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02 Jan 2024

After Christmas, It’s Still a ‘Cruel Summer’ for Taylor Swift on Radio

With Christmas classics having been put back into radio stations’ storage until December, regularly scheduled programming has resumed, with a familiar title atop Billboard’s Radio Songs chart.

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” continues at No. 1 on the Radio Songs ranking (dated Jan. 6, 2024) for a 10th total week on top – becoming her first hit to reign for double-digit weeks. The song drew 64.6 million in all-format airplay audience, up 5%, Dec. 22-28, according to Luminate.

(Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was the top-charting seasonal hit on Radio Songs over the latest holiday season, reaching No. 17 a week ago, when 12 such songs decorated the 50-position list.)

Here’s an updated look at Swift’s eight Radio Songs No. 1s, ranked by most weeks spent at the summit.

Title, Weeks at No. 1, Year(s):

  • “Cruel Summer,” 10, to date, 2023-24
  • “Blank Space,” six, 2014-15
  • “Anti-Hero,” five, 2022-23
  • “Bad Blood” (feat. Kendrick Lamar), five, 2015
  • “Shake It Off,” four, 2014
  • “I Knew You Were Trouble.,” four, 2013
  • “Wildest Dreams,” two, 2015
  • “You Belong With Me,” two, 2009

“Cruel Summer,” which first hit No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart dated Oct. 7, 2023, was originally released on Swift’s 2019 Republic Records album Lover. The label began promoting the song as a single last June, after Swift began performing it on her The Eras Tour, her first in which she’s been able to spotlight songs from Lover, which was released shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(“Cruel Summer,” thus, and reflecting its mass appeal, remains atop Radio Songs in winter, after it hit No. 1 in the fall, after becoming a single last spring.)

The song also adds a new milestone on the Adult Pop Airplay chart, where it logs a 17th week at No. 1 – tying Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” for the longest command for a song by a woman (since the survey began in Billboard’s pages in March 1996; overall, the tracks share the sixth-longest rule, with Santana’s “Smooth,” featuring Rob Thomas, having run up a record 25-week reign in 1999-2000).

Among other chart honors for “Cruel Summer,” it became the landmark 10th of Swift’s 11 career No. 1s on the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100, reigning for four weeks, and her record-breaking 12th No. 1, and her longest-leading (10 weeks), on Pop Airplay.

The song ranks at No. 19 on the latest Hot 100 with top Airplay and Sales Gainer honors. In addition to its radio resurgence, it jumped by 41% to 3,000 sold in the tracking week.

All charts dated Jan. 6 will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Jan. 3.

02 Jan 2024

Emma Stone Reveals How She Befriended Taylor Swift & How Many Times She’s Seen The Eras Tour

So, when exactly did Emma Stone fall in love with longtime friend Taylor Swift? When the two superstars were just teenagers, as it turns out! In a New Year’s Day The Graham Norton Show interview (Jan. 1), Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone opened up about her friendship with Swift, her Eras Tour experiences and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track “When Emma Falls In Love.”

Stone, who won the best actress Oscar for her performance in 2016’s La La Land, revealed that she has attended the Eras Tour “three [times] so far,” including the tour’s opening show in her hometown of Phoenix, Ariz. “Mandy Moore, who was the choreographer of La La Land, was [Taylor’s] choreographer for the tour,” Stone explained. “So it was a bunch of lovely things all come together, and it was incredible to see.”

Moore’s choreography and Stone’s performance were two key elements that resulted in La La Land’s resounding success. At the 2017 Academy Awards, the Damien Chazelle-helmed film won six awards from 14 total nominations, a haul that helped the movie join All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997) as the most nominated films in Oscar history. Thanks to the La La Land soundtrack, Emma Stone is a Billboard-charting artist; “City of Stars,” her duet with co-star Ryan Gosling, reached both Digital Song Sales (No. 45) and the Bubbling Under Hot 100 (No. 8).

Nonetheless, Stone and Swift’s story stretches back years prior to their high-profile successes. According to Stone, the two met “at the Young Hollywood Awards when [she] was 18 in L.A.” She continued, “We just kept in touch ever since and became great friends.”

