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Cyndi Lauper, who won best female video at the very first MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 14, 1984, is among the presenters at this year’s show, which is set for Sept. 11.
Lauper took best female video at that first show for her zesty “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and brought comic relief by explaining the VMA eligibility and voting rules in gibberish, which has been described as similar to “ancient Babylonian.”
Lauper was also the leading nominee at that first show with nine nods, but Herbie Hancock was the night’s big winner, with five wins.
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Carson Daly, who also has deep MTV roots, is also set to present. Daly hosted MTV’s popular TRL from 1998 to 2003. TRL was based on two previous shows, Total Request and MTV Live, both of which had also been hosted by Daly.
Other presenters set for this year’s show are Addison Rae, Alessandra Ambrosio, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Big Sean, Busta Rhymes, Damiano David (Måneskin), DANNA, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Flavor Flav, French Montana, Halle Bailey, Jordan Chiles, Lil Nas X, Miranda Lambert, Naomi Scott, Paris Hilton, Suki Waterhouse, Thalía and Tinashe.
Teddy Swims and Jessie Murph are set to make their VMA debuts by performing on the Extended Play Stage. Both are MTV Push artists and multiple nominees. Swims has four nods, including best new artist and best alternative. Murph has two, including best collaboration feat. Jelly Roll. Swims will perform “Lose Control,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and “The Door.”
Le Sserafim will make their U.S. award show debut by performing on the VMAs pre-show. The K-pop girl group recently landed their first Hot 100 hit (“Easy”) and performed at Coachella. Le Sserafim have had two top 10 albums or EPs on the Billboard 200 (Unforgiven and Easy).
Hosted by Nessa, Dometi Pongo and Kevan Kenney, the 90-minute live VMAs pre-show special airs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, MTV2, CMT and Logo.
Megan Thee Stallion is set to host and perform on the main show. Katy Perry will receive the Video Vanguard Award and perform a hit medley. Other performers include Anitta (feat. Fat Joe, DJ Khaled + Tiago PZK), Benson Boone, Camila Cabello, Chappell Roan, GloRilla, Halsey, KAROL G, Lenny Kravitz, LISA, LL COOL J, Rauw Alejandro, Sabrina Carpenter and Shawn Mendes.
With the addition of social categories, Taylor Swift still leads in terms of most nominations (12), followed by Post Malone (11), Eminem (eight), Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, Sabrina Carpenter + SZA (seven each); Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli xcx, GloRilla, LISA, Olivia Rodrigo + Teddy Swims (four each).
General fan voting closes Friday (Sept. 9) on MTV’s website. Voting for best new artist remains active through the show.
The 2024 VMAs will air live on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT across MTV’s global footprint, including BET, BET Her, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land, VH1 and Univision.
Bruce Gillmer and Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic are executive producers. Barb Bialkowski is co-executive producer. Alicia Portugal and Jackie Barba are executives in charge of production. Wendy Plaut is executive in charge of celebrity talent. Lisa Lauricella is music talent executive.
On Thursday (Sept. 6), Billboard and Tres Generaciones presented Joey Bada$$ with the Tres Generaciones Tequila Impact Award at the 2024 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players Event. Held at the Edition Hotel in Times Square, Billboard Deputy Director of R&B/Hip-Hop Carl Lamarre presented Bada$$ with the award for his impact on the community, courtesy of his […]
Emily Armstrong is taking the bitter with the sweet as she steps into her new role as Linkin Park co-vocalist amid the band’s surprise comeback. While speaking to Billboard‘s Jason Lipshutz about the rock group’s secret return, the Dead Sara co-founder opened up about both the excitement she feels as well as the emotions that […]
Iconic bossa nova producer, songwriter, pianist and song interpreter Sérgio Mendes has died at 83. The legendary Brazilian superstar whose career spanned more than six decades and helped craft the modern sound of Latin pop and dance died in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes.
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Beginning in his teens, Mendes — who was born on Feb. 11, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro — focused on dreams of becoming a classical pianist before being inspired by the then bubbling bossa nova explosion in the late 1950s that put a jazzy spin on the popular samba style. He honed his chops played clubs and performing with his bossa nova mentors, Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, before forming his first band, the Sexteto Bossa Rio, with whom he released his 1961 debut recording, Dance Moderno.
Mendes and his band quickly jumped from the clubs of Rio to New York, where Mendes played the first bossa nova festival at Carnegie Hall, followed by a pop-in at the iconic Birdland jazz club in 1962. That serendipitous visit led to an impromptu set with hard bop legend saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, resulting in 1963’s Cannonball’s Bossa Nova album, which featured a mix of jazz-tinged sambas with Mendes on piano. Mendes’ busy year also included contributions to American jazz flutist Herbie Mann’s 1963 albums, Do the Bossa Nova with Herbie Mann and its follow-up, Latin Fever.
After moving to the U.S. in 1964, Mendes formed the first in a series of eponymous bands, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’65 and released The Swinger From Rio album, with contributions from Jobim and American jazz trumpeter Art Farmer, followed by a live album recorded with his Brasil ’65 crew, In Person at El Matador.
