Music

09 Feb 2024

Travis Kelce Says He & Taylor Swift Share a ‘Love for Life’: Watch

Travis Kelce is very aware of the public’s fixation on his romance with Taylor Swift, and at a Thursday (Feb. 8) pre-Super Bowl press conference, the tight end explained where he thinks the continued hype comes from. 

When asked why the world is so “fascinated” by his relationship, Kelce was quick to respond. “I think the values that we stand for,” he said. “Who we are as people. We love to shine light on others, shine light around the people that help and support us.” 

The athlete added, “I feel like we both have just a love for life.” 

Kelce and the “Anti-Hero” singer have taken fans on quite a ride since September 2023, when they first went public with their relationship. Swifties and NFL viewers alike are invested in everything from the pop star’s frequent attendance at Kansas City Chiefs games to speculation about whether the couple will get engaged soon — something Kelce shut down at another recent press event. 

“I’m focused on getting this [Super Bowl] ring,” he responded to a question about whether a wedding band was in his future. “That’s all my mind is focused on right now.”  

For now, the main focus of Tayvis shippers is whether Swift will be able to attend the 2024 Super Bowl to cheer Kelce on as the Chiefs take on the San Francsico 49ers. The 14-time Grammy winner has a string of Eras Tour shows scheduled in Tokyo through Saturday (Feb. 10), just one day before the game kicks off in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium. 

The situation has weighed so heavy on the minds of the world’s citizens, in fact, that the Japanese Embassy spoke out about it in an official statement Feb. 2. “The Embassy of Japan in the United States is aware of recent media reports concerning the steps Taylor Swift will need to take to travel from Tokyo after her concert on February 10th to Las Vegas in time to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play in Super Bowl LVIII,” the decree read. 

“Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference,” it continued, “The Embassy can confidently Speak Now to say that if she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins.” 

Watch a clip of Kelce discussing the world’s fascination with his romance below: 

09 Feb 2024

These Are the Sports Anthems of the Future

An elite set of songs — like Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What” — have become so known as sports anthems that they’re almost divorced from the original context in which they were released. To take off in a sports setting, plenty of factors must align — not just the fundamentals of what makes a song appealing to the masses, but also hard work behind the scenes and a little luck. But if sports teams, TV networks and of course fanbases get behind them, these tracks get massive boosts.

The songs below are some of the current standouts blasting in stadiums around the country — and likely to do so for a long time.

Key Glock, “Let’s Go”



“The infectious beat and earworm chorus make it a lock — either for pro athletes’ stadium walkouts or intramural athletes getting ready to put up a very solid five points at the YMCA rec league, like myself,” EMPIRE’s Harrison Golding says.

Jelly Roll, “Need a Favor”



CAA’s Dave Aussenberg calls the country-rock hit “the most under-the-radar anthem for all sports fans. As the clock winds down and the team is down to its last play, this is the soundtrack. It was all I could think about during the recent, incredible College Football Playoff semifinal games.”

Creed, “Higher”



Thanks in large part to the Texas Rangers — both fans in the stands who sang along to it karaoke-style and players who belted it in the locker room post-World Series win — the rock band’s grandiose 1999 hit is experiencing a resurgence “equal parts hilarious and awesome,” Def Jam’s Gabe Tesoriero says. “The memes re-creating [Creed’s] iconic, bizarre Thanksgiving halftime performance” from 2001 “ruled my timeline [this year].”

Sheck Wes, “Mo Bamba”



“That is becoming a ‘Seven Nation Army,’ ” Interscope’s David Nieman says. “It’s a third-down stop song; it gets the people going. We took Sheck when that song first came out to St. John’s [University] to do Midnight Madness for the basketball team, and in that moment, I realized how big of a stadium anthem that was going to be when the kids were singing back along with it, the way it sounded and the bravado of it all.”

Saweetie & P-Lo, “Do It For The Bay”



Warner Records worked with the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers on this anthem for the football team’s playoff run by Bay Area natives Saweetie and P-Lo, which lined up with the team’s “Do It For The Bay” marketing campaign — and the song quickly took off, impacting Rhythmic Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and becoming a rallying cry for the team’s fans. “When you have an artist that has a personal tie to a sports organization and is genuinely excited to get in the studio and write a song for them, you end up with something unique and authentic that the fans and community will support,” says Warner’s vp of brand partnerships and ad sync Rob Santini. “Saweetie’s grandfather won a Super Bowl for the 49ers and her uncle is currently a coach on the team, so there was a real connection there.”

