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Some spur-of-the-moment decisions — and some industry champions — have led singer-songwriter Ella Langley to her breakthrough song, and her newly released debut album.
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“It’s not even my birthday, but it feels like the best birthday I’ve ever had,” Langley told Billboard on Aug. 2, the release day for her 14-song debut album Hungover, out on SAWGOD/Columbia Records.
Langley’s Alabama twang has been all over social media lately, thanks to “You Look Like You Love Me,” a pedal steel-soaked, flirty song about a woman making the first move. The Hope Hull, Alabama native teamed with fellow country hitmaker Riley Green for the largely spoken, retro-sounding collaboration, which sits at No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The track previously reached No. 5 on Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 chart, and peaked at No. 36 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
“You Look Like You Love Me” was gaining steam even before the song became a duet. In May, Langley posted a clip to TikTok of singing the song’s verse and hook solo; that clip earned 10.5 million views. Langley was opening shows on Green’s Ain’t My Last Rodeo Tour earlier this year, when the two performed the song together in a spontaneous moment during the final show of the tour.
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“We had no idea we were going to do the song that night onstage, but we did,” Langley says. “He’s from Alabama too, and I remember a long time ago playing for a line of people waiting to get into a Riley Green show. I didn’t have a ticket, I just watched his show through the gate. So getting on his tour was good. I really just sent it to him so we could sing it together on tour. We had been doing another song together, but then we just ripped into this song and it’s been a whirlwind ever since,” Langley says.
In June, a video was posted to TikTok of Langley and Green performing the song together during a soundcheck at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Their voices wrapped around the song’s amorous verses resonated; that 30-second TikTok clip now has over 12 million views.
”It kind of blew up that way,” Langley says.
With the song riding high, she follows with Hungover, an album that seems poised to showcase Langley as an intrepid artist with a fully developed perspective and a fine-tuned sound, thanks to songs like the sashaying “Cowboy Friends,” the tender “People Change” and honky-tonk heater “Better Be Tough.”
In addition to potent songs, Langley has been a road warrior. She will launch her 14-date headlining North American tour later this month, interspersing those dates between opening for Morgan Wallen’s One Night a Time Tour, as well as opening shows for Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley. She just opened for Wallen at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, marking her first stadium shows.
“It was insane,” she recalls of playing the stadium. “I was talking to Lainey [Wilson] the other day about when I used to watch concerts as a kid and how I just had the toughest time going to watch concerts. I wanted to be up there so bad — just like, I could throw up. So, getting up in that stadium yesterday felt like that little girl’s dream just came true, and just letting her enjoy the hard work that’s been put into this.”
Below, Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for August opens up about her new album, country music’s current communal spirit, and the journey of “You Look Like You Love Me” from creation to hit song.
How did “You Look Like You Love Me” come about?
“You Look Like You Love Me” was written two years ago, inspired by a conversation with one of the song’s co-writers, Aaron Raitiere. His ideas are nuts and I love writing with him. We were in a write and he was like, “So how’s your relationship life going?” and I said, “Honestly, I’m at the point where if they look like they love me, I just got to get out of there.” And he was like, “That’s a great song title.”
Six months later, we had another writing session. I wanted a funny song that I could play around a bonfire. We literally just hit record and wrote probably 16 verses and then picked our favorite ones and put it together. Then Riley added a verse, and it’s just this sweet love song.
You never meant for this song to be released as a single. How did that happen?
Mya Hansen, who was my publisher at the time but is now on my label side, always loved the song. I was like, “Mya, this song is just a joke.” She tried to get me to put it on the EP [2023’s Excuse the Mess] and I didn’t let her. So, she put it in the Dropbox link on her own for this album, and that’s how the label heard it — it was the last one of all of the demos. Everyone loved it, and I was like, “If y’all believe in this song, then let’s cut it.” It was right after we cut it that Riley asked us on tour.
How did you first get interested in music?
My whole family is musically inclined. I was three years old the first time I got up to sing in church. My mom tells a story where my grandpa sits down at the piano and we’re going to do “Amazing Grace,” and my mom’s trying to help me with the microphone and I’m three years old, and I’m like, “I got it. I know how to do it,” and everyone in church is laughing. So this is what I’ve always wanted to do. When I was a teenager, I picked up guitar.
Did you play in a band in high school?
