Music

12 Mar 2024

The Black Crowes Rediscovered Their Southern Harmony on ‘Happiness Bastards’ Reunion Album: ‘We Have a Psychic Thing’

Nobody knows you like your brother. But, oh brother, when siblings scrap — you better believe that the bruises are deeper, the damage longer-lasting and the chance of saying something truly hurtful much, much higher.

That might explain why, for reasons they’d rather not revisit in microscopic detail, Black Crowes singer/lyricist Chris Robinson, 57 and brother guitarist Rich Robinson, 54, did not speak to each other for eight years. Not a single word — resulting in missed birthdays, health crises, birth of children, marriages and divorces, but also the mundane, everyday check-ins brothers are used to making with each other. Not a syllable exchanged after spending more than half their lives making music and touring together.

But to hear the brothers tell it today, there wasn’t one single incident or backstage blow-up that definitively pushed them apart. At least not one either man can manage to (or want to) remember.

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“In the Victorian age, we would be considered eccentrics,” says Chris about the hard-to-pin-down story of how the Southern blooze brothers went from wowing crowds to a stony, years-long total communication breakdown that seems hard to fathom. “I’m not sure what you would call that today, but we decided on [this reunion] through an intermediary — someone in the middle who could handle the situation with kid gloves.”

“A band is a family dynamic and on top of that we have an [actual] family dynamic… the two heads of this band are family and everyone has to deal with that, no matter how toxic,” explains Rich — who, in keeping with the sibling’s preference spoke to Billboard on a separate call from his brother; they also keep their own dressing rooms on the road. “That creates its own dynamic in the band and it all became incredibly toxic and we split up for a long time and in those years of doing what we do it allowed Chris and I to really get outside of this thing.”

In classic Robinson fashion, that “thing” also included Chris going solo during their mid-2000s hiatus with the eye-pokingly named Chris Robinson Brotherhood side project. Ouch. The almost too-perfect sibling rivalry storyline marched on following the release of 2001’s Lions and a joint tour with fellow famously quarrelsome brother duo Oasis — winkingly called the Tour of Brotherly Love — after which the Crowes went on hiatus in 2002. They got back together with a different lineup in 2005, then embarked on what seemed like their final tour: the 2010 Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys outing, after which they went on indefinite hiatus again.

Another brief reunion run in 2012-2013, a hard, seemingly final break came in 2015 over what Rich described at the time was his brother’s demand for a bigger share of the income pie. Rich says the split was preceded by the Robinsons falling into the “same traps” in the midst of what had become an “incredibly toxic” atmosphere. That break turned into a hell-freezes-over situation, during which both brothers swear they never once spoke for nearly a decade — until reuniting around the 30th anniversary of Shake Your Money Maker, after a chance encounter in, of all places, an airport Hilton in Cincinnati.

The back-and-forth, hot-and-cold yo-yoing became a trying signature of the Marietta, GA-bred duo who bonded early over their love of classic blues and Muscle Shoals soul, British folk and Southern rock. Rich was just 17 when he wrote “She Talks to Angels” and a year older when the group recorded their 1990 debut album, Shake Your Moneymaker. The division of labor — Chris writes the lyrics and sings, Rich writes and composes the music — worked like a charm, as the band released five more albums throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, scoring such MTV and rock radio hits as “Angels,” “Jealous Again,” “Remedy,” “Thorn in My Pride” and an iconic cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.”



After their hardest break to date, the duo finally got back on the same page last year to record their back-to-the-start album Happiness Bastards — due out Friday (March 15) on their Silver Arrow label. The Robinsons’ first new album under the Crowes banner in 15 years explodes out of the gate with the galloping Stones-y boogie rocker “Bedside Manner” and keeps the torrid, hip-swinging pace through the grungy snarl of “Rats and Clowns,” the hand-clapping, soul stirring first single “Wanting and Waiting” and the pugnacious southern blues “Dirty Cold Sun.” It is a loud, gritty reaffirmation of the Crowes’ signature sound, albeit one spiked with the memories, and scars, of more than 30 years of hard road.

“It wasn’t like I got on the phone and said, ‘Let’s do this, I love you, I want to talk about where I feel I failed us,’” Chris says of the rapprochement. The hard-won harmony came after what the vocalist dubbed years of “greed and avarice” around the band and his own self-described stubbornness and “egotism” mucking up the works. “We’re a bit too Southern for that [I love you stuff], with English stiff-upper-lip bulls–t going on.”

While Chris says he couldn’t articulate precisely what he missed about working with his brother at the time of their break-up because of calcified, long-running “real or imagined” resentments he harbored, what he knew was that music was, and has always been, “the glowing heart” of his soul. And so, he knew he had to get over the roadblocks they’d each set up to kickstart his rock ‘n roll heart again. “We were happy and excited and there was definitely some trepidation about what it would be like,” Chris admits, saying that anxiety stemmed in part from the realization that they had dug such a cavernous hole in their professional and personal lives.

“The things that I missed and made me feel low was, ‘Oh Richard has some medical operation,’ and the human part of being a brother thinking how that must have been scary — and I wasn’t there for you,” Chris says, adding that, yes, it was “very weird” that they hadn’t met each other’s kids: Rich has seven and Chris has two.

Though Rich went on to tour with Bad Company, produced other bands, wrote and produced four solo records and make three others with his his band The Magpie Salute, what would always ultimately happen was he would look to his side and see what was missing. “I was always still writing for Chris… every song I write I still think about how he will sing the chorus and about giving him a platform to sing over,” Rich says in a blood-is-thicker sentiment that no amount of water could dilute. “It’s hardwired in there.”

That’s why after that hotel bump-in Rich says they agreed to clear the decks, take responsibility for the triggers that set them off and not let “some external force come back in and f–k around with us… start from scratch, bring in new people and put our relationship first.”

