Music

03 Aug 2023

Taylor Swift Extends Artist 100 Longevity Record to 75 Weeks at No. 1

Taylor Swift spends a record-extending 75th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Aug. 5), thanks to the continued success of her latest album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), plus 10 additional albums on the Billboard 200.

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The set drops to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 79,000 equivalent album units earned July 21-27, according to Luminate, after spending its first two weeks at No. 1. It became Swift’s first re-recorded album to notch its first two weeks at the summit.

Also boosting Swift’s Artist 100 standing are 10 additional albums on the Billboard 200. This is the third week (all consecutive) that Swift has landed 11 titles on the chart. Two weeks ago, she became just the third act — and first woman — to chart at least 11 in a single week, following The Beatles and Prince.

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

Rank, Title:

  • No. 4, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
  • No. 6, Midnights
  • No. 10, Lover
  • No. 12, Folklore
  • No. 20, 1989
  • No. 21, Reputation
  • No. 23, Red (Taylor’s Version)
  • No. 34, Evermore
  • No. 35, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
  • No. 178, Taylor Swift
  • No. 194, Speak Now

On the Billboard Hot 100, Swift charts five songs: “Cruel Summer” (up 8-6, a new peak), “Karma” featuring Ice Spice (down 11-15), “Anti-Hero” (19-22), “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” (33-45) and “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)” (65-89).

Among other Artist 100 chart moves, NewJeans jump 64-2, reaching a new high thanks to the K-pop group’s new set 2nd EP ‘Get Up’. The collection launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking the act’s first leader, with 126,000 units.

Plus, Greta Van Fleet re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 6 on the strength of its third LP, Starcatcher. The album debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 (46,000 units), becoming the band’s third top 10.

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.

03 Aug 2023

‘The Notebook’ Is Heading to Broadway With Lyrics & Music by Ingrid Michaelson

After a successful 2022 run in Chicago, The Notebook’s next chapter will be on Broadway. 

The musical, based on Nicholas Sparks’ wildly successful 1996 novel, features music and lyrics from Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter. Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Grey Gardens) and Schele Williams (Aida) will direct, with choreography by Katie Spelman (Moulin Rouge! The Musical).

The musical tells the story of Allie and Noah, and the trials and tribulations of their decades of love as captured in a notebook and revisited as they age. For the musical, the couple’s relationship begins in the turbulent 1960s (as opposed to the 1940s in the book) and spans five decades.

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Previews will begin Feb. 6 at the Gerald Schoenfield Theater, with opening night slated for March 4. American Express card members have access to tickets starting Sept. 12. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Sept. 26. 

The Notebook

The Notebook

Courtesy Photo

Pop artist Michaelson has released nine studio albums and landed such platinum-certified hits as “The Way I Am” and “Girls Chase Boys,” and has progressively moved into the film/tv/musical space. She received an Emmy nomination for best original song for penning “Build It Up” from Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, scored Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things series, created original songs for Apple TV+’s Slumberkins and serves as the series’ executive music producer. Michaelson made her onstage Broadway debut as Sonya in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812  in 2017.

Brunstetter was a supervising producer-writer on NBC’s Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning series This Is Us, and has had her plays produced at a number of major regional theaters, including Manhattan Theater Club, South Coast Repertory and the Old Globe.

The Chicago run earned strong reviews, with Theatermania praising “Michaelson’s ever-lilting score of 18 thoroughly pleasant non-rock melodies, which subtly evoke folk and country, blended with close harmony ensemble work.”

03 Aug 2023

Ice Spice Is Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Year

On May 1, Ice Spice attended her first-ever Met Gala. By the end of that month, she had appeared on an even bigger public stage: as the featured artist on the remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma,” which she live-debuted with Swift in a surprise appearance at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the same day the track dropped. A week later, “Karma” vaulted to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Ice her third top 10 on the chart and her highest-reaching hit to date.