Fast Life Yungstaz, “Swag Surfin’ ”



The Atlanta hip-hop trio’s 2009 track gained popularity at historically Black college and university parties, became an anthem for teams like the Chicago Bears and the Washington Mystics and is now in the spotlight thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs. “Since I’ve been here, it has been a huge fourth-quarter, big-time moment, big-time drive in the game for our defense” hype song, the team’s Travis Kelce said on the New Heights podcast in January. Its signature wave-like dance can “make the stadium feel like chaos.” As a widely circulated game clip showed, even Taylor Swift and Kelce’s mother got in on it recently.

This story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.

09 Feb 2024

From Queen to Lil Jon, How Sports Anthems Are Born

It was May 1977, and Queen had just finished its encore at Bingley Hall in the English town of Stafford when the crowd, rather than dispersing and heading home, began to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Originally featured in the 1945 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, Gerry & The Pacemakers had popularized the tune with their 1963 version, and shortly after, it became an anthem of the British soccer club Liverpool FC. The spontaneous incident at Bingley Hall would forever change the cultural landscape: It inspired singer Freddie Mercury and guitarist Brian May to write two of Queen’s most iconic songs.

“The story we’ve been told is that Brian and Freddie said, ‘Why don’t we write our own anthems?’ ” says Dominic Griffin, vp of licensing at Disney Music Group, which owns the North American rights to Queen’s music. “So Brian wrote ‘We Will Rock You,’ Freddie wrote ‘We Are the Champions,’ and they started finishing their shows with those. I’m not sure if there was one particular moment, but the band began to realize that there was not much difference between the crowd at a rock show and the crowd at a football game. It was having the same reaction.”

Whether due to its stomp-clap beat, call-to-action lyrics or simple melody — or more likely a combination of all three — “We Will Rock You” in particular became one of the most widely recognized songs in history, especially at sporting events, where it blares nightly in arenas and stadiums around the world. According to BMI, “We Will Rock You” is the song in the performing rights organization’s 22 million-plus-track repertoire most played at NHL, NFL and MLB games. It accumulated over 9.5 million U.S. radio and TV feature performances from its 1977 release through the third quarter of 2023.

That’s no accident. Since acquiring Queen’s catalog in 1990, both Disney and the band have encouraged radio stations to use “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” in promos, allowed sports stadiums and teams to use them to soundtrack highlights and hype videos (which require additional approval, separate from the blanket public performance license that all venues need to simply play a song in a public space) and licensed them to now-classic sports films like The Mighty Ducks, Any Given Sunday and The Replacements. The label’s research data, including figures from Radio Disney, showed that all generations reacted to the songs.

“I think it was a way for sports teams to play something that appeals to everyone in the venue,” Griffin says. “Those Queen songs tick all the boxes because the lyric is great for sporting events and they’re just natural anthems, and the band went out to write an anthem for an arena that turned into a sports anthem.”

In the decades since, an elite set of songs like these has become a genre unto itself, so known as sports anthems that they’re almost divorced from the original context in which they were released — call it “the Jock Jams effect,” after the compilation albums from the mid-’90s that featured hype-up tracks like House of Pain’s “Jump Around” and Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is).” But more modern songs have also joined the pantheon in recent years, like The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What,” which are near-omnipresent at current sports games.

“It becomes folk music when things like that happen,” Jack White said of “Seven Nation Army” on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast in 2022. “It just becomes ubiquitous. I’m sure many people who are chanting the melody have no idea what the song is or where it came from or why, or whatever — it doesn’t matter anymore, and that’s just amazing.”

“We’ve been fortunate that several of Lil Jon’s songs have become incredible stadium anthems over the years,” says the artist’s manager, Rob Mac. “With ‘Turn Down for What,’ we knew that record felt massive, but the video really helped to boost the song as well. His music has always hyped up fans and crowds — his voice and energy [lend themselves] to that, and people really embrace and connect with it. His music became part of the experience inside a stadium.”

