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11 Dec 2023

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Holds at No. 1 on Billboard Global Charts

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” continues at No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Dec. 16). The modern holiday classic leads the former for a record-tying 15th total week and the latter for a 10th frame, all logged over the past four holiday seasons.

More merry music newly infuses the charts’ top 10, as Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas” (18-7), Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” (16-8) and Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (15-10) all return to the Global 200’s top 10, while Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (22-3), Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” (21-5), Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (26-6), Sia’s “Snowman” (20-8) and Bublé’s carol (25-9) revisit the Global Excl. U.S. top 10.

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, 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’s ‘Christmas’ Ties for Longest Global 200 Rule

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” leads the Global 200 for a second consecutive week with 101.7 million streams (up 38%) and 9,000 sold (up 46%) worldwide Dec. 1-7. The song, originally released in 1994, has now spent a record-tying 15 weeks at No. 1, following four weeks in both the 2020 and 2021 holiday seasons and five frames over last year’s holidays. It matches the command of Harry Styles’ “As It Was” in 2022.

Wham!’s “Last Christmas” holds at its No. 2 high on the Global 200; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” rises 4-3, after reaching No. 2 last holiday season; Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” rolls 6-4, returning to its best rank; and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” dashes 8-5, likewise revisiting its highpoint.

Plus, three holiday hits return to the Global 200’s top 10: Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” (18-7, after reaching No. 6; 45 million worldwide streams, up 50%); Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree” (16-8, revisiting its peak to date; 43.8 million, up 46%) and Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (15-10, after hitting No. 7; 41.9 million, up 47%).

Carey’s ‘Christmas’ Notches 10th Week at No. 1 on Global Excl. U.S.

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” concurrently tops the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart for second week in a row, with 67.3 million streams (up 53%) and 5,000 sold (up 71%) outside the U.S. Dec. 1-7. The song adds a 10th total week at No. 1, following one in the 2020 holiday season, three weeks the next year and four last season. It’s just the third song to have dominated Global Excl. U.S. for double-digit weeks, joining two 13-week No. 1s: Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” this year and Harry Styles’ “As It Was” in 2022.

Wham!’s “Last Christmas” returns to its No. 2 Global Excl. U.S. high, from No. 3; Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” bounds back to its No. 3 best, from No. 22 (34.2 million streams outside the U.S., up 70%); Tate McRae’s “Greedy” dips 2-4, two weeks after it hit No. 1; and Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” claws 21-5 (33.1 million, up 65%).

Also in the Global Excl. U.S. top 10, three more seasonal songs return to the region: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (26-6, after reaching No. 5); Sia’s “Snowman” (20-8, a new high); and Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas” (25-9, after climbing to No. 4).

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Dec. 16, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 12). 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.

11 Dec 2023

Kansas City Chiefs Owners Give Taylor Swift a Birthday Present

It was a very merry Swiftmas at the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Buffalo Bills game on Sunday night (Dec. 10).

Taylor Swift was supporting her boyfriend Travis Kelce at Arrowhead Stadium when Clark Hunt, who is a co-owner and CEO of the Chiefs, and his family surprised the “Anti-Hero” singer with a sweet gift, just days before her 34th birthday.

Clark’s daughter Ava shared a photo to Instagram, in which she’s seen smiling with the superstar, who has her arm wrapped around her fellow blonde while holding a stunning blue-and-purple wrapped present, which is addressed to Taylor from “The Hunt Family.”

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“Enchanted to meet you @taylorswift,” Ava captioned the post, which you can see here.

Swift, who was just named TIME‘s Person of the Year, confirmed to the public that she’s in a relationship with Kelce in her corresponding cover story interview, in which she referred to herself and Kelce being a “couple.”

“We actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,” said Swift, talking about her first appearance at a Chiefs game in September. “I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”

11 Dec 2023

What Mini-Residencies, And Major Stadium Shows, Taught Us About the Future of Dance Music

In February, Fred again.., Skrillex and Four Tet turned New York’s Madison Square Garden into a sweaty rave, performing a body-rattling five-hour show that had sold out in two minutes and, in some ways, set the tone for dance music in 2023. The demand proved the trio to be a perfect replacement for Frank Ocean as Coachella’s Sunday night headliner on its second weekend. And by October, Fred again.. had sold 42,300 tickets and grossed $2.9 million across a three-night residency in New York, according to Billboard Boxscore, later playing an eight-night run in Los Angeles.

