Music

12 Oct 2023

Check Out Some Rare Photo Outtakes From Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She’s So Unusual’ Ahead of Its 40th Anniversary

This Saturday (Oct. 14) marks 40 years since one of the greatest debut albums of all time introduced the world to the, well, unusual talents of a Brooklyn singer-songwriter. With the Oct. 14, 1983 release of She’s So Unusual, Cyndi Lauper announced she had arrived — and pop music would never quite be the same.

Over nine tracks that encompass exuberant pop, delirious new wave, off-kilter torch songs and empowerment anthems, Lauper invited listeners to flaunt conventions, follow their own arrows and let their freak flags fly. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” – one of six singles from the album – quickly became an era-defining anthem, hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and giving us a gleefully unhinged music video that helped define early MTV (and recently joined the billion views club on YouTube). Soon after, the timeless pop ballad “Time After Time” became her first Hot 100 topper, giving Reagan Era prom-goers a slow dance staple. Before the blockbuster LP’s run was done, it became the first album from a female artist to produce four top 5 Hot 100 singles.

On the Van Gogh-painted heels of the album’s success, Lauper won the best new artist Grammy at the 1985 Grammy Awards, where the cover art – which is in the top 10 of Billboard’s list of the 100 Best Album Covers of All Time – nabbed Janet Perr the Grammy for best recording package.

Shot by rock photography GOAT Annie Leibovitz in front of a shuttered Coney Island wax museum, the cover art features a shoeless Lauper clad in explosively colorful clothing that she thrifted from Screaming Mimi’s, an NYC vintage shop she worked at before catapulting herself into the pop stratosphere.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of an indelible album, Billboard is sharing three rare outtakes from the She’s So Unusual cover shoot, all photographed by Leibovitz on Coney Island during the summer of 1983. For Record Store Day acolytes, a blue vinyl version of the album will hit shelves soon.

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives

12 Oct 2023

PinkPantheress Announces Debut Album ‘Heaven Knows’: Here’s When It Arrives

PinkPantheress announced her highly anticipated debut album Heaven Knows on Thursday (Oct. 12), and it’s slated to arrive Nov. 10.

“What an intense insane moment ! my first album is coming out and you know i love a pun so it’s called ‘heaven knows’, out on november 10th. this album is an accumulation of music i’ve made over the last two years, with some beloved tunes that might sound familiar and some cutie features who i can’t wait to announce,” she wrote on Instagram. “I love everyone here, i cried the other day thinking of how lucky i am to have people willing to listen to me, you are never taken in vain. to my fanpages, i love you, you’re always there for me and i will never forget about how safe you make me feel. it’s been a long time comin from pain to capable of love, i hope you love each song you hear from me!”

The announcement of Heaven Knows arrives close to the two-year anniversary of her debut mixtape To Hell With It, which she released on Oct. 15, 2021, via Parlophone and Elektra Records. She dropped the remixes version on Jan. 28, 2022. Since then, the English singer-producer — whose music synthesizes bedroom pop, drum-n-bass, 2-step garage, ’90s R&B and more and has become viral on TikTok over the last couple of years — has released a slew of singles, including “Boy’s a Liar” and its famous sequel with Ice Spice that has since peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I feel like I don’t have that many peers that exist in a similar space to me. I’m not talking about levels. I’m talking about internet space. I think a lot of people see me as being this, like, internet cutesy teen-pop girl,” she told Billboard in a recent interview. “I feel like she was one of the newcomers whom I got drawn to because, even though she does drill and rap, it still feels like she’s in the same cutesy world to me. And she’s Black too, and that was a big important part of it to me. I prefer to collaborate with other Black artists.”

See her announcement below, and pre-order Heaven Knows here.

12 Oct 2023

Rolling Loud Partners With Basketball League Overtime Elite

After delving into the world of sports with its partnership with WWE and the Miami Heat through their festival flagship, Rolling Loud will dive deeper into athletics by teaming with the professional basketball league Overtime Elite.

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Overtime Elite is a basketball league based in Atlanta, Ga., where the top prospects in the country, ages 16-20, showcase their talents. Team Rolling Loud will be the first brand to receive naming rights for an Overtime Elite team. Based in LA, the Rolling Loud team will feature two prominent high school players, Nassir Cunningham and Larry Johnson. Both players are ranked in the top 100 of the 2024 class. Rolling Loud will have creative control team designing the jerseys and merchandise. NBA trainer, Julius V, will lead the team.

