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Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” rules the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart for a sixth total and consecutive week. The single, whose title fêtes late R&B icon Luther Vandross, who is sampled on the track, became Lamar’s sixth No. 1 and SZA’s third. Lamar and SZA each extend their longest career Hot 100 reigns with the song.
Meanwhile, “Luther” ties Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me,” in 2023-24, for the longest Hot 100 command for a rap hit since 24kGoldn’s “Mood,” featuring iann dior, led for eight weeks in 2020-21. The only longer domination for a rap hit this decade: 11 weeks, for Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” in 2020. (Rap titles are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart.)
Plus, Morgan Wallen’s “Just in Case” launches at No. 4 on the Hot 100, marking the country star’s 14th top 10 – and record fifth from an album prior to its release; his I’m the Problem is due May 16 – and Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” trots to No. 5, becoming her third top five hit.
Browse the full rundown of this week’s top 10 below.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated April 5, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, April 1. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
‘Luther’ Airplay, Streams & Sales
At the close of the new Alison Krauss & Union Station cut “The Wrong Way,” Krauss practically whispers the final line, “The one that I forgot.”
The “g” and the “t” on that last word are distinctly crisp and audible despite the softness of the moment, underscoring the singer’s reverence for the text.
The track is featured on Union Station’s Arcadia (March 28, Down the Road) — the band’s first project since 2011’s Paper Airplane — in which her uniquely fragile approach is once again front and center. Krauss’ crystalline tone is — as her fans have come to expect — immaculate, and her stylized enunciations and airy resonance seem to reach through the speakers in a personal way. But that emotional connection isn’t created in a vacuum. She leans on technical partners — producers and engineers — who capture her voice, paying particular attention to Krauss’ nuanced treatment of the most brittle sounds in the English language.
“There’s a high degree of intimacy in hearing those consonants and the fricatives,” says engineer Neal Cappellino, who co-engineered Arcadia with Rounder senior vp of A&R Gary Paczosa. “They have meaning to her. Everything like that has meaning.”
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In most country-based recordings, the lead vocal and the song itself are the primary connecting points for the listener. Thus, the singer’s ability to translate the melody and lyrics is key. But singers aren’t robots, so the physical and emotional condition that an artist experiences can vary from day to day. Dancing with the uncertainties, both technical and psychological, to elicit the ap-propriate vocal is part and parcel of the engineer’s job.
“The voice definitely has to be ready,” Paczosa says. “That can be tougher with a pure tone like [Krauss’]. That requires that everything’s in great shape, as far as no allergies or no dryness. Then your job as the engineer is to be ready when all of that happens.”
Perhaps the most valuable tool in an artist’s arsenal is an identifiable vocal sound. Finalists for the Academy of Country Music Awards, announced March 27, illustrate the point. Top nominee Ella Langley conveys a casual sarcasm. Cody Johnson calls on an impressive level of power. Lainey Wilson sounds ultra-Southern. Jelly Roll often trails off at the end of his phrases. And Chris Stapleton owns a soulful grit.
Producers and engineers employ plenty of technology to relay those signatures to the consumer, but the machinery is merely a tool.
“A lot of people complain about all this Pro Tools, auto-tuning stuff,” says Vince Gill, a five-time winner of the Country Music Association’s male vocalist of the year. “Let me tell you something: Auto-tune doesn’t make you more interesting. It only makes you more in tune, you know. And you can be perfectly in tune, but your voice still may not be very compelling.”
What’s compelling varies. Linda Ronstadt reached her commercial peak with impeccable, pre-Auto-Tune pitch and fierce dynamics. George Jones, considered by many to be the greatest country singer in history, built his reputation on wild dips and slurs, frequently a hair off-pitch. George Strait approaches material with classic, masculine understatement.
Strait’s long line of hits is directly related to his skill at matching his everyman resonance to songs that suit him.
“You can just raise the key a half-step or lower it a half-step, and he gets in that sweet spot of his voice,” says producer Tony Brown (Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn), revealed March 25 as one of this year’s Country Music Hall of Fame inductees. “It’s amazing that a tiny, little, subtle thing like that turns a song into one that sounds like George.”
