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Miley Cyrus gives the Talking Heads‘ jittery 1977 new wave classic “Psycho Killer” a fresh spin in a fan-posted video of the singer’s cover of the track from her November performance at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. In the minute-long clip, Cyrus trades the original’s spare, bass-thrumming, quick-strummed guitar for finger-picked acoustic guitar and banjo, giving the track a country makeover.
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In keeping with the folky feel, Cyrus twangs up the vocals as well, crooning, “Cuz my bed’s on fiiiiiire/ No, don’t touch me baby/ I told you I’m a real live wire,” while messing with the lyrical timing to draw out and emphasize different syllables, transforming it into more of a bluegrass hoedown.
She then tells the crowd, “if you know this song, this is the regular part,” before breaking into the French-tinged chorus, which she also Miley-fies to make it uniquely her own. Speaking of which, Cyrus also completely rewrites the tune and adds her own fresh verse, on which she sings, “I love you psycho killer/ I’mma love you forever/ You know I’ll never run away,” cheekily asking the intimate audience if her take is “better than the original.”
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The video appeared to be from the same intimate November Chateau show that spawned the first live performance of Miley’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Flowers.” At press time a spokesperson for Cyrus had not returned Billboard‘s request for further comment on whether the singer’s rendition of the Talking Heads song will be included on the upcoming 16-track Stop Making Sense covers albums; Paramore’s rendition of “Burning Down the House” has already been released.
The tracklist for the Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense tribute album has not yet been released, so it’s unknown if that is the song Cyrus will cover on the LP, though her name was among those announced as contributing to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Heads’ landmark Stop Making Sense concert film. In addition to Cyrus and Paramore, the soundtrack is slated to include covers by: Lorde, The National, Teezo Touchdown, Kevin Abstract, Jean Dawson, girl in red, BADBADNOTGOOD, Blondshell, The Cavemen., Chicano Batman, Money Mark, DJ Tunez, El Mató a un Policía Motorizado, The Linda Lindas and Toro y Moi.
It’s no surprise Cyrus gave the song so much personal attention, since she clearly has an affection for the band. During her 2023 New Year’s Eve special, the singer teamed up with Talking Heads singer David Byrne for covers of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Byrne’s “Everybody’s Coming to My House.”
Watch the Cyrus “Psycho Killer” video here.
Travis Kelce is proving that Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour never gets old. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was in attendance at the “Anti-Hero” singer’s concert in Singapore Friday night (March 8), and between jamming to “Look What You Made Me Do” and kissing his superstar girlfriend after the show, it looks like he had […]
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Ariana Grande finds her Sunshine, Jack Antonoff pushes Bleachers forward and 4batz receives a huge co-sign. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Ariana Grande, Eternal Sunshine
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While Eternal Sunshine, Ariana Grande’s seventh studio album, explores a new beginning in her romantic life, the pop superstar is also pressing start on a fresh phase in her career: following 2020’s Positions and ending her longest gap between full-lengths thus far, Grande sounds emboldened through elapsed time and newfound wisdom, and more uncompromising than ever in her lyrics and aesthetic. Thumping lead single “Yes, And?” acts as a bit of a red herring for an album that’s often pensive and prodding, with the subtle R&B of Positions expanding in scope and deepening in detail; pop fans will find more playlist fodder in the shimmering synth showcase “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” and the snappy, clever “The Boy is Mine” re-imagining, but Eternal Sunshine is an extended dive into the psyche of a generational talent who’s only getting more thoughtful, and better, with time.
Click here for a full breakdown of every song on Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine.
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Bleachers, Bleachers
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Jack Antonoff keeps refining Bleachers, but instead of sanding down his band’s rougher edges, he’s amplifying their quirks, and translating the live-wire energy of their live shows into the studio setting. Bleachers, Antonoff’s fourth and best album as the leader of the collective, is an apt project to end up self-titled: songs like the rollicking “Modern Girl,” wistful “Alma Mater” and quietly graceful “Woke Up Today” exist in different modes but get to the root of Antonoff is trying to accomplish, various shades of indie-flecked pop-rock with communal hope coalescing around his strengthening voice.
4batz feat. Drake, “act ii: date @ 8” remix
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Since Drake emerged as a star in the late 2000s, there have been multiple years in which his career was defined by hopping on smaller artists’ hit songs and pouring some gasoline on their chart prospects. That age-old impulse returns with the remix to “act ii: date @ 8,” the viral R&B smash from Dallas native 4batz; here, Drizzy essentially doubles the original song’s length and remakes the second half in his image, taking 4batz’s late-night musings and running with an extended verse on love and lust.
