Photo Gallery
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Billboard Women in Music 2023 brought all the female love and support and to the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday (Mar. 1), where some of the most impactful women in the music industry came together to uplift and celebrate each other.
SZA was honored as the 2023 Woman of the Year, following her incredible 2022 and the release of her impressive sophomore album, SOS, which is enjoying its 10th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. “You just have to say yes to the possibility,” she concluded her moving acceptance speech at the ceremony. “And thank y’all for saying yes to me.”
Ivy Queen, Rosalía, Lana Del Rey, Kim Petras, TWICE, Lainey Wilson, Doechii, Becky G and Latto were also honored with their own awards at the ceremony. Rosalía was the event’s first-ever Producer of the Year, Ivy Queen accepted the Icon Award, Lana Del Rey was the night’s Visionary, Kim Petras took home the Chartbreaker award, TWICE was the Breakthrough artist, Lainey Wilson was awarded the Rulebreaker honor, Doechii was honored as the Rising Star, Becky G accepted the Impact award and Latto was 2023’s Powerhouse.
The fun continued backstage at Women in Music, where the honorees and the night’s presenters posed for a series of stunning portraits. See them all in the gallery below.
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
SZA
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Rosalía
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Lana Del Rey
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Latto
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Becky G
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Kim Petras
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Lainey Wilson
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Ivy Queen
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Doechii
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
TWICE
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Olivia Rodrigo
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Coi Leray
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Dove Cameron
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
WondaGurl
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Quinta Brunson
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Olivia Rodrigo and Lana Del Rey
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Rosalía
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Latto
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
TWICE
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Lainey Wilson
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Olivia Rodrigo
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Lana Del Rey
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Latto and Lu Kala
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Dove Cameron
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Coi Leray
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Becky G
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Lu Kala
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
TWICE photographed on March 1, 2023 at YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles, CA.
Image Credit: Sami Drasin
Latto and Chloe Bailey
Ivy Queen arrives in full color-coordinated regalia — a form-fitting, floor-length dress in lemon hues that match her long, yellow-tipped acrylic nails and the curly, beach blonde locks that reach her waist. Standing still and ramrod straight, her eyes surveying the room from under impossibly long lashes, she has the bearing of, well, a queen.
It’s a far cry from nearly 25 years ago, when Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, then 25, walked into the San Juan, Puerto Rico, studios of The Noise, the all-male rap collective formed by the pioneering DJ Negro, who sized her up: a country bumpkin from the island’s west side, her tiny frame dwarfed by oversized jeans and a T-shirt, hair tied in “500 braids,” lips painted blue, nails like talons.
“What’s your name?” he asked. “Ivy Queen,” she replied, without hesitation. “I have a song called ‘Somos Raperos, Pero no Delincuentes’ [‘We Are Rappers, Not Delinquents’].” Overcome by shyness, she then flipped the mic around and rapped, facing the wall. But even with her back to him, DJ Negro was impressed. “Welcome to The Noise,” he said. “You know we don’t have girls here, right? You’re the first one.”
It was 1995, a time when the Puerto Rican airwaves were dominated by glamorous, big-voiced pop divas like Ednita Nazario and Yolandita Monge, and when reggaetón and rap were still underground movements dominated by men.
“When I started in this music industry, I didn’t look like I look right now,” says Ivy Queen, noting she was relentlessly criticized for her deep voice, her fashion choices and her staunch refusal to exploit her sexuality.
Read Ivy Queen’s full Billboard Women in Music profile here.
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave
It’s 9:15 a.m. in Seoul, and most of the nine members of TWICE have just woken up. They’re barefaced, dressed casually and cozily in warm knits and sweatshirts; Chaeyoung still wears her parka hood, her blonde hair peeking out of the bottom. Nayeon, seated next to her, cleans her glasses with her shirt sleeve. Tzuyu, however, is alert and attentive. When I ask (through a translator) who’s the early riser of the group, everyone points to her.
