Podcasts
This Valentine’s Day, Drake released his first new album since before his 2024 feud with Kendrick Lamar changed everything about his career outlook and overall narrative — the PartyNextDoor full-length team-up $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. While the final verdict on the album and what it might (or might not) do for Drake’s overall trajectory […]
Sabrina Carpenter started the month of February by winning her first two Grammys ever, and as it turns out, she was just getting started.
Last week, Carpenter graced the cover of Vogue for the very first time — earning praise from Madonna for her Marilyn Monroe-inspired photo shoot that recalled Madge’s own Vanity Fair spread from the early ’90s (“Is this a Valentine’s present to me?”). Then first thing Friday, she dropped the deluxe edition of her Short n’ Sweet album that included a remix of her Billboard Hot 100-topping “Please Please Please” with none other than Dolly Parton.
Then on Sunday night, Carpenter got not one, but two looks on the blockbuster Saturday Night Live 50th-anniversary special, opening the show alongside Paul Simon with “Homeward Bound” and then joining a Domingo sketch alongside Bad Bunny and Pedro Pascal. Whew.
On the new Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking all about Carpenter’s big week and recapping all the music moments on the SNL50 special.
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Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on Kendrick Lamar’s post-Super Bowl splash on both the Billboard 200 albums chart and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as the GNX album returns to No. 1 on the former and “Not Like Us” is back at No. 1 on the latter. Plus, could Drake — the subject of the diss track “Not Like Us” — actually replace Lamar at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 next week? His new collaboration album with PartyNextDoor, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, came out last Friday, so it could happen.
And we finally got our first pop headliner at the Sphere in Las Vegas, with the announcement of a Backstreet Boys residency in July.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
The Podcast Academy, the professional podcast organization, has announced the nominees for its fifth annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (The Ambies). Hosted by comedian Tig Notaro, the Ambies will take place on Monday, March 31 at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago. The ceremony will be livestreamed by Twitch from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. CT.
The ceremony will highlight 199 nominees across 28 categories with winners to be selected by voting members of The Podcast Academy — in addition to a Governors Award. Eligible new members will be able to vote to determine this year’s winners if applications are submitted by Feb. 20. Go to: www.thepodcastacademy.com/join-the-community.
Jon Stewart, Rainn Wilson and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris are among the nominees for best podcast host or hosts. Bowen Yang, Jane Lynch and Tisha Campbell are among the nominees for best performance in audio fiction.
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“As we celebrate the fifth Annual Awards for Excellence in Audio, we are excited to announce this year’s nominees, whose work continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and innovation in the audio space,” Christy Mirabal, chairperson of The Podcast Academy, said in a statement. “This milestone year for the Podcast Academy is a reflection of the incredible growth and creativity within the podcasting community.”
“I’m so excited to host The Podcast Academy’s fifth Annual Awards for Excellence in Audio,” exclaimed Notaro. “It’s like being at the Oscars, only it’s celebrating those of us who are good at talking into a microphone while wearing sweatpants in our closets with pillows on our windows. Take that Meryl. And Meryl, while I have your attention, would you be a guest on my podcast?”
Here are the nominees for The 2025 Ambies in categories most relevant to the music and entertainment industry.
Podcast of the year
99% Invisible: Not Built for This
Beyond All Repair
Cement City
Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance
Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
Faraway
Fire Escape
Hot White Heist 2
Hysterical
Throughline
Best podcast host or hosts
Diallo Riddle and Blake ‘LUXXURY’ Robin – One Song
Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle – We Can Do Hard Things
Jon Stewart – The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
Rainn Wilson – Radio Rental
Ronald Young Jr. – Weight for It
Sam Sanders – The Sam Sanders Show
Wesley Morris – The Wonder of Stevie
Best original score and music supervision
Dan Leone – Ripple
Daniel Lloyd-Evans, Louis Nanke-Mannell and Toby Matimong – Extrasensory
Deron Johnson – Dungeon Masters
Jonathan Pfarr, Carson Graham and Bobby Mota – Celebrity Pets
Peter Nashel, Ross Hopman, Gio Lobato, Dana Hom, Brad Fischer, Jordan Lieb, Lucas Villemur and Lindsay Dievert – Hammerless: A True Crime Podcast in a Fantasy World
Skyler Gerdeman, Martin Lynabel, Nicholas Alexander, Max O’Brien and Caroline Thornham – Kill List
Stro Elliot and Eric Gersen – Historical Records
Best production and sound design
Casandra Tinajero and Andrés Bahena – Nocturno: Tales From the Shadows
Jeremy S. Bloom – Hot White Heist 2
Kenny Kusiak and George Drabing Hicks – The Confessions of Anthony Raimondi
Michelle Macklem – Girl v. Horse
Realm – Narcosis
Sagafilm and Skybound Entertainment – Impact Winter Season 3
Ted Bonnitt – Hindsight: The Day Before
Best entertainment podcast
Infamous
Lemme Say This
Rattled & Shook
Scamfluencers
Split Screen: Kid Nation
The Road to Joni
The Wonder of Stevie
Best society and culture podcast
Hysterical
In Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett
Inheriting
Mind Your Own with Lupita Nyong’o
My Divo
Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
Weight For It
Best podcast for kids
Culture Kids
Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest
Historical Records
Mysteries About True Histories
PJ Library Presents: Beyond the Bookcase
Skylar & Bones – Funny Stories for Kids!
