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As PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s first collaborative album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, debuts atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated March 1), it marks PARTYNEXTDOOR’s first leader, and the 14th chart-topper for Drake. In turn, Drake now ties JAY-Z and Taylor Swift for the most No. 1s among soloists in the nearly-69-year history of the chart. […]
Don Toliver and Speedy’s “LV Bag,” featuring J-Hope and Pharrell Williams, has topped this week’s new music poll, which showcases artists from a variety of genres.
Music fans cast their votes in a poll published on Friday (Feb. 21) by Billboard, choosing the collaborative track as their favorite new release of the past week.
“LV Bag” received nearly 92% of the vote, leading by a wide margin over other notable new releases, including JENNIE’s “ExtraL” (featuring and Doechii), Tate McRae’s So Close to What, Anxious’s Bambi, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s “Call Me When You Break Up” (featuring Gracie Abrams), and more.
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Premiering during Pharrell’s menswear show at Paris Fashion Week, “LV Bag” features Toliver as the headliner, joined by J-Hope of BTS, who takes the opening verse. The track’s melody, a signature Pharrell earworm, is as undeniably catchy as some of his early Neptunes hits.
Toliver released his latest album, Hardstone Psycho, in June, which included collaborations with his Cactus Jack label boss Travis Scott, Kodak Black, Charlie Wilson, Cash Cobain, Future, Metro Boomin, Teezo Touchdown, Lil Uzi Vert, and Yeat. The project became his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
Trailing behind “LV Bag” in this week’s poll is JENNIE’s confident new single “ExtraL,” featuring Doechii, which garnered 6% of the vote. The BLACKPINK member is gearing up for the release of her debut solo album, Ruby, on March 7.
Check out the full results of this week’s poll below and visit Billboard’s Friday Music Guide for more must-hear releases.
PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s first collaborative album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, debuts atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated March 1), earning 246,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 20, according to Luminate. It’s the first leader for PARTYNEXTDOOR and fourth top 10 charting set. It’s 14th No. 1 for Drake among 17 top 10s. Drake now ties JAY-Z and Taylor Swift for the most No. 1s among soloists in the nearly-69-year history of the chart. Overall, only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more.
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A collaborative project from PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake had been teased for months, but was only officially announced on Feb. 3, in advance of its release on Feb. 14.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new March 1, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 25. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U’s 246,000 first-week equivalent album units, SEA units comprise 219,000 (equaling 287.04 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 25,000 (it debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000.
With 287.04 million on-demand official streams generated of its songs, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U nets the largest streaming week for an album in 2025. It’s the largest streaming week for any album since Kendrick Lamar’s GNX debuted at No. 1 on the Dec. 7, 2024, chart with 379.72 million.
Speaking of Lamar, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is Drake’s first album since the feud between him and Lamar escalated in March 2024 with the release of “Like That” by Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar. A flurry of diss tracks followed from each artist, with Lamar’s “Not Like Us” finding the most commercial success, spending three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (including a return to the top a week ago after he performed the track during his Super Bowl LIX halftime show on Feb. 9).
$ome $exy $ongs 4 U replaces Lamar’s GNX atop the Billboard 200, as the latter falls to No. 3 after returning to No. 1 a week ago in the wake of the halftime show. It’s the first time Lamar and Drake have swapped the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200. This is also only the third time Lamar and Drake have been in the top three at the same time on the Billboard 200. They previously shared space in the top three on the May 13, 2017, chart, when Lamar’s DAMN. was in its second week at No. 1 and Drake’s former leader More Life was No. 2, and on the May 6, 2017, chart, when DAMN. debuted at No. 1 and More Life was No. 3. (DAMN. spent four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in May-August 2017 and More Life had three weeks at No. 1, consecutively, in April 2017.)
$ome $exy $ongs 4 U is the first collaborative No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2025. There were three collab No. 1s in 2024, none in 2023, one in 2022, one in 2021 and one in 2020. Of Drake’s 14 leaders, three are collaborative sets. He previously led with the collab projects Her Loss (with 21 Savage in 2022) and What a Time to Be Alive (with Future in 2015).
