News

10 Nov 2023

2024 Grammy Nominations: Biggest Nominees, Surprises & Snubs | Billboard News

Billboard breaks down the 2024 Grammy nominations: the biggest nominees, surprises, and snubs.

Tetris Kelly
The Grammy nominations are here and we got some regulars killing it and some newcomers slaying.

Tetris Kelly
Billboard’s here to run down this year’s nominations, snubs and surprises leading the Grammy nominations this year is SZA with nine nominations including Record and Song of the Year nods for her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Kill Bill.”

Tetris Kelly
Next up Phoebe Bridgers and Victoria Monet have seven nominations each with Victoria being nominated for Best New Artist against the likes of Coco Jones, Jelly Roll, Ice Spice and more.

Tetris Kelly
Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo will face off in the album of the year against SZA, Jon Batiste, and there’s lots of new nominees like Troye Sivan in Best Pop Dance Recording against Kylie Minogue, Bebe, Rexha and more.

Tetris Kelly
One of the biggest snubs comes with Morgan Wallen. He is one of America’s top recording artists, but he has yet to receive a Grammy nomination in any category. There were also zero nominations for solo BTS members, both Jimin and Jungkook. were eligible for Record of the Year for the full list head to Billboard.com.

10 Nov 2023

Robert Glasper on Scoring Two More Grammy Nominations: ‘It Feels New Every Time’

“There’s a party going on here this morning,” a laughing Robert Glasper tells Billboard after learning about his nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards. Glasper received two nods this go-round — best R&B performance and best R&B song — both for the track “Back to Love,” featuring SiR and Alex Isley. 

To date, Glasper has won five Grammys and earned 12 nominations, claiming his first career Grammy for best R&B album for Black Radio back in 2012. But the artist/songwriter/producer/pianist says receiving a Grammy nomination never gets old.

“It feels new every time,” he explains, “no matter how many times I’ve won or been nominated. Because there are so many new artists and producers out here; so much music. So for me to get selected down to only five is always an honor and always, to be honest, kind of unexpected for me. When I say that, people always say what you do you mean?. But like I said there are so many great artists out here that I never take it for granted or never think I’ll be a shoo-in.”

The genesis of “Back to Love” stems from Glasper’s scoring of the Starz original series Run the World: Season 2. Last October, he got a call from the show’s team asking if he could pull off writing and recording a song needed for a specific scene in the season’s last episode. However, there was a catch: The deadline was under two weeks. But it also gave him the chance to work with SiR and Alex Isley, each of whom he’s worked with separately on other projects.

“I’ve always been a fan of SiR and Alex,” says Glasper. “They’re both so effortless in their writing with something original to say that it just made sense to call them. And they got it done so fast. They also have such unique voices. So the fact that we worked on this together means everything. It was just a match made in heaven.”

The artists/songwriters that Glasper is vying against in the best R&B performance and best R&B song categories include SZA, Halle Bailey, Chris Brown, Coco Jones and Victoria Monét. “Everyone in those categories is great. It’s always amazing to be mentioned in that kind of company,” says Glasper. That includes Brown, who earlier this year queried on social media “Who da f-k is this?” after his album Breezy (Deluxe) lost to Glasper’s Black Radio III for best R&B album at the 65th Grammy ceremony. Brown later apologized.

“As a talent, I hold Chris Brown in the highest regard,” notes Glasper. “He’s a great singer and performer. I’ve never had anything negative to say about Chris.”

Glasper’s across-the-aisle genre work with other nominees in the aforementioned categories, including Bailey and Jones, also symbolizes his own version of the six degrees of separation theory.

“I remember going to Chloe x Halle’s first major performance in Los Angeles,” shares Houston native Glasper. “I went to high school with Beyoncé as well as the A&R head at Parkwood. He asked me back then if I’d mind coming to their first show. So to see them [sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey] both blossom has been amazing to watch. I’m so proud of them.

“And that goes for Coco as well,” Glasper adds. He got the chance to work with Jones when he and Terrace Martin scored the first season of last year’s Bel-Air, the reimagined version of the popular ’90s series TheFresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the reboot, Jones played the character Hilary Banks. “I’ve been putting music to her talking for a long time,” says Glasper with another laugh.

