Music

05 Jan 2023

BigHit Asks ARMY to ‘Refrain’ From Sending Gifts to Jin While He’s Performing Military Service

BigHit Music released a statement on Wednesday (Jan. 4) asking fans to not send gifts and letters to Jin via mail while he’s serving in the South Korean military.

Titled “Notice to fans during Jin’s mandatory military service period,” the open letter to ARMY explains, “Jin is stationed at a training center designated specifically for military training together with regular military personnel. If a large number of letters and gifts from the fans arrive at the center all at once, it would be difficult to store them and they could be easily lost. We ask that you please refrain from sending anything by mail.”

Instead, the label offered an alternative way for fans to show Jin their love: “BIGHIT MUSIC will assist in making sure Jin is able to personally see any kind and warm messages fans leave on Weverse using the hashtag #Dear_Jin_from_ARMY.”

In the note, BigHit goes on to ask ARMY not to send any gifts or mail to the BTS member after he moves on from the training location to the base where he will be stationed next, and also to refrain from attending his upcoming graduation ceremony.

“We ask for your continued love and support for Jin until he finishes his military service and comes back,” the letter concludes. “Our company will also strive to provide every support he needs during this time. Thank you.”

Just prior to beginning his government-mandated military service, Jin and his new buzz cut got a warm send-off from the six other members of BTS, which the band shared in an intimate video with fans. The Yeoncheon army base where Jin is stationed for training happens to be just 10 miles away from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.

Read the full statement from BigHit Music below.

05 Jan 2023

9 Latin Collaborations We Want to See in 2023: Manuel Turizo & Coldplay, Karol G & RBD and More

The new year comes with an endless amount of opportunities for new collaborations between Latin artists. Last year was packed with unprecedented collabs, such as Grupo Firme and Camilo — whose “Alaska” peaked at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Regional Mexican Airplay chart — and Christina Aguilera and Ozuna‘s “Santo,” part of her Latin Grammy-winning album Aguilera.

While 2023 may have just started, we already have a few dream collabs in mind that we’d love to see happen over the year. For starters, ever since Karol G and RBD‘s Anahí took the stage together over the summer in Mexico City — where they performed the Mexican group’s anthem “Sálvame” — fans have hoped that there could be more to their team up. A new version of “Sálvame”? A whole new heartbreak track featuring Karol? After all, the Colombian hitmaker is a self-described RBD fan. And with news of RBD’s recently teased comeback, this could be the perfect moment for Karol and RBD to collaborate.

Meanwhile, Manuel Turizo‘s “La Bachata” has taken the world by storm — and even Coldplay‘s Chris Martin has acknowledged the song’s force, calling it “the best song at the moment in the world” during his concert in Bogotá, Colombia in September. After Martin gave the song its flowers, Turizo joined the band onstage to sing an acoustic version of his track, which peaked at No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart in October. Given that Martin is a big fan of Turizo and vice versa, it wouldn’t be totally wild if we saw the colombiano collaborating with Coldplay in the near future.

From Christian Nodal and Cazzu to Silvana Estrada and Ángela Álvarez, here are our Latin editors’ picks for dream collaborations in 2023:

05 Jan 2023

Bert From ‘Sesame Street’ Is a Huge Olivia Rodrigo Fan

Elle brought the ultimate dynamic duo to take on their song association challenge, with Sesame Street‘s Bert and Ernie showing off their wide range of musical interests.

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“We’re always singing songs with our friends on Sesame Street,” Bert explained, before Ernie chimed in, “We’re always having so much fun on Sesame Street with our friends Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster […] and sometimes, we have our friends come over for playdates like Samuel L. Jackson, Mickey Guyton and Haim.”

Throughout the 10-minute video, Bert also proved himself to be a big Olivia Rodrigo fan, sharing that any track by the 19-year-old superstar would make his list of favorite songs. “I really like her,” he gushed.