Norah Jones, Visions
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Now squarely in her forties and 20 years removed from her mega-selling debut album Come Away With Me, Norah Jones keeps regularly cranking out accomplished, sonically adventurous projects. Visions, her strongest since 2012’s Little Broken Hearts, is especially daring in its verve, a soul record that’s swirled a little garage-rock onto its canvas: Jones sounds fantastic leading full-throated tracks like “Paradise” and “All This Time,” while producer Leon Michels guides the throwback arrangements with a light touch.
Editor’s Pick: The Marías, “Run Your Mouth”
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“Hope you dance to this one,” Marías leader María Zardoya declares in a press release for the band’s new single “Run Your Mouth,” which precedes forthcoming sophomore album Submarine. It’s easy to oblige: “Run Your Mouth” boasts an effortless groove that funks up the Marías’ alt-pop sound, with a hustling tempo and an extended instrumental breakdown that invites embarrassing hand-dancing (for some of us, at least). Drop this in your favorite weekend playlist and don’t think twice.
On the heels of dropping her eagerly anticipated Eternal Sunshine album, Ariana Grande also debuted the futuristic video for the collection’s new single, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” on Friday morning (March 8).
The singer teased the clip last week with an image from the waiting room in which she signs a consent form stating, “You have given extensive thought behind your decision and give ‘Brighter Days Inc.’ the exclusive permission to remove this person completely from your memory,” as her pen hovers over the box marked “No,” before the 30-year-old pop star opts for “Yes” at the last second and signing her name as “Peaches.”
That scene from the Christian Breslauer-directed visual is the opening act of a moody video that finds Grande — wearing a furry grey coat over a mini dress and knee-high boots and sporting some dramatic, tribal-like makeup around her left eye — sitting in the drab, wood-paneled lobby of the Brighter Days Inc. clinic awaiting an appointment with a doctor. When Peaches’ name is called, Grande grabs a white box filled with memories and enters a surgery arena, where she lays back on a chair as she begins to sing the ballad’s introspective lyrics.
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“I didn’t think you’d understand me/ How could you ever even try,” she sings as a nurse takes a stuffed bear out of the box and a screen shows the teddy’s brain scan. “I don’t want to tip-toe, but I don’t want to hide/ But I don’t want to feed this monstrous fire,” she continues over the song’s bubbling beat while being fitted with a silver headband with glowing red contacts on her temples.
The scene then jumps to a 1980s-style video game arcade as the tempo builds and Grande and a boyfriend pluck the bear from a claw machine and she promises to “wait for your love.” The heartbreak ballad about vowing to pretend until a love is rekindled is a travelogue of good times — including a shout-out to the final iconic birthday cake scene in 1984 coming-of-age classic Sixteen Candles — mixed with the present-day footage of Grande receiving the love-erasing procedure.
The storyline of the video — which ends with Grande blithely passing her old love and his new girlfriend while strolling with her new man — should come as no surprise given Grande’s avowed love of Jim Carrey’s similarly themed 2004 love removal machine sci-fi drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which Grande tapped as an inspiration for the album’s title.
In that Michel Gondry-directed movie, Carrey and girlfriend Kate Winslet’s characters, Joel and Clementine, undergo brain surgery to wipe all the memories of their painful breakup. So, in the lead-up to the album’s release, Grande posted photos and videos in which she dressed up in outfits and hairstyles inspired by the film’s leading lady.
The midtempo track is the second single from Eternal Sunshine, following the January Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping hit “Yes, And?” Grande has previously said that she wouldn’t be issuing any more songs ahead of her seventh studio album’s release. Grande will be the musical guest on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live alongside Dune 2’s Josh Brolin.
Watch the “Wait For Your Love” video below.
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Taylor Swift’s favorite number – 13 – now doubles as the amount of No. 1s that she has achieved on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart. She tallies her record-extending 13th leader on the list as “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault]” ascends to the top of the March 16-dated ranking.
Following Swift, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Rihanna each boast 11 Pop Airplay No. 1s.
Notably, the song, on Swift’s album 1989 (Taylor’s Version), on Republic Records, marks her first track that has topped a Billboard airplay chart from a “Taylor’s Version” album, among the four rerecorded sets that she has released so far.
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Here’s a recap of Swift’s 13 No. 1s on Pop Airplay, which measures songs’ weekly plays, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on over 150 U.S. mainstream top 40 radio stations. (The chart began in October 1992.)