Bouncing between recordings for Atlantic Records and Capitol, Mendes released albums at a furious pace throughout the late 1960s, quickly cementing his status as one of the premier ambassadors for the swinging bossa nova sound. But it was when he signed to jazz great Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Records that Mendes’ album sales and chart success began to take off thanks to the renamed Brasil ’66’s debut single, the Jorge Ben-penned “Mas que Nada.”
The track with lead vocals from American jazz singer Lani Hall, appeared on the platinum-selling Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 and ran up to No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, helping cement its status as one of Mendes’ most beloved songs. The group, which continued to chart through the decade with groovy samba-inflected covers of pop songs, including their Grammy-nominated 1968 take on the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill,” as well as the Fab Four’s “Day Tripper” and boss nova’d versions of the Mamas & the Papas’ “Monday, Monday” and the Cole Porter standard “Night and Day.”
The group’s second A&M album, 1967’s Equinox, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, followed a few months later by Look Around, which established a soon-to-be-familiar pattern of mixing bossa nova covers and originals with takes on popular English-language songs, including the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” and Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Dusty Springfield hit, “The Look of Love”; Mendes’ version bested Springfield’s on the U.S. charts, going all the way to No. 4 on the Billboard pop tally. The song’s popularity was boosted when Mendes performed the Oscar-nominated song from the James Bond movie Casino Royale on the 1968 Academy Awards telecast.
In 1968, Mendes replaced the entire Brasil ’66 lineup — with the exception of singer Hall — on the group’s fourth LP, Fool on the Hill, which spawned two top 10-charting singles with the Beatles cover title track and a take on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair.” Mendes released three more albums on A&M through the end of the 1960s — 1968’s Sergio Mendes’ Favorite Things and Crystal Illusions and 1969’s Ye-Me-Lê — which continued the winning formula of mixing bossa nova with grooving takes on Great American Songbook classics and American pop hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Glen Campbell and Bacharach/David.
His output continued apace in the 1970s, when he released more than a dozen albums, including 1970’s Stillness, which featured new lead vocalist Gracinha Leporace and Love Music, his third album with the reconfigured band — now known as Brasil ’77. The familiar formula continued apace, mixing songs by Jobim with covers of well-known tunes by Stevie Wonder and Leon Russell.
By the 1980s his release schedule began to slow, but Mendes’ popularity bumped up again with 1983’s self-titled album, which gave him his first top 40 LP in more than a decade, as well as his highest-charting single, the No. 4 Hot 100 adult contemporary hit written by Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, “Never Gonna Let You Go.” Mendes scored his only Grammy win in 1992 with Brasileiro, which won the 1993 Grammy for best world music album.
In 2006 he teamed with Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am for Timeless, a No. 44 Billboard 200 LP which featured vocals from a raft of neo soul singers including Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and india.arie, as well as Q-Tip, John Legend, Stevie Wonder and Justin Timberlake.
Mendes continued to release music throughout the 2000s, including his final studio album, 2020’s In the Key of Joy. In addition to his Grammy award and two Latin Grammys, Mendes was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for his theme song to the animated film Rio, “Real in Rio.” Mendes was also profiled in the 2020 documentary Sérgio Mendes: In the Key of Joy.
Listen to some of Mendes’ most beloved songs below.
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With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22 and No. 21 stars, and now we remember the century in Bruno Mars — one of the century’s great writers, performers and hitmakers, who essentially arrived to early-’10s pop already on top of the world and has scarcely left his perch since.
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Before Bruno Mars became synonymous with near-flawless Grammy track records and surefire Billboard Hot 100 smashes, the 21st century’s preeminent old-school musical showman was cutting his teeth in the pop songwriting trenches. By racking up hits and placements across pop and R&B on both sides of the pond, Mars set a sturdy foundation for one of the most towering male pop careers of the 21st century.
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Born Peter Gene Hernandez – “Bruno” comes from a childhood nickname and “Mars” is because he’s “out of this world,” and wouldn’t you agree? — and hailing from Hawai’i, Mars grew up in a family of musicians and began his performance career at the ripe age of four years old. That Mars got his start performing in his family’s band, The Love Notes, and developed an early reputation as his Hawai’i’s own Little Elvis is nothing short of cosmically poetic given how his career and positioning in the American pop ecosystem is informed by that of both Elvis and Michael Jackson.
After four years of false starts with a failed label deal and a slow-burner of a publishing deal, Mars began to hit his stride in 2008. By then, Mars had cracked the code of his personal twist on pop songwriting in collaboration with Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine, collectively known as The Smeezingtons: explorations of love and pain rooted in grand, sweeping metaphors and live instrumentation steeped in cross-genre ‘80s influences. Just two months into 2009, Mars netted his breakthrough hit as a songwriter: Flo Rida and Kesha’s 2009 Billboard Hot 100-topper “Right Round.”
