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The new trailer for James Gunn’s new Superman teaser looked a little familiar to Lizzo.
After the buzzy trailer dropped Thursday (Dec. 19), the superstar joked that the video — particularly one scene in which the titular character, played by David Corenswet, saves a little girl from a slow-motion explosion — had some parallels to her own 2023 “Special” visual. In her music video, Lizzo also plays a caped superhero who at one point gets in between a slo-mo crash and a young girl just in the nick of time, singing, “In case nobody told you today, you’re special/ In case nobody made you believe, you’re special.”
Sharing a clip of that scene on Bluesky, the four-time Grammy winner wrote, “I just watched the new Superman trailer and I thought it was the Special music video for a second 😫”
Lizzo quickly followed it up with another post, writing, “Naw but forreal.. I watched the Superman trailer and I have thoughts…”
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The hitmaker went on to call Rachel Brosnahan’s casting as Lois Lane “perfect” and asked whether “the actor playing Superman” is British. (Nope, Corenswet is American.) “I think showing the dog was cute but premature,” she added of one scene in the trailer in which Clark Kent’s trusty sidekick, Krypto, rescues him after a crash into icy terrain.
Released in 2022, “Special” serves as the title track for the musician’s fourth studio album, which bowed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, “About Damn Time,” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and took home record of the year at the 2023 Grammys.
Lizzo has been active on Bluesky since mid-November, when she and countless others started accounts on the ever-growing platform following the 2024 presidential election. “Anyways I joined bluesky cus we’re leaving toxicity in 2024 😃,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “I hate the internet.”
Also starring Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, Gunn’s take on Superman is set to arrive in theaters July 11. Watch the trailer — and compare and contrast it with Lizzo’s “Special” video — below.
For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 all this week — you can see the artists we’ve already counted down, plus our Honorable Mentions, Comeback of the Year and our Rookie of the Year artists all right here. Now, at No. 4, we remember the year in Chappell Roan — who after many years of knocking on the door of pop stardom, finally broke it down in spectacular and uningnorable fashion.
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Back in 2023, while filming her “HOT TO GO!” music video in her native Missouri, Chappell Roan told a curious onlooker, “I’m just a singer, nothing crazy.” While that statement would seem like a wild undersell now, at the start of 2024, it still tracked. While her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, dropped in late September and drew rave reviews from numerous critics (including our own), it moved a modest 77,000 album equivalent units by 2023’s end, per Luminate.
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What a difference a year makes. Not only has Roan earned her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 since then, but she’s placed seven singles on the chart, including one No. 4-peaking smash (“Good Luck, Babe!”); she netted six Grammy nominations at the 2025 ceremony, including in each of the Big Four categories; drew record-setting crowds at festivals; and saw Midwest Princess reach No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, earning a whopping 1.88 million album equivalent units in the U.S., through Dec. 12, according to Luminate. Since then, it’s been all rise, no fall.
As with many who seemingly enjoy overnight success, it took Roan years, tears and hard work to get where she is now, which she tipped to in her acceptance speech for Top New Artist at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards. “This has taken a long time to be a new artist,” she quipped with a chuckle.
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True enough. Roan originally signed with Atlantic in 2015, dropping one EP in the course of her five years on the label before being dropped from its roster. Continuing to hone her craft while working a variety of day jobs (barista, nanny), Roan began to realize that her differences from the pop pack actually made her stronger. “Once I let go of trying to be this very well-managed, put-together pop girl, it felt like everything just fell into place,” Roan told Billboard in 2022. “I leaned into the fact that my looks were tacky, and very obviously using fake diamonds and Gucci knockoffs. I leaned into my queerness for the first time. When I did that, the songs got easier to write, the shows got easier to design, and my aesthetic was finally there.”
If Roan’s campy, liberated DIY aesthetic was calcified by 2022, then 2023 saw her songcraft reach rarefied levels of confessional rawness, queer joy and delicious bawdiness – which attentive pop fans and critics caught on to (we placed Midwest Princess in the top 15 of our year-end staff picks album list). And 2024 was the year the world finally caught up to what she was doing.
