Pop
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Charli XCX’s “Guess,” featuring Billie Eilish, soars to No. 1, from No. 16, on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Aug. 17).
The song surged by 758% to 20.4 million official streams and 515% to 5,000 downloads sold in the United States Aug. 2-8, according to Luminate. It also drew 182,000 in radio audience.
“Guess” gains following the Aug. 1 arrival of its remix with Eilish, which accounted for the bulk of the song’s overall consumption in the tracking week. The cut was first released by Charli XCX solo on June 10 on her Brat and It’s the Same but There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not deluxe version of her Atlantic Records album Brat, which was originally released on June 7.
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Charli notches her second No. 1 since Hot Dance/Electronic Songs began in January 2013, after Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” on which she’s featured, led for two weeks that May. Eilish reigns with her first entry on the chart.
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“Guess” concurrently debuts at No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 5 on Billboard Global Excl. U.S. On the U.S.-based, all-genre multimetric Billboard Hot 100, it opens at No. 12, marking Charli XCX’s highest rank (and first top 40 placement) since she arrived with three consecutive top 10s in 2013-14: “I Love It” (No. 7 peak, May 2013); Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (No. 1 for seven weeks, beginning in June 2014); and “Boom Clap” (No. 8, October 2014).
Meanwhile, Charli’s presence on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs extends beyond “Guess,” as she boasts six songs in the top 10. Only Drake and Rihanna have each logged as many or more top 10s simultaneously, led by Drake’s eight on the July 2, 2022, chart, when his LP Honestly, Nevermind launched its 20-week run at No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums.
Brat rules Top Dance/Electronic Albums for a ninth week, having led in each week on the survey since its debut. It earned 56,000 equivalent album units, up 39%, and wins the list’s Greatest Gainer award for a third consecutive week.
Eight tracks from Brat have hit the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10 to date. Here’s a recap, ranked by their peak positions:
No. 1 (one week to date), “Guess,” feat. Billie Eilish
No. 2, “360”
No. 3, “Girl, So Confusing,” with Lorde
No. 4, “Apple”
No. 5, “Talk Talk”
No. 7, “Von Dutch”
No. 8, “365”
No. 10, “Sympathy Is a Knife”
Also notably, Charli has claimed at least one of the Greatest Gainer ribbons on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in nine of the last 10 weeks, spread among five tracks from Brat:
Aug. 17: “Guess,” streaming & sales; “360,” airplay
Aug. 10: “Guess,” streaming & sales; “360,” airplay
Aug. 3: “Apple,” streaming & sales
July 27: “Apple,” streaming
July 13: “360,” airplay
July 6: “Girl, So Confusing,” streaming & sales
June 29: “Guess,” streaming
June 22: “360,” streaming; “Von Dutch,” sales
June 15: “360,” streaming & sales
As “Guess” takes the week’s top headlines among Brat songs, “360” continues its climb as the set’s promoted radio single. It bounds 35-27 in its second week on the Pop Airplay chart. Charli has tallied two No. 1s on the ranking: “Fancy” and “Boom Clap” led for three weeks each in 2014.
Joe Jonas‘ next project is a solo album, but that doesn’t mean he worked on it by himself. In a new clip from an interview with Entertainment Weekly posted Tuesday (Aug. 13), the 34-year-old musician confirmed Music For People Who Believe In Love is filled with collaborations. “We packed it with features,” Jonas said. “I […]
BLACKPINK’s LISA is used to being on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, but when it came to her casting in the upcoming third season of the HBO drama The White Lotus, the veteran performer got those familiar butterflies in her stomach.
“Oh my God, Mike White? I think he’s a genius,” Lisa told Elle magazine about the show’s creator tapping her for her acting debut. “I think I cried. I was with my friends, my mom’s friends, and my mom as well, but I didn’t tell them that I auditioned for it. I’m super excited and nervous, because it’s my first acting project. So I was happy for a second, and then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, wait, how am I going to deliver this?’”
Luckily for LISA, while acting is not on her resumé, she does have some relevant experience. “It’s pretty new to me, but I think it’s similar to shooting music videos. I’m excited for my fans to see it,” she said. As for what the third go-round of the murder mystery dramedy has in store, LISA was, of course, mum to avoid any spoilers. “I feel like people are going to fall in love with Thailand even more,” she said diplomatically.
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Production on the as-yet-unscheduled third season was initially delayed because of the 2023 writers/actors strikes, with HBO/Max now saying that it is slated to premiere in 2025. The upcoming season of the show that chronicles the lives of the rich and famous is being filmed at luxury resorts across Thailand, which happens to be LISA’s home country.
She told the magazine that filming in Bangkok and the islands of Phuket and Koh Samui was a great chance for the K-pop icon to “be back home, to have Thai food every day” and have her mother be close to the set.
LISA is slated to release a new single on Thursday (August 15), “New Woman,” featuring Rosalía as the follow up to her previous solo single, “Rockstar.”
