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For the third time — and in the second different calendar year — Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine tops the Billboard 200 this week.
The album, which originally debuted atop the chart dated Mar. 23, 2024 and spent two weeks at No. 1, returns to the apex with 137,000 units moved, according to Luminate. The album’s resurgence comes following the release of its Brighter Days Ahead deluxe edition, which boasts six bonus tracks — all of which appear on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, led by “Twilight Zone” at No. 18 — and comes with a short sci-fi film of the same name, starring Grande and her father, Edward Butera.
Do we think the commercial response validates the relatively lengthy wait for the deluxe edition? And what do we make of this mini-movie? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
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1. Eternal Sunshine returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week — a year after topping it the first time — with 137,000 units moved, following the release of the set’s Brighter Days Ahead edition. Is that performance better than, worse than, or about what you would have expected?
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Hannah Dailey: Overall, I would say that it’s even better than I expected for a deluxe edition released a full year after the original – but I did anticipate the deluxe doing well in general. I think a lot of people really underestimate just how loved this album is. I’m certainly not surprised that there’s still so much interest in it all this time later!
Kyle Denis: Much better. I assumed the album would return to the bottom half of the top 10 – especially because there’s no current radio single from the standard version and “Twilight Zone” didn’t exactly explode upon release – but to pull a six-figure total and return to No. 1 over a behemoth of a Playboi Carti album and Lil Durk’s latest set is amazing.
Lyndsey Havens: What I would expect. Ariana is a consistent chart-topper at this point, and the only thing I wouldn’t see coming is if Brighter Days Ahead fell short of the tally’s top spot. And the thing I love about this particular feat is that it wasn’t a curiosity rebound, meaning I don’t get the sense people listened only out of curiosity and then moved on. The songs on this deluxe are that good — and if Eternal Sunshine didn’t tell such a tightly knit story, they could have easily arrived then. But that’s what I love most about this deluxe; it arrived when the stories in these songs needed to be told, and when Ari was ready to tell them.
Jason Lipshutz: Better. Deluxe editions of major albums typically don’t arrive one year after the original album’s release, and considering how much of Ariana Grande’s focus has been on Wicked (and the upcoming Wicked: For Good), it’d be easy to surmise that she and her fans had moved on from Eternal Sunshine. So the fact that these deluxe tracks arrived less like a belated thank-you and more like the completion of a beloved project, with a six-figure equivalent album units total and a return to the top of the Billboard 200, represents a major win for Grande, on an occasion that she could have dismissed as minor.
Andrew Unterberger: Definitely better. This deluxe came a long time after the original album, and it feels it — since so much else happened in the interim, both in Grande’s career and pop music in general. To still have enough in interest in you and your most recent project to chart a half-dozen new songs on the Hot 100 (and none that low), while moving six digits’ worth of album units, should all feel pretty validating for Grande.
2. A year is a long time in 2025 to wait to release a proper deluxe edition of a hit album. Do you think it has proven a smart strategy for Grande, or should she have come with it a little sooner?
Hannah Dailey: I’d usually say a year is an egregiously long time to wait between an album and deluxe, but in this specific case, I think the distance was to Grande’s benefit. First of all, a lot of the big pop releases that came after Eternal Sunshine in 2024 kind of overshadowed the album and pushed it out of the general public’s consciousness a bit; waiting this long to drop the deluxe gave it more than enough space from those other releases to totally stand out and have a second chance at being a quintessential pop moment of 2025, if not 2024. Second, it was nice to have a breather from all the Wicked craziness before Eternal Sunshine Part 2. It gave us a bit of time to miss Grande before she did anything else and re-orient our brains back to thinking of her as in pop star mode, not Glinda mode.
Kyle Denis: I think it’s absolutely proven correct. She was risking serious overexposure if she launched a deluxe edition with six new songs and a movie while she was still knee-deep in Wicked press. The standard version got ample time to shine, and the deluxe now has several months – before Wicked: For Good press ramps up – to itself. It also helps that Grande put out a “slightly deluxe” version of the album in between its initial release and Brighter Days Ahead, so her Eternal Sunshine rollout has been meticulously plotted to avoid having too much Ari at one time.
