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07 Feb 2023

Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’ Has Notched 7 Hot Country Songs Top 10s – and It’s Not Even Out Yet

Ahead of its release, Morgan Wallen’s album One Thing at a Time has already rung up seven top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Wallen released a trio of tracks from the set on Jan. 31 and, of those, “Last Night” launches the highest — at No. 7 — on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based survey (dated Feb. 11).

The album is due March 3 and will sport 36 songs, including nine released so far.

“Last Night” drew 11.8 million U.S. streams and sold 8,000 downloads in the week ending Feb. 2, according to Luminate. It arrives atop Country Digital Song Sales, awarding Wallen his ninth No. 1. It opens at No. 3 on Country Streaming Songs, marking his 19th top 10.

On Hot Country Songs, Wallen banks his 18th top 10. Here’s a rundown of the seven songs, including three No. 1s, already released from One Thing at a Time that have hit the chart’s top 10. All seven have also debuted at their peak ranks:

  • No. 1 (one week), April 30, 2022, “Don’t Think Jesus”
  • No. 1 (one week), May 21, 2022, “Thought You Should Know”
  • No. 1 (19 weeks), May 28, 2022, “You Proof”
  • No. 2, Dec. 17, 2022, “One Thing at a Time “
  • No. 5, Dec. 17, 2022, “Tennessee Fan”
  • No. 7, Dec. 17, 2022, “Days That End in Why”
  • No. 7, Feb. 11, 2023, “Last Night”

The two other tracks released Jan. 31 from One Thing at a Time, “I Wrote the Book” and “Everything I Love,” start at Nos. 16 and 18, respectively, on Hot Country Songs. “Book” corralled 6.7 million streams and sold 5,000, while “Love” drew 6.3 million clicks and sold 3,000.

Next week’s Feb. 18-dated charts will reflect the first full tracking week (Feb. 3-9) for each of the three tracks released Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, Wallen’s prior LP, the 30-song Dangerous: The Double Album, leads Top Country Albums for a record-extending 93rd week, with 42,000 equivalent album units (up 5%). The set has also generated seven Hot Country Songs top 10s.

Bryan Leads, Debuts

Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” dominates Hot Country Songs for a sixth week. Plus, “Dawns,” his collaboration with Maggie Rogers, debuts at No. 13. Released Jan. 27, the latter drew 10 million streams through Feb. 2.

The pair co-wrote “Dawns,” which marks fellow singer-songwriter Rogers’ first country chart entry. She boasts three No. 1s, among five top 10s, on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.

Hubbard Dances In

Tyler Hubbard posts his first top 10 as a soloist on Top Country Albums, as his self-titled debut LP starts at No. 8 with 15,000 equivalent album units. He co-penned all 18 songs on the set. Florida Georgia Line – the duo comprising Hubbard and Brian Kelley – has tallied four No. 1 albums among seven top 10s.

The set’s new single, “Dancin’ in the Country,” jumps 30-24 on Country Airplay with a 37% increase to 5.3 million impressions. It also drew 3.8 million streams and ranks at a new No. 26 high on Hot Country Songs. Lead single “5 Foot 9” led Country Airplay and hit No. 5 on Hot Country Songs.

King ‘Get’s Started

Meanwhile, Elle King’s Come Get Your Wife begins at No. 11 on Top Country Albums (13,000 units). She co-penned eight of the 13 songs on the set, which she co-produced with Ross Copperman.

The album’s current single “Worth a Shot,” featuring Dierks Bentley, ranks at No. 45 on both Country Airplay (1.8 million impressions, up 6%) and Hot Country Songs, as it also logged 2.2 million streams (up 14%). First single “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” with Miranda Lambert, led Country Airplay and reached No. 6 on Hot Country Songs.

The new LP follows King’s Love Stuff and Shake the Spirit, which hit Nos. 3 and 9 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

07 Feb 2023

Here’s the Date of the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards

The 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards will be held on Sunday, May 7, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. That’s about a month ahead of last year’s show, which was held at the same venue on June 5.

This will be the 31st edition of the show and the sixth to jointly honor movies and TV. Two years ago, MTV broke the show in two and presented awards for film and scripted television on one night and awards for reality television the following night. It didn’t work as well and the two components were rejoined last year. They will again be joined this year.

Host, honorees, performers, presenters and additional details about this year’s show will be announced later.

