Music

18 May 2023

ASCAP Summit Will Connect Aspiring Songwriters and Composers with Established Music Creators

Performance rights organization ASCAP is bringing their creator summit to Los Angeles on June 21 for a one-day live event at Avalon Hollywood.

The 2023 ASCAP Experience, which was founded 18 years ago, is set to connect aspiring songwriters and composers with hit-making names across genres including Sarah Hudson (Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello), Leon Thomas III (Ariana Grande, Rick Ross), Hitmaka (Big Sean, Nicki Minaj), Steph Jones (Selena Gomez, Kelsea Ballerini), Darrell Brown (Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes), Neff-U (Justin Bieber, Sia) and more to be announced.

The summit will include a number of sessions across topics, from building a music career in the social media era to a live song feedback session during which guest speakers will listen to and share insights on a few songs pre-submitted by attendees, in front of a live audience. The 50th anniversary of hip-hop will also be celebrated, with a session dedicated to the global impact of the genre through a panel of “respected contributors to hip-hop’s storied history,” per a statement from ASCAP.

In previous years, panelists have included Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Justin Timberlake, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Katy Perry, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, Questlove, Lee Ann Womack, Wyclef Jean, Jermaine Dupri and Hans Zimmer, among others.

Registration for the live experience is open now, with tickets available for ASCAP members at $35 in advance and $50 on the day of. Unaffiliated songwriters and composers who would like to attend must first join ASCAP.

On Tuesday, ASCAP hosted their 2023 ASCAP Screen Music Awards at an invitation-only party in West Hollywood, Calif. Big winners of the night included Michael Abels for Jordan Peele’s film “Nope,” Cristobal Tapia de Veer and Kim Neundorf for their work on “The White Lotus,” and Bear McCreary’s win for Video Game Score of the Year for “God of War: Ragnarok.”

18 May 2023

Was That BLACKPINK’s Jennie & V of BTS Holding Hands in Paris? Fans React

A video of what appears to be BLACKPINK‘s Jennie and BTS‘ V holding hands went viral on Wednesday (May 17), sending both BLINKs and ARMYs into a full-blown freakout across social media.

Captured by French journalist Amar Taoualit, the clip appears to show the two K-pop idols taking a nighttime stroll along the Seine in Paris — though it’s filmed from far away and you can’t distinctly see either of the the pair’s faces. Billboard reached out to reps for both Jennie and V.

Not having exact confirmation didn’t stop fans from jumping down the wormhole online, pointing out that both figures in the video are wearing the same outfits as other pictures circulating Twitter from the same evening.

“#BLACKPINK #JENNIE and #BTS #V #TAEHYUNG dating in Paris. my #TAENNIE heart is screaming,” one fan tweeted, using a portmanteau of the rappers’ names, while another joked “Twitter is burning the whole day” in the comments on Taoualit’s Instagram post.

Others weren’t so quick to assume it was, in fact, Jennie and V, writing things like, “This isn’t a cosplay right??” and “If this is a cosplay they planned really well, this is confusing. Anyways if it’s true, as a fan I will support and we all move. The hate ain’t gonna help fr.”

Last week, Jennie debuted her new capsule collection with Calvin Klein while her BLACKPINK bandmates Rosé and Lisa each recently enjoyed a glamorous night out at the Cannes Film Festival red carpet and a special event for Bvlgari in Venice, respectively

Check out fan reactions to Jennie and V’s possible Paris outing together below.

18 May 2023

Happy P Hits No. 1 on R&B Producers Chart Thanks to Miguel’s ‘Sure Thing’

Happy P (real name Nathan Perez) jumps to No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B Producers chart (dated May 20), leading for the first time thanks to his production on Miguel’s “Sure Thing.”

