State Champ Radio Music
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GloRilla is currently trekking across North America while headlining her Glorious Tour, but ended up having to cut a St. Louis show short earlier this week after several fights broke out among the audience. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Per local affiliate FOX 2 Now, brawls […]
Sleep Token scores its first No. 1 on a Billboard multimetric chart, topping the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally dated March 29 with “Emergence.”
“Emergence” rises to No. 1 after debuting at No. 2 on the March 22-dated list via just one day of tracking data after being released on March 13. (It earned 2 million official U.S. streams, 211,000 radio audience impressions and sold 1,000 downloads that day, according to Luminate.)
In the week ending March 20, its first full seven days of tracking, “Emergence” accumulated 9.9 million streams, 528,000 impressions and 2,000 downloads.
The band’s Hot Hard Rock Songs reign follows a No. 2-peaking song in 2023 in “The Summoning.” “Emergence” became Sleep Token’s seventh top 10 on the ranking upon its debut, tying it with Ghost and I Prevail for the eighth-most top 10s since the list began in 2020.
Most Top 10s, Hot Hard Rock Songs
19, Bring Me the Horizon
17, Linkin Park
13, HARDY
10, Falling in Reverse
10, Five Finger Death Punch
10, Foo Fighters
8, Metallica
7, Ghost
7, I Prevail
7, Sleep Token
“Emergence” also rules Hard Rock Digital Song Sales for a second week and bows at No. 1 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs. It’s the band’s first ruler on the latter, eclipsing the No. 16 peak of “The Summoning,” and marks the survey’s first No. 1 debut since Linkin Park’s “The Emptiness Machine” in September 2024.
“Emergence” concurrently vaults 30-7 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Sleep Token’s first top 20 (“The Summoning” peaked at No. 22), and starts at No. 57 on the all-format Billboard Hot 100, the band’s maiden appearance. Its 9.9 million streams are even enough for a No. 50 debut on Streaming Songs, the first hard rock song to reach the list since Linkin Park’s aforementioned “The Emptiness Machine.”
As the lead radio single from Even in Arcadia, Sleep Token’s upcoming fourth studio album (May 9), “Emergence” debuts at No. 31 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, equaling the peak of “Granite,” the band’s only previous appearance on the ranking, from 2024.
Even in Arcadia is the follow-up to 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart dated June 3, 2023, and has earned 744,000 equivalent album units to date.
Bad Bunny‘s Un Verano Sin Ti is the gift that keeps on giving. The LP’s “Me Porto Bonito” — featuring Chencho Corleone — achieved a new milestone as it surpassed the one billion views on YouTube, nearly three years after it was released. The feat scores the Puerto Rican superstar his 16th Billion Views Club entry […]
Russell Wilson is heading back to the Empire State. A year after he signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback signed another one-year deal this week — $10.5 million with the New York Giants to become their starter, the NFL announced on Tuesday (March 25). To celebrate, the football […]
Last summer, Chappell Roan made headlines for loudly calling out predatory fan behavior through a series of social media posts. Months later, she says her interactions in public have drastically changed, with the “Hot to Go!” artist theorizing on Call Her Daddy that listeners are now too afraid to approach her.
“I think people are scared of me,” Roan told host Alex Cooper on the podcast posted Wednesday (March 26). “I think I made a big enough deal about not talking to me that people do not talk to me.”
“I’ve been with people, like, friends who are artists, and when they’re with me, they’re like, ‘It’s a force field around us. People don’t come up to me if I’m with you,’” the Missouri native continued. “I’m just like, ‘Damn, baby. You say it too. You say, ‘Don’t touch me, don’t touch me. Don’t look at me, don’t touch me. I don’t know who you are.’ And they won’t come up and bother you.”
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The interview comes about seven months after Roan sparked widespread discourse about how society treats celebrities in public, with the Grammy winner at the time emphasizing how scary it can be to have people touch her without consent, harass her family members or track her whereabouts. “Women don’t owe you s–t,” she wrote in an August note on Instagram. “I chose this career path because because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.”