Later on in the clip, Ernie and Bert revealed who would be their dream collaborators. While Ernie floated the idea of Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga, Bert suggested — you guessed it — Rodrigo.

However, despite being a fan of the “Drivers License” singer, the duo did not use any of her songs in the actual game, in which participants have 10 seconds to think of and sing a lyric featuring a key word. The duo breezed through Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O)” for the word “day,” Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” for “friend,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “A Hazy Shade of Winter” for “time,” Frederic Austin’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas” for “first,” Beach Boys’ “Fun Fun Fun” for “fun,” the Brady Bunch theme for “story” and more.

The two were stumped on the word “see,” confusing it for the letter C as they delved into Cookie Monster’s hit, “C is for Cookie.” For the word “home,” Bert took too long to begin singing “Home on the Range,” explaining that it’s “one of my favorite cowboy songs, and also one of my favorite songs that has the word ‘antelope’ in it.”

Bert and Ernie finished the challenge with an impressive score of 13 out of 15, tying with Chloe x Halle. Watch the full clip below.

05 Jan 2023

Trending Up: Beatles Get ‘Glass Onion’ Bump, ’Yellowstone’ Star Pulls Double Duty and Miguel Proves a ‘Sure Thing’ on Streaming

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, 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: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery reveals gains for its titular Beatles cut and other soundtrack favorites, Yellowstone‘s Luke Grimes takes a step towards stardom in a second medium and a decade-old Miguel hit may be gearing up for another chart run.

‘Glass Onion’ Hits Streaming, Boosts Music Streams for… “Glass Onion”

“Looking through the bent-backed tulips/ To see how the other half lives/ Looking through a glass onion,” Paul McCartney sings on The Beatles’ White Album classic “Glass Onion.” There are some subtle clues to the plot of Glass Onion – the latest Knives Out mystery, a Netflix smash since its Dec. 23 release – in the lyrics to “Glass Onion,” which plays over the end credits of the film.

Maybe listeners wanted to revisit “Glass Onion” after hearing it during the movie’s finale to parse its lyrics and try to further unlock the puzzle box of a plot, or maybe they were simply they were reminded by the movie how much “Glass Onion” rules. Regardless, the 1968 song experienced a huge uptick in streams during the film’s first week of wide availability — as have some other ’60s and ’70s tracks used in director Rian Johnson’s crowd-pleasing mystery.

“Glass Onion” experienced a 167% increase in weekly U.S. on-demand streams during the week of Dec. 23-29, according to Luminate, jumping to over 160,000 streams after earning a little over 60,000 the previous week. Meanwhile, David Bowie’s “Star” — which is used to soundtrack a memorable dance sequence featuring Kate Hudson’s character (no spoilers here, we promise) — was up 60% during the same week, reaching 32,000 U.S. on-demand streams. And The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” featured in its original version in the film, scored a 37% bump, up to nearly 259,000 streams in the week ending Dec. 29.

A third Knives Out film has already been confirmed, although its title has yet to be announced. After the original Knives Out in 2019 was named after a Radiohead song, and Glass Onion was titled as a Beatles reference, we’ll see if the next installment also features a shared song title — but if it does, rest assured that that song will get a streaming boost of its own during its Netflix premiere week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

The ‘Yellowstone’ Bump Continues Growing – Even for Its Own Cast

We’ve written before in Trending Up about how effective the Paramount+ smash Western melodrama Yellowstone has been in lending streaming and sales bumps to its more prominently featured synchs. Americana star Zach Bryan has been one of its biggest beneficiaries, with his songs included across multiple seasons – in December, Bryan’s “The Good I’ll Do” (from his Belting Bronco/Warner-released breakout album American Heartbreak) debuted in the top five of Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart after inclusion in a Season Five episode. 

