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Don Omar is backing Vice President Kamala Harris and has officially endorsed her for presidential candidate.
On Tuesday (Oct. 29), the reggaetón superstar, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, shared a poignant message to his more than 12 million followers on Instagram. “Puerto Rico is my homeland and my identity, and today more than ever, I raise my island’s flag with pride,” the hitmaker wrote.
“Hearing such racist and disdainful words directed at my home and at Latinos is heartbreaking. Trump has shown us, time and again, what the thinks of us, and the thought of him and his administration back in power is deeply concerning. Words have weight, and as a community, we cannot tolerate language that seeks to devalue us. Latinos, both on and off our native lands, deserve respect and fair representation.”
His announcement comes just days after racist comments about Puerto Rico were made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Donald Trump rally in Madison Square Garden where he described it as a “floating island of garbage.” Since, a number of Puerto Rican artists, from Bad Bunny to Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, have used their platforms to amplify Harris’ plan for Puerto Rico and call out Trump’s racist rhetoric.
Don Omar continues in his message: “With only one week until the election, let’s make sure our voices are heard loud and clear. This is why I’m supporting Kamala Harris. I trust she represents the respect and change our communities need and I believe she can pave a new path forward — one that uplifts, empowers and prioritizes dignity for all. It’s time to turn the page. We are not going back.”
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The U.S. presidential elections will take place Tuesday, Nov. 5, although early voting is underway across multiple states. Considered one of the most consequential elections in recent memory, an estimated 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but their influence is undeniable and stretches onto the mainland, particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina where hundreds of thousands of people of Puerto Rican descent live, according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
See Don Omar’s message in English and Spanish below:
Jennifer Lopez and Maná are set to appear at a Kamala Harris rally and concert in Las Vegas on Thursday (Oct. 31).
The Puerto Rican superstar will speak at the event about the importance of voting and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, while the Mexican band will perform, according to the Harris/Walz campaign.
“These artists and public figures are trusted voices for millions of Americans, who listen to their music, follow them on social media, or otherwise are inspired by them,” a press release states. “The Harris-Walz campaign believes that by using their voices to lay out the stakes of this election, it will further encourage and mobilize people to go vote.”
Part of the “When We Vote We Win” series, the rally aims to mobilize young and nontraditional voters ahead of the last day of early voting in Nevada on Friday (Nov. 1).
Both Lopez and Maná have supported the Democratic candidate or Democratic causes and have been very vocal about the importance of voting on this election.
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Only last Sunday (Oct. 27), the singer and actress amplified Harris’ message about her commitment with Puerto Rico by sharing a video of the VP on her Instagram Stories, after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a racist joke at a Donald Trump rally in New York City, where he called the U.S. commonwealth a “floating island of garbage.”
Meanwhile, Maná has been a strong supporter of Democratic causes over the years, particularly related to immigration reform and other Latino related issues. “The way Trump expresses himself about Mexicans and the Latin community is incredible,” the band’s leader, Fher Olvera, tweeted in Spanish following a 2016 presidential debate. “Like a lot of people have perceived it, he is a racist.” The Mexican band also celebrated President Joe Biden’s 2020 win, writing on Twitter (now X), “Values won over perversity. There’s unity in diversity.”
Las month, the band even pulled its 2016 Nicky Jam collaboration “De Pies a Cabeza” from music streaming platforms following the reggaetón star’s endorsement of Trump. “Maná doesn’t work with racists,” the band wrote in Spanish on Instagram. “For the past 30 years, Maná has supported and defended the rights of Latinos around the world. There is no business or promotion that is worth more than the dignity of our people. That is why today Maná decided to remove its collaboration with Nicky Jam on ‘Pies a Cabeza’ from all digital platforms.”
When Reba McEntire was caring for her sick mother, the last thing she expected was to accidentally get way too high.
The country legend stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she recalled a hilarious story she experienced with her late mother, who died in 2020 from bladder cancer. While taking a break from prepping a tour, McEntire flew to her home state of Oklahoma to look after her mom.
