Music

12 Sep 2023

Peggy Gou’s ‘Nanana’: How a Festival Video and a Mashup Turned It Into a Breakout Dance Hit

The scene will be immediately familiar to anyone who has attended a music festival: a DJ riling up a crowd, playing a hit but ratcheting up the anticipation by toying with the melody before the drums charge to the rescue. Only this time, the hit hadn’t come out yet — the South Korean producer Peggy Gou was teasing an unreleased single titled “(It Goes Like) Nanana.” 

Attendees at the Lost Nomads festival outside of Marrakesh hardly seemed to mind; a TikTok video capturing Gou’s set shows listeners throwing their hands in the air with abandon. One onlooker, standing behind the DJ’s right shoulder, removes the cigarette hanging unlit from his lips to unleash a hoot just as the percussion hits. 

That sunset TikTok clip helped kickstart a viral chain of events that has turned “(It Goes Like) Nanana” into Gou’s mainstream breakthrough. The single is her first to scale the Billboard charts, climbing inside the top 40 on the Global 200, and it’s earned 24.5 million on-demand streams in the U.S. since its release, according to Luminate. For a time it was the lead track on Spotify’s flagship playlist Today’s Top Hits, a spot usually taken up by major-label superstars, not dance producers on the independent label XL. 

No one is more surprised than Gou. She didn’t have TikTok when “(It Goes Like) Nanana” started to go like viral; she found out about that success from her friends. She also doesn’t watch the charts. “I really did not expect this reaction,” Gou says. “My song was never on a chart before. In the beginning I wasn’t sure what [charting] meant exactly.”

But the excursion into new commercial territory is welcome — a relief, in fact. After her rubbery 2019 single “Starry Night” became popular on dancefloors, Gou felt pressured to top it. “Sometimes pressure is a good thing,” she says. “It always kind of pushes me.”

“(It Goes Like) Nanana” was born during the pandemic, while Gou was binging dance music and hip-hop from the 1990s. The simplicity of the house music she absorbed from that decade stood out: “A lot of the hooks are repetitive, but it’s still catchy, you don’t get bored.” She cites SNAP!’s chugging hit “Rhythm Is a Dancer” and the German producer ATB as touchstones. 

Musical train-spotters on TikTok have thrown out a handful of other references in video comments: Kylie Minogue! (Presumably because she knows her way around a “la-la-la,” which isn’t too far from a “na-na-na.”) “I Like To Move It”! (Maybe in the progression of the bass line?) A Touch of Class’s “Around the World;” Gala’s “Freed From Desire” — take a fistful of Ultimate Dance Party CDs from the second half of the ’90s, throw them in a blender, and you might get something along the lines of “(It Goes Like) Nanana.”

Gou’s biggest tracks to date — “Starry Night” and “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” — are sung predominantly in Korean. But when she tried that approach on “(It Goes Like) Nanana,” “it didn’t really work,” so she ended up singing it all in English instead. Gou also subbed in an entirely new bass line at the last minute before she started playing it out at festivals like Lost Nomads. 

Badr Bounailat, who shot the popular video of Gou near Marrakesh on June 3rd and posted it June 5th, has two theories about why it amassed over 7 million views. First, he says, “I’m a photographer, and that’s a good frame.” (The top comment on his post: “Can we talk about that zoom quality ouffff.”) Second: “People were in it, they were responding well to the song.” 

The scenic locale may have helped as well. Harmony Soleil, music director for KNHC, a dance radio station in Seattle, was excited to find the video of Gou in her feed. “I’m a tiny bit obsessed with her, in a not weird way,” Soleil jokes. “She’s always in amazing places. What do you mean, you’re in Morocco and you’re in Spain and you’re in Japan?” (Soleil has been playing Gou on KNHC, jumping at the chance “to support an artist who hasn’t had a lot of U.S. radio airplay otherwise.”)

Thanks to all the online attention, by the time “(It Goes Like) Nanana” was officially released on June 15th, Gou felt like the track “was already out.” She was quickly inundated with requests from DJs — from “EDM to jungle to soul to hardcore techno” — asking for stems to make their own remixes. 

