Podcasts
Page: 21
When we first met John Legend as a solo artist, it was through the quiet 2005 piano ballad “Ordinary People” — so it only makes sense that, nearly two decades later, Legend is going back to basics for his next project, LEGEND (Solo Piano Version).
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The singer/songwriter took 10 songs from his most recent album, September’s LEGEND, and stripped them down to new piano versions, adding a pair of fresh covers to the Friday (Feb. 10) release. After years of performing with just a piano, Legend thought the idea made perfect sense.
“Half of my gigs are solo gigs. Even though we’ve done a huge production in Vegas, we’ve done big tours with like a nine-piece band all around the world, often a lot of my favorite shows are the ones where it’s just me and a piano,” he tells Katie & Keith on the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “And I think my fans like it, because it strips the songs down to their essence and they hear my voice, the lyrics, the melodies really purely.”
One revelation in making the album was LEGEND‘s second single “Honey,” originally featuring brand-new Grammy winner Muni Long, which Legend decided to bump up to the piano project’s opening track.
“The one I changed from the original the most was ‘Honey,’” he says. “I made it more kind of slow, I did it without a tempo, and it’s just kind of free and a little more jazzy. And I loved doing that spin on the song. It’s much different than the original, and it feels really fresh and new.”
The two covers Legend recorded for the album are Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Sade’s “By My Side,” which he’s planning to include on the setlist for his upcoming Feb. 13 and 14 pair of Valentine’s Day concerts at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall.
“One of my managers loves Sade, and she suggested that I try a Sade song,” Legend tells the Pop Shop. “And she even suggested ‘By Your Side,’ among a few other ideas that she had. And that was the one that just stuck out to me and I just kept humming it in my head and just felt like, ‘I would feel really good singing that melody and those lyrics.’ And I sat at the piano and started working it out. And I just loved the feeling that it gave me. I love Sade anyway, but this song, particularly, I think is really special and beautiful. I love the sentiment of it, and I really loved performing it.”
Is Legend — who performed as a supporting act on Sade’s last tour in 2011 — impatiently waiting for Sade’s first album since 2010 Soldier of Love like most music fans? “You know she’s gonna take her time,” he laughs. “I literally was on the last tour. That was 12 years ago!”
While Legend would love to take his piano show to other venues besides the Walt Disney Concert Hall, he’s trying to stay close to home at the moment, with the Jan. 13 birth of his new baby Esti. “We’ll do more,” he promised. “It’s gonna be sporadic since we had a baby and I’m trying to work a little bit less. I’ll probably do occasional weekends where we’ll go off to different cities and do shows. But it won’t be kind of a steady tour.”
Legend is staying plenty busy around L.A. this week, performing at Friday night’s MusiCares Persons of the Year gala honoring Motown founder Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, taping the Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys on Wednesday night (Feb. 8), and joining DJ Khaled, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Fridayy for a pre-taped Grammys-closing performance of their song of the year nominee “God Did.” The Pop Shop spoke to Legend ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards, when he marveled at the unifying powers of Khaled.
“Everyone is so gifted and so powerful as an artist in their own right,” he said. “And for us all to be together — that’s the genius of DJ Khaled. He’s really great at putting all of us together. He’s like the world’s greatest A&R for hip-hop. He’s such a great convener. He brings us all together and makes magic happen.”
Listen to the latest Pop Shop Podcast episode above for the rest of the conversation, including his thoughts on the final Voice season for Blake Shelton, who’s “been the heart and soul of the show for so long.”
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how new songs from The Kid LAROI, Zach Bryan and Maggie Rogers, and P!nk all debut on the Billboard Hot 100, while TOMORROW X TOGETHER notches its first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and both Sam Smith and Lil Yachty bow in the top 10 with their latest releases.
Plus, we talk all about last Sunday’s Grammy Awards and this Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime spectacular, where Rihanna will headline the show.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
“We would tend to start off with a bang,” says Kim Thayil, guitarist for Soundgarden, a pillar of the Seattle grunge scene in the late ‘80s and a 2023 nominee for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Often, the first song of a set was “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” from the band’s 1992 album Badmotorfinger. At the Detroit’s Fox Theatre on May 17, 2017, the band reached back farther into its catalog for “Ugly Truth” from its 1989 major label debut, Louder Than Love.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Whichever song began a Soundgarden concert, the intent was the same. “Let’s hit them with something energetic and fast and aggressive,” Thayil tells Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast.
