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Israel’s Netta Barzilai has not found it easy to create during the 13 months since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on her homeland and the ensuing war. But a brand new single, “Big Love,” brings the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest winner’s thoughts and emotions into focus.
“My job, my calling, is to bring people together over light and enhance the light in them,” Netta tells Billboard via Zoom from her apartment in Jaffa, an ancient port city near Tel Aviv. “I believe that music and art, especially in dark times, is important to any free world. It’s important for people to consume and create.”
Yet, she adds, “I felt this year I’m in no mood to create. The war isn’t something inspiring. It’s the darkest part of humanity. This year I’ve witnessed pain in amounts and in magnitude that I could not function. I tried, but I could not write. I’m a very happy person, and I tried all the mechanisms that I know that make me happy and they didn’t work. Usually when I walk in a studio and create it feels like the right thing, and every time I walked in the studio (after Oct. 7), it didn’t.”
With the uncharacteristically ethereal and moody “Big Love” – out now on S-Curve Records — Netta found a way to address her circumstances, acknowledging the situation and declaring in its chorus that, “This world may crumble but I’m by your side, with a big love.”
“This is a song that was written with friends out of desperation,” explains Netta, who composed the track with producer Theron “Neff-u” Feemster, Paul Duncan and Avshalom Ariel. “It’s for me to feel stronger and for me to just let myself know that this is my answer to the darkness growing inside — of all of us. War and conflict have always been part of human nature…and it’s soul-crushing. And in order for us to fight it we have to create light. (The song) is very personal, and it’s the little that I can do just to put it out there. But it is what it is.”
The sentiments of “Big Love,” Netta adds, aren’t limited to one side of the conflict or the other. “It’s to anyone who needs it. In my song I say if I had the moon and stars I would get them for you. If I could sing and stop the war, I would do it for you, if it could be that easy. It might sound cliché, but I really believe that making music is a calling, and I don’t think you have control over who finds power in it and who finds comfort in it. I hope whoever needs comfort anywhere finds comfort and light in this.”
On Oct. 7, Netta was slated to open for Bruno Mars in Tel Aviv and film a video during the show; those plans were scuttled, of course, and in the wake of the attack she found herself in the wrenching position of helping to take care of children whose families were tending to the dead and injured, as well as singing at funerals. Netta also scratched plans for a world tour and an English language album she had recorded and returned to Israel full-time — “I needed to be here,” she says — and released a Hebrew album, Hakol Alai (All On Me). She appeared as a contestant on the 10th season of Rokdim Im Kokhavim, Israel’s Dancing With the Stars, and also performed at a May rally in Tel Aviv calling for the release of hostages still held by Hamas.
Netta also watched this year’s Eurovision, which was marked by protests over Israel’s involvement, while contestant Eden Golan faced threats and harassment throughout the competition.
“I felt really bad for her,” Netta says. “I thought she was a champ dealing with so much hate. When a girl stands on stage and she sings and so many people are trying to bring her down…I think it ruined Eurovision. Eurovision is supposed to be about having a safe space for art and a safe space for people to unite and be brought together. Eurovision is supposed to be the answer to, yes, there are geographical debates and politicians have their wars, but this should be the place to show them that we can talk and we can understand. It was very, very sad.”
Netta says her own situation in Israel right now is safe, which she considers “a gift.” She’s not yet sure if “Big Love” will rekindle her muse, but she’s confident that whatever comes next will have a similar purpose.
“I find small hopes,” she says. “As goofy and as funny and as colorful as my music has always been, it’s always been about love, and it’s always been about light. I’m so sad the world isn’t a perfect place. It crushes me. I really wish it was different, but…it is so complex. But I believe in humans. I believe they can restore and rebuild. I have to.”
Pharrell Williams is clarifying a misinterpreted quote he gave to The Hollywood Reporter about celebrity endorsements, which led some to believe he was dissing Taylor Swift over voicing her support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
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In a new cover story with GQ, Williams explained, “They pit you against each other. I love Taylor. She knows that.”
Noting that he didn’t even mention her in the interview, the “Happy” singer added, “I bought a 1989 Taylor t-shirt online last year, and I was walking around here with it tucked into my jeans. I love her. I love people, bro. That was some right-wing troll s—. But I heard something the other day that made the most sense in the world: Right-wing, left-wing, all the same bird.”
Swift was one of many musicians gave Harris their seal of approval this past election, with Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and more speaking out in support of the Democratic ticket before Donald Trump ultimately won the presidency earlier this month.
