Music

23 Feb 2023

5 Questions With Premio Lo Nuestro Executive Producer Ulises Chang

When the 35th edition of Premio Lo Nuestro airs tonight (Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. ET) on the Univision network, some 1,300 people will be working under the baton of Ulises Chang, the network’s vp and executive producer for Live Event Tentpoles.

In the Univision-verse, the role includes purview over the network’s four music award shows: Premio Lo Nuestro, Premios Juventud, Latin Grammys and its most recent addition, the Latin AMAS. Among them, Lo Nuestro is not only the network’s highest-rated, but, according to Nielsen, it’s also been the “No. 1 program on all of television for the third consecutive year among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34,” with over six million viewers tuning in last year.

On set at the Miami-Dade arena, Chang is, as ever, preternaturally calm. He’s had this position since 2017, and if the tumult caused by four hosts, 21 musical numbers and nearly 30 artists (not to mention dancers and musicians) fazes him, he doesn’t let it show.

“Ulises has played an instrumental role in shaping the success of our live events and tentpoles. His passion and unwavering commitment to excellence are a reference in the industry,” says Ignacio Meyer, president of the Univision Television Networks Group.

Between rehearsals by the likes of Maluma, Ozuna, Ricardo Montaner, Ivy Queen, Sebastian Yatra, Grupo Firme and Tini, we managed to ask Chang five questions about tonight’s show:

1. How is this year’s show different from other years?

Every year is a challenge. Balancing budgets, venue, timing, artist relations, the amount of artists that are out there now. This show has such a long history and such prestige, people really want to be here. That’s one of the biggest challenges: Being able to somehow fit everybody which always is hard. But also, if people come to us early on with a pitch or a plan, we can say, maybe it’s not the right fit for this show, but we can work out a plan where it fits more organically somewhere else.

2. You oversee four music award shows. What is Premio Lo Nuestro?

This is tradition and celebration of music, of our music. Celebrating our history in this country, and what we’ve contributed musically. And the slogan this year is incredible: El mundo es lo nuestro (The world is ours). Because of where are we nowadays. Where did Bad Bunny take us a year ago when, for the first time a Hispanic artist wins [artist of the year] at the VMAs and gives his speech in Spanish and says I don’t have to change who I am. Going out on tour, who breaks the record for most tickets sold? Bad Bunny’s tour. We’re taking over in a way.

3. My understanding is this is your top-rated show. What do you attribute the high ratings to?

Yes, this is our highest rated show. The goals we’re given are higher than for any other, so, it’s a big responsibility. I don’t know if the ratings have to do with it being at the beginning of the year. Also, we take a lot of risks and we have a lot of freedom to do things in this show

4. What is the Ulises Chang imprint on a music show?

Overall, to be able to make people happy at home when theyr’e watching, and to be able to transport them to another place. Music is so beautiful. Music takes us to places we’re no longer at, it reminds us of our parents. When we had Roberto Carlos, for example, that tribute took me back to my youth. If it takes me, imagine people at home who don’t have the capability of experiencing this the way we do. We feel very fortunate and at the same time very powerful with what we are able to give.

5. It seems to me like you’re really creating a multi-generational show. Is that how you view it?

Yes. And that’s how we always prepare it. We think that people at home –that co-viewing with different generations– is what Univision is. It’s what Hispanics are. We still sit at home with our parents to watch especially these types of shows. These types of shows do do that; they do bring the multi-generational co-viewing. I don’t know if it happens in other networks, but in Univision, the research we’ve done indicates co-viewing is very present.

23 Feb 2023

For Rosalía, Producing Is a Path To Creative Control

When asked if she remembers her first forays into producing, Rosalía giggles. “Oh, my God. I always felt that I wasn’t good enough, so I would treat it more like a game,” she says, before quickly adding, “Still, I wanted to learn how to make a beat because when the time came that I needed to do it, I would be able to do it.”

What started as a “game” inevitably became a way for the 30-year-old Spanish star to gain creative control — something she doesn’t take for granted considering the lack of women in the field. “There’s [still] skepticism about a woman being able to be an artist, singer, producer and songwriter at the same time. To me, these disciplines are not mutually exclusive.”