I played a lot of wedding ceremonies. Then I played bars and restaurants and everywhere that would let me play. I went to Auburn for two years and that got me into the cover gigs, the bar scene and the [Southeastern Conference] schools. That was a massive education, because you learn so much playing covers for four hours, multiple nights a week, trying to make people give a s–t. But I reached the point where I was like, “Nothing’s going to happen if I stay here,” so I moved to Nashville and I’m glad I did.
There are some very personal songs on Hungover, like “Closest to Heaven,” which is based on the story of your grandparents. What does that song mean to you?
My grandma had a stroke when I was 10 or 11. My grandpa lived with us and she was in a nursing home. We’d bring her home to stay the night. My grandpa passed away and a lot of times when someone is at the end of their life, they bring a pastor into kind of talk with and it’s kind of like a quiet moment. He came over and my grandmother was there and they wheeled her into my grandpa’s room and shut the door. I’ll never know what was said in that room, so this is my song about what I think was said.
You have this collaboration with Riley. Who else is on your bucket list of collaborators?
Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert. Miley Cyrus has also been at the top of my list—I would love to even just sit in a room and ask her questions. And Ashley McBryde’s songwriting is so incredible and just very real-life and honest. I think me and Megan Moroney could come up with something awesome.
There have been several artists, such as Megan, who have brought your name up as an artist to watch. How do you react to that?
It’s hard to comprehend because you spend so much time wishing for something to happen and when it does start to happen, it’s nuts. Just to hear people you respect say that. [Megan and I’ve] known each other since before we moved to Nashville. I was at Auburn and she was at Georgia and my manager Bradley Jordan is part of a sunglasses company that’s partnered with Luke Combs, Blue Otter Polarized. Megan was doing a lot of influencer stuff back in the day and Bradley connected us. We wrote together once right when she moved to Nashville. It’s just awesome to see how many women are crushing it right now and we’re all just friends. It’s fun, it’s supportive and everyone has worked so hard to get here, so it’s great to be excited for everyone.
What was the first concert you saw?
The only concerts I saw growing up were at the Montgomery County Fair. The first person I remember seeing was Justin Moore. I remember Luke Combs came through right when “When It Rains It Pours” blew up, and I got sick that night and couldn’t go. I had the worst FOMO ever, not going to that concert.
What’s the best advice you have heard along the way?
I heard Chris Stapleton on a podcast when I moved to town, and this has been stuck in my brain ever since I heard it. Joe Rogan asked him about advice for young artists, and he said, “When you’re putting out songs, you never know the song that’s going to change your life — and then you could be stuck singing that song for the rest of your life, so really pay attention to the songs you release.”
Venezuelan conductor and violinist Gustavo Dudamel received the 14th Glenn Gould Prize during a ceremony at Carnegie Hall on Aug. 2. Dudamel is music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and is set to become music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026.
Previous recipients of the Glenn Gould Prize, called Laureates, include Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Leonard Cohen, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Alanis Obomsawin, Philip Glass, Robert Lepage, and Oscar Peterson.
Dudamel, 43, is the first Laureate who had previously been awarded the Glenn Gould Protégé Prize, having been selected by his mentor and Glenn Gould Prize Laureate Dr. José Antonio Abreu in 2009.
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Selected by the Laureate themselves, the Glenn Gould Protégé Prize is awarded to an outstanding young artist demonstrating exceptional promise with a cash award of CDN$25,000. This year, Dudamel selected two young conductors, both also from Venezuela, to share the Protégé Prize – Andrés David Ascanio Abreu and Enluis Montes Olivar.
The Canadian Consul General to New York, the Hon. Tom Clark, and Glenn Gould Foundation executive director Brian Levine, presented the awards onstage at Carnegie Hall during a concert in which Dudamel conducted the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
“It is a huge honor to receive this prize,” Dudamel said in accepting his honor. “Years ago, I was a Protégé Prize winner, given to me by my Maestro Abreu. It makes me very proud, especially to be here with all these amazing young people from my country, Venezuela.”
Nominees for The Glenn Gould Prize are submitted through an open, public nomination process and can come from a broad range of artistic fields. An international jury comprised of artists and professionals from diverse disciplines convenes in Toronto, Canada (where Gould was born and where he died) to review the nominees and select the Laureate. The Glenn Gould Prize Laureate is awarded a cash prize of CDN$100,000.
The Glenn Gould Foundation, established in 1983, is a registered Canadian charitable organization dedicated to celebrating excellence in the arts and promoting cultural enrichment globally.
