News

13 Jul 2023

Lil Uzi Vert Leads Hot Hard Rock Songs Chart With ‘Werewolf’

Songs from Lil Uzi Vert’s new album Pink Tape take the top three spots on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart dated July 15, led by “Werewolf” featuring Bring Me the Horizon, which debuts at No. 1.

“Werewolf” earned 6.7 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads June 30-July 6, according to Luminate.

Lil Uzi Vert leads Hot Hard Rock Songs for the first time in their second appearance on the list. They previously made the survey as featured on Bring Me the Horizon’s “AmEN!,” which debuted at No. 12 on the June 17 tally and ranks at No. 21 on the latest chart.

As for Bring Me the Horizon, the band now boasts four Hot Hard Rock Songs No. 1s, tying Falling in Reverse for the most dating to the chart’s 2020 inception. The Oli Sykes-fronted group first reigned with “Parasitve Eve,” followed by “Obey” (with Yungblud) and “Teardrops,” all in 2020.

In between the commands of “Teardrops” and “Werewolf,” Bring Me the Horizon rose as high as No. 3 with “LosT” in May 2023.

“Werewolf” is followed on Hot Hard Rock Songs by “CS,” a cover of System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!,” at No. 2, and “The End,” featuring BABYMETAL, at No. 3 (around 5 million streams each).

Lil Uzi Vert is the second act to occupy the top three of Hot Hard Rock Songs in a single week, following Van Halen, which took up Nos. 1-3 on the Oct. 17, 2020, tally following the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

Concurrently, the three songs rank at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs in the same order. “Werewolf” also tops Alternative Streaming Songs, while “CS” and “The End” appear at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively.

The all-rock-genre Hot Rock & Alternative Songs ranking sees “Werewolf” start at No. 5, followed by “CS” at No. 8 and “The End” at No. 10.

Of the trio, “Werewolf” makes the all-format Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 81. It’s Bring Me the Horizon’s second time on the chart, following the No. 68-peaking “Maybe,” released with Machine Gun Kelly, in April 2022.

“Werewolf,” “CS” and “The End” are three rock-flavored songs from rapper Lil Uzi Vert’s wide-ranging Pink Tape, which concurrently debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 167,000 equivalent album units earned, as previously reported.

13 Jul 2023

Watch BTS’ J-Hope Strut Down the Catwalk for Louis Vuitton’s Fall/Winter 2023 Campaign Video

J-Hope is the star of Louis Vuitton’s latest video for its FallWinter/2023 fashion campaign. The luxury fashion house released the visual for the men’s clothing line on Thursday (July 13), featuring the K-pop star engaging with a series of sparse environments while wearing intricate pieces from the collection.

The video kicks off with the “Arson” rapper — who was named the brand’s house ambassador in February — standing in front of an old-fashioned camera, wearing an all-denim outfit blinged out with silver sequins in the brand’s LV monogram. Hope then surveys himself walking down a mirrored hallway, this time, wearing an all-black baseball jacket fitted in sparkling rhinestones. The back of the jacket, which he checks out in the mirror, reads: “Blurry vision of 1 bright future. FANTASTIC IMAGINATION?”

The BTS member then shows off his best catwalk strut down another mirrored hallway while carrying a duffle bag, ultimately returning to the same camera from the beginning of the video.

Louis Vuitton shared several images from the campaign to its Instagram and captioned the post, “J-hope for Men’s Fall-Winter 2023 Collection. As an exploration of the digital age, the House Ambassador embodies the pursuit of modern connectivity imbued in the collection for a new campaign lensed by Mario Sorrenti.”

Fans in the comments section approved of the video and the photos of J-Hope. One user wrote, “@louisvuitton you won in life for having the best house ambassador in the world,” while another fan shared, “My man in military but he still serving for the whole fashion industry.”

See the photos from the campaign below, and the video above.

13 Jul 2023

Taylor Swift’s Deluxe ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ Has Two New Live Tracks

Sparks are still flying for Taylor Swift, who is continuing her Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) rollout with a new deluxe digital version of the album released on Thursday (July 13).