10 Nov 2023

iHeartMedia Shares Fall 20%: Q4 Will Be ‘Weaker Than We Originally Anticipated’

iHeartMedia shares dropped 19.6% to $2.01 this week as the company warned investors of continued softness in radio advertising dollars. Fourth quarter results “will be weaker than we originally anticipated,” said CEO Bob Pittman during Thursday’s earnings call. In October, consolidated revenue was down 8% from the prior-year period. For the fourth quarter, iHeartMedia expects consolidated revenue excluding political ad revenue to decline in the low single digits. 

Still, iHeartMedia’s third-quarter results were in line with previous guidance. Revenue of $953 million was down 3.6% from the prior-year period, a bit better than the guidance of a low single-digit decrease. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $204 million was within the guidance of $195 million to $205 million. 

The week’s sharp decline brought iHeartMedia’s year-to-date loss to 67.2%, far deeper than the declines of broadcast radio company Cumulus Media (-21.9%) and satellite radio company SiriusXM (-20.7%). Not only has broadcast radio suffered from weak national advertising, it lacks the high growth rates of music streaming and podcasting. PwC’s latest forecasts call for U.S. radio advertising revenues to rise just 4% from 2023 to 2027 while U.S. podcast advertising — where iHeartMedia has a large footprint — will grow 41% to $2 billion. 

Next year’s elections should provide a shot in the arm, though. “As we look forward to 2024, we expect to generate significantly better free cash flow driven in part by an improving macro environment, as well as the impact of political dollars,” said CFO Rich Bressler. In 2020, the company generated $167 million in political revenues, he noted.

The Billboard Global Music Index mostly held steady this week, dropping just 0.3% to 1,390.68. Of the index’s 20 stocks, seven gained this while while 13 finished in negative territory. Most stocks had low-single-digit gains or losses and iHeartMedia was the only stock with a double-digit move in either direction. 

French company Believe was the index’s greatest gainer of the week after improving 7.4% to 9.93 euros ($10.64). German concert promoter CTS Eventim, which will release third-quarter earnings on Nov. 21, gained 5.5% to 62.75 euros ($67.24). Music streaming company LiveOne gained 4.7% to $1.12. Chinese music streamer Cloud Music, which has not yet announced the date of its third-quarter earnings release, gained 3.3% to 99.50 HKD ($12.74). 

Shares of Sphere Entertainment Co. dropped 1.5% to $35.95 after a roller-coaster week. Following the company’s Nov. 3 announcement that CFO Gautum Ranji had left the company, Sphere Entertainment shares dropped 9.6% to $32.97 on Monday. The share price fell an additional 4.5% to $31.87 on Wednesday following the quarterly earnings release. But Sphere Entertainment picked up momentum in the latter half of the week, gaining 12.8% over Thursday and Friday to close at $35.95. 

U.S. stocks were broadly up this week despite news that consumer sentiment declined in November and expectations for future inflation reached their highest level since 2011. The Nasdaq composite rose 2.4% while the S&P 500 improved 1.3%. Many major U.S. tech stocks posted big gains. Microsoft hit an all-time high of $370.09 on Friday and finished the week at $369.67, up 4.8%. Apple rose 5.5% to $186.40. Amazon improved 3.6% to $143.56. Meta jumped 4.5% to $32.8.77. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 fell 0.8%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.7%. 

10 Nov 2023

Jack Harlow “Lovin On Me,” Millyz ft. Vory “BMF” & More | Daily Visuals 11.10.23

HipHopWired Featured Video

2022 Kids' Choice Awards - Show

Source: Variety / Getty

It’s been a few months since Jack Harlow dropped his latest album, Jackman and while fans are still bumping tracks off his third studio project, the self-proclaimed “best white rapper” since Eminem is giving fans some new work to bop their heads to.

Dropping off some new visuals to “Lovin On Me,” the slugger from Louisville switches his outfits throughout the video while turning up with an assemble of people from different ethnic backgrounds to show that the man’s music does not discriminate.

Speaking of white rappers, Millyz is still the most underrated white rapper in the game and in his Vory assisted clip to “BMF,” the Boston rapper turns a fancy dinner into quite the turnt up spectable thanks to his rowdy entourage. Millyz might have to battle Jack Harlow for white rapping supremacy at some point.

Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Elijah Davis, Josh X, and more.

JACK HARLOW – “LOVIN ON ME”



MILLYZ FT. VORY – “BMF”



ELIJAH DAVIS – “LIGHT”



JOSH X – “MONEY UP”



REUBEN VINCENT – “GRAND CHERRY”



ALBEE AL & MONEY MAN – “EL PRESIDENTE”



YE$HAYAHU – “HIGHER THOUGHTS”



OG SWANK FT. OG SMXXV – “RIGHT TIME”



10 Nov 2023

Billboard All Access: Jung Kook on Today’ Show, Stormi Joins Travis Scott & More | Billboard News

Billboard takes you through what our staff went to this week in this episode of All Access. Jung Kook performed on the ‘Today’ show, Stormi joins her dad Travis Scott at SoFi Stadium, our host Tetris Kelly interviews Meghan Trainor and talks to her about the success of her hit “All About That Bass,” Lauryn Hill sets the record straight and more!

Tetris Kelly
Jung Kook up close and personal, Stormi in stadiums, Lauryn Hill is honest. We go to the Grammy Museum and Germany all in this week’s Billboard All Access.

Tetris Kelly
Jung Kook was on the ‘Today’ show in New York, but what you didn’t catch on air is him singing “3D,” just him and ARMY.

Tetris Kelly
LA has been busy, with Stormi joining her dad Travis Scott onstage at SoFi Stadium. The massive show saw fans rage and apparently buying record-breaking amounts of merch.

Tetris Kelly
Over at Crypto.com Arena, Lauryn Hill gave us her hits, was joined by the Fugees, and was candid about people calling her out for being late.

Tetris Kelly
A block away at the Grammy Museum, we talked to Meghan Trainor about her diamond classic “All About That Bass,” and she performed it.

Tetris Kelly
took me a long time to figure out why it was that one and it means so much more than just being like a cute bubblegum pop song. It’s like, it has so much meaning

Tetris Kelly
And we went international again, this time to Zoom in Germany for LANY. They had the crowd excited with “XXL.”

10 Nov 2023

Keke Palmer Granted Restraining Order Against Ex-Boyfriend Darius Jackson, Details Claims of Domestic Abuse

Keke Palmer was granted full custody of her nine-month-old son, as well as an order to prevent child abduction and a temporary restraining order against her ex-boyfriend Darius Jackson on Thursday (Nov. 9), after citing multiple instances of physical abuse.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The actress filed for the restraining order in L.A. Superior Court, according to The Hollywood Reporter, accusing Jackson of domestic abuse in instances as recent as Nov. 5, claiming he trespassed into her home and threatened and physically attacked her, including “lunging for my neck, striking me, throwing me over the couch, and stealing my phone when I told him I was going to call the police.”

Palmer claims that Jackson came to her house around 11 a.m., and began filming her on his phone and demanding to see the former couple’s son, Leodis Andrellton Jackson. After Palmer told Jackson that Leo was not home and attempted to escort him out of the home, she says Jackson sat down in the living room chair and continued to demand to “take Leo — an eight-month-old baby who is being breast fed — to watch a football game,” per THR. Palmer then said she would call the police, and that’s when Jackson allegedly lunged at her face and neck, knocking her backwards over the couch, and he stole her phone and ran out of the house.

Palmer also detailed an alleged incident from February 2022, “when Darius body slammed me onto the stairs by my neck,” and also claimed Jackson has destroyed her personal property, thrown her personal items in the street her car keys to prevent her from driving away, and threatened to kill himself with a gun if she left him.

Their relationship, which began in June 2021, ended in October, which came a few months after

Jackson took to Twitter to call out Palmer for a sheer outfit she wore to Usher’s Las Vegas concert, lamenting: “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is. This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”

Reposting a clip of Usher dancing with a swooning Palmer during the show, Jackson also wrote in a now-deleted tweet: “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom.” To clap back, Palmer starred in Usher’s “Boyfriend” music video in August.

A hearing has been set for Dec. 5.