Still, plenty of factors must align — not just the fundamentals of what makes a song appealing to the masses, but also hard work behind the scenes and a little luck — for a song to take off in a sports setting. Labels are constantly pitching not just legacy artists, but new acts and songs to local teams and TV networks hoping for a placement. If a song makes the cut, it can be a massive boost for an artist.

“We spend a lot of time trying to get our new artists played inside sporting arenas because you’re reaching anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 people at a time and you’ve got a captive audience who can’t turn the radio off,” says Griffin, noting the success Disney has had with acts like Demi Lovato, almost monday and Grace Potter, whose “The Lion, the Beast, the Beat” soundtracked multiple promos for the Detroit Lions during this year’s NFL playoffs. “Any time you can get your music in front of that many thousands of people, it certainly helps with recognition.”

Take “Swag Surfin’ ” by Fast Life Yungstaz, for one extreme example: The song has been a staple at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium for a few years now, played when the defense needs a big stop or the crowd needs an energy boost. In the weeks leading up to the NFL playoffs, the song averaged between 350,000 and 400,000 on-demand streams per week; that number jumped to over 1 million the week the Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins in the playoffs, when Taylor Swift was seen doing the song’s signature dance alongside Chiefs fans.

“In the arena business, when you’ve got 20,000 or 40,000 people and you’re trying to get them to do something, sometimes it’s the big, dumb gesture that really wins the day. Whether it’s some goofy guy dancing on the scoreboard or something that’s telling you to get up and yell, or a song that’s got a simple melody where everybody can participate, that really seems to be the most effective,” says Ray Castoldi, who has been Madison Square Garden’s music director/organist since 1989; in his role, he also frequently selects the music for New York Knicks and New York Rangers games and occasionally plays the organ for the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Castoldi says he’s constantly looking for new songs to add to his game playlist and that he regularly tests out new material in the Garden — but that the rotation remains pretty steady, with around 300 songs on tap for any given game. “Arena standards are songs that appeal on such a wide basis that you almost can’t help yourself — it’s something in human nature where it motivates a large group of people,” he says. “I always see the equation as: You play the music for this huge assemblage of people and you want to get them all riled up and get their energy going, and then they give that energy to the players.”

And once a song reaches that threshold, it achieves a new, almost mythic status that can long outshine the rest of an artist’s oeuvre. House of Pain racked up 87 million on-demand U.S. streams in 2023, according to Luminate; 75 million of those were for “Jump Around.” Even for an act as beloved and popular as Queen, which tallied 1.3 billion streams in 2023, 8% of its streams were “We Will Rock You.” As Brian May said in 2017 — in an interview after Billboard named that song the No. 1 jock jam of all time — “They’re beyond hits. We don’t have to sell them in any way.”

This story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.

09 Feb 2024

Chuy Montana, Corridos Singer of Street Mob Records, Killed in Mexico

Chuy Montana, an emerging star in the booming corridos scene, was found dead in Mexico on Wednesday (Feb. 7).

His body was discovered along the highway connecting Rosarito to Tijuana. According to The San Diego Tribune, Fernando Sánchez, Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, told local outlets that Cárdenas’s body bore multiple gunshots and was found handcuffed; law enforcement believes that he had been kidnapped prior to death.

Billboard has reached out to Tijuana police.

The Tijuana native, whose real name is Jesús Cárdenas, was part of the music roster at Street Mob Records, a label spearheaded by Jesús Ortiz Paz (JOP), the lead vocalist of Fuerza Regida.

“On behalf of Street Mob Records, we deeply regret the passing of our colleague and brother Chuy Montana,” wrote the label in an Instagram post Thursday. “We stand in solidarity with his family during this time of grief. We kindly request understanding and respect from the media at this difficult moment.”

The label and its artists have contributed significantly to the corridos tumbados and belikeada movement, subgenres of regional Mexican music that have gained notoriety in recent years. Montana’s career was marked by a significant online presence, boasting 816,000 monthly listens on Spotify. He often performed with his guitar for audiences in traffic lines at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing point, where he was discovered by JOP.

According to Punto Norte, a newspaper in Mexico, investigators believe that Montana may have attempted to escape his captors, leading to a chase and eventual fatal shooting. Responding officers found shell casings at the scene, according to the publication; Montana had gunshot wounds to his head and arms.

