Music
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Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are turning loss into creativity. The couple, who first found fame on the reality series The Hills, lost their home in the Pacific Palisades wildfire. Amid the tragedy, the pair turned to social media to share their journey and encourage fans to stream Montag’s previous music as a way to help them rebuild. […]
Lil Baby isn’t letting up. The Atlanta rapper recently dropped off the deluxe version of his fourth solo album WHAM and is planning on releasing another project entitled Dominique some time in February. He’s also mentioned working on a tape with Future, but made sure to mention Young Thug may be involved in what they […]
DJ Khaled and 50 Cent have a rocky history dating back to around 2005 when G-Unit was in the midst of a beef with Fat Joe and they can thank baseball legend Reggie Jackson for bringing them together all these years later.
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The two former foes dapped it up at Reggie Jackson’s annual “Mr. October Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic” in Port St. Lucie, Florida earlier this week and the footage was captured by 50, whose Sire Spirits liquor brand helped sponsor the event.
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Tony Yayo once told a story on Drink Champs about the time the Miami DJ told him to “get the f—k outta here” when he went down to South Florida to promote a song for the radio. “I had ‘[So] Seductive’ dropping. I didn’t know nothing about the music business,” he told hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN. “We beefing with [Fat Joe]. You f—k with Fat Joe, Khaled ain’t f—king with you. I got my record I’m trying to promote, so they like, ‘Yo, you gotta got to Miami … You gotta go to DJ Khaled.’”
Adding, “So we go up there. I told these n—as, ‘Yo, don’t take me to DJ Khaled. Fat Joe, that’s his man. He damn near Terror Squad,’” before revealing Khaled pretended to shake his hand while yelling his tagline. “Go to Khaled to shake his hand — ‘DJ Khaled, get the fuck outta here! I respect Khaled for that ’cause [Fat Joe] is his man … But I did go ’cause this is radio. I don’t understand this sh—t, I’m getting out of jail … So I’m like, ‘Yo, f—k you Khaled!’ I swear to God. You can ask him.”
Khaled confirmed Yayo’s story during an appearance on Club Shay Shay. “At that time, I work at a radio station,” he told Shannon Sharpe. “Everybody’s welcome at a radio station so you could never involve them type of situations and I understood that. And I’ve always been somebody that showed love, but when they told me [Yayo] was coming up I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Adding, “You know, him and my man don’t get along. [Fat Joe] is my brother, for real. I was just saying to myself, ‘This is gonna be hard for me’ because if I would have completely embraced him, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night. And if I did, I would have called [Fat Joe] immediately like, ‘This is what happened.’ That’s how much I care.”
He then said that’s “it’s all love now” which is try judging by 50 including their greeting in his recap of the charity event and Khaled telling the Queens rapper and filmmaker, “Nothing but love and respect.”
Lil Yachty delivered one of the most memorable Hot Ones episodes in 2018 with his first hot sauce experience, and the album has returned to the table for another bout. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Rocking a hot pink wig and a Coogie sweater from The […]
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame has announced its full crop of 2025 inductees.
Songwriter Dan Hill, “grande dame of Québec song” Ginette Reno, rock superstars Glass Tiger and singer/songwriter/composer Loreena McKennitt will all join the previously announced Sum 41. That legendary punk and rock band, who are currently on their farewell tour after returning to the top of the Alternative Airplay chart after more than two decades, will celebrate the induction with their final televised performance at the 2025 Juno Awards on March 30 in Vancouver.
The other four recipients will be joined by 2024 Hall of Fame inductee and Canadian hip-hop pioneer Maestro Fresh Wes at a special ceremony on May 15 at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (NMC), in Calgary. Maestro Fresh Wes was inducted into the Hall of Fame during The 2024 Junos broadcast in Halifax, and will again be honoured at the Studio Bell event this year.
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established by CARAS, the organization behind the Junos, in 1978 to acknowledge artists who have made a remarkable impact on Canadian music both nationally and internationally.
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Hill, Reno, Glass Tiger, McKennitt, Sum 41 and Maestro Fresh Wes will join the ranks of esteemed stars including Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, Joni Mitchell, k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Nickelback, Oscar Peterson, Rush, The Guess Who, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain.
This is the third time CARAS has held a multiple induction ceremony outside of the Junos.
“As the physical home of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, we’re proud to be a place that honours the individuals that have contributed so much to Canadian music,” says Andrew Mosker, president & CEO of the National Music Centre. “It’s always a privilege to host this special event and welcome the latest inductees to Calgary, where we can celebrate their significant influence and share their inspiring stories.”
The National Music Centre will unveil a new exhibition at Studio Bell on May 7, spotlighting the achievements of the four inductees.
Hill has achieved major international success, both for his own music and in collaboration with other musical legends. His “Sometimes When We Touch,” a tune Dolly Parton called her “favourite song of all time”’ and one she wishes she had written, has notched 63 million YouTube views and over 100 million downloads. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
Hill has recorded and released multiple Gold and Platinum albums, won a Grammy Award and five Junos, and was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021. He’s also worked with many of the pop’s top-selling artists, including Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears and Céline Dion.
Ginette Reno is a legend of Quebec music. In a 65-year career, she’s recorded over 2000 songs, 42 albums, all gold or platinum, and various notable roles on the silver screen and on television.
Since their first three albums starting in the mid-1980s, Ontario rock band Glass Tiger spawned 14 Top 40 Hits in Canada in five years. The 1986 hit “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” (which hit No. 2) and following hit “Someday,” which both reached Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the band’s debut album, The Thin Red Line, went quadruple platinum in Canada and gold in the U.S.
McKennitt has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide while remaining self-managed and self-produced. Her music, combining elements of pop, folk and worldbeat styles, has been dubbed “eclectic Celtic.”
Tickets will soon go on sale at the National Music Centre. More info at the Canadian Music Hall of Fame website.
As the Los Angeles wildfires continue to devastate the city, celebrities are coming together to support the wildfire relief efforts that have been working tirelessly to help the community rebuild and gather resources for victims. At the time of publication, the Palisades fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres and is only 19% contained, while the […]
Dave Grohl spent his 56th birthday giving back to families in need amid the ongoing wildfire crisis in the Los Angeles area. In videos posted to Instagram Stories Tuesday (Jan. 14) by Feed the Streets — an L.A.-based charity with which the Foo Fighters frontman has volunteered in the past — Grohl helps stir homemade […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
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This week: Fan support for a 2000s TV icon has resulted in her 15-year-old album likely recharting next week, while a soundtrack synch sets off a revival of a late-’80s pop classic and TikTok embraces a Rihanna hit that never was.
Heidi Montag’s ‘Superficial’ Goes Viral to Aid Recovery From Palisades Fire
Reality star Heidi Montag can now add pop star to her resume. Montag and husband Spencer Pratt, best known for their roles on hit reality TV show The Hills, lost their home in the Palisades wildfire last week. Pratt took to TikTok to share the devastating news, and to direct viewers to stream and purchase Montag’s 15-year-old album Superficial to help the family generate income in the wake of the disaster.
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Followers certainly showed up for the couple, pushing Superficial to No. 1 on the iTunes chart over the weekend and into this week with over 6,000 in album sales for the weekend of Jan. 10-12 (up from a negligible number of sales the weekend prior). It also picked up massively on streaming services, growing 740.6% in U.S. on-demand streams to over 800,000 from the first weekend of January to the second. If it maintains its performance, it could make a bow on the Billboard 200 next week — which would be Superficial‘s first appearance on the chart. — KRISTIN ROBINSON
‘Babygirl’ Milk Drinkers are Lapping Up George Michael’s ‘Father Figure,’ Too
Babygirl, Halina Reijn’s new erotic thriller/dark comedy starring Nicole Kidman as a powerful CEO who indulges in her sexual fantasies with her intern (played by Harris Dickinson), has not only served as Kidman’s latest bravura turn with Oscar buzz, but is also being meme’d ad nauseam by cinephiles who are sick of talking about the turtle in Conclave. One particular sequence that has been hoisted up by the Internet involves Dickinson dancing shirtless to “Father Figure,” the iconic No. 1 smash by George Michael, in a hotel room, while Kidman watches from afar.