“The sport and spirit of basketball is an important part of the Rolling Loud experience, so we’re excited to expand that connection beyond the festival grounds with Overtime Elite. We’re proud to join with this exciting new league and help support the next generation of athletes in Los Angeles — our second hometown,” Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif, co-founders at Rolling Loud, said in a shared statement to Billboard.

Overtime is equally pleased with the arrival of team Rolling Loud. “As we continue to expand Overtime Elite’s brand and innovate with like-minded partners, we are excited to grow our partnership with team Rolling Loud in Season Three,” said Tyler Rutstein, chief brand officer of Overtime. “There’s an undeniable intersection between basketball, music, and fashion, and partnering with Rolling Loud allows us to be in the center of it all, creating new experiences for both our players and our fans.”

Check out Rolling Loud’s roster below:

  • Nasir Cunningham
  • Larry Johnson
  • Omer Dahan
  • Demarco Johnson
  • Martin Somerville
  • Dominick Stewart
  • CJ Clayman
  • Nico Kodjoe
  • Kellen Hampton
  • Miles Goodman
  • Dio Blakely
  • Stefan Sherman
  • Kye Davis
  • Amani Ndilima
  • Sean Blakely
  • Michael Price
  • AJ Econonu
  • Michael Oaks

Rolling Loud Partnership with OTE

Naas Cunningham

Courtesy of Rolling Loud and OTE

12 Oct 2023

Nicki Minaj Teases a Special Surprise for ‘Pink Friday the 13th’: See What She’s Potentially Offering

As the home stretch of the lead-up to Nicki Minaj’s forthcoming fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, approaches, the “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” rapper has some surprises in store. The Queens rapper tweeted on Thursday (Oct. 12) to tease a few possible surprises set to arrive on Friday (Oct. 13).

“Pink Friday the 13th,” she captioned the poll — a reference to Pink Friday 2 — which is the following day in her pledge to “make every Friday from now until the album drops a special Pink Friday.” It’s also a nod to her Grammy-nominated “My Chick Bad” verse, in which she raps, “Friday the 13th, guess who’s playing Jason.”

The polls options include “Big Difference full song,” “a freestyle” and the “name of one Pink Friday 2 feature.” The first choice is a request many fans have been making since Minaj first previewed a minute-long snippet of “Big Difference” immediately following her rendition of “Last Time I Saw You” — which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 — at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, where she won the best hip-hop Moon Person for “Super Freaky Girl.” The second option would be in line with the “Pinkprint Freestlye” the Head Barb dropped before the release of her third studio album of the same name. Finally, the last choice is fairly self-explanatory.

On her Instagram Story, Minaj posted a screenshot of a poll showing “a freestyle” as the winning option. “Almost 150k votes with 8 hours left ?,” she wrote. “Ion feel like doing no freestyle right now my G!!!! ?? Go vote yall!”

Pink Friday 2, the sequel to Minaj’s Billboard 200-topping debut studio album, is slated for a Nov. 17 release. The album will serve as Minaj’s first full-length album since 2018’s Queen, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Hot 100 top 10 single “Chun-Li.”

The new album will bookmark yet another banner year for Minaj. In addition to standalone singles such as “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” and “Last Time I Saw You,” the Grammy-nominated rapper also snagged a pair of Hot 100 top 10 hits with Ice Spice: “Princess Diana” (No. 4) and the AQUA-assisted “Barbie World” (No. 7). Minaj also appeared on Hot 100 hits from Kim Petras (“Alone,” No. 55), Sexyy Red (“Pound Town 2,” No. 66), Lil Uzi Vert (“Endless Fashion,” No. 20) and YoungBoy Never Broke Again (“WTF,” No. 99).

Check out Nicki Minaj’s poll and cast a vote below:

12 Oct 2023

Doja Cat Explains Why She Changed Her Album Title From ‘Hellmouth,’ Struggles With ‘Hot One’s Da Bomb

Doja Cat covered everything from her new album Scarlet to her obsession with “YouTube poop” and the real reason she loves being bald on her Thursday (Oct. 12) Hot Ones appearance — that is, before Da Bomb briefly stopped her in her tracks.

The 27-year-old rapper became the latest star to conquer Sean Evans’ hit First We Feast series, and luckily for curious fans everywhere, the host’s first question was about Doja’s album title change. The project, which dropped Sept. 22 under the name Scarlet, was originally titled Hellmouth, as revealed by the musician back in March.