On the new Billboard 200 chart, Sabrina Carpenter’s former leader Short n’ Sweet surges 7-2 with 156,000 equivalent album units earned (up 208%) following its reissue with five additional tracks on Feb. 14. The set was reissued on streamers, as well as at retail as a digital download, CD, cassette and two vinyl variants. One of the additional cuts on the reissue is a reworked version of Carpenter’s solo No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Please Please Please,” now rerecorded as a collaboration featuring Dolly Parton.
With 156,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, Short n’ Sweet snags its biggest week since it debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated Sept. 7, 2024, with 362,000. Of the album’s 156,000 units earned, SEA units comprise 83,000 (up 108%, equaling 111.95 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it climbs 7-4 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 71,000 (up 616%; it rises 6-1 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000 (up 198%).
SZA’s chart-topping SOS falls 2-4 on the Billboard 200 with 93,000 equivalent album units earned (down 14%); Bad Bunny’s former No. 1 Debí Tirar Más Fotos dips 4-5 with 67,000 units (down 14%); and The Weeknd’s chart-topping Hurry Up Tomorrow descends 3-6 with 58,000 units (down 42%).
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess slips 5-7 on the Billboard 200 (49,000 equivalent album units earned; down 17%); Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft drops 6-8 (46,000; down 18%); Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 8-9 (39,000; down 5%); and Lamar’s DAMN. falls 9-10 (33,000; down 14%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Bill Fay, the British cult folk singer-songwriter, has passed away at the age of 81.
On Saturday (Feb. 23), Fay’s label Dead Oceans confirmed his death in a statement on Instagram, noting that the musician “peacefully” passed away that morning in London. A cause of death was not specified, but Fay had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
“Bill was a gentle man and a gentleman, wise beyond our times,” Dead Oceans wrote in a statement. “He was a private person with the biggest of hearts, who wrote immensely moving, meaningful songs that will continue to find people for years to come.”
Born in North London in 1943, Fay studied electronics at a university in Wales, where he began honing his songwriting skills on piano and harmonium. His early recordings caught the attention of former Van Morrison drummer Terry Noon, who helped him sign to the Decca Records subsidiary Dream.
Fay released two albums with the label: his self-titled debut in 1970 and Time of the Last Persecution in 1971. The latter album was a commercial failure, and he was dropped by the label. Fay would not release any new music for decades afterward.
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“I didn’t leave the music business — the music business left me,” Fay told The Guardian in February 2024. “It wasn’t difficult, because I still had the music … and you find the songs. And then you find another. That’s good enough for me.”
After leaving the music industry, Fay worked as a groundskeeper, fruit picker and factory worker, among other jobs, all while continuing to make music. In 1998, a small British label reissued his first two albums, leading to renewed interest in his work. Producer Jim O’Rourke soon discovered Fay’s music and played it for Jeff Tweedy during the recording sessions for Wilco’s 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Tweedy was so taken with Fay’s music that he incorporated a cover of “Be Not So Fearful” into Wilco’s live shows, even convincing Fay to join the band on stage in 2007 and 2010.
“There’s a simplicity and an elegance to it,” Tweedy told The Guardian last year. “You immediately recognize this is something uncut by ambition and fashion; it’s just somebody humbly adding their voice to contribute some beauty in, and maybe make peace with, the world.”
O’Rourke also introduced Fay’s music to Current 93’s David Tibet, who helped release the 2005 compilation Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow, which featured recordings from 1978 to 1981.
In the years that followed, producer Joshua Henry discovered a copy of Time of the Last Persecution in his father’s record collection and eventually reached out to Fay. This connection led to Fay signing with Dead Oceans, where he released three new albums: Life Is People (2012), Who Is the Sender? (2015), and Countless Branches (2020).
Dead Oceans stated that Fay had been working on new music just a month before his death.
“Only a month before his passing, Bill was busy working on a new album,” the label wrote. “Our hope is to find a way to finish and release it, but for now, we remember Bill’s legacy as the “man in the corner of the room at the piano”, who quietly wrote heartfelt songs that touched and connected with people around the world.”