Gould, a Canadian classical pianist, won four Grammys and three Juno Awards. He is best known for Bach: The Goldberg Variations, which he recorded in both 1955 and 1981. The earlier recording was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year, his digital re-recording won both a Grammy and a Juno for best classical album. Sadly, all of these awards were posthumous: Gould had died in 1982 at age 50. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2013.
In the early ‘90s, an unlikely Ecuadorian immigrant blasted into mainstream superstardom with his Latin pop-rap sensation “Rico Suave.” The surprising Spanglish banger by Gerardo — which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on Hot Rap Songs, and 12 on Dance Singles Sales — catapulted him into unexpected icon (and sex symbol) status, marking a significant moment in the cross-pollination of Latin music and the Billboard U.S. charts.
The then-budding star had already appeared in a plethora of big American films, like Can’t Buy Me Love and Colors, and won a national breakdancing contest. After achieving mainstream recognition, he transitioned to working behind the scenes as an A&R for several big music corporations, playing a pivotal role in Enrique Iglesias’ U.S. breakthrough, and later contributing to the rise of reggaetón in the ’00s.
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Today, Gerardo Mejía, once a dynamic performer who danced his way into the hearts of millions, has shifted rhythms — morphing from a pop sensation into a seasoned music executive for UnitedMasters, a pastor, and even a coffee entrepreneur.
In an interview with Billboard Español, Gerardo reflects on the fame that the ’90s afforded him, his groundbreaking journey into Christian rap in Spanish, and his role behind the scenes as an A&R, helping to bring FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s No. 1 Latin Songs hit “Gata Only” to the mainstream. (Moreover, he shares insights into his latest entrepreneurial venture, launching his own coffee brand — aptly titled Rico Suave — as he leverages his legacy to brew up another kind of success.)
Looking back to 1991 when your hit “Rico Suave” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 — what were your thoughts about achieving such significant success as a then-new artist?
At that time, I was like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t really know what was actually happening. Nowadays, we see a lot of Spanish songs that have crossed over, and you see them on the [all-genres] Billboard [charts]. In those days, there wasn’t what we call the Latin resurgence, it wasn’t worldwide. It was very regional. You had L.A. and the East Coast where you would hear some of the Latin stuff.
I recently went back and looked at when we got to No. 7. If you look at that chart [dated April 13, 1991], all the top songs were rock [or pop]. There was nothing in there that said that I had to compete with other Latinos [except Gloria Estefan]. In those days, I didn’t know that we were breaking into something new. I was just happy to have my record out there. MTV picked it up and was happy that people recognized me. I felt like Forrest Gump in this new world, walking into situations and meeting the big artists that I used to look up to. I was part of that, which I enjoyed very much.
From the left Peter Lopez, Ted Field, Jimmy Iovine, Gerardo, Sylvia Rhone, Doug Morris at the “Rico Suave” record release party
Courtesy of Gerardo Mejia
Was introducing Spanglish within the mainstream pop landscape a challenge for you?
At first, “Rico Suave” was all in Spanish. I shot the video myself and sent a big ol’ ¾ tape to MTV International. It was the hot stuff back then. I was doing a movie in Acapulco, and I hired a director to film my video. This is before I got my record deal with Interscope Records. I released that song, it got played on MTV International, and then all the labels were trying to sign me.
When I got to the label, which was an all-American label, talking to Jimmy Iovine, he was like, “Man, this song is a hit. It’s taking off. Can we do an all-English version?” I’m like, “I think you’re going to [lose] a lot of what it is if you that. I please you, you please me. Why don’t we do a Spanglish version?” We called it “the Spanglish version.” That’s the one you heard on the radio.
Prior to “Rico Suave,” as an adolescent you won a breakdancing championship. Did winning that contest kickstart your confidence?
Whenever there was something at school, my mom had me do poetry and recite these long things. Since I was little, I was used to being in front of people. I was very comfortable. Then my dad would throw parties at the house when I was young. He built me this dance studio, and he would bring all his friends, and say, “You gotta see my son [dance].” I’d be break dancing, and popping in front of them.
Gerardo Mejía
Randee St Nicholas
There was a dance contest in those days called Dance Fever, in which all the states competed. My friend and I from California won $50,000! I was 19. I was studying to be an accountant, and I remember telling my dad, “Dad, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. I think this is an open door for me.” He said, “OK.” That’s what I love about my father. I had a big dream, and he just told me, “Listen, study. If any reason this doesn’t work out. You got this.” I guess it worked.
