talk about? 

Travis Scott. Me and Don Toliver were in the studio, we got some crazy sh—t coming. Me and Boat [Lil Yachty] are about to come out with some sh-t. And I should be doing something with Frank Ocean soon, too. He really f—ks with my music. 

How do you envision your wave taking over the city once the weather breaks? Because I’ve predicted that a Slizzy Summer is in our future. 

Aight, boom, we been outside. I don’t care if it’s summer, winter, we been outside odee. So, for Slizzy Summer I wanna do like a Slizzy pool party vibe, like Freaknik. We gonna call that s–t Slizznik. I wanna do a summertime show outside. I wanna make things like slizzy this, slizzy that. I just wanna have fun, I don’t want nobody to get hurt. 

So, you definitely plan on doing another show in New York soon to make up for this last one? 

Yeah, ASAP. 

The ladies love your music. You’re putting fat boys back in style like Biggie did. Was he someone you grew up listening to? 

Biggie was the first rapper I was introduced to. I listen to a lot of Biggie, Aaliyah, and Michael Jackson. I really love 50 Cent too. I grew up listening to everything: Hip-Hop, R&B, like old R&B. I’ve been listening to “Me and Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul. You know? Meeting at the same spot at the same time every day. My grandparents and parents had all those CDs like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. 

How about on the production side of things? How did you come up with this sound? 

Trap and Drill really inspired me, but I wanted to add my own flavor. I didn’t want to bite guys like Southside and Metro. I didn’t want to capitalize off a Metro-type beat. I wanted to come up with my own flavor. 

How do you decide on certain samples to use? 

Things catch me. I can be in the elevator and hear a song, or be watching a movie, and if I like the song or hear a part that I can use, I would Shazam it. I find things when I’m listening to music on YouTube. It could be familiar songs or unfamiliar songs. 

Who taught you how to make beats? 

I’m self-taught, just f—kin’ around on FruityLoops. I always wanted to make beats, though. It was the perfect match, I just had to figure it out. I was confident because my mom used to buy me drum pads, Yamahas, and s—t like that. 

And what made you rap about the things that you rap about? I was surprised to see the NYPD outside of your show so deep because you don’t make that type of music. 

Because I know n—as that rap about street s–t and are dead p—y. [Laughs.] They dead soft. I’m going to be true to myself. I’m not trying to incriminate myself. I have made rap songs like that, but this is what I wanna do. I wanna play autotune, I wanna sing, I wanna melodize, I want it to be sexy. 

You want to be a heartthrob and not a thug. 

I wanna be slizzy. 

Can you define “slizzy” for the people? 

Freedom. Judgement free. Doing what you want to do and not caring what anyone else thinks. It’s just a way of life. That’s how I got to where I’m at right now. Not caring about what anybody thinks. 

OK, last question. Are you a Pelle Pelle model? 

Yeah, shouts to my big brother Chris, he be lookin’ out for me. We’re working on a few things actually. 

18 Apr 2024

Rihanna Reveals the 2 People She’d Trade Places With: ‘They Have It the Best’

With a bestselling music career, booming beauty business and a billion-dollar net worth, Rihanna undoubtedly has plenty of fans who would trade places with her in a heartbeat. But if she got the chance, she’d switch lives to become the next best thing — her sons, RZA and Riot Rose, whom she shares with partner A$AP Rocky. 

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at her Fenty x Puma event in London Wednesday (April 17), the superstar needed only a second to think when she was asked who she’d like to swap places with for a day. “You know what? My kids,” she replied. “They have it the best.”  

“They’re living the greatest life,” added Ri. “The love that they have from everyone, they know they’re loved. I beam to see it in their eyes, knowing that everybody in this house is at your beck and call.” 

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The “Umbrella” singer and Rocky first became parents in May 2022 when little RZA came along. The following February, Ri effectively announced her second pregnancy by showing off her baby bump during her 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, welcoming Riot Rose six months later in August. 

The mogul recently revealed in a chat with Interview that she’s open to having more kids and is keeping her fingers crossed for a baby girl, but ultimately, she’s fine with having “as many as God wants me to have.” In the meantime, she’s making sure her sons carry out their parents’ legacy of being bona fide fashion icons.  

“I always try to dress them like Rocky,” she told ET. “I always envisioned dressing a girl. We all do as women, like, ‘Ooh, I’m gonna dress her in these cute little things.’ But then you get sons, and you’re like, ‘What do I do?’ But I have the biggest hack: their dad.” 

Watch Ri talk about her boys on the Fenty x Puma red carpet below. 

18 Apr 2024

Kevin Parker Says Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism’ Crew Referred to Themselves as ‘The Band’: ‘I Felt Like I Was in the Beatles!’

We are just a few weeks away from the release of Dua Lipa‘s 11-track album Radical Optimism album and in a new Elle magazine cover story the 28 year-old pop superstar pulls the curtain back further on the long creative process of assembling the songs.

