State Champ Radio Music
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Trending on Billboard Kali Uchis and Blood Orange are among the artists added to Tyler, the Creator’s 2025 Camp Flog Gnaw, following the festival’s postponement to this weekend (Nov. 22-23) due to inclement weather. Geese and emerging rapper Fakemink were also added to the bill after Clairo, Don Toliver, Men I Trust, Sombr, Tems and […]
Trending on Billboard Halsey has dropped a few bars to Kendrick Lamar‘s “Swimming Pools (Drank),” and it’s going viral. On Wednesday (Nov. 19), Halsey took some time out of her Back to Badlands Tour to playfully spit a few bars set to K-Dot’s 2012 hit. Halsey pleaded with Kendrick to keep an open mind before […]
Trending on Billboard Cynthia Erivo and a group of children at her old school will be changed for good after an emotional surprise visit from the Wicked star. In a heartwarming video shared by BBC Radio 1 on Tuesday (Nov. 18), Erivo walks into a room of shocked squeals and delighted tears from unsuspecting choir […]
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Released Nov. 7, YEONJUN’s debut solo album NO LABELS: PART 01 is one of the most compelling K-pop releases of 2025.
When his first mixtape GGUM dropped in fall 2024, it initially felt like a slightly puzzling choice. Its electronic-tinged hip-hop sound — filled with mechanical textures, indistinct vocals, and a repetitive hook — seemed to lean more toward concept than toward showcasing YEONJUN’s strengths: vocal ability, dynamic tonal shifts, and live power that had long been overshadowed by his reputation as a dancer. Yet as reactions remained divided, the view began to shift as I watched YEONJUN continue stepping onto stages alone — including year-end award music shows — driven purely by love for performance. I began to understand why he had chosen the song and, eventually, to cheer for that choice. During the group’s subsequent tour, TOMORROW X TOGETHER members appeared in various ways during YEONJUN’s “GGUM” stage, making it clear that they were proud of the performance as well. And when YEONJUN chose the reggae rock genre track “Ghost Girl” for TXT’s fourth studio album The Name Chapter: TOGETHER released in July this year, the question naturally arose: Where would he go next? The answer arrived in the form of NO LABELS: PART 01.
The album cover — an instantly viral image capturing YEONJUN dancing shirtless in his most unfiltered form — was shot by photographer Hye.W.Kang (@hyeawonkang). Although she had previously worked with him for magazine covers and TXT group shoots, this was the first time they spent three full days together on a project. To her, YEONJUN was unmistakably an artist with strong self-assurance.
YEONJUN, “NO LABELS: PART 01”
Courtesy of BIGHIT MUSIC
“YEONJUN knows exactly what he wants to express; he moves with a clear artistic direction in both performance and music,” Kang told Billboard Korea. “The album title NO LABELS had already been finalized, and because I naturally gravitate toward work that focuses on the person rather than any devices or concepts, I was grateful to be offered this project.” Understanding the music was also essential. “From the morning of the first day, I kept listening to his tracks so I could fully absorb the mood he wanted to convey. I listened to them over and over — quite a lot.” In both the early-released images and the album cover, YEONJUN exists not as a static figure but as a presence defined through movement. The slight distortions, shadows, and irregular poses are not “safe A-cuts,” but closer to the aesthetic of a deliberately chosen B-cut — images that capture an artist’s energy most vividly. “The shirtless shoot took place on the second day. YEONJUN felt a bit unfamiliar at first, but quickly found his rhythm. We did very minimal retouching. We all agreed that rather than crafting a smooth, refined image, we wanted to preserve his natural expressions and movements.” While design considerations likely influenced the final cover choice, YEONJUN’s own presence — and the strength of his decisions — undoubtedly played the biggest role.
The first day’s shots, using props like a bed and chairs, were featured prominently in the album’s ‘SET-UP B’ version. Kang felt that if the focus remained solely on movement, YEONJUN’s iconic face and energy might not fully come through. The result: images that balanced his power as a performer with his presence as an individual.
