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24 Mar 2023

20 Questions With Todd Terry: Living Up to His Legendary Status & Why ‘Major Labels Put Out the Worst Dance Records Ever’

While house music was already popping when Todd Terry entered the scene in the late ’80s, the New York producer grabbed hold of the sound and evolved it — mixing house with breaks and hip-hop and forging an altogether grittier strain that became his signature.

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This sound scored Terry a pair of No. 1’s on Dance Club Songs in the late ’90s while making him a fixture in New York clubland and points well beyond it. He, like many house producers of the day, found a particularly warm welcome in London, which in the ’90s joyfully embraced the genre that would take much of the States longer to figure out.

Terry in fact helped put dance music on Top 40 radio in the U.S. via an England-born song, with his now-classic remix of Everything But The Girl‘s “Missing.” Terry’s edit added a beat and a New York club vibe to the previously spare track, becoming the de facto version of the song and helping push it to global ubiquity (and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100).

He’s been a constant on the scene since, dropping a steady drip of tracks, albums, compilations and remixes for the past 35 years — dropping 1,000 original productions and 1,600 remixes in total, many of them through his own InHouse Records, Freeze Records and Terminator Records.

Out today (March 24), Terry’s latest — “I Give You Love” — is a collaboration with Estonian DJ/producer Janika Tenn and U.S. vocalist Lee Wilson. The bright-as-sunlight song finds the trio bringing warmth, emotion and a classic house feel that will no doubt land in Terry’s upcoming spring and summer dates, with his name on lineups for five festivals in the U.K. and Belgium this season.

Here, Terry talks about his affection for the U.K. scene, “sometimes” selling out and how — in this post-EDM era — the scene has “come back to being real house music.”

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?

I’m in Estonia now and kinda snowed in at the moment, but it’s all good, nice place here to eat and chill. Then I’m off to London next, then back to New York to see family and play a gig at the Silo club in Brooklyn.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

The first record I bought was James Brown‘s “Hot Butter Popcorn.” I couldn’t wait to bring it home and play it. The record player was in my sister’s room, so I had to wait till she left; it felt like it was forever, but it was fun to play it and dance around.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now?

My Mom would say, “Turn that music down.” I was like, “No, Ma, this is what’s gonna get us out of here.” My Mom didn’t realize that the record business was the way to go at the time. I wanted to do music for the love and for the business.

4. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?

The first thing I brought was a car. A car is always the best way to listen to your music besides the club, of course! I did finally get some Cerwin Vega speakers as well with my first check.

5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance/electronic music, what would you give them?

Kraftwerk was my favorite LP. I learned so much from that album — how to arrange and how to make different sounds to make people notice your music, and that you do not have to be a great singer to make a cool song.

6. What’s the last song you listened to?

The last record I checked out was Stevie Wonder‘s Songs in the Key of Life. It’s a true classic, forever and ever. This reminds me that I still got a long way to make great music. I hope one day I’ll get a chance to make that record with a really big giant label or team — a company that really gets it. I would hate to sound like everything that’s out there. This is the bad part of the business.

7. The word “legend” is associated with your name. When do you feel most legendary?

I feel as though I have to live up to that name as strongly as possible. The word “legend” means a lot to me, to keep going no matter what. I love the respect, so I have to give it my all to live up to it.

8. When you were helping develop the sound of house music in New York, did you have a sense of how massive the genre would become?

I got the sound of house music from Chicago. I sampled Chicago to create my style. I didn’t really know what I was doing; I just wanted to sound like them. Later I learned that I had sampled Marshall Jefferson, Kevin Saunderson, Tyree Cooper and Adonis. I didn’t know anything about this style, and I was learning it as I went. To find out that it was blowing up in London really opened my eyes to do more. Then it was everywhere in the world. Wow.

9. With house music now a global phenomenon and commercial force, what’s your take on the current scene?

It’s good that it came back to being real house music. I think EDM took us away from its soul on the dancefloor, but I still think we need more songs that represent the old-school feeling that got us here, like Ten City’s “That’s The Way Love Is,” Crystal Waters‘ “Gypsy Woman” and Lil Louis’ “Club Lonely,” these type songs are just the icing.

10. What’s the best city in the world for dance music currently?

London is the best city for me. The crowd always seems open to new sounds and funky music as well. I always have to break my new music on the dancefloor there. People dancing is the power to keep you going, and they definitely gave me the power to keep going in my career. House music forever is what we need in life. Thanks to London.

11. Do you have guilty pleasure music?

Old school funk is what I really like — such as James Brown, Quincy Jones, Gap Band, Funkadelic, and Chaka Khan. When rap music came out, that made it the next level for me: Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One and Nas.

12. Your latest release samples Steve Miller Band‘s “Fly Like an Eagle.” What was the appeal of working with this song, 47 years after its release?

This was a song I always wanted to rock. The infusion of warped sounds in the original made it interesting to me. I love weird s–t that makes you dance, so this is a track I always wanted to do a new version of in my style. Like what I did with reworking “Keep on Jumpin‘.”

13. Are there rising artists that you’re finding particularly exciting right now?

Janika Tenn, Majestic, DJ Kash. These emerging DJ/producer/artists are coming up with new styles for house music, dance and Afrobeats. They are the reason why I keep going. Sometimes you need a new vibe to inspire you to take a different look at things.