“I don’t care about the meaning being so deep, as much as the word being a cool word,” she began. “I just like good words. I thought Hellmouth was cool … it’s like the gates of hell. But that felt so aggressive to me after a while, and I don’t know if I even like it anymore.”

“I change my mind constantly,” Doja added. “And Scarlet felt like the right thing to do, ’cause it’s kind of an ode to Hot Pink. I did the name of a color, but it’s not really; you think of [Scarlett] as someone’s first name, and not as a color. That was kind of the twist to it. And also red is just a passionate shade.”

The two also bonded about their shared hairstyles — both of them rock shaved heads — while devouring increasingly spicy chicken wings Doja made headlines last year when she razored off all of her hair, a decision she’s still loving now.

“What I like most about it, I can focus on what I’m wearing and less about my hair,” the Grammy winner said, struggling to answer while huffing, puffing and gasping through hot sauce No. 8 Da Bomb’s tear-inducing heat, looking at one point as if she might vomit. “Hair, it’s a whole other world. It’s like, f–k that. I can just wear a cute outfit and be bald. There’s hella bad b—hes that are bald in this world.”

Evans also asked Doja, who professed to being “addicted to the internet,” about her recent online obsessions — and, as expected, it yielded a very interesting response from the eccentric star. “YouTube poop has a lot of interesting — do you know what YouTube is?” she asked Evans, laughing. “It’s a sub genre of YouTube comedy.”

“I like it most when it’s a talk show, and you go in and edit it to make it sound like someone’s saying something that’s super crass and crazy,” she continued. “Like, there’s some Dr. Phil YouTube poops that are some of the best ones. I keep going back to them, but it’s a very deep rabbit hole.”

The “Paint the Town Red” musician made it through the rest of the show without too much trouble, until she was overcome by a coughing attack at the very end. That didn’t stop her from finishing a custom monster doodle inspired by Hot Ones, though.

Watch Doja Cat take on Hot Ones above.

12 Oct 2023

‘Straight and Narrow’ Singer Sam Barber on His Breakthrough Song: ‘I Think It Has Found Its Own Kind of Purpose’

On Sept. 23, “Straight and Narrow” singer Sam Barber stepped into the six-foot circle of hardwood positioned at the heart of the Grand Ole Opry stage, a circle salvaged from the Opry’s former Ryman Auditorium home, to make his debut performance at the historic institution.

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“I was definitely nervous for that show,” Missouri native Barber, 20, told Billboard over Zoom. “But as soon as I stepped in the circle and everything, it kind of all hit me and it was a pretty crazy feeling.”

Making an Opry debut — and thus, entering into a nearly century-long lineage of Opry performers — is a vaunted milestone for any artist, but perhaps even more so for Barber, given that his first official headlining concert came a scant three months earlier. That’s when he played a sold-out show at Nashville venue The Basement, bolstered by the breakthrough success of his solo-penned “Straight and Narrow,” an acoustic guitar-based song layered with lyrics about soldiering on despite several setbacks.

Barber earned his first Billboard chart entry when “Straight and Narrow” debuted at No. 24 on the Hot Rock Songs chart and No. 38 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in April. The song currently sits at No. 41 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Barber was studying civil engineering at State Technical College in Linn, Missouri, when he began releasing music, including 2021’s “Run Away High,” “As Time Passes” and “Drowning.” Notably, Barber had written “Straight and Narrow” long before it became a breakthrough: It was the first song Barber wrote when he was 16 years old.

“I was just trying to write something that sounded good to me, but I think it’s found its own kind of purpose and people have their own takes on it,” Barber says. “It’s a song about whatever you’re going through, to keep going pretty well in the end.”

Though he says his earliest releases were slap-dash affairs — “just audio from my phone, using voice memos” — he sought a higher-quality, still direct approach to recording “Straight and Narrow.” “It wasn’t a studio; I just recorded it with a mic in a bedroom,” he explains. “It was still a simple recording — there were no changes made or anything, but I wanted people to hear it.”

He estimates he had 200,000 total monthly Spotify listeners by the time he released “Straight and Narrow” in late 2022 — though that number has quickly improved, with Barber (who is managed by Outlaw Foundry’s Jerrin Uecker and Colton Kramer) now boasting over 4 million monthly Spotify listeners.

Last month, Barber followed “Straight and Narrow” with his eight-song debut EP, Million Eyes, released through Lockeland Springs with Atlantic Records. He’s booked by Wasserman Music, and is in talks with music publishers. Barber has a slate of club shows through the end of the year, as well as shows supporting 49 Winchester. In 2024, he will perform at the Stagecoach Festival.

