Music
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ME:I’s “Hi-Five” soars to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Sept. 4, marking the 11-member group’s first leader on the tally.
The digital version of the girl group’s second single dropped July 29 and debuted at No. 40 on the Japan Hot 100 dated Aug. 7. The track then slipped slightly on the list as downloads declined, but hit No. 2 in sales this week after the CD version sold 263,332 copies in its first week. The physical release boosted the song’s digital performance and it returns to the downloads tally for the first time in three weeks at No. 3, while also coming in at No. 79 for streaming (112% week-over-week) and No. 2 for radio (413%).
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Bowing at No. 2 is Naniwa Danshi’s seventh single “Koisuru Hikari,” the theme song for the movie We Don’t Know Love Yet starring member Ryusei Onishi. The track launches with 432,018 CDs to top sales, while coming in at No. 5 for downloads and No. 16 for radio.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” rises a notch to No. 3 this week, with radio increasing by 121% from the week before and keeping the decrease in overall points to a minimum.
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“Natsu ga Kitakara” by ≠ME (“Not Equal Me”) follows at No. 4. Although the twelve-member group’s ninth single didn’t enter the lists for metrics other than sales, it debuts at No. 3 for the metric after selling 229,446 copies in its first week. ≠ME’s best chart rank so far on the Japan Hot 100 is No. 4, so the group’s latest single tied for the highest rank of its career.
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Tsubaki Factory’s “Baby Spider” debuts at No. 5. The 12th single by the girl group sold 88,796 copies to reach No. 4 for sales and hit No. 38 in downloads, surpassing its previous single, “Yuuki It’s my Life!”
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Elsewhere on the Japan Hot 100, Mariya Takeuchi’s “Uta wo Okurou,” the theme song of the ongoing drama Subarashikikana, Sensei!, debuts at No. 20. The latest single by the “Plastic Love” singer-songwriter tops radio and comes in at No. 14 for sales. Also, veteran band Mr. Children’s “in the pocket” bows at No. 33. The theme song for the animated movie The Colors Within rules downloads and comes in at No. 48 for radio.
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The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Reclusive pop chanteuse Sade‘s first new song in more than six years will be released in November when her track “Young Lion” appears on the TRAИƧA benefit album from the Red Hot organization. The 46-track concept LP is due out on Nov. 22 and features collaborations between more than 100 artists including: Sam Smith, Laura Jane Grace, Devendra Banhart, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Bartees Strange, Faye Webster, Julien Baker, Moses Sumney, Hunter Schafer, André 3000, Arthur Baker, Fleet Foxes, Teddy Geiger and many more.
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Sade has not put out a full-length album since 2010’s Soldier of Love and her most recent singles are a pair of songs from 2018, “Flower of the Universe” from the A Wrinkle in Time movie soundtrack and “The Big Unknown” from the soundtrack to the Steve McQueen-directed drama Widows.
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The New York Times described the vibe of the song featuring a soft piano riff and Sade’s iconic soothing vocals, pointing to lyrics “steeped in empathy and regret.” On it, Sade sings, “Young man, it’s been so heavy for you/ You must have felt so alone… I should have known/ Shine like a sun/ You have everything you need.”
The compilation of new songs, covers and exclusive tracks aims to support trans awareness and features trans, non-binary, genderqueer and cisgender acts and is dedicated to Sade’s son, Izaak, who identifies as a trans man. According to a release, the project began to come together in 2021 and marks one of the most ambitious projects ever from the Red Hot non-profit that has raised more than $15 million since 1989 to benefit HIV/AIDS relief and awareness. It is described as “a spiritual journey across 8 chapters and 46 songs, spotlighting the gifts of many of the most daring, imaginative trans and non-binary artists working today alongside contributions and collaborations from allies such as Sade, Sam Smith, André 3000, Clairo, Moses Sumney and many more. It softens the edges of the world we know, and invokes powerful dreams of the futures that might one day thunder from its cracks.”
It continues, “Trans people have always existed, with many different names across time and culture, often as spiritual healers and leaders. As global systems continue to fail humanity and all life on Earth, the journey taken by trans people – and all peoples who have been oppressed – is a blueprint of possibility. May this be a glimpse of our collective liberation, and the light inside all of us.” With more than three-and-a-half hours of music, the project is broken into eight chapters in a reference to the eight stripes on the rainbow pride flag.