That anthem arrived in the first month of the last year of the ‘00s decade, and Mars quickly followed it up with a pair of tracks – K’Naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” Coca-Cola’s 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, and Sugababes’ “Get Sexy” — that both hit No. 2 in the U.K. the following year. Recognized and respected for his songwriting chops, Mars closed out 2009 with the release of the song that would launch him into pop’s mainstream as a vocalist and artist in his own right: B.o.B.’s bubbly Hot 100-topping “Nothin’ On You.”
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Positioned as the lead single from B.o.B.’s — then a buzzy Blog Era emcee – major label debut LP, “Nothin’ on You” still stands an era-defining rap&B love ballad, and its success foretold the hip-hop collaboration template Mars would return to throughout his navigation of Top 40’s zenith. Mars would release another pop-rap collab — “Billionaire” (with Travie McCoy) just three months later, earning him another Hot 100 top five hit (No. 4) and more good will with Top 40 radio, while helping usher in 2010s social media’s obsession with speaking things into existence.
Two months after “Nothin’ on You” topped the Hot 100 in May 2010, Mars properly launched his recording career with “Just the Way You Are,” his debut solo single and lead single from his career-launching Doo-Wops & Hooligans LP. Although some critics initially discounted the song’s sappy lyrics, “Just the Way You Are” eventually became Mars’ first solo Hot 100 chart-topper and earned him his first Grammy, for best male pop vocal performance. That sappiness – which is often just a dual heavy-handed dose of earnestness and appreciation for eras of pop music’s past – is what drew listeners to Mars’ heart-on-your-sleeve anthems throughout the 2010s, especially as the decade began its descent into the kind of cynicism that now derides such displays of ardor.
Bruno Mars
Kevin Mazur/BBMA18/WireImage
Bruno Mars
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Doo-Wops & Hooligans peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and has since spent nearly 700 weeks on the ranking. In addition to “Just the Way You Are,” the set also spawned the No. 1 hit “Grenade,” while third single “The Lazy Song” hit No. 4. Doo-Wops, a whimsical debut that melded Mars’ love of R&B and reggae with his pop appeal, found Mars taking his trademark tenor to soaring new heights, delivering feel-good anthems and love-proclaiming power ballads in one fell swoop. The spirit of Elvis shined through his look – hipster era fedora-toting artsy guy who occasionally sports a pompadour-inspired haircut – and his stage show.
Mars’ music didn’t yet call for the physicality of funk, so he found a sweet medium playing a coy multi-instrumentalist heartthrob who wasn’t afraid to bust out a few hip thrusts to get some pulses racing. His debut LP was the kind of smash album that spun gold out of deep cuts: Though they weren’t officially promoted as U.S. radio singles, you’d be hard pressed to find an American over the age of 15 who doesn’t know “Runaway Baby,” “Count on Me” or “Marry You.” Even “Talking to the Moon” got an unexpected TikTok-led resurgence in 2021.
Though Mars went straight for pop music’s zeitgeist with Doo-Wops, he always kept several toes in the worlds of hip-hop and R&B. For one of the tours he went on to promote the album, he co-headlined a 29-date joint trek with Janelle Monáe — who also released her debut LP in 2010, cementing herself and Mars as the decade’s mainstream torchbearers of funk. In 2011, the year between his debut and sophomore efforts, Mars also scored three consecutive Hot 100 top 20 hits alongside rappers: Bad Meets Evil’s “Lighters” (No. 4), Lil Wayne’s “Mirror” (No. 16) and Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa’s “Young, Wild & Free” (No. 7).
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By 2012, Mars had morphed into a more evolved synthesis of his inspirations as opposed to just a 2010s-tinted reflection of them. Unorthodox Jukebox, which featured his first collaborations with one Mark Ronson (wink wink), effortlessly cemented Mars’ status as one of the most commercially dependable male pop stars of his time. Lead single “Locked Out of Heaven,” ushered in a friskier Mars, who had traded the saccharine doe-eyed glimmer of Doo-Wops for the more explicit musings of an embattled lothario. Just over a year removed from notching one of the young decade’s earliest surefire wedding anthems with “Marry You,” Mars brought a chorus of “your sex takes me to paradise” all the way to the top of the Hot 100.
With influences ranging from Jackson to The Police, Unorthodox Jukebox appropriately cast a wider sonic net than its predecessor, but the piano-and-vocal ballad “When I Was Your Man” proved to be the album’s most enduring hit. A heart-wrenching beg-on-your-knees ballad, “When I Was Your Man” became just the second exclusively piano-and-vocal song in Billboard history top the Hot 100. The first track? None other than Adele’s “Someone Like You” the year prior, a neat chart stat that reveals Mars as something of a parallel to Adele – two 2010s commercial juggernauts whose old-school affects and robust vocals made them pop music powerhouses in the aftermath of the EDM takeover. With “When I Was Your Man,” Mars racked up his first five Hot 100 No.1s faster than any male soloist since Elvis. How’s that for a guy who spent his childhood professionally impersonating The King of Rock ‘N’ Roll? “Treasure” — whose funky disco synths laid the foundation for Mars’ next sonic evolution – was the final hit single from Unorthodox Jukebox (No. 5) and remains a staple in his live shows.
