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Lizzo‘s got some tips that’ll leave you feeling good as hell this summer. In a satirical video posted on Instagram Tuesday (April 9), the 35-year-old hitmaker hilariously demonstrates three of her best tips for building a perfect “bod” ahead of next season — no gym membership required.
The “Truth Hurts” singer-rapper starts the video in a colorful swimsuit, taking a stroll on a treadmill. “Here’s three exercises to help you get that summer bod,” she tells the camera after serving up a sassy hair flip.
Step one? “Block your ex,” Lizzo says, smiling as she tosses her cellphone into a swimming pool behind her.
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“Remember to hydrate excessively,” she says next, doing a bicep curl with a bottle of white wine.
“And remember,” she adds, introducing her third tip while lounging in the sun. “You can never be too extra.”
“Cus EVERY D–N BODY is a Summer Body in @yitty,” she added in her caption, tagging her own shapewear company.
The post comes less than two weeks after the Grammy winner made headlines for ambiguously declaring “I quit” in a message on Instagram, leading some to assume that she was stepping away from the music industry in light of her recent legal turmoil with a group of her former backup dancers. A few days later, however, Lizzo once again took to social media to clarify her remarks, telling followers in a video: “When I say I quit, I mean, I quit giving any negative energy attention.”
“What I’m not gonna quit is the joy of my life, which is making music, which is connecting with people,” she’d added. “I know I’m not alone. In no way, shape or form am I the only person who is experiencing that negative voice that seems to be louder than the positive … I’m going to keep moving forward, I’m going to keep being me.”
See Lizzo’s summer body post below.
Award-winning artists Josh Groban, Andra Day and Rhiannon Giddens have been chosen as the 2024 honorees for the upcoming Music Will benefit. The nonprofit music education program for U.S. public schools, formerly known as Little Kids Rock, will present its 16th annual event on April 24 at The Novo in Los Angeles.
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In a statement announcing the benefit, Music Will CEO Mike Wasserman said, “Music Will brings innovative and engaging programming, resources and instruments to a community of thousands of music teachers and more than 600,000 students across the country every year. We can’t wait to celebrate on April 24 with such generous and talented artists like Josh Groban, Andra Day and Rhiannon Giddens, as well as student bands from local Music Will partner schools. For one night, our community of educators, corporate sponsors, industry partners and everyone who believes in the power of music will come together for an amazing celebration of music. All proceeds will support Music Will’s programs for students and teachers across the country. Together, we’re changing lives through music.”
Five-time Grammy Award nominee and Emmy- and Tony-nominated actor Groban tells Billboard, “I deeply admire Music Will’s commitment to enacting meaningful, systemic change in music education by meeting kids where they are and prioritizing equity and tangible access in schools. Having had the privilege of working with Music Will and witnessing their dedication to enriching students’ lives firsthand only reinforces my admiration for their impactful work.”
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“Music Will’s commitment to changing the landscape of music education and expanding access to underserved communities is truly inspiring,” adds fellow singer-songwriter Day in comments shared with Billboard. “I believe in the transformative power of music, and I’m excited to collaborate with Music Will to bring that power to even more students.”
Grammy winner Day is also an Academy Award-nominated actress. Giddens, a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, has won two Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize for her work as a singer, instrumentalist and composer. She, Day and Groban join a circle of prior Music Will honorees that includes Babyface, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Joan Jett, Steven Van Zandt, Usher and Wiz Khalifa. Music Will was founded by Dave Wish in 2002.
Michael Bearden (Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston) will serve as music director for Music Will’s upcoming benefit, which is being presented by the Hot Topic Foundation and produced by MBM Entertainment. Additional information about tickets is available on the Music Will website.
Fans in Brazil are going to great lengths to get Beyoncé‘s attention, and they just got the next best outcome. After a group of admirers used a light show projected on the biggest Ferris wheel in Latin America to ask the superstar to come to São Paulo on her next tour, Queen Bey’s mother — […]
It’s no secret that the pop-punk influences laced into Olivia Rodrigo‘s Sour and Guts albums can be directly traced back to artists such as Gwen Stefani — she even has No Doubt‘s “Just a Girl” on her pre-show playlist, which blares over the venue speakers before each of her Guts World Tour concerts.
Now, the 21-year-old pop star is opening up about her love for the “Hollaback Girl” singer, telling Nylon for Stefani’s cover story published Tuesday (April 9), “Gwen’s ability to evolve and explore different styles of music, songwriting and aesthetic while still remaining true to herself is incredibly inspiring.”
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“To me, she’s a prime example of an artist who defies stereotypes and preconceived boundaries and just makes stuff that she thinks is cool,” Rodrigo continued. “If that’s not a true artist, I don’t know what is.”
The new interview comes just days ahead of No Doubt’s highly anticipated reunion at this year’s Coachella, which kicks off Friday (April 12). According to the “Drivers License” artist, she first discovered the band when she was 15, pressing play on its 2000 album Return of Saturn nearly two decades after it was first released (and subsequently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200).
“Gwen sang about being a woman moving about this world in detail that I had never before heard put to music,” Rodrigo recalled of the experience. “She unapologetically sings about things ranging from wanting to make out with someone to fantasizing about having a husband and kids. There’s so much heart in every word she says, and every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know.”
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum will be on the road for the next four months, most recently playing her third of four scheduled Guts shows at Madison Square Garden. Following her final New York City performance on Tuesday, she’ll head overseas for a European leg beginning April 30 in Dublin.
Stefani’s most recent releases have come in collaboration with her husband, former The Voice co-coach Blake Shelton. The pair released a cover of The Judds’ “Love Is Alive” in 2023, followed by a duet titled “Purple Irises” earlier this year.
“When you’re in love and have truly aligned values, nobody can get to us,” the GXVE Beauty founder told Nylon of the country crooner. “You can say whatever you want to say about our relationship — I mean, a week ago we were getting divorced again or something. It’s just lies. The truth is the truth, and we know what that is. And so that [negativity] would never penetrate just by me being vulnerable and sharing a song that I didn’t write for anybody else but myself and Blake.”
While Beyoncé makes history on Billboard’s latest charts with her new album, Cowboy Carter, many of the set’s featured guests score their first Billboard Hot 100 appearances.
Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey, Linda Martell, Willie Jones and Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter all earn their first entries on the chart dated April 13 thanks to their credited billings on the album.
Adell, Spencer, Kennedy and Roberts all debut via their team-up on Beyoncé’s cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbiird.” The song debuts at No. 27 with 14 million U.S. official streams and 7,000 downloads sold in its first week, according to Luminate. It also opens at No. 6 on Hot Country Songs.
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The update is also just the second, and top-charting, version of the song to hit the Hot 100, after the Glee cast’s version spent a week at No. 37 in 2011. (The Beatles’ original, from 1968, was never released as a single and therefore wasn’t eligible to chart at the time.)
Not only does “Blackbiird” earn the four up-and-coming singer-songwriters their first Hot 100 visits, but it’s also their first overall appearances on Billboard’s charts.
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Adell, from Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Star Valley, Wyo., released her debut LP Buckle Bunny in July 2023 via Columbia Records. The set’s standout track “Love You a Little Bit” has garnered 27.2 million on-demand official U.S. streams to date. In an interview with Billboard at the CMT Music Awards (April 8), Adell said of singing alongside Beyoncé, “It’s been a grind and just to have someone of that caliber reach down and lift [me] up, it’s really, really special and I’m just very honored.”
Spencer, from Baltimore, released her debut album, My Stupid Life, in January via Elektra Records. She initially broke through with her EPs Compassion in 2020 and If I Ever Get There: A Day at Blackbird Studio in 2022.
Kennedy, an Alabama native, has released more than a dozen songs on streaming services since 2020, including the five-track Tiera in 2021 on Big Machine Label Group. The set includes a collaboration with three-time Hot 100-charting artist Breland.
Roberts hails from Alabama and California, and released her debut studio project, Bad Girl Bible, Vol. 1, in 2023 on ReynaRed Records/EMPIRE. She has been releasing songs since 2019.
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Shaboozey lands his first two Hot 100 entries: “Spaghettii” with Beyoncé and Martell, and “Sweet * Honey * Buckiin’” with Beyoncé. The tracks debut at Nos. 31 and 61, respectively. Shaboozey has been releasing hip-hop-inspired country/Americana-focused songs for a decade and has dropped two full-lengths in that span: Lady Wrangler in 2018 and Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die in 2022. In 2019, he scored a placement on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack with “Start a Riot” with Duckwrth.
While Martell is a first-timer on the Hot 100, she’s one of the most commercially successful Black female country stars in history. The country pioneer, 82, became the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1970, and charted three singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 1969-70: “Color Him Father” (No. 22 peak), her cover of Duane Dee’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (No. 33) and “Bad Case of the Blues” (No. 58).
When “Color Him Father” peaked at No. 22, it marked the highest charting song by a Black woman in the chart’s history at the time. She has released one full-length project: Color Me Country, which peaked at No. 40 on the Top Country Albums chart in 1970. In a review of the set, Billboard praised, “She has a terrific style and a true feeling for a country lyric.”
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Willie Jones, from Shreveport, La., debuts for the first time with his Beyoncé team-up “Just For Fun.” He has released two studio albums: Right Now in 2021 and Something to Dance To in June 2023, the latter on Sony Music. He also competed on The X Factor in 2012 and appeared on the Netflix reality show Chasing Cameron in 2016.
Beyoncé’s daughter Rumi Carter also debuts on the Hot 100 for the first time thanks to “Protector” with Beyoncé. At six years old, she passes her older sister, Blue Ivy Carter, to become the youngest charting female artist in Hot 100 history.
As previously reported, Cowboy Carter debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States March 29-April 4 – the biggest one-week total of 2024. She becomes the first Black woman ever to lead Top Country Albums in the chart’s 60-year archives.
Vick Hope is a Swiftie, despite her husband’s history with Taylor Swift. Calvin Harris’ wife shared on her BBC Radio 1 show Going Home with Vick, Katie and Jamie on Monday (April 8) that she listens to the DJ’s ex-girlfriend when he’s not around. “As soon as my husband goes away, I listen to Taylor Swift,” […]
Taylor Swift will stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror — so let’s just hope she uses protective glasses. The “Anti-Hero” singer aptly shared a what appears to be an eclipse-themed lyric from her upcoming new album The Tortured Poets Department on Monday (April 8), the same day the moon fully obscured […]
Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered. These tracks from artists including Conan Gray, Glass Animals, Chappell Roan and more will get you energized to take on the week. Pop any of these gems […]
Azealia Banks is never one to mince words, and she’s revived a decade-old feud with Lily Allen as she came to Beyoncé’s defense.
The “212” rapper took to her Instagram Stories over the weekend to call out the British pop star for her criticism of Bey’s Cowboy Carter album, and she recalled a play-by-play of an alleged phone call between herself and Allen that took place a “few years ago.”
“Okay @lilyallen you’re going to stop right there and sit this one out,” Banks wrote over an accompanying Billboard story regarding Allen framing Bey’s country pivot as “quite calculated.” Banks also brought up an alleged phone conversation between the two.
“Shall we discuss that phone call to me – a few years ago – obviously off your face – crying and sobbing asking me to forgive you for randomly being racist?” she wrote in part.
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Billboard has reached out to Allen for comment.
Allen name-dropped Banks on the April 4 episode of her Miss Me? podcast while dissecting Beyoncé’s Dolla Parton “Jolene” cover.
“I read a comment from Azealia Banks where she was like, ‘Stop talking about Jay-Z as if anyone wants to f–k him,” Allen said, laughing. “Literally, no one’s even looked at him for about 10 years, relax.”
Co-host Miquita Oliver then asked Allen if she found the Brooklyn rap mogul attractive, and she replied, “I mean, I’m attracted to power, so yes? But maybe not physically,” said the singer, who is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour. “I don’t want my current husband to get upset, but it’s not really the physical I go for.”
Allen continued to dig into Beyoncé’s decision to explore a country album with Cowboy Carter.
“It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen mused. “I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover. I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?”
Allen continued: “The front cover is her in a cowboy hat, riding on a horse. She was wearing a blonde wig and a cowboy hat [at the Grammys]. It’s a bit about challenging these institutions that have thus far rejected Beyoncé as the icon and institution she is herself.”
Azealia Banks’ and Lily Allen’s history runs deep, as they previously feuded in 2013 while engaging in a Twitter beef that ended with Banks dissing Allen’s ex-husband Sam Cooper and saying he looked like a “thumb.”
Regardless of any critique, Beyoncé galloped to the No. 1 album in the country — her eighth in her discography — with Cowboy Carter topping the Billboard 200 with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Luminate.
Billie Eilish‘s fans are happier than ever after the 22-year-old pop star announced Monday (April 8) that her third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, will arrive later this spring. The singer shared the news on Instagram alongside the project’s cover art, a portrait of her sinking underwater, seemingly seconds after being dropped from the […]