Like her previous albums (Los Ángeles and El Mal Querer), Rosalía’s Grammy-winning Motomami, released in 2022, thrives on the intersection of those skills. The sonically groundbreaking set — which finds her boldly fusing jazz and reggaetón (“Saoko”), as well as sampling Soulja Boy in an otherwise traditional bolero (“Delirio de Grandeza”) — is an honest expression of the creative freedom she felt as she drew inspiration from the sounds and artists that have shaped her. During the sessions, she would sit in the studio for 15 hours or more, searching for the right sounds, arrangements and structures for each song. “My homework as a producer is to follow my intuition,” she says firmly. “It’s to make decisions and take risks.”

Following in the footsteps of the artist-producers she read about when she was younger, like Björk and Missy Elliott, Billboard’s first-ever Women in Music Producer of the Year hopes to motivate a new generation of innovators.

What led you to first take on this role in the studio?

My first desire was to be onstage and share something. Then I realized that I wanted to decide what I was going to sing. I also wanted to decide what I was going to say and how it would sound. I didn’t just want to be an interpreter. I wanted to write, and then I wanted to produce. The desire to create became bigger than the desire to just interpret.

Is Motomami the freest you’ve ever felt as a producer?

One hundred percent yes. I was always thinking: “How can I be freer?” Fear, or whatever the opposite of freedom is, is the biggest enemy for a creative. There was an urge to find the reason why I’m doing this. “What is the world all about? What is life about?” All those things matter, and it’s why I make music.

What’s Rosalía the producer like in the studio?

I try to not have a specific idea of how a song must sound. Instead, I go in with concepts, or ilusiones, of how I would like it to sound. But never a rigid idea. That’s not organic, nor is it productive. Producing also requires humility because you’re constantly testing out ideas. I remember Pharrell [Williams] once told me that we’re just testing ideas from the universe because no one really owns an idea. I love that concept.

You’ve been very vocal about the lack of representation of women producers. Why is that important to you?

If you don’t see yourself represented in a role like this, how can you picture yourself working in that position? I became a songwriter and producer because I cared way too much. I did research when I was younger of women who were producing, and it was hard to find them, but they taught me that this was possible. Björk, Delia Derbyshire, Kate Bush — they’ve done this, and we don’t talk about it enough. I know I’m not the only one because there’s a new generation of women producing like Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress — there are literally so many. It would be great if more people knew about them outside of the industry.

This story will appear in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.

23 Feb 2023

for King & Country & Jordin Sparks’ ‘Love Me Like I Am’ Leads Christian Airplay Chart

for King & Country’s “Love Me Like I Am,” with Jordin Sparks, ascends to No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart (dated Feb. 25).

In the tracking week ending Feb. 16, the song increased by 4% to 8 million audience impressions, according to Luminate. As “Love” tops Christian Airplay, it gives for King & Country, the duo of brothers Luke and Joel Smallbone, its 13th No. 1.

Sparks rules Christian Airplay with her second entry on the chart. The artist, who won the 2007 edition of American Idol, was previously featured, with Danny Gokey, on Social Club Misfits’ “Tuyo,” which reached No. 27 in November 2018. It also hit No. 40 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs list that August.

Sparks tallied four top 10s on the Pop Airplay chart in 2008-09 and, with “Love” atop Christian AC Airplay for a third week as it crowns Christian Airplay, Sparks has scored her first leading song on any Billboard airplay chart.

(“Love Me” became for King & Country’s 11th  Christian AC Airplay No. 1.)

for King & Country’s 13 Christian Airplay No. 1s mark the second-most since the chart began in 2003, after only MercyMe’s 18. Jeremy Camp and Matthew West follow with 12 each.

