Music

14 Feb 2024

Hit Songwriter Toby Gad on Why He Took a Break From the Industry — And Why He’s Back With ‘Piano Diaries’

Toby Gad’s music career began in the late ‘80s – and like many long careers in music, it has hardly been a straight line rising to the top. If anything, the German songwriter-producer’s journey brings to mind a hiking trail that winds through a mountain range: There have been tough, uphill ascents, breathtaking overlooks, extended rest stops and the occasional detour.

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Over the last couple decades, Gad has written songs for and with stars including Beyoncé (“If I Were a Boy”), Demi Lovato (“Skyscraper”), Madonna (“Living for Love”), Fergie (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”) and John Legend (“All of Me”), with the latter two songs topping the Billboard Hot 100.

Following a whirlwind period of hitmaking, Gad looked at his jam-packed schedule and decided to take a bit of a breather in the mid ‘10s. After becoming what he calls a bit of a “surf bum” in Los Angeles, he found himself back in the industry when Deutschland sucht den Superstar – the German version of the Idol franchise – invited him on the show as a judge.

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The stint reinvigorated Gad, who is currently back in L.A. and prepping for the release of Piano Diaries – Volume One. The album, slated for a mid 2024 release, finds him reimagining some of his signature songs, tapping previous collaborators (Keke Palmer, Victoria Justice) and fresh faces (Camylio) for new, stripped-down versions. Last month, he previewed the project on The Kelly Clarkson Show (a TV program hosted by yet another one of his star collaborators) with an intimate performance of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” featuring Justice on vocals.

Ahead of the release of Piano Diaries – Volume One, Gad spoke to Billboard via Zoom from his poolside L.A. studio, which boasts a grand piano (the one he and Legend wrote “All of Me” on) and a gorgeous view of the city – not bad for someone who spent several years living on instant soup in New York City waiting for that career-making song.

You were recently on The Kelly Clarkson Show, and you’ve known her for years. What’s it been like to watch her become this big daytime TV star in America?

I’m really happy for her. The first time we worked together on the Stronger album — before we even got into studio — she asked if we can go out for dinner. So we met in Silver Lake and had a dinner together. And we were just chatting away for two hours. And she’s such a wonderful, warm-hearted person and wants to know about your family and tells you all about her life and her family. And I think that’s why she has this show — because she loves talking to people. She has a very approachable way. If she talks to you, you instantly feel like, “We could be friends.”


https://youtube.com/watch?v=ntPqt1dxyF8&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

On her show, you performed a reimagining of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” with Victoria Justice. What was it about Justice that made you reach out to her for this particular song?

She has actually not sang for a long time. She’s put a lot of energies into just acting and then recently she began releasing some music again. There’s one song, “Only A Stranger,” that she released which is very soft. And when I heard that I just was really curious to see what she would sound like on “Big Girls Don’t Cry” with a soft rendition, because the [original] song is Fergie’s belting voice. It worked out and she was totally happy that I called her. We were having so much fun. If you look into her TikTok, there’s dozens of little video clips of us climbing mountains or going through L.A., surfing together. Anything we can connect to the song, it’s so much fun. We actually were just in Baja for three days writing a few more songs.

So there’s more coming with her?

That won’t be Piano Diaries, but for her, we just wrote some stuff for her. And it was a lot of fun.

You mentioned TikTok — what do you think of it? It’s become such a big part of the music industry.

Short answer, I think it’s an amazing opportunity in general – TikTok, Instagram, being able for artists to have a direct conduit to their fans and directly let people hear what they’re doing. This is such a blessing. Most of my career was the old days where you would depend on record labels. Between you and the listener, there was always label. Now any artist anyone can just release something and publish it. And that’s incredible. I love that. And just recently, we restarted my Kite Records record label, and we’re releasing Piano Diaries on that via AWAL and Orchard. And it’s such an incredible opportunity. I love it.

You also have “Little Do You Know” with Keke Palmer and Aloe Blacc. You worked with Keke, what, 15 years ago?

When she came from Akeelah and the Bee and had Barbershop with Queen Latifah, then she got a record deal with Atlantic Records. We wrote a few songs – I think I had three songs on that Atlantic Records record — and she must have been 12 or 13 years old. I have some videos from back then — she always wanted to do the trust fall with me. She was such a powerful, driven kid back then already. I called her up and she was like, “Yes! Let’s do it.” Aloe is the sweetest, too, they have amazing chemistry.

So with Keke, have you kept in touch all these years?

I reached out to her last year — I was a judge on German Idol, and we filmed a documentary about my life for the German network. I asked her to be part of that and she was happy to come over and give some interviews. And that was nice. I actually reached out to a bunch of people: John Legend, Leona [Lewis], Natasha [Bedingfield], Colbie Caillat, everyone did little interviews about the relationships we’ve had work-wise and it made it onto this one-hour documentary that aired in Germany. “Bottoms Up” is one of the songs we had back then and also True Jackson, VP, her TV show, we did the title song. So every now and then our lives intersect.

You also have a new version of “Skyscraper” that you did with Camylio. He has such an amazing voice, how did he come across your radar?

I heard of Camylio a while ago and that was actually a little trickier because he’s signed to Universal/Republic so we had to convince his label. I’ve been a fan of his voice for a while, we’ve written together every now and then. I just wanted to hear it with a male voice — with a very strong male voice — and I think he did a beautiful job on it. We haven’t locked in the next single yet, but we have “All of Me,” which is going to be Colbie Caillat, and for “If I Were a Boy” or “Untouched,” but I’m not sure who it’s going to be. Who would you want to hear on these songs?

God, great question, putting me on the spot. Maybe SZA on “If I Were a Boy”? I don’t know. I did want to ask about that song. You co-wrote it with BC Jean, but how did you go about putting yourself in the mindset to write from a female perspective or to help enable that perspective?

With BC Jean, I had done 10 songs with her back then, we found each other on MySpace. This was one time where we just did a little pizza run from the studio in New York — I had a studio on 46th between 5th and 6th — and we were walking down the street and she was ranting about a boyfriend and said, “Well, if I were a boy, I would kick his ass.” Or something like that. And I was like, “Wait a minute, did you just say, ‘if I were a boy?’ That’s a great line. Let’s go back to the studio and write more of what you would do if you were a boy.” I got the guitar out and we were just line-by-line thinking all the all the things she would do different if she were a boy.

What made you want to do this album in the first place, to revisit these songs in a stripped-down context. What inspired that idea?