Montana’s music, particularly his 2023 single “Porte de Scarface,” had enjoyed success, amassing more than 22 million plays on Spotify. His collaboration with Fuerza Regida, “Polvos de Chanel,” also highlighted his rising status in the music industry.

The artist’s death has also raised concerns over the safety of artists in genres associated with contentious themes.

In October 2023, Fuerza Regida was threatened with death by means of a narco banner left in Tijuana. Following the appearance of the threat, the San Bernardino group canceled its concert at the Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, as did Peso Pluma weeks earlier, after having received the same death threat on a tarpaulin signed with the initials CJNG, alluding to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

Tijuana has taken steps to address the glorification of violence in music by banning narcocorridos in public performances, a measure reasserted by Mayor Montserrat Caballero in light of recent events.

The death of Chuy Montana adds to the ongoing trend of violence against artists in the corridos and narcocorridos genres that dates back to Chalino Sánchez’s murder in 1992. Other stars who have fallen victim to violence in the genres include Valentín Elizalde, Ariel Camacho, Zayda Peña, Sergio Gómez, Javier Reyes “El Príncipe del Corrido,” and more.

09 Feb 2024

Grammy-Winning Japanese Conductor Seiji Ozawa Dies at 88

Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa died at his home in Tokyo on Feb. 6, 2024, due to heart failure. He was 88 years old.

A private funeral was held with his close family in accordance with the deceased’s wishes, with a memorial service scheduled at a later date.

Ozawa was born in 1935 in Shenyang, China. After studying under Karajan and Bernstein, he served as the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia Festival, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony.

In 1973, Ozawa was appointed as the thirteenth music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He became the first Asian music director at Wiener Staatsoper in the autumn of 2002, a position he held until spring 2010.

Among the many awards and accolades Ozawa has received in Japan and internationally include the Asahi Prize (1985), the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class  (2002), the Mainichi Art Award (2003), the Suntory Music Award (2003), honorary membership of the Wiener Staatsoper (2007), France’s Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (2008), Foreign Associated Member in the Académie des BeauxArts de l’Institut de France (2008), the Order of Culture in Japan (2008), Giglio D’Oro by Premio Galileo 2000 Foundation of Italy (2008), the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association (2011), the Akeo Watanabe Foundation Music Award (2011), and the Kennedy Center Honors (2015), as well as an honorary doctorate from Harvard University (2000) and Sorbonne University (2004).

In 2010, he also became the first Japanese to be bestowed an honorary membership to the Vienna Philharmonic.

Ozawa won Best Opera Recording at the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016 for Ravel: L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, recorded at the 2013 Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, in which he conducted the Saito Kinen Orchestra.

The same year, he was named an honorary member of the Berlin Philharmonic and an honorary citizen of Tokyo.

He has been an elected member of the Japan Art Academy since March 2022.

09 Feb 2024

Friday Music Guide: New Music From Usher, Kacey Musgraves, Noah Kahan and More

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

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This week, Usher heads home before heading to the stadium, Kacey Musgraves digs deeper and Noah Kahan puts a bow on stick season. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Usher, Coming Home 



All eyes will be on Usher on Sunday night, when the veteran hitmaker takes the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show in Las Vegas, and undoubtedly he’ll be unfurling several of the smashes from across his discography. Yet if you’re pre-gaming with “Yeah!,” “U Remind Me” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love,” be sure to make some time for his excellent new studio set Coming Home, which crystallizes his popular R&B approach and adds new layers — from the sumptuous hit “Good Good” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage to the booming braggadocio of “Cold Blooded” to the Afrobeats-adjacent warmth of “Ruin” — making for Usher’s best album since 2012’s Looking 4 Myself.

Kacey Musgraves, “Deeper Well” 



“Deeper Well,” the first taste of Kacey Musgraves’ highly anticipated fifth studio album of the same name, may be lyrically preoccupied with dark energy, changes inspired by a return of Saturn and misconceptions of the world, yet Musgraves operates with calm, pillowy purpose, the finger-picked guitar guiding the country star towards the answers she craves. At the heart of a song about experiencing maturation and accepting transition is an artist worth evolving with, and on Deeper Well, it’ll be fascinating to hear where she grows next.