“When I got to Stringtown, Oklahoma, [her sister] Alice told me, ‘Now, if Mama starts hurting tonight when y’all go to sleep, give her one of these gummies. I said, ‘OK, alright. The whole thing?’ She said ‘Yes, the whole thing,’” she recalled of the marijuana gummies she was given. “Well, I wasn’t really comfortable with that, so when we started going to bed, I said, ‘Mama, let’s get ahead of this pain. I’m going to give you half of this.’”
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McEntire noted that after her mother took the gummy, she fell asleep right away, which inspired the “Fancy” singer to take the other half of the dose herself. “I thought, ‘Well shoot, Mama’s taking it. I need to see what she’s experiencing,’” she explained.
However, that decision quickly took an unexpected turn when McEntire was awoken in the middle of the night by her mother getting up to use the restroom. “I said, ‘Mama, hang on I’ll be right there,’ and she said, ‘I’m good.’ So, I threw back the covers and that’s about as far as I got,” she recalled. “I thought I’m either going to crawl over the bed or walk right around.”
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McEntire then recreated the hilariously slow, creeping motion she made to get herself to the other side of the bed, and when she arrived, her mother requested ice water. “You know how you can fast forward on something real quick? Reba McEntire found in her mother’s kitchen, ice all around. I thought, ‘Ain’t no way I’m going that way,’” she said, noting that she gave her mother regular water and told her they were out of ice.
She continued, “I laid down and I swear there was weeds and flowers growing out of my head. So the next day, I asked everybody, ‘How many milligrams were in those things?’ 50! I took 25 milligrams with my mother.”
However, McEntire noted, “I still took care of mama!”
Watch McEntire tell the full story below.
With election day nearing, it’s possible that America is about to elect a historic first to the Oval Office. Yes, Kamala Harris could be the first U.S. president to have spoken the immortal words “Padam Padam” on camera.
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“Padam Padam,” of course, is the viral hit from Kylie Minogue’s 2023 album Tension, which stormed TikTok last year and nabbed the inaugural best pop dance recording Grammy in February. This month, the Aussie pop legend returns with Tension II, which precedes a huge global tour in 2025 – both of which Minogue chatted about when she swung by Billboard News for an in-depth interview about Padam-demonium, her second Grammy win, working with Sia and more.
“If there’s one Aussie, you’re probably not far from another Aussie,” Minogue tells Billboard News of teaming up with Sia – whom she calls a “High Priestess” – for “Dance Alone.” “She asked if I’d jump on a track. That’s modern parlance, folks – you jump on people’s tracks these days,” she says, smirking. “She’s so talented and such a legend.”
Tension II also features Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo on “My Oh My,” a playful track where each pop star introduces their name and their star sign (“What’s your name? What’s your sign? I’m Kylie, I’m Gemini”). “When we reached out to Bebe and Tove, I was thinking, ‘I hope neither of them are Gemini.’ It would really help if we were all different star signs,” she laughs. “Thankfully, we were.” Earlier this year, Rexha presented Minogue with the Icon Award at Billboard Women in Music. “That was very generous of her,” Minogue notes.
When I suggest that the Grammys specifically created the best pop dance category for Kylie and “Padam Padam,” she pauses. “I wouldn’t be mad at that,” she replies with a smile. “It’s been a while coming to have that category.”
As for what to expect on the upcoming tour – which finds her headlining New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the first time – Minogue says there will be songs from both Tension albums and “a taste of each decade.”
That includes her Hi-NRG cover of “The Loco-Motion,” the international smash that launched her career and hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. After years of mixed feelings about a hit single she recorded as a teenager, Minogue is finding “a real joy” returning to the song now. “It was the song that started my career,” she points out. “Over time there was a period where I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do it. It’s so uncool. How do I do it?’ But now everything has come full circle. I can really with all my heart and enthusiasm do this song.”
As for planning the rest of the massive tour? “G-U-L-P” she jokes.
To find out Kylie’s touring essentials (“coffee machine, let’s get real”) and what happened when Minogue met Frances McDormand, watch the full interview here.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was on the verge of scoring a landmark 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, tying the longest run atop the chart this decade. But for this week (on the chart dated Nov. 2), he’s kept at bay by the fellow country artist whose mark he would’ve been tying: Morgan Wallen.
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Wallen, whose “Last Night” reigned for 16 weeks over the course of 2023, enters the Hot 100 at its apex this week with his new song “Love Someone.” The heavily TikTok-teased and live-promoted new single becomes the country superstar’s first song as a lead artist to debut atop the listing, and his second overall — following his featured turn on Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” earlier this year, ultimately a six week No. 1.
Why did this song turn out to be an instantaneous chart-topper? And does it set the stage for Morgan Wallen to get even bigger on his fourth album? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
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1. Though Morgan Wallen has been knocking off chart accomplishments left and right for most of the decade now, “Love Somebody” is his first single as a lead artist to debut at No. 1. What do you think the biggest reason is for the song’s massive debut?
Katie Atkinson: I would credit Morgan’s epic summer, which, yes, included his Hot 100 No. 1 duet with Post Malone, but also his One Night at a Time stadium-tour victory lap, where he played 10 60,000-capacity venues from April to August and kept his music top of mind all season. Now he’s playing across Europe, where he premiered “Love Somebody” onstage, and collecting an even wider audience. The release of this crowd-pleaser of a song is a cherry on top of a huge few years for him.
Kyle Denis: I think it’s probably a combination of things. Wallen perfected the art of the tease with “7 Summers” a few years bag, and he’s only tightened up his game since. He first teased “Love Somebody” on May 16 via TikTok, and he’s been performing the song in full as early as August 29. People have already decided that they enjoy and want to support the song – they just needed an official release. Of course, it also helps that Wallen’s hype train hasn’t lost any steam; he’s been parked in the upper reaches of the Hot 100 for most of the year thanks to his appearance on Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” and he’s been packing stadiums with the last few shows of his One Night at a Time tour.
Elias Leight: Wallen had the wind in his sails coming into this week: His single “Last Night” spent roughly a third of 2023 at No. 1, and “I Had Some Help,” his collaboration with Post Malone, topped the chart in the early summer this year. “Love Somebody” outperformed Wallen’s previous solo single, “Lies Lies Lies,” across the board, pulling in 4.1 million more streams (31.1 million, compared to 27 million for “Lies Lies Lies”) and 3,000 more sales (17,000 for “Love Somebody” vs. 14,000 for “Lies Lies Lies.”). That all helped, but the biggest difference in support came from radio: While “Lies Lies Lies” earned 4.5 million in airplay audience opening week, “Love Somebody” more than tripled that total, reaching 15.2 million.
Jason Lipshutz: “Love Somebody” may be Wallen’s first solo single to debut at No. 1, but “Last Night” spent a whopping 16 weeks there last year, and “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone started in the top spot earlier this year. Plus, Wallen has had six top 20 hits on the Hot 100 as a lead artist in the roughly year-and-a-half since “Last Night” became his first chart-topper. He’s been a superstar for multiple years at this point, and while I expect “Love Somebody” to become one of his bigger hits, its No. 1 debut isn’t shocking considering Wallen’s stature upon its release.
Andrew Unterberger: Morgan Wallen hardly needs some help these days when it comes to launching a hit lead single, but it probably shows how much belief he has in “Love Somebody” to be a huge, maybe even defining hit that he hedged his bets by teasing it so extensively ahead of time, both on TikTok and at live shows, and by apparently going hard with the radio promotion, as evidenced by the song’s first-week numbers there. It’s the most concentrated push I can remember a Wallen single getting, and it’s not surprising it’s resulted in a No. 1 debut.
2. “Love Somebody” isn’t Wallen’s first No. 1 this year, as he was already featured on Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” a six-week No. 1 in its own right — and it’s not his first top 10 hit on his own, as his “Lies Lies Lies” debuted at No. 7 in July. Which of the two songs do you think “Love Somebody” more builds upon musically or thematically, if either?
Katie Atkinson: Definitely “Lies Lies Lies.” We often only get one side of the country-star life in song, whether the subject matter is the beer-soaked tailgate parties or the girls in impossibly tight jeans. But “Lies Lies Lies” and “Love Somebody” are both about the other side of that coin: namely, being surrounded by countless friends and lovers but feeling more alone than ever.
Kyle Denis: Of the two, “Love Somebody” feels more in line with “Lies Lies Lies” with its focus on the push-and-pull of love and heartbreak and its soft rock-inflected country sound. While it’s still a banger, “I Had Some Help” really leans into country-pop and feels more like a break-up party track than a moment of serious introspection. It also feels much more like a Post Malone song than both “Lies” and “Love.”
Elias Leight: “Lies Lies Lies” is bleary-eyed and desperate, overwhelmingly distraught in the manner of older Wallen ballads like “Your Bartender.” The lyrical motif also evokes Zach Top’s “I Never Lie,” another strong country record from earlier this year; both songs paint cheerful pictures of a put-together post-breakup life, only to reveal it’s all made up. “No thoughts of your body runnin’ through my head,” Wallen sings. “No bottle of bourbon beside the bed.” A few short lines later, the truth comes out: “I’m still a fool for you/Nothin’ I wouldn’t do for you.”
While both “I Had Some Help” and “Love Somebody” also live in the shadow of romantic wreckage, they are breezy and up-tempo, the type of thing that goes down smooth on pop radio. (“Love Somebody” was co-written by Jacob Kasher Hindlin, who also has credits on Maroon 5’s “Sugar” and Charlie Puth’s “Attention.”) Wallen said “Love Somebody” was “inspired by Latin-leaning influences,” but the result sounds more like vintage yacht rock, complete with a flashy needlepoint guitar solo.
Jason Lipshutz: “Love Somebody” doesn’t utilize the same sonic palette as “I Had Some Help,” but both singles represent oversized, mainstream-aimed smashes, with undeniable refrains and an understanding of Wallen’s strengths as a vocalist. “Lies Lies Lies” showcases his charm with a mournful tone and has hung around the top 20 of the Hot 100 for months, but isn’t as ready-made as a ubiquitous crossover hit; there’s a reason why it started at No. 7 on the Hot 100, at “Love Somebody” launched in the top spot.
Andrew Unterberger: Increasingly, I view Morgan Wallen songs as falling into one of two buckets: Those with a little tempo and those without. As a decided “with,” I feel “Love Somebody” is far more in league with “I Had Some Help” — and most of my other Wallen songs of choice.
3. Hard not to notice that “Love Somebody” interrupts the reign of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” one week before the latter was set to tie Wallen’s “Last Night” mark of 16 weeks atop the chart for the longest reign of the decade. Do you think the reign will be an extended one, or do you see “A Bar Song” threatening to take back over the top spot for its 16th frame as soon as next week?
Katie Atkinson: I have a feeling Morgan is going to hang on awhile with this one. The poppy production and lyrical cadence make this one ripe for a beyond-country crossover moment, and it hasn’t left my head all week. Also, its melodic similarities to Dua Lipa’s “Training Season” (the songs share a handful of songwriters) means it already feels familiar just a week in.
Kyle Denis: Yes. Given Shaboozey’s massive cross-genre support on radio and the steady streaming success of “A Bar Song,” I expect the VA cowboy to return to the top spot sooner rather than later.
Elias Leight: Since Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has been at the top of the chart for so long, it’s starting to lose altitude at streaming — an inevitable result after flying so high for so long. And although the single is still moving up at Hot AC radio, it’s declining at Pop, and he is now promoting a different track to country radio stations. Since Wallen’s song is new, he can move quickly to consolidate support at the Pop and Hot AC radio formats, expanding his reach, while climbing further in his core format of country. That said, Shaboozey and his label have had a long time to prepare defensive maneuvers to stave off a potential challenger.
Jason Lipshutz: While I would never want to count out the enormity of “A Bar Song” after the last few months we’ve experienced, it does feel like the time has come for the top of the Hot 100 to turn over to some degree, with “Love Somebody” leading the charge as an autumn-released smash. I’m not sure how long “Love Somebody” spends in the top spot since it’s still early days and it’s a slightly different, Latin-influenced sound for Wallen, but the timing of its No. 1 debut suggests that Shaboozey’s huge hit may finally be sliding a bit, and I’d bet against it logging more than maybe one more week at the top of the Hot 100.
Andrew Unterberger: I think “Love Somebody” might need a couple weeks to amass the total radio support he needs to hold on to a No. 1 spot once his first-week sales and streams recede — but in the meantime, looks like Shaboozey has extra competition for No. 1 from a newly motivated Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars and a blockbusting Tyler, the Creator. (He’s particularly lucky that the latter kneecapped the first-week numbers for his Chromakopia album by releasing it on a mid-tracking-week Monday, otherwise — given the first-day numbers that set is putting up — he might have had to fend off multiple tracks from that thing next week.) So we’ll see if Shaboozey gets to Week 16 next week or one of the few after, but I doubt Morgan Wallen will be his biggest obstacle regardless.
4. Despite some serious controversies and major backlash, Wallen has seemingly only gotten bigger in his career over his three albums to date. Based on his 2024 output, do you see him getting even bigger with album No. 4 when that comes, or is he bound to plateau by then?
Katie Atkinson: I think we’re still rising and that plateau is nowhere in sight. A lot of people credited Morgan with boosting Post Malone’s bona fides for his debut country single, but I think that mutually beneficial relationship will work in the other direction too. Anyone who doesn’t follow country music and maybe only knew Morgan’s name from when he said the N-word on camera likely at least gave “I Had Some Help” a spin over the summer. There’s room for Morgan to grow and it looks like he’s still growing.
Kyle Denis: I think he probably has one more monster album in him on the level of Dangerous or One Thing at a Time before he starts to plateau. He can ride the mainstream country boom a little while longer and take advantage of the genre being at the center of the zeitgeist right now. I think his real challenge is album No. 5, will a gargantuan 20+ track album work the same magic a fourth time in a row? I’m not sure I’d put my money on it just yet.
Elias Leight: He will continue to get bigger. There are still more listeners for him to reach outside of the country genre, both with pop-leaning records like “Love Somebody” and through his hip-hop collaborations — his song with Moneybagg Yo is being played at my gym, which otherwise ignores country music completely. There’s also more room for Wallen to grow outside of the U.S. as country’s global footprint continues to expand. According to his label Big Loud, Wallen just earned the first ever No. 1 debut on the U.K. Country Airplay Chart.
Jason Lipshutz: He’s going to get bigger — potentially a lot bigger. One Thing at a Time was Wallen’s first album since the controversy, and while it was a juggernaut, there’s no doubt that some number of listeners dismissed the project due to his negative actions. Now, with multiple years between him and those actions, Wallen is ready to pull in new listeners who were part of that outcry against him, while also super-serving the fan base that helped him join country music’s elite. We have a situation in which a superstar has been set up to become a decade-defining artist — as long as he sticks the landing with the music, and avoids anything untoward outside of it.
Andrew Unterberger: Crazy to think of what Morgan Wallen getting even bigger could look like at this point — ’90s Garth Brooks mixed with late-’00s Taylor Swift? — but it does seem like we’ll find out soon; his 2024 has only kept his arrow trending farther and farther upwards. Stadiums, seven-figure first-weeks, Grammys: Who knows for sure, but it all seems in play at this point.
5. Let’s say Wallen was properly motivated to maintain his 2020s mark and continue to keep “A Bar Song” out of No. 1. What new remix or video or other promotional tactic would you recommend him trying out to ensure “Love Somebody” was virtually unmoveable from the top spot?
Katie Atkinson: A remix of “Love Somebody” with a female artist that adds a second verse from a woman’s perspective — give it to me right now. Maybe to keep it personal (since they were once “not just friends”), we can enlist Megan Moroney for the new duet.
Kyle Denis: Drop the official music video with Brianna ‘Chickenfry’ LaPaglia as your leading lady.
Elias Leight: There haven’t been a lot of star-studded remixes helping artists win close chart races this year, though a well-timed music video release from Kendrick Lamar did help “Not Like Us” rebound to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in July. The key to a long run at the top of the chart these days seems to be maintaining interest from a streaming audience while also cultivating support from at least three radio formats.
Jason Lipshutz: Simple enough: perform on The Voice, with surprise guest Adam Levine in his triumphant return to the show, and create a mash-up with Maroon 5’s “Love Somebody” and his own. Will that sound good? Probably not. Will viewers love the synergy? You bet.
Andrew Unterberger: Post Malone returning the “Help” favor by adding some aid of his own here seems like a no-brainer.
Morgan Wallen leads this week’s all-genre Billboard Hot 100, as his new song “Love Somebody,” released on Mercury/Big Loud/Republic, debuts at the chart’s pinnacle. The song also marks the first country song to debut atop the chart since Wallen’s own collaboration with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help,” which launched at No. 1 on the […]
The tables turn in Rihanna‘s latest interview, which has the singer asking most of the questions.
Rihanna appears on Tuesday’s (Oct. 29) new episode of Recess Therapy, the feel-good YouTube series featuring interviews with regular kids who usually don’t realize their answers are funny — they’re just being themselves. (You might remember the web series for the “it’s corn” kid that went viral with this video in 2022.)
On the latest episode Rihanna meets 7-year-old Miles, her favorite Recess Therapy kid. Miles has previously talked to stars like Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa, and those videos are probably among those Rihanna’s seen.
“I actually am a fan of yours, Miles,” she tells him on the new episode, adding, “I got a little bit excited about it and I started watching all your videos. You’re really funny.”
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“I know,” Miles says.
Throughout the adorable conversation, Rihanna and Miles discuss songs and shoes, and address important life topics like confidence, thinking too much, lying and making friends.
What’s Miles’ favorite Rihanna song? “Shine bright like a diamond,” he says, without hesitation, which is cuteness overload for Rihanna.
“Love on the Brain” is her favorite to sing, she tells him. “Love on the Brain” is from her eighth studio album, Anti, released in 2016. Pop music lovers have been waiting for Rihanna’s ninth album since then.
Young Miles is much more present than most of us grownup interviewers, with no reason to think in headlines — so, unfortunately for her fans, he doesn’t get scoop on R9 on Recess Therapy. He discusses his love life with pop star instead.
Watch Rihanna’s sweet guest spot on Recess Therapy below.
Like Ice Cube was for the Los Angeles Dodgers in game two, New York Yankees fans were hoping that Fat Joe would serve as a good luck charm for the team heading into game three of the 2024 World Series on Monday (Oct. 28).
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Joey Crack took the field in a pair of signature brown Timberland boots to warm up the 40,000-plus fans at Yankee Stadium. Rocking a Yankees letterman jacket and a matching NYY x Terror Squad fitted cap, the Bronx native tweaked some of the lyrics to his hits to go with the baseball theme and rep for his hometown squad. Joe kicked off the set with his “Lean Back” anthem before moving into Ja Rule’s “New York” and closing out with “All the Way Up.”
As he performed, Fat Joe headed to the pitcher’s mound — which had to give the grounds crew members a collective heart attack — where he named some Yankee legends after Derek Jeter threw out the honorary first pitch to have the fans ready to roar for game three.
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“Even when Fat Joe came out, the body language from the fans was like, ‘Damn!’ I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ Are we in a funeral already?” MLB Fox Sports analyst and former Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz said.
Many fans seemed to be perplexed by the performance, as many remained seated. Others roasted Joe and the Yankees on social media. “Fat Joe opening up for the Yankees might be one of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed,” one person tweeted.
Another chimed in: “I’m not a hater, BUT Fat Joe opening up for the Yankees might be one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. I think they got him on SALE 50% OFF.”
Even diehard Yankees fan Desus Nice was displeased, tweeting, “good morning to everyone except fat Joe and his trump sneakers!”
Some wondered why they couldn’t get fellow New York rappers such as Jay-Z or 50 Cent to pull up. Hov previously performed “Empire State of Mind” at Yankee Stadium ahead of game two of the 2009 World Series, which is the last time NYY appeared in the Fall Classic.
But it wasn’t all bad news for the rapper. Some fans chimed in to show their support on social media. “We won no matter the outcome as far as I’m concerned @fatjoe,” one fan wrote on Instagram over a photo of the performer on the field.
“BIG Bronx showed up!” another added over a snap of Big Joe performing, adding a “100” and fist-bump emojis.
Unfortunately, Joe’s performance wasn’t able to help power the Yankees to a win, as the team now faces a 0-3 deficit to the Dodgers. The Yankees’ bats largely went quiet into the night with Monday night bringing on a 4-2 defeat.