Here’s a recap of for King & Country’s Christian Airplay No. 1s: “Love Me Like I Am” (for one week, to-date); “Joy to the World” (one, December 2022); “For God Is With Us” (three weeks, July 2022); “Relate” (three, beginning in December 2021); “Amen” (one, July 2021); “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” featuring NEEDTOBREATHE (two, starting in December 2020); “Together,” with Kirk Franklin and Tori Kelly (five, beginning in August 2020); “Burn the Ships” (five, starting in January 2020); “God Only Knows” (10, beginning in April 2019); “joy.” (four, starting in August 2018); “Priceless” (three, October 2016); “Shoulders” (two, June 2015); and “Fix My Eyes” (one, September 2014).

23 Feb 2023

Kane Brown Set to Return as CMT Music Awards Co-Host With Kelsea Ballerini: Exclusive

Kane Brown will return as co-host of the CMT Music Awards this year with previously announced co-host Kelsea Ballerini, as he expands his footprint at CBS.

The CMT Music Awards air live from Austin, Texas’ Moody Center on April 2 via CBS. In addition to his co-hosting duties, Brown and his wife, Katelyn, will perform their No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Thank God” for the first time on broadcast television. 

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Five days later on April 7, Brown will make his acting debut on the network’s top-rated new series, Fire Country, where he will play Robin, an outlaw on the run who helps injured patients at a train crash. 

CMT

This will be the fourth year in a row that Brown has co-hosted the  show, making him the first four-time host. He co-hosted in 2020 with Sarah Hyland and Ashley McBryde. He and Ballerini first co-hosted together in 2021. She participated remotely last year after testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of the show. Jeff Foxworthy hosted the show from 2005-07. Kristen Bell hosted or co-hosted from 2012-14.

“Thank God,” the first duet from Kane and Katelyn, is Brown’s ninth trip to the top of the Country Airplay chart and his wife’s first. The Browns mark the second married couple to top Country Airplay with a duet; Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s “It’s Your Love” led the chart  for six weeks in 1997. (Plus, Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here,” featuring Pistol Annies – with his then-wife Miranda Lambert – and Friends, reigned for a week in 2013.)

It’s the third Country Airplay leader from Brown’s LP Different Man. “One Mississippi” ruled for a week last March, and “Like I Love Country Music” led for a week in August. Starting with Brown’s “Famous Friends” duet with Chris Young, which led for one frame in July 2021, he has rolled up four No. 1s in a row.

This year marks the second time the CMT Music Awards have aired on CBS following the ACM Awards’ move to Amazon’s Prime Video. The fan-voted awards show will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+. The CMT Awards have aired live since 2005. Last year’s ceremony, also co-hosted by Anthony Mackie, featured the last television performance by The Judds. They sang their 1991 hit “Love Can Build a Bridge.”

—Assistance on this story provided by Paul Grein

23 Feb 2023

Barbra Streisand to Receive 2023 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award

Barba Streisand is already the proud owner of EGOT status. But the pop icon will add another landmark piece of hardware to her awards shelf in April when she receives an honor named for one of her heroes.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award named after one of the iconic and pathbreaking Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court,” Streisand wrote in a tweet announcing that she will be the recipient of the 2023 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award at the Library of Congress on April 22.

A Washington Post story about the award noted that Ginsburg was a huge Streisand fan and that late in her life when she invited her friend philanthropist Julie Opperman to her chambers to discuss establishing an award in her name for women striving to change society in positive ways, Barbra’s name quickly came up.

“She wanted to honor women of great passion and achievement,” Opperman told the paper about the March 2019 conversation that came 18 months before Ginsburg’s death. “She wanted it to be women in the RBG tradition. I’m pleased to say Barbra Streisand was among them.”

“Women everywhere have benefited from the brilliance and courage of the Hon. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” Streisand, 80, said in a statement to the Post. “She is an inspiration to us all. She devoted her life to advancing equality and justice, and the world is a better place for it. I am so deeply honored to receive an award in the name of such an extraordinary woman, American hero and an icon to the world.”

Streisand is the fourth recipient of the award, joining arts patron Agnes Gund, fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg and the late Queen Elizabeth II. The singer/actress/director is being recognized for her “advocacy of a variety of causes, including voting rights, climate change research and racial and gender equality,” the paper reported, additionally citing Streisand’s establishment of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“It’s fair to say that for Barbra Streisand, it was shortest deliberation we’ve ever had,” Opperman said.

