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22 Feb 2023

Night Owl Talks ‘Masked Singer’ Exit After Swooping In Last-Minute: ‘I Will Be That Go-To Girl’

Spoiler alert: This story contains information about contestants eliminated on Wednesday’s (Feb. 22) episode of The Masked Singer.

The latest episode of The Masked Singer‘s ninth season had way more drama than viewers saw onscreen Wednesday night. Not only did returning champ Medusa absolutely crush it again on the ABBA-themed night, but Night Owl also flew in and wowed the judges with her killer vocals and moves while rocking “Fernando” after getting the call less than 24 hours earlier to fill in for a sick contestant.

“I literally did the math and I had 16 hours’ notice… so I decided not to overthink it,” the veteran singer, actress, Broadway star and reality competition judge/contestant tells Billboard about the eleventh-hour invite to save the day. The judges had some pretty good ideas about who she was, guessing everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker (Ken Jeong, wrong, wrong, wrong, of course) and Paula Abdul to The Go-Gos’ Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper or Kylie Minogue.

The Night Owl impressed, but she would have to soar even higher in the Battle Royale showdown with Medusa, during which both had to tackle “The Winner Takes It All.” She put some serious emotion into the ABBA favorite from a vocalist who the clue package told us was a “pop princess OG.”

Well, that was all you needed to know to figure out that panelist Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg was right all along: Night Owl was, indeed, OG pop royalty Debbie Gibson.

Billboard spoke to Gibson before her elimination and found out how her mother’s death inspired her to get in the game, what a 17-year-old Debbie would have thought about her being on a reality singing show, and what fans can expect on her upcoming The Body Remembers Tour.

Had you ever seen the show before you signed up?

I’ve had so many friends on the show — Joey Fatone, Donny Osmond, LeAnn Rimes — and when they called, I ended up filling in for somebody. I knew [someday] I would possibly do the show and that I could say no and properly prepare and do all that and still only last one episode. [But] I decided this would be my moment and this would be my way to do the show and, to quote P!nk, do a trust fall and be rock ‘n’ roll and show up not knowing anything about what I would be doing. I took a flight from New York to Las Vegas and I was on the plane when the call came in, I came home and unpacked and repacked and the driver in the car heard us making arrangements and said he could drive me to L.A. During the ride I got calls from wardrobe and they were like, “How about ‘Fernando?’” I just kept saying yes and laughing because it was so ridiculous.

Were you scared, excited?

I was so amped up and I had no idea how my voice would present itself. It was the one-year anniversary of losing my mom and I was in the Newark airport and I honored my Italian heritage and my mom by having pizza for lunch — I was done singing for the year and wasn’t going to start up again until [my upcoming] tour — so I was a vocalist letting her hair down, having pizza and a Coke, getting on a dry airplane and just crying. Just letting myself so far off the hook and [saying] “whatever happens happens.” I was here to fill a niche because someone fell ill on this multimillion-dollar production and I will be that go-to girl and giggle my way through the day and do my best.

And why the Night Owl?

She is nocturnal and I’m normally in bed with my dogs by 7 p.m. I have a song “Who Loves Ya Baby,” and in that song I wing “Who, who, who loves ya baby?” and that was reason enough to be Night Owl. I pieced it together and the metallic body suit reminded me of my Liberace piano and the Thierry Mugler bodysuit Madonna wore. I was in Beauty and the Beast [on Broadway], and I had this giant dress and wig, and this costume was way heavier because all the weight was on the shoulders.  

You’ve done music, acting, Broadway and some reality TV (The Apprentice, Dancing With the Stars, Skating With the Stars), but is it safe to say this was one of the more unusual gigs you’ve had? 

That’s what was so fun about it! I’ve made a deal with myself to be super present in this chapter of my life. I’ve been a mentor and a judge on American Juniors. I’ve sat where the judges sat, but in this moment, in this costume, I was thinking every reason I wanted to get into showbiz is happening right now: I’m playing dress-up, there’s a mystery involved, I’m singing and dancing and surprising people. People love the show because it has magic to it and it’s very wholesome. It’s like being a child and playing dress-up. It’s one of the more refreshing gigs I’ve done.

Do you think 17-year-old Debbie would ever imagine you’d be singing ABBA in an owl costume at this juncture in your career?

