Music

12 Apr 2023

Should NF Hold Out ‘Hope’ for a No. 1 Album? 

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated April 22), NF remains the biggest rapper you don’t hear on radio or RapCaviar, while an ‘00s nu-metal band plans a second Meteora strike on the Billboard 200.  

NF, Hope (NF Real Music/Caroline): He hasn’t had a major crossover hit since 2017’s smash “Let You Down” peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, but NF remains one of the world’s biggest rappers with a cult following that remains just outside of mainstream view. His last album, 2019’s The Search, snuck past Chance the Rapper’s more hyped The Big Day for the Billboard 200’s top spot (with a six-figure first week), and the title track and advance single from follow-up album Hope debuted at No. 49 on the Hot 100 in March.  

Aiding Hope’s hopes to follow its predecessor to No. 1: big sales numbers, boosted by a variety of physical variants. There’s a signed CD in his online store (just $5!), a standard Target-exclusive CD with a poster packaged inside, four deluxe CD/merch box sets (with a T-shirt, hat, long sleeve T or a hoodie and a CD housed in a box, respectively) and both a white vinyl LP and a standard black version. If he cracks six figures again, NF might be in the same ballpark as Morgan Wallen’s declining One Thing at a Time — but the 167,000 units that album moved in its fifth week at No. 1 is still a higher single-week number than any NF album has posted yet.  

Linkin Park, Meteora (Warner/Machine Shop): Meteora was one of the biggest albums of 2003, debuting at No. 1 with over 800,000 in first-week sales, spawning massive hit singles like “Numb” and “Faint” and finishing as the No. 6 album of the Year-End Billboard 200. Next week, the album’s 20th anniversary reissue may drive it to its highest position on the chart since its release year.  

The set has already garnered considerable attention for the advance release of “Lost,” a bonus track that the group recorded for Meteora with late Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington, whose No. 38 debut on the Hot 100 made it the group’s biggest chart hit in a decade. It’s one of several previously unreleased tracks found on the reissue, which is available in a deluxe three-CD edition, a four-LP vinyl box set, or a five-LP / four-CD super deluxe box set, and should help Meteora make a more explosive chart impact than most new albums.  

Daniel Caesar, Never Enough (Republic): Acclaimed R&B singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar has yet to hit the Billboard 200’s top 10, but he’s getting closer: No. 25 with 2017 debut Freudian, then No. 17 with 2019’s Case Study 01. This year’s long-anticipated third album Never Enough has a chance to get him in that range, though it’s lacking any chart hits near the level of his breakout late-’10s hits “Get You” or “Best Part,” and certainly none in the same stratosphere as his appearance on Justin Bieber’s 2021 Hot 100-topper “Peaches.” Caesar does have a climbing Adult R&B Airplay hit in “Let Me Go” (No. 20 this week), as well as three different box sets exclusive to his web store, three different-colored vinyl variants and both standard and signed CDs available for purchase.  

In the Mix

Ellie Goulding, Higher Than Heaven (Polydor): One of the U.K.’s most reliable hitmakers of the early ‘10s is back, with what she calls, in a very un-2023 way, her “least-personal” to date. “We didn’t want to write serious songs,” Goulding has said, “we wanted to write about silly things and dancing.” The album’s approach has been well-received critically, but has yet to generate the kind hits either side of the Atlantic that she enjoyed a decade ago.  

Rae Sremmurd, Sremm 4 Life (Ear Drummer/Interscope): Speaking of Goulding: Her most recent top 40 Hot 100 hit was scored alongside Swae Lee, who was also a chart fixture of the late ‘10s — both solo and with brother Slim Jxmmi, as hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd. The Brothers Rae have since fallen somewhat out of commercial favor, but they’re hoping a return to their Sremm album series (responsible for three straight top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 from 2015-18) will bring them back to the limelight. They get additional assistance on Sremm 4 from featured stars Future and Young Thug, as well as production from longtime gold-spinner Mike Will Made-It.  

12 Apr 2023

John Summit, Diplo & Tiësto Lead Groove Cruise Miami 2024 Lineup

All aboard, baby. Groove Cruise announced the lineup for its January 2024 voyage from Miami to The Bahamas on Wednesday (April 12).

Billboard can exclusively announce that Diplo, Tiësto and John Summit captain the lineup, with a strong crew of artists including Disco Lines, Gabriel & Dresden, Joel Corry, LP Giobbi, So Tuff So Cute, VNSSA rounding out the bill.