See Streisand’s post below.

23 Feb 2023

K-Pop Queens TWICE on Breaking Through in the U.S. — And Going Even Bigger in 2023

It’s 9:15 a.m. in Seoul, and most of the nine members of TWICE have just woken up. They’re barefaced, dressed casually and cozily in warm knits and sweatshirts; Chaeyoung still wears her parka hood, her blonde hair peeking out of the bottom. Nayeon, seated next to her, cleans her glasses with her shirt sleeve. Tzuyu, however, is alert and attentive. When I ask (through a translator) who’s the early riser of the group, everyone points to her.

This morning, the women of TWICE look more like students who’ve arrived at an early-morning class than the wildly popular K-pop girl group they are. But for their globe-spanning cohort of fans (known as ONCE), this is a familiar sight. The group’s long-running YouTube reality and vlog show, TWICE TV, along with other online vlog content, have gone behind the scenes with the act since its 2015 debut. Over the past seven-plus years, fans have followed along as Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu (who range in age from 23 to 27) have recorded music; toured across South Korea and Asia; attended award ceremonies; debuted their first-ever English-language single, “The Feels”; and, last year, played and sold out U.S. arenas, a still-rare feat for K-pop artists.

“That was our first time having a concert of that scale, so it was really shocking for us to see so many fans in the U.S.,” says Jihyo, recalling TWICE’s two nights in May 2022 at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium.

TWICE

Nayeon

Sunhye Shin

TWICE

Jeongyeon

Sunhye Shin

“At that time in Korea, we couldn’t perform in the same way as in the U.S.,” adds Chaeyoung, referring to South Korea’s stringent COVID-19 restrictions. “So it was really refreshing to see the fans face to face in the U.S.”

Only a few of TWICE’s members speak English, but their fans’ raging devotion has long dispelled any questions about the group’s ability to successfully cross over. TWICE crafted a strong foundational identity early on with technicolor, rush-inducing pop exemplified by hits like 2018’s “What Is Love?” and 2019’s “Fancy.” More recently, it has expanded its sonic palette. Last year, “The Feels,” a groovy, disco-inflected song about a budding crush, became the group’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 83). Its subsequent album, Formula of Love: O+T = <3>, helped TWICE top the Billboard Artist 100 for the first time.

TWICE

Momo

Sunhye Shin

TWICE

Sana

Sunhye Shin

In late January, TWICE released its second English-language single, “Moonlight Sunrise” — a track with thumping Atlanta bass rhythms and more sensual lyrics that seems further proof of the group’s intention to cement its status in the West. “I think it’s the songs of ours that carry TWICE’s color rather than the language in which the song is sung,” Jihyo says. “I don’t think the language is that relevant in carrying out TWICE’s [identity].”

“When the composers make songs for us, they already know each of our characteristics and strengths,” adds Chaeyoung, referring to regular collaborators like production-songwriting duo Black Eyed Pilseung. “They really express our personalities well, so I think that really establishes our style. That’s why it carries over different languages.”

TWICE

Jihyo

Sunhye Shin

TWICE

Mina

Sunhye Shin

For this year’s Billboard Women in Music Breakthrough honorees, this path feels a bit like destiny. Growing up, Chaeyoung says she looked up to the Wonder Girls, the first major K-pop girl group to try to cross over into the U.S. market: “They were the inspiration behind how I developed and became a singer.” TWICE’s label, JYP Entertainment — one of the original “big three” entertainment companies of the K-pop industry, which has produced acts like miss A, 2PM and Stray Kids — also happens to have been home to the group. After a lukewarm reception and lineup changes prevented them from gaining meaningful traction in the United States, Wonder Girls ultimately disbanded in 2017. But the group’s impact — and the lessons it learned — still directly influenced TWICE’s members.

It’s uncommon for K-pop groups to last longer than seven years, even more so for one to still be as firmly united as TWICE. And the group is still evolving, finding new ways to be even more open with its fans. In 2022, it created individual Instagram accounts for the first time to share more personal moments — learning new hobbies like ceramics, goofing off and being normal 20-somethings eating street food on nights off. “We wanted to show ourselves through Instagram more freely, for ourselves,” says Nayeon.