The most devoted Swifties have been well aware of the Stone-Swift friendship, and that knowledge provided the basis of fan theories regarding “When Emma Falls In Love,” a vault track from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Some fans believe that Stone is the titular Emma, but, for her part, the Easy A actress says, “You have to ask [Taylor]!” Naturally, her response drew hearty laughs from both the audience and her fellow Graham Norton guests, including Poor Things co-star Mark Ruffalo.

Watch Emma Stone spill all the Taylor Swift tea above.

02 Jan 2024

Olivia Rodrigo Remembers Being ‘Blown Away’ By the Songwriting on Lorde’s Debut Album

Olivia Rodrigo can vividly remember the first album she bought with her own money and the huge impact it had on her. “I remember getting my first phone — I was probably 12 or 13 — and the first thing I did was download Lorde Pure Heroine,” the 20-year-old “Vampire” singer said of the “Solar Power” star’s 2013 debut album during The Hollywood Reporters‘ recent Songwriters Roundtable discussion.

“I love that record so much and I remember listening to it as I first started writing songs and just being blown away by her lyrics that are just about being a teenager living in the suburbs,” Rodrigo said of the smash first effort from the New Zealand singer/songwriter featuring such indelible hits as “Royals,” “Tennis Court” and “Team.”

“I just remember never hearing my life be put into a song like that where it just made being young and doing these seemingly unimportant things feel so sacred,” Rodrigo said of then-16-year-old Lorde’s confessional lyrics. “That album is one of my favorites and she still inspires me a lot to this day.”

When thinking about how unusual the sound of first single “Royals” was when it first came out — with its combination of spare, booming beats and deadpan sung-spoken lyrics about Lorde’s teenage disdain for rich pop life fantasies — Rodrigo said the song set its own trends at radio. “I remember hearing that song on the radio at the time,” Rodrigo said. “It was one of those pinch me moments where you always remember, snapshot memory, like, ‘Oh my God, what is this?!’ Changes the trajectory of your life.”

The full hour-long chat featuring Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Cynthia Erivo, Julia Michaels, Jon Batiste and Dua Lipa talking about their songwriting styles also touched on the artist’s memories of the first song they ever wrote, as well as their efforts writing music for films and breakdowns of some of their biggest hits.

Watch the Songwriters Roundtable chat below (Rodrigo on Lorde is at the 6:45 mark):

02 Jan 2024

Here’s Every ‘Nonsense’ Outro Sabrina Carpenter Has Performed at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

When Sabrina Carpenter first released Emails I Can’t Send in July 2022, nobody expected “Nonsense” to take on a life of its own in the way that it has. While flashier songs like “Fast Times” and “Because I Liked a Boy” got a lot of initial attention, it was “Nonsense” that grew into the set’s runaway hit — thanks, in no small part, to Carpenter’s hilarious improvised outros on her global Emails I Can’t Send Tour.

In essence, every night Carpenter performs “Nonsense,” she changes the lyrics of the outro on the fly. Sometimes she’s simply paying tribute to the city in which she’s performing — and, other times, she’s testing how far she can push the limits of sexually suggestive lyrics.

The original “Nonsense” outro reads: “This song catchier than chickenpox is/ I bet your house is where my other sock is/ Woke up this morning, thought I’d write a pop hit, ha-ha/ How quickly can you take your clothes off? Pop quiz.”

“Nonsense” peaked at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, her second career entry on the chart; the single also reached the top 10 on Pop Airplay (No. 10). Emails I Can’t Send debuted and peaked at No. 23, becoming the highest-peaking and longest-charting LP of her career.

On Friday, June 2, Taylor Swift announced that she would be bringing her record-breaking Eras Tour to Latin America, with Carpenter serving as her opener across the summer and fall in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. She will also open Eras Tour shows in Australia and Singapore from Feb. 16-Mar. 9, 2024.

Naturally, the singer-songwriter brought her “Nonsense” outro shenanigans to her first couple Eras Tour performances, and she’s already gifted us with a number of hilarious renditions of the track. From Mexico to Singapore, here’s every “Nonsense” outro Sabrina Carpenter has performed on the Eras Tour:

02 Jan 2024

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Leads All-Holiday Top 10s on Billboard Global Charts

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” adds a record-extending 18th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart (dated Jan. 6, 2024). The Yuletide classic, from 1994, also tops the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for a record-tying 13th week.