Bruno Mars
Ethan Miller/WireImage
Bruno Mars
Steve Granitz/WireImage
Unorthodox Jukebox was another triumphant era for Mars, so much so that it helped launch him to one of pop music’s biggest stages: the Super Bowl halftime show. Yes, Mars had netted a Grammy for both of his LPs, alongside a hefty bag of hit singles, but it was still borderline unfathomable that a pop artist under the age of 30 with just two studio albums was asked to headline Super Bowl halftime . Mars wasn’t just one of pop’s biggest stars, he arguably had the widest appeal of any musician at the time – thanks to his diverse background and the fondness for both the classic and modern, he’s been embraced by audiences across generations and genres — and if the 2010s have taught us anything, it’s that those two things aren’t always synonymous. (Of course, it also helped his Super Bowl gig that his special guests were Red Hot Chili Peppers.)
Mars’ halftime show – which was the highest-rated at the time and drew more viewers than the game itself – found him powering through his small, but mighty, discography, flaunting his chops as a vocalist, dancer and instrumentalist. This era also spawned Mars’ first and only theatrical role: Roberto in the $500 million-grossing animated film Rio 2. The modern pop star template normally includes flashy relationships, major brand deals, and flirtations with other lanes of the entertainment industry, but Mars has avoided all of that for pretty much his entire career. Yes, he has a handful of brand deals and endorsements under his belt, but Mars’ stardom is almost uniquely tied to his music and not much else. Nobody really cares who Bruno Mars might be dating or what he might be wearing or what products he might use. We care about the hits, and few can deliver them as consistently as he does.
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Mars would take four years to drop off his third studio album, but the years in the interim between Unorthodox Jukebox and 24K Magic were anything but quiet. After opening the year with his Super Bowl performance, Mars closed it out with the release of “Uptown Funk!” As Billboard’s No. 1 Hot 100 Song of the 2010s, “Uptown Funk” is the kind of genuine cultural phenomenon and musical juggernaut that feels damn near impossible in this age of hyper-fragmented social media silos. From Mars’ annoyingly charming vocal performance to an irresistible brass breakdown, “Uptown Funk” was simply inescapable. Mars’ presence on the track was also so outsized that many forget it’s not even his song. “Uptown Funk,” the lead single from Ronson’s Grammy-nominated 2015 Uptown Special LP, gifted the famed producer his biggest hit in close to a decade. The song was such a big hit that it didn’t even really feel like Mars was between album cycles — a period that also found him co-writing “All I Ask” from Adele’s 25 album and staging an epic dance battle alongside Beyoncé during Coldplay’s Super Bowl halftime show.
To usher in 2016’s 24K Magic era, Mars traded in the snazzy slightly unbuttoned sex appeal of Unorthodox Jukebox for matching silk sets and gold rings galore. After dropping heavier hints with each subsequent release, Mars’ R&B era was finally here in full effect. 24K Magic – a lovingly crafted ode to funk and new jack swing – arrived during something of a transitional period for mainstream R&B. The genre’s future stars – SZA, Summer Walker, etc. — hadn’t yet made their major label debut, while The Weeknd’s rise to stardom thrusted murky blogosphere soundscapes to pop’s mainstream, upending expectations for what male R&B crossover stars could and should sound like. Enter Bruno Mars doubling down on some of R&B’s most vocally and physically intensive styles in the face of an era that all but formally rejected classic entertainers in favor of Internet mystique. It’s no wonder 24K Magic landed the way it did; here was someone making classic R&B jams during a time when we were debating whether half the stuff labeled as “R&B” even belonged under that umbrella.
24K Magic launched three Hot 100 top five hits: the title track (No. 4), “That’s What I Like” (No. 1) and “Finesse” (No. 3). Now six years into his recording career, Mars was able to bend top 40 radio to his will, sending some genuine R&B jams to the top of Pop Airplay in an era where hip-hop had all but eclipsed R&B as far as Top 40 was concerned. Though he himself still side-stepped becoming an all-around cultural figure, Mars showed off his eye and ear for what makes the interwebs buzz by tapping Zendaya for the “Versace on the Floor” music video and Cardi B – in the midst of her breakout year – for the “Finesse” remix and its accompanying In Living Color-themed music video.
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At the 2017 BET Awards, Mars opened the show with “Perm,” a 1960s James Brown-indebted funk track in which he sings, “Throw some perm on your attitude/ Girl, you gotta relax.” It was quite the sight to watch a non-Black man open a Black awards show using a perm metaphor to tell (presumably Black) women to calm down. That performance perfectly encapsulated the tension that lay at the heart of the 24K Magic era: What were we to do with this non-Black pop star taking overtly Black sounds and styles to the apex of mainstream music while actual black R&B artists struggle to get a second look? Claims of cultural appropriation hounded Mars throughout this era, and Black music elders (somewhat unsurprisingly) came to his defense.