The fire this time is evident from the opening Happiness salvo, “Bedside Manners,” in which the brothers sound shot out of a cannon on a track Rich says came together in a lighting flash five minutes, much as “She Talks to Angels” did three decades before. “This one f–king plopped out and it was so great, Chris and I were both right there with it,” he says of the song that rumbles with his galloping guitar topped by his brother’s go-ahead-and-read-into-it-what-you-will, snarling lyrics about “what you’re doing to me/ Stab a knife in my back and then you want a please/ With friends like these who needs enemies.”

Chris says the homage to decadent rock and roll living and trashed hotel rooms also has a message about dealing with other people’s judgement, as well as an undercurrent of the Robinsons’ determination to retain an “element of defiance in a world dictated by compliance… we can deal with that and we’ve survived that,” the singer says.

You can also hear the Robinson’s unique alchemy reignited in the patented ache in Chris’ voice on the churning “Cross Your Fingers” and the Exile on Main Street-like acoustic ballad “Wilted Rose,” which features backing vocals from country singer Lainey Wilson, a frequent collaborator of the album’s producer, Jay Joyce.

Both men say the high-energy first single, “Wanting and Waiting,” came in a flash, though Chris thinks his brother might be under the impression that it’s a love song, while he sees it as more “woeful.” In another classic Robinson move, they haven’t discussed the song’s meaning — because of what the vocalist says is a superstition that if they started hashing their inspirations out, “these things might go away.”

It is also easy to put on your therapist cap to deconstruct the seemingly olive-branch-extending, heartbreak lines in Beatlesque album-closing acoustic ballad “Kindred Friend.” On that touching track Chris croons, “Kindred friend, where have you been?/ I guess it’s been a while/ Through thick and thin/ And many times again/ Always make me smile.” Rich loves that the sentiment in the song is “cool but not obvious — it could be that or something else,” while Chris agrees it could work “on a number of levels,” chronicling his relationship with Rich, a dear old friend he’s fallen out with, a former lover or even the band’s audience.

“The mystery is that as different as we are he believes equally in that pure heart of things,” Chris says lovingly of his younger brother. The singer pointed to the moment that proved that to him: a 2019 audition for new band members that marked the first time the brothers had performed together in years. “It was just so powerful,” he recalls. “I can’t take one of the most unique guitar players in rock ‘n roll history out of how important that is, and he feels the same way about my talent and what I do.”

Chris Robinson chalks it up to a “psychic” connection, but a brotherly one as well — and says the new album’s rich tapestry and heartfelt emotion is also a result of the emotional depth each man developed to deal with one another during their time apart. “What we do is special and that’s what we have to nurture,” he says. “It has given us so much.”

Check out the Black Crowes’ first music video in 16 years below.

12 Mar 2024

SiriusXM’s ‘Billboard Women of Pop Countdown’ Returns, Celebrating Over 50 Years of Chart Hits

SiriusXM and Billboard are celebrating Women’s History Month with the Billboard Women of Pop Countdown.

The Billboard Women of Pop Countdown premiered March 11 on SiriusXM’s channel 79, where it will run through March 17. It’s also available on-demand on the SiriusXM app.

The feature, which first aired last year, spotlights the top songs by women from the start of the 1970s through — as newly updated — 2023, based on by performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and via Billboard’s Greatest of All Time chart methodology. (Channel 79 will count down 1,000 songs, while the top 100 will air on-demand on the SiriusXM app.)

The Billboard Women of Pop Countdown spans classics from Olivia Newton-John to Olivia Rodrigo, “Kiss Me” to “Kiss Me More,” and Donna Summer to “Cruel Summer.”

The feature is part of SiriusXM’s She’s Got the Mic campaign, in which, every March, SiriusXM and Pandora celebrate Women’s History Month, amplifying women’s achievements and cultural and historical contributions.

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(For those who aren’t SiriusXM subscribers, eligible customers can click here to sign up to get their first three months of SiriusXM streaming for free.)

The Billboard Women of Pop Countdown marks the latest partnership between SiriusXM and Billboard. Recent airings include the Billboard Music Awards Channel, the Billboard #2 Countdown Channel and the Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown. Additionally, SiriusXM’s Big 40 Countdown, on ’80s on 8, and the Back in the Day Replay, on ‘90s on 9, are based on historical weekly Hot 100 charts, with other current and classic charts counted down on channels including ’70s on 7, Prime Country and TikTok Radio.

12 Mar 2024

Christian Nodal Didn’t Want To Be ‘Anyone’s Shadow’ — So He Became Mexico’s Mariacheño Megastar

It’s the tattoos that really make Christian Nodal stick out like a sore thumb. With his inked-up body — and face — he looks more like a rapper or rock star than the exploding regional Mexican artist he is.

“I didn’t want to be anyone’s shadow,” Nodal declares. “I felt that the genre was stigmatized under all these stereotypes, and I wanted to break all of that because I was unsatisfied to see that our genre wasn’t going far enough.”

Since launching his career in 2017, Nodal, now 25, has made a name for himself (sometimes with sharp elbows) as a maverick in a genre long bound by tradition. From the time he started at age 18, he has revolutionized regional Mexican music by pioneering mariacheño, a subgenre fusing mariachi’s strings and horns with the norteño accordion.

Trending on Billboard

“I didn’t want to disrespect anyone, much less the mentality of some of these [regional Mexican] legends who think the genre should sound and look a very specific way,” he explains. “But that wasn’t me. I didn’t feel part of it. I wanted to make it my own.”

Christian Nodal plays Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW on March 15. Get your tickets here.

When we meet in mid-December at Lienzo Zermeño ­— where charreadas, or Mexican rodeos, take place in the middle of Jalisco’s bustling city of Guadalajara ­— Nodal beams with pride as he recounts the arc he has followed to become one of Latin music’s biggest stars in a few short years. He may look like a malote (bad guy) — he jokes about the role he would probably get cast for in a movie because of his tattoos — but he’s far from it, offering friendly hellos to the ranch’s workers and flashing a shy smile to the bystanders who recognize him but are too timid to introduce themselves.

