Pop

05 Dec 2024

Billie Eilish Is Down to Collaborate With Rihanna: ‘She’s Literally My Idol’

Rihanna recently said that she wants to collaborate with Billie Eilish — and according to the 22-year-old pop star, she’s waiting by the phone for the Fenty mogul’s call.

In a new cover story interview with Complex published Thursday (Dec. 5), Eilish gushed about the moment RiRi shouted her out in October — “If I could only do a song with Billie Eilish, she’s so good,” the superstar said at the time — which the two-time Oscar winner said she “literally thought … was AI.”

“I’ve never met Rihanna,” Eilish continued to the publication. “She’s literally my idol. She’s the greatest of all time. She’s my complete dream collab.”

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“I don’t even answer that question when people are like, ‘Who would you like to collab with?’” she added. “But I always think Rihanna. I’m not going to say that, though! Why would I say that?! It’s not real. I would think, like, ‘She probably doesn’t even like me.’ I’ve never heard from her, and I’ve never had any interaction with her, so why would I have ever even thought about it?”

When the “Umbrella” singer first sang Eilish’s praises, the latter simply wrote in disbelief on Instagram Stories, “what in the absolute f–k.”

A few weeks later, the “Birds of a Feather” artist says she finds the whole thing funny. “I was like, ‘Well, b—h, I’ve been sitting here this whole time!’” Eilish told Complex, laughing. “What the f–k is she even talking about? Like, as if I’ve been saying, ‘No.’ Rihanna! Riri!? I’ll literally do anything you want. That’s insane.”

The interview comes about six months after Eilish released her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The star — who is currently on tour in support of the LP — also recently sat down with CBS News Sunday Morning and spoke about how she came into her own as a songwriter while working on the project with her older brother and producer, Finneas.

“My passion has never been songwriting,” she said in a video snippet from the interview airing Dec. 8. “My passion is music, and performing, and singing. And songwriting is something that I do so that I can then sing it and perform it … I did way more writing on this album than anything ever.”

Watch the clip from the upcoming episode of CBS Sunday Morning below.

05 Dec 2024

Charli XCX Opens Up About Suffering Nerve Damage From Touring: ‘I’m Often in a Lot of Pain’

Charli XCX gives her all on stage, but it comes with a cost.

In a new video interview with Variety posted Wednesday (Dec. 4), the 32-year-old pop star opened up about suffering nerve damage from how intensely she performs, noting, “I find touring really hard emotionally.”

“I find the stage — especially these days — to be a very angry place for me,” she continued. “I’ve done a lot of physical damage to my body from performing, and I’m often in a lot of pain when I perform. Physically, I have nerve damage in my neck from things I’ve done on the stage.”

Charli is currently gearing up for a run of 2025 dates in support of her critically acclaimed album Brat. This year, she hit the road with Troye Sivan for their joint Sweat trek, an arrangement the “Von Dutch” artist called “a lot easier and less of an emotional battle for me.”

“For me to give a performance I feel is good enough, I have to really physically throw myself around and that makes me very upset when I do it,” she added. “It’s kind of this hellhole, but being with Troye softens that a lot.”

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The video comes alongside a feature interview with Variety, in which the musician opened up about the surprising success of Brat, her insecurities and more. At one point, she shared that her “Sympathy Is a Knife” remix collaborator Ariana Grande gave her advice on multiple fronts, including kick-starting her acting career and hosting SNL. (The “Yes, And?” singer helmed the show in September, followed by Charli in November.)

Charli also recalled bonding with the Wicked star over the “Sympathy Is a Knife” lyrics. “She had a lot to say,” the “365” artist said of Grande, who “gravitated” toward the track, according to Charli. “We went back and forth on the lyrics, talking about all the knives that we both felt in this industry.”

Watch Charli open up about her nerve damage above.

05 Dec 2024

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Book Sold An Insane Amount of Copies In Just Two Days

Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour Book is following in the footsteps of her record-smashing global tour of the same name. According to the Associated Press, Circana BookScan reported that the $39.99 Target exclusive book chronicling the career-spanning outing moved an eye-popping 814,000 copies over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

That made it the biggest publishing launch of 2024 according to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the print market. The numbers were a bit easier to crunch because Swift only sold the book through her frequent retail partner Target, which made the book launch part of its Black Friday specials.