See Dead Ocean’s announcement of Fay’s passing on Instagram here.
Karol G’s Con Cora Foundation hosted its inaugural Con Cora Land benefit charity gala on Saturday (Feb. 22) at the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami.
The evening, which started promptly at 7 p.m. local time, welcomed industry leaders and artists alike, including Elena Rose, Manuel Medrano, Mau y Ricky and Ela Taubert, among others. The fundraising event was in support of the Colombian singer’s Con Cora Foundation and its Casa Con Cora initiative to empower “thousands of women” to pursue their dreams.
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“This project comes from the heart of the home, the nest of the family,” Karol G said at the event. “When we were little, my parents always had an ideology of life and it was that the blessing had to circulate. The need for the foundation comes from the number of projects that come knocking on our doors that we would love to attend to. With you helping us, we can do it. Our mission is to give the blessing to other women because precisely from our position we realized how difficult it has been. Thank you for being here, for accompanying us. I want you to go home proud because you are making a project possible to support women, entire families, children, girls, and generations.”
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In a previous press release, the artist noted that the foundation’s goal “was to empower women and girls to transform their dreams into reality, regardless of their background. Con Cora Land will be a special space where we can recognize our accomplishments, raise awareness of the impact we’ve made and look ahead to the incredible journey ahead.”
Below, check out some highlights from the gala:
Live Auction
The gala was hosted by Puerto Rican actress and presenter Giselle Blondet, who first invite all the guests to take a seat and enjoy their dinner around 8 p.m. A live auction then took place with five special items. The first, a gold necklace designed by Colombian jeweler Johanna Ortiz that was auctioned for $4,500, followed by tickets to the Miami U.S. Open (auctioned at $7,000), a dinner experience for 16 at the Casadonna Restaurant (auctioned at $7,000), a six-day trip for two to Africa (auctioned at $17,000), and an art piece signed by Karol G and created by a fan in Spain that auctioned for more than $70,000. Many donations were also made, including more than $5,000 for a girl’s soccer training and other educational funds and resources.
An online auction, featuring concert tickets to Bad Bunny’s shows in Puerto Rico and limited-edition merch from Feid, will run until March 12, here.
Special Performers
Following the live auction, the host of the night invited all the guests to make their way to the stage for a one-hour concert. First, guests were surprised by Nelly Furtado, who delivered an intimate acoustic set of “Say It Right,” “Maneater,” and “I’m Like a Bird.” One of the night’s highlights is when Furtado scouted through the crowd to sing her Juanes-assisted “Fotografía” with Karol G. According to the Canadian singer-songwriter, the lattermost is one of Karol’s favorite songs.
Then, to everyone’s surprise too, Ricardo Montaner took center stage with a live band to sing some of his greatest hits: “La Cima del Cielo,” “Me Va a Extrañar” and “Bésame,” to name a few. He told guests that this was the first time in over a year that he performs live, and that the reason he was doing it was because he fully supports Karol’s initiatives with her foundation. “Ay Dios mio, Karol, the things you make me do,” he joked. In the crowd were his sons Mau y Ricky singing along to every song.
Con Cora Land
In true Karol G fashion, the artist made an experience out of her benefit gala event. Among some of the activations held in the gardens of Vizcaya was a market village featuring items made by Latina entrepreneurs: jewelry, crochet, ceramics, and more were sold at the market. Meanwhile, each guest received a Con Cora Land tote filled with goodies, including a JBL portable speaker and a themed bracelet by Amorfa Gemz — a jewelry brand by Karol’s sister and manager, Jessica Giraldo.
Marc Anthony will kick of the 2025 Viña del Mar International Song Festival, performing Sunday (Feb. 23) at the Quinta Vergara amphitheater in the coastal city of Viña del Mar in Chile.
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The salsa superstar will perform with his whole band as part of his Historias tour, in what will be his fourth appearance at the festival. Viña del Mar, which is celebrating its 64th edition, previously hosted Anthony in 2009, 2012 and 2019.
Anthony headlines the first of six nights of stacked performances that will be streamed in the U.S. exclusively on Billboard.com and Billboardespanol.com. He is slated to perform approximately at 7:45 p.m. ET, followed by pop/tropical duo Bacilos at approximately 11:15 p.m. ET.