[Laughs] Coming from the theater, I didn’t rule anything out. Coming from the ’80s pop music scene I didn’t have these kinds of reality shows, so never in my wildest dreams would I think that these shows could be a career game-changer. You have to get over the idea that you have to be a rock star at all times. It’s fun, why not?

Did you want to win though?

I didn’t have time to think about wanting to win. I honestly really wanted to get through the day. I didn’t know how I could stand, let alone sing, at the end of the day coming from the day I had before. When I saw and heard Medusa and her lovely energy, she was just super respectful and we were rooting for each other — I wanted her to have it. Whoever this is has been preparing for a long time.

It felt like Jenny was on to you pretty early, but they also threw out Sarah Jessica Parker, Paula Abdul, Belinda Carlisle, Kylie Minogue and Cyndi Lauper, all of whom are nothing to sneeze at.

I thought the Kylie one was the best, because with Kylie, I do feel like we are separated at birth, like sisters from across the world. I always jokingly say that what the world needs to do is find Carrie Bradshaw’s long-lost sister — Sarah [Jessica Parker] and I are long-lost sisters as well.

I don’t know who Medusa is either, but that Battle Royale on “The Winner Takes It All” was super intense. What was your strategy?

My strategy is always to just be me. I was going to sing that pretty straight ahead and didn’t have time to figure out how I would finesse it. One of the things that always connected me to my audience from the time I was young was I open my mouth and sing and I don’t overthink it. Sing the lyrics, tell the story and open up and let it come out. That’s what I felt like I did.

You announced that you’re going on an encore run of The Body Remembers Tour. Talk to me about the fan reaction to that and what they can expect. 

For people who haven’t seen me perform in a long time, I’m a very raw performer and I play for a long time. I get the curfew-time hook a lot, and that’s what I did — I really poured myself out onto the stage — and that’s what I will do again. I released this album [The Body Remembers] a year ago, and I watch contemporaries like Shania Twain and Janet [Jackson], who are on major labels and doing Live Nation tours, and I haven’t done it that way. I’m so specific on how I like to use my energy. I don’t want creative input. I’ve done it my way and I’m so proud of that. This tour is such a reflection of that. It’s nostalgia, you’ve got old and new, and it’s my audience, my generation, and everyone is experiencing a renaissance — people are vital and vibrant at 40-50 — and they want their artists to be like that and to experience that energy in the room.

22 Feb 2023

P!nk Reveals Why Madonna ‘Doesn’t Like’ Her

P!nk joined Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday (Feb. 22) for a wide-ranging conversation on her new album Trustfall, touring, being a mother and more.

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At one point in the interview, Stern asked P!nk about her longtime hero, Madonna. When asked if they’re friends, the 43-year-old singer replied, “Madonna doesn’t like me.”

P!nk went on to call herself a “polarizing individual,” which Stern said is also a quality of Madonna’s. “She is, man. F—, I loved her,” P!nk said, before sharing that the Queen of Pop “tried to play” her on a past episode of Regis & Kelly. “I’m not the one, so it didn’t work out,” she recalled.

“It’s such a silly story,” she continued. “I f—ing love Madonna, and I love her no matter what. I still love her. She was such an inspiration to me, but it sort of got twisted around that I was fangirling and was dying to meet Madonna when, in actuality, she invited me to her dressing room. So, I just said a joke when Regis brought me out and was like, ‘How does it feel to meet? I heard you’re just falling over yourself backstage.’ I’m like, ‘I thought she wanted to meet me.’ Didn’t work out for us.”

Earlier this week, P!nk defended Madonna after the icon blamed “ageism and misogyny” for backlash surrounding her appearance at the 2023 Grammy Awards. “Let’s just give the people the respect they deserve and have earned, and be a bit nicer. Can we all be a bit nicer? I want to be nicer, to myself and others,” she told Mirror UK. “When a person walks out, the first thing I think is not, ‘Holy s— did you see their face?’ I don’t think like that. I think, ‘Holy s—, that person has been amazing for so long.’”

Watch the clip from The Howard Stern Show below.

22 Feb 2023

Alan Jackson Didn‘t Think His ’90s Classic ‘Chattahoochee’ Would Be a Hit

Country Music Hall of Fame member Alan Jackson has earned 26 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart hits since releasing his debut single, “Blue Blooded Woman,” in 1989. But the Georgia native says he initially didn’t think one of his signature songs, 1993’s “Chattahoochee,” would become a hit.