Lyndsey Havens: I’m genuinely curious how much of it was strategic and how much of it was basic logistics and/or intuition. Since Eternal Sunshine has arrived, Ariana has mostly been in Wicked promo mode. For the deluxe to arrive after awards season makes perfect sense on paper. But what could make even more sense is that Ariana could have still been living in or stuck on the stories behind these songs, and all they needed was a bit more time and space. Either way, I would love if this practice is adopted more. Take SZA’s Lana, for example: Was it a stretch to call it a deluxe? Sure. But was it nice to have some space in between projects? I think so. And at the end of the day, I think the best strategy is releasing something when the artist feels it’s ready — because that’s when it will likely hit the hardest.
Jason Lipshutz: Six months ago, I would have said the latter… but as it turns out, Grande was smart to roll out these songs following Wicked campaign. A months-long awards tour made it impossible for Grande to focus on Brighter Days Ahead promotion, so if these songs had arrived in late 2024 or early 2025, there likely would have landed as more of an afterthought during a hectic time. And instead of serving them up a month or two after Eternal Sunshine’s release, Grande let the standard edition stand on its own — and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” grow into one of her most enduring hits — before giving these deluxe tracks their own moment. A unique strategy for unique circumstances, but she pulled it off expertly.
Andrew Unterberger: I think it’s proving pretty smart. Intuitively I would’ve said it was a little late, but most deluxe projects come so early these days — sometimes just days, if not mere hours — after their originals that Grande actually giving some real breathing room between the two is something I’m more grateful for than I would have expected. (The songs being good also certainly helps!)
3. “Twilight Zone” is the clear leader of the new tracks from the reissue on the Hot 100 this week, debuting at No. 18. Does it feel like a long-lasting hit to you, or will it fall once the reissue’s early momentum wears off?
Hannah Dailey: It definitely sounds like a hit to me, and I love how it adds to the narrative of the rest of the album. I predict that it’ll be a slow grower – it’s not the splashiest-sounding pop song, but it’s one that’s been getting randomly stuck in my head repeatedly ever since it came out, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one. I think that people will continue to keep coming back to it more and more over the next few weeks.
Kyle Denis: I think it depends on how much Grande is willing to do for the song. If it gets a standalone video and some kind of live performance, I can see “Twilight Zone” sticking around the charts as a cute springtime hit. If she lets these songs sit and shifts her focus back to Wicked, I anticipate “Twilight Zone” falling a bit faster than the average Grande single.
Lyndsey Havens: What’s crazy to me is while all five of the new tracks compete for the title of my favorite, “Twilight Zone” doesn’t often lead the list. It’s almost like each new song is better than the last, as I loved “Warm” but then “Dandelion” (the horn!) into “Past Life” into “Hampstead” is just an incredible run. But I do think “Twilight Zone” is the most sonically linked to Eternal Sunshine, which is why it was the perfect track to open the deluxe — and maybe why it’s connecting the most right now.
Jason Lipshutz: I think “Twilight Zone” is actually in for a pretty lengthy run, based on three things: the quality of the song, Grande’s established presence at top 40, and the fact that no new non-Wicked music is on the horizon. “Twilight Zone” travels down the same cozy synth-n-B path as “We Can’t Be Friends,” and streaming playlist curators and radio programmers should embrace it pretty quickly; the Wicked For Good campaign will dominate Grande’s focus during the second half of the year, so even if Eternal Sunshine tumbles back down the Billboard 200, this song will stand as her traditional pop bid in the months leading up to the film.
Andrew Unterberger: It does feel like a hit to me, but I’m not sure that it actually will be. Top 40 is just embracing so few new songs from anyone these days — even from proven hitmakers like Grande — and I’m not sure if the format will cut into its Benson Boone or Gracie Abrams spins for this deluxe edition song, especially if Grande isn’t really gonna push it herself. I hope it does, though — or that it finds footing enough on streaming to be a long-lasting hit there — because it certainly does deserve to have that kind of endurance.
4. In addition to the new songs, Brighter Days Ahead comes with an accompanying short film of the same name, featuring many of the album’s tracks. Does the mini-film add much to the album era/experience to you?
Hannah Dailey: Honestly, the short film didn’t do much for me by way of enhancing the album. I more just love to see Grande marrying her loves for music and acting in a way that clearly makes her feel really fulfilled creatively, and in general it was nice to have something extra to end the Eternal Sunshine era on a grander note.