Additionally, the party will feature hosted stages by brands including LP Giobbi’s Femme House, Diplo’s Higher Ground and Summit’s Off The Grid. The boat will also host artist hosted games and activities like blackjack, bingo, volunteer opportunities, mentorship sessions and mental health workshops.

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The festival is largely sold out, although a few premium packages remain. The event will take place on the Norwegian Encore. Able to host 4,000 guests, this is the biggest ship Groove Cruise has employed to date.

The festival at sea departs from Miami on January 24, sailing to The Bahamas for a beach part on Great Stirrup Cay and returning to U.S shores on January 28. The event, produced by Whet Travel, marks the Groove Cruise’s 20th anniversary.

“I can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” Groove Cruise founder Jason Beukema tells Billboard. “When I first had the idea of Groove Cruise as a 25-year-old kid from Michigan with no money, not a single DJ contact, and not knowing anyone in the cruise industry, I never thought that two decades later I would be booking international superstars like Tiësto on a near billion dollar cruise ship.”

“Our first sailing,” he continues, “was a 125 person cruise in 2004, and it’s been incredible to witness lifelong friendships flourish out of that initial cruise and to hear how it changed people’s lives. It’s been humbling to watch the community and experience it evolve into the world class event it is today.”

While Groove Cruise helped innovate the festival cruise model two decades ago, they’ve since become a hugely popular format for live music consumption. In the dance world, HARD has hosted Holy Ship since 2021, while earlier this year Insomniac Events announced the maiden voyage of their EDSea cruise happening in November.

See the full lineup below

Groove Cruise Miami

Courtesy Photo

12 Apr 2023

Luke Combs’ Cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ Rides to Hot Country Songs Top 10

Luke Combs covers one song on his new LP, Gettin’ Old: Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” The 1988 original, which Chapman wrote solely, won the Grammy Award for best female pop vocal performance and sparked her coronation as best new artist.

Combs is clearly getting fans up to speed on “Fast Car,” as his version cruises from No. 14 to No. 10 in its second week on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart (dated April 15), becoming his 19th top 10.

On the Billboard Hot 100, it zooms 44-32 in its second frame.

Combs’ interpretation drew 11.1 million official streams (up 27%) and sold 6,000 downloads in the United States March 31-April 6, according to Luminate.

(Chapman’s original was up 22% to 3 million in radio airplay audience and 5% to 2.5 million streams in that span.)

Gettin’ Old spends a second week at No. 2 on Top Country Albums, with 54,000 equivalent album units, after launching with 101,000 units.

Combs supporters who have been to his live shows won’t be surprised about his update of “Fast Car,” as it’s been a fan favorite among his setlists.

While the song isn’t a radio single, some country stations are giving it airplay, one being Audacy’s WPAW Greensboro-Winston Salem, N.C. “Luke’s take on ‘Fast Car’ is a gift to the original fans – the ones that instantly fell in love with him early on,” program director Clay Walker tells Billboard. “No doubt if you paid to see him in the clubs around North and South Carolina, you know that. Even though his version stays true to the Tracy Chapman original, he really is thanking his foundational fans with this.”

The song’s crossover appeal is also evident in SiriusXM’s support: Country channel The Highway is playing Combs’ cover, as is pop-focused TikTok Radio.

Combs isn’t the first artist to gas up a charted rendition of “Fast Car.” Jonas Blue’s version, featuring Dakota, hit No. 7 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, as well as No. 98 on the Hot 100, in 2016.

Those remakes mark the two that have hit the Hot 100 since Chapman took the original to No. 6 in August-September 1988. Until this week, the composition last ranked in the chart’s top 40 (at No. 39) on the list dated that Oct. 1 (as Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” breezed to a second week at No. 1).

While country artists aren’t exactly known for redoing pop hits, a few have charted highly since the late ‘80s. Rascal Flatts’ repaved “Life is a Highway” reached No. 18 on Hot Country Songs in 2006, after Tom Cochrane’s original hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1992.

Mark Chesnutt scored his most recent of eight Hot Country Songs leaders with his version of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” in 1999. Aerosmith’s recording of the Diane Warren-penned ballad debuted atop the Hot 100 and dominated for four frames in 1998.

