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It’s a highly static week in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 — with one very notable exception, courtesy of pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter.
Helped by an excellent start on streaming, an action-packed music video and a good amount of physical sales on vinyl, Carpenter’s new single “Manchild” bows atop the Hot 100 this week, marking Carpenter’s second No. 1 (after 2024’s “Please Please Please”) and first debut atop the chart. Below it, each of last week’s top nine on the Hot 100 dutifully move down one spot to make room for it.
How big a deal is the No. 1 bow for Carpenter? And how long do we anticipate “Manchild” lasting on top? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.
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1. “Manchild” debuts at No. 1, becoming Sabrina Carpenter’s second No. 1 and first to debut atop the chart. On a scale from 1-10, how big a deal would you rate this achievement for her?
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Christopher Claxton: I’d rate this a 9. Debuting at No. 1 is a major milestone — and has been anything but stupid, slow or useless. Sabrina’s fan engagement has been steadily growing since she dropped Emails I Can’t Send in 2023, and her continued chart success proves her rising mainstream appeal and streaming power. This is a huge step forward, and Carpenter clearly knows it: “I can’t tell you how much this means to me!!!!” she wrote on her Instagram Story, sharing Billboard’s post announcing her No. 1.
The fact that this marks her second No. 1 and her first to debut at the top shows real momentum in her career — and it’s clear Sabrina Carpenter is a star.
Hannah Dailey: I’d say 8. It’s obviously very exciting, but not at all unexpected for her considering how far she’s come over the past year.
Kyle Denis: Maybe around 7. It’s kind of wild to call a No. 1 Hot 100 debut a footnote, but it does feel as such in a year that found Sabrina wrapping up her Short N’ Sweet victory lap with her first two Grammy wins and an arena tour extension. While I doubt “Manchild” commands the same cultural gravity as the first three SNS singles when it’s all said and done, this No. 1 debut definitely confirms Carpenter is not a one-era wonder. Her commercial pull as a Main Pop Girl™ is solidified; she’s at that post-2018 Ariana Grande phase where all she has to do is blink and a No. 1 hit is practically guaranteed.
Jason Lipshutz: An 8. Regardless of how high this new single had debuted on the Hot 100, Sabrina Carpenter would still be an A-list pop artist with plenty of interest in her upcoming music; as a relatively new superstar, however, Carpenter had only scored top 10 hits from one album, last year’s Short n’ Sweet, and hadn’t proven that her commercial power would transcend that project. Now she has: with “Manchild” debuting atop the Hot 100, Carpenter has maintained her momentum from her breakthrough 2024, kicking off a quick-turn new era in the strongest possible fashion. She didn’t need a No. 1 debut — but a No. 1 debut is really, really good for her.
Andrew Unterberger: An 8.5. If you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a lot of songs debuting at No. 1 these days — “Manchild” is just the third this year, after Travis Scott’s “4×4” and Morgan Wallen’s Tate McRae-featuring “What I Want,” and the first from an artist who’s never done that before. It’s another big level-up for Sabrina Carpenter, in an 18-month period with more such level-ups than we can still really count.
2. “Manchild” debuts atop of what is otherwise a static top 10 – with every one of last week’s top nine sliding down one spot to make room for it on top. On another scale of 1-10, how much would you say the top 10 could use its infusion of new blood?
Christopher Claxton: I’d give it an 8 out of 10 — the top 10 definitely needed some fresh energy. Stagnation starts to feel predictable, and the charts have been looking the same for far too long. Fresh entries keep things exciting, and artists might need to start rethinking their rollout strategies and how they’re engaging with their fanbases in order to break through.
Sabrina Carpenter’s debut at No. 1 isn’t just a personal win — it’s a win for all of us. We finally get to see some real movement and a shake-up in the Hot 100.
Hannah Dailey: I guess I’ll give it a 10. I think everyone is still waiting for the undisputed song of the summer to present itself, so any new contender entering the chat is exciting.
Kyle Denis: 10. Desperately. Please. I’m begging. Let’s get “Mutt” and “Love Me Not” in there. “Am I Okay?” too. Hell, I’ll even take “Blue Strips.”
Jason Lipshutz: A 7. Sure, “Manchild” and “What I Want,” the Morgan Wallen-Tate McRae team-up that topped the Hot 100 three weeks ago, are both new hits that will likely receive plenty of pop radio play and millions of streams as summertime wears on. Outside of those two singles and Jessie Murph’s “Blue Strips” at No. 18, every other song in this week’s top 20 has been on the chart for double-digit weeks. Just as “Manchild” kicks off a new Carpenter era, the song that started her last one, “Espresso,” is still at No. 17 on the Hot 100! Here’s to hoping that we get some more new tunes to shake up the upper tier of the chart over the next month.
Andrew Unterberger: Gotta be at least a 9. If “Manchild” falls out of the top 10 before “Lose Control,” “Die With a Smile” or “Beautiful Things,” it’ll be a 10.
3. The new song is thought to be the advance single from Sabrina Carpenter’s recently announced summer album Man’s Best Friend. Does the song take her in any particularly exciting or interesting new directions to you, or is it more a consolidation of established strengths?