In a post shared with her 238 million followers, Swift expressed her admiration for Harris, calling her a “steady-handed, gifted leader” and a “warrior” for causes she holds dear, such as LGBTQ+ rights and women’s reproductive freedoms.
Shortly after her endorsement, the Hollywood Reporter interview with Williams was published in which he said he doesn’t “do politics” and gets “annoyed sometimes” by celebrity endorsements. “There are celebrities that I respect that have an opinion, but not all of them. I’m one of them people [who says], ‘What the heck? Shut up. Nobody asked you,’” he said at the time. “When people get out there and get self-righteous and they roll up their sleeves and s—, and they are out there walking around with a placard: ‘Shut up!’ So, no, I would rather stay out of the way, and obviously, I’m going to vote how I’m going to vote. I care about my people and I care about the country, but I feel there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really about the action.”
A week after Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, The Blessed Madonna has Tuesday (Nov. 12) published an essay on her newly launchedSubstack in response.
The Kentucky-born, London-based producer (real name: Marea Stamper) writes that she is “yoked to the brink of collapse with contempt for millions of my fellow Americans, myself included possibly. When Project 2025 spelled out the plan to cement power in the hands of white, straight men, while kneecapping every inch of progress made in our country over the last fifty years, I believed them, just as I believed Trump in 2016. I believe they intend to do what they have promised. But still, I feel like someone kicked the air out of me.”
The Blessed Madonna, who released her debut album Godspeed in October, is one of the few politically vocal electronic artists in the scene and is one of a handful of producers to publicly comment on the election results, with Massive Attack and Moby also sharing their thoughts following the Nov. 5 election. Read her complete statement below.
At night, I flip through my phone and try to make a timeline, something that will put this in a linear form that I can understand.
417 weeks ago, I was boarding a plane and a bunch guys in camo and MAGA gear got on. I posted a picture and I tagged United Airlines and said, these men are wearing clothing associated with a hate group and I feel uncomfortable. I was absolutely serious. But the comments poured in calling me judgemental, overreactive, snide, unhelpful. “You don’t know these guys at all! Terrible form. You would go nuts if someone did that to you.” As if that MAGA hat isn’t the stand in for a white hood. As if we did not see those men scaling the wall of the Capitol four years later.
It doesn’t matter how many pictures I look at or timestamps I check though. It’s all a knot of repeating scenarios. I tell my mother it will be ok. I tell myself it will be ok. Someone does something that makes me lose faith in humanity. Someone does something that restores it, for a while. It all just swings back and forth, ticking like a metronome which does not tell time, but keeps it in a holding pattern.
This week the metronome’s pendulum has swung mostly to shame. I indulged in the kind of optimism that no mother who has ever had to give her black or brown son “the talk” about police brutality will ever have the luxury to enjoy. I am yoked to the brink of collapse with contempt for millions of my fellow Americans, myself included possibly. When Project 2025 spelled out the plan to cement power in the hands of white, straight men, while kneecapping every inch of progress made in our country over the last fifty years, I believed them, just as I believed Trump in 2016. I believe they intend to do what they have promised. But still, I feel like someone kicked the air out of me. Women have cast their vote for men who would let them bleed to death in a hospital parking lot from a miscarriage, should they need an abortion?
I am so angry, I feel as if I drank poison and am waiting for the other guys to die.
This is who we are. This is America.
Don’t say it’s not.
We have done this now not twice, but millions of times in millions of ways. We have have done it at the border. We have done it in for-profit prisons and for nothing executions. We have done it in forever wars and proxy wars and culture wars. We have sold our schools and public hospitals off for parts and left human beings in the wreckage.
And We The People have chosen as a country to buy what that vile man is selling, the real American dream: white supremacy. And he will sell it to you whether you can redeem or not. And he has sold it to you, though in the end, it will redeem no one and nothing. And so tonight, what I lack in optimism, is replaced with rage, which itself I believe can be a kind of love. It is not a gentle or comforting kind of love, but the love that lives behind bared teeth and says: motherf—ker, one of us is about to die trying.
Following Donald Trump’s 2024 Presidential Election victory, Uncle Luke took to Instagram Live and blasted the Latinos who cast their vote for Trump.
Per NBC News’ exit polls, Trump earned 45 percent of the Latino vote — while Harris held 51 percent — which is a 13-point uptick for the twice-impeached president elect compared to the 2020 election. It’s also a record high for a Republican presidential nominee, as Trump toppled George W. Bush’s 44 percent in the 2004 election.