Well, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” I wrote 20 years ago with Fergie. “All of Me” now has its 10th anniversary. When I hear them on the radio I feel like I want to record them how I hear them today. And I also wanted to make a collection with the songs that have defined my career. Also, when I write songs, I usually write on the piano here. This is the piano I like to write on – we wrote “All of Me” on this piano. Quite often, the first version of a song is piano-vocal, and I wanted to let people hear that. It has an intimacy to it. I felt it would be great to have an album where those songs are stripped down and you dig in a little deeper into the lyric. But then also remixes where it can go crazy with different styles.

So “All of Me” was written on that piano. Was it in the exact room you’re in right now?

Yeah, right in here. John was so in love with Chrissy [Teigen] and said he wanted to write a song for her. And he already had the words, “all of me loves all of you,” and he had the first chord. And then from there we just built it together. I’m still very much in love with my wife, and I was thinking, “What I would want to sing to her?” And we were trading places at the piano and an hour and a half later, it was done.

Amazing. That’s just two people in a room. I’ve read an interview with you where you opine that having a big team of songwriters can spoil a song. Why is that, for you?

Personally, to me, I think authenticity is very important. If it comes straight from a journal, basically, the song feels like it’s out of the moment and an urgent, honest emotion put into music. Then it resonates the most with me. And I think if you have many people in the room, everyone contributes their idea from a different angle, and it has a danger of possibly becoming a more generic song versus something that just happens to be really weird and original. “All of Me” isn’t weird but it touches on something in a very authentic way. It’s a love song that feels like, “Wow, he’s really in love at that moment.” I love that about songs if they feel personal.

I also want to ask about Madonna, because you worked on Rebel Heart. I gather there were some sessions where you were waiting around but she didn’t show up?

Waiting around? That was Beyoncé. That was the days with Beyoncé and Jay-Z where I was on hold for a week, and she didn’t show up the first three days. With Madonna, we had a writing camp from Interscope and she didn’t come to the writing camp. But then Interscope convinced me to do another writing camp in New York that time it was in a studio next to Alicia Keys’ studio. And they actually did show up the first day. It was very intimidating at first, but then we kind of bonded and we ended up doing five weeks together.

How was it songwriting with her?

You know, at first it was Mozella and me and S1, he’s a beatmaker from Dallas. The three of us prepared ideas, we came in a little earlier in the studio, and then when she arrived, we showed her what we had just prepared. And fortunately, she liked the ideas, and then she sat down with us. And those were just rough ideas, like a beginning of a chorus or a little hook or something. Then we worked on it together and finished it together. I recorded her and we got a routine going. And later on, she was in the studio with Diplo, and his career was exploding so he had very little attention for Madonna and Madonna was pissed. She said, “Let’s get Toby back in because he’s the finisher.”

“Living for Love,” which you worked on, is like the best song on the album.

Thank you so much. I’m debating if I should put that on the Piano Diaries album. I saw the tour right after we wrote those songs it was absolutely amazing to see how quickly she transformed those songs into something that could be performed on stage with all her acrobatics. It was such a beautiful payoff to the writing sessions, to see those songs visualized. She’s such a star on stage. It’s unbelievable.

I also wanted to ask about the new Milli Vanilli documentary. At the start of your career, you had some writing credits on their debut album. When did you realize there was some fakery going on?

We’ve never met the guys. Frank Farian took us to the studio and we recorded the three songs. And then like a week or two after that album was finished and on the charts, it was such a quick turnaround. We were pretty much watching it from the outside. We heard the rumors that they didn’t sing, but it only became really clear after the tape started jamming, and then when they had to return the Grammy. The movie is well done. It’s super entertaining. And it’s so funny, because while these things unfolded, I was in the studio with Frank but working on our album, my brother and me we were doing an album called Q during that time. And I mean, Frank had a heart attack during that time — it really got to him and it was a sh-tstorm in the studio while they were touring in America doing all these big stadium tours. They came back and said, “We must sing on the [second album],” and Frank was like, “No, the album is finished. I’m not touching it anymore. It’s coming out.”

So he must have been panicking. Was he more anxious or angry?

All of that, all of the above. It was not easy for him. I mean, it was his biggest dream to make his mark in America. So in a way that was his, “Wow, finally.” He’s a massive producer in Germany with Boney M., but I don’t think America knows Boney M.

They had a couple hits in America, but never as big as the Milli Vanilli songs.

To have something resonate in America was for him a lifelong dream, and then it going so wrong was a disaster for Frank.

Were you ever worried about how it would affect your career?

No, because people loved the music. And it was just the fact that the performers didn’t really sing. They performed, they were dancing, and at the time, it was a bit more of a grey zone. A lot of singers would have backing tracks when they performed live and sing a few words, but the fact that they didn’t sing at all, that was hard.

You’re working on Piano Diaries now, and I gather it’s not finished. Is there anyone who you haven’t worked with who you would really like to, either on this project or in the future?

I would love to work with P!nk. I think it’s about time that we write a song. Somehow it’s never happened but I think it should.

Anything else you want to add about this project?

It’s a really exciting inflection point in my career. I came to America in 2000 with a lot of dreams and very little money. The first four or six years in New York were really, really hard. There were times when I was living on a bagel and an instant soup but I just couldn’t imagine going back to Germany — I had to write the song that would put me on the map. And okay, if we go from 2005-2006 – when “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was on the map – to 2015, which was kind of the culmination of all this amazing, incredible work with all these big stars. I was the No. 3 songwriter on Billboard [in 2014], which was incredible. And then I kind of dreamt of not working anymore. My calendar was two to three sessions every day for the next several months, and I thought, “When is this going to end?” [laughs] I pulled the plug and actually learned to surf, traveled, did some home renovations, started working on a movie I’m still working on, and then became a judge on German Idol. And that was such a great experience — being in front of the camera and being celebrated for being a songwriter — that I felt I needed to write songs again. From that, I was pushing hard again. The last two years, I was working really hard on getting good songs again, and with Piano Diaries I’m for the first time looking back on this incredible journey.

14 Feb 2024

How Boiler Room’s Portal to Global Club Culture Has Become a ‘Wildly Famous’ Form of Documentary Journalism

Even for casual dance fans, the format is immediately recognizable. A tight shot of a DJ behind the decks, with a heaving, usually very enthusiastic, typically quite stylish crowd packed behind them, going for it.

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Launched in 2010, as it so often touts “with a webcam taped to a wall,” Boiler Room has become one of the most influential brands in dance music, using a globally understood visual language to telegraph dance music from around the world to a sprawling online fanbase of roughly seven million subscribers across YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok. Based in London, Boiler Rooms claims its content reaches 283 million viewers every month.

