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Paris Hilton will forever be synonymous with 2000s pop culture. Long before the days of Instagram models and TikTok influencers, Hilton was a pioneering influencer — when society didn’t even have a word for it yet.
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Tuesday night (June 25) represented a full-circle moment for the “Stars Are Blind” singer. 20 years after first introducing the world to the Razr, Hilton partnered with Motorola once again to help unveil the new family of Razr phones.
A flashback to paparazzi photos from the mid-2000s would often find Paris showing off her pink Razr — typically bedazzled in Swarovski crystals — which she’d use as a fashion accessory to go with her trendy outfit.
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“When you think [of] Y2K and fashion, the Motorola Razr was an accessory, and I made it that way. I would literally have low-waist jeans and have it just clipped in there,” Hilton tells Billboard in her greenroom. “Anytime I was walking through a crowd and I’d pretend to be on the phone, I’d have my cute pink Razr — and it brings back so many nostalgic memories.”
Rocking a glittery pink and silver plaid dress with matching bedazzled gloves, Paris Hilton looked like royalty while taking the stage to close the House of Razr event in Brooklyn out with a DJ set. The partying didn’t last long for Hilton, though — who jetted to Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning (June 26), where she delivered a candid testimony in front of congress about child welfare.
The Simple Life alum revealed to Billboard that her years-in-the-making Infinite Icon album is finished, and will be released on Sept. 6, coinciding with New York Fashion Week’s kick-off.
Hilton continued the project’s rollout last week with the release of her “I’m Free” single featuring Rina Sawayama. Sia is onboard as the LP’s executive producer, and fans can expect a collaboration with Meghan Trainor as well.
Check out the rest of our conversation with the multi-hyphenate heiress, who dishes on being the original influencer, working with Meghan Trainor and Sia and her “Stars Are Blind” anthem turning 18.
How did the partnership with Motorola and the Razr come together?
Paris Hilton: I first launched their pink Razr 20 years ago, so this is a full-circle moment, being back introducing the new pink Razr. It’s iconic and I love Motorola. They always have had the best parties for 20 years.
When I Googled back then I saw you with pink, black and other colors. Were you just running through [Razr] phones?
Yeah, lots of phones — and constantly thinking of ones for different-colored outfits. Then I would bedazzle them all. All my Razrs were covered in Swarovski crystals. I can’t wait to do that to my new one.
What was life like for you back then using it as a fashion accessory?
I’ve always been an undercover nerd, and obsessed with technology — so even before a phone would come out, they would send it to me, because I was the original influencer. When I got the phone, everyone got the phone. It was cool to see the impact that I could make on pop culture, and showing off my love of gadgets. The phones [are] even better now.
What other memories come back there? For me, I think Paris running around with Kim [Kardashian] and The Simple Life.
It was just so much fun. The 2000s, there was nothing like it. The energy, vibes, fashion — it’ll never be like that again. It was about everything I wore. I invented Y2K fashion.
What can you tell us about your new single “I’m Free?” How was working with Rina [Sawayama]?
I love Rina. She’s just so brilliant and talented. Her voice is so beautiful, and just recording this whole album with Sia this whole year — she’s an executive producer of the album. She’s the greatest songwriter of her time. One of my best friends. She took my voice to another level, which I didn’t even know I had in me. She brought out so much in me, and she made me feel so comfortable in the studio.
“I’m Free” was the perfect song [to introduce] my new album Infinite Icon, because it’s Pride Month and “I’m Free” is all about expressing who you are and being who you want to be and living how you want to live. I think that’s something important to celebrate.
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When does the album come out?
The album is out Sept. 6. During Fashion Week. I’m gonna be recording some music videos this summer. First one will be “Bad B—h Academy,” which is sick. I have some amazing surprise features on that one as well. Just getting ready for a tour.
Who else do you wanna get on the album? Is it done?
It’s done. One of my favorite features is with Meghan Trainor. She’s just so sweet and amazing. We met years ago during New York Fashion Week. She just came up to me, like, “I’m the third Hilton sister.” Then I immediately just loved her so much and we became best friends.
On the new single you say, “Infinite Icon, I am the blueprint.” I feel like you are the OG celebrity influencer. If you could speak to that and how [celebrity] has transformed with everyone else following in your path.