In the mid-‘90s, country artist John Michael Montgomery and pop/R&B vocal group All-4-One shared hits simultaneously: In 1994, “I Swear” was a Hot Country Songs No. 1 for the former and an 11-week No. 1 Hot 100 smash for the former. A year later, “I Can Love You Like That” became another Hot Country Songs No. 1 for Montgomery and a No. 5 Hot 100 hit for All-4-One.

Back to the late ‘80s, Rosanne Cash’s update of The Beatles’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” became her most recent of 11 Hot Country Songs No. 1s, in 1989. The Lennon-McCartney original reached No. 39 on the Hot 100 for the Fab Four in 1965 (as the B-side of “Eight Days a Week,” which hit No. 1).

12 Apr 2023

Rihanna’s 11-Month-Old Son Pets Baby Bunnies & Hunts For Eggs in Adorable First Easter Photos

Rihanna‘s baby boy just celebrated his very first Easter — and his last as an only child. To mark the special occasion, the pop star went all out to celebrate by bringing in baby bunnies, baskets of eggs and more for her 11-month-old son to play with.

The adorable festivities were captured in a series of photos posted by Rih on Instagram Tuesday (April 11), two days after Easter Sunday. “Eastuh!!!” she captioned one carousel of pictures, featuring her son gnawing on brightly-colored eggs and sporting a pair of white bunny ears. In another set of pics, the Fenty heir sits in the grass outside and plays with five tiny bunnies, surrounded by more Easter eggs, pastel balloons and goodie baskets. “Look at heeeeee!!!!” Rih gushed over her son, who holds a book titled How to Catch the Easter Bunny in the snaps.

Rihanna shares the little boy — whose name has not been made public — with A$AP Rocky, with whom she’s currently expecting Baby No. 2. She surprise-announced the pregnancy in February, debuting her baby bump for nearly 119 million viewers during her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance.

The “Umbrella” singer kept her son out of the limelight for the first few months of his life, but has since started sharing his face more frequently on social media. Earlier this month, she shared a sweet video of the soon-to-be one-year-old clinging to her side. “Look who don’t want mommy to workout,” she captioned the clip.

See Rihanna’s adorable photos of her baby boy’s first Easter here and here.

12 Apr 2023

Ariana DeBose Returns to Host 2023 Tony Awards

Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose will return to host the 76th Annual Tony Awards, which is set to air live coast-to-coast from the historic United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights on Sunday, June 11. The show will air from 8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT on CBS and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.

DeBose also hosted last year’s Tony Awards. She’ll be the first person to host back-to-back ceremonies since Neil Patrick Harris fronted the show from 2011-13. Since the Tonys’ first broadcast in 1967, just three other people have served as solo hosts of back-to-back ceremonies – Angela Lansbury (1987-89), Rosie O’Donnell (1997-98) and Hugh Jackman (2003-05).

“I was honored to serve as host last year and even more so to be asked back!” DeBose said in a statement. “So looking forward to celebrating this incredible season and the people who make the work happen. Here’s to adding some uptown flavor to the magic of the Tony Awards!”

“Ariana will host and dance and sing, we’re so thrilled she’s back to do the thing,” said Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, executive producers, White Cherry Entertainment, in a playful nod to DeBose’s widely panned rap at this year’s BAFTA Awards. DeBose said at the time she wasn’t bothered by the social media criticism, and the quote from Weiss and Kirshner supports the idea that she has taken the jabs in stride.

DeBose received critical acclaim for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reboot of West Side Story, for which she received Oscar, BAFTA, Critics Choice and SAG Awards. Onstage, DeBose is best known for her role as Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which earned her a 2018 Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical.

The Tony Awards, which honor theater professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway, have been broadcast on CBS since 1978.

The Tony Awards eligibility cut-off date for the 2022-23 season is Thursday, April 27 for all Broadway productions which meet all eligibility requirements. Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, May 2.

The Tony Awards are produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, and White Cherry Entertainment. Kirshner and Weiss are executive producers for White Cherry Entertainment. In addition, Weiss will serve as director.

12 Apr 2023

Maren Morris, Jonathan Van Ness to Be Honored at 2023 GLAAD Media Awards

As Pride season gets closer, the GLAAD Media Awards are ready to celebrate the artists who are helping the LGBTQ community thrive.

On Wednesday (April 12), GLAAD announced that country-pop star Maren Morris and Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness would be receiving special honors at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, May 13.

