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Justin Bieber gets his peaches out in Georgia and his wax figures down in Hollywood. In celebration of his 30th birthday on Friday (March 1), Madame Tussauds has unveiled a brand-new life-size replica of the singer. The statue, which is on display now at the museum’s Hollywood Boulevard location, is modeled after Bieber as he […]
March is here, and today’s top music stars are gearing up for spring with a slew of new releases. Miley Cyrus’ long awaited collaboration with Pharrell, “Doctor (Work It Out),” went live on streaming services Friday (March 1), marking the singer’s first release since her 2023 single “Used to Be Young.” The team-up has reportedly been in […]
For some Swifties flying to Singapore for Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour shows this weekend, the concert experience is starting before they even touch down. Philippine Airlines has been giving custom friendship bracelets to fans en route to Singapore National Stadium, where Swift will soon set up shop for six shows starting Saturday (March 2). The […]
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, Pharrell and Miley conjure new (old) magic, Cardi B is not resting on her laurels, and Charli XCX wants to go back to the trucker-hat era. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Pharrell Williams feat. Miley Cyrus, “Doctor (Work It Out)”
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Whether viewed as a victory lap following her first Grammy wins or a tribute to Bangerz a little after that turning-point album’s 10th anniversary, “Doctor (Work It Out)” is the sound of Miley Cyrus strutting alongside one of her most trusted collaborators, Pharrell Williams, on a funked-up track that the pair first worked on years ago. “Doctor (Work It Out)” follows the same thread of unrepentant desire as the duo’s past hit “Come Get It Bae,” with a little more disco swagger and medical double entendres in the mix; the song could evaporate tomorrow or become a durable hit, but either way, Cyrus sounds like she’s having a great time with it.
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Cardi B, “Like What (Freestyle)”
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“Ayo, let me put some gas in this motherf–kin’ year,” Cardi B sneers to begin “Like What (Freestyle),” the rap superstar’s first solo track in multiple years that serves as a ripcord to fire up her rumbling, singular flow. “Like What” takes aim at Cardi’s enemies and haters over a sample of Missy Elliott’s 1999 classic “She’s a Bitch,” but the takedowns are simply ingredients in a delicious return to form for Cardi, who doubles down on similes and tosses out stunners like Stone Cold Steve Austin — before actually referencing him on a hilarious, X-rated rhyme.
Charli XCX, “Von Dutch”
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Although Charli XCX has explored a variety of pop aesthetics and release models over the course of her decade-plus career, the prospect of upcoming album Brat brimming with propulsive, laser-light club fare like the smashing new single “Von Dutch” should excite both casual listeners and longtime supporters. Charli locks in on the woozy production and guides the track towards the inevitable bass drops, never letting up as her voice circles in and out of focus; like the titular trucker hat, “Von Dutch” is designed to evoke bleary-eyed mid-‘00s nights out, and hits its target in thrilling fashion.
ScHoolboy Q, Blue Lips
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Five years can represent an eternity in modern hip-hop, but for ScHoolboy Q, the follow-up to 2019’s CrasH Talk finds the TDE stalwart inhabiting his longtime pocket — telling hard truths over left-of-center beats — while also evolving as a lyricist, especially when focusing on parenthood and his concerns of the future. Blue Lips is not designed as a mainstream crossover (the bugged-out, menacing “Pop,” featuring Rico Nasty, makes that plain), but ScHoolboy Q has a loyal following that’s been waiting for another opus, and Blue Lips rewards them handsomely.
Galantis, David Guetta & 5 Seconds of Summer, “Lighter”
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What a road 5 Seconds of Summer has traveled: after earning fame and fortune as new-school pop-punks and One Direction’s brattier (and often thrilling) opening acts, 5SOS has grown into an expansive rock outfit that’s capable of highlighting a throwback dance cut like this Galantis and David Guetta team-up. “Lighter” trades in mid-2010s euphoria, back when hits by Zedd and Clean Bandit were all over top 40 radio, but 5SOS is the wild card that prevents the track from sounding like a re-tread.
Editor’s Pick: Yard Act, Where’s My Utopia?
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Where’s My Utopia? is the sound of a rock band leveling up: Leeds post-punk group Yard Act impressed on their 2022 debut The Overload, but the collective’s sophomore album sharpens their sardonic approach without abandon, as if every inch of the quartet has become more fearless over the past two years. “Dream Job” is an obvious highlight with its call-and-response dance-punk, but “The Undertow,” “An Illusion” and “We Make Hits” all showcase a band worth investing in long-term.
With just one week left to go until her highly anticipated seventh album Eternal Sunshine drops, Ariana Grande has confirmed which of its 13 tracks will serve as the next single: “We Can’t Be Friends.” The 30-year-old pop star broke the news via a video on social media Friday (March 1). In the clip, Grande […]
Miley Cyrus and Pharrell have been working together for more than a decade, with their most recent collaboration “Doctor (Work It Out)” arriving Friday (March 1), 10 years after the pair first wrote it.
