Pop

Shania Twain Praises Taylor Swift for ‘Working Her Butt Off’: ‘She’s Living an Exhausting Existence’

Taylor Swift will always have Shania Twain in her corner. In a new interview, the “You’re Still the One” singer opened up about passing the countrypop torch to artists like the 14-time Grammy winner, whom Twain commended for “working her butt off.”

“She is living an exhausting existence, but she’s dedicated and committed to herself, to her art, and her work,” the Canadian singer-songwriter said in a Haute Living cover story, published Wednesday (April 17). “It isn’t even about ambition, though I’m sure that most people would call her ambitious.”

“She’s an extremely hard worker, and I’m sure she’s got giant goals,” Twain added. “But it’s not all about ambition: It’s about passion and committing yourself to your passion.”

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The “Man!…I Feel Like a Woman!” singer’s comments come in stark contrast to what another music icon recently said about Swift. Courtney Love took shots at the “Anti-Hero” artist while speaking to The Standard earlier this week, calling her “not important” and “not interesting as an artist.”

Twain, however, has long been a friend and fan of Swift’s, and vice versa. The pair performed together at the 2019 American Music Awards, and in a 2021 TikTok, the Eras Tour star commended the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” musician for disproving the notion that “country girls can’t go pop” over the course of her career.

On the subject of paving the way for genre-bending artists such as Swift, Twain said, “it wasn’t like I intended on being a trailblazer or anything.”

“I was just trying to be original, my authentic self, and to do it with conviction,” she continued. “I’m an expressive person, and I put that into my music. I was saying it with attitude and with confidence because I meant it. Yes, I see it as a great compliment when someone calls me a trailblazer, but it’s not like I set out to do so. I was just being myself, and I think that’s served me very well.”

5 Taylor Swift Songs I Ranked Too Low Upon Release (Critic’s Take)

After multiple “songs ranked” instant reactions, it’s time to reflect on my biggest regrets, and champion the songs that were stronger than their initial rankings.

A few years ago, the Billboard staff began publishing “songs ranked” album reviews, as a fun way to provide an instant reaction to the week’s big new album releases. These reviews were inherently subjective — no one’s personal ranking of a 13-song album is going to be exactly the same as everyone else’s — and obviously preliminary, with only a few listens granted to projects that often took time to fully reveal their artistry. And of course, no one on the Billboard staff would argue against listeners wanting to experience an album in the order in which the artist intended to hear them, first and foremost. Yet these reviews are snapshots, designed to be based on our experts’ gut feelings about the songs you simply had to hear on a full-length, and destined to be debated endlessly online by fans who were furious about whichever song would be ranked last.

I’ve written extensively about every Taylor Swift album released to date, and began writing “songs ranked” reviews of her albums with Lover in 2019. And since then, I’ve had some rankings I wish I could take back — specifically, tracks that have grown on me considerably and made me go, “How did I place that one so low on my personal list?” Sometimes, those pangs arrive in a few days, and sometimes I get them after a few years. But on the eve of The Tortured Poets Department — and another “songs ranked” review, and later, more regrets over that ranking — I decided to look back at the ones that got away at the time, but have entered my wheelhouse in the time since.

Here are five Taylor Swift songs I ranked too low upon their releases, including her last four studio albums (Lover, 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and 2022’s Midnights), as well as her “From the Vault” songs.

Justin Timberlake Shares Sneak Peek at Forget Tomorrow Tour Rehearsals: ‘Getting Ready for You’

Justin Timberlake isn’t being selfish with sneak peeks from his upcoming Forget Tomorrow World Tour. As the pop star gears up to hit the road again, he took a moment to share a carousel of photos from his recent rehearsals with followers via Instagram on Wednesday (April 17).

The photos find the “Mirrors” singer standing onstage as his band and crew assemble around him. One snap shows Timberlake looking at a gigantic image of himself blown up on the screen backdropping the stage, while another captures the former boy bander finding his place underneath two conjoining spotlights.