Kyle Denis: In some ways, yes. Longtime Grande fans are very aware of how rocky her relationship with her father has been throughout her career, so to see him make a cameo in the film as the doctor who uses music to put her back together after the press tore her to shreds… that was an unbelievably beautiful full-circle moment. Brighter Days Ahead is also easily the strongest distillation of Grande’s creative pysche that she’s offered so far; her beloved horror elements are on full display, and the film’s throughlines help emphasize the message of Eternal Sunshine and flaunt her dramatic acting skills. While the pacing was a bit clunky, the short film only leaves me more excited to see where Grande (and Christian Breslauer, or perhaps a different collaborator?) goes next visually.
Lyndsey Havens: Only in the sense that it’s a great metric for fans to understand that in this case, similar to what I said above, this deluxe isn’t necessarily a strategic play. Creating and delivering a short film to accompany these new tracks only proves how much of a story is baked into them, and how moved Ariana felt to not only tell that story, but bring her fans into it, in more ways than one.
Jason Lipshutz: The short film adds a compelling visual element to the Eternal Sunshine deluxe edition, but ultimately, “Twilight Zone” transcends the greater context around it, just like prior Hot 100 chart-toppers “Yes And” and “We Can’t Be Friends.” Grande has spent time over the past eight years re-positioning herself as a traditional albums artist after breaking through with a string of hit singles beginning in 2013… but full-length statements like Thank U, Next, Positions and Eternal Sunshine still contain those hits, and her latest album is defined by those radio-ready standout moments. If the short film better exemplifies the tone of Eternal Sunshine, Grande’s latest chart hit prolongs the era with more powerful commercial intent.
Andrew Unterberger: I can’t be mad at any music video with real ambition (and a real budget!) in 2025.
5. Has your relationship with or view of Eternal Sunshine changed any over the past year from when it was released?
Hannah Dailey: I loved Eternal Sunshine on my very first play-through, and I have loved it (and listened to it on, at minimum, a weekly basis) ever since. To me, it still represents Grande in a place of full creative liberation – you can hear that she made these songs, both original and deluxe, not because she had to, but simply because she had music and words inside of her that desperately needed to come out in the studio. If anything, I’ve come to accept more since its release that this could very likely be the last album we get from her in a long time as she shifts her focus to acting, which makes listening to it a little more bittersweet.
Kyle Denis: I already loved it upon release, and I’ve only grown to appreciate it more. Eternal Sunshine is now officially my favorite Ari album. She’s really settled into post-Imogen Heap/Brandy lane that suits her damn-near perfectly.
Lyndsey Havens: Hm, not really. I think another benefit of releasing a deluxe so long after the album itself is that it can reignite interest. While I listened to Eternal Sunshine on loop for months after it came out, naturally that fades with time and with more and more new music always incoming. So, while my love for the album never waned, this deluxe has only helped strengthen my relationship with it once again. And now, perhaps unfortunately for me, it’s only left me wanting even more.
Jason Lipshutz: Definitely — after previously considering Eternal Sunshine a mid-tier Grande project, the album’s emotional maturity has resonated with me in a clear way in the months following its release. The Brighter Days Ahead songs have underlined the overall project’s tone and purpose — so, chart performance aside, the deluxe edition has been an unequivocal success.
Andrew Unterberger: Not really, but I do have more of a belief now that it will go down as a classic album and a major part of her legacy.
Travis Scott’s first major break in music came thanks to Ye (formerly Kanye West). Thirteen years after appearing on Cruel Summer‘s “Sin City” and working on Yeezus, Scott still has an appreciation for West giving him a chance.
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La Flame’s Complex cover story, which was published on Tuesday (April 8), sees him tackle quite a few topics, including his stance when it comes to his relationship with Ye.
“S–t, man. That’s my kid’s uncle,” he said in the interview, which appears to have taken place in February. “That guy took me in when I was young, when I was like 19. He taught me a lot about music. And not even just ‘taught’ me, but he allowed me to experience the creation of music.”
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Scott continued to reflect. “To create music with him, it’s what helped me grow, making a lot of beats,” he shared. “Whether it’s writing and collabing on music and film or clothes or whatever the f–k it is, just constantly learning.”
While Ye was raising issues with many of his peers during a series of explosive X rants in March, he took aim at Scott during an interview with DJ Akademiks. West — who has been facing backlash since 2022 for his hate speech — explained that why he felt disrespected by the “Sicko Mode” rapper.
“Trav left me off his album,” he said. “Took four of my songs from the ranch in Wyoming. My choruses, my exact singing lines — replace me with him, or put Future, SZA on the joints. With no explanation, the s–t just comes out.”