14. The most exciting thing happening in dance music currently is _____?

That the feel of the dancefloor is back. People are having a good time and not just standing around waiting for a drum roll to get hyped. We need to keep it feeling good.

15. The most annoying thing happening in dance music currently is _____?

That the major labels put out the worst dance records ever. I find myself selling out to them as well. I’m trying to stop taking the money to please them and please myself instead.

16. The biggest difference between making music in the ’80s and making music now is ____?

Computers! I think we are less creative because of them. We gotta bring our souls back to the table and add some live musicians.

17. The proudest moment of your career thus far?

That I don’t need to shop my music to other labels. I can do what I want and put out my music myself and [the music of] some other people I like on my own labels InHouse Records, Freeze Records, and Terminator Records.

18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?

Getting rid of Zomba as my music publisher. They held me back at the beginning of my career. You gotta watch these people putting money in your face and not caring about you and your music.

19. Who was your greatest mentor, and what was the best advice they gave you?

My mentors, in the beginning, were Mark Finkelstein of Strictly Rhythm and my attorney Christopher Whent. They taught me to get my business right first. It’s hard to do sometimes; you just want to get your music out. You gotta take a step back and listen and get the business right first.

20. One piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?

To take my time. It’s not always good to rush, especially when it comes to the business side. I could have made a bunch more money if I got that right, but there is still time to make the money back. All those bastards that robbed me are dead, ha!

24 Mar 2023

In a Crowded Market for Dance Music, Indie Events Company Stranger Than Is Transforming Iconic L.A. Locations Into Clubs

Many musicians, DJs, sound engineers and ravers call Los Angeles home, yet — rather surprisingly — its nightlife scene can sometimes feel underwhelming and disjointed. Brooklyn-born, L.A.-based promoter Tal Ohana has found a muse in the city’s expansive, sunny landscapes, seeing the city as “an open canvas” of possible D.I.Y. outdoor venues.

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“The scene here [for us] drastically grew, from us selling a couple thousand tickets to doubling and tripling [that number] in a couple of years,” Ohana tells Billboard over Zoom. “It’s still developing a bit; people are still trying to grasp [what we do.] It’s an exciting time.”  

With his event company Stranger Than, Ohana has activated some of the city’s many outdoor public spaces with memorable raves, including the skyscraper-backed Grand Park and El Pueblo de Los Angeles in front of downtown’s iconic Union Station. He launched Stranger Than in 2017 in New York, and expanded to L.A. in 2018 with buzzy Burning Man camp Mayan Warrior’s debut in the city. The company has since brought many high-quality outdoor raves to L.A., often with DJs who are Burning Man and New York club regulars.

Stranger Than’s move to L.A. was a strategic one, intended to utilize the city’s ample outdoor space and perpetually excellent weather. “I won’t necessarily call [the L.A. scene] ‘nightlife’ because the 2:00 a.m. [call time] really limits it,” Ohana says. “So producers and promoters are drawn to do day events… [which is] a completely different experience than what a normal nightlife show would be.”

“In most cities,” he continues, “you’ll have a lot of wide-range capacity venues that can accommodate 4,000 to 7,000 people. In L.A., it’s either your nightclub or your stadium, and there isn’t really much in between. If there is, it’s a corporate-owned venue that does rock shows and stuff, so it’s kind of tough to bring in outside and independent promoters that do this type of music.”

Stranger Than’s next event is happening well beyond any traditional venue. The 3,500-plus capacity beach party led by revered German producers Âme b2b Dixon is taking place this Saturday (March 25) on Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. While the L.A. area is lined by beaches, beach parties with amplified sound are rare, because getting a permit for them is difficult. This will be one of the few large-scale dance events to be held on a Los Angeles beach, and the first on Cabrillo Beach. Ohana is hoping it won’t be the last. 

He and his team have had their eyes on throwing a beach party since launching in L.A., and making this one a reality has been a two or three year process — Ohana has lost count — the longest it’s taken them to secure a venue. Cabrillo Beach has been used for TV and movie filming (including scenes from Face/Off and 50 First Dates), which gave them hope they could secure it for a party.

Indeed, because so much filming takes place in L.A., Ohana believes it’s easier to get permits to shut down a street or public space for a party than in other cities. (To wit, L.A. promoter Future Primitive has for years been doing events in downtown L.A.’s Pershing Square and in Chinatown.) One of Stranger Than’s seven full-time employees, Russel Hadaya, is focused on location scouting and managing, and also works as a film scout. The other employees work on marketing, talent buying, content creation and operations.

“We love to do these locations that have never been used before,” Ohana says. “Getting approval from the neighborhood and from the city is really the longest and hardest part about it. We have millions of ideas of where and what to do for events around the city, it’s always just a matter of if we’re able to, which is the biggest step and also fun for us.”

They’ve learned a lot over the last five years, including the importance of getting city officials and the local community on board, to ensure people feel comfortable with them throwing an event in their backyard.

“It was harder in the beginning than now,” Ohana says, “because the city knows us and knows what we’re doing.”

