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Lil Yachty delivered one of the most memorable Hot Ones episodes in 2018 with his first hot sauce experience, and the album has returned to the table for another bout. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Rocking a hot pink wig and a Coogie sweater from The […]
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame has announced its full crop of 2025 inductees.
Songwriter Dan Hill, “grande dame of Québec song” Ginette Reno, rock superstars Glass Tiger and singer/songwriter/composer Loreena McKennitt will all join the previously announced Sum 41. That legendary punk and rock band, who are currently on their farewell tour after returning to the top of the Alternative Airplay chart after more than two decades, will celebrate the induction with their final televised performance at the 2025 Juno Awards on March 30 in Vancouver.
The other four recipients will be joined by 2024 Hall of Fame inductee and Canadian hip-hop pioneer Maestro Fresh Wes at a special ceremony on May 15 at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (NMC), in Calgary. Maestro Fresh Wes was inducted into the Hall of Fame during The 2024 Junos broadcast in Halifax, and will again be honoured at the Studio Bell event this year.
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established by CARAS, the organization behind the Junos, in 1978 to acknowledge artists who have made a remarkable impact on Canadian music both nationally and internationally.
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Hill, Reno, Glass Tiger, McKennitt, Sum 41 and Maestro Fresh Wes will join the ranks of esteemed stars including Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, Joni Mitchell, k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Nickelback, Oscar Peterson, Rush, The Guess Who, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain.
This is the third time CARAS has held a multiple induction ceremony outside of the Junos.
“As the physical home of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, we’re proud to be a place that honours the individuals that have contributed so much to Canadian music,” says Andrew Mosker, president & CEO of the National Music Centre. “It’s always a privilege to host this special event and welcome the latest inductees to Calgary, where we can celebrate their significant influence and share their inspiring stories.”
The National Music Centre will unveil a new exhibition at Studio Bell on May 7, spotlighting the achievements of the four inductees.
Hill has achieved major international success, both for his own music and in collaboration with other musical legends. His “Sometimes When We Touch,” a tune Dolly Parton called her “favourite song of all time”’ and one she wishes she had written, has notched 63 million YouTube views and over 100 million downloads. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
Hill has recorded and released multiple Gold and Platinum albums, won a Grammy Award and five Junos, and was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021. He’s also worked with many of the pop’s top-selling artists, including Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Britney Spears and Céline Dion.
Ginette Reno is a legend of Quebec music. In a 65-year career, she’s recorded over 2000 songs, 42 albums, all gold or platinum, and various notable roles on the silver screen and on television.
Since their first three albums starting in the mid-1980s, Ontario rock band Glass Tiger spawned 14 Top 40 Hits in Canada in five years. The 1986 hit “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” (which hit No. 2) and following hit “Someday,” which both reached Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the band’s debut album, The Thin Red Line, went quadruple platinum in Canada and gold in the U.S.
McKennitt has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide while remaining self-managed and self-produced. Her music, combining elements of pop, folk and worldbeat styles, has been dubbed “eclectic Celtic.”
Tickets will soon go on sale at the National Music Centre. More info at the Canadian Music Hall of Fame website.
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It seems the relationship between Cardi B and Offset continues to sour. She is now claiming that he did not give their kids Christmas gifts and actually stole from her.
As per Rap-Up Magazine Cardi B has once again taken to social media to out her estranged husband. On Tuesday, Jan. 14 she hosted an X Spaces session, formerly known as Twitter, and proceed to air him out over his lack of co-parent support during the holidays. “You love your kids so much that you didn’t buy them s**t for Christmas, but you came to New York to buy your other kids gifts,” she alleged. “You ain’t bought my kids s**t on purpose to spite me.”