Swifties will be let into Wembley Stadium a bit earlier than usual for Taylor Swift‘s upcoming Eras Tour shows in London. According to the venue, early entry for Thursday’s (August 15) kick-off of the five-night stand will begin at 3:30 local time, with general admission beginning at 4 p.m. and the show starting at 4:55; […]
Lots of changes are happening for FIFTY FIFTY. Three former members of the K-pop girl group — Saena, Aran and Sio — have reportedly signed with a new label after their fallout with the group’s agency ATTRAKT. Meanwhile, ATTRAKT has announced the addition of four new FIFTY FIFTY members. On Monday (Aug. 12), IOK Company […]
Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered. These tracks from artists including Nina Nesbitt, Sophie Thatcher, Lunar Vacation and more will get you energized to take on the week.
Coolest New Pop Song of the Week: Addison Rae, “Diet Pepsi”
Before artists like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato were accepted as arena-level pop stars in the 2010s, they were largely dismissed by critics and adult listeners as Disney-kid performers, making music for the youth and not to be taken too seriously. A pop generation later, the designation previously bestowed to Disney Channel grads has been transferred to social media influencers — many of whom, from the D’Amelio sisters to Huddy to Bella Poarch, are trying to translate millions of TikTok followers into mainstream music stardom, and who are still largely brushed off by music-biz gatekeepers.
Addison Rae exists in that group, too: the 23-year-old Louisiana native is a true triple-threat as an actress, former competitive dancer and recording artist, who happens to have the fifth-most followers of any TikTok account. Last year, Rae’s debut EP AR contained some bright spots as a bubblegum project, and she popped up on the remix to Charli xcx’s “Von Dutch” in March alongside A.G. Cook, joining the Brat extended universe months before Brat Summer officially kicked off.
Now, with a newly signed Columbia Records deal, Rae has released her first solo single of 2024 — and after Rae’s past gestures at pop stardom, “Diet Pepsi” suggests that she could someday make the leap.
“Diet Pepsi” plays out like a Lana Del Rey song refracted through a radio-ready lens. Soda gets sipped and blue jeans get ripped during a backseat encounter with a dude in a gold chain, as Rae delineates between sexually charged exposition in the verses, breathless utterances in the pre-chorus and blissed-out falsetto in the hook (“When we drive in your car, I’m your baby / Losing all my innocence in the backseat,” she sings) — shifting keys on the final chorus to emphasize her yearning.
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The “Diet Pepsi” music video, directed by Sean Price Williams, leans into the Lana-esque Americana haze, with rapid black-and-white clips communicating bleary lust and pinup-model iconography. Yet Rae also puts her own playful spin on that image, grinning while covering her face with the American flag and planting her lipstick on a car window.
Regardless of its future chart impact or role in preceding a proper Columbia Records album, “Diet Pepsi” is a promising step for Rae, as a beguiling pop track that establishes an aesthetic for the multi-hyphenate. The darkly shimmering sound is more mature than that of AR, but more importantly, it’s more clearly defined; Rae’s debut EP was impressive, but we’re now starting to get a better sense of who she could be as a recording artist. For Rae, “Diet Pepsi” might not be an immediate smash, but it could very well prove to be a turning point.
Here are some new pop songs worth checking out this week…
Nina Nesbitt, “Anger”
If you’ve ever wondered: “why hasn’t anyone pitched a Curb Your Enthusiasm-style mockumentary sitcom about beloved 1980s pop singer Huey Lewis in which the News leader tries to figure out what life looks like after hearing loss with the help of his eccentric friends and clingy family?” Well, your prayers are answered, because according to […]
With Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine quickly sprinting past $1B in box office grosses on its path to unseating Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, Marvel has given the film’s fans something else to cheer about.
After extensively featuring Madonna‘s 1989 hit “Like a Prayer” in the film’s official trailer as well as prominently in the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman buddy superhero flick, the studio released two new versions of the track over the weekend. The Like a Prayer EP features the original version, as well as film composer Rob Simonsen mixing the joyous song with even more choir voices, a stirring organ line and dramatic strings.
The “Choir Version,” which features the I”ll Take You There choir, leans even further into the the spiritual side, focusing on the uplifting gospel vocalists.
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Last month, director Shawn Levy described the process of securing the rights to license the song for the film, which included a personal plea to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend. “It did involve a personal visit to Madonna, where we showed Madonna the sequence where ‘Like a Prayer’ would be used,” Levy said.
“Also, let’s preface it with the fact that they don’t license — that Madonna doesn’t just license the song, particularly that song,” Reynolds chimed in. “It was a big deal to ask for it and certainly a bigger deal to use it. We went over and met with her and and sort of showed her how it was being used, and where, and why.”
And, Madonna being Madonna, star Reynolds said the singer had some thoughts on how they should use the song in the film. “She gave a great note,” Reynolds said. “She watched it, and I’m not kidding, [she said], ‘You need to do this.’ And damn it, if she wasn’t like spot on. We literally went into a new recording session within 48 hours to do this note. It made the sequence better.”
The synch in the summer’s biggest movie helped “Like a Prayer” make its debut on the global charts last week when the song came in at No. 181 on the Global 200 and No. 189 on Global Exlu. U.S.; the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks back in 1989.
Listen to the Deadpool & Wolverine Like a Prayer EP below.
Sometimes celebrities really are just like us. Take, for example, the unmitigated joy Adele took over the weekend in watching the debut of the Summer Olympic’s latest sport: breaking. The anticipation for the first-ever breakdancing competition was feverish leading up to Friday’s debut of the women’s qualifying rounds.
And the athletes did not disappoint, with b-girls from around the globe proving that the American-born sport that judges scored on the dancer’s skills at elements such as toprocking, power moves, footwork and freezes was indeed worthy of inclusion. While dancers such as the Netherlands’ nimble India, fleet-footed bronze medal winner 671 and mind-blowing gold medalist Ami of Japan earned love from the judges, there was one b-girl who stood out among all the athletes.
“I’m not saying anything, I think it’s the best thing that’s happened in the Olympics the entire time,” Adele said during a break at one of her massive shows in Munich on Saturday about the thing she and her friends had been talking about non-stop since the night before. “Did anyone see the breakdancing lady?” she asked her audience to the sound of loud laughing.
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Adele explained that she wasn’t aware that breaking had been added for the first time at the Paris games — a situation she deemed “f–king fantastic.” She thensurveyed her band to see if any of them had watched, with the singer proclaiming that one of her musicians was “p—ing himself laughing” while thinking about 36-year-old Australian teacher Rachael Gunn, who won hearts and launched a million memes with her unique stylings under nom-de-break Raygun.
“I can’t work out if it was a joke, but either way, it has made me very, very happy and me and my friends have been s–ting ourself laughing for 24 hours,” Adele said of the dancer who scored zero points but who grabbed lots of attention for her floppy, unorthodox moves. “I just wanted to know if you’ve seen it. If you haven’t seen it, please leave the show and Google it because it is LOLZ!!! It is so f–king funny. Anyway, it’s my favorite thing that’s happened in Olympics this whole, whole time,” Adele said.
It wasn’t the first time Adele had stopped one of the shows at her bespoke German stadium to pay attention to the Paris games. Last week, she took a break to watch the anticipated Women’s 100M sprint final, broadcasting the 11-second race on the big screen for her 75,000 fans in the midst of her 10-night residency at custom-built Adele Arena.
While some mocked Raygun’s kangaroo hop moves and PE teacher-worthy outfit, the proud dancer who took up the sport at 20 and won the Oceania Breaking Championship crown last year told reporters after her wash-out that it was no joke.
“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves,” Gunn, who has a Ph.D. in cultural studies and studies breaking and hip-hop culture, told reporters afterwards according to NBC. “So I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get that in a lifetime to do that on an international stage.”
Watch footage of Adele talking Raygun and check out some of the funniest Raygun memes below.
At this point Lorde fans are looking for any crumb of a clue that the singer is gearing up to release a new album. And they appear to have gotten that sliver of daylight over the weekend when Lorde wiped her social media accounts clean.
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That’s right, if you one of the nearly 11 million people who follow Lorde and you dipped into her Instagram over the weekend you would have seen a “no posts yet” message in place of the series of teasers the “Green Light” vocalist had amassed over the past year. In their place was just the phrase that appears to be the prompt for the New Zealand star’s upcoming era: “THE THEMES ARE ALWAYS THE SAME— A RETURN TO INNOCENCE— THE MYSTERIES OF THE BLOOD— AN ITCH FOR THE TRANSCENDENTAL.”
One fan wrote, “Lorde deleting all her insta… oh LORDETEMBER is coming,” while another responded to the wipe with a tinge of frustrated anticipation: “Lorde I love you but how long are you gonna TEASE this project.”
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Lorde, 27, has been slow-rolling the details on her follow-up to 2021’s Solar Power for almost a year now, and recently she posted exactly a few seconds of what sounded like new music. The two-second clip came along with a pic of Lorde in the studio, smiling as she rocked her head side-to-side as the instrumental beat with a techno-like vibe rocking in the background. The caption to the post read, “will be back in touch.”
In June, Lorde posted a number of cryptic pictures, writing “use the existing tools wherever possible” alongside a variety of images including a copyright symbol, three variations of the letter L, the number four in parentheses and a recycling logo. “If the tools do not exist you are spiritually obligated to create them,” she added along a another string of unexplained images, with more Ls, another 4, a run of stars, the number 27, what looked like a Tarot card, the infinity symbol, a shark, a rabbit and an Egyptian figure.
That post, along with a video in which she spit off a balcony and held a pill in her hand that read “spit” were among the Instagram posts that went missing when the feeds got wiped. To date Lorde has not provided any additional details on when her fourth album will be released.
She has popped up in a few other musician’s feeds lately though. Including in pics over the weekend with Marina (or Marina and the Diamonds) in which the pals are playing pool, as well as at Charli XCX’s 32nd birthday party in Los Angeles on August 3, where the pair danced on couches and sang along to their remix of Charli’s Brat single “Girl, so confusing.”