The biggest re-work has come from Ian Asher, a DJ and producer with a large following who has a knack for making mash-ups that drive TikTokers wild. Asher, who calls “Starry Night” “a classic,” decided to fuse Gou’s single with CamelPhat’s “Cola,” a skipping but hard-nosed dance track that became an international hit in 2017. “What I love about it is that you have two party songs,”  Asher explains, “but one is very bright and summery, and the other is like you’re going into a nightclub.”

His mash-up from July went bananas on both TikTok and Instagram, appearing in more than 780,000 user created videos. The “Cola x Nanana” meld is not officially available, which in practice means there are bootleg versions on Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud as of this week. “It keeps getting taken down, but people keep re-finding it and uploading it on every platform,” Asher notes. “It’s a whole mini-drama.” (It gets taken down because the remix is technically unauthorized; Gou only gave stems to the German DJ-producer Boys Noize.)

The social media fervor around “(It Goes Like) Nanana” in its various forms propelled the track out of the world of independent-label dance music. “I first became aware of Peggy about three years ago on more of an underground level,” says Jonathan Geronimo, vp of electronic/dance programming for SiriusXM. He found out about “(It Goes Like) Nanana” from his colleagues overseeing TikTok Radio, saw that it was “exploding globally,” and put it into rotation a few days after its official release. SiriusXM has played the track more than 700 times since, and Geronimo believes it has “a shot” to make the jump over to pop radio, “especially with the format really keeping a close eye on what’s happening on TikTok.”

Gou’s single hit the Global 200 in July and has since climbed to No. 33, giving her a strong tailwind as she finalizes her full-length debut, due out early in 2024. The album also draws on her recent dive into ’90s sounds. Once again, though, she is feeling the need to top herself. “I don’t think there’s any track on my album that’s as catchy as ‘Nanana,’” Gou says. “The second single that’s coming out is very different — close to pop.”

That said, predicting audience reactions is notoriously difficult — she didn’t know that millions of listeners would find “(It Goes Like) Nanana” so bewitching. Still, the pressure remains. “My mindset is always: I can do better,” Gou adds. “I can do better.” 

12 Sep 2023

What Did 2023’s Songs of the Summer Sound Like?

With summer over — not officially until Sept. 23, but for chart purposes, given that Billboard has announced the season-end 2023 Songs of the Summer chart, which measures performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 between Memorial Day and Labor Day — a look at the season’s biggest hits reveals what the average summer smash sounded like this year.

Here is an analysis of compositional characteristics of the survey’s top 10 titles at the season’s close.

To recap, here is a rundown of the Songs of the Summer chart’s top 10 for 2023:

  • No. 1, “Last Night,” Morgan Wallen
  • No. 2, “Fast Car,” Luke Combs
  • No. 3, “Calm Down,” Rema & Selena Gomez
  • No. 4, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus
  • No. 5, “All My Life,” Lil Durk feat. J. Cole
  • No. 6, “Cruel Summer,” Taylor Swift
  • No. 7, “Karma,” Taylor Swift feat. Ice Spice
  • No. 8, “Snooze,” SZA
  • No. 9, “Kill Bill,” SZA
  • No. 10, “Fukumean,” Gunna

Summer of Love

Love was in the air in the summer of 2023. A hefty 80% of the Song of the Summer chart’s season-wrapping top 10 features a love/relationship lyrical theme, with the majority sporting romantic subject matter. Among them, Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” chronicles his continued desire for his love interest despite their push-and-pull dynamic, while Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” narrate breakups.

Also notably, and logically, the positive songs about love include major-key tonalities, while the more negative ones are complemented by minor-key tonalities.

Meanwhile, only one song in the above 10 leaned toward the platonic end of the spectrum: Taylor Swift’s “Karma” featuring Ice Spice.

Playing Hooky, in the Summer

The biggest summer 2023 hits were earworms, even if they weren’t as fast as might be expected.