You moved to L.A. at roughly 12 years old from Ecuador. How did this cultural shift tune your musical style and personal identity?
In Ecuador we have a thing called pasillos. There’s a big guy named Julio Jaramillo. I grew up with that. My mom had me when she was 15 years old. When I was little, she would come in with her record player and the 45s. She would play Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” and “I Wish.” She loved American music. Once we came over here [to the U.S.], it wasn’t much of a culture shock, because I was kind of living it over there through my mother. I just totally enjoyed both cultures. Mi país es súper salsero, super duper.
If you hear the “Rico Suave” song, there’s a little sample that goes, “Ahhh, rehh, ari.” That’s from an old song [“Chamo Candela”] from Venezuela by a group called Daiquirí. I used to love that song so much that I [sampled it], which became the part that people chanted. Some people might not know the Spanish lyrics to “Rico Suave,” but they always sing along with that chant.
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You appeared in the 1988 film Colors, about gangster culture in L.A. What memories do you have about being on set or behind the scenes?
Right after breakdancing, I did a movie called Winners Take All (1987), and then Can’t Buy Me Love (1987). The third was Colors. I wasn’t a gang member. I was a break dancer, but I knew every cholo. My friends always be like, “We got you homie.” I was their homeboy.
When I went in for that role, I remember Dennis Hopper and Sean Penn being right in front of me. There was a guy that used to live in my neighborhood in Pomona. They used to call him Trouble. That was his cholo name. I basically did everything Trouble was: I slicked my hair back with Vaseline and put [on] the hair net. I went to that audition, and they actually asked me what side [gang] I was from. I let them buy into it. I remember there was a scene that I improvised where I do the two, one [gang sign], when I did that, Dennis got up, and he was [like], “We gotta call your agent.” They did and I had the role.
Gerardo Mejia
Courtesy of Gerardo Mejia
You then delved into Christian rap with your album 180° (2004) and a compilation, La Iglesia de la Calle (2007). Can you walk us through what inspired this shift to Christian music?
[Making Christian music] is happening to a lot of artists right now; Farruko, Daddy Yankee… Rappers, we don’t depend on our vocal skills, we depend on our experiences. There was a time in my life that I felt like I had lost it all, and I was struggling, trying to maintain the “Rico Suave” persona, but it was just too much, and I couldn’t do it. I gave my life [to God]. I told God that I was going to serve him from then on, and I have never gone back after making that decision. That inspired me to write.
I remember my pastor always telling me, “You gotta do music again.” “Man, I don’t want to get into music again, Pastor,” I said, “They criticized me so much in music. I don’t want to get criticized again. I’m happy being back here.” He was like, “No, you gotta do this.” And out of that, I went 180 degrees. To this day, every day [I get messages from fans] from that video of a song called “Sueña,” which is very inspiring. It’s worth a lot more than these Gold and Platinum records I have in my office. That was a pivotal point of my life. God showed me what was valuable in life and what wasn’t.
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How did your collaboration with Spanish-language rap pioneer Vico C “Raperito” unfold?
He came out with an album called Aquel Que Había Muerto (1998), which inspired me. I used to cry to certain songs on that album. I used to ask God, “Lord, whatever you did with Vico, can you please do it with me?” I started writing 180° which reached the top 5 in Italy, not even “Rico Suave” did those numbers. After 180°, I wanted to do the first Christian compilation. There were a lot of compilations going on those days, and they hadn’t done anything like that. I called it La Iglesia de la Calle.
I reached out to Baby Rasta, Vico, Noriega, and a lot of other artists, and pioneers. I sent [Vico] the hook to “Raperito,” and told him, “My brother, let’s guide the up-and-coming generation that are going through it like we did.” He loved the concept. I flew up to New York to knock out the song. Then we went to Venezuela to film the video with Venezuelan director Pablo Croce. I also went to promote the video with Vico in Puerto Rico.
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Not a lot of artists have gracefully transitioned into music executive roles. How did that happen for you?
I was broke. I didn’t know how I was going to survive, but I knew music. Even when I knew it was my time to give up that “Rico Suave” persona, I went back to the same people that hired me as an artist, Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field. I said, “Listen, give me the opportunity. I know how this crossover business works.” They did. They gave me the chance. Within a year, I signed Enrique Iglesias to Interscope Records. I worked with him on Enrique (1999), where “Bailamos” appears, and then Escape (2001) with “Hero.”