Nodal’s entry into the regional Mexican world was a bit less genteel. When he started his career, the music’s leaders were purists who leaned heavily on the traditional sound that had worked for them — and for the genre that has been around for more than a century. That left little room for experimentation, and some in the industry initially balked at Nodal’s unorthodox approach. “I think the first year they saw me as the new kid, but by my second year, I don’t think they liked that I was still around. I saw a face of the regional Mexican that was quite raw, real and ugly,” Nodal says. “I was disappointed and thought, ‘OK, we probably won’t be creating a bond, much less collaborating. Fine. I’m going this way and [making] regional music bigger.’ ”

To that end, Nodal has collaborated with artists well beyond regional Mexican, including Romeo Santos, Kany García, David Bisbal, Sebastián Yatra and Maná — but without sacrificing his mariacheño style. (His few collaborations with regional acts include Alejandro Fernández, Banda MS and Ángela Aguilar.) He has also sought out new songwriting voices, including the Grammy Award-nominated Edgar Barrera, who co-wrote some of Nodal’s biggest hits.

That willingness to challenge genre norms propelled the mariacheño singer — whose urban cowboy aesthetic incorporates leather vests, diamond necklaces, statement earrings and heavy rings on his fingers — to a remarkable year both professionally and personally in 2023. In December, he wrapped his Foraji2 Tour, a 31-date arena run produced by Cárdenas Marketing Network that kicked off in August and followed his 22-date 2022 Forajido tour. He won his sixth Latin Grammy Award (best ranchero/mariachi album) for Forajido EP2, and he scored his 15th No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart — a record for a solo artist since the list launched in 1994 — with that set’s “Un Cumbión Dolido.” And he became a father when he and his partner, Argentine rapper-singer Cazzu, welcomed a baby girl in September.

“I remember those times when I would come down from the stage and feel alone,” says Nodal, who now lives in Argentina with Cazzu and their daughter. “Now I come down to a stroller with my baby in it, and it all seems perfect. She has already been on tour with us, and I thought it would be hard, but she’s a rock star,” he says, getting choked up. “When she was born, I was feeling exhausted. I don’t know how I managed to change diapers, but she gives me energy, motivation and strength.”

Christian Nodal Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

Dolce & Gabbana shirt, Chrome Hearts vest, belt and jewelry, and Braggao and John Varvatos jewelry.

Lisette Poole

A lot has changed — not just in his personal life, but in the broader Latin music landscape — since Nodal released his first single, the achingly beautiful “Adiós Amor,” in 2017. Powered by wailing trumpets, a stirring accordion and Nodal’s strikingly mature and evocative baritone, the song quickly established him as one of the great vocalists in the genre. It earned him his first Regional Mexican Airplay No. 1 and spent seven weeks atop the chart. “When working with Christian, these two things are always present: He’s like an artist from another planet when making music, and [he sings] it in a spectacular way,” says Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin-Iberia, which signed Nodal in early 2022.

Now, thanks to the doors Nodal has opened in just a few short years and the sound he pioneered, regional Mexican is dominating the Latin charts, and a new crop of artists — who sing corridos tumbados, tumbados románticos, sad sierreño, or whatever the latest iteration of the genre is, and are keen to collaborate — has taken the lead, helping globalize the music that, while a backbone of Latin, was long considered meant for a niche audience. But none of those performers have dominated quite like Nodal — and he has done it on his own terms.

“Everything can coexist,” he says. “I enjoy fusing sounds, but I don’t run toward something just because it’s working [for others]. I’m very careful not to deviate from my purpose. I still need to feel proud of what I do.”

Born in Sonora, a northern Mexican state that borders Arizona, and later raised in Guadalajara and Ensenada, Baja California, Nodal grew up in a musical household, listening to pop, rock, rap, bachata and more. But he also developed a great respect for regional Mexican — it “practically fed us,” he says — from an early age. He loved to watch his grandfather play the trumpet: “I think before I wanted to be a singer, my goal was to be a trumpeter like Arturo Sandoval.” His father and manager, Jaime González, who has also played the instrument since childhood, is an industry veteran who managed late sierreño singer Ariel Camacho, a major inspiration to Nodal. Today, González’s record label/management company JG Music includes Nodal, Los Plebes del Rancho de Ariel Camacho and Los Elementos de Culiacán. González met Nodal’s mother, Cristy Nodal, while they were in the same musical group, in which she sang lead.

“We’ve been musicians all our lives,” González says. “From a very young age we instilled music in all our children, but more as a hobby or tool to help them with their emotions. Not so much as a business, because we have been doing this for a long time and it is not easy.” But Nodal wanted to sing, so his mother, a longtime mariachi singer, taught him. “They were committed,” González remembers. “At first, I didn’t want to get on board because I didn’t have the time and I didn’t want this complicated career for him because he’s very sensitive. But when I would come back from tours with Ariel, Christian and his mom had several songs already written, and I said, ‘OK, fine. I’ll produce an album for you.’ ”

Christian Nodal Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

AMIRI shirt, Alessandro Vasini jeans, Chrome Hearts, and Braggao and John Varvatos jewelry.

Lisette Poole

That first unofficial album included a cover of “Adiós Amor,” a song previously recorded by Los Dareyes de la Sierra. His mother wanted him to record it in mariachi style, but “I really thought of mariachi as music for older men,” Nodal says. He honored her wish, but at Nodal’s request, his father added the norteño accordion — to represent his “esencia sonorense” (Sonora essence) — along with banda-style trumpets and subtle violins.

“People responded really well to it on social media,” González remembers. “It’s as if the world had been waiting for Nodal.”