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Jackson and fellow songwriter Jim McBride crafted the uptempo song, which centers on two teens falling in love on the banks of northern Georgia’s Chattahoochee River.

Jackson recently appeared on his daughter Mattie Jackson’s In Joy Life podcast, where he explained, “A lot of my songs I write out of my life are true experiences, but at the same time they relate to other people. … When we cut that, it was a fun, uptempo thing about coming [of] age. I thought, ‘Well yeah, it’s a fun song and I like it, and people in Georgia are gonna like it. Nobody in the rest of the country, the rest of the world, don’t know what it is or care about it.’”

Jackson was wrong.

“Chattahoochee” was included on Jackson’s album A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘Bout Love). The song not only became a four-week No. 1 Country Airplay hit, but also went on to win the CMA Awards for single of the year and song of the year. Now, 30 years after its initial release, the song is a stone-cold ’90s country classic and has been a mainstay in Jackson’s concerts for the past three decades.

“I learned right quick that everybody has a Chattahoochee,” Jackson said on the podcast. “It might be called something else, or might not even be a river at all, but the story was something people could relate to in their life, wherever they were from. So you just never know.”

Jackson also hinted that there could be new music on the way, following his 2021 album Where Have You Gone.

“Well, yes. I would hope so,” Jackson said. “I mean, I may not have toured much, but like I said, the creative part jumps out every now and then. I’m always scribbling down ideas and thinking about melodies, and I feel like there’ll be some more music to come, yes.”

Jackson said he finds songwriting “more fulfilling than anything,” adding that songwriting has helped invigorate his overall artistry and touring through the years.

“It’s like, you can be a singer and go out and tour, but it’s kind of like you’re just doing the same thing over and over,” he said. “When you make an album, or especially when you write a lot of the songs, that’s creating something. It’s a challenge, so it keeps you interested a little more. If I didn’t write, I think I would’ve gotten bored just singing a long time ago.”

22 Feb 2023

Jim Jones & HitMaka “Seen The Money,” Styles P ft. Brady Watt “Seen The Money” & More | Daily Visuals 2.22.23

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As Cam’ron is seemingly retired from rap at this point in his life, Jim Jones continues to churn out new work and keep that Harlem flame lit in the Hip-Hop game for the OG’s that’s been following Dip Set since day one.

Linking up with HitMaka for the visuals to “Seen The Money,” Capo charters a jet to Miami where a gang of thick young women await his arrival on a luxury yacht where Jones spent more time counting his money than he did admiring the adoring women around him. That’s when you know a man has his priorities straight. Just sayin.’

Styles P meanwhile makes a surprising collaboration for his clip to “Death Before Dishonor” as he recruits the talents of bass player, Brady Watt to join him and rock out with Peniro as he drops his bars on a smoke filled set that may or may not have been the result of hella weed being smoked. It probably was.

Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Desiigner, Ann Marie, and more.

JIM JONES & HITMAKA – “SEEN THE MONEY”



STYLES P FT. BRADY WATT – “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR”



DESIIGNER – “TWO IN ONE”



ANN MARIE – “ROAD TRIP”



TEEJAY – “WEIRDO”



KELELA – “ENOUGH FOR LOVE”



ZOMBIE JUICE – “HIKARI”



SAUCE WALKA – “PEACE TREATIES”



CHEVY P FT. BIG NOD – “COUNTRY A$$ MUTHAF*CKA”



22 Feb 2023

Camila Cabello Joins Cast of Chiwetel Ejiofor Drama ‘Rob Peace’

News broke on Wednesday (Feb. 22) that Camila Cabello has been cast in the upcoming drama Rob Peace.

According to a report by Deadline, the “Don’t Go Yet” singer joins a cast that includes Mary J. Blige, Jay Will and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the latter of whom also serves as the film’s writer and director.

The film — an adaptation of the bestselling 2014 biography The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League — is currently in production and will tell the story of the late Robert Peace, a Yale graduate who lived a double existence as a cancer and infectious disease researcher while also raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling marijuana before being gunned down in 2011 in a drug-related shooting.

Cabello is set to portray Peace’s Yale classmate named Naya, with Blige and Ejiofor playing the young man’s parents. The Cuban-American pop singer made her feature film debut back in 2020 as the titular princess in Amazon Prime Video’s Cinderella opposite Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan and more.

