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The students at Dua Lipa‘s old grade school will be dancing the night away after meeting the 28-year-old pop star during a recent visit. In an adorable video shared by BBC Radio 1 on Friday (March 8), the “Levitating” artist went on a journey down memory lane by turning up to her elementary-level alma mater […]
Ariana Grande is finding her light with her new album, Eternal Sunshine, and on release day (March 8), the “Yes, And?” superstar’s celebrity friends flooded social media with love over the freshly released project. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Selena Gomez took to her Instagram Stories […]
Spring is just around the corner, and some of music’s biggest stars are getting ready for the warmer months with a slew of new releases. Kicking things off is Ariana Grande, who welcomed a life of Eternal Sunshine with her seventh studio album released on Friday (March 8). Grande introduced the new era back in […]
Long before the days Offset rose to fame as one-third of the seminal Atlanta rap group Migos, he got his start in the entertainment business while dancing for Whitney Houston. During his appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show Friday (March 8), Offset recalled impressing the music icon with his slick moves when auditioning for a dancer role as an 8-year-old circa 2000.
“My mama seen a billboard sign saying you could come try out. I pulled up. I remember my mama told I’ll never forget, ‘When the music come on, just go out there and do your thing,’” he shared. “I was smaller than everybody. Everybody was 11 or something, and I was like 8. Then I did it.”
“I remember she came from the back and pointed me out. When we shot the video, she was just a nice, sweet soul. Bobby Brown was cool too. He was making us laugh. He was cool. Yeah, both of them. I got a lot of cameos too.”
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Offset’s moves earned him a backup dancer role in Houston’s “Whatchulookinat,” which landed on the late singer’s Just Whitney album in 2002. The Bobby Brown-produced single cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 96.
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Whitney wasn’t the only legendary artist Offset danced for as a kid. He also made an appearance in a TLC video.
Elsewhere in the interview, Offset revealed his initial hesitancy to kick his lean addiction, as he felt the purple drank — codeine and promethazine cough syrup mixed with soda — was fueling his creativity.
“I was drinking lean a lot. For a minute, my younger brain would tell me, ‘This is what’s giving me the sauce to put on the songs.’ But I started to see it affect my family. I got five kids — I’m a grown man and I gotta take care of the house,” he said.
“I seen that and the people that love me the most like my mama would tell me, ‘Ay, son, you know you stronger than that. You need to shake that,” said the artist, who shares daughter Kulture and son Wave with Cardi B; he’s also dad to sons Jordan and Kody, and daughter Kalea from previous relationships. “When I shook it, I was able to make hard-fire songs. I felt like I could record in the daytime and get more accomplished. I noticed people would tell me my attitude or how I’m speaking was more clear.”
Watch Offset’s interview below.
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Ariana Grande‘s new album Eternal Sunshine is out following a four-year music drought — and it was well worth the wait, as far as most fans are concerned. In the hours since the 13-track LP dropped Friday (March 8), listeners have been flocking to social media to sing the pop star’s praises and gush about […]

“I remember having a conversation when we were teenagers,” Bananarama’s Keren Woodward tells Billboard, “thinking that I probably wouldn’t be doing (Bananarama) when I was 25. It seemed so far away. I couldn’t imagine.”
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Fast forward four decades to now. Not only is the British group (which debuted as a trio but has continued as a duo since 1991) still active, but they are releasing Glorious: The Ultimate Collection on Friday (March 8). The collection spans era-defining chart hits, fan favorites and two new songs, “Feel the Love” and “Supernova,” both of which deftly capture the runaway-train ebullience of the band’s ‘80s hits. “I don’t really see that because you get to a certain age or a certain point you should stop,” Woodward says, “(As long as) you like what you’re doing and other people are enjoying it too.”
Speaking to the duo over Zoom, it’s clear that the comfortable chemistry between Woodward and Dallin is a huge part of why they’ve been together for more than 40 years. “It’s so monumental to have been around for decades, making music and writing our own songs,” Dallin says with a touch of pride and incredulousness. “Keren and I realized how much we’d achieved, particularly as women in this industry, when we wrote our book a couple of years ago, Really Saying Something. When you sit down and retrace everything from the age of 18… when we pieced it all together, we felt a certain satisfaction that we had achieved quite a lot.”