It makes me really proud. I was an influencer before there was a name for it. Everyone was like, famous for being famous. Now, 20 years later, I was ahead of my time … as [essentially] the first person to get into reality television, the first person to get into social. And it just really makes me proud to see how many people were inspired by that. This whole generation. It’s pretty sick.
“Stars Are Blind” turned 18 earlier this month. What a time.
“Stars Are Blind” is the anthem of my life. I’m just so proud of how timeless and iconic it is. People just love it. It’s the ultimate summer bop. I loved re-recording it with Kim Petras. She’s so talented and so amazing. The perfect person to do that [with]. It’s just amazing to see so many people love it and [are still] raging with it almost 20 years later.
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Taylor Swift is working to leave the cities on her Eras Tour route a little better than she found them.
As the 34-year-old pop star has taken her global trek to Europe this summer, she’s continued her trend of donating to food banks along the way. And according to one charity in Liverpool — where Swift performed three nights at Anfield Stadium earlier this month — a recent contribution from the singer will take care of crucial gaps in their fundraising efforts, providing for a full year’s worth of meals.
“It’s the most incredible gift,” Rich Jones, chief executive of St. Andrew’s Community Network, told The Guardian in an interview published Tuesday (June 25). “Because of rising prices, rising need and falling donations, we’ve been having to subsidize our food ourselves for a long while.”
“But it’s fair to say that Taylor Swift has essentially paid our food bill for 12 months – and that gives us the breathing space to focus on fundraising efforts going forward,” he added on behalf of St. Andrew’s, which runs 11 food banks and offers long-term support to eight community pantries.
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Shortly after performing in Liverpool, the “Anti-Hero” singer brought her Eras showcase to Wales. According to Rachel Biggs, chief executive of Cardiff Foodbank, Swift also covered 10,800 meals with a discreet donation to the organization in honor of her single performance at Principality Stadium June 18.
“We’re going to buy an articulated lorry full of food and other most-needed items to supplement our emergency food parcels,” Biggs told the publication. “This will provide the weight equivalent to feeding 1,200 people three meals a day, for three days … This will be 2.5 weeks of what we typically distribute.”
Though Swift doesn’t publicize her donations, Liverpool and Cardiff are only two of the latest cities to report receiving generous donations from the 14-time Grammy winner over the course of her Eras Tour. When she was on the North American leg, food banks in Arizona, Nevada and Florida all revealed that she had sent funding their way.
Following three nights at London’s Wembley Stadium last weekend, Swift is next slated to perform three shows in Dublin June 28-30. She’ll spend the rest of the summer traveling throughout Europe before returning to North America for a final lap this fall.
“Wembley Stadium round one was so surreal,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post. “Looking out into crowds of 90,000 fans each night and hearing that VOLUME… Those were some of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard … Never going to forget these shows.”
Devonté Hynes is well-known as a musical collaborator, songwriter and producer who’s worked with a diverse and ever-expanding group of artists (Solange, Mariah Carey, Harry Styles and Carly Rae Jepsen, to name a few) and a composer for film, television, dance and classical ensembles. Now, Billboard can exclusively reveal that the artist also known as […]
Behind the social media fame, the songs, the movies, the red carpets and the philanthropy, Selena Gomez just wants to make her family proud.
Martin Short is part of that expanded family.
Gomez stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night (June 26) for a catch-up with Short, her co-star on Only Murders in the Building, that felt like old buddies picking up where they left off.
Gomez is, according to Short, never a second late on set, knows every line, a total pro.
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Deflecting praise, she remarked, “I do what I can with what I have. And I’m so grateful. And I mean, my grandparents are here, I just want to make my family proud.”
The pop culture icon has a busy schedule. Having bagged the best actress award and a rousing standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival following a screening of Emilia Pérez, Gomez is looking ahead to a string of small screen projects. Among them, season four of Only Murders in the Building, which starts Aug. 27 on Hulu, and a reboot of Wizards of Waverly Place, for which she is on board as executive producer and appears in episode one.
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“It brings me to tears because that is the beginning of where I started,” she says of the 2000s sitcom, “and to honor it in this way has truly been a blast.”