The AP reported that the impressive sales put Swift in rarified air, with the only bigger non-fiction launch ever being the first volume of Barack Obama’s presidential memoirs, A Promised Land, which moved 816,000 copies during its first week in 2020. For context, the sales figures for Obama’s book — which was available at all traditional retailers — reflected a full week of sales. Circana’s figures for the Swift 256-page book only covered two days of sales before their reporting week ended Saturday, meaning that the final first week tally could be much higher.

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The Wall Street Journal reported that the retailer and Swift’s team had high expectations for the book, with a person familiar with the roll-out saying the first print run was two million copies. For further publishing context, the Journal also said that the biggest selling book of 2023, Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us, sold almost 1.3 million print copies, again through a variety of traditional retailers.

The good book news came on top of another sales triumph for Swift, who this week learned that the Recording Industry Association of America announced that her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department has gone 6x Platinum. It marked the singer’s sixth album to sell a million U.S. units six times over, following her 2006 self-titled debut, 2008’s Fearless — her only LP to reach Diamond certification (10 million units) — 2010’s Speak Now, 2012’s Red and 2014’s 1989.  

Swift will kick off the final run of Eras Tour dates on Friday (Dec. 6) in Vancouver at BC Place.

04 Dec 2024

Backstreet Boys Warm Up ‘Christmas in Rockefeller Center’ With Cozy ‘Christmas Song’ Cover

The holiday season hasn’t truly begun until the iconic Rockefeller Center tree has been lit, and NBC’s annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center telecast on Wednesday night (Dec. 4) brought together a list of all-star performers to celebrate.

The Backstreet Boys took the stage to perform a heartwarming rendition of Nat King Cole’s holiday classic “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You).” Dressed in coordinating festive suits, ranging from red and green velvet to cream suede and plaid accessories, the quintet traded lines as they harmonized throughout the performance.

Kelly Clarkson, who is returning to host the show as well as performing, kicked off the telecast with a performance of “You for Christmas,” from her 2021 holiday album When Christmas Comes Around… “This time of year can be so hard/ Searching for blessings in the dark/ If Santa has one gift to bring us/ I’ll tell him I just want you for Christmas,” she sang in the chorus, bundled up in a furry black coat.

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Clarkson is joined by Today show’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker and Craig Melvin for the broadcast.

In addition to Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys, other performers who taking the stage ahead of the moment the Rockefeller Christmas tree lights up include Dan + Shay, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Little Big Town, RAYE, Thalia and, of course, the Radio City Rockettes.

04 Dec 2024

BTS’ ‘Butter’ Music Video Hits 1 Billion YouTube Views

BTS’ latest accomplishment is smooth like butter! The group notched their seventh entry into YouTube‘s Billion Views club with their 2021 music video for “Butter.”

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Their previous videos to hit one billion views on the platform include “Dynamite,” “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey and “DNA,” among others. In the “Butter” music video, the septet — including V, Suga, Jung Kook, Jin, RM, Jimin and J-Hope — pose in the camera and for mugshots, weaved with slick choreography throughout. They also dance at press conferences, in a gymnasium, on a massive stage and more. “Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover/ Gon’ pop like trouble breaking into your heart like that,” they sing on the upbeat hit.

“Butter” was released in May 2021 via Big Hit and Sony Music Entertainment, marking BTS’ second English-language single after “Dynamite.” The group performed the track at the 2022 Grammy Awards, where “Butter” was nominated in the best pop duo/group performance category. It also won best K-pop at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. Over on the Billboard charts, the song spent a total of 10 weeks in the No. 1 spot on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. “Butter” was also crowned the top title on the 2021 Songs of the Summer chart.

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“Firstly, we never actually expected that we were going to release another single, but the virus is getting longer and longer so we thought we need another summer song,” RM previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the track, which was released amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We thought we needed another summer number, and ‘Butter’ was perfectly fit for that. And now we’re here.”

To celebrate the group’s newest Billion Views Club member, rewatch BTS’ “Butter” music video below.