“We been practising for monthssss to try n make this show a level up and to like really push ourselves to make it as musical and dynamic and LIVE as possible,” Fred again.. posted on Instagram.

Fred again.., now nominated for a best new artist Grammy, became a bigger star in 2023, but he was far from the only one cashing in on the post-pandemic return to live events. In June, future bass star Illenium played Denver’s Mile High Stadium, selling 47,300 tickets and grossing $3.9 million. Meanwhile, Beyoncé toured the globe on her dance album, Renaissance, selling 2.8 million tickets worldwide. And live electronic maestros ODESZA led the festival circuit, headlining Bonnaroo, Governors Ball and Outside Lands.

“There have been all these moments where I realized that electronic music from a live standpoint is in an incredibly healthy place,” says Lee Anderson, executive vp/managing executive at Wasserman, who represents electronic acts including Skrillex, Zedd and Disclosure. “It might be bigger than it has ever been, including the EDM boom.”


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This surge has origins in the pandemic, when dancefloors were vacant. Prior to 2020, dance shows had declined “from the late 2010s from a ticket-buying standpoint and on the live side,” Anderson says. This was the same era in which house music was replacing EDM as the mainstream dance genre of choice in the United States.

But as artists turned to livestreaming during lockdown, dance music became particularly accessible, given the ease of streaming DJ sets. The sound proliferated on Twitch and other platforms at the same time that a new generation of fans were coming of age — and when live events returned, they wanted to dance. “You had a whole new generation of kids that were like, ‘Oh, my God. What is this? I want to get out of the house and go,’ ” says Anderson.

The pent-up demand drove ticket sales at dance shows across the United States, and by 2022, Anderson says, “I was talking to people at Live Nation and AEG like, ‘The electronic stuff is selling really well.’ We looked at the data and realized this genre was heating back up.”

Contributing to the rise was the general expansion of the U.S. dance market. While there used to be roughly a dozen cities in which techno artists could play, Anderson says there are now 30. Beyond major markets like Miami, New York and Los Angeles, there are now thriving U.S. hubs for bass, commercial dance, trap, house and other styles in cities including Denver and Phoenix. (Anderson says that artists’ social engagement is the best indicator of where they’ll be able to sell tickets.) Meanwhile, festivals that were formerly booking three or four dance acts are now booking four times that many.

While the current dominance of house music has delivered greater levels of live success to veteran artists — Anderson cites Chicago legend Green Velvet as a prime example, saying he is “probably bigger than he has ever been” — fresh acts are also rising. After playing their first major shows earlier this year, San Diego bass producers ISOxo and Knock2 performed four sold-out shows at The Shrine in L.A. in November.

“Between the two of them, the highest-streamed song has about 13 million plays,” Anderson says. “These are not huge numbers, but they sold out 20,000 tickets in L.A. as fast as the cart could process transactions — and we had enough people in the queue that if the venue was available, we could have done another four [nights].”

Such residencies and one-offs are also indicative of the newly preferred style of touring for dance acts, with teams often putting on a small number of shows that feel special — and which fans are more likely to travel for — rather than grinding it out on the road. Illenium’s stadium show demonstrated the viability of this model (the act will play two more at SoFi Stadium in L.A. in February 2024), as did a set by FISHER and Chris Lake in October, when they shut down a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard and drew 12,000 fans. (Anderson calls the show “one of the biggest stories in dance music this year.”) Pretty Lights’ comeback tour featured a series of short residencies, with 27 shows across nine venues. And on Dec. 16, John Summit will headline the 22,000-capacity BMO Stadium in L.A. — a type of show that Kx5 proved viable last December, when it played for 46,000 people at the L.A. Coliseum.

“When you had the [EDM bubble] era of, ‘Can it ever be that big again?,’ did you see electronic artists selling out stadiums as headline acts?” Anderson asks. “Because that’s happening today, and you’re going to see that continue happening. And that has never happened before. That’s new.”

This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.