Although several of her future Hot 100 entries had already been released as singles before 2024 started (“Pink Pony Club” dropped in 2020), it was her April single “Good Luck, Babe!” that put her over. Co-written with queer pop whisperer Justin Tranter (Halsey, Janelle Monae) and previous collaborator Dan Nigro (whom she’d met during her time at Atlantic, way before his breakthrough with Olivia Rodrigo), it’s a sublime, sophisticated piece of sapphic catharsis that appealed to seemingly everyone. Whether you like your pop songs belted from stadiums, rumbling throughout a sweaty warehouse or seeping out of a cellphone while you lie in bed, you were probably vibing to this song at some point this year.
New converts quickly sought out Midwest Princess for more, and Amusement Records (an Island imprint) wasted little time trotting out follow-up singles culled from it, with six of its tracks gradually infiltrating the Hot 100 this year. Two of them, “HOT TO GO!” (No. 15) and “Pink Pony Club” (No. 26), became essential 2024 anthems, with the former spawning parodies from Saturday Night Live, “Weird Al” Yankovic and this year’s touring production of The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show. More importantly, its “Y.M.C.A.”-esque choreography inspired throngs of fans to gleefully dance along at festivals from San Francisco to Chicago to New York City.
Speaking of, when was the last time you can remember a pop singer delivering a music festival performance that had the entire internet talking? While her Coachella set created buzz in April (hard to beat leopard-print tights and an “Eat Me” shirt), Roan’s Governors Ball spot in June was a fitting fantasia for Pride Month. Decked out in Lady Liberty drag (she’s been vocal about drawing inspiration from drag queens), Roan performed an instantly iconic set that had folks in a FOMO coma for days. She followed it up by (NBD) setting an all-time attendance record for a day crowd at Lollapalooza in August – and she wasn’t even a headliner.
Televised performances at the 2024 VMAs and on SNL demonstrated to those at home that Roan has an impressive set of pipes, an inventive aesthetic and a visual clarity that we haven’t seen from a new pop star since Lady Gaga burst onto the scene in the late ‘00s. Perhaps that’s no coincidence. Like Mother Monster, Roan grew up inspired by queer culture, found liberation in gay bars and has used her platform to speak out on LGBTQ rights when they’re under fire. But even Gaga never went quite as far as the magic trick Roan pulled off on “Red Wine Supernova.”
As is true for many pop stars (but women in particular), with increased visibility came increased scrutiny – and creepiness. On Aug. 23 via her socials, Roan criticized some fans for “predatory behavior” and “nonconsensual physical and social interactions,” begging people to respect her space. “If you’re still asking, ‘Well, if you didn’t want this to happen, then why did you choose a career where you knew you wouldn’t be comfortable with the outcome of success?’—understand this: I embrace the success of the project, the love I feel, and the gratitude I have. What I do not accept are creepy people, being touched, and being followed.”
Despite Roan anticipating potential backlash to her statement and preemptively shooting down that logic (as well as turning off the comments section on that Instagram post), some folks still took umbrage. It seems that despite a solid decade of conversation about the ways in which news media, entertainment media and social media can (and often do) negatively affect an artist’s well-being, there’s no shortage of individuals who view celebrities predominantly as punching bags or punchlines and not people.
Roan also caught some flak for – gasp – refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president (although that didn’t stop the Harris-Walz campaign from trotting out a camo hat suspiciously close to her own merch). Although she soon clarified that she fully intended to vote for the Democratic candidate in the November presidential election (“Obviously, f–k the policies of the right, but also, f–k some of the policies on the left! That’s why I can’t endorse”), some commentators faulted her for not enthusiastically endorsing Harris considering the election stakes. But let’s be real: a Roan endorsement was never going to make any difference (many celebrities did endorse Harris with little to no demonstrable payoff), and she is far from the only Gen Z liberal who voted Democrat despite feeling let down by the party. (If pressuring pop stars into feigning fealty to the Democratic Party – instead of inspiring them to get excited over a candidate — continues to be an election year strategy? Well, good luck, babe!)