That trend continues this week, with Bryan’s “Tishomingo” ballad showcased in the show’s mid-season finale on Jan. 1 – resulting in a 90.4% rise in daily official on-demand U.S. streams to 115,000 for Jan. 2, according to Luminate. (The song also sold over 1,000 digital songs from Jan. 1 to Jan. 2, after selling a negligible number the two days before.)  

More interesting, though, is another artist seeing gains whose name will undoubtedly be familiar already to all Yellowstone fans: Luke Grimes, the actor who stars as Kayce Dutton on the show. Grimes recently launched a country music career with debut single “No Horse to Ride” (Range Media/Mercury Nashville) and the love song was similarly featured on the drama’s midseason finale – receiving a 67.7% bump to 109,000 daily official on-demand streams for Jan. 2, and also combining to sell over 1,000 digital songs for Jan. 1-2. (Perhaps for Stranger Things’ fifth and final season, its musically inclined cast should take from Grimes’ example and push for similar synch placement – anachronisms be damned.) – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

You Can Bet That: Miguel’s “Sure Thing” Gets Biggest Viral Boost Yet

A little over a decade ago, Miguel broke through as a crossover star thanks to his swoon-worthy R&B single “Adorn,” which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2012 and was nominated for song of the year at the 2013 Grammys. Yet one year earlier, the singer-songwriter’s neo-soul single “Sure Thing” became his first Hot 100 top 40 hit (off ByStorm/Jive debut release All I Want Is You), and his first chart-topper on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally. Now, “Sure Thing” is surging back into the public consciousness, and introducing the R&B star, who hasn’t released an album in over five years, to the TikTok generation.

“Sure Thing” has bubbled up a few times over the past three years thanks to versions both slowed-down and sped-up. However, the song has experienced its biggest revival to date over the past month or so, thanks to a new wave of sped-up takes on the song that started in November, and is now climbing the daily charts on various streaming platforms — today, No. 22 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA listing, and No. 55 on the Apple Music U.S. daily Top 100 tally.

During the week ending Dec. 1, “Sure Thing” earned 4.58 million U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate; that total grew to 6.80 million for the week ending Dec. 29, a 48% bump from that earlier number. Meanwhile, other songs from 2010’s All I Want Is You are taking off to a smaller degree, with the title track and “Girl With the Tattoo Enter.lewd” both climbing in streams over the past month.

How high can “Sure Thing” climb? The coming weeks should demonstrate just how prolonged the song’s revival will be — but for Miguel, who hasn’t scored a Hot 100 hit as a lead artist since 2017’s “Sky Walker” featuring Travis Scott, the possibility of a chart re-entry for “Sure Thing” would make for a nice lead-in to a potential return to music in 2023. – JL

People Who Need “People” 

Minneapolis singer-songwriter Libianca may be familiar to viewers of NBC’s The Voice as a Team Blake contestant from the show’s 21st season, but otherwise you might have heard her for the first time on TikTok the past month. That’s because her new Afrobeats-flavored song “People” is blowing up on the service, with thousands of users sharing videos of them relating to the song’s mentally wary lyrics (particularly its opening lines, “I’ve been drinking more alcohol for the past five days/ Did you check on me?”), and even R&B star Chris Brown posting that it “speaks volumes” to him. 

“People” has since crossed over to other streaming platforms, rising 55.2% to 1.8 million on-demand U.S. streams for the chart tracking week ending Dec. 29, and hitting No. 5 on Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart dated Jan. 7 – indicating it may be a breakout hit to watch for over the first few months of 2023. – AU

Q&A: Taryn Lacroix, Spotify’s Associate Manager, Artist & Label Partnerships, on What’s Trending Up in Her World

What was your biggest takeaway from the 2022 Spotify Wrapped rollout compared to previous years?

Spotify Wrapped has existed in some form since 2015, and this was our biggest year yet from both the artist and fan perspectives. It’s become so highly anticipated that the chatter online starts to build well before its surprise launch. Artists also want to get in on the fun — we saw record-breaking artist involvement this year, and were able to activate with some artists for the first time in our campaign, like Beyoncé and Britney Spears. When you have Elton John sharing his Artist Wrapped or Drake organically sharing his personal listening stats on socials, you know you’ve tapped into the cultural zeitgeist, which is always the most significant challenge as a brand.

