Music

01 Jun 2023

Lizzo Says Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ Inspired Her Not to ‘Quit Music’ Following Online Body-Shaming

Haters may have tried to tear Lizzo down recently, but Beyoncé‘s music is here to help build her back up. In a vulnerable new TikTok, the “About Damn Time” singer showed fans how Bey’s most recent album, Renaissance, has been helping her rise above a particularly vicious wave of online vitriol.

“Today was one of those days where I was very angry, very angry at the world,” she told her followers Wednesday (May 31) after filming a series of clips from the treadmill, during which she worked up a sweat while jamming out to Renaissance. “Saw a lot of mean s–t about me on the internet, and I wanted to give up.”

The musician was likely referring to a recent incident in which a viral tweet used a video of her dancing onstage to body shame her, under which thousands of people proceeded to leave malicious, fatphobic comments about Lizzo’s appearance. In response, the Grammy winner posted that the bullies were “really starting to make me hate the world” and that she was “tired of explaining myself all the time.”

Though she mostly keeps her Twitter account locked on private, Lizzo also explained that hate posts still show up in her mentions and on her feed. “Y’all don’t know how close I be to giving up on everyone and quitting and enjoying my money and my man on a F–KING FARM…,” she tweeted Wednesday.

But thanks to Queen Bey, Lizzo is feeling a lot better now. “There are days where the hate outweighs the love so badly that I want to quit music and just disappear,” she said. “Then I reminded myself to get up, get out and get some sun. And I put on Renaissance.”

Lizzo went on to list some of her favorite lyrics from the album, which Bey dropped to critical acclaim last summer, and shared how they empower her to stay strong and remember that she is, per her own hit “Truth Hurts,” 100% that b-tch. “I’m gonna love on me, nobody can judge me but me,” she said, quoting Renaissance‘s “Church Girl.” “I was born free.”

The Yitty founder has long been a huge fan of Beyoncé, and has credited the “Break My Soul” singer with inspiring much of her own music. While accepting the 2023 Grammy Award for record of the year in February, she specifically shouted out Bey, who was watching proudly from the audience.

“You changed my life,” Lizzo told her from the stage. “Thank you so much. You clearly are the artist of our lives!”

See Lizzo’s TikTok below:

01 Jun 2023

David Guetta Ties Calvin Harris for Most Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1s With ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’

David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart dated June 3 with “Baby Don’t Hurt Me.”

Guetta achieves his 13th leader on the list, tying him — again — with Calvin Harris for the most since the chart began nearly 20 years ago, in August 2003. On the May 20 ranking, Harris pulled ahead of Guetta thanks to “Miracle” with Ellie Goulding. Notably, that track, which led for two weeks, was remixed by Guetta.

Until their latest leaders, Guetta and Harris were tied with Rihanna, who boasts 12 No. 1s.

The chart’s new leading song, a reworking of Haddaway’s Eurodance classic “What Is Love” (which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993), is Anne-Marie’s third Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1 and Leray’s first. The song earned core-dance airplay on SiriusXM’s BPM, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, among other outlets, May 19-25, according to Luminate.

(The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 60 top 40-formatted reporters.)

Here’s a look at Guetta’s 13 Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1s.

Title, Weeks at No. 1, Year(s):

  • “Baby Don’t Hurt Me,” with Anne-Marie & Coi Leray, one to-date, 2023
  • “I’m Good (Blue),” with Bebe Rexha, 14, 2022-23
  • “Heartbreak Anthem,” with Galantis & Little Mix, 2021
  • “Bed,” with Joel Corry & RAYE, three, 2021
  • “Let’s Love,” with Sia, 2020
  • “Stay (Don’t Go Away),” feat. Raye, 2019
  • “Turn Me On,” feat. Nicki Minaj, three, 2012
  • “Without You,” feat. Usher, two, 2011
  • “Gettin’ Over You,” with Chris Willis, feat. Fergie & LMFAO, two, 2010
  • “Sexy Chick,” feat. Akon, six, 2009
  • “When Love Takes Over,” feat. Kelly Rowland, nine, 2009
  • “Love Is Gone,” with Chris Willis, 2007
  • “The World Is Mine,” feat. JD Davis, two, 2007

On the multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, “Baby” bounces 3-2 for a new high. The track earned 10.2 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 13%) and 4.1 million official streams (up 9%) and sold 1,000 downloads (up 3%) in the tracking week. Concurrently, the song bows on the Hot 100 at No. 96.

‘Whistle’ Is Working

Additionally on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Jax Jones jumps to his ninth top 10 and Calum Scott scores his first with “Whistle” (11-9).