“I just want to play live as much as I can,” Barber says. “I love playing live. It’s the best part of it, just meeting fans and taking music as far as I can.”

Billboard caught up with Barber, our October Rookie of the Month, to discuss songwriting, his influences, and his Million Eyes EP.

When did you become interested in music?

I was into sports growing up. My dad is a mechanic, and my mom is a nurse, but they don’t do music. My great-grandfather had a guitar, and it was in my parents’ room. When I was 15 or 16, I just thought it’d be cool to learn it. I never actually met him, but from stories I heard and pictures I’ve seen, he used to play in bars and stuff. I started watching YouTube videos, learning to play, and went from there. I did a lot of Zach Bryan covers, and then mostly just started trying to write my own music.

On your Million Eyes project, you worked with producer Eddie Spear, who has worked with Zach and Brandi Carlile. How did the two of you connect?

I knew of him, and he ended up messaging me on Instagram and asked if I would want to work with him. He’s one of my favorite people ever. He’s helped drive a lot of my ideas and make them something more than I could have made it, personally.

“All That I Have” is another standout on Million Eyes. When did you write that?

I wrote that one quite a while back. I was just picking around on my guitar and I had that intro part. It was a pretty quick write. In the song, the guy doesn’t have a lot — his guitar is pretty much all he has. He’s in love with this girl and their love is enough for each other.

What’s your favorite song on Million Eyes?

Definitely “Save Me.” I started writing it in high school and kind of forgot about it for a long time. I ended up looking through my songbook and found it again. It was half-done, so a month or two before we released the EP, I finished it. I kept the first half pretty much the same. I just try to write things that connect with more people than myself.

Who are some of the artists and writers you look up to?

Tyler Childers is huge. When he was 18, he put out Bottles and Bibles, and that’s my favorite album ever. I’ve definitely tried to be kind of in that lane. But of course, I listen to a lot of Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton — those are probably my main three. But I also listen to a lot of indie artists. I’m a big fan of Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners; they are just good dudes. But then, I’m also a big fan of Kings of Leon.

You’ve written most of these songs yourself. Do you prefer writing by yourself to co-writing?

I really enjoy writing by myself. I think the songs come out much better. I think it’s hard to make a really emotional song when it’s two or three brains going into one song. I think it creates more of a bland song; it’s hard to be on the same emotional page as someone at the same time like that. But also, I have to be in a certain headspace to write. I can’t just say, “Tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and write a song.” I can’t really do that — I have to be like, “Okay, I’m feeling like this, like I need to write about it.”

On Million Eyes, you include a cover of U.K. duo Dani and Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Sky.” What do you think of other artists covering your songs?

I love hearing people’s renditions of anything. I like when people twist things around and make it their own.

You said that performing is your favorite part of pursuing this career. Do you have a favorite story of a fan interaction?

One guy drove 17 hours to meet me. I ended up talking to him for a while and he got my signature tattooed on his arm. That was pretty awesome.

Who was the first artist you saw in concert?

Chris Stapleton. My parents took me when I was a kid.

You’ve mentioned Zach and Tyler, and, of course, more roots-oriented music has had a big moment this year on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. What are your thoughts on releasing music at this time?

I think I’m in the most perfect time I could be for what I’m doing. People are just going to all these streaming apps and listening to whatever they want. It’s becoming a thing, just acoustic guitars and voices. I think a lot more kids are picking up guitars and finding out, “I’m not that bad at this,” and it’s bringing a whole new aspect to music in general. I think it’s only for the better, and we’re just finding so many young and great artists out of this whole time period.

12 Oct 2023

Rod Stewart Turns Down Saudi Arabia Gig In Protest Over Treatment of Women, LGBTQ+ Community

Sir Rod Stewart has turned down what could likely have been one of his biggest career paydays ever as a symbol of protest against what he said was the repressive policies of the Saudi Arabian government. “I’m grateful that I have a choice whether or not to perform in Saudi Arabia,” the singer wrote in an Instagram message on Thursday (Oct. 12).

“So many citizens there have extremely limited choices — women, the LGBTQ community, the press,” it continued. “I’d like my choice not to go… to shine a light on the injustices there and ignite positive change.” It was unknown at press time what Stewart, 78, was being offered to play in the kingdom where members of the LGBTQ+ community do not have state-recognized rights and where same-sex sexual activity is illegal and punishable by up to life imprisonment.