“All y’all who didn’t vote for Kamala, y’all stupid a– gon’ get deported. Y’all having marches and s–t already. We are not going out there to march,” Luke said. “Black people are not going to march for you. I’m sorry, we will not be marching. It’s no more such thing as Black and brown people. It’s Black. We will not be marching with you.”
The former 2 Live Crew frontman continued: “The line got drawn last Tuesday,” he continued. “We know where we stand with all y’all. White people know where they stand with white women. Black people know where they stand with Hispanics. We though y’all were our friends. Y’all go through some things, we be out there fighting and marching and then you do this.”
Luke believes some Black people may be distancing themselves from Latinos in the future, and joked about how ICE agents looking to deport illegal immigrants will be singing along to Vanilla Ice’s chart-topping 1990 single “Ice Ice Baby.”
“Now you got to worry about the little Black ladies who sitting there looking out the window calling the people on you,” he said. “Hey ICE. They going to be singing the song. ‘Ice Ice Baby.’”
Luke’s commentary caused quite a stir on social media. “Luke isn’t a Black American so idk why he cackling talking about we,” one fan fired back on X. “You are Carribean not Black American.”
Trump overwhelmingly beat out Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. In addition to winning the popular vote, per NBC News, the business mogul — who in May was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — also took the Electoral College 312 to 226, and swept all seven swing states.
Watch Uncle Luke’s rant below.
Sting isn’t worried about the legacy of “Every Breath You Take,” even if it is somewhat tied to Sean “Diddy” Combs forever.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published Monday (Nov. 11), the Police frontman was asked whether his feelings toward his band’s iconic 1983 hit — which the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder famously sampled in his own “I’ll Be Missing You” — now that Combs is facing trial for numerous allegations of sexual abuse, racketeering and more.
“No,” Sting began. “I mean, I don’t know what went on [with Diddy]. But it doesn’t taint the song at all for me. It’s still my song.”
The original “Every Breath You Take” spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 the year it came out, and it remains The Police’s only No. 1 hit on the chart. Fourteen years later, Diddy released “I’ll Be Missing You” as a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans and 112, featuring an interpolation of Sting’s classic; it spent 11 weeks at No. 1.
Diddy was arrested Sept. 16 on charges of abuse, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery, after which he was immediately taken into custody and denied bail multiple times as he awaits trial on May 5, 2025. The most recent update in his case came Friday (Nov. 8), when a judge rejected his “unprecedented” and “unwarranted” request that a gag order be issued against his alleged victims and their lawyers on the grounds that they were making “inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press.”
“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”
Meanwhile, Sting has been touring once again as part of a trio with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, a setup not unlike his three-person lineup with The Police’s Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland — and the “We’ll Be Together” singer is aware of the irony. “I never left the Police,” he said while speaking to the Times. “I’m not sure what I did. I just made a record — as the others had done — and enjoyed it more than I did being in a band.
“And here I am again,” he continued of his return to form. “My whole modus is surprise. I don’t want people to be entirely confident about what I’m going to do next. That’s the essence of music for me. And no one expected a trio at this point.”
Karol G gave a lengthy response Monday (Nov. 11) to the criticism her new song “+57” — featuring J Balvin, Feid, Maluma and other Colombian acts — as it faces backlash over lyrics that some have construed as sexualizing minors.
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Her post comes four days after dropping the reggaetón track, which brought together Colombia’s biggest hitmakers, also including Ryan Castro, Blessd and newcomer DFZM. Produced by Ovy on the Drums — Karol’s longtime producer — and co-written by Keityn, the song, even before it dropped, was being labeled as a new anthem for Colombia.
But shortly after it was released on Thursday (Nov. 7), the song’s lyrics received criticism online, with some people pointing out its over sexualization of minors. (In one line, they mention a woman who’s been a “mamacita,” or “hot mama,” since she was 14 years old.) Rolling Stone En Español published a column titled “The Disaster of +’57′” and the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF) issued a statement saying that the song “reinforces the sexualization of children in our country” and that it “does not contribute to our fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.”
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Karol wrote in her Instagram Stories that as artists, they are exposed to public opinion and that the song’s lyrics were taken out of context. She began her message by pointing out that she has always been grateful for her fans’ support and those who “know my project, the intentions of my work and the causes close to my heart, those that move me, that I am passionate about and for which I work every day with love and responsibility,” she continued. “I do care about my people and I am a person that every day I look for ways to get involved in projects where I myself can extend my blessing and impact in a positive way the lives of many people.