For Cabrillo Beach, they did neighborhood outreach to make sure locals that regularly use the beach and live nearby were on board before even approaching the city. Ohana emphasizes that they have to be clear in communicating details on how things will happen and to make sure the reality of it lines up neatly with expectations. Permits aren’t typically signed off on until the last minute, when the space is set up, so officials can verify everything looks safe and fits with what was outlined on the application. Through experience, they’ve also found more ease in the stressful waiting process.

“It’s a lot of pre-work. There’s a lot of meetings and making people comfortable,” he says. “When you look at it through their eyes, it’s understandable – with bringing 3,000-plus people to a location that never really accommodated that.” Wisely, they also extend a party invite to all the locals. 

Just as with large events, the power of the brand is important and can help get people to out to parties, particularly with so many promoters and events in L.A. Stranger Than harnesses this power with events that often bring well-known international brands to new cities for the first time.

In addition to ongoing events with Mayan Warrior, Stranger Than has partnered with legendary the Ibiza club Circoloco for their L.A. and Austin tour dates, with Behrouz’s Do Not Sit on the Furniture, Audiofly’s Flying Circus, Amsterdam’s Garden of Babylon and other boutique house and techno brands. They’ve also done events with fellow L.A. promoter SBCLTR LA, the only local promoter they’ve officially linked up with, although they are open to collaborating with others.

“When I started Stranger Than, it was more about trying to find these bigger brands which were not really in the market yet,” Ohana says. “The first show was the debut of [Berlin’s] Keinemusik in the U.S… New York is very competitive and a hard market to work with. I came out to L.A. to do shows that have already been done in New York, but have not yet been done here.”

When he wanted to bring Mayan Warrior to L.A. in 2018, he asked local promoters for location advice, but says they didn’t have much to offer. So, he and his team used Google Maps to find a spot that could work. Grand Park hosts a free summer concert series on its upper level, but the Mayan Warrior party was the first time the lower level of the 12-acre park was used for an electronic music event. 2,600 people showed up to dance among its glittering lasers. They moved the second annual Mayan Warrior to El Pueblo – another downtown public community space home to free concerts and events. El Pueblo has since become a popular rave space, with San Diego tech house favorites Desert Hearts bringing their 2019 City Hearts party there with a similar layout and L.A. left-field house and techno promoter Midnight Lovers using the space as well.

“It’s always different when you come in for the first time,” Ohana says. “If you’re using a location that has been used before you have something to work with, like a skeleton. Where was the stage? Where was the bar?”

While these outdoor spaces present a lot more variables — including weather, open-air sound challenges and having to fully build out the space with bars, security and more — Ohana loves the flexibility they provide to customize the experience. To ensure stellar sound, they assess events on a case-by-case basis and bring in a sound engineer when setting up.

This eagerness to try new things and find solutions amidst limitations is part of Ohana’s DNA. When he was 13, his older brother bought DJ decks to try his hand at spinning the trance records he loved, but gave up after a month. Ohana put the decks to good use and soon began throwing under-18 parties in his native Brooklyn. Soon, his events grew, and “the magic you can create with events took over.” His career path was clear.

Stranger Than remains most active in L.A. and New York, but also throws events in San Francisco, Miami and Austin, a city Ohana feels “is very similar to L.A. three or four years ago.” In New York, Stranger than works with independent house and techno promoter powerhouse Teksupport. (Ohana has been friends with owner Rob Toma for years, since they were both throwing teen raves in Brooklyn.) The partnership has helped Teksupport build a presence on the West Coast, where they also co-host buzzy events.

This past January, Stranger Than also threw their first non-afterparty L.A. club event in L.A, hosting Nina Kraviz and Madgalena at Hollywood’s Avalon. They planned it indoors because of the rainy winter, but Ohana was happy with how it turned out and is excited to do more events there. (He says that even though there’s less flexibility in a club, they can still bring design and production elements to make it feel unique.) They haven’t done any warehouse parties in L.A. because, Ohana explains, you can’t get permits for them. (The city has a number of privately run warehouses that host electronic shows, but legality around some of these events can be hazy, especially if they serve alcohol after 2 a.m.)

Of course, L.A.’s dance music scene is not new, it’s just constantly in flux, with boom and bust periods as certain sounds and scenes gained and lost popularity and as the city cracked down on, then once again warmed up to, dance events. Tech house followed EDM’s explosion, and house and techno have since gained popularity, paving the way for Stranger Than events focused on these genres. Warehouse raves have always been a part of the scene as an underground alternative to VIP-focused clubs. Back in the ‘90s, underground warehouse raves were scattered across L.A. and Southern California, creating the scene where Insomniac Events’ Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella got his start.

He acknowledges that the scale of Stranger than events – where capacities range from 800 to 12,000 – makes it hard to build community with and among the ticket buyers, so he also wants to throw more intimate events to foster deeper connections while promoting more left-field acts. 

“In the near future we want to do smaller capacity shows, very similar [to what we do now], open-airs with cool new locations. We want to book an artist that isn’t really going to necessarily sell thousands of tickets, but to have our attendees trust us to come out and hear them … there are a lot of other promoters doing that … the more of us that reach into that zone, the better.”