04 Dec 2024

Chappell Roan Reveals Ariana Grande & Charli XCX Ruled Her 2024 Spotify Wrapped, But Her No. 1 Song Might Surprise You

Chappell Roan was on countless people’s 2024 Spotify Wrapped roundups, but who was on hers?

On Wednesday (Dec. 4), the 26-year-old pop star revealed which artists were in her top five at the close of the year, sharing an old photo of herself posing next to a car decked out in camo-print decals on Instagram and writing, “this pic kind of insane.”

“Ps,” she added. “My Spotify wrapped most listened to artists were 1. Ariana [Grande] 2. Charli [XCX] 3. Heart 4. Justice 5. Kacey Musgraves.”

“Top song was barracuda ofc,” Roan added, referencing her third-most-streamed artist’s 1977 hit.

The Missouri native’s post comes on the same day Spotify unveiled its annual Wrapped feature, allowing users to see which artists and songs they streamed the most over the course of 2024 through specially curated playlists and shareable data cards. The platform also revealed its most-streamed artists overall — Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish, in that order — as well as its most popular songs of the year.

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Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” garnered the most listens globally on Spotify this year, followed by Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control.” In the U.S., however, Roan scored the sixth-most streamed song with breakthrough single “Good Luck, Babe!” — which surpassed one billion streams just a few days prior to Wrapped arriving — bested only by “Espresso,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” and Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” nationally.

The “Hot to Go” singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was also the fifth-most streamed album in the U.S. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology was No. 1 at home, followed by Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season.

Roan has previously expressed her fandom of Grande, calling herself an “Arianator” in an August livestream and adding that she was “so excited” to see Wicked. She also gave Charli a shout-out in her September Rolling Stone cover story, naming the “Von Dutch” artist as one of several female stars who had reached out to her with support during the emotional low-points of her rise to fame, along with Katy Perry, Lorde, Muna, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and more.

04 Dec 2024

Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century Podcast: Beyoncé (No. 1)

On today’s (Dec. 4) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we finally get to No. 1 on our list with the period’s true standard-setter, a pop star who set the bar 25 years ago and has only continued to raise it in the years since. (Read our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star essay about Beyoncé here.)

Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by a pair of longtime Beyologists in Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart manager Trevor Anderson and staff writer Kyle Denis to recap a full quarter century of all things Beyoncé. We start by breaking down the big-picture reasons why she was ultimately named our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of the century, as well as the argument for Taylor Swift and whether or not anyone we think else could have really gotten into the discussion. We also share some quick thoughts about our 100 Greatest Beyoncé Moments list, and talk about what other artists (if any) we could’ve put together such a list for.

Then, we run through 25 years of Beyoncé: an absolutely singular journey, from her days lighting up TRL as the leader of Destiny’s Child, to her game-changing solo debut, to her industry-quaking run as one of the great albums artists of the 2010s, to a universally venerated legend who continues to pursue (and achieve) greatness in every part of her artistry. Then, we have some fun playing a little game of “A or Bey,” remember some of our favorite in-song moments, performances and oddities from the Beyoncé back catalogue, and make some predictions — including a couple awards-related guesses — about what the future may hold for the Queen.

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Check it out above, find all our past episodes here, and be sure to subscribe to Billboard‘s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century series wherever you get your podcasts! (And we’re not done yet: We’ve got AJ Marks of r/Popheads coming on soon to do a post-mortem on the entire series — and then we’ve got the rollout of our 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2024, starting later this month.)

04 Dec 2024

Kesha Channels Goddess Venus in Stunning ‘Rebirth’ Playboy Shoot

Kesha is reborn, and she’s celebrating her new musical chapter with a goddess-inspired Playboy photoshoot.

In the photoset for Playboy’s Spotlight of the Month, directed by Brooke James, depicts Kesha as an angel as well as Venus — the Roman goddess of love and beauty — emerging from from a shell, just like in the famous “Birth of Venus” painting by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli. The superstar also appears like goddess Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, the moon and nature, as she pulls back a bow and arrow. See all the photos here.