Christopher Claxton: “Manchild” is clever and catchy, but it feels more like a continuation of Sabrina Carpenter’s current lane than a bold new chapter. She’s leaning into what works with Jack Antonoff, but I’m hoping she pivots more fully into pure pop on Man’s Best Friend, in the vein of tracks like “Nonsense” and “Feather.” There’s still a hint of country in the delivery of “Manchild” that feels like a leftover from her Short n’ Sweet era — and at this point, she’s more than ready to leave that behind.
Hannah Dailey: Honestly, I don’t think “Manchild” shows us any side to Sabrina that we haven’t seen before. From its flippant tone to its country influences and tongue-in-cheek lyrical themes, everything about “Manchild” feels like a strong continuation of what she was honing on Short n’ Sweet – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Kyle Denis: “Manchild” definitely feels like a purposeful extension of SNS’s country-lite pop sound, which isn’t particularly exciting or interesting, but probably necessary. Not to bring up Grande again, but “Manchild” feels like a spiritual sibling of “Focus,” the 2015 Hot 100 top 10 that initially served as the lead singles for 2016’s Dangerous Woman LP. While I highly doubt “Manchild” faces the same fate as “Focus,” it certainly feels like Carpenter is consciously retreading tried-and-true ground before offering something more markedly difficult on Man’s Best Friend – much like “Focus” reheated Grande’s “Problem” nachos.
Jason Lipshutz: Whereas Short n’ Sweet hits like “Espresso” and “Taste” offered up danceable pop, the single that Carpenter released in between them, “Please Please Please,” was defined by a singular amalgamation of country, synth-pop, alternative and even disco. “Manchild” functions similarly as a sonic gumbo — part ‘80s synths, part country-fried guitar, part modern pop hooks, and all imbued with Carpenter’s quick-drip wit. Her ability to synthesize different styles, while still maintaining her sense of self, is part of the reason why Carpenter has broken through as a singer and songwriter. I can’t wait to see how else she pulls that trick off on Man’s Best Friend.
Andrew Unterberger: The evolution to me is less in the song than in the music video, which feels like a continuation of the sort of surreal party videos that Diane Martel did for Miley Cyrus in the mid-’10s. It’s Carpenter’s best yet and feels like a new part of her superstar identity being unlocked.
4. Considering we’re not even a year removed from her Short n’ Sweet LP and that songs from that album era are still populating the Billboard Hot 100, some might have wondered if this was a little soon for Carpenter to launch an entirely new album campaign. Does the initial “Manchild” success refute any such notions, or is it still way too early to make any judgments there?
Christopher Claxton: It’s a fair question. “Manchild” has seen quick success, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t too soon to launch a new album rollout. Sabrina Carpenter is clearly striking while the iron’s hot — and so far, it’s working. She’s everywhere right now, fresh off major collaborations with Dunkin’, Fortnite and more. The momentum she’s built over the past year hasn’t slowed down, and while Short n’ Sweet is still producing Hot 100 hits, it seems like she’s aiming to add even more to that list.
The real question is whether introducing new tracks will push her older songs off the charts — or if she’ll simply claim even more spots. You could view this new rollout in two ways: either it’s premature, or it’s a savvy move that leverages her current visibility and cultural relevance. Right now, I’d say it’s the latter, but ultimately, it’s too early to make a definitive call: Whether “Manchild” is just a flashpoint or the beginning of a sustained new era depends on what follows. But all signs point to Sabrina understanding the moment — and running with it.
Hannah Dailey: I personally would have liked to see her take more time to develop a more solidified next chapter and evolve artistically before launching a new album, but I do agree with her when she says there’s no real reason to slow down if the inspiration is still flowing. My only holdup is that “Manchild” is so Short n’ Sweet-coded – it would truly fit so effortlessly on the tracklist – which could dampen Man’s Best Friend’schances of standing out on its own and cast it more as a Short n’ Sweet Part 2. But is that such a bad fate if the success of “Manchild” is any indication of the numbers MBF will pull regardless? Perhaps not.
Kyle Denis: I would say it’s not too soon for a new SC album campaign – and the initial “Manchild” success backs me up. While SNS was a massive album era, it feels finished. We got three gargantuan singles, several tracks had quasi-viral moments across socials, and she’s currently on a break before the final leg of her accompanying tour. Between the “Manchild” success and the already mind-numbing discourse inspired by the Man’s Best Friend album artwork, I think people have genuinely – and gladly – bought into a new Sabrina Carpenter album campaign.
Jason Lipshutz: Carpenter coming back so quickly is a stroke of brilliance for an artist trying to establish herself as one of the defining pop voices of the 2020s. Instead of taking a break in 2025 and resting on her laurels following the Short n’ Sweet success, Carpenter has come roaring back with a new hit for the summer, a new album for the fall and (hopefully) plenty of follow-up singles to take her into 2026. Her ambition and release strategy reminds me a bit of her pal Taylor Swift, who, every time you think she’s going to take a breather, has instead stomped on the gas pedal, and gotten even bigger.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s definitely still a risk — even with the early success of “Manchild,” and the fact that it doesn’t look to be falling apart in its second week. It still comes down to whether she can bring enough new on this album era to not feel like she’s repeating herself or spinning her wheels. But if she can do that, the potential upside is enormous: Becoming one of the biggest pop stars in the world in your breakout year and then matching (or even topping) that in year two is the kind of stuff that legendary careers are built from.