When “Adiós Amor” went viral, Nodal’s team comprised Cristy, then his de facto manager, and González, who was his producer. “I remember I would see cars pass by [in Ensenada] blasting the cover I had uploaded to Facebook,” he says, laughing. But then he noticed a problem: No one knew he was the one singing the song. “I think people expected it to be an older man, and it was funny when I would be at clubs in Guadalajara and they’d play my song and I would be like, ‘Hey, that’s me,’ ” he says. “They could identify the song but not the face, and I wanted that to change. It was something that kept me up at night.”

Nodal needed support — and it came by way of Universal Music Latino/Fonovisa, which signed him in 2017 after “Adiós Amor” caught the labels’ attention. By that August, he had released his official debut album, Me Dejé Llevar, which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums list, his highest ranking on that chart. But after releasing two more studio albums between 2019 and 2021 under Universal, a feud with the label turned public when Nodal took to Instagram Live to reveal he would not be renewing his contract; shortly after, in early 2022, Nodal signed with Sony Music Latin in a partnership with Sony Music Mexico. “When you’re young and you don’t know about these things, you do what you have to do to achieve your dreams,” says Nodal, who won’t share much more about the conflict. “If nothing goes wrong in your life, then you don’t learn.”

When Nodal met for the first time with Verde and his Sony colleagues Alex Gallardo (president of Sony Music U.S. Latin) and Roberto López (president of Sony Music Mexico), he made his expectations clear. “I told them that I want to have the freedom to work with any artist from any label, that I want freedom to decide when I’m going to release my albums and that I want to own my albums after a certain amount of time,” he recalls. “Afo, Alex and Roberto are people that I love very much, and they have shown me the good side of the industry. They are putting their life, their faith, their effort into the growth of an artist.”

“What helped us to build trust with Christian and a great team was that from the beginning we had great chemistry,” Gallardo says. “We knew how to listen to his needs and concerns, and we worked to provide him with as much support as possible and put at his disposal a team that would work for him and help him achieve his goals.”

For Sony, Nodal was a valuable roster addition — an “ambassador of Mexican music to the world … responsible for spreading the love for Mexican music to new generations in many countries,” as López puts it. He was also already an established star. His 2022 Forajido tour grossed $14.5 million and sold 147,000 tickets from 22 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and in 2023, he grossed $21.6 million and sold 259,000 tickets. Under Sony’s supervision, his star has only continued to rise. Nodal’s albums have earned a combined 2.2 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate, and he has 3.2 billion on-demand official streams in the United States. He has also placed 20 entries on Hot Latin Songs; five of them hit the top 10, including the No. 3 debut and peak of “Botella Tras Botella,” with Mexican rapper Gera MX in 2021. The pair’s norteño-tinged, hip-hop-infused track became the first regional Mexican song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart’s then 63-year history. (Today, more than 30 songs have reached the chart.)

“Christian was more ready for this moment than I was,” Gera MX says. “When we saw the song was blowing up, we called each other constantly. I asked him if this was normal, and he told me, ‘Guey, esto es único. [Dude, this is unique.]’ It had never happened before, much less with a mix of urban and regional. It was like riding the highest roller coaster of my life with one of my best friends.” They recorded the song at one of their carne asadas (cookouts) during the pandemic, when both were living in the same residential community in Guadalajara; Nodal would bike over to Gera MX’s house. “When we first met, I was surprised at how much he knew about rap,” Gera MX says. “He is an artist in constant evolution.”

Christian Nodal Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

Lisette Poole

González had been more skeptical of the collaboration. “He was like, ‘No, how are you going to do that? People are going to get angry,’ ” Nodal recalls. “And I told him, ‘Listen to me: This is what we’re going to start seeing in the genre.’ ”

Nodal followed his hunch — after all, it wasn’t the first time he and his father had disagreed. “If I’ve been doing this for six or seven years, it probably took us five to create a healthy relationship between us,” Nodal says. “I would go one way, and he would go another way. I didn’t want to do what he wanted me to do. I wanted to be me. It took many years to fully understand and respect each other, and it had nothing to do with our father-son relationship. Now we are completely aligned when it comes to the business of my career.”

In October, Nodal asked friends back in Guadalajara to get him three string instruments: a tololoche, a docerola and a requinto. “It got in my head that I wanted to do a corrido tumbado,” Nodal says in early February. “I fell in love with the genre. The good thing is that my neighbors in Guadalajara didn’t complain, because the tololoche is a very noisy instrument and my apartment is not very big.” After hearing the demo, Nodal thought Peso Pluma would be a great addition. So, over FaceTime, he asked the corridos singer to meet up — which they did at one of Peso’s Anaheim, Calif., concerts in December, where they agreed to collaborate. “Hassan [Peso’s real name] has a respect for me and my career, and we had great conversations.” Nodal says. “The chemistry was there.”

The resulting team-up, “La Intención,” is both a sign of the times — younger regional Mexican artists now understand that working together only strengthens the genre — and of what has given Nodal’s own career longevity. His adaptability has not only allowed him to move among styles (like pop, cumbia and urban) with ease, but also to transcend generations and remain a constant in an ever-expanding genre that in the years since his career began has become a global movement. “When I started this career I felt a big responsibility, and I still feel it today,” he says. “Not everyone agreed with everything I did early on, but now I feel that my career is projected onto the musical criteria of young artists who dare to do things differently without being afraid.”

At 25 years old, he may be the relative elder statesman of the new (and very young) generation of regional Mexican artists, but Nodal is just as fired up as when he started. “A lot of the dreams I had, I already accomplished, but I’m enjoying whatever comes. I don’t worry about the person I have to be in the genre; the most beautiful thing is to flow with what is happening because the genre will always be there. I’ll just keep releasing music from my heart [and] enjoy the process and what my fans have given me.”