Then, in June, Ice reconnected with her idol Nicki Minaj (they had already released the Hot 100 No. 4 hit “Princess Diana” in January) for the Aqua-sampling “Barbie World” from the Barbie movie soundtrack; the song debuted at No. 7 on the Hot 100, notching Ice her fourth top 10. Two days later, Ice honored the Bronx — the New York borough that both raised her and birthed hip-hop itself 50 years ago — at the BET Awards during her first-ever awards show performance. And in July, she played four international music festivals — Dublin’s Longitude Festival; Norway’s Stavern Festival; Les Ardentes in Liège, France; and London’s Wireless Festival, where she performed her No. 3 collaboration “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” with PinkPantheress for the first time — in a single week.

“The People’s Princess,” as her legion of fans has dubbed her, is on fire. And this month, she’ll add another accolade to her fast-growing résumé, when, on Aug. 8, Billboard honors the artist born Isis Gaston as its 2023 R&B/hip-hop Rookie of the Year. “I have put in so much hard work, and it means a lot to be recognized for it and have more than just plaques to show for it,” she says.

Her litany of accomplishments may resemble the trajectory of an established superstar, but in fact Ice will receive her award just two days before the one-year anniversary of “Munch (Feelin’ U),” the breakout single that catapulted the up-and-coming MC to the upper echelons of hip-hop — and pop — royalty.

“I would always be on Google as a kid, looking up ‘how to be rich’ and ‘careers that pay the most.’ I was like, ‘OK, should I be a doctor? Or should I be a lawyer?’ I just wanted to make all the money,” she said in April, when she sat down with Billboard for a cover story. “But I did always love music. I guess it just fell into place.”

The seeds for Ice’s career were first planted when her father, an underground rapper, schooled her on hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z and Wu-Tang Clan. Then, in her teens, she witnessed the late Pop Smoke shed new light on New York’s drill scene. “I guess I always knew I’d be a rapper because I was looking to be friends with producers,” Ice says of meeting RIOTUSA, who would become her go-to producer, while attending State University of New York at Purchase. In less than two years, the two developed a winning formula — Ice’s low-pitched, sharp-tongued bars brimming with idiosyncratic-yet-catchy slang paired with RIOT’s menacing drill beats softened by bubblegum-pop melodies from EDM samples — and struck gold with “Munch.”

Since then, Ice has conquered hip-hop, EDM and pop stages alike — and proved she’s no one-hit wonder. “I believe she’s able to attract different genres and crowds because of her willingness to experiment with crossover sounds and not box herself in,” says her manager, James Rosemond Jr. “Ice will always be a rapper first — however, we do want to take what she represents and what she is doing on a global level.”

Before that happens, she has a few more goals for the year — like releasing the deluxe edition of her debut EP, Like..?, which dropped July 21 — before she gets to work on her first album. “We want to build a strong foundation for her and not fly over any necessary steps that a new artist should take, nor have her quickly change her music to sound a certain way due to the big crossover success,” Rosemond says.

Come November, Ice will open Doja Cat’s North American arena tour alongside Doechii, a support opportunity Rosemond says was “a personal request from Doja” after Ice met her earlier this year and helped by his relationship with Doja’s manager, Gordan Dillard. “Every strategic festival moment you’ve been seeing Ice billed for and doing is her getting her live-show chops up for this upcoming tour moment,” he says, also citing her “Karma” stadium performance with Swift. “Ice’s confidence has shot up even more to take on an arena tour as a supporting act.”

And as she continues strategically plotting new career milestones, Ice knows her path aligns with the trajectory of hip-hop itself. “Fifty years of hip-hop is monumental,” Ice says. “I hope to push the genre forward in whatever ways I can, but I know I’ll have a huge impact on the youngins coming up now.”

This story will appear in the Aug. 5, 2023, issue of Billboard.

03 Aug 2023

Drake Praises Former Nemesis Meek Mill at Philadelphia Concert

It’s official: Drake’s years-long quarrel with Meek Mill is history.

The two rap stars had beef going back eight years, starting with a simple tweet: “Stop comparing Drake to me too… He don’t write his own raps!”

And on it sizzled, with Mill dishing more punishment by pointing out that Drake is “way out of it” compared with Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.

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Other hip-hop and R&B artists piled on, including Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco, Chris Brown and OG Maco. Lines were drawn, sides were taken. Diss tracks were released.

All of that is in the past.

While playing Wells Fargo Center in Mill’s hometown, Philadelphia, earlier in the week, Drizzy took a moment to discuss the pair’s friendly bond.