Wow in the World
Best Spanish language narrative podcast
¡No Vengan!
Greal: El Secreto de las Ocho Llaves
Hechos Reales
HUMO: Murder and Silence in El Salvador
No quieren que sepas
Pantallas & Mentiras [Screens & Lies]
Pétrea
Best sports podcast
30 for 30 Podcasts
Broomgate
Good Game with Sarah Spain
Pablo Torre Finds Out
Shadowball: The Rise of the Black Athlete
The Raven
The Rich Eisen Show
Best comedy podcast
Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Hot White Heist 2
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Scam Goddess
SmartLess
We’re Here to Help
Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? Joanne McNally Investigates
Best indie podcast
Sightings
The Insurgence: Sheriffs
The Man Who Calculated Death
The Nightingale of Iran
The People’s Recorder
The TMI Project Story Hour
What Happened in Skinner
Best indie podcast host or hosts
Dallas Taylor – Twenty Thousand Hertz
Deja Perkins and Purbita Saha – Bring Birds Back
Jill Jonassen – The Cost of Extremism
Kate McCoy and Kevin Corbett – Horrorwood: True Crime in Tinseltown
Lisa Phillips – From Now On
Lisa Woolfork – STITCH PLEASE
Susan Lambert Hatem and Sharon Johnson – 80s TV Ladies
Best interview podcast
American Masters: Creative Spark
Apple News in Conversation
Overlooked: Women’s Health Can’t Wait
Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim
The Assignment with Audie Cornish
The Integrated Schools Podcast
Tomorrow’s Cure
Best performance in audio fiction
Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Shannon Woodward, Jane Lynch, Jesse James Keitel, Sarah Steele, Ian McKellen, Raul Esparza, Sara Ramírez, Joel Kim Booster, Bianca Del Rio, Cheyenne Jackson, Abbi Jacobson, Stephanie Beatriz, Katya Zamolodchikova, Trixie Mattel, Yvie Oddly, Jane Krakowski, Sandra Oh, and Tony Kushner – Hot White Heist 2
Caitlin Stasey, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, David Yow, Caroline Morahan, Guinevere Turner, Elizabeth Halpern, Travis Harmon, Brad Griffith, James Bacon, Jameson Cush, Jonathan Shockley and Ayla Glass – The Skies Are Watching
Fredi Bernstein, Cody Wilkins and Dana Domenick – The Box
Mikki Hernandez, Toby Meuli, Geri-Nikol Love, Rachel Kylian – Ominous Thrill
Ruth Righi – Winnie Taylor’s 4th & Inches
Sanaa Lathan – The Justice
Tisha Campbell – Snoriezzz
After taking over Genesis frontman duties for the gone-solo Peter Gabriel in the mid-’70s, drummer-singer Phil Collins had gradually built up his popularity, his industry renown and his pop songwriting prowess over the course of a decade. He’d become a solo star after breaking off from his group in the early-’80s, but continued to gather momentum with the band as well, and also emerged as a go-to collaborator for much of the era’s pop and rock aristocracy. By 1985, it would all come together in one year that saw Collins absolutely flood the zone with hit singles, big collaborations, bigger performances, headline-capturing pop culture moments and even an acting turn on TV’s hottest primetime drama.
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On this Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we look back at Collins’ singular 1985, and examine how an unassuming, plain-looking drummer became one of the most ubiquitous pop stars of the MTV generation. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Chris Molanphy of Slate and the Hit Parade podcast to talk all things Phil Collins, as Molanphy shares his memories of becoming a devout (if occasionally slightly abashed) Phil fan as a teen, and Unterberger explains how an unofficial New York-celebrated holiday — one coming up very soon on the calendar — expanded his own love for Phil as a young adult.