YEONJUN
Hye.W. Kang / Courtesy of BigHit Music
The third day of shooting took place alongside the music video schedule in Thailand. “The movement-based scenes and video shots wrapped surprisingly quickly,” Hyewon Kang recalls. “YEONJUN was already fully prepared for his performance. He wasn’t someone who ‘showed’ something in front of the camera — he was an artist who stepped in with conviction and completion already within him.”
“NO LABELS, JUST ME” — a phrase anyone could throw around rhetorically — is something YEONJUN proves thoroughly through both the music and visuals of his first solo album. Aside from the final track “Coma,” all six songs were produced entirely by producer-songwriter MISHA (@thatboymishaa), giving the album remarkable cohesion. MISHA, who previously worked with TXT’s “Upside Down Kiss,” shared via social media, “This project is a lot of firsts for me and means the world. Thank you for believing in these songs and allowing me to be completely myself as a writer and producer throughout this project.”
YEONJUN
Courtesy of BigHitMusic
The opening track “Talk to You” begins with crisp drum beats and YEONJUN’s confident attitude, pairing his rap with rhythmically controlled vocals that cut through the intense electric guitar in the chorus. Its rock energy flows naturally into the relaxed electronic sound, synth textures, and minimal rhythm of “Forever.” The third track, “Let Me Tell You (feat. Daniela of KATSEYE),” featuring KATSEYE’s Daniela, continues the synth-driven warmth and sensual tone, deepening the album’s cohesive mood. “Do It,” an old-school hip-hop number built on drums, bass, and a standout keyboard in the latter half, lets YEONJUN’s laid-back voice take the lead — before shifting into the hard-hitting hip-hop sound of the fifth track, “Nothin’ Bout Me.” With lines like ‘Define me if you can,’ ‘Say what you want, no cares,’ and the explosive ‘All that talkin’ Shut up,’ punctuated by scratching and shouting, the track delivers the album’s message most directly. The heightened energy flows seamlessly into “Coma,” whose tape-stop effects allow the intensity to slowly ease as the album nears its end — leaving behind the line, “You’re in my zone, come and follow.”
Given its cohesive sound and concept, the music video for this project was created as a six-minute omnibus combining three tracks — “Coma,” “Let Me Tell You (feat. Daniela of KATSEYE),” and “Talk to You” — under the banner of NO LABELS: PART 01. Director Song Taejong(@songtaejong) recalls, “The idea of making a 6-minute omnibus video came from the label(BigHit Music). Honestly, I was worried at first. Since videos are getting shorter these days, we added fun moments and unexpected elements throughout the 6-minute video to keep viewers attention. I always try to capture the full charm of my subjects, but during the wire scenes, I looked at the monitor and thought, ‘This might be the coolest shot I’ve ever filmed,’” he said with a laugh.
Conversations around K-pop are endless. Whether it’s “music to watch or music to listen to,” what elements it borrows from past legacies, or whether its intricate vocabulary and overbuilt imagery allow the core — the music — to truly shine. Amid constant doubt, criticism, pressure, and anxiety — YEONJUN has openly shared that he cried from fear and burden before his “GGUM” promotions, and his behind-the-scenes videos show the emotional strain of songwriting, choreography, performance, and tight deadlines — he still brought forward something entirely his own. And for that reason, YEONJUN’s latest album carries no labels and no references. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t need them. He already knows — with his whole body, through every lesson learned — exactly how he is meant to move.
Get the party started on the floor with these tracks perfect for a big group dance.
11/19/2025
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Kenshi Yonezu’s “IRIS OUT” extends its domination over the Billboard Japan Hot 100 to nine weeks, on the chart released Nov. 19.
Downloads and streams for the Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc theme declined this week, but karaoke jumped to 109% of the previous frame. It leads streaming and video views for a ninth consecutive week, and holds at No. 1 on karaoke for the sixth week in a row.
Debuting at No. 2 is timelesz’s “Steal The Show.” The title track of the group’s first single under its new lineup, released Nov. 12, sold 520,300 copies in its opening week to launch at No. 1 for sales, and enters at No. 17 for radio airplay. At No. 3, also new this week, is NMB48’s “Seishun no Deadline,” which sold 197,490 copies to bow at No. 2 for sales.