10 Nov 2023

Coco Jones’ ‘Childlike Faith’ Powers the R&B Singer to 5 Grammy Nominations: ‘This Is My First Stamp of Approval’

Coco Jones was 11 years old when she made her first CD. Despite being a novice, the singer/songwriter had dreams of one day winning best new artist at the Grammy Awards. Fourteen years later, Jones, 25, finds herself closer than ever to achieving that feat after notching five Grammy nominations Friday morning (Nov. 10).

“That child-like faith is what kept me going,” Jones relayed to Billboard hours after receiving the news. 

This year, Jones morphed into one of music’s most formidable double-threats, thriving in both R&B and acting. Her breathtaking vocals on the Billboard Hot 100 hit “ICU” propelled her to platinum status and granted her a feature alongside pop giant Justin Timberlake for the song’s remix. Aside from “ICU,” Jones’ debut EP, What I Didn’t Tell You, captures every angle of the multi-faceted star and is a lush attempt at solidifying her place in the ever-growing R&B landscape. 

“I think this is my first stamp of approval, recognition, and respect on my name,” says the best new artist nominee. “Honestly, I get why it’s now because I wasn’t ready before. As a child actor, I didn’t know myself. So, to me, it all makes sense why it’s right now and why it’s gonna be forever.”

Billboard spoke to Jones about being closer to her Grammy dreams, the beauty behind her mom’s prayers, and why R&B is in an amazing place.

I heard you were on a plane when you found out you were nominated for five Grammy nominations. 

Honestly, I had just went to a celebratory dinner with my tour crew because we just finished the last show of the American leg of my tour. So, when I got on that plane, I was knocked out and I kept feeling this vibration like, “Dang. They driving crazy on this plane.” Then I was like, “What is this vibrating?” And of course, I had my Wi-Fi on so I can get text messages. I just saw all these messages and I knew what it was because I knew the nominations were this morning. I literally prayed with my manager [and] prayed with my mom last night. I knew it was something good and I was just shocked. I still had my sleep mask on, one eye off and I was just shocked. I was like, “How long I got on this flight? I wanna call people back.” It was crazy.

Between being nominated for best new artist versus “ICU” going platinum, which feat resonates with you more? 

Oh, that’s really tough. That’s really tough. Honestly, let me think about that for a second because I don’t know. They both mean something so different to me. “ICU” is about my personal work. It’s something that I took risks to be vulnerable and say, this is my story, but best new artist is all-encompassing. It’s like you as an artist, how you carry yourself, [and] how you present yourself. It’s you. I’m just gonna have to leave it as inconclusive because I don’t know. 

You said last month in an interview with HITS that you wanted to win best new artist. Your manifestation game is pretty strong, since you’re halfway there.

You know what? I really think it’s my mama’s prayers. Ever since I was a kid, she would write them down and I would see them on the wall — the prayers that she typed out for me, my brothers and my sisters. We all had specific prayers that she just stood on my entire life. I think it’s her. 

What are your thoughts on R&B receiving a lot of love this year in the field, ranging from SZA to Victoria Monét and, of course, yourself? 

Everything fluctuates and I love studying the Billboard charts. I tell y’all that all the time. It’s the world. It’s constantly changing, evolving and repeating. I feel like we just hit that rinse cycle and we’re going back to such a hearty type of music that connects. We need connection right now. We need to connect with people. We need those relationships again. We need songs about love again. That’s what the human race needs. As I’m watching R&B have its resurgence, it’s because we’ve been through a lot as a human race and we need connection again. We need passion. That to me is R&B. It’s vulnerability. It’s the pain. It’s the good. It’s sticking through rough relationships. It’s leaving bad relationships, but it’s very honest and I think that honesty is starting to be desired deeply again. I mean, it’s clear in these nominations that me, Victoria and everyone [else] are really putting R&B back on the map in a different way. I just feel like it’s time again. 

I was worried about you being labeled as just “the girl with the ‘ICU’ song.” With your project What I Didn’t Tell You being nominated as well, what does it mean for the overall effort itself to receive its just due versus the success of the single? 