Newcomer Greylan James instantly has his own identity, thanks in part to the sibilance in his first radio single, “Wait Til You Have Kids.” The “s” and “f” sounds are prominent, though not overdone. Many other artists would likely downplay that trait, but James embraced it.
“It’s getting the real-life character of a vocal,” James says. “For me, it’s [also] got to have some rasp to it.”
Artists and engineers can obsess, understandably, about the details in a vocal. They tinker with microphones, preamps, equalization, reverb and other effects to get what they perceive as the right sound. Once they settle on a vocal chain — as that series of machines and effects is called — they often use that same chain for every recording. Producer Lukas Scott (Hudson Westbrook, Austin Snell) is a fan of a Luke Audio Voodoo microphone that features a removable diaphragm. It allows the user to switch out a vibrating membrane that plays a part in converting the live tone to an audio signal. The removable diaphragm makes it easier to rifle through options until finding a tone that works for the producer and the singer.
“All the diaphragms look exactly the same,” he says, “but they sound completely different.”
The gear is just part of it, though. Cappellino focuses on three areas in his work: the musical, the technical and the interpersonal. Unlike, say, mathematics, where 2+2 always equals 4, a vocal is subjective. Artists typically need supportive feedback as they work through their part since there is no right or wrong answer to what works.
“It’s knowing what to say, what not to say, when to push, when to encourage, when to be patient, allowing something to unfold,” Cappellino says. “But really, you have to be honest with somebody in the moment, having a discriminating ear for technical things or a tuned-in sense for how it’s feeling.”
That’s harder than it might appear. Fans typically learn every wrinkle of a singer’s performance as they memorize a song, as if it’s the only way to perform it. But the artist always knows they can change a phrase, the melody, the dynamics or even the enunciation. They’re prone to wonder if they could improve it.
“The great singers I’ve worked with, that have long careers, are the ones that do second-guess themselves,” Paczosa says. “They’re sort of never happy with their voice or their performance.”
Most fans won’t actively identify what differentiates singers, but they’ll recognize voices that stand out. Those that carve their own place, as Krauss does with her precise tone and exacting consonants, are a product of their natural resonance and performance choices. The devil’s in the details, and the great singers tend to pay attention to the small stuff.
“Alison has amazing ears,” Paczosa says. “If you change something slightly — a different screen, little things that you might not even think about — she’ll say, ‘Something’s different.’ It may be something really small, but she usually hears it.”
This week, it was especially fitting that American Idol airs on Sundays. On the March 30 episode of the show, teenage contestant — and aspiring preacher — Canaan James Hill took the judges to church with his audition for the show, leaving Lionel Richie in particular stunned. Before diving into a soulful rendition of Earnest […]
This week, hitmakers Cody Johnson and Carín León pair up for a stone-cold, country-meets-Latin intertwining. Meanwhile, Tanner Adell releases one of the most powerful songs of her career with “Going Blonde.” Elsewhere, Cole Swindell brings a summer-ready new offering, while Laci Kaye Booth offers up a haunting new track. Steve Martin, Alison Brown and Tim O’Brien team up a new bluegrass outing, while duo Something Out West brings their latest rock-fueled offering.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country, Americana and bluegrass songs of the week below.
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Cody Johnson and Carín León, “She Hurts Like Tequila”
Cody Johnson and Carín León blend their signature sounds to put forth this slice of classic country punctuated with steel guitar and accordion, and English-meets-Spanish lyrics that accentuate the agility and passion in each artist’s voice. The two entertainers co-wrote the song with Johan Sotelo, Trent Willmon and Orlando Aispuro Meneses. Together, Johnson and León offer an intense rendering of this song praising a passionate lover whose affections are worth the heartbreaking pain that ultimately follows.
Tanner Adell, “Going Blonde”
With songs like “Buckle Bunny” and “FU-150,” Tanner Adell has become known for crafting and singing dance-worthy country-pop grooves that will anyone on the dancefloor. Her ethereal voice also appears on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter project. But with her latest, Adell shows another side to her story and artistry. She’s been open about being adopted, but here, Adell offers up a devastatingly honest song about the biological mother she never got to meet. “Going Blonde” chronicles her journey of longing for that maternal connection — even dyeing her hair blonde in a nod to her mother–while building up her own perceptions of her mother’s characteristics and persona in her mother’s absence. Written solely by Adell, “Going Blonde” showcases one of her most stunning, vulnerable vocals to date.