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Comparing the industry now to what it was like in the ‘80s, Dallin believes that “women are getting a little bit more of a bite… but still not enough. It’s shifting slowly, the sands, but there’s still a long way to go.”
The industry’s overdue crawl toward gender parity has been reflected in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s recent induction classes, which were once quite testosterone-heavy (fully shutting out women as recently as 2016) but have begun to welcome more women into the Hall’s ranks each year. When asked about the idea of Bananarama in the Rock Hall, Woodward perks up: “I wouldn’t turn it down!” “I think it needs more females,” Dallin adds. “I had just heard that Cher is only just being [nominated]. It’s like, really?”
As pop hitmakers who helped carve out space for female artists to sustain lifelong careers in the music business, both are delighted to see how many women are dominating the scene these days. Even so, the duo hasn’t heard the most recent Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 from probably the biggest artist on the planet – which is perhaps surprising given that the song, “Cruel Summer,” shares a title with one of their own beloved hits.
“I haven’t heard it, I’m afraid,” Dallin says of Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” to which Woodward drily intones, “I would have preferred her recording mine because then I could have made some of her money.” Of their own “Cruel Summer,” Woodward recalls the “massive, welcome shock” of learning it reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1984. “Knowing that we’d cracked the top 10 in the Billboard charts was definitely a moment,” she remembers.
For up-and-coming women in the music industry, the duo has some specific, sage advice. “It’s such a hard business and even the most talented people just don’t get through,” Dallin says. “I would say for females, always be chaperoned. Always have somebody with you, never go to the studios on your own. Never go and meet people who say they’re going to do things for you – just always take someone with you.”
“We were very lucky because we always had each other. We’ve always got each other’s backs,” Woodward says.
While they believe social media has helped some artists circumvent the traditional industry gatekeepers, they’re also quick to note that it’s a double-edged sword. “I don’t know how it would have been for me if somebody could comment on literally everything I wore and everything I said,” Dallin muses. For her part, Woodward knows how it would have been if there had been social media when she was an 18-year-old pop star: bad. “I think appearance-wise, when it gets really personal, I think it might have destroyed me, reading the amount of bitchy, negative comments.”
But Bananarama has spun gold out of staying strong in the face of adversity. A perfect example is the band’s 1986 Hot 100 No. 1, a pounding dance cover of Shocking Blue’s “Venus.” “We’d heard a song with a Hi-NRG beat and we’d just found Stock Aitken and Waterman, the producers, and we asked them to do a Hi-NRG version of ‘Venus,’” Dallin recalls of the recording’s genesis. “Nobody wanted to do (it), not the record company or Stock Aitken and Waterman. So we when did it, on our insistence, and it became No. 1, it was fantastic.”
Even though the group’s biggest Hot 100 hit was a cover, Bananarama has by and large written most of its own material over its 40-year career – which is part of what keeps them going. “It’s the joy of scribbling something down in your kitchen, and then the next minute, you’re singing it at Glastonbury or Kew Gardens – you’re suddenly singing it to thousands of people,” says Dallin ahead of the group’s anniversary shows at the London Palladium.
“We’re not doing it just because it’s the only thing we’ve done,” Woodward declares. “We’re genuinely doing because we love it. I mean, when we when we do shows, it’s extraordinary how much fun we have with a live audience.”
“To still be able to do that, I feel very lucky,” Dallin says. “I think there’s an authenticity to us we’ve never lost,” Woodward opines. “A lot of it has to do with us being friends for so long and keeping each other grounded. It all goes towards making us a complete band and having that joy. I wouldn’t necessarily want to do it for this long if it was just me on my own. That’s part of the joy.”
A Shawn Mendes comeback is imminent. In a stripped-back Instagram post Thursday (March 7), the 25-year-old singer-songwriter revealed that he’s returning to the stage with new music in tow, confirming plans to release a new album in the near future. Sharing a black-and-white photo of him playing the guitar outdoors — sans shirt — Mendes […]
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.