Mars himself would address the discourse years later in a 2021 Breakfast Club interview where he said, “The only reason why I’m here is because of James Brown, is because of Prince, Michael [Jackson] … that’s it. This music comes from love and if you can’t hear that, then I don’t know what to tell you.” To a degree, he’s right. Mars’ case isn’t like Iggy Azalea’s or Miley Cyrus’ or Post Malone’s, but it’s still one of the more uncomfortable byproducts of a music industry constructed with the building blocks of racial capitalism. Just as his inspiration Elvis proved decades prior, it’s always easier to sell Black music to America with a non-Black face.
By the end of the album cycle, 24K Magic netted five Soul Train Music Awards, his first two BET Awards, his first three NAACP Image Awards and seven Grammys – including album, record and song of the year, as well as his first wins in the R&B field. Moreover, the set’s supporting tour earned Mars his first $300 million-grossing trek. If it wasn’t clear already, anything Bruno Mars touched turned into 24k gold.
In the period following 24K Magic, Mars laid low – and there was no “Uptown Funk”-level hit to blow his cover. Anderson .Paak served as the opening act on the European leg of the 24K Magic World Tour, beginning a fruitful period of collaboration between the two funk and R&B aficionados. Meanwhile, he dropped “Please Me” with Cardi B (one of the more forgettable singles in both of their catalogs), dipped his toes into hard rock alongside Chris Stapleton on Ed Sheeran’s “Blow,” and earned rhythmic radio smash with “Wake Up in the Sky” (with Gucci Mane & Kodak Black).
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After spending the majority of the pandemic’s first year writing, Bruno emerged in 2021 alongside .Paak as the superduo Silk Sonic. The move was as left-field as Mars gets: He was undoubtedly the bigger star of the two, but the slightly edgier .Paak held the key to the kind of critical acclaim that sometimes evaded him as a more crowd-pleasing entertainer. .Paak — who is half-Black – also helped cover that base as Mars moved into his most R&B-indebted era yet. Zeroing in on Philadelphia soul, Mars and .Paak effectively became a tribute act, from their sultry falsetto-laden harmonies to their snazzy earth toned costumes. “Leave the Door Open,” the lead single from An Evening With Silk Sonic, was met with near-universal acclaim, earning the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 and four Grammys. For many listeners, “real” R&B was back on top after years of vibey trap&B dominating the airwaves and streaming playlists alike.
To an extent, “Leave the Door Open” was lightning in a bottle: Between the hype of Mars’ comeback, the promise of a new musical superduo and the strength of its melody, “Leave the Door Open” reached heights unmatched by any of its follow-up singles. “Smokin Out the Window” was the album’s lone additional top 10 hit, reaching No. 5. Silk Sonic’s debut LP entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, shifting 104,000 units in its first week with 42,000 copies sold in traditional album sales – a solid showing for what could have easily been written off as a side project, but still somewhat eyebrow-raising considering Mars’ past opening week totals.
Now over a decade into his recording career, Mars has once again returned to the top of the charts. This time, he tapped Lady Gaga for “Die With a Smile,” a soaring ballad that blends pop, soul, country and rock. Already both artists’ first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Global 200, it wouldn’t be surprising in the slightlest if the Grammy-contending duet soon notched both superstars their latest Hot 100 chart-topper.
In addition to his breathless catalog of hit singles and smash albums, Bruno Mars also has some of the century’s biggest tours and residencies under his belt. In many ways, Mars is a true songwriter’s pop star. Sure, there are jokes about his past cocaine use and alleged (and debunked) Vegas debt, but the vast majority of his cultural pull comes from his dependability as a commercially successful pop singer and prodigious pop songwriter. Who needs a cult of personality or a decade’s worth of lore to sustain a 21st century pop career when you’ve got that level of talent and charm, and a hefty bag of enduring wedding-level classics to boot? Bruno Mars is complete proof that the pop templates of past eras can still thrive in the 21st century – as long as they come in the form of a curly-headed and superhumanly talented short king.
Read more about the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century here and check back on Tuesday when our No. 19 artist is revealed!
The devil, or demons, have been referenced in a string of current and recent singles, including Jelly Roll’s “Halfway to Hell” and “I Am Not Okay,” Tyler Braden’s “Devil I Know,” Ashley McBryde’s “The Devil You Know” and Jackson Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy.” Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Demon or Ghost,” recorded with metal band Underoath, was released Aug. 9; Lee DeWyze issued “Devil in the Details” on Aug. 2; Stephen Wilson Jr.’s “The Devil” is the opening track on his debut project, Son of Dad; and Lainey Wilson’s just-released Whirlwind slips in “Devil Don’t Go There.”
A new Jon Pardi single – “Friday Night Heartbreaker,” released today (Sept. 6) – casts a stunning woman as a Medusa-like “hell raiser” and a “devil in disguise.”
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It’s not like it’s an entirely new subject — The Louvin Brothers’ “Satan Is Real” ranks among classic country’s deepest discussions of the dark angel and his role in humanity — but the current volume of devil themes, and the weight of the songs they appear in, seems significant.
“We see more people confessing what they’re really feeling and being a little more open and honest,” says songwriter Ashley Gorley, who co-wrote “I Am Not Okay,” which references “the devil on my back and voices in my head.” “I think the devil is real, so I think it’s showing up in people’s writing.”
One obvious source for the topic lies in the pandemic. When COVID-19 forced creatives off the stage and into their houses, they had plenty of time for self-examination, questioning who they were, why they had made certain life choices and the meaning of the world around them.
“It’s very easy to look at the past few years and recall moments of dark, and I think that with the darkness comes the imagery,” DeWyze notes. “As far as the devil being in music now, it’s almost like it represents those things, whether it be the faith and redemption or the existential struggle, or, you know, a physical being literally at your door.”
Historically, the devil has represented temptation in country music. Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman,” Alan Jackson’s “Between the Devil and Me,” Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” (in which “the devil drives a Coupe de Ville”) and Terri Gibbs’ “Somebody’s Knockin’ ” (depicting him with “blue eyes and blue jeans”) all place Satan in the equation as its characters grapple with sexual tension and betrayal.
“The devil is always, I hate saying it, but an interesting character to me,” confesses Academy of Country Music songwriter of the year Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote “Halfway to Hell” and “Friday Night Heartbreaker.”
“It’s like this tempter or temptress always.”
The ultimate temptation comes when the devil persuades a victim to sell their soul for a short-term outcome. That’s at work in the movie Damn Yankees when a Washington Senators fan plots to bring down the New York baseball team. It’s at the heart of the legend behind blues icon Robert Johnson. And it’s the storyline in the The Charlie Daniels Band’sLuciferian country tale, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
“It personifies the duality of dark and light, and the feeling of struggling with those demons,” Jelly Roll notes.
“My favorite devil song by far is ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Pardi adds, “because the guy won. He won the fight.”
Beyond that song’s surface entertainment, though, is a much deeper concept that hints at the never-changing struggle between right and wrong. Cheaters and criminals, in general, earn their reputations by stealing short-term gain while ignoring potential long-term consequences. It’s a battle that plays out daily in politics, in finance, in barroom pickup lines and even in artistic decisions.
“My favorite songwriter ever, Bobby Braddock, told me, ‘Mitchell, are you writing music for a lunchtime or a lifetime?’ ” Tenpenny recalls. “I think there’s a lot of lunchtime music right now, and we need that lifetime music again. Can we make a quick buck to this? Yes, but it’s going to kill so many souls, and that’s where the devil gets involved, in my opinion, and why we keep using him as a metaphor.”
Musical trends in country have made it easier to chase the devil thematically. HARDY, Jelly Roll and Tenpenny are among the artists who have employed hard rock in varying degrees within country. Acts in that format have often toyed with Satanic imagery in songs, stage wear and graphics, and the infusion of power chords and death screams into country practically requires the devil to tag along.
“As far as the look and aesthetics, the devil and demons have always been in the rock’n’roll scene,” Tenpenny maintains. “T-shirts and metal, skeletons, skulls, that kind of thing has always been a part of it. I think that that definitely has an influence.”
But another musical development that may have paved the way for Satan’s ascent in country might well be Eric Church. Particularly notable is his track “Devil Devil” from The Outsiders, with a spoken-word “Princess of Darkness” prelude that links Music Row to hell: “The devil walks among us, folks, and Nashville is his bride.” Church even employed a 40-foot inflatable devil on his 2015 tour, nicknaming the blow-up doll “Lucy Fur.”
Church’s road guitarist Driver Williams co-wrote Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy,” alluding to demons in the opening verse and expressing surprise in the chorus that St. Peter would “ever let a sinner like me in” to heaven. That latter phrase is a direct homage to Church’s debut album, Sinners Like Me.
“Eric has a theme of good versus evil that kind of goes throughout his writing,” Williams observes. “I just can’t help it if that rubs off on me in the writing room a little bit just because I do look up to him so much as a songwriter.
“You look at all the major superstars right now, from Luke [Combs] to Morgan [Wallen] to Thomas Rhett, their idol is Eric — Jelly Roll, too. So I definitely see Eric’s handiwork rubbing off on all of these major superstars that are having moments right now.”
Satan, it turns out, may contribute to artists’ successes when he appears because he offers so much possibility for the protagonist.
“You immediately become the hero in the story,” DeWyze says, “when the devil is placed in it.”
Ultimately, the devil is having his moment because the world seems so tough. The pandemic may be behind us, but years of political turmoil and cultural negativity that predated COVID-19 still drag down the national conversation. That most certainly plays in the background as the devil takes the spotlight.
“Country music looks at that and it tries to give a positive at the end,” Pardi suggests. “We may be singing about darker times, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel in country music.”