All that being said, for every online commenter with a complaint (and the more popular a musician gets, there will always be people with gripes and grievances) there were plenty of fans, artists and supporters who had her back. When Roan pulled out of both All Things Go festivals, explaining that “things have gotten overwhelming” and “I need a few days to prioritize my health,” the response from ticket holders was bummed but empathetic. As an attendee at ATG at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, everyone I spoke to was disappointed but fully in support of her decision to place her well-being above a concert. And the drag queen dance party that took over her time slot – which included RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Yvie Oddly and NYC queen Beaujangles – turned an otherwise rainy, dreary day into an unfettered explosion of LGBTQ joy.
Beyond drag shows (and there were a LOT of Chappell Roan lip syncs at drag shows this year), Roan’s influence on LGBTQ culture was inescapable in 2024. Like Pat Benatar look-alikes at Ridgemont High, people in Chappell Roan-inspired looks held space at countless LGBTQ clubs, concerts, parades and festivals this year. (My favorite was a group of 15 people rocking 15 different Roan looks at a Greenwich Village gay bar for their friend’s 20-something birthday). Hell, sometimes the Chappell Roan look-alike in a gay bar was Chappell Roan, as was the case when the “Pink Pony Club” singer swung by Manhattan’s Pieces to catch a Queen 4 Queen drag show in June.
From the Billboard charts to countless memes to karaoke rooms, Roan’s music seemed everywhere in 2024 – but even after the 100th time, “HOT TO GO!” remains fun as hell, “Pink Pony Club” still gallops away with your heart and “Good Luck, Babe!” soars to the stratosphere. These songs are built to last, and that’s a testament to her hard work and distinct artistic vision.
With that in mind, it’s crazy to think that we haven’t even been gifted with a brand-new Chappell Roan single since she’s reached this level of success. On SNL in November, Roan debuted “The Giver,” an as-of-yet unreleased song with a country lean. (No shocker there: slow it down and toss in a steel guitar and “Casual” is a honky-tonk weeper.)
Was it a taste of what’s to come — is Roan joining the stampede of pop stars going country? Or is it a total outlier, a sonic feint before she strikes out elsewhere? Who knows! But if 2024 is any indication, next year should prove to be a lot more interesting for having Chappell Roan camping up our popular culture. But then again, she’s just a singer. Nothing crazy.
Check back later today for our No. 3 Greatest Pop Star — and then come back for the announcement of our top two Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 on Monday, Dec. 23!
Benny Blanco has had a week to process his engagement to Selena Gomez, but he’s still in disbelief. Seven days after the couple announced that the producer had popped the question — to which the singer-actress, of course, said “yes” — Blanco said he’s still reeling from the news. Reposting Gomez’s week-old Instagram post about […]
Nikki Glaser paid a pretty penny to follow Taylor Swift on 22 Eras Tour shows these past two years — but she has no regrets.
In an interview with People published Thursday (Dec. 19), the comedian revealed that she spent “close to $100,000” on nearly two-dozen Eras concerts since the trek kicked off in March 2023, “including travel expenses, hotels, and me also flying and putting up everyone that I would invite to go with me, plus tickets, plus merch.”
“All well worth it,” Glaser continued. “I would’ve paid even more.”
Though the amount she spent might be eye-popping to a lot of people, the Trainwreck star has long been open about her diehard love for the “Anti-Hero” singer. By October 2023, she’d already spent $25,000 on Eras tickets, telling Kelly Clarkson at the time that she’d originally planned on using the money to freeze her eggs, but decided to use it on Swift’s trek instead.
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In July, Glaser’s show count had gone up to 17. “I know, I know! I’m addicted,” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, revealing that she would consistently fly all over the world to catch various Eras stops while on breaks from her own Alive and Unwell comedy tour. In August, she was supposed to see Swift perform in Vienna, but the performances were canceled due to a terrorism plot.
It’s a so-called addiction that Glaser now has no choice but to kick, with Swift wrapping up her blockbuster run after two years and 149 shows with a final performance in Vancouver, B.C., Dec. 8. The 14-time Grammy winner finished with a historic $2 billion+ in grosses.
While speaking to People, Glaser said that she can justify the fraction she contributed to Swift’s haul because she doesn’t have kids on whom to spend the $100,000. “It’s something that I consciously decided not to do, and it was something that I struggled with,” the stand-up said of becoming a mom. “It wasn’t the easiest decision.”