Noah Kahan, “Forever” 



Stick Season was a breakthrough period for Noah Kahan, who most recent studio album was buoyed by deluxe editions and new songs that helped the singer-songwriter score a best new artist Grammy and book arena dates. Stick Season (Forever) will be the final iteration of the project, and in addition to new collaborations with Brandi Carlile and Gregory Alan Isakov, the expanded set features “Forever,” a tender new folk anthem that marries Bon Iver-esque falsetto yearning with the declarative songwriting that highlighted Kahan’s hit “Stick Season” and “Dial Drunk.”

Maggie Rogers, “Don’t Forget Me” 



“I wanted to make an album that sounded like a Sunday afternoon,” Maggie Rogers explains in a new letter to fans previewing her third album, Don’t Forget Me. While the rest of the full-length arrives in April, its lovely title track does indeed possess a coziness that still provokes a mid-day sing-along: Rogers’ storytelling winds through the song’s mix of guitar and piano before her voice doubles and soars on the hook, resulting in a track that sounds both fresh and like the return of an old friend.

Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton, “Purple Irises” 



Before Gwen Stefani reunites with No Doubt at Coachella this spring, she’ll trot out “Purple Irises,” a new country-pop duet with her beau Blake Shelton at a Super Bowl tailgate performance this weekend; such is the duality of the pop star, who can return to her earliest hits while also sounding far removed from them on this swaying love song. “It’s not 1999, but this face is still mine / The way you look at me, I swear my heart hits rewind,” she sings, before Shelton’s burly delivery arrives and forms an equilibrium on the track.

Editor’s Pick: Madi Diaz, Weird Faith 



Madi Diaz is barreling toward stardom after a long build-up — the Nashville singer-songwriter got tapped to open for Harry Styles’ tour, then join his live band, following the release of her fifth album — but Weird Faith, her first album since gaining a slew of new fans, exceeds any new hype she’s gathered, as a collection of complex love songs that’s often breathtaking in its artistic clarity. Diaz knows exactly how to approach stunners like “Same Risk” and the Kacey Musgraves duet “Don’t Do Me Good,” allowing her emotions to patiently expand until they knock the listener over.

09 Feb 2024

Tres Generaciones Tequila and Billboard Celebrate Music’s Biggest Week

Tres Generaciones Tequila and Billboard joined forces for a two-night extravaganza. The first night, on Tuesday (Jan. 30), the brands joined together to celebrate emerging artists, producers, and creatives making waves and earning their stripes in the music space. The following evening, the established industry leaders gathered for Billboard’s Power 100 event.

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The intimate Tuesday event at the Sun Rose in West Hollywood featured notable guests including Conan Gray, Moses Sumney, Halle Bailey, Rocsi Diaz, Paris Jackson, and Elton Qualls-Harris. Against the backdrop of the evening, attendees mingled while enjoying three specialty curated signature cocktails: the Hibiscus Margarita, Piña Paloma, and Tres ’73.

January 30, 2024; Billboard and Tres Generaciones host the ‘New Nominees Dinner’ at the Pendry Hotel in West Hollywood, California

January 30, 2024; Billboard and Tres Generaciones host the ‘New Nominees Dinner’ at the Pendry Hotel in West Hollywood, California

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To conclude the night, Billboard’s Editorial Director, Hannah Karp, and veteran host Rocsi Diaz delivered remarks, lauding accomplishments and unveiling the partnership between Tres Generaciones Tequila and Billboard. This collaboration aims to infuse culture, music, and premium tequila into conversations throughout the country over the year. Rocsi Diaz and Tres Generaciones Tequila will host and moderate curated panels in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, bringing together local heroes and experts to spotlight the top “Get Up” anthems for each city.

The following day, the celebration continued to the Billboard Power 100 event. Attendees were greeted by a captivating wall activation featuring light-up Tres Generaciones letters, creating a perfect backdrop for memorable photos. The event’s ambiance was enhanced with a Tres Generaciones Tequila DJ booth, where DJ Amorphous skillfully curated a mix of R&B, Afropop, Hip-Hop, Reggaeton, and electronic sounds.

Atmosphere at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Atmosphere at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Brandon Todd for Billboard

The soirée featured a personalized touch with a signature Tres ’73 cocktail, adding flair to the evening’s libations. As the event unfolded, the atmosphere buzzed with networking opportunities, connecting new faces and rekindling past industry relationships including SZA, Boygenius, Clive Davis and many more. The celebration continued with award presentations for Executive of the Year, Label of the Year, and the prestigious Clive Davis Visionary Award.