Morris is set to receive the organization’s excellence in media award, given out each year to “allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people,” according to a press release from GLAAD. The singer has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights in recent years, teaming up with GLAAD and other organizations to protest recent anti-LGBTQ bills passed in the U.S.

Van Ness, meanwhile, will be the first non-binary recipient of the Vito Russo award (named after the GLAAD co-founder and ACT UP activist), which is presented annually to “a LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in accelerating LGBTQ acceptance.”

The pair of stars are just the latest celebrities to receive special recognition from the organization. In March, Christina Aguilera and Bad Bunny were honored at the organization’s Los Angeles ceremony with the advocate for change and vanguard awards, respectively. In her speech, Aguilera called on the audience listening to “raise our voices if we want to live in a world that is free of discrimination, hate and violence.” Bad Bunny, meanwhile, specifically thanked the LGBTQ community “for embracing me, for loving me the way they do, and for inspiring me, too.”

The 2023 GLAAD Media Awards will take place in New York City on Saturday, May 13. To find tickets, click here.

12 Apr 2023

‘Truth Hurts’: A Twitter Troll’s Attempt at Body-Shaming Lizzo Just Backfired

There’s a reason Lizzo is known as “100% that b–ch.” After a Twitter troll tried to take cheap shots at her figure with a 2021 nude photo, the 34-year-old hitmaker’s fanbase rose to the occasion to make sure the body-shaming backfired — plus, Lizzo herself even seemed to chime in.

It all started on Monday (April 10) when one Twitter user snidely wrote that his “beauty standards remain unchanged” by sharing a photo of Lizzo posing fully naked, which she previously said she posted to “change the conversation about beauty standards.” Then, another user going by the name Cassandra replied to the tweet with “make obesity bad again” before posting a photo of herself alongside a photo of the four-time Grammy winner.

“Me or Lizzo?” Cassandra captioned the side-by-side photos, inviting followers to compare her looks to the “About Damn Time” singer’s. (The tweet has since been deleted.)

“Lizzo,” responded one person. “I don’t know you but Lizzo is a publicly kind and inspiring individual. Loving yourself and others should be the basis of humanity. She preaches that. I can only assume you’re terrible.”

“One has four Grammys and is classically trained on the flute. The other just posted a six year old blurred picture of herself drinking wine with ice from a straw,” replied another, before choosing. “Lizzo. Truth hurts.”

“We’re all choosing Lizzo, right??” weighed in another fan, adding that the Yitty founder is “compassionate, stunning and genuinely unproblematic” whereas “Cassandra is the walking embodiment of the ‘school bully’.”

And while Lizzo herself didn’t directly reply to Cassandra’s tweet, she did seem to cast her vote by simply tweeting Tuesday (April 11): “Lizzo.”

So many came to the star’s defense that Lizzo’s name also became a trending topic.

The singer-songwriter has long been an advocate for body inclusivity and positivity. In addition to speaking out about its importance multiple times throughout her career, she also designed her Yitty shapewear to comfortably fit customers up to a size 6X in the name of “radical inner confidence” and launched a series in 2022, Prime Video’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, that welcomed plus-size backup dancers to compete for spots on her tour.

“I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive at this point. It’s easy. I would like to be body-normative,” she told Vogue in 2020. “I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?”

See Lizzo and her fans’ tweets shutting down body-shaming below:

12 Apr 2023

Playboi Carti, A$AP Rocky & Travis Scott to Headline Rolling Loud Miami 2023

Though Rolling Loud won’t touch down in New York this year, the festival will return to its home turf of Miami in July with a mega lineup starring A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott and Playboi Carti.

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Slated for July 21-23 at the Hard Rock Cafe, Rolling Loud Miami will return to the city for its eighth year, which previously housed household acts including Future, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and more. This year, the renowned festival tags in Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, City Girls, Offset and Don Toliver. Many prominent rookies will also grace the stage, including Ice Spice, Coi Leray, Central Cee and GloRilla. Rolling Loud also is also bringing in new faces, enlisting Bryson Tiller, Foushee, Turnstile and Billboard Hot 100 entrant Pink Panthress.

Tickets and passes go on sale Friday (April 14) on Rolling Loud’s website.

In March, Rolling Loud headed to California, where Travis Scott, Future and Playboi Carti served as headliners. Lil Wayne was a special guest and delivered a laundry list of hits including “Uproar” and “Lollipop.” Rolling Loud will take their talents internationally as they embark on a Thailand festival this weekend. The headliners include Cardi B, Travis Scott and Chris Brown, with additional performances by Rick Ross, Fat Joe and more.