“There was a part of me that was like, ‘I would like kids,’ but it just doesn’t fit in my life,” she continued. “In order for me to make myself feel better about the decision, I did look up how much it cost to raise a kid. And so once I saw that number, I thought, ‘It’s no problem for me to spend this on Taylor Swift.’”
Thirty-five years after Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, a cover of the song from Deadpool & Wolverine rules the TikTok Billboard Top 50 dated Dec. 21.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Dec. 9 to 15. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
The I’ll Take You There Choir version of “Like a Prayer,” heard in the 2024 Marvel/Disney superhero film originally released in July, lifts 2-1 to rule the chart in its second week.
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The choir-led rendition of the song has earned TikTok prominence thanks most recently to a trend in which creators tell a long text-based story (often one that’s embarrassing for the user), accompanied by a photo of Pepe from The Muppets.
This version of “Like a Prayer” earned 1.5 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Dec. 12, a gain of 37%, according to Luminate. Madonna’s original, meanwhile, has received auxiliary attention of its own: 1.6 million streams, up 12%.
“Like a Prayer” leads a change at the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” and Malcolm Todd’s “Chest Pain (I Love)” follow at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, both songs’ first time in the top five.
“Paper Planes,” a No. 4 hit on the Hot 100 for M.I.A. in 2008, vaults 21-2 in its second week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 thanks to a dance trend. Its corresponding streaming gains are enough to push the song onto the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart at No. 16 via 3.7 million streams, a gain of 29%.
“Chest Pain (I Love),” meanwhile, continues to rise after the song was released on streaming services on Dec. 4, following weeks of it being teased on TikTok. Todd’s repeated “I love” refrain is highlighted in most of the clips, which often center around creators and the people or things they love. The tune earned 3.1 million streams in its first full week of release and bowed at No. 20 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
Two other songs pop into the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time, led by Frank Ocean’s “White Ferrari,” which leaps 13-6. “White Ferrari” reaches the top 10 in its ninth week on the tally and marks Ocean’s first song in the region since the ranking began in September 2023. The song rises from the “lamp looks weird” trend, where users question if a moment they think they’re experiencing or want to experience is actually happening or if it’s some sort of simulation or dream.
The other, Jeddy Knox’s “Wander On,” jumps 14-10 in its second week. Released Nov. 21, the country song has been used in a variety of sports-related videos as well as other general viral content.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Chris Martin is known for being a super-chill dude. The Coldplay singer seems perpetually at ease, consistently radiating a positive energy and a “let’s hug it out” vibe that has helped fill stadiums around the world (usually for three or more nights) for the past two years on his band’s record-setting Music of the Spheres tour.
And in a new Rolling Stone cover story, Martin seems, for the most part, completely unbothered, leaning into radical acceptance of what his band’s music means and how the world hears their operating thesis: peace and love are the answer.
“When I’m saying these things about world peace, I’m also talking about my own inside,” he told the magazine. “It’s a daily thing not to hate yourself. Forget about outside critics — it’s the inside ones, too. That’s really our mission right now: We are consciously trying to fly the flag for love being an approach to all things. There aren’t that many [groups] that get to champion that philosophy to that many people. So we do it. And I need to hear that too, so that I don’t give up and just become bitter and twisted and hidden away, and hate everybody. I don’t want to do that, but it’s so tempting.”
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Much of the profile runs around a familiar topic: Coldplay not being cool. But after 28 years, 100 million albums and more than 10 million tickets sold on their tour to date , Martin, once again, said that he’s 100% okay with leaning into the Coldplay-ness of it all and not worrying what people say, or think, about his band.
“There’ve been times where we [were like], ‘Well, we should probably try and look a bit like this or talk a bit like that,’” Martin said about the constant pressure to change up from the group’s signature happy global peace warrior vibe. “And now, it’s just like, ‘No.’ Just follow whatever’s being sent. And that’s a very liberating place to be. If you want a puppet to sing a bit of a song, well, some people might not like this — my mum being one of them, for example. But my point is, that’s part of my journey to be like, ‘Well, I love you, and this is what we’re doing.”