On Call Her Daddy, Roan clarified that just because she felt the need to set boundaries with fans, doesn’t mean she enjoyed doing it. “It hurts that I have to … I know it really hurts people,” she said. “They feel like it’s me disrespecting them, that I owe it to them and that, how dare I call it abuse or complain about success. I get that a lot, but I’m not complaining about success. I’m just complaining about creepy behavior. I love admiration — everyone loves admiration. I just don’t want you to interrupt me when I’m having a fight with my girlfriend. Don’t be like, ‘Can I get a photo?’ when I’m crying, talking to my girlfriend. That’s f–king crazy.”
The reason Roan felt compelled to call out fans in the first place was due in part to how quickly she became a household name within the span of just a few months in 2024, thanks to the runaway success of her Billboard Hot 100 hit “Good Luck, Babe!,” summer festival appearances and album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. “It happened literally overnight,” Roan recalled to Cooper.
As her fame levels multiplied, so did the amount of creepy experiences with fans, a metamorphosis that Roan compared to a “second puberty.” “It’s like everything is gonna change, and everything is gonna hurt and everything is gonna be uncomfortable now,” she said. “Katy Perry was so straight up … When she came up to me at [Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s] Sweat Tour, she’s like, ‘Just don’t read the comments, honey. Bye bye.’ She just, like, hopped off, and I was, like, actually cackling. Like, why am I doing this to myself?”
“You don’t realize how many people are watching you, and you don’t realize they are,” Roan added. “Some people want me dead. It’s crazy. People know everything about me. People know my flight numbers. People know everything.”
Listen to Roan on Call Her Daddy below.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated April 5, we look at the chances of engaged performer-producer duo Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s collaborative set I Said I Love You First to unseat Playboi Carti’s Music atop the chart.
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Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco, I Said I Love You First (Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope): One of the most-anticipated pop sets of early 2025 comes from two longtime pop hitmakers: cross-platform megastar Selena Gomez and shapeshifting producer Benny Blanco. Last Friday (March 21), the pair – who have been sporadic collaborators for a decade and are now also a real-life couple who announced their engagement in December – released their first full album together, I Said I Love You First, following a whirlwind rollout.
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The set’s 14 tracks all of course feature vocals from Gomez and production from Blanco, but they’re hardly the only performers or behind-the-scenes contributors on the set. It also includes guest appearances from fellow contemporary stars Gracie Abrams (on the pre-release Billboard Hot 100 hit “Call Me When You Break Up”), J Balvin, GloRilla and The Marias, as well as writing and/or production assistance from recognizable names Finneas, Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, Dylan Brady (of 100 Gecs) and Cashmere Cat. Even Charli XCX shows up to co-write and performs background vocals on “Bluest Flame,” like she did for Gomez’s hit “Same Old Love” a decade earlier.
The album is also available for purchase in a wide variety of physical formats. There are seven different vinyl variants for sale — color variants and some with alternate covers, and one signed version available on her webstore – as well as three CD versions (standard, signed and a Zine/CD in expanded packaging) and a deluxe box set containing branded merch and a CD. What’s more, five d2c-exclusive download album variants have been released on her store, each purchasable for $5 –- all featuring alternative covers, three with a single bonus track each (“Stained,” “Talk” or “That’s When I’ll Care (Seven Heavens Version)”), and one being a commentary edition with 14 bonus commentary tracks about the album’s songs.
Gomez is certainly no stranger to the top of the Billboard 200, having bested the chart with each of her three solo albums to date, going back to 2013’s Stars Dance. Whether she will continue the streak as half of this star duo remains to be seen, however – it will have a high bar to clear, coming during the second week of the year’s biggest-debuting hip-hop album to date, and it will be hurt by the lack of an established lead single or major breakout hit on streaming. But the album has picked up on DSPs over the course of its release week, with Marias teamup “Ojos Tristes” and buzzy post-breakup song “How Does It Feel to Be Forgotten” climbing into the top 100 on both the Apple Music real time and Spotify Daily Top Songs USA charts.