Gomez also confessed her crush on Paul Rudd, and the “dream” that was working with Meryl Streep on Only Murders. “As an actress you can only dream to work with someone as great as her,” she recounts “But she would just dally around as if she was just a part of our family. She would sing songs barefoot. And talk to everyone and…that was elegant to me. That was true class.”
Away from the spotlight, Gomez helms the Rare Beauty cosmetics brand, which has a commitment to raise awareness and increase access to mental health services for young people. Gomez, who explored her own mental health struggles in the Alek Keshishian-helmed documentary My Mind & Me, hopes to raise $100 million for good causes. “It’s got meaning and it’s practical,” she explains.
Short is guest host, standing-in (or rather, sitting) for Kimmel this week. Watch the interview below.
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Happy birthday, Ariana Grande! The pop superstar turned 31 on Wednesday (June 26), and she took to Instagram to share a sweet throwback video from her childhood. In the clip, she’s seen in a multi-colored swimsuit with her curly hair on full display, belting various songs and dancing for her family. “Why don’t you sing […]
Breakups are hard, but being permanently tied to your ex through a smash hit song can be even harder.
In a new Complex cover story published Wednesday (June 26) ahead of her new album C,XOXO, Camila Cabello got candid about her feelings toward “Señorita,” which she released in 2019 with Shawn Mendes just before they started publicly dating — and suffice to say, it’s not necessarily her favorite song in her discography now that the two stars are split up.
When asked whether she ever tires of hearing the Billboard Hot 100-topping duet or “Havana” — which also reached No. 1 on the chart in its heyday — the Fifth Harmony alum said yes, but especially “Señorita.”
“I think there’s always a worry when a song becomes so massive that it’s going to be bigger than you,” she told the publication. “I obviously love that they were so massive and successful. But it does get people attached to you in a certain light. I was in a really public relationship and as a woman, you’re like, ‘I don’t want this couple thing to be my new identity.’”
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Cabello and Mendes first sparked romance rumors in July 2019, one month after “Señorita” dropped. The pair went on to date for about two years before announcing their breakup in November 2021, sharing a joint statement that read: “Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship but our love for one another as humans is stronger than ever. We started our relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends.”
The pair appeared to reunite in April 2023 when fans spotted them packing on PDA at Coachella; however, their rekindling was short-lived. Earlier this year, Cabello confirmed on Call Her Daddy that she and the “Stitches” singer had temporarily gotten back together but quickly decided to end it.
“It was a fun moment,” she said on the podcast. “I think you’re just kind of like, ‘Yeah, this doesn’t really … it’s not a fit — it doesn’t feel right. Luckily, I was in a place in my life where … it took us both less time to be like, ‘This doesn’t feel right and we don’t really need to try so hard to make it work. It’s all good, let’s move on.’”
See Cabello’s Complex cover below.
Complex
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Ariana Grande may have first come to public attention through the Nickelodeon series Victorious, but the real triumph was her elevation from television teen star to music industry juggernaut like few acts have ever achieved. From the jump, Grande emerged as an instant fan favorite: Her debut single, the Mac Miller-assisted “The Way,” debuted in the […]
In a community of multitaskers, Shaina Taub is still most likely one of the busiest people on Broadway. Taub wrote the music, lyrics and book for Suffs, her musical bringing the women who fomented the women’s suffrage movement vividly back to life and firmly out of the history books to which they’ve long been relegated; she’s also one of the show’s stars, playing the central role of movement instigator Alice Paul.
At last week’s Tony Awards, Taub took home the prizes for both original score and book of a musical, and gave a moving televised speech calling out some of the pioneering women who paved the way for her – including both fellow composers and one of her lead producers, Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Shaina Taub as Alice Paul in Suffs.
Joan Marcus
Sitting in her dressing room a little over an hour from showtime on a recent night, the 35-year old Taub is clearly still absorbing her wins, though she admits that the ongoing routine of performing onstage each night has helped keep her grounded. “To have the tangible act of doing the show,” she says, “brings me back to reality in a beautiful way.” (The show’s original Broadway cast recording is currently out on Atlantic Records).
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Below, she speaks to Billboard about Suffs’ long road to Broadway (including its run at New York’s Public Theater in spring of 2022), the status of her next project – writing the lyrics for Elton John’s music in the The Devil Wears Prada musical (set to open at London’s Dominion theater in July prior to a West End transfer in October) – and more.