5. Make a prediction: How many total weeks will “Manchild” spend atop the Hot 100?
Christopher Claxton: I give it 3-5 weeks.
Hannah Dailey: It’s splashy, catchy and taking off on TikTok – all good signs that “Manchild” will spend at least two weeks at the top, maybe even more. My official prediction is four.
Kyle Denis: Less than five total weeks. Or maybe forever since the top 10 is so relentlessly stagnant.
Jason Lipshutz: Let’s say 4. “Manchild” is competing with songs like “Ordinary,” “Luther” and “Die With a Smile” that have a lot more radio buy-in… but as Carpenter proved last year, she can dominate at radio, too! As “Manchild” grows across platforms, I think it’ll ultimately log a nonconsecutive month at No. 1.
Andrew Unterberger: I’ll say two. But I think it’ll stay in the top 10 for a very long time.
Last week (June 11), the brilliant writer, producer, composer and singer Brian Wilson died at age 82. Wilson leaves behind a singular catalog of pop and rock music, which is of course headlined by his work in the ’60s and ’70s with The Beach Boys, alongside his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. The Beach Boys cruised to pop stardom from 1963 to 1965 with a string of smash hits about surfing, cars and girls that grew increasingly complex as Brian rapidly developed as a songwriter and studio wizard. In 1966, all the group’s artistic ambitions were realized, with perhaps both the Boys’ most beloved album and most beloved single — though it all came at a tremendous cost to Wilson, and to the band’s long-term future.
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On this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard executive digital director, west coast Katie Atkinson, to talk about the greatest year by the ultimate west coast pop band. We talk about everything that led up to the Beach Boys’ singular legacy year in 1966 — which ultimately resulted in the LP masterwork Pet Sounds and the unanimously acclaimed pop smash “Good Vibrations” — as well as why the group was ultimately unable to reach those commercial or artistic heights again.
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And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about the Beach Boys’ greatest (and in many ways last) year in the sun: Why did Brian Wilson enlist an ad man he barely knew as his primary collaborator on Pet Sounds (and why did that guy end up hating working with him so much)? Is “Sloop John B.” secretly the album’s perfect thematic centerpiece? Is “Good Vibrations” really more head than it is heart? Would 1966 Brian have dealt with f–kboy or industry plant allegations in 2025? And of course: Is this the greatest year in pop music that any American band has ever had?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from The Beach Boys’ 1966, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org — and if you’re in the D.C. area this weekend (May 30-31), definitely check out Liberation Weekend, a music festival supporting trans rights with an incredible lineup of trans artists and allies.
There are certain things you never forget: your first kiss, wrecking your dad’s new car, the birth of a child and, definitely, that time you slept with Warren Beatty. Barbra Streisand might have some of those memories, but when it comes to bedding down with Beatty, well, things are a bit fuzzy for the Hollywood legend.
Speaking to the New Yorker about her upcoming duets album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, the 83-year-old star of stage and screen said she definitely remembered being propositioned by Marlon Brando back in the day, but, as she wrote in her 2023 memoir My Name Is Barbra, she just can’t remember is she and legendarily Casanova Beatty did the deed.
“I know I slept in the bed with him, but I can’t remember if we actually had penetration,” she said in answer to a question — more of a statement, really — about how no one in the “history of sex, or Hollywood, or anything” has ever written that line. “I swear to God, I can’t. There are certain things I block out,” Streisand said.
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Respectfully, New Yorker editor David Remnick couldn’t help calling b.s. on Streisand’s memory lapse, even as she doubled-down on saying she has no recollection of sex with Beatty. “But I know we’re still friends. Every year on my birthday, he calls me and we have a wonderful talk about our lives, our children, and so forth,” she said. “So we’re still friends. I met him when I was fifteen years old, and he was twenty-one, I think.”
In the memoir, Streisand first revealed that her memory is foggy about any intimate time with Beatty, who has been married to actress Annette Bening since 1992; Streisand married actor James Brolin in 1998. “Warren and I go back a long way (back to summer stock) and there’s some water under that bridge,” she wrote. “Recently, we were on the phone talking politics and who knows what else when he said, ‘I remember why we broke up.’ I said, ‘When were we together?’ Then I hung up and asked myself, Did I sleep with Warren? I kind of remember. I guess I did. Probably once.”
The book features details on the first time she met Beatty, when he was starring in a production of A Hatful of Rain in Connecticut. “He asked me to cue him on his lines. If that was a come-on, I missed it entirely,” she wrote. “He also played the piano. I was impressed. We used to eat together occasionally and talk about life. He was twenty-one, tall with movie-star looks, and women were already falling at his feet. I was sixteen.”
Streisand also chatted with Remnick about Bob Dylan after the New Yorker editor noted that in 1971 Dylan wrote a letter to one of his friends revealing that he’d written “Lay Lady Lay” about Babs, which was followed in 1978 by a letter/flowers exchange. Now, they are reconnecting on the Partners album, where they trade lines on the 1934 Ray Noble pop standard “The Very Thought of You.”