Playboi Carti, Music (AWGE/Interscope): Carti’s Music bowed atop this week’s Billboard 200 with an eye-opening 298,000 units, according to Luminate, confirming the cult rapper’s long-rising stardom and setting a new bar for hip-hop releases in 2025. The blockbuster set also blanketed the Hot 100, charting every one of its 30 tracks on the listing, with its two best performing tracks (“Evil J0rdan” and “Rather Lie” alongside The Weeknd) entering in the top five, at Nos. 2 and 4, respectively.
With no physical version of the album yet shipped to fans – the album is available for pre-order in eight separate variants on his website – the set’s performance was almost all due to streaming. (There were three digital album variants available on his webstore, along with a widely available standard edition download, which helped account for its 14,500 in first-week sales.) Music’s streaming numbers should remain mighty in the set’s second week, though it has begun to slip noticeably from its early dominance on DSPs – while the album absolutely dominated the real-time and daily listings on Apple Music and Spotify its weekend of release, it is now down to just two songs in the top 20 on both services, and neither in the top five on either.
However, reinforcements are on their way. On Tuesday (March 25), the rapper announced the release of the album’s deluxe edition – subtitled Sorry 4 Da Wait – which includes four totally new tracks tacked on the end (which were actually the bonus tracks he tacked onto his webstore exclusive download variants of the album a week ago), bringing the tracklist to a staggering 34 cuts, and ensuring fans have plenty of reason to revisit Music this week. Given the set’s ever-expanding streaming volume, it’s expected to post units in the six digits in its second week, and be a tough album for even a star duo like Gomez and Blanco to unseat atop the Billboard 200.
Pablo Alborán begins a new chapter in his career with the release of “Clickbait,” the first single of his upcoming album, due out in November via Warner Music Spain. The upcoming seventh studio album follows La Cuarta Hoja (2022), but it won’t be his only new music on stage this year: The Malaga-born singer-songwriter is gearing up for his acting debut in a Netflix series, while mapping out an extensive tour set to span Latin America, the United States and Spain.
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Talking with Billboard Español, Alborán reflects on the past few months, describing them as one of the most emotionally intense periods of his life — a time that completely shifted his perspective and led him to rethink many things, including his music.
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“It’s been a year full of emotions, without a clear path,” he says. “But that’s exactly why I gave myself permission to explore, experiment with sounds, and, most importantly, have fun.”
The first glimpse of this new chapter is “Clickbait.” Released on Wednesday (March 26), it stands as one of the most striking songs of his career, not only for its bold, electronic-infused production but also for its powerful message.
“I’ve never spoken so openly about fame, envy, prejudice, and the obsession with likes,” Alborán explains. “It’s my way of venting, of releasing all the anger this world of fake news and sensationalism —where everything revolves around negativity — provokes in me. I wanted a song that could serve as both a shield and a sword for anyone who needs it.”
The track also experiments with new sonic elements, something that, according to Alborán, even surprised his mother. “It’s a different language — a mix of Spanish and English, saturated sounds, and references to what we consume on social media,” he says. “The first time my mom heard it, she was in shock — but by the third listen, she already knew the hook.”
The music video for the song, directed by La Carbonera Studio and filmed in Madrid, reinforces its critique of the image-obsessed world. In the video, Alborán walks in front of a mirror while a group of dancers tries to stop him from looking at himself: “Each character represents a figure in the industry: a paparazzo, an executive, a lawyer, an influencer,” he explains. “It’s a metaphor for everything that surrounds fame.”
Choosing “Clickbait” as the lead single for his upcoming album was not an easy decision. Beyond its bold sound and direct message, Alborán had to confront his own fears and the uncertainty of how it would be received. “I asked myself many times: ‘Am I ready to defend this? How will people react?’ But I went back to my first instinct. When I revisit the moment I wrote the song and remember why I did it, I know it has a purpose,” he says. “I’m not doing anything just for the sake of it.”
More than just a collection of songs, his upcoming album — whose title he has yet to reveal — is a window into how he sees the world. Through his music, he invites listeners into his bubble to experience his unfiltered vision, free of labels or prejudice. “It’s a very diverse album,” he says. “I talk about love from a different perspective, about my roots, family, and the people who care for us. And sonically, I’ve allowed myself complete freedom.”