Which new feature of Wrapped did you think was most successful?

This year we scaled our short-form video initiative called ‘Your Artist Messages,’ which are self-recorded videos from artists thanking their top fans on Spotify. With an ambitious goal in mind, we galvanized the music industry across the globe to record and upload videos via Spotify for Artists to reward top fans for streaming on Spotify. Artists from Taylor Swift to Måneskin to Dolly Parton to Lil Baby participated, reaching hundreds of millions of listeners on Spotify. When eligible listeners selected “Your Artist Messages” in their 2022 Wrapped hub on Spotify, they would see a personalized feed of videos from some of their favorite artists this year. This was a massive win, not only for the users’ experience, but for product development at large.

Looking at the top songs/artists/albums of 2022, which trend was the most personally interesting to you?

The longevity of Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” domination is unparalleled. A viral indie pop song from 2020 was the No. 2 song globally in 2022, surpassing some of the biggest household names. It’s a feat to not only achieve a viral hit, but also to transcend it and maintain sustained relevancy. It’s a testament to the power of social media, combined with the fact that the appetite for catalog is only growing, which is a trend evidenced across the board with many of the most popular titles being released prior to 2022.

Fill in the blank: when it comes to exploring their Spotify Wrapped, not enough listeners are talking about their _______.

Audio Day descriptors. I need to know who else is channeling “upbeat gothic angst!” – JL

Season’s Gainings: What Are You Streaming New Year’s Eve?

Though the Christmas music season comes to an end shortly after the last present is unwrapped on Dec. 25, there’s still plenty of New Year’s holiday listening to be done as we turn the calendar over. Such themed songs saw a big streaming bump on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, including Death Cab for Cutie’s “The New Year” (up 345% from Dec. 30 to Jan. 1, to nearly 40,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate), U2’s “New Year’s Day” (up 215% to nearly 75,000) and Taylor Swift’s “New Year’s Day” (up 333% to to 361,000). Hope you got your share of seasonal listening in while you could these holidays, since President’s Day and Groundhog Day don’t yet offer the same variety of soundtrack options. – AU

05 Jan 2023

Jamie Lynn Spears Says She Has ‘Self-Esteem’ Struggles as Britney Spears’ Sister

Jamie Lynn Spears is competing on the brand new survival series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, and in the premiere episode on Wednesday (Jan. 4), the Zoey 101 actress broke down in tears when discussing her older sister Britney Spears.

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“Growing up, my sister became famous, worldwide famous, when I was very young,” she said. “I’m so proud of her, love her to death, but I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I don’t really have anything for myself.”

Jamie Lynn added that she “struggle[s] with self-esteem all the time,” noting that she wishes to have her “own identity” and “be seen as [her] own person” outside of her relationship with her superstar sister.

The Spears sisters have been publicly estranged for the past year, with Britney calling out the release of Jamie Lynn’s tell-all memoir, Things I Should Have Said, and bringing up other issues in a number of lengthy Instagram captions. “Please please stop with these crazy lies for the Hollywood books !!!” Britney wrote in a post back in January.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, will follow a group of stars as they endure some of the harshest, most demanding training challenges from the actual Special Forces selection process. Danny Amendola, Mel B, Hannah Brown, Tyler Florence, Kate Gosselin, Dwight Howard, Montell Jordan, Gus Kenworthy, Nastia Liukin, Carli Lloyd, Beverley Mitchell, Kenya Moore, Mike Piazza, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Anthony Scaramucci are among the other celebrities joining Spears in the challenge.

The show airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

05 Jan 2023

Here’s What Readers Picked for Their Favorite Album of 2022

A good selection of albums released in 2022 topped the Billboard 200 last year, but we wanted to know which one was our readers’ favorite. To find out, we polled readers about which of 2022’s chart-topping records they couldn’t stop playing. And now, the results are in. Drumroll, please!

Though released in the final quarter of 2022, readers named Taylor Swift‘s Midnights as the No. 1 favorite album of the year. The LP, released on October, has crowned the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks, and snagged nearly 33% of the vote — a fact that is not too surprising, considering Midnights was the first album to sell more than 1 million copies in one week since Swift’s own Reputation in 2017.

Coming in at No. 2 is Harry Styles‘ third studio album, Harry’s House. Propelled by its smash single “As It Was” — which spent a whopping 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — Harry’s House was neck and neck with Midnights, and secured nearly 32% of votes, a difference of only 22 votes. (The LP also included breakout singles “Late Night Talking” and “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” which helped the set spend two consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.)

And of course, a top albums of 2022 list cannot be complete without mentioning Bad Bunny‘s Un Verano Sin Ti. The album is readers’ No. 3 favorite album of 2022, and secured 13% of the vote. The Puerto Rican artist’s release continuously returned to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for a total of 13 non-consecutive weeks, becoming the first Spanish-language album to be named the Top Billboard 200 Album of the year.

See the full results of the poll below, and check out the Billboard staff list of the 50 best albums of 2022.

05 Jan 2023

Who Is Your 2022 Power Artist? Vote in the First Billboard Power Artist – Fan Choice Bracket

As Billboard prepares to unveil its annual Power List in less than a month, ranking the music executives making the biggest impact across an ever-changing industry, we thought we should put some power in the fans’ hands too. Looking back on the past year in music, who is your 2022 Power Artist?

Today, Billboard is launching the brand-new Power Artist 2022 – Fan Choice bracket, in which music listeners pick the music star who made the biggest impact last year. In the bracket below, you can choose between the 32 artists who dominated Billboard‘s 2022 year-end charts, making huge moves in streaming, touring, radio, album sales and beyond.

The winner of this inaugural bracket will be revealed in Billboard‘s 2023 Power Issue alongside the executive Power List. Can your favorite artist go all the way?

First-round voting is open now, in the bracket below, and will close Monday, Jan. 9, when we reveal your Sweet 16 artists. We’ll get down to the Elite Eight on Wednesday, Jan. 11; the Final Four on Friday, Jan. 13; and championship-round voting between your top two artists begins Monday, Jan. 16.

Alongside the Power Artist 2022 bracket, Billboard is also adding a peer-voted award to its annual Power 100 ranking of the music industry’s most influential executives. This new Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe he or she had the most impact across the music business over the past year. Voting is open Friday (Jan. 6) to all Billboard Pro members. For more information, go here. Both the 2022 Power Artist and the Power Player’s Choice Award will be unveiled in the Billboard Power Issue.

So who will be crowned the first fan-voted Power Artist? Only you can decide. Vote in the bracket below. (Reminder: First-round voting closes on Monday.)

05 Jan 2023

Emma Myers Gives Jimmy Fallon a SEVENTEEN Crash Course on ‘The Tonight Show’: Watch

Emma Myers made her late-night talk show debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (Jan. 4). And before talking about anything else, she couldn’t help but rave over how much she loves SEVENTEEN.

“Emma, I wanted to ask you about this because I read this online, that you’re a big fan of a band,” said host Jimmy Fallon. “And when you’re talking to people, you like to introduce this band to people if they don’t know of this.”

The rising star quickly clarified that she only introduce people if asked, but when Fallon gave her the green light, she enthusiastically jumped in. “What is the name of the band?” Fallon asked, to which Myers replied, “SEVENTEEN.”

After sharing that she’s been part of CARAT for the past five years, since she was just 15 years old, the Wednesday actor went on to explain the dynamics of the K-pop boy band. “Yeah, that’s them,” she confirmed when Fallon brought out a picture of the idols, adding, “Only thirteen [members]…Thirteen in SEVENTEEN, yeah it’s a whole thing.”

“OK, I’ll explain the numbers,” Myers continued. “There’s thirteen of them, so that’s thirteen, right? And there are three different groups. You have hip-hop, performance and vocal. And then there’s one team. So thirteen plus three plus one is SEVENTEEN.”

As for which song Myers would recommend as an entry point for new fans discovering the band, she chose “To you” off their 2021 mini-album Attacca. “It’s really fun, it’s upbeat, it’s got a great story behind it, so…yeah, everybody listen to it!”

Watch Myers dish on SEVENTEEN and her role on Netflix’s Wednesday above.

05 Jan 2023

Taylor Swift Is Selling Digital Copies of ‘Midnights’ With Bonus Material… And You Only Have Hours to Buy Them

It’s time to act swiftly, Swifties. On Thursday (Jan. 5), Taylor Swift‘s official store announced a limited 12-hour sale of exclusive digital Midnights album copies, each with never released cover art and bonus behind the song material — and the clock is ticking.

There are exactly four different digital versions of Midnights up for purchase on Swift’s store website, available until 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday night. Each one features bonus material about one of four songs on Midnights: “Mastermind,” “Anti-Hero,” “Karma” and “Bejeweled,” specifically.

Each digital copy also has a different photo of Swift serving as the cover art, along with printed numbers ordered in an arch shape. Placed next to each other in a square pattern, the four albums form a full clockface — similar to the covers on the four special edition Midnights vinyls Swift unveiled in September.

The digital copies are each available for $4.99, a timer ticking down looming over Swift’s store’s webpage.

Released in late October 2022, Midnights has been out for less than three months but is already one of Swift’s most historic records to date. Lead single “Anti-Hero” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and occupied the top spot for six weeks total (so far), and the album made Swift the first artist in history to occupy all ten of the top ten spots on the Hot 100.

The 11-time Grammy winner is currently gearing up to launch her Eras Tour next year, following an equally historic sale of concert tickets that was so successful, it caused mass outages on Ticketmaster’s website. Some Swifties are in the midst of suing the platform over its inability to functionally handle the ticket sale, profits from which could reportedly make Swift a billionaire.

05 Jan 2023

Miley Cyrus Teases Lyrics From New Song ‘Flowers’

Miley Cyrus is starting off the year with a message of self-love and empowerment with her forthcoming single “Flowers,” and come Jan. 13 — which also happens to be ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday — her devoted Smilers can hear it. But in the meantime, Cyrus shared a series of lyrics from the track via Twitter on Wednesday (Jan. 4).

“I CAN LOVE ME BETTER THAN YOU CAN. FLOWERS JANUARY 13,” the Disney Channel alumn tweeted, along with a grainy close up portrait of her in angular black sunglasses and old red lipstick. In a follow up tweet, Cyrus divulged more of the track’s lyrics in a simple black square, white text format: “I can buy myself flowers/ I can hold my own hand/ I can take myself dancing/ I can love me better than you can.”

By Thursday (Jan. 5), the 30-year-old pop star shared that her eighth studio album, titled Endless Summer Vacation, is coming March 10. Cyrus also shared the LP’s cover art, which features her suspended from trapeze bar and wearing a black unitard, sunglasses and heels against a blue backdrop.

According to a press release, the album — which serves at the follow up to Cyrus’ 2020 LP Plastic Hearts — was recorded in Los Angeles with producers Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike WiLL Made-It and Tyler Johnson. Sonically, the “Midnight Sky” singer describes Endless Summer Vacation as a love letter to L.A. that showcases the confidence she’s found since focusing on her mental and physical well-being.

The two-time Grammy nominee previously teased “Flowers” with one line from the song — “I can love me better than you can” — in a video clip shared on New Year’s Eve.

See Cyrus’ lyrics teasers for “Flowers” below.