Christian Nodal Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

Lisette Poole

Nodal is on a monthslong break through May, which, for him, feels like uncharted territory: He hasn’t taken any real time off since his career started seven years ago. “COVID didn’t count as a vacation, right?” he jokes. “I don’t know myself in vacation mode,” he adds with a nervous chuckle, as if coming to the realization as he says it out loud.

Today, “vacation mode” Nodal sounds blissful yet invigorated. Later this year, he says he’ll release Pa’l Cora, the album of his dreams, which will include a recording session in France with his mariacheño band in tow. The making of it, along with planning and embarking on a tour with stops in countries like the United Kingdom and Switzerland — a major milestone for an artist in a genre that typically doesn’t book European shows outside of Spain — will be captured in a behind-the-scenes documentary.

These shows, and this album, were for a long time simply dreams for Nodal. “I was constantly pressured to keep moving,” he says. Now, from his home base in Argentina, he’s able to lead a more balanced life, one in which peace and moments of inspiration aren’t mutually exclusive. “I don’t think my life has changed because of where I live but because of how I am living my life,” he reflects, sounding wise beyond his 25 years. “I think this time away from being up and down, connecting with what I love has made me realize how lucky I am. I am at my best stage in every way, in all aspects. There is a light in my life that no one can take away.”

Christian Nodal Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

This story originally appeared in the March 9, 2024, issue of Billboard.

12 Mar 2024

Christian Nodal: Photos From the Billboard SXSW Cover Shoot

It’s the tattoos that really make Christian Nodal stick out like a sore thumb. With his inked-up body — and face — he looks more like a rapper or rock star than the exploding regional Mexican artist he is.

“I didn’t want to be anyone’s shadow,” Nodal declares. “I felt that the genre was stigmatized under all these stereotypes, and I wanted to break all of that because I was unsatisfied to see that our genre wasn’t going far enough.”

Since launching his career in 2017, Nodal, now 25, has made a name for himself (sometimes with sharp elbows) as a maverick in a genre long bound by tradition. From the time he started at age 18, he has revolutionized regional Mexican music by pioneering mariacheño, a subgenre fusing mariachi’s strings and horns with the norteño accordion.

“I didn’t want to disrespect anyone, much less the mentality of some of these [regional Mexican] legends who think the genre should sound and look a very specific way,” he explains. “But that wasn’t me. I didn’t feel part of it. I wanted to make it my own.”

When we meet in mid-December at Lienzo Zermeño ­— where charreadas, or Mexican rodeos, take place in the middle of Jalisco’s bustling city of Guadalajara ­— Nodal beams with pride as he recounts the arc he has followed to become one of Latin music’s biggest stars in a few short years. He may look like a malote (bad guy) — he jokes about the role he would probably get cast for in a movie because of his tattoos — but he’s far from it, offering friendly hellos to the ranch’s workers and flashing a shy smile to the bystanders who recognize him but are too timid to introduce themselves.

Read the full cover story here.

12 Mar 2024

LAMC Unveils List of Wonder Women of Latin Music Honorees 2024

The LAMC (Latin Alternative Music Conference) will honor a group of 22 women in the 2024 LAMC Wonder Women of Latin Music program, Billboard can announce today (March 12). Journalists, publicists and executives from multiple areas of the music business will be recognized in partnership with Amazon Music.

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Launched in 2020, Wonder Women of Latin Music is part of the LAMC and kicks off as a virtual event from April 24 to 26 before concluding with a live event taking place in New York City from July 9 to 13 (for more information, click here). Wonder Women recognizes women in all fields of the Latin industry and, to date, has honored over 100 women and celebrated them through a social media campaign.

“As we embark on the fifth consecutive year of the Wonder Women of Latin Music awards in collaboration with LAMC, I am thrilled to commemorate the remarkable achievements of women in our industry,” says Rocío Guerrero, Global Head of Latin Music for Amazon Music. “Let’s persist in acknowledging, uplifting, and expressing our deep appreciation for these pioneers, as their unwavering commitment is crucial in ensuring the lasting global influence of Latin music.”

Trending on Billboard

This year’s class of Wonder Women features several music journalists, including Griselda Flores, Billboard‘s senior editor, Latin. Past honorees have included Leila Cobo, Billboard’s Chief content officer for Latin/Español; Sigal Ratner-Arias, deputy editor of Billboard Español; Isabela Raygoza, associate editor of Billboard Español, and Florencia Mauro of Billboard Argentina. The list, which is curated by the LAMC and celebrates “women making a difference in the industry,” also includes veteran publicists like Róndine Alcalá, Lyda Bulla and Rocío Gutiérrez, among others.

Here is the full list of 2024 honorees:

Róndine Alcalá – Rondene PR

Elizabeth Aldasoro – Eli Aldasoro Mgmt, Mktg & PR

Andrea Barbosa – YouTube Music

Mariana Briceño – Universal Music Latino 

Lyda Bulla – LABULLA PR Agency

Brenda Carrasco – Warner Music Latina 

Kary-An Diaz – Sony Music Latin

Kemelly Figueroa – Loud And Live 

Griselda Flores – Billboard

Michelle Gas – Amazon

Rocío Gutiérrez – Rocío Gutiérrez Marketing & PR

Rosa Guzman – Magnus Talent Agency 

Analía Maldonado – Universal Music Argentina 

Yasmin Muller – Spotify 

Isabel Paz – Latin Recording Academy 

Ana Poluyan – Agencia Apa!

Anaid Quijada – WK Entertainment

Celia Saez – The Orchard

Ana Rosa Santiago – Universal Music Publishing Group

Gabriela Urquiza – Glamrock Agency

Veronica Vaccarezza – Sony Music Publishing

Carla Varona – Sin Anestesia/RLM

12 Mar 2024

Scott Stapp Feels Grateful for Another Chance: ‘I Know What It’s Like to Have It and to Lose It All’

“Man, it’s an incredible year,” Scott Stapp tells Billboard, despite not being even one-quarter of the way through 2024. His sentiment is understandable, though: after a decade of inactivity, Stapp’s mega-selling hard rock group Creed has roared back to life this year with a slate of reunion shows that keeps growing due to overwhelming ticket demand.