In August 2023, following Utopia‘s arrival, Scott performed in Rome and brought out West and gave his idol his flowers. “There is no Utopia without Kanye West. There is no Travis Scott without Kanye West. There is no Rome without Kanye West. Make some noise for Ye,” Scott told the crowd.
As for Scott’s next move, he’ll be headlining Saturday night (April 12) at Coachella. He also provided some context into his upcoming projects with another Jackboys label compilation and his solo album on the way.
“And for this next album, I just want to have the most ultimate fun with being creative,” he told Complex. “The most ultimate fun, taking all the things I learned and packing it in the CD and making it enjoyable to go crazy in the stadium. That’s the idea.”
Dwayne Johnson helped a young fan named Kane’s wish come true shortly before his death. The Moana actor took to Instagram on Monday (April 7) to share a sweet Make-A-Wish America video call he had with the boy on March 11, and the star is seen chatting with Kane, who is laying in his hospital […]
Baka Not Nice recently sat down with Hot Freestyle’s Mic Check podcast and talked about being mentioned in Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us.”
When the subject came up, Baka revealed that he initially planned on immediately responding to Kendrick after the Compton MC rapped that he had a “weird case” and asked why Drake chose to continue to have him around. “My first initial thing was to respond and respond quickly, very efficiently and very to the point,” he said. “It started brewing in me because where I come from, that s—t doesn’t happen. You can’t just call out a man and not have paperwork to back up your talks. It’s ludicrous.”
He added that he couldn’t believe how big the song had gotten. “And then to see a whole nation behind it and celebrating it like it’s a true story is unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody has to understand: I have a kid, Drake has a kid, so, like, making accusations like that are ridiculous and out of this world.”
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He then revealed that he didn’t respond because Drake talked him out of it and asked him to ignore it. “I was building up a lot of anger but then I got a call,” he said. “And [Drake’s] like, ‘Yo, I know what you’re feeling, I know you as an individual, I know how you get down but I’m just letting you know, don’t listen to the noise ’cause it’s noise.’ If you go back and look at all these people that are saying things, they’re not even real people, they’re bots. Don’t let that s—t bother you, bro. And you know what? I mean, it’s not a good thing but they’re calling your name.”
Baka then asked fans to do their due diligence and look up the case Lamar was referring to because he felt like he was being accused of pedophilia. “And at the end of the day, they’re gonna get over this crap because they’re gonna realize that it’s crap, and then they’re gonna do their own research,” he said. “And when you do you’re own research, you’re gonna be like, ‘Wow, this guy made up a whole story about something that isn’t even true.’ It makes you look weird to me. I don’t know.”
He finally concluded his answer with a message to fans. “I wanna say one thing to America,” he began. Y’all need to get yourself together because, yo, making serious accusations like that, you need to have paperwork. That is the No. 1 rule.”
Baka Not Nice reveals he was going to respond to Kendrick Lamar, but Drake told him to ignore all the noiseHe also called Kendrick’s accusations “ridiculous” pic.twitter.com/3i5RE4GGXn— Hot Freestyle (@HotFreestyle) April 7, 2025
The “weird case” Kendrick mentioned stems from a 2014 incident when Baka — born Travis Savoury — was charged with procuring prostitution and human trafficking. Those charges were dropped after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a 22-year-old Toronto woman and was sentenced to six months in jail, according to the Toronto Sun.
Drake is currently embroiled in a high profile defamation lawsuit with his parent label, UMG, alleging it defamed him by promoting Lamar’s Drizzy diss track “Not Like Us,” which includes the lyric “certified pedophile.” UMG denied the allegations and later filed to dismiss the case.
Watch Baka Not Nice discuss “Not Like Us” below:
Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs sub-genre charts (dated April 12, 2025) have arrived, spotlighting a variety of format stars across the four new rankings.
The surveys — Hot Regional Mexican Songs, Hot Latin Pop Songs, Hot Latin Rhythm Songs and Hot Tropical Songs — celebrate the accomplishments of Latin artists based on the same multimetric methodology (official U.S. audio and video streaming, radio airplay and sales) used for the pan-genre Hot Latin Songs chart and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, with data provided by Luminate.