Laci Kaye Booth, “Daddy’s Mugshot”
Singer-songwriter Booth, who made her Grand Ole Opry debut on March 29, blends her gritty, bluesy vocal with a story arc of a defiant impulse that’s embedded deep in her bloodline. Over robust, glossy pop chords that balance her dusky vocals, she traces early-career music industry experiences, singing, “I made a record that didn’t break no records/ Only my soul,” then compares the resistance apparent in her father’s mugshot to her own rebellious streak in taking a chance on rebuilding her career on her own terms. This new track brims with confidence and steely determination.
Cole Swindell, “Spanish Moss”
Swindell’s latest is infused with sensual guitars to create this summery, carefree ballad that wraps in vivid imagery of breezy Southern coastlines and nights spent soaking in the summer heat. All in all, it makes for an easygoing track that pushes Swindell’s lilting twang into slightly sultrier territory than usual. He wrote the song with Devin Dawson, Jordan Minton and Jordan Reynolds, with production from Reynolds, Dawson and Jacob Durrett. “Spanish Moss” marks the title track to Swindell’s upcoming fifth studio album, out June 27 on Warner Music Nashville.
Steve Martin and Alison Brown (feat. Tim O’Brien), “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back”
Having previously collaborated on several songs including “Foggy Morning Breaking” and “Wall Guitar,” banjoists Alison Brown and Steve Martin reunite on their latest collaboration, teaming with vocalist and mandolinist Tim O’Brien for this heartfelt song about chasing musical dreams on a “5 days out, 2 days back” schedule while trying to stay connected with family back home. The song also features Bryan Sutton, Stuart Duncan, Todd Phillips and Vickie Vaughn. With superb harmonies and musicianship caressing the song and melding with O’Brien’s unmistakable leading voice, it infuses this song with a timeless resonance. “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back” is part of a new collection of music from Brown and Martin, which will be released on Compass Records.
Something Out West, “You Better Run”
Chet Hanks and Drew Arthur’s musical duo, Something Out West, has issued the latest preview of their upcoming EP, Leaving Hollywood, which releases June 20. “You Better Run” leans more heavily into the rock arena, with a mashup of bristling, pounding rock guitars and Hanks’s urgent, grainy vocal interlaced with lyrics such as “You’re running out of time/ On a ticking clock, she’ll be comin’ for you/ There’s no time to walk” Meanwhile, the music video builds on that lyrical theme by featuring Chet Hanks recreating scenes from his father Tom Hanks’ famous role in the 1994 Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks also makes a lengthy cameo in the clip).
Miley Cyrus has released the first song and visual from her upcoming album Something Beautiful, unleashing the cinematic “Prelude” on Monday morning (March 31). As indicated by its title, “Prelude” finds the pop star setting up the themes of her May 30-slated LP. As bright shots of shadows dancing over flowers flash in and out […]
One of Kurt Cobain‘s most iconic instruments is about to go on display for the first time in Europe. The Royal College of Music London announced that its “Kurt Cobain Unplugged” exhibit — which opens on June 3 and runs through Nov. 18 — will feature the late Nirvana singer’s rare Martin D-18E guitar, which […]
Five-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper Jordan Davis will hit the road again this year, when his 18-city, headlining 2025 Ain’t Enough Road Tour, produced by Live Nation, launches Sept. 11 at Acrisure Arena in Greater Palm Springs, Calif. As the “I Ain’t Sayin’” hitmaker prepares for the tour later this year, he says he’s feeling the pressure — in the best way.
“The most pressure I feel as a touring artist is when you announce that new tour and now it’s a blank slate,” Davis tells Billboard, noting his focus is on giving his best to find new ways of bringing his music and live shows to fans who have supported him since the beginning, from his 2018 debut album, Home State.
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“We’re so blessed with an amazing fanbase, truly, the people that have been to 30+ shows and who continue to come and see us and support us,” Davis says. “When I think of a new tour, that’s who I immediately go to, the day one fans. It’s like, ‘How do I do something that they haven’t seen?’ If I can do something that feels new and feels cool to a fan that’s been there from day one, I think I’m going to cover the wide range of fans we’ve picked up along the way.”