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Teezo Touchdown accepted the Rookie of the Year award at Billboard‘s 2024 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event Thursday night (Sept. 5) at Times Square Edition in New York. Senior R&B/Hip-Hop/Afrobeats writer Heran Mamo introduced the 31-year-old artist, describing him as someone who “embodies the emotional melodies of an R&B singer, the clever lyricism of a rapper […]
Oasis officially announced its Oasis Live ’25 Tour across the United Kingdom and Ireland in August, marking the band’s first shows together in more than 15 years. It makes sense for the British group to kick things off overseas, but speculation has ramped up regarding a possible extension to North America – as the tour announcement included a hopeful statement of “plans are underway for (the tour) to go to other continents outside of Europe later next year.”
Looking back, how big of a touring act was Oasis during its original run, and what does that mean for a potential tour next year?
Oasis Live ’25 Tour is currently scheduled for 19 shows in stadiums across London, Dublin and the Gallagher brothers’ hometown of Manchester, England, and select other markets in the U.K., including two recently added shows at London’s Wembley Stadium due to “phenomenal public demand.” Next year’s stadium tour will be the band’s first stab at the outsized outdoor venues, but considering the activity surrounding the shows’ on-sale, it’s warranted. If the tour travels stateside, similar-sized shows would represent a major step up for the band.
The band’s last tour was the Dig Out Your Soul Tour in 2008-09, playing large theaters and scaled-down arenas in North America and Europe, with a mix of arenas and stadiums in Latin America. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, that run averaged a career-best 12,108 tickets per show worldwide, up 37% from its previous tour, which itself marked a 15% increase from its previous high.
Oasis peaked as a touring act throughout the 2000s, despite making its biggest chart impact across its first three albums from 1994 to 1997. Those – Definitely Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now – combined for 125 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart and six top 10 hits on the Alternative Airplay chart. In the 21st century, the band has spent about one-fifth of that time on the former chart and hasn’t returned to the top 10 on the latter. Still, their touring business kept blossoming, growing by 60% in average attendance and multiplying by four in average revenue.
While Oasis hasn’t released a studio album since 2008’s Dig Out Your Soul, it’s likely that its concert fortunes have continued to grow exponentially. Time away from the spotlight and the natural nostalgia cycle positions them alongside Blink-182, Green Day and My Chemical Romance, all of which have yielded enormous Boxscore results from reunion and anniversary tours in the last 24 months. MCR averaged $1.6 million per show in 2022-23 after an 11-year touring hiatus, which is about 10 times its prior peak.
Oasis operated closer to Green Day in terms of ticket sales in the ‘90s and ‘00s. Also oscillating between theaters and arenas during its first 15 years, Green Day has launched its first solo-headline global stadium tour in 2024, averaging $3.4 million and 38,000 tickets per show in Europe.
Further, Oasis has a unique element adding fuel to its fire, as the long-simmering feud between Oasis’ leading brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher has helped to grow the band’s mythology, and therefore making the 2025 tour announcement feel like a once-in-a-lifetime event. Once hailed “The Next Beatles,” Oasis’ mid-2020s return to the stage adds to their singular legend.
And while Oasis has revealed only U.K. and Ireland dates so far, fans far and wide have reacted. Following the Aug. 27 announcement, “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall” both debuted on the Billboard Global 200 (dated Sept. 7), up 138% and 72% in official worldwide streams in the week of Aug. 23-29, according to Luminate. On the Sept. 14-dated chart, both may post triple-digit-percentage increases.
In the United States specifically, Oasis’ entire catalog of songs yielded 13.5 million official on-demand streams, up by 148% in the week ending Aug. 29. With similarly massive gains in the U.S. as around the world, the possibility of a U.S. stadium tour would make Oasis one of 2025’s biggest global touring acts.
Dating back to the fall of 1994, Oasis has grossed $45.2 million and sold 1.1 million tickets across 150 reported shows. Given the band’s long-awaited and unexpected reunion, the endurance of its catalog, and the general explosion of concert ticketing, a world tour would easily out-gross and out-sell the band’s entire touring history.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were riding high after the Kansas City Chiefs’ big win Thursday night (Sept. 5).
The 2024-25 season kicked off with the team defeating the Baltimore Ravens 27-20 at Arrowhead Stadium, where the 34-year-old pop star was present to cheer on her favorite tight end alongside his family and friends in a box suite. Immediately afterward, Swift filmed a video with Chariah Gordon — who is engaged to wide receiver Mecole Hardman — celebrating the reigning Super Bowl champions carrying over their winning streak from last season.
“Post-game interview with Chariah,” the 14-time Grammy winner tells the camera in the clip, which was posted on Women of The NFL’s Instagram Story. “I’m feeling fantastic.”
After Kelce changed out of his uniform, he and Swift exited the stadium holding hands and smiling at fans who cheered as the couple walked past. The “So High School” singer sported a denim crop top and shorts paired with red thigh-high boots, while the 34-year-old athlete wore a white-to-brown ombre shirt-and-pants set.
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Fans were happy to see Swift back at Arrowhead seven months after she last cheered on the Chiefs at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, laughing with Kelce’s parents and banging on the suite’s glass barrier with excitement. She’s currently on break from her global Eras Tour, on which the New Heights podcaster spent much of his offseason tagging along all over the world.