Sure, they sing with puppets and wear themed outfits on their tours, and popped into QVC to hawk their latest album, Moon Music. But for Martin, the sometimes derisive slings and arrows are part of the “you do you, I’ll do me” game, something the preternaturally chill singer said he’s come to accept. “It would be terrible if we lived in a society where everyone had to [like the same thing]. We’re a very, very easy, safe target,” Martin said. “We’re not going to bite back. We are four white, middle-class men from England. We deserve to take some s–t for what our people have done. There’s a reason we get to play all around the world, and part of it is not necessarily very healthy.”
The Music of the Spheres tour is an overwhelming visual extravaganza, full of confetti, dancing aliens, four blasts of fireworks, kinetic dance floors, exercise bikes that power the satellite stage and enough unassailably sweet, moving moments that it can sometimes feel like Mickey Mouse’s Starlight Parade. Which, by the way, Martin is also totally fine with.
“Maybe the theatrics are all part of that. It’s a bit Disneyland-ish in terms of ‘OK, let’s exist for a couple of hours in this place where no one hates each other,’” he said. “The second-happiest place on Earth. Copyright, Coldplay.”
Martin appears open to speak about just about any topic — including his incessant teasing of son Moses, 18, and his endless love for daughter Apple, 20 — except his relationship with longtime love (and reported fiancée) actress Dakota Johnson. In the wake of tabloid rumors questioning whether their love light has faded, Martin told RS it is not his story to tell.
“It is important to say that [romantic love] is such a big factor in everything, even though it feels right to keep it precious and private; I’m not denying its power,” he said, though the writer noted that the singer mentioned Johnson in passing several times during their chats, including that they had listened to Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour album together recently. He also revealed that among his “handful” of best friends are Later, he says he has only a handful of best friends, among them Coldplay’s manager, his bandmates, his kids and Johnson.
Martin is also keenly aware of the boom-bust cycle of pop stardom and the toll it can take, noting that every year there’s a new artist that comes along, or releases an album that “puts you in your place,” leaving fellow musicians humbled and inspired. For him, that was Chappell Roan this year. “I hope she’s OK,” he said of the “Pink Pony Club” singer who has been frank about her struggles managing the suddenly intense spotlight.
“It’s hard for the younger ones, especially when they’re on their own,” he added, giving thanks that he’s had his three longtime friends/bandmates bassist Guy Berryman, guitarist Jonny Buckland and drummer Will Champion, along for the ride.
In the end, Martin summed up the tension of being both one of the most beloved and one of the most critically dunked-on bands on the planet. “It’s like you start off as a band with three fans and one guy at the bar who thinks you’re s–t. And then you get to a band with 3,000 fans and 10 guys on the internet who think you’re s–t,” he said. “And then as you become the biggest band in the world, you also become the least popular band in the world. You can never escape. You can never win, if you’re looking for just winning. The stronger the light, the darker the shadow.”
He also once again leaned into the notion that his band has only two more albums in the tank, an animated musical based on a story he and manager Phil Harvey are writing together, as well as a final, self-titled LP that will bring it back to the start. “The cover of the album I’ve known it since 1999,” he said of the image that harkens back to Coldplay’s very earliest days.
Oh, but also he’d love to release a compendium of all the songs that never made it onto a Coldplay album called Alphabetica, which will go through the alphabet thanks to outtakes and orphans that never made the cut. “We don’t have any spare songs with Q,” he lamented. “That’s the one I’m stuck with.”
Lady Gaga fans are going to learn a lot more about the pop star’s life once her seventh studio album drops in February.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times published Thursday (Dec. 19), Gaga spilled details about the highly anticipated LP, a life-spanning project that she says is “full of [her] love of music” and contains “so many different genres, so many different styles, so many different dreams.”
“It leaps around genre in a way that’s almost corrupt,” the 13-time Grammy winner told the publication. “And it ends with love. That’s the answer to all the chaos in my life is that I find peace with love. Every song that I wrote, I just kept getting kind of swept away in these different dreams I was having about the past — almost like a recollection of all these bad decisions that I made in my life.”
She added, “But it ends in this very happy place.”
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The A Star Is Born actress first revealed in a September interview with Vogue that her long-awaited seventh album would arrive at the beginning of next year, just a couple months before she headlines Coachella 2025. She also shared at the time that her fiancé, tech businessman Michael Polansky, was the person who convinced her it was time to return to pop music following 2020’s Chromatica.