Afterwards, I worked for Univision Records — which is not around anymore, it got pulled in by Universal. At Univision, I got to see the strength of what reggaetón was going to be. I got to be in a spot where I was signing artists. The song that I helped Jowell & Randy and Arcánge put together was “Agresivo” [from the compilation La Calle, Vol. 1, 2007]. I also got to work with Ivy Queen, La Caballota. From then on, I knew that reggaetón is going to grow and it’s not going to stop. After that, I leave because Univision gets bought out.
Jimmy Iovine, Enrique Iglesias and Gerardo Mejía
Courtesy of Gerardo Mejia
Enrique had just put out the song “Bailando” (2014) with Gente de Zona and Descemer Bueno. At that moment, I was going a lot to South America, and I remember Nicky Jam was blowing up in Colombia. I said to Enrique, “Bro, you gotta do something with Nicky.” I talked to Nicky’s management, and Nicky sent me the song “El Perdón” (2017). I said, “Wow, this is a hit.” They were going to put it out, and I said, “No, hold it. Let me call Enrique.” We saw how the [reggaetón] crossover began to happen through Enrique’s pop strength. All the reggeatón started becoming more [mainstream], it wasn’t so street anymore. I got to see that.
Your biggest recent achievement is FloyyMenor’s hit “Gata Only,” with Cris MJ, which impressively topped the Hot Latin Songs chart for 14 consecutive weeks. How did you discover him?
That is crazy! Listen, I don’t want to take credit for that song. Four or five years ago, you saw online rap battles in Chile, and these amazing lyricists coming out, like this guy El Menor who is an amazing battle rapper. So I was looking at [Chile] and how the music was surfacing. Three years ago, I was early on to sign a kid named Nickoog Clk, and he did great for us. I picked up the moment: I said, “Something is happening in Chile.”
When I saw Floyy, I saw a young, hungry kid who had lyrics. This is what drove me to making the deal. He had put out music that millions were listening to, but nobody knew who the heck he was or what he looked like. If you go back on YouTube to his old songs before “Gata Only,” you’re going to see a song called “pa la europa.” Look at the video. It’s a car! That makes me think, these people are loving his music. There’s something that this kid is doing. It wasn’t because he was this pretty boy or this dude with an amazing personality. It was his music. I said, “I need to go see this guy.” I did and I was sold.
Nickoog, Gerardo & Floyymenor.
Courtesy Photo
He showed me that song [“Gata Only”]. [He wanted to release it] by Christmas. “I said, Floyy, nobody’s going to listen to the song during Christmas time. They’re going to be listening to Mariah Carey.” He’s like, “No, yo lo quiero sacar.” “We’re going to waste it,” I said. We first released it in January.
Then, boom! I looked at the data and was like, “This can’t be!” It just kept growing. So I fly to Chile to sit down with him. [I told him] “We need to adapt to what’s happening.” He was very street, so I said, “You gotta do a little more turnaround. This is what’s working for you. We go with what works.” The moment when I arrived, Cris MJ calls, and he tells him, “I want to be on that song.” [Floyy] looks at me, and I said, “Bro, get going now!” He went and got the song with Cris. We took the other one down, put the new one out, and the rest is history.
You launched your own Rico Suave Ecuadorian coffee brand. What inspired that?
I went to Qatar. UnitedMasters distributed songs for FIFA [World Cup Qatar 2022]. When I went, there was a fair. I see all the flags, Mexico, Spain… And I’m looking for Ecuador. Then I smelled coffee and saw the Ecuadorian flag. We have great coffee [in Ecuador]. I sat down with the guy — I’m like, “Bro, this smells amazing. What’s the name of your coffee?” He said, “I don’t [have one]. I sell it by wholesale to brands like Starbucks.” I said, “We gotta talk.” We [eventually] became partners.
There’s no difference in how I promote an artist and my [coffee] product. I treat it just like an artist. Through Amazon, I see where I get my buyers and start pushing those areas, just like I would do a record. I see how the data dictates consumers. I have 30 years in this business, and one thing I’ve learned is I follow the people. We were in Amazon and in South America, but now we got a big distributor on the East Coast. There’s so much competition for people’s eyes nowadays. You gotta put something that takes it to the branding, un café Rico y Suave. I should have thought of that 30 years ago!
Rico Suave Coffee
Courtesy Photo
It’s a great full circle story! With such a diverse career, from a pop idol to music executive and a coffee entrepreneur, what else can we expect from Gerardo?