They’re tuning in to watch DJ sets from Uzbekistan, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Osaka and other locales far from the standard-issue club circuit. This year, the platform will release a documentary on a pair of simultaneous shows it did in Damascus, Syria and in Berlin, home to a large population of the Syrian diaspora.

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“These kind of breaking ground events, like in Soweto, or Syria, or Uzbekistan, really come from the belief that there is club culture everywhere,” Boiler Room’s creative director Amar Ediriwira tells Billboard over Zoom from London. “In some cases it might exist as a form of political resistance, like in Palestine or in Syria. In other cases, it’s just a lens on youth culture, but it’s really our remit to go there and switch on the camera.”

The brand has also become an IRL juggernaut. Its 2023 World Tour hosted nearly half a million attendees in dozens of cities, drawing an average of 5,500 people to not just well-trod club culture capitals like New York City, Paris and Amsterdam, but to Seoul, Mexico City, Mumbai and Bristol. 20,000 showed up for Boiler Room’s festival at London’s Burgess Park last September, marking the platforms biggest ever show. Launching this spring, Boiler Room’s 2024 World Tour will hit 24 cities including Delhi, Bogota, Edinburgh, Rio de Janeiro and Las Vegas.

“We’re able to sell out these shows largely based on trust,” says Ediriwira. “People trust our curation, and they trust the experience and the special-ness you get our shows, which I think means we can platform more emerging artists, be more conceptual and present interesting programs.”

Boiler Room’s signature livestreams, invite-only events where the crowd is made up of people closest to the artist, have maintained the sort of underground authenticity that’s heavily valued in certain sectors of the dance scene, even while drawing its share of stars, with M.I.A. performing for 50 people in the Boiler Room office in 2022 and a 2023 reunion show from U.K. pop outfit Sugababes. A livestream from U.K. greats Chase & Status was the platform’s most viewed stream of 2023. But despite this star power, Ediriwira says the company is “fully focused on grassroots sounds, documenting local stories, spotlighting emerging artists.”

Boiler Room New York City 2023

Boiler Room New York City 2023

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To find these scenes, Boiler Room employees a 50-person London-based staff and “a giant network” of researchers, artists, curators, producers, designers, technicians, stage managers and promotion partners who offer expertise and the support often especially needed more off the beaten path locales. A 2022 livestream in Karachi, Pakistan required the team to locate CDJs and speakers when organizers ran into, Ediriwira recalls, “a complete lack of equipment.” Livestreams have also happened from a fish-and-chips shop, from beaches and from the top of a mountain.

Boiler Room’s ambitious efforts have had a huge impact in showing grassroots club culture — via programming that’s vastly more diverse and equitable than most U.S. club and festival lineups — to the world. So too has it turned local artists into global names. Palestinian producer Sama’ Abdhuladi became a star after her 2018 Boiler Room set, as did Pakistani producer Lyla. Fred again..’s viral 2022 Boiler Room set put a rocket launcher on an already rising name, with his stream generating 30 million YouTube views to date.

Boiler Room was acquired by ticketing platform Dice in 2021, and Ediriwira says the integration with DICE’s platform “has been transformative to us as a business” in how it allows for seamless ticket sales and a better connection with fans. The Dice deal also centralized operations like finance and human resources, leading to “a much happier and more aligned team.” While Boiler Room makes almost nothing from its YouTube content, as it doesn’t own any rights to the music (Ediriwira says the channel generates “significant revenues” for rights holders,) its revenue comes from brand partnerships — including long-term deals with Pernod Ricard and Ballantine’s — along with ticketed events and its apparel brand.

The rise of TikTok has also fueled the expansion of Boiler Room and its star-making power, with its easily recognizable, audio-lead format uniquely suited to create viral moments. Such moments help turn hyper-local artists into globally known names, with subsequent bookings on Boiler Room World Tour show offering a pipeline of exposure for some of these acts.

The brand has become so ubiquitous in the dance vernacular over the last 14 years that when Skrillex, Fred again.. and Four Tet announced they’d be closing out Coachella 2023 with a show in the round, many declared they’d be doing it “Boiler Room-style.”

“Boiler Room invented this type of communication that didn’t exist before, and so anyone from Fred again.. and Skrillex and Four Tet to these smaller localized streams could replicate that format,” says Ediriwira. “I don’t think we really see it as competition.”

Here, he discusses the past, present and future of the project.

Boiler Room puts on so many livestreams. With the number of events you’re doing, how do you assure each experience feels special?

The biggest conversation we have is about being cautious and protecting Boiler Room. I think we’ve gotten to this point by being super consistent and investing in this format. One of the most important goals for us is growing slowly and staying grounded in our values. We could probably double the capacity of some of our festivals next year, but we want to nurture what we’re doing.

One of the ways [we do that] is by limiting the number of broadcasts and productions each year [to] 100, which still sounds like a lot. But in the past, we’ve been doing 150 and even more. Scaling back in this way sounds counterintuitive, but it allows us to focus on the curation and experience of all these shows.

What was lost when you were doing 150-plus shows?

When you don’t have necessarily a limit, it means there isn’t competition for ideas. If there’s a potentially a never-ending supply of productions and broadcasts, you can just keep adding things in. As soon as you put a limit of 100, it just forces this idea of quality. Like, we’re only going to do one broadcast in Seoul this year, so what’s the one idea the world should see.

You mentioned Boiler Room’s values — what’s the mandate there?

Our vision for programming has always been very consistent. Our thesis has always been around championing grassroots scenes and genres, emerging artists and hyperlocal [scenes.] That’s really in our DNA. It’s what the original streams in London were about — spotlighting and opening a vantage to a community, a scene and a sound coming out of London that happened to be incredibly fertile and had lot of artists involved that went on to have really big careers. Now, it’s that very localized emerging talent approach and the stories around those artists and the immediate community surrounding them.

Boiler Room claims that 283 million people watch its content every month. Break that number down for me.

The format has been wildly famous. We’ve been working year after year, event after event with this one format in a very consistent way, building up an audience of fans.

I’d go as far as saying it’s become more than a brand; it’s become a global phenomenon and a dominant method of visual communication of club culture. Almost a form of documentary journalism, except that it’s very fun and entertaining and voyeuristic. And also, unlike journalism, it doesn’t have to impose a narrative, you’re simply putting a camera and decks in the room, and you can do whatever you want in that space.

There’s something remarkable in the way that spotlighting hyper-local scenes has become one of the most recognizable and influential things in the dance space. Why do you think there’s such a fascination with locations that one might not immediately associate with club culture?