11 Dec 2023

What An Anonymous Artist Taught Us About The Future Of AI In Music

Hidden behind a white sheet and sunglasses, an anonymous music-maker called Ghostwriter logged on to TikTok in April to post his first video. In it, he announced his debut single, “Heart on My Sleeve” ­— and signaled a seismic shift in the music business. Using an artificial intelligence voice filter that disguised Ghostwriter’s own timbre behind that of Drake and The Weeknd, “Heart on My Sleeve” was the first song to show just how far AI music had come already and what novel challenges and opportunities it would present to artists.

The song also proved that artists would struggle to control how their voice and likeness are used in the age of AI ­— even superstars like Drake and The Weeknd who have the resources to fight back. Universal Music Group (UMG) issued a strongly worded statement soon after the song’s posting, condemning “infringing content created with generative AI,” and the song was quickly taken down from most platforms. But fans continued to post it to TikTok and YouTube every time it was removed. As Ghostwriter later put it in his Billboard cover story: “The genie can’t be put back in the bottle.”

“Heart on My Sleeve” forced the industry to reckon with the limitations of existing “right of publicity” laws that protect artists from having their voices and likenesses commercially exploited without their authorization. The strength of this right varies from state to state, and at the time the song was released, there wasn’t a precedent for issuing takedown notices for these types of violations, like there is for copyright infringement claims.

Likely as a result of the song and other AI concerns, UMG general counsel/executive vp of business and legal affairs Jeffrey Harleston went to Capitol Hill to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, asking for a “federal right of publicity” to be created to help protect artists. Streaming services also voluntarily entered talks with the major labels to form a system so that labels can request takedowns for right of publicity concerns.

Still, some artists consider Ghostwriter to be a revolutionary. Artist-producer Grimes took to X (formerly Twitter) after the release of “Heart on My Sleeve” to write, “I think it’s cool to be fused w a machine, and I like the idea of open sourcing all art.” Shortly after, she launched GrimesAI, a voice model trained on her recordings that lets fans shape-shift their voice into hers at the click of a button. She also collaborated with TuneCore to allow fans to distribute their resulting songs to streaming services under the tag “GrimesAI” to distinguish it from her own catalog.


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YouTube recently built on this same idea with the experimental program Dream Track. It lets fans use voice models of Charlie Puth, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, Demi Lovato, Troye Sivan, Charli XCX, Alec Benjamin and Papoose with the approval of partners UMG and Warner Music Group (WMG).

Songwriters and publishers have also started using AI voice technology. This summer, Billboard reported that AI voice models were used to help writers pitch song ideas to artists. The AI-altered pitch records had been used as an internal reference for the writers to gauge if the track sounded appropriate for a particular singer while composing, and sometimes the records with the AI voice applied were also sent to the artist’s team in hopes that they would increase their chance of landing the song.

In a recent interview with Billboard, pop artist Lauv said he has seen that usage firsthand with one of his songwriter friends who was pitching a track to Nicki Minaj using AI. Lauv himself is also leaning into the new technology: In November, he partnered with AI voice startup Hooky — one of many startups in the space — to translate his new single, “Love U Like That,” into Korean. After getting Korean American songwriter Kevin Woo to translate the lyrics and sing a Korean version, Hooky applied Lauv’s AI voice model to map Lauv’s signature sound over Woo’s.

Ghostwriter’s manager previously said he also believes that artist estates and catalog owners could use AI voice models to market their music. WMG is now experimenting with the catalog of late French singer Édith Piaf. The company is creating AI models to resurrect her voice and likeness for a controversial new biopic called EDITH to “further enhance the authenticity and emotional impact of the story,” according to a press release.

“Heart on My Sleeve” represents just one of many burgeoning areas of AI that can transform the music business in the future. Concurrently, as startups like Kits.AI, mayk.it, Hooky, Voice-Swap, Supertone and Lingyin Engine hope to capture the AI voice model market, AI-generated beats and loops promise to upend production music libraries and the overall creation process. AI “functional music,” soundscapes designed to fit user needs for sleep, focus or relaxation, also promise an evolution in wellness and ambient music. And as AI stem separation unlocks possibilities for remixing, synch licensing and restoring old audio files (the new Beatles song, “Now and Then,” used the technology to restore John Lennon vocal recordings), there are surely even more use cases for AI that are yet to be discovered.