The song — which returned to Billboard’s charts beginning in late 2022 over a decade after its initial chart run — holds at its No. 4 high on the Hot R&B Songs chart with 51.6 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 6%), 10.6 million official streams (up 1%) and 2,000 downloads sold in the United States in the May 5-11 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The track, released in 2010, resurged thanks to newfound attention on TikTok, where a sped-up version has soundtracked more than 4 million videos. While activity TikTok does not directly contribute to Billboard’s charts, many of the app’s most popular songs have seen corresponding gains on streaming services that factor into Billboard chart rankings. RCA Records also re-serviced the song to radio as its profile was renewed.

The song forged a historic comeback, breaking the record for the most weeks spent on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with a whopping 78 (through the latest, May 20-dated survey).

“Sure Thing” also rises 15-14 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a new best — as well as a new career high for Miguel, outpacing the No. 15 peak of Mariah Carey’s “#Beautiful,” on which he’s featured, in 2013. (“Sure Thing” originally hit No. 36 on the Hot 100 in 2011.)

Happy P is just the third creative to rule the R&B Producers chart this year so far. He succeeds Rob Bisel, who led for one week thanks to SZA’s “Kill Bill.” Before Bisel, Carter Lang reigned for the preceding 18 weeks (after two weeks at the end of 2022), also thanks to his work with SZA.

Billboard launched the Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019, while alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).

18 May 2023

Demi Lovato Opens Up About Hollywood’s ‘Negative Impact’ on Their Eating Disorder, Encourages Fans to Ask for Help

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Demi Lovato is continuing to use their platform to shed light on their difficult journey with eating disorders, suicidal ideation and substance abuse.

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“The very first time that I went to treatment was when I was 18,” Lovato told TODAY in an interview on Thursday (May 18). “I went from my eating disorder, and I went for self-harm and emotional issues. And when I came out with that experience, I was faced with the decision of either ‘keep your mouth shut and not say anything’ or ‘share your experience strength and hope with another person in hopes that it affects them in a positive way.’”

They continued, “I wanted to help others. I wish that I had somebody when I was 13 years old and having an eating disorder and starving myself. I wanted somebody in the public eye to say that ‘Hey, this is what I’ve gone through, and you don’t have to choose that route.’”

Lovato also revealed that a lot of her distorted body image perception began at a young age, given that the public was focused on promoting unrealistic beauty standards. “When you’re looking at images of people with perfect bodies, you start to look at yourself, and you start to pick yourself apart, and it’s hard to grow up in a world where that’s right in front of your face and at your fingertips at all times,” they recalled. “I grew up in a period of time where young Hollywood was very, very, very thin, and that was the look, and I think that had a really negative impact on my eating just on my mental health, which I think fed into my eating disorder.”

As for today’s young adults, Lovato wants to spread the message that it’s OK to ask for help when needed. “I want them to know that talking to people and asking for help is more than OK and is absolutely what you should do,” they said.

If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.

18 May 2023

Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella Advises Fans to ‘Consider Arriving Earlier’ for EDC Las Vegas

EDC Las Vegas, one of the world’s biggest music festivals, is set to launch tomorrow (May 19) at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ahead of the event, Insomniac Events CEO Pasquale Rotella has warned of myriad travel delays attendees may face while getting to the mega-fest.

In an Instagram post ahead of the event, Rotella wrote that “If you’re flying to Vegas, it’s important to know there is ongoing construction at Harry Reid International Airport/McCarran Airport that has resulted in regular flight delays. If you’re driving, know there is construction along the 15 freeway on the way to Vegas that is causing delays depending on the time of day.”

As reported by Fox5Vegas, current airport delays are due to high winds, along with one runway currently closed for scheduled maintenance. Meanwhile, a 10.7 mile stretch of Interstate 15 connecting the Las Vegas Strip to the Motor Speedway is under construction, as the Interstate is widened from four to six lanes, along with the addition of a new weigh station, enforcement improvements, truck parking and an interchange addition.

These improvements are happening ahead of Las Vegas hosting the 2024 Super Bowl at the city’s freshly built Allegiant Stadium, and the city hosting the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix this November.

“If you have the flexibility to adjust your travel plans, you may want to consider arriving earlier,” Rotella’s post continues. “These potential issues are likely to be exacerbated with so many ravers coming  to town. I highly recommend keeping in touch with your airlines to stay up to date on any flight schedule changes or other important information.”

The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is located roughly 17 miles north of the Vegas Strip via I-15. The three-day festival annually hosts roughly 400,000 attendees and this year will feature more than 230 dance artists including Kaytranada, Alison Wonderland, Martin Garrix, Armin van Buuren and many (many) of the world’s leading dance/electronic acts.

Traffic to and from the event is typically heavy, with attendees arriving largely by car and shuttle, and many artists and high-rolling attendees opting to skip traffic by taking a helicopter from the Strip to the Speedway.

Check out Rotella’s full statement via Instagram below:

18 May 2023

ODESZA Announces Concert Film to Screen Internationally for One Night Only

ODESZA‘s 2022 The Last Goodbye Tour was, by all metrics, a smashing success.

The 27-date run, which hit arenas and amphitheaters across North America, grossed $25.6 million and sold 395,000 tickets, according to numbers provided by Billboard Boxscore.

This run — behind the duo’s The Last Goodbye LP, which hit No. 11 on the Billboard 200 in August of 2022 — was the highest grossing and best-selling tour of the group’s career. The show, which featured a drum line, myriad singers and countless lights and lasers, was cited as a feat of both technical production and anthemic emotion.

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Now audiences worldwide can relive it all again — or for the first time — via ODESZA: The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience. Hitting theaters for one night only on July 7, the full-length film goes behind the scenes of the tour via interviews with ODESZA’s Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, fans and members of the pair’s creative team. These interviews will be cut with footage of the show itself shot last summer at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, among other tour stops.

Created in partnership with production studio Trafalger Releasing, tickets will go on sale May 25, 2023. Hosting theaters will be announced in the coming week.

The film is directed by ODESZA’s longtime creative director Sean Kasunagi, who in a press release stated, “We wanted to do more than a standard concert film – we wanted to highlight the meticulous process of building a 90-minute live show, and then bring it to life through cinematic camera shots, visual overlays, and an immersive 5.1 Dolby surround mix. It’s actually like witnessing the blueprints of the show come together from the front row.”

ODESZA — Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight — are currently in the midst of another big summer, with upcoming headlining slots at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Governor’s Ball.

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18 May 2023

Taylor Swift Reveals ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ Lilac Marbled Vinyl

Taylor Swift‘s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) rollout has been nothing short of enchanting so far.

The superstar’s official Taylor Nation Twitter page revealed on Thursday (May 18) that the vinyl for the upcoming re-recording of Swift’s 2010 album is available for pre-order at Target. The vinyl perfectly fits the Speak Now color scheme with a lilac marble design. Both the vinyl and CD pre-order are available here while supplies last.

Swift revealed that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) will be arriving on July 7 during her first of three shows at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on May 5. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) will follow Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), both of which were released in 2021, as the third re-recorded studio album in her six-album endeavor. 

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“I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20,” Swift wrote on Twitter following the announcement. “The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness. I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing… and living to speak about it.”

Upon its October 2010 release, Speak Now became the first Swift album to cross the 1 million sales mark in its debut week, launching at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 1.047 million copies sold. Swift’s third album has earned a total of 7.8 million equivalent album units in the U.S. through Apr. 27, according to Luminate.

18 May 2023

Miley Cyrus Reflects on Her ‘Bangerz’ Era: ‘I Was Harshly Judged’

Miley Cyrus looked back on her Bangerz era — and all the controversy it caused in the early 2010s — in a new cover story for British Vogue published Thursday (May 18).

In the interview, the superstar maintained that she’s “not an attention-seeking person, sitting here as a 30-year-old grown woman” despite the zeitgeist-defining moments of her youth, from that fully nude music video for “Wrecking Ball” to twerking on Robin Thicke in nothing but latex at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

“I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character I had played,” she explained, referencing her start as Hannah Montana. “Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. ‘I’m not my parents.’ ‘I am who I am.’