Cardi B also says Offset has failed to be in his newest daughter’s life as well. “[You said] you haven’t accepted the divorce [papers] because you want to see the kids. You just called your [newborn] daughter for the first time this year yesterday (Jan. 13).” Before closing out the session she alleged that he is also a thief. “Mind you, we were cool. We weren’t f**king, but we was cool,” Bardi explained. “You and your momma robbed me cold. Wiped my nose.” Cardi B did not clarify on what she believes was actually taken from her.
You can listen to Cardi B discuss Offset and more below.
As the Los Angeles wildfires continue to devastate the city, celebrities are coming together to support the wildfire relief efforts that have been working tirelessly to help the community rebuild and gather resources for victims. At the time of publication, the Palisades fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres and is only 19% contained, while the […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) is firing back at Drake’s lawsuit accusing the music giant of defaming him by promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” calling the case “illogical” and accusing Drake of trying to “weaponize the legal process.”
In a strongly-worded statement issued Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 15), UMG flatly denied the allegations in Drake’s lawsuit — filed earlier in the day in New York federal court — and sharply criticized its superstar artist for bringing it.
“Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical,” the company wrote. “We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.”
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The lawsuit claims that UMG knew that “inflammatory and shocking allegations” in Lamar’s scathing diss track were false, but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
But in UMG’s response, the music giant said that Drake himself had often engaged in rap beefs featuring bombastic claims about his opponents — the very thing that he now claims is illegal.
“Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists,” UMG wrote. “He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”
Drake’s case repeatedly makes clear that he is not suing Lamar himself, and that he holds UMG responsible for releasing a song that it allegedly knew was defamatory.
In its statement, UMG denied that claim — and said it would defend Lamar or any other artist if they were hit with such a lawsuit.
“We have not and do not engage in defamation—against any individual,” UMG said in the statement. “At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song.”
Drake and Lamar exchanged stinging diss tracks last year, culminating in Lamar’s knockout “Not Like Us” — a track that savagely slammed Drake as a “certified pedophile” and reached the top of the charts. In November, the star filed stunning legal petitions suggesting that he planned to sue UMG, claiming that the company had artificially boosted a song that contained defamatory statements about him.
Earlier on Wednesday, Drake made good on those threats — filing a federal lawsuit that claimed UMG had boosted a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a pedophile, severely harming his reputation and even putting his life in danger.
“UMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,” the star’s lawyers wrote in their complaint. “UMG did so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
The accusations — and Wednesday’s response statement — represent a remarkable rift between the world’s largest music company and one of its biggest stars. Drake has spent his entire career at UMG, first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint that was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.
Dave Grohl spent his 56th birthday giving back to families in need amid the ongoing wildfire crisis in the Los Angeles area. In videos posted to Instagram Stories Tuesday (Jan. 14) by Feed the Streets — an L.A.-based charity with which the Foo Fighters frontman has volunteered in the past — Grohl helps stir homemade […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
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This week: Fan support for a 2000s TV icon has resulted in her 15-year-old album likely recharting next week, while a soundtrack synch sets off a revival of a late-’80s pop classic and TikTok embraces a Rihanna hit that never was.
Heidi Montag’s ‘Superficial’ Goes Viral to Aid Recovery From Palisades Fire
Reality star Heidi Montag can now add pop star to her resume. Montag and husband Spencer Pratt, best known for their roles on hit reality TV show The Hills, lost their home in the Palisades wildfire last week. Pratt took to TikTok to share the devastating news, and to direct viewers to stream and purchase Montag’s 15-year-old album Superficial to help the family generate income in the wake of the disaster.
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Followers certainly showed up for the couple, pushing Superficial to No. 1 on the iTunes chart over the weekend and into this week with over 6,000 in album sales for the weekend of Jan. 10-12 (up from a negligible number of sales the weekend prior). It also picked up massively on streaming services, growing 740.6% in U.S. on-demand streams to over 800,000 from the first weekend of January to the second. If it maintains its performance, it could make a bow on the Billboard 200 next week — which would be Superficial‘s first appearance on the chart. — KRISTIN ROBINSON
‘Babygirl’ Milk Drinkers are Lapping Up George Michael’s ‘Father Figure,’ Too
Babygirl, Halina Reijn’s new erotic thriller/dark comedy starring Nicole Kidman as a powerful CEO who indulges in her sexual fantasies with her intern (played by Harris Dickinson), has not only served as Kidman’s latest bravura turn with Oscar buzz, but is also being meme’d ad nauseam by cinephiles who are sick of talking about the turtle in Conclave. One particular sequence that has been hoisted up by the Internet involves Dickinson dancing shirtless to “Father Figure,” the iconic No. 1 smash by George Michael, in a hotel room, while Kidman watches from afar.
Following the film’s wide release on Christmas Day, “Father Figure” has not only picked up steam on streaming services thanks to the Babygirl scene, but also with Michael’s 1987 smash soundtracking various TikTok mash-ups, from those trying to recreate Dickinson’s dance moves to others who want to anoint Pedro Pascal as the ultimate “father figure” (read: zaddy). In any event, “Father Figure” earned 358,000 U.S. on-demand streams during the week ending Dec. 26, according to Luminate, and that weekly streaming total had more than doubled two weeks later, to 984,000 streams in the week ending Jan. 9. Who knows? With the film’s pivotal scene of Kidman’s character drinking a glass of milk, maybe U.S. dairy sales are on the rise, too. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Nearly 18 Years Later, Rihanna’s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ Is Still Churning Out Hits
Even though she’s popped up for a Black Panther song or two, it’s still been nearly nine years since Anti – Rihanna‘s last studio album. Like most Rihanna album’s, Anti produced a plethora of hits, and that’s a trend Riri began with 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad. That album housed “Umbrella” (No. 1, seven weeks); “Shut Up And Drive” (No. 15); “Hate That I Love You” (No. 7); “Don’t Stop the Music” (No. 3); “Rehab” (No. 18); “Take A Bow” (No. 1) and “Disturbia” (No. 1). Now, nearly 18 years later, another Good Girl track is looking to join those ranks: the Christopher “Tricky” Stewart-produced, The-Dream-penned “Breakin’ Dishes.”
According to Luminate, “Breakin’ Dishes” has steadily risen in streams over the past month. In the week preceding Christmas (Dec. 13-19, 2024), the track pulled over 2.37 million official on-demand U.S. streams. Though streaming activity dipped during the holiday week (Dec. 20-26) — earning 2.25 million streams, down 5.2% — the following week produced its biggest week-over-week streaming increase of the month. During the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2, streams for “Dishes” soared 22% to over 2.7 million streams. By the following week (Jan. 3-9), streams rose by a furter 5.7% to just over 2.9 million streams.
Although “Breakin’ Dishes” — like the bulk of RiRi’s catalog – isn’t available on TikTok as an official sound, fan uploads have kept the song in near-constant circulation on the platform. Across three different sounds ranging from 40,000 to 280,000 posts each, users have hopped on three distinct trends attached to “Dishes.” First, some users use the song’s “A man, a man, a ma-e-a-a-an” refrain to show off their boyfriends’ strength by having them lift them up on one shoulder. Another set of users have used the song to make edits of their favorite characters from media like Squid Game and various Disney films; other users have used “Dishes” sounds to explain that the song is about “female rage” and not love.
Regardless of how they found their way to “Breakin’ Dishes,” fans are discovering Rihanna’s deep cuts and falling in love with them as if they’re new singles. — KYLE DENIS
01/15/2025
From a potential TikTok ban to the upcoming Diddy trial to changes coming in streaming, AI, distribution and concert ticketing, there’s plenty to watch in 2025.
01/15/2025
Drake filed a lawsuit against UMG for defamation over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Keep watching for the full details of the case. Tetris Kelly:Is Drake ending his legal beef against UMG and Kendrick? From ending the petition to filing a lawsuit, we got the story. The Canadian rapper has filed an official lawsuit on […]
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 25, 2025, we look at whether a new growing blockbuster from Bad Bunny will claim the top spot, or whether it will be lapped by the shipment of a beloved Taylor Swift live set.
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Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Rimas): The latest LP from Puerto Rican global superstar Bad Bunny might have already been the No. 1 album in the country had it enjoyed a full tracking week. But due to its Sunday release (Jan. 5), two days into tracking, it pulled up just short, posting 122,000 first-week units and falling behind Lil Baby’s WHAM set, which bowed at No. 1 with 140,000 units.
The good news for Fotos is that it keeps growing. While the album’s first-day numbers on streaming were solid but unexceptional, they’ve ballooned nearly every day since – an extremely unusual trajectory for a new release by an established superstar – to the point where the album now claims the top three spots on both the Apple Music real-time chart and the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA listing. (Both rankings are led by the viral smash “DtMF,” which could also challenge for a top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 next week.)
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The runaway streaming success of Fotos, combined with it now getting the benefits of a full week of tracking (as well as a heavy week of promo, including a recent Subway Busking performance with Jimmy Fallon) means that the set should have an even better showing in its second frame – perhaps more in line with the opening week of Bunny’s previous album, 2023’s Nadie Sabie Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, which managed 184,000 units in its Billboard 200-topping debut week.
Taylor Swift, Lover (Live in Paris) (Republic): The City of Lover live show that Taylor Swift played in Paris in 2019 has long held a special place in the hearts of Swifties – both for its intimate acoustic versions of many highlights from 2019’s Lover set, and for the fact that it was one of the final full live shows Swift performed for some years, after her planned Lover Fest mini-tour was canceled in the wake of the 2020 COVID pandemic and she was forced to regroup for 2023-24’s world-conquering Eras Tour. In 2020, the set was aired as an ABC live special, followed by the limited-edition release a double-LP version of the set in 2023, entitled Lover (Live From Paris), collecting eight performances from the gig.
That release was limited to 13,000 copies, and of course sold out, resulting in a No. 58 bow on the Billboard 200. The set was re-released this Jan. 7, however, as a 72-hour webstore exclusive, and is expected to sell a whole lot more than that this time around. The impact it has on this upcoming Billboard 200 will depend on when the copies of it officially ship – her webstore noted that all copies would ship “on or before Jan. 20,” but with many Swifties apparently having already received their copies, it seems likely to be a real contender for next week.
Could it beat out Bad Bunny’s burgeoning blockbuster? Despite her 14 career No. 1s on the Billboard 200, Swift has never reached the apex with a live set – with 2020’s No. 3-peaking Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions coming closest. But with the combination of the set’s reputation among Swifties, those fans’ love for collecting her records (with Taylor claiming five of the top 10 best-selling vinyl LPs of 2024) the half-decade wait since the special initially aired and how she’s gotten exponentially bigger in the last few years… as with nearly everything Taylor Swift-related in 2025, it’s probably not a great idea to bet against her.
Lil Baby, WHAM (Quality Control/Motown): Last week’s No. 1 seems pretty sure for some degree of fall-off in its second frame. Its opening number of 140,000 got a big lift from direct-to-consumer album sales (in CD and digital download form), helping it get 50,000 of those first-week units, which is almost always much lower in an album’s second week. And on streaming, Lil Baby‘s set is clearly slipping – it’s still littering the Apple Music chart, but with only one song (the Future- and Young Thug-featuring “Dum, Dumb and Dumber”) in the top 20, and it claims just two total entries in Spotify’s 200-position Daily Top Songs USA chart. That’s not shocking by any means – most big streaming albums do experience a big drop-off in week two – but it just shows how remarkable it is that Fotos is still expanding like it is. (WHAM should still get a small boost on streaming from the Friday release of its deluxe edition – featuring four bonus tracks – to DSPs, having previously been available only for purchase as part of the deluxe on the Motown webstore.)