As far as the music, the Detroit show was just another gig on a U.S. tour that snaked through the Southeast and Midwest. The band delved deep into its catalog, playing its biggest hits from the ’90s (“Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman” and “Blow Up the Outside World”), a highlight from its early catalog (“Hunted Down” from its 1987 EP, Screaming Life) and deep cuts from a six-times platinum album (“Mailman” and “Kickstand” from Superunknown). It was anything but a typical show, however. The Fox Theatre show would be the band’s final performance. Singer Chris Cornell tragically died early the following morning.
Looking back at the career-spanning set from that final show, Thayil believes the four songs from the band’s final studio album, 2012’s King Animal, hold up well next to its more celebrated, earlier catalog. “Certainly a different time in the lives of many of our fan base who may have followed us for 30 years,” he says. “A different time in our lives. But I think those those songs were all fairly strong and fun to play live.”
The King Animal cut “By Crooked Steps” was one of those newer songs Thayil enjoyed playing live. Like “My Wave” from 1994’s Superunknown, “By Crooked Steps” is an energetic, physical and compelling song that departs from the standard 4/4 time signature. “That was a song that [drummer] Matt [Cameron] brought in,” he says. “It was his initial groove and riff. And then [bass player] Ben [Shepherd] and I wrote a few things around that groove to add to it. That was certainly dear to us because it’s one of the first things that that we had written. And all of us were collaborating on that, which was definitely the most fun in working on a song.”
An encore would typically end with “Slaves & Bulldozers” from Badmotorfinger “because it was it was kind of a jam song,” says Thayil. “There was a basic framework that we play in order to support the vocals and the lyrics. But then certain sections are just that could meander and go on — the jam sections with guitars. And the bass would jam. Matt would jam. It would meander. Sometimes we’d go off in different directions and Matt would have to play a gatekeeper and bring everyone back in to the yard. Like, OK, we’re we’ve lost this one, let’s come back in. Sometimes we’d all be on the same page and it’d be trippy, transcendent jam. And we just let that happen.”
The band would leave the crowd with a sustained blast of noise and feedback, “a sort of ritualistic ending” that began before original bass player Hiro Yamamoto left the band in 1990, says Thayil. The cacophony was turned into a separate, four-minute track at the end of the 2019 live album, Live from the Artists Den, and given the title “Feedbacchanal.” “It had always been part of our set as a set feedback jam like some kind of weird noise-jazz-improv trip-out with delays and squealing and humming,” says Thayil, “and ‘Slaves & Bulldozers’ feeds into that pretty well.
Listen to the interview with Thayil at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Audible or iHeart.
Over five decades as a hitmaking performer, writer and producer, Babyface has seemingly done it all. He’s produced six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers (including Boyz II Men’s 14-week No. 1 “I’ll Make Love to You” and 13-week No. 1 “End of the Road”); won 11 competitive Grammy Awards and a 2021 Grammy Trustees Award; and written and produced top 40 hits in every decade from the 1980s through the 2020s.
But that doesn’t mean he’s beyond getting excited about major career achievements, like scoring his latest of dozens of Grammy nominations this year: best traditional R&B performance for “Keeps on Fallin’,” featuring Ella Mai, from his most recent album, 2021’s Girls Night Out.
Black Music Month: Babyface Reflects on the Feel-Good Effect of ‘Soul Food’ & Its Hit Soundtrack…
01/31/2023
“To get it at this point, to still be in the place of being nominated and not to be honored for past work you’ve done but the work that you do now, it makes it an extra honor,” Babyface tells Billboard‘s Pop Shop Podcast (listen below) for our new Grammy Preview Episode ahead of Sunday’s awards show. “It’s a privilege to be in the conversation and to be part of it. So it’s a very important nomination for me at this point.”
Girls Night Out is a collaborative album, for which Babyface teamed up with a lineup of all-female singers, including Kehlani, Ari Lennox and Muni Long. Ahead of the recording sessions, Babyface says some of the singers came in with preconceived notions about what kind of sound the producer/writer might create for them.
“A few of them definitely came in a little concerned that it was going to be an older, ’90s sound. And they weren’t sure that I would know how to go around that or be open to their ideas and open to going where they would want to go,” he recalls. “And being open to it allowed us to be able to take them places that they wouldn’t necessarily go. So that was the trusting part of it. And once you get comfortable with each other, then you just make music.”