This morning, the women of TWICE look more like students who’ve arrived at an early-morning class than the wildly popular K-pop girl group they are. But for their globe-spanning cohort of fans (known as ONCE), this is a familiar sight. The group’s long-running YouTube reality and vlog show, TWICE TV, along with other online vlog content, have gone behind the scenes with the act since its 2015 debut. Over the past seven-plus years, fans have followed along as Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu (who range in age from 23 to 27) have recorded music; toured across South Korea and Asia; attended award ceremonies; debuted their first-ever English-language single, “The Feels”; and, last year, played and sold out U.S. arenas, a still-rare feat for K-pop artists.
“That was our first time having a concert of that scale, so it was really shocking for us to see so many fans in the U.S.,” says Jihyo, recalling TWICE’s two nights in May 2022 at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium.
Read TWICE’s full Billboard Women in Music interview here.
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Nayeon
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Jeongyeon
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Momo
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Sana
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Jihyo
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Mina
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Dahyun
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Chaeyoung
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Tzuyu
Image Credit: Sunhye Shin
Standing, from left: Tzuyu, Sana, Chaeyoung, Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo. Seated, from left: Momo, Dahyun and Mina. On-Site Production by Stacy Nam.
The September day that Becky G learned she had scored her first No. 1 as a solo artist on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart, with “Bailé Con Mi Ex,” she woke up her fiancé, the soccer star Sebastian Lletget, with tears in her eyes. “He was like, ‘Is everything OK? Why are you crying?’ ” she remembers. “A lot of people like to say I’m only successful because of my collaborations. To be able to prove myself as an artist and carry my own weight was important for me. To show the world that whichever way, collaborations or alone, I’m good.”
That solo feat is just one of many points of pride for the 25-year-old Mexican American artist and businesswoman, born Rebbeca Marie Gomez, these days. In 2022, she earned her first No. 1 on the Latin Pop Albums chart with the 14-track Esquemas, and another album — her first regional Mexican set — is due to arrive later this year. Come April, she’ll have “a huge opportunity to reintroduce myself to the world” when she plays Coachella under her own name for the first time.
All the while, Becky G has used her platform to help elevate the women around her. “This industry has really tried to condition women to see each other as competition. We’ve had to survive these very male-dominated spaces because of that ‘there’s only one seat at the table’ mentality. So we’re looking at each other like, ‘Who’s going to get it?’ [But] at my table, everyone is welcome,” she says firmly. “When I open the door, I’m going to leave it open and make sure everyone gets in.”
Read Becky G’s full Billboard Women in Music profile here.
By the time Lainey Wilson showcased for BMG Nashville staff in 2018, she was at a crossroads. She had already been in Nashville for over five years after leaving her small Louisiana hometown of Baskin and was struggling to fit in. Her heavily accented, twangy country vocals and Southern swagger weren’t in fashion as the genre leaned more toward pop, but her attempts to accommodate that style weren’t working either. So she doubled down on her tough-but-vulnerable authenticity. With that attitude, she sang, “She’s a soldier/When I hold her/Up in the air” in her defiant “Middle Finger.” “Take that, Nashville,” she thought.
Wilson, now 30, laughs when she remembers that time. “I just got to a certain point where I’d been in Nashville for so long [and] my give-a-damn was a little busted. I felt like, ‘Why not just say what I want to say how I want to say it?’ That’s one of the thoughts that really set me free.”
That fearlessness — and her robust, honest voice — captivated BMG Nashville president Jon Loba, who had been turned on to Wilson by another artist on his roster, Jimmie Allen.
“[She had] this absolute confidence. And it was an amazing vocal and, even at that time, amazing songs,” says Loba, who immediately signed her to Broken Bow Records. “But it was her narrative in between the music [where] you really got a sense of who she was: this strong woman from a small town in Louisiana who did not want to compromise who she was.”
Read Lainey Wilson’s full Billboard Women in Music story here.
Reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 has been a goal for songwriters since the chart’s inception in 1958. Winning an Oscar for best original song has been on most songwriters’ bucket lists even longer than that – the category dates back to 1934.