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One four-night reunion-show cruise in April — first announced last July as Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips’ first shows together since 2012 — led to a second cruise, and both quickly sold out. Then a months-long summer reunion trek, amphitheater shows that will kick off in July, wasn’t enough to meet consumer demand, so Creed plotted an arena run for the fall, too. And ahead of those reunion shows, Creed experienced an online revival, thanks to viral remixes, TikTok clips, World Series sing-alongs and an appearance in a Super Bowl commercial.

Over two decades after their commercial peak (1999’s Human Clay and 2001’s Weathered have sold a combined 19.9 million copies, according to Luminate) and 10 years since they disbanded amid waning sales and audiences, Creed has suddenly never been cooler. A band that was once a critical punching bag now has no less a barometer for contemporary cool than SZA declaring, “I will be a Creed fan forever.”

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“So many positive things have already happened that are just mind-blowing, in terms of the level of Creed’s resurgence,” Stapp says.

Meanwhile, the wins have extended to Stapp’s solo career: Higher Power, his fourth album on his own, will be released through Napalm Records this Friday (Mar. 15) and is being preceded by the highest-charting single of his non-Creed career, the hard-charging title track, which has climbed to No. 12 on Mainstream Rock Airplay and earned 1.4 million streams to date, according to Luminate. Higher Power is Stapp’s most complete solo offering to date — growling and energetic, but also admirably reflective, particularly on “If These Walls Could Talk,” a powerful meditation on his well-documented past substance abuse issues, created as a duet with Dorothy Martin of the hard rock band Dorothy.

Stapp, who kicked off a solo tour last night (Mar. 10) ahead of the release of Higher Power, says that the support for the solo album and Creed reunion has “already exceeded all expectations.” He spoke to Billboard about what that encouragement means for him, personally and professionally. [Ed. note — this interview has been condensed for clarity.]

You’ve sold millions of albums and scored a ton of hits, and yet I have to imagine that the excitement around this comeback represents a special sort of achievement for you.

I’m still trying to process it, to be honest with you. It’s so profound of a resurgence that it’s an anomaly. But when I look back, I could see the build — you know, Creed was going viral online during COVID, and then it just intensified in 2021 and kept happening in 2022. And so you could see the swell of our music just connecting with an entire generation — some of whom weren’t even alive when we broke up — and then reconnecting with those that were a part of the ride back in the day.

And then to see it move from social media, to the World Series, to the Super Bowl — and then to see the overwhelming response in the ticket sales? It’s just a lot to take in. It’s all positive stuff, and so now, it’s just making sure that we’re all in a good place, we can ride on this positivity, and give the fans what they want.

You’re putting out your fourth solo album before any of the Creed reunion shows. When did Higher Power start coming together?

I went in the studio and first started writing for this record in January 2021. I had no timeline, and the whole Creed conversation wasn’t even happening — I was solely going in to write a record and then turn it in when I was done. So I began writing then and just went in when I felt inspired, when I felt like I needed to go get something off my chest, or I needed to escape and use the creative process as a form of therapy.

The album came together as a direct reflection of my life — I was living it during the period of time that I was writing it. And I was capturing the vocal performance right when the song was born, in the heat of feeling that emotion that birthed the song. A lot of times, you’ll go back and you’ll re-track vocals, and do things over again. And it’s really hard, I’ve found, to recapture some of that spirit that comes out when you’re really living it. And so with this record, I didn’t attempt to do that: I captured it, kept it, and would continue to build the music around it. And I think it really had a dynamic impact on the vibe of the record, because we captured lightning in a bottle with each song.

That certainly extends to “If These Walls Could Talk,” your duet with Dorothy Martin and one of the rare duets in your catalog.

The duet itself came together after the song was written. I recorded the vocals initially thinking that it was just another song on my record, but after I listened back, I knew immediately this needed a female vocal, it needed to be a duet. So I went on my search, looking for the right female vocalist, [and being in Nashville now seven years, I thought that this song would possibly be my entry point into country music.

I did a weekend gig in Montana with Daughtry, and I was unfamiliar with Dorothy, who happened to be opening that show. We watched her perform, and I knew two or three songs in that that was the voice that needed to be on the song. She happened to be recording in Los Angeles with the same producer that I used on this record, Scott Stevens. I reached out to Scott for something about my record, and he said, “I’ll have to get back to you, I’m in the studio with Dorothy.” And I said, “Oh, dude, I just met her in Montana! Play her ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ and see if she’s interested!” He played her the song, and he wrote me back and said, “She’s in tears. She’s in.”

A couple of weeks later, I got the email with her performance on it, and when I listened to it, I knew instantly that my gut was right. Her performance just blew me away, and I think it really took the song next level. I think it’s really going to do what I had hoped for this song — help it reach more people, and connect with more people who can identify with that message, and let them know they’re not alone in the world.

You’re squeezing in a solo tour in March to support the album. Was that always the plan before the Creed shows?

There was no Creed reunion on the table when I was making this record — the only thing that I had on my radar was making a solo record and going on a solo tour. When the cruise conversations came up, I was still in the mindset of, “I’m doing a solo record.” But then the excitement kept building, and more conversations began to happen, and the next thing you know, we’ve announced two tours, an [amphitheater] tour and an arena tour.

I remember having conversations with my team about this, and they just kept communicating to me, “Hey, this is a good thing, man. The vibes are so positive with you and the guys in Creed, and a rising tide raises all ships.” Everyone in Creed is supportive of everyone’s projects outside of the band, so I just look at it as a win all the way around — a win for Creed, and a win for for my solo record.