24 Mar 2023

Lori Harvey & Damson Idris Allegedly Split, Failed Relationships Twitter Reacts

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Lori Harvey and Damson Idris were celebrated just months ago as the newest young “it” couple, with many fans of the two loving their romantic connection. However, the streets say the pair have broken up and the reactions from the failed relationships segment of Twitter are out of control.

Lori Harvey, 26, and Damson Idris, 31, first made their relationship official on Instagram at the top of the year. Late last year, Harvey split with Michael B. Jordan after an intense romance between the pair went to the wayside. For Idris, the showy declarations of love and the like were just as noticeable as it was with Jordan and Harvey herself joined in on the display with photos sealing the deal.

News of the breakup came by way of a source who spoke to Media Take Out and the outlet took notice of the fact that recent public appearances of Idris feature him without Harvey on his arm. That doesn’t necessarily confirm the rumors of the breakup but it definitely has folks online talking.

As it stands, fans are making their own assumptions about what happened, even though the source that spoke with Media Take Out said there are no issues between the two and the split was amicable. Further, those same fans are taking shots at Idris over his sex scene with Chloe Bailey in the Amazon Prime thriller series, Swarm.

Yeah, we know that doesn’t make sense.

At any rate, the reactions are starting to bubble up and this latest high-profile relationship examination inspired some cringeworthy and frankly mean-spirited reactions on Twitter. We’ve got the best of the worst below.

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Photo: Getty

24 Mar 2023

Lana Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’: All 16 Tracks Ranked

“I’m a different kind of woman,” Lana Del Rey states plainly on “Sweet,” adding a few seconds later, “If you wanna go where nobody knows, that’s where you’ll find me.” The singer-songwriter has spent her career proving the former statement — taking a personalized approach to pop craft, forever valuing honesty and innovation — but Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, her mammoth and often luminous ninth full-length, indeed exists at a wholly unique intersection in modern music, as the artist’s most singular statement to date.

Del Rey’s voice has always been unmistakable, but no other artist could have come close to showcasing this 77-minute set of ideas, sometimes mysterious and occasionally shambolic, but always exciting and brimming with integrity. The adventurous spirit of this album flirts with a gleeful recklessness: Del Rey has explored her thoughts on sex, devotion, family and American decay in the past, but never with so many unexpected guests, songs mashed into each other and restless detours. In an era of the music industry that rewards TikTok-ready hooks, Del Rey has sprinted in the opposite direction: the songs here proudly stretch out, dismissing verse-chorus structures so that Del Rey can travel across another bridge or three.

Yet Del Rey’s pen holds Ocean Blvd together. Writing primarily with Jack Antonoff, Mike Hermosa and Drew Erickson, Del Rey conjures images that continue to haunt her and presents lyrics that jangle around the listener’s brain. From the boarded-up past of the title track to the post-grief forward motion of “Kintsugi” to the giddy friendship of “Margaret,” Del Rey roams across topics and deftly handles them all. For an album that clearly challenges its creator, Ocean Blvd once again concludes that Del Rey is different, in the best way possible.

While all of Lana Del Rey’s new album is worth digging into, we already have some early favorites after several listens. Here is our preliminary track rankings for Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd:

24 Mar 2023

Executive Turntable: Smithsonian Folkways Hires Director; Better Noise Ups Volume With Promotions

Maureen Loughran was named director/curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings — the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian — effective Monday (March 27). Loughran, who is currently senior producer of the nationally distributed public radio series American Routes, will also oversee the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. She succeeds Daniel Sheehy, the former director of Smithsonian Folkways, who had come out of retirement to serve as interim director for the past two years. Loughran can be reached at LoughranME@si.edu.

Better Noise Music promoted senior label manager Trish Sterling to vp of marketing; UK & Europe promotions manager Claudia Mancino to international director of press & promotion; senior vp of finance Harris Masood to CFO; and director of financial operations Chekesha McCalla to vp of finance. Also promoted was Dan Sears to director of production and Michael Filippone to finance manager. Additionally, the company hired Michael Lombardi as head of production and development; Paolo Bettaglio as senior director of digital marketing & audience growth; Elisa Nye — hired by Bettaglio — as senior manager of digital marketing & audience growth; Chandler Booth as marketing manager; and Liam Kay as production coordinator. Mancino can be reached at claudia@betternoise.com.

Kobalt named Lindsey Lanier as vp of creative and Desi O’Meara as director of creative. The Los Angeles-based Lanier most recently served as vp of A&R at Motown Records and the New York-based O’Meara was most recently director of A&R at Columbia Records.

Various Artists Management appointed Joe Etchells as head of A&R and artist development, effective April 2. Etchells will be based between the company’s London and Los Angeles offices, reporting to CEO David Bianchi and U.K. managing director John Dawkins. He will work across the company’s artist management, music publishing and label operations. Etchells joins from EMI, where he served as A&R director. He can be reached at joe@variousartistsmanagement.com.

Jon “Ando” Andolina launched The Francis June Group for management, bringing with him flagship client, Big Loud Records artist Larry Fleet (“Where I Find God”). Andolina was previously co-founder/partner at Good Company Entertainment alongside Jake Owen and Keith Gale. Andolina can be reached at ando@thefrancisjunegroup.com.