More artists and more music. I hope to find those stars that are home right now. Artists, oftentimes, one can see them and say, “I wouldn’t have paid a cent for them.” “Why?” “Because he didn’t look the part.” What does looks have to do with anything? Nowadays, it is about music. I listen to the culture. I love seeing how it’s evolving. I’ve been right about a lot of things pertaining to pop. I see several places that are about to boom. Puerto Rico was once the Mecca of [Latin] urban, then Colombia for a long time. Now you got Chile, Mexico, but those other places, they’re not going to stay dormant. They’re about to do the same thing. You will see.
Machine Gun Kelly has a year of sobriety under his belt and he has girlfriend Megan Fox to thank for helping him stay “completely sober from everything” since he quietly entered a rehab facility last year. “I’m completely sober from everything. I don’t drink anymore. I haven’t drank since last August,” MGK, 34, told Bunnie XO on her Dumb Blonde podcast on Monday (August 5).
Kelly said he went to rehab after wrapping up his European tour in July 2023. “I didn’t tell anybody outside of the [people] closest to me. That was my first time I ever went to rehab,” he told Bunnie, the model/influencer/podcaster and wife of country star Jelly Roll. “They just gave me so many ways to operate the body, show where this anger is coming from, and methods to quell it.”
He said he met with a number of therapists and psychiatrists, some of whom “gave up on me,” before he came to peace with his condition. “It’s a constant tightrope walk,” he said of sobriety after admitting he “went the f–k off” with drugs in his 20s.
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“I continue to embrace that this journey is gonna be hard for me, but I accept it and forgive myself. I’m also really hard on myself, very self-deprecating,” he said, while also thanking longtime partner actress Fox for standing by him. “Megan has for sure been extremely helpful in dealing with the kind of psychological withdrawals that come with [sobriety]. I love that I’m clear when I look at the person I love. I’m really happy that I’m clear when my daughter [Casie] and I are having our conversations and I’m coming from a place of being centered and holding space for what a child needs from their parent, which is patience and advice.”
The one thing MGK joked “kills” him is that at one point Bunnie asked the singer if he was up for a drinking contest with his “Lonely Road” collaborator Jelly Roll, and a sober Kelly had to politely decline. “It just kills me because I just know I would have f–king drank that man under the table!” MGK laughed during what was otherwise a very measured, intense pod.
The conversation also touched on the rapper/rocker-turned country crooner’s difficult childhood, including a mea culpa for the anger he’s previously expressed in interviews about his parents, especially his late father. “They deserve forgiveness,” he said of some of the comments earlier in his career he made about his traumatic upbringing. “He [MGK’s father] was so tormented from some of the most insane s–t I could imagine a kid could go through that he had to figure it out with almost every possible bad circumstance going against him.”
The singer, born Colson Baker, grew up the son of Christian missionaries and he described the trauma of his father being implicated in the murder of his own father when he was nine-years-old. “The story that was always told me was that their dad dropped the gun and his head essentially blew off,” MGK said haltingly about the horrifying accident and the generational “curse” he’s been told about by mediums in reference to the men in his family. “That all happened in the room with my dad at nine-years-old. So him and my grandmother were tried for the murder. They were both acquitted.”
He recalled his dad’s “gnarly” freak outs whenever a young Colson would make loud noises, a reaction that made the rapper “hate him,” though he know realizes that what he was reacting to was his father’s childhood trauma. Though he didn’t go into details, MGK said he discussed the incident with his father when he was on his death bed, which made the musician realize he’s “projected myself to be somebody who has the stamina to endure… all these things that come with fame and criticism and hate because I fought back with all those traumas by becoming what I always wanted my dad to be, which is like tough, and shake everything off and fight anyone that comes at you.”
The nearly two-hour, wide-ranging chat also touched on MGK’s troubled relationship with his mother, whom he also admitted to “misrepresent[ing] her a lot early in my career.”
Listen to MGK talk his rehab stint on Dumb Blonde below (sobriety talk begins at 1:46:45 mark).
American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special, a two-hour retrospective special, will air on Sunday, Oct. 6, in the time slot that the 2024 AMAs was going to fill. That show has been bumped to May 2025. It will be the first yearly AMAs show since the one that aired on Nov. 20, 2022 with Wayne Brady hosting.
