Pop
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Lil Nas X is starting to feel better about his creative process, and the 25-year-old star shared his feelings of positivity in a new Instagram post promoting his upcoming single “Here We Go!,” which arrives on Friday (June 28). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “so excited […]
Throughout her career, Katy Perry has never shied away from a big fashion moment, and the superstar is celebrating her upcoming single with a stunning red dress in Paris. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a clip circulating social media, the pop star is seen coming […]
V is back! The BTS superstar surprised fans on Tuesday (June 25) by announcing a new musical project called TYPE 1, though it’s not immediately clear if the announcement is for a song or an album. The new release is set to arrive on July 9. The announcement, shared to social media, also included a […]
Camila Cabello is closing in on the release of her new album C,XOXO, complete with several new tracks written by her. But in a new interview, the star revealed that songwriting didn’t always come easily to her — that is, until Taylor Swift gave her a piece of advice that helped her hone her craft.
Speaking to 11-year-old influencer Taylen Biggs, the “Bam Bam” singer recalled meeting the 14-time Grammy winner for the first time a decade ago at the VMAs, which she attended while still in Fifth Harmony. “I was maybe about 16 or 17 where I met one of my songwriting heroes, Taylor Swift,” Cabello said, noting that she had just started getting interested in composing lyrics at the time.
“I see her and Lorde sitting together,” she continued. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s Taylor Swift. I have to go up to both of them, and I have to tell them I love them.’ They were both so sweet.”
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“I was having a hard time getting out of this creative rut,” Cabello went on. “I was like, ‘Who is the person to ask about songwriting? It’s Taylor Swift.’ I was like, ‘What would you say if you’re having a lot of self doubt and you feel a little stuck?’”
That’s when Swift imparted words of wisdom that changed the X-Factor alum’s outlook forever. “I don’t even know if she remembers this, it was so long ago,” Cabello recalled. “She said, ‘When that happens to me, [I] just keep writing through it. You just gotta keep going, keep writing through it.’”
“When you feel those voices of self doubt, just keep going,” the vocalist added. “You will find yourself on the other side of it.”
Cabello has since released three solo albums, with her fourth slated to arrive Friday (June 28). The project will feature 14 tracks, including lead single “I Luv It” with Playboi Carti as well as not one, but two cameos from Drake.
The former Voice coach has also developed a friendship with Swift since meeting the superstar all those years ago. In 2018, the former served as an opener on the latter’s Reputation Stadium Tour, something Cabello called a “full-circle” moment in an interview with Billboard later that year.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Taylor Swift since I was like 13 years old,” she added at the time. “I know literally all of her songs. She was one of the people that really inspired me to start songwriting.”
Watch Cabello’s full interview with Biggs below.
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Couples who play sold-out stadiums together, stay together. At Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour concert in London Sunday (June 23), Travis Kelce surprised the crowd at Wembley Stadium by appearing on stage during his superstar girlfriend’s The Tortured Poets Department set, and in a new Instagram post, the pop star revealed that she still has heart eyes because of it.
Sharing photos of the Kansas City Chiefs tight end joining her under the spotlight — including one of him carrying her in his arms, modeling a tuxedo and top hat — Swift wrote, “I’m still cracking up/swooning over @killatrav’s Eras Tour debut 🥰.”
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The “Anti-Hero” singer also posted a video of her beau’s full appearance, in which he joins two of her dancers in playfully forcing her to perform “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” even after she’s dramatically collapsed following “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” In the clip, he picks her up, carries her over to a couch, fans her and dusts her face with a makeup brush, all while coaching her on how to sing and dance ahead of the next number.
Though Kelce’s hilarious performance was definitely the biggest, Swift’s trio of London shows were full of surprises. At one point, opener Hayley Williams joined the 14-time Grammy winner on stage for an acoustic performance of their Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) duet “Castles Crumbling,” and Grace Abrams later came out to sing new song “Us” with her The Secret of Us collaborator.
