Pop
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Joey Fatone is heading back to the Broadway stage, this time for the Shakespeare-inspired & Juliet. & Juliet opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York City in 2022 and features songs by the legendary and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Max Martin. The show reimagines the classic Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet, picturing what life would have […]
As fans get ready to catch Lady Gaga‘s “Disease,” the pop superstar shared a haunting new video trailer for the fast-approaching single Tuesday (Oct. 22). In the clip, Gaga — wearing a short white dress — frantically sprints away as a car drives after her in a suburban neighborhood. The camera is positioned from inside […]
Kylie Minogue has done it all during her gold-dusted 45-year career. But even with two Grammys on the shelf and her mantle as the best-selling female artist ever from her native Australia, Kylie as a few “what-ifs?” in the closet.
She revealed one in a new chat with Audacy Check In, telling host Mike Adam that at one point she almost recorded one of Britney Spears’ most iconic songs. “Yeah, there’s a little song called ‘Toxic’ that was headed my way, and I was like, ‘Toxic? I don’t know if I want a song called Toxic’…,” said Minogue of the dance banger from Spears’ fourth album, 2003’s In the Zone. “As it’s turned out, it was meant to be a Britney Spears song, I can’t imagine it being anything else.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Minogue was asked to name which other vocalists she would tap if asked to put together an all-star “We Are the World”-type song. “It might be a girl group,” she said before rattling off a list that included Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus and Madonna.
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Minogue also talked about pulling the set list together for her upcoming first U.S. tour in more than a dozen years, promising that she’ll hit songs from this month’s Tension II, as well as its 2023 predecessor Tension, 2002’s Disco and 2018’s Golden, and, of course, her 1987 breakthrough smash cover of “Locomotion.”
The 56-year-old singer who has tapped into a musical fountain of youth that has kept her relevant for decades — see her 2023 global dance hit “Padam Padam” — also delved into the changes she’s seen for women in the music industry.
“It’s very encouraging that I’m proof, I’m sat here. Now we bring up the age topic, but I think it’s at least with a positive spin on it,” she said. “It wasn’t that many years ago that I felt I was in quite awkward positions where people would question me to my face in an interview, ‘When are you too old to be a woman in this business?’ Firstly — rude, but secondly — I don’t know. I guess I’ve always had women in the industry that I’ve looked up to, I didn’t really think about their age at the time.”
Minogue recalled “obsessing” over fellow Aussie singer Olivia Newton-John as a grade schooler, as well well as disco diva Donna Summer, before moving on to worshipping Whitney Houston, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper as a teen. “I guess there wasn’t such an age gap between my teenage years and their years,” she said. “But I don’t know what happened where it was suddenly deemed distasteful or, I don’t know. But thankfully, it is becoming, certainly, for the younger generation… they’ve just got new minds and open minds.”
Watch Minogue on the Audacy Check In below.
Chappell Roan has attracted millions of new listeners in the year since she dropped her acclaimed debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, many of whom are eagerly waiting to hear what she makes next — and luckily for them, producer Dan Nigro has an update. In a New York Times profile […]
It’s early in season 26 of The Voice, but Monday night’s (Oct. 21) kick-off of the Battle rounds had the coaches wondering if they’ve already spotted one of this season’s frontrunners. With the blind auditions in the rear view, coaches Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Michael Bublé and Reba McEntire counseled their teams on strategy, then had the unenviable task of pitting two of their chosen vocalists against each other.
Stefani picked two promising teens on her team, 15-year-old Buffalo, N.Y. native Sydney Sterlace and 19-year-old Pittsburgh singer Sloane Simon, tasking them with taking on Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather.”
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Sterlace was up first, appearing a bit nervous as she crooned, “I want you to stay/ ‘Til I’m in the grave/ ‘Til I rot away, dead and buried/ ‘Til I’m in the casket you carry.” Simon proved she was equally up to the task, jumping in on the second verse with airy, confident vocals as she stared down her opponent.
The women then sang directly at each other as they dueted on the song’s wistful chorus, “Birds of a feather, we should stick together/ I know I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone,” changing places and expertly working the stage as they blended their voices and did their best to stand out during the individual bits with impressive runs and soaring ad libs.
Proud coach Stefani leapt to her feet (along with McEntire) as Bublé told the pair that their singing was “really beautiful” and Gwen admitted that she was totally “momming out right now.” Bublé said he could sense a bit of nervousness in Sterlace’s vocals, noting that she was not as settled as her battle mate, “nor should you be. You’re 15. Besides that your voice was great, I loved that you moved towards Sloan,” he said.
Snoop added that he was “thrilled” with the performance, dubbing both singers “true professionals… do not let the age dictate what you could possibly be because we were all young once upon a time.” Snoop dubbed them equally good, suggesting Stefani shold pick the singer she can “grow with,” even as the No Doubt and solo star lamented, “how can a mommy choose between their daughters?”