Atmosphere at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Atmosphere at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

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DJ Amorphous at the Billboard Power 100 Event held at NeueHouse Hollywood on January 31, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

09 Feb 2024

Beyoncé’s Shiny ‘Renaissance’ Horse Shows Up in New Verizon Super Bowl Commercial Teaser

Saddle up, BeyHive. Those rumors about a Beyoncé cameo in Verizon’s 2024 Super Bowl commercial just got a lot more serious. 

Two days after first sending fans into a frenzy with a teaser seemingly hinting at the superstar’s involvement, the company has now dropped a second clip ahead of its highly anticipated Super Bowl ad – this time with an unmistakable reference to Beyoncé’s music. In the Friday (Feb. 9) video, actor-comedian Tony Hale stands in front of a blank green screen next to a life-size horse sculpture covered in silver sequins, just like the one the “Break My Soul” singer rides on the cover of her 2022 album Renaissance. 

“So should we be in a Super Bowl commercial? Yay or nay?” Hale asks the statue of the horse, which fans have lovingly dubbed Reneigh. “Get it? OK, this is a problem.”

At the end, a snippet of what sounds like Beyoncé’s “My House” plays and the date of the Super Bowl appears. Fans previously noticed the same song in Verizon’s Wednesday (Feb. 7) teaser, which also stars Hale.

In the first teaser, Hale stands at an outdoor lemonade stand juicing lemons into a pitcher. “She wants me to squeeze all these lemons by myself?” he says. “This better work.” 

At the time, the Hive quickly clocked the trailer as a possible nod to Bey’s 2016 album Lemonade. “The Lemonade references? My House playing in the end? Verizon being one of Renaissance World Tour’s sponsors?” one fan tweeted at the time. “Are we really going to see thee Beyoncé in a commercial during the Superbowl?” 

Whether or not the 32-time Grammy winner is involved – although at this point, it certainly seems like she is — Verizon’s commercial will air during the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast Sunday (Feb. 11).  The game will find the Kansas City Chiefs defending their 2023 title against the San Francisco 49ers at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, with Usher headlining the Halftime Show 11 years after Bey first took the event’s stage. 

See Beyoncé’s Renaissance horse star in Verizon’s new teaser below. 

09 Feb 2024

How FOX Sports’ Resident Deadheads Brought Jam Bands To Big Games

For Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles fans — and any football lover, really — last year’s Super Bowl LVII was a thrilling, down-to-the-wire classic. But as the game, airing on FOX Sports and tied at 35, cut to commercial break at the two-minute warning, tense viewers might’ve felt an unexpected wave of calm. The buttery-smooth lick from “Hungersite,” one of the most popular tracks by the exploding jam band Goose, played as the stressed visages of head coaches Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni gave way to ads.

“It was so surreal to hear our song during the Super Bowl,” Goose singer-guitarist Rick Mitarotonda tells Billboard. “We are very thankful to FOX Sports for supporting what we do and exposing so many bands in the genre to the masses.”

Goose posted the snippet to Instagram and reached out to FOX Sports to express its gratitude — all in a day’s work for Jacob Ullman, FOX Sports senior vp of production and talent development, and Jake Jolivette, a producer at the network. Through their production roles on NFL games, Ullman and Jolivette have caught the attention of astute listeners with secondslong jam band synchs — from titans like the Grateful Dead and Phish to cultier acts like Umphrey’s McGee and moe. — for the past several years.

Ullman, 50, saw his first Dead show at age 12 when his father took him to see the band at Southern California’s Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in 1985. Jolivette, 49, got into the band as a Midwestern college student, attending his first show in 1992 (three years before Jerry Garcia died); his college years also coincided with Phish’s rise, and the Vermont band’s “communal” shows hooked him. “It’s almost like going to a live sporting event,” he observes.