The album features a wide spectrum of sounds ranging from country to flamenco bulerías, and even a special collaboration with renowned guitarist Vicente Amigo, further cementing Alborán’s connection to his Andalusian roots. This identity was formally recognized on February 28, when he was awarded the Medalla de las Artes by the Junta de Andalucía, honoring his contributions to Spanish music and his career achievements.
Far from being confined to a single genre, Alborán has embraced fearless experimentation. “The songs are in charge. If one called for a Dobro (a resonator guitar) and a country rhythm, I added it. If another needed a bulería, I gave it that too. I don’t want to be boxed in,” he says. “I think all artists feel the pressure of expectations, but I’ve learned to let go of that.”
In this process of musical exploration, one of his key collaborators has been Albert Hype, a producer known for his work with artists like Bad Bunny and Kali Uchis. “When we sat down in the studio for the first time, the first thing he said was, ‘Give me a ballad,’” Alborán recalls. “I thought, ‘Really?’ But when I saw what he did with it, I knew I could trust him.”
Their chemistry led to collaborations on several tracks for the album. “Once I saw that Albert understood my essence, I let him go wild,” Alborán says with a laugh. “At the end of the day, my voice is what defines me. It doesn’t matter if the song has touches of reggaetón, flamenco, or experimental pop — it will always sound like me.”
For this album, Alborán also collaborated with producer Julio Reyes Copello, with whom he has worked in the past. “Julio has produced two incredible songs. He’s someone I always connect with perfectly,” says the artist. “His sensitivity for taking a song to another level is unmatched.”
Alborán has made his mark on Billboard charts, with multiple entries on Hot Latin Songs, Top Latin Albums, and Latin Pop Airplay. His album Terral (2014) debuted at No. 1 on Latin Pop Albums and No. 2 on Top Latin Albums, while his collaboration “Dónde Está el Amor” with Jesse & Joy reached No. 16 on Hot Latin Songs and No. 8 on Latin Pop Airplay.
Music isn’t Alborán’s only focus in 2025. He will also make his acting debut in the Spanish Netflix series Respira, playing an emergency plastic surgeon in its second season, though the premiere date has yet to be announced.
“Acting has always intrigued me, but I had never taken the leap. When I was offered the role, my family couldn’t believe it. ‘Are you sure?’ they asked. I was asking myself the same thing,” he admits with a laugh.
To prepare, he spent months studying and even attended real surgeries to better understand the role. “It was intense, but it also helped me a lot on a personal level,” he shares. “I had just gone through a very difficult situation with a family member’s health, and being surrounded by doctors allowed me to see things from a different perspective. It all came together to bring more authenticity to the character.”
Filming has also served as an escape for him. “When the industry overwhelms me, acting feels like a breath of fresh air. I step into another character and disconnect. It’s my way of finding balance,” he says.
He is also preparing for his most ambitious tour to date, set to kick off in February 2026. “This tour is very special to me,” says Alborán. “Not only because it will be global, but because this album allows me to experiment on stage. I’ll be taking audiences through all the stages of my life, from my roots in Málaga to the present.”
His return to the United States and Latin America will be especially emotional following the experience of his last tour during a personally challenging time, as a close family member faced a health issue. “That tour saved my life,” he says about La Cuarta Hoja in 2023. “I went on stage carrying the hardest situation I’ve ever faced at home, and the audience, without knowing it, gave me incredible support. I’ll never forget it.”
On May 16, The Weeknd will bring his album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which topped the Billboard 200, to the big screen as a suspense thriller. Tomorrow has precedents in many yesterdays: Artists have been making movies out of albums, partly to boost their sales, for decades. March 19 marked the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Who’s Tommy. But The Who wasn’t first — and it certainly wasn’t the last.
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Anything You Want
“Arlo Guthrie is about to become The Thing to talk and write about,” trumpeted an ad in the Aug. 23, 1968, Billboard for the just-released Alice’s Restaurant movie based on his 1967 album of the same name. Soon, Guthrie’s name was littering the pages of Billboard, and a piece in the Oct. 18 issue said the film “sparked sales for the Reprise album … racking up $1 million sales.” A month later, the Nov. 15 issue showed the set at a new chart peak of No. 17 on the Billboard 200, two years after its release.