Jammcard — styled as a LinkedIn for the music industry — announced the launch of Jammcard Films. Filmmaker Jack Piatt, who was originally director of operations for Jammcard, will serve as president of the new division, while Caroline Hoste — a partner at Piatt’s Highway West Entertainment as well as a Jammcard advisor — will serve as vp. Meanwhile, Jammcard founder Elmo Lovano will fill the role of executive producer. Forthcoming Jammcard Film releases include the feature-length documentaries Immediate Family directed by Denny Tedesco and Trap Jazz directed by Sadé Clacken Joseph. Piatt can be reached at Jack@highwaywestent.com, Hoste can be reached at Caroline@highwaywestent.com and Lovano can be reached at elmo@jammcard.com.

On-air personality/podcaster/producer Ashley Eicher launched her own media company, AE Entertainment, which will provide story consulting, media coaching and content creation for clients. She can be reached at ashley@aeentertainment.co.

Nashville Notes:

International Bluegrass Music Association executive director Pat Morris resigned from his post effective March 24, allowing him to move out of state to address family medical issues. Former executive director Paul Schiminger will handle the role on an interim basis … T.J. Dula joined iHeartMedia/Raleigh-Durham, N.C., as senior vp of sales. She was previously Disney ABC Television Group digital sales director. The five-station Raleigh cluster includes country WNCB … Pandora senior director of country programming Johnny Chiang added SiriusXM country programming to his job description … Subscribe to our weekly Country Update newsletter for more Music City news.

24 Mar 2023

Seven ‘American Idol’ Finalists to Return As Mentors During Season 21’s Hollywood Week: Exclusive

American Idol will continue to honor the series’ long history by inviting seven past finalists to mentor season 21’s contestants during Hollywood Week, which begins airing on ABC on Sunday, April 2. The returning Idols are Justin Guarini (season 1), Clay Aiken (season 2), Jordin Sparks (season 6), David Archuleta (season 7), Phillip Phillips (season 11), Catie Turner (season 16) and Noah Thompson (season 20).

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“Having a mentor in Hollywood Week is something we’ve always wanted to explore,” executive producer and showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick tells Billboard. “We usually have over 150 people come to Hollywood Week, so it’s hard to have one mentor talk to everyone individually. I thought, ‘Who better to mentor on the Hollywood experience than people who have actually been through it.’ Jordin Sparks always speaks so well about this. She feels that Hollywood Week really was a perfect training ground for the music industry, all baked into that week. There’s no one better to mentor this week than people who have been there, and now that we can pull from 20 years of Idols, it was incredible. The people who came back this year were so excited to do it.”

Explaining how this year’s Hollywood Week will be revamped, Michaels Wolflick says, “In the past two years in the ABC era, we’ve done this genre challenge. We would say, ‘Okay, you’re rock. You’re pop. You’re soul/R&B,’ and it was becoming less relevant, because a lot of the finalists were telling us, ‘I’m pop-soul.’ ‘I’m country-rock.’ There was a blurred genre thing going on. So I thought we should explore something else.

“This year we gave all the contestants one of three areas that they wanted to work on: confidence, songwriting or stage presence. It was my challenge to pick two people who would be applicable for confidence. Clay Aiken and David Archuleta were total confidence. Both of them came in second place, and it was funny because when we were first talking to them about it, they said, ‘I still don’t have all the confidence.’ I told them, ‘Yes, but you have more than you came with.’ For the songwriting category, we had Catie Turner and Phillip Phillips, who are both songwriters in their own right. Both of them in their respective seasons brought an artistry to the show that maybe we hadn’t seen. And for stage presence, we have Jordin Sparks and Justin Guarini, two people who commanded the stage in their own way and still do.”

The seventh mentor is last season’s winner, Noah Thompson. “He gave some motivational speeches and was able to talk about his experience from last year. I can’t tell you how many people auditioned this year inspired by him. His friend Arthur signed Noah up [to audition], so we had a lot of people secretly signing people up, which was really cool.”

Addressing the legacy of 21 seasons of Idol, Michaels Wolflick says, “I think American Idol is now like the NFL, where people train their [whole] lives to come on the show. It’s now bigger than a TV show. It’s something you can aspire to be a part of — young singers are born every day.” As proof, the 15-year-old contestants on the current season were born during Idol’s seventh season, when Archuleta was competing on the show.

Michaels Wolflick, who joined the Idol production staff in season 2, says, “If you come on the show, you’re part of the American Idol alumni. You are part of our history. This show has changed lives in so many different ways. When David Archuleta makes news, it’s picked up everywhere. Even though he was on the show in 2008, people still have a passion for him. The investment is real. Carrie Underwood knows to this day when she’s playing to full arenas, there might be a good portion of these people who voted for her. There’s a special connection that all of the alum have to the show. They like to give back to these people who are coming in and the people who are coming in love to talk to them.”

Michaels Wolflick revealed to Billboard that more Idol alums will be returning during this 21st season, including the winner of season 2. “Clay and Ruben [Studdard]’s finale was on May 21, 2003. They’re going to come back and perform on this year’s finale, 20 years to the day.”

