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Save this storySaveSave this storySaveMilitarie Gun and Dazy have shared a new song. “Tall People Don’t Live Long” is the second collaboration between the Los Angeles hardcore group and Richmond-based artist, following their 2022 joint single, “Pressure Cooker.” Watch the accompanying music video, directed and produced by Militarie Gun frontman Ian Shelton, below.“What started as a joke between us turned into a real conversation about how sometimes people who have reached certain heights in life begin to look down on others,” Shelton said in a press statement. “‘Tall people’ became our tongue-in-cheek term for anyone that’s lost so much perspective that they think it’s alright to make someone feel less-than. This song is about rejecting that attitude—the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”“Tall People Don’t Live Long” marks Militarie Gun’s first new music since their 2024 single “Thought You Were Waving.” The band released its debut album, Life Under the Gun, in 2023, and James Goodson put out his latest project as Dazy, Otherbody, that same year.Revisit the review of Dazy’s 2022 album, OutOfBody, and read Nina Corcoran’s column “Hardcore Expanded Its Boundaries in 2023—and the Scene Embraced It.”
Natti Natasha earns her first No. 1 as a soloist, unaccompanied by another artist, on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart with “Desde Hoy” which jumps 2-1 for its first week atop the April 19-dated ranking. It’s her first return to the summit in over five years.
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“Desde Hoy” takes the lead on Tropical Airplay, with the week’s Greatest Gainer honors, after a 9% gain in audience impressions, up 6.6 million, earned in the U.S. during the April 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate. The song is the opening track off Natti’s fourth studio album, Natti Natasha En Amargue, her maiden entrance and first top 10 on the Tropical Albums chart (No. 6 debut and peak, Feb. 22 dated list).
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“Desde Hoy” marks Natti Natasha’s first No. 1 on Tropical Airplay in over five years. Her previous chart-topping hit, “La Mejor Versión de Mí,” her first collaboration with Romeo Santos as a co-billed artist, ruled the chart for 15 weeks between 2019-2020. Rewind to 2019, and her featured role on Don Omar’s “Dutty Love” reigned for one week then.
Notably, with “Desde Hoy” reaching No. 1, Natti joins an elite group of female artists who have topped the Tropical Airplay chart as soloists, unaided by any other act, during the 2020s decade. Before Natti, Rosalía’s “Despechá” reigned for four weeks in 2022, while Karol G most recently made history with “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido.” The latter broke the longest-leading record by surpassing Prince Royce’s 29-week reign with “Carita de Inocente” (chart dated Feb. 8). Ultimately, “Si Antes” dominated Tropical Airplay for 31 weeks between 2024-25.
With the new No. 1 by a woman, let’s review all the female artists who have led Tropical Airplay this decade, either as solo acts or through collaborations;
Title, Artist, Peak Date“La Mejor Versión de Mí,” Natti Natasha & Romeo Santos, Oct. 26, 2019“Víctimas Las Dos,” Víctor Manuelle & La India, May 29, 2021“La Fama,” Rosalía Featuring The Weeknd, May 14, 2022“Te Espero,” Prince Royce & Maria Becerra, May 28, 2022“Despechá,” Rosalía, Oct. 1, 2022“Monotonía,” Shakira + Ozuna, Dec. 3, 2022“El Pañuelo,” Romeo Santos & Rosalía, Feb. 4, 2023“Así Es La Vida,” Enrique Iglesias & Maria Becerra, Dec. 9, 2023“Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” Karol G, July 20, 2024“Desde Hoy,” Natti Natasha, April 19, 2025
“Desde Hoy” also makes progress son the overall Latin Airplay chart, where it climbs 9-5
Justin Vernon has a new Bon Iver album to hawk, Sable, Fable. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to take the odd Taylor Swift question here and there. Which is why during a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week, the singer-songwriter waxed rhapsodic about accidentally being pulled into Swift’s pandemic orbit in the best way possible.
When Lowe asked Vernon what it was like to work with Swift, he praised the singer for the “courage” to reach out to The National’s Aaron Dessner to collaborate on her COVID-era Folklore album. On the cusp of quarantine, Vernon said he was about to go on an European tour with Bon Iver a month before lockdown when he tapped Desssner to fill in on guitar.
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The plan was for Dessner to play DJ and cue up demos of songs from his Big Red Machine side project — a long-running collaboration with Vernon — before the Bon Iver arena sets. The tour was quickly cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so like a lot of musicians at the time Dessner went on Instagram Live to play some unreleased music for fans and who happened to hear what he was laying down but Taylor Swift?
“All the glory goes to Taylor for hearing, as a songwriter, what music she wants to make,” Vernon said. “But those songs are Big Red Machine demos at their core and her genius was working with the genius of Aaron Dessner on making the strongest set of lyrics and songwriting that she’s ever had, really.”