A total of 27 songs have achieved both of these milestones. That number could jump to 28 when the 95th annual Academy Awards are presented on March 12 if Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” wins the award. The song debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in November 2022. The number could also jump to 28 if one of the other nominees wins and makes a big enough splash on the show that it belatedly reaches the top 10.
Five artists have each made the top 10 with two Oscar-winning songs – Barbra Streisand, Irene Cara, Jennifer Warnes, Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. Streisand and Cara each co-wrote one of those songs.
Scroll through a gallery featuring the 27 songs that both made the top 10 on the Hot 100 and won an Oscar for best original song. (Hits between 1934-57 don’t appear because they pre-dated the Hot 100.)
First, let’s give a quick shout-out to an Oscar-winning classic that just missed the top 10 – twice. Two versions of “Moon River,” the 1961 champ, peaked at No. 11 – one by its composer Henry Mancini and another by R&B singer Jerry Butler.
Now let’s fire up that time machine. (All chart references are to the Hot 100.)
When Lele Pons posts on Instagram, she does it with a mix of glamour, self-deprecating humor and simplicity that has charmed some 50 million fans into following her. And over the past two years, many of her buzziest posts have showcased the Venezuelan influencer’s love for her fiancé, Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Guaynaa, who counts 6.2 million followers of his own. But Pons, 26, and Guaynaa, 30, are much more than just a captivating couple, and their recent engagement isn’t limited to marriage: They’ll now be also making music together.
Check out the exclusive photos below, and read the full Billboard cover story by Sigal Ratner-Arias here.
Super Bowl LVII is taking over Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 12, 2023, and leading up to the big game, musicians have been attending the plethora of events in the surrounding areas.
The 2023 Super Bowl will be held at the State Farm Stadium with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. Rihanna is lined up to perform at the halftime show, and on Thursday (Feb. 9), the singer sat down with Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis in front of a live studio audience to discuss all of the hard work she’s put into her first live performance in seven years.
“When I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, [hisses] ‘You sure?’ I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,” she said. “But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all … It’s important for my son to see that.”
Meanwhile, stars like Bleachers, Paramore, Kelly Clarkson, Lance Bass and many, many more took part in events like the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest and NFL Honors.
See below for photos of all the musicians at Super Bowl events this year.
Back row, from left: Juanes, Elvis Costello, Myles Frost, Frankie Valli, Kevin Costner, Jennifer Hudson, Harvey Mason Jr., Rickey Minor, Lauren Daigle, Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin, Thomas Raggi of Måneskin, Ethan Torchio of Måneskin, Latto. Front row, from left: Sheryl Crow, Clive Davis, Damiano David of Måneskin photographed at the annual Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala on February 4, 2023 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
The 2023 Grammy Awards are nearly upon us! Though the ceremony takes place on Sunday, Feb. 5, artists who are preparing to make their appearance at the ceremony have touched down in Los Angeles in advance for a series of both public and private events for the period dubbed Grammy Week. And while fans may not be able to attend them all, Billboard has you covered with this gallery of photos that features snaps of music stars who showed up to the Grammys pre-parties.
Thursday (Feb. 2) saw Warner Music Group host a star-studded party at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles. Saweetie was among the stars to pose for photos on the carpet. During the event, Anderson .Paak — who showed up in his now-signature shiny bowl cut and sunglasses combo — gave the turntables a spin as DJ Pee Wee. Best new artist nominee Omar Apollo took to the stage to perform, and Nile Rodgers cleared the dance floor to bust a move.
The Recording Academy Honors presented by The Black Music Collective also took place on Thursday. Ciara and Lil Wayne posed for photos while sitting at the tables, Dr. Dre accepted the Recording Academy Global Impact Award that night, and attendees were treated to entertaining performances from Busta Rhymes (“Put Your Hands Where Your Eyes Can See,” “I Know What You Want”) as well as Chlöe, who dazzled with covers of songs by Aaliyah and Missy Elliott (“One in a Million” and “One Minute Man”).
Young stars such as Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and GAYLE also turned up at the many Grammy Week events. See photos of the stars at the various gatherings.