“You see who I walked out here with right?” the Toronto artist told the crowd. “I’d always keep it 100 with you. The last time I was in this building, that man right here, he’s been representing this city since he started with this s—.”

He added, “That man, me and him weren’t getting along at the time, and he is a real n—– , so he definitely got us up out of Philly real quick. We did not get to stick around and chill.”

It’s the truth, he insisted. “It means the most to me that I could come back to this city and show the growth as two men that we can come here tonight and we can represent for mother—— Philadelphia together,” he remarked, throwing verbal bouquets to his one-time nemesis and the Philly audience.

The pair did bury the hatchet some years ago, proof of which came when Mill and Drake collaborated on the track “Going Bad” from 2019, from the Philly native’s Championships album.

Now, in 2023, it would appear those old enemies have become besties.

Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour continues Thursday, Aug. 4 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, WI. Watch a clip from Drizzy’s performance in Philadelphia below.

02 Aug 2023

Post Malone Talks ‘Austin,’ Parenthood and Memory Loss From Mushrooms

Too much, too often, is too bad. Just ask Post Malone, who reckons his mental acuity isn’t what it once was, thanks to overdoing it with hallucinogens.

The singer and rapper still digs mushroom, of the magical variety, but not with the same appetite as he once had.

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“Yeah, I’ll take shrooms. I like shrooms,” he admits in a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. “Not as much as I used to. It really affected my short-term memory.”

For his sitdown with the New Zealand-born broadcaster, Malone reflects on an earlier “stint of habitual overuse, like daily” which may have contributed to the fog. “Now I take a little bar of (mushroom) chocolate with my buddies, a little square of chocolate and just laugh and laugh and laugh.”

Nothing is off-limits, as Malone reflects on youthful indiscretions, including bad experiences with pharmaceuticals drugs. But never the hard stuff. “I shouldn’t have to really justify anything to anyone, but I appreciate the concerns that people (have about his health),” he adds, “but then the rumor starts that I’m doing hard drugs, which I’ve never done in my entire life.”

Malone also talks about his newfound priorities as a parent, and the early mornings that come with it. “The schedule just keeps getting fuller, and now that I’m a dad, the schedule only got more full,” says the singer and rapper, a known late-riser.

That schedule continues to gets “fuller and fuller” with the release of new music. That’s the case with Posty’s fifth and latest studio album Austin, which dropped last Friday, and will be supported with another major world tour. Austin is the followup to 2022’s Twelve Carat Toothache, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and became Malone’s fourth studio album to chart within the top five. It’s currently at No. 3 on the midweek U.K. chart. “I’m definitely more tired. I was always tired before (children), but now I’m more tired.”

Watch the interview below.

02 Aug 2023

Alejandro Fernández Tops Latin Airplay With ‘No Es Que Me Quiera Ir’

Alejandro Fernández collects his 10th No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart as “No Es Que Me Quiera Ir” pushes 13-1 to lead the Aug. 5-dated survey. The song follows the two-week champ “Caballero,” his first career No. 1 this decade (Feb. 2020).

“No Es Que Me Quiera Ir” conquers Latin Airplay after it gained 9.1 million in audience impressions, a 50% rise from the week prior, earned in the U.S. during the July 21-27 tracking week, according to Luminate. The song’s main supporters include Univision stations, KSCA Los Angeles and WOJO Chicago, as monitored by Mediabase, which provides Luminate data for Billboard charts.)

The ranchera, released May 19 and written by Eden Muñoz, ejects Prince Royce’s “Me EnRD” from the lead after its one term at No. 1, as the bachata dips 1-5 with 17% drop in audience impressions, to 8.4 million.

Further, “Que Me Quiera Ir” earns Universal Music Latino/UMLE its second No. 1 in 2023, after the label dominated the chart with Karol G and Shakira’s “TQG” for two weeks between May and July.

As mentioned, with “Me Quiera Ir” capturing the crown on Latin Airplay, Fernández scores his 10th ruler, the second-most among regional Mexican acts, trailing Marco Antonio Solis who continues to lead with 11 champs on his Latin Airplay account. Plus, “Que Me Quiera” becomes his first win since “Cabaellero” in 2020. In between he’s placed five top 10s, for a total of 23 top 10s since “A Pesar de Todo” reached No. 10 high in Dec. 1994.