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Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada’s “JANE DOE” slips two spots to No. 4. The ending theme of the Reze Arc movie holds at No. 2 for streaming for the eighth straight week while remaining inside the top 10 for both video and downloads. At No. 5 is HANA’s “Blue Jeans,” which enters its 18th chart week with gains in video — up 105% from last week — and a slight uptick in karaoke.
Elsewhere on the Japan Hot 100, Gen Hoshino’s “Ikidomari” debuts at No. 22. The theme song for the film Hiraba no Tsuki opens at No. 1 for downloads, No. 22 for radio, No. 48 for streaming, and No. 83 for video.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Nov. 10 to 16, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
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Last fall, Kito and her good friend Blue May spent a lot on the couch at her house in L.A., binge-watching Couples Therapy and discussing the trajectories of their respective careers. Both producers had recently come out of relationships, and they decided they were ready to focus on not only working, but working on something great.
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“We were like, ‘We’ve got to make some s–t happen that we believe in so hard,’” Kito says.
Call it fate or good luck or hard work paying off, but the binge-watching sessions ended a few weeks later, when May got a call from his old friend and previous collaborator Lily Allen. She wanted to make an album, and she was coming to Los Angeles, and more specifically to May’s house in the Hollywood Hills, to do it.
May brought Kito into the project, and with that they were off the couch and in May’s home studio, making some s–t happen that they believed in so hard and that millions of people around the world would eventually believe in too.
An electronic artist and multi-genre producer from Australia who’s lived in Los Angeles since 2018, Kito has a long list of releases on labels including Diplo’s Mad Decent, Astralwerks and Sweat It Out, along with her ongoing Club Kito party at The West Hollywood Edition hotel, events to which surprise guests including Empress Of, A-Trak, Diplo, Mallrat and Tove Lo have shown up. As of October, she also has co-producing credits on eight tracks of Allen’s confessional smash West End Girl.
“I mean, it feels like a new chapter starting,” the artist born Maaike Kito Lebbing says over Zoom from her house, her cat intermittently walking in and out of frame. In addition to working on West End Girl, Kito released a grip of excellent tracks in 2025 and has also executive producer on A Girl Is a Drug, the seven-track EP from DJ/musician/choreographer Parris Goebel that’s out Thursday (Nov. 20). (Goebel is globally known to pop fans for her choreography for superstars like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Justin Bieber, recently becoming a close collaborator of Lady Gaga’s for her Mayhem videos and tour.)
“There were days when I’d be working with everyone on the Lily album, and then I’d be recording with Parris in the evening, and it’s just like, the complete opposite energy — going from just [the Lily project] to club bangers,” Kito explains.
But dipping into, and in fact helping build, the sounds and worlds of other artists has been Kito’s focus for a while. Her career started in Australia when she got into electronic music, then started collecting records and DJing parties. Upon moving to London, she “lived in a five bed share house with a bunch of creatives and got paid cash to DJ” while scoring releases on Skream’s Disfigured Dubz label and generally exploring dubstep, lo-fi and other genres of the day.
She liked this bopping around between sounds and scenes, a sensibility that would inform her later work. “I think that’s why I’m really in my element as a producer for other artists,” Kito says, “because it feels so fun to get into someone’s world and explore it. It’s like being in a different band all the time. I really like that, because I get bored doing the same thing.”
Back in London, things leveled up for her again when began sending out demos, with a beat she sent to Diplo eventually sampled on Trinidad James’ 2013 song “Female$ Welcomed.” This led to her first publishing deal (“I didn’t even know what publishing was,” she says now), with her original James-sampled track eventually used in a Victoria’s Secret campaign.
Compelled by people in her London community who were simultaneously making their own music while also producing for other artists, she moved to L.A. in 2018 to pursue this type of dual path. In SoCal she felt more “invited into rooms that maybe I wouldn’t have been invited into in London, because London is a smaller scene, and people focus on what you’ve done. Coming here people were more like, ‘Oh, you’ve got a different perspective.’”
