Music

29 Nov 2023

Lana Del Rey Performs a Moody Cover of ‘Unchained Melody’ for ‘Christmas at Graceland’: Watch

The spirit of Christmas and the spirit of Elvis Presley collided Wednesday night (Nov. 29) for NBC’s all-star Christmas at Graceland special.

Post Malone, Kasey Musgraves, Alanis Morissette, John Legend and Lana Del Rey led the holiday special line-up, which helps to celebrate the legacy of the late King of Rock ‘n Roll.

When it came Del Rey’s time in front of the cameras, she didn’t mess about. The “Summertime Sadness” singer performed a trademark moody rendition of “Unchained Melody,” a hit for the Righteous Brothers’ in the mid-60s. Elvis, of course, turned the song into a piece of history with a stirring performance on June 21, 1977 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. Elvis passed less than two months later, at the age of 42.

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More than a decade has passed since Del Rey introduced herself to the world with “Video Games,” lifted from her second studio album (and major label debut) Born to Die from 2012.

Her ninth and most recent LP, 2023’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and is one of her nine top 10 appearances on the chart, a list that includes two No. 1s (with 2014’s Ultraviolence and 2017’s Lust For Life).

Christmas at Graceland marks the first live musical televised holiday special of its kind at the late Presley’s 13.8-acre Memphis, Tennessee estate, and featured never-before-broadcast footage of the legendary singer. In 1982, Graceland was opened to the public as a museum, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to honor the life of Presley.

In addition to Del Rey, other artists taking part in the Christmas at Graceland special were country star Kane Brown, newly named CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, Lana Del Rey, 2024 Grammys best new artist nominee The War and Treaty.

Watch Lana Del Rey’s performance below.


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

29 Nov 2023

Ado’s ‘Show’ Logs Ninth Week Atop Japan Hot 100 as YOASOBI’s ‘Idol’ Returns to No. 2

Ado’s “Show” continues to rule the Billboard Japan Hot 100, now in its ninth week at No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 29.

Although overall points are down by about 0.9 percent from the week before, the USJ Halloween event theme continues to dominate downloads (9,361 units), streaming (11,335,147 streams), and video views. The song is also enjoying popularity on social media, returning to No. 1 on the TikTok Weekly Top 20 ranking this week.

YOASOBI “Idol” rises to No. 2 for the first time in three weeks, with points increasing by about 4.5 percent. The record-holder for most weeks at No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100 (21 weeks) is currently at No. 2 for streaming (8,610,371 streams, up 2 percent), No. 10 for downloads (3,551 units, up 9 percent), and No. 2 for video (up 3 percent). Meanwhile, the pair’s latest release called “Biri-Biri,” a song inspired by the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet video games, jumps 85-14 on the Japan Hot 100 this week, while “The Brave” extends its stay in the top 10 to 9 weeks (No. 4).

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The finalists and winners of the 65th Japan Record Award 2023 were announced on Nov. 22 and Ayase, YOASOBI’s songwriter and producer, is set to receive the Best Composition Award for “Idol” and the duo will be honored with the Special International Music Award. 

NEWS’s “Gifted” debuts at No. 3, hitting No. 1 for sales with 130,866 copies sold. The boy band’s 30th single is being featured as the theme song for a drama series by the same name starring member Takahisa Masuda.

Kep1er’s “Grand Prix” bows at No. 6, coming in at No. 2 for sales with 86,273 copies sold.

AKB48 returns to the top 10 for the first time in eight weeks, as “Idol nanka janakattara” hits No. 10. The girl group’s 62nd single peaked at No. 4 on the chart dated Oct. 4, and after selling 58,173 copies during this chart week, the single has sold an estimated 677,371 copies total and is currently at No. 3 for sales.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.

See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Nov. 20 to 26, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.

29 Nov 2023

Rihanna & Drake’s ‘What’s My Name’ Music Video Reaches 1 Billion YouTube Views

Rihanna and Drake’s sultry “What’s My Name?” music video has officially reached one billion YouTube views, 13 years since its release in 2010.