One song created during those sessions was SZA’s “Snooze,” which the R&B superstar opted to keep for her own album, the seven-week Billboard 200-topping blockbuster SOS. When the project arrived in December, “Snooze” debuted in the Hot 100 top 40 – giving Babyface his first hit in the region this decade. “I think SZA is amazing,” Babyface says. “I think she’s very deserving of this. I feel like she’s been underappreciated, the talent that this girl has. She’s so unique and I’m amazed by her talent, to be honest, and very happy for her success. I think it’s very well-deserved.”
We also asked Babyface what his secret has been to working with a cross-generational, cross-genre collection of artists over five distinct decades, and how he manages to stay in tune with an ever-changing music landscape. He says the trick is checking your ego at the door.
“I think as a musician, I’ve always tried to not be one particular thing and be able to cross different genres,” he says. “I always kind of look at it [as], if you’re a full musician, then you should be able to do more than one thing. And what allows you to do that is to not have an ego, to the point to where you think what you do is the best thing and always the best. So it’s always great to collaborate and get into a room and learn.
“I would always listen to songs that might become big hit songs that maybe my initial reaction was like, ‘I don’t understand it,’” he adds. “I would listen to figure out, ‘OK, what is it that people love about it?’ And ultimately, once I would listen closely, then I’d figure those things out and I could appreciate it just as much. And so it’s a question of always pushing yourself to not necessarily fight things, but to really kind of listen to everything with an open ear.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Babyface talks about his upcoming tour dates with Anita Baker, kicking off next month, as well as his history of working with Madonna and whether there’s any chance he might join the Queen of Pop onstage for her Celebration Tour.
The 65th annual Grammy Awards air Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS, preceded by the Grammy Premiere Ceremony starting at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT, streaming on the Recording Academy’s YouTube page.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
Audible received a total of 19 nominations for this year’s Podcast Academy Awards, with the Audible Original series Moriarty — based on the villain in the Sherlock Holmes universe — receiving a total of three nods, including in the top category of podcast of the year.
The narrative fiction series that stars Dominic Monaghan as Professor Moriarty will compete against Chameleon: Wild Boys (Campside Media), Design Matters with Debbie Millman (Design Matters Media, Inc.), Direct Deposit (Audible), Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis (Audible), Gay Pride & Prejudice (Gimlet), Pink Card (ESPN 30 for 30), Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till Mobley (ABC Audio), The Outlaw Ocean Podcast (CBC Podcasts and the L.A. Times) and The Prince (The Economist) for the top prize.
The award last went to Pineapple Street Studios, Amazon Music and Wondery’s 9/12 during the 2022 ceremony.
Other individual shows tied with Moriarty for the most nominations include Bone Valley and Last Known Position, as well as Direct Deposit, Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis and Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till Mobley.
This year’s awards ceremony, which will be streamed live on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel, will take place on March 7 in Las Vegas with host Larry Wilmore.
The full list of nominees is below.
Podcast of The Year (Sponsored by Tenderfoot TV)
Chameleon: Wild Boys
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Direct Deposit
Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis
Gay Pride & Prejudice
Moriarty
Pink Card
Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till Mobley
The Outlaw Ocean Podcast
The Prince
Best Business Podcast:
An Arm and a Leg
Business Wars
Lead Balloon – Public Relations, Marketing and Strategic Communications Stories
The Heist Season 2: The Wealth Vortex
The New Way We Work, featuring 4-part Ambition Diaries mini series
What’s Your Problem? with Jacob Goldstein
Work Check
Best Comedy Podcast:
Funny Cuz it’s True
I Love a Lifetime Movie
Scam Goddess
Summer In Argyle
The fckry with Leslie Jones and Lenny Marcus
Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Why Won’t You Date Me? with Nicole Byer
Best DIY Podcast:
Allyship is a Verb
Poetry for All podcast
Proud Stutter
Queer News
Stitch Please
Teddy Goes to the USSR
They Knew Which Way to Run
Best Documentary Podcast:
Bone Valley
Collapse: Disaster in Surfside
Finding Tamika
I Will Not Grow Old here (short series)
Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary
The Greatest Menace: Inside the Gay Prison Experiment
We Were Three
Best Entertainment Podcast (Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter):
Even the Rich
MUBI Podcast
Object of Sound
Pop Paranormal
Queue Points
Reality with The King
Scamfluencers
Best Fiction Podcast
Birds of Empire
Bone, Marry, Bury
Jane Anonymous
Last Known Position
Moriarty
Newts!
