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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.
Ariana Grande is giving the people what they want. While sitting down with Zane Lowe for an Apple Music 1 interview posted Thursday (March 7) — just one day ahead of the release of her new album Eternal Sunshine — the 30-year-old pop star explained how one of her new songs, “The Boy Is Mine,” finds her taking on the role of a “bad girl” for her fans’ listening pleasure.
“It’s kind of like, okay, ‘I’ll play the bad girl, here’s your bad girl anthem,’” Grande told Lowe, noting that another song, “True Story,” sets listeners up for “The Boy Is Mine.”
The Grammy winner also touched on the track’s obvious callback to Brandy and Monica’s iconic smash of the same name, which ruled atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks in 1998. “I love that song,” Grande said. “I’ve always wanted to reimagine that song in some kind of way.”
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“I kind of was like, ‘This is a very bad idea, I think, but there is a large group of my fans that really, they do love a bad girl anthem,’” she continued. “And this is kind of an elevated version of that.”
The Victorious alum also confirmed that “The Boy Is Mine” will feature cannibalized parts of “Fantasize,” an unreleased track that leaked — and promptly went viral — on TikTok last year. “I kind of gave them Ariana’s version of that on the album,” she previously told Zach Sang of the reworked ’90s-inspired jam. “They’re completely different now. So although you’ve heard them — because [someone] stole them — they’re very different now.”
Grande has only released one single ahead of Eternal Sunshine: “Yes, And?,” which earned the singer her eighth career No. 1 on the Hot 100 in January. One could argue that she plays the “bad girl” a little bit on that track as well, with lyrics such as, “Your business is yours and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose d-ck I ride?”
Watch Grande’s Apple Music 1 interview above.
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor the late Steve Lawrence by looking at his sole No. 1 hit, the richly melodic but lyrically problematic “Go Away Little Girl.”
Steve Lawrence’s “Go Away Little Girl” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in January 1963 — becoming the biggest hit for the smooth, romantic singer, who died on Thursday (March 7) at age 88 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
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It was the fourth No. 1 in just under two years for legendary songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King, following The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” Bobby Vee’s “Take Good Care of My Baby” and Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion.”
“Go Away Little Girl” is easily the least “rock and roll” of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ volley of four No. 1’s. The song showcases King’s melodic strengths, though Goffin’s lyric has not aged well. The lyric consists of a young man telling a young woman to stay away from him, so he won’t be tempted to betray his steady girlfriend by kissing her. (He calls her a “little girl,” which doubtless comes across as more patronizing — or worse — today than it did at the time.)
The most attractive aspects of the recording are the loping gait, which suggests a horse trotting around a track; the double-tracked lead vocal; and the modulation on the bridge: “When you’re near me like this/ You’re much too hard to resist.”
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Vee, who had taken “Take Good Care of My Baby” to No. 1 in September 1961, was the first to record “Go Away Little Girl” (in March 1962). His version was not released as a single and the song landed with Lawrence, who was a 10-year veteran at that point. Lawrence had landed his first hit in 1952 with a cover version of Bing Crosby’s 1944 hit “Poinciana.”
Lawrence was 26 when “Go Away Little Girl” was a hit. But “Go Away Little Girl” isn’t really an adult song. It is, rather, a song about “young love and first crushes,” as Lawrence’s son David Lawrence said in the PBS documentary Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé: Memories of My Mom & Dad.
In that same doc, which premiered on Dec. 2, 2023, David Lawrence noted that his father could sing light pop songs like “Pretty Blue Eyes” (a top 10 hit in January 1960) and “Go Away Little Girl,” and also sing more sophisticated, jazz-accented fare like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” “He could sort of position his voice in more of a pop arena and then turn around and swing like nobody’s business,” David recalled. “That’s that I find most impressive – he’s so versatile.”
If “Go Away Little Girl” was lightweight material for a singer of Lawrence’s age and vocal abilities, why was it such a big hit? It’s a pretty song, with a lovely melody and a warm vocal — and in early 1963, a year before The Beatles electrified the music business, that was often enough to get you to No. 1.
Lawrence had had a string of three consecutive top 10 hits on the Hot 100 in 1960-61 (“Pretty Blue Eyes,” “Footsteps” and “Portrait of My Love,” the latter first recorded by British singer Matt Monro), but his recording career had cooled in 1962. He released three songs that didn’t make the top 40, followed by two that didn’t even make the Hot 100.
Lawrence signed with Columbia Records in 1962 after stints on King, Coral, ABC-Paramount and United Artists. His first release for Columbia wasn’t much of a hit: “The Lady Wants to Twist,” a trendy twist/swing number written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “bubbled under” the Hot 100 at No. 120.
So, it wasn’t really a surprise when “Go Away Little Girl” entered the Hot 100 in the bottommost rung in the week ending Nov. 10, 1962. But the song quickly made up for that slow start: It vaulted from No. 41 to No. 20 in the week ending Dec. 8, then made the top 10 the following week. In the week ending Jan. 12, 1963, it reached No. 1, dislodging the Tornadoes’ instrumental smash “Telstar,” a three-week leader. “Go Away Little Girl” remained on top for two weeks before being dislodged by the Rooftop Singers’ folk ballad “Walk Right In.”
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Goffin and King also wrote several follow-up singles for Lawrence, including “Poor Little Rich Girl,” “Walking Proud,” “I Want to Stay Here” and “I Can’t Stop Talking About You” (the latter two were credited to Steve & Eydie).
Lawrence had five more top 40 hits on the Hot 100 after “Go Away Little Girl,” though he never returned to the top 20. His last Hot 100 hit was “We Can Make It Together” in 1972, a collab with his wife and The Osmonds.
A 1966 remake of “Go Away Little Girl” by The Happenings, released as the follow-up to their smash “See You in September,” reached No. 12 on the Hot 100. The peppy record echoes the hit sound of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons.
In September 1971, less than nine years after Lawrence’s single topped the Hot 100, a remake of the song by Donny Osmond also reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, making it the first song to top Billboard’s flagship songs chart by two different artists. Just eight other songs have subsequently equaled that feat – and no other pair of songs has reached No. 1 in such quick succession.
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Osmond was 13 when “Go Away Little Girl” was a hit, making the song more age-appropriate for him than it had been for Lawrence. Osmond tweaked the lyric from “I belong to someone else and I must be true” to “I’m dating somebody else – I must be true.” Apparently, 13 was deemed too young by some in Osmond’s camp to “belong to someone else.”
While “Go Away Little Girl” was Lawrence’s biggest hit single, it wasn’t his most lasting claim-to-fame. He is better-known and remembered for his role in popularizing such standards as “More” and “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and for his long decades-long partnership with his wife, Eydie Gormé. The couple did some of their best work on a string of classy TV specials in the 1970s celebrating the music of George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. They won a Primetime Emmy in 1979 for Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin, which featured Carol Burnett, Sammy Davis Jr. and jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.
Travis Kelce is becoming the Eras Tour’s No. 1 groupie. Amid Taylor Swift‘s second batch of shows in Singapore, fans are certain that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has made his way overseas to be with his superstar girlfriend. Though Kelce has not yet been photographed in the country, some Swifties have noticed that […]