In the clip, the rumored ex-couple gets cozy in a convenience store, before cuddling up in a New York apartment, drinking wine, holding hands and even having a little pillow fight.

RiRi and Drake’s collaboration topped the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart upon its 2010 release, and also hit No. 1 on Digital Songs. Over the years, the two R&B powerhouses have collaborated a number of times on songs like 2016’s “Too Good,” 2016’s “Work” and 2011’s “Take Care.”

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“What’s My Name?” was featured on Rihanna’s November 2010 album, Loud, which was certified 3x platinum by the Recording Industry Associated of America and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The album also topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Watch Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” music video featuring Drake below.

29 Nov 2023

Tyler, The Creator’s Golf Wang Announces Worldwide Holiday Pop-Up Shops

Tyler, the Creator is bringing fashion and the holiday spirit across the globe.

The superstar’s Golf Wang brand is launching 12 holiday pop-up shops on Saturday (Dec. 2) alongside their permanent locations in Los Angeles, New York City and London. The temporary holiday stores will be in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. 

The stores will feature portions of the FW23 collection, which in addition to apparel also includes accessories as well as a graffiti airbrush-inspired art piece that will be seen across different items like tees, fleece, jackets and accessories. The stores will also carry pieces from the essentials collection and Tyler, The Creator’s music catalog on vinyl.

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In the U.S., the pop-ups will take place in Austin, Atlanta, Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. Internationally, the stores will be located in Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Melbourne and London. The launch date for the Seoul, South Korea, location will be announced at a later date.

The Golf Holiday Shops are also partnering with American Express to offer card members onsite benefits including early access to the shop for one hour ahead of opening hours on Dec. 2 and 3, an Amex Card Member-only entry line to the shop, access to exclusive apparel, and a complimentary gift with purchase when using an Amex Card.

For more information on the Golf Holiday Shops, see the website here.

29 Nov 2023

Foster the People’s ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ Joins YouTube’s Billion Views Club

Two years after Foster the People‘s 2010 hit “Pumped Up Kicks” hit a billion streams on Spotify, the track is adding yet another milestone. “Pumped Up Kicks” has officially joined YouTube‘s Billion Views Club this week, more than 12 years after it was first shared to the platform.

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The video features the original Foster the People lineup — ark Foster, Mark Pontious and Jacob Fink — performing the track live with a small audience in attendance. The video also features footage of the trio recording the song, hanging out with each other around town and surfing in full-body wetsuits on an overcast day.

“Pumped Up Kicks” was released as the first single from the group’s debut album, Torches, in 2010. The track, which goes into the mind of a homicidal youth named Robert, is the group’s most successful song to date. It spent a total of 40 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011 and peaked at No. 3 on the chart, earning the group a Grammy nomination for best pop duo/group performance.

The track, however, wasn’t without its controversy. Due to the song’s intense lyrics, MTV censored the lines “outrun my gun” and “run faster than my bullet” in the track while playing its video on air, and the song later would be banned on certain radio stations throughout the United States following the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Speaking about the track’s ties to such a tragic event, Foster told Billboard in a 2021 interview for Torches‘ 10th-anniversary reissue that the song is “always going to mark an ugly truth about our society,” loosely comparing it to “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival and its associations with the Vietnam War.

“A few years ago, I was seriously considering not playing it again because I never want to be a vessel that spreads pain, or reminds people of something traumatic. But the song made me realize… if artists stopped talking about ugly societal truths, then that means all those ideas are left to incubate inside people’s heads,” he explained, referring to when he told Billboard in 2019 he considered pulling the song from live shows. “It’s important that artist voices aren’t censored. Music, comedy, film, storytelling and dance are all forms of art that help relieve the pressures of society. If we close off pathways for people to be exposed to dark ideas, then we’re in danger of having real life consequences where people act out in a physical way.”

Revisit “Pumped Up Kicks” in the video above.