“As artists, we are exposed to public opinion, and to the individual interpretations of people who like us and people who differ with what we do. I feel a lot of frustration for the misinformation that has been given, about the false posts that I have supposedly made and deleted from twitter, an account that I have not used for more than six months. In this case, unfortunately, the lyrics of a song, with which I sought to celebrate the union between artists and put to shine my people … were taken out of context. None of the things said in the song have the direction they have been given, nor was it said from that perspective but I listen, I take responsibility and I realize that I still have a lot to learn. I feel very affected and I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” she added. It’s worth noting that Karol doesn’t sing the line about the “14 year old,” but rather some of the men on the track, yet she’s the one apologizing.
Feid, Balvin and Ovy on the Drums have all reposted Karol’s post in solidarity. “Queen, we are with you,” Balvin wrote. “You have given us so many wins that this doesn’t take away from your greatness, we’re here unconditionally.”
Karol ended her post once again thanking her fans for “their unconditional love and support.” She concluded, “I value it very much, and the artists who participated with me in the song, I keep in my heart the beautiful energy with which we worked that day.”
Two election-related tracks head up Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart dated Nov. 16, as Tom MacDonald and Nova Rockafeller’s “Goodbye Joe” debuts at No. 1 and a new version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” with Drew Jacobs opens at No. 2.
In the week ending Nov. 7, “Goodbye Joe” sold 12,000 downloads in the U.S., according to Luminate. “God Bless the U.S.A.” sold 11,000.
“Goodbye Joe” is MacDonald’s fourth Digital Song Sales No. 1, following “Fake Woke” in 2021, “Ghost” in 2023 and “You Missed” this July. Rockafeller’s previous best was alongside MacDonald and Brandon Hart on “No Good Bastards,” which peaked at No. 15 in 2021.
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“Goodbye Joe,” which also debuts at No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, finds the pair celebrating the upcoming end of President Joe Biden’s term in office after he withdrew his candidacy for a second term in July. Former President Donald Trump won a second term on Election Day, Nov. 5, four days after the song’s release.
“God Bless the U.S.A.,” meanwhile, is a rock redo of Greenwood’s 1984 patriotic single, which hit No. 7 that year on Hot Country Songs. He’s joined by Jacobs, who previously reigned on Digital Song Sales as part of a cover of Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country” alongside State of Mine in 2021.
In addition to its No. 2 bow on Digital Song Sales, “God Bless the U.S.A.” bows at No. 1 on Rock Digital Song Sales, marking Greenwood’s first leader and Jacobs’ second, following “God’s Country.” It also starts at No. 2 on Country Digital Song Sales. Greenwood’s original “God Bless the U.S.A.” led Digital Song Sales for a week in July 2020.
Concurrently, the new version of “God Bless the U.S.A.” debuts at No. 28 on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. In addition to its song sales, the tune earned 371,000 official U.S. streams. “Goodbye Joe,” meanwhile, starts at No. 49 on Hot Country Songs, with 1.6 million streams in addition to its sales.
Both “Goodbye Joe” and “God Bless the U.S.A.” were released Nov. 1, capitalizing on the then-imminent U.S. presidential election. Greenwood’s solo original version concurrently re-enters Digital Song Sales at No. 13 (3,000 sold, up 267%).
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 16 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
One of the suspects in the investigation into the death of Liam Payne broke his silence over the weekend in an interview with an Argentinian media outlet. Three people were detained last week in connection with Payne’s death on Oct. 16 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the One Direction singer and solo star died after falling from a third-floor balcony of a hotel.
Speaking to journalist Guillermo Panizza for Telefe Noticias, 24-year-old waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz admitted to partying with Payne, but denied supplying the 31-year-old singer drugs; to date, Argentinian authorities have not revealed the names of any of the suspects that have been detained and Billboard has not been able to independently confirm that Paiz was one of them.
Paiz said he met Payne twice before the singer’s death, but insisted, “I never supplied Liam with drugs. Liam’s first contact with me was at my place of work.” He said they swapped info and then got back together later that night, with the report including pictures of the two men together. “We got together there and he showed me some of the music he was going to bring out. I’ve heard people saying he was taking drugs, but the truth is that when he got to the restaurant where I was working he was already under the effects of drugs and he didn’t actually eat anything.” Paiz said the two men communicated via Payne’s secret Instagram account.
