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19 Oct 2023

BNYX Hits No. 1 on Hot 100 Producers Chart for the First Time Thanks to Drake Hits

BNYX re-enters Billboard’s Hot 100 Producers chart (dated Oct. 21) at No. 1, becoming the top producer in the U.S. for the first time, thanks to his work on Drake’s new No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, For All the Dogs.

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BNYX (known off-stage as Benjamin Saint Ford) is credited as a producer on six songs on the latest Billboard Hot 100: five from For All the Dogs and one from Travis Scott’s Utopia. Leading the pack is the Dogs track “IDGAF,” featuring Yeat, at No. 2. BNYX solely produced the song, helping boost his chart points on Hot 100 Producers.

Here’s a look at all of BNYX’s production credits on the current Hot 100, all of which contribute to his points total on Hot 100 Producers.

Hot 100 Rank, Artist Billing, Title (co-producers in addition to BNYX):
No. 2, Drake feat. Yeat, “IDGAF”
No. 11, Drake feat. Sexyy Red & SZA, “Rich Baby Daddy” (Gordo, Johannes Klahr, LIOHN, The Loud Pack, UV Killin Em, Dougie F)
No. 18, Drake, “What Would Pluto Do” (Lil Yachty, GENT!, Bangs)
No. 26, Drake feat. Chief Keef, “All the Parties” (Maneesh Bidaye, Harley Arsenault, Boi-1da, Jdolla, Fierce, Coleman)
No. 32, Drake, “Away From Home” (Lil Yachty, Sad Pony, Justin Raisen, Lukas Levine)
No. 59, Travis Scott feat. Drake, “Meltdown” (Boi-1da, Vinylz, Tay Keith, Coleman)

BNYX also re-enters at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Producers and Rap Producers charts, leading the former for the first time and the latter for a second time.

BNYX has produced seven additional Hot 100-charting songs in his career, including his first two top 10s. Here’s a recap, listed chronologically by peak date:

Artist Billing, Title (Peak Position, Peak Date):
Yeat, “Talk” (No. 42, Sept. 17, 2022)
Yeat feat. Lil Uzi Vert, “Flawless” (No. 77, Sept. 24, 2022)
Yeat, “No More Talk” (No. 77, March 11, 2023)
Drake, “Search & Rescue” (No. 2, April 22, 2023)
Lil Uzi Vert feat. Travis Scott, “Aye” (No. 31, July 15, 2023)
Travis Scott, Bad Bunny & The Weeknd, “K-Pop” (No. 7, Aug. 5, 2023)
Lil Tecca & Kodak Black, “Hvn on Earth” (No. 88, Oct. 7, 2023)

BNYX concurrently debuts at No. 3 on Hot 100 Songwriters, as he’s also credited as a co-writer on all six of the charted songs that he produced. Drake returns to No. 1 on the chart for a 12th week.

Looking at other Drake collaborators on this week’s Hot 100 Producers chart, 40 re-enters at No. 4, OZ at No. 6, Lil Yachty at No. 7, Harley Arsenault at No. 9 and Jahaan Sweet at No. 10.

Billboard’s weekly Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Hot 100. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings). Billboard launched its Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic in June 2019. Alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022.

19 Oct 2023

Brakence to Donate Proceeds From North American Tour to Palestinian Charities

Brakence is taking a stand amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel. On Wednesday (Oct. 18), the hyperpop musician announced on social media that he will be helping Palestinians affected by Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza by donating proceeds from the North American leg of his The Hypochondriac (Is Still On) Tour to humanitarian aid organizations that will benefit refugees.

“I am aware of the imperialistic, oppressive and violent nature of Israel’s government and the disproportionate death and suffering Palestinians are currently facing and have been experiencing for decades 100% of the new proceeds (ticket sales and merchandise) that I make from the North American leg of this tour will be donated and split between: the Palestine Appeal of Ummah Welfare Trust, providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza, and Anera, providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan,” he wrote.

The 21-year-old explained that he chose the charities due to their low or nonexistent administrative costs, and will start the donations process ahead of his tour — which kicks off Oct. 24 in Columbus, Ohio — “due to the time sensitive nature of this conflict and donating any further profits after collection.”

Brakence concluded his announcement by saying that he is “having challenging conversations” regarding the matter and believes “ending any of my personal or professional relationships over disagreements on this is counterproductive.”