Gaga has since dropped LG7’s lead single, November’s “Disease,” a dark dance-pop track that reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three months prior, she and Bruno Mars teamed up for cinematic duet “Die With a Smile,” which the “Rain on Me” singer confirmed to the Times is definitely on her new album’s tracklist.
“It’s a huge part of my album,” she told the publication of the ballad, which spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Global 200. “It was like this missing piece.”
“It was the lyrics — this idea of a song that was about what we would do if the world was ending,” Gaga added of making “Die With a Smile” with the Silk Sonic star. “I just remember feeling like it was a song that people needed to hear. I write music all the time, and sometimes you feel like you’re making something that some people will like. But there’s other times that you work on something and you just know it’s gonna deeply speak to all different kinds of people. I knew it right away.”
It’s less than a week before Christmas, but Christina Aguilera has already unwrapped a big present. The singer wished herself a happy 44th birthday on Wednesday (Dec. 18) by posting a sultry pic celebrating herself in which she’s wearing nothing but a sly look, black leather hat, matching hotpants and strappy stilleto heels. Explore Explore […]
For Alessia Cara, emotion and connection is at the heart of her creative endeavors — hence why each of her three studio albums live in a unique world full of signature concepts, colors and themes built around them. Her music isn’t just a listening experience, it’s a feeling.
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Her upcoming Feb. 14-slated project, Love & Hyperbole, continues that process, as she splashes her music videos and promotional content with deep berry and maroon tones, amplifying the passion that love entails. “Love is very red to me,” Cara tells Billboard. “Every time you see love portrayed anywhere, it’s usually red, like Valentine’s Day colors. Even before I knew that the album was going to come out on Valentine’s Day, it just always felt a little bit deeper, a little bit richer. The textures and the songs felt a little richer and more sophisticated, so that wine color just always came into my mind, even before I knew what the concept was going to be. It feels warm and it feels like love.”
That’s why it was a perfect fit when she teamed up with Lenovo, Intel and Universal Music Group for Brands for their “Made By” campaign, which intersects music, creativity and technology — something Cara has been a pro at throughout her career. “Each song has such a story to it that’s so specific and getting the chance to showcase each song in a way that non-singles don’t really get to be showcased, it’s really awesome to be able to do that,” she says of the partnership.
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The team-up will lend to a series of visually stunning pieces surrounding Love & Hyperbole, including an album trailer with custom graphic designs and key scenes, as well as an accompanying miniseries that documents the journey behind the development of the trailer, capturing how Lenovo and Intel supported and inspired Cara’s vision. They’ll also emphasizes the integral roles of Maris Jones and Gaia Esther Maria in shaping the project’s artistic direction. The Grammy winner adds with a laugh, “It’s a little bit indulgent for the artist in me. This was an incredible opportunity, and everyone has been so amazing creatively, and so collaborative while giving us the freedom to explore and play. We had a great time.”
Exploring seems to be a key theme in Cara’s career, as her music earnestly captures the complexities of growing into adulthood and how romantic relationships stir up all kinds of emotions. Her self-discovery both as a songwriter and human being is showcased in the Love & Hyperbole single, “Isn’t It Obvious,” a breezy hug of reassurance for a love interest who is scared to lose her. “Fears are only constellations/ Only glowin’ if we make them, we’re just fine/ If it’s any consolation, you’re my favorite/ It’s you and I, you gotta know that, right?” she sings on the track, bolstered by a guitar solo from one of Cara’s personal heroes, John Mayer (“I still can’t believe that happened,” she says.)
“Obviously, my perspective of love has transformed and changed and grown throughout my life,” She says of “Isn’t It Obvious,” in comparison to some of her previous fan-favorite tracks like “Comfortable” and “I’m Yours.” “Being a young woman, I think sometimes when you’re experiencing love for the first time and you’re a little bit more inexperienced — I can give a lot of myself and almost treat love as something that makes me feel smaller, rather than something that expands me, and thinking that that was the right way to do it. I always used to think if it was really intense, and if it took energy out of me, that it was the right thing.”