The project in itself was my introductory, renaissance moment. It was my re-introduction of myself into the music industry. The last time they heard me in a big way was when I was 16. So I tried to give them different sides of me. All the capabilities that I could think of that I fit on an EP at that time, I wanted to them to know what they’re getting from me and decide if they like it or not. This is me. I didn’t want them to not just love “ICU,” but to love “Headlines,” where I’m really talking my sh-t. To love “Fallin” and “Plan B” where I’m more sensual. To love “Double Back” where I pay homage to SWV. These are sides of me.

So to me, they’re just giving me my big ups for every side of me, not just the soulful side that I can tap into, but the upbeat [ones] like “Crazy For Me.” To me, it just shows that they see where I’m trying to go and how I’m trying to diversify myself and be in every lane, be in every cadence, be in every tempo, and eat it up my way. They’re giving me my big ups to do that. It’s really motivating for my debut album. This was my freshman EP. I feel like a freshman, you know?

Knowing your journey to get here, do you finally feel vindicated as a singer/songwriter after today’s milestones?

It does feel like that. It kinda feel like [I got] this stamp on my name. As soon as you see it, it’s like, “Oh. Don’t play with her.” Respect her. Open your ears. She’s serious. She’s good. She’s quality. Beyonce has the stamp. She got it like multiple times. I think this is my first stamp of approval, recognition and respect on my name. Honestly, I get why it’s now because I wasn’t ready before. As a child actor, I didn’t know myself. So, to me, it all makes sense why it’s right now and why it’s gonna be forever.

10 Nov 2023

Seven Highlights From Music Companies’ Quarterly Earnings Reports

Music companies’ third-quarter earnings reports have so far been full of good news and positive trends. Subscription and streaming growth continue to drive revenues for record labels and publishers. Live entertainment continues its post-pandemic expansion. Margins are healthy. Overall, these have been solid report cards for the state of the music business.

Among the companies to report thus far are Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Spotify, Believe, Sphere Entertainment Co., MSG Entertainment, HYBE and SiriusXM. Next week’s earnings reports will come from Warner Music Group (Nov. 16) and Tencent Music Entertainment (Nov. 14). German concert promoter CTS Eventim will report on Nov. 21.

Here are seven items from the earnings releases to date that stood out and deserve more attention.

Universal Music Group struck out against “merchants of garbage.” During Universal Music Group’s Oct. 26 earnings call, chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge got a lot of attention when he bemoaned the “merchants of garbage” — creators of low-value functional music such as generic mood music and nature sounds — that want to be on equal royalty terms at streaming platforms as such UMG artists as Taylor Swift, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Grainge’s memorable turn of phrase came in defense of UMG’s artist-centric royalty scheme crafted in partnership with French music streaming service Deezer. “Sorry, I can’t really think of another word for content that no one really actually wants to listen to,” Grainge said.

Spotify’s price increase gave a much-needed uplift to subscription revenues. The price for an individual Spotify subscription in the U.S. was $9.99 from 2011 to July 2023. The price hike to $10.99 in roughly 50 markets may have arrived later than its competitors, but it came just when Spotify needed a boost. Spotify’s premium average revenue per user dropped 6% year over year (1% at constant currency) mainly because the company had a larger share of family plans compared to the prior-year, CFO Paul Vogel said during the July 25 earnings call. Early returns from the price increase in the U.S., U.K. and dozens of other markets helped offset those losses. Because Spotify’s number of subscribers increased 16% year over year to 226 million, subscription revenue grew 10% year over year (16% at constant currency) to 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion). With three full months of a price increase in the fourth quarter and considering the price increase covered about 75% of Spotify’s revenue base, the company expects the price increase to provide “a positive, mid-single digit” benefit (excluding foreign exchange) in the fourth quarter, said Vogel.

No company lowered guidance, and some have raised guidance. Sony Music raised guidance for revenue and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization by 5% and 4%, respectively. Reservoir Media raised guidance for fiscal 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA by 10% each. It’s one thing for a company to meet expectations it had previously laid out to investors. But raising previously released expectations is something else altogether — a sign the future will be better than expected. It’s usually a benefit to the stock price, too. The share price is the present value of future cash flows. When an estimate for future cash flows takes a sudden jump, that changes the financial model used to calculate the share price.