The musician’s decision comes less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 airstrike by militant group Hamas, who launched a surprise attack on Israel. Hamas — which has been designated a terrorist group by numerous countries including the United States and European Union — fired thousands of rockets and sent combatants into Israeli towns, which resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand in Israel, CNN reported. During Hamas’ attack on Israel, the militant group also kidnapped about 200 Israelis and is holding them captive, according to The Associated Press.

Israel has fought back by attacking targets in Gaza, with Palestinian authorities reporting that thousands have been killed, and many more in need of aid. The conflict has led to a war between Israel and Hamas, who controls the Gaza Strip, a narrow piece of land between Israel and Egypt.

See Brakence’s statement below.

19 Oct 2023

YUNGBLUD Signs With CAA

CAA has nabbed British musician YUNGBLUD for worldwide representation. The singer, songwriter and actor (born Dominic Richard Harrison) recently concluded the North American leg of his YUNGBLUD – The World Tour this summer. He was formerly represented by UTA in North and South America.

YUNGBLUD began his musical career with a 2018 self-titled EP and continued to gain traction with his 2019 debut album 21st Century Liability and EP The Underrated Youth, which marked his first appearance on the Billboard 200. Since 2019, YUNGBLUD has charted 12 singles on the Hot Rock & Alternative Airplay, including top 10 hits “Original Me” (which peaked at No. 7 on the tally) as well as “11 Minutes,” “I Think I Am Okay” and “Tongue Tied,” which all reached No. 3, according to Luminate.

Elsewhere, YUNGBLUD has landed eight tracks on the Alternative Airplay chart and also charted on the Billboard 200 with 2020’s Weird (No. 75) and 2022’s YUNGBLUD (No. 45), according to Luminate. In 2023, YUNGBLUD has released two singles: “Lowlife” and “HATED.” He is expected to release additional music in 2024.

According to CAA, YUNGBLUD now has a combined social following of more than 15 million and has racked up more than 3 billion global streams. On Spotify alone, he boasts more than 6 million monthly listeners.

Over the past five years, YUNGBLUD has sold out arenas in the United Kingdom and across Europe. He has additionally performed at several high-profile festivals, including Coachella, Lollapalooza and Riotfest. His 2023 North American tour also included a run of amphitheater shows.

YUNGBLUD is managed by Tommas Arnby, Ed Juniper and Adam Wood at Special Projects Music Co. His attorney is Liv Lyons at Lee and Thompson.

19 Oct 2023

The Mayan Warrior Team Announces New Art Car for Burning Man 2024: Fewer DJs, More Live Acts

The Mayan Warrior team is rising from the ashes of its destroyed art car, announcing Thursday (Oct. 19), that they’re building a new car to debut at Burning Man 2024.

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This vehicle will have a new design and theme from the original Mayan Warrior (pictured above), and be roughly the same size as this previous model, but reconfigured to function more as a mobile stage for live, multi-disciplinary musical and cultural performances.

“We will slowly transition into a more diverse spectrum of musical and cultural performances,” Mayan Warrior founder Pablo González Vargas tells Billboard. “The goal over time is to have more live acts with real instruments that can provide new experiences.” The new car will host gradually fewer DJs and feature a stage large enough to accommodate bands or a small orchestra.

“This will be an ongoing process of learning and iterating what is best for the community and the culture of Burning Man,” says González Vargas. “We will always be open to suggestions and feedback to make something beautiful that we can all enjoy.”

The original Mayan Warrior art car, one of Burning Man’s biggest and flashiest art cars which hosted sets from artists including DJ Tennis, Damian Lazarus and more, was destroyed in a fire last April while en route to a fundraiser in Punta de Mita, Mexico. This fire resulted in millions of dollars worth of losses.

It also provided the Mexico City-based team the opportunity to reimagine their project, with González Vargas telling Billboard in August that the car’s destruction made him feel “liberated” from a physically and financially-intensive endeavor that over time had grown to be a magnet for melodic techno and massive crowds.

Beyond the evolution in programming, the new project will also mark a shift in how the Mayan Warrior crew raises the money necessary to bring the car to Burning Man, located in northern Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert.

The number of annual fundraising events the team produces across the U.S. with this new car will shrink from 12 to four, ” to ensure we can put our soul in to it and focus on the health and sleep of our crew,” says González Vargas. (Many Burning Man art cars and camps hold annual fundraisers to raise the money necessary to do a project at the event, with Mayan Warrior’s among the last few years arguably among the largest and most highly produced.)