I think the world has moved in that direction. I think it’s interesting, when you think of pop stars or famous people, a lot of them have some link back to an underground sensibility or something very localized. That’s increasingly happening. That’s something we’ve always been focused on, but the world has shifted in that direction.

We do also have bigger artists play the platform, obviously Fred again.. was a massive moment. We’ve had people like PinkPantheress, Sugababes, M.I.A. Largely when we work with them, we still keep to this concept of staging it in an underground setting, making it super intimate, invite-only… But at the same time, I think we’ve become known as one of the biggest early-stage springboards an artist can have. A lot of artists become overnight sensations with us, and a lot of artists kind of attribute that career-breaking moment to their Boiler Room moment. We saw that start happening with more frequency four or five years ago.

Tell me more about that.

What’s interesting is noticing how these breaking moments on our platform are starting to happen all over the world, and not just in Western or global northern cultural capitals like London or New York. The obvious example is when we did our first broadcast in Palestine [in 2018], and Sama’ [Abdulhadi] became an internet sensation overnight practically. That show’s on like, 10 million views.

Similarly, when we did Pakistan, Lyla’s went viral and hit half million plays in a matter of months. I think there’s just this fascination of, “What does club culture in Pakistan look like?” Especially when the dominant media narrative about place like Pakistan is very different.



Obviously social media was much less of a factor when Boiler Room started in 2010. What affect have platforms like Instagram and TikTok had on Boiler Room?

In recent years, it’s completely exploded in short form. When we started out, short-form wasn’t even a consideration — but now with Instagram and Tiktok in particular, a key thing for us has been the rise of moments. You’re seeing a lot of artists break from their moments, not necessarily from their broadcasts. Tiktok has said to us that our format works really well because it’s recognizable in the feed, and it’s audio-led. Our content was popular there before we even started our own [TikTok] channel.

Then at the same time, it’s interesting, because people’s attention spans are shrinking — not to sound like an old person — but at the same time as short-form blowing up for us, we’re one of the few platforms I can think of in the music space, at least, that’s committed to long-form content. That’s our core format. That’s the archive.

Given Boiler Room’s cultural cachet, are a lot of brands vying to work with you? How judicious do you have to be about who you’re letting in?

It’s a good question. There’s a lot of brand interest in what we do. What’s interesting about that interest is people usually come to us because they know what we do, and because we’ve been investing in this one format in a very consistent way. So usually, they’re not coming to us looking to white label something or create some new concept, so much as to just invest in what we do.

It’s a really great position to be in, because I think it allows us to stay focused and consistent in what we want to do and stay true to the values we have. For us, it’s mainly about making sure we align with the brands that are interested in us, and if they’re about championing local sounds, championing emerging artists, all of those kinds of things, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t work with them, in theory.

Are there brands that come to you looking for a partnership where you’re just like, “Nah, not gonna work“?

No comment.

Is there anywhere in the world Boiler Room is particularly interested in going?

We just kicked off a series spotlighting music and cultures in the Pacific Islands with a show in Rarotonga, so we’re excited to make our return to this part of the world over the coming months and years. We’re also currently exploring launching a similar series in the Caribbean. 

Is there anywhere you won’t go?

I don’t know if there’s an outright ban on anywhere off the top of my head. It all just comes down to what the story is and championing a local story or scene we feel is authentic and part the club culture we care about.

14 Feb 2024

Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ Soundtrack Celebrates 30th Anniversary With a Box Set

Among the seminal albums celebrating momentous anniversaries this year is Tina Turner’s classic What’s Love Got to Do with It. Originally released on June 15, 1993, the soundtrack to the singer-songwriter’s biographical film by the same title is being repackaged in honor of its 30th anniversary. The brand-new special edition collection will be released on April 26 by Rhino. 

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The four-CD/1-DVD boxed set will feature the remastered original album on CD1, with CD2 sporting a compilation of edits, remixes and acapella tracks. CD3 and CD4 are comprised of Turner’s 1993 live show at Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino, Calif. This remastered footage can also be watched on the DVD along with three music videos. The boxed set also boasts a poster and a 24-page booklet. Additional album formats include one LP and two CDs; it will also be available to stream digitally. What’s Love Got to Do With It (30th Anniversary Edition) can be pre-ordered here.

Among the key songs found within the 30th anniversary collection are Ike and Tina classics such as  “Fool in Love” and “Proud Mary” (plus a previously unreleased a cappella version of the song), plus Turner’s biggest selling hit as well as her first and only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Released in 1984, the song later won three Grammy Awards for record of the year, song of the year and best female pop vocal performance before its induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.

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Tina Turner 30th anniversary deluxe reissue

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Other musical gems include “I Don’t Wanna Fight” (top 10 in the U.S. and U.K.) and Turner’s cover of The Trammps’ classic “Disco Inferno,” a song she frequently performed live in concert but had never previously recorded in the studio. Also on tap are two songs from the late eight-time Grammy winner’s 1984 breakthrough solo album Private Dancer: the title track and a different remixed version of “I Might Have Been Queen.” 

All told, according to Rhino, Turner has sold more than 200 million records and scored 10 U.K. top 10 hit singles and nine U.K. top 10 albums. Her albums combined are 20x platinum in the U.K. and 9x platinum in the U.S. In addition to her multiple Grammy wins, Turner is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and St. Louis Walk of Fame. 

14 Feb 2024

Watch Reneé Rapp Bring Country Music to Paris With an Exhilarating Cover of Beyoncé’s ‘Daddy Lessons’

As Beyoncé enters her country era, the global superstar has the unequivocal support of at least one fellow artist — Reneé Rapp.

During the Mean Girls star’s concert in Paris on Tuesday night (Feb. 13), Rapp delivered a faithful cover of Queen Bey’s 2016 country song “Daddy Lessons.” Dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a vintage T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Tejano icon Selena, Rapp performed the Lemonade cut in its entirety, even recruiting the audience to sing Beyoncé’s vocal riffs along with her.

“With his gun and his head held high/ He told me not cry, oh/ My daddy said shoot,” Rapp sang on the boisterous chorus. “With his right hand on his rifle/ He swore it on the Bible/ My daddy said shoot.”

The cover comes at an auspicious time for fans of Beyoncé as a country artist. Following a teaser in her Verizon Super Bowl commercial, Bey surprise dropped a pair of country singles on Sunday night — “Texas Hold Em” and “16 Carriages.” In the days since its release, “Texas Hold Em” began receiving play on country radio, with Sony Music eventually servicing the song to the format.