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this year that despite talk of reforms for women in the nation, “authorities continue to implement a male guardianship system requiring women to obtain male guardian permission to get married, leave prison, or obtain some forms of sexual and reproductive healthcare.”

While Sir Rod turned down the gig — at press time a spokesperson for the singer had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the details of his decision — the Kingdom has hosted other Western pop stars in recent years, including Bruno Mars, David Guetta, Mariah Carey, Black Eyed Peas and Iggy Azalea, among others. In 2019, Nicki Minaj pulled out of the Jeddah World Festival in Saudi Arabia in support of LBGTQ and women’s rights while Chris Brown, Janet Jackson, Future, 50 Cent and others agreed to play the event in the country whose morality police once frequently raided venues playing loud music.

In a statement to People magazine a spokesperson for Stewart added, “Sir Rod Stewart has once again turned down one of the most lucrative concert offers of his career to perform in Saudi Arabia. Sighting his ‘moral compass in making the decision,’ Stewart chose to refuse the offer over the kingdom’s long history of human rights abuses, including discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people, and of silencing its critics.” Stewart also said in 2022 that he had turned down a chance to more than $1 million payday to play a show in the Gulf state of Qatar, which also has a history of human rights and labor abuses and discrimination against women and the LGBTQ community.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to polish the Kingdom’s profile for many years by opening its first movie theaters and announcing an end to its ban on women driving. Those reforms have not expanded to a free and open press, however, as evidence by the savage 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents close to the crown prince in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which the Saudi government reportedly attempted to cover up by destroying evidence and denying involvement.

See Stewart’s message below.

12 Oct 2023

Mitski Claims No. 1 on TikTok Billboard Top 50

Mitski takes over as the latest No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 with “My Love Mine All Mine,” which vaults 5-1 on the Oct. 14-dated ranking.

The TikTok Billboard Top 50, which began four weeks ago, is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity Oct. 2-8. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.

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“My Love Mine All Mine” initially debuted on the Sept. 30-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 at No. 34, followed by a leap to No. 5 Oct. 7 prior to its coronation. It becomes the first song in the chart’s five-week history to rise to No. 1 rather than debuting there.

The song was released as part of Mitski’s new album The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, which premiered Sept. 15 and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums survey dated Sept. 30. The singer born Mitsuki Laycock has had a handful of successful songs on TikTok previously, including “Washing Machine Heart,” “Nobody” and more, preceding the runaway success of “My Love Mine All Mine” more recently.

There isn’t a specific throughline using the song just yet; rather, currently users are uploading clips featuring the tune to soundtrack their lives, emotional moments, referencing romance and more.

Concurrently, “My Love Mine All Mine” jumps to a new peak of No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Mitski’s first top 50-charting song. It earned 8.4 million official U.S. streams in the Hot 100’s Sept. 29-Oct. 5 tracking period, a 28% boost, according to Luminate.

The track is the first No. 1 since the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s inception that isn’t a hip-hop song, following previous rulers “SkeeYee” by Sexyy Red, “Wassup Gwayy” by FamousSally and YB and “Sky” by Playboi Carti.

Mitski reigns on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 over Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” which remains at No. 2. As noted last week, though the song – currently No. 1 on the Hot 100 – has not yet crowned the TikTok Billboard Top 50, it also hasn’t dropped below No. 3 in the tally’s five weeks.

SUICIDAL-IDOL’s “Ecstasy” reaches a new peak, jumping into the top 10 for the first time at No. 3. Billed as the “slowed” version on the chart (there are four versions in all right now, also including the original, super slowed and a remix), “Ecstasy” debuted at No. 11 on Oct. 7 and sported 3.6 million official U.S. streams toward the Billboard charts Sept. 29-Oct. 5, a jump of 14%.

The previous No. 1, Playboi Carti’s “Sky,” drops to No. 4, while Girl in Red’s “We Fell in Love in October” rounds out the top five. The latter has become a perennial riser on TikTok each October, securing gains that brought it onto Billboard’s Alternative Streaming Songs chart last October (No. 22, Oct. 15, 2022) and already this month (No. 19, Oct. 14). Many of the latest uploads using the song, which was originally released in 2018, feature users posting themselves doing various fall activities or enjoying the cooling weather.

See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here, including debuts from Summer Walker, Lukas Graham and more. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.