Fat Joe and the NYY will look to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers on Tuesday evening (Oct. 29) in game four. No performances are scheduled for pre-game.
Watch Fat Joe’s performance below.
“I think it’s one of the best feelings, euphoria,” says Sara Landry. “Like, I just like that type of feeling.”
One might have already assumed as much prior to meeting Landry, whose throttling, physical, psychospiritual live sets have made her one of the buzziest names of the current dance music moment.
Today she shows up on Zoom bathed in the dim glow of an off-camera light source. Other interviews she’s done have mentioned her being cast in a green gleam; this afternoon, it’s magenta. Either way, the effect contributes to the witchy and so-called “high priestess of hard techno” persona the American-born, Netherlands-based producer has developed, although the veil is kind of pierced when a delivery guy rings the doorbell of her place in Amsterdam.
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“I’ve gotta step over my pilates machine that’s buried in clothes because I’m trying to clean out the closet,” Landry says, laughing as she maneuvers back to the camera after grabbing a package containing new stage outfits. “It’s been a long summer.”
A long 14 months, even. While Landry has been in the scene for a decade with singles and EPs dating back to 2018, she was thrust into the zeitgeist in August of 2023, when honestly hypnotic her Boiler Room set created, she says, “a wave of momentum.” This wave has turned tidal as she’s bounced across continents playing increasingly larger shows.
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With it all, Landry is making “hard techno” — a genre that’s existed largely in the underground and at festival side stages since developing in Northern Europe in the early ’90s — a dark horse entry in the mainstream live dance music market. Landry made her EDC Las Vegas debut in June and in July became the first hard techno artist to play the Tomorrowland mainstage in the festival’s nearly 20-year history. She’s sold out every show she’s played in the U.S. this year, closed out Portola festival in San Francisco last month, released her wild-eyed debut album Spiritual Driveby in early October and last week announced a series of headlining shows, called Eternalism, which will happen across Europe in early 2025. A press release calls these shows not just a tour, but “a spiritual gathering, a testament to the power of collective energies.”
That might be true, and certainly Landry has developed a potent brand around her techno witch sensibilities. The success she’s found, as she tells it, is a function of “settling into this comfortable knowledge of what my vibe is,” with that vibe essentially being a hybrid of hard techno and the meditation/sound bath realm of spirituality wrapped up in black bodycon and heavy eyeliner. This identity, while compelling, on its own wouldn’t be enough to sustain, but Landry has the music to both back it up and make it all feel less like a put on and more like a natural extension of her interests and artistry.
Born in the Bay Area and raised in Austin, Texas, Landry got into clubbing and dance music while a student at NYU, where she earned degree in finance, psychology and advertising — areas undeniably applicable to succeeding as a DJ. After college, she worked as a data analyst in Austin while teaching Ableton courses, throwing parties around town and livestreaming through the pandemic. After meeting agents Bailey Greenwood and Annie Chung backstage at a festival, she signed with WME for representation in North America in 2022, with her growing presence neatly coinciding with an increased appetite for dark, pummeling, sort of apocalyptic but also kind of chic music in the North American scene. (See also: the success of Tale of Us’ Afterlife brand and Anyma’s upcoming residency at Sphere.)
The general assessment among many, Landry included, is that in these hard times, people want commensurately hard music and a place, she says, for “high energy, high octane experiences” where they can forget out the wars, the election, climate change and other varieties of doom and just tap into their reptilian brain for a few hours. Of course dance music has existed as an escape since its origins, with mainstream EDM offering this same space and freedom to the masses not by acknowledging bad things in the world but by pumping out feel-good anthems that made it possible to momentarily pretend they weren’t there. Now, the scene is in a place where heavy sounds are embraced because reality is no longer so easy to ignore.
But also, TikTok. Beyond existential angst, social media primed the metaphorical pump for Landry and other young artists making heavy styles of music. “With hard techno specifically, social media has been a huge factor in making it more accessible for people to discover new sounds and find their community,” Greenwood and Chung say in a joint statement, continuing that after the pandemic “people were hungry for new energy and seeing clips from these events circulate made them want to go out and participate.”
The agents agree that dance music is having a major moment in the U.S., “but this time we are seeing different genres that were historically deemed ‘underground; get pushed to the forefront of the scene and come together in new inventive ways,” a phenomenon they say has made space for new artists like Landry while giving a platform to veterans who’ve been making this type of music for a long time.
Being American has also helped Landry, given that she can canvass the market more than international acts with similar sounds who aren’t able to tour here as often. “Her team saw the value of investing in smaller markets and really laid the groundwork throughout the country,” Greenwood and Chung say. “Our first few runs in the country were really deep dives that brought the sound to corners of the U.S. that often get overlooked, long before this sound exploded here.” To wit, in June Landry was the first hard techno artist to ever headline at The Caverns in Pelham, TN, with two sold-out shows. (Landry is repped by CAA in Europe.)
While she considers herself a member of the “second wave of electronic music that’s really punching through and breaking into the mainstream,” (a category one could also slot in new stars like John SUmmit, Dom Dolla and Mau P in) Landry doesn’t foresee her music charting like the mainstream crossover dance of the 2010s. “My goal has never really been radio,” she says.
Indeed Spiritual Driveby isn’t really top 40 material. Its 12 tracks fuse hard techno foundations (heavy kickdrum, rumble, sidechain, BPMS ranging between 140 and 160) with trance-like chants, spoken word lyrics about devotion and giddy rhymes about sex. Released on her own Hekate Records (which is named for the Greek goddess of the underworld and also releases music by rising acts), the album features collaborators including Mike Dean, who worked on the album-closing title track. Her catalog has 50.9 million official global on-demand streams, according to Luminate.
“I’ve been taking elements of kind of whatever I want and just putting it on a hard techno chassis,” Landry says of her approach, “where the drums, the arrangement and the grooves are rooted in that, especially the kick drum. but then I kind of do whatever I want on top of it.”
“Whatever I want” can include adding elements of psytrance, chanting and little injections of pop. Working in samples of music by artists like M.I.A. and Nickelback “scratches a little part of my brain,” Landry says. Not everyone is a fan, with a certain number of techno purists side-eyeing the style, a generally predictable turn of events that follows the tradition of many veteran dance scenesters hating on new styles that lean into pop and generally commercialize underground sounds and scenes. (See: basically the entire EDM era.)
“I find myself wanting to do things that are a bit more commercial than what a lot of people, especially people who’ve been in the techno scene for 20-plus years, may think techno can be,” says Landry. “A lot of that stuff is tongue in cheek, but I think it’s just fun. I feel like parties are supposed to be fun.”
But she also acknowledges that people are naturally protective of underground spaces and resistant to throngs of newcomers in techno cosplay who might threaten it.
“Especially when you get into the underground scene, I think a lot of people love the music, but there’s also this social construct of value,” she says. “People are like, ‘I’m cool for knowing about this and liking this, and I want to remain here and be cool with my cool little clique and my identity that I’ve constructed for myself, where I’m so much cooler than everybody else.’ People want to gatekeep, because they want to protect the space that they feel cool and underground for knowing about. But with the invention of social media, everybody has access to everything all the time, which is a blessing and a curse.”
“I understand why people get upset,” she continues, “because I imagine it feels a bit like a loss of identity. If everybody thinks this thing I think is cool that I based a good chunk of my personality around, then am I a unique person? Do I have any unique experiences? I can understand how that inspires stressful thoughts that cause people to lash out.”
While she will defend people being attacked in the dance culture war crossfire, she also doesn’t really have a lot of time to dwell on it. She’s touring heavily in the U.S., South America, Asia, Australia and Europe through the end of the year, with her Eternalism performances starting in late January in Amsterdam. Her team plans to bring this production around the world. “We’re really only seeing the beginning of where she can go,” Greenwood and Chung say.
In the meantime, here on Zoom in the magenta glow, Landry demonstrates that euphoria can be subtler than percussion shaking the walls of any given sold-out venue.
“It feels like the end of the first cycle,” she says of where things are for her today. “The first cycle of your career is working very hard to get to a point where you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve done it. I’ve done what I set out to do so far.’ The place I’ve always hoped I could get? I’m in that place.”
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