Ullman began working at FOX Sports when the network launched in 1994, and Jolivette landed there a decade later. The former recalls the thrill of synching a jam-adjacent artist early on: When he integrated Dave Matthews Band’s “Tripping Billies” into a hockey broadcast in 1996, he was amazed “that you can collide your work life, your passion for sports and your passion for music in one place.” But FOX Sports wouldn’t become known for its sly jam band integrations until years later, after Ullman and Jolivette had both risen through the ranks and found themselves working together on NFL and NASCAR broadcasts.

For many viewers, the first clue that the FOX Sports edit bay might be tie-dye-friendly came during 2017’s Super Bowl LI, in a produced pregame video narrated by actor Ving Rhames introducing the competing New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons. Jolivette used Audioslave’s “Cochise” for the Patriots — and Phish’s exuberant “Tweezer Reprise” for the Falcons. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and the band’s former longtime road manager, Brad Sands, watched the show, and a screenshotted text thread between them circulated on jam-loving corners of the internet. (Sands said, “Falcons have to win now right?” and Anastasio agreed.) “I love ‘Tweezer.’ I love how it builds,” says Jolivette before adding with a chuckle, “Mind you, my editor hated the song — but I still got it in.”


https://youtube.com/watch?v=n3qmTbNkCJo&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

In 2018, FOX Sports inked a five-year deal with the NFL to air Thursday Night Football, and Ullman and Jolivette became heavily involved in the broadcasts. That’s when their jam band synchs really took off. “We’d sneak a couple of [songs] in there — all of a sudden, you’re getting texts,” says Jolivette with still-palpable amazement. “That’s when I figured out that this was something that was brewing that people could hear.”

When the pandemic hit, Ullman, who had hung out with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir at NASCAR events over the years, convinced the musician through his manager to record a solo performance of the national anthem for the late-March 2020 broadcast of an iRacing Pro Invitational simulated race. Later that year, Ullman and Jolivette’s colleagues Joe Carpenter (senior audio engineer) and Bryan Biederman (director) — fellow FOX Sports Deadheads who work on the network’s MLB broadcasts — integrated a slew of Dead songs into the 2020 World Series. Sensing the public’s interest, FOX uploaded a supercut of the synchs — among them “Shakedown Street,” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Althea” — to its social media, with corresponding game footage nested within the band’s iconic “Steal Your Face” logo.

“Between that and what we were doing on Thursday Night Football, that year was probably where a lot of this exploded,” Ullman says. It was a feedback loop of sorts: The more FOX Sports integrated jam bands, the more positive reinforcement it received.

Still, in the tricky world of TV licensing, the network’s ’heads need supportive — or at least tolerant — colleagues to facilitate clearances. For that, they work with a team that includes vp of music Nicole de la Torriente-Nelson, who leads negotiations with publishers and labels, and associate director Yvonne Wagoner, who prepares approved playlists for broadcast teams. Wagoner collaborates with crews to construct eclectic playlists — an amalgam of current hits, old classics, songs for specific situations like scoring and situational matches for game location and weather — and solicits requests. While some core songs remain throughout a season, there’s also turnover, and Wagoner refers potential new songs to de la Torriente-Nelson and her colleagues, who secure the applicable rights. Licensing terms vary, but songs are often cleared for a season’s entirety, with fees paid out on a per-use basis (the higher-profile the game, the higher the synch rate).

Take FOX Sports’ week 15 Buffalo Bills-Dallas Cowboys broadcast. Jolivette wanted to use a song by Buffalo jam band moe. for the Bills home game, so he asked Wagoner to clear the group’s “Happy Hour Hero.” She passed along the request to de la Torriente-Nelson, whose team secured the rights, and Jolivette and senior audio mixer Jamie McCombs — not a jam fan per se, though he admits Jolivette has “turned me on to some really good stuff” — prepped the few seconds that would ultimately air. Late in the first quarter of the Dec. 17 game, with the Bills up 7-0, “Hero” led into a commercial break. Watching was moe. guitarist Al Schnier, who posted a video of his TV screen to Instagram with the caption “Bills + moe. + winning = Happy Hour Hero.”

Integrations like that really are by jam band fans, for jam band fans. Ullman’s team doesn’t feel bound to the Dead or Phish, or even to the most popular tracks in their respective discographies; in the Jan. 14 Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers playoff game, FOX Sports used the Dead’s “Saint of Circumstance” and Phish’s “Axilla,” hardly the best-known songs by either group. Jolivette and his colleagues seek out the best secondslong snippets, wherever they may come from. As he explains of “Saint of Circumstance,” “The part we use, it hits. If you’ve seen that in concert, you know that’s one of the great transitions. That, to me, is what makes that a great song to use.”

