Pop
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07/16/2024
The K-pop crusaders latest full-length includes contributions from “Hitman” Bang Si-Hyuk, Cirkut, Slow Rabbit, JVKE, Mike Daley and more.
07/16/2024
Is Madonna’s biopic back in the works? A new Instagram post seems to imply so. The Queen of Pop took to social media on Tuesday (July 16) to share a slideshow of photos in which she’s seen posing with a typewriter, writing a screenplay titled Who’s That Girl, in reference to her 1987 film and […]
Less than nine months after Nikki Semin Han organized what the former SM Entertainment CEO called “the Avengers of the K-pop community joining forces to redefine the industry” in TITAN CONTENT, the newly-launched venture is officially beginning to roll out its first-ever artist.
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Billboard can exclusively reveal the first details on TITAN CONTENT’s forthcoming girl group AtHeart, which is set to officially debut in the first half of 2025.
Beginning with the reveal of AtHeart’s first two members Sorin and Michi, the upcoming act will share all its members in the coming months as the future stars develop individual online presences and connect with fans while preparing for their K-pop debut via individual Instagram and TikTok accounts. TITAN CEO Katie Kang says, “The members will be sharing their daily lives and unique personalities through their social accounts, showcasing their journey to becoming AtHeart together. TITAN will reveal all members of AtHeart sequentially with special content this year.”
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Both 17 years old, Sorin and Michi hail from South Korea and Hawaii, respectively, and begin the structure of what TITAN describes as a girl group that “will appeal to audiences around the world.”
Simultaneously revealing a new K-pop group’s members and launching their individual social media accounts is unconventional in the Korean-entertainment industry. Most new-artist startups are kept secret — even if pre-debut social media accounts are launched for a group, individual member accounts tend to launch years after establishing themselves on the scene. (For example, BLACKPINK’s four members launched their individual accounts less than two years after debuting, but it took more than eight years for the BTS guys.)
However, as CEO Kang adds, the strategy is a part of the group’s overall vision toward more connected K-pop idols.
“The name ‘AtHeart’ speaks to this group’s genuine nature and the connection and love they will build with their fans by empowering them to be their authentic selves,” Kang tells Billboard. “TITAN has been scouting and holding global auditions since the beginning of 2024 and we were captivated by the incredible talent we discovered. These members are so uniquely charming and they embody the next generation of K-pop. I know fans around the world will resonate with their genuine personalities and I am so excited for all the global fans to listen to their songs and watch their performance.”
“As the first K-pop company established in the U.S., TITAN will take an innovative and disruptive approach to creating, marketing, and promoting the content and artists we produce,” adds Han, Chairman at TITAN. “Working with powerhouse executives, creators, and producers from both East and West, we will break the mold by targeting global markets simultaneously from the start.”
Chief Business Officer Dom Rodriguez describes the Los Angeles–based company as “an artist-first and fan-first company,” touting its prodigious goals can be met with TITAN’s deeper involvement in the musical and personal processes of developing K-pop stars.
“We are relentless in our pursuit of innovation and creativity,” the CBO adds. “We prioritize the needs of our artists, the exceptional songwriters and producers who are integral to our success, and the dedicated fans who drive the K-pop phenomenon. Our hands-on A&R process is meticulously designed to elevate the next generation of K-pop artists, maintaining the highest standards of musical greatness. Collaborating with accomplished writers and top music producers worldwide, we’re committed to upholding excellence and shaping the future of music.”
“AtHeart marks the beginning of an exciting journey built upon the connection between K-pop idols, their dedicated fans, and music, with a commitment to upholding everything that makes K-pop unique and special,” says TITAN Chief Visual Officer Guiom Lee. “Backed by a team of industry experts who share a profound love and understanding of the genre, we will display innovation across all facets of AtHeart, pushing the limits in today’s ever-changing digital landscape. From top-tier visuals and fashion to captivating musical performances, we are excited to unveil AtHeart to a global audience.”
As previously reported, the team making up TITAN has experiences with K-pop artists across generations, including chart-topping names like BoA, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, EXO, TWICE, Monsta X, ITZY, The Boyz, and more. Beyond artist development and management, TITAN plans to produce music festivals and revealed plans to combine “traditional K-pop training and artist development with Web3 and metaverse innovation.” The company also announced today that it will soon open an upcoming platform where “AtHeart will communicate with global fans with new and diverse content through a K-pop fandom platform that combines various innovative technologies such as Web3 and AI.”
Get to know Sorin and Michi in these first-look images below and by following the future AtHeart members on social media. Look out for more from the group via its official website
Sorin
Courtesy of Titan Content
Michi
Courtesy of Titan Content
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are opening up the mailbag to answer your burning questions – starting with a question about why radio is still important (and valuable) in the streaming age. Listener “yaelkaa” asks: “I’m still unclear about the point of (a) radio-released single in the time of streaming.” […]
Try and come for her job. In the midst of the European leg of her global Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has announced which song from The Tortured Poets Department will serve as the album’s next single: the deceptively cheerful “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” The news arrives via a message on Taylor […]
Adele will wrap up her Weekends With Adele residency in Las Vegas on November 23. That means her superfans have exactly 10 chances left to catch the singer’s long-running stay-put show before, as she recently revealed in an interview, she goes away for a while.
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Speaking to Germany’s ZDF, Adele, 36, dropped the bombshell, “I don’t have any plans for new music at all.” In fact, the star who said she “doesn’t like being famous,” added, “I want a big break after this and I think I want to do other creative things, just for a little while.”
Adele kicked off her Weekends run in November 2022 and plans to call the show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace quits with her final scheduled performance on Nov. 23. Before then, she will play a series of gigs in Munich at a specially built 80,000-capacity venue on August 2, 3, 9, 10, 14, 16, 23, 24, 30 and 31.
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She said that the run of 100 live shows over the past two years have left her feeling as if her “tank is quite empty.”
After announcing the initial run of Munich shows, Adele wrote on Instagram, “So a few months ago I got a call about a summer run of shows. I’ve been content as anything with my shows in London’s Hyde Park and my residency in Vegas, so I hadn’t had any other plans. However, I was too curious to not follow up and indulge in this idea – a one off, bespoke pop-up stadium designed around whatever show I want to put on.”
The singer — who has not gone on a world tour since her 2016-2017 run in support of her 25 album — has made a habit of taking time for herself between albums and tours. Those stretches out of the public eye have increased over time, from three years between her 2008 debut, 19, and 2011’s 21, to four years until her 2015 LP 25 and six between that album and 2021’s 30.
Back in December, the mother of 11-year-old song Angelo told The Hollywood Reporter, ” I have nothing to say yet. I haven’t even thought about it… I have to wait for a feeling. If I get antsy, that’s when I know I have to go to the studio, and I am the opposite of antsy right now.” Speaking of new endeavors, in that same interview, Adele said that there was one unnamed movie she wants to do, but, “the guy whose movie it would be, he’s not mentally ready to write the script for it… I bug him every now and then about it, but he’s just not there yet. But that’s the only role I ever want. Because I think I’d nail it. I think I’d do really, really, really good at it.”
Then, in January during one of her Weekends shows, Adele told the audience “I just don’t think I’m gonna write an album for quite some time,” teasing that when she does she may be ready to hit the road properly again. At press time a spokesperson for Adele had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional comment on her future plans.
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom have been singing each other’s praises since first getting together more than eight years ago. But in a recent Instagram Live chat with fans to celebrate her new single, “Woman’s World,” Perry got super candid about one of the reasons the couple have managed to stay together for so long.
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“Tell us about Orlando’s ‘magic stick,’” Perry read with a smile on her face while scrolling through fan questions during the session. Perry let out a hearty raspberry and smiled at someone off camera, appearing to be thrown by the intimate nature of the query. “Well, we’ve been together for a while,” she said while chewing gum and signing promotional items.
“So I guess he’s got the magic in him,” she finally replied, singing the last bit to the tune of B.o.B.’s 2010 hit “Magic.” Cracking herself up with the NSFW-adjacent response, Perry then got serious about Bloom, with whom she shares four-year-old daughter Daisy Dove.
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“No, it’s really his heart,” she said. “And he gave me my greatest gift ever… Daisy Dove,” she whispered.
Over the weekend, Perry appeared to respond to a wave of criticism for the “Woman’s World” video, sharing behind-the-scenes clips to explain her intentions for the visual that mixes feminist tropes and lyrics with lots of cheeky visuals. “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! EVEN SATIRE!” Perry captioned her Instagram post.
Between criticism that Perry’s song misfired in its attempt to be a feminist anthem and her team-up with track co-producer Dr. Luke — who was accused of sexual misconduct by Kesha before the singer and producer settled a bitter, nine-year legal battle in 2023 before it went to to trial — “Woman’s World” did not appear to land the way the singer intended.
“We’re kind of just having fun being a bit sarcastic with it, it’s very slapstick, and very on the nose,” Perry says says in the first half of the video that seemed to anticipate some potential backlash. “With this set, it’s like, ‘We’re not about the male gaze but we really are about the male gaze,’ and we’re really overplaying it and on the nose because I’m about to get smashed, which is like a reset, a reset for me, and a reset for my idea of feminine divine, and it’s a whole different world we go to after this.”
“Woman’s World” is the first single from Perry’s upcoming follow-up to her Smile album from 2020, 143, which is due out on Sept. 20.
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco are continuing to prove that they’re Hollywood’s cutest couple. The “Single Soon” star took to TikTok to partake in a couples-themed trend with the producer, in which they answer a series of “Who’s Most Likely To?” questions about their relationship. The duo revealed who eats the most (Blanco), who takes […]
Brat summer is here to stay — and not even the strongest of national disasters could wipe it out. Twisters castmates Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos have become some of the latest stars to try out TikTok’s viral dance to Charli XCX‘s “Apple,” posting a video of the choreography that earned a seal […]
Glass Animals would never look a gift hit in the mouth. After all, the group landed one of the biggest chart singles by a British group since the Spice Girls in 2021 when their slinky track “Heat Waves” went viral thanks to TikTok.
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Surely you remember it? The one with the hypnotizing chorus, “Sometimes, all I think about is you/ Late nights in the middle of June/ Heat waves been fakin’ me out/ Can’t make you happier now.” Though the single from the Oxford-bred band was released in June 2020 in the heat of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it took an epic 59 weeks to make its way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2022, where it stayed for five weeks; the song also set a record by hanging around on the Hot 100 for a total of 91 weeks, making it the longest-charting hit in the Hot 100’s then-64-year history.
Now, four years later, the group is prepping their return with their fourth studio album, I Love You So F***ing Much (July 19), and in an interview with The Independent singer Dave Bayley revealed that the band’s signature smash almost went to another artist with much more chart-topping experience.
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“I had hoped it would be someone else’s song,” Bayley told the paper about an attempt to get Rihanna to record it. “It got so far that I was sitting in the Roc Nation offices, playing the song for her manager,” he explained. “I ended up sending them parts of the song, but I’m grateful it didn’t go further.”
Don’t get him wrong, either way would have been just fine with him. “But at the same time, obviously, I’m a huge fan – I would’ve loved it,” Bayley said of the possibility of RihRih taking a swing at “Heat Waves.”
After “Heat Waves” passed the 90-week Hot 100 run of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” Bayley told Billboard he was blown away. “Wow, all I can say is wow,” he said at the time. “Many of you know when I wrote this song I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe.”
Though she obviously didn’t take them up on the offer, the possibility that the song could have ended up in Rihanna’s hands would surely have thrilled her Navy. The mother of two toddlers and founder of the billion-dollar Fenty Beauty brand has not released a new album since 2016’s multi-platinum Anti and with the exception of a handful of features — as well as her 2022 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Oscar-nominated hit “Lift Me Up” — has kept a low musical profile for much of the past seven-plus years.
Watch the “Heat Waves” video below.
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