The group is also considering making information regarding events, camp and foundation finances public, “so everyone can see what’s going on and what it takes to pull this off,” says González Vargas.

Tal Ohana and his Los Angeles-based events company Stranger Than, which has co-produced Mayan Warrior’s North American fundraising events for the last six years, are also now official Mayan Warrior collaborators.

“We’re glad to be a part of the next art car and assist with our resources throughout the rebuilding process,” Ohana tells Billboard. “Stranger Than and I will also continue to implement the values of Burning Man to our ‘outside fundraiser events’ as an eight-year burner, while curating unique experiences for our community in a safe environment.” 

The first fundraising events officially for this new car are happening Oct. 28 at Grand Park in Los Angeles and at on Oct. 27-28 at Industry City in Brooklyn.

In August, González Vargas told Billboard that before he and the team could decide on a new design, he first needed to go to Burning Man 2023 to see what inspired him. That inspiration came, he says, when watching a drone show that was designed around a Burning Man art car with a dancer suspended from a crane, all synchronized with light and music.

“It struck me that there is nothing more beautiful than having projects collaborate in the moment to create something that will never exist again,” he says. now. “And at that moment, I decided to continue the project and be part of those special moments. We want to do as many collaborations in the future with this new vehicle.”

19 Oct 2023

What’s Your Favorite of Billboard’s Best Pop Songs? Vote!

Billboard is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 by compiling the 500 best pop songs since the chart’s debut in 1958.

The full list spans artists from Lesley Gore to Carly Rae Jepsen, from Sam Cooke to SZA, from The Kinks to The Chainsmokers, from Chubby Checker to Rae Sremmurd.

The top 10 brought together a range of song from The Beatles, Dr. Dre, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson, Michael Jackson, Madonna and more, with the number one song going to Whitney Houston’s classic, “I Want to Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

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Check out our full list here, and vote for your favorite from our top 10 in the poll below.

19 Oct 2023

How Kenya Grace’s ‘Strangers’ Came After She ‘Seriously Considered Giving Up Music’

This week, Kenya Grace’s global smash “Strangers” ascended to No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, marking the first time in the chart’s 10-year history that it’s been led by a track solely written, produced and sung by a woman.

Not bad for a song the 25-year-old artist wrote three months ago in her bedroom in Chandler’s Ford, England. A dreamy, sort of ominous ode to meeting people on dating apps who then ghost, “Strangers” marks a sort of belated pop breakthrough moment for drum’n’bass, the longstanding electronic genre that’s currently one of dance music’s backbone sounds, particularly in Grace’s native U.K.

“It’s really a huge part of young people’s lives here,” Grace tells Billboard over Zoom.

The song is also a milestone moment for Major Recordings, the flagship dance label from Warner Records that launched earlier this year. “I wrote ‘Strangers’ a week after I signed with them,” Grace says with a laugh.

“Strangers” is currently sitting at No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Oct. 21) and is also in the top position on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts for a fifth and third week, respectively.

Below, Grace tells Billboard how she created her breakthrough hit.

How did “Strangers” come together?

I wrote it about two months ago in my room. I didn’t think too much into the full song, but I made a video of just the chorus. Nothing else existed at that point. I posted it on Instagram and TikTok and people seemed to really like it. I always find that I can write the chorus quickly, and then, like a week after, I get back into the head space and write the rest of the song. I finished writing, and then we worked on the production for a bit and got it mixed and mastered. We released it soon after that. It has been really fast.

How long did it take you to finish it?

It was pretty fast. I always find I can write the chorus really quickly. Then, like a week after, I get back into the headspace and write the rest of the song. Probably a week later, I finished writing [“Strangers”], and then we worked on the production for a bit and then got it mixed and mastered.

And it’s all happening in your bedroom. Paint a picture of that space.

It’s just a tiny room; I live in the countryside, in a tiny town an hour outside of London. My room is a really average room. The amazing thing about my house, though, is my window overlooks the woods. So I think that’s helpful with the deep thoughts or whatever.

The track has been hugely successful on TikTok. What’s your relationship with social media?

My favorite thing to do is make beat videos. I love writing a mini song and then making all the drum loops and everything, so TikTok and Instagram are like my perfect places. It has been a crazy year because last year, I seriously considered giving up music. Then, I posted a video on TikTok, and it changed my whole life. My socials are really different now — I think that’s the biggest thing, just the amount of people, the amount of love. It has blown my mind.

How do you feel about bringing drum’n’bass further into the mainstream?

It wasn’t a goal, [but] I really love dance music in general. Drum’n’bass is the first thing I went out to; it’s what all my friends go out to. It’s really a huge part of young people’s lives in the U.K. Liquid drum’n’bass I especially love — it’s basically a more emotional version of drum’n’bass. Like dance music, but a very soft version. I love that so much. I feel like it goes well with my voice. 

Are the lyrics based on actual events?

It’s a mixture of stuff that’s happened to me, stuff that’s happened to my friends and things I’ve noticed around me. It’s so common, in this day and age, that you’ll see someone for a bit, and you’ll speak all the time and then randomly one day, you just never speak again. It happens so much with Tinder and Hinge and things like that. It’s so easy to just give up and swipe on to the next person. It’s basically about that. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to all my friends.

What do your friends and family think about everything that’s going on for you?

My family is still in shock, to be honest. It’s just crazy. None of us have ever experienced anything like this, on this level. One of my friends said there was an article in the U.K. [Official Charts] — it was like, me versus Doja Cat. My friends were like, “Kenya Grace challenging Doja Cat? This sentence should not exist!” I was just like, “Yeah, I don’t know how it exists.” It’s so crazy.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.

19 Oct 2023

Billboard Reveals the Top 10 of the Best 500 Pop Songs of All Time (Staff List) | Billboard News

Tetris Kelly:
It was August 4th, 1958, the Billboard Hot 100 was born. In honor of the chart’s 65th anniversary, Billboard staff has been putting together a huge list of the Top 500 Best Pop songs, everything from Tony Bennett to SZA, The Kinks to The Chainsmokers, Chubby Checker to *NSYNC. And now we’re revealing the Top 10, coming to you from the people who put the list together. Here’s the Billboard Top 10 from the 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time.

Joe Lynch:
Let’s kick off the Top 10 with The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

The Beatles are the group that turned rock music into the new pop music. They combined the rock and roll of early rockers like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, melded it with girl group singles, and the result was “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It became the first Beatles song to top the Billboard Hot 100. This was the song that had a generation of teenagers losing their minds, screaming in the streets, ripping their clothes off. The Beatles were the original boy band and this is the song where all that started.

Andrew Unterberger:
Coming in at our No. 9 spot Tupac featuring Dr. Dre, “California Love.” This was a song that the last 10 years West Coast rap had been leading up to. You know, Dr. Dre had been the best producer for about a decade. Tupac had been the best rapper for about a half-decade. Then, Tupac gets out of jail. He comes to Death Row Records. He gets a Dr. Dre beat and they make “California Love.” It’s one of the best rap songs of the decade and it does what all the best rap songs do is that it’s super local to the West Coast, but it’s super global in its appeal. We talked about what rap songs should certainly be the highest on this list and “California Love” is sort of the beginning of the era where rap music could be pop music. Today, rap is the most popular music on the globe, it’s more popular than pop even. At its heart, pop stands for popular and this was the most popular music at the time. And it was the No. 1 hit and it’s a song that everybody still remembers.

Watch the full video above.

19 Oct 2023

Kelly Clarkson Reveals She Bought Her First Dictionary Because of Alanis Morissette

Kelly Clarkson has Alanis Morissette to thank for her interest in words. On the Thursday (Oct. 19) episode of the American Idol alum’s eponymous talk show, she revealed that she purchased her first dictionary because of her love for the “You Oughta Know” singer’s album Jagged Little Pill.

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Clarkson kick off the interview by gushing about Morissette’s songwriting capabilities, noting that the “Ironic” singer has a unique ability to contextualize universal experiences in her music. “You have this very amazing way of saying what we really want to say or we don’t know how to identify it, and ‘Hands Clean,’ that’s a really rough song,” she said. “Is that from childhood trauma and on?”

While Morissette did not confirm or deny whether the track is about her childhood experiences, she recalled the video treatment her record label at the time suggested, and how it didn’t match what she had in mind at all.

“I remember the record company having said, ‘Let’s do this video where it’s a karaoke and there’s kids and it’s joy.’ And I asked them, I said, ‘Have you heard the song?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, it’s great.’ I was like, ‘OK, so you haven’t heard the song,’” the seven-time Grammy winner explained. “It just felt like this incongruent kind of thing, but it’s a lovely way to present a song that otherwise might not have even been listened to, I think.”

Clarkson remarked that Morissette’s ability to bring “Webster Dictionary words” to her music fascinates the Idol alum. “I bought my first dictionary because of you,” Clarkson shared. “I was very young, and I was like, ‘What are these words? They mean something and I just need to look them up!’ Literally you are the reason why I owned a dictionary for the very first time.”

The “Since You’ve Been Gone” singer kicked off Thursday’s episode with a rousing rendition of Morissette’s “Smiling.” With the help of her backing band, she ripped through the track with ease, peppering his signature high notes and belt thoughout the song. “This is my first wave of my white flag/ This is the sound of me hitting bottom/ This, my surrender, if that’s what you call it/ In the anatomy of my crash,” she sang on the chorus.

Watch Clarkson’s interview with Morissette in the video above.

19 Oct 2023

Charli XCX Relives a Night Out ‘In the City’ With New Sam Smith Collab: Stream It Now

Before the weekend officially arrives, Charli XCX and Sam Smith want you to hype yourself up for a night on the town with their ecstatic new single.

On Thursday (Oct. 19), the pair of pop stars released their first-ever collaboration “In the City,” a glittering dance track dedicated to finding community during nights out at clubs. Produced by ILYA, A. G. Cook, Omer Fedi, George Daniel and Charli XCX, the new song features chunky house pianos, shimmering synth lines, and an instantly-catchy chorus that will keep you dancing throughout your weekend festivities.

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In a statement released alongside the song, Charli explained that “In the City” celebrates the chaotic beauty of making friends during nights out at gay bars around the globe. “The song is about finding the people you truly love and connect with through wild nights out and partying in magical places,” she wrote. “It’s about feeling accepted, the magnificence of being welcomed into queer spaces and those once in a lifetime people you get to meet when you’re there.”

Both artists have spent the last two weeks teasing the new track across their social media channels, including an Instagram video that showed Smith strutting down an alleyway and lip-synching along to their verse. When Smith dropped their video, fans quickly put the pieces together and celebrated the upcoming collab.

But when some fans made less-than-kind comments about Smith thanks to the promotion, Charli quickly came to her collaborator’s defense. “Never in my life have I seen someone receive so many hateful comments online. It’s been really disheartening,” the singer said in a TikTok posted on Tuesday (Oct. 17). “At the same time, I am so proud of Sam’s ability to withstand that because I know I certainly couldn’t withstand it. So, I want to say: Sam, I love you, I love our song together, and I am in awe of your strength.”

Check out Charli XCX & Sam Smith’s “In the City” below:



19 Oct 2023

‘Big Mouth’ Enlists Lin-Manuel Miranda to Write a ‘Song About Waiting for Pubes’ — and You Don’t Have to Wait to Hear It

Growing body hair is an inevitable part of puberty. Usually, though, the hair doesn’t start singing — but that’s where Lin-Manuel Miranda comes in.

The Hamilton creator’s latest composition is an all-Spanish tune about waiting for pubic hairs to grow for season seven of Netflix‘s Big Mouth, which premieres Friday (Oct. 20). Billboard learned that showrunner Nick Kroll personally asked Miranda if he would be interested in writing a song on the topic, and the lyricist immediately came up with the title: “Esperando Pelitos” (“Waiting for Little Hairs”).

Miranda felt the song almost wrote itself, with lyrics such as “I check below the penis, and only find my balls.”

In a video from the cartoon’s upcoming season, a pre-pubescent tween living in Puerto Rico named Miguelito fantasizes about sprouting hair down there so that he can look more masculine and grown up, like his adult relatives. And, naturally, the imagined strands on his pubic area join in to serve as backup singers.

Robin DeJesus, who starred in Miranda’s Tick Tick Boom!, and Puerto Rican rapper PJ Sin Suela serve as the lead vocalists on “Esperando Pelitos.” Sin Suela was also featured on “Almost Like Praying,” the In the Heights playwright’s charity single for Hurricane Maria relief.

Starring Kroll, John Mulaney, Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, Big Mouth‘s seventh season marks a return for the raunchy coming-of-age series. Not only do the characters prepare to graduate middle school, but Megan Thee Stallion will guest star as the newest “hormone monstress.” See the season trailer here.

Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical take on pubes for Big Mouth above.