It’s a nonstop year, between the solo tour, the Creed cruises, the amphitheater run and then the arena run. What are you doing to physically and mentally prepare?

Well physically, I exercise and train at least five days a week at minimum — I’m preparing my body and have been for years, but I’ve even stepped it up, because of everything that’s in front of me. And mentally, I’m just trying to stay centered, grounded and focused on my faith. I know that when I’m walking right, in my spiritual life, and in my faith, good things happen. When I get off track with that, bad things happen.

But it’s still going to be challenging, and I’m approaching this like it’s a marathon. You can’t walk into anything like this like it’s a sprint, or you burn out. So you’ve got to take those moments for yourself when you need them. It’s OK to rest. It’s OK, on certain days that you have nothing to do, you clean your plate and take a mental and physical timeout to regroup. I think at this point in my life, I know what to do. And I’m fortunate that I’m going to have people around me that support me and encourage me, and are there to help me navigate as well, because there’s no point in trying to do this alone.

What’s it been like messaging back and forth with the other Creed guys as more shows get announced and viral moments occur?

Overwhelming, in a positive way. All our correspondence and all our interactions have been nothing but good vibes. Everyone wants everybody else to win, and everyone’s excited about getting onstage again. We’re just gonna ride this wave and really appreciate it in a whole new way. Because you know, especially from my standpoint, I know what it’s like to have it — and I know what it’s like to lose it all. And so this go-around is just walking in complete appreciation, gratitude and respect, and just trying to cultivate and nurture relationships. Because you never know when it can be gone again.

12 Mar 2024

Weezer Teaming With Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr. For ‘Voyage to the Blue Planet’ 2024 North American Arena Tour

Weezer are hitting the road this fall for an all-star indie rock tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their iconic 1994 “Blue” album. The Voyage to the Blue Planet North American outing will feature support from the Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr., with Weezer performing their self-titled debut album (known as the “Blue Album”) in total, along with fan favorites and rarities.

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The Live Nation-promoted 22-date tour will kick off on Sept. 4 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota and feature stops in Toronto, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Nashville, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco before winding down on Oct. 11 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Fans can sign up for Weezer’s mailing list to get presale ticket access beginning Wednesday (March 13) at noon local time. Citi card members will also have access to a presale for the U.S. dates beginning Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time through Thursday (March 14) at 10 p.m. local time here.

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The Ric Ocasek-produced Blue Album is a beloved 1990s classic, featuring such iconic Weezer tracks as the band’s quirky breakthrough hit “Undone – The Sweater Song,” as well as “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So” and favorites including “My Name is Jonas,” “In the Garage” and “Holiday.”

In addition to the 30th anniversary tour, Weezer will play a special anniversary show on Friday (March 15) at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles with Keanu Reeves’ Dogstar as support. According to a release announcing the show, the Lodge gig will serve as a full-circle moment, mirroring the band’s March 1992 show at Raji’s, where they opened up for Dogstar; they will play the Blue Album in total with special, as-yet-unannounced guests.

Check out the dates for the Voyage to the Blue Planet 2024 tour:

Sept. 4 – Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center

Sept. 6 – Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena

Sept. 7 – Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena

Sept. 8 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ Scotiabank Arena

Sept. 10 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden

Sept. 11 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

Sept. 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center

Sept. 14 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem*

Sept. 17 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena

Sept. 18 – Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Sept. 20 – Orlando, FL @ Kia Center

Sept. 21 – Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood*

Sept. 27 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center

Sept. 28 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center

Sept. 29 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center

Oct. 1 – Loveland, CO @ Blue FCU Arena

Oct. 4 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena

Oct. 5 – Vancouver, BC, Canada @ Rogers Arena

Oct. 6 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center

Oct. 8 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center

Oct. 9 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center

Oct. 11 – Inglewood, CA @ Intuit Dome

*Not a Live Nation Date

12 Mar 2024

Kylie Minogue, Future, Arcade Fire Set to Headline Splendour In The Grass 2024

Kylie Minogue’s golden year continues with a headlining spot at Splendour in the Grass 2024, Australia’s famous mid-winter camping festival.

The pop superstar will headline the first night of Splendour, slated for Friday, July 19 to Sunday, July 21, at Ngarindjin / North Byron Parklands. U.S. hip-hop star Future is the Saturday night headliner, and Canadian alt-rock heroes Arcade Fire top the bill on the third and final night.

Kylie has been spinning around since the release last year of Tension, her 16th studio album. Tension blasted to No. 1 in Australia and the U.K. where it became her ninth leader, and its hit “Padam Padam” cracked the U.K. top 10.

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The party never stopped. Her Las Vegas residency, the More Than Just a Residency show at Voltaire at the Venetian, has been extended through May; she collected her second Grammy Award last month, and the BRITs Global Icon award at the 2024 BRIT Awards in England; she recently signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) for live representation in the U.S. and Canada and acting roles worldwide; and last week, she was celebrated with the Icon Award at the Billboard Women in Music event and, separately, joined Madonna on stage during the Queen of Pop’s five-night stand at the Kia Forum.

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Also on the bill for this year’s Splendour is Girl In Red, Yeat, Turnstile, G Flip, The Last Dinner Party, Tash Sultana, Fontaines D.C. and many more.

Established in 2001 and held each year in Byron Bay, a dreamy beach town on the most easterly tip of Australia, Splendour is a destination event. It hasn’t been all-dreamy for organizers Secret Sounds in recent years. The popular event was announced, then shelved several times during the pandemic. Then, in 2022, extreme weather conditions wrecked the first day of Splendour 2022, contributing to softer-than-usual ticket sales for the 2023 edition.

Tickets for Splendour 2024 go on sale from Thursday, March 21 via moshtix.com.au, with the SITG members pre-sale opening March 14. Single day tickets are priced at A$179 (plus fees), three-day tickets are $399 (plus fees), camping tickets cost $159 (plus fees) and the premium “VIP Village VIP” three-day ticket is A$599 (plus fees). 

