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After years of waiting, training and preparing, the world’s most skilled athletes are off to the races with the 2024 Olympic Games after a spectacular Opening Ceremony on the Seine in Paris Friday (July 26). The festivities began with each participating country’s athletes sailing in on boats in a parade down France’s famous river, and […]
After rumors that Celine Dion would be returning to the stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the iconic chanteuse delivered a jaw-dropping performance at the games’ opening ceremony on Friday (July 26). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The superstar performed an emotional rendition of Édith Piaf’s […]
Lady Gaga was the first performer to take the stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday (July 26), which took place along the River Seine in the City of Lights. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news For her performance, Gaga belted the French-language “Mon […]
Just like Britney Spears did in 2000, Halsey is pulling back the curtain on the dark side of fame with her new single “Lucky.”
The track — which samples the iconic pop star’s turn-of-the-millennium hit of the same name — dropped at midnight Friday (July 26), while theY2K-inspired music video directed by Gia Coppola arrived hours later. In the visual, the 29-year-old singer channels a Spears-like teen idol who, on one side of the coin, is revered by a little girl with posters of Halsey covering her bedroom walls.
On the other side, the “Without Me” singer’s character faces troubles in her relationship while receiving treatment for an illness, much like the real-life Halsey. In June, the musician revealed she’d been diagnosed with Lupus and a rare T-cell disorder two years prior. Last year, she split from partner Alev Aydin, with whom she shares 3-year-old son Ender.
“I shaved my head four times because I wanted to/ And then I did it one more time ’cause I got sick,” she sings on the track, which also interpolates Monica’s 1998 Billboard Hot 100-topper “Angel of Mine.” “I left the doctor’s office full of tears/ Became a single mom at my premiere/ And I told everybody I was fine for a whole damn year/ And that’s the biggest lie of my career.”
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The video also finds Halsey modeling a crystal bodysuit to parallel Spears’ “Toxic” visual and smiling for paparazzi on a red carpet. She later removes the bright pink wig she’d been wearing throughout the visual to reveal a shaved head before sitting down to receive treatment through an IV. At the end, she symbolically sits next to the little girl who worships her, unaware of the full story, on a swing set.
“it was really challenging to incorporate so many conflicting emotions in just a few minutes,” Halsey wrote of the video on Instagram after it went live. “this campaign has been fun because I WANT to have fun, but I made lot of this art when I was suffering.”
Of her decision to pay tribute to Spears — who personally approved the “Lucky” sample, Halsey previously revealed — the “Closer” artist tweeted, “I remember the first time I heard her sing lucky and it hitting me at such a young age that I had no idea what her life was really like.”
“that feeling resonates with me so much still,” she added. “I found myself singing it when I started treatment and then I knew I had to do it 💕”
Watch Halsey’s raw “Lucky” music video above.
Linda Perry is well aware of the qualities that have made her a world-class songwriter, producer and go-to studio magic-maker. But asked to define what she thinks her strong suits are, Perry tells Billboard that she is, “pretty tough, I’m aggressive, I’m a pretty powerful person,” but also, “very talented, I’m smart, I’m a great mom, I’m a great friend… I’m all these things, I’m a great songwriter, but sometimes you lose your way.”
That why, even with all those sparkling qualities, Perry said, sometimes you lose your way. That dichotomy is at the heart of Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, the documentary about Perry’s work and life that debuted at the Tribeca Festival in June. “In real time I kind of figured things out, I’m still putting the pieces together,” she says. “I don’t think, honestly, anybody truly knows who they are until they can be at one with everything. I guess I’m trying to get to that point where I don’t have a reaction. Because reactions are emotional.”
Perry opens up in the film about her journey from fronting early 1990’s band 4 Non Blondes — famous for their 1993 Billboard Hot 100 No. 14 hit “What’s Up” — to becoming an in-demand songwriter and producer for everyone from Adele and Christina Aguilera to Dolly Parton, P!nk, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Ariana Grande and Alicia Keys. Director Don Hardy speaks to the singer, as well as her family, friends and colleagues in the 90-minute doc that also features new performance and recording footage.
“I didn’t even know we were making a documentary,” Perry says of the process of filming that took place as she was beginning to unpack some hard truths about her childhood and past trauma — which included mental, physical and emotional abuse — as well processing her mother’s dementia diagnosis and her own health issues. She’d met Hardy years ago when she scored his doc Citizen Penn, about actor Sean Penn’s efforts to help Haitians in the wake of 2010’s devastating 7.0 earthquake.