Speaking to Variety, Red Hot executive director Dust Reid — who compiled the album with Massima Bell — said the idea was to celebrate all the “gifts that trans artists have been giving to the world… We hoped to create a narrative that positions trans and non-binary people as leaders in our society insofar as the deep inner work they do to affirm who they are in our current climate. We felt this is something everybody should do. Whether you identify as trans or non-binary or otherwise, if you took the time to explore your gender, get in touch with the feeling side of yourself, maybe we would have a future oriented around values of community, collaboration, care, and healing.”
Bell, a model and activist who is transgender, told the Times that Sade’s song was a revelation. “It’s amazing to hear a legendary musician like Sade sing about her heartfelt experience as the parent of a trans child,” Bell told the paper. “It’s incredibly powerful.” Reid added that the project was partly inspired by the death of beloved electronicmusician/producer Sophie in 2021. “Sophie was a boundary-pushing, generation-defining musician and one of the most important trans artists we’ve ever had,” said Reid.
The collection’s first single, a cover of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” from Lauren Auder and former Prince & the Revolution members Wendy & Lisa, is out now; listen to the song below and see the album announcement and full tracklist).
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TRAИƧA tracklist:
1. “Midnight Moon Pool” – Mary Lattimore, Laraaji, MIZU and Jamal Shakeri
2. “You Don’t Know Me” – Devendra Banhart, Blake Mills and Beverly Glenn-Copeland
3. “How Sweet I Roamed” – Jeff Tweedy, claire rousay
4. “Same Train” – Heart Shaped and Christian Lee Hutson
5. “STAR” – Ana Roxanne and Nsámbu Za Suékama
6. “Please Tell Me” – Lightning Bug
7. “Make ’em Laugh” – Benét, Faye Webster
8. “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying” – Julien Baker and Calvin Lauber feat. SOAK and Quinn Christopherson
9. “Rumblin’” – Soft Rōnin feat. Frankie Cosmos
10. “Deeper Understanding” – Hand Habits feat. Bill Callahan
11. “Under the Shadow of Another Moon” – Hunter Schafer and Cole Pulice
12. “Blush” – Grouper and Lucy Liyou
13. “Is It Cold In The Water?” – Moses Sumney
14. “Know Who You Are At Every Age” – Anajah and Gary Gunn
15. “Is It Over Now?” – Niecy Blues feat. Joy Guidry)
16. “Something Is Happening And I May Not Fully Understand But I’m Happy To Stand For The Understanding” – André 3000
17. “Come Back Different” – Nina Keith feat. Julie Byrne and Taryn Blake Miller
18. “Song To The Siren” – Rachika Nayar feat. Julianna Barwick and Cassandra Croft
19. “Love Hymn” – Arthur Baker feat. Pharoah Sanders
20. “People Are Small / Rapture” – L’Rain feat. Voices from the NYC Trans Oral History Project
21. “We’ve Been Through So Much” – Jlin and Moor Mother
22. “My Name” – Kara Jackson, Ahya Simone and Dave Longstreth
23. “Point of Disgust” – Perfume Genius and Low’s Alan Sparhawk
24. “In Another Life” – Lomelda and More Eaze
25. “Pink Ponies” – Teddy Geiger and Yaeji
26. “A Survivor’s Guilt” – Yaya Bey
27. “Just Last Night” – Helado Negro and Eileen Myles
28. “Feel So Different” – Ezra Furman and Sharon Van Etten
29. “Mourning Dove” – Gia Margaret
30. “Feel Better” – Adrianne Lenker
31. “Any Other Way” – Allison Russell and Ahya Simone
32. “Down Where The Valleys Are Low” – Asher White, Eli Winter and Caroline Rose
33. “TM” – Fleet Foxes, Cole Pulice and Lynn Avery
34. “Querube” – AV María, SKY and Belina Rose
35. “Within Without” – Green-House and Kelela
36. “Aaron” – Cassandra Jenkins, Bloomsday and Babehoven
37. “Young Lion” – Sade Adu
38. “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” – Moses Sumney, Lyra Pramuk and Sam Smith
39. “Many Ways” – CLARITY feat. Clairo
40. “I Feel Free” – Sparkle Division feat. Pepper MaShay
41. “Get Free” – Nico Georis, KB Brookins
42. “Wolf Like Me” – Bartees Strange, Anjimile, Kara Jackson
43. “Surrender Your Gender” – Laura Jane Grace feat. Lee Ranaldo, Jayne County, Kathi Wilcox, Jay Dee Daugherty and Am Taylor
44. “I Would Die 4 U” – Lauren Auder and Wendy & Lisa of the Revolution
45. “Always” – Time Wharp, Elizabeth and Beverly Glenn-Copeland
46. “Ever New” – Sam Smith and Beverly Glenn-Copeland
It’s official: Rosalía is cooking up a new album! In an interview with Highsnobiety published on Tuesday (Sept. 3), the Spanish superstar confirmed that her fourth studio LP is underway. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “It’s been a process. I’ve changed a lot, but at the […]
Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj set the tone for a beef-filled year, with the reignition of their feud sparked by the Houston Hottie’s “Hiss” diss track back in January, in which she appeared to spray at Nicki, Drake, Tory Lanez and Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty.
The scathing “Hiss” would go on to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — her third chart-topping smash — and Minaj returned fire, punching back at her “Hot Girl Summer” collaborator with “Big Foot” days later.
Megan graces the cover of Billboard, and in her feature published Wednesday (Sept. 4), she addresses clashing with Nicki, and shares still doesn’t know what the root cause of the friction is.
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“I still to this day don’t know what the problem is,” she tells Billboard‘s Carl Lamarre. “I don’t even know what could be reconciled because I, to this day, don’t know what the problem is.”
Nicki and Meg joined forces when Minaj hopped on “Hot Girl Summer” in 2019, but things appeared to have gone awry since. Some theorize it’s because Thee Stallion has repeatedly teamed up with Nicki’s rival Cardi B.
Barbz chimed in on social media, speculating that the cause may be a time fans recalled Minaj on IG Live in 2019 with Megan, who allegedly continued to offer the “Super Bass” artist liquor while knowing she was trying to get pregnant.
With the Nicki relationship remaining icy, Megan is brushing things off and turning her focus to her plethora of lucrative endeavors going on in her busy career. If people are talking about her, Thee Stallion feels like she must be doing something right.
“I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing,” Megan added. “If people feel like I’m somebody to aim at, then I must be pretty high up if you’re reaching up at me. I must be some kind of competition. That makes me feel good. That makes me feel like I could rap because if I wasn’t the s–t, y’all wouldn’t be worried about me.”
“Hiss” served as the second single for the Houston Hottie and carried her into her Megan album, which arrived in June and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 64,000 album-equivalent units sold in the first week.
Anyone who has heard a Jelly Roll song is familiar with the themes of struggles and redemption that flow through the lyrics of tracks such as “Halfway to Hell” and “Son of a Sinner,” and his fans are well aware of the former Billboard cover star‘s own redemption story of going from an incarcerated teen […]
Halsey has dropped the curtain on new album The Great Impersonator‘s release date and main album cover after sending fans on a scavenger hunt across the world. The 29-year-old singer shared the details on X Wednesday (Sept. 4), revealing that the project — which marks her fifth studio LP — is set to arrive Oct. […]
Green Day are about to make a wish — or hundreds of wishes — come true thanks to their latest collaboration with Wheels For Wishes. The charitable organization that raises money to help children via the donation of used vehicles has teamed up with Green day on their sold-out Saviors stadium tour by announcing a […]
“My first few albums were all leading up to this in my mind,” says the English artist known as Rex Orange County, speaking of his intimate yet musically fierce forthcoming album. “This is exactly what I’ve always wanted to make.”
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Aptly titled The Alexander Technique, out Sept. 6 on RCA, the album does indeed feel like a defining work. Rex (born Alexander O’Connor) started the project back in 2020, around the same time he was crafting his third album, Who Cares?, on which he worked almost exclusively with Dutch musician and songwriter Benny Sings.
For Alexander, the 26-year-old artist took an entirely different approach. Enlisting his “two best friends,” Jim Reed and Teo Halm, Rex welcomed more collaborators than ever before – particularly musicians, including bass player Pino Palladino, keys players Cory Henry, Finn Carter and Reuben James and pedal steel guitarist Henry Webb-Jenkins. “Particularly those first couple albums I was very like, ‘Please don’t touch this, I know how it should be,’” says Rex. “This was the first time that I had different people’s ideas flying around – and way more songs.”
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Eventually, he realized that Who Cares not only had to be released first, but that The Alexander Technique deserved much more time, saying it “was more ambitious as a whole.” As a result, the artist has emerged with his longest album yet, boasting a tracklist of 16 songs compared to his usual 10. “I never did that before,” he says of the “intense” experience – describing what sounds like a thorough emotional purge. “That’s why it’s the technique.”
“I had this weird thing for the first three years of my career where every song that came out was every song I’d ever written,” he continues. “I had no reason to create one that wasn’t gonna [make it]. I thought it would just confuse me. Which, I’ll admit, it does. But [this album] has evolved so much over such a long time. The deeper you dig, the more you find.”
Since the release of his critically acclaimed debut album, Apricot Princess, in 2017 – which established Rex Orange County as a brutally honest songwriter and well-versed musician – his formulaic approach to album building has worked just fine. His 2019 project Pony debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and placed him at the forefront of a generation that blended indie alternative-pop with raw writing.
And while Who Cares? (which debuted at No. 5 on the tally) took bigger pop swings to support its more positive lyricism, Rex assures that The Alexander Technique is where his more emotional writing from that period of time ended up. (In the fall of 2022, the artist pleaded not guilty to six charges of sexual assault; by that December, all charges were dropped.) “It felt like this album was maybe more of a diary entry – what I was getting into and the level of emotional depth,” he says.
Elsewhere, there’s a personal favorite, “Guitar Song,” which was the first track he made with Reed and Halm. (“The way it sounds is pretty much the way it sounded on the day we made it in 2021 – it’s free and the ending is mental,” he says). He calls “Look Me In the Eyes,” on which he collaborated with James Blake, “the most heartbreaking song I’ve ever heard.” And on standout “Therapy,” he speaks of entering the industry at 17 and therapy at 22 – “and no, I don’t regret a thing,” he sings. “I came up, I fell down, and then I found peace.”
Despite the lengthy runtime, clocking in at just over 50 minutes, Alexander is a masterclass in being succinct, with its opening song “Alexander” – the first song Rex wrote for this album – as the most perfect example. On the near-five-minute song, Rex speak-sings over the piano, as if filling time in between songs at an intimate, dim-lit jazz bar. (Stevie Wonder is a favorite of his.)
“It was written quite quickly, and that doesn’t always happen for me,” he says of the song, in which he recounts the true story of a frustrating visit to the doctor’s office in 2019. While there, he complained of ongoing back pain, only to be told it was more likely stress and anger and an unsettled mind that was causing him to hurt. “In a weird way, I feel like maybe he was right/I may be using my back pain to distract from the pain of life/Feel it all externally when really it’s just inside,” sings Rex.
“I don’t want a whole album of five-minute stories of me talking over piano, but I do want every song to feel this concise and thoughtful,” he says. “So I was setting myself up for quite a task.”
Ultimately, “Alexander” helped set the tone of the entire album, down to its double entendre of a title. While there is an Alexander Technique – known to help with inner balance, both mentally and physically as a focus of the practice is posture – Rex says that writing this album was what ultimately made him stronger in the end. “As much as I really do still have terrible posture, it was more so being honest – that’s my actual Alexander Technique,” he says. “Me being myself rather than Rex Orange County.”
He plans to translate that shift to his upcoming tour, calling it (much like the album) his most ambitious show to date. He’s been rehearsing since June, sharing that “2008” – a thumping upbeat song with glitchy falsetto harmonies – has been especially fun to play live, while “New Years” has come the most naturally. He also teases plans to switch it up at each show – and while that could mean anything from a different set list to a surprise song à la Taylor Swift, he keeps most details private for now.
The trek will hit select theaters in cities including Chicago, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London for mini residencies – likely a one-off for this album, he says – allowing for a more involved set that will be “highly linked to one of the visual locations” seen in his music videos. “The stage is linked with where I’ve been wanting to transport you as a listener,” he says. “[To a] more relaxing state,”
Considering how much of an artistic statement The Alexander Technique is, Rex admits it does “weirdly” feel like some sort of end. “You have a different perspective,” he says of being in his mid-20s and having worked in the industry for a near-decade. “It’s not the end of the era, but I definitely feel a different level of awareness and maturity, maybe,” he says. “I still love music and I want to keep making music – and I want to keep changing it up. That’s the most important thing to me.”
Seemingly tied for first place, however, is his newfound penchant for prioritizing himself. As he sings, succinctly as ever, on “Therapy”: “I recharged – and returned.”
Like clockwork, as soon as the West Indian Day Parade rounded its final Brooklyn block, the temperature dropped to unambiguously autumn levels. The teasing is done. Brat summer is over, and fall is here.
After dominating both the spring and the summer with Kendrick Lamar‘s string of Drake disses, TDE’s current roster is gracefully ushering us into the fall. Led by Doechii‘s dazzling Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape, TDE undoubtedly dominated the long weekend’s cultural conversation amid marquee releases from Big Sean, Muni Long and Destroy Lonely.
The biggest story of the past week has been the heated Billboard 200 chart battle between Sabrina Carpenter‘s star-cementing Short n’ Sweet LP and the ten-year anniversary wide release of Travis Scott‘s debut mixtape, Days Before Rodeo. Coming down to just a few hundred units, Carpenter ultimately trumped Scott, but not before the rapper put up the second-biggest pure sales week of the year across all genres (331,000 copies sold). The Houston-born rapper also debuted atop Top Album Sales and earned 2024’s biggest opening week for any rap album (361,000 units shifted).
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Few stories were able to break through that nail-biting chart showdown, but the ones that did were equally arresting. Buju Banton, Masicka, and Spice were some of the bigger winners at the 2024 Caribbean Music Awards last week (Aug. 29). Ice Spice found herself embroiled in an imploding friendship and working relationship with fellow Bronx rapper and Y2K! Tour opener Cleotrapa, and Playboi Carti graced Billboard’s latest cover.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Tyrese and Tamar Braxton’s heart-melting new reimagining of an R&B classic to Erica Banks and Skilla Baby’s sultry new collaboration. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Doechii, “Denial Is a River”
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Real ones have been locked in with Doechii for a minute now, and after she got a taste of top 40 success with 2023’s Hot 100 hit “What It Is” (No. 29), now the whole world has no choice but to get on the train. Alligator Bites Never Heal, her first mixtape under Capitol/TDE, won the weekend, arriving as one of the year’s best hip-hop projects — with its sleek blend of boom-bap and house-inflected melodic rap. Boom-bap reigns supreme on “Denial Is a River,” the tape’s buzziest cut, in which Doechii recounts a head-spinning tale of betrayal. In short, she found out she was being cheated on… while she was in the middle of a therapy session. “Took a scroll through his IG, just to get a DM from his wifey/ I was so confused, what should Doechii do?/ She didn’t know about me and I didn’t know ’bout Sue,” she spits over a crisp, Iain James & Joey Hamhock-helmed beat. The track is a masterclass in both hip-hop storytelling and the infinite powers of shifting intonation to denote different characters and timelines. It’s one of the best rap performances of the year, plain and simple.
Tyrese & Tamar Braxton, “Neither One of Us”
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For those who have been paying attention, Tyrese has been dropping small teases of that good ol’ soulful R&B with each pre-release single from his new Beautiful Pain album. Now that the full set is finally available on DSPs as of last Friday (Aug. 30), the standout cut is undoubtedly his and Tamar Braxton’s moving rendition of Gladys Knights & The Pips’ 1972 classic, “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye.” Tyrese buttery timbre marries with Tamar’s piercing soprano to deliver a luscious blend of goosebump-inducing harmonies that beautifully color their dynamic interpretation of the track. The best thing about “Neither One of Us” is that neither artist’s vocal performance sounds labored; their takes have an ease and earnestness that add some earthy elements to complement their sometimes superhuman riffs and belts.
Syleena Johnson feat. Twista & Shawnna, “Burning in My Soul (Just a Freak)”
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Just a few days after Billboard and Tres Generaciones counted down their top Chicago “get up anthems,” R&B diva Syleena Johnson has a late entry of her own. Recruiting fellow Chicago music stars Twista and Shawnna, Johnson delivers a crash course in Chicago music history. For the first half of the track, Johnson’s voice sits at the intersection of soul and rock n’ roll, with voice ripping through the line “I’m on fire baby,” just as raucous guitars crash into the arrangement. Twista gifts her a characteristically rapid-fire voice before Shawnna comes in on the song’s back half — parenthetically titled “Just a Freak” — with a Beenie Man-referencing verse that blends hip-hop and soul with a small dash of reggae. In one of the lighter moments on her moving Legacy album, Johnson still finds time to speak to R&B’s preoccupation with love and pain while giving her late father a well-deserved send-off.
Erica Banks & Skilla Baby, “One Wish”
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Erica Banks returned with her Cocky on Purpose 2 EP, and as always, the Dallas-bred rapper is unapologetically expressing herself with brash rhymes. However, she takes a more gentle approach for the pensive “One Wish,” which finds Banks opening up about a temporary fling, but she’s here for a good time not a long time. “Could I f–k you out here on the spot/ Could I smoke while you giving me top/ He gon’ think I’m in love but I’m not,” she softly raps. The ball bounces to Skilla Baby, who helms the guy’s perspective. He’s had an affinity for making romantic records the ladies enjoy, and adds another to his resume here. “I’m not playing when it come to you/ I just want to see you comfortable/ Spit in your mouth when I’m f–king you,” he flows in his raunchy assist.
YTB Fatt, “Free Bank”
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YTB Fatt kicks off his On Zai deluxe EP with a jail phone call recording featuring his friend Bankroll Freddie, who is popping his s–t from behind bars. Fatt reflects on signing to Moneybagg Yo and the vultures surrounding him like a cousin who wants him dead. Trust means a lot to the Arkansas-bred rapper. He brushes off the women who deaded his messages, and vows to bless anyone who lent a helping hand in his journey to stardom. “I was down bad on my d–k, every b—h I wanted, they left me on read/ My broke days over, I put a chain on every n—a that gave me a bed,” he raps over the thrilling production, which could score an action movie scene.
Diany Dior & Fivio Foreign, “Sex Love Demons”
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There’s something in the water in The Bronx, because the charisma of any BX resident will change the temperature of any room. Diany Dior can attest as one of the queens of the sexy drill movement led by fellow Bronxite Cash Cobain. Brooklyn drill sergeant Fivio Foreign tangoes with the “Favorite Lady” rapper for their hedonistic “Sex Love Demons” collab. “I could f–k you in Paris but I’m not a French kisser,” Fivio cheekily raps. Dior grabs the mic and boasts about flipping the script on an ex. “I made him leave his side b—h/ First I was his baby, now I made him my b—h,” Dior brags. Check out the rest of The Bronx firecracker’s Big Dior debut project, which arrived via GoodTalk.
Katy Perry is finally talking about it. After going months without addressing her controversial decision to work with Dr. Luke on her comeback single “Woman’s World,” which dropped in July, the 39-year-old pop star opened up about her reasons for working with the producer Kesha accused of sexual assault in 2014 on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy.
In the podcast episode posted Wednesday (Sept 4), Perry acknowledged that the collaboration “started a lot of conversations.”
“He was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with,” she continued of Dr. Luke, who helped craft “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream” and several more of her biggest hits over the years. “But the reality is, it comes from me. The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that. One of the writers, one of the producers.”
“I am speaking from my own experience,” Perry added. “When I speak about ‘Woman’s World,’ I speak about feeling so empowered now as a mother, as a woman, giving birth, creating life … I’m still a matriarch and feeling really grounded in that. That’s where I’m speaking from. So I created all of this with several different collaborators, people that I’ve collaborated with from the past, from the Teenage Dream era, all of that.”
Word that the “Roar” singer had enlisted Dr. Luke for “Woman’s World” emerged shortly before the singer dropped, leading many to criticize Perry for doing so in spite of the producer’s nine-year legal battle with Kesha. After the “Tik Tok” artist accused the Kemosabe Records founder of drugging and raping her at a 2005 party, which he strongly denied, he countered with a defamation lawsuit that the two parties eventually settled in 2023.
Other critics also pointed out the irony of “Woman’s World” — which Perry branded as an ode to female empowerment — being produced and written by a team of mostly men, with a male director helming its music video. Luke also worked on the singer’s followup single “Lifetimes,” which dropped Aug. 8.
The interview comes a few weeks ahead of Perry’s new album, 143, which is set to arrive Sept. 20. Her conversation with Cooper also spanned the American Idol alum’s relationship with husband Orlando Bloom and how they’re raising their 4-year-old daughter, Daisy. At one point, Perry apologized to parents of kids who innocently sang along to her cheeky track “Peacock” in 2010 — because now she’s going through the same thing with her own child.
“Even now my daughter sings the song ‘Peacock’ — dancing around the house — that I wrote as a double-entendre, funny song about dicks,” Perry said, laughing. “And I’m like, ‘Don’t sing that song!’ My karma has now served me.”
Listen to Perry’s episode of Call Her Daddy below.