Title, Weeks at No. 1, Year(s):
“Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault],” one (to-date), 2024
“Cruel Summer,” 10, 2023
“Karma,” one, 2023
“Anti-Hero,” three, 2022-23
“Delicate,” one, 2018
“Look What You Made Me Do,” one, 2017
“Wildest Dreams,” two, 2015
“Bad Blood” (feat. Kendrick Lamar), five, 2015
“Style,” three, 2015
“Blank Space,” six, 2014-15
“Shake It Off,” two, 2014
“I Knew You Were Trouble.,” seven, 2013
“Love Story,” one, 2009
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Swift, meanwhile, links her third consecutive Pop Airplay No. 1, as “Is It Over Now?” follows the rules of “Cruel Summer” and “Karma.” She notches her second streak of at least three straight leaders on the chart, after she reigned with the first five singles from 1989 in 2014-15: “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” “Bad Blood” and “Wildest Dreams.”
1989 (Taylor’s Version) launched atop the Billboard 200 chart in November, becoming her 13th No. 1 album – the most among women. The same week, the song soared in at No. 1 on the all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100, becoming her 11th and most recent leader.
Concurrently, the track takes over at No. 1 on Adult Pop Airplay (which reflects plays on adult top 40 stations). It becomes Swift’s 12th No. 1, the most among soloists and second overall only to Maroon 5’s 15 (dating to the chart’s March 1996 start in Billboard’s pages).
All charts dated March 16 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, March 12.
Jack Black knows what you need. So, after giving a little tease of his band Tenacious D’s rocked-up cover of Britney Spears signature 1998 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “…Baby One More Time” last week, the singer/actor dropped the full thing on Friday (March 8). In addition, Black and TD bandmate Kyle Gass got […]
Selena Gomez posted a sweet tribute to boyfriend Benny Blanco on Friday morning (March 8) in honor of the producer’s 36th birthday. “Happy birthday baby! Your emotional endurance, positive disposition, unbelievable talent (that blows me away), undeniable humor and loving, kind heart absolutely kill me,” she wrote on Instagram. “I love you,” she added along […]
It was royal affair at Madonna’s Celebration Tour date in Los Angeles on Thursday night (March 7) as the Queen of Pop welcomed on stage Kylie Minogue, Australia’s very own Princess of Pop.
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Kylie joined Madonna for a performance of Gloria Gaynor’s girl-power disco-era classic “I Will Survive,” timed perfectly for International Women’s Day, and for a rendition of Kylie’s 2001 hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”
For the thousands looking on, the spectacle of a Kylie and Madonna collaboration won’t get out of their heads anytime soon, as many shared images and video of the special moment on social media.
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Kylie got in on the social media action by sharing a video of herself, dancing in the aisles to “Ray of Light,” the title track from Madonna’s William Orbit-produced LP from 1998. She writes, “MADONNA. It’s been a long time coming!!! LOVED being with you!!!! Celebration Tour AND it is now International Women’s Day …. THANK YOU and LOVE LOVE LOVE.”
And, for those pop fans with a long memory, Kylie paid the ultimate tribute to Madonna and her supporters by wearing a shirt emblazoned with the icon’s name, continuing a mutual appreciation society that can be traced back decades. Indeed, Madonna wore a “Kylie”-branded shirt when she performed at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Stockholm, Sweden back in 2000, with Kylie going on to repeat the favor.
Minogue is a wanted woman in the United States. On Wednesday, she was celebrated with the Icon Award at the Billboard Women in Music event; her Las Vegas residency, the More Than Just a Residency show at Voltaire at the Venetian, has been extended through May; she collected her second Grammy Award last month; and she recently signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) for live representation in the U.S. and Canada and acting roles worldwide. The 55-year-old artist last week collected the BRITs Global Icon award at the 2024 BRIT Awards in England, where she’s adopted as a national treasure.
“Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” is one of Kylie’s two career top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 7 in 2002 (the other is “The Loco-Motion,” hitting No. 3 back in 1988).
Madonna kicked off a five-night stand at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Monday, March 4, the L.A. leg of her Celebration Tour, a career-spanning look back on her hits, personal struggles, pop culture impact and enduring influence.
During the opening night of her L.A. stretch, the 65-year-old superstar revealed that the severe bacterial infection she suffered in June 2023 — which led to her hospitalization and the postponement of her current trek — at one point made it nearly impossible for her to move around. “This summer I had a surprise,” she told the crowd, holding a cowboy hat in one hand and gripping a guitar in the other. “It’s called a near-death experience.”
After three long years, Ariana Grande has finally unveiled Eternal Sunshine — her seventh studio album and first since 2020’s Grammy-nominated Positions. Released to all digital streaming platforms on Friday (March 8), Eternal Sunshine is Grande’s incredibly vulnerable reflection on the personal (and artistic!) growth she experienced following her divorce from Dalton Gomez, a transformative […]
Ariana Grande’s deeply introspective, house-inflected seventh studio album is finally here. See how Billboard ranks each track on Eternal Sunshine.