While all hits in the season-end Songs of the Summer top 10 feature catchy hooks, largely in their choruses, many bolster their hook presence by hitting the listener with a notable, recognizable hook in their intros (60% of the 10 songs) and/or following their choruses with additional post-chorus hook reiteration (70%).

Meanwhile, when most people think of summer hits, they typically think of uptempo, highly danceable bangers. However, summer 2023’s top 10 includes only three songs at over 100 beats per minute, two of which have a notable dance/club influence: “Flowers” (118 BPM) and Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” (107 BPM).

The greatest share of the summer’s top 10 is 80-99 BPM (four titles), including Luke Combs’ “Fast Car,” Swift’s “Cruel Summer” and “Karma,” and “Kill Bill.”

The remaining three songs are under 79 BPM, comprising the R&B/hip-hop hits “All My Life” by Lil Durk featuring J. Cole, SZA’s “Snooze” and Gunna’s “Fukumean.”

Familiar, But Unique

While hit songs possess a host of commonalities that make them familiar to audiences and enable them to easily connect, most also have unique qualities that help them stand out from the pack. The 10 biggest hits on 2023’s Songs of the Summer chart for the season are no exception. Among them:

“Fast Car” has an unusual song structure by today’s mainstream standards. Most hits are based on a core A-B-A-B-C-B form (whereby A: verse; B: chorus; and C: bridge). “Fast Car,” written by Tracy Chapman, who first sent the song to the weekly Hot 100’s top 10 in 1988, features an I-A-T-A-T-A-T-PC-T-B-T-A-T-B-T-A-T-B-T-PC-O form (I: intro; A: verse; T: turnaround; PC: pre-chorus; B: chorus; and O: outro).

“Calm Down” features standout qualities including repetition, more than the other season-end summer top 10s, and the weekly Hot 100’s top 10 in general; hooks combining proper language, slang, nonsensical phrases and Nigerian Pidgin; and an Afrobeats sound, which, despite gaining traction, is still relatively uncommon in the Hot 100’s top 10 and is not present in any of the other top 10 songs of the summer.

Plus, “Flowers” is the only top 10 hit of the summer with a 1970s disco influence and “Kill Bill” features an atypical ‘60s psychedelic influence, while its lyrical hook (“I might kill my ex”) definitely sets it apart.

David and Yael Penn are the co-founders of Hit Songs Deconstructed. In 2022, Hit Songs Deconstructed and fellow song analysis platform MyPart partnered to launch ChartCipher, a new platform analyzing hit songs, as defined by Billboard’s charts.

12 Sep 2023

Beyoncé Thanks Diana Ross & Kendrick Lamar for Their Renaissance Birthday Show Appearances

From a seemingly endless list of celebrity attendees to a characteristically jaw-dropping performance, Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour birthday show (Sept. 4) was one for the history books, and now, the star is thanking two who made that concert extra special.

In a pair of Instagram posts on Monday (Sept. 11), Beyoncé expressed her personal thanks to Diana Ross and Kendrick Lamar for their surprise performances during the show. “Thank you again to the legend Kendrick Lamar for blessing the Renaissance World Tour,” she wrote in the caption for a picture of the pair performing the “America Has a Problem” remix. “I deeply appreciate you. What an incredible experience. Respect, ?.”

For the final show of her three-night Renaissance World Tour run at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., Beyoncé brought out surprise guest Lamar for a cinematic performance of their remix of “America Has a Problem,” a fan-favorite breakout song from her Billboard 200-topping Renaissance album.

In a message to Ms. Ross, Beyoncé quoted her own Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit “Alien Superstar” (No. 19) writing, “Thank you to the incomparable Ms. Diana Ross. The 1 of 1, the number 1, the only one. Thank you from the depths of me, my Queen. ?”

The legendary performer had led the crowd in a performance of “Happy Birthday,” which was completed with a hug from a gobsmacked Beyoncé. The 79-year-old icon first appeared on stage in front of more than 60,000 screaming fans during one of the show’s regularly scheduled intermissions, which features Ross’ 1976 Hot 100 No. 1 single “Love Hangover” as an interlude between songs. Usually, it’s Bey’s backup singers who perform the transition, but this time, Ross herself was on hand to do the honors.

