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Brat summer is now endless. After the title of Charli XCX‘s smash sixth album became an inescapable meme this year, the Collins Dictionary has dubbed the “brat” its word of the year for 2024.
The dictionary announced the designation on Friday (Nov. 1), noting that “brat” refers to someone who is “characterized by a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude.” According to the full entry, “Brat, newly defined in 2024 as ‘characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude’, has been named Collins’ Word of the Year 2024. Inspired by the Charli XCX album, brat has become one of the most talked about words of 2024. More than a hugely successful album, brat is a cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally, and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life.”
The singer’s own definition of “brat” is “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” which, when paired with the album’s signature lime green square background and blurry Arial font created an aesthetic that ruled the summer. Charli’s also described the aesthetic as, “me, my flaws, my f–k ups, my ego rolled into one” and “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like, parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
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Some of the necessary items for a brat girl summer, according to Charli, include: “a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.” The vibe became so hot, in fact, that Vice President Kamala Harris began using it to boost her presidential campaign after Charli declared “kamala IS brat” in July.
Experts at Collins comb through their 20-billion-word database to make their annual list of new and notable words that represent the evolution of the English language. Other words that were short-listed for this year’s WOTY included: brainrot, era (defined as “a period in one’s life or career that is of a distinctive character” in honor of Taylor Swift’s global tour), as well as looksmaxxing, rawdogging, anti-tourism, delulu, romantasy, supermajority and yapping.
Finally! Mariah Carey was right on time on Friday morning (Nov. 1), ushering in the holiday season with her annual Christmas kick-off video. The Queen of Christmas officially declared that the countdown to the most wonderful time of the year had begun with her eagerly awaited “It’s Time” video.
This year, her Instagram post featured a video of Carey, 55, dressed as Morticia Addams from the Addams Family. The clip opens on a dark and spooky night, complete with a full moon, howling wolves and a steady rain falling on a haunted mansion. Cut to Carey in a sparkly black dress, a black wig and dark makeup taking the hand of a dancer dressed as Gomez Addams as they do the couple’s signature terrifying tango.
But after a few spins and dips, Mariah gives Gomez a hard push out of frame, tosses a dagger at his face — which narrowly misses her smiling beloved — and then gives a knowing look right down the lens and uses her mind to open a curious cabinet as the final calendar pages from October fly away.
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You know what was inside: Mariah’s red and white Santa jumper, of course. “IT’S TIME!!!!” Mariah wails in her signature whistle register from the seat of a sleigh filled with presents as the scene fills with fake snow, Gomez is transformed into a snowman and, of course, MC’s iconic holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blasts out.
The video ends with Carey smiling broadly as she and her reindeer prepare to take off in her sleigh. Carey had been teasing the launch of Christmas season for weeks, including dropping a “Christmas Time Set List” on Apple Music, unwrapping the cover art for four new “All I Want For Christmas” physical singles and, as always, posting a “not yet” video to make sure nobody jumps the gun on her favorite holiday.
Now that the skeletons needs to be packed away for another year, ’tis the season to crank up “All I Want,” because Carey is celebrating the 30th anniversary of her Merry Christmas album on the Merry Christmas Time Tour, which is slated to kick off on Nov. 6 in Highland, CA. Last year, “All I Want” topped the Billboard Hot 100 once again, marking the fifth year in a row that the holiday classic has topped the tally since first doing so in 2017.
Watch Carey’s “It’s Time” video below.
Just after POW reached their first anniversary, the rock-inspired K-pop boy band dropped a new EP, Boyfriend, whose lead single title track paid homage to one of the scene’s favorite artists — pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne.
For “Boyfriend,” the quintet reinterpreted Avril’s 2007 single “Girlfriend,” the Canadian superstar’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the year’s biggest tracks. POW kept the original’s stomping production and undeniably catchy chorus intact for the hybrid track with a new mix of Korean and English lyrics.
POW members Jungbin, Yorch, Hyunbin, Dongyeon and Hong tell Billboard that the superstar played a significant role in their musical backgrounds and made a song like “Boyfriend” happen.
“We’ve loved band sounds and Avril Lavigne’s songs were always on our playlist,” the group says. “We think she was the first to show how punk can be so appealing in pop music. We’re grateful she made it possible for us and so we’ve worked hard to release ‘Boyfriend.’”