29 Nov 2023

Gerardo Coronel Tops Regional Mexican Airplay With ‘Se Buscan Borrachos’: ‘It Invites Us All to Get Drunk!’

Gerardo Coronel “El Jerry” crosses off a new Billboard chart milestone, scoring his first No. 1 without any other acts on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “Se Buscan Borrachos” ascends to the top of the Dec. 2-dated ranking.

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Coronel’s second No. 1 overall takes the lead with 8.7 million audience impressions in the U.S. Nov. 17-23, according to Luminate.

The song, whose title roughly translates in English to “drunks wanted,” is a “journey alongside my great team,” Coronel tells Billboard. “It invites us all to get drunk, cure the hangover and become an expert at the subject, because if we were looking for drunks, it was to make them sing about what’s coming next year!”

“Se Buscan Borrachos” was composed by Salvador Aponte and Meño Segovia and is on Coronel’s album CHSM el Hígado!

The track arrives at the Regional Mexican Airplay summit after Coronel notched his first leader on any Billboard chart with “Que Onda Perdida,” with Grupo Firme, for three weeks in July.

The corrido singer-songwriter has since debuted two other tracks on the ranking: “Alguien De Aquí,” with Nathan Galante, up to No. 19 on the latest list, and “Al Menos Indicado,” with Cuisillos, concurrently new at No. 40.

Further, Coronel claims the sixth Regional Mexican Airplay No. 1 of 2023 by a soloist with no billed collaborators. Seven such songs led in 2022, after four did in 2021 and three reigned in 2020, with the genre largely the domain of groups historically.

Here’s the list of such leaders this year:

Artist, Title, Date Song Reached No. 1:
Gerardo Coronel “El Jerry,” “Se Buscan Borrachos,” Dec. 2, 2023
Alejandro Fernández, “Difícil Tu Caso,” Nov. 18, 2023
El Fantasma, “La Vida Cara,” Sept. 9, 2023
Carin León, “Indispensable,” Aug. 19, 2023
Alejandro Fernández, “No Es Que Me Quiera Ir,” Aug. 5, 2023
Christian Nodal, “Un Cumbión Dolido,” June 3, 2023

Beyond its Regional Mexican Airplay coronation, “Borrachos” makes progress on the overall Latin Airplay chart, bounding 10-4, having become Coronel’s third top 10 on the tally.

29 Nov 2023

Spotify Wrapped’s Most Streamed Artists Through the Years: Taylor Swift, Drake & More

The end of November marks Spotify Wrapped season, the time of year when pretty much everyone is posting on social media about the artists and songs they listened to most this year.

Wrapped has quickly become a beloved tradition among music lovers since since its launch in 2014. Not only does the year-end review give you a glimpse at your friends’ music tastes (and guilty pleasures … looking at you, Glee cast), but it can also turn you on to new artists and genres you may never have found without seeing them listed on your sister’s friend’s cousin’s boyfriend’s Instagram Story.

But looking at (and maybe even secretly judging) people’s year-end Spotify configurations also gives you an idea of which artists were most popular that year, cropping up again and again in listeners’ top fives. Very few musicians earn millions, let alone billions, of streams per year on the platform — and only one of them gets to reign supreme come the end of each November.

In 2023, that prize goes to none other than Ms. Taylor Swift. The names before her may be ones you expect — Billboard Hot 100 chart-rulers such as Drake, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran and more — but did you know that only three artists have been Spotify’s top global artist more than once? And only one person has ever done it three years in a row?

The advent of streaming has made music more accessible to people around the world than was ever imaginable even a decade ago. Keep reading to see Spotify Wrapped’s most streamed global artists through the years, along with each of their year-end total stream counts, below:

29 Nov 2023

Kelsea Ballerini Reveals She & Chase Stokes Have Matching Tattoos: ‘We Can’t Break Up’

Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes’ relationship has been cemented in ink. The “If You Go Down” singer appeared on the Wednesday (Nov. 29) episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast and revealed that she and the Outer Banks actor now have matching tattoos.