Here’s a full recap of Fernández’s 10 leaders dating back to his first in 1997:

Peak, Title, Artist, Weeks at No. 1
Oct. 18, 1997, “Si Tú Supieras,” six
Dec. 27, 1997, “En El Jardín,” featuring Gloria Estefan, six
March 14, 1998, “No Se Olvidar,” eight
July 18, 1998, “Yo Nací Para Amarte,” five
Aug. 21, 1999, “Loco,” one
Dec. 1, 201, “Tantita Pena,” six
Oct. 23, 2004, “Me Dedique A Perderte,” two
Feb. 06, 2010, “Se Me Va La Voz,” one
Jan. 04, 2020, “Caballero,” two
Aug. 05, 2023, “No Es Que Me Quiera Ir,” one

Notably, “Que Me Quiera Ir” marks a new milestone achievement for singer-songwriter Eden Muñoz, who captures his first No. 1 on Latin Airplay as a songwriter. Previously he scored a No. 2 high as a songwriter through Banda Carnaval’s “Esa Vez Soy Yo” (Jan. 2020).

Elsewhere, “Que Me Quiera Ir” advances 7-1 on Regional Mexican Airplay as the week’s Greatest Gainer. Fernández wins his sixth champ, the fifth-most among regional Mexican soloists.

02 Aug 2023

There’s More ‘From The Vault’ Music on the Way From Randy Travis

Country music fans will be hearing more Randy Travis music soon.

On Wednesday (Aug. 2), Travis’ team announced an upcoming concert feting Country Music Hall of Fame member, as ‘A Heroes and Friends Tribute to Randy Travis’ is set for Oct. 24 at Huntsville, Alabama’s VBC Propst Arena.

During a press conference announcing the event, Travis’ wife Mary Travis told reporters that “the chances are 100%” that fans will hear more music from Travis soon, by way of a forthcoming From the Vault album of songs that music fans have never before heard.

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“It has already been mixed,” Travis said. “Everything’s ready to go by Kyle Lehning, Randy’s producer….a whole other album of Randy Travis music.”

The seven-time Grammy winner’s most recent full-length studio project came with the 2014 covers album Influence Vol. 2: The Man I Am, which was recorded prior to the “Forever and Ever, Amen” hitmaker’s near-fatal stroke in 2013.

Over the past few years, Travis’s team has released a few “From the Vault” songs from Travis’s archive of recordings, including “Fool’s Love Affair,” “One in a Row” and “Lead Me Home.”

A performer lineup for the October Huntsville, Alabama show has yet to be revealed.

However, this isn’t the first ‘Heroes & Friends’ tribute concert for Travis; in 2017, dozens of artists including Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd, Kane Brown, Kenny Rogers and Josh Turner performed at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, in Travis’ honor.

In addition to music, Travis and his team have kept his life, music and career in the forefront in recent years by releasing the 2020 documentary More Life, as well as Travis’ 2019 memoir, Forever and Ever, Amen: A Memoir of Music, Faith and Braving the Storms of Life.

02 Aug 2023

Lindsay Lohan Is ‘Not a Regular Mom’ in Cute Postpartum Selfie

Lindsay Lohan is glowing in motherhood! The star, who recently gave birth to her first child, took to Instagram on Wednesday (Aug. 2) to share a postpartum mirror selfie complete with a Mean Girls reference.

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In the snap, the 37-year-old actress is seen giving a soft smile to the camera as she rocks a pair of grey Frida Mom postpartum underwear. “I am so proud of what this body was able to accomplish during these months of pregnancy and now, recovery. Having a baby is the greatest joy in the world,” she wrote in the caption, before tweaking an iconic quote from her Amy Poehler’s character in the 2004 film, Mean Girls: “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a postpartum mom.”

Lohan, of course, starred in the comedy film as Cady Heron.

In July, Lohan’s reps confirmed to Billboard that singer-actress gave birth to her first child with husband Bader Shammas. The newborn is a “beautiful, healthy son named Luai,” the rep said. “The family is over the moon in love.”

The actress first announced her surprise pregnancy in March. At the time, she shared a photo of a white onesie featuring the words “coming soon,” and tagged financier Shammas in the post. “We are blessed and excited!” she captioned the post.