24 Mar 2023

Neil Young Rails Against Ticketmaster Fees, Says, ‘Concert Tours Are No Longer Fun’

Neil Young has spent more than half a century as a dedicated road dog. But based on a heated screed the Rock Hall of Famer posted on his site this week, the road might have an end. Titled, “Concert Touring Is Broken,” the letter is a kind of addendum to the Don Quixote-like battle The Cure‘s Robert Smith has been waging against ticketing giant Ticketmaster over what both men say are its exorbitant added fees.

“It’s over. The old days are gone,” wrote Young under an all-caps opening line that claimed that TM fees are “at 30%.” Young wrote that he’s gotten letters from fans blaming him for $3,000 tickets for a benefit he’s doing. “That money does not go to me or the benefit,” he said. “Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers.”

“CONCERT TOURS are no longer fun,” said Young, who has mostly been keeping his road powder dry since before the COVID-19 pandemic (with the exception of a few benefit appearances). Young recapped the public battle Smith has been waging over the past few weeks surrounding his outrage over the additional fees tacked onto the price of tickets for his band’s upcoming North American tour, which, in some cases, exceeded the face value of the ticket.

Smith told his fans that the Cure were determined to make the tickets for their Songs of a Lost World tour affordable for fans and keep them out of the hands of price-gouging scalpers by going through TM’s Verfied Fans program and making them non-transferrable, with some seats available for as low as $20 each. But when Smith got wind of some of the fees added on, the goth rock icon went on a multi-day Twitter rampage that resulted in TM refunding fans $5-$10 on every order.

At press time a spokesperson for TM had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.

Young’s post also linked to news reports about Smith’s battle with TM, which came after the company’s disastrous roll-out of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour when TM’s servers were overwhelmed by demand (and an army of bots). The Justice Department has also held hearings looking into TM and sister company Live Nation Entertainment as part of an antitrust investigation.

24 Mar 2023

Carla Morrison on Her Value in Music & The ‘Priceless’ Advice Julieta Venegas Gave Her

After taking a break in 2017 and spending some time out of the spotlight, Carla Morrison recounts a more positive return to the stage than she imagined with El Renacimiento Tour, which began in May 2022 and continues in 2023. Between laughs, the Mexican singer-songwriter describes to Billboard Español how happy she felt to reunite with her fans and to hear their longing for her romantic music in times of reggaetón.

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Her perspective on touring is different this time.

With more self-awareness, the wisdom of someone who has worked on herself, and an assertiveness that she attributes to experience, Morrison expresses: “I have very clear limits, my routine, my priorities, and my values. I also think it’s my age, I’m about to turn 37 and I feel less serious about everything. I say to myself: ‘Carla, is just music, no one is going to die… Enjoy it!’”

She did not always have the same confidence. When Morrison began to take her first steps in music, she was ashamed to charge for her performances. It was her mother who insisted to her: “Mija, fight for what is yours.” She now understands that her mother wanted to teach her to fight for her rights.

Since then, she has faced many challenges as a woman in music. “To be compared, to be branded, to be called many names. My music has been used without asking for permission… by men with a lot of power,” she recalls. When she complained about not receiving credit for her music, she was told she should be thankful.

However, asked about the future, Morrison says without hesitation: “The future is female. We are gaining more ground and we are finally getting the place we deserve. And when that happens, it’s just going to be a world filled with love, compassion, tenderness, and opportunity. There are going to be many more women in production, on stage, in photography, in art, and management. You will see many women participating and learning without fear.”

Recently, Morrison collaborated with Karol G on the song “Mañana Será Bonito,” which peaked at No. 19 on the Hot Latin Songs chart dated March 11. The track also earned Morrison her first Billboard Hot 100 entry. The composition was a request by the Colombian artist and Morrison wasn’t expecting to sing on it. She remembers that her husband (with whom she usually writes songs) pointed out that “Mañana Será Bonito” should be the title of the song. To their surprise, it ended up being the title chosen by the Colombian star for her historic album.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Billboard kicked off its “Las Poderosas” series, featuring a select number of powerful Latinas who get real about the word “empowerment,” their space in Latin music, and more. The series debuted on March 20 with LALI and continued on the 22nd with Nathy Peluso. Read the exclusive Q&A with Morrison below:

What does empowerment mean to you as an artist and as a woman?

It’s remembering your rights and what you deserve like any human being in this world. I think women have often fallen into that place where we feel that we should not ask, question or demand, because we look bad, because we should be grateful … But in reality, we have every right to question, ask and demand. I believe that empowering yourself is putting yourself in the place that you should always be, knowing your value, our work, and the quality and value of our work.

What does empowerment NOT mean to you?

Making decisions based on fear, based on saying, ‘No, I’m not going to ask and I’m not going to say anything because [when I’m quiet] I look prettier.’ I think that this is not empowering. And it is not empowering to attack men either.

What is the best advice you have received as a woman in music?

When I was just starting, I wrote to Julieta Venegas through MySpace, and I told her, “I’m from Tecate, I’m starting music and I wanted to ask you for some advice — because I saw that you left very young, how did you manage?” And she told me: “Carla, I just left, I fought for my dream — if I can, you can.” And that is one of the things I remember and treasure a lot, because she made me see something that I felt so unattainable as very achievable. Something as simple as a word of support, someone telling you, “You can do it too,” is priceless.