And in the ultimate validation of their work, one of their heroes is returning the fandom. “When you think about it, the music we make isn’t unlike a sporting event,” Weir, who was spotted with the FOX Sports team on the sideline at January’s NFC Championship game, tells Billboard. “On a good night, you don’t really know where it’s going to go — and getting wherever it’s going is going to be different every time to boot.”

This story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.

09 Feb 2024

Zach Bryan Partners With Bud Light to Sponsor His ‘Quittin Time’ Tour

Bud Light will sponsor Zach Bryan’s North American Quittin’ Time arena and stadium tour that kicks off March 6 at Chicago’s United Center.  

The move builds on Bud Light’s partnership with Bryan that launches tonight (Feb. 9) as the singer/songwriter kicks off the second year of the Bud Light Backyard Tour with a concert at the Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as part of the beer brand’s Super Bowl LVIII activities.  

“I’ve been drinking Bud Light since I was old enough to drink and partnering with them now after all the songs I’ve written while swigging them is full circle for me,” said Bryan in a statement in November when the Super Bowl concert was announced. “When Bud Light asked if I would be involved, I didn’t hesitate after I learned the immense amount of support going into Folds of Honor, fallen service members, first responders’ families and loved ones. It is a privilege and honor to provide help in any way to veterans and all the people who make this country as great as it can possibly be.” 

Bud Light launched its Backyard Tour concert series last summer with shows by Midland, One Republic and Dashboard Confessional, among others. “We wanted to go bigger in 2024 and I don’t think you can get any bigger in country music than Zach Bryan right now,” says Todd Allen, Bud Light’s vp of marketing. 

Bryan was named Billboard’s Top New Artist of 2023, landing No. 1s on both the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart and Hot 100 songs survey. Bryan, who charts on both the rock and country charts, is the first country act to be the year’s Top New Artist since Billboard began compiling the Top New Artists category, combining performance on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, in 1977.

As the exclusive beer partner for the 78-show Quittin’ Time tour, Bud Light will execute a number of tie-ins at concert dates, including sampling, ticket giveaways and experiential activations. 

One of the primary elements of the partnership involves Folds of Honor, a non-profit that provides scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled service members and first responders. Bud Light’s parent, Anheuser-Busch, has worked with Folds of Honor for more than 14 years, donating more than $22 million to the organization. “Throughout the duration of the tour, we will be donating a portion of the proceeds from Bud Light sold to Folds of Honor,” Allen says. He adds that Bud Light is working through the details with Bryan, who served in the Navy for eight years, on his participation with Folds of Honor. “He’s been an incredible partner to help bring this to life,” he says. 

“Music has been in Bud Light’s DNA for decades and we’ve always been at the center of delivered epic experiences. We’ve had amazing partnerships over the years across music, across sports, across culture. And then this just makes sense,” Allen says of the Bryan tie-in. “Zach has been a longtime Bud Light fan and drinker. Having him be part of our Bud Light Backyard Tour with the Super Bowl show on Friday night is incredible and we look forward to continuing to bring great experiences to our fans in partnership with the Quittin Time tour.”

The alliances with Bryan, one of country music’s biggest rising stars, comes at a time when Bud Light continues to recover from the backlash and sales hit the brand took starting last April after aligning with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Kid Rock, John Rich and Travis Tritt condemned the brand (though Kid Rock was seen drinking a Bud Light in August). Other country acts, like Bryan, stood up for the transgender community, while superstar Garth Brooks declared in June that his Friends in Low Places bar in Nashville would sell Bud Light.

When asked how linking with Bryan could help Bud Light regain country fans it may have lost, Allen said, “We’re here for all  21+ Americans and we care deeply about all of our fans. Music, and country music in particular, allows us to connect with millions of people out there who enjoy Bud Light in stadiums, bars and venues across the country. Partnering with Zach Bryan, one of the hottest names in country music, is just a great opportunity for us to continue to connect with our fans across country music.”

Bud Light’s music activities for 2024 include tie ins with Stagecoach and Lollapalooza, as well as a country music program with Live Nation.