Following the film’s wide release on Christmas Day, “Father Figure” has not only picked up steam on streaming services thanks to the Babygirl scene, but also with Michael’s 1987 smash soundtracking various TikTok mash-ups, from those trying to recreate Dickinson’s dance moves to others who want to anoint Pedro Pascal as the ultimate “father figure” (read: zaddy). In any event, “Father Figure” earned 358,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Dec. 26, according to Luminate, and that weekly streaming total had more than doubled two weeks later, to 984,000 streams in the week ending Jan. 9. Who knows? With the film’s pivotal scene of Kidman’s character drinking a glass of milk, maybe U.S. dairy sales are on the rise, too. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Nearly 18 Years Later, Rihanna’s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ Is Still Churning Out Hits
Even though she’s popped up for a Black Panther song or two, it’s still been nearly nine years since Anti – Rihanna‘s last studio album. Like most Rihanna album’s, Anti produced a plethora of hits, and that’s a trend Riri began with 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad. That album housed “Umbrella” (No. 1, seven weeks); “Shut Up And Drive” (No. 15); “Hate That I Love You” (No. 7); “Don’t Stop the Music” (No. 3); “Rehab” (No. 18); “Take A Bow” (No. 1) and “Disturbia” (No. 1). Now, nearly 18 years later, another Good Girl track is looking to join those ranks: the Christopher “Tricky” Stewart-produced, The-Dream-penned “Breakin’ Dishes.”
According to Luminate, “Breakin’ Dishes” has steadily risen in streams over the past month. In the week preceding Christmas (Dec. 13-19, 2024), the track pulled over 2.37 million official on-demand U.S. streams. Though streaming activity dipped during the holiday week (Dec. 20-26) — earning 2.25 million streams, down 5.2% — the following week produced its biggest week-over-week streaming increase of the month. During the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2, streams for “Dishes” soared 22% to over 2.7 million streams. By the following week (Jan. 3-9), streams rose by a furter 5.7% to just over 2.9 million streams.
Although “Breakin’ Dishes” — like the bulk of RiRi’s catalog – isn’t available on TikTok as an official sound, fan uploads have kept the song in near-constant circulation on the platform. Across three different sounds ranging from 40,000 to 280,000 posts each, users have hopped on three distinct trends attached to “Dishes.” First, some users use the song’s “A man, a man, a ma-e-a-a-an” refrain to show off their boyfriends’ strength by having them lift them up on one shoulder. Another set of users have used the song to make edits of their favorite characters from media like Squid Game and various Disney films; other users have used “Dishes” sounds to explain that the song is about “female rage” and not love.
Regardless of how they found their way to “Breakin’ Dishes,” fans are discovering Rihanna’s deep cuts and falling in love with them as if they’re new singles. — KYLE DENIS
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 25, 2025, we look at whether a new growing blockbuster from Bad Bunny will claim the top spot, or whether it will be lapped by the shipment of a beloved Taylor Swift live set.
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Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Rimas): The latest LP from Puerto Rican global superstar Bad Bunny might have already been the No. 1 album in the country had it enjoyed a full tracking week. But due to its Sunday release (Jan. 5), two days into tracking, it pulled up just short, posting 122,000 first-week units and falling behind Lil Baby’s WHAM set, which bowed at No. 1 with 140,000 units.
The good news for Fotos is that it keeps growing. While the album’s first-day numbers on streaming were solid but unexceptional, they’ve ballooned nearly every day since – an extremely unusual trajectory for a new release by an established superstar – to the point where the album now claims the top three spots on both the Apple Music real-time chart and the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA listing. (Both rankings are led by the viral smash “DtMF,” which could also challenge for a top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 next week.)
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The runaway streaming success of Fotos, combined with it now getting the benefits of a full week of tracking (as well as a heavy week of promo, including a recent Subway Busking performance with Jimmy Fallon) means that the set should have an even better showing in its second frame – perhaps more in line with the opening week of Bunny’s previous album, 2023’s Nadie Sabie Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, which managed 184,000 units in its Billboard 200-topping debut week.
Taylor Swift, Lover (Live in Paris) (Republic): The City of Lover live show that Taylor Swift played in Paris in 2019 has long held a special place in the hearts of Swifties – both for its intimate acoustic versions of many highlights from 2019’s Lover set, and for the fact that it was one of the final full live shows Swift performed for some years, after her planned Lover Fest mini-tour was canceled in the wake of the 2020 COVID pandemic and she was forced to regroup for 2023-24’s world-conquering Eras Tour. In 2020, the set was aired as an ABC live special, followed by the limited-edition release a double-LP version of the set in 2023, entitled Lover (Live From Paris), collecting eight performances from the gig.
That release was limited to 13,000 copies, and of course sold out, resulting in a No. 58 bow on the Billboard 200. The set was re-released this Jan. 7, however, as a 72-hour webstore exclusive, and is expected to sell a whole lot more than that this time around. The impact it has on this upcoming Billboard 200 will depend on when the copies of it officially ship – her webstore noted that all copies would ship “on or before Jan. 20,” but with many Swifties apparently having already received their copies, it seems likely to be a real contender for next week.
Could it beat out Bad Bunny’s burgeoning blockbuster? Despite her 14 career No. 1s on the Billboard 200, Swift has never reached the apex with a live set – with 2020’s No. 3-peaking Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions coming closest. But with the combination of the set’s reputation among Swifties, those fans’ love for collecting her records (with Taylor claiming five of the top 10 best-selling vinyl LPs of 2024) the half-decade wait since the special initially aired and how she’s gotten exponentially bigger in the last few years… as with nearly everything Taylor Swift-related in 2025, it’s probably not a great idea to bet against her.
Lil Baby, WHAM (Quality Control/Motown): Last week’s No. 1 seems pretty sure for some degree of fall-off in its second frame. Its opening number of 140,000 got a big lift from direct-to-consumer album sales (in CD and digital download form), helping it get 50,000 of those first-week units, which is almost always much lower in an album’s second week. And on streaming, Lil Baby‘s set is clearly slipping – it’s still littering the Apple Music chart, but with only one song (the Future- and Young Thug-featuring “Dum, Dumb and Dumber”) in the top 20, and it claims just two total entries in Spotify’s 200-position Daily Top Songs USA chart. That’s not shocking by any means – most big streaming albums do experience a big drop-off in week two – but it just shows how remarkable it is that Fotos is still expanding like it is. (WHAM should still get a small boost on streaming from the Friday release of its deluxe edition – featuring four bonus tracks – to DSPs, having previously been available only for purchase as part of the deluxe on the Motown webstore.)
A historic moment occurred in Colombia in late 2024 when Heredero (real name Féizar Orjuela), the carranga music artist, achieved a major hit with his song “Coqueta”. The song not only became a huge viral hit, but also reached the No.1 position for the first time in history, a milestone that also represents a breakthrough for the traditional carranga music genre, which has recently found a new place in the music industry.
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“Coqueta” achieved the feat by becoming the first carranguera song to reach No. 1 in the official Spotify 50 Colombia ranking, displacing reggaetón smashes by hitmakers like Karol G and Feid, who have dominated the Colombian charts for many years.
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It is the first time a carranga song has generated so much attention and popularity through digital platforms and social networks. The musical genre, originating from the Andean region of Colombia, specifically from the departments of Santander and Boyacá, is, in essence, Colombian peasant music. It is composed of string instruments, such as the guitar, the requinto and the requintilla (a little smaller), guacharaca and/or charasca — which are also sounds that come from the roots of the lands of Colombia and are scraping idiophones or instruments that generate sound by themselves, when hit, shaken, or rubbed.
Heredero, currently one of its most outstanding representatives, describes it as “the country of the United States,” nourished by peasant songs and poems and has transitioned its structure by entering other cities over time.
“It is totally the sum of efforts, dedication, love for rural musical culture, years, generations,” Heredero tells Billboard Español.
Now that peasant music is reaching Colombia, the world is entering thanks to “Coqueta.”
With more than 1.9 Million videos created on TikTok, including videos by J Balvin and Valentina Ferrer, Jay Wheeler, and Zhamira Zambrano, and more than 55,00 reels on Instagram, her song “Coqueta” has connected with different types of audiences — which Heredero attributes to fans’ need to consume music that is based on what is simple and honest.
“Maybe at the time it was thought, and it worked, [that] you have to have baby skin, you have to project, I don’t know what… and [labels and artists] did not spend so much time on the important product, which is the songs,” Heredero tells Billboard Español. “Now we are consuming real things. Both young people, the children, the adults, and older people are eager for it. I believe that caranga music, or at least what I try to do, is for it to be that. Show me as a person as [they are].
“When someone asks me for a photo, I tell them: ‘Please don’t retouch it, don’t put a filter on it, let me look as natural as possible,’” he adds. “That is where people are connecting to; with being, with nature. A fake smile is fake — no matter how nice you pretend it is, it won’t connect. But a look, a real smile, is something else.”
Originally from Macaravita, Santander, Heredero — son of a poet mother and Carranguero musician father — carries in his veins the culture of his music and the lyrics that accompany it. “I try to honor myself the promise that I made to myself — and that I continue to nourish all the time — that the carranga grows and is known. What is happening right now is showing that it is possible, but there is still a lot of work to do,” he says.
From his childhood, Heredero had the best teacher at home: “There was no electric light on my sidewalk at that time, and my mother, a teacher by profession, went to a room with a wax or paraffin candle to write and write, and well, I was going to accompany her,” he remembers. “She used to write many things, such as poems and stories, and she made dramatizations for her students. And I accompanied her, but without intending to, learning because she was doing it. When I started doing my little things, I talked about the seven years I was doing some verses, and he corrected me: ‘Don’t repeat that word because you already said it… but say it this way.’ On the other hand, my father was making music in the town in the urban center of our municipality. While [he was doing that] I was sitting next to the musicians, watching them how they did and learning.”
Although Heredero was well known in the carranga scene, “Coqueta” was the song that brought him to fame. The single, from his third album (distributed by ONErpm), shows the slightly more romantic part of the project and the carranga.
The remix with Jessi Uribe occurred when their teams approached each other. Uribe became interested in the song; as Heredero tells us, he also wanted the remix to have the same feel as the original arrangement.
“When we started, he said: ‘I want it to continue tasting like Carranga; I don’t want us to make a ranchera.’ He comes from popular music and ended up singing carranga; I always say: ‘Well, what a tremendous ‘shampoo’ [A popular ‘saying’ when you have gotten the best or the top] I used on myself was to sing carranguera music with the top artist in música popular.’
Heredero says he’s grateful for Uribe’s new spin, “because it was really successful for carranguera music. Immediately the next day, we were trending in Chile, Central America, the United States, and Spain. We are a bridge, and that would possibly have taken me much longer to achieve [without the remix],” he adds.
What dreams does he have from here? “A Grammy for the carranga!” These things can happen, but if you work at them fully… I will be extremely happy as a farmer and as a carranguero to grab that gramophone and raise it in honor of my land and my roots.”