The Ain’t Enough Road Tour will make stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, St. Louis and more, before concluding Oct. 25 in Estero, Florida’s Hertz Arena. Davis will welcome “Hell Is a Dance Floor” hitmaker Vincent Mason as an opener. Also joining him is “Truth About You” hitmaker Mitchell Tenpenny, who previously opened for Davis on his 2024 Damn Good Time World Tour and joined Davis on Luke Combs’ recent stadium shows in Australia.
“Mitchell is a superstar,” Davis says, adding, “Vincent had ‘Hell is a Dance Floor,’ and I could not stop listening to that song. I saw he signed with Universal, where I’m signed and the second I saw that, I was like, ‘I’ve got to get this kid on tour.’ Mitchell and me have a good time and Vincent looks like he’s down to have a good time, too. It’s going to be some great music.”
It was one of those recent Australia shows with Combs and Tenpenny in Brisbane, Australia, that presented Davis with one of his most memorable onstage moments to date.
“There were storms coming in,” Davis recalls. “We were about three-quarters of the way through our show and I kept seeing the lightning getting closer. I thought, ‘I don’t know if we will be able to finish this [set] or not,’ and just then my drummer came through in our in-ears and was like, ‘We have to cut two songs.’ I always end ‘Buy Dirt’ with an a cappella piece. I finished ‘Buy Dirt’ and I’m standing out there like, ‘Ah, I can’t not do this.’ So, I just started singing it a cappella and about that time, it starts pouring rain. I’ve never heard a crowd get that loud in my life, singing every word. It was truly one of the most special moments I’ve had onstage.”
Starting with his 2018 Country Airplay chart-topper “Singles You Up,” Davis has become a radio chart mainstay thanks to songs including “What My World Spins Around” and “Tucson Too Late.” Two of his hit singles have earned song of the year accolades: ACM song of the year winner “Next Thing You Know” and CMA/NSAI song of the year winner “Buy Dirt.” Those songs helped spur his 2023 album Bluebird Days to platinum-selling status, and earlier this year, he notched the No. 2 Country Airplay hit “I Ain’t Sayin’.”
With his new song “Bar None,” he could potentially extend his chart-topping tally. Though Davis is often a co-writer on many of his hits, such as “Tucson Too Late” and “Buy Dirt,” his new song “Bar None” is an outside cut, written by Hunter Phelps, Lydia Vaughn and Ben Johns, with production by Paul DiGiovanni.
“I fell in love with it from the first time I listened to it,” Davis says. “The second you hear the hook, you want to be like, all right, I bet you they’re going to do this. This one surprised me. I didn’t really see it going here. I think about the line, ‘If moving on had a scoreboard it’d say, ‘You and your memory one/ Me and this bar none.’ It gave me a smile, like ‘Well done.’”
He adds, “I’ve always loved being able to kind of twist a hook. That’s one of my favorite things about songwriting, to take an idea and go somewhere completely different with it. It’s something that feels like a song I haven’t done from a production standpoint, even instrumentation-wise, with the banjo part [at the beginning].”
While his new single centers on a vain attempt at drowning heartbreak in a barroom, Davis’ time is devoted to his career and his family — both of which continue expanding as he keeps piling up hit songs, while he and his wife Kristen are expecting their fourth child. Davis says his growing family is looking at moving into a larger home.
Jordan Davis
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“That was actually the first thing, when my wife told me she was expecting, I was like, ‘Well, where are we going to put the nursery?’ So, we’ve started the search for a place with another bedroom.” Davis says they don’t know if the baby is a boy or girl yet, and notes, “We’re just going to wait and find out. We’ve got a girl [daughter Eloise, born in 2019] and two boys [Locklan, born in 2021, and Elijah, born in 2023], which means it’ll probably be another boy, which will increase the gray hairs on my head,” he says with a chuckle. “My boys want another brother, and my daughter really wants a sister.”
Even as he focuses on family and work, that doesn’t mean Davis doesn’t have a favorite Nashville bar he’ll visit on occasion.
“I think my buddy Luke [Bryan]’s got a good [bar] downtown with Luke’s 32 Bridge. My dad loves to come in town and go honky tonk. If he’s in town, we’ll go. That’s one of the few times I’ll hit up Broadway, and we usually always find ourselves at Luke’s.”