While legal and logistical questions remain with the technology, Ghostwriter’s team is pressing on. He has teased a second single (“Whiplash” featuring the AI voices of Travis Scott and 21 Savage) while expressing his desire to collaborate with other artists. As such, Ghostwriter’s manager believes it is of the utmost importance for the music business to band together to “define an equitable arrangement for all stakeholders” when using AI. As he previously told Billboard, “We had an opportunity [with “Heart on My Sleeve”] to show people the value in AI and music … I like to say that everything starts somewhere.” 

This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.

11 Dec 2023

Holiday Charity Dance Bash L.A. Gives Back Is Returning With a Secret ‘Mega Headliner’

The season of celebration and the season of giving are upon us, and the holiday dance-music party L.A. Gives Back is once again providing attendees with the opportunity to do both.

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Returning after a two year hiatus, the sixth iteration of the dance-focused fundraiser is happening on Dec. 20 at Catch One in Los Angeles. The lineup, as always, will be kept secret until the night of the party, but organizers promise “a confirmed mega headliner.” Past years have featured sets from Tokimonsta, Boys Noize, A-Trak, Louis the Child and Flying Lotus.

Some of L.A.’s best party promoters are curating the bash, with Brownies and Lemonade, Shrek Rave, HEAV3N, Electric Feels, Club 90s, Hack the Planet and Restless Nights all involved. Tickets start at $25 and are available now.

The party will be led by IHEARTCOMIX, with funds going toward organizations that work to assist the city’s unhoused population. Initially running from 2016 to 2020, the party was founded by IHEARTCOMIX in response to the city’s growing homeless crisis. In its first five years, L.A. Gives Back raised more than $200,000 for the nonprofits Downtown Women’s Center, My Friend’s Place and MásForMore. This year, the event will benefit these three organizations.

“It’s so cool that so many of L.A.’s top music curators and creative talent can come together and produce an event that draws attention to this huge crisis in our community,” said IHEARTCOMIX founder Franki Chan in a statement. “We hope that the event can showcase the wide diversity and collaborative nature that makes L.A. so special while raising the funds so desperately needed to address the issue.

“For IHEARTCOMIX, this is our holiday party,” Chan continued. “I feel strongly that Los Angeles is the best city in the world for music and creative energy. Over the almost 20 years that IHC has been around, we’ve seen this town change so much for the better. It’s not just the talent that is incredible, but the sense of community that makes it special and has drawn so many people here. However, the unplanned consequence of that growth has been the rise of the homeless population in L.A., and now in the aftermath of COVID-19, it’s even worse. It’s our responsibility to address this problem and fix it. As we grow, we must bring everyone up with us. Hopefully this event shows our city that we can stand as one to create positive change.”

A survey of L.A.’s homeless population earlier this year estimates that there are roughly 75,000 people in L.A. County living in shelters, tents, cars, fans, RVs or makeshift shelters.

LA Gives Back

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11 Dec 2023

Taylor Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’ Is Now Her Longest-Leading Radio Songs Chart No. 1

As Christmas classics decorate the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100, Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” remains hot on radio – and becomes her sole longest-leading No. 1 on Billboard’s all-format Radio Songs chart.

“Cruel Summer” rules the Radio Songs ranking (dated Dec. 16) for a seventh week – one-upping Swift’s six-week command with “Blank Space” in 2014-15. The former rebounds to the top of the tally with 63.6 million in airplay audience Dec. 1-7, according to Luminate.

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,” seven (to-date), 2023
  • “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, was originally released on Swift’s 2019 Republic Records album Lover. The label began promoting it as a single in June, as Swift has performed 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.

Among other chart honors for “Cruel Summer”: It became Swift’s milestone 10th of 11 career No. 1s on the Hot 100, reigning for four weeks; her record-breaking 12th No. 1 on Pop Airplay, and her longest-leading hit (10 weeks); and her 11th No. 1 on Adult Pop Airplay, the most among soloists, and likewise her longest-leading title (14 weeks).

All charts dated Dec. 16 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Dec. 12.