McEntire also said she was impressed with both, but suggested that her vote would be for Simon, agreeing that Sterlace has some more years to develop her craft. “You’re gonna blossom like the most beautiful rose ever,” she said. “‘Cause you’re a beautiful bud right now.”
Stefani said her heart was in her throat about the tough decision, recalling that she was blown away by Sterlace’s blind audition and wanted to hear more, while also being stunned by Simon’s “sparkly personality,” confidence and tone. It may have helped that Simon was, literally, wearing a silver sparkle dress with matching stacked heels.
In the end, Stefani focused in on Sterlace’s still-germinating stage presence rather than already established vocal talents. “You have come so far since our rehearsals. I’m shocked,” Stefani said, doubling down on McEntire’s rose bud metaphor. “I keep hearing that word ‘bud,’” veteran toker Snoop joked. Stefani said that the reality was that Simon is “a little bit more ready… you have that star-quality personality.”
Faced with a tough choice, Stefani followed the “weird voice” insider her head and chose Sterlace. And even after McEntire praised Simon’s “voice of an angel,” in her pitch to steal, Sloane ended up choosing Bublé — who also called her voice “angelic” — as her new team leader.
New episodes of The Voice air Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, and then stream on-demand via Peacock the next day.
Watch Sterlace and Simon face off below.
Do you get deja vu? Olivia Rodrigo‘s Guts World Tour concert film is coming soon to Netflix, allowing fans to relive the 21-year-old pop star’s show over and over again — as teased by a new trailer that dropped Tuesday (Oct. 22).
The minute-long video opens with Rodrigo on stage, dressed in a sparkly red leotard. “Here’s the deal,” she yells into the microphone as the crowd cheers. “Right now, I want you to think about something or someone that really pisses you off, and when the lights go down, you’re going to scream as loud as you can and let it all out!”
The teaser then cuts to a backstage shot of the “Vampire” singer with her band and backup dancers, standing in a circle as they hype each other up ahead of a show. “I’m so grateful that I get to be here and do this with you guys,” she tells the crew. “I love you all to death.”
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Rodrigo’s concert film is set to drop on Netflix Oct. 29. As seen in the rest of the trailer, the project will document the star’s first-ever arena tour with shots of her singing, playing guitar and piano, dancing on stage and interacting with fans at her August tour stop at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
“For those of you who didn’t get a chance to rock out in person, now you can have the best seats in the house!” Rodrigo wrote in a statement when the film was first announced early October. “And to the fans who cheered, screamed and danced with me, I am so glad we get to do it all over again!”
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum has been on the road since February in support of her Billboard 200-topping sophomore album, Guts. Just days before her concert film premieres, Rodrigo will wrap the trek with four shows in Sydney Oct. 17-22, after which she won’t take the stage again until 2025 for a limited run of dates in Latin America and two rescheduled shows in Manchester.
“It brings me so much joy to perform in front of my fans,” Rodrigo recently reflected on the experience to Billboard. “We sing, we scream and we dance … Everyone’s energy is really inspiring and makes me want to bring my all every night.”
Watch the trailer for Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour below.
Britney Spears has walked down the aisle three times with partners. But in a video posted on Sunday (Oct. 20), the singer celebrated going it alone the fourth time. In a brief clip that appeared to be a partial repost of a similar one from 2022, Spears wrote, “The day I married myself … Bringing it back because it might seem embarrassing or stupid, but I think it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done !!!”
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The video cued to Sting’s 1993 solo single “Fields of Gold” features Spears, 42, staring into the camera while wearing a slip-like off-white dress and matching veil with lacy edges. Back in Dec. 2022, Spears — who was then still married to third ex-husband Sam Asghari — wrote, “Yeah … I married myself 👰🏼♀️ !!! I got bored, liked my veil and said IS THIS CRAZY ??? OR IS THERE SOMETHING TO IT 🤔🤔🤔 ??? Psss yes but I’m still married to hubby too 💍💍💍 😂😂😂 !!!” in a nearly identical video accompanied by Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.”
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Spears briefly married childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004 before tying the knot with dancer Kevin Federline that same year; she and Federline welcomed two sons, Sean Preston, 19 and Jayden James, 18 before breaking up in 2007. In 2022, the singer married actor/personal trainer Asghari, with whom she split two years later.
Though Spears has said will “never return” to the music business, she continues to inspire her fellow artists, including Halsey, who tipped their hat to Brit this week as part of the roll out of the upcoming album The Great Impersonator (Oct. 25).
“It’s Britney, b–ch!!!,” Halsey wrote of the eleventh preview of her fifth studio album, which so far has had them channeling the look and vibes of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, late Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, Evanescence’s Amy Lee, David Bowie, Cher and other iconic stars. “The first superstar who ever inspired me,” they wrote of Spears, whose work is sampled on their Great Impersonator single “Lucky.” Halsey also copped Spears’ In the Zone look for the acompanying promo pic. “There were infinite Britney looks to choose from, but I had to do this iconic album!,” they added of Spears’ 2003 fourth studio album, which featured the Madonna collab “Me Against the Music,” as well as the Billboard Hot 100 No. 9 hit “Toxic.”
Ariana Grande is explaining how she remembers an encounter with Elvira after the Mistress of the Dark called out the pop star for an unpleasant experience. In a viral video circulating on YouTube and TikTok from a recent event, the actress, born Cassandra Peterson, said one of her worst celebrity encounters was with Grande after the singer and her family attended […]
Streams and sales of music from One Direction and Liam Payne surged both in the U.S. and globally following Payne’s Oct. 16 death in Buenos Aires, as listeners flocked to both the late 31-year-old’s solo material and the influential boyband in which he starred.
On Oct. 16, official on-demand U.S. streams of One Direction’s five-LP catalog totaled 5.9 million, a vault of 174% over 2.1 million the previous day, according to Luminate. On Oct. 17, they rose further to 22.2 million, up 278% over the day before.
The act – Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – formed in 2010 and went on hiatus in 2016, after Malik left in 2015. Four of its full-lengths hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with its last reaching No. 2.
Globally, One Direction pulled 21.3 million streams on Oct. 16, a 76% gain from 12.1 million on Oct. 15. The group’s catalog soared 298% to 84.9 million streams on Oct. 17.
As for Payne’s solo catalog, it sported 932,000 streams in the U.S. on Oct. 16, a 472% blast from 90,000 on Oct. 15. On Oct. 17, it ballooned another 120% to 3.8 million. Globally, the gain on Oct. 16 was 321% to 1.3 million (from 317,000), followed by, on Oct. 17, a 258% expansion to 4.8 million.
In the four days (Oct. 16-19) following Payne’s death, One Direction’s catalog accumulated 62.9 million streams in the U.S., a 675% gain over 8.2 million Oct. 12-15. Worldwide, the total was 254 million Oct. 16-19, up 442% over 46.9 million Oct. 12-15. Payne’s solo material drew 3.3 million streams in the U.S. Oct. 16-19, up 858% from 354,000, and 13.4 million globally, up 1,038% from 1.2 million.
Leading the way: “Night Changes,” a No. 31 hit for One Direction on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014. The song drew 4.9 million U.S. streams Oct. 16-19 (including 556,000 on Oct. 16 and 1.5 million on Oct. 17), up 416% from 945,000 Oct. 12-15. Globally, the song received 24.5 million streams, up 220% from 7.7 million, during the same periods.
As a result, the track reenters both the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (No. 95) and the Billboard Global 200 (No. 117), both dated Oct. 26.
In terms of volume of streams, One Direction’s “Story of My Life” follows. The No. 6 Hot 100 hit in 2013 garnered 4.8 million U.S. streams Oct. 16-19 (up 482% from 817,000 Oct. 12-15) and 22 million globally (up 426% from 4.2 million).
Payne’s top solo streamer was his lone Hot 100 top 10: “Strip That Down” (featuring Quavo), which hit No. 10 in 2017. It earned 2 million streams Oct. 16-19, up 593% from 291,000 Oct. 12-15. Globally, its numbers were 6.5 million Oct. 16-19, a 681% surge from 831,000 Oct. 12-15. “Teardrops,” released earlier this year, followed (430,000 U.S. streams, 2.2 million globally).
Song download sales of One Direction’s catalog totaled 6,000 Oct. 16-19, up 1,124% from a negligible amount Oct. 12-15.
Billboard’s LyricFind U.S. and LyricFind Global charts dated Oct. 26 feature multiple One Direction songs, led by “Little Things” on the U.S. ranking and “Story of My Life” on the Global survey. According to LyricFind, whose charts rank the fastest momentum-gaining tracks in lyric-search queries and usages, “Little Things,” which reached No. 33 on the Hot 100 in 2013, sported a 1,140% leap in activity in the U.S., while “Story of My Life” received a 464% increase globally. Two One Direction songs appear on the Global ranking, while the U.S. chart is populated by seven.
All Oct. 26-dated Billboard charts will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
More appearances by One Direction and/or Payne are possible on the Nov. 2-dated Billboard charts, which will track the period of Oct. 18-24.
Sure, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart are best friends, but it doesn’t mean they agree on everything. The duo appeared alongside Seth Meyers on a new episode of Watch What Happens Live, where host Andy Cohen led a game of “Do! Besties! Give a Damn!?,” in which he asked Meyers if he thinks Snoop and […]