Consumers aren’t slowing their spending on live music. In August, concerns arose that a resumption of student loan payments, paused to help people struggling during the pandemic, would take a bite out of pocketbooks and cause music fans to pull back on the record amounts they were spending on live entertainment. Three months later, there is no indication that consumers are slowing down, according to Live Nation. “We’re seeing no sign of weaknesses,” said president and CFO Joe Berchtold, noting that Ticketmaster’s October sales in North American were up double-digits year over year. “We’re not seeing any pullback in any way from a club to a stadium tour from Milan to Argentina right now,” added president and CEO Michael Rapino.

SM Entertainment has big plans for its new publishing subsidiary, Kreation Music Rights. The K-pop stalwart has been “aggressively recruiting global writers” and plans to have 80 of them under contract this year, CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk said during the Nov. 8 earnings call. SM Entertainment is pursuing collaborations with both domestic and international publishers and plans to recruit foreign writers “who wish to advance into K-pop by establishing overseas subsidiaries,” Jiang said.

Radio advertising continues to struggle — but the clouds may be starting to part. iHeartMedia’s October revenues were down 8% and the company expects its fourth-quarter revenue excluding political revenue to be down in the mid-single digit percent year over year. The fourth quarter will be iHeartMedia’s strongest quarter of the year “but will be weaker than we originally anticipated due to some dampening of advertising demand which coincided with the uncertainty caused by the recent geopolitical events,” CEO Bob Pittman said during Thursday’s earnings call. That said, iHeartMedia’s digital business “is sort of in recovery mode,” said Pittman, and the company is “seeing the pieces falling into place” for radio’s recovery as most advertisers expect to be “back in growth mode…and spending to support that” in 2024.

The market for catalog acquisitions isn’t slowing down. Reservoir Media CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi said catalog prices aren’t contracting despite higher interest rates. “We’re still seeing a lot of demand for assets and continued infusion of new capital within the competitive set,” she said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “And that is certainly fueling the demand. The pipeline is robust. And it ranges in size from large to a lot of smaller deals.” Reservoir Media hasn’t been suffering from sticker shock, though. Acquisitions in the Middle East-North Africa market — such as some catalog of Saudi Arabian label Mashrex in June — provide the company with good value, Khosrowshahi added. “If we’re looking at a market here that is somewhat saturated with a lot of capital in the marketplace, and we’re able to execute [deals in MENA] at these lower multiples, that makes it just that much more attractive to us.”

10 Nov 2023

Friday Dance Music Guide: The Best New Music From Peggy Gou & Lenny Kravitz, Yaeji, Logic1000 & More

This week in dance music: We went behind the scenes at nightlife advocacy agency VibeLab and spoke with East Forest about his new album. Dua Lipa released her new dance-centric track, The Living Tombstones debuted on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Skrillex, Fred again.. and James Blake led the 2024 dance/electronic Grammy nominations and Aluna launched a label focused on Black female and LGBTQ+ artists, Noir Black.

We’ve also got more! These are the best new dance tracks of the week.

Peggy Gou, Lenny Kravitz, “I Believe In Love Again”

The Label: XL Recordings

The Spiel: Peggy Gou appears to be swinging for the fences with her debut album, set for release next year. The LP’s lead single “Nanana (It Goes Like)” became a viral hit (“My song was never on a chart before,” Gou recently told Billboard. “In the beginning I wasn’t sure what [charting] meant exactly”), and the album’s second single is a simmering collaboration with the bonafide legend Lenny Kravitz. Together, the pair are predictably cooler than cool, with Kravitz employee the higher-pitched side of his range for vocals that ride Gou’s ’90s throwback production.

The Artist Says: “The ’90s have had such a huge influence on my music” Gou says. “People know about my love of the dance/house/rave scene from that time, but I’ve always been a big R&B fan, and also a huge fan of Lenny. I listened endlessly to his 1998 album 5 – my personal favorite – but his whole discography is great, totally timeless. He came into the studio and transformed the guide vocal into magic, writing new lyrics and creating that incredible guitar riff. ‘I Believe In Love Again’ is a strong message of positivity and hope, and we hope everyone feels that when they hear the song.”