Bad Bunny doubles up, dominating Hot Latin Rhythm Songs with “DTMF” and Hot Tropical Songs with “Baile Inolvidable.” Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco and The Marías join forces to rule Hot Latin Pop Songs with “Ojos Tristes,” and Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera claim the top spot on Hot Regional Mexican Songs with “Me Jalo.”
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Here’s a deeper look at the four charts’ first leaders, which, notably, take the top four spots on Hot Latin Songs.
Bad Bunny Best on Latin Rhythm, Tropical
Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” is No. 1 on the Hot Latin Rhythm Songs chart with 9.6 million official U.S. streams from March 28 to April 3. On the radio front, the song drew 5.4 million audience impressions — up 18% week-over-week.
“DTMF” also tops the Hot Latin Songs chart for a 12th week, having become the superstar’s sweet 16th No. 1. It’s his sixth song to reign for at least a dozen weeks.
Benito’s “Baile Inolvidable,” meanwhile, tops the first Hot Tropical Songs chart, with 8.3 million streams and 6.1 million in radio reach. The track ranks at No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs, after previously reaching No. 2 on the chart.
Gomez, Blanco & Marías Top Latin Pop
Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco and The Marías’ “Ojos Tristes” crowns Hot Latin Pop Songs fueled by strong streaming and airplay gains. The track, a modern reinterpretation of Jeanette’s British-Spanish classic “El Muchacho De Los Ojos Tristes,” drew 8.7 million U.S. official streams, up 5%. It’s also beginning on radio, with 506,000 in audience.
“Ojos Tristes” ascends from No. 4 to No. 3 in its second week on Hot Latin Songs.
Fuerza Regida, Grupo Frontera Rule Regional Mexican
Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera’s “Me Jalo” starts atop the Hot Regional Mexican Songs chart, just one week after simultaneously leading both the Latin Airplay and Regional Mexican Airplay charts. The collab collected 8.1 million streams and 7.5 million in radio audience over the last week. It rises 3-2 for a new high on Hot Latin Songs.
In celebration of Cypress Hill‘s seminal sophomore effort Black Sunday, the rap group announced it’ll be launching a new graphic novel titled CYPRESS Hill: BLACK SUNDAY. On Tuesday (April 8), the news broke that the band had been hard at working crafting the comic alongside Z2 Comics and writers Noah Callahan-Bever and Gabriel Alvarez. The […]
Rubby Pérez has been hospitalized following the deadly roof collapse at the Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic, where he was performing early on Tuesday (April 8). The 69-year-old Dominican merengue singer — known for Billboard hits such as “Tu Vas a Volar,” “Enamorado de Ella” and “15,500 Noches” in collaboration with Romeo Santos, […]
Arcade Fire‘s seventh studio album is on its way, with the band announcing that new LP Pink Elephant is set to arrive this spring and dropping lead single “Year of the Snake” Tuesday (April 8).
Featuring 10 tracks recorded at married bandmates Win Butler and Régine Chassagne’s Good News Recording Studio in New Orleans, the project is described as a “cinematic, mystical punk” offering that “invites the listener on a sonic odyssey” exploring themes of light, darkness, inner beauty and “the perception of the individual.” The album’s title apparently refers to the paradox of actively trying to suppress a certain thought, and in doing so, making that thought impossible not to think about.
As shared in a post on Arcade Fire’s Instagram, Pink Elephant will arrive May 9. The band also unveiled its cover art: a photo of a small elephant-shaped candle burning against a hot pink backdrop.
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Fans’ first taste of the album via “Year of the Snake” is chill, contemplative alt-rock, with Butler and Chassagne singing together over a thrumming bass line and anthemic glimmers, “It’s the season of change, and if you you feel strange, it’s probably good.” The song comes third on a tracklist that also includes the titles “Open Your Heart or Die Trying,” “Pink Elephant,” “Circle of Trust,” “Alien Nation,” “Beyond Salvation,” “Ride or Die,” “I Love Her Shadow,” “She Cries Diamond Rain” and “Stuck in My Head.”
Pink Elephant will mark Arcade Fire’s first LP since 2022’s We, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to the summit of the Top Rock Albums chart. It’ll also be the band’s first release since Butler was accused by multiple former fans of sexual misconduct, after which the frontman released a statement denying that any part of his relationships with those women was nonconsensual — though he did also apologize to “anyone who I have hurt with my behavior.”