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When the two men got together a second time at Payne’s hotel on Oct. 13, Paiz — who reportedly has lost his job in the wake of the investigation — claimed that he spent the night partying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, alleging that the singer was doing cocaine while Paiz smoked pot. “We took drugs together, but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money,” said Paiz, who added that his home has been searched in the probe, but that he has not yet been questioned by investigators.
Paiz also said he doesn’t know who the other two unnamed suspects are and that he does not know what happened to Payne after he left the hotel room. Click here to watch the interview in Spanish.
Last week, officials in Buenos Aires released Payne’s body to his family for repatriation to the U.K. and a press release from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s office No. 14 revealed the final results of toxicology tests on the singer. According to a translated copy of the report, in the 72 hours before Payne died after falling from a three-story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he had “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” in his system.
The results of the autopsy concluded that Payne’s death was caused by “‘multiple trauma’ and ‘internal and external hemorrhage,’ the result of the fall the musician suffered from the balcony of the third-floor room of the hotel in the Palermo neighborhood where he was staying.”
Additional reports concluded that the injures Payne sustained were caused by a fall at the hotel from a height and that “self-harm of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties were ruled out.” Authorities also reported that Payne did not adopt a “reflex posture” to protect himself from the fall, which led to the conclusion that he “may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”
The three people detained so far were charged with abandonment leading to death and the supply and facilitation of narcotics.
A misprint on the packaging for Wicked character dolls manufactured by Mattel led consumers to visit an adult website, rather than the movie’s website, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Mattel issued an apology for the error on Sunday (Nov. 10). The web address listed on the doll boxes in question is wicked.com, instead of Universal […]
The federal judge overseeing Sean “Diddy” Combs’ racketeering and sex trafficking case has denied his request for a gag order against his victims and their lawyers, ruling the demand “unprecedented” and “unwarranted.”
Attorneys for the embattled rapper claimed last month that “inflammatory extrajudicial statements” from victims and their attorneys were hurting his chances of a fair trial, but Judge Arun Subramanian ruled Friday (Nov. 8) that such “an extreme remedy” would threaten free speech.
“The court has an affirmative constitutional duty to ensure that Combs receives a fair trial,” the judge wrote. “But this essential … requirement must be balanced with the protections the First Amendment affords to those claiming to be Combs’s victims.”
“The unprecedented relief that Combs seeks on this motion is unwarranted,” the judge added.
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. But in September, he was indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking over what they say was a sprawling criminal operation aimed at satisfying his need for “sexual gratification.” If convicted on all the charges, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
Last month, following the latest wave of civil abuse lawsuits against Combs, his lawyer asked Judge Subramanian to issue a sweeping gag order, claiming the lawyers behind the civil cases had made “shockingly prejudicial and false allegations” about him.
“Mr. Combs has a constitutional right to a fair trial, free from the influence of prejudicial statements in the press,” his attorney Marc Agnifilo wrote in the Oct. 20 motion. “These prospective witnesses and their lawyers have made numerous inflammatory extrajudicial statements aimed at assassinating Mr. Combs’s character in the press.”
But in Friday’s decision, Judge Subramanian ruled that the order Combs was seeking was “incredibly broad” and would have “sweeping First Amendment implications.”
“Not all alleged victims will be participants in this case, and a blanket restriction on their speech will silence individuals who may never have anything to do with the proceedings here,” the judge wrote.
The judge said he had “already taken steps to limit what can be said publicly” about the case and was “open to other tailored proposals that will help ensure a fair trial.” He also said Combs could take specific actions in the various civil lawsuits he was facing if the lawyers in those cases misbehave. But he said he could not do anything close to what Combs was seeking.
“A gag order … is an extreme remedy to be issued only as a last resort,” the judge wrote. “What Combs seeks goes even further.”
Separately on Friday, Combs’ lawyers also renewed their request that he be released from jail on a $50 million bond while he awaits trial. That request has been repeatedly denied since Combs was arrested, but the new filing cited the fact that former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries — another high-profile defendant accused of sex trafficking in New York — was immediately released on a $10 million bond after he was arrested last month.
“The government recently successfully requested pretrial release for two similarly situated defendants, including a CEO accused of sex trafficking dozens of young men, including through witness intimidation,” Agnifilo wrote in the new motion. “The conditions of release requested in Jeffries pale in comparison to the conditions proposed by Mr. Combs here.”