Plus, Paul Woolford and MNEK each add a third top 10 and Lewis Thompson achieves his first with “16 Again” (12-10).

Minogue’s Best Rank

Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam” parades onto Hot Dance/Electronic Songs at No. 12 – the week’s top debut and her highest rank among 15 appearances (dating to the chart’s start in 2013). The track, which introduces Minogue’s forthcoming album Tension (Sept. 22), earned 1.4 million streams and sold 2,000 downloads May 19-25, following its May 18 release.

Previously, Minogue placed three other top 20 tracks on the chart: “Real Groove,” with Dua Lipa (No. 15, 2021), “Magic” (No. 17, 2020) and  “Say Something” (No. 18, 2020).

Plus, “Padam Padam” pushes to No. 1 – becoming Minogue’s her first leader – on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart. It started at No. 5 a week earlier after only one day of availability.

Good ‘Look’

Further on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Odetari vaults to his third top 10 and cade clair claims his first with “Look Don’t Touch” (24-10). The song drew 2.3 million streams in its first full week of availability.

01 Jun 2023

Jelly Roll Opens Up About His Time in Prison – And How Fatherhood Helped Him Change

Singer-songwriter Jelly Roll topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Dead Man Walking” in May 2022, hit No. 1 on Country Airplay seven months later with “Son of a Sinner,” and went on to spend a record-setting 28 weeks atop the Emerging Artists chart. The Nashville-area native has sold-out shows at both Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Bridgestone Arena; he also took home multiple honors at the CMT Music Awards in April. Now, he’s on the cover of this year’s Billboard Country Power Players issue. On Friday (June 2), he will release the full-length project, Whitsitt Chapel.

During his cover story interview with Billboard‘s Melinda Newman in Nashville, Jelly Roll opened up about his journey from spending time behind bars to selling out arenas and topping the charts in multiple genres. Jelly Roll spoke of how, at age 16, he was arrested for aggravated robbery and charged as an adult.

“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” he told Billboard. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did.”

He also expressed a lingering bitterness over how the judicial system offered him such little opportunities for rehabilitation, despite his young age. Jelly Roll was facing a potential 20-year sentence, though he ultimately served over a year for the charge, followed by more than seven years of probation.

“They were talking about giving me more time than I’d been alive,” he told Billboard. “I hadn’t hit my last growth spurt. I was charged as an adult years before I could buy a beer, lease an apartment, get a pack of cigarettes … I feel like the justice system at that point kind of parked me on my only set path.”

Given Tennessee’s zero-tolerance policy for violent offenders, the charge is still on Jelly Roll’s record, and thus has lingering repercussions. Jelly Roll cannot vote, volunteer at most nonprofits or own a firearm. Until recently, he also could not get a passport, which impacted his ability to tour internationally. He also told Billboard about his attempt to buy a home in a gated community with its own golf course (Jelly Roll is an avid golfer); he was ultimately rejected.

“Imagine changing your life in such a way that you can afford the kind of house in this community I was looking at,” he told Billboard. “My money was welcome, but I wasn’t, all because of something I did [almost] 24 years ago.”

He recalls the moment he began to turn his life around, after learning of the birth of his daughter, Bailee. When he was 23, Jelly Roll was incarcerated for drug dealing. Then, on May 22, 2008, he learned that his daughter had been born.

“I’ve never had nothing in life that urged me in the moment to know that I had to do something different. I have to figure this out right now,” he said.

He was transferred from the violent offenders’ unit to the education unit and began studying for his GED, passing the test on his first attempt. After his release, he met his daughter on her second birthday. Bailee now resides with Jelly Roll and his wife, Bunnie, whom he married in 2016. He calls Bunnie “a beacon of change in my life. You’re talking about a woman that came in and took a child that was soon to be born and a child that [we were] soon to have full custody of,” he says. “I would have never got custody of my daughter without her. I wouldn’t have had the stability or the money.”

01 Jun 2023

Rihanna, Beyoncé & Taylor Swift Make 2023 Forbes Richest Self-Made Women List

Last year, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift each added to their extensive collections of Hot 100 top 10 hits. This year, with the release of Forbes‘ America’s Richest Self-Made Women list, the three music titans are dominating yet another ranking.

Rihanna leads the pack, landing at No. 20 with a “self-made score” of 10. Forbes estimates the “Umbrella” singer’s net worth to be $1.4 billion, which they attribute to her success in music and cosmetics. Fenty Beauty, which she co-owns with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, doubled its revenue in 2022, according to the publication. Rihanna also has a 30% stake in her Savage x Fenty lingerie line, which earned a $1 billion valuation in February of last year.