11 Dec 2023

R&B/Hip-Hop Fresh Picks of the Week: Usher and H.E.R., Nicki Minaj, Q Da Fool & More

As per usual, it’s been a busy week in the world of hip-hop and R&B. In the first full week of December, myriad artists got their announcements and releases out to avoid the Christmas lockdown in the coming weeks. On Sunday (Dec. 10), SZA celebrated the one-year anniversary of her blockbuster SOS album with the announcement of LANA, the forthcoming deluxe version of her nine-time Grammy-nominated sophomore studio album. Of course, the weekend’s most high-profile release was from none other than Nicki Minaj, who unleashed her long-awaited Pink Friday 2 — her fifth studio album and sequel to her 2010 Billboard 200-topping debut LP — on her birthday, Dec. 8.

Elsewhere in the hip-hop and R&B worlds, Cardi B confirmed that she is no longer with Offset, 2 Chainz is thankfully in stable condition after landing in an unfortunate car accident, and Will Smith rocked the house at the star-studded A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop telecast.

With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop. From Tokischa and Sexyy Red’s cross-genre collaboration to Usher and H.E.R.’s stunning Color Purple duet, get into these seven new picks and be sure to check out the rest of our recs in the Spotify playlist below.

Freshest Find: Usher & H.E.R., “Risk It All”

As the highly anticipated Color Purple movie musical draws nearer, the promotion for the flick’s two related soundtracks is kicking into high gear. Usher and H.E.R. started off the weekend — which ended in a pair of Golden Globe nods for lead actress Fantasia Barrino and supporting actress Danielle Brooks — with the release of “Risk It All,” their gorgeous new duet for The Color Purple (Music From and Inspired By), due Dec. 15. Co-written by Oscar winners H.E.R. and Jimmy Napes, Usher and the “Damage” singer harmonize beautifully across the ethereal piano-backed arrangement. “People are cryin’ for it, people are dyin’ for it/ Always the reason we still believe it/ Somethin’ that leaves us hurtin’ is worth it,” the pair croon.

Tokischa feat. Sexyy Red, “Daddy”

How do you cap off a breakout year that found you opening up for Drake and collaborating with Nicki Minaj? With an infectious cross-genre collaboration, of course! For the latest release in her string of fiery collaborations, Sexyy Red links up with Latin Grammy-nominated Dominican rapper Toksicha, for a sultry, sex-positive reggaeton-meets-house number that plays around with gender in the realm of kink. Across the thumping Yeti Beats- and El Guincho-helmed beat, Tokischa assumes the role of Sexyy’s sugar daddy as they trade hilarious verses, including some tongue-in-cheek bilingual lines from the “Pound Town” rapper herself.

Nicki Minaj, “Fallin 4 U”

Of course, the Queen scores herself a slot on this week’s round-up. Her gargantuan Pink Friday 2 LP — 22 tracks and counting — features several tracks for every side of her musical personality, but most pale in comparison to “Fallin 4 U.” Placed several songs deep into the album, “Fallin 4 U” is, in many ways, the defining synthesis of Minaj’s creative hallmark. There are her impassioned, high-octane, wordplay-laden bars, emotional Auto-Tuned ad-libs and hooks, a penchant for both the introspective and the braggadocious (often at the same time), and a healthy dose of melodrama via those background strings. If there’s any track on Pink Friday 2 that truly makes the album feel like a descendant of its predecessor, it’s this one.

SXMPRA feat. Juicy J, “Business Man”

New Zealand rapper SXMPRA combines his ominous underground phonk sound with that of ’90s Memphis rap pioneer Juicy J on the hard-hitting “Business Man.” The pair trade punchline-packed verses asserting their dominance at break-neck speed. “Stand and fight/ Folding chairs and/ Throwing them hands/ Would’ve been the best time of my life,” quips Juicy. The collaboration features production from Juicy J and HitKidd, who put out his own Renegade album this week.

James Fauntleroy, “Sleigh”

Holiday music seems to be a genre that knows no bounds given how its consumption only increases with each passing year. Four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Fauntleroy took a daring stab at holiday originals by making his debut studio LP a Christmas album. A compilation of two previous holiday EPs featuring ten tracks, The Warmest Winter Ever is chock-full of steamy between-the-sheets anthems for the Christmas season. “Sleigh,” is one of the album’s instant standouts, with its waterfall of layered harmonies and cheeky Beyoncé shoutout: “She gon’ sleigh like Beyoncé.”