See It, Feel It, Buy It
Six years after The Who released Tommy, the British rockers followed it with a 1975 film starring Roger Daltrey as the titular pinball wizard. The Ken Russell movie was divisive: The March 29, 1975, Billboard ran two reviews. One praised it as a “gripping fantasmagoria,” while another panned it as a “travesty of worn-out symbolism and general tackiness.” The same issue also reported on “the record war between the original rock opera and the movie soundtrack,” which were on MCA and Polydor, respectively. Buyers bought in, pushing the soundtrack to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, above the original album’s No. 4 peak.
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Band From the ‘Club’
When the Bee Gees’ 1978 jukebox musical Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band hit theaters, expectations were as high as Lucy in the sky. The July 29, 1978, Billboard reported that the soundtrack of Beatles covers was “taxing virtually every record presser, jacket printing facility and freight company contracted to get the initial order of four million units in the hands of consumers.” A report from an advance screening told a different story: “A movie where the audience laughs at all the wrong moments is in trouble, no matter what its advertising budget.” It was a boon for The Beatles, at least: “Sales of Capitol’s Beatles catalog are surging,” according to the Aug. 26 issue.
Hitting a ‘Wall’
Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Billboard’s No. 1 album of 1980, famously inspired an animated film of the same name. Unfortunately, critics wanted to run like hell. “The $10 million movie adaptation of Pink Floyd’s international double-album bestseller was demolished” at a London premiere, reported the Aug. 7, 1982, issue. Despite an end-credits promise of a forthcoming soundtrack, one never appeared. “We intended to make a soundtrack album,” David Gilmour told the Sept. 18 Billboard. “But we just didn’t have enough new music to reasonably justify putting one out.”
This story originally appeared in the March 22, 2025 issue of Billboard.
After erasing her past, Ariana Grande is looking well into her future in a new teaser for her Brighter Days Ahead short film.
In the snippet posted on Instagram Wednesday (March 26) — just two days before the film and the accompanying Eternal Sunshine deluxe album are set to arrive — Grande returns to the Brighter Days memory-wiping clinic first seen in her 2024 “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” music video. In the original visual, the Grammy winner plays a heartbroken character named Peaches who has all traces of her ex wiped from her hippocampus, an homage to Michel Gondry’s 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
But in the short film, it seems that Peaches will revisit the clinic when she’s much older, with the teaser showing a wide shot of Grande sitting in a wheelchair as she waits for her name to be called. “Is there a Peaches here?” says an offscreen voice, robotically distorted in some places. “Peaches?”
The teaser’s cover art on Grande’s grid is a close-up photo of her hands clutching a peach-shaped purse. But while her fingers and the backs of her palms are clearly hers — distinguishable by her fading tattoos — her skin is withered and wrinkly, as if the 31-year-old star were actually about 80 years old.
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Grande has been leaving a breadcrumb trail of teasers ever since she first announced the Brighter Days Ahead short film March 12, just two days after she revealed that the Eternal Sunshine deluxe — which will feature six new tracks — was also on its way. Both the film and extended album will arrive Friday (March 28).
In another recent teaser, the only trace of Grande was in an adorable throwback photo of herself as a child tucked inside a pocket watch, which a man’s hands held open on a wooden table. The black-and-white clip also featured a Casablanca-esque wide shot of a man in a trench coat walking down an eerie street as an unseen violin plays a crackling melody.
This week, the Victorious alum also debuted part of one of the songs on the Eternal Sunshine deluxe. Fans who called her Brighter Days hotline (934-33-ERASE) could hear her singing over a starry mid-tempo beat, “Was I just a nightmare? Different dimensions, stuck in the Twilight Zone.”
The snippet likely belongs to a new song called “Twilight Zone,” the title of which Grande revealed along with the rest of the tracklist March 17. Other song titles include “Intro (End of the World) Extended,” “Warm,” “Dandelion,” “Past Life” and “Hampstead.”
See Grande’s new Brighter Days Ahead teaser below.