Vanessa Hudgens and Tayshia Adams were hosts of last year’s show, with Hudgens hosting the first half for film and scripted television series, and Adams hosting the second half for awards in reality television. Special awards went to Jennifer Lopez (Generation Award), Jack Black (Comedic Genius Award) and Bethenny Frankel (MTV Reality Royalty Award).

Spider Man: No Way Home won for best movie last year and its star, Tom Holland, won for best performance in a movie. Euphoria won for best [TV] show and its star, Zendaya won for best performance in a show.

Executive producers for the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards are MTV’s Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut and Vanessa Whitewolf. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are executives in charge of production and Lisa Lauricella serves as the music talent executive.

07 Feb 2023

Charlie Thomas, Singer for The Drifters, Dies at 85

Charlie Thomas, singer for The Drifters, died at age 85 on Jan. 31, his friend Peter Lemongello Jr. confirmed to The New York Times on Monday (Feb. 6).

According to Lemongello, Thomas died as a result of liver cancer, but regularly kept up with his physical activities until his condition started deteriorating.

“He was aging, but he was active almost every weekend,” Lemongello, former singer for The Crests, told the newspaper. “Unfortunately, he went from being active to being at home and he started going downhill.”

Thomas became a member of The Drifters after a chance encounter. In 1958, the tenor was singing as part of the Five Crowns at New York’s Apollo Theatre when The Drifters’ original manager, George Treadwell, fired all members of the group for getting drunk and cursing show promoter and Apollo owner Mary Goldberg. Treadwell replaced all members of The Drifters with Five Crowns.

Led by Ben E. King, The Drifters experienced success from several singles. “There Goes My Baby,” “Under The Boardwalk,” and “Up on the Roof” became beloved R&B classics, though The Drifters wouldn’t top the Billboard charts until 1960 with “Save the Last Dance For Me,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100. The song has since been covered by Dolly Parton, Michael Bublé and more. “Sweets for My Sweet” peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 in 1961, and “When My Little Girl Is Smiling” cracked the top 30 of the chart at No. 28 in 1962.

Thomas — alongside band members King, Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Gerhart Thrasher, Johnny Moore and Rudy Lewis — was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Despite the group’s many iterations throughout the years, Thomas continued performing with The Drifters throughout to the pandemic.

Thomas is survived by his wife, Rita Thomas; his two daughters, Crystal Thomas Wilson and Victoria Green; and his three sons, Charlie “Happy” Thomas Jr., Michael Sidbury and Brian Godfrey.

07 Feb 2023

Big B$F: Benny The Butcher Announces ‘Everybody Can’t Go’ LP With Hit-Boy

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Benny The Butcher proved that his street tales and aggressive bars are right at home over polished production just as they are over hard drums and dusty loops, as proven on Burden of Proof. The Buffalo star will once again recreate that magic alongside Hit-Boy after he announced the upcoming Everybody Can’t Go album on social media.

Benny The Butcher shared an image of himself on the red carpet at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards looking sharp as expected. The Black Soprano Family honcho didn’t give a ton of details but it’s clear that fans need to get prepared for the anticipated collaboration.

From IG:

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Sometimes the experience of the journey is a better feeling than reaching the destination. You won’t ever kno unless u make it there…but remember ‘EVERYBODY CAN’T GO’ The Album produced by @hitboy…Loading

Benny The Bucher and Hit-Boy linked in 2020 for the acclaimed Burden of Proof project and it was a welcome departure from the darker production of Daringer, Beat Butcha, and The Alchemist. Flexing his signature confidence and songwriting ability, Benny shined over the lush beats of Hit-Boy in an unexpected fashion.

We can only hope that the pair will improve on the solid formula of three years ago.

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Photo: Johnny Nunez / Getty

07 Feb 2023

Concord CEO Scott Pascucci to Step Down as President Bob Valentine Takes Over

Concord CEO Scott Pascucci is stepping down effective June 30 after helming the fifth biggest music company for a decade. Bob Valentine, who ascended to president in 2021 from CFO, will become Concord’s new CEO. 

Additionally, Concord’s chief label officer Tom Whalley will also vacate his role but will continue to be involved as founder of Loma Vista Recordings, his joint venture with Concord. Pascucci, who remains on Concord’s board of directors, and Whalley will be inaugural members of Concord’s new advisory board. 