While experimenting with production techniques, she made loads of music that she just released under her Kito project, which drew the attention of labels in L.A. and resulted in more than two dozens single and EP releases since 2018. But the goal was never to become a jet-setting DJ.
“I’m really proud of the stuff I’ve put out on my artist project, but it’s definitely been me trying stuff as a producer and loosely fitting in the large umbrella of dance music,” Kito says. “I don’t really have a crazy career as a DJ because I don’t know if people know what they’re going to get [from my work.]”
But while her sound vacillated between dancefloors anthems and more indie singer songwriter type fare, she realized she had a superpower in her ability to bridge underground music and pop: “I realized I needed to lean more into what I’m coming to the table with, which is my unique perspective and the more underground music that I’ve been always into. It was always too pop for the underground, and too underground for pop. My palette is a little bit left-of-center, but I love pop music.”
This symbiosis of tastes made Kito the perfect fit to work on left-of-center pop music. She’s got producing credits for artists including Fletcher, Jorja Smith and Empress Of, and also spent 16 days in late 2024 working with May, Allen and a crew of collaborators on West End Girl.
“Blue called me and said, ‘Lily’s coming over to do music and wants to try to do an album. Do you want to do it with us?’” Kito recalls. “I was like, ‘Obviously yes, let’s do it.’”
Kito had actually worked with Allen once before in 2019. Based on that experience and the knowledge Allen wanted to work fast, had the idea to “just rope in all our friends that we know who are great and that everyone’s really comfortable with and see how that feels.”
This social alchemy worked, as a crew including Allen, May, Kito, and a collection of songwriters, producers and instrumentalists — including Chloe Angelides, Chrome Sparks, Alessandro Buccellati, Micah Jasper, Oscar Scheller, Leroy Clampitt, Leon Vynehall, Violet Skies and Hayley Gene Penner — set up shop in the pair of recording spaces May set up in his home.
“It was really special working with Blue, because he’s so good at shutting out the noise of the music industry, and so is Lily,” says Kito. “It was like, ‘This is going to be a little bubble and a world that we’re going to create.”
Gathered with Kito and May, Allen unveiled the themes of the album, which is allegedly about her separation from actor David Harbour amid his infidelities. “She wrote all the song names down in order and told us what she wanted to do the album about,” says Kito. “I mean, she filled us in on everything. We had a big cry and spent a couple hours drinking coffee and just catching up. Then she was like, ‘Okay, let’s do the album.’ I was like, ‘Are you sure?’”
Allen was sure, with the project’s instant rapid pace being “quite unsettling for me,” says Kito, “because I’m used to doing a lot and then picking the best of it. So this was really exciting, but also terrifying. I would be calling Blue like, ‘Hang on a minute. Don’t we need more time?’ But I think he’s such a brilliant quick decision type of person and is so good at trusting his instincts that it gave me confidence to trust mine. I actually don’t think I would have thrown myself into working with Parris this year if I hadn’t come off the back of that process with Lily.” (For his part, upon the album’s release May wrote to Kito on his Instagram that “this record would literally not exist without you! … You brought so many key people into this project – alongside your own insane talent!”)
With two high-profile projects on her 2025 resume, Kito says new opportunities are being presented for her and everyone that worked on West End Girl: “We’ve all been here doing the same work, but this is what happens when one thing connects, it opens doors in a great way. I’m so happy. I’m like, ‘What’s next year gonna be like?’”
While the calendar is quite yet clear, what’s obvious is that there’ll be less binge-watching on the couch and more making s–t happen that Kito believes in, so hard.
Trending on Billboard Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney are two of entertainment’s busiest women, and Amanda Seyfried wants to add one more gig to their plates — a role in Mamma Mia 3, specifically. “I love portraying a mom, so I would love to see Sophie with her kids,” she mused to Entertainment Tonight while […]
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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.
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This week: The hits keep coming for Olivia Dean after she makes her SNL debut, while Summer Walker’s latest offers a few streams to some R&B gems and a soul cult favorite gets a surprise viral hit.
