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Lady Gaga has one mode: all-in. That’s the lesson Little Monsters learned (again) over the weekend when Mother Monster hopped in the car with Zane Lowe for a surprise A Carpool Karaoke Christmas special — which also featured Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan — and talked about the time she was told to dial it […]
12/16/2024
The most unforgettable moments of Rolling Loud’s 10th anniversary — from country music newcomers to grandiose, cinematic sets.
12/16/2024
Paul McCartney brought a little extra holiday cheer to Manchester over the weekend with a rare performance of his beloved seasonal hit, “Wonderful Christmastime.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Fans at the Co-Op Live arena on Saturday (Dec. 14) were treated to the festive surprise during […]
The holiday season just got brighter with the surprise release of A Carpool Karaoke Christmas, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Starring Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Chappell Roan, the festive installment of the Emmy-winning Carpool Karaoke: The Series dropped on Dec. 15, delighting fans with holiday cheer and star-studded musical moments.
Hosted by Zane Lowe, the hour-long special takes viewers on a whirlwind global caroling adventure. The trailer teases a festive road trip, with Lowe chauffeuring his celebrity passengers from Tokyo to Missouri to Los Angeles. Along the way, the trio shares candid conversations, heartfelt moments, and lively renditions of holiday classics and chart-topping hits.
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Lady Gaga, who recently dominated the Billboard charts with her global smash “Die With a Smile,” revisted her saucy 2008 single “Christmas Tree.” Known for its cheeky lyrics, Gaga calls it her idea of a family singalong with a wink. The journey ends with Gaga and Lowe performing a spirited rendition of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” with her band, a performance now available as a standalone audio track.
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Dua Lipa brings her signature energy to the Tokyo leg of the adventure, sharing a karaoke version of the Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” alongside her own mega-hit “New Rules.” Lipa also reflects on her rise to fame, recounting how a Katy Perry concert inspired her to pursue a career on the world’s biggest stages.
Chappell Roan’s portion of the special is as heartfelt as it is fun. Taking Lowe on a tour of her family farm in Missouri, Roan introduces a chicken named after Lady Gaga before hitting the road with her parents for a singalong of “Pink Pony Club,” as well as her take on Wham! classic “Last Christmas.” Emotional moments surface as Roan’s parents share their pride in her artistry and message of inclusivity, calling her a beacon of love and acceptance.
“I started to tear up just listening to her sing it just now,” says Roan’s mother, Kara. “We love her so much and we’re so proud of what she does and who she is and what she stands for. I love singing it with her at her shows and I love it when you can just see the people just respond to that song so much. And even when we’re grown up, we really care about what our parents think about us.”
The festive edition of Carpool Karaoke continues the franchise’s tradition of bringing major star power and holiday spirit, with Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and Chappell Roan making the special a must-watch event. A Carpool Karaoke Christmas is now available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+.
Watch the trailer for A Carpool Karaoke Christmas here.
Metallica have wrapped up their live activity for 2024, finishing things off with their regular Helping Hands concert in California.
The musical component of the heavy metal outfit’s All Within My Hands foundation, the Helping Hands concert series is a biannual affair which has been running since 2018.
With “aims to assist and enrich the lives of members of the communities who have supported the band for years, as well as encourage participation from fans and friends”, the previous events have been wildly successful, with the 2018 and 2020 editions raising over $1.3 million, and 2022 resulting in over $3 million in donations.
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The latest Helping Hands concert took place on Friday (Dec. 13) at Inglewood, CA’s 6,000-seat YouTube Theater, with hosting duties performed by Jimmy Kimmel. The event also featured a handful of special guests, including Sammy Hagar and special guests Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Kenny Aronoff, with classically-trained siblings SistaStrings also taking part.
As is tradition, the event featured a handful of deep cuts from the band’s back catalog, with this recent performance being no exception. Launching proceedings with a five-song acoustic set, both San Francisco singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Avi Vincour and pianist Henry Salvia were also on hand to aid in the performance.
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The band’s acoustic set kicked off with a performance of “Low Man’s Lyric”, which hadn’t been played live since the band’s Reload tour in September 1998, before being followed by the first play-through of Diamond Head’s “Helpless” since 2018, and their first-ever rendition of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Away From Home”. Welcoming SistaStrings to the stage, the acoustic portion of the event wrapped up with versions of 2023’s “If Darkness Had a Son” and the enduring “Nothing Else Matters”.
The career-spanning electric set was slightly more traditional, featuring tracks from the band’s wider catalog. Alongside last year’s “Screaming Suicide”, Metallica leant into tracks from the likes of famed ’80s records Kill ‘Em All, Master of Puppets, and 1989’s …And Justice for All. While reintroducing “The Unforgiven II” to the live set for the first time since 2015, the band also welcomed Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament to the stage for a performance of “Hit the Lights”.