At one point, NFL cameras captured Swift celebrating one of Kelce’s plays by hugging his mom, Donna, and applauding with a big smile on her face.
The game came one day after Kelce’s reps slammed an “entirely false” media plan that circulated online this week, allegedly outlining the publicity strategy he has in place in case he and Swift ever break up. “We have engaged our legal team to initiate proceedings against the individuals or entities responsible for the unlawful and injurious forgery of documents,” one spokesperson continued in a statement to E! News, adding that the papers were “not created, issued, or authorized by this agency.”
Regardless, it doesn’t seem like a breakup is coming any time soon for the couple, as Kelce gushed about his significant other in a recent interview with CBS Mornings. “It’s the life I chose, I guess,” he said of being known as Swift’s arm candy. “I have fun with it. It comes with the territory of wanting to do fun activities like this.”
Watch clips of Swift and Kelce post-win below.
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Linkin Park is back with a new frontwoman, Halsey suffers a hard-earned ego death, A$AP Rocky is swagged out on his way to church, Camila Cabello makes a return trip to Magic City and much more. Check out all of this week’s picks below.
Linkin Park, “The Emptiness Machine”
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Yes, Linkin Park are back — with a new tour, a new singer, and a new single, “The Emptiness Machine.” You can read all about the story behind their remarkable comeback here, including how they connected with frontwoman Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara, and you can hear the first sounds of the partnership now with the hard-charging “Machine.” If longtime fans were worried the band’s new lineup would feel too far removed from their classic sound, they should be pretty easily won over by the time of the new song’s chorus, which could not feel more textbook LP as Armstrong belts: “Let you cut me open just to watch me bleed/ Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be/ Don’t know why I’m hopin’ for what I won’t receive/ Fallin’ for the promise of the emptiness machine.”
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Halsey, “Ego”
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With an October 25 release date now set for her The Great Impersonator album, Halsey is giving fans at least one more advance taste of the new LP with this week’s “Ego.” The dizzying pop-rock blast is absolutely prime Halsey, a lyrically frenetic plea to “go back to the beginning, when it all felt right… didn’t give a f–k if I was winning,” with a brutal refrain admitting “I’m really not as happy as I seem… I’m really not that happy being me.” It’s a welcome reminder that 10 years into their career, Halsey remains one of the most vital songwriters and performers in either pop or rock.
Megan Thee Stallion feat. RM, “Neva Play”
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Following the exciting LP releases from both earlier this year — Right Place, Wrong Time in May and Megan in June — RM and Megan Thee Stallion link up for the first time this week for the one-off “Neva Play.” The song’s speeding-up geiger counter of a beat prompts both artists to keep coming harder, as Megan spits “Money talks, and it’s my first language,” and RM meets her with “We just bossin’, pour out the sauces in the face of the big bosses.” The all-star collab has an anime-inspired music video, because of course it does.
A$AP Rocky feat. J. Cole, “Ruby Rosary”
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The slow drip of new songs from A$AP Rocky’s upcoming Don’t Be Dumb continues with the slow piano creep of the Alchemist-produced “Ruby Rosary,” with the rapper spitting about his jewel-encrusted religious necklace and generally phenomenal swag (“They ain’t seen drip like this since Rick the Ruler”). Last year’s assist king J. Cole also comes through for a guest verse, but don’t ask him for him to repeat his previous highlights: “When they ask for the old you, ignore ’em,” he advises. “Goin’ backwards is borin’, b–ch, and I’m not Michael Jordan, I don’t do the retro.”
Camila Cabello, C,XOXO – Magic City Edition
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Camila Cabello released fourth solo album C,XOXO back in June to somewhat mixed critical and commercial reaction — though even its biggest critics would have to admit the album was pretty interesting, if nothing else. It’s even more fascinating now in its extended Magic City Edition reissue, which tacks on four new songs, including the pulse-racing “Baby Pink,” the frisky “Can Friends Kiss?” and the thundering now-closer “Godspeed.” These new pieces don’t necessarily make the C,XOXO puzzle feel complete, but they do make the final image even more sprawling, weird and beautiful.
Fred again.., Ten Days
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Prolific U.K. dance sensation Fred again.. released three installments in his Actual Life LP series in about an 18-month period over 2021 and 2022, but it’s been almost two years now since his latest full-length. The (very minor) drought is now over with this week’s release of Ten Days, with a loaded guest list featuring Sampha, The Japanese House, Anderson .Paak, country legend Emmylou Harris and of course, supertrio producer buds Skrillex and Four Tet. Like Fred’s previous albums, it’s a huge album built around small moments, like Irish singer-songwriter SOAK admitting of a revelatory romantic experience, “I remember thinking to myself… don’t you dare get used to this,” on early highlight “Just Stand There,” or the producer himself singing “You’re further away now than you used to be/ But darling I saw you and you saw me” on album centerpiece “I Saw You.”