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Meanwhile, Rapp is currently embarking on the European leg of her Snow Hard Feelings tour, with Tuesday’s Paris show serving as the official kickoff for her 10 dates across the pond. Following a pair of shows in Germany on Thursday (Feb. 15) and Friday (Feb. 16), the singer will perform in the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K., before closing out her tour in Dublin on Monday, March 4. Rapp is also set to perform on the summer festival circuit this year, including appearances at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Governors Ball and more.

Watch the fan-captured video of Rapp’s full performance of “Daddy Lessons” below:

14 Feb 2024

Hopeless Records’ Louis Posen to Be Honored at 2024 A2IM Libera Awards

Louis Posen, founder of California-based label Hopeless Records, is set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 A2IM Libera Awards. The awards, the world’s largest celebration of independent music, is set to take place on Monday, June 10 at Gotham Hall in New York. The gala dinner and concert event, featuring performances from a diverse range of artists, is open to the public.

As a board member for the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) and Merlin and a two-time board member for A2IM, Posen has stood at the forefront of advocacy efforts within the United States and internationally.

“Louis’s dedication to nurturing artists and leveraging music for social change underscores his commitment to our industry and epitomizes the power of combining passion with purpose,” Dr. Richard James Burgess, MBE, president/CEO of A2IM, said in a statement. “Louis is a vital advocate for independent music, vigorously championing the causes he believes in. We salute Louis for his continued commitment to the independent sector and to community empowerment.”

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“What an unbelievable honor to be in the same company as some of my mentors and favorite labels,” Posen said in a statement. “… Thank you to the entire independent music community. Especially A2IM, whose amazing work promoting and protecting the value of independent music has created an industry environment where independent artists and companies like Hopeless can thrive.”

Previous A2IM Lifetime Achievement winners include Martin Mills (Beggars Group), Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Bruce Iglauer (Alligator Records), Patricia Chin (VP Records), Mike Curb (Curb Records), Ani DiFranco (Righteous Babe Records), Brett Gurewitz (Epitaph/ANTI-), Jonathan Poneman (Sub Pop), Seymour Stein (Sire Records) and Al Bell, Estelle Axton, Jim Stewart, and Deanie Parker (Stax Records).

This year, Hopeless Records celebrates its 30 year anniversary. Over the last three decades, it has grown from a bedroom label into one of the most successful companies in independent music, with more than 400 releases and millions of records sold.

Founded by Posen as an excuse to release a seven-inch by the band Guttermouth, the label spent much of the ’90s catering to pop-punk and ska fans with a short roster that included 88 Fingers Louie, Dillinger Four and Mustard Plug. As mainstream tastes shifted, so did the label, signing such acts as Avenged Sevenfold, All Time Low, Taking Back Sunday, Yellowcard, New Found Glory, Neck Deep, The Wonder Years and illuminati hotties.

This year’s Libera Awards will recognize achievements across 38 categories, including three new ones: publisher of the year, distributor of the year and best record from games and interactive media.

Tickets start at $299 for a single balcony ticket. They can be purchased here.

14 Feb 2024

Benson Boone on the Relationship That ‘Terrified’ Him Into Writing Smash Hit ‘Beautiful Things’

It’s a good time to be Benson Boone.

The 21-year-old Washington-born singer-songwriter, who got some early exposure on American Idol and has since gained a following of nearly five million on TikTok, had scored a pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits early in the 2020s with the piano-led ballads “In the Stars” and “Ghost Town.” But for his latest single, the love song “Beautiful Things,” he added some power to his balladry, going electric with a mid-song guitar kick-in reminiscent of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever.” The single immediately arrived not only as his own biggest hit, but one of the breakout songs of early 2024, debuting at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and jumping to No. 3 just two weeks later.

Now, Boone, who records for Night Street/Warner Records (signed by executive vp of A&R Jeff Sosnow to the latter label), is preparing to head out on his first U.S. headlining tour as his smash single continues to climb the charts, even topping the Billboard Global 200 this week. And while his first two minor hits gave him a little taste of stardom — momentum which faded about as quickly as it appeared — this time, he says he’s not going to let this opening close again.

“I’m very prepared for this moment — and I haven’t been in the past,” Boone explains. “My two other songs that have done well — I wasn’t prepared for them. I teased them without even having the song fully ready. So much happened so fast, and looking back, I could’ve done a lot better at keeping that moment [going]. But this one, I’m ready. I’ve been ready for this one.” 

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Below, Boone talks about the inspiration for his new signature hit, why he thinks the song has already taken him to a new level, and if those inevitable Eilish comparisons were something he had in mind while writing it.

You’ve had this song in the can for a little while now. Do you remember about when you first recorded it, first came up with the idea for it or anything like that?

I wrote it on my piano September 29th. I’d just moved to L.A., and I’d moved my grandma’s old piano up to my living room. I couldn’t sleep one night, and I didn’t know what to do, so I came downstairs and started playing the piano. That’s when I wrote the melodies for “Beautiful Things.” The next day I had a session, and I took it into the studio. 

Were the lyrics inspired by any specific relationships in your life?

Yeah, it was inspired by a relationship that I had just gotten into — for the first time in my life, I felt like I was extremely out of control of the way this relationship would turn out. Meaning like, in the past, I feel like I’ve always known that I could be the one to end a relationship. This one felt very different. It was the first time that I’d really been actually, genuinely terrified to lose something. 

The song pivots sonically in the middle. Did you always conceive the two parts as one song, or did you figure out a way to bridge them together?

That night that I wrote it, I couldn’t figure out a chorus for the verse melody, so I moved on to a different idea. I actually wrote both of those ideas as separate songs. When I was in the studio, Jack [LaFrantz] — the guy I wrote it with — was the one who suggested [bridging them], because I showed him both of the ideas. He’s the one that suggested that we make it one [combined song].

The structure of the song did take a long time to figure out because we didn’t know if we should do it all slow, and then do one chorus at the end, or if we should do three choruses. It took us two weeks — after we had already built out production — to redo everything, and that’s where we finally cracked the code. I’m very happy with the way it turned out. 

What gave you the confidence that the song could work in this format? Was it the sort of thing where you just heard it once and were like, “OK, this is gonna work”? Could you already start seeing in your head that that moment would sorta play on social media?

I think I knew after I heard the chorus with production that this could be a really big song. With teasing on social media, and with promoting your music, you never really know what’s gonna go. All I can do is try my best to push it. But I was really hoping this one would go, because I do love this song.