See the tour announcement video for the Jordan Davis Ain’t Enough Road Tour, featuring Peyton Manning and Jim Nantz, below:
Pre-sale tickets for the Ain’t Enough Road Tour will be available beginning Wednesday at 10 a.m. through Davis’s fanclub The Parish, while tickets for the tour go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. See the list of tour dates for the Jordan Davis: Ain’t Enough Road Tour below:
Sept. 11 – Greater Palm Springs, CA @ Acrisure ArenaSept. 12 – Concord, CA @ Toyota Pavilion at ConcordSept.18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek TheatreSept. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial TheatreSept. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta AmphitheaterSept. 26 – Independence, MO @ Cable Dahmer ArenaSept. 27 – St. Louis, MO @ Chaifetz ArenaOct. 2 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music HallOct. 3 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at FenwayOct. 9 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank ArenaOct. 10 – Rosemont, IL @ Allstate ArenaOct. 11 – Milwaukee, WI @ BMO PavilionOct. 16 – Dayton, OH @ Wright State University Nutter CenterOct. 17 – Hershey, PA @ Giant CenterOct. 23 – Duluth, GA @ Gas South ArenaOct. 24 – Savannah, GA @ Enmarket ArenaOct. 25 – Estero, FL @ Hertz Arena
Unlike some other artists, Guster did not cancel their booked gig at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center in the wake of the prestigious venue’s MAGA makeover in which Donald Trump had himself appointed as chairman and filled the organization’s board with loyalists while vowing to fill the stage with “non-woke” musicals such as his favorite, Cats.
In fact, Guster did just the opposite. During their gig on Friday night (March 28), the band staged a subtle protest against the administration’s planned make-over — which has quickly resulted in more than two dozens shows and performers canceling scheduled gigs — by bringing out the cast of Finn, an LGBTQ+ musical whose performances were called off after the Trump revamp.
Finn is a children’s musical that opened to good reviews at the Kennedy Center last year, telling the story of a young shark who “wants to let his inner fish out.” According to a video of the performance , Guster invited out the cast of the musical with trans themes, with singer Ryan Miller explaining, “I have a friend named Michael who wrote the songs for a musical called Finn” in the midst of the band’s show with the National Symphony Orchestra.
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“In the before times they were booked to play here at the Kennedy Center. But as all of you know, things happened, and the show is no longer being presented here,” Miller continued. “As the new administration has made abundantly clear, Finn’s themes of inclusivity, love, and self-acceptance aren’t going to be welcome in this building while they are in control. So tonight our band is here to say our stage is your stage. We are your allies, we stand with the LGBTQ community, and we want you to sing with us. Please welcome the cast of Finn and composer Michael Kooman.”
The six singers from the cast received a prolonged, raucous standing ovation before the performance of Guster’s “Hard Times” and then again after.
Following Finn‘s cancellation at the Kennedy Center — which the venue said at the time was a “purely financial decision” — the show was performed by a cast of Broadway stars for a one-night-only livestream at New York’s Town Hall earlier this month, with a portion of the proceeds earmarked for The Trevor Project. Among the stars who participated in the special event were: Andrew Rannells, Bonnie Milligan, Nikki M James, Kelli o’Hara, Lea Salonga, Michael Urie, Peppermint, Brenda Braxton and more.
To date, more than two dozen events have been canceled by the artists or postponed at the Kennedy Center following the Trump revamp, including shows by Issa Rae, a production of Hamilton, the National Youth Poet Laureate event, Blacks in Wax, as well as shows by Low Cut Connie and Amanda Rheaume, a book event with J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf and many more.
Morgan Wallen‘s hasty retreat from the stage at Saturday Night Live over the weekend during the traditional credits roll lovefest raised a lot of eyebrows. After performing two songs as the musical guest on the episode hosted by Oscar-winning Anora star Mikey Madison, Wallen whispered something into the actress’ ear and then abruptly walked off […]
Dua Lipa wrapped the Australian leg of her Radical Optimism world tour on March 29 with one last surprise for Sydney fans: a stripped-back duet of “Big Jet Plane” alongside Angus Stone. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The crowd at Qudos Bank Arena joined in on […]