12 Oct 2023

How ‘Trolls’ Scored the *NSYNC Comeback We’ve All Been Waiting For

“Are you guys doing something?” Taylor Swift asked the members of *NSYNC on Sept. 12 while onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards, where the reunited boy band had just arrived to shrieks and presented Swift the best pop trophy. “I need to know what it is!” *NSYNC was back, and even pop’s biggest superstar was amped.

Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone demurred at the time, but soon after the VMAs, *NSYNC announced “Better Place,” its first new song together in over two decades. The shimmering, falsetto-heavy disco-pop track was created for Trolls Band Together, the third installment in the hit animated film series in which Timberlake voices a main character, Branch, and has contributed hits to each of the first two Trolls movies.

“My excitement started way back in the early part of the year,” says Gina Shay, the producer/music supervisor for the films. That was when Timberlake sent her a demo of “Better Place,” designed to follow his Billboard Hot 100-topping smash “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from the original Trolls film in 2016 and his SZA collaboration, “The Other Side,” from 2020’s Trolls World Tour.

Shortly after sending the demo, Timberlake texted Shay that he felt inspired to reunite *NSYNC to record “Better Place.” “It was like dynamite was going off inside my brain,” Shay says. After all, *NSYNC — whose four studio albums have sold 27.9 million copies, according to Luminate, and scored turn-of-the-century smashes like “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” — hadn’t released music together since 2002.

And while Trolls Band Together focuses on a boy band reunion, Shay says that the plot had been locked in long before any talk of an *NSYNC comeback. “The movie’s story has been solid for about four years,” she says, “so it was just that perfect confluence of a song to reunite *NSYNC and to carry the narrative.”

Although Shay says that coordinating all five members’ schedules with their individual teams “took a little time to sort through,” “Better Place” came together rather seamlessly once the quintet was fully on board. After *NSYNC announced its reunion at the VMAs and unveiled “Better Place” on Sept. 29, Shay hopes that the song will become ubiquitous prior to the Nov. 17 release of Trolls Band Together — but however high it climbs, she’s glad that the film franchise could play a role in the reformation of a pop behemoth like *NSYNC.

“I’m so glad we were able to do this for the fans,” she says. “It has been a mix of love, pandemonium and wish fulfillment.”

This story originally appeared in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.

12 Oct 2023

Taylor Swift Praises Beyoncé’s ‘Resilience & Versatility’ After ‘Eras Tour’ Film Premiere

There’s probably very few people in the world that could leave Taylor Swift starstruck, but you best believe Beyoncé is one of them. Two of the world’s biggest pop stars — and 2023’s hugest touring artists — met up at the premiere of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s Eras Tour film premiere Wednesday (Oct. 11), after which Swift took to Instagram to rave about the 32-time Grammy winner.

“I’m so glad I’ll never know what my life would’ve been like without @beyonce‘s influence,” she wrote, sharing a gif of her and Bey posing in movie theater seats, playfully tossing pop corn at the cameras. “The way she’s taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms.”

“Her generosity of spirit,” Swift continued. “Her resilience and versatility. She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale. ???”

Fans in person and online were stunned when Queen Bey appeared at the Los Angeles premiere of Swift’s film, which compiled footage from the “Karma” musician’s three-hour Eras shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., earlier this year. The two posed for photos on the red carpet as well as inside the theater, where Swift watched the film surrounded by a handpicked group of superfans.

Before the viewing, she stopped by each Swiftie-filled theater at L.A.’s The Grove theater to give a speech. “I’ve always had fun doing this,” Swift said. “I can’t believe I get to do music as a career. That’s crazy. I’ve always had so much fun doing it. I’ve never had this much fun in my life as I have had on The Eras Tour. It is far and away just the most electric experience of my life.”

The 33-year-old singer-songwriter wrapped up the first legs U.S. and Mexico legs of her bestselling trek in August, and is now taking a short break from touring before she picks back up in November with dates in Argentina and Brazil. Beyoncé also recently tied a bow on her blockbuster Renaissance Tour, playing a finale show in Kansas City on Oct. 1 after five months of shows in Europe and North America.

And while their public appearances together are rare, Swift and Sasha Fierce go way back. Perhaps their most famous crossover was in 2009, when Bey stood up for Swift at the VMAs after Kanye West famously interrupted the “Maroon” singer’s acceptance speech. Since then, they’ve remained in touch and have been guests at each other‘s birthday parties.

Check out Swift’s post singing Beyoncé’s praises below: