State Champ Radio Music
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Trending on Billboard Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, first released in 1982, returns to Billboard’s charts following its expanded reissue. The set, which peaked at No. 3 on the overall Billboard 200 in its release year, re-enters that list (dated Nov. 8) at No. 26 for its first week on the chart since 1985 and its highest […]
Trending on Billboard Is this what dreams are made of? At long last, Hilary Duff is back with new music, dropping new song “Mature” after taking several years off to focus on acting. Arriving Friday (Nov. 7), the bright pop track finds the performer reckoning her past and present self. “‘Mature’ is a little conversation […]
Trending on Billboard Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the One Battle After Another movie, but Katy Perry lived that title to the fullest in her “Bandaids” music video, which arrived on Thursday night (Nov. 6). “Bandaids” serves as Perry’s first solo single of 2025, as she displays emotional vulnerability while looking back on her journey in […]
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Tems‘ Leading Vibe Initiative and Native Instruments released a mini documentary on Thursday (Nov. 6) that follows three female producers in Lagos, Nigeria.
The 72 Hours in Lagos doc follows Saszy Afroshii, TinyBraz and Gbots around the “chaotic” city (as all three women, plus Tems, individually describe the hub) during the inaugural edition of the Leading Vibe Initiative, which “aims to support, connect and amplify the next generation of women in music,” according to the doc. Native Instruments contributes training, mentorship and industry-leading software and hardware. Tems is also on the Native Instruments artist board, a collective that also includes Alicia Keys, Noah “40” Shebib, Jacob Collier and Ludwig Goransson, among others.
Saszy Afroshii, who’s produced for Fave, Qing Madi and Tiwa Savage, says inspiration strikes anywhere in the midst of Lagos’ hustle and bustle, but opportunities aren’t always that easy to find. “I think it’s very important for females to support each other. This is an industry that is occupied by males and people think, ‘Ok, this is just a man’s world.’ When you walk into a session and they’re like, ‘So where’s the producer?’ And you’re like, ‘Hi! I’m here,’” she said. “It’s just trying to shift the mindset of people. Having to go the extra mile because sometimes they don’t give you as much opportunities. So it’s very, very good when you see a female doing something that people really thought, ‘Oh, maybe she can do it.’”
In her Billboard cover story earlier this year, Tems said she taught herself to produce and engineer her own music through YouTube tutorials while studying economics at IIE MSA in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Learning how to produce definitely made me solidify my sound because usually, you have a producer that gives you a beat and you have to go on the beat. But being a producer myself, it’s more authentic now. The music became more genuine and more true to me and more distinctive,” the Grammy-winning star said in the doc.
Tems launched the Leading Vibe Initiative this past August, which Billboard exclusively announced. She hosted a two-day seminar for approximately 20 women to gain hands-on training, access to world-class tools and connections to industry executives and creatives through a series of workshops, masterclasses and panel discussions. She also launched the Leading Vibe Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya in September.
Singer-songwriter TinyBraz (who’s also a DJ/producer known as Purple Halo) echoed Tems’ sentiments about authenticity, describing it as the core message behind the Leading Vibe Initiative. “That really cut deep to me because as an artist, you can tell I’m kind of androgynous. I’m in between being girly and being masculine. The label I was in really wanted me to be on that girly side. And to be honest, it wasn’t what I was feeling,” she explained. “I just wanted to find myself again because they were basically imposing their idea of what they think a female artist should be on me, and I didn’t want that. Hearing Tems say, ‘You have to double down on what you believe in’ made me realize that it was a good decision for me to say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore with you guys. I want to go on my own. I want to be independent and find my way.’”
TinyBraz took the cameras from her current makeshift studio to her former apartment, which she called “Purple Island” “because it’s a creative space. It’s a space where I truly found the people that I was meant to align with,” such as dancers, graphic designers, engineers and artists, she explained.
Gbots, who’s worked with Olamide, CKay and P. Prime, described herself as “an outlier” because “I noticed I was one of the fewest female music producers. At that time, I even thought I was the only one making music.” In 2022, she founded the female music community, We Are ProducHERS. “Female music producers and artists and songwriters should just have a place and a safe space where they feel like because you can do it, I can do it,” she added.
Watch 72 Hours in Lagos below.
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6ix9ine claims to be the original content creator, suggesting that people dismiss his influence simply because they are haters.
During his appearance on Adin Ross’ Kick channel on Wednesday, the rainbow-haired rapper reflected on his rise to fame, stating that his breakout moments preceded the invention of TikTok. He argued that if the app had existed during his tumultuous ascent in 2018, he would have dominated the platform.