“I started my career in the music business 30-plus years ago for the simple reason that I love music, and I discovered along the way that I enjoy building businesses and leading teams of people,” said Pascucci in a statement. “Thanks to [Wood Creek founding partner] Brett Hellerman, I was given the opportunity to do all of those things at Concord. In 10 years, we have built a company that matters in the music industry, a place that cares about its employees, artists and writers, and that is well-positioned for the future. I am proud of all that we have accomplished. I look forward to continuing on the board of directors, to help guide the company forward under Bob’s leadership, while also having more time to focus on my interests in film and social impact initiatives.”

(Wood Creek Capital Management bought Concord from Village Roadshow in 2013. Concord is now a private company funded by institutional capital and Concord’s management team.) 

Pascucci’s announcement comes several weeks after Concord launched Concord Music Royalties, LLC Series 2022-1, a $1.8 billion asset-backed security that will allow further growth through funding reserve accounts, paying down debt and other uses.

“It positions us beautifully for the future,” Pascucci tells Billboard of the security. “It has given us significant additional capital for growth while also dramatically broadening the base of institutional lenders who are now familiar with the company.”

The succession plan has been in the works since 2019. “An orderly succession in key positions is critical to the stability and future growth of the company, as evidenced by the smooth transition from Jake Wisely to Jim Selby as chief publishing executive a few years ago,” Pascucci continues. “ My decision to move out of the CEO position and to stay on the board was made over 2 years ago, at which time Bob moved into the role of president.”

Bob Valentine

Bob Valentine

Elena Goss/Courtesy of Concord

“Scott has made the transition from CFO to president remarkably smooth and easy,” Valentine says. “As CFO I was used to a particular flow of helping to finance our acquisitions and new productions; in stepping into the president’s role, I needed to get into the rhythm of the creative process outside of a purely financial lens. Scott’s extraordinarily patient, and he’s made sure to loop me in on some of the many day-to-day things that I wouldn’t have been in the middle of as CFO. Also, the senior team, most of whom are in Nashville, work very closely with each other. That makes a transition like this easier than they tend to be for a company.”

Valentine’s history with the company precedes Pascucci’s. He joined Norman Lear’s ACT III Communications in 1999 when it acquired Concord Records. He left in 2001 but returned in 2005 as CFO. 

“I have had the privilege of helping to build Concord into the company that it is today ever since Norman Lear and his business partner Hal Gaba had the extraordinary foresight to buy a small, independent jazz record label in the same year that Napster was invented,” Valentine said in a statement. “The journey since then has been scary, thrilling, surprising, and incredibly rewarding.” 

Valentine tells Billboard that Concord will proceed on its current path. “We’ll continue to focus on our core mission: to champion artists, elevate voices and impact culture.  We can’t do any one of those without the other two.  At the heart of everything we do is artistry; it’s our job to identify it, elevate it, and ultimately impact culture with it,” he says. That has been and will continue to be true for everything we focus on, whether it’s furthering our frontline label division’s breadth and depth, acquiring iconic songs and recordings, signing new and exciting songwriters, or licensing and co-producing theatrical works.  I’m also excited about our Concord Originals segment, which aims to develop and adapt some of our music and theatrically based works (past and present) for film and television.”

Concord’s catalog consists of more than one million songs, composed works, plays, musicals and active recordings and includes works from Phil Collins, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, Daft Punk, Miles Davis, Danny Elfman, Evanescence, The Fania All-Stars, Genesis, Imagine Dragons, Isaac Hayes, James Taylor, Jewel, Joan Sebastian, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, Cyndi Lauper, Little Richard, Nikki Six, Otis Redding, R.E.M., Rodgers & Hammerstein, Pete Seeger, St. Vincent, Taking Back Sunday, Ryan Tedder, The Traveling Wilburys, The Vince Guaraldi Trio and Hans Zimmer.

Concord

Headquartered in Nashville, Concord has additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Melbourne and Miami. Concord also has staff in Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.

As chief label officer, Whalley oversees frontline imprints Fantasy Records, Concord Records, Concord Jazz, Rounder Records, Loma Vista Recordings, Easy Eye Sound, KIDZ BOP and Fearless Records. 

“In 2014, I found a great partnership with Scott Pascucci and Concord,”  says Whalley, who co-founded Interscope Records and was Warner Bros. Records chairman/CEO from 2001 to 2010. “That partnership helped build a very important independent label, Loma Vista Recordings. It has been an added bonus to serve as the chief label officer for frontline labels at Concord. I am very proud of what we have accomplished.”