12 Mar 2024

Madonna Welcomes Cardi B, Daughter Estere on Stage for ‘Vogue’ Session in Los Angeles

Cardi B took the stage and Madonna’s daughter Estere struck a pose as the Queen of Pop completed the west coast swing of her Celebration Tour on Monday night (March 11).

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Madonna tapped Cardi as her latest celebrity guest judge for the “Vogue” dance-off, a fun spot in her show’s step-back-in-time format.

There was no beating Estere, who, aged just 11, danced her way to a perfect score of 10. The youngster has something of a head-start; Estere cut shapes last October on opening night of Madonna’s Celebration Tour at the O2 Arena in London, for a routine to her mom’s 1990 dance anthem.

Fan-captured footage shows the latest diva moment in all its glory.

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Before tonight, Madonna had enlisted the services of Eric Andre, Terri Joe, Ali Wong and Alexa Demie as judges for the “Vogue” spot.

Katy Perry, Paris Jackson, Rosie O’Donnell, Corey Feldman, and Erika Jayne were all in attendance tonight as Madonna completed her five-night stand at the Kia Forum in Inglewood.

The iconic singer’s trek is a career-spanning look back on her hits, personal struggles, pop culture impact and enduring influence.

On night one of her L.A. stretch, the 65-year-old superstar revealed that the severe bacterial infection she suffered in June 2023 –which led to her hospitalization and the postponement of her current run— at one point made it nearly impossible for her to move around.

Then, pop planets collided last week when Madonna joined forces with Kylie Minogue on stage for a duet of Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” and a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” a party favorite with the LGBT+ community.

On another night, Madonna was quick to apologize when she accidentally called out a fan in a wheelchair for sitting during her performance.

Next stop on the Celebration Tour — Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms this Wednesday night (March 13).

12 Mar 2024

Nile Rodgers and Esa-Pekka Salonen Named 2024 Polar Music Prize Laureates

Nile Rodgers, who co-founded Chic and produced hits for a wide variety of artists, including Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Sister Sledge and Madonna, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish-born composer and conductor whose long list of accomplishments include leading symphonies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, have been named the Laureates for the 2024 Polar Music Prize. Both will be honored in the presence of the Swedish Royal Family at a ceremony and banquet on May 21 at Stockholm’s Grand Hotel.

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The prestigious Polar Music Prize was created by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, famed Swedish writer/producer/label owner/publisher and manager of ABBA, and first presented in 1992. This year’s Laureates, who will be in attendance, will each receive a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor (approx. $96,700 U.S.).

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Rodgers first came to prominence as co-founder (with Bernard Edwards) of Chic, the band that made its Billboard Hot 100 debut in 1977 with “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” and netted two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, “Le Freak” and the oft-sampled “Good Times.”

Salonen, born in Finland, has enjoyed global success. He is currently the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and was previously the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Rodgers and Salonen both have numerous connections to Sweden. Rodgers remembers a conversation he had with Prince about the Scandinavian country. “He told me he wanted to move to Sweden because there were so many beautiful girls who drive BMWs,” Rodgers tells Billboard exclusively. “And Chic was the last band to record in the Polar Music studio. They had already closed the studio for good but re-opened it for us.” The Polar Music studio was originally owned by Stig Anderson and is where ABBA recorded many of their hits. Also, Rodgers worked with and was a mentor to Avicii, after they met following the famed DJ’s appearance at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2012.

Growing up in neighboring Finland, Salonen first traveled to Sweden as a child, on the overnight ferry from Helsinki. “I’ll never forget my first time in Stockholm. My parents took me to a pizzeria. There were no pizzerias in Finland at the time, at least to my knowledge,” Salonen tells Billboard. “I was taken with the sheer beauty of the city. It’s one of the most gorgeous cities, partly because it’s built on a set of islands and there are also beautiful buildings.”

As an adult, Salonen lived in Stockholm for 10 years. When he returns for the Polar Music Prize ceremony and banquet in May, it will not be the first time he will be receiving a prize from the hands of King Carl XVI Gustaf. “I attended the Polar Music Prize dinner in 1996. The Laureates were Pierre Boulez and Joni Mitchell. The next day I received a medal awarded to me when I was stepping down as the chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The King gave me the medal and he commented on the tempo that I had chosen the night before for a performance of an overture by Wilhelm Stenhammar called ‘Excelsior!’ The King said to me, ‘You took that piece at quite a lick, didn’t you?’ I told him he was absolutely right. It was perhaps faster than usual. He was very happy. He turned to his aide and said, ‘I told you, didn’t I?’ So that’s a very fond memory. Somehow these things are mysteriously intertwined.”

“In Nile Rodgers, we honor a groundbreaking pioneer whose legacy spans his work as co-founder of Chic and as record producer and creator behind so much of the world’s greatest music,” says Marie Ledin, managing director of the Polar Music Prize. “Nile’s impact in pop culture is incomparable and his timeless songs will continue to delight, uplift and inspire for many years to come.”

Of Salonen, Ledin says that he “is an innovator. His artistic curiosity, creativity and forward-thinking approach to composing and conducting paves the way in classical music. He is a master of tone, perfectly balancing sound and emotion to produce and lead music that deeply moves the listener.”

Rodgers and Salonen join a long list of Laureates that includes Elton John, Ravi Shankar, Metallica, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Renée Fleming, Paul McCartney, Grandmaster Flash, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Isaac Stern, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Sonny Rollins, Diane Warren, Gilberto Gil, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, Yo-Yo Ma, Miriam Makeba, Björk, Wayne Shorter, Patti Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Chris Blackwell, Iggy Pop, Angélique Kidjo, the Kronos Quartet, Youssou N’Dour and Chuck Berry.