Cyrus also admitted that she “carried some guilt and shame” for several years after releasing Bangerz because of the public scandal of it all, but these days she gives herself more grace. “Now that I’m an adult, I realize how harshly I was judged,” she tells the U.K. magazine. “I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realize that I would never harshly judge a child.”

More than a decade on from Bangerz, the singer is still riding the wave of her latest album Endless Summer Vacation and is mammoth lead single, “Flowers.” In fact, just this week, Cyrus unveiled the sultry music video of her latest single off the record, “Jaded,” but that doesn’t mean she’s not looking to new music that will inevitably come in the (possibly near) future. As the profile closes out, she revealed that an unnamed songwriter recently pitched a track for her to record.

“It was like, you know, the standard f–ked up in the club track. And I was like, ‘I’m two years sober. That’s not where I spend my time, you know,’ she explains, adding that the experience inspired her to write a completely different new song with lyrics she teased in the sit-down: “I know I used to be crazy/ I know I used to be fun/ You say I used to be wild/ I say I used to be young.”

Check out Cyrus’ stunning British Vogue cover below.

18 May 2023

Is Kate Bush Having Another Netflix Moment?

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 
 
This week: Kate Bush makes it two years in a row with big gains from a Netflix hit, while Loreen enjoys a Eurovision bump on both sides of the pond and a pair of hitmaking Asian girl groups make inroads on U.S. radio.

Happy Mother’s Day to Kate Bush

Is it happening again? If you’ve checked Shazam’s real-time U.S. chart in the past week, you’ll see a familiar older name jostling with Lil Durk and J. Cole’s new “All My Life” for the top position: Kate Bush, she of the biggest sync revitalization of the decade so far. It’s not “Running Up That Hill” or Stranger Things this time, though: It’s her similarly beloved (and oft-covered) “This Woman’s Work,” used to great effect towards the end of the new hit Netflix action drama, The Mother. 

“Work” has been used prominently in movies and TV shows for 35 years now – dating back to its original 1988 release on the She’s Having a Baby soundtrack – and The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez and released last Friday (May 12, two days before Mother’s Day), uses the signature ballad over its closing sequence and end credits. The synch’s impact could be seen in the song’s streaming numbers – up from 21,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams on May 11 to 55,000 by May 14, a 157% gain – along with digital song sales increasing from under 100 to over 500 over that period, all according to Luminate. 

Thus far, the song’s explosive growth is still modest compared to the runaway success of “Hill” post-Stranger Things — which made it not only the biggest newly viral catalog of hit of 2022, but one of the year’s biggest overall hits of any kind. If this one starts crossing over from Shazam to TikTok in the same way that song did, though, there might still be plenty of “Work” for the Bush staple to do on the Billboard charts. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Left, Right, Up: FIFTY FIFTY & XG Hits Make Inroads at U.S. Radio 

As Asian pop acts have established an increased presence in U.S. popular music over the past five years, one sector of the industry has long proven the most difficult to impact on a consistent level: pop radio. 

While BTS smashes like “Dynamite” and “Butter” stand as exceptions, top 40 stations have generally shied away from the latest offerings from Asian pop collectives, even as those groups rack up seven-figure streaming numbers and headline arenas in the States. BLACKPINK, for instance, has only notched one non-collaborative single on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart to date (“Pink Venom,” which peaked at No. 32 last year), while groups like TWICE, Loona and (G)I-dle have only been able to achieve fleeting appearances on the tally. 

Yet a pair of English-language singles from the relatively new collectives FIFTY FIFTY and XG are not only turning into profile-boosting breakthroughs for each – they’re receiving real, growing radio play as well.

For more info on this, check out our full article over at Billboard Pro.