The “Cuff It” singer is gearing up for the final few shows of the North American leg of her tour. She returned to the stage on Monday night at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Beyoncé earned $141.4 million in the first 12 Renaissance shows in the U.S. and Canada, selling 553,000 tickets. That puts the tour’s figures at $295.8 million and 1.6 million tickets (as of Aug. 1), making it Beyoncé’s highest grossing tour yet, passing 2016’s The Formation World Tour ($256.1 million) and 2018’s On the Run II Tour alongside Jay-Z ($253.5 million).

Beyoncé’s latest worldwide trek is in support of Renaissance, her seventh solo studio album, which spawned the Grammy-winning Hot 100 top 10 hits “Break My Soul” (No. 1) and “Cuff It” (No. 6).

12 Sep 2023

Olivia Rodrigo Settles the Taylor Swift Feud Talk Once and For All: ‘I Don’t Have Beef With Anyone’

Olivia Rodrigo launches a fiery barrage of pinpoint lyrical missiles at unnamed targets on her laceratingly catchy second album, GUTS. But ask the Grammy-winning 20-year-old singer to go into specifics about who she’s put a bullseye on in her lyrics and the singer who snarls “I wanna meet his mom/ Just to tell her her son sucks” on the new album’s “Get Him Back!” is not going there.

Such as in a new Rolling Stone cover story, in which the interviewer attempts to get an answer to a burning question about whether Olivia is currently feuding with her musical inspiration Taylor Swift. “I don’t beef with anyone,” she said about the singer she said she was “in awe” of constantly in an 2021 interview with Ryan Seacrest; the pair also exchanged letters, Swift gifted Rodrigo a ring she word while recording Red and the singer later gave Taylor (as well as producer Jack Antonoff) co-writing credits on the Sour songs “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” and “Deja Vu.”

“I’m very chill. I keep to myself,” Rodrigo explained, despite heated rumors that the GUTS song “The Grudge” is about a Swift fallout. “I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say. There’s so many Twitter conspiracy theories. I only look at alien-conspiracy theories.”

Pressed further on how the co-writing credits on her debut happened — she also retroactively gave Paramore a co-write on “Good 4 U” — Rodrigo demurred. “It’s not something that I was super involved with,” she said, making it unclear if her hand was forced in the matter. “It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn’t be the best person to ask.”

As for whether she might do the same to a young artist if they were clearly inspired by one of her songs, or if she’d slough it off as Elvis Costello did when the clear similarities between his “Pump It Up” and her “Brutal” were pointed out, Rodrigo said she doesn’t think she would. “But who’s to say where I’ll be in 20, 30 years,” she said. “All that I can do is write my songs and focus on what I can control.”

The profile also featured a co-sign from Katy Perry about the intense pressure to follow-up a debut album, with Perry recalling that she faced similar angst while recording 2010’s Teenage Dream. “You have your whole life to make your first record, and then maybe two years to make your second — while going through a real psychological change as well,” said Perry, who added that she offered to be Rodrigo’s pop music mentor and sounding board. “Like, ‘Oh, my God, I can buy my mom a car,’ and, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t have to have the stress from my past.’ But it’s a mental jungle out there.”

For the record, Olivia said, even though there’s a song on GUTS called “Teenage Dream” — and she calls Perry’s album of the same name one of her favorite sophomore collections — it was totally a coincidence. “We thought about changing the name,” she said. “If someone looks up ‘Teenage Dream’ on Spotify, there’s no way in heck that my song’s going to pull up first.”

Rodrigo also noted that the goal on GUTS was to make a more “playful” record than her debut, Sour, which she said was “definitely a breakup record, much to my chagrin.”

One of the pop third rails Rodrigo would also not touch was the speculation that her breakthrough hit from that album, “Drivers License,” was inspired by a love triangle that allegedly involved her, her ex, fellow High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Joshua Bassett and another Disney actress/singer, Sabrina Carpenter.