Not only are the entire top 10 of both tallies adorned with festive songs, but the top 19 titles on the Global 200 are holiday tracks, while the full top 20 on Global Excl. U.S. are seasonal songs. Those totals mark the most holiday hits from the summit on down since the surveys began in 2020; previously, the Global 200’s top 10 and the Global Excl. U.S. chart’s top seven songs were all-holiday on the rankings dated a year ago this week (Jan. 7, 2023).

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.

Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.

Carey Wraps Up ‘Christmas’ Season Atop Global 200

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” leads the Global 200 for a fifth consecutive week, with 159 million streams (up 38%) – the song’s biggest global streaming week since the chart began – and 13,000 sold (up 9%) worldwide in the Dec. 22-28 tracking week (thus, encompassing four days leading up to and including Christmas Day).

The song spends a record-extending 18th week at No. 1 on the Global 200, following four frames in both the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons and five frames over last year’s holidays.

The rest of the Global 200’s top five remains in place from a week earlier: Wham!’s “Last Christmas” at its No. 2 high; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” at No. 3, after reaching No. 2 last holiday season; Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” at its No. 4 best; and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” at its No. 5 peak.

Seasonal songs light up the top 19 spots on the Global 200, with Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” breaking up the holiday party at No. 20. The song, which hit No. 2 in early December, drew 45.3 million streams (down 4%) and sold 10,000 (down 3%) worldwide in the tracking week.

Carey’s ‘Christmas’ Ties Global Excl. U.S. No. 1 Record

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” concurrently tops the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for a fifth week in a row, with 109.5 million streams (up 52%) and 6,000 sold (up 23%) outside the U.S. Dec. 22-28. The song tallies a record-tying 13th total week at No. 1, following one in the 2020 holiday season, three weeks the next year and four last season. It matches the 13-week reigns of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” in 2023 and Harry Styles’ “As It Was” in 2022. (All three songs are on Columbia Records – Carey’s on Columbia/Legacy, Cyrus’ on Smiley Miley/Columbia and Styles’ on Erskine/Columbia.)

Wham!’s “Last Christmas” holds at its No. 2 Global Excl. U.S. high; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” keeps at its No. 3 peak; Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” dashes to a new No. 4 best, from No. 6; and Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas” repeats at No. 5, after reaching No. 4 last holiday season.

The entire top 20 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart consists of holiday songs, with Tate McRae’s “Greedy” the top nonseasonal song on the survey at No. 21. The track, which led the list for a week in early December, drew 35.4 million streams (down 8%) and sold 1,000 (down 4%) outside the U.S. in the tracking week.

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Jan. 6, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Jan. 3, a day later than usual due to the New Year’s Day holiday Jan. 1). For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

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.

02 Jan 2024

Lele Pons, Harry Jowsey, Jared Leto & More Reveal Their 2024 New Year’s Resolutions | Billboard

Billboard caught up with a few of your favorite celebs to find out if they had any New Year’s resolutions for 2024.

Jared Leto:
Stop making resolutions because we all know you never do them. No, I think I actually like it in a weird way.

Coco Jones:
My New Year’s resolution is balance. I don’t want to feel like I’m chasing this fleeting dream. If I have confidence that everything will always be there, then I can be better balanced.

Mckenna Grace:
To be the best version of myself.

Ludacris:
Put out some more music in 2024. Bam.

Landon Barker:
I want to start running. I want to start running every day, 30 minutes a day. I don’t understand why I can’t because I know I can.

Iann Dior:
Yeah, I’m actually starting to get into the gym, so I’m gonna try to stick with it actually this year and just really focusing on my health.

Jeannie Mai:
To really just take things one day at a time.

BIA:
Work out way more. I’ve been working out a lot more so I love the way it’s making me feel.

Fridayy:
Tour coming soon. I got a few tours coming soon. And I’m working on my new album so for sure.

Rania Aniftos:
Yeah, no shortage of Fridayy in 2024.

Fridayy:
Facts. Facts.

Shameik Moore:
To be the best version of myself and inspire the world to be its best version of itself, you know, do my part.