And outside of any TikTok video, it just feels like a big change for me — a change in the right direction, that’s more like my other music that will be coming out.

When I’ve been talking about the song with co-workers and friends, a lot of times the song that keeps coming up as a reference point for it is “Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish — another song that starts slow, has that big kick-in moment, and then ends on 10. Was that song something that you thought about at all? 

I wasn’t really thinking about a particular song when I wrote this song. But that’s an incredible song, and I guess in ways, yeah, “Beautiful Things” has a structure sort of like that. It’s incredible to have songs that change very drastically from beginning to end. A lot of the songs that I’ve written in the past couple months have that — tempo changes and production changes, and everything picks up a little bit, or slows down a little bit. But yeah, I mean — Billie Eilish. That song’s incredible. So good. 

You said that this song is maybe a little more in line with music you have that’s coming out. Is that sort of a specifically guitar-oriented thing? Not many of your songs before this had such a prominent guitar sound to it, but this one is pretty rocking. How does that fit in with the rest of the stuff you have coming up?

A lot of my stuff in the past has been very piano-based. Obviously, I still have a lot of piano in my songs, but there definitely have been more heavier guitar songs, which I’m very happy about.

I love the guitar. But overall, since the last time I released music, my voice has been maturing a lot. My style has been changing just slightly. And I think the songs that I will be releasing in the next couple months are closer to what my future looks like for releasing music. I’m very excited. 

Are you already envisioning what kind of a big moment “Beautiful Things” is going to be when you go out and play it on tour? 

Yeah, I’ve thought a lot about that, like how cool it’ll be to sing that chorus with everyone. The night of the release I did a pop-up show in Utah — I announced it like an hour before, and a couple thousand people came. It was really awesome: I sung the song for them, and it was so incredible. To hear so many people that screamed that song with me, it’s pretty crazy. 

Beyond the tour, is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to this year?

Man, all I’ve been thinking about is the tour, and I’ll be going some places that I’ve never been before. But after the tour, and after all the shows, I’m really looking forward to just being with my friends. I think we’re gonna go on a trip to Greece and have two weeks and just live my life.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.

14 Feb 2024

How Garrett Stubbs Became The Phillies’ Clubhouse DJ

In his two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, catcher Garrett Stubbs has played in just 87 of a possible 324 games — par for the course when you’re backing up J.T. Realmuto, commonly referred to by Phillies fans as the “BCIB” (Best Catcher in Baseball). But despite his limited time on the field, Stubbs has become one of the most beloved and recognizable Phils for his role as the team’s preeminent Clubhouse Guy — as well as their anointed post-game DJ.  

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With the Phils’ locker room turning into Philadelphia’s hottest club over their five playoff series victories across 2022-23, Stubbs has also become one of the city’s most influential aux-cord wielders with his celebratory selections, collected in his publicly available “Phils Win” Spotify playlist (nearly 30,000 likes). The most famous of the bunch, Tiësto’s remix of Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” caught so much local heat after it became the Phils’ unlikely postseason anthem in 2022, which propelled the song back onto the Billboard charts, making the Digital Song Sales top 10 last October.  

Below, Stubbs talks with Billboard about how he became The Guy for soundtracking the team’s champagne-soaked celebrations, as well as why his club loves a good dance remix, and whether they’ll ever be able to get away from “Dancing on My Own.”  

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How did you become the sort of official team DJ/Spotify playlist curator here?  

Somebody’s gotta do it, and I’d say because my role on the team as far as playing time goes is limited, I just became the guy who came into the locker room after the games to turn on the music. As guys started to like certain songs, I just started to accumulate the ones that everyone liked and put them into a playlist. And then slowly but surely, there ended up being 1, 2, 20, 50, 100 songs on the playlist.  

Over the past couple years, who else on the team have been your supporting curators? 

Schwarbs [Kyle Schwarber] is a big one. He’s certainly a guy that brings good vibes to the locker room. [Nick] Castellanos is another one. He’s got very eclectic taste in music — he’s a huge J. Cole fan and likes to play anything from rap all the way to ODESZA. And he is a big fan of those two — if you walk into the locker room and either one of those two is playing, he definitely got ahold of the sticks.  

Do you need a sort of quorum of team approval to put a song on the playlist? Are there any times that you try to sneak one on that you like — or do you need to have, like, a couple co-signs before you put one on the official team playlist?  

No, I put random songs on there all the time. [Laughs.] So I generally will just like a song and put it on there, and then it’ll play in the locker room at certain times of the day, or after the game, and when the song comes on, I’ll just around the locker room and see what vibe I’m getting from everybody. And if it’s good, it stays, and if it’s not good, it gets taken off quickly.

Do you remember any times you got a particularly bad response to a song you were excited about? 

Not so much a bad response — I mean, sometimes guys get over songs. Like we have Waka Flocka [Flame] on there — Schwarbs is a big Waka Flocka fan, so he will put Waka Flocka on there. And at times, if we get too much Waka, it gets worn out quickly. But there are other songs on there that come and go as post-game music. But the top four songs are always [Shouse’s] “Love Tonight,” [Calum Scott’s cover of] “Dancing on My Own,” [Trey Lewis’] “D–ked Down in Dallas” and then [Alabama’s] “Dixieland Delight.”  

But we make trades during the year, right? And we try to make guys feel comfortable as soon as they get over. And that’s how “Dixieland Delight” got on there. We got D-Rob [David Robertson] traded over from the Cubs, and he was an Alabama guy, so we quickly put on “Dixieland Delight.” And it ended up sticking in 2023! But it’s just a good way of getting guys connected — especially, like, Latin players who there’s a language barrier with. So we have Latin songs on there as well, for people to enjoy.  

Brandon Marsh #16 and Bryson Stott #5 place a cup on the head of Garrett Stubbs #21 of the Philadelphia Phillies as Stubs gives a post game interview after a win in a game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 13, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

Brandon Marsh #16 and Bryson Stott #5 place a cup on the head of Garrett Stubbs #21 of the Philadelphia Phillies as Stubs gives a post game interview after a win in a game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 13, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

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Do you add to it in the offseason?

No, I’ll listen to new music all the time. Unfortunately I feel like there hasn’t been a ton of great music coming out. I don’t know how you feel about that, but… 

Well, you’re working for a very specific purpose — maybe people like the new Lana Del Rey album, but I’m sure that’s not gonna make it onto the post-game playlist.  