The Big Lie
Best History Podcast:
Against The Odds
Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis
History Daily
One Year: 1986
Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till Mobley
Slow Burn: Roe v. Wade
SNAFU with Ed Helms
Best Indie Podcast (Sponsored by Stitcher):
Blind Landing
Ghosthoney’s Dream Machine
Imaginary Worlds
In Those Genes Podcast
Inner West Icons
SOL Affirmations with Karega & Felicia
The Nocturnists
Best Interview Podcast:
9 to 5ish with theSkimm
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Direct Deposit
Rethinking
The Assignment with Audie Cornish
The Lede
Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast
Best Knowledge, Science or Tech Podcast:
Climate of Change
In Machines We Trust
IRL: Online Life is Real Life
Ted Radio Hour
Threshold
Unexplainable
Why It Matters
Best News Podcast:
Collapse: Disaster in Surfside
Foundering: The Amazon Story
Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff
Post Reports
Ukrainecast
VICE News Reports
What Next
Best Original Score and Music Supervision:
Culpable Podcast – Dirt Poor Robins, Dayton Cole
Disgraceland – Jake Brennan, Matt Beaudoin, Ryan Spraker, Bryce Kanzer
Fed Up – Scott Velasquez
Gay Pride & Prejudice – Chris Ryan, Jonathon Roberts, Liz Fulton
Kabul Falling – Arson Fahim
Last Known Position – Deron Johnson, David Levita
Spark & Fire – Ryan Holladay
Best Performance in Audio Fiction
#Matter – Amin Joseph
Borrasca (Season 2) – Cole Sprouse, Sarah Yarkin
Dark Sanctum – Bethany Joy Lenz, Clive Standen, Michael O’Neill
Moriarty – Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Phil LaMarr, Lindsay Whisler
Outliers – Rory Culkin
The Madness of Chartrulean – Aud Andrews
The Story Pirates Podcast – Cecily Strong, Eric Austin
Best Personal Growth / Spirituality Podcast:
A Slight Change of Plans
Allyship is a Verb
Back From Broken
How God Works
How To Be A Better Human
In the Arena with Leah Smart
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Best Podcast for Kids:
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
Forever Ago
Million Bazillion
Pinkalicious & Peterrific
Smash Boom Best
Tai Asks Why
The Arthur Podcast
Best Podcast Host or Hosts:
Anderson Cooper – All There is with Anderson Cooper
Casey Wilson – Fed Up
Chad Sanders – Direct Deposit
Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker – Bone Valley
Heather McGhee – The Sum of Us
JB Smoove – Funny My Way
Leah Wright Rigueur – Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till Mobley
Best Politics or Opinion Podcast:
Crossing The Line
It’s Political with Althia Raj
Post Reports
Strict Scrutiny
Teaching Texas
The Prince
The State of: Women
Best Production and Sound Design:
Batman: The Audio Adventures – Chris Gibney, Julie Larson
Birds of Empire – Randy Torres, Ben Milchev, Ryan Walsh, David Tatasciore, Gabe Burch
Cupid – Randy Torres, Ben Milchev, Ryan Walsh, David Tatasciore, Sarah Ma
Maejor Frequency – Richard Riegel
Marvel’s Wastelanders: Doom – Mark Henry Phillips
The Big Burn – E. Scott Kelly
Twenty Thousand Hertz – Jai Berger
Best Reporting:
Bone Valley – Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker
Chameleon: Scam Likely – Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
Conviction: The Disappearance of Nuseiba Hasan – Habiba Nosheen
Taking on Putin – John Sweeney
The Greatest Menace: Inside the Gay Prison Experiment – Patrick Abboud
The Outlaw Ocean Podcast – Ian Urbina
Who Killed Daphne? – Stephen Grey
Best Scriptwriting, Fiction:
American Hostage – C.D. Carpenter
I Hear Fear – Jenny Deiker Restivo, Nathalie Chicha
Impact Winter – Travis Beacham
Last Known Position – Luke Passmore
Power Trip – Mary Hamilton, Cara Horner
The End Up – Will Weggel, Danny Luber
The Story Pirates Podcast – Minhdzuy Khorami, Mike Cabellon, Meghan O’Neill, Peter McNerney, Lee Overtree, Rachel Wenitsky, Ned Riseley
Best Scriptwriting, Nonfiction:
12 Years That Shook the World – Erin Harper
Chameleon: Wild Boys – Sam Mullins
Death of an Artist – Helen Molesworth
Ídolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sánchez – Erick Galindo, Alejandro Mendoza
Into America – Trymaine Lee, Aisha Turner, Isabel Angell, Max Jacobs, Josh Sirotiak
MUBI Podcast – Rico Gagliano
We Were Three – Nancy Updike
Best Society and Culture Podcast:
Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis
Ídolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sánchez
In Those Genes Podcast
Into America
Love Right Now
The Sum of Us
Truth Be Told
Best Sports Podcast:
Choosing Sides: F1
Deep Left Field
Pink Card
Sports History This Week
The Lead
The Longest Game
Torched
Best True Crime Podcast
Conviction: The Disappearance of Nuseiba Hasan
Dateline: Missing in America
Death of an Artist
Queen of the Con
The Paddlefish Caviar Heist
Up and Vanished- The Trial of Ryan Duke
Wrongful Conviction
Best Wellness or Relationships Podcast:
Are You Sleeping?