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Both performances are part of the nightly Viña del Mar broadcast, which year after year is Chile’s highest-rated television show. Each night features a headliner, a supporting artist, a comedian and an international song festival in folk and pop categories, where contestants compete every night for a winner in each.
Sunday’s performance will kick off with Anthony, and will be followed by a set from Venezuelan comedian George Harris, the song competition, and Bacilos as the grand finale.
Led by Jorge Villamizar and André Lopes, Bacilos gained fame in the early 2000s with a series of hits including “Tabaco y Chanel,” and “Caraluna.” With a discography that includes six studio albums, two compilations and two EPs, the Miami-based band has earned a Grammy and five Latin Grammys. Last year, they released their newest album, Pequeños Romances.
Viña will continue Monday (Feb. 24) with performances by headliner Myriam Hernández and sibling duo Ha*Ash; Feb. 25 with Colombian’s Morat headlining and Sebastian Yatra; Feb. 26 with Carlos Vives headlining and Carín León; Feb. 27 with Incubus, Juan Carlos López and The Cult; and Feb. 28, urban night, with headliner Duki, Eladio Carrión and Kid Voodoo.
All nights will be livestreamed in the U.S. on Billboard.com and Billboardespanol.com. Performances can be viewed on the player in this story beginning at 7:15 p.m. ET, or throughout billboard.com and billboardespañol.com.
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Justin Bieber will make a rare public appearance today, as the singer takes to the ice for a charity hockey game benefitting LA wildfire relief.
Bieber, Ross Lynch, Steve Carell, Taylor Kitsch and Skylar Astin are among the celebrities participating in the event, titled, “Skate For LA Strong: A Celebration to Support the Fire Recovery Efforts in Los Angeles.” Four teams will play in a single-elimination format, with each team’s roster featuring a mix of celebrities and former NHL players, along with first responders from LAFD, LAcoFD and LAPD.
The hockey game will mark one of Bieber’s first official appearances in nearly a year. While the singer has been photographed out and about with wife Hailey — most recently at her Rhode Beauty pop-up in LA — he hasn’t headlined an event since playing a surprise Toronto show during NHL All-Star Weekend last February. Guess hockey brings out the best in Biebs.
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Want to watch Bieber playing in the LA strong charity hockey game? Here’s what you need to know.
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How to Watch Skate for LA Strong Hockey Game
Skate for LA Strong takes place live today, Sunday, February 23 at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT. If you want to watch the charity hockey game on TV, the event will be broadcast live nationally on ESPN2, truTV and Sportsnet. In L.A., you can watch Bieber take to the ice on KCAL-TV.
How to Stream Skate for LA Strong Hockey Game Online Free
Want to watch the Skate for LA Strong event online? The NHL charity game is streaming on ESPN+. Log into your ESPN+ account to get a livestream of the event. Don’t have ESPN+? A subscription to the sports streaming service starts at just $11.99/month and gets you a live feed of Bieber’s hockey game in addition to thousands of hours of other live sports and on-demand content.
Don’t want to sign up for ESPN+? Use DirecTV Stream, a live TV streaming service that includes a live feed of ESPN as part of its channel lineup. DirecTV Stream has a free trial that you can use to watch Skate for LA Strong online free without cable. DirecTV lets you stream the hockey game from your phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV.
You can also stream Bieber’s charity NHL game online free through Fubo. Fubo is another live TV streamer that includes ESPN, and the service is currently offering a week-long free trial that you can use to livestream Skate for LA Strong free. Fubo’s free trial includes free DVR so you can record Bieber’s game to watch back on-demand as many times as you want.
In addition to Bieber playing on the ice, today’s event will also feature musical performances from Kaskade, Jordan Davis and Lauren Spencer-Smith. Danny DeVito, Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, Al Michaels, Cobie Smulders, Hannah Stocking, Vince Vaughn and Andrew Whitworth will serve as honorary coaches for the four teams.