Following Whalley’s departure, Concord will create a new role that will oversee the entire recorded music division, including frontline and catalog operations. 

The new advisory board, which will be unveiled this fall, will also include Wisely, as well as other members from allied fields, such as music, film, theater and technology. It  will act as a resource for best practices and new business opportunities for Concord.

Pascucci’s news comes a week after the announcement that Hartwig Masuch, CEO of BMG, the fourth biggest music company, is leaving at the end of the year after 15 years at the company. He will be replaced by BMG CFO Thomas Coesfeld.

07 Feb 2023

Warner Music Hires Google Veteran Ariel Bardin for New Tech Role

Warner Music Group adds another YouTube veteran to its executive leadership team with the hiring of Ariel Bardin as the label’s first president of technology. In his new position, Bardin will head tech and data teams tasked with creating new systems and products to “support the next phase of WMG’s global growth,” the company said on Tuesday (Feb. 7).

The New York-based Bardin will report to his former Google colleague Robert Kyncl, who officially became CEO of WMG on Feb. 1 following the departure of longtime chief Stephen Cooper.

“Ariel understands how technology can serve creativity to have real, long-lasting cultural and commercial impact,” Kyncyl said. “He has a tremendous appreciation for artistry, deep technical expertise, and a proven track record in execution at the highest level. We’re fortunate to welcome him to our team.”

Bardin spent 16 years at Google, where as vp of product management he helped build, launch and grow some of the company’s household-name products, including Google AdWords and Google Payments. For YouTube, he is credited with leading teams working on various creator-centric products as well as its Content ID system, which finds and monetizes user-uploaded videos for rights owners. In the fall of 2021, Bardin joined software company Celonis as its chief product officer.

“I had the pleasure of working with Robert during our time together at Google, where I especially enjoyed our work empowering and equipping YouTube creators,” Bardin said. “WMG is entering an exciting new era under his leadership, and I’m looking forward to joining him and the rest of the company on a mission to provide the highest level of service to the company’s artists, songwriters, and teams.”

The appointment of a newly created president role arrives two days before WMG will announce financial results for its first quarter — along with its first earnings call with Kyncyl at the helm.

07 Feb 2023

Questlove Shares Why Will Smith Was No-Show At Grammys Hip-Hop Tribute

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65th GRAMMY Awards - Red Carpet

Source: Lester Cohen / Getty

The Grammy Awards gave a proper tribute to Hip-Hop during the broadcast, but some noted that one of the genre’s first superstars was noticeably absent. Will Smith didn’t show up for the tribute despite his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff being present, and Questlove explained the situation during an interview.

The culture was on full display for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and the star-studded tribute directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was largely a crowd-pleasing moment for fans in attendance and at home. As we noted above, Jazzy Jeff was there on the 1s and 2s but there was no sighting of the former Fresh Prince. Questlove shared exclusively with Variety why Will Smith didn’t make it to the tribute.

“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was [a part] of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’ this week,” Questlove told the outlet on the red carpet. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”

Along with Will Smith, Questlove teased that the original tribute runtime was cut down from 23 minutes to 14 minutes due to scheduling conflicts and the like.

Check out the quip from Questlove regarding Will Smith and the tribute overall below.

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Photo: Getty

07 Feb 2023

Barbra Streisand’s Memoir ‘My Name Is Barbra’ Finally Has a Release Date

Ever wanted to read a detailed, autobiographical account of how a star such as Barbra Streisand is born? If so, the following news definitely won’t rain on your parade. The 80-year-old chart-topping singer and actress announced Tuesday (Feb. 7) that her highly anticipated memoir, titled My Name Is Barbra, is finally coming to bookstores near you on Nov. 7.

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The news arrived via a simple, elegant announcement on the Broadway star’s Instagram, along with a glamorous black and white photo of a younger Babs that may or may not be the book’s cover. “Barbra’s memoir ‘My Name Is Barbra’ coming November 7th,” the announcement reads.

My Name Is Barbra will be published by Penguin Random House and is already available for $45 preorder on the publishing company’s website, where a “coming soon” sign is displayed in place of the book’s cover. “Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment,” reads Penguin’s description of the book.

“In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed.”

“The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming,” adds the description, noting that Streisand will recount her early career struggles, film work and the recording processes behind her extensive discography. She’ll also divulge details about her friendships with stars such as Marlon Brando and Madeleine Albright, along with the “fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.”

Streisand, who’s also author of My Passion for Design, has been teasing fans with the possibility of a memoir for years. The project eventually started to materialize back in 2015, when it was first announced that she would publish a memoir, originally slated to arrive in 2017. It wasn’t finished in time, however, something the performer opened up about in a 2018 interview with The New Yorker.

“Four years in. They wanted the book in two years,” she told to the publication. “I find it hard to look back. You know, I have to look myself up … I find that it’s hard to look at yourself. I don’t mean hard as in negative. I mean, it feels egotistic to look at something about yourself … The only reason I said I’ll do the book now is because I couldn’t get movies that I wanted to make made.”

See the announcement for Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name Is Barbra, below:

07 Feb 2023

Roger Waters Calls Pink Floyd Lyricist Polly Samson’s ‘Putin Apologist,’ Antisemitism Claims ‘Wildly Inaccurate’

The decades-long bitter feud between former Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour was re-ignited this week after guitarist/singer Gilmour’s wife, songwriter Polly Samson, issued a scathing rebuke of the former Floyd bassist/lyricist/singer in a tweet accusing him of antisemitism and misogyny, among other accusations.

Rogers was quick to respond, tweeting on Monday afternoon (Feb. 6) that, “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter which he refutes entirely. He is currently taking advice on his position.”

Waters’ response came after Samson — a novelist who helped to pen a number of songs on 1994’s The Division Bell and contributed to 2014’s The Endless River Pink Floyd albums following Waters’ split with the band in 1985 — posted her tweet about Waters earlier in the day.

“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” Samson tweeted. “Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.” Gilmour liked the post and then added, “Every word demonstrably true.”

At press time a spokesperson for Waters and Gilmour had not returned a request for comment on the back-and-forth.

Samson appeared to be responding to an interview Waters did with Germany’s Berliner Zeigtung in which — based on a translation from Waters’ site — he said his view of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had changed over the past year in the midst of Russia’s ongoing, unprovoked war on Ukraine. “The most important reason for supplying arms to Ukraine is surely profit for the arms industry. And I wonder: is Putin a bigger gangster than Joe Biden and all those in charge of American politics since World War II? I am not so sure. Putin didn’t invade Vietnam or Iraq? Did he?,” Waters said in the interview, repeating previous statements he’s made, while adding that he’s “more open” now to listening to what Putin has to say.

“He launched it on the basis of reasons that if I have understood them well are: 1. We want to stop the potential genocide of the Russian-speaking population of the Donbas. 2. We want to fight Nazism in Ukraine,” Rogers said of Putin’ purported reasoning behind the year-long war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers; there is a near unanimous consensus that Putin’s claims of rooting out Nazis in Ukraine is a false narrative.

When the reporter noted that Waters irritates people by making it sound like he is defending Putin, the singer made no apologies. “Compared to Biden, I am,” he said, adding that he thinks boycotting Russia would be “counterproductive” and that the cancellation last year of his planned concerts in Poland over his controversial statements were an example of “Russophobia.”

The interview also found Waters doubling-down on his longstanding view that the Israeli government is committing “genocide” against the Palestinian people, and included him once again comparing the state of Israel to Nazi Germany and questioning Israel’s right to exist.

Ever since Waters left Floyd in 1985 he has been involved in an ongoing legal dispute with Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason about the use of the band’s name, failing in his bid to block the Gilmour-fronted version of the band from releasing albums and touring in the 1990s.

See the tweets below.

07 Feb 2023

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’: Why Robin Fierce Was ‘Sitting With My Popcorn’ During That Work Room Fight

There’s two things RuPaul’s Drag Race has always excelled at — creating memorable musical moments, and being deeply weird.

On last week’s episode (aired Friday, February 3), the gaggle of remaining girls were tasked with doing both of those things at the same time. The queens were split up and asked to create three Golden Girl-groups — a.k.a. dressing in old lady drag while performing a musical number — around the genres of country, heavy metal and hip-hop.

Aura Mayari finally earned her first challenge win of the season for a truly unhinged performance as a death metal-loving grandma, while Jax and Robin Fierce found themselves at the bottom of the barrel for a pair of fine-but-forgettable performances as twerking nans. Lip synching to The Bangles’ 1988 power-pop hit “In Your Room,” Jax managed to dance her way out of an elimination, leaving Robin to get the chop.

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Billboard chatted with Robin following her elimination about becoming a Twitter meme following the season’s premiere, what she thought of the judges’ critiques, and why she was “playing Switzerland” in this episode’s work room battle between the queens.

Congratulations on making it to episode 6! How have you felt about watching your run on the show?

I’ve loved it! We’re drag queens, we watch ourselves through Instagram all of the time. But it’s been interesting watching myself out of drag, that was the weirdest part for me; I’m not used to seeing boy me on the camera super often. But it’s been a great time.

I want to congratulate you on becoming one of the first-memed queens of the season — that photo of you running in the premiere has been all over my timeline. What has that been like experiencing the Drag Race meme machine?

[Laughs.] I am not shocked, if we’re being honest. For a long time, my friends have told me that if I ever got on Drag Race, I would be a meme — because I might not say a lot all of the time, but everything is literally right there on my face at all times. Whether I’m shocked, or excited, or thinking “what the f–k is going on?” it’s there. It’s not something I can control, it just happens. All of these reaction memes are genuine — so no, I was not shocked by this. And I live for it! It’s funny and fun, and most of the time it’s about having fun. 

It also helps that in the screen-grabs fans are using, you look phenomenal.

Well, that also helps, for sure. 

At the outset of this episode, we had some work room drama when the two other teams began fighting over who got to perform the heavy metal number, led mostly by Malaysia and Luxx. For those of you who were uninvolved, what were you thinking as this was unfolding?

It was basically like we were watching tennis — our heads just kept bouncing back and forth in this conversation. Like, “OK, they said this. Ooh, they threw this shade. They said they’re not getting walked all over. They said they’re not doing rock, paper, scissors.” It was a whole thing. We, the viewers in our hip-hop group, were just happy to not be involved, truly sitting with our popcorn and watching the girls go through their go-through. 

We’ve seen these kinds of fights happen more and more on Drag Race, where it feels like such a small thing to be going at each others throats over.

I mean, I understand both sides, to be honest — I love to play Switzerland. On one hand, you have girls saying, “This is what I want to do, and this is a competition, so I am going to do it.” But then on the other side, “This is a competition, and you do not get to be the decider of my fate.” So, pointless? Yes, but also no. 

It definitely didn’t have to be as dramatic, but it’s Drag Race — you put a bunch of queers in a room, we’re going to be dramatic. Some folks were shocked, and I don’t know why. It’s wild, but when you meet drag queens in real life, this happens. We get into it, and then we move on. 

As a singer yourself, you mentioned on this episode that doing a rap verse was not necessarily your strong suit. With this being a music challenge, how much were you in your own head about not getting to sing?

It was definitely a hard moment. I am a singer, but it’s hard to sing stuff when you don’t have a whole bunch of time to learn it. It was definitely a challenge in that aspect, so I was just trying to roll with the punches. I’m not a rapper; before this instance, I had never rapped in my life. It definitely pushed me more than I thought it was going to. I have written before, but it’s just hard to do in the amount of time that you’re given. But that’s the challenge! Either your rise to it or you don’t, and in that moment, some of us didn’t rise as much as others.

Ru literally said that she was “splitting hairs” when it came to the judging, which to me shows how strong everybody’s writing and performing was. 

Yes, exactly. Like, does it suck to go home? Absolutely. Am I happy that I could be part of a season where I am going up against the best of the best? Absolutely. It’s amazing to be around such talented performers that judges do regularly have to split hairs to figure out who’s staying — I just wish my hairs weren’t the ones being split. [Laughs.]

I felt very frustrated for you this episode, because you were getting your first critique of the season and being told that you’re coasting and fading a little into the background, and then immediately getting sent home on said critique.

It was definitely not the easiest, but it’s a moment of growth for me! I can definitely see what they’re talking about and where I could have pushed more in certain portions of the show. I am not a person who can’t take critiques if it’s actually helpful, so I was for sure ready to take that and run with it. 

You did take the critique, and you explained very eloquently that you know what it is that you’re good at, and you try to highlight that instead of taking a big risk, which feels fair to me. 

I know what I can do! That’s not to say I can’t grow — I’ve been doing this for six years and am still trying new things as I go along my journey. Just for me, in that competition setting, this is not the time to do something where I don’t know whether it will work or not. Also, I’ve never rapped before, and I still did it! It might not have been great. [Laughs.] But I did it!