Dua worked on Radical Optimism with an A-list group of co-songwriters and producers, including longtime collaborator songwriter Caroline Ailin, as well as Tobias Jesso Jr. (Adele, Harry Styles), Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Danny L Harle (Dux Content). Parker said they referred to the assembled crew of hitmakers as “The Band,” explaining, “Not an old-school band, but a spiritual band. Each morning going into the studio, I felt like I was in the Beatles!”

The result, the the magazine says, is a mix of live and electronic instruments that create a “global groove” on a “cosmopolitan dance-pop record with a 1970s flair, and a vibrant, resounding affirmation of life.”

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“Dua had this focus on finding this sound, which was so elusive,” Parker said. “But it was nice to be in the engine room of the creative process, rather than worry about being the face of it. It was the experience that I’ve been waiting for.” He described the origins of the first single, the bouncy “Houdini,” as starting with a bass line he plunked out weeks before their session that he realized could work once the singer added a “moody,” post-disco melody.

“She started singing, and it just immediately made sense,” Parker said. “This feeling of early-’80s sleaze, in some strange, dark, sweaty club. Gloriously suffocating. Hypnotic.”

Ailin, who has worked with Dua since before her 2017 breakthrough hit “New Rules,” described their process as beginning with “a little yap about what’s going on,” which, then somehow turns into a pop song. “That’s her superpower,” Ailin said “It’s hard not to feel like you’re the strongest person next to her. I think she lends a little bit of that to all of us sometimes.”

The singer also told Elle that her single “Training Season” was written in Nov. 2022 as a reflection on both her long-term relationships with men including models Bella and Gigi Hadid’s brother Anwar Hadid and French director Romain Gavras, as well as run of dates she went on. “As long as everyone knows where they stand, then you’re good,” she said about her dating life, which most recently linked her to British actor Callum Turner.

The magazine said Dua is coy about what her current dating situation, preferring to offer coded hints through her songs. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to write down what I want,” she explained about the “Training Season” sessions. “The power of manifestation and writing things into existence with the power of words. When you know your worth, you know what you want and what you don’t want.”

Describing a recent convo with one of her dancers who was going through a breakup, Dua said that when she was single she didn’t pine for a relationship. “I didn’t wish it away. You learn so much about yourself, you know, whether it’s going on a date or spending that time alone,” she said. “In the silence, you figure out who you really are. In the grand scheme of things, I was doing research.”

Dua Lipa will serve as both host and musical guest for the May 4 episode of Saturday Night Live.

18 Apr 2024

Rihanna Says New Songs Are ‘So Good’ She and A$AP Rocky Are Figuring Out ‘Who’s Gonna Use What’

At some point we might need a map to chart all the twists and turns of R9. While journalists, fans and pretty much everyone else has been asking Rihanna when we can expect the long-awaited follow-up to her smash 2016 album Anti, the singer continues to give vague, sometimes contradictory answers about the in-progress project.

Speaking to ET on the red carpet at Wednesday’s (April 17) London launch event for the Fenty x Puma Creeper Phatty Earth Tone sneaker, Rih was asked if she and partner A$AP Rocky might pull a Beyoncé and include their sons RZA and Riot on her untitled next album.

“It’s up to them,” Rihanna said of her two-year-old first-born with Rocky and their second son, who was born in August. She was, once again, also a bit vague about when we can expect a firm release date for the collection, saying “I wanna know too!” Then, however, after recently suggesting that she hasn’t really started work on recording songs for the album, RihRih made it sound like she’s actually got quite a few tracks to choose from.

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“I already got stuff that I feel like I could make hits out of,” she said. “Me and Rocky are really trying to figure out who’s gonna use what because it’s so good.”

In a recent chat with Interview magazine, however, the singer said she has “a lot of visual ideas” so far, which isn’t typically how she starts her creative process. “It’s weird. My brain is working backward right now. I usually have the music first, and the music leads me into all of these visual opportunities, and now I’m having all of these visuals.”

The bad news, though, was that Rihanna told the mag that she doesn’t yet have the songs to accompany those visuals, but hopefully they’ll come soon. “Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make,” she said. In February, Rocky further muddied the waters, teasing at the time that his partner was “working” on the album. In March, Rihanna performed live for the first time in eight years when she took the stage for a pre-wedding celebration for the son of the richest man in Asia.

18 Apr 2024

Lil Nas X Finally Drops Swaggering ‘Lean On My Body’ Two Years After Teasing Track

Lil Nas X keeps talking about the backlog of songs he’s sitting on, so Wednesday night (April 17) the MC snuck out a track that has been floating around for several years in snippet form, the punchy “Lean On My Body.”

“I know I’m 10 years late but I’m dropping lean on my body in a couple minutes,” he tweeted around dinnertime in a post that also included the original minute-long March 2022 in which Montero rapped a verse from the song while walking on a treadmill.

“You know I love you, so I say this s–t with love/ But please tell your fans they need to shut the f–k up/ I’m doin’ real s–t, some never-worry-’bout-a-bill s–t/ Some build a house on the hill, s–t/ The money’s gravy, it’s coming crazy,” he raps, adding the swaggy lines, “My big sis just had another baby, popped ’em out the labia/ My other nephew sittin’ in the class with a broken knuckle/ He had to beat a ni–a ass for talkin’ ’bout his uncle.”