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The superstar took to her Instagram Stories to announce the news, wishing everyone a “happy 13th” in celebration of her longtime lucky number. The deluxe digital version of the album features two new live tracks, including “Dear John (Live From Minneapolis)” and “Last Kiss (Live From Kansas City).”

See Swift’s IG Story before it disappears here.

The 33-year-old “Anti-Hero” singer mentioned both “Dear John” and “Last Kiss” in the prologue for Taylor’s Version of her 2010 studio album, which was released on July 7. “It was an album that was the most precious to me because of its vast extremes. It was unfiltered and potent. In my mind, the saddest song I’ve ever written is ‘Last Kiss.’ My most scathing is ‘Dear John’ and my most wistfully romantic is ‘Enchanted,’” she wrote.

Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) earned over 575,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first four days of release (July 7-10), according to initial reports to Luminate — marking the biggest week for any album in 2023.

Spotify also announced that on the day of release, she made some history on the streaming service. According to Spotify, the album became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2023 so far. The collection that includes the 16 songs from the original and deluxe versions as well as six never-before-heard “From the Vault” tracks also notched a Spotify record for the most-streamed country album in a single day in Spotify history.

13 Jul 2023

Billboard’s Top 5 Songs of the Summer 2015 | Billboard News

Billboard looks back and counts down the top five songs that ruled the summer of 2015.

Rania Aniftos:
Heading into 2015 with some chill vibes, Jamaican reggae and a revenge song, Taylor Swift style. Plus, one of the first viral social media dances comes to life in 2015.

Silento bring us in at No. 5 with “Watch Me.” Canadian R&B pop star The Weeknd comes in at No. 4 with his massively popular hit “Can’t Feel My Face.”

Taylor Swift was out for blood in 2015 with rumors speculating the song was about a then feud with Katy Perry, which has since been resolved. Coming in at No. 3 is “Bad Blood” featuring Kendrick Lamar.

From the soundtrack of Furious 7, our No. 2 song’s a tribute to the movie franchise’s star Paul Walker, who died in a car crash in late 2013. No. 2 song of the summer: Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth in “See You Again.”

The No. 1 song of 2015 is arguably the catchiest: from Jamaican reggae singer Omi with his song “Cheerleader.” Try getting that one out of your head for the rest of the day.

More fun in the sun when we dive into 2016 next.

13 Jul 2023

Spotify’s Wall Street Rebound Is Leading Music Stocks’ Growth

Spotify was the biggest contributor to the 13% increase posted by the 21 stocks tracked by the Billboard Global Music Index for the first half of 2023.

Fueled by cost-cutting and corporate reorganization, shares of Spotify gained 103.4% through June 30. While that wasn’t the largest on a percentage basis for stocks on the index, Spotify’s size — it has the second-largest market capitalization of stocks that Billboard tracks — meant the company’s improvement was the single largest factor in the index’s gain.

The Global Music Index is a float-adjusted index of 21 music stocks. Each company’s market capitalization — the value of outstanding shares — is adjusted to remove the shares of insiders, corporate owners and long-term investors. The remaining market value reflects the shares available to be bought and sold on the open market. The index does not weight stocks to balance the influence of larger and smaller companies. (MSG Entertainment is not included in the index because it wasn’t an active stock for the entire six-month measurement period.)

Only half of the index’s six streaming stocks posted gains through June 30: Los Angeles-based platform LiveOne — with a relatively small market cap of $151 million — shot up 173%, and China’s Cloud Music improved 7.1%. On the losing end, Tencent Music Entertainment, also based in China, fell 10.9%; France’s Deezer dropped 17.8%; and Anghami, based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, lost 26.6%.

Outside of music, other streaming companies’ stocks also performed well in the first half of 2023 after losing ground in 2022. Netflix and Roku gained 49.4% and 60.5%, respectively, while Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney Company — broader entertainment companies with streaming platforms and, lately, much C-suite drama — improved 32.3% and 2.8%, respectively.