Over the course of that time, Cyrus has gone through some major changes — perhaps most notably, her transition from teen Disney Channel starlet to the pixie-haired, sometimes controversial 21-year-old who released Bangerz in 2013. And in a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, the pop star revealed that Pharrell has been there for her through it all.
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“He was really the only one that I could kind of tell him what I really wanted, what I really wanted to make, who I really wanted to be, what I really wanted to do,” Cyrus recalled of meeting the producer back when she was still best known for starring in Hannah Montana. “I think Pharrell was perfect because it was almost like he could be a bumper for me, but he wasn’t going to be a bridle.”
The “Flowers” singer also said that Pharrell was one of the only people who encouraged her famous, drastic haircut in 2012, when she chopped off her long brunette waves and sported a platinum dye job. “I was like, ‘Pharrell, I really want to change. I really want to have a big change,’” Cyrus told Lowe.
“He was kind of the only one — I knew that everyone around me would tell me no — and he was really the only one that I asked, ‘What did he think?’” she added. “And he was like, ‘Go for it today, tomorrow, as soon as you can. That sounds like exactly the perfect thing to do.’”
“I’ll never forget just meeting her at a time where people had pegged her to be one thing particularly,” chimed in the “Happy” musician. “She was Hannah Montana at the time, and she was growing up and really wanting to experience life no matter how far the precipice was, that was her … I just remember her just being in a place where no one really understood what she was, and I got it.”
During the interview, the duo also confirmed that “Doctor (Work It Out)” started as an outtake from Bangerz, which featured a few other Pharrell-produced tracks such as “4×4” featuring Nelly and “#GetItRight.” Earlier this year, they decided to finally give it a proper release.
“We just believe so much in timing and in everything happening when it’s supposed to,” Cyrus told Lowe. “Around the Grammys, Pharrell and I were talking about putting the song out, and it just felt like it was so serendipitous, and there were so many alignments and so many moments that made me know that now was the perfect time.”
“And then sometimes things in our past make more sense in our present than they ever did then,” she continued. “And so this song, I think the nature, the celebration, the feeling, especially with the video, the joy, the dancing, the letting go, it’s what this song really always needed. I don’t think I could have delivered that at that time [in 2013] … It completely embodies my spirit and my essence at this exact moment.”
My big struggle is deciding whether I care more about being the biggest artist I can be commercially or being critically sound,” Charli XCX says. “Then sometimes I land in this place of not caring about either of those things.”
For most of her decade-plus career as both a songwriter for other pop stars (Gwen Stefani, Camila Cabello, Selena Gomez) and a beloved solo performer herself, Charli has managed to strike an enviable balance between the two pop poles she has just described. The 31-year-old British artist has made inescapable hits like her 2014 Iggy Azalea collaboration, “Fancy,” which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and more sonically experimental pop — including her celebrated pairings with SOPHIE, with whom Charli pioneered hyperpop — while establishing herself as a tastemaker with a track record for working with cutting-edge artists like Yaeji, Rina Sawayama and Caroline Polachek before the industry fully catches on.
Tough, playful and whip-smart, her track “Speed Drive” from the Barbie soundtrack is classic Charli and also her biggest commercial success since 2014’s “Boom Clap.” Now she’s gearing up for her sixth studio album, BRAT. (On Wednesday, Charli posted on social media to expect the album this summer.)
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The follow-up to 2022’s Crash is, she says, a club record evoking the illegal London rave scene where she started performing “when I was 14 or 15,” produced from a tight collection of sounds to create “this unique minimalism that is very loud and bold.”
“Loud and bold” could well describe the entire career of Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Powerhouse honoree. As she chats over Zoom (wearing a white hoodie and a single gold star sticker on her chin) she’s characteristically frank, admitting she finds the time between albums challenging — “probably the reason why I eventually won’t be a musician.” But for now, with a new one finished, she’s gearing up for her life to return to a pop star pace.
YSL jacket and scarf, David Yurman earrings.
Joelle Grace Taylor
Beaufille jacket and skirt, Abra shoes.
Joelle Grace Taylor
What’s the concept of the new album?
This album is very direct. I’m over the idea of metaphor and flowery lyricism and not saying exactly what I think, the way I would say it to a friend in a text message. This record is all the things I would talk about with my friends, said exactly how I would say them. It’s in ways very aggressive and confrontational, but also very conversational and personal. And not in that boring way where artists are like, “This is my most personal record.” To me, it feels like listening to a conversation with a friend.
Do you feel like you’re in a unique position to showcase ideas and sounds from the club world to more mainstream audiences?
I think I’ve had a pretty big impact on popular music; I won’t lie. But it feels weird even saying that in a subtle way in this interview, to be honest. I don’t think it has ever been [my or my collaborators’] intention to transport elements of club or underground music to a wider audience; I think we’ve just been instinctual. There’s a spontaneity within my music that feels off the cuff, blunt and at the same time outlandish. It’s just this fearlessness, too. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I see it when I write in sessions for other people or with people that I don’t really write much with. It’s like … I don’t follow a rulebook of how to write a song.