As he sat back and watched the process unfold, Vernon said he was mesmerized seeing the global pop icon “enter our whole universe… of course there’s no one bigger and we all bowed down to her.” Vernon described a feeling of not being able to stop blinking as he realized the collaboration between the chart and stadium queen and their low-key indie side project made perfect sense.
“The love and community that Aaron had shown me over these years… Taylor was just stepping into it and flawlessly taking it,” Vernon said, adding that Dessner rang him up during the process and said that there was a track Swift wanted him to sing on. “I was like, ‘Taylor?’” Vernon said he asked as Dessner explained that Swift was writing to some of the Big Red Machine songs she’d heard.
“I was like, ‘Awesome! I’m not doing anything today!’ They sent it and I ended up adding a couple little bits,” Vernon said of the origin story of how he ended up with a co-writing credit — along with Swift, Dessner and the singer’s ex, actor Joe Alwyn (under the pseudonym William Bowery) — on the track. “I just sang it on an SM7 in my little makeshift studio… and it felt level to everything else. It’s an exceptional song and an exceptionally popular song for a good reason,” he said. “But it felt just so natural and I’m so thankful for that opportunity just to have worked with such an amazing artist.”
In addition to “Exile” on the Folklore album, Vernon also pitched in on the title track to the companion Evermore pandemic album, while Swift lent a hand on the Big Red Machine single “Renegade” in 2021.
Watch Vernon talk about working with Swift below.
This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week continues here with a look back at the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top songs from that year, to go with the list of staff favorites our editorial team published earlier this week.
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Fifteen years into her Billboard chart career, Mariah Carey was still achieving firsts.
In 2005, the superstar’s smash “We Belong Together” spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, between that June and September, and went on to top the year-end survey – Carey’s first title to rule the annual recap.
Carey had dominated the 1990s like no act in any previous decade, becoming the first artist to lead the Hot 100 in every year of a decade (1990-99; she expanded her record chart-topping streak to 11 years, through 2000). By 2005, she was back in familiar triumphant territory thanks to the sultry second single from her album The Emancipation of Mimi. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in April 2005 and logged 74 weeks on the chart, the most for an album of hers since Daydream a decade earlier.
“My real fans have always been with me through great times and not-so-great times,” Carey shared in the 2005 year-end Billboard print issue. “That’s why I think we have a really close, special connection.”
Carey’s command was just one of the highlights on the 2005 year-end Hot 100. Elsewhere, 50 Cent boasts four entries in the top 20; Carrie Underwood places with her American Idol coronation ballad, “Inside Your Heaven”; and hits dot the ranking from the debut solo albums from No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas.
As Billboard celebrates 2005 Week, revisit the 2005 year-end Hot 100 chart, as originally revealed in the Dec. 24, 2005, publication. The recap is based on performance on the weekly Hot 100 charts dated Dec. 4, 2004, through Nov. 26, 2005. (You can also check out every year-end Hot 100 Songs chart since 2006 here.)
“Give Me That,” Webbie feat. Bun B
Bobby Vinton turns 90 today, having made his mark on the Billboard charts over the years. The singer, who gained the nickname “The Polish Prince,” had four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200. Vinton holds a special footnote in pop culture history: He had […]
The Who have parted ways with drummer Zak Starkey after nearly three decades, following the band’s recent run of London shows.
In a statement to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the veteran group said: “The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.”
The gigs, which took place last month on March 18 and 20, were in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The Who’s frontman, Roger Daltrey, is a patron of the charity and until 2024 acted as curator for their annual gig series at the historic venue.
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Tensions came to a head when Daltrey complained onstage last month about Starkey’s performance. A report of the first performance via Metro suggested that the singer stopped several songs mid-performance, citing difficulty hearing the band over the drums.
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It also said that Daltrey paused their final song, “The Song Is Over,” and told the audience: “To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.”
Starkey appeared to pre-empt his dismissal over the weekend (Apr. 13), when he posted an all-caps message to his Instagram page that read, in part: “Heard today from inside source that Toger Daktrey [sic] lead singer and principal songwriter of the group unhappy with Zak the drummer’s performance at the Albert Hall a few weeks ago is bringing formal charges of overplaying and is literally going to Zak the drummer.”
Daltrey, 81, recently revealed during those Teenage Cancer Trust shows that “the joys of getting old mean you go deaf. I also now have got the joy of going blind.”
The decision wraps up a significant chapter in the legendary rockers’ history. Starkey joined the band during their 1996 Quadrophenia world tour. He was introduced to drumming by The Who’s original drummer, Keith Moon, a close family friend who gave him a drum kit for his eighth birthday. He went on to play major shows with the group, including the 2010 Super Bowl and the 2012 London Olympics. At press time spokespeople for Starkey and the Who had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional comment.