She continues, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that love is supposed to feel like something that calms the storm rather than creates it. It should just kind of feel easy. That’s why I think a lot of these songs, even though some of them are laced with elements of fear or worry, they’re always very steadfast in themselves and there’s a sense of reassurance there. I did not have that when I was growing up and finding out what I wanted in early stages of love for me.”
Keeping in the album’s theme of love, Cara is eager to spread it to fans. As part of her partnership with Lenovo and Intel, she’ll be hosting an exclusive album event for fans in early 2025, which will feature a live performance as well as interactive projection mapping and other immersive elements.
She concludes of the message she hopes Love & Hyperbole gives to listeners, “I just hope that if they’re going through something or if they’re in a similar stage in their life, that they can understand that at the end of the day, we’re all a product of everything that has happened to us, good and bad. We actually need those bad things in order to find the good. We need to know what we don’t want in order to find what we do want. We need loss in order to really feel love. Those things can work in tandem with one another instead of clash. That’s the main thesis, but I hope they just take anything from it.”
Pre-save Love & Hyperbole here.
SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains the name of the winner and runner-up from Wednesday night’s (Dec. 18) season 12 finale of The Masked Singer.
It was another wild and wooly season on The Masked Singer, with the 12th go-round of the series welcoming everyone from former superstar NFL QB John Elway (Leaf Sheep) and surfer Bethany Hamilton (Macaron), to actors Yvette Nicole Brown (Showbird), Laverne Cox (Chess Piece), Jana Kramer (Royal Knight) and Drake Bell (Ice King), as well as former Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter (Dust Bunny).
There were, of course, some professional singers in the mix too, including Paula Cole (Ship), Natalie Imbruglia (Bluebell) and AJ Michalka (Strawberry Shortcake). But when the last notes rung out, it was one of the all-time-great vocal groups that won out over one of their fellow R&B crooners.
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On their route to the winner’s circle, three-person masked marvels Buffalos were all over the map when it came to their musical choices, from an impressive early take on Cutting Crew’s 1986 hit “(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight,” to a soulful run through Foreigner’s ultimate power ballad “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and a no-notes, touching cover of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One.”
And though the judges were sure they were members of a soul singing crew, Buffalos kept trying to keep Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke and Rita Ora off the scent with sing-alongs and sing-offs on Fall Out Boys’ “High Hopes,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” and a slam-dunk semifinal torching of Toto’s yacht rock anthem “Africa.”
In the end, though, after nearly being eliminated while trying to keep viewers and the judges guessing, they pulled out an absolutely stunning take on Sam Smith’s “Too Good at Goodbyes” on Wednesday night’s finale, leaving little doubt that their old pal McCarthy-Wahlberg was right all along.
When the wooly heads came off, it was none other than Boyz II Men‘s Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris who triumphed over Wasp, fellow R&B singer Mario. Billboard spoke with the trio before their elimination to talk about how the show challenged their nearly four-decade onstage rhythm, why they kept picking such seemingly out-there songs, and how they ended up on a Christmas tune with football’s Kelce brothers.
Why Buffalos? Those costumes seemed crazy heavy and hot.
Nathan: I like the power. I like the strength, I like the unity, the whole crew, the herd. … It’s everything about who we are. Everybody had their roles, but at the same time we know what we need to do to make the pack stronger.
Wanya: Extremely [hot in there]. I’m talking about water, sweat running down every aspect, every orifice.
Nathan: I almost hyperventilated in that joint and I’m normally not like that. When you’re in there you have to give a lot more energy than you would to get the costume to have personality. You’re like a mascot. It’s hell in there, bro. Doing that, and singing and staying in key and doing routines? That sh– ain’t easy!
You all have been in sync for decades, but on the show you couldn’t see each other or watch each other’s mouths move. Was that a challenge?
Shawn: It was almost like wearing a football helmet, where you only have a certain line of sight. You had to turn your whole body to communicate and then turn around and all you saw was what the mask allowed you to see. We had in-ears [monitors], so we could hear the mix, but then the music and the crowd are going, it gets your adrenaline up and you’re trying to put on a character. It’s a lot of information in those few minutes, outside of trying to sound good and stay on key.