Paul Russell:
I want to eat healthier, honestly, like I’ve been on the road now. And so I’m always in these random towns, and I just go to whatever’s next to me and I just, you know, I gotta… I can’t.

Harry Jowsey:
Learn how to dance.

Rania Aniftos:
Okay, okay, that’s a good one to know now after Dancing With The Stars.

Harry Jowsey:
Yeah, after the show’s done.

Lele Pons:
Trying to figure out… Me and my husband are trying to – we might have one. I might be pregnant actually. Me and my husband are trying to talk about it so you never know.

Rania Aniftos:
You never know. That’s what we’re hoping for in 2024, Baby Lele.

Lele Pons:
He would kill me but it’s gonna happen.

Rania Aniftos:
Alright, fingers crossed.

02 Jan 2024

Cardi B & Offset Hook Up For New Year’s Eve At Strip Club After Breaking Up

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Weeks after Cardi B and Offset had social media buzzing about their separation, the Bronx rapper and ATLien were seen ringing in the New Year together, and once again, seemingly on the road to reconciliation.

Still, that doesn’t mean the two are actually getting back together. According to TMZ, they have no plans to repair the relationship anytime soon, if ever. Though the two were spotted at a strip club in Miami, popping bottles and making it rain on the talent in attendance, the two simply turnt up for old time’s sake and even got busy afterwards. But they aren’t too keen on actually getting back together.

Taking to social media, Cardi admitted to creating the beast with two backs with her “ex” hubby but didn’t say they were officially working things out.

Relationships in 2023, right?

Though many feel this is just the first step to reconciliation, it doesn’t seem like that is actually the case. At least not yet.

TMZ reports:

In fact, Cardi has a message for folks thinking she’s back with Offset … “we not together.. we together when I say so not when you THINK so.”

Thing is … Cardi and Offset were both in Miami for work … they each had NYE gigs at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach – Offset performed at LIV and Cardi poolside – making this rendezvous pretty easy.

Naturally, fans were astonished at the unforeseen developments and took to social media to chime in on Cardi’s latest curveball. But that didn’t seem to bother the Grammy Award-winning rapper, who had a message for everyone on her X page.

If we’ve learned one thing about Cardi B, it’s that she’s going to do what she wants, when she wants and with who she wants, regardless of how anyone feels.

What do y’all think of Cardi B and Offset hooking up post-breakup? Let us know in the comments section below.

02 Jan 2024

DJ Akademiks’ Ex-Girlfriend Accuses Him of Sexual Assault, X Users Begin Long-Awaited Cancellation

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DJ Akademiks Accused of Sexual Assault By Ex-Girlfriend

Source: Earl Gibson III / Getty / DJ Akademiks

DJ Akademiks comes into the new year with some serious allegations hanging over his head.

*Trigger warning: this article contains descriptions of alleged sexual assault.*

Spotted on HipHopDX, Ziya Abashae, DJ Akademiks’ ex-girlfriend, accused the media personality of sexual assault during an Instagram Live on Saturday (December 30).

Abashae claims that the former Everyday Struggle host, along with two other friends, sexually assaulted her.

Per HipHopDX:

“For you to pretend you didn’t do anything? That I just went to your house and I’m some thot, like we didn’t know each other for 2 years,” she said in the video. “You tried to save yourself after your friends assaulted me. Whether or not you got drunk or not. I know that when you woke up, you were on top of me too. You raped me too.”

After claiming that a rape kit had been conducted following the alleged incident, she continued: “I look crazy right now but I’m not going to stand here and let this man continue to lie about me. That’s not what happened Akademiks, you know that’s not what happened.”

Abashae’s claims came after the podcaster born Livingston Allen said that she took part in a consensual orgy.

Akademiks’ claims that he was drunk during the ordeal have come under scrutiny with the release of a video showing him very much aware. At the same time, a woman (presumably Abashae) can be heard screaming in the background.

DJ Akademik’s History of Toxicity

The problematic podcaster does have a history of being “ain’t sh*t” regarding dealing with women. In 2022, video footage of Akademiks in a physical altercation with his then-girlfriend surfaced with him yelling, “I’m the prize.”