Olivia Dean’s Ascension Continues, Thanks to Recent ‘SNL’ Debut
Olivia Dean sits in the top five of both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 this week (charts dated Nov. 22). And, if her recent streaming numbers are any indication, she’s poised to continue soaring. According to early data provided by Luminate, Dean’s catalog earned 21 million official on-demand U.S. streams in the two-day period following her SNL debut (Nov. 16-17), marking a 23% increase from the streams her catalog pulled the week prior (Nov. 9-10). Following her Saturday Night Live performances of “Man I Need” and “Let Alone the One You Love,” Dean’s catalog was also up nearly 120% in U.S. digital sales, with over 2,600 digital downloads sold during Nov. 16-17.
“Man I Need,” which reaches a new peak of No. 4 on this week’s Hot 100, is also up 4% in streams post-SNL, earning 7.5 million official streams during Nov. 16-17. In that same time frame, “Man” sold over 1,000 U.S. digital downloads, marking an 89% jump from the 550 copies it sold during Nov. 9-10. “Let Alone” earned a much larger boost, soaring 44% to over 1.2 million official streams during Nov. 16-18, and leaping a whopping 1,465% to over 300 digital downloads sold during the same period.
Between her SNL debut, a recently announced four-night run at Madison Square Garden and the afterglow of her first Grammy nomination, the world simply can’t get enough of Olivia Dean and The Art of Loving. — KYLE DENIS
Streaming Audiences Say ‘Yes’ to Lift-Heavy Summer Walker Album
Singer/songwriter Summer Walker released one of the year’s most anticipated R&B albums on Friday (Nov. 14) with Finally Over It, third album in her acclaimed Over It trilogy. The 18-track, two-disc set was littered with guests — including big names like Chris Brown, Teddy Swims, 21 Savage and Doja Cat — but nearly as strewn with samples and interpolations from past R&B staples, with many of those originals seeing streaming bumps in the days following its release.
The biggest of the bunch was for “Yes,” the fan-favorite deep cut from Beyoncé’s 2003 solo debut LP Dangerously in Love. The song’s “First time I said ‘no,’ it’s like I never said ‘yes’” hook is borrowed for the intro to Walker’s obversely titled “No,” one of the set’s early streaming breakouts. According to early data provided by Luminate, “Yes” racked up 94,000 official on-demand streams over the first four days of Finally Over It‘s release (Nov. 14-17), nearly double the 48,000 it amassed in the equivalent four-day period the prior week.
Other bumps from the set were enjoyed by a decades-older R&B throwback (Roberta Flack’s 1978 Donny Hathaway duet “The Closer I Get to You,” interpolated in Walker’s “Baller,” up 12% to 89,000 streams over that period) and a 50 Cent soundtrack single (2005’s “I’ll Whip Ya Head,” lifted in “Robbed You,” up 11% to 125,000). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Labi Siffre’s Tender 1971 Classic Finds New Life on Streaming After Bumble Ad Sync
A couple months ago (Sept. 8), Bumble launched a new “For the Love of Love” ad campaign, soundtracked by Labi Siffre’s “Bless the Telephone,” a tender 1971 ditty that’s found a new life on streaming in recent weeks.
During the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, “Telephone” earned over 216,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. Eight weeks later (Nov. 7-13), the song now boasts over 1.77 million official weekly streams, clocking a 721% increase in activity, according to Luminate.
In addition to the Bumble campaign, Siffre has also become something of a TikTok star. His management-run account frequently shares clips of the now-80-year-old artist reflecting on his life and career, and many users became even more enamored with him after learning about his queerness and anti-apartheid stance — as well as the artist formerly known as Kanye West sampling him for 2007’s “I Wonder.” On TikTok, the official “Telephone” sound plays in over 36,500 posts, while a clip of a young Siffre performing the song earned nearly 15 million views. — K.D.
Trending on Billboard Cardi B has shared the first photo of her baby boy she shares with Stefon Diggs. Cardi posted the carousel of photos on Wednesday (Nov. 19), which shows the rapper cuddling her baby in a nursery, as well as in the hospital bed right after his birth. The caption notes the date […]