Strong demand for in-person experiences following the pandemic helped live-music companies recover from share-price losses in 2022. Live Nation shares improved 30.6% to $91.11, and the company had the second-largest gain in adjusted market capitalization. Sphere Entertainment, CEO James Dolan‘s gambit to change the live-entertainment business, gained 31.9% after adjusting for the spinoff of MSG Entertainment in April. Germany’s CTS Eventim, stung by criticism over fee transparency by a German public TV show in June, dropped 2.9%. Live Nation’s market cap overpowered CTS Eventim’s loss, and all of the live-music companies collectively accounted for 32% of the index’s growth.

The index’s 13% gain was less than closely watched indexes such as the S&P 500 (up 15.9%) and the Nasdaq composite (31.7%). Both indexes are dominated by gains from tech titans such as Nvidia (up 189.5%), Meta (138.5%), Apple (49.3%), Microsoft (42%) and Alphabet (36.3%). Of that group, only Meta has a market cap under $1 trillion. The Billboard Global Music Index easily beat the 7.2% gain of the Russell 2000, an index of small-cap U.S. stocks with a median market cap of about $1 billion.

While Spotify’s share price of $160.55 is well below its all-time high of $387.44 reached in February 2021, it shows that investors regained some belief in the company’s long-term prospects. Spotify benefited from the same pandemic boost that carried Netflix to a record-high market cap. At the same time, investors were also enthusiastic about the potential for its podcasting business to evolve the music platform into an audio entertainment hub and improve margins constrained by label licensing deals.

Diving into podcasting required large cash outlays for acquisitions, staff and content deals with Joe Rogan, former President Barack and Michelle Obama, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, among others. By March 2022, investors had become impatient for margins to improve, and Spotify’s share price dipped to $118.20. As a wave of belt-tightening swept corporations worldwide, Spotify made drastic changes: It laid off 6% of its workforce in January and cut another 2% in June entirely from its podcast division. It restructured its podcasting leadership, canceled shows and consolidated its various podcast brands — The Ringer, Gimlet and Parcast — under the Spotify Studios umbrella.

Layoffs and reorganization have been especially common in the radio business. SiriusXM laid off 8% of its workforce in March and reorganized its podcast business. After the company announced it would shutter its stand-alone podcast app, Stitcher, its share price increased 18.5% in the last week of June. Its stock was down 22.4% at the year’s midway point, hurt by soft forecasts for self-pay subscribers and the weak advertising market that led to three radio companies in the index falling an average of 32.3%. IHeartMedia (down 40.6%) and Cumulus Media (34%) have also cut costs and laid off staff.

Two South Korean companies ­— both a mix of label and management company — accounted for two of the biggest gains outside of Spotify and Live Nation. HYBE, home to BTS, improved 62.2%, and SM Entertainment, the company behind NCT 127, gained 39.2%. SM’s share price benefited from a takeover battle. HYBE lost out to Kakao Corp. and Kakao Entertainment, which now collectively own 40% of SM, but its stock has more than reclaimed the losses suffered in June 2022, when BTS announced its hiatus.

Outside of South Korea, label and music publishing stocks had mixed results at midyear. Universal Music Group, the index’s largest company by market cap, and Warner Music Group declined 9.6% and 25.5%, respectively.

13 Jul 2023

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’: How to Watch Season 2 for Free

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

The wait is finally over: The season 2 premiere of The Summer I Turned Pretty arrives Thursday (July 13) on Prime Video. Whether you’ve read the book or not, just looking at the trailer tells us we’re in for another drama-filled season.

Expect a season filled with themes of grief, growing up and, of course, young love as Belly (Lola Tung) finds herself at odds with Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) after the events of season 1. Both brothers are still vying for her heart, and as Belly tries to sort out her feelings, outside factors — including the return of Susannah’s (Rachel Blanchard) cancer and a threat on the Cousins Beach house — will force her to put her feelings aside and fight for what she wants.

The Summer I Turned Pretty.

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 2 Is Coming: Read the Book Before It Drops on…

If the season 2 trailers are any indication, fans should also expect more Taylor Swift music in the new episodes, with previews featuring “August” from Swift’s 2020 album Folklore as well as the debut of “Back to December (Taylor’s Version)” from her just-released re-recording of 2010’s Speak Now.

Other cast members you can expect to see in season 2 include Rain Spencer as Belly’s best friend Taylor, Sean Kaufman as Steven and Jackie Chung as Belly and Steven’s mother Laurel. Others include Minnie Mills, David Iacono, Colin Ferguson, Summer Madison, Jocelyn Shelfo and Lilah Pate.

Keep reading to learn how to watch the show.

When and How to Watch The Summer I Turned Pretty

The first two episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty will air Thursday (July 13) starting at 8 p.m. ET, with new episodes airing every Friday afterward. If you have a Prime membership, you can watch the series for free, or you can subscribe to Prime Video to gain access to its full library of content.

Already subscribed to Prime? To stream The Summer I Turned Pretty, click the link below or visit the Amazon or Prime Video homepage, either from the app or online, and click on the series under the Prime Originals section.

If you’re not a Prime member, take advantage of its 30-day free trial to stream The Summer I Turned Pretty and more on Prime Video. Amazon’s streaming platform offers a huge selection of exclusive movies, TV shows and documentaries, along with episodes from popular network and cable shows, and a bunch of films that you can buy or rent.

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ on Prime Video

$Watch with a 30-day free trial

Along with The Summer I Turned Pretty, you can watch more Prime Originals and exclusives such as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Citadel, The Horror of Dolores Roach, I’m a Virgo, Daisy Jones & The Six, M3gan, Armageddon Time, The Boys, The Grand Tour: Euro Crash, Nope, Jurassic World: Dominion, Air, The Peripheral, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power, Shotgun Wedding, Good Omens and more.

Once the free trial ends, a monthly Prime Video subscription will be $14.99/month and is just one of the many perks Prime members can enjoy. Besides Prime Video and Amazon Music, Prime members get access to deep discounts during and after Prime Day, free shipping on millions of items, grocery deliveries; a free year membership to GrubHub+ and other member-only benefits.

You’ll also be able to add on premium channels to your Prime Video account including Max, Paramount+, Starz and Showtime, along with sporting events that are available to stream live and on demand. Members can stream sports on Prime Video, including MLB TV, NBA TV and Thursday Night Football, which returns to Prime Video later this year.

The Summer I Turned Pretty fans can also stock up on exclusive merch from the series’ official Amazon store.

Check out the trailer for season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty:


https://youtube.com/watch?v=AOPE3mvYjRk&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

13 Jul 2023

MONSTA X’s JOOHONEY to Enlist in Military: ‘Thank You for Showing Me What Love Is’

Just a few months after launching Lights, his debut solo EP, MONSTA X’s JOOHONEY has announced that he will enlist in the military on June 24, in a statement shared with Billboard on Thursday (July 13).

“I thought a lot about when would be a good time to share this news with you,” JOOHONEY wrote in the emotional statement. “Even as I’m writing this letter, I’m worried about how MONBEBE will feel because there’s less time left than you may have thought.” The K-pop star’s statement arrives a little over a week before he officially begins his mandatory military service as an active duty soldier. “I will complete my service well and return! I’m not going away forever so don’t worry. Remember to look up at the sky, think about the words I said to you and promise to think about JOOHONEY once every day!!”

In his statement, JOOHONEY incorporated references to all of the track titles from his Lights EP, including lead single “Freedom” and closing track “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” “Thanks to MONBEBE, I’m overflowing with energy and felt free while hearing your voices,” he mused. “While watching myself evolve, the monologues I said alone are now filled with don’t worry, be happy.” JOOHONEY also spent some time reflecting on the special connection that he and his fans share. In the midst of cherishing “days together that were full of [their] passion and sweat,” he asked his fans, “You got me, right?”

Although the news of his enlistment will inevitably disappoint some fans, JOOHONEY made sure to leave his most devoted supporters with words of love and gratitude. “I’ll come back to show you a better version of me when I return,” he promised. “Like I said before, I think this time is just a comma for us. It’s not a period, but a comma that holds a continual promise for the future. I love you all day, I love you always, so in love with yourself. I truly thank you for showing me what love is.” Eagle-eyed MONSTA X stans will recognize those final lines as references to the lyrics of the group’s “By My Side,” the penultimate track from 2018’s Take.1 Are You There? album.

As a member of MONSTA X, JOOHONEY has sent one title to the top five of the Billboard 200: 2020’s All About Luv (No. 5). The group has also spent four weeks on the Billboard Artist 100, reaching a peak of No. 6 in 2020.

13 Jul 2023

The Deals: Miles Davis & Meat Loaf Estates Go Downtown for Neighboring Rights; Create Buys Music For Pets

Downtown Music‘s neighboring rights division struck deals with the Meat Loaf and Miles Davis estates. The division will represent the entire catalog for both artists. Concurrent with that announcement, Downtown Music unveiled a new royalties and rights management platform powered by FUGA technology. “We strive to give clients the best of our in-house knowledge and arm them with resources to make them aware of how they’re able to maximize collection of these rights,” said Downtown Neighbouring Rights GM Dean Francis in a statement. “The launch of our new platform will bolster this further by providing more insight as we look to continue to improve efficiencies in the administration of our clients’ exceptional catalogs.”

Create Music Group acquired Music For Pets, which creates music and entertainment for dogs and cats. Founded by Amman Ahmed and Ricardo Henriquez, Music For Pets boasts franchises including “Relax My Dog” and “Relax My Cat.” Create will invest an additional $10 million to expand Music For Pets’ reach over the next 36 months. According to a press release, Music For Pets currently serves over 20 million pets, with users listening to more than 12 million hours of music every month.

Protect the Culture, a new label founded by music industry veteran Marc Byers, signed a global joint venture with Warner Records that will focus on the African music scene. Byers will work closely with Warner Records president of A&R Steve Carless and executive vp/head of A&R Karen Kwak. The label’s first signing is Lord Afrixana, a Ghana-born, Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter who has a solo project slated to drop later this year, preceded by the single “No Dey Tire.” Byers was most recently GM at Motown Records prior to launching the new venture.

Canva, an online visual communications and collaboration platform, announced partnerships with Warner Music Group (including Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music) and Merlin that will allow Canva users in many countries to use music clips in their designs, which can be shared across multiple social platforms and also utilized for internal uses like work presentations. Canva customers will be able to access music clips starting this fall in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Canada and Australia; artists will earn royalties when clips of their songs are featured in published Canva designs. At launch, the Warner Music and Merlin libraries will be available for Canva Pro, Canva for Education and Canva for Nonprofit customers, with Canva for Teams users to follow. According to a press release, Canva boasts 135 million users worldwide.

Rapper EST Gee launched a new record label, Young Shiners, in partnership with the Sony Music and Alamo Records-powered label services company Santa Anna. The label is part of EST Gee’s mission to put rappers from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on the map. The label will be home to emerging artists including EST Lil Zoski, EST Marti, EST DonWon, and Santa Anna’s EST SkiMike and EST Lu Mike — all of whom are local to Louisville. The launch coincides with the imminent release of Young Shiners’ debut mixtape, Shiners Are Forever, which drops on Friday (July 14).

Universal Music Group (UMG) acquired the music catalog of RS Group, which is the second-largest music catalog in Thailand, according to a press release. The catalog includes over 10,000 master recordings as well as 6,000 copyright ownerships, publishing rights and licenses dating from 1981-2022 and represents the work of more than 960 artists including Dan-Beam, James Ruangsak Loychusak and Parn Thanaporn Wagprayoon. The acquisition will underpin a new strategic partnership between the two companies — one that will be 70% owned by UMG and 30% owned by RS Group — designed to allow UMG to scale in the Thailand music market. Under the deal, UMG will become RS Group’s exclusive music service partner for new releases and new music repertoire globally while receiving exclusive rights of first refusal and matching rights to acquire new releases and repertoire. According to the press release, UMG will become the second-largest player in the Thai market following the deal.

Raedio, the “audio everywhere” company founded by Issa Rae, signed a multi-year partnership with Def Jam Recordings. Under the deal, Raedio will be able to sign, market and distribute its artists through the Def Jam network.

Tuned Global partnered with Greenland-based telco Tusass to launch the first Greenlandic music streaming service. According to a press release, the partnership is designed to “promote and champion underserved local homegrown musicians and their fans by gathering them into a single service” as opposed to relying on “unofficial uploads on user-generated content sites, with varying quality and unclear connections to the artists who made the music.” The app will be available in Greenland, Denmark, Canada and the Faroe Islands, as well as in the Kalaallisut (Greenlandic), Danish and English languages. “A number of smaller and more specialized markets need ‘glocalized’ apps that offer local music lovers a catalog that’s culturally relevant and timely,” said Tuned Global senior vp/head of EMEA Rick Gleave in a statement. “Therefore, telcos are often the perfect players to launch these types of music apps, as they add significant value to their customers, as well as supporting local culture in general.”

SoundCloud partnered with EDM events company Brownies & Lemonade to highlight emerging electronic artists. The partnership includes the relaunch of Brownies & Lemonade’s Twitch livestream, Open Aux Arcade, on which submitted demos and new music will receive live feedback from Brownie & Lemonade creative director Chad Kenney and musician RamonPang. SoundCloud will serve as a presenting partner, with submissions “flowing directly” from the SoundCloud platform. The partnership will also encompass an artist spotlight series and editorial playlist consideration on SoundCloud.

Reactional Music, the maker of an interactive music engine for video games, struck an agreement with production music leader APM Music. The deal, which marks Reactional’s first move into production music, will allow developers to search for and access the APM catalog through the Reactional platform — which will become available for commercial use later this year — as they build their games.

Janelle Genzink‘s Volara Management signed a strategic partnership with Red Light Management. The deal will provide Volara with additional resources and support to benefit her roster, which includes Sabrina Carpenter, Carmen DeLeon, Mosaic MSC and Riah.

ASM Global partnered with multidisciplinary venue strategist Forward Associates, which specializes in everything from architecture to interior design to premium seat sales and marketing. Current projects under the deal include Everton FC’s new stadium, Stockholm Live’s portfolio of venues including the Avicii Arena, the AO Arena in Manchester, England and the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Sony Music Latin formed a strategic partnership with Nexoom AG, a Swiss-based interactive entertainment company. The collaboration is aimed at “tapping into Nexoom’s innovative digital ecosystem to offer unique experiences” for Sony Latin artists and their fans.

Karta, a metaverse studio that deals with in-game experiential marketing and has delivered projects on Roblox, Fortnite and Decentraland for clients including Amazon Music, Unilever’s Sunsilk and K-pop group TWICE, secured an investment round led by GameTech Ventures and including former Hipgnosis chief catalog officer Amy Thomson, entertainment company Tokido, Sports Loft CEO Charlie Greenwood, UK Finance chairman Robert Wigley, Powster founder/CEO Ste Tompson and venture studio Big Ideas Group. The company declined to reveal the amount of the funding round.

SoundExchange added PayPal and Venmo as royalty distribution payment options for registered creators after adding CashApp and Zelle last year. The addition of these options allows creators in countries that can’t be serviced through direct deposits to receive their SoundExchange royalties without requiring a bank account. Payment via PayPal and Venmo will be immediately available to domestic and international registrants, whether they are paid as individuals and companies. To sign up for either Paypal or Venmo, creators are encouraged to use SXDirect, which provides self-service opt-ins for all payment methods.

The city of Busan, South Korea enlisted AI-assisted business-to-business marketplace SURF Music to find “thematic, Olympic-style music” to accompany their bid for the World Expo 2023. SURF’s subscription-based marketplace allows artists and music creators to manage their song catalogs via AI song tagging; organize playlists; and submit songs to fit a particular brief. After SURF submitted a playlist of unreleased music to Busan, the city chose “Welcome to World Expo” by Lee Muina. The partnership will continue through the Expo’s “judgment day” in November 2023.

13 Jul 2023

‘Wonka’ Director Says Timothée Chalamet Didn’t Have to Audition Because His High School Rapping Videos Sealed the Deal

Imagine not even having to apply for your next job. Most of us don’t have that luxury, but then again, most of us aren’t Timothée Chalamet. According to Paul King (Paddington), who directed the upcoming reboot of the candyman story Wonka, his obsessive deep-dive into Chalamet’s high school rap videos was all he needed to know to confirm that the Dune star was his chocolatier of choice.

“It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King told Rolling Stone. Everyone from Donald Glover to Ryan Gosling and Ezra Miller were reportedly considered by Warner Bros. before Chalamet was cast in 2021. King, however, said he only had eyes for Chalamet, though he did do his homework to make sure the star could sing and dance.

“[But] because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances [singing “Sweet Charity” from the musical of the same name] are on YouTube [including his 2012 “Timmy Tim” rap] and have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well. And I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”

King’s origin story of Roald Dahl’s belovedly bonkers candy engineer Willy Wonka is due in theaters on Dec. 15, and the recently released first trailer teased Chalamet’s wide-eyed, whimsical take on the character first brought to life by Gene Wilder in the 1971 original.

“The 1971 movie, just because I’m as old as I am, was burnt into my eyeballs as a kid,” King said. “And I always loved the songs in that — Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley were incredible songwriters. The spirit of that and the joy of that seemed really important to the nature of this movie. Reading the book, there’s so much that Dahl writes in verse. So it felt like a no-brainer this should have songs in it.”

The director said having musical numbers was a no-brainer, even though he’d never done anything exactly like that before. “I’ve always had music and singing in things I’ve done, but to actually do proper musical sequences was a really fun challenge,” he said. “And because the film is set in the late ‘40s, it felt like a really fun hat off to the golden age of MGM musicals.”

The trailer only hints at the musical bits, with no sneak peeks at the original songs written by The Divine Comedy singer Neil Hannon and composer Joby Talbot (Son of Rambow). King, who co-wrote the script with Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2), told the magazine that the music in his film will pay homage to the Wilder Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory film directed by Mel Stuart, adding that he considers his take to be a “companion” to that film and Dahl’s 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novel it was based on.

The film also features Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Jim Carter and Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa.

Watch the Wonka trailer below.

13 Jul 2023

Billie Eilish Says Writing for ‘Barbie’ Soundtrack Pulled Her Out of Feeling ‘Uninspired’ & Self-Doubt

You might just have Barbie to thank for Billie Eilish‘s next album. In a new interview following the release of the 21-year-old pop star’s Barbie film soundtrack single “What Was I Made For?,” Eilish confessed that the project, which dropped with a self-directed music video on Thursday (July 13), pulled her and brother/producer Finneas out of a brutal writing slump plagued by self-doubt.

“Honestly, we were in a period of time where we were both… like through this last winter, we’ve both been incredibly uninspired,” Eilish told Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1. “And we’ve still been working and trying to make stuff. And honestly, that song was the first thing we’d written in a minute. Even though we were coming up with ideas and coming up with this and that, I remember after we wrote that first half, I go, ‘I think we still got it.’”

The “Bad Guy” singer also shared that the writing process began with director Greta Gerwig treating her and Finneas to a special viewing of a rough cut of Barbie at the Warner Brother Studios. The very next day, the brother-sister musicians weren’t having any success in writing music independent of the film — but when they on a whim shifted into writing what would become “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie’s perspective, their writer’s block immediately dissipated.

“We were really in a zone of feeling like we lost it and feeling like, man, I don’t know if we can do this anymore,” she added. “Barbie and Greta just pulled it out of me, I don’t know,” Eilish said. “Those first couple lyrics, ‘I used to float, now I just fall down,’ just came right out.”

One of the most inspiring things to come out of the writing process, Eilish added, was how a song written strictly from the point of view of Margot Robbie’s titular character in Barbie somehow came full circle, with the “Happier Than Ever” artist realizing that she related to the lyrics without even trying to.

“I did not think about myself once in the writing process,” the Grammy winner explained. “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that. And then, over the next couple days, I was listening and I was like, girl, how did this … honestly, and I really don’t mean this to come off a conceited way at all, but I do this thing where I make stuff that I don’t even know is … like I’m writing for myself and I don’t even know it.”

“It is one of the most incredible things I get to experience in my life,” Eilish continued. “Dude, the next week I was playing it in the car all day and playing it for everybody. And I was like, ‘This is exactly how I feel. And I didn’t even mean to be saying it.’ It was truly the trippiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was like, oh, I absolutely was writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person.”

Watch Billie’s interview with Apple Music 1 above.