Which woman has served you as a mentor or role model?

Hijole, the truth is going to sound very cliché, but I think that the person who has inspired me the most in my life is my mother. There have been so many women who have given me good advice, but my mother is the woman I admire the most — because she is a very strong and hard-working woman. She always told me that writing, singing and being an artist was good. And she always brings me back to earth when I travel a lot in my thoughts. My mom has been my mom, but also my friend and my accomplice. And I know not all of us have that.

Have things changed for Latina women in music in the last five years?

I think that things have changed in the aspect of the sisterhood. I think that among women we support, celebrate and accept each other more, and we criticize each other less. What I do think hasn’t changed is this very sexual part, of feeling that we have to expose ourselves to sell. I think some women show off their bodies because they love it and that’s fine. So, if that’s their way of presenting their work, that’s fine with me, because they feel comfortable. I don’t feel so comfortable there with the boobs out and so on, but I see other girls who do it and I say: awesome! If it works for you … Amazing! But it’s not my style.

Favorite girl power song?

A song that spoke to me about female empowerment when I was very young and made me cry when I heard it was “Quisieras Andar Conmigo” by Julieta Venegas. I remember when I heard it I said, “Julieta, what!” It is something that never happens. I thought it was cool that a girl wrote a song that talks about something that men usually do. And right now, clearly [“Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”] by Shakira and Bizarrap. By being honest, [Shakira] empowered herself, but women empowered her more, and so it became this Amazon-like force. And another song is “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyoncé.

24 Mar 2023

BTS’ Jimin Looks For Love in the Club in Late Night ‘Like Crazy’ Video

Jimin has a wild night out in a club in the sweaty, joyous video for the BTS member’s solo single “Like Crazy.” The Oui Kim-directed visual opens with a snippet of whispery dialogue from the 2011 romantic drama of the same name that starred Jennifer Lawrence, Felicity Jones and the late Anton Yelchin, in which JLaw murmurs, “I think we could last forever.”

The scene then cuts to Jimin standing in a green swirl of light in a packed nightclub as a Yelchin frets, “I’m afraid that everything will disappear.” Lawrence assures him, “Just trust me,” as the camera zooms into Jimin’s face and we see looking forlorn in a kitchen singing, “She’s saying, baby, come and follow me/ There’s not a bad thing here tonight.”

An unseen hand then grabs him and drags him to the crowded dance floor, where he walks in slow motion through the partying masses, taking shots, doling out high-fives and crowd-surfing his way through the night before inexplicably landing in a spooky hallway where the walls are bleeding a viscous black ooze.

“Give me a good ride/ I’m falling, falling falling/ Oh, it’s gon’ be a good night, Forever you and I,” Jimin sings on the dreamy chorus. The rest of the clip see-saws between Jimin dancing like everyone is looking to an exhausted rest stop in a freaky, Transformer-like rest room and parting shots of the singer revisiting the evening’s craziness before ending up at the kitchen table again, his right hand covered in the mysterious goo.

“Like Crazy” appears on Jimin’s just-released debut solo album, FACE, a six-track project that was preceded by the pre-release single “Set Me Free, Pt. 2.” With production by Pdogg, Ghstloop, Supreme Boi, BLVSH and Evan, the project also features songwriting credits on three tracks from bandmate RM.

Watch the “Like Crazy” video below.

24 Mar 2023

No, the Rhapsody Tour Is Not Queen + Adam Lambert’s Last: ‘You Can Always Do One More Time’

Since joining forces in 2011, Queen + Adam Lambert have quickly become one of the most successful touring acts in the world — and now, they’re ready to prove why.

On Friday (March 24), the internationally beloved rock group announced the latest North American expansion of the Rhapsody Tour, set to take place this fall. Kicking off at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena in October, the tour will make 14 stops throughout the U.S. and Canada, including shows in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Nashville and Dallas, before closing out at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium in November.

For fans who saw the first North American leg of The Rhapsody Tour in 2019, fear not; the new set of dates promises an “expanded and updated” show, with guitarist Sir Brian May adding in a statement, “Our last tour featured our most ambitious production ever. So we decided to rip it apart and get even more ambitious.”

Billboard caught up with May, Lambert and Roger Taylor ahead of their official announcement, where the trio talked about what fans can expect from the new show, their favorite songs to perform live, and why “this is not a farewell tour,” according to May.

This is the first time in four years that the three of you will be touring the U.S. together, following your European tour last year — how are you feeling ahead of hitting the road this fall?

Brian May: It’s incredible, yeah. I think we all learned in COVID how much we really missed this. It was really tough for everybody. We already did our big outing in Europe, but with a lot of restrictions on that; we had a very strict protocol just to get through, because people were going down like flies. But we managed to get through that whole tour without losing a date, and it was all sold-out, packed, fantastic and better than ever, I think. So we thought, “Well, we just have to get back to the states.”

Outside of those restrictions, were there any significant learning curves you had to navigate in a post-COVID touring environment last year?

Roger Taylor: Not really, no, I think it was a huge relief to just get back to something approaching normality. That made up for the fact that we did have to have a lot of mask-wearing, and we temporarily lost a few people along the way. And it was a long tour wasn’t it?

May: Oh, yeah. 

Taylor: We were changing it and improving it as we went, and we are now going through all of those improvements again when it comes to this American leg.

I’ve noticed that the phrase “one more time” has been thrown around quite a bit when it comes to this tour — are you planning on this being Queen + Adam Lambert’s final outing?

May: Let me be clear, this is not a farewell tour. You can always do one more time … and then one more time … and then another time after that!

Adam Lambert: [laughs] Yeah, why limit yourself, guys?

Taylor: It’s just a simple, five year farewell tour, right?

When it comes to the “improvements” you’ve made to the show, what can fans expect to see that’s new with this leg of The Rhapsody Tour?

May: Well, we’re not gonna tell you that much, we don’t want to spoil it. [laughs] But the nice things is that the material is what ultimately gives the ideas, and we’re able to develop those ideas as we go along. We get to throw more and more stuff in, production-wise.

Lambert: I will say, the technology has come so far, even in the 10 years that we’ve worked together. It gives us so much freedom when it comes to what we want to create, what environment we want to put around a song. We have all of these toys that we get to play with, which we all get a big kick out of. We have an amazing creative team that work with us — I mean, we add something in a couple of days if we have a cool idea. Once the show kicks off, the show is never locked. It’s never the same show every night, we have the ability to throw a new song in, move the set around, change the visuals. There’s so much freedom.

That’s really interesting — how exactly do you go about adding new songs or new moments on the fly like that? 

Lambert: I’d say a couple of glasses of wine and a chat, yeah? 

May: [laughs] I mean, we also always do a soundcheck. The soundcheck is the key thing for us, I think. Every time we go into a new city and set things up, we’ll go into a soundcheck for two or three hours sometimes. When we’re doing that, we’ll try new stuff out, and our team is so flexible with us, that we’ll just throw out, “Can you give us a certain lighting effect, can you do stuff on the screens?” And they’ll build it on the spot for us. We don’t work on backing tracks or anything, which means we can kind of do anything we want. And we’re really fortunate to have a technical team that can handle that — a lot of this stuff is programmed to work at pretty exact intervals, and ours is all human touch, which gives it that live feel.

Lambert: Also, when we add a song sort of impromptu, we don’t like to over-rehearse it. We play it in that soundcheck and maybe one more soundcheck, and then we throw it in. It makes it really fun, like it’s a thrill-seeking activity, where we just go for it and see what happens. 

Brian, I wanted to congratulate you on your recent knighting from King Charles III — what was that experience like for you?

May: It was nice! It was a lot more exciting that I thought it would be, really. We’ve interacted with King Charles a lot — he was at Live Aid! We’ve worked with him on the Prince’s Trust, which is a wonderful charity that takes care of young people, over the years. So meeting him and having him actually do that for me, was actually a really big deal for me. We had a pleasant chat about how old age was treating us, because we’re about the same age [laughs]. It’s quite nice, I feel like it’s given me a little bit more power to do the work I do with animals. I view it in that light — not so much as a prize, but as a kind of empowerment.

And Adam, congratulations on your High Drama covers album — were there any big covers you wanted to include that didn’t quite make the cut?

Lambert: There were definitely a couple others I was considering, but it was a very thought-out project, so we weren’t wasting a lot of time or energy in the studio. We did it so quick, probably recorded those over about two months. I’m so happy with it, even though I did not write those songs, it felt like I was getting creative in the studio to find new ways to make them sound. That was such a cool challenge for me. 

Queen has one of the most prolific songbooks in modern rock music. Obviously there are the core set of hits that you’re gonna play almost no matter what — do you have any favorites in particular to perform that maybe aren’t as monolithic?

May: You know, there’s some stuff that we know would be very difficult — Roger mentioned “The Millionaire Waltz” once. 

Taylor: [laughs] Oh yeah, I don’t know if we could pull that off.

May: But a lot of the stuff we do anyways is fairly complex — the key is you don’t play the record. We really play how we feel on the stage. It’s funny, some people would call that a bluff, but there’s a lot of multi-track guitar harmonies in a lot of our songs, and I don’t do that onstage and I don’t use trickery to achieve it. I play what I’m feeling, and people hear that and get a purely live version of the song. No extra frills, because to me, recording has always been different than performing live. 

Taylor: Sometimes, the song gains a whole new dimension of excitement from that. But the live version will not be exactly the same as the record — that’s not what we’re about.

May: Some people will do that — they’ll have clicks and backing tracks and make everything sound perfect, but why do that? Why not do something that’s real and in the moment and ready to fall off the edge? 

Lambert: As far as the setlist goes, I think we’re all aware of what the fan favorites are. But the most important thing here is that, sure, we need to have fun, but the audience is buying a ticket to see the show. This is about their evening and giving them a show that feels fresh. We are keenly aware of what the favorites are and we try to include the big hits every night — they have a lot of hits, so it’s a lot to choose from. But it’s a two-plus hour show, so we’ve got plenty of time to get those big hits.

Tickets for The Rhapsody Tour officially go on sale Friday, March 31 at 10 a.m. local time on LiveNation.com.