“In 2018, there was no TikTok,” he said at the 40-minute mark. “Let me get this point across, and maybe y’all say I’m reaching, but this is what I truly believe. … I walked, I went to jail, I entertained you guys with real-life crimes. I was out there putting my life on the line so you guys could run. When Vine was a thing, remember? Instagram. I was the original content creator. I know people don’t like me. It’s the right message, wrong messenger. But these is facts.”
The rapper recalled some of his most unforgettable viral stunts during his rise, including running up a hill with an AK-47. He mentioned prominent streamers like Ross, IShowSpeed and Kai Cenat, claiming they owe some of their success to his pioneering style.
“Y’all remember that?” he said. “Y’all was in high school. I walked so y’all could run, so streamers could run. … My Instagram views and numbers were through the roof. I think I was meant to be a streamer because I’m not faking nothing. I’m just charismatic, and when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I’m human at the end of the day. But I respect what you do.”
He continued to emphasize how his candidness shaped perceptions of him: “People don’t like me because they can’t control my mouth… and they’re like, ‘Damn, he’s too right.’ I’m not right about everything, because I’m human… I fed families. I’ve fed many families. I’ve created a lot of movements. But because I’m 6ix9ine, people are like, ‘Nah, nah, nah.’”
Check out the full stream below.
Trending on Billboard Ye (formerly Kanye West) met with Rabbi Yoshiayao Yosef Pinto on Tuesday to apologize for his antisemitic remarks about the Jewish community. “I feel really blessed to sit here and take accountability,” West began while holding Pinto’s hands. “I was dealing with various issues. I was dealing with bipolar also, so I […]
Juan Luis Guerra and Sting, two of the most globally admired artists in music, surprise their fans Thursday night (Nov. 6) with a new version of “Estrellitas y Duendes” — a classic by the Dominican maestro, included on his iconic 1990 album Bachata Rosa — which you can preview exclusively above. (Return at 7:00 p.m. ET to watch the full music video).
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The sweet song — a bachata with bolero elements that expresses the pain and melancholy of a lost love through deeply poetic lyrics — returns 35 years later to unite Guerra’s celebrated sound with Sting’s unmistakable artistic sensitivity, with the latter taking on the task of singing entirely in Spanish.
“Juan Luis’ lyrics in ‘Estrellitas y Duendes’ are a master class in what one might call romantic magical realism. I had to try to sing them exactly as they were written because they’re impeccable,” Sting says in a statement to Billboard Español. “My Spanish pronunciation is hardly perfect, but the spirit in which I sang them is genuine and true.”
For Guerra, this came as a surprise. “We recorded remotely, and what stood out to me the most is that he wanted to record it all in Spanish,” he explains separately in a Zoom interview. “It’s a somewhat challenging song, with metaphorical words that aren’t very common, and he did it impressively well. I know he put in special effort.”
In its new version, “Estrellitas y Duendes” keeps the elegant, evocative instrumentation and arrangements of the original basically intact, but it’s Sting’s voice that opens with the romantic line: “Viviré en tu recuerdo como un simple aguacero de estrellitas y duendes” (“I will live in your memory like a simple downpour of little stars and elves”). From there, both artists take turns singing the different verses in a sweet back-and-forth of their unmistakable voices.
This isn’t the first time these two music legends have collaborated in some way. In 2006, Sting invited Guerra on stage during a concert at Altos de Chavón in La Romana, Dominican Republic, to perform “Fragile” together.
Almost two decades later, Guerra was re-recording “Estrellitas y Duendes” for an upcoming album of new versions of his songs when Sting’s name came up as a possible collaborator. “We approached him, and he accepted, and for me, it was a privilege and an honor to have him as one of the greatest representations of rock in the world,” Guerra says. “Besides, we are fans of his and have always admired him.”
Sting recalls that it was his manager Martin Kierszenbaum, who is a Spanish-speaker “and, like me, a big admirer of Juan Luis’ compositions,” the one who encouraged him to lend his voice to this classic by Guerra, “one of his favorites.” They immediately recorded his part one afternoon at Night Bird Studios in Los Angeles.
Guerra notes that this happened a couple of years ago, explaining that they had to wait for the right moment to release it. Finally ready, they met in person a few months ago to shoot the music video at Power Station Studios in New York, directed by Guerra Films.
Juan Luis Guerra and Sting both have extraordinary legacies in music. The former, one of the most celebrated Latin artists in history, has received three Grammy Awards and 31 Latin Grammys. The latter, both as a solo artist and as the leader of The Police, has earned 17 Grammy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and multiple Oscar nominations.