Wanya: The only thing you could see through was the nose. The eyes were up here [points to forehead], so it was like a cone.
We’re used to smooth R&B from you, but you really stretched out with songs by Toto, The Verve, OneRepublic, Shania Twain, Fall Out Boy — were you trying to throw people off the scent?
Nathan: We tried to trick people. We all thought, “They’re gonna know us right away,” so we had to pick different songs and each guy had to sing a different part than they normally do. So we did that and as we got further along in the battles, we almost got kicked off, so it didn’t work and we decided, “Just let ’em have it!”
Shawn: The cool thing was the irony that with the masks on we were able to be ourselves. Those songs were representative of who we are, not just an R&B group. All those songs you hear us sing are ones we listened to as kids, the genres we love and songs that allowed us to display who Boyz II Men really is.
Your voices are so instantly recognizable apart and together. Were there people who figured it out right away?
Wanya: Yeah, Jenny [McCarthy-Wahlberg] knows us. We’ve been on the road with her a few times with [husband] Donnie [Wahlberg]. She knowns our mannerisms and has heard our voices night after night when we were on a package tour with the New Kids [on the Block]. She knew right away. We tried to be less recognizable, but then we were pushed to the bottom two and were like, “Hell no!”
You’ve had some many unique experiences in your career. Was this one of the most unusual things you’ve done?
Wanya: Absolutely. It really fits up there with one of the most different things Boyz II Men have done in our career, with the closing ceremonies of the Olympics when we did the national anthem [at the 1996 Games].
What was it about being behind a mask that appealed to you? What did you want to prove?
Nathan: No expectations. When you hear Boyz II Men in your mind, you expect it to sound a certain way, but when we don’t have those expectations you can go anywhere you want.
Wanya: Watching the show last night and looking at Nate, who was the green Buffalo, I swear you would never know it was Nate in that suit because Nate doesn’t perform like that — he’s mellow, smooth. He looked like me in that Buffalo suit! He was super-animated and I was so happy to see it.
Nathan: I was just trying to throw them off. I was having fun because this is what I do when I’m around my crew.
Were you able to still do some of your patented choreo in those costumes?
Wanya: We had to switch it up for sure, the feet were big, bro. The feet… and that head!
Nathan: I stepped on Shawn like three or four times.
On the finale, you impressed with Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which rocked. But you really made Sam Smith’s “Too Good at Goodbyes” your own. It sounded like it could have been your single.
Nathan: That’s when the gloves came off.
Shawn: We knew we had to go full-out Boyz II Men on the last show, and by that time there were a lot of people who were clued in on it being us, so we were like, “Let’s do Boyz II Men things!”
Wanya: We had an inkling of who we were going against [Wasp], and that dude is no joke!
Nathan: We weren’t supposed to know, but we [could tell] who it was.
You said Jenny knew, but she also mentioned B2K, and Robin thought it could be the Jonas Brothers or the rest of 98 Degrees [minus their show mentor Nick Lachey] or Big Time Rush. Always wrong Ken Jeong went with Bell Biv DeVoe, Bone Thugs -N-Harmony or Tony! Toni! Toné! There were also guesses of Earth, Wind & Fire and Blackstreet. Your thoughts?
Shawn: Some of that was a bit off, like Bone Thugs? No offense to the Thuggers.
Since it’s the holidays, tell us about your collab with the Kelce brothers on their “It’s Christmastime (In Cleveland Heights)” single.
Shawn: They reached out to us and they felt like we were synonymous with the idea that they had for the song and it was fun. It’s always cool to do things like that because they’re unexpected and we’ve been in this business for over 30 years. At this point, we’re just trying to do things that are interesting or fun or funny or something that pushes the boundaries of what a group at this point in our lives can do. Not only that, but it was for a good cause, for charities and some of our personal charities. And, it’s the Kelces! They’re the hottest brother duo in the country right now.
We know they can ball, but most importantly: How do you rate their vocals?
Nathan: You know… they ain’t bad! They did their thing. They are really good at football and they do that really, really good and they did that well, and I think that’s what their lot in life is. No diss, but they were great.
Wanya: How about this? They did that better than some of us would run a 9 route. I’ll tell you that!