Starkey is the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey, and has also enjoyed a fruitful career outside of The Who, playing with Oasis, Johnny Marr, Paul Weller and Graham Coxon. He currently performs in the recently-formed supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos, also featuring Shaun Ryder and Bez of the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, and Andy Bell of Oasis and Ride.
Big things are coming from Lorde. The singer who disappears into the hedges like Homer Simpson when she is off-cycle peeked her head back out again on Tuesday (April 15) when she sent a three-minute audio message to fans via WhatsApp in which she teased that news is coming.
Describing the feeling of returning to the stage over the weekend at Coachella — where she hopped up for a surprise appearance on the “Girl So Confusing” remix during Charli XCX’s set — Lorde said she reveled in the golden hour glow. “I can feel all that I have shed to be able to be in this the way I am right now… I had this little taste. Fifteen seconds. I could feel it behind me,” she said of the feeling of walking to the main stage at dusk in Indio and thinking about all the Coachellas she’s been to over the past 12 years.
During her appearance at Coachella, Charli helped amp up the hype, shouting “Lorde summer 2025!”
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“I felt so real and so solid. I can just feel all that I have shed to be able to be in this the way I am right now. I was like, ‘It’s dusk, in the desert, enjoy it b–ch.’ I just wanted to say hi because everything is about to change,” Lorde said in the voice note. “These are the last moments where it’s just us. Which is crazy. But so right. I’m so ready.”
The singer signed off by thanking her fans for their patience and assuring them that she could feel their presence when she was on stage.
Lorde has been slowly teasing her next era over the past year, most recently with a snippet of an unreleased song on TikTok on April 9 in the first taste of her upcoming as-yet-untitled fourth album. In the brief clip, Lorde filmed herself walking through Washington Square Park in New York City as she listened to the track. “Since I was 17, I gave you everything/ Now we wake from a dream, well baby, what was that?/ What was that?” she sang over a mid-tempo dance beat and ethereal synths.
Last July, she shared a micro snippet of an unreleased song with the message “Will be back in touch,” followed the next month by confirmation from producer Jim-E Stack that they were working together via a photo of the singer staring intently at her laptop. That same month, she wiped all of her social accounts, amping up fan speculation that LP4 was on the way.
Her most recent album was 2021’s Solar Power, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Listen to Lorde’s message below.
Luke Bryan says he didn’t plan to spend his morning watching Katy Perry’s space flight — but like many, he got caught up in the moment.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, the American Idol judge recounted how he found himself unexpectedly tuning into Blue Origin’s historic NS-31 launch, which saw Perry take flight alongside an all-female crew that included Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King and Kerianne Flynn.
“I was doing my morning walk around the farm, which turns into checking Instagram and stuff,” Bryan explained. “I saw where she was posting on her Instagram that it was happening at 8:30 Central and totally got roped into the moment.”
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The country star said he ended up watching the full livestream. “They’re in the Rivian, they’re heading to the capsule, and I’m sitting there walking and it roped me in,” he said. “Because when you have a friend — I mean, let’s face it — it could blow up. So I wanted it to not do that.”
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Bryan previously sent Perry a supportive text when she announced her participation, writing, “Good luck, wow, that’s crazy you’re getting to do that.”
While Perry has now officially been declared an astronaut after the successful launch, Bryan isn’t sure he’d follow in her footsteps just yet. When Kimmel asked if he’d want to go to space, Bryan laughed, “I probably would do it just because — I mean, you gotta take that chance.”
Kimmel pushed back: “No, you don’t. You don’t have to take that chance.”
Bryan agreed the decision would take “a delicate negotiation” with his family, adding, “I think I would get a resounding no.”
The two joked about potential country-themed space tracks, including “Chicken Jockey” and “Bass Fisherman in Space.”
Later in the interview, Bryan also discussed season 23 of American Idol, praising Jelly Roll’s role as artist-in-residence. “When you hear Jelly Roll’s story — the fact that he was 35 before he ever really started singing — what he’s been able to do since then is amazing,” he said. “He really develops a great connection [with contestants].”
Carrie Underwood has also joined the panel this season. “What she’s added to the show has been really, really special,” Bryan added.
Meanwhile, Bryan is preparing for two tours this year: his annual Farm Tour, which will head to California for the first time, and the Country Song Came On Tour. “When you pull out there and see 15,000 to 20,000 people come to a real working farm, it’s pretty magical,” he said. “It’s become something really important to me and my family.”
And yes — he confirmed he does own a helicopter, on Blake Shelton’s advice.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Just months after the 2024 Music Victoria Awards were confirmed to have been targeted in an egregious occurrence of voter fraud, organizers have made the decision to suspend the 2025 event.
The 2024 edition of the awards – which seeks to honor and recognize the talents of musicians in the Australian state of Victoria – was held in Melbourne on Oct. 24, though it was later announced on Nov. 27 that an “unknown assailant/s” had targeted the voting process and manipulated several of the publicly-voted categories.