02 Aug 2023

Carly Rae Jepsen Opens Up About Living in a ‘Loud, Fearless Way’ on New Album ‘The Loveliest Time’

To understand how Carly Rae Jepsen arrived at her recently released seventh studio album, The Loveliest Time, we have to start back in 2020, when the pop star wrote an entire musical project while in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“I wanted to face my loneliness and write about all the discovery I found in that place,” she tells Billboard of the creative inspiration that hit her at the time. “My imagination went to some pretty extreme places. I had a thought of, should I text my ex and rekindle that terrible relationship? [laughs] It was fun to write songs about all the extreme reactions you get from loneliness, like joining a dating app or going to some reflective place where you’re thinking about choices you’ve made or some grief for some stuff you haven’t unpacked that you finally have time to do. I was definitely looking at this theme of loneliness as a really cool starting place.”

As a result, 2022’s The Loneliest Time was born, filled to the brim with social media viral hits like the album’s title track, “Western Wind,” “Beach House” and more, keeping fans company during their own lonely moments. But Jepsen wasn’t done with the concept of growth through isolation. “It was always an intention of mine to look at this piece of work as a package,” she explains.

Throughout her hectic touring schedule in 2022, Jepsen still made time to revisit some of the B-sides that didn’t make the cut for The Loneliest Time. “I think, partially, having some time away and then coming back to them sort of helped me have new perspective on them,” she says of the songs. “There’s strength in leaving things and coming back and looking at it, and I felt like it was really helpful for me to sort of unlock some things that needed to be solved on these songs.”

That refreshed energy led to the aptly titled The Loveliest Time, which officially arrived on July 27. “The Loveliest Time was always the intended name for the album, but I was still in a lonely place when I wrote it,” she says of turning her two recent projects into sister albums. “It was just my imagination taking shape with, ‘what about when the world opens up?’ and the extremes of love and of being able to travel, like, getting to live in this really loud, fearless way. I don’t think I could have gotten to The Loveliest Time without going through The Loneliest Time.”

Capturing quite literally the loveliest time in her musical career, the album shows a new, experimental and free-spirited side of Jepsen, as she plays with unique sounds while still remaining true to her bubbly, colorful personality. She mentions “Psychedelic Switch” specifically, a rave-ready track with an unexpectedly extended intro leading into a euphoric, transcendent chorus. “If you hear the beginning of ‘Psychedelic Switch,’ it’s still dance-y, but it’s more slow. It was the work of [producer and co-writer] Kyle Shearer, who started going to raves with his wife when the world opened up after COVID. He comes into the studio, and I hadn’t seen a hot minute, and he’s like, ’So, I’ve been into rave music.’ And he starts playing ‘Psychedelic Switch’ and it sounds like a rave, and I’m like, ‘Let’s go!’ There was this playful energy, not only in my experience creating with people in person again, but also for everyone else who was a part of this and I think it brought this energy of like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is our renewal back into music.’ It has born some new, crazy energy in me.”

On the other end, The Loveliest Time also sees Jepsen dive deeper introspectively, as seen in “Kollage,” a mid-tempo track in which the 37-year-old superstar opens up about her fragility in how she deals with heartbreak and pain. “I think with The Loneliest Time and having some songs that offered a little bit more depth to them, I kind of realized that my audience seemed really welcoming to it,” she says of feeling ready to be more vulnerable. “I realized I was ‘allowed’ to be anything. In fact, there is no ‘allowed.’ Who made these rules? As long as my music feels sincere. Getting to write about subjects that are a little bit more nuanced, that feels so refreshing for me — being in the pop industry for so long and not feel like I have to be so cookie cutter or black and white.”

She concludes with a perfect representation of who she is as an artist right now: “It’s all so deliciously gray and everything in between.”

Listen to The Loveliest Time below.

02 Aug 2023

How Vinyl Helped Launch ‘Barbie The Album’ To a Massive Opening Week

On July 19, two days before Barbie and its soundtrack would arrive, over 150 independent record stores across the country were celebrating early with listening sessions of the star-studded Barbie: The Album. 