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“We have matching tattoos and we can’t break up,” she told the host as the pair drove in her car. “We have matching Virgos … we got them together.”

Though the pair’s tattoos match, they each got them for their own individual reasons; Ballerini shared that being a Virgo often led her to struggle for control throughout her life. “I used to really resent my Virgo-ness because to me it was very control freak, just needing power in a lot of situations in a relationship,” she explained. “And he’s a Virgo too, and he and I have just really allowed ourselves to just love that part of ourselves and each other. Just the need to communicate well and be loyal and all those things.”

After taking some time to gush about her relationship with the actor — the country star called Stokes the “most emotionally intelligent man I’ve ever met in my life” and noted that he’s “a man written by a woman” — Ballerini shed light on what it’s been like seeing Stokes have a working relationship with his ex-girlfriend and Outer Banks co-star Madelyn Cline.

The four-time Grammy nominee is not phased by Cline, and even thinks she’s a nice girl. “I met her and I talked to her and she’s lovely,” she said. “And I think she’s wildly talented. I think the Internet did its best to make it weird, and it didn’t work for them. I’m stoked to be on set. At the end of the day, I’m a girl’s girl, I don’t buy into the bullsh–. I think they have a beautiful working relationship. I don’t feel insecure about my relationship and I don’t feel insecure about myself. Everyone’s good.”

Watch Ballerini’s full Call Her Daddy episode in the video below.

29 Nov 2023

Jessica Simpson Planning a New Album & Tour

Jessica Simpson is going to be booked and busy in 2024, as the singer is in the process of preparing a new album and tour for next year.

Speaking with Footwear News for a story published Tuesday, Simpson shared that she’s been working on new material in Nashville after temporarily relocating her family there from Los Angeles last summer.

“It’s like a retreat for me,” she told the outlet, which is honoring Simpson as their 37th Icon Award recipient. “I get to just crawl up inside my head and embrace my heart. I feel so enlightened there. Writing music has become a beautiful therapeutic thing for me that I didn’t know was so natural, but it’s because I haven’t done it in so long. It’s just nice to know that I’m meeting myself back in this place, as a woman, and after going through everything that I’ve been through in my life. There’s a sense of freedom and empowerment.”

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The Dukes of Hazzard star’s next album would mark her first in more than 13 years. Her last release, Happy Christmas, was released on Nov. 22, 2010. Simpson’s last non-holiday release was 2008’s Do You Know, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. She also released “Particles” as a one-off single in 2021.

The 2023 FN Achievement Awards — nicknamed the “Shoe Oscars” — will be held Wednesday night (Nov. 29) at Cipriani South Street in New York. Simpson will be honored as the Icon Award winner, the footwear industry’s highest honor, at the event.

29 Nov 2023

Sabrina Carpenter Responds to Catholic Church Controversy: ‘Jesus Was a Carpenter’

Sabrina Carpenter is feeling lighter like a feather amid recent controversy surrounding her “Feather” music video.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that a Catholic priest who allowed a scene from the clip to be filmed inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had been relieved of his administrative duties, according to the New York Times. In the music video scene, Carpenter dances around the church, wearing a short black tulle dress and veil and posing with religious items at the alter, including a coffin that reads “RIP B—-.”

“We got approval in advance,” the pop star told Variety of the shoot on Wednesday (Nov. 29), “and Jesus was a carpenter.”

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In an apology posted to the church’s Facebook page, the priest, Msgr. Jamie J. Gigantiello, revealed that he approved the filming in September after not finding anything negative about Carpenter online in an “effort to further strengthen the bonds between the young creative artists who make up a large part of this community.” He also told NYT that he was presented the video shoot idea as a funeral scene, but the result in the music video was “not what was initially presented to me.”

“Feather” is the latest song off Carpenter’s July 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send to get the music video treatment, following “Nonsense,” “Because I Liked a Boy,” “Fast Times” and “Skinny Dipping.” Upon its release, the album debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, marking the rising pop star’s highest peak on the chart to date.