L.A. Strong Skate Hockey Game Tickets
While this is a must-see event for many hockey fans and music fans, you actually won’t be able to get tickets to the game. Entry to the wildfire relief event is reserved for first responders, firefighters, and their families.
Bieber’s appearance comes on the heels of a cryptic message posted by the singer on Instagram Thursday, where he wrote that, “It’s time to grow up. Changing is about letting go! Today I’m letting go and remembering the weight isn’t on me to change,” he continued. “The weight is on God. So I give all my insecurities and my fears to him this morning.”
The Bee-Hive reacts and share their thoughts on the expensive tickets to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour tickets and how Ticketmaster has impacted fans ability to buy tickets at affordable rates.
Bee-Hive Member: Ticketmaster is ruining the concert experience. I’ve never had a problem.It’s a monopoly.
Tetris Kelly: ‘Cowboy Carter’ herself, Beyoncé is saddling up for her highly anticipated newshow the ‘Cowboy Carter’ and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit tour, and with the release of new tour dates come new prices, and the ‘Cowboy Carter’ ticket prices are sending fans into a frenzy as they try to cop tickets among soaring prices and Ticketmaster mishaps, with ticket prices reaching over $3,800 in some places, we took to the streets of Hollywood to hear what Beyoncé fans were feeling about these high ticket costs. Would you pay $1,800?
Bee Hive Member: I would not. Yeah, I would not. I mean, I love her, but I’m not, like, one of thosesuper fans, you know.
Bee Hive Member: That’s doing too much, that’s doing too much in this economy, but, you know,Beyoncé going, people gonna, it’s gonna sell out. Somebody got it.
Bee-Hive Member: Oh, my God, it’s a lot of money. I mean, I get it, though, I do get it. It’s a lot of money. I heard people be like, saving up, you know, and stuff like that. So it’s possible.
Bee-Hive Member: I paid $1,200 for Renaissance tickets, for floor seats here in LA, they were resale, so they were up, but it was still, you know, that’s a lot. That’s my rent.
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Source: Jacob Kupferman / Getty / Steve Smith Sr.
When former NFL wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. woke up on Saturday morning, we are positive he didn’t think he would be one of the top trending topics on X, formerly Twitter.
Things got interesting for the former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver, now an NFL Network analyst, when the husband of a woman on X responded to his post featuring a video of himself playing golf, accusing him of sleeping with his wife. He came bearing receipts in the form of text messages.
Smith has been married since 2000 and has four children.
Man just found out that former NFL receiver and current NFL Network analyst Steve Smith Sr. has been sleeping with his wife. He posted the texts and a phone call with Smith on X after finding out.
“I’m sorry”
pic.twitter.com/Q6FckGDXy8
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) February 22, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The accuser shared a screengrab of the alleged sexts between Smith and his wife while tagging multiple news outlets, Smith’s sponsors, Yeti Coolers and TaylorMade, his former team, the Panthers, Ravens, and, for some strange reason, Antonio Brown.
He also shared a video of an alleged phone call between himself and Smith where you can hear the former pro football player saying, “I’m sorry,” and a photo of a bare-chested Smith with a unicorn graphic over his midsection.
The man claims his wife met Smith while working for the Ravens marching band.
Social Media Had Jokes About The Situation
Following the revelation of social media has been on one, of course, it was nothing but pure jokes, especially regarding the explicit nature of the sexts.
“White man crashing out on Twitter cause his wife’s fucking Steve Smith Sr….and yall think I’ll leave this app? Tuh. NEVER. Can’t pay for this kind of live entertainment,” one user on X wrote.
Another user was too tickled by the accuser’s wife telling Smith he almost shifted her contraceptive device. “Rearrange my IUD…..I am dead,” the user said.
Bruh, moments like these make the dumpster fire that is X bearable.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
Canadian rockers Three Days Grace have never played it safe. For over two decades, they’ve delivered some of rock’s most anthemic gut punches—”I Hate Everything About You,” “Animal I Have Become,” and “Never Too Late”—while weathering lineup changes, shifting sounds, and carving out a legacy that refuses to fade.
