State Champ Radio Photo Gallery
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2022 was a big year for music, and it reflected on Billboard‘s magazine covers throughout the year. Post Malone kicked off 2022’s covers by opening the doors to his Utah home, and the rest of the year featured intimate conversations with stars like SZA, Anitta, Sam Smith, Bad Bunny and many more. To celebrate Women in […]
2023 was a year of rising stars, Latin domination and breaking the mold, and Billboard’s cover stories reflected just that. The year of Billboard covers kicked off with Paramore, who had just reunited as a band to release their first album together in six years, This Is Why. Over the course of the year, superstar rappers like Youngboy Never […]
In February, when Kaytranada’s stage manager, Tamir Schlanger, texted him to ask if he had a vision for his Coachella performance, the artist responded with screenshots of the giant metallic head from The Wiz, the 1978 musical film featuring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. He wondered: Could Schlanger replicate it, but with his own head? […]
Billboard‘s 2023 Country Power Players were feted on Tuesday evening (June 6), during an awards ceremony held at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works. Billboard cover star Jelly Roll was honored with the Breakthrough Award, which was presented by his fellow singer-songwriter Ernest. HARDY honored newcomer Bailey Zimmerman with the Billboard country Rookie of the Year honor, […]
Maren Morris downs a shot of tequila with a wince. “I love that we’re taking shots and then saying, ‘OK, so let’s talk about Ron DeSantis,’ ” Morris says with a chuckle. The four drag luminaries she’s toasting with today — Eureka O’Hara, Landon Cider, Sasha Colby and Symone — grimace through their own post-shot puckers […]
Jelly Roll will perform at Billboard‘s inaugural Billboard Country Live in Concert event in Nashville on June 6. In January 1999, one month after he turned 14, Jason DeFord was baptized by full immersion at Whitsitt Chapel Baptist Church in Antioch, Tenn. By the end of that year, he was incarcerated for the first, but […]
Each year, the music industry inevitably loses some of its most influential behind-the-scenes players — corporate executives, agents, managers, songwriters, producers, engineers, lawyers, promoters, visionaries and more who shaped the business in a multitude of ways. So far in 2023, the industry has lost people like Alba “Albita” Eagan, the public and talent relations executive […]
BBR Music Group hosted a brunch at the 2023 ACM Awards under sunny skies at the Briarstone Country Club in Frisco, Texas. Held the morning of the ACM Awards on May 11 for more than 200 people and sponsored by Heineken and Billboard, the event was presided over by BMG Nashville president Jon Loba, who […]
Beyoncé‘s Renaissance World Tour kicked off in Stockholm on Wednesday (May 10). The star gave a dazzling, three-hour showcase of tracks from recently released LP Renaissance, iconic hits from her solo career across two decades, and even delighted fans with a few songs from her time in Destiny’s Child. In addition to the hits, the […]
At the beginning of 2021 — a year before she introduced herself to the world as Ice Spice, with her signature cinnamon curly afro — Isis Gaston wrapped her hair into two braids and tucked them underneath a silk scarf. Wearing a black lounge set, she smiled for the camera while a sample of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” faded into the background and the hook of “Buss It,” rapper Erica Banks’ breakout 2020 single, started. The clip cut, and Gaston, now clad in a teal cut-out dress, dropped it low and twerked with her long, light brown locks cascading over her frame.
The viral video was just one of millions from the “Buss It” TikTok challenge, which helped Banks earn her first Billboard Hot 100 entry, a Travis Scott remix and a partnership with Warner Records in conjunction with her own label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. But for the then-21-year-old Gaston, who was just mustering the courage to record her own music, the TikTok trend and the way it boosted Banks’ career seemed like something she could achieve, too.
“It was so funny — I was already working on my first song ever that I was recording. I had already wrote little raps and sh-t before that, [but] it took me a lot to get to recording. I was halfway done with it when I did the ‘Buss It’ challenge. When I saw it going so viral, I was like, ‘Damn, imagine that was my song I was twerking to,’ ” she recalls today with a chuckle. “The next month, I put out my first song and took it from there.”
Read the full cover story here.
Image Credit: Christian Cody
Alaïa bodysuit, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Le Vian jewelry.
Image Credit: Christian Cody
Versace top and skirt, Balmain boots, Le Vian jewelry.
Image Credit: Christian Cody
Alaïa bodysuit, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Le Vian jewelry.
Image Credit: Christian Cody
Alaïa playsuit, Stuart Weitzman shoes, Tiffany & Co. jewelry.
Versace top and skirt, Balmain boots, Le Vian jewelry.
Styling by Marissa Pelly. Hair by Dijah Slayy. Makeup by Karina Milan at The Wall Group. Set Design by Jacob Burstein at MHS Artists.