TWICE

Dahyun

Sunhye Shin

TWICE

Chaeyoung

Sunhye Shin

It’s ultimately that relationship with its fans that is TWICE’s “driving force,” Dahyun says. “They are the reason for our existence as artists, and this year, thankfully, we have a lot of chances to meet our fans globally and domestically” — including nine U.S. dates, four of which are stadiums. “We are really looking forward to that.”

Those opportunities will arrive alongside the group’s next EP, Ready To Be, which was announced mere hours before our interview — a project that, Nayeon says, signifies its ambition to “grow up even more, further, as artists.” And along with that comes an even bigger dream: “My personal goal going forward,” Chaeyoung says, “is to top the Billboard [Hot 100].”

TWICE

Tzuyu

Sunhye Shin

TWICE

TWICE photographed on February 3, 2023 at Solfa Space in Seoul. Standing, from left: Tzuyu, Sana, Chaeyoung, Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo. Seated, from left: Momo, Dahyun and Mina.

Sunhye Shin

This story will appear in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.

23 Feb 2023

TWICE: Photos From the Billboard Women in Music Shoot

It’s 9:15 a.m. in Seoul, and most of the nine members of TWICE have just woken up. They’re barefaced, dressed casually and cozily in warm knits and sweatshirts; Chaeyoung still wears her parka hood, her blonde hair peeking out of the bottom. Nayeon, seated next to her, cleans her glasses with her shirt sleeve. Tzuyu, however, is alert and attentive. When I ask (through a translator) who’s the early riser of the group, everyone points to her.

This morning, the women of TWICE look more like students who’ve arrived at an early-morning class than the wildly popular K-pop girl group they are. But for their globe-spanning cohort of fans (known as ONCE), this is a familiar sight. The group’s long-running YouTube reality and vlog show, TWICE TV, along with other online vlog content, have gone behind the scenes with the act since its 2015 debut. Over the past seven-plus years, fans have followed along as Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu (who range in age from 23 to 27) have recorded music; toured across South Korea and Asia; attended award ceremonies; debuted their first-ever English-language single, “The Feels”; and, last year, played and sold out U.S. arenas, a still-rare feat for K-pop artists.

“That was our first time having a concert of that scale, so it was really shocking for us to see so many fans in the U.S.,” says Jihyo, recalling TWICE’s two nights in May 2022 at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium.

Read TWICE’s full Billboard Women in Music interview here.

23 Feb 2023

Quavo Pays Tribute to Takeoff in ‘Greatness’ Video: ‘Take Did That’

Quavo dropped the video for his second tribute to late Migos partner and nephew Takeoff on Wednesday night (Feb. 22). In the clip, Quavo is surrounded by luxury cars and jewels, lamenting that he would give all his riches and spoils of fame away just to see his Unc and Phew bandmate one more time.

The video opens with Quavo burning a blunt on his couch while watching footage of the good old days and promising to take care of their families as he laments that he’s trying to move forward, but just doesn’t have the answers. “But I know I can’t look backwards, that’s dangerous,” he raps. “I had to go read the Bible and take a few pages.”

This is the second song Quavo has released since Takeoff’s killing in November outside a bowling alley in Houston, Texas. Earlier this year he dropped “Without You,” an emotional ballad that he performed with Maverick City during the In Memoriam segment of this year’s Grammy Awards.

And while Quavo gets nostalgic about the good times he shared with Take on the new song (“My chain, my watch, my wrist/ My motherf—in house, my rise and grind/ I’d give away all this s–t just to see my dawg one more time”), he also hints at the ongoing reported tension between himself and third Migos member Offset. “So don’t ask about the group/ He gone, we gone, young n—a, it can’t come back,” he raps on the track.

But near the end of the three-minute horn-spiked tune, Quavo comes back around to paying tribute to the genre-smashing trio, stating in the outro, “This how legends was born, greatness/ I couldn’t do it without the greatest group in the world… greatness.”

Watch the “Greatness” video below.