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Now, they’re flipping the script once again. Original frontman Adam Gontier is back, but not as a replacement—he’s teaming up with Matt Walst in a rare, dual-frontman powerhouse. Instead of a passing of the torch, it’s a collision of past and present, rewriting the band’s next chapter in real-time.
“I grew up same town, watching these guys practice in my basement when I was 12 years old,” Walst tells Billboard. “So I’ve always been a big fan of the band. It’s pretty cool to see this happen.”
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This reunion had been years in the making. Gontier made a surprise appearance with Three Days Grace in 2023, igniting rumors of a comeback. By October 2024, the band made it official after dropping a video of Gontier and Walst linking up at the studio. For the first time, Three Days Grace would have two lead singers.
If the reaction from fans was explosive, the impact on the charts was just as immediate.
Their first single as a dual-fronted band, “Mayday,” skyrocketed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. It marked their 18th No. 1–the first featuring vocals from Gontier since “Misery Loves My Company” in 2013.
“We knew people would freak out about it, but I didn’t think it would fly up to No. 1 on Billboard in five weeks to No.1,” Walst says. “It’s now sat there for five weeks. It’s been No. 1 for half the time it’s been out. We’re blown away by it. It’s crazy.”
With new music and a massive tour alongside Disturbed on the horizon, the next big question became—how do two powerhouse singers split up vocal duties?
“We start rehearsals next week, and then we’re out on tour with Disturbed across America, and it will be the first time we’ve gone through the songs together,” explains Walst, who took on the role of frontman in 2013.
For older songs originally sung by Gontier, Walst says, “I’m playing guitar and singing harmonies, backups.” Meanwhile, for songs from his own tenure, “he’s playing guitar and singing backups, and then for the new song we’re gonna sing together.”
Walst has a deep respect for Gontier’s talent, particularly his vocal range. “He can sing really, really high, he can hit notes that way, way up there. It’s insane.”
That ability, Walst believes, has only grown stronger over time. “It’s pretty cool to watch,” he added.
But when it came to recording their first tracks as a two-frontman band, they took an unconventional approach to deciding who sings what.
“Sometimes we did rock paper scissors,” Walst laughs. “Like, okay, who’s singing this part?”
“A lot of the time in the studio, it just comes naturally. Who’s gonna sing what and where,” he explains. “It’s been a lot of fun. We have each other’s backs and we cheer each other on when we do a good take. It’s pretty cool to be part of.”
“We get along. We’re both pretty chill people, and we’ve known each other for years and years,” he adds of his relationship with his fellow frontman. “We grew up together. We’re from the same town, so it’s not like if Van Halen singers tried to get together and do a tour.”
With a deep catalog of Billboard rock hits, the band is gearing up for a high-energy setlist, featuring the heavy-hitting sound that has fueled their legacy—only this time, with even more fire behind it.
“I think we’re just gonna bash them over the head with some hits,” Walst jokes.
“We have a lot of heavier songs on this album,” Walst teases. “But we have our ballads too, some lighter stuff. With every album, we like to balance it out with heavier songs and some lighter material, just so there’s diversity in it. ‘Mayday’ would not be the heaviest song on the record, but it’s up there.”
After 20 years of career highs, lineup changes, and countless tours, the band knows longevity in rock isn’t just about surviving—it’s about evolving and not letting egos get in the way of the music. For Walst, that’s never been an issue for the band.
“We don’t get offended if our idea isn’t good enough, or if our suggestion doesn’t go through,” he continues. “It’s about the song. Whatever is best for the song is gonna go.”
“I think it’s just writing about stuff that is going on in our lives or around us, and that people can apply themselves to the music and feel that,” Walst reflects. “If they’re depressed or they can reach on to a song, like ‘Never Too Late,’ or they going through a breakup, listening to ‘I Hate Everything About You.’”
As Three Days Grace kick off their new chapter, Walst is looking forward to what’s ahead.
“When the crowd is going nuts, it fuels me,“ he says about performing live. “The more they go crazy, the more I go crazy. I haven’t been on a stage for a year, and it’s gonna be interesting to get back up there and feel the butterflies and feel that energy again. It’s kind of like a drug you can’t get anywhere else.”