“Tattoo” Looks to Ink Itself on the Charts

The winner at this month’s Eurovision song contest was the delectably dramatic Eurodance-pop banger “Tattoo” by Loreen, Sweden’s representative at this year’s competition. Loreen might already have been familiar to many watching as the singer behind 2012’s “Euphoria,” a single that topped charts throughout Europe and went to No. 3 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart – but “Tattoo” looks on track to do even better, currently ticketed for a top two debut on this week’s U.K. chart. 

The song is also beginning to take off stateside. Though it’s been available on DSPs since February, the song has steadily risen on streaming since it triumphed in its first semifinal on May 9, and exploded following its ultimate victory on May 13. In all, the song has risen from 58,000 daily official on-demand streams on May 8 to over 226,000 on May 16 – a gain of 28%, according to Luminate. It’s a great start for the winner in the hopes of it following in the footsteps of recent U.S. Eurovision success stories like Måneskin and Duncan Laurence, though time will tell if “Tattoo” leaves more of a temporary or permanent mark on U.S. pop culture. – AU

18 May 2023

Calvin Harris Rewrites Record for Most No. 1s on Dance/Mix Show Airplay Chart, Thanks to ‘Miracle’ With Ellie Goulding

Calvin Harris claims the mark for the most No. 1s in the history of Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart all to himself, as “Miracle,” with Ellie Goulding, rises to the top of the tally dated May 20. Harris adds his 13th leader on the list, which began in August 2003, moving one ahead of both David Guetta and Rihanna.

The trancey “Miracle” is Goulding’s sixth topper and second with Harris, after “Outside” in 2015. Here’s a look at Calvin Harris’s record 13 Dance/Mix Show Airplay No. 1s.

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

  • “Miracle,” with Ellie Goulding, one to-date, 2023
  • “Promises,” with Sam Smith, two, 2018
  • “One Kiss,” with Dua Lipa, 10, 2018
  • “This Is What You Came For,” feat. Rihanna, 12, 2016
  • “How Deep Is Your Love,” with Disciples, four, 2015
  • “Outside,” feat. Ellie Goulding, six, 2015
  • “Blame,” feat. John Newman, six, 2014
  • “Summer,” 13, 2014
  • “Thinking About You,” feat. Ayah Marar, one, 2013
  • “Sweet Nothing,” feat. Florence Welch, nine, 2013
  • “Let’s Go,” feat. Ne-Yo, 10, 2012
  • “We Found Love,” Rihanna feat. Harris, 14, 2011-12
  • “Feel So Close,” eight weeks at No. 1, 2012

“Miracle” is drawing core-dance airplay on KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco, Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel and WCPY (Dance Factory FM) Chicago in the May 5-11 tracking week, 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.)

Additionally on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Steve Aoki, Galantis and Hayley Kiyoko bound 16-10 with “Hungry Heart,” the sixth, 10th and first top 10 for each respective act.

Shifting to the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray lock in top Streaming Gainer honors with “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” (5-4), after the song’s official video premiered May 5. The track, a reworking of Haddaway’s 1993 hit “What Is Love,” earned 3.6 million official streams in the United States in the week ending May 11, up 15%. It also drew 7.3 million radio airplay audience impressions, up 13%, and sold 1,000 downloads, up 20%.

Concurrently, “Baby” bumps 13-6 on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs chart, giving Guetta his ninth top 10, Anne-Marie her second and Leray her first. It also pushes 5-3 on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales.

Sticking with Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, viral sensation Odetari debuts at No. 8 with “Good Loyal Thots.” His second top 10 in quick succession, after “Narcissistic Personality” (No. 10, May 6), garnered 3.4 million streams in its opening frame. That figure also sparks a No. 11 start on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs.

Meanwhile, Depeche Mode claims the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart’s top Sales Gainer award for “Ghosts Again” (30-19). The lead single from the act’s LP Memento Mori is up 103%, following the May 5 release of official remixes by Chris Liebing and Luke Slater, Miss Grit, Davide Rossi and more. “Ghosts” also gathered 542,000 streams, up 52%.