Since then, she’s released her third solo album Familia, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 upon its April 2022 release and featured singles “Bam Bam” with Ed Sheeran, “Psychofreak” featuring Willow and “Hasta los Dientes” with María Becerra. She also appeared in her freshman season as a coach on The Voice during Season 22 with fellow coaches Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and John Legend.

22 Feb 2023

Bonnie Raitt’s ‘Just Like That’ Heads to Radio After Grammy Win — With a Hands-Off Approach

After Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” won the Grammy Award for song of the year, her team put out a shorter radio edit of the tear-jerking ballad — and then proceeded to do almost no further radio advertising or promotion.

“I’m afraid the song is not something we feel an aggressive marketing approach fits,” Kathy Kane, Raitt’s manager, says by email. “We didn’t put it forth as a single with a specific [radio] impact date aggressively going for ads. We are simply here to support those interested in the song.”

The lack of a radio strategy around “Just Like That” is distinct from the strategy around the album, which has the same title. A year ago, before Raitt put out the album on her own label, Redwing Records, she attended a Zoom video call with programmers as part of a marketing campaign to extend the rock, pop and blues star’s long history of radio hits. The strategy worked: Just Like That made its debut last May at No. 1 on several Billboard charts, including Top Current Album Sales, and hit No. 6 on Top Rock Albums. 

But when “Just Like That” won song of the year, Raitt’s team opted for a low-key promotional effort for the country-leaning ballad about a woman who loses her son and falls in love with the man who received his heart. While the song topped Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart and hit No. 6 on Digital Song Sales the week after the Grammys, radio spins increased from just 27 to 41 over the past week.

That said, some influential radio programmers are working to boost the airplay.

“Hopefully, I can be the station that breaks these records so other stations can follow,” says Dan Mathews, program director for Top 40 stations Rhythm 105.9 in Sacramento, Calif., Jamz 99.3 FM in Salina, Kan., and Hitz 90.5 in Edgar, Neb., all of which now air “Just Like That” every two hours. “Our listenership has gone up just playing that record.”

The low-key approach has had sporadic success elsewhere. Dennis Constantine, a longtime adult album alternative programmer, added two or three “Just Like That” spins per day to 92.5 the River in Boston and The Point in Burlington, Vt. (They play the original version, not the shorter radio edit.) “We were playing other tracks off the album, and when that won best song of the year, we started playing it everywhere,” says Constantine, program director for the two stations and a consultant for another in Flagstaff, Ariz. “It makes sense. She’s a legend in our format.” 

22 Feb 2023

Woody Harrelson Calls Matthew McConaughey His ‘Weed Guy’ in New ‘SNL’ Promo

Woody Harrelson is hosting Saturday Night Live for the milestone fifth time this weekend (Feb. 25), and to celebrate joining the five-timers club, the actor took a stroll down memory lane in a new promo for the episode.

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In the one-minute clip, Harrelson is seen walking down a hallway that has photos of SNL memories on the wall. “Saturday Night Live, there’s so much history in this place. So many great hosts,” the actor is heard saying in a voiceover, as he points out photos of Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck (whom Harrelson mistakes for Matt Damon) and Owen Wilson (mistaken for Amy Poehler).

When Harrelson arrives to a photo of Matthew McConaughey giving his opening monologue on the show, he pauses. “Oh, my weed guy,” he says of the Interstellar actor.

He’s then stopped by new SNL member Devon Walker, and it’s revealed that Harrelson has been strolling down the hall while listening to his own, pre-recorded voiceover on a cassette player.

Harrelson — who will soon be seen in the upcoming movie Champions and the HBO political drama White House Plumbers — previously hosted Saturday Night Live in 1989, 1992, 2014 and 2019. Jack White will be joining as musical guest, coincidentally, also for the fifth time. White dropped two albums in 2022, April’s Fear of the Dawn and July’s Entering Heaven Alive.

Watch the new SNL promo below. The show airs every Saturday live on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT. For those without cable, the broadcast will also stream on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans on demand access to previous SNL episodes as well.

22 Feb 2023

Rihanna Scores Six Top 10s on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart After Super Bowl

Rihanna runs onto Billboard‘s multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Feb. 25) with eight songs, including six in the top 10, following her Super Bowl halftime show extravaganza on Feb. 12.

“We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris (No. 3), and “Only Girl (In the World)” (No. 4), both performed at the show, lead the way on the chart. “Love,” from 2011, earned 8.1 million official U.S. streams, up 236%, while “Girl,” from 2010, tallied 6.8 million, up 212%, respectively, in the Feb. 10-16 tracking week, according to Luminate.

Concurrently on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs chart (which started in 2013), “Love” leaps 24-3 and “Girl” debuts at No. 4. Five of Rihanna’s seven career top 10s on the chart are new this week.

“Love” also sold 5,900 downloads, up 1,035%, while “Girl” moved 5,600, up 977%. Those figures are also good for vaults on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, with the former up 17-2 and the latter, 18-3. Rihanna has now totaled nine career top 10s on the tally (which began in 2010), with “Girl” and two others notched since the Super Bowl: “Don’t Stop the Music” (re-entry at No. 5; 3,000, up 651%) and “S&M” (24-9; 2,400, up 398%).

Returning to the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (which began in 2013), the other new Rihanna top 10s are “Don’t Stop the Music” (No. 7), “Where Have You Been” (No. 8), “S&M” (No. 9) and “Disturbia” (No. 10).

The six songs by a single act in the top 10 are the most since July 2, 2022, when eight tracks from Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind debuted, including his first No. 1, “Falling Back.”

Additionally, Calvin Harris’ “This Is What You Came For,” featuring Rihanna, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in 2016 (one of Harris’ four toppers and Rihanna’s sole leader), restarts at No. 11. Rihanna’s “SOS” rounds out the list of her appearances in its initial showing (No. 14). All mark Rihanna’s first visits to the survey since April 22, 2017, the last week that “This Is…” was on the chart.

Rihanna boasts nine career Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10s, also including “Right Now,” featuring David Guetta (No. 5, 2013).

As previously reported, Rihanna claims her first week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, with five albums in the top 50 of the Billboard 200, sparked by her best streaming week ever.

Other Super Bowl halftime show performers have tackled Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in recent years, including Jennifer Lopez with “On the Floor,” featuring Pitbull (No. 4, Feb. 15, 2020), after her headlining set with Shakira at Super Bowl LIV. Before that, Lady Gaga landed two top 10s (“Bad Romance,” No. 6, and “Poker Face,” No. 8, on Feb. 25, 2017) among six chart hits after headlining the Super Bowl LI halftime show.

Winning weekend: Jason Derulo and David Guetta’s “Saturday / Sunday” enters Hot Dance/Electronic Songs at No. 18. The fourth charted title for Derulo (and second with Guetta, after their “Goodbye,” featuring Nicki Minaj and Willy William; No. 9, 2018) is the record-extending 74th for Guetta. (Kygo is next with 61.)

Madonna’s ‘Sorry’ returns: Also noteworthy on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs is a debut from Blond:ish, Eran Hersh, Darmon and Madonna, “Sorry” (No. 39). The new remix of Madonna’s “Sorry” brings the initial appearance each for the first three credited acts and the sixth for Madonna. She last charted with another freshly remixed version of an older hit, 1998’s “Frozen,” with Sickick (No. 10, April 2022).

The original “Sorry” spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart in 2006, Madonna’s second-longest-leading No. 1 among her seven leaders; only previous Confessions on a Dance Floor single “Hung Up” clocked more time on top, eight weeks in 2005.

Englund celebrates ‘like Christmas morning’: Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, Anabel Englund achieves her third leader with “Need Me Right” (3-1). Englund also led with “Picture Us” (October 2020) and “Underwater” (April 2021). Dating to Englund’s first top 10 ink in May 2020, with the No. 2-peaking “So Hot,” she is tied with David Guetta and Joel Corry for the most top 10s among all acts, with eight each.

“Getting a Billboard No. 1 feels like opening my eyes on Christmas morning,” Englund tells Billboard. “I’m so grateful for all of the success ‘Need Me Right’ has been having. Writing this song was fun and felt effortless working with two people, James Hurr and Paul Harris [of Dirty Vegas], that I love.”

“Need” is drawing core-dance airplay on SiriusXM’s BPM, Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel and WCPY (Dance Factory FM) Chicago, among others. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)

Also on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, BONNIE X CLYDE collects its second top 10 and FOMO experiences its first with “Need Ya” (12-9).