“The fun thing is that we were both nineteen years old, in Greenwich Village, never met each other. I was at the Bon Soir, and he was playing the guitar somewhere else,” she said. “I remember him sending me flowers and writing me a card in different-color pencils, like a child’s writing: ‘Would you sing with me?’ I thought, What would I sing with him? How could we get together on this? I couldn’t understand it at that time.”
But now that they’ve recorded “The Very Thought of You” she is delighted by the song choice that they both love. “He’s very shy, like I am. But he was wonderful to work with. I was told that he didn’t want any direction,” she recalled. “But when I talked to him about things that I suggested, he was so pliable — he was so open to suggestions. Everything I heard about him just went out the window. He stood on his feet for three hours with me.”
Also, for the record, when asked if she would ever tour or perform live on stage again after battling stage fright for much of her career, Streisand gave a clear answer: “Oh, my God! No!” The singer said that aside from when she was a teenager on her way up, she never really enjoyed live performance.
“I never wanted to be a singer; I wanted to be an actress. So I looked for material that I could act from Broadway plays — to be silly, you know, singing ‘Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?,’” she said. “I was open to the audience, and talking to them. Whatever I was doing was just about being in the moment, things that I was experiencing in acting class. It was never to be a singer; it was to be an actress.” That, and the fact that she’s had a lifelong battle with a bad back. “I’ve always had a bad back. So it’s not just age,” she said.
The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two is due out on June 27 and features a duet with Sir Paul McCartney on “My Valentine,” as well as guest spots from Hozier (the previously released “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”), James Taylor (“Secret O’ Life”), Tim McGraw (“I Love Us”) and Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande (“One Heart, One Voice”).
Addison Rae announced the dates for her first-ever headlining world tour on Tuesday morning (June 17). The Addison Tour is slated to kick off on Aug. 26 at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland and keep the “Diet Pepsi” singer on the road through European gigs in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany before […]
Beyoncé closed out the final night of her Cowboy Carter tour’s six-show run at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday (June 16) with a heartfelt message to fans and a tribute to one of England’s most iconic songwriters.
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“Thank you, Sir Paul McCartney, for writing one of the best songs ever made. Every time I sing it, I feel so honored. And it is a full circle moment to wear your beautiful daughter’s design,” Beyoncé wrote in an Instagram post, referencing her Cowboy Carter rendition of the Beatles’ 1968 classic “Blackbird.”
“Thank you, London, for creating unforgettable memories for me and my family,” she continued. “Holla at ‘ya when I come on tour again!”
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Her version of the song, stylized as “Blackbiird,” reimagines the original with string flourishes and vocal contributions from four rising Black female country artists: Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts and Tiera Kennedy. The cover is one of two reinterpretations featured on Cowboy Carter, alongside her take on Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”
McCartney praised Beyoncé’s version earlier this year, calling it a “magnificent” interpretation that reinforces the civil rights message that inspired him to write it. “I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out,” he wrote on Instagram. “You are going to love it.”
The Beatles’ “Blackbird” was originally written in response to the Little Rock Nine, a group of Black students who faced violent resistance while integrating an Arkansas high school in 1957. McCartney has said the song was written as a message of hope and encouragement to Black women facing injustice.
McCartney, whose original master recording is used in Beyoncé’s version, according to Variety, also revealed that he had the chance to speak with the pop icon about her take on “Blackbird.”
“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it,” wrote McCartney, who attended Beyoncé’s record-breaking Renaissance World Tour last year. “I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song. When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.”
Released in March 2024, Cowboy Carter debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and made Beyoncé the first Black woman to top the Top Country Albums chart. The project also won her the Grammy for best country album earlier this year.
On June 11, leader of The Beach Boys legendary pop composer Brian Wilson died at the age of 82. Below, Grammy-winning producer and performer Don Was remembers Wilson, who he cites as “the Claude Monet of rock and roll.”
I bought the 7” single of “I Get Around” in 1964 when I was just 12 years old. Back then, if you spent your whole allowance on one record, you played the A & B sides over and over and over. It wasn’t long before I came to prefer the romanticism of the flip side, “Don’t Worry Baby.” I tried really hard to figure out the chords on the guitar and it blew my mind when he modulated from E to F# in the middle of the bridge—not just because it was such a cool thing to do, but because it ripped your heart out.
It was my first glimpse into the notion that if you put some soul and imagination into your chord choices and voicings, you’d have a bunch of new colors to paint with. In that respect, Brian [Wilson] was the Claude Monet of rock and roll.
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He was considered to be a genius, but I think it’s deeper and much more mystical than that. Brian was plugged into some source that enabled him to see and hear things that most of us don’t. The downside of that is the profound inner turbulence it can cause. The upside is that it enabled him to explore creative territory where no musicians had gone before — pushing and dramatically expanding the harmonic and textural boundaries of popular music.