No doubt. Yeah. I’ve been listening to — there’s a lot of good country music that comes out, but like you said, it’s not necessarily the vibe after a win to listen to friggin’ Chris Stapleton or like, a slow Morgan Wallen song or something. But we had big Dua Lipa love in 2022, starting with Kyle Gibson. And so the “Cold Heart” song got put on there. And that’s kind of the vibe we like to go with.  

Do songs ever get nixed for being bad luck? Like if you hear a song before a big loss, or it’s the first song that gets played after a big loss, are you ever like, “All right, that song’s no longer part of the vibe, we gotta get it out of here?” 

Well, so last year, we tried to get rid of “Dancing on My Own.” Which didn’t go very well at the beginning of the season. And so we ended up putting that back on. But we went through a number of different songs. I know that Juicy J was at one point getting played. I put on “Erryday” by Juicy J after wins. That quickly got axed. There was another J. Cole song that got played after wins — that was just a little too slow. And like, you’re looking around the league, there’s probably songs that get played that are in multiple locker rooms. So we try to keep it independent to ours. I’m sure at one point “All I Do Is Win” was just like the song that everyone played.  

We try to stay away from the superstition part. Like, playing “Dancing on My Own” after wins isn’t a superstition for us — it’s just a good vibe. Everyone seems to be having a smile on their face. But also the connection that we got to have with the fans during that was pretty cool.  

So I’m sure you’ve talked about it a million times by now, but when did you know that “Dancing on My Own” was connecting in that way?  

Well, the funny thing is that all the music that got played in the locker room, not that it wasn’t supposed to get out of the locker room, but that was certainly not the intent at first. We basically were just playing certain songs, I started curating a playlist honestly just to make it easy to play the songs after the game — we could just click play on the playlist and then it would run through all the songs. At no point did I think the entire city was going to find my Spotify! And then realize that there was a “Phils Win” playlist. And then next thing I know, there was 1,000 people liking it, 5,000, 10,000, I think it’s up to like 20 or 25,000 now… 

You’re almost up to 30 now.   

OK, yeah. So that wasn’t the intent out the gate. But I think it’s a cool way for fans to kinda get a taste of what goes on in the locker room. I think fans enjoy seeing that side of our team. I think they also see that outside of the music, just how we interact with each other on the field. And we have a very unique, fun way of connecting with the people of Philly.  

That song specifically, though — when did you know that that was going to be the song that people most associated with you guys? 

I don’t think we ever thought that people were going to associate themselves with it outside the locker room. I think we just kinda felt like it was a good vibe when we were listening to it inside the locker room. And then, very quickly, people found out that that was our song inside the locker room, and then they started connecting with it. That kind of just happened organically, which — I think that’s how the best things in life happen, right? You don’t really intend for them to be a certain way, but just over time, people just get drawn to a certain thing.  

In general, just the vibe, the feeling that you get when you hear the song, is upbeat — Tiësto did a great job remixing it because obviously the original is a little slower. So I think the remix gives a good vibe, and all of a sudden you kinda get your head bobbin’, and it gives you good feelings inside, with the association of the winning part of it, along with just the sound that you get from listening to the song, is always positive.  

I did notice, skimming the top of the playlist — and I’ve heard it in the locker room too — there’s a lot of dance remixes of non-dance songs. That seems to kind of be a sweet spot for you guys.   

Yeah, I personally love bringing a little bit of house vibe to an old song. Seeing some of these new artists grabbing really great classics, and then remixing them with a little more modern house sounds that you weren’t necessarily able to make when they were making those songs, I really enjoy it.  

So with 30,000 people following this playlist, do you ever hear it outside the locker room?   

Well, after we would win we would go over to Xfinity Live, and immediately the DJ would start playing every single song from the playlist. We would celebrate in the locker room, and then afterwards we would go to Xfinity and celebrate again, and they would bring out those same songs. It was always fun watching the reaction of the fans to certain songs. My favorite song on the playlist [laughs] to have fun with is “D–ked Down in Dallas.”  

I mean “Dancing on My Own” is obviously an incredible song, and associated with the whole city. But “D–ked Down in Dallas” is just such a fun song for all of us to have fun to, and whenever we’d go to Xfinity and watch everyone else sing along with it, it was hilarious to us.  

Have you thought about what the next in line song would be if “Dancing on My Own” wasn’t working anymore? 

I mean, we’ve thought about it plenty, right? We tried to get rid of it this last year. And I don’t even wanna use the words “get rid of,” but we tried to move on from it and find something new and fresh. And we ended up reverting back to it. I think the fans have certain feelings about bringing it back in 2024, which I totally understand — when you don’t win the World Series, a lot of fans feel like it’s not a success. And us players feel the same way, too. But there has been a lot of success — not just with the song, but with the team for the past few years — so we do have a lot of really good memories, and I hope that eventually we just do find a new song that gives us a good vibe and a new good energy that people can connect with.

14 Feb 2024

Is Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures’ Circling No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Or Will It Be a ‘Coming Home’ Homecoming for Usher? 

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Feb. 24), two of the year’s most-anticipated new releases vie for No. 1, while a third-party candidate originally from 2022 also gets into the mix. 

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Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 1 (YZY): Kanye’s and Ty Dolla’s long-awaited and much-delayed – can just assume both of those descriptors with any Ye-related release at this point – collaborative new LP Vultures 1 is the former’s  first wide release on his new independent label YZY. The 16-track effort features appearances from big-name collaborators like Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and Chris Brown – though none are actually credited on the feature-less tracklist – as well as a guest vocal from Ye’s 10-year-old daughter North on “Talking.” (It also features an interpolation of Donna Summer’s disco classic “I Feel Love” on “Good (Don’t Die),” which the Summer estate has decried as unauthorized.)  

The album was originally supposed to debut on Friday, after a Chicago listening event, but ultimately trickled out (with a false start or two) on streaming services over Saturday. The incomplete first tracking week for the set – with only five full days of consumption – will likely dampen its opening numbers a little, as will its lack of physical availability, as the album is not yet available for purchase on CD or vinyl. (The set also has received muted support on many top Spotify playlists for an album of its buzz, likely due to past and ongoing Ye-related controversies.) 

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However, with high anticipation for the set (as Ye always seems to garner, regardless of his real-life backlash), it should still do fairly sizeable streaming numbers. As of Wednesday, it still claimed four songs in the top 10 on Spotify’s US Daily Top 200 and five in Apple Music’s real-time top 10, with its “Carnival” leading both listings. Given Kanye’s history on the Billboard 200 – which boasts 10 No. 1 albums, including controversy-embroiled more recent releases like 2019’s JESUS IS KING and 2021’s Donda – it would be foolish to bet against him finding similar success with Vultures.  