Swift comes in at No. 34 with a “self-made score” of 8. According to Forbes‘ estimates, the “All Too Well” singer boasts a net worth of $740 million. Her record-breaking music sales and tour ticket demand make up the bulk of that figure. Last year, Swift became the first artist in Billboard history to simultaneously hold the top 10 spots of the Billboard Hot 100. In November 2022, overwhelming demand for her Eras Tour effectively crashed Ticketmaster, prompting members of Congress to debate the company’s concert sales policies.

Beyoncé, who is currently in the midst of the European leg of her acclaimed Renaissance World Tour, lands at No. 48 with a “self-made score” of 8. Forbes attributes Queen Bey’s estimated $540 million net worth to her roughly three decades’ worth of success in music. This year, the “America Has a Problem” singer announced a collaboration with fashion house Balmain themed after her Billboard 200-topping Renaissance album.

Other notable women in entertainment to make Forbes‘ Richest Self-Made Women list include Oprah (No. 13), Kim Kardashian (No. 21), Kylie Jenner (No. 38), Madonna (No. 45), Céline Dion (No. 56), Dolly Parton (No. 59), Reese Witherspoon (No. 59), Barbra Streisand (No. 61), Serena Williams (No. 89) and Shonda Rhimes (No. 96).

01 Jun 2023

Carin León Earns His First Top 10 on Top Latin Albums With ‘Colmillo De Leche’

Carin León secures his first top 10 on any Billboard albums chart thanks to the dual debut of Colmillo de Leche on both the Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts (dated June 3). The 18-track studio effort bows at No. 10 on the former, while on the latter it launches at No. 5.

Colmillo de Leche also marks León’s first entry on an albums tally, dating back to “Me La Aventé,” his maiden entry on a Billboard chart, in 2019 (the song reached No. 16 high on Hot Latin Songs in 2020.) The set, a gumbo of sounds bookended by León’s regional Mexican imprint –blends soul, flamenco, salsa and pop– was released May 18 via Socios/Oplaai. The new entry also secures a first top 10 and entry for both independent labels.

In its first tracking week ending May 25, Colmillo registered 7,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Streaming-equivalent album units contributes to the bulk of activity, which equates to 10.1 million official U.S. on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Track-equivalent album units, meanwhile, account for the negligible units left.

On the multimetric Top Latin Albums chart, each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Notably, Colmillo marks the fifth instance a regional Mexican album debuts in the upper region on Top Latin Albums out of the nine total top 10s debuts during 2023 so far. Here’s the regional Mexican recap:

Debut Date, Debut Pos., Title, Artist

  • Jan. 14, 2023, 5, Pa Que Hablen.: I., Fuerza Regida
  • Jan. 14, 2023, 6, Sigan Hablando.: II., Fuerza Regida
  • May 13, 2023, 1, Desvelado, Eslabon Armado
  • May 27, 2023, 9, Don’t Stop The Magic, Grupo Marca Registrada
  • June 3, 2023, 10, Colmillo de Leche, Carin León

As mentioned, Colmillo also arrives in the top 10 on Regional Mexican Albums, at No. 5.

The album was preceded by the No. 30-peaking “No Es Por Acá” on Hot Latin Songs last October. In between, León has placed three other songs (outside of Colmillo) on Regional Mexican Airplay, including a six-week domination through “Que Vuelvas,” with Grupo Frontera.

01 Jun 2023

Billy Joel to End Madison Square Garden Residency in 2024 After 150 Shows

Billy Joel‘s epic, decade-long residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden had to end someday. And on Thursday (June 1) the 74-year-old piano man was joined by New York Mayor Eric Adams for a press conference announcing the beginning of that end.

After kicking off the run in January 2014, after nearly 150 shows and more than 1.6 million tickets sold, the final 10-show spree will kick-off on Oct. 20. “There’s only one thing that’s more New York than Billy Joel — and that’s a Billy Joel concert at MSG,” Mayor Adams said in a written statement before a gathering that also featured MSG CEO James Dolan. “For more than 50 years, Billy’s music has defined our city and brought us together. On behalf of 8.5 million New Yorkers, congratulations, Billy, on a historic run of sold-out shows at MSG, and thank you for a lifetime of bringing joy to us all.”

Dolan praised Joel for making MSG, and music industry history with the decade-long series of capacity shows. “150 sold out lifetime shows is a remarkable achievement, and speaks to Billy’s extraordinary talent, beloved catalog, and dedicated fanbase,” said Dolan in a statement. “Billy always has a home here at MSG even though the residency is coming to an end with his 150th lifetime performance.”

“If you google Billy Joel’s house, they showed Madison Square Garden, which is kind of cool,” Joel quipped during a press conference on Thursday. “I never found my bedroom though.” Dolan added that the residency “exceeded even our wildest dreams” and that a run of shows like Joel’s was “never gonna happen again.”

Joel’s residency was announced nearly a decade ago, in December 2013. After the first performance, in January 2014, the singer went on to set Madison Square Garden records: Most Lifetime Performances By Any Artist (136 shows) and Most Consecutive Performances (90 shows). Joel hasn’t released an album of fresh pop songs since 1993, but in 2018, he told The New York Times that his touring business “is bigger now than it was at the height of my recording career.”

In 2006 he set the venue record for most consecutive performances by an artist with 12 gigs in a row, which was celebrated with a Joel-12 banner getting raised to the building’s rafters. He began the residency in Jan. 2014 by playing one how a month as long as fans kept showing up. And they did, with Joel breaking his own 12-show record within a year, then hitting his 100th lifetime gig in July 2018, prompting then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to dub July 18, 2018 “Billy Joel Day.”

The idea for Joel’s residency was born after he was recovering from hip surgery. “I hadn’t really done a tour since 2010,” the singer told Billboard in 2014. “I played Jazzfest in New Orleans in 2012, a one-off in Australia at some bizarre festival in Sydney, I didn’t really start thinking about working again until I played at the 12-12-12 concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief at the Garden.”

Following that performance, Joel continued, “the Garden contacted my agent Dennis Arfa and said we’d like to do a series of shows with Billy Joel at the Garden. They didn’t refer to it as a franchise at first, it was a residency. I heard that and thought, ‘hmm, that’s kinda cool… all I gotta do is commute.’”

Fans were quick to snap up tickets. “I guess they looked at the ticket demand once it was announced and thought, ‘wait a minute, this guy can keep playing here for the rest of his natural life,’” Joel joked.

After the 100th performance in 2018, he told The New York Times he didn’t think he would keep the residency going long enough to play 200 shows. “I’m still exhausted from the other night, which didn’t used to happen,” Joel said. “I don’t think I’ll have the physical wherewithal to do it five years from now.”

“If I can’t do it as well I want to, I’ll take myself out of the lineup,” he added. “I love the game too much to not play it well.”

Tickets for the final MSG shows will go on sale to the general public beginning at 10 a.m. ET on June 9 through Ticketmaster and at the MSG box office the following day; click here for more information.

01 Jun 2023

BLACKPINK’s Jennie Performs ‘Killing Me Softly’ at Chanel Fashion Show

Here comes Ms. Jennie Kim. The 27-year-old BLACKPINK star had a shining moment at Chanel’s Métiers d’art Dakar Show Thursday (June 1) show in Tokyo, Japan, taking the stage to perform a cover of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”

Singing all alone on stage over a backing track, Jennie did justice to Ms. Lauryn Hill and The Fugees with her rendition of the 1996 R&B staple. With the Chanel logo projected on a rainbow screen behind her, she looked stunning in long pin curls, a black-and-white box dress and black booties.

Jennie sang “Killing Me Softly” as part of a mashup with a soft, jazzy cover of “Fly Me to the Moon.” “In other words, I love you,” the K-pop star sang, drawing an air-heart with her fingers and blowing a kiss to the audience.

The “SOLO” singer also performed her own unreleased song “You & Me,” and told the crowd, “This version of the song I’ll be performing for the very first time for you guys here today, so I hope you guys enjoy.”

“Nothing in the world could make me feel/ The way you do, the things you do,” she sang over delicate piano accompaniment, walking elegantly across the stage. “I love you and me/ Dancing in the moonlight/ Nobody can see/ It’s just you and me tonight.”

A month prior, Jennie wore a Chanel outfit at the 2023 Met Gala, which was themed around the work of late designer and Chanel executive Karl Lagerfeld. She went on to sport more of the iconic fashion line’s clothing last week at Cannes Film Festival, which she and her The Idol castmates attended for the musical drama’s world premiere. Co-created by The Weeknd and Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson, the HBO Max series will find Jennie making her acting debut in a supporting role opposite the “Blinding Lights” singer, Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan, Dan Levy and more.

Watch Jennie perform at the Chanel show in Tokyo here.

01 Jun 2023

SiriusXM Celebrates Black Music Month With the ‘Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown’

From classics by The Supremes and Stevie Wonder to Silk Sonic and SZA, SiriusXM today (June 1) kicks off the Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown.

In honor of Black Music Month, the countdown spotlights the top 500 R&B classics by Black artists spanning the past six decades-plus, as ranked by performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, per Billboard‘s Greatest of All Time methodology (with consideration also given to titles’ histories on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts).

The limited engagement Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown will air on SiriusXM channel 104 June 1-7 and on the SXM App June 1-30.

From No. 500 to No. 1, the Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown highlights the enduring legacy of the genre, from iconic Motown, funk and disco anthems to love songs and more, highlighting the biggest hits by legendary artists including Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Prince, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Usher, Beyoncé and Rihanna.

The Billboard Top 500 R&B Countdown marks the latest partnership between SiriusXM and Billboard. Most recently, the Cupid Countdown made Valentine’s Day even sweeter, after the Billboard Top 112 Songs of Christmas Countdown celebrated the sounds of the season and the Billboard Top 500 Summer Hits recapped the biggest summer songs in the Hot 100’s history.

Additionally, SiriusXM’s Big 40 Countdown, on 80s on 8, and the Back in the Day Replay, on ’90s on 9, are based on historical weekly Hot 100 charts, while the Prime 30, on Prime Country, time-travels back through Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart.

01 Jun 2023

Here Are the English Lyrics to Bizarrap & Peso Pluma’s ‘BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 55’

For his 55th “Bzrp Music Session,” out May 31, Bizarrap reeled in viral newcomer Peso Pluma.

Unlike the previous Biza sessions, which are usually diss tracks backed by hip-hop and EDM fusions, the new collaboration finds both the Argentine producer and Mexican artist in a heartbreak corrido about trying to get over an ex. “I’m still here/ It’s been a few nights since I haven’t slept/ I’m drunk, I’m not going to lie/ I talked to another girl after I lost you,” chants Peso with his signature raspy vocals.

In less than 24 hours, the music video shot in Biza’s coveted blue-tinted studio reached No. 2 on YouTube’s Trending for Music chart.

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Below, revisit the video and the lyrics translated to English:

I’m still here
It’s been a few nights since I haven’t slept
I’m drunk, I’m not going to lie
I talked to another girl after I lost you
And there’s no more
Things I want to talk about with you
I’ll forget you with another body
I’ll take you out of my mind

And you’ll see us drinking
Thick chains and the girls from Instagram
A large diamond on my Glock
My watch is Patek Philippe (Wuh)
I know how much it cost me
And now we cruise through L.A.
And I’m going to Sinaloa too
And the champagnes taste good (Good, eh)

Just like that, my friend Biza
All the way to Argentina
Pure Double P
Long live corridos

I’m still here
I’ll continue without sleep
Everything has changed since you left
I promised myself to not repeat
And it’ll already be
Too late for when you want more
You have to accept on your own
That you won’t be in my arms anymore

And you’ll see us drinking
Thick chains and the girls from Instagram
A large diamond on my Glock
My watch is Patek Philippe (Wuh)
I know how much it cost me
And now we cruise through LA
And I’m going to Sinaloa too
And the champagnes taste good (Good, eh)

01 Jun 2023

Pregnant Rihanna Jokes Around in ‘Use a Condom’ Tee: ‘This Shirt Is Old’

It’s a little too late for Rihanna to take her own advice. The 35-year-old recently sported a joking “Use a Condom” T-shirt in a handful of new Instagram photos. She and A$AP Rocky are expecting their second child, and she’s currently in her third trimester.

In the photos shared Thursday (June 1), Ri poses in fabulous white sunglasses and matching high-heeled boots while modeling the black, oversized shirt, on which its message is printed in huge white block letters. In a few of the photos, she cradles her baby bump.

“this shirt is old…,” she quipped in her caption.

The “Umbrella” singer also directed fans to where they can purchase their own contraceptive-positive clothing: her own fashion line, Savage x Fenty. The “Use a Condom” shirt is now available on the brand’s website for $69.95.

Savage isn’t the only one of Rihanna’s brands that’s dropped new goodies recently, though. Earlier this week, her Fenty Beauty company unveiled a new collection of “Summatime” products, featuring lip and cheek products inspired by the colors of summer sunsets.

The mogul has also recently had cause for celebration at home, too. Last month, she and Rocky celebrated the first birthday of their firstborn son — whose name was finally confirmed to be RZA, after the Wu-Tang Clan frontman, just a few days prior. Rocky marked the occasion by sharing several photos of his partner and their baby boy, writing, “‘WU TANG IZ 4 DA CHUREN’ HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TO MY 1st BORN.”

See Rihanna model her “Use a Condom” shirt below: