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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.
Move over Prince, Bowie and Jagger — there’s a new rock star in town. LISA has shared her most in-depth teaser yet for her upcoming solo single “Rockstar,” featuring the BLACKPINK star looking like a cyberpunk queen as she dances, models edgy outfits and lurks fiercely in dark city streets. Posted Tuesday night (June 25), […]
Grammy award-nominated singer-songwriter Tayla Parx has always been country. Hailing from Dallas, the 30-year-old multihyphenate became just the fourth Black woman in history to write a Country Airplay No. 1 with Dan + Shay’s “Glad You Exist” (2021), and a few months ago, Parx moved to Nashville.
There, she has been developing a sustainable ranch while prepping her forthcoming third album, Many Moons, Many Suns (out on her TaylaMade Records), which explores the unexpected end of her engagement and combines country, rock, house, soul and contemporary pop. “I’m buying goats, sheep and cows,” she says of her new home. “I’m already excited about the songs that I’ll create just being here.”
Below, Parx previews her new album and reflects on queer pop stardom.
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What’s the first thing you did when you woke up today?
The first thing I did when I woke up today was load a tractor. I got a tractor to live in and my friend just dropped it off. I’ve been working on my little ranch.
What drew you to Nashville?
I started to come down here last year, but maybe three or four months ago, I officially was [here] full time. I’m still in Los Angeles once or twice a week, but this is my home.
What was a key moment on the journey to your new album?
Being able to take four years, I finally was like, “I feel new again.” [We] go through these feelings of breaking down and building up and breaking down your new version of yourself … I’m in that moment now. [That’s] when it’s the right time for me to create, or finish, the album.
Last year you co-wrote on Troye Sivan’s “Got Me Started” and Janelle Monáe’s “Water Slide.” Did you carry any inspiration from those sessions into your own?
We have a problem in the songwriting world where you’ll see a queer artist and they have only straight writers on the project, and that’s a bit weird. Or we see a woman artist and they only have straight men as writers, and that’s also a bit weird. I’m not saying we can’t have that perspective, because I’ve written for a lot of different people and I haven’t experienced their version of life. However, it’s always important to have at least somebody be a part of the project that can see you in a very different way — and maybe that’s because they’re queer. So I’ve been choosing to write with a lot of artists [with whom] I can write from that perspective. I’ve been a lot more selective these days.
“Era” has heavy ballroom energy, as does “10s.” How did examining your relationship affect your influences while recording?
We have that ballroom energy, New Orleans energy, all the things that I’ve experienced in my life that are such a huge part of queer culture. With “10s,” I played a lot with pulling from my community, the different sounds that inspire us and make us move. I really wanted to go to the extreme. A lot of the music that is the most groundbreaking is ballroom. We’ve been forced to be out of the boundary, or seen as that, for so long that it was like, “F–k it. Well, I might as well be the best version of me — and do me to the max.”
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When you were coming up, who were the songwriters that made you feel most seen?
I feel like I’m just now having an opportunity in the past few years to have artists that actually make me feel seen. Around 2015, I was listening to Marika Hackman’s “Boyfriend,” and it’s a queer song and I had never heard something lyrically like [that.] That’s not to say that there [aren’t] any queer artists that have been out there being very forward, I’m just saying what spoke to me. Being born in ‘93 and a teenager in the 2000s, it’s a very different thing.
If you had to pick three essential tracks from the new record, what would they be?
I would say, “Standing Up to the Wind,” “Gentlewoman” and “I Don’t Talk About Texas.”
Beyond the album, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
We are getting back on the road. I’m super excited because it’s been a minute since I’ve been on the road. I went from consistently touring to taking a break and really allowing the music to come. We got some crazy sustainable and biodegradable merch coming, which is really cool. And more behind the scenes of the process — I’m making sure that everything within the TaylaMade world reflects [my] values.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Justin Timberlake is back to business as usual. Nine days after he was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, the 43-year-old pop star returned to social media Tuesday (June 25) with an Instagram video showing off his new Knicks-inspired merch ahead of his shows in New York City, the first of which Jessica Biel attended to show her husband support.
In the clip, Timberlake stands in the middle of Madison Square Garden before his two back-to-back Forget Tomorrow World Tour performances at the venue. Holding up a blue T-shirt with orange lettering, he proudly says, “This is so important right now.”
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“Let’s go, got y’all’s Knicks colors,” he continues before singing: “We had to do it! Bing bong!”
Though the *NSYNC alum’s comments are currently limited on the platform, Timberlake did receive some support underneath the video. “🔥🔥🔥🔥 NEEED THAT ONE!!” wrote Travis Kelce, who’s a documented JT stan.
Later that night, the singer took the MSG stage for what would be his third performance back after his arrest. Fan cameras captured Biel enjoying the show from the floor among hundreds of fans, dancing along to the music and appearing to hold her 4-year-old son Phineas, whom she shares with Timberlake, along with 9-year-old Silas.
Prior to his New York show, Timberlake performed two nights in Chicago on June 21 and 22. At the first, he broke his silence on his brush with the law by telling the crowd, “It’s been a tough week.”
“I know I’m hard to love sometimes but you keep loving me right back,” he added at the time. “We’ve been together through ups and downs and lefts and rights … but you’re here and I’m here, and nothing can change this moment right now.”
The heartfelt moment came four days after Timberlake was arrested on DWI charges in Sag Harbor, N.Y., after being pulled over after leaving a restaurant. Local police recently confirmed via statement that the “SexyBack” singer was also cited for running a stop sign and not staying in his lane.
“[We] look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Timberlake against these allegations,” Timberlake’s lawyer, Ed Burke, said in a statement last week. “He will have a lot to say at the appropriate time. He is currently awaiting full discovery from the DA’s office.”
Watch clips of Biel enjoying her husband’s show below.
Travis Kelce is officially a fan of the royals. After meeting Prince William and his kids at Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour show in London over the weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end gushed about the experience with his brother Jason on New Heights and said that the heir to the British throne was “very genuine” throughout.
“Dude, he was the coolest motherf—-r,” Travis began on the episode posted Wednesday (June 26), filmed over proper English tea with both brothers still in the U.K. following Swift’s shows. “He was so cool. They were an absolute delight to meet. Wasn’t sure if I was supposed to bow to them, curtsy, just be an American idiot and shake their hand … We wanted to be polite, especially on this side of the park.”
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“Prince William was fantastic, but the highlight was Princess Charlotte,” Jason, who attended the show with Kylie Kelce, chimed in. “She was so f–king adorable. She had fire to her. She was asking questions.”
“She was a superstar,” Travis agreed. “She was awesome. I love it when parents ask their kids to be present, be vocal — such a good parent move. Let them feel comfortable talking to people. If anyone’s doing it right, Prince William’s doing it right.”
The episode comes five days after Prince William, Princess Charlotte and Prince George attended the “Anti-Hero” singer’s opening night at Wembley Stadium. The night also happened to be the Duke of Cambridge’s 42nd birthday, which Swift commemorated by posting a backstage selfie with Travis and the royal family on Instagram.
“Happy Bday M8!” she captioned the snap. “London shows are off to a splendid start.”
Aside from meeting the royals, Jason also shared his favorite moments of Swift’s three-hour showcase, starting with the pop star giving her “22” costume hat to a young fan in the audience. “I’ve never cried at a f–king concert, and I was literally tearing up watching this little girl’s entire — I’m about to tear up right now,” the retired Eagles center said. “It was f—ing so special.”
Jason also raved about Swift’s surprise song section, during which she performed mashups of “Hits Different,” “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and “The Black Dog” and “Come Back…Be Here” and “Maroon.”
“That was my favorite part,” said the elder Kelce. “It’s just her, a guitar and 90,000 people. To be good in front of 90,000 people with just that, I think you have to be amazing … It feels like you’re in a bar just listening to somebody play on a piano.”
Watch Jason and Travis gush about Swift’s London Eras show on New Heights above.
Did you know Taylor Swift played three shows in London over the weekend? Chances are good that you did, because you likely heard about one of her A-list audience members (Paul McCartney, Tom Cruise and Hugh Grant, to name a few); her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s onstage Eras Tour debut (in a tuxedo and top hat, […]
Sabrina Carpenter is not only one of today’s biggest pop stars, but she’s also quickly turning into a style icon — with her colorful outfits and chic makeup looks having fans compare her to a real-life Polly Pocket or Bratz Doll. Most recently, Carpenter made her runway debut at the Vogue World 2024: Paris on […]