Pop Shop
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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).
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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.)
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.
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“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.)
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.
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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.)
While it may seem like most every major artist has released a full-length holiday album, there are still quite a few superstars that have yet to drop a seasonal project – including such chart-topping acts as Adele, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran.
On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), hosts Katie and Keith discuss a dozen artists that are missing from the holiday cannon and debate whether we’ll ever actually get a seasonal album from them. (We’re looking at you, Paul McCartney!)
Also on the show, the Pop Shoppers chat about SZA scoring her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with SOS (and securing one of the biggest debuts of 2022) and how Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reaches double-digits at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, spending its 10th nonconsecutive week atop the list.
Katie and Keith also take a stroll down chart memory lane in the chart stat of the week feature, revisiting the all-star charity album A Very Special Christmas and what became the start of a mega-successful holiday music series.
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.)
When Alicia Keys set out to make her first holiday album, Santa Baby, she wanted to make sure it sounded like a project she would put out at any time of year.
“It has a soulfulness, a rawness, it has that New York energy in it too, but it just feels like something you could play from top to bottom,” Keys tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below) about the Apple Music-exclusive album. “And I recorded it like that; we recorded it very consistently over about seven days, and it all really feels cohesive and great. And so I love it. I think now is the time.
“And it’s my first release off of my own independent record label, Alicia Keys Records, so it makes it even better.”
“Soulfulness” was the vibe Keys kept returning to for the album, which was released last month, saying, “It really does harness a sound, and that sound is always going to have that soulfulness. Everything that I touch is going to have a soulfulness, it’s gonna have something that feels warm, I want it to feel meaningful, I want the lyrics to be things that you never forget. I want to create memories.”
The album’s lead single, “December Back 2 June,” is the perfect example of an original on the album, which Keys co-wrote with Tayla Parx, that could really fit in on any year-round Keys project. But there is one Yuletide touch from producer Tommy Parker that gives the song some festive flair.
“I was like, ‘Where did he find this Christmas Jackson 5 song that I’ve never heard in all my life?’” Keys recalls thinking when she heard the high-pitched “It’s just Christmastime” line in the production. “And so I talked to him, and I’m like, ‘Is this a sample? What is this?’ And he had actually created that voice and that kind of sample-sounding pitch. And I fell in love with it, because to me it felt like a ‘You Don’t Know My Name’ or one of these songs that are my style, like that kind of ’70s sample, we’ll put a modern approach on it. And so it totally was 100% me, and he said that he created it with that in mind.”
As for the album’s namesake song, Keys has always appreciated the 1953 original for its ahead-of-its-time boldness. “‘Santa Baby’ by Eartha Kitt is like, by far to me, one of the best-written songs of all time,” she says. “I just love that cheekiness, the flirtiness. I love the way that she approached it, especially … as a woman in that time, that she was totally bold, brave, she wasn’t trying to meet anybody else’s standards. She set her own direction and journey and lane, and so … I was very excited to bring that out, in my style.”
But Keys is most thrilled to become part of people’s holiday traditions with her addition to the Christmas catalog. “There’s timeless music that, every year, you’re gonna hear it and you need it and you love it,” she says. “And I really want to be a part of that group of timeless compositions that you can just forever love, forever depend on, and forever create memories with your family and your loved ones.”
Listen to the full interview with Keys above, in which she also names some of her all-time favorite Christmas music, including Boyz II Men’s 1993 album Christmas Interpretations; Vince Guaraldi Trio’s 1965 soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas (she covers “Christmas Time Is Here” on her new album); So So Def’s 12 Soulful Nights of Christmas from 1996 (on which Keys performs “Little Drummer Girl” — the then-teenager’s first album appearance); George Winston’s 1982 project December; 1973’s A Motown Christmas; and, last but not least, James Brown’s holiday albums, including her personal favorite song “Santa, Go Straight to the Ghetto.”
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” returning to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and producer Metro Boomin scoring his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with the chart-topping debut of Heroes & Villains.
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.)
Mariah Carey has declared that “it’s time” to enjoy Christmas music, and on the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’re discussing 10 new pop holiday hits from 2022 to add to your party playlists.
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We’ve got new songs from previous Pop Shop guests Backstreet Boys, Harry Connick Jr., Pentatonix and Meghan Trainor on the lineup, as well as Santa-approved smashes from Lizzo, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys and Sia. Phoebe Bridgers is back with her annual holiday cover for charity, Blake Shelton covers a Christmas confection by his wife Gwen Stefani, and Lindsay Lohan is channeling her Mean Girls past with a new rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock.”
But which new holiday hit is your favorite? Below, listen to the latest podcast, and also vote for your personal festive fave.
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.)
Adele made her long-awaited Las Vegas residency debut over the weekend, and Katie & Keith — the co-hosts of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast — were lucky enough to be in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace for Friday’s night 1 of Weekends With Adele.
On the latest episode of the podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith talk all about our experience inside the intimate concert and discuss the purposeful production choices and sweeping vocal performances that made the residency more than worth the wait.
But wait, there’s more! The Pop Shop duo then flew back to Los Angeles to attend Elton John’s second-to-last U.S. tour stop at Dodger Stadium, and the new podcast takes listeners inside that monumental concert as well.
Listen below:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Taylor Swift reigns supreme on both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 yet again with Midnights and “Anti-Hero,” respectively, how David Guetta and Bebe Rexha hit the top 10 on the Hot 100 with “I’m Good (Blue),” how Louis Tomlinson scores his highest-charting album yet on the Billboard 200 with the top five debut of Faith in the Future, and how Bruce Springsteen and Nas rack up new top 10 albums on the chart.
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.)
When the 2023 Grammy nominations were unveiled on Tuesday (Nov. 15), there were a lot of names we were expecting in the Big Four categories, including leading nominees Beyoncé (9), Kendrick Lamar (8), and Grammy faves Adele and Brandi Carlile (7 each).
But there were also some names we weren’t expecting – or hadn’t even seen before, especially in the best new artist field. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith are joined by Pop Shop founder Jason Lipshutz to share our fast first impressions of the top categories: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best new artist.
Listen below to get our hot takes:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Drake and 21 Savage team up for the year’s biggest hip-hop debut as Her Loss starts atop the Billboard 200 and gives Drake his 12th No. 1 album. Plus, Taylor Swift stays put atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with “Anti Hero,” while eight songs from Her Loss start in the top 10.
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.)
This week, Sia‘s “Unstoppable” tops yet another new Billboard chart — six years after it was released.
The anthemic hit, which was on Sia’s 2016 album This Is Acting alongside the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Cheap Thrills,” has found new life over the past year, and this week, it rises 2-1 on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart. Last month, the song topped the Adult Pop Airplay chart too, and it’s so far peaked at No. 28 on the Hot 100.
Just how high can this revived song climb? On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith discuss its unlikely trajectory and what has driven its “Unstoppable” recent run on our charts.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how both Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” and SZA’s “Shirt” make high debuts on the Hot 100, how Taylor Swift’s Midnights logs a second — big! — week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and how the latest expanded reissue of a classic Beatles album returns to the Billboard 200 top 10. We also discuss the Billboard chart legacy of Aaron Carter, the pop star, TV personality and brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, who died over the weekend at age 34.
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.)
Rihanna made her long-awaited return to solo music last week when “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrived, ending a drought that goes back to the 2016 release of her last album ANTI.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking all about the emotional ballad, which serves as a tribute to late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. What has the response been to the song? Do we think she’ll have any more contributions to the Wakanda Forever soundtrack? And will these songs — or any other new songs — make an appear during her Super Bowl halftime headlining gig in February?
To hear about all this and more, listen to the podcast below.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Taylor Swift absolutely dominates both the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart this week. Her Midnights album scores the biggest week for any album in nearly seven years, while she holds down the entire top 10 songs on the Hot 100 chart — the first time any act has done that — led by “Anti-Hero” at No. 1.
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.)