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We then dive all the way into the deep end on Collins’ 1985, which started with hits, peaked with hits and ended with even more hits — but in between, also included a gig on Miami Vice as Phil the Shill, appearances on both coasts’ Live Aid festivities (including with a quasi-reunited Led Zeppelin), and an Oscars snub so galling it still rankles the nice-guy pop star to this day. And of course, we do get into those hits, including the agony and the ecstasy of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” the possibly purloined groove and confusing (in more ways than one) title of “Sussudio,” and the underappreciated knife-in-the-gut divorce rock of “Separate Lives.” We end with the unlikely question: Was Phil Collins actually the Greatest Pop Star of 1985?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most memorable moments of Phil’s 1985, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
The Trevor Project
Rick Springfield has had a long enough career to accumulate a few stories. Ahead of the Feb. 14 release of Big Hits: Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, a collection of tracks from his 1999 album Karma to Automatic from 2023, Springfield told Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast about partnering with Sammy Hagar on Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum drinks (and writing the song “Party at the Beach Bar,” which appears on the new greatest hits album), his early musical influences (such as The Easybeats and guitarist Hank Marvin) and writing “The Man That Never Was,” a song from the Dave Grohl-led Sound City: Reel to Reel soundtrack, released in 2013, that also appears on the new collection.
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The hard-rocking “The Man That Never Was” started as a track recorded by Springfield and the members of Foo Fighters, he recalls. “Dave wanted everyone to kind of get together that was in the documentary and all write songs. So I got together with the Foo Fighters in the studio, and we put together this track that was a really good track. It was a riff that Dave originally came up with, and we kind of fleshed it out.” Grohl then handed Springfield a CD with the track they just recorded and said, “OK, now go write a song.”
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Springfield then continued working on the then-unnamed track with veteran bass player Matt Bissonette, most recently a member of Elton John’s band. Bissonette had the idea to write lyrics based on an actual story from World War II about an elaborate plan by British intelligence officers to trick the Germans about the Allied armies’ invasion of Sicily. (The operation was captured in 2010 book Operation Mincemeat, and made into a movie of the same name in 2021.) “We’re both great history buffs,” Springfield says.
Working with Grohl and company was tame compared to Springfield’s experience performing for U.S. troops during the Vietnam War in the late ‘60s. More than a decade before Springfield topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with “Jessie’s Girl” — one of 21 appearances on the tally — he was performing with his first professional band when an American promoter hired the group to perform in Vietnam. He had no idea what was in store.
“It was a war zone,” he recalls. “I’d never been to one. And we played for the troops in the on the back of trucks just before they went up. You know, we’d get [flown on helicopters] into fire bases, which is where the grunts would operate from, and go out into the jungle and just start fighting. We’d play in those places, and we get rocketed and mortared, and they’d have to shut the show.”
At one point, the base came under fire when the band’s bass player was lying unconscious in a dentist’s chair, ready to get some teeth pulled. “They started saying, ‘That’s incoming, gentlemen, better get to the bunkers.’ So we didn’t know what to do,” Springfield says. “He was all hooked up, so we left him and went into the bunkers. And when we came back, he was still there. So it was all good, but he didn’t know he’d he’d been left to the the wiles of the Viet Cong.”
During a visit to a Navy encampment at Marble Mountain outside De Nang, U.S. forces came under attack. “You see tracers going off through the sky,” says Springfield. “I was throwing mortars. You couldn’t do this stuff now. First of all, it’s insane to do it. And secondly, you wouldn’t be allowed. But back then, it was the Wild West.”
Listen to the entire interview with Rick Springfield using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.
Even though Kendrick Lamar has five No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 among 88 hits on the chart, there were still viewers who tuned in to the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show seemingly unaware of the depth of the rapper’s decade-plus catalog. So Lamar was smart to lean into his releases of 2024 — […]
It’s been a near-year-long road to the Big Game for Kendrick Lamar, whose 2024 crescendoed from March onward, to the point where the rapper — who had long seemed conflicted about the idea of crossover success — ended the year as our editorial staff’s pick for the year’s Greatest Pop Star. He’s picked up right […]
Sarah Barthel of Phantogram is glad the band got its start before short-form video apps became the de facto route to break new music. “It’s really hard for me to understand TikTok,” she tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast ahead of a headlining tour supporting the album Memory of a Day that runs through Feb. […]
We’re now over a month in 2025, and it’s been an absolutely packed beginning to the year in pop stardom. We’ve already gotten plenty big album drops, tour announcements, breakout hits and viral moments — and then of course, in the last week alone, we’ve gotten two major star-studded events in the FireAid benefit concert […]
While there were plenty of headlines from the 2025 Grammy Awards — Beyoncé finally wins album of the year! Chappell Roan wins best new artist! Kendrick Lamar wins record and song of the year for a Drake diss track! — there was also plenty of news that emerged around the show. Before Sunday night’s show, […]