“One day he was like, ‘you’re so interesting. Do you mind if I’m like a fly on the wall in your studio?,” she recalls. As Hardy hung around, Perry says she began “unraveling,” and it wasn’t until the director came told her he’d shown a 30-minute edit of the footage to some people and they agreed there was a movie in there somewhere. She said go for it and gave them the green light to start the film, just as her and her mother were both hit with health crises.
“All of that was happening in real time,” she says. “It all makes sense now, like how I had to unravel in real time. If I would have thought about it, if I knew it would was gonna happen, never would have approved anything like this.”
The film has allowed Perry to let all of that go, which is why she wanted it to be called Let It Die Here; she wrote a song for her mother with that title. “I’m not a liar. I am about as honest as you will find on this planet,” Perry adds of her no-b.s. songwriting process and how everything she writes is true, even if it’s about another person.
At some point, though, she was having trouble writing songs for others because she couldn’t figure out how to tell her words through someone else’s experience. “It started to feel like a lie to me,” she says of her decision to focus on scoring film and TV. Watch the full interview with Perry above.
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Ice Spice makes their full-length bow, Post Malone brings in another country superstar, and Halsey nods to Britney and Monica. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Ice Spice, Y2K!
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Ice Spice’s boisterous personality and no-holds-barred approach to New York drill made her a star in 2023, and this year brings Y2K!, the summation of months of single releases that still congeals into a singular full-length. Travis Scott and Gunna swing by new tracks, but Ice’s solo power on songs like “Papa,” “Plenty Sun” and “TTYL” make Y2K! worth turning up in the back half of the summer.
Post Malone feat. Luke Combs, “Guy For That”
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Post Malone’s chart-topping country music exploration continues with “Guy For That,” a hearty team-up with Luke Combs that leans on both artists’ vocal strength to achieve anthem status; both Posty and Combs are currently promoting bigger hits, and seem to use “Guy For That” to tinker with their respective images and have a down-home blast.
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Halsey, “Lucky”
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Interpolating both Britney Spears’ “Lucky” and Monica’s “Angel of Mine,” Halsey utilizes past hits to tell her own tale of complicated fame and effectively tugging on heartstrings with bare emotion: “And I told everybody I was fine for a whole damn year / And that’s the biggest lie of my career,” she laments.
MGK with Jelly Roll, “Lonely Road”
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The artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly has reinvented himself a time or three since launching his career, and a track like “Lonely Road,” which corrals Jelly Roll and puts a modern spin on a John Denver classic with plenty of soaring harmonies and acoustic strums, demonstrates his range while forging yet another new path.
Fuerza Regida, Pero No Te Enamores
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Although “Harley Quinn,” Fuerza Regida’s hit team-up with Marshmello, is not included on the track list to Pero No Te Enamores, the full-length fusion of regional Mexican music and thumping EDM is indebted to that earlier single, with artists like Major Lazer, Afrojack and Gordo swinging by to contribute to the party.
Calvin Harris with Ellie Goulding, “Free”
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Fans of “I Need Your Love,” “Outside” and “Miracle” are going to wrap their arms around “Free,” the latest collaboration between Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding that builds upon their long-standing chemistry and pushes the tempo with a straightforward but powerful catchphrase: “When I’m with you, I’m free,” Goulding declares.
Mustard, Faith of a Mustard Seed
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Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was momentous enough to both land a knockout blow in a rap feud and revitalize producer Mustard’s mainstream career, and the star-studded Faith of a Mustard Seed, featuring everyone from Travis Scott to Kirk Franklin to Ella Mai (who teams with Roddy Ricch on the “911” rework “One Bad Decision”), functions as an extended, well-earned victory lap.
XG, “Something Ain’t Right”
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The retro bounce of XG’s “Something Ain’t Right” goes beyond feel-good and achieves downright giddiness, as the Japanese girl group preview their forthcoming second mini-album (due out Nov. 8) with a killer hook and ‘90s-indebted production that could feasibly reach a whole new listenership in the U.S.
Central Cee, “gen z luv”
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On the same day that his “Did It First” collaborator Ice Spice unveils her new album, Central Cee has a New Music Friday banger himself: “gen z luv” is a sparse, surprisingly vulnerable tale of social-media-age romance, but the pummeling percussion also makes the song work in a club setting.
Editor’s Pick: Wand, Vertigo
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Over the course of Los Angeles rock group Wand’s decade of activity, frontman Cory Hanson’s vocal affectation has drawn endless comparisons to that of Thom Yorke; with its ambitious, psych-adjacent sprawl, new album Vertigo is great enough to evoke peak Radiohead, and enough of a sonic leap forward to serve as a breakthrough.