A great example is his song “Till I Die.” I worked it out on the piano: it’s quite complex, not in any one key. There’s no real pattern to the changes. The movement of the chords vividly evokes the feeling of being forever adrift on an ocean of uncontrollable emotions. Yet, despite the intricacy, a 10-year-old can easily sing along with the melody that Brian put on top. It’s extremely difficult and rare to be able to walk that line between experimentalism and universal accessibility. Nobody’s done it with more seamless grace than Brian Wilson.
In 1996, I directed a documentary about him called I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times. The intended purpose of the film was to explain to non-musicians why he was considered to be a genius. It took a whole film to spell it out, but one thing became evident — everything Brian originally envisioned has now become ingrained in the fabric of contemporary music. I hope that future generations realize how radical it is that he came up with these things before anyone else and without a roadmap or digital electronics to lean on.
Despite his much-publicized inner-turmoil, Brian was a very strong, sweet, innocent guy with a heart full of love and music. He was on a mission to create songs that would bring comfort and understanding to the whole world. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Below is Was’s playlist with some of his favorite Wilson/Beach Boy tunes.
Two of the most beloved new wave bands of all time are hitting the road together this fall for their first-ever joint tour. The 11-date co-headlining Cosmic De-Evolution tour will feature DEVO and the B-52s hitting the road together starting on Sept. 24 in Toronto at the Budweiser Stage, followed by shows in Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, California, North Carolina and Georgia before winding down on Nov. 12 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Sponsored by Huntsman in Houston, TX.
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The continuation of both bands’ ongoing farewell tours will feature avant garde pop singer Lene Lovich opening the shows. Tickets will go on sale first with Citi and Amex pre-sales. The Citi pre-sale begins today (June 16) at 12 p.m. local time through Thursday (June 19) at 10 p.m. local time here. Amex cardmembers can purchase tickets to the Oct. 18 L.A. before the general public now through 10 p.m. local time on Thursday.
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“In 2022, I swore I’d never get on a tour bus again” said B-52s singer Fred Schneider in a statement. “But we were careful to say to our fans that we would still perform in special situations that don’t require all of the awful tour travel. Our Vegas residency is going great, and when we were offered the chance to do a small run of shows with Devo, we all said this is an extraordinary opportunity we couldn’t say no to.”
Devo co-rounder Mark Mothersbaugh added, “The B-52s had one of the best sounds of any of the bands out there in the late 70’s early 80’s – ‘Rock Lobster’ is one of my favorite songs – DEVO used to sing it to Booji Boy after DEVO shows. It was either fate or luck or the SNL anniversary that brought us all together to create this amazing chance to go out on tour. All I can say is Cosmic Devolution is REAL!”
Both bands performed on February’s sprawling, three-hour SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert, during which they took the stage alongside a galaxy of stars that also included Miley Cyrus, Bad Bunny, Eddie Vedder, the Backstreet Boys, Lady Gaga, Lauryn Hill, Jelly Roll, Brandi Carlile, the living members of Nirvana with Post Malone and Cher, among others.
B-52 singer Kate Pierson said in the statement, “When we first came from Athens [GA] to New York City to perform, punk was in full force… and New Wave was right on its tail! We loved all the New Wave groups, including Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie and the Ramones. We also really dug the far-out weirdness of Devo, which seemed very in tuned to our sensibilities. We remember one of our first shows — amazed that David Bowie, Brian Eno, Frank Zappa, Allen Ginsberg, Talking Heads and Blondie all came to see us! When we opened the Mudd Club, we partied with Devo and really hit it off on the dance floor. Later, Brian Eno went onto to produce Devo’s incredible first album… and now we will align again ! So put on your wig hats and Devo bonnets and get ready to party! This is going to be wild.”
Bandmate Cindy Wilson also chimed in, saying, “When both of our bands performed at the recent SNL 50 concert at Radio City, we started talking and agreed we had to do these shows. Believe or not, we’ve never done more than a festival or two together in all this time. This will be amazing and I can’t wait for The B-52s to share these stages with Devo!”
Both groups fronted by three original members are in the midst of what they have said are their final tours.
Check out the dates for the 2025 Cosmic De-Evolution North American tour below.
Sept. 24: Toronto, ONT @ Budweiser Stage
Sept. 25: Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Oct. 2: Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
Oct. 4: Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
Oct. 5: Wantagh, NY @ Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
Oct. 16: Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
Oct. 18: Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
Oct. 24: Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
Oct. 25: Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Nov. 1: Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Nov. 2: Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Sponsored by Huntsman
“I look back at that time, and it was so romantic,” Ryn Weaver tells Billboard, “and I was so young, and so brave, and so scared, and kind of staying high so I didn’t have to come down.”
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Weaver needs every adjective she can find to describe the personal and professional whirlwind that she experienced a decade ago. In June 2014, the singer-songwriter born Aryn Wüthrich made her debut with “OctaHate,” a sleek, lightly swaying synth-pop gem with effervescent verses and a hammered-down hook; she uploaded the track onto Soundcloud, and it rapidly took off with pre-TikTok social media shares and critical approval.