Metallica’s Helping Hands concert will also be uploaded to YouTube for streaming on Thursday (Dec. 19), while full details regarding how much was raised by the event is usually shared in the new year.
32 years after virtuosic rocker Prince and Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue teamed up for a collaboration, their-previously unheard efforts have now reportedly been leaked online.
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The track, titled “Baby Doll”, has been discussed at length by fans of the Purple One, with its origins tracing back to the Australian leg of Prince’s Diamonds and Pearls tour in April and May of 1992. Recorded at Sydney’s Studios 301 during his visit to the country, Prince and Minogue reportedly connected during the former’s performance at London’s Earl’s Court in June of the same year.
“We just kind of hung out,” Minogue told Zane Lowe in 2020. “I don’t even know what that means, but we hung out and he kind of put me on the spot a bit. He was like, ‘So where are your lyrics?’”
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The pair reportedly continued their discussions before Prince sent his driver to Minogue’s apartment with a tape of his efforts. “There’s a cassette in my hand with Prince singing, a song called ‘Baby Doll,’ that I kind of was involved with, but he who slept four hours a night or something and just created stuff the rest of the other 20 hours,” she remembered. “That was my almost, we didn’t record it.”
Ultimately, the track didn’t receive the full studio treatment due to Minogue’s label nixing the idea.
The newly-leaked version of the track arrived on Friday (Dec. 16) via the New Paisley Generation YouTube account and features the same lyrics that Minogue confirmed in 2018 to have written for the collaboration.
Per the upload’s description, “Baby Doll” was one of the tracks from Prince’s Vault that were planned to be included on an intended project called Diamonds and Love in 2022. This release would have included unreleased material recorded during the sessions for 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls album and 1992’s Love Symbol record.
A deluxe reissue of the late artist’s Diamonds and Pearls album emerged in 2023, but was limited solely to the material recorded prior to the record’s original release in October 1991 – ultimately excluding the track.
According to U.K. publication The Sun, a source explained that “Kylie is just as baffled as everyone else as to where the track has come from.
“It was initially delivered to her on a cassette back in the Nineties and since Prince’s death in 2016, belonged to his estate,” they said. “Any leak is annoying but it’s nice for fans to finally know what the mystery song sounds like, God knows they have waited long enough.
“As for what will happen now if anything, fans will have to wait and see.”
A Drake look-alike contest in the rapper’s hometown of Toronto got a boost from the artist himself, who unexpectedly contributed $10,000 to the prize pot. Upon hearing about the themed competition, Drake — who is Billboard’s year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist — hit up organizer Casuals Cakery on Instagram with a direct message that the bakery […]
Weekend Update had SNL‘s Jane Wickline singing a comedic song as Sabrina Carpenter Saturday night (Dec. 14) — one that named pop stars like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, both of whom the internet has no problem gossiping about when it comes to sexuality. Carpenter apparently hasn’t been a big part of that particular rumor mill. In the sketch, Wickline portrays the “Taste” singer as feeling left out.
“A lot of people on the internet like to start these juicy rumors about whether pop stars are gay, and this is a new song that I, Sabrina Carpenter, wrote called ‘When Will Even One Person Do That About Me?’” the SNL cast member explained ahead of performing a parody based on what Carpenter might think of it all.
Of course, the song sounded nothing like an actual Carpenter hit. “I can’t look or sound like her. She’s completely perfect,” Wickline said, but added, “For the purposes of this song, I am her.”
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“Taylor Swift sings about a crush on her best friend/ And you all cry ‘lesbian’ because she didn’t phrase it ‘my boy best friend,’” she sang in front of a keyboard.
“In a music video, I make out with Jenna Ortega/ No one doubts me at all when I say this is a metaphor for one of my ex-boyfriends/ And that is all it was, but no one ever wondered,” Wickline’s Carpenter said. In the next verse she pointed out that making out with her female co-star in “Taste” merely resulted in online chatter like “I heard this song is about Shawn Mendes.”
“Help me/ Just tell me where I’m doing wrong/ Why am I the only straight pop star/ Taken at their word?/ It’s lonely/ I do gay stuff and you don’t get mad/ I just want the same treatment/ I want to have mystique/ Why don’t you think I’m either bi or pretending that I might be/ I’m not bi or pretending, but why does no one think I’m lying/ I just want you to think I might have secrets,” she sang.
Wickline went on to remind everyone that Carpenter also locked lips with a female alien during the MTV Video Music Awards stage in September, while performing a medley of her hits.
“I also made out with a girl alien at the VMAs/ Nothing!” she lamented in her song.
Carpenter hasn’t commented on the bit.