Japanese singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Fujii Kaze has released his new single, “Feelin’ Go(o)d.”
“Feelin’ Go(o)d” bursts with Kaze’s trademark blend of vibrant piano riffs and hypnotic synth loops, creating an uplifting summer anthem. The song’s feel-good vibe is perfect for those sunny days and carefree moments.
Reflecting on the timing of the release, Kaze shared, “This feelin’ good song could’ve been out last summer or so but the universe says now is the time, so here we are. As a result, this single ended up being like a little dessert after releasing 4 meals (singles). Hope it tastes good for ya.”
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The latest release follows the massive success of “Michi Teyu Ku (Overflowing),” which has racked up over 36 million streams on Spotify and 25 million views on YouTube since March.
Fujii Kaze’s musical journey started when he was young and influenced by his father’s classical piano skills. By 12, he was serenading audiences with his piano covers on YouTube, quickly gaining industry attention.
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His debut album, HELP EVER HURT NEVER, released in 2020, topped Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart.
In 2021, Kaze made headlines with a groundbreaking solo concert at an empty NISSAN Stadium, streamed globally during the pandemic. The event, Free Live 2021, was a viral sensation, becoming the top trending topic on Twitter.
Kaze’s second album, LOVE ALL SERVE ALL, released in 2022, continued his streak of success, featuring the viral hit “Shinunoga E-Wa.”
The album topped both the Japanese Billboard charts and the Oricon Albums Chart.
October 2022 saw Kaze perform at a sold-out Panasonic Stadium Suita in Osaka, a concert now available on Netflix. His 2023 Asia tour sold out across all seven cities, proving his international appeal.
Fans can look forward to Kaze’s first U.S. tour in May 2024, followed by a two-night event at Nissan Stadium in August.
Check out “Feelin’ Go(o)d” by Fujii Kraze below.
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Billy Joel crashed his historic Madison Square Garden residency run to a close on Thursday (July 25) with a sold-out gig marking his record-setting 150th show at the storied New York arena. After serving up such classics as “New York State of Mind,” “The Entertainer,” “Allentown” and “The Downeaster Alexa,” Joel invited Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose out for a mini-set of covers and duets.
Wearing a Las Vegas-worthy sequin-covered sparkly sport coat, black jeans and shirt and dark shades, Rose came out mid-show to croon his iconic take on Wings’ James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” with Joel tinkling the ivories as Rose stalked the stage, tossing off wailing high notes and stomping his foot to the song’s staccato stabs.
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Joel busted protocol and stepped up from his piano to strap on an electric guitar as the two also jammed on a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell. Though it seems out of character, the cover was wholly appropriate since Rose filled-in for ailing AC/DC singer Brian Johnson on the hard rockers’ 2016 tour and Joel and Rose have collaborated on the song before, including at Billy’s 2017 Dodger Stadium show in Los Angeles.
After Joel, 75, rolled through a run of other classics — “Only the Good Die Young,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” “Piano Man,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Uptown Girl” and “Big Shot” — Rose was back for the big finale: a duet on Joel’s 1980s Glass Houses burner “You May Be Right.”
The epic MSG run, during which Joel has sold nearly two million tickets, began on Jan. 14, 2014 and was eased into the history books with some help from Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, who ran onstage to mark the moment when a blue banner reading “Billy Joel 150: Most Lifetime Performances by Any Artist” was unfurled in the rafters.
Joel — who released his first new pop song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On” in February — is not nearly done, with stadiums shows in the UK, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Las Vegas keeping him on the road through November.
Watch fan video of the Rose and Joel performances below.
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Lady Gaga shouldn’t have to explain this to you, but when she’s on the big screen she’s not Lady Gaga, or even Stefani Germanotta. So, when you go see her in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux and notice that the singing voice of her character Harley Quinn is a bit off, it’s called acting, folks.
“People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is; I’m playing a character,” Gaga told Empire magazine. “So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee and to not come from me as a performer.” Gaga, who has disappeared into roles before in A Star Is Born and House of Gucci, said the task of becoming the Joker’s fiendish foil was “unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”
In particular, that required Gaga to explore sides of her performance style that she’s never tapped before, including the bad singer one. “For me, there’s plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee,” she said of her character’s singing in the second movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as the laughing madman. “I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. When I breathe to sing on stage, I have this very controlled way to make sure that I’m on pitch and it’s sustained at the right rhythm and amount of time, but Lee would never know how to do any of that. So it’s like removing the technicality of the whole thing, removing my perceived art-form from it all and completely being inside of who she is.”
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The follow-up to 2019’s Oscar-winning Joker follows feckless comedian Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) meeting his lady love Harley Quinn (Gaga) while locked up at Arkham State Hospital. After he’s released, the two go on a series of murderous adventures.
Director Todd Philips told Empire that while Gaga retains some of the belovedly bonkers Quinn quirks from the Batman: The Animated Series comic books and her own animated show, the singer definitely made the character her own. “While there are some things that people would find familiar in her, it’s really Gaga’s own interpretation, and Scott [Silver, co-writer] and I’s interpretation,” said Phillips. “She became the way how [Charles] Manson had girls that idolized him. The way that sometimes these [imprisoned murderers] have people that look up to them. There are things about Harley in the movie that were taken from the comic books, but we took it and moulded it to the way we wanted it to be.” Prepare for a performance that’s totally Gaga.”
Joker: Folie à Deux is slated to open in theaters on Oct. 4; watch the new trailer here.
In the meantime, Gaga is set to perform at Friday’s (July 26) opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, alongside other rumored artists who are expected to help kick off the games, including Celine Dion, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, French singer Aya Nakamura and rockers Gojira, though at press time none of those acts had been confirmed.
Dua Lipa dropped a remix of her single “Illusion” featuring Creepy Nuts, Japan’s breakout hip-hop duo that made waves with its viral hit ”Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” the No. 1 song on Billboard Japan’s mid-year tally for 2024.
“Illusion (Creepy Nuts Remix)” is the latest remix of the track off the “Houdini” artist’s latest album Radical Optimism, released in May. The original, a song about a character that breaks away from her formerly weak self and is now assertive when faced with another potentially toxic relationship, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and also reached the top 10 of the U.K. Official Singles Chart. The song has been streamed more than 250 million times worldwide, and the music video viewed more than 35 million times.
Why was Creepy Nuts tapped to collaborate with Lipa, a Grammy-winning star who recently headlined this year’s Glastonbury? It all started when Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Global 200 chart in March. The catchy hip-hop banger peaked at No. 8 and became the fourth song by a Japanese artist/act to break into the top 10 on this tally. The other three are “Glimpses of Us” by Japanese-Australian artist Joji (No. 2 in 2022), “Homura” by LiSA (No. 8 in 2020), and “Idol” by YOASOBI (No. 7 in 2023). “BBBB” also hit No. 3 on the Global 200 Excl. US chart that focuses on all territories outside the United States, and the track’s global breakthrough caught Dua’s attention.
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Lipa asked Creepy Nuts to do the remix via her team in Japan and the duo consisting of rapper R-shitei (“R-rated”) and DJ Matsunaga readily agreed to the offer, resulting in the exciting collaboration between two chart-topping global acts. The remix — surprisingly, it was the “Nidone” pair’s first collaboration with an artist from outside their home country — combines Matsunaga’s catchy track with R’s signature rapid-fire bars and lyrics paying homage to the “Levitating” singer’s past works by including their titles.
“The track turned out well, and it was a fresh challenge that brought out a new side of us as well,” says Matsunaga, while R notes, “I looked to the original lyrics of Dua Lipa’s ‘Illusion’ and participated in the world it depicted, letting the illusionist in me appear in the lyrics that I wrote.”
Dua Lipa is set to return to Japan for the first time in six years this November for two arena shows, which sold out on the day tickets went on sale. The “Dance the Night” songstress has been recognized by Spotify as “the first artist in history to hold five songs with over 2 billion streams” and “the 25th most listened-to artist of all time.” Her album “Radical Optimism” has been streamed over 2 billion times worldwide and topped the Official UK Albums chart, making her one of the world’s top artists in both name and reality.
Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” recently dominated Billboard Japan’s mid-year Japan Songs chart — a tally that tracks songs from Japan being listened to in countries around the world — by topping the lists for six countries. On July 20, the “Nobishiro” duo performed at the AFEELA Pregame Performance at Dodger Stadium Center Field in Los Angeles, performing live for the first time in the U.S. Creepy Nuts will hit the stage in Tokyo Dome for the first time for their LIVE at TOKYO DOME concert on Feb. 11, 2025.
“[The remix] is precisely us, and it’s also a new side of us that was brought out because the song was Dua Lipa’s ‘Illusion,’” say the duo. “It’s in both English and Japanese but turned out smooth; we hope you enjoy it.”
Dua adds: “Be sure to listen to the remix by these two amazing talents.”
Stream “Illusion (Creepy Nuts Remix)” here: http://dualipa.lnk.to/illusioncreepynuts
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