Tems, “Not An Angel”

For her latest release, Tems subverts the gospel-bent of her preceding “Me & U” single and opts for a rhythmic take on Biblical imagery, rejecting the role of being an “angel” or “savior” for someone who isn’t quite yet ready to be saved. “‘Cause I’m not an angel/ I’m just a girl that knows the truth/ And I couldn’t save you/ You couldn’t see what I’ve been through,” she croons sorrowfully over the Sarz co-produced Afrosoul beat.

Q Da Fool feat. Ot7 Quanny, “Rich Droppaz”

It’s a bit ironic that a link-up between a DMV rapper and a Philly rapper sounds so far removed from the dominant contemporary sound of either region, but it undoubtedly makes for a banger of a record. A slinking street anthem that coasts on both the duo’s chemistry and their individual charisma, “Rich Droppaz” finds the pairs trading hilarious bars like, “Yeah, I love the money, go me boo’d up/ I can’t do no Ella Mai, I ain’t ‘Boo’d Up.’” Unassuming but still urgent, “Rich Droppaz” is a promising lead into Q Da Fool’s forthcoming Art of Ambition album.

11 Dec 2023

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023: No. 9 — Doja Cat

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 9, we remember the year in Doja Cat — a consistently challenging and successful pop star who rarely makes it easy for her fans, but continues to build one of the most vital and rewarding careers in 2020s pop.

When she entered 2023 with five Grammy nominations – off the back of a Post Malone collab, a late-stage Planet Her single and a hit from the Elvis soundtrack – Doja Cat knew something the rest of us didn’t quite yet get: We’re not getting rid of her anytime soon. After reaching top 40’s zenith with the frothy Planet Her two years prior (the album peaked at No. 2 and spawned five consecutive top 20 hits), Doja Cat spent 2023 setting fire to that pop-forward version of herself – and she still proved to be one of the year’s most dominant pop stars in the process. 

Before Doja attended the Grammys in a black latex gown that signaled a stark tonal and aesthetic shit from the pink and purple hues of Planet Her, she took on Paris Fashion Week while decked out in head-to-toe red body paint and 30,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals – an instantly viral moment that reaffirmed Doja’s singular wielding of fashion in her greater artist project and further proved the irrefutability of her star power. The punk and horror influences in her new wardrobe would soon reverberate through the rest of her 2023 – but, then again, those seeds were truly thrown when she shaved her head last summer:  an aesthetic decision that became a key symbol of the Scarlet era. 

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023:
Introduction & Honorable Mentions | Rookie of the Year: Peso Pluma | Comeback of the Year: Miley Cyrus | No. 10: Drake

Doja’s first piece of new music came by way of an April “Kill Bill” remix, the year-defining hit single from Grammy-winning “Kiss Me More” duet partner SZA. Her Eminem-nodding guest verse used the song’s boom-bap-infused beat as a catalyst for Doja’s intentional repositioning as a rapper in the “traditional sense.” Her remix helped push “Kill Bill” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 – although chart credit evaded her in this case – and primed fans for her new era.

Greatest Pop Stars, Doja Cat

Jacob Webster

Greatest Pop Stars, Doja Cat

Jacob Webster

She kicked off the following month at the MET Gala with a purr-fect ensemble inspired by the late Karl Lagerfeld’s pet cat, but that moment quickly gave way to Doja’s first major controversy of the year.  

“[Planet Her] and [Hot Pink] were cash-grabs and yall fell for it,” she wrote on Twitter (now X) on May 9. “Now [I] can go disappear somewhere and touch grass with my loved ones on an island while yall weep for mediocre pop.” Ironically, the hits from those albums helped Doja win the songwriter of the year award she accepted from the BMI Pop Awards that same day. After garnering legions of fans thanks to her pristine pop-rap bops, Doja seemed hellbent on obliterating that; large portions of her fan base were incredibly vocal in their objections to Doja’s remarks, but the tirade didn’t derail her year. 