Rolling Loud canceled its New York festival due to “logistical factors” in mid March. “For the last few years, we’ve made some legendary moments happen in Queens,” the statement read. “Sadly, due to logistical factors beyond our control, Rolling Loud will not return to New York in 2023. But don’t worry, this isn’t ‘goodbye,’ more like ‘see you later.’ We’ll be back in New York when the time is right. In the meantime, we invite all of our New York fans to meet us in Miami July 21-23 for our biggest, best festival of the year. Love you all! Rolling Loud forever!”

See the full lineup below.

12 Apr 2023

Machine Gun Kelly Is Bringing His Cleveland Mainstream Sellout Concert to Theaters

Missed out on seeing Machine Gun Kelly on tour? Fans now have the next best thing, as the rock star’s Cleveland stop of his Mainstream Sellout Tour will be coming to theaters next month.

Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era will follow Kelly as he performs a sold out concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium on Aug. 13, 2022. Directed by Sam Cahill, who helmed Kelly’s Hulu documentary Life in Pink, the film will see the star performing tracks such as “Bloody Valentine,” “Lonely,” “El Diablo,” “My Ex’s Best Friend,” “Till I Die,” “I Think I’m Okay,” and more. The film will also feature behind the scenes moments and likely a few cameos from the celebrities who joined Machine Gun Kelly onstage during the show (Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, Willow, Trippie Redd).

“Machine Gun Kelly’s remarkable journey from Cleveland to meteoric superstardom and back to where it all began gives us an unfiltered look at the emotion and rawness of coming home,” Kymberli Frueh, svp of programming and content acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing, said in a statement. “We are so lucky that this moment was captured so it can be shared with fans across the globe.”

Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live From Cleveland: The Pink Era will be in theaters for one night only on May 13. Theater locations and tickets are available at MainstreamSelloutMovie.com.

Watch the trailer above.

12 Apr 2023

John Mayer Concedes His Song Rumored to Be About Taylor Swift May Be ‘a Little B-tchy’

John Mayer is speaking out about one of his much talked-about songs. At a recent concert, the 45-year-old singer-guitarist conceded that his 2013 track “Paper Doll” — widely believed to have been written about Taylor Swift — may have come from a slightly angry place.

“I wonder if people don’t like it because it sounds a little pissed off,” he told his crowd at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., while nonchalantly strumming on his guitar during the stop on his Solo acoustic tour. “I don’t really like ‘pissed off’ as a song. I think it was more [about] hurt.”

“Is there something about it that’s a little b-tchy?” he continued. “There might be. I try not to give b-tchiness in the songs, it happens sometimes. I guess I don’t do it very well — sarcastic b-tch — but I didn’t really see it. I guess it is sort of a little bit like, ‘Meehhh.’”

Since its release, the public has generally believed that “Paper Doll” was written about the pop superstar. Swift and the “Your Body is Wonderland” singer dated briefly in 2009 when she was 19 years old, and afterward seemed to sing about the breakup in her Speak Now ballad “Dear John.”

“I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said ‘run as fast as you can,’” Swift sings on the track, which Mayer later called “cheap songwriting” in an interview.

So, when Mayer sang about someone who was “22 girls in one, and none of them know what they’re runnin’ from” on “Paper Doll,” fans thought he was shading Swift. And now that she and Joe Alwyn have reportedly split after six years, some Swifties think the timing of Mayer’s performance of the song might have been a little pointed.

“You know who the real enemy here is? John Mayer….Guy literally played Paper Doll on the day of the breakup rumours,” tweeted one Swiftie, while another wrote that his song choice was “filling me with rage.”

The “New Light” singer did, however, say in a 2019 Instagram Live that “Paper Doll” actually wasn’t about the person that “100% of people” believed to be the song’s inspiration. “The person they thought it was about brought a certain amount of superficial pop culture back-and-forth about it. But the song was not about that person, and I could never tell anybody that’s not true because then I would be breaking my rule that songwriters don’t say who their songs are about or not about.”

This isn’t the first time Mayer has turned heads by performing a song linked to Swift on his ongoing acoustic tour. In March, he performed “Half of My Heart,” a duet originally recorded with the 33-year-old singer-songwriter, for the first time in years that fans could recall.

Watch Mayer discuss “Paper Doll” in a fan-captured video below: