Music

Doja Cat Nabs No. 1 In Australia With ‘Paint The Town Red’

Doja Cat is purring along as “Paint The Town Red” (via RCA/Sony) climbs all the way to No. 1 in Australia.

The U.S. artist nabs her first leader in the land Down Under, as “Paint The Town Red” completes the leap 6-1 in its third week, eclipsing the No. 2 peak for her previous best, “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA, which hit No. 2 in 2020.

Luke Combs is currently on the road in Australia, and his fans reward him with bumps on the latest ARIA Charts, published Friday, Aug. 8. The U.S. country star’s cover of “Fast Car” (Columbia/Sony) motors 8-2, for a new peak position. “Fast Car” previously parked at No. 3 in June, topping Tracy Chapman’s original, which maxed-out at No. 4 in 1988.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Several Combs tracks are on the up, including “The Kind Of Love We Make” (up 21-16) in its 62nd week on the chart, for a new peak; “When It Rains It Pours” (31-24); and “Beautiful Crazy” (39-34).

Completing the podium on the ARIA Singles Chart is Dave and Central Cee’s former leader “Sprinter” (Virgin Music Australia/Universal), down 2-3.

Over on the ARIA Albums Chart, Genesis Owusu, the Canberra, Australia-raised talent, secures a top 10 start and a new career high for his sophomore album, Struggler (AWAL).

Struggler bows at No. 4, besting the No. 27 peak for 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth, an album that snagged almost every award possible in these parts, including the Australian Music Prize, ARIA Awards, AIR Awards and more. Smiling With No Teeth peaked at No. 27 on the official, national tally.

Hozier returns with Unreal Unearth (Columbia/Sony), the Irish singer and songwriter’s third studio album. It’s new at No. 13, and follows the No. 3 peak for his debut, self-titled LP from 2014 and the No. 8 best for its followup, Wasteland, Baby from 2019.

Also new to the chart are albums by one-time ARIA male artist of the year Dan Sultan (Dan Sultan at No. 15 via Liberation/Universal), celebrated Aussie singer and songwriter Gretta Ray (Positive Spin at No. 17 via EMI) and K-pop boy band NCT Dream (ISTJ – The 3rd Album new at No. 20 via Universal).

At the top of the tally, Barbie The Album (Atlantic/Warner) lifts 2-1, ahead of Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (via Universal) and the Weeknd’s The Highlights (Universal), respectively.

BLACKPINK’s ‘The Girls’ Has Arrived: Stream It Now

Blinks, the wait is finally over! BLACKPINK officially released its new single, “The Girls,” on Friday (Aug. 25). The track is available on all streaming platforms.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“The Girls” and its accompanying music video was first only available to people who played The Game, BLACKPINK’s latest mobile app and foray into the world of gaming. (In The Game, players can become BLACKPINK’s music producer and have a hand in the girls’ career and daily schedules in addition to customizing the members’ outfits, managing their own agency, playing puzzles and more in BLACKPINK world.)

The music video for the track features tiny, cartoon versions of members Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé dancing to the track in cute stage outfits, while hitting synchronized choreography.

“Live fast, we do it like that/ And we don’t lie, we born to be mad/ Better come right or never come back/ Don’t mess with the girls, with the girls, with the girls/ Stop sign, we’re burnin’ it down/ Better watch out, we comin’ in loud/ Bang, bang, just playin’ around/ Don’t mess with the girls, with the girls, with the girls,” the powerhouse quartet sings on the song’s high energy chorus.

“The Girls” serves as BLACKPINK’s first offering as a group since the release of their second studio album, Born Pink. The set spent 13 weeks and peaked at No. 1 on the all genre Billboard 200 chart, while the album’s two singles, “Pink Venom” and Shut Down,” peaked at Nos. 22 and 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Listen to “The Girls” below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=fQNtuo0IGNk&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Ariana Grande Celebrates ‘Yours Truly’ 10th Anniversary With Deluxe Digital Release: Stream It Now

Ariana Grande‘s debut album, Yours Truly, is officially 10 years old, and the pop superstar is celebrating the milestone with plenty of gifts for fans.

The festivities kicked off on Friday (Aug. 25) with a deluxe digital release of Yours Truly, along with newly recorded live performances of “Honeymoon Avenue” and “Daydreamin’.” Grande also took to her Instagram Stories to specify that the deluxe digital release of the album will feature “the Live from London, updated versions of the songs we performed from” the album. The singer added, “I can’t wait for you to hear them. This was such a healing and special project to do.”

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The anniversary celebration of Yours Truly will continue over the next week. On Saturday (Aug. 26), Grande will drop the first part of a Q&A and a merch capsule, followed by a live performance of “Baby I” on Sunday (Aug. 27). The festivities continue on Monday (Aug. 28) with an unspecified vinyl pre-order, along with part two of the Q&A. Tuesday (Aug. 29) brings two more live performances (“Tattooed Heart” and “Right There”). Finally, on Wednesday (Aug. 30) — which is the actual 10th anniversary of the album’s release date — the star will drop a live performance of “The Way,” her duet with her late ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, and “some behind the scenes stuff we found,” the singer writes.

The original Yours Truly, released Aug. 30, 2013, via Republic Records, marked Grande’s official foray into the music world, as she’d only been known before then for her roles in Nickelodeon’s Victorious, its spinoff Sam & Cat and Broadway’s 13.

Listen to the deluxe digital version of Yours Truly below.

Miley Cyrus Grows From Her Past in New Single ‘Used to Be Young’: Stream It Now

Miley Cyrus continued her “endless summer vacation” on Friday (Aug. 25) with her reflective new single, “Used to Be Young.”

The song, which looks back on her past, features the introspective lyrics in the chorus: chorus: “You tell me time has done changed me / That’s fine, I’ve had a good run / I know I used to be crazy / That’s ’cause I used to be young.”

Cyrus gave some insight into writing the song in an Instagram post revealing the lyrics earlier in the week, writing, “I have spent the last 18 months painting a sonic picture of my perspective to share with you. The time has arrived to release a song that I could perfect forever. Although my work is done, this song will continue to write itself everyday. The fact it remains unfinished is a part of its beauty. That is my life at this moment ….. unfinished yet complete.”

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Used To Be Young” marks the 30-year-old superstar’s first piece of new music since the release of Endless Summer Vacation back in March. The album, her eighth studio effort, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and also arrived alongside its own Backyard Sessions via Disney+. 



Selena Gomez Unveils End-of-Summer Song ‘Single Soon’: Stream It Now

Selena Gomez isn’t done with her highly anticipated third studio album yet, but she’s keeping fans fed in the meantime with a sassy new jam, “Single Soon,” which arrived on Friday (Aug. 25).

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Y’all have been asking for new music for a while,” she wrote on Instagram announcing the song a week prior to its release, sharing the track’s glamorous cover art. “Since I’m not quite done with SG3, I wanted to put out a fun little song I wrote a while back that’s perfect for the end of summer.”

Gomez hasn’t released a full-length album since 2020’s Rare, though she did drop her all-Spanish EP Revalación the following year. She’s also guested on a handful of sporadic singles since her last full album, including Rema’s 2022 smash “Calm Down,” and released a standalone track “My Mind & Me” in support of her documentary of the same name last year.

The Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat-produce track opens with a voice note from Gomez’s little sister Gracie, in which the 10-year-old assures her pop superstar big sis: “I love you sissy. Never worry about boyfriends at all.”

Listen to “Single Soon” below.



Bob Feldman, Songwriter/Producer Behind ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’ & More ’60s Hits, Dies at 83

Bob Feldman, the influential songwriter and producer behind some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, has died. He was 83 years old. A cause of death has yet to be revealed.

The news was announced in a statement from his close friend, musical collaborator and business partner Richard Gottehrer.

“It’s with great sadness that I announce the passing of Bob Feldman, my friend and legendary songwriting partner, in Grand Canyon Music and FGG Productions – Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Myself,” Gottehrer wrote in a statement sent to Billboard. “As a team we go back to the 1960’s and the Brill Building days where we wrote and/or produced classics like ‘My Boyfriend’s Back,’ ‘I Want Candy,’ ‘Hang on Sloopy’ and ‘Sorrow,’ which was eventually recorded and became an everlasting hit by David Bowie. We were even an ‘Australian’ band that called ourselves The Strangeloves.

“We were young and inexperienced but learned how to produce by making demos of our songs; this led each of us to ongoing active careers in music after we went our separate ways,” his statement continued. “We remained friends and to this day 60 years later are still partners in those same companies we started back then.”

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Feldman and his neighbor Jerry Goldstein would frequently write songs together before meeting Gottehrer in 1962. The trio formed FGG Productions and wrote several hits together, including The Angels’ No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “My Boyfriend’s Back” and The McCoys’ “Sorrow,” which was later popularized by The Merseys and Bowie. The group also produced The McCoys’ Hot 100 No. 1 “Hang on Sloopy” — which endures as an unofficial theme song at Ohio State University sports events — all while making it big in their own group, The Strangeloves. As a band, they scored Hot 100 top 40 hits with “I Want Candy” (No. 11), “Cara-Lin” (No. 39) and “Night Time” (No. 30). Bow Wow Wow famously covered “Candy” in 1982, taking it back to the Hot 100 (it reached No. 62 that July).

Feldman was also a published author, releasing his own book of verse, lyrics and memoirs in 2019 titled Simply Put! Thoughts and Feelings from the Heart.

Gottehrer concluded his statement by writing, “The memories of the times we shared; the songs we wrote and the adventures that filled our lives remain. Sooner or later we’ll all pass but the music will live on. Rest in peace Bob….we’ll meet again.”

Feldman is survived by his two daughters, Kyle and Mahri. He is also the biological father of actor Corey Feldman, who emancipated himself from Bob and his mom Sheila as a teenager.

Tim McGraw on Country Music’s Current Hot 100 Moment: ‘The More We Can Bring to the Party, The Better’

Country music is having a major moment in 2023, with country songs making history by holding down the top three slots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. During a recent interview with Tetris Kelly for Billboard News, three-time Grammy winner Tim McGraw offered his thoughts on country music topping the all-genre chart, as a further evolution of the genre’s continued growth.

“I love it. The more we can bring to the party, the better,” McGraw said, referencing the Hot 100 success of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car”; since this interview was filmed, another country song — Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men in Richmond” — skyrocketed straight to No. 1 on the chart. “Country music has consistently grown, for a long time. When new people discover it, and they find out — if they didn’t think they liked it, then they will hear something and all of a sudden they will discover other people. I think for a long time, the country music industry fought that — fought the crossover idea, or the idea that other people are listening to their music or other stations are playing their music.”

He noted that his wife, fellow artist Faith Hill, was on the receiving end of that mind-set when her songs “Breathe” and “The Way You Love Me” reached the top five on the Hot 100 in the early aughts. “I mean, my wife got the brunt end of that quite a bit when she was having a lot of crossover success. In my mind, I think you miss the point when you feel that way, because not only is it good for the artist that that happens to, but it’s good for all the other artists as well.

“As an artist, you just make your music and it lands where it lands and you take the consequences of it, either way,” he added. “I can’t speak to what other artists do when they’re making music; what I can say is I’ll let my music…and the kind of messages I put out, speak for itself.”

McGraw does just that with the music he’s recently released, including “Standing Room Only” and “Hey Whiskey” from his upcoming album Standing Room Only, out Friday.

Speaking with Billboard News, McGraw recalled the inspiration for one of the songs on the album, which he wrote, called “Nashville, California; LA, Tennessee.” The song is inspired by his eldest daughter Gracie’s move to Los Angeles.

“I have this 19-year-old Cadillac Escalade that I can’t get rid of,” McGraw laughs. “We call it the Griswold Family cruiser. I’d ripped all the seats out of it and loaded all of Gracie’s stuff into it. Her and I did a road trip from Nashville to L.A. to move her out there. We spent about four days traveling, staying in great spots and doing carpool karaoke, singing songs together. She’s a fantastic singer. We got to L.A. late at night, movin’ her into her place, moving boxes in. By that time, she was ready to get rid of me. Finally she said, ‘Daddy, you have to go,’ so I gave her a big hug and I just cried like a baby.”

In addition to his album, McGraw is gearing up for his Standing Room Only Tour, which will launch in 2024 and feature opener Carly Pearce. McGraw says the tour will be “probably one of the biggest productions we’ve ever had.”

“I’m pretty excited to have all the bells and whistles,” he says. “It’s fun for me. I like to put on a show for everybody else, but that stuff up there is fun for me as well.”

Watch his full interview in the video above.

Miley Cyrus & Selena Gomez on the Charts: Ahead of ‘Used to Be Young’ & ‘Single Soon,’ How Do They Compare?

As the Disney Channel alumni’s parallel careers meet again, Billboard looks back on both stars’ biggest chart achievements.

From ruling Disney Channel with Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place to dominating the 2023 Billboard Hot 100 with “Flowers” and “Calm Down,” Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez have been mainstays in the pop culture zeitgeist for the better part of two decades.

On Friday, the Grammy-nominated multi-hyphenates will both unleash their newest singles.

Cyrus’ “Used to Be Young” serves as her first piece of new music since the release of Endless Summer Vacation back in March. The song finds Miley getting self-reflective on her wilder days of yesteryear while allowing “sadness and joy to be happening simultaneously,” as she said in a snippet of her Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions) ABC special. Of the song’s creation, Cyrus revealed, “Although my work is done, this song will continue to write itself everyday. The fact it remains unfinished is a part of its beauty. That is my life at this moment… unfinished yet complete.”

Gomez’s “Single Soon” is her first non-soundtrack English-language solo single since 2020’s “Boyfriend.” Following the release of that track, which introduced the deluxe edition of her 2020 album Rare, Gomez earned her first Grammy nomination for her Latin pop EP Revelación; guested on songs from Camilo, Coldplay and Rema; and released “My Mind & Me,” a standalone single for her 2022 documentary of the same name. “Single Soon” finds Gomez reveling in the joy of not being in a relationship. The Emmy-nominated Only Murders in the Building actress even promoted the song with a Kim Cattrall-approved Sex and the City homage.

Both Cyrus and Gomez have played into the joint release date for their new singles. On her Instagram Story (Aug. 18), Gomez shared a clip of her guest appearance on Hannah Montana with the caption “@mileycyrus and I both have a SINGLE SOON and we are releasing on the same day. We have been friends since we USED TO BE YOUNG. Excited for August 25th!” Cyrus quote-tweeted the same clip on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “@selenagomez and I are both dropping our new SINGLEs SOON… I say we USED TO BE YOUNG.”

As Barbenheimer gives way to another pop-culture double-header, read up on all of Miley Cyrus’ and Selena Gomez’s most impressive Billboard chart achievements thus far.

Prince & The New Power Generation’s ‘Diamonds & Pearls’ Getting Reissue With 47 Unreleased Tracks

Prince fans: Get ready to put on your “Diamonds and Pearls” once more.

Paisley Park Enterprises announced Thursday (Aug. 24) that it will release a super deluxe edition of Diamonds and Pearls, the 13th studio album by the High Priest of Pop. Diamonds and Pearls — which marked Prince’s first album with backing band The New Power Generation — will be reissued through a partnership with Sony Music and will be available through all physical, digital and streaming partners. The album will contain a total of 47 previously unreleased tracks, in addition to an unreleased two-hour concert from Prince’s vault.

The album will be released in three formats: The largest reissue, the super deluxe edition, will have seven CDs plus a Blu-ray or a 12 LP plus Blu-ray with audio-only download and streaming. The deluxe edition will contain a double CD or four LPs on 180 gram vinyl, and the remastered album will contain, depending on the buyer’s choice, a single CD, a double off white “pearl” colored 180 gram vinyl LP (US only), or a double clear “diamond” colored 180 gram vinyl LP with download and streaming.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Diamonds and Pearls first arrived in 1991 and peaked at No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200, spending a total of 46 weeks on the chart. Each of the set’s singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100: “Gett Off” (No. 21), “Cream” (No. 1), “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” (No. 23), “Insatiable” (No. 77) and the title track, “Diamonds and Pearls” (No. 3).

The new edition of Diamonds and Pearls will arrive Oct. 27. The various versions of the album range from $12.98 to $394.98 and are available to pre-order here.

Bert Kreischer Talks Going on His Dream Tour: The Fully Loaded Comedy Festival, One of the Year’s Top Touring Comedy Shows

When comedian Bert Kreischer started outlining the concept for his party-driven Fully Loaded Comedy Festival tour, the famed party animal decided to sit down with his thoughts and sketch out a tour agenda like no other — one that would both bring his vision for the ultimate comedy tour to fruition and potentially serve as the outline for his legacy.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Each summer, I want to surround myself with my favorite humans, which are always going to be comics,” he said. “I want to hang out with my friends and family, tour and have fun. I want to float on rivers, boat on lakes, end up in oceans, go hiking, shoot guns, get high on mushrooms and do whatever we can to have a blast.”