Pop Twitter noted the song’s pedigree — not only did “OctaHate” boast a co-writing credit from a then-red-hot Charli XCX with Weaver, but Benny Blanco, Passion Pit leader Michael Angelakos and Norwegian polymath Cashmere Cat all helped pen and produce the song. But more immediate were 21-year-old Weaver’s dynamic voice and theatrical delivery, adding dramatic heft to each of the song’s finely crafted melodies. Combined with the news that “OctaHate” preceded a debut album that Blanco and Angelakos would co-helm, and that Blanco would release through his Interscope imprint Friends Keep Secrets, Weaver appeared to have the skills and industry buy-in to become an alt-pop star.
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Weaver’s debut, 2015’s The Fool, brimmed with promise and personality, debuting at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 and prompting a headlining tour and festival dates over the following year. None of the follow-up singles built upon the commercial success of “OctaHate,” though, and a follow-up album never materialized. “It was also very sad, and very heartbreaking,” Weaver says today, “and I was very lost, even though I was just charging into the night.”
In the years since, Weaver’s name would pop up as a co-writer on songs like 2019’s “Dream Glow” by BTS and Charli XCX, and 2021’s “Just For Me” by SAINT JHN and SZA; “Pierre,” the anthemic fan favorite from The Fool, has also been a perennial TikTok favorite, inspiring multiple trends beginning in 2021 and racking up even more U.S. on-demand streams at this point than “OctaHate” (111.7 million to 63.4 million, according to Luminate). Yet Weaver, whose wit and sincerity once made her a must-follow on Twitter and Instagram, mostly vanished from social media, and years passed between updates on in-the-works music.
On Monday (June 16) — the 10-year anniversary of The Fool — that wait finally ended. “Odin St” may be Weaver’s first official single in a decade, created with a darker tone (courtesy of co-producers Benjamin Greenspan and Constantine Anastasakis) and a more mature perspective. But longtime fans will recognize the idiosyncratic wordplay, loping syllables and ornate hooks that bend toward a major chorus, all as magnetic today as when Weaver barreled into view a decade ago.
Now 32 and without a label — she’s no longer working with Blanco but describes their parting as amicable, and says that she still keeps in touch with Angelakos — Weaver says that “Odin St” will lead into the sophomore act that she always knew she had inside of her, but which required time to germinate.
“I went through a very singular, and yet kind of clichéd, experience,” Weaver explains of her early stardom, “where I didn’t feel like I could fully communicate it yet. It was, like, above my pay grade, the language to discuss what was going on. I needed some space from certain experiences to actually be able to write from a place of clarity.”
Ahead of the release of “Odin St,” Weaver discussed where she’s been, and where she finally hopes to go next. (Ed. note: this interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Where did “Odin St” come from?
Chronologically, the song is where The Fool ended. [The album’s final song, “New Constellations”] ends, “You can run, if you want to.” I think it’s pretty clear that I left my label — I asked to be released — and so I moved to L.A., across the country, and my manager picked out a place for me to stay. It was on Odin Street in Los Angeles, and I didn’t know the lore of Odin at that time, but it was this safe haven, bunker, Grey Gardens situation. I hid there, I guess, and waited for some dust to settle.
And then later, thinking about the lore of Odin, I just love that he’s the god of wisdom, and he represents people who are willing to give up everything on their journey for their acquisition of wisdom. I felt like that was such a poem in and of itself — being on Odin Street, and knowing that was my journey, but it’s a very long journey to actually acquiring wisdom. It was also the inverse — I was making the first step, but in reality, I was partying, and hiding, and I was with someone I shouldn’t have been with. And so it was kind of this house down the road from wisdom.
When did you start piecing the actual song together?
I think I started an idea for it like three years later, and then I scrapped that. And then I went in with [producer-songwriter] Active Child, and we started something – but it was almost too joyful in a way, too romantic. I started the verse there, and then we didn’t see each other through COVID. And then I was writing with a guy named Constantine, whose artist project is Blonder, and we were writing for a young artist that my friend was managing, in the desert. We got on very well, and we got back home and were talking about working together. He has this very interesting dark guitar tone.
We hung out all night, and I think it was 7:00 AM when we started writing it. Funny enough, the song is in the key that it’s in because of my throat — I was like, “It’s 7:00 AM, this is where I can sing this song.” And we even tried to change it a couple times, but key characteristics are so important. We lifted it a half [key], and then it sounded like a jingle. I was like, “We’re keeping it where it is, because it’s dark, and it’s gritty.”
“Odin St” has been rumored to come out for a few years now. Why was now the right time?
For my fans, I love the idea of putting something out on the 10-year for The Fool. We never did a re-pressing — we did one pressing, and people constantly ask me, “Can I get a record?” I don’t have any! But this song is literally where I left you, and it’s a darker color palette. I like that it’s lower — I wasn’t really encouraged to sing in a lower register on the first record. So this is also kind of a break-free moment, of I can do whatever I want. And I also just think it’s a foray into a darker new chapter, while still being light enough.
How close was this moment to happening in the past? Were there starts and stops?
There were so many starts and stops. There have been three separate times I was getting ready, and there were different songs, too. There was one that I was like, “I feel like that’s the wrong story to start with.” I would get close, and then pull back. I’ve had to get to a point of regaining a lot of self-trust, because working with super-producers and then leaving — you have a splash like that, and then you’re coming back, and there’s this feeling like, “This is different.” So I think I was scared.
I was never lying to anyone. I always thought I would release something, but then the logistics of it come into play. It costs money. I don’t want to give away my power and immediately sign somewhere. Maintaining autonomy was also important to me. I think, at this moment in time, I am able to do that.
Was co-writing for other artists, or serving as a guest vocalist, ever a lane you considered?
I’ve written for other people — I wrote for SAINt JHN and SZA, and I did something for BTS. I’ve had a lot of random, lucky cuts. If you take this much time off — I’m not connected in the industry through family, I don’t have a giant trust fund or anything. I felt like the universe was protecting me, being like, “Here’s this Head and the Heart song, you can keep going.” That was also a really nice way to pull back and de-center myself, especially while I was pulling back the arrow and deciding what this new chapter would look like.
I turned down a couple really big features at the time, but I think it was because I wanted to establish myself as an artist with my voice. The music industry has changed, but at the time, I felt there was a bit of a trap in being a features artist. I really wanted for my first big feature for everyone to be like, “Oh, damn, they’re working together!,” not, “Who the f–k is that?” I was pretty stubborn about wanting to continue to develop my own voice to where it feels like, that is a worthy collaboration, instead of being thrown onto something. I was maybe a little cagey, but I stand by that decision.
Around the release of The Fool, you were all over social media and constantly online. And then you took a step back for a long time.
Well at the time, I wasn’t releasing — I don’t know how many selfies or how much content the world really needs. But also, I started seeing someone who’s wonderful, and who doesn’t have social media. And I was like, “Wow, I want to do that for a minute.” It was like, what am I trying to get here? Am I going to post a snippet? Am I going to react or bandwagon? I was like, “They don’t need me right now. Open up the stage for the people they need right now.”
I’ve been onstage my whole life, since I was four, and was a bit of an overachiever in that sense. I was performing professionally at events, and singing for sports games, and then I was the lead in plays, and I was in bands, and then I got into [NYU], and then I dropped out of school, and then I met Benny, and everything was just like, good, good, good, good. And I didn’t understand myself outside of the context of other people, and my value was heavily tied to my ability to entertain or perform.
I think the time off has been really transformative, in the sense that you really do have to find what your intrinsic value is. That was a very painful process. And this is the longest I’ve not been onstage in my life, but it was so crucial to my general development. So I think you have a couple of little ego deaths in there, where you don’t need to fight for attention.
So what were your areas of interest while you were detached? Did you pick up new hobbies?
I traveled a bit. I’ve gone on weird hiking road trips. I got a sewing machine. I got back into painting. I hung out with my friends and my family a lot. I was a good cat mom. I go dancing, I exercise, I swim in the sea. I was living my life! I do have to acknowledge screens — it’s a very depressing truth that we all binge more than we want to, and we all are on our phones more than we want to be, and I’m trying not to do that, but sometimes my nights are that. I was a bartender for a second. I’ve been in therapy. I’m doing what anybody else is doing.
Did you ever consider leaving music altogether?
I did, but I didn’t. You can talk yourself in and out of everything — I was like, “Maybe I’ll go to school and study semiotics! I’ll go write a book!” Or I was like, “Maybe the industry is too toxic!” I was in a very different industry, pre-MeToo, and women were pitted against each other in different ways. There was a little bit of seeing how the sausage was made, and being there, the industry felt strange.
More for the drama of it, I was like, “Maybe I’ll leave.” And I had enough reasons to, and most people would have. But I think I always had that thing that was like, “It’ll be next year.” It was more prolonging the [return], and never like I was actually going to pivot.
When you did check in with the rest of the world, how meaningful was it to read fan messages asking about a comeback or hoping you were working on new music?
Super meaningful, and also heartbreaking. You take this much time off, some of it is trying to find your next perfect-match collaborator. You’ll do some of the speed dating, and someone will want to do “OctaHate 2.0,” when you’re trying to transform. So sometimes I’d get those messages, and especially when I felt so far away from releasing, I was like, “I want to be there too. I’m figuring it out.” But it also kept me going, knowing that I had such a strong fan base and people that really love me. I also kept in touch with so many of them.
I had isolated for a long time, and became sort of hermetic. I like that side of myself, but I also need people. It’s like in the Peter Pan play, where Tinker Bell starts dying and needs everyone in the audience to say, “I do believe in fairies, I do, I do,” to survive. When you’re out of the public eye, and you don’t know how necessary what you have to say is at all — having people being like, “We believe, we care, we’ll listen,” that matters.
How does it feel to be on the precipice of releasing new music?
I feel really calm, in a way. I think I was so frantic with “OctaHate” — it was one of those releases where it was like, “We’re just gonna put this out today!” “Oh, we are?” It was horrifying. I threw up that day. I was like, “Oh God, this is happening.” But I’ve waited so long now that I feel ready to go.
We have a couple more songs coming down the pipeline, and then I think we’re going to do an announcement for… other stuff. But as of now, I just want to focus on this. I’m also actively in EMDR, which is really cool. I’m really preparing myself to come back to the industry from every angle, and feel really like secure and stable coming back. So it’s like, a nice summer, getting me ready to to do the damn thing.
Are you thinking about playing shows?
Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s kind of my favorite part of it. I love writing, but being onstage in that communal heartbeat thing — where someone can be attached to the work for a completely different reason [than someone else], but everyone’s singing it at each other — it’s just this electricity.
I remember before I first went on tour, I was doing radio promo and all this stuff that made me feel disconnected from what I was doing. And as soon as I went on tour, I was like, “Oh my God, this is it — I’m a road dog, I am a sailor.” I grew up doing theater, show after show, and it’s always different. And getting to interact with people, hanging with them after the show — I had people coming on the bus and doing shots with me, and it was just so fun and free. I will be a better girl this time! I mean, you can only pull that off at 22. But, yeah, that’s the best part of it, to me.
What do you expect to feel when you return to the stage and start performing songs from The Fool?
I mean, hopefully no one is the same person as they were a decade ago. I want to say something in defense of The Fool, though. I feel there was a while where I couldn’t listen to it — almost like, “What was that? Oh, my God.” There’s a lot of things that I was embarrassed about when I was younger, like doing theater and this and that. But to me, they’re like, these beautiful baby pictures. And I was just so brave and young, and there was no thought about anything, other than “I only have this many days to write an album, so I’m gonna do it.” And it was high-pressure, high-stakes. I was living a very exciting life. And I just have so much love for that album.
I’m sure we’ll reimagine some of the instrumentation, but for some of them, we won’t. It’s a chapter that literally gave me the ability to be talking to you right now, and gave me the ability to have fans and have opportunities. I re-listen to it now, and not to toot our horn, but with Benny and Michael and me, it was a sound that’s got legs, and it feels timeless. The songs are strange, but still big. And I feel like that is the way I write.
I do feel like these two albums are going to be companion pieces — the first one is very bold and bright, and there’s a lot of darkness in what I wrote, even if the energy isn’t. And the newer stuff is a bit of a photo negative. Different colors, but it’s not like I’m not a romantic, theatrical, intense person still. I’ve just matured.
Justin Bieber has heard all the comments from fans who are worried about his health and well-being, as well as those offering him advice on how to live his life. “People keep telling me to heal,” Bieber wrote on Monday morning (June 16) in a post cued to WizKid’s “Blessed.”
“Don’t you think if I could have fixed myself I would have already? I know I’m broken. I know I have anger issues,” the singer added. “I tried to do the work my whole life to be like the people who told me I needed to be fixed like them. And it just keeps making me more tired and more angry. The harder I try to grow, the more focussed on myself I am.”
The singer concluded by writing, “Jesus is the only person who keeps me wanting to make my life about others. Because honestly I’m exhausted with thinking about myself lately aren’t you?” The post came just hours after the singer shared an image of what appeared to be his hand holding a burning blunt, as well as what appeared to be a back and forth with what appeared to be a now-former friend.
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“I will never suppress my emotions for someone. Conflict is a part of relationship. If you don’t like my anger you don’t like me,” he wrote. “My anger is a response To pain I have been thru. Asking a traumatized person not to be traumatized is simply mean.”
The conversation then got heated when the unidentified other person responded that they were “not used to someone lashing out at me. It’s not hat I don’t see and feel your anger.” Bieber was non-plussed, quickly calling an end to their relationship. “Ouch. This friendship is officially over,” he wrote. “I will never accept a man calling my anger lashing out. I enjoyed our short lived relationship. I wasn’t kidding when I told u I didn’t need u as a friend. I have good friends. Who will respect these boundaries.”
The singer then got testy, telling the person he always considered them a “p–sy… which is why I alway kept my distance but I was willing to give you the benifit [sic] of the doubt. This confirms u were the p–sy I always thought u were [middle finger emoji].”
Speaking of the middle finger, Bieber also celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday with a salty one-finger salute Instagram post that read, “I’m a dad that’s not be be f–ked with [middle finger emoji].”
He ended by asking the person to leave him alone, noting that he is now blocking them. At press time a spokesperson for Bieber had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the posts.
Bieber has been on a posting spree lately, bouncing between cryptic images and close-up selfies, brief glimpses of the back of his and wife Hailey Biebers’ infant son, Jack Blues, and serious posts in which he lashes out at unsolicited advice. “Telling other humans they deserve something is like raising someone else’s kids,” he wrote on June 3. “Who are you to tell someone what someone should or shouldn’t have. The audacity. That’s not your place. God decides what we deserve.”
Back in March, Bieber sparked concern when he told fans he felt like he was “drowning” in “hate” and struggling with feeling “unworthy.” Bieber has been largely off the music radar since canceling a tour in 2022 to deal with the effects of Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which included partial facial paralysis. He appears to be working on the follow-up to his 2021 album Justice, but at press time on additional information was available on that project.
Check out Bieber’s post below.
OneRepublic singer and producer Ryan Tedder was not among the celebrities who joined in the protests against the Trump administration at the thousands of “No Kings” protests across the U.S. on Saturday. In fact, the songwriter who has worked with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift took to Instagram to protest against the protests, lamenting that they […]