The world of theater often feels like a more progressive one than TV or film — but as you pointed out in your acceptance speech it’s still a fairly small group of women composers who are getting recognition of this level. What’s been your experience?
I’ve been so blessed to have been taught well for so long by so many brilliant women. Elizabeth Swados — who’s a legend of theater, composer, educator — I got to be in her class [at NYU], and she was the first person who pushed me off the cliff to write a song before that was something I thought I could even do. And Jeanine [Tesori] especially is just a titan of composing in our field for any gender. She’s been so generous — she just let me come and play crappy first drafts, and gave me essential devastating feedback, tough love and real-talk in moments when I’ve had questions about the business and about the craft. Georgia Stitt too, who put together Maestra, which is such an amazing community for women and non-binary folks making theater. Kristen Anderson-Lopez has been so kind.
A lot has been made this season of me being the second woman to write and star in a musical but the first one is Micki Grant, an incredible artist I sadly never got to meet whose legacy should be given a lot more attention. We’ve always been here, and so many women are my peers on Broadway right now: Rebekah Greer Melocik is a good friend, and her work for How to Dance in Ohio was so gorgeous; Kate Kerrigan with The Great Gatsby, she and I have come up together; Bekah [Brunstetter] and Ingrid [Michaelson] for The Notebook. Anais Mitchell – whose Hadestown I was in off-Broadway — we’re both Vermont girls and she’s such a confidante. Everyone is just so forthcoming; it’s a real sisterhood.
You clearly did work on Suffs between the Public and Broadway runs. How did you come to terms with what needed editing? Was there a moment between the runs of reset for you?
There really wasn’t a lot of a moment of reset. There was no back in the saddle – we kinda stayed in the saddle. I had demos of new ideas for songs from May 2022 that are now in the show on Broadway. I knew that it wasn’t finished, and there’s just that intel you get from a first production that you can’t get in a workshop or reading because the audience tells you everything and they tell you fast. It took a lot of willpower to keep going; I’m so proud of what we did downtown, and we had so much love for the show and also a lot of critique of the show. There were times that got me down, but any sense of feeling down pretty quickly transformed into almost this adrenaline, this sense of being underestimated that put me on fire to be like, we’re gonna finish this show, dammit!
From left: Jenn Colella, Kim Blanck, Shaina Taub, Nikki M James and Ally Bonino at Suffs‘ first preview performance.
Jenny Anderson / @jennyandersonphoto
What kind of changes did you know you had to make?
There were two driving principles to my revision. More humanity, less history: just making sure everything was as character- and emotion-forward as possible, with all the historical detail I fell in love with taking a bit more of a backseat. And then I kind of made a promise to myself that I was gonna spend more time sitting at the piano than the computer, trying to let my impulses be visceral, let me pull from my musical heart first and see where that would lead.
Did you always intend to perform in Suffs?
I always wanted to perform in it. I’ve always performed in my work — I find writing and performing feed each other. But I initially thought I’d play Doris, the young intern type character who documents everything. It sort of felt like the Mark in Rent character and I’ve always wanted to play Mark in a gender-flipped Rent. [Laughs.] But Alice was a difficult nut to crack, finding her inner life. She didn’t leave that much of a paper trail in terms of her emotional life.
And it was also about finding Alice’s sense of humor. I got a great note from our orchestrator, Michael Starobin, who came to see me play at Joe’s Pub early last year and was like, “I wish there as more of that girl in Alice – that self-deprecation and humor.” It was such a great note, and I think it helped me make her come alive.
What has Sec. Clinton been like as a producer?
She’s just been such a cheerleader and a warm, supportive presence — how vocal she’s been in her support of us before reviews, nominations, awards, just her vote of confidence in us and that we could see through this thing we started at the Public, that gave me faith in the dark and hard moments of tech and previews and the “Oh boy, we’re gonna go face the music again [on Broadway], what are people gonna say…” Knowing she believed in us so wholeheartedly that she was willing to attach her name and her legacy to this piece of art, that gave me confidence I needed in really vulnerable moments.
Suffs producers Rachel Sussman, Sec. Clinton, and Jill Furman, and co-producer Morgan Steward.
Jenny Anderson / @jennyandersonphoto
Can we please discuss her amazing Tony night caftan? It was definitely one of the biggest stories of the night…
I loved it. She looked gorgeous as always, and she seemed to me to be so liberated. And to see her be so celebrated by the theater community with that standing ovation — it was great to see her given her due. She’s a theater lover, and beyond just being an enthusiast I think she understands the importance of theater to the public discourse. She gets that it matters beyond just entertainment; it’s a public common good that should be funded, that should be championed, and that’s rare in a leader of her stature. New York theater loves HRC!
Have you been juggling Devil Wears Prada work with all this too? Are there lessons you’ve learned in the editing process for Suffs that you’re finding are applicable there?
I mean, that’s another long and winding road — we’re going through a lot of changes, and it’s exciting. I was actually just texting with the creative team right now! I’ve been working on that show for six years, it’s gone through so many permutations, and yet we keep trying to figure it out. It’s such a fundamentally different experience [from Suffs] in that I’m collaborating so much, writing lyrics for a composer who’s worked lyrics-first for his whole 50-plus-years songwriting career. That’s really strengthened me as a songwriter, to write lyrics first and lyrics only. It’s gotten me excited for my projects after this to be a little more in the music seat, after this lyric-honing time.
It’s crazy with theater, you can never plan these things in advance. I never imagined it would be this insane overlapping season, but luckily we got to do a lot of amazing work last year. Elton and I wrote a few new songs, so it’s on its way.
As we enter the last full week of Pride Month, pop singer Demi Lovato is making sure to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with a little help from Chappell Roan. In a video posted to their TikTok on Tuesday (June 25), Lovato shared footage from an intimate Pride-themed pool party they attended — or, as they […]
With their groundbreaking anthem to gender nonconformity “The Code,” Swiss pop artist Nemo transformed from a lesser-known European artist to a bona fide global star in a matter of weeks.
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That’s in no small part thanks to their participation in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which they won on May 11, 2024. “I remember being on that sofa, hearing the jury votes and just being in a state of complete confusion,” they tell Billboard. “It was incredible. And it was really meaningful because I feel like this kind of [opportunity] doesn’t really happen for Switzerland that often. We have such a great scene and so many amazing artists, so I’m really happy that this puts a spotlight on Swiss music.”
Nemo is eager to share that spotlight with the nonbinary community, both in Switzerland and across the world. “It can be hard to stay hopeful when bad things keep happening to our community over and over again,” they say. “But this helps me feel like there are finally things to be hopeful about.”
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FOUNDATION
Nemo’s career started from a place of sheer curiosity. At age nine, the singer found a flyer in their hometown advertising open auditions for a youth opera and joined. After one performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, they came to a realization: “I love being on a stage.” Nemo went on to perform in a number of operas and even landed a role in a musical in Zurich, all of which helped hone their vocal skills and educate them on writing lyrics. In 2015, they self-released Clownfisch, an EP of songs written in Swiss German. But soon after its release, Nemo realized that writing and performing songs in their native dialect could only get them so far. “Swiss German is great, but it is also a tiny language,” they say. “If I wanted to open my playing field and collaborate with more people, I needed to start writing in English.”
DISCOVERY
After a decade spent jumping between boutique indie labels, Nemo decided to submit a song to Eurovision 2024 — but knew they needed someone “to direct that water.” They reached out to multiple major labels and found what they were looking for at Universal Music Group. Soon after, Nemo submitted an original song, “The Code,” which fittingly interpolates The Magic Flute. The frenetic, operatic track won Eurovision’s top prize by 44 points over the favorite to win, Croatia’s Baby Lasagna. In taking home the trophy, Nemo became the first nonbinary performer to win Eurovision — and has since watched “The Code” become their first charting hit, climbing to Nos. 21 and 52 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Billboard Global 200 charts, respectively. “Jumping into the cold water that is Eurovision meant learning how to swim while everyone was watching,” they say.
FUTURE
With so much momentum, Nemo is resolute in making the most of their moment. Following the “very time-consuming” process of curating their Eurovision performance, Nemo has now been spending a significant amount of time in the studio. “The last couple of days, I’ve worked with some amazing writers and producers, and we have so many songs that I want to share,” they say, beaming. “A lot of exciting things are finally happening.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.