“For this remake, I listened to all of Lavigne’s albums,” adds POW eldest member Yorch. “I was drawn to her timeless drum sounds and couldn’t get over the rawness and cool beat of the drums. I recently got an electric guitar and she’s opened my eyes to acoustic real sound. And, it’s something K-pop should also look out for.”
When honoring both the sound and aesthetics from Avril’s debut in 2002, the A&R for POW’s record label, GRID Entertainment, saw their work as helping connect K-pop more extensively to music culture today.
“We believe that youth culture is the essence of mainstream K-pop,” a representative from GRID’s A&R says. “Rebellious, grunge-like, and youthful innocence defines K-pop and POW’s music is grounded in real rock and band sounds. It still feels like the 2000s era, a period where analog and digital collide. That is why we find Avril Lavigne’s music relevant, powerful and resonating with people in their teens, 20s, and 30s. It’s her greatest strength and the reason her music inspires us for interpretation.”
From bands like POW, SEVENTEEN and Stray Kids to solo superstars like BoA and former LOONA members Yves and Heejin, here is a collection of K-pop stars who have expressed their admiration for Avril Lavigne.
POW
Image Credit: Courtesy Grid Entertainment
Shawn Mendes just released “Heart of Gold,” a new single that’s as touching as it is personal.
Written about a childhood friend who passed away from a drug overdose, “Heart of Gold” taps into the raw emotions of losing someone too soon.
In the song, Mendes opens up with lines reflecting the regrets of not being there when it mattered: “Honestly, it’s been a while since I thought of you / In the end, we didn’t talk much / I didn’t know what you were going through / I’m sorry that I wasn’t there.” Then, in the chorus, he celebrates his friend’s legacy: “You had a heart of gold, yeah / You had a heart of gold / You left too soon, it was out of your control.”
Recently, Mendes gave “Heart of Gold” another layer of meaning by dedicating it to late One Direction member Liam Payne during a live show in NYC on Oct. 18. Stopping the music to speak to fans, Mendes shared, “We heard the news about Liam. It felt like… It felt completely devastating. I got to meet him a couple times, and he was a beautiful soul and his eyes gleamed — it was beauty, shining into his eyes.”
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He explained that the song is not just about loss but about celebrating those who have left an impact: “It’s about grieving those we miss with tears, but it’s also about celebrating them… who they were and what they’ve left in this world.” Mendes added, “I just want to take a second to send so much love to him wherever he is up there… Liam, we love you! And the world is crying for you, brother.”
As he launched into the song, Mendes dedicated the night’s performance to Liam, saying, “This one’s for you tonight, Liam, from all of us.”
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Throughout his career, Mendes has scored four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, with his debut album Handwritten kicking off his career by landing at No. 1 in 2015. His collaboration with Camila Cabello, “Señorita,” topped the Billboard Hot 100, and he’s had big hits like “Stitches” and “Treat You Better” reach the Top 10. Mendes has also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart three times.
Stream “Heart of Gold” below:
Oops, Paris Hilton did it again! The “Stars Are Blind” star took to Instagram on Halloween (Oct. 31) to show off her costume this year, and she channeled her pal Britney Spears. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Rocking braids, bangs and a school girl uniform, Hilton nailed […]
When Taylor Swift plays Indianapolis for the ninth time in her career this weekend – performing three sold-out Eras Tour dates at the 70,000-capacity Lucas Oil Stadium – she’s returning at the very top of her game.
And Indy knows games. After all, the Midwestern capital city has hosted the Super Bowl, eight Final Fours (with a ninth set for 2026) and countless college tournaments across all sports – not to mention its 11 professional teams and a century-plus of the Indy 500 car race under its belt.
So how does a sports-forward city such as Indianapolis shift gears to welcome hundreds of thousands of Swifties to town instead of, say, 70,000 Colts fans on any given Sunday? The trio of Lucas Oil concerts were announced in August 2023, but the city’s wheels began spinning months before that.
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“We formed a local organizing committee, much like we do ahead of a major sporting event, to involve community partners to make sure that this was more than a concert,” Chris Gahl, senior VP of marketing/communications for Visit Indy, tells Billboard. “And so, over the last 18 or 20 months, a group has been meeting to think about and worry about how we welcome the anticipated 200,000 visitors and fans to our city.”