“I mean, that’s a tricky one. I actually, genuinely did not read the article you’re talking about,” she said of an story from 2022 in which Bassett said he had a major health crisis as a result of the backlash from strangers about the alleged love triangle. “But, yeah, all that stuff was really crazy. It’s all been handled privately… Handled isn’t the right word, but it’s just not something I like talking about publicly. I take all that stuff seriously, but it happens in privacy. I’m not going to put out a statement. That’s phony. We’re all just people at the end of the day. I deal with it on a person-to-person level that people on Twitter don’t see.”

12 Sep 2023

Taylor Swift Extends Artist 100 No. 1 Record, Jimmy Buffett Returns at No. 3

Taylor Swift spends a record-extending 79th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Sept. 16), thanks to nine albums on the Billboard 200, all in the top 50, and three songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

Leading Swift’s titles on the Billboard 200 are Midnights at No. 5, with 45,000 equivalent album units earned Sept. 1-7, according to Luminate, and Lover at No. 9 (41,000 units).

Here’s a recap of Swift’s current Billboard 200-charting albums.

Rank, Title:

  • No. 5, Midnights
  • No. 9, Lover
  • No. 11, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
  • No. 12, Folklore
  • No. 14, 1989
  • No. 17, Reputation
  • No. 21, Red (Taylor’s Version)
  • No. 31, Evermore
  • No. 50, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Swift is the only artist in chart history to chart at least nine albums in the top 50 of the chart simultaneously. This is the 19th time she’s achieved the feat.

On the Hot 100, Swift charts three songs: “Cruel Summer” (up 5-4, after reaching No. 3), “Anti-Hero” (32-20, after spending eight weeks at No. 1) and “Karma” featuring Ice Spice (25-24, after hitting No. 2).

Jimmy Buffett re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 3, powered by catalog gains following his death on Sept. 1. He previously reached a No. 2 best on the chart in June 2020, when his album Life on the Flip Side opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. His seminal hit “Margaritaville” re-enters the Hot 100 at No. 38, marking its first appearance on the chart since its original run in 1977, when it climbed to No. 8. It also re-enters the Digital Song Sales chart at No. 1, becoming the top-selling song of the week with 16,000 downloads sold. Buffett additionally places two albums on the Billboard 200: Songs You Know By Heart: Jimmy Buffet’s Greatest Hit(s) re-enters at No. 4, a new high (52,000 units) — it’s also No. 1 on Top Album Sales — while Boats Beaches Bars & Ballads re-enters at No. 53.

Rounding out the Artist 100’s top five, Zach Bryan dips to No. 2, as his self-titled album tops the Billboard 200 for a second week (115,000 units); Morgan Wallen drops 3-4; and Luke Combs rises 6-5.

The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.

12 Sep 2023

Megan Thee Stallion No Longer Part of 2023 Global Citizen Fest Lineup

Megan Thee Stallion is no longer part of the 2023 Global Citizen Festival lineup.

“Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, Megan Thee Stallion will no longer be available to perform at the 2023 Global Citizen Festival,” a source tells Billboard. At press time, a representative for the rapper had not returned Billboard’s inquiry about her performance status as part of Global Citizen Festival.

In early July, the Grammy-winning, Billboard Hot 100-topping rapper was announced as one of the fest’s headliners alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill; down the road, Anitta was announced as an additional headliner, with Jung Kook of BTS joining Global Citizen as a co-headliner just last week. But it seems a scheduling conflict will prevent the Houston MC from hitting the stage on Sept. 23 at New York’s Central Park. But attendees will still be able to enjoy sets from the aforementioned headliners in addition to performances from Conan Gray, D-Nice, Sofia Carson and Stray Kids.

The Global Citizen Fest takes place in New York City’s Central Park on Saturday, Sept. 23, as a free, ticketed event; people can earn tickets by taking action to help end extreme poverty via the Global Citizen app and on the organization’s website. With this fall concert, Global Citizen is urging world leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly to tackle climate crisis, equity for women and girls and the global hunger crisis.