A few days prior to the album announcement, Arcade Fire also rolled out a new app called Circle of Trust, where fans can now access special content including music, videos, early access to tickets, exclusive merch and more. This week, the band shared exclusive song “Cars and Telephones” — billed as the first composition Butler ever played for Chassagne — on the app.
See the Pink Elephant album cover and listen to “Year of the Snake” below.
A year ago, Dasha seemingly came out of nowhere riding an almost Western melody atop a stomp-clap groove with “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” earning a top five country single, platinum certification and several awards nominations as a new artist.
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All great. But what comes next? No one understood that question better than she did.
“My team was kind of breathing down my throat being like, ‘Dash, we need a follow-up. We need a follow-up,’ ” she remembers. “I was stressing out because, holy s–t. How do you follow up your first hit single?”
An artist’s sophomore single has some built-in challenges. In most instances, it needs to have some elements that help the listener connect both songs in their mind, creating a foundational sonic brand. But if it’s too close to the first hit, it makes the act seem a bit limited. Fortunately, the sophomore single’s creative tightrope is not a secret.
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“That’s my main thing in the room with an artist like that,” says songwriter Ashley Gorley (“I Am Not Okay,” “Love Somebody”). “I want to help her get that follow-up hit, show some different colors, but also kind of be a cousin to the song that drew everybody into your music.”
Gorley had that in mind when he met Dasha for the first time on May 8, 2024, as he hosted a writing session that included Ben Johnson (“Truck Bed,” “Liar”) at his Nashville-area home. Dasha was aware of Gorley’s record-setting reputation as a songwriter, but she wasn’t intimidated. Instead, she was intent on impressing him. Respect was OK; deference was not.
“I feel like what makes an artist’s music special is really relying on their taste and what they find appealing about music and words and cadences and melodies,” she says. “I was just like, ‘I’m really going to lean on Ashley Gorley and Ben Johnson. But I’m also going to really pull the artist card because I need this to feel like me or else it’s not going to do well.’”
Early in the process, Dasha handed Gorley her cellphone and told him to pick an idea from her titles list.“I already liked all of them,” she reasons. “Obviously. I wrote them down.”
“Not at This Party” jumped out at him. Gorley was unaware that the phrase was derived from her early experiences as an artist in the national spotlight. Just weeks prior, she had reluctantly gone to a gathering when she wasn’t feeling particularly social. Her budding fame made her interesting to a few people who didn’t read her mood well.
“So many people trying to small-talk me,” she notes. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m just not at this party. I’m so mentally checked out.’ And then I was like, ‘That is such a cool song idea.’ And so I take my phone out and I write the title down.”
Once Gorley settled on that title, Dasha specifically envisioned a banjo at the center of the track, and Johnson had just what she needed.
“I came up with that banjo riff pretty quickly,” he says. “I definitely was conscious of trying to make something that fit in her world — and obviously, you know, ‘Austin’ was one of the first songs to really do the stomp-clap thing. My background is so much in bluegrass, and bluegrass is all about that choppy kind of backbeat thing with the mandolin. But in this instance, you kind of replace the mandolin with the claps.”
The claps and stomps were authentically Dasha. “I held my iPhone up and had her stomp and clap into my iPhone,” Johnson recalls. “Most of the stomps and claps on the record are all from that day, just her stomping and clapping in the room.”
They fashioned “Party” in chronological order, placing the female protagonist in the bathroom at a club, staring into the mirror and attempting to hype herself into a good time. Dasha led the melodic charge with short phrases that captured the character’s hesitance.
“It seemed like you’re hyperventilating in the bathroom,” she says. “You’re reminding yourself how to small-talk, how to be normal at a party.”
By the chorus, the melody explodes as the character takes over the dancefloor, publicly exuding a good time while she flashes back internally to an intimate moment in a car with a guy who has backed away from her. The chorus used a repetitive melodic phrase for the first three lines before breaking into a couple of longer, anthemic lines, then returning to the primary theme.
In all, they invested about 90 minutes into writing “Not at This Party,” then another 90 minutes into cutting a demo that used the stomp-clap percussive backbone, the banjo, guitar, plus a fiddle part that Johnson’s wife, Lauren Conklin, remotely whipped up. Dasha knocked out her vocal in just two takes with a handheld SM7 mic. That performance became the centerpiece of the final recording.
“If I had time to overthink it, I might have sung it differently and it wouldn’t have hit as hard,” Dasha says. “I’m so grateful that that happened the way it happened.”