That huge swath of tourists is all coming to cheer for Swift – and while her arena is entertainment and not sports, when the music business is keeping score (like on the Billboard charts, for instance), she’s typically in the winners’ circle. On our most recent year-end charts, Swift was our overall top artist of 2023 and has ranked in the year-end top 10 in 14 of the last 16 years. She’s also tied with Drake for the most Billboard Music Awards wins of all time, picking up 39 prizes over her two decades in the industry.
And beyond the numbers, from its start in March 2023, The Eras Tour has been nothing short of an athletic feat. Swift is carrying a three-and-a-half-hour production of live singing and dancing, performing as many as four consecutive nights at a time across the world for almost 20 months. Beyond her Kansas City Chiefs star boyfriend Travis Kelce, we’ve seen professional athletes marveling at the endurance her concert must require, with Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt saying after attending opening weekend in Arizona: “She did not stop the whole time. There was no intermission. There was no halftime. There was no TV timeouts. The longest break she took was maybe three minutes for a costume change. And she was singing, dancing, entertaining the entire time — 70,000 people hanging on every single word and move she was making. … And she crushed it. And she didn’t even look tired. I was tired and I was just sitting there!”
With stats and stamina like hers, maybe Swift is a better fit for a sports town like Indy than it would appear at first glance. And to match her undefeated record, the city went especially big with signage for the Eras Tour dates – like, six-figure investment and 350-feet big – including a 34-story decal of the pop star (approved by Swift’s team) splashed across the JW Marriott, Indy’s largest hotel. They’ve also temporarily renamed 32 downtown streets after Swift songs, so visitors can take a stroll down Bad Blood Boulevard, All Too Well Way and, of course, Cornelia Street. And in a move sure to relieve fans desperate for a souvenir who don’t want to spend their entire night in a line, the adjacent Indiana Convention Center – typically home to massive fan experiences during major sporting events – has transformed its Exhibit Hall I into a pop-up merch stand, open to all Swifties from Wednesday to Saturday, no concert ticket required.
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And the Taylor Effect can be felt beyond the tourism board’s efforts. Local sports bars are playing their part too: The Slippery Noodle – a nearly 175-year-old bar and restaurant sitting a convenient three blocks from the stadium – is setting up a Swift-themed mocktail bar for young fans, complete with an accompanying friendship bracelet and glittery straw, as well as a “Dad’s Lounge” for any parents or partners delivering kids and spouses to the stadium and looking for a spot to chill for three and a half hours or so.
“We do have a couple of staff members that are Swifties, so I think they’ll be prepared to do some trading,” Slippery Noodle co-owner Sean Lothridge laughs to Billboard when asked whether his team will be armed with the Eras Tour’s trusty friendship bracelets. “It’s kind of something new for me. I don’t really know the Swifties as well, but I’m trying my best to learn a little bit about it.”
Over the summer, Lothridge got used to a different superstar woman drawing crowds to his bar, when a certain WNBA rookie came to town. “The Caitlin Clark effect with the Fever was tremendous,” he says, adding that fans were coming in from all over the country to go to Indiana Fever games at the nearby Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “We were getting good crowds from her fans, so she’s been a good boost for the city.”
This weekend’s concertgoers are also traveling from all over, with Gahl telling Billboard that 81% of the Indy ticket-holders are coming from outside the state of Indiana – presenting a massive opportunity to paint the sports town in a brand-new light, or introduce it to first-timers. The biggest difference between the Eras Tour weekend versus a high-stakes sporting event, Gahl notes, is that everyone should leave Lucas Oil Stadium a winner.
“You usually have two teams — sometimes four teams — that are taking sides, if you will, and advocating that their team wins,” he says. “In this case, it’s a commonality – and that is the love for the artist and her music. So whereas we’ve created different zones or restaurants or bars to align with a certain team in the past for major sporting events, this is a uniter. This is one city, one event, one weekend, all for the same artist and music, and it’s the capstone to her [U.S.] tour. So it feels like there’s even more unity and programming and everyone collecting for one common goal.”
For the next three nights, everyone entering the stadium is rooting for the same side: Team Taylor.
Sabrina Carpenter celebrated Halloween at her Short n’ Sweet tour stop in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday (Oct. 31) and rocked not one, not two, but three different costumes. In addition to dressing as a Playboy Bunny and Tinker Bell, Carpenter also rocked a black off-the-shoulder catsuit and curly blonde hair to channel Olivia Newton-John’s character […]
A week after Beyoncé appeared at a rally for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in the singer’s hometown of Houston, the Democratic candidate’s rival Donald Trump still seemed focused on the 32-time Grammy winner’s full-throated endorsement of the sitting Vice President.
Taking the stage in an orange and yellow safety vest on Wednesday (Oct. 30) in Green Bay, WI, the twice impeached former President told the crowd, “four nights ago they got Beyoncé… uhhhh Beyoncé,” as he paused while audience appeared to boo the singer who has sold more than 350 million records as a solo act and with Destiny’s Child. “They got Beyoncé,” he sighed a second time. “We don’t need Beyoncé, we don’t need anybody… all you got is me, and I don’t have a guitar.”
The Harris campaign reposted the Beyoncé-bashing moment, which came on the same day that convicted felon Trump rolled out a bizarre attack on Pres. Joe Biden that found the former reality TV star climbing into a Trump-branded garbage truck and riding around in circles on an airport tarmac while wearing the vest. The stunt appeared to be the Trump campaign’s attempt to capitalize on a gaffe by Pres. Biden, who caused a stir on Tuesday night when he seemed to compare Trump’s supporters to garbage while commenting on a racist joke made at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally earlier this week in which the comedian compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage.”
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The White House quickly tried to do damage control by clarifying that Biden was referring to the sexist, racist attacks launched by a series of speakers at Trump’s MSG rally on Sunday, not Trump’s supporters; the event also included an off-color joke by the same comedian that Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce could be the “next O.J. Simpson,” a remark that disgusted Swifties. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said in a video of his controversial remarks. “His, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
The offensive comments at the Trump rally quickly resulted in a number of Puerto Rican born superstars endorsing Harris, including Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez — whose parents were born on the island nation — as well as reggaetón legend Don Omar, who endorsed Harris on Tuesday. In addition, Nicky Jam rescinded his previous Trump endorsement on Wednesday and lined up behind Harris.
The Beyoncé mention at the rally where Trump once again vowed to the the “protector of women” — even, as he added, “whether the women like it or not” — was coupled with Trump bragging that “we don’t need Beyoncé.” Though the Harris campaign never said that the R&B legend would sing at the Houston event, Trump told the Green Bay crowd, “They said, ladies and gentlemen, they said Beyoncé’s coming to sing and she came but she didn’t sing. And then Kamala came on as Beyoncé was leaving without singing even one song and they booed the hell out of both of them”; there is no evidence supporting his claim that the 30,000-plus Harris supporters booed Beyoncé’s appearance.
“I’m not here as a celebrity,” Bey told the Houstonaudience in her introduction of Harris. “I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother. A mother who cares, deeply, about the world my children and all of our children live in. A world where we have the freedom to control our bodies. A world where we’re not divided. Our past, our present, our future merge to meet us here.”
Trump frequently denigrates A-listers who either don’t support him or who line up behind his rivals, and he continues to seem peeved at the many music stars who’ve endorsed Harris, an increasingly long roster that includes Bruce Springsteen, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbra Streisand, Cardi B, Charli XCX, Cher, Eminem, Katy Perry, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo and many more. Early on in Harris’ 11th-hour bid, Beyoncé gave her permission to use the 2016 track “Freedom” as the campaign’s theme song; the singer’s camp then sent a cease-and-desist to the Trump campaign in August after it used the song in a social media video that was later deleted from campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung’s X account.
And, after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris last month following what experts deemed the VP’s decisive win in the single debate Trump agreed to, the 78-year-old former President posted an all-caps response reading, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”
See Trump’s crowd boo Beyoncé below.
Charli XCX is doing a full “360” on an upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live, where the pop superstar will serve as both the host and the musical guest. On Thursday (Oct. 31), the long-running comedy show announced the host and musical guests for it’s next two episodes. Following John Mulaney and Chappell Roan’s pre-election […]
As she prepares to wind-down the U.S. portion of her globe-hopping Eras Tour this weekend, Taylor Swift is still thinking about the last city she visited on the career-spanning outing. Second Harvest Food Bank – Feeding South Louisiana announced on Wednesday (Oct. 30) that the singer gave a large donation that will fill the pantries […]