Megan Thee Stallion will be hitting the stage at New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Tuesday (Sept. 12) night with Cardi B to give their collab “Bongos,” which dropped last week, its live debut at the 2023 MTV VMAs.

12 Sep 2023

George Strait, Chris Stapleton Extend Run of Stadium Shows Into 2024

For more than four decades, Country Music Hall of Famer George Strait has proven himself as one of country music’s most dependable, elite entertainers. In 2023, Strait’s stadium shows — featuring Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town — have set new attendance records in several stadiums, including ones in Seattle, Milwaukee and Columbus, OH.

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Now, Strait, eight-time Grammy winner Stapleton and special guests Little Big Town are extending their record-setting slate of stadium shows into 2024, adding nine new dates.

The new shows are set for May, June, July and December of next year and will visit cities including Indianapolis, Detroit and Chicago, in addition to setting the 37th installment of the Strait to Vegas show, with a Dec. 7 gig booked at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.

“I’ve always said we have the best fans in the world, and to see so many of them show up for these shows just makes us want to keep bringing them more,” Strait said in a statement. “I’ve also missed performing in Las Vegas during NFR, so I’m happy to see that show come together in 2024. See you soon!”

Tickets to most shows go on sale on Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. local time via GeorgeStrait.com, with tickets to the Jacksonville show on sale on Oct. 20 at 10 a.m. local time. American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Friday (Sept. 15) at 10 a.m. local time through Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. local time.

See the full list of stadium shows below:

May 4 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium

May 11 — Jacksonville, FL @ EverBank Stadium

May 25 — Ames, IA  @ Jack Trice Stadium

June 1 — Charlotte, N.C. @ Bank of America Stadium

June 8 — East Rutherford, N.J. @ MetLife Stadium

June 29 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice Eccles Stadium

July 13 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field

July 20 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field

Dec. 7 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium

12 Sep 2023

Drake Teases ‘For All The Dogs’ Single Release Date

Drake season is quickly approaching, as the 6 God nears the release of his forthcoming album, For All The Dogs. Slated to drop on Sept. 22, the OVO general announced during his Austin tour stop on Monday (Sept. 11) that the project’s first single will drop this week. 

“I’m even going to say something tonight in Austin, Texas I haven’t said yet,” Drake said from the stage of the Moody Center. “I know y’all excited to hear the album. I know it’s, like two weeks out. I’m a drop a song for y’all this week. Yeah, yeah. What a time, what a time. I appreciate y’all. Deeply, by the way, I do. It’s a lot of love in Texas.” 

Last week, Drake announced the once-elusive release date for For All The Dogs via Instagram. He posted an archival clip of his father, Dennis Graham, from the early ’90s, singing alongside a blues band on the local Toronto TV show Stormy Monday With Danny Marks. 

From a collaboration standpoint, Drake has given out a few nuggets, including a feature from his Young Money counterpart, Nicki Minaj. Minaj briefly spoke about the upcoming track during an Instagram Live session. “The song I did with Drake recently definitely put me in the feels, like when we used to be doing Nicki Minaj TV on the Lil Wayne tour and stuff,” she recalled. “Fun times, right?”

For All The Dogs will be Drake’s eighth studio album and his first solo offering since his 2022 dance-centric project Honestly, Nevermind. Last November, he partnered with 21 Savage for Her Loss. Both releases bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. 

Check out Drake’s post below. 

12 Sep 2023

Blake Shelton Executive Produces New Sawyer Brown Documentary: Watch the Trailer

Sawyer Brown was one of the most popular country groups of the ’80s and ’90s, charting such country No. 1s as  “Step That Step,” “Some Girls Do” and “Thank God for You” — and now, it’s getting a Blake Shelton-produced documentary.

As the band turns 40, the country star looks at Sawyer Brown’s compelling story in Get Me to the Stage on Time, a documentary Shelton executive produced that examines how the group left its mark on country music, despite reservations by the genre’s gatekeepers. Shelton has long professed his love for the band, noting the first concert he ever attended was by Sawyer Brown, and among the first singles he purchased was the group’s cover of George Jones’ “The Race Is On.”