Acne shirt, MM6 bra, Beaufille belt, Abra pants, YSL shoes.
Joelle Grace Taylor
For Crash, you intentionally stepped into the role of a major-label pop star, like cosplay. Is the new album’s direct approach a reaction to that?
It’s definitely related. The pendulum always swings for me. I think a good artist always has to re-form, reformulate and reclothe themselves, quite literally. You’re right, Crash was about me being signed to a major label [Asylum Records UK/Warner Music UK] and feeling like I’d never played that traditional, stereotypical major-label pop star game. I wanted to play this satirical role, so I was hypersexualizing myself, taking songs other people had written for me and using an A&R person for the first time in my career.
This record is the polar opposite. It’s not collaborative. It’s not me playing a character. It’s direct and honest. I really tried not to write love songs or songs about my romantic relationship. [She got engaged to The 1975’s George Daniel in late 2023.] There are a couple, but generally speaking, I wanted it to feel more gossipy, so it is a reaction to Crash. I’m quite a reactionary person.
You’ve written with and for a lot of other women. Has that been intentional?
There are a couple of songs I’ve written that have been for male artists, but it’s not a conscious decision. It just happened like that. I honestly don’t know that I would be able to write from a male perspective.
YSL jacket and scarf, Diesel skirt and shoes, David Yurman earrings.
Joelle Grace Taylor
Charli XCX photographed on November 27, 2023 in Los Angeles. Beaufille jacket.
Joelle Grace Taylor
You’re receiving the Powerhouse award. What’s your relationship with power?
Some days you wake up and feel very powerful, or empowered, or in control, or confident, or whatever positive words that are related to power or a woman in power. But some days you wake up and feel worthless and small and insecure and not good enough. I don’t think that’s specific to me or my industry; I think that’s just human nature. It’s impossible to feel powerful all the time. For me, at least, that would feel like a lie.
There’s also a lot of power in vulnerability. This is cheesy, but I think when I’m most honest and true to myself, that makes me feel most powerful. Sometimes that upsets people, whether that’s people I work with or my fans or my family. There’s always someone to upset. You just have to ask if it would feel like a sacrifice to not make this decision the way you want to make it. That’s what I ask myself.
Are there specific moments in your career when you stepped into a greater level of power?
When I started working with [producer] A. G. Cook, when I started working with SOPHIE, there was this kinship and understanding that made me feel very powerful because I felt like we were on this unspoken journey together that not many other people could be on.
And then working with my friends — not weird Los Angeles friends that I’ve picked up at parties, but my friends I’ve had since I was 11. That feels powerful because there’s a level of grounding. To them, I’m not this person who is a pop star. I am their friend Charli who was once not very cool.
This story will appear in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
My big struggle is deciding whether I care more about being the biggest artist I can be commercially or being critically sound,” Charli XCX says. “Then sometimes I land in this place of not caring about either of those things.” For most of her decade-plus career as both a songwriter for other pop stars (Gwen Stefani, […]
The doctor will see you now. Miley Cyrus‘ long awaited collaboration with Pharrell “Doctor (Work It Out)” went live on streaming services Friday (March 1), marking the singer’s first release since her 2023 single “Used to Be Young.” The groovy dance track — which has Pharrell’s stylistic fingerprints all over it — finds Cyrus taking […]
Justin Timberlake is just two weeks away from unveiling his highly anticipated sixth studio album, Everything I Thought It Was, and the star took to Instagram on Thursday (Feb. 29) to share the behind-the-scenes of making the album’s most recent single, “Drown.”
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“‘Drown’ happened very quickly,” Timberlake is seen telling his fans in a casual video sitting at the piano. “Myself, Kenyon Dixon, Amy Allen along with Cirkut and and Louis Bell. It’s the first one I actually wrote with Lou Bell and Cirkut. The song wrote itself so quickly. It kind of annoyed me, because sometimes you have this thing like, ‘Oh, if you didn’t struggle to write the song, maybe it’s not worth it.’”
He continued, “The more I listened back to it and the more I played it for people, the more it was like, ‘No, this sounds like you.’ When I think back to songs like that, where I kind of underestimated that ability to have that familiarity or catch on with people, the last time was ‘Mirrors.’ I sat on that song for, like, five years.”
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Timberlake added another “fun fact” to the mix, sharing, “The vocal that you hear is the demo vocal. I recorded it line by line as we were writing it, just to demo it out. The most we listened back to it, the more it had this honesty to it that I didn’t want to change anything.”
“Drown” serves as JT’s official follow-up to “Selfish,” which debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Timberlake his highest debut in six years on Billboard’s marquee singles chart. The lead single from Everything I Thought It Was also marked Timberlake’s 29th top 40 hit as a soloist.
In support of his new LP, Timberlake is set to embark on a headlining North American arena tour. The tour will kick off April 29 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C., and visit major cities such as Las Vegas (May 10-11), New York (Jun. 25-26) and Atlanta (Nov. 16), before concluding Nov. 20 at KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Ky.
Watch his rundown of “Drown” below. Everything I Thought It Was is out March 15.