Kreischer’s dream is now a reality, wrapping up last month after a 17-date tour across North America — including the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama, and ending at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. When the numbers are all reported to Billboard Boxscore, the tour is likely to come in at a more than $10 million gross, making it one of the top earning comedy tours of the year.

Headlined by Kreischer, who has seen his profile skyrocket in the last two years thanks to his films like 2023’s The Machine, comedy specials like Hey Big Boy and Razzle Dazzle and popular comedy podcasts including “2 Bears, 1 Cave” with fellow comedian Tom Segura, this year’s stacked lineup for Fully Loaded included Mark Normand, Shane Gillis, Tiffany Haddish, Stavros Halkias, Fortune Feimster, Dave Attell, Lewis Black, Jim Norton, Andrew Santino, Big Jay Oakerson, Jay Pharoah, Dan Soder, Chad Daniels, Ralph Barbosa, Rosebud Baker and Tammy Pescatelli.

“Bert selects all of the talent for the show — its not being picked by a promoter or a talent buyer,” says manager manager Judi Marmel, a partner at Levity Talent. “In a world where nothing is agnostic, the festival is the purest form of an artist executing their vision.”

Fully Loaded was born out of the Hot Summer Nights Tour sold-out drive-in series Kreischer launched during the pandemic in 2020. Wanting to recreate his success for 2022, Kreischer — along with Marmel, UTA agent Heidi Feigin and UTA partner and Head of Comedy Touring Nick Nuciforo — came up with the idea to create a traveling comedy festival inspired by the original Lollapalooza touring festival. The festival also partnered with the charity Comedy Gives Back, an organization founded as a safety net for comics by providing them with financial crisis relief, mental health support and more.

“Our intention for creating Fully Loaded was to build a lifestyle brand that represents all of the aspects of life that Bert enjoys the most, that could then support multiple ventures and revenue streams for years to come,” says Marmel.

Kreischer says his wife LeeAnn convinced him to invest the first years earnings from the 2022 run back into the festival and worked with a team of friends to book excursions and activities for participating comedians.

“We wanted to make it the best experience a comic could ever have with extra tour buses and plenty of amenities to make it feel like a great gig,” Kreischer says — like a visit to Churchhill Downs or batting practice with the home team at the stadium they were playing.

For this year’s tour, Kreischer says his team booked activities for every day of the tour, which was split into four separate four-day runs — June 14-17 playing Forest Hills Stadium in New York, followed by CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, PNC Field in Moosic, Penn. and Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford; June 22-25 at Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City, Michigan, Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana Enterprise Center in St Louis, Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. The tour then took a two week break before returning for eight more July dates, including a July 6 show at Huntsville, Alabama’s new Orion Amphitheater, a July 8 show at AutoZone Park in Memphis, a July 12 show at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the show closer July 15 at the Gorge.

Throughout the tour, a content team of producers, editors, and marketing executives put together video clips and social media content from the tour, leading to a spike in interest and ticket sales as the tour chugged along. By the time the tour landed in Las Vegas, most comedians saw big spikes in their social numbers, and fans were booking tickets and flying in from out of town to see the show.

Kreischer says organizing the festival wasn’t always easy, having to sometimes make tough decisions like like deciding each night’s lineup, curated to fit the venue and market and momentum of the overall tour.

“There are certain acts that other comedians have a hard time following,” Kreisher says. “Acts like Chad Daniels, who was simply amazing. And I also had Tiffany Haddish on the lineup, who no one could f–king follow either. Most promoters wouldn’t give a s–t and say ‘just find someone to follow them,’ but as a comic, I had to say, “No that’s not how it works,” and I’m able to talk to a comedian like Dan Soder and ask him to open — and he’ll do it because he understands, and the request is coming from a comedian.”

Kreischer adds, “And then I will take the bullet and close the show behind someone like Chad or Tiffany. Everyone there knows me — I just take my shirt off and people go crazy.”

“At the heart of [things],” Kreischer says, “I love comics, and I love being on the road with comics. And my daughters who I bring on tour with me love it too. During the tour, one of them told me, ‘I love this — you wake up in a different city every morning, you have breakfast ready and everyone you eat with is hilarious. This is amazing.’”