Johnson enlisted Johnny Reno to co-produce, with both of them playing additional instruments on top of the existing track. They also brought in drummer Aaron Sterling and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Fung, blending acoustic melodic pieces with disco-like percussion.
“I remember them making little tweaks for months to get this thing just to be perfect,” Gorley says.Johnson and Reno passed the track between them, each working separately, adding and subtracting small pieces. Reno piled more than 40 clap tracks onto the production, though the volume of parts involved isn’t necessarily evident in the final cut.
“That is an interesting thing about production,” Reno says. “If you have something not doing a lot, then you can fit a lot of things that aren’t doing a lot. But if you have one thing that’s doing a lot, it’s kind of hard to fit things around it.”
One unique thing Reno fit into it is a short sound around the 1:35 mark that sounds like a car screeching to a halt. “That’s just a big ‘hey’ sample,” Reno says. “It’s just a bunch of yelling, ‘Hey!’”
When “Not at This Party” became the choice for a single, a line about “s–tty beer” became a problem. Dasha discussed it with syndicated personality B-Dub when she took part in a Feb. 21 panel at Country Radio Seminar. He looked on ChatGPT for a synonym, and the best option was “pity beer.” She sang it into her phone in a closet at the host hotel, then emailed it to Johnson for the radio edit. Warner shipped it to broadcasters via PlayMPE on March 10.
“It’s similar enough to ‘Austin,’ ” she says. “It lives in the same world, but it’s so different. It adds this new sonic flavor to my repertoire, and it just felt like the biggest, and the realest, and the most eye-catching song out of this new album cycle.”
The roof of the renowned Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed early Tuesday (April 8), killing dozens and injuring more than 100 attendees, according to local authorities. The deadly incident occurred during a Rubby Pérez live performance, where more than 300 people gathered to see the merengue singer perform.
Located in Santo Domingo’s National District, the beloved live music venue — a go-to destination for locals and tourists alike — was celebrating its 50th anniversary, according to its Instagram account. “Dominican discotheque in charge of making its audience dance for more than 50 years,” an official description reads.
Hours after the collapse, the nightclub posted its statement: “Last night a tragedy occurred that has deeply touched the hearts of all of us at Jet Set and all Dominicans. At this difficult time, our prayers are with each of the families affected. We share their pain as if it were our own, because we are also in mourning. We are collaborating fully and transparently with the competent authorities to help the victims and clarify what happened. The loss of human lives leaves us in a state of deep pain and consternation. We join the expressions of solidarity from all over the country in this unexpectedly painful situation.”
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According to Enrique Paulino, Pérez’s manager, who spoke to reporters at the scene, the roof collapsed about an hour after the show’s midnight start time. The singer was transferred to the Plaza de la Salud Hospital, according to medical director Nepomuceno Mejía. Pérez’s saxophone player was killed in the incident, according to Paulino. It’s not clear what caused the roof to collapse.
Below are fo ur things to know about the emblematic Jet Set nightclub.
Location
Right in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, the nightclub was located in the city’s National District, which hosts various nightlife activities, including chic discotheques, hotels and upscale restaurants and bars.
Who Has Performed There?
Powerhouses such as Los Hermanos Rosario, Sergio Vargas, Omega and Fernando Villalon, to name a few, had performed at the Jet Set. Notably, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico performed there for the first time in 2008, in celebration of the nightclub’s 35th anniversary. Mondays were particularly busy for the live music venue.
Cultural Significance
Billboard Español contributor Franchesca Guim, who is from the Dominican Republic but is currently based in Spain, shares the importance of Jet Set. “The Jet Set has been part of the nightlife culture and entertainment in Santo Domingo. I would dare to say that it is a place of reference in the Dominican Republic, where locals and tourists attend to enjoy live orchestras,” she explains. “Christmas and New Year’s parties have been memorable, and part of the Dominican tradition. Any week lends itself to go to the Jet Set, because there is always a good atmosphere and above all live orchestras and music. My mom remembers that Jet Set Mondays became a tradition. Every Monday there was a party with a live orchestra.”
Background
Owned by businessman Antonio Espaillat, the Jet Set Club had a capacity of 700 seated and 1,000 standing room only. According to local reports, it had been remodeled several times to update its dance floor, ambiance, lights and sound. It is reported that in 2015 it underwent its last remodeling. In 2023, a fire affected the facilities after lightning struck its power plant.