“Acoustic sections went OFF,” Swift continued in her post. “I got to sing ‘Castles Crumbling’ with @yelyahwilliams for the first time – hadn’t performed with her since 2011 and man my heart was just so full of love for her and our friendship. Then the impossibly gifted and wonderful @gracieabrams came and surprised the crowd with the first performance of our song ‘us.’”
The pop star will next perform three nights in Dublin starting Friday (June 28), after which she’ll travel through Amsterdam, Milan and more European cities before closing out the leg with five more nights in London in August. In October, she’ll begin the Eras Tour‘s final leg with a string of shows in the U.S. and Canada.
“Wembley Stadium round one was so surreal,” she added. “Looking out into crowds of 90,000 fans each night and hearing that VOLUME… Those were some of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard … Never going to forget these shows.”
What happens when two queer icons meet in the flesh? According to Sir Elton John and Chappell Roan, they throw a pizza party.
In a post to his Instagram on Monday (June 24), John revealed that he and the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer — as well as John’s husband David Furnish and Roan’s collaborator Dan Nigro — met up on Sunday night for a pizza dinner party. “The BEST evening of pizza and outrageous laughter with the fiercely fabulous @chappellroan,” John wrote in the caption. “Love her, love her, love her.”
While the post marked the first time the pair had met in person, John and Roan had previously spoken to each other as part of the “Rocket Man” singer’s Apple Music show Rocket Hour. During her appearance in late May, the pair discussed Roan’s ascent to stardom, with John letting her know just how happy he was to see her thriving.
“I rang you the other night and said, ‘Listen, I’m not stalking you, but I’m as excited about your album’s success as you are,’” he said. “It’s wonderful to see true talent being recognized.”
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Roan, giggling at John’s compliments, said that the sudden success was “pretty overwhelming,” but added that “it’s also affirming … pushing through the hard times is worth it.”
Roan recently added a fourth single to this week’s Billboard Hot 100, as “Pink Pony Club” joins her other tracks “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go!” and “Good Luck, Babe!,” the latter of which ascended to No. 16, marking the singer’s first top 20 hit on the chart.
John, meanwhile, wrapped his record-setting Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour in July 2023, and recently spoke with Billboard about his husband’s game-changing work as his manager.
Sabrina Carpenter is on track to secure another U.K. No. 1 single, while Chappell Roan looks set to break into the national top 10 for the first time.
Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” (via Island) holds top spot on the midweek U.K. chart and is positioned to take top spot for a second week — positioning Carpenter for another significant career milestone.
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The track, produced by Jack Antonoff, is the second single from Carpenter’s sixth studio LP, Short ‘n’ Sweet, which was released June 6, following her previous U.K. No. 1 hit with “Espresso.”
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Last Friday, June 21, Carpenter achieved a remarkable feat when “Please, Please, Please” dethroned Eminem’s “Houdini” to secure her second U.K. leader in less than two months, while “Espresso” held strong at No. 2.
The achievement set a new Official Chart record, with Carpenter becoming the youngest female solo artist in history to simultaneously hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Official Singles Chart, at age 25 years, 1 month, and 10 days old, surpassing Ariana Grande’s previous record.
Grande was 25 years, 7 months, and 20 days old when she achieved the same feat in February 2019 with “7 rings” and “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” respectively leading the chart.
Meanwhile, Chappell Roan is making a strong bid for her first U.K. top 10 entry with her single “Good Luck, Babe” (Island), up 16-9 on the chart blast.
The single recently topped the Official Trending Chart, showcasing its growing popularity in the U.K. “Good Luck”, along with her previous hit “HOT TO GO!” from her 2023 debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, has solidified her status as a rising star in the pop scene. “Good Luck, Babe” has spent six consecutive weeks in the top 40, peaking at No. 18.
Roan’s strong social media presence has played a significant role in the single’s success, with “Good Luck, Babe” gaining substantial traction on TikTok with thousands of users featuring the track in their videos.
The Official U.K. Singles Chart will be revealed late Friday, June 30.
Rising singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams is set to claim her first No. 1 album on the Official U.K. Albums Chart with her second studio effort, The Secret of Us.
Midweek sales and streaming figures from the Official Charts Company indicate that the Californian singer’s heartfelt and introspective songs are resonating strongly with U.K. fans, putting her in prime position to clinch the top spot.
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The 23-year-old Californian is currently outpacing her closest rival, Taylor Swift – who coincidentally features on the album’s track “us.” – by a margin of more than 2:1.
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The Secret of Us (Interscope) follows Abrams’ debut LP, Good Riddance, which peaked at No. 3 last year. The new album was preceded by the single “Close To You,” which recently became Abrams’ first U.K. Top 40 hit, reaching No. 35.
Amid her collaborative track with Taylor Swift dropping on June 21 alongside her 13-track sophomore album, Abrams took to Instagram to share a video of the duo playfully creating their collaborative number, calling the evening “some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”
She also included a video of Swift extinguishing an apartment fire. “Now we know how to use a fire extinguisher. I love you,” Abrams wrote.
As Swift wraps up a three-night stint at London’s Wembley Stadium on her The Eras Tour, several of her former chart-topping albums are also present in the U.K. top 40 midweek.
Other notable appearances on the chart blast include The Mysterines’ second album Afraid of Tomorrows (Fiction) eyeing a No. 3 debut, Charli XCX’s BRAT (Atlantic) looking to log a third consecutive week inside the top 5, and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Island) potentially reaching a new peak inside the top 10, at No. 8.
Outside the Top 10, Avril Lavigne’s Greatest Hits (Sony Music CG) is on track for a top 20 debut, Ed Sheeran’s X (Asylum) could re-enter the chart thanks to a 10th-anniversary reissue, and Jethro Tull’s Bursting Out (Parlophone) is predicted to become their 26th U.K. top 40 album.
Joe Bonamassa’s Live At The Hollywood Bowl With Orchestra (Provogue) could become his 17th top 40 collection, Kate Nash’s 9 Sad Symphonies (Kill Rock Stars) approaches her highest-charting LP in 14 years, and The Story So Far are expected to enter with I Want To Disappear (Pure Noise).
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday, June 28.
It’s officially the Summer of Sabrina, and she’s taking some time to celebrate. On Monday (June 24), Billboard announced that Sabrina Carpenter scores her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit this week, with “Please Please Please” rising from No. 2 in its second week. And to add some whipped cream to the top of […]
As Chappell Roan continues to take the pop world by storm, Billboard is taking a look back through the singer’s career thus far to see how she got here in the latest edition of Billboard Explains.
After growing up in Willard, Mo., Kayleigh Rose Amstutz (Roan’s birth name) began uploading covers and original songs to YouTube as a teenager. Signing her first major-label deal with Atlantic Records at age 17, Roan went on to release her debut EP School Nights in 2017 with the label’s support. But after dropping her single “Pink Pony Club” in 2020, Roan was dropped from Atlantic’s roster.
Forming a writing partnership with superstar songwriter Dan Nigro, Roan kept releasing new music, leading to her Billboard chart debut in October 2023, as she debuted at No. 8 on the Emerging Artists chart. She would later top the chart for three weeks starting in May 2024.
In recent months, Roan has performed at increasingly larger stages to increasing attention from fans. After serving as an opener for part of Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour, Roan made headlines with her performance at Coachella. Since then, her music has quickly risen up the charts — four of her songs recently entered the Billboard Hot 100 (her breakout hit “Good Luck, Babe!” hits No. 19 on the chart dated June 29), while her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time nine months after its release.
After the video, catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about RM’s chart success, Stray Kids’ chart success, Peso Pluma and the Mexican music boom, the role record labels play, origins of hip-hop, how Beyoncé arrived at Renaissance, the evolution of girl groups, BBMAs, NFTs, SXSW, the magic of boy bands, American Music Awards, the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the Hot 100 chart, how R&B/hip-hop became the biggest genre in the U.S., how festivals book their lineups, Billie Eilish’s formula for success, the history of rap battles, nonbinary awareness in music, the Billboard Music Awards, the Free Britney movement, rise of K-pop in the U.S., why Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums, the boom of hit all-female collaborations, how Grammy nominees and winners are chosen, why songwriters are selling their publishing catalogs and more.