In a statement, Music Victoria, the trade body that produces the annual ceremony, explained they had become aware of “unusual activity within the third-party voting system used for the public voted categories.”
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Following a thorough internal investigation, and liaisons with “the third-party voting system Award Force, cyber security experts and legal advice,” it was discovered that “thousands of misregistered votes” had been “falsely attributed to nominees, resulting in a change to the recipients of five of the six publicly voted categories.”
As a result of the discovery, the rightful winners were later reinstated and Music Victoria insisted it will “carve out space” in the 2025 ceremony to “present the winners in front of our industry.”
However, a statement issued by Music Victoria on Wednesday (April 16) has now confirmed the awards will in fact be suspended for 2025.
“This decision comes after careful reflection, consultation, valuable feedback and learnings over the last 18 months,” the statement read. “The organisation believes this is the right time and opportunity for Music Victoria to reassess and reimagine the Music Victoria Awards, ensuring they are reflective of and aligned with Victoria’s diverse music community while operating in a financially sustainable manner.
“Music Victoria remains deeply committed to its mission of providing a valuable platform for artists and industry and looks forward to engaging with stakeholders – working together to uncover new ways to celebrate and support Victorian music meaningfully.”
Music Victoria CEO Fiona Duncan also issued a statement, noting, “this short-term action gives us the opportunity to set up the Music Victoria Awards for a robust and sustainable long-term future.”
“We need to take one step back to allow leaps forward,” Duncan added. “We look forward to collaborating closely with our community to shape this next chapter to celebrate the depths of talent we have in Victoria. We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we evolve through these changes.”
The Music Victoria Awards were originally launched in 2006 as the EG Music Awards, as a means to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Melbourne newspaper The Age’s long-running entertainment guide. Initially a retrospective ceremony, the focus shifted in the ensuing years to reflect the annual performance of musicians from Victoria.
The 2024 edition of the Music Victoria Awards saw names such as Angie McMahon, Gut Health, and Maple Glider, recognized for best album, best group, and best solo artist, respectively.
Just a week after revealing that their forthcoming album will be taking an orchestral lean, prolific Australian collective King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have officially detailed their 27th album.
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Set for release on June 13 via the band’s own (p)doom Records, new album Phantom Island is slated to be a stylistic change for the genre-defying rockers, with the ten-track album seeing them utilize orchestral arrangements for the first time.
Inspired by a meeting with members of Los Angeles Philharmonic while backstage at the Hollywood Bowl in June 2023, the sessions for King Gizzard’s 2024 album Flight b741 yielded an additional batch of tracks that needed “more time and space and thought” and additional “energy and colour,” guitarist and vocalist Stu Mackenzie claimed.
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With the LA Philharmonic in mind, Mackenzie reached out to friend, British historical keyboardist, conductor and arranger Chad Kelly, who brings a “wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements,” according to Mackenzie. “We come from such different worlds – he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he’s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.”
Kelly’s influence can be seen in lead single “Deadstick,” which pairs elaborate orchestrations and funky musicianship with a sprawling clip directed by Guy Tyzack.
King Gizzard formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2010 and swiftly became one of the country’s most prolific groups, with both 2017 and 2022 seeing the band release five albums within the span of a year.
Despite their extensive output, the band have not yet topped the charts in their homeland (though they would hit No. 2 on four separate occasions). In the U.S., the band peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 with 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest, while their voracious fanbase has also seen the majority of their releases chart on the Top Album Sales chart.
In January, King Gizzard were also listed on the lineup for the 2025 edition of Bonnaroo, performing three sets over three days as part of the inaugural ‘Roo Residency. This Residency coincides with the release of Phantom Island on June 13, and will be followed by a series of U.S. tour dates where the band will be joined by a different 29-piece orchestra in each city.
Their U.S. run will also feature a standalone “Rock ‘n Roll Show” in New York on Aug. 2, and will wrap in Colorado later that month with the band’s own three-day Field of Vision festival.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 2025 U.S. Tour Dates
June 13-15 – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Manchester, TNJuly 28 – TD Pavilion At The Mann, Philadelphia, PA (w/ Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia)July 30 – Westville Music Bowl, New Haven, CT (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s)Aug. 1 – Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, NY (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s)Aug. 2 – Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, NYAug. 4 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD (w/ National Symphony Orchestra)Aug. 6 – Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL (w/ Chicago Philharmonic)Aug. 8 – Ford Amphitheater, Colorado Springs, CO (w/ Colorado Symphony)Aug. 10 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA (w/ Hollywood Bowl Orchestra)Aug. 11 – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego, CA (w/ San Diego Symphony Orchestra)Aug. 15-17 – Field of Vision at Meadow Creek, Buena Vista, CO