The Joel Kraus/Madison Miller-directed movie, which will debut Oct. 1 at the Nashville Film Festival in Franklin, Tenn., features interviews with Shelton, Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley and Mac McAnally, among others. As the title suggests, it also reflects on Sawyer Brown Band’s propulsive live performances, led by frontman Mark Miller.

“It’s pretty surreal to watch your life and memories and music play out in a film, but Get Me to the Stage On Time does an amazing job of capturing what this ride has been like,” Miller says in a statement to Billboard. “I think the film shows not only what it took to get our career going, but also what it took to keep the wheels from coming off a couple of times. It also shows why it means so much to us to be where we are now, still playing shows, with new music on the horizon. It’s a look at what it means to never give up, no matter what.”

The ACM Award-winning vocal group of the year’s journey started with winning Star Search in 1983, in an era before television talent competitions such as American Idol and The Voice became commonplace launching pads for country stars such as Carrie Underwood and Scotty McCreery. Though a fan favorite renowned for its live shows, even after a slew of hits, Sawyer Brown remained a polarizing force in Nashville and at country radio with some put off by their non-traditional, colorful presence.

In the trailer — which Billboard is premiering above — the band recounts being turned down by every label in Nashville before storming the Star Search stage with its high-octane performances. Even after winning and signing with a Nashville label and experiencing multiple hits, “the industry couldn’t really figure out why are these guys still here,” says Sawyer Brown keyboardist Gregg “Hobie” Hubbard. But the audience understood as the group played up to 250 concerts a year, entertaining fans with its vastly energetic show. The documentary attempts to answer “how a band turned 15 minutes of fame into 40 years.” For Miller, it simply boils down to “when you get us in front  of a live audience, we win.” 

Following the documentary’s premiere, Sawyer Brown, who are working on a new album produced by Shelton, will perform at the Franklin Theater. Distribution plans for the film are still pending.

12 Sep 2023

P!nk Slams Troll’s Hateful Birthday Message, Which She Shared With Her Daughter: ‘It Was a Good Lesson in Ignorance’

P!nk turned 44 over the weekend and while many fans offered up sweet, thoughtful birthday messages, as always, there were some haters who took the opportunity to throw shade. And, as usual, the singer met their haterade with a sharp lesson in tolerance and dignity.

After someone posted a birthday wish accompanied by a photograph of trans British comedian/actor Eddie (Suzy) Izzard in a striped dress on a red carpet in what appeared to be an attempt to troll the singer, P!nk shot back with a pointed response.

“Thank you so much. I just showed my 12-year-old daughter your post,” she wrote of her eldest child Willow Sage Hart. “I explained to her that I’ve never met you, I don’t know you, and I have no idea why you would go out of your way to be hateful. It was a good lesson in ignorance. Thank you. I still don’t know you. Congrats. You’re no one.”

In a follow-up, she added, “MOST IMPORTANTLY -what a wasted opportunity here. There are so many pictures you could’ve chosen that were actually me that were worse than this picture, you nameless f–ko. At least be creative next time dum dum.”

The singer, who has long been a fierce ally of the LGBTQ community and a powerful voice against bullying, offered up one more thought in an early morning tweet on Tuesday (Sept. 12), writing, “I post these things to show the kids I know- my own kids as well, that we are all occasionally treated badly. I show them because they know me, and they know that my self-esteem does Not rely on the opinions of others. Nor does it rely on how many tickets I sell. Good/bad. Whatever. I love Me. Now I shall Sleep really really Well.”

When a fan offered that they were shaking their head at people who are “the worst,” P!nk agreed that “some” are, slamming cowards who try to throw bombs from the shadows. “What these kind of people are anonymous, lonely,” she said. “And Miserable. But Most people are smart, good, and rad.”

The singer’s Summer Carnival tour marches on on Friday (Sept. 15) with a show at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, GA.