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Now, Lil Nas continues, he doesn’t condone that kind of violent behavior, then quickly changes his mind, counseling, “F–k it, yeah, I said it, I condone thats–t/ Choke that ni–a out/ Go corona on that b–ch/ Walk that ni–a like a dog, nephew own that b–ch.” The chorus leans into a gospel vibe with a heavenly choir of Monteros singing, “Lean on my body, Lord (Amen, amen, amen) Bring blessings on my soul (Amen, amen, amen)/ And when the war is over (Thank you)/ See it’s time to tell the world the war is won.”

Lil Nas has been teasing that his upcoming mixtape, Nasarati 2, is just around the corner, but at press time there was no firm release date for the follow-up to the 2018 original. Last week he posted the hard-hitting “Right There,” which he first previewed in an Instagram Story in February.

Lil Nas has been candid about the struggle to choose songs for the tape amid concerns over his fans’ perceptions of his music. Earlier this year, he wrote on Instagram, “Been hoarding music for years smh i hate my relationship with fear of my songs not doing well and perception. i wish i could just release music and not give af.” That said, he has also dumped a handful of snippets on fans to see what their reaction is in an apparent effort to aid in his track-picking.

After posting “Lean,” a fan named Mya commented, “these songs are literally hits it’s insane he’s not putting them on all streaming platforms…,” to which Lil Nas responded, “I just want yall to enjoy the music for now. We gone get to that!”

Listen to the full “Lean On My Body” and watch the rebooted teaser below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z8R3X2apYfQ&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

18 Apr 2024

BTS ‘Monochrome’ Pop-Ups Coming to Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila

A BTS pop-up shop is headed to a number of cities in Asia and to Los Angeles beginning later this month. The K-pop supergroup’s label Big Hit Music announced on Wednesday (April 17) that “Monochrome” will debut in the on-hiatus group’s hometown of Seoul, South Korea beginning on April 26 through May 12.

The event that Big Hit said will feature the theme “memory clouds,” will consist of “clouds containing memories of the time BTS and ARMY spent together,” presented inside bottles, according to JoongAng Daily. The stunt comes along with a delivery-themed website that allows fans to find out more details about the pop-up by completing a series of challenges while checking for “deliveries” by figuring out passcodes related to words and dates of significance to the group.

The store, which will also open outposts in Tokyo, Jakarta, Bangkok, Los Angeles and Manila, will include never-before-seen portraits of BTS as well as on-site events. A 30-second teaser video continues the packaging/shipping theme, opening with images of a conveyor belt filled with glass jars containing lightning-flecked floating clouds. The screen then explodes into pixels as the words “Eternal Youth” flash below a series of seemingly random numbers.

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Those words explode into another pixel field that flashes images of the group’s members before coalescing into the barcodes on shipping labels for the various pop-up locations and then transforming into a black box with the word “Monochrome” written in large white letters. The final image is of a package floating in a white void with the same MNCR logo as the cryptic delivery website.

At present, all seven members of the group — V, Jimin, Jungkook, Suga, RM, Jin and J-Hope — are in the midst of their mandatory South Korean military service, with the full group not expected to reunite until next year.

Check out the Monochrome preview video and the pop-up dates below.

18 Apr 2024

Raye, Smashing Pumpkins, Tems and Duran Duran Set for 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival

Raye, Sting, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, Janelle Monáe, and Duran Duran lead the lineup for the 2024 Montreux Jazz Festival, set for July 5 – 20 on the Lake Geneva shoreline.

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Organizers roll out the changes for this year’s 58th edition, including a fresh layout with a new main stage erected on top of the famous Swiss lake, and a return to the historic Casino, the setting of the classic Pink Floyd concert from 1970, and which was later razed and inspired Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”.

Deep Purple will return to perform on the lake this year, joining a lineup that includes PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Jungle, André 3000, Air, Tems, Tyla and many others.

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After a triumphant night at the 2024 Brit Awards, where she scooped a record six trophies, Raye will perform on the Lake Stage, doing so the same night as Janelle Monáe.

More than 40 years after forming in Birmingham, England, Rock Hall-inducted pop-rock legends Duran Duran will make their Montreux Jazz Festival debut this year, off the back of the Halloween-influenced 16th studio album Danse Macabre, which opened at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Chart in November 2023, for their 12th top 10 appearance.

Established in 1967 by late jazz connoisseur Claude Nobs, the festival has hosted many of the greats of contemporary music, from Prince to David Bowie, Nina Simone, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Elton John and others. Mathieu Jaton has directed the fest since 2013, the year Nobs passed away.

Nearly 250,000 spectators attend the event in a regular year, which continues to evolve and introduce audiences to styles and tunes well outside the broad world that is jazz, with a bill that also takes in pop, hip-hop, Afrobeats, trip-hop, classic rock, soul and funk.

The event paused in 2020 due to pandemic, returned in 2021 with a downsized format, and was back to its regular programming in 2022.

The general ticket onsale starts Friday, April 19 at montreuxjazzfestival.com.