Watch the “Weekend Update” that pokes fun at Carpenter in the clip below. Elsewhere during the Chris Rock-hosted episode, musical guest Gracie Abrams played “That’s So True” and “I Love You, I’m Sorry.”
GloRilla and Kehlani‘s “Xmas Time” has topped this week’s new music poll that features artists in various genres of music. The holiday collaboration was crowned the favorite new music release by fans in a poll published Friday (Dec. 13) on Billboard. “Xmas Time” garnered nearly 55% of the vote, edging out new music from Stray […]
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department notches a 17th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 21), as the set holds atop the list after rushing back to No. 1 a week ago after its deluxe Anthology edition was released on CD and vinyl exclusively at Target. In the tracking week ending Dec. 12, the album earned 240,000 equivalent album units (down 41%) in the U.S., according to Luminate, with over 80% of that sum driven by physical album sales.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, ROSÉ’s debut solo album rosie bows at No. 3, TWICE’s Strategy enters at No. 4 and Sabrina Carpenter’s holiday set Fruitcake reenters the chart at No. 10 for its first week in the top 10, after its wide physical release.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 21, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Dec. 17). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 240,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 12, traditional album sales comprise 201,000 (down 45%, it holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a 10th nonconsecutive week), SEA units comprise 39,000 (up 6%; equaling 51.04 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it falls 9-10 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 27%).
TTPD was initially released on April 19 as a standard 16-song digital download album, as well as in an array of 17-song physical configurations. Two hours after the album dropped, Swift issued an expanded 31-song edition of the album, dubbed The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which added 15 additional songs. However, the Anthology edition was only available as a digital download and streaming set until Nov. 29, when its CD and vinyl editions became available for purchase exclusively through Target. The Target CD and vinyl additionally boast four bonus acoustic tracks (which were previously released in other alternative versions of the album).
Since the Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956, Poets is only the 18th album to have spent at least 17 weeks at No. 1, of more than 1,200 leaders. The last album to spend at least 17 weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which logged 19 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between March 2023 and this March. The last album by a woman to spend at least 17 weeks at No. 1 prior to Poets was Adele’s 21, which earned 24 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2011-12.
Kendrick Lamar’s former leader GNX is a non-mover at No. 2 on the latest Billboard 200 with 125,000 equivalent album units earned (down 24%). It remains at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums for a third straight week.
ROSÉ’s solo debut album, rosie, launches at No. 3 with 102,000 equivalent album units earned. Pop group BLACKPINK, of which she is a member, has logged a pair of top 10s, including the chart-topping BORN PINK in 2022.
Of the 102,000 equivalent album units earned by rosie in its opening week, album sales comprise 70,000 (it debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 43.85 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 17 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000. The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 physical variants of the album across CD and vinyl editions, many including collectible ephemera (some randomized).
The album was led by the single “APT.” with Bruno Mars, which debuted and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Streaming Songs chart, and has reached the top 30 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and the all-format Radio Songs charts.
TWICE captures its sixth total and consecutive top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200 as STRATEGY debuts at No. 4 with 88,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the second top 10 for the group in 2024, following their first chart-topper, With YOU-th (March 9-dated chart). Of the new set’s first-week units, album sales comprise 81,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 6,500 (equaling 8.86 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise less than 500 units. The album’s first-week sales were aided by its availability across more than 15 CD and vinyl editions, all inclusive of collectible paper ephemera (some randomized).
Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (75,000 equivalent album units earned; up 10%); the Wicked film soundtrack falls 3-6 (74,000; down 31%); Michael Bublé’s former leader Christmas is a non-mover at No. 7 (62,000; up 10%); Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas hits a new peak, rising 9-8 (56,000; up 13%); and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft slips 6-9 (56,000; down 6%).
Carpenter captures a second album in the top 10, and the second top 10 of her career, as her holiday effort Fruitcake re-enters the chart at No. 10 (a new peak) following its wide physical release on CD, vinyl and cassette on Dec. 6. In the tracking week ending Dec. 12, Fruitcake earned 54,000 equivalent album units (up 1,040%), with album sales comprising 39,000 (up 27,326%; it debuts at No. 4 on Top Album Sales) and SEA units comprising 15,000 (up 210%, equaling 19.65 million on-demand official streams of set’s songs).
Fruitcake was initially released in November 2023 as a digital download album for purchase and through streaming services. It had a limited vinyl release, exclusively through Carpenter’s official webstore in December 2023. On Dec. 6, the album became widely available on CD, cassette and three vinyl variants (including one exclusive to Target).
Carpenter is the sixth artist in 2024 to have at least two albums in the top 10 at the same time. Previously this year, Zach Bryan, Future, Metro Boomin, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen all notched multiple projects in the top 10 concurrently.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.