CBS and Dick Clark Productions announced on April 26 that the 2024 AMAs would run in the Oct. 6 timeslot. It was to have been the show’s debut on CBS after nearly 50 years on ABC. Instead, the AMAs franchise will debut on CBS with an anniversary special which promises to be more ambitious than a standard “clip show.”
American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special will feature new performances, artist interviews, special guests, and exclusive never-before-seen footage from DCP’s extensive archives.
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The program will feature themed highlights from AMAs’ expansive show archives, each culminating with an original performance or artist interview. Segments will look back on the evolution of specific artists and genres at the AMAs, as well as award and performance milestones. The performances, created just for American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special, will include collaborations, debuts from today’s top stars and appearances from AMAs legends. Performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The special will air concurrently on both coasts, from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET/5:00-7:00 p.m. PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special is produced by Dick Clark Productions.
ABC aired a 20th anniversary American Music Awards special in 1993. Kenny Rogers hosted the two-hour program.
Nominees on the AMAs are based on key fan interactions as reflected on the Billboard charts – including streaming, album sales, song sales and radio airplay.
The AMAs were created in 1973 as a fan-based alternative to the Grammys. The first two Grammy live telecasts in March 1971 and March 1972 aired on ABC. When the Grammys shifted to CBS for the March 1973 telecast, ABC looked for a show to fill that void and went with Dick Clark’s fan-based show.
In December 1973, Clark was working on the first AMAs, which would launch on Feb. 19, 1974. The veteran producer knew a little publicity couldn’t hurt, so he found time for an interview with Billboard’s Bob Kirsch which ran on page one of the Dec. 15, 1973 issue under the headline “ABC-TV Slates Favorite Acts’ Awards Feb. 19.”
At the end of the piece, Clark attempted to take the long view of his fledgling show and said “If this is done properly, we may have a show that will last 20 years and will finally get the general public involved in popular music awards.”
Clark underestimated the longevity of his own creation. Next year’s AMAs will be the 51st. (There were two shows in 2003 and none at all in 2023 or 2024.)
That first show in 1974 ran just 90 minutes. It has been allotted three hours for many years, though the length of the 2025 show has not been announced. The show in the first five years had a tight focus on three broad genres – pop/rock, soul/R&B and country. It now recognizes far more genres, including hip-hop, Latin, inspirational, gospel, Afrobeats and K-pop.
But, for the most part, the vision that Clark outlined to Kirsch in 1973 still guides the show.
“This is probably the first time a major effort has been made to sample the U.S. public music taste through popular vote. … To date, we have received extremely favorable response from those in the music industry we have talked to about the show. They seem delighted at the opportunity to be honored by the music-buying public.”
Helen Reddy, Smokey Robinson and Roger Miller co-hosted that first show – each representing one of the three main genres. Reddy, who was red-hot at the time, was also the inaugural winner of favorite pop/rock female artist.
Clark, a master showman, was a legend in both music and television. He received a trustees award from the Recording Academy in 1990 and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1992. He died in 2012 at age 82.
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As a country artist, Cody Johnson has topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart twice, has won CMA Awards, and has been headlining shows for years. He’s also a longtime cowboy, who recently won a top spot in the World Series of Team Roping Qualifier. But could Johnson have his sights set on the big screen?
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With his riding and roping skills, it would seem that Texas native Johnson would be a natural on Taylor Sheridan’s hit television series Yellowstone — in fact, Johnson had to turn down a role on the show due to scheduling conflicts. But he told Audacy‘s Rob + Holly that he’s been in discussions with Sheridan and his team about some future acting possibilities.
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“We’ve tried a couple of times [to appear on Yellowstone] and my schedule is too busy to put aside the time,” Johnson said. “We’re looking ahead to the future. There’s a few movie things were I’m like, ‘Look, if you guys give me the notice I can make this happen.”
Meanwhile the “Dirt Cheap” hitmaker recently extended his headlining Leather Tour, adding 10 shows to the trek, including a show at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on Nov. 9. Whether he’s on stage or (presumably at some point) on the big screen, Johnson knows the impact he’s having on younger generations and it’s a role he takes seriously.
“It’s not lost on me that these kids, these young men will come to the shows… eight- and nine-year-old kids and say ‘Mr. Cody, when I grow up I want to be just like you’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, Johnson, you better make sure you’re putting forth a good example… don’t screw this up, because then you’re letting that kid down.’”
Johnson says he wants to be a good role model not only due to his influence on younger generations, but because he’s thankful for the career he’s forged and the family he’s been blessed with.