“Attention,” the first taste of Scarlet, arrived on Jun. 16, earning a warm reception from critics, who lauded Doja’s focus on deft lyricism and her further exploration of those boom-bap influences. Fans greeted the song with a more middling reception; “Attention” spent just three weeks on the Hot 100 and peaked at No. 31. Doja went a bit quiet after “Attention,” but she came back with an even more contentious tirade the following month. “My fans don’t get to name themselves s–t,” she wrote on Threads. “If you call yourself a ‘Kitten’ or f–king ‘Kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.” Once again intentionally antagonizing her fanbase, Doja found herself embroiled in a controversy that tested consumers’ patience with her, ultimately culminating in nearly 240,000 lost Instagram followers in under a week. 

Nonetheless, as she proved with her infamous career-threatening chat room controversy back in 2020, Doja Cat has nine lives – and maybe a few extra. The Grammy-winner quickly turned her fortunes around with “Paint the Town Red,” a bouncy Dionne Warwick-sampling track that became both her highest-debuting solo song and the first hip-hop song to top the Hot 100 in 2023. The song grew into a juggernaut on radio – it’s spent seven weeks atop both Pop and Rhythmic Airplay – and became ubiquitous on TikTok without the help of an over-arching dance challenge or trend, further cementing her as star that moves the culture, not one that happens to be buoyed by one of its myriad waves.  “Paint” topped the Hot 100 the same week Doja stole the MTV Video Music Awards with a three-song medley — “Paint,” “Attention,” and horrorcore-leaning promo single “Demons” — that reminded audiences of her performance prowess and gifted consumers the first look at Doja’s vision for Scarlet in a live setting. At the ceremony, “Attention” picked up a Moonperson – Doja’s fifth – for best art direction. 

Although Doja had fully fleshed out her Scarlet alter ego by the VMAs, she was still trying on different titles for the record. (Remember Hellmouth? First of All?) Moreover, the singles were a far cry from the “no more pop” and “French conceptual experimental country/bohemian fusion with the essence of bluegrass” descriptors she (sometimes jokingly) gave to fans. Nonetheless, Scarlet arrived in all of its jazz rap-meets-lo-fi-meets horrorcore glory on Sept. 20. Reviews were favorable, but unimpressive first week numbers (No. 4, 72,000 units earned) signaled that Doja couldn’t quite translate the success of “Paint the Town Red” to its parent LP. Fans were still showing up for her, but they didn’t quite love what she was dishing out, some of which included sporting an ill-received t-shirt featuring alt-right comedian Sam Hyde. 

As she did with Planet Her, Doja seems to be playing the long game with Scarlet. Her Ice Spice and Doechii-assisted headlining arena tour has been trekking across the U.S., and “Agora Hills,” an instant Scarlet standout – is already growing into the album’s second major hit, currently sitting at No. 24 on the Hot 100. With Scarlet, which ended 2023 as one of the Billboard staff’s 10 favorite albums of the year, Doja challenged both her fans and pop music at large more than any of her contemporaries. That fearlessness didn’t always pay off, but it did always keep her at the forefront of the conversation –  further cementing her as arguably the most consistent pop star of the 2020s, and one of only four artists to appear on all three Greatest Pop Star top 10 rankings Billboard has done this decade.

11 Dec 2023

Hot 100 Chart Reveal: Dec.16 | Billboard News

Christmas music continues to take over our charts. Wham!, Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee battle it out for the top spot this week, but who will get the No. 1 spot? Watch the full video to find out.

Tetris Kelly
This is the Hot 100 top 10 for the week dated December 16th. Slipping two spots to No. 10 is “Paint the Town Red.” Holding tight at No. 9 is “Snooze.”

Tetris Kelly
Two spots “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year,” still at No. 7 is “Cruel Summer.” Keeping it “Holly Jolly” at No. 6 is Burl Ives. Jack Harlow falls to No. 5. While Wham! climbs to 4, “Jingle Bell Rock” moves up to No. 3. And Mariah keeps the spirit at No. 2 and for her second week at the peak is the evergreen Brenda Lee.

11 Dec 2023

Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ Leads Billboard Hot 100 for Second Week

Brenda Lee spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with her holiday standard “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” A week earlier, the song led the list for the first time – 65 years after its release – and became Lee’s third Hot 100 No. 1, and her first since 1960.