In the corresponding interview, Kesha says, “I feel like a completely different person. I feel reborn. I feel like I’m doing everything for the first time again, which is maybe strange because I’ve been doing this for 15 years. Everything looks brighter, everything feels different. Everything sounds different. It just feels like I’m living a whole new reincarnation and I’m lucky enough to get to all this over again.”

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Kesha for Playboy

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Kesha is fresh off the release of her new single, “Delusional,” as well as the music video for “Joyride.” Both songs were the first to be released via the singer’s own Kesha Records.

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The singer’s independent label has a global distribution deal with ADA that gives her full creative control and ownership of her work. ADA is also working together with Crush Music, Kesha’s management company, to oversee marketing and promotion for the pop star’s next album, expected to arrive in 2025. In the announcement of the partnership in September, Kesha noted, “I am excited to take control of my narrative and rewrite my story in the music business.”

04 Dec 2024

Beyoncé’s Iconic ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’ Music Video Surpasses 1 Billion Views on YouTube

If you like it, then you should’ve put a ring on it — but a billion views isn’t a bad compromise. Fresh off of being named Billboard‘s No. 1 greatest pop star of the 21st century, Beyoncé‘s iconic music video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” has surpassed one billion views on YouTube a full 15 years after it was first uploaded, becoming her second visual to reach the milestone after “Halo.”

In the three-and-a-half-minute black-and-white video, Bey — flanked by two other dancers in leggy black leotards — dances her heart out for the entirety of the empowering, insanely catchy I Am… Sasha Fierce single. “If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it/ Don’t be mad once you see that he want it,” she sings, staring down the camera.

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Both the track and visual serve as some of the most iconic pieces in Bey’s career. In addition to “Single Ladies” spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008, the Jake Nava-directed visual’s continuous dance sequence — choreographed by Frank Gatson Jr. and JaQuel Knight — found the 32-time Grammy winner flawlessly executing a series of generation-defining moves that are still being replicated today.

Plus, the “Single Ladies” video was behind one of the buzziest moments of 2009: Ye, then known still as Kanye West, memorably interrupting Taylor Swift’s VMAs acceptance speech for best female video and declaring that Bey’s project — being “one of the best videos of all time,” as he put it — should’ve won instead.

In the moment, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer was stunned — and a little horrified — but flipped the script when “Single Ladies” later won video of the year. Forfeiting her own acceptance-speech time, Bey famously invited Billboard‘s future No. 2 greatest pop star of the 21st century back on stage to finish her thank yous.

Add your view to more than a billion others by watching “Single Ladies” above.

04 Dec 2024

Here’s How Beyoncé’s Mom Tina Knowles Reacted to Singer Topping Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 21st Century List

When you’ve been on the kind of career rip that Beyoncé‘s had for the past two decades, you get used to winning. That was the message from the singer’s mother, Tina Knowles, when TMZ caught up with her on Tuesday (Dec. 3), just hours after Billboard revealed that Bey was named the No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century.

Asked to respond to the honor, Knowles said, “that’s nice… very nice.” As for the follow-up question about whether the family ever gets used to the accolades heaped on their their daughter, Knowles offered up a succinct, “yeah.”

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The expectation of excellence was mirrored by Bey’s father Matthew Knowles as well, who boasted about the singer’s accomplishments in a loving post on X on Tuesday. “Beyoncé was shy growing up. But, as soon as she started singing, it was like a different person emerged and we knew from a very young age that she was destined to pursue her passion in music,” he wrote. “She turned everyone around her into a believer with her determination, work ethic, stage presence and talent.”

He also addressed his daughter directly, saying, “Beyoncé, I am so proud of you. This is another one of your many major distinctions, yet I sit here not surprised because I knew you were meant for greatness from the moment I held you in my arms for the first time!”

“While Taylor Swift is the century’s biggest pop star by the numbers — from album sales to streams to touring dominance — our editorial staff chose Beyoncé as our Greatest Pop Star of the Century, based on her full 25 years of influence, evolution and impact,” reads the intro to the essay about the Beyoncé.

The No. 1 slot placed Queen Bey over Swift (No. 2), as well as the rest of the top 10, which included Rihanna, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Drake.