Yaeji, “easy breezy”

The Label: XL Recordings

The Spiel: There’s a neat trick to Yaeji’s latest track, with the lyrics focused on how certain things are not so easy breezy over a track that very much contains that laidback vibe. Skittering d’n’b percussion swells with synth, fun bossa nova touches and the occasional acoustic guitar, for a song that does indeed feel like a warm breeze. The release comes in tandem with the European leg of the artist’s With A Hammer tour, which includes a headlining slot at Pitchfork London festival this weekend.

The Artist Says: “Sonically, the song connects a thread between me now and me back in middle school —when I discovered bossa nova, drum and bass, and house through Korean and Japanese pop electronica,” Yaeji says. “‘easy breezy’ is a thread, a tribute, a recollection of memories, and an encouraging push for us to bring forth change with courage and laughter. We hold the power in our hands, and we should never doubt that. Change is now.”

Keys N Krates & Ciara, “Fantasy”

The Label: Last Gang Records

The Spiel: The Keys N Krates crew links with Ms. Automatic Supersonic, Hipnotic Funkyfresh herself, Ciara, for “Fantasy.” Out of the trio’s third studio album IN:TENSION, the song is a positively buoyant house cut built from feel-good piano stabs, strings, cooking percussion and vocals from Ciara that bounce between rapidfire spoken word and mellifluous singing.

The Artist Says: “After vibing with ‘Fantasy’ for the first time, I had good feels all over,” says Ciara. “I felt an infectious energy that made me want to dance, and I could envision myself living my best life to this song all over the world. This is the perfect party song for my collaboration with Keys N Krates. House is a space I’ve really been wanting to get involved in, so I’m excited for the world to hear it.”

Logic1000, “Self To Blame”

The Label: Therapy

The Spiel: Logic1000 has had a steady rise since her 2019 debut, releasing remixes for Fever Ray, Glass Animals, Christine and the Queens, Flume, Orbital in addition to her own productions. All this work had led to the tk artist’s just announced debut album, Mother, set for release in March. The album’s lead single is the sinewy, gently rising “Self To Blame,” marrying Y2K R&B and and house music featuring the velvet-voiced Kayla Blackmon.

The Artist Says: “I haven’t been posting anything personal since this unfathomable situation continued to unfold,” the artist wrote on Instagram regarding the Israel-Hamas war, “and I have been very confused about whether to make this post about my new music. I’m riddled with grief. Anxiety too. But I have also always believed that music has special healing powers. It is a way to escape, to decompress and it is in service to the community of people who connect to it. I hope that my new song – “Self To Blame” featuring the wonderful Kayla Blackmon brings you some much needed comfort and healing. I also want to use this time to announce that this is in fact the single from my debut album Mother. Big Ever and I have put our hearts and souls into creating this in the hopes of connecting you all through our music. I will continue to scream and shout about the injustice that is being inflicted upon the people of Palestine, all the while continuing to give you the music from the depths of our hearts. Please take care of yourselves.”

Ninajirachi, “Wayside”

The Label: NLV Records

The Spiel: Australian producer Ninajirachi is back with a five-track EP, 4×4, that highlights her mastery of productions that balance effervescence, bounce, heft and style. The fast-paced “Wayside” is a highlight of a project that’s altogether futuristic yet accessible, bright yet weighty and playful throughout. 4×4 includes Ninajirachi’s own vocals, along with collaborations with Ravenna Golden and Kota Banks.

The Artist Says: “Making music hasn’t felt this fun and effortless for me since pre-pandemic,” says the producer. “All of these songs were made in the last few months with my good friends and they were made very quickly, mostly in under a day, they’re not that serious or deep, they felt fulfilling and easy to write and produce! On this release (and others to come) I’ve been pulling more and more inspiration from the dance music that changed my life as a child and getting closer to becoming the producer I dreamed of being when I first heard it.”

10 Nov 2023

What’s Your Favorite New Music Release of the Week? Vote!

Some of today’s biggest stars are kicking off Veteran’s Day weekend with a slew of new music for fans to enjoy on their day off.

From Jack Harlow unveiling his viral “Lovin on Me” and Dua Lipa performing magic tricks with “Houdini” to new sounds from PinkPantheress and The Kid LAROI, music lovers of every genre have something to surely have on repeat.

We at Billboard want to know what your top new music pick of the week is. Check out our Friday Music Guide here and let us know by voting in our poll below.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news