All of this drama followed an appearance on The Fresh and Fit Podcast.

Akademiks’ girlfriend then tries to attack a red-haired woman standing behind him, and he then shoves her against the wall while continuing to yell at her.

More fighting ensues. AK’s girlfriend then knocks off his hat and even swings on the red-haired woman with the Off The Record host saying, “Stop It.”

Another woman steps in before a security guard intervenes to break it all up.

Social media has been very active, with most people thrilled to finally light the Akademiks pack up and get him out of here for good.

You can see more of those reactions in the gallery below.

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Photo: Earl Gibson III / Getty

3. Never forget

5.

02 Jan 2024

Ed Lover Questions Dr. Umar’s “Authority” Over Eminem Jab

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Ed Lover has issued his take on the debate sparked by Dr. Umar Johnson questioning Eminem’s place in Hip-Hop, asking about the speaker’s own credentials.

Veteran Hip-Hop media personality Ed Lover has not only challenged Dr. Umar Johnson’s recent comments on Eminem only being relevant in Hip-Hop due to “white supremacy” during his appearance on Joe Budden’s podcast, but he also called the motivational speaker’s background into question. He did so on his C’mon Son podcast on Sunday (December 31), the last episode for 2023 by saying, “Dr. Umar, please. Please. What I want to know is, where did you get your doctorate?”

 “What makes you a doctor? And then, where did you come from and what makes you a[n] authority on Hip Hop, Ed Lover said before adding, “Now Eminem don’t need Dr. Umar to tell him he’s one of the greatest of all time because we’ve already have said it. Hip Hop is for everybody. Hip Hop might’ve been created by Black people, but the love of music, melodies, and rhymes have spread all over this world.”

The former YO!MTV Raps host continued with his point. “That’s like saying [Big] Pun can’t be one of the greatest of all time because he’s not African American, ’cause he’s Puerto Rican; Fat Joe don’t deserve to be in Hip Hop because he’s not African American. You weren’t there, Dr. Umar, respectively. You were not there.” Ed Lover closed by referring to his resume. “I wasn’t even there in the very very beginning of Hip-Hop. I got on in ’89, I was able to show these videos and help spread the gospel of Hip-Hop across the globe, I am highly respected, way more than you, Dr. Umar.”

Dr. Umar’s comments have caused a stir with other notable figures in the culture, with MC Shan himself calling the often-controversial speaker out in a 13-minute video that was posted to YouTube. “You just make everything a race thing, n—a,” he began. “Everything ain’t no fuckin’ race thing. Eminem — muthafucka, you know that n—a nice. Em deserves a m———n’ slot in this game,” he stated.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=xKWY6VG9_xA&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

02 Jan 2024

BTS’ Jin Gifts ARMY With a New Year’s Message: ‘I Miss You All’

Jin kicked off 2024 with a special message to BTS ARMY. The vocalist, born Kim Seok-jin, shared a short and sweet video to BTS’ YouTube page to wish fans a happy new year and tell them to remain patient while he’s completing his mandatory military service in South Korea.

“Ta-da everyone! Hello! Seokjin came to say hi for the new year. It’s January, everyone. The new year has come. I will become a year older in January. I’d be in my mid-30s by now,” he begins in the video. “Did you all make a snowman? I’m still in the past so I don’t know if it’s snowing or not but if it snowed you have to make a snowman and go back to being kids and do snowball fights.”

He continued, “I’m leaving this video so you can watch my pretty, handsome face and spend January and February warmly. I miss you all. I miss you a lot. Wait just a bit more and you’ll be able to see me with short hair. I’ll grow my hair quickly this year and I’ll be able to start working hard soon. Guys, please wait a few more months. Now that it’s the new year, we have a few months left. Make a lot of snowmen and think of me as you make them … I’ll be back in February and March, until then, bye!”

Jin, the eldest member of BTS, was the first member of the group to enlist in the South Korean army as part of the country’s requirement for men over age 18 to fulfill military service. Jin entered the army on Dec. 12, 2022; he is expected to complete his service in June 2024. All members of BTS are currently enlisted, with the group planning to reconvene for group activities in 2025.

Watch Jin’s message for the new year in the video above.