Lee – who celebrates a birthday today (Dec. 11), as she turns 79 years young – reminisced to Billboard on Dec. 4 about recording the carol, when she was 13, after learning of its ascent to No. 1 at last from Universal Music Group Nashville chair/CEO Cindy Mabe. “The producer cut the air way down in the studio,” Lee recalled. “He had a big Christmas tree and everyone was there – the Anita Kerr Singers and the ‘A-team’ [of Nashville studio musicians], as we called them. It was like a little touch of magic kind of sprinkled in, and it turned out to be magic. It really did.”

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Dec. 16, 2023) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 12). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” on Decca/MCA Nashville/UMe, drew 41.3 million streams (up 18%) and 20.5 million radio airplay audience impressions (down 1%) and sold 6,000 downloads (up 109%) in the Dec. 1-7 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The single holds at No. 1 for a third total week atop the Streaming Songs chart, after it first ruled the last frame of the 2022 holiday season; rebounds to its No. 4 high, from No. 12, on Digital Song Sales; and keeps at No. 33 on Radio Songs, where it has hit a No. 17 best.

The song was originally recorded and released in 1958. Written by Johnny Marks and produced by Owen Bradley, it first hit the Hot 100 in December 1960 and reached an original No. 14 peak two weeks later. It went on to spend nine weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 between December 2019 and last holiday season.

For its 65th anniversary this year, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” received its first official video, featuring cameos from country stars Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood, Nov. 3. Plus, Lee performed it on NBC’s Christmas at the Opry, which aired Dec. 7. She has also joined TikTok, where she’s been sharing posts about the song and her career.

The song is just the third holiday No. 1 ever on the Hot 100, with all three now having led for multiple weeks. “The Chipmunk Song,” by The Chipmunks with David Seville, also from 1958, spent four weeks on top beginning that December, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, has notched 12 weeks at No. 1, from its first scaling of the summit in December 2019 through last holiday season.

With another week at No. 1, Lee extends her record for the longest span of an artist topping the Hot 100: 63 years and five months, from her first week at No. 1 with “I’m Sorry” (July 18, 1960) through the latest list.

Plus, Lee, at 79 years of age as of today, expands by another week her mark as the senior-most artist to have ruled the Hot 100.

Meanwhile, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” leads the multi-metric Holiday 100 chart, which uses the same methodology as the Hot 100, for a second week.

Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” repeats at No. 2 on the Hot 100, with across-the-board gains in streams (38.5 million, up 19%), airplay (24.1 million, up 12%) and sales (5,000, up 29%). With its 2019 triumph, Carey claimed her 19th Hot 100 No. 1, extending her record for the most among soloists and moving to within one of The Beatles’ overall record 20. The single also reigns as the No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs retrospective.

Next up among holiday songs on the Hot 100, two carols return to their best ranks: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (4-3), from 1957, and Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (5-4), from 1984.

Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” slips 3-5 on the Hot 100, two weeks after it became his third No. 1. Still, the chart’s top nonholiday song wins the list’s top Airplay Gainer award for a second consecutive week (37.7 million, up 26%, as it becomes his third top 10 on Radio Songs, surging 17-10), while also increasing in streams (27.6 million, up 10%). It concurrently tops the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a fourth week each.

Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is steady at No. 6 on the Hot 100, with the 1964 nugget having hit a No. 4 high.

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” holds at No. 7 on the Hot 100, following four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in October. It also rebounds for a seventh week atop Radio Songs (63.6 million, down 3%) – surpassing the six-week reign of “Blank Space” in 2014-15 as the sole longest-leading No. 1 of Swift’s eight career leaders on the airplay chart.

Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” originally released in 1963, lifts 10-8 on the Hot 100. The late singer now sports a record span of 64 years, two months and one week from his first week in the top 10 with “Lonely Street” in October 1959 through his latest frame. (Excluding holiday fare, The Beatles broke the record for the longest top 10 span last month: 59 years, nine months and three weeks, from “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964 to the debut of their newly-released single “Now and Then.”)

SZA’s “Snooze” keeps at No. 9 on the Hot 100’s top 10, after reaching No. 2, as it leads the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart for a 19th week. As noted Dec. 9, upon the one-year anniversary of the release of parent album SOS, “Snooze” is the only song to have appeared on the Hot 100 each week in 2023 to date.

Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” descends 8-10, after it led for three nonconsecutive weeks beginning in September.

Again, for all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on Billboard’s social accounts, and all charts (dated Dec. 16), including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 12).

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.