Back From Broken
Chiquis and Chill
Come As You Are
Dear Headspace
Navigating Narcissism
Room 5
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
We’ve always known Miley Cyrus comes in like a wrecking ball, but she really proved it this week with her latest single “Flowers” debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100, Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
It’s her first Hot 100 No. 1 since — hey! — “Wrecking Ball” back in 2013, and on the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking all about why the self-love anthem, the lead single from Cyrus’ upcoming eighth album Endless Summer Vacation, is the pop star’s biggest hit in a decade.
But wait, there’s more! It’s been a very active week in pop music, between Beyoncé playing a 75-minute private party in Dubai on Saturday night — where she duetted with daughter Blue Ivy on “Brown Skin Girl” and covered Etta James’ “At Last” — plus Rihanna scoring her first Oscar nomination (best original song for co-writing “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Lady Gaga picking up her fourth (for “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick).
To hear our conversation on the busy pop week, listen to the Pop Shop Podcast below:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Bizarrap and Shakira’s “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53” blasts onto the Hot 100 at No. 9, becoming the first top 10 for Bizarrap and the fifth for Shakira, and her first since 2007. Plus, SZA’s SOS holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a sixth consecutive week, and we have all the details on why this is such a major moment.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
Comedian Larry Wilmore will host this year’s Podcast Academy Awards, known as the Ambies.
The awards show will take place March 7 in Las Vegas at the International Theater, with the ceremony and awards pre-show being livestreamed on Twitch beginning at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Wilmore is currently the host of Black on the Air, a show on The Ringer Podcast Network that has featured guests like Kerry Washington, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Regina Hall, B.J. Novak, Wanda Sykes and Judd Apatow, among others. He is the co-creator of Insecure, with Issa Rae, and Grown-ish, with Kenya Barris.
“Larry’s prolific body of work and unique humor spans the stage, screen and podcasting. To say that we are lucky to have him host this year’s Ambies is an understatement,” said Donald Albright, chairperson of The Podcast Academy and CEO of Tenderfoot TV. “He’s an icon in his own right. We cannot wait to see — and hear — what he will bring to the ceremony.”
At the 2022 Ambie Awards, the podcast 9/12 (Pineapple Street Studios, Amazon Music and Wondery) took home the top prize for podcast of the year. Other winners included Rosamund Pike for her performance in QCode’s Edith and former NPR host Sam Sanders for his work as a host on It’s Been a Minute. The ceremony was hosted at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Reporter is a sponsor of The Podcast Academy alongside Wondery, Sonoro, Audible, The Podcast Show, Stitcher, PRX, Tenderfoot TV, Castbox, Loeb & Loeb and Paramount.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Over her 40-plus-year career, Madonna has gone on a steady 11 tours, so what is it about her just-announced 12th trek — The Celebration Tour — that is creating so much buzz?
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Well, for one, she’s promising an all-hits setlist – which for Madonna takes some narrowing down, given her 38 Billboard Hot 100 top 10s and 50 Dance Club Songs No. 1s. And while she’s played a lot of her hits in concert before, as far as we know, this is the first time she’s not touring around a new album — so she truly only has her back catalog to choose from.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie peppers Madonna superfan Keith with questions about the buzzy new global tour — like what lesser-known nuggets are fans dying to hear? And why now for this retrospective tour? Listen to the latest episode now:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how SZA’s SOS is unstoppable at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, notching a fifth straight week atop the tally, while Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” captures an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, making it the Swift song with the most weeks at No. 1. Plus, Zach Bryan’s slow-burn hit single “Something in the Orange” reaches the Hot 100’s top 10 more than eight months after its release.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
With 10 nominees apiece in each of the Big Four categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards, predicting the night’s winners is tougher than ever — but that won’t stop the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast from trying.