Usher, Coming Home (Mega/Gamma): Coming Home represents a number of firsts for Usher: His first album of the 2020s, his first through independent record label Mega (in partnership with the Larry Jackson-founded alternative distributor Gamma) and his first since being minted as a Super Bowl headliner. Technically, the set debuted two days before the Big Game, but the album will undoubtedly be boosted by the added exposure of the most-watched halftime performance in SB history – even though the pop&B superstar didn’t actually perform any songs from the new album, opting to stick to a set of more-established classics.  

Nonetheless, Coming Home does arrive with some built-in success: “Good Good,” the album’s lead single alongside next-gen ATLiens Summer Walker and 21 Savage, has previously reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, already his biggest hit on the chart in a decade. The set features additional collabs with hitmakers Latto, Burna Boy, H.E.R. and Jung Kook (on a previously released remix of the latter’s top 5 Hot 100 hit “Standing Next to You”). All of these should help streams of the set — and sales are also expected to be robust, with Coming Home available on CD, in five different vinyl variants, and through both CD and vinyl box sets that include branded merch. (Digital editions of the album have also been heavily discounted.)  

While Usher’s new album will likely be his best-performing LP this week, he should also see some major movement with his back catalog – most notably with his Billboard 200-topping 2004 juggernaut Confessions. The classic album, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, had a whopping seven tracks make its way to Usher’s halftime setlist, including the set-capping Lil Jon and Ludacris collab “Yeah!” and the much-buzzed-about Alicia Keys duet performance “My Boo.” It re-enters the top half of the 200 this week, jumping 140-92, and should make an even bigger leap next week.  

Noah Kahan, Stick Season (Mercury/Republic): The weather may be warming outside – slowly – but on the Billboard 200, Stick Season may simply never end. Alt-folk singer-songwriter Noah Kahan’s breakout album, which has only grown in popularity and impact in the 16 months since its October 2022 release, has spent the entirety of post-holidays 2024 in the Billboard 200’s top 10, climbing back as high as No. 4, after having peaked at No. 3 last June following the set’s We’ll All Be Here Forever deluxe re-release.  

Stick Season slips to No. 7 this week, but it may very well return to the top three once more next week, following another, even deluxer reissue of the set. This one is titled Stick Season (Forever), and features a whopping 30 tracks, including previously released Hot 100-charting collaborative remixes of Stick originals with Post Malone (“Dial Drunk”), Kacey Musgraves (“She Calls Me Back”) and Hozier (“Northern Attitude”). In addition to all of those, the set also boasts two (well, one and a half) totally unreleased cuts: the solo ballad “Forever” and the Brandi Carlile-guesting redo of We’ll All Be Here Forever fan favorite “You’re Gonna Go Far.” (All versions of the album, new and old, are combined together for tracking and charting purposes, under its original title: Stick Season.)

The new edition of the now-blockbuster set has no physical release available, but has already spurred plenty of extra streaming activity for both the original album and its previously released “new” tracks – as well as for the brand-new “Forever,” which is still in the top 50 on both Spotify and Apple Music’s daily charts.  

14 Feb 2024

Jennifer Lopez Sets the Record Straight About When She & Ben Affleck Actually Broke Up in 2004

Jennifer Lopez is setting the record straight. During her Wednesday (Feb. 14) interview with Zane Lowe for the debut of her This Is Me … Now Radio on Apple Music, the 54-year-old superstar clarified when she and her now-husband Ben Affleck actually called it quits back in 2004 — and no, it wasn’t when they called off their wedding.

“We didn’t break up right at that moment,” Lopez recalled of ending her engagement with the Gone Girl actor about 20 years ago. “It happened over the series of the next few months.”

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“I knew in my heart that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life — I knew that,” she continued. “But it didn’t feel like we were going to make it. And so, it scared me. It was very hard, it was a very sad moment of letting go of somebody that you truly love because you just can’t figure it out. You just don’t have the capacity and the ability at that moment, emotionally, to figure it out. We just weren’t mature enough in that way.”

The Marry Me star first met Affleck in 2001 on the set of their movie Gigli. They revealed their engagement in 2002 before delaying their wedding in 2003, after which they called off their nuptials altogether in early 2004.

Lopez went on to marry Marc Antony later that year, and they welcomed two kids before separating in 2011. Affleck wed Jennifer Garner in 2005, and the pair had three kids before splitting in 2015.

“We went, and we both tried and found other people, and had beautiful children, and had other families, and then even had other relationships after that,” Lopez reflected to Lowe. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m totally good on my own. I’m chill, I love my life, I have this amazing career that I’ve built for myself, I have these amazing children.’ That’s when he showed back up.”

“And funnily enough, he said he had had the same type of experience,” added the “I’m Real” singer. “And that’s kind of how it went down.”

Lopez’s highly anticipated album This Is Me … Now will arrive Friday (Feb. 16). A musical film in support of the new album, This Is Me … Now: A Love Story, will also drop on the 16th via Amazon’s Prime Video, followed by a documentary about the making of the record Feb. 27.

Watch her interview above.

14 Feb 2024

Ariana Grande Freaking Out About ‘Queen of My Heart’ Mariah Carey Joining Her on ‘Yes, And?’ Remix

Even Ariana Grande can’t believe it. The singer revealed on Wednesday (Feb. 14) that she will be teaming up with the “queen of my heart” Mariah Carey on a remix of her “Yes, And?” single. In an Instagram post featuring a photo of the two women leaning in and touching foreheads, Grande said, “I cannot believe the words i am typing,” while announcing the remix due out on Friday (Feb. 16), calling MC her “lifelong inspiration.”

“There truly are no words that suffice. thank you from the bottom of my heart for this dream come true and for sprinkling your brilliance and magic on my little song @mariahcarey,” Grande added. “It means more to me than i could ever possibly articulate and i cannot wait for everyone to hear this ! i love you eternally !!!!!!!” Carey re-posted the same image and message on her Insta.

It will mark the second time the two vocal powerhouses have teamed up, following on the heels of Grande appearing on a 2020 remix of Mariah’s Christmas song “Oh Santa!” alongside Jennifer Hudson as well as Grande’s December cameo at one of Carey’s Christmas shows in New York.

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Grande appeared in the first trailer for the live action adaptation of Wicked during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII, in which her Glinda the Good Witch stars opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. While the film isn’t due out until the fall, Grande’s upcoming album, Eternal Sunshine, will drop on March 8. The singer recently revealed that she will not release another single until after the album’s release.

Check out Grande’s post below.