“In my younger years I was pretty wild,” he added. “I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to have a career that I never thought was possible, to have a marriage that I never thought was possible, and to have two little kids that I couldn’t have dreamed of in my wildest dreams. I think you either screw it up or you man up.”
Of course, Johnson wouldn’t be the first singer to appear on one of Sheridan’s projects. Reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson has had a recurring role on Yellowstone, while Ryan Bingham has portrayed the role of Walker. And don’t forget, actor-musician Luke Grimes was already a Yellowstone star when he decided to make his foray into country music.
Rihanna went home over the weekend to attend the Crop Over Festival in her native Barbados and, as usual, she came dressed to impress. The singer strutted in the parade on Monday in a towering bedazzled costume that featured brown and gold jewels snaking up from her ankles to her shoulders, with thin strips of […]
Here’s the thing: when you’re a pop star you get to do things that most mortals never get to. And when you’re a gamer pop star you get to do some of those things in a giant stadium while chilling out before your show. At least Ed Sheeran does. The singer posted an Instagram video […]
The Midwest Princess is about to be crowned in the U.K.
Based on midweek sales and streaming data captured by the Official Charts Company, Chappell Roan is heading for her first No. 1 with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Island), her long-brewing 2023 debut LP.
Released last October last year, Roan’s rise has been at times brisk, and blistering, following the breakthrough of her single “Good Luck, Babe!,” currently at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Chart; a support slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour; and the Willard, Missouri native’s explosive set at Lollapalooza, which a spokesperson has described as the festival’s biggest daytime set ever.
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According to the OCC, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess lifts 3-1 on the Official Chart Update, thanks to the release of a vinyl variant. Two cuts from the LP have impacted the U.K. Top 40: “HOT TO GO! “(peaking at No. 19) and “Red Wine Supernova” (No. 38).
Charli xcx’s BRAT (Atlantic) summer continues to heat up. The British artist and producer’s sixth studio album is forecast to rise 6-2, its equal peak position, as the single “Guess” jostles to become the U.K.’s No. 1 single.
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Taylor Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department (EMI) should complete a podium, up 4-3 in its 16th week on the tally.
Following its official release, White Stripes frontman Jack White could net his sixth U.K. top 10 album with No Name (Third Man), new at No. 6 on the chart blast. The White Stripes frontman got tongues wagging last month when vinyl copies of the record were mysteriously handed out customers at Third Man Records in three cities.
Finally, Ye — the artist formerly known as Kanye West — and Ty Dolla $ign could nab a top 10 debut with VULTURES 2 (YZY), which surprised dropped on early Saturday after plenty of uncertainty. It’s predicted to debut at No. 9. The first VULTURES album peaked at No. 2 in February.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, Dec. 9.
During a recent interview with Kerrang!, Grammy-winning artist St. Vincent, known off-stage as Annie Clark, didn’t mince words when discussing what she considers the “worst song ever written.”
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Her choice? John Mayer’s 2003 hit, “Daughters.”
“It’s just so hideously sexist, but it pretends to be a love song,” St. Vincent told the British heavy music title. “It’s really, really retrograde and really sexist. And I hate it… It’s so deeply misogynistic, which would be fine if you owned that, but it pretends like it’s sweet.”
St. Vincent’s critique seems to zero in on the song’s lyrics, which advise fathers to “be good to your daughters” to ensure smoother relationships for men in the future.
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Despite St. Vincent’s critique, it’s worth noting that “Daughters” was well-received at the time of its release.
The song earned Mayer a Grammy Award for song of the year in 2005, beating out the likes of Alicia Keys and Kanye West. It also topped Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart and reached No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
In the same interview, St. Vincent spoke far more warmly about other songs that shaped her musical journey.
She fondly mentioned Steely Dan’s “Fire in the Hole,” reminiscing about long car rides filled with their music. She also praised Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ “Into My Arms,” calling it a “perfect love song.” But when it came to Mayer’s “Daughters,” there was no such nostalgia or admiration.
The revelation comes amid the release of St. Vincent’s latest album, All Born Screaming, which dropped in April.
“It’s about life and death and love,” she told Billboard in June. “And that’s it.”
“Every record I’ve ever made has been so personal about what’s going on in my life at any given time. I’m queer. I know how to code-switch. The idea of identity as performance has been very clear to me since I was a child… I’m queer, I’m living in multitudes, but this record in particular is not about persona or deconstruction.”