On the latest episode, Katie & Keith are breaking down Billboard awards editor Paul Grein’s Big Four predictions — in the record of the year, song of the year, best new artist and album of the year categories. Will Harry Styles and Lizzo snag their first Big Four wins, thanks to nods in three of the four categories each? And after years of being passed over for album of the year, could Renaissance be Beyoncé’s golden ticket — or will Bad Bunny continue on his unstoppable path toward global domination and take the top prize with Un Verano Sin Ti instead?
There’s a lot to discuss ahead of the Feb. 5 awards show, so let’s get to it in the brand-new episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast below.
Also on the show, it’s a rather exciting week on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as both The Weekend and Beyoncé notch new top 10 hits, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “Blue (I’m Good)” hits a new peak, and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” jumps back to No. 1 for a seventh week — tying for the most weeks any Swift song has spent atop the chart. Plus, on the Billboard 200, SZA’s SOS clocks a fourth straight week at No. 1 — becoming the first R&B album by a woman to spend its first four weeks atop the list in nearly 30 years.
Plus, we happened to get some breaking pop news while we were recording the podcast: The 2023 Coachella headliners have arrived! And Keith shares his experience attending ABBA’s Voyage concert in London — what it was like to see he virtual concert in person?
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 senior director of charts 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.)
We’re just a few days into the new year — but it’s never too early to look ahead to the Year in Pop.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are sharing their pop predictions and new year’s resolutions about what we know is coming and what we hope to see. Will Beyoncé tour around Renaissance — or do we have to wait until Act II‘s arrival to see her live? Will Taylor Swift release any re-recorded music ahead of the March launch of her Eras Tour? And might we see new albums or tours from Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Madonna or all of the above?
Listen to the new episode to take a peek into our pop-music crystal ball.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 charts are still very festive, with half of the top 10 albums and eight of the top 10 songs all Christmas efforts, as the charts’ latest tracking week included Dec. 23 through 25.
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 senior director of charts 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.)
Chris Isaak doesn’t just dabble in holiday music — he’s loved it since growing up in Stockton, in California’s Central Valley, listening to Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Vince Guaraldi, Gene Autrey’s “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and Roy Orbison’s version of the Willie Nelson song “Pretty Paper.” Those influences come through on his latest album, Everybody Knows It’s Christmas, released Oct. 14 through Sun Label Group.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“I guess whatever you listen to when you’re a kid, that’s in your head and that’s really Christmas — because you’re never going to beat that excitement,” the singer tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast.
Everybody Knows It’s Christmas is Isaak’s second studio album of holiday music. Ever since the first, 2004’s Christmas, Isaak has donned a red custom suit and gone on a brief holiday tour that mixes Christmas music with songs from his four-decade career, including “Wicked Game,” a No. 6 Hot 100 hit in 1991, and “Somebody’s Crying” from the 1995 album Forever Blue. “I’m terrible on dates, but it’s been a long time,” jokes Isaak about his holiday touring. “I’m on my second or third red suit.”
Isaak does justice to some beloved holiday standards. His cover of Chuck Berry’s “Run Run Rudolph” (titled “Run Rudolph Run” on the album) remains faithful to the original, hard-rocking version. His take on the normally upbeat “Winter Wonderland” creates a slow, shimmering ode to winter romance. The album closes with a moving rendition of “O Holy Night,” a suggestion by the album’s producer, Dave Cobb, who worked with Isaak in Nashville’s RCA Studio.
But Isaak bucked the tradition of covering someone else’s holiday songs and wrote eight out of the album’s 13 tracks. “When I’m writing [holiday songs] I’m thinking about — now, this doesn’t sound like me, but it’s me — I actually picture a family sitting around and listening to the thing. I hope that it’ll be something they can all listen to. And it’s kind of enough upbeat energy that they can put it in the background while they’re eating dinner and they can have their argument at the table and say, ‘Turn up the music,’ you know?”
Isaak’s sense of humor comes out in “Help Me, Baby Jesus,” one of the standout tracks on Everybody Knows It’s Christmas. In the song, thieves took off with a camera, the three wise men, Mary, the manger, floodlights and an extension cord. “Where I grew up, everybody would steal everything off your front yard,” he explains. “People had to watch the baby Jesus.
“That song will not be a hit,” Isaak continues. “But somewhere in America, there will be somebody who gets a nativity scene stolen, and their friend will go, ‘Hey, there’s a song for you.’”
Listen to the entire conversation with Chris Isaak in the Behind the Setlist podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Stitcher, Amazon Music or Audible.