“We’ve actually never done [that] for a soundtrack release before,” says Kevin Weaver, Atlantic Records’ West Coast president and the album’s co-producer (alongside Mark Ronson and Atlantic’s executive vp/co-head of pop/rock A&R, Brandon Davis). Meanwhile, the label’s international teams were making sure that retailers around the world were involved, too, resulting in an impressive global reach.

“This is the largest scale activation we’ve ever done for something like this,” continues Weaver. “And the feedback that I got from our teams internally was that this was the most successful activation of this nature that we’ve ever done.”

Barbie: The Album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, boasting the largest sales week on vinyl for a theatrical film soundtrack (33,000) since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. Overall, the album opened with the biggest week (by units earned) for a theatrical film soundtrack in over four years. (The last soundtrack to score a bigger week was Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born).

Weaver says he and his team thought about their vinyl strategy on day one of planning for the soundtrack. “We had identified the value and the importance of being able to deliver the music with enough time to be able to manufacture the vinyl and get it out into the world for street date. It was [one] of the most critical aspects of what we were doing.”

Nashville Record Pressing (NRP) began pressing the album in May (the plant says a 10-week lead time is typical), ensuring the physical copies would be ready by the album’s release date. The plant manufactured a total of seven variants, with five currently being offered on the soundtrack’s official web store: hot pink, sky blue, milky clear (Amazon exclusive), cotton candy (Barnes & Noble exclusive) and neon pink (Urban Outfitters exclusive). In all, the first run was estimated at 100,000. “That’s a good sized run for an [original soundtrack], and does indicate strong demand for the title,” says Drake Coker, CEO of NRP, which is owned by GZ Media. “Which makes sense, given the strength of the film.”

Given the months-long lead time, Weaver admits he and his team were “really nervous” about the music leaking. And while the label has a long track record of successful soundtrack releases, Barbie was its own beast. “We have songs from the biggest superstars in the world,” he says, noting a handful of whom were kept a secret until the last minute.

“Historically on these kind of projects – I’ve done The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad, Fast and Furious – we’ve been able to get a physical product on day and date. Historically, that’s been a CD. Usually, we follow with the vinyl and it’s an afterthought,” says Weaver. “Here we just knew the critical importance of that not being the case.” While Barbie: The Album is also available on CD and cassette, he and his team identified early on that vinyl would be a key format for Barbie’s biggest fans. 

“We knew that the core demo was ferociously out there buying up whatever merch and product they could get their hands on, and we were able to work very closely with Mattel to really understand their core consumer,” says Weaver. “It just felt like it was going to be so culturally relevant that the vinyl was going to be a collector’s item as much as an audio listening experience.”

As such, various versions kept coming — and might still. On Friday (July 21), the release date for both the film and soundtrack, an expanded version of the album also arrived: Barbie The Album (Best Weekend Ever Edition). It featured two bonus tracks, including Ryan Gosling’s cover of “Push” by Matchbox Twenty (which Gosling sings in the film) and a cover of the Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine” — which also plays an integral role in the movie — performed by Brandi Carlile and her wife, Catherine Carlile. Weaver says those two songs have been added to “various configurations of the physical product.”

Fans will also notice “Barbie Dreams” by FIFTY FIFTY featuring Kaliii is missing from the original pressing of the soundtrack. That, along with “Choose Your Fighter” by Ava Max (which appears on the hot prink variant) has since been added to a limited edition repress of the sky blue vinyl. It’s currently available for pre-order, with a ship date of Sept. 22.

“We tried to keep feeding what would be available on the physical side,” says Weaver. “There are definitely overarching conversations between myself and my creative partners — [director] Greta Gerwig and Mark Ronson and filmmakers and the studio — about what are ways in which we can continue to support the music brands here and the appetite within.” An exclusive Record Store Day release isn’t out of the question, with Weaver promising “cool new iterations” ahead. (Weaver says the coolest of all is the custom version called Kevin the Album, made with exclusive cover art in honor of his birthday.)

While it seems the Barbie hype won’t die down anytime soon, Weaver is allowing himself a moment to look back on what he and his team pulled off. “Having the vinyl and being able to deliver it to the consumer the way that we did was one of the funnest aspects of the whole project,” he says. “It’s something that I’m really proud of and something that I’m really glad we were able to figure out how to accomplish.”