The pics reveal a number of other red-hued, psychedelic visuals Timberlake plans to use during his performances, as well as the working layout of his stage. As of now, it seems as though he’ll sing from a main stage complete with big screens and a bandstand for some parts of his shows, as well as a circular B-stage in the middle of the audience for others.

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“Checking in from rehearsals,” he captioned the post. “Getting ready for you. #TFTWTOUR.”

Timberlake’s latest trek will kick off April 29 in Vancouver, after which the star will travel through a number of U.S. cities before heading overseas for a European leg this summer. In October, he’ll return for a second North American run, closing out Dec. 16 in Indianapolis.

The Forget Tomorrow World Tour will support the pop superstar’s latest album Everything I Thought It Was, which dropped March 15 and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Led by singles “Selfish” and “Drown,” the 18-track set featured collaborations with Fireboy DML, Tobe Nwigwe and Timberlake’s former *NSYNC bandmates.

Kylie Minogue Named One of ‘TIME’ Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2024

After returning to the upper echelons of popular music in 2023, Kylie Minogue is ready to bask in her achievement as one of the most influential people in the world.

On Wednesday (April 17), TIME announced its annual list of the 100 most influential people of the year. Along with music peers such as Dua Lipa, 21 Savage, Burna Boy and Jack Antonoff, the “Padam Padam” singer earned a spot on the coveted list, falling under the “Icons” category.

To tribute Minogue, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin wrote her entry for the annual ranking, praising Minogue for her unwavering support throughout his career. “Kylie Minogue was one of the first people I ever met from TV,” Martin wrote. “She was a pop star, and I had watched her in Neighbours every day for a decade. So when she came to an early Coldplay show, I’d already been her fan for nearly 15 years.”

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Martin continued, praising Minogue’s commitment to reinvention throughout her decades-long career. “She lives her life so gracefully and approaches every project with such passion and dedication. She always seems to be 10 years ahead of everyone else, and she’s an artist who knows how to be of service, making songs that fans go on to love for years,” he explained. “Kylie creates a space where everyone is safe to be themselves. When I look at her I feel hope. She’s proof there are humans who don’t judge.”

Taking to her Instagram, Minogue thanked TIME for honoring her and expressed her surprise at being included on the list. “Thank you for this incredible honour, being amongst such stellar company,” she wrote. “This is mind-blowing to me and is making my heart FULLY Padam!!”

Read Chris Martin’s full tribute to Minogue on TIME’s website, and see Kylie’s reaction to the news below:

American University Unveils Taylor Swift Economics Course Studying ‘Swiftonomics’

Much like the musician herself, the Taylor Swift academic canon is only continuing to expand. As announced Monday (April 15), American University will offer an economics course studying the pop star’s financial impact this fall, following in the footsteps of schools such as Harvard, Stanford and more.

Dubbed “Swiftonomics,” the course was proposed by econ students Megan Wysocki and Mackenzie Shultz, both of whom are proud fans of Swift. Department chair Kara Reynolds will oversee the class as scholars explore the “Anti-Hero” singer’s business footprint, earnings from her near billion-dollar Eras Tour, her impact on the Ticketmaster monopoly debate and more.

Interested students can sign up online, so long as they’ve completed a Principles of Microeconomics prerequisite.

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“Many other universities are creating Taylor Swift classes, but mostly in subjects such as sociology or literature,” Wysocki said in a statement. “I figured that this was a unique topic and an opportunity to capitalize on an academic trend. My hope was to get people more interested in an economics course by focusing on someone as popular as Taylor Swift.”

“I think as faculty we get tied up with the issues that we think are important and sometimes forget that these might not be the same issues that students really care about,” added Reynolds. “Economics impacts so much of society, and the competition was designed to help the department discover what students want to know about economics.”

As referenced by Wysocki, AU joins an ever-growing number of colleges who have introduced Swiftian studies into their curriculums in recent years. New York University, UT Austin, Arizona State, UC Berkeley and the University of Florida have all unveiled courses inspