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09 Dec 2022

Flo Milli Gets the Crowd Feeling ‘Conceited’ During Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Concert Event

As the Samsung NXT 2.0 singing competition marches on, Flo Milli, the second celebrity mentor in the campaign, brought the crowd to their feet with an energetic set during Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players concert event.

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Preceding a performance by City Girls, the rising star jump started an evening dedicated to female rap at Hollywood’s Academy L.A. event space. With its industrial architecture, moving light system and customizable LED panels surrounding the walls and roof of the venue, the rapper took to the stage in a sparkling gold two-piece with backup dancers in-tow as the crowd erupted with excitement. 

Kicking off the set with her rambunctious, viral hit, “Conceited,” the Alabama native shared a call to action during her march to the stage. “I need all my bad b*tches to the front. If you feelin’ conceited, make some noise,” she declared upon her entrance, before transitioning into speedy bars and choreography. Right until the midnight hour, Milli showcased her punchy flow and charisma throughout the set by delivering songs, including, “Like That B*tch,” “Hottie,” “Bundles,” “We Not Humpin,’” “Weak” and “In The Party.” One evening prior, Flo closed the curtain on her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Tour,” with a sold-out date at The Roxy, and it was clear that her longtime fans took the opportunity to see the buzzing star up close and personal in the intimate venue.

Paying nod to her mentorship role in the Samsung NXT 2.0 competition, Milli also showed love to those very fans by taking a video selfie with concert-goers with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, the same device that our 12 contestants have been armed with as they continue on with their challenge rounds.

Prior to the show-stopping set, a celebration of hip-hop took place outside of the performance space, with Billboard cover stars Future and SZA, Rookie of the Year Blxst, Impact and Excellence Award recipient SAINt JHN, Pusha T and more.

Flo Milli follows Mariah Angeliq as the second mentor in the Samsung NXT 2.0 competition. A third mentor will be revealed in the coming weeks. The trio of rising stars will share their expertise with the final three contenders ahead of a grand finale in Los Angeles in 2023 and the prizes are major. The winner of Samsung and Billboard’s NXT 2.0 competition will win a special digital Billboard cover opportunity, a meeting with a record label, studio time to record their first single, funding for a music video and tickets to the 2023 Billboard Music Awards.

“As an artist, I understand the importance of having community, mentorship and support coming into this business,” Flo said in a statement. “I’m excited to be a mentor for the Billboard x Samsung competition. My number one goal is to give someone the knowledge and support that’s needed to take their dreams and aspirations to the next level.”

For the latest round, the 12 contestants weretasked with showcasing their musicality with the original song challenge. Click here to see how they fared, as well as additional updates on Samsung and Billboard’s NXT 2.0 singing competition!

09 Dec 2022

10 Insights About the 2022 Year-End Hot 100 Top 10: Pop, Retro, Love Songs & More

As 2022 draws to a close, Billboard has, as always, ranked the top music of the year, with scores of year-end charts recapping albums, songs, artists, labels, touring and more.

On the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, Glass Animals reign with “Heat Waves,” their single released in 2020 that endured for a record 91-week run on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, including five frames at No. 1.

Following “Heat Waves” on the year-end Hot 100 Songs rundown are Harry Styles’ “As It Was” (No. 2), The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” (No. 3), Adele’s “Easy on Me” (No. 4), Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” (No. 5), Jack Harlow’s “First Class” (No. 6), Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 7), Justin Bieber’s “Ghost” (No. 8), Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin” (No. 9), and Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” (No. 10).

What were some of the most notable sonic characteristics that made those songs bigger than all others in 2022? Here’s a look at 10 key findings about the top 10 titles on the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart.

Pop the Champagne

Pop reigns supreme as the top genre among the Hot 100’s year-end top 10, accounting for 60% of songs for the second straight year. Hip-hop and dance/club, which were no-shows in 2021, round out the genre pool with 30% and 10% of songs, respectively, the latter represented by “Cold Heart.” In their place last year were R&B/soul hits “Kiss Me More” by Doja Cat featuring SZA, “Leave the Door Open” by Silk Sonic and “Peaches” by Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, and Olivia Rodrigo’s punk-rock influenced “Good 4 U.”

Retro Revival

Retro continued to be current in 2022, with 40% of the year-end Hot 100 top 10 possessing a throwback vibe. The share follows a 50% take in 2021, when the 1970s accounted for 30% and the ’80s, 20%. This year, it was all about the ’80s, with notable representatives in “As It Was” and “Stay.” Last year was, as noted above, that ’70s show, with hits including “Kiss Me More,” and the most authentically retro 2021 year-end top 10, “Leave the Door Open.”

Boys Club

Male vocalists dominated again in 2022, accounting for more than half the year-end Hot 100 top 10. Only 20% were female, via Adele’s “Easy on Me” and Latto’s “Big Energy.” In 2021, male vocalists accounted for 50% of the year-end top 10, with 30% by women.

Less Is More

A hefty 80% of songs in the 2022 Hot 100 Songs top 10 are by a solo performing artist, the exceptions being “Stay” and “Cold Heart.” The onslaught surges past the sum in 2021, when also a majority, 60%, featured multiple performers.

All You Need Is Love

Love ruled in 2022, with 80% of songs in the year-end Hot 100 top 10 featuring a love/relationship lyrical theme, slightly below its 90% haul in 2021. Introspection – shut out in 2021 – followed distantly at 30%, shaping the narrative of inward-looking hits such as “Heat Waves,” “As It Was” and “Easy on Me.” Rounding out the lyrical theme list are lifestyle and hooking up, each at 20%, and boasting, present in the self-explanatory “First Class.”

Don’t You Forget About Me

Along with the ever-popular chorus, 2022’s year-end Hot 100 top 10 includes some additional clever song title placements to ensure that the listener can always name that tune. Among them are the intro, where the title is present in 30% of songs (compared to zero last year), and the outro, where it’s the case with 60% of songs, up from 20%. An example of both is “Heat Waves,” in which the unique, highly effected, low-pitched and processed title hook is in both the intro and outro, bookending the song on a catchy and familiar note.

Hurry It Up

2022’s year-end Hot 100 top 10s sped along at an average tempo of 119 BPM, with 70% landing over 100 BPM. This is notably faster than 2021, when the average was 100 BPM, with only 40% over the 100 BPM mark. This year’s pack was led by the super-speedy “As It Was” and “Stay,” which clock in at 174 BPM and 170 BPM, respectively.

Tighten It Up

In line with the mainstream’s gravitation toward shorter song lengths, half the titles in the year-end Hot 100 Songs top 10 land under the three-minute mark. Shortest of all is “Stay,” at just 2:15. In addition to generally faster tempos, another way that today’s hitmakers are keeping their songs on the shorter end of the spectrum is through the omission of the once-popular pre-chorus. This year, only 30% of year-end top 10s feature a pre-chorus, compared to 60% in 2021. 

Ease ’Em In

Seemingly contrary to the point directly above, intros actually got longer in 2022 compared to 2021 among year-end top 10s on the Hot 100. In fact, they were six seconds longer on average, with the intro in only one song, “First Class,” under 10 seconds, compared to 60% of songs in 2021. That doesn’t mean, however, that these longer-length intros were any less effective. A perfect case is “Heat Waves,” with its super-lengthy 41-second intro. It achieves a multitude of effects without ever losing the listener’s interest, including varying its processing, establishing key vocal and instrumental hooks, setting the song’s tone and vibe and establishing the backing music of the subsequent chorus to seamlessly transport the listener between sections.

Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!

While not an incredibly popular quality due to listener engagement concerns over the past decade, 40% of the songs in the year-end Hot 100 top 10 hit the listener with the chorus before the first verse, up from 20% in 2021, thanks to “Heat Waves,” “Stay,” “First Class” and “Big Energy.” Building anticipation for a song’s chorus helps ensure that listeners stay long enough for a play to count as a stream and be monetized. Otherwise, in our attention-challenged society, fans might get their fill and tune out quickly because they already enjoyed the best part.

David and Yael Penn are the co-founders of Hit Songs Deconstructed. In April, Hit Songs Deconstructed and fellow song analysis platform MyPart partnered to launch ChartCipher, a new platform analyzing hit songs, as defined by Billboard‘s charts.

09 Dec 2022

Fly Me to the Moon: K-Pop Star T.O.P and Steve Aoki Part of SpaceX Voyage

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Friday that K-pop star T.O.P and American DJ Steve Aoki will be among the eight people who will join him on a flyby around the moon on a SpaceX spaceship next year.

The Japanese tycoon launched plans for the lunar voyage in 2018, buying all the seats on the spaceship. He began taking applications from around the world in March 2021 for what will be his second space journey after his 12-day trip to the International Space Station on the Soyuz Russian spaceship last year.

The eight people Maezawa selected for his “dearMoon project” are T.O.P, who debuted as a lead rapper for the K-pop group Big Bang; Aoki; filmmaker Brendan Hall and YouTuber Tim Dodd, also of the United States. The other four are British photographer Karim Illiya, Indian actor Dev Joshi, Czech artist Yemi AD and Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam. American Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were chosen as backups.

T.O.P.’s real name is Choi Seung-hyun. The 35-year-old started out as an underground rapper before joining Big Bang, one of the world’s top boy bands, in 2006.

T.O.P. said in a video released by the dearMoon website that he has always fantasized about space and the moon since he was a child and, “I cannot wait.”

“When I finally see the moon closer I look forward to my personal growth and returning to the earth as an artist with an inspiration,” he said.

Maezawa made the announcement on his Twitter and the dearMoon Project website on Friday, after he tweeted last week saying he held an online meeting with Elon Musk and that his “major announcement about space” was underway.

He and the others would be among the first to travel on the SpaceX vehicle. The trip is expected to take about a week. The spaceship will not make a lunar landing but is expected to come within 200 kilometers (120 miles) of the moon’s surface while circling it for three days.

The trip is expected next year, though the exact schedule has not been disclosed.

“Since I was a little I was dreaming of going to the moon,” said Aoki. “It’s becoming more and more real every day. Still hard to believe but very excited for this amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To the moon!”

Last year, Maezawa, 47, and his producer Yozo Hirano became the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. He has not disclosed the cost for that mission, though reports said he paid $80 million.

Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. In 2019, he resigned as CEO of the e-commerce company Zozo Inc. to devote his time to space travel. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $1.9 billion.

09 Dec 2022

Taylor Swift to Make Directorial Debut For Searchlight Pictures

Fresh off the acclaim for her directorial work on the 14-minute All Too Well: The Short Film, Taylor Swift will be taking her talents to the big screen. Searchlight Pictures announced on Friday morning (Dec. 9) that Swift will make her feature directorial debut for the studio with an unnamed film for which she wrote the original script.

“Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller,” said Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield in a statement announcing the project. “It is a genuine privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.” Swift made history recently when she became the first artists to ever win three video of the year awards at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards and only the second female to direct the winning best longform video winner (for All Too Well: The Short Film).

Swift wrote and directed the 14-minute All Too Well short, which recently screened at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Though there are scant details about Swift’s feature directorial debut, The Hollywood Reporter noted that during her TIFF talk, the singer shouted out women directors including Nora Ephron, Chloe Zhao and Greta Gerwig as her directorial influences.

On Thursday, Swift pulled back the curtain on her direction of the heartbreaking “All Too Well” clip starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien in an Instagram post. The behind-the-scenes footage finds a pony-tailed Swift describing to the actors in detail how they should be feeling in the moment, sometimes trading places with them and tracking their approximate movements for them.

“The first seeds of this short film were planted over ten years ago, and I’ll never forget the behind the scenes moments of the shoot,” she wrote in her caption to her post. “I owe everything to @sadiesink_, Dylan O’Brien, my incredible DP @the_rinayang and my producer @saulysaulysauly.”

The All Too Well video — which is eligible for short film submission at the upcoming 95the annual Academy Awards — followed up Swift’s previous stints behind the camera helming the clips for her directorial debut with “The Man” from her 2019 Lover album, as well as her direction on clips for “Cardigan” and “Willow.”

In addition to a brief role in David O. Russell’s just-released drama Amsterdam, Swift has acted in a number of other films, including Cats, The Giver, Valentine’s Day and The Lorax.

09 Dec 2022

Elle King Cancels Trio of Radio Shows After Slipping on Stairs in the Night and Suffering Concussion

Elle King apologized to fans on Thursday (Dec. 8) after she was forced to cancel three shows this week following a slip-and-fall at home. The singer revealed in a note that she had an accident while feeding her newborn son, Lucky Levi.

“Just wanted to check in with a quick update and apologize to my fans in Tampa, Detroit and Seattle. I share your disappointment that I had to cancel my radio shows this week,” she said of pulling out of the gigs in Tampa (Dec. 7), Detroit (Dec. 8) and Seattle (Dec. 9). “No one ever wants to pull out of shows, especially me,” she continued.

“I live for performing. I slipped down the stairs making a bottle in the middle of the night, knocked my ass out, resulting in a concussion,” King explained. “I tired to push through and played 3 shows, but the travel, lights, all of it only exacerbated things.” King thanked all the artists who stepped in to fill her slots and the radio station sponsors for understanding.

King is preparing to release her first full-length country album, Come Get Your Wife (Jan. 27), which will feature her duet with Miranda Lambert, “Drunk (And I Don’t Want to Go Home),” as well as previously released tracks “Try Jesus,” “Out Yonder” and the Dierks Bentley duet “Worth a Shot.”

The singer is slated to hit the road again in February when she kicks off her A-Freakin-Men headlining tour on Valentine’s Day at the Fillmore New Orleans.

Check out King’s tweet below.

09 Dec 2022

Billie Eilish, The Killers, Foals, Imagine Dragons Among 2023 Reading & Leeds Festival Headliners

The lineups for 2023’s Reading & Leeds Festival was revealed on Friday morning (Dec. 9), with Billie Eilish, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Foals, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Fender announced as headliners. It will be a return to the top slot for previous headliners the Killers and Foals, while the rest will be making their topline debut; Eilish, 20, will also become the youngest solo artist to headline.

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Other acts revealed on the first poster for the event that will take place from Aug. 25-27 include Wet Leg, Loyle Carner, Steve Lacy, Central Cee, Slowthai, Becky Hills, Lil Tjay, Meekz, Nessa Barrett, You Met at Six, Nothing But Thieves, Baby Queen, Bicep Live, Georgia, Inhaler, Trippie Redd, LF System, MK, Yung Lean, Tion Wayne and Andy C.

The initial poster also reveals that Don Broco, Eliza Rose, Songer, Lovejoy, Chase Atlantic, Declan McKenna, Muna, Shy FX, Songer and The Snuts will be performing as well. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday (Dec. 12) here.

Fender could hardly contain his excitement, tweeting, “I first went to Leeds festival 10 years ago as a teenager, me and Deano spent the entire week launching hot dogs out of a gazebo pole at random crowds of lads chanting ‘Yorkshire Yorkshire’. One night I was out cold in my tent from necking a bottle of vodka at Eagles of Death Metal my tent got set alight – some fine young hero from Sheffield pissed out the fire to save me. Thankfully because of that lad whose name I can’t remember, I didn’t perish in the flames, little did he know he’d just saved Reading and Leeds’s 2023 headliner.”

Check out the official poster for the 2023 Reading & Leeds festival and some artist reactions below.

09 Dec 2022

Lady Gaga Goes Goth in ‘Bloody Wednesday’ Dance Video Inspired by ‘Bloody Mary’ TikTok Trend

Everyone’s doing the “Bloody Mary.” The viral TikTok dance sensation inspired by Wednesday star Jenny Ortega’s quirky moves that is set to the sanguineous 2011 Lady Gaga song has blown up so big that even Mother Monster couldn’t resist throwing her black veil into the ring.

“Bloody Wednesday,” Gaga dubbed her black and white TikTok response video, in which she quickly applies her gothy white makeup and fills out her eyebrows while slipping into leather Mary Janes, plaid knee socks, black shorts, a matching jacket and a black shirt with a frilly white front. And then she dances. Waving her hands behind her body while rocking an impassive look and then bopping them back and forth in front of her chest to the song’s sped-up, chipmunk-like vocals, Gaga goes full tragic teen.

Born This Way deep cut “Mary” went viral a few weeks ago when TikTokers began using it to soundtrack video recreations of Wednesday Addams’ (Ortega) standout dance scene in the hugely popular new Netflix series about the creepy, kooky family.

It’s not the first time Gaga has nodded to the trend. On Dec. 1, she tweeted, “Slay Wednesday! You’re welcome at Haus of Gaga anytime (and bring Thing with you, we love paws around here ?).” The singer’s tweet was a response to a cute message from the Wednesday Addams official Twitter account, expressing the fictional character’s approval of the “Bloody Mary” trend. “I see you doing my dance moves to @LadyGaga’s Bloody Mary,” it read. “I understand she is followed by little monsters. I approve.”

Just two weeks after its debut, Wednesday is Netflix’s third most-watched English-language series of all time with more than 752 million hours viewed since its Nov. 23 premier.

Clips showcasing Ortega’s instantly lovable portrayal of the gothy teenage character quickly started circulating online after the series dropped, especially a scene in which she shows off her peculiar style of boogying at a school dance. Ortega actually choreographed the dance herself, later revealing on Twitter that she’d taken inspiration from several artists as well as old videos of goths getting down at dance clubs in the 1980s.

Though the dance sequence in Wednesday was actually set to “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps, TikTok users started making fan edits with the scene using Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” some of them dressing up in black and doing their hair to match Ortega’s school dance look in Wednesday.

Ortega recently revealed that she was feeling super ooky while filming the scene. In fact, she said that she was sick with COVID-19 during the filming of the now-famous scene, which she choreographed.

Check out Gaga’s dance below.

09 Dec 2022

Chiquis Drops ‘Paloma Blanca’ Mariachi Version on 10th Anniversary of Mom Jenni Rivera’s Death

Chiquis has released a mariachi version of her debut single “Paloma Blanca” in honor of her mother Jenni Rivera’s death 10 years ago, on Dec. 9, 2012. The new interpretation comes eight years after the original banda track debuted in 2014. 

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Accompanied by the all-female Mariachi Divas, the Mexican-American singer belts out a heartfelt love letter to La Diva de la Banda, expressing how much she misses her, what she would’ve changed about their mother-daughter relationship, and her biggest life lessons learned. 

The song was produced by Cindy Shea, Ulises Lozano El Licenciado and Janney “Chiquis” Marin, and co-written by Marin and Claudia Brant.

“When ‘Paloma Blanca’ was originally released, I wasn’t entirely happy with the way it was recorded. I have always wanted to re-release it,” Chiquis said in a press statement. “My vocals and delivery have greatly evolved over these last eight years and I feel better than ever about my music so I decided to record it alongside Mariachi Divas. It will always be dedicated to my mom who passed away ten years ago but I also wanted to re-record it for her fans as well as mine.” 

Bringing the emotional lyrics to life, a music video helmed by director Oscar Eden shows Chiquis performing the song dressed as an angel as well as never-before-seen footage of her mother.

The sweet tribute comes a month after Chiquis received her first-ever Grammy nomination for best regional Mexican album and her second Latin Grammy win in the best banda album category with Abeja Reina.

Watch the music video for “Paloma Blanca” below:

09 Dec 2022

Paul Kelly’s ‘Christmas Train’ Stops at No. 1 on Australia’s Albums Chart

Paul Kelly scores an early Christmas gift, as the veteran Australian singer, songwriter and wordsmith bags the chart crown with his holiday collection.

Kelly’s “2022 Edition” of Christmas Train (GAWD/EMI) stops at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, published Dec. 9. That’s one better than Christmas Train’s No. 2 debut and peak position following its original release in 2021, an effort that made it the highest-charting Christmas album of the year in Australia.

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Christmas Train collects a batch of classics, and features a new recording of Ron Sexsmith’s “Maybe This Christmas” — recorded with Kelly’s live band at Soundpark Studios in Melbourne — and, of course, Kelly’s own holiday standard, “How to Make Gravy,” a tale of a prisoner reflecting on the friends and family he’ll miss while he’s locked up for Christmas.

Guest vocalists on the LP include Marlon Williams, Waleed Aly, Lior, Emma Donovan, Kasey Chambers, Kate Miller-Heidke, Vika & Linda Bull, and more.

With another Aussie Christmas set blazing to No. 1 last week, Jimmy Barnes’ Blue Christmas (down 4-1 this cycle), ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd is calling the result “amazing” and “one more thing to celebrate as we enter the festive season. Congratulations to Paul for his success, it’s fantastic to see such an accomplished and important national storyteller continue to reach new heights.”

Kelly had to wait for his first No. 1. It finally came in 2017 with Life Is Fine, his 23rd studio album. Its followup, 2018’s Nature, also scaled the summit.

A smattering of Christmas gifts are placed on the ARIA Charts, including Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Reprise/Warner), up 36-8 on the albums survey, and the Bocellis’ A Family Christmas (Decca/Universal), which holds at No. 9.

Leaping in at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart, just behind Taylor Swift’s Midnights (Universal), is Australian Frog Calls: Songs of Disappearance (via MGM), an album that features calls from 43 of Australia’s most threatened frogs.

The set is a collaborative project of Australia Museum FrogID project, the Bowerbird Collective, Listening Earth and Mervyn Street of Mangkaja Arts, and aims to raise awareness for Australia’s declining frog population. Currently, one in six Australian native frog species are threatened.

The amphibian benefit recording is from the same well as Australian Bird Calls: Songs of Disappearance, an album of bird songs that reached No. 2 on the national chart in 2021.

Also new to the ARIA Albums Chart is Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (Republic/Universal), new at No. 5, while BTS star RM’s starts at No. 26 with his solo debut Indigo (Interscope/Universal), and Magic Dirt singer Adalita bows at No. 29 with Inland (Liberation/Universal).

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Sam Smith & Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (Capitol/Universal) unseats “Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (Universal) after six weeks, while Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (Columbia/Sony) races 11-3.

Metro Boomin’ has the top debut on the singles survey with his Heroes & Villains release, “Creepin’” featuring the Weeknd and 21 Savage. It’s new at No. 8.