Released on December 11, 1990 under Karen Records, Bachata Rosa debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Tropical Albums and topped the chart for 12 weeks. “Estrellitas y Duendes,” the fifth single from the set, reached No. 3 on Hot Latin Songs in 1991.
“Estrellitas y Duentes” ft. Sting
Courtesy
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Charli xcx wasn’t messing around when she took on the assignment of writing an original song for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation.
On Thursday (Nov. 6), the pop star posted a teaser for the track, titled “House,” and shared a long description of the creative process behind how she made it — including how she teamed up with surprise guest the Velvet Underground’s John Cale for the project. Explaining that she was immediately taken with the “world [Fennell] was creating” after the director reached out about making a song for Wuthering Heights last Christmas, Charli wrote, “After being so in the depths of my previous album [Brat], I was excited to escape into something entirely new, entirely opposite.”
“When I think of Wuthering Heights, I think of many things,” she continued. “I think of passion and pain. I think of the Moors, I think of the mud and the cold. I think of determination and grit.”
The singer went on to say that while working on the music for the movie — which will star Margot Robbie as Catherine and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff — she kept returning to a phrase she’d heard Cale use to describe his band’s music in a Velvet Underground documentary. “Any song had to be both ‘elegant and brutal,’” Charli wrote. “When the summer ended I was still ruminating on John’s words.”
This led Charli to reach out to Cale with the idea of collaborating on the scoring project, after which he sent her a poem that made her “cry.”
“I feel so lucky to have been able to work with John on this song,” she added in her note. “I’ve been so excited to share it with you all, sitting quietly in anticipation.”
“House” will arrive Monday, months ahead of when Wuthering Heights is set to hit theaters in February next year. In the song teaser, Charli appears on the screen lying on the side of her face while a man’s hand presses into her hair.
“Can I speak to you privately for a moment?” a deep voice says from off camera over sparse violin strikes.
Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights is just the latest screen adaptation of Emily Brontë’s iconic gothic novel of the same name. In September, the first teaser trailer for the film dropped, featuring “Everything Is Romantic” from Charli’s Brat album. “House” will mark Charli’s first release since unveiling the full Brat remix album in October 2024.
See Charli’s teaser for “House” below.
Hannah Dailey4:37 PM
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Mon Laferte is back in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Pop Albums chart as Femme Fatale, her 10th studio album, debuts at No. 10 on the chart dated Nov. 8, marking her third top 10 on the ranking.
“One night, I stayed on the terrace of my house, listening to voice notes and reading old texts on my phone,” Mon Laferte tells Billboard. “I finished a bottle of wine, probably smoked a pack of cigarettes, and watched the sunrise. That early morning, I gathered and invented 54 songs. That’s how Femme Fatale began.”
Femme Fatale starts at No. 10 on Top Latin Albums chart with 2,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Oct. 30, according to Luminate. The album, released Oct. 24 on Sony Music Latin, includes collabs with Conociendo Rusia, Nathy Peluso, Natalia Lafourcade, Silvana Estrada and Tiago IORC.
Of its opening-week total, 1,000 units come from streaming activity, equating to 1.9 million official on-demand streams of the album’s tracks. Another 1,000 units are attributed to traditional album sales, while song sales contribute minimally to the overall sum.
Laferte’s third top 10 on Top Latin Pop Albums follows the No. 9-peaking Norma in 2019. A year earlier, La Trenza earned the Chilean her first entry on any albums ranking. It peaked at No. 4 in May 2018.
Was Laferte surprised to debut in the top 10? “Honestly, not really,” Laferte says. “When I finished Femme Fatale, I realized it was a very personal, even uncomfortable album. To be honest, I didn’t think about the numbers; for me, it was kind of an exorcism. But the fact that it connected with so many people excites me a lot because it means there is an audience ready to look at vulnerability from a different place, without fear or guilt.”
Two weeks prior to Femme Fatale’s drop, Laferte secured her first appearance across multiple Latin songs chart through the Rauw Alejandro collab, “Callejón De Los Secretos.” The song debuted at No. 50 on Hot Latin Songs, plus peaked at Nos. 4 and 9 on Hot Tropical Songs and Tropical Airplay charts, respectively.
Trending on Billboard Dance fans rejoiced this past July when beloved trio Above & Beyond released Bigger Than All of Us, their first entirely electronic studio album in seven years. Released by the group’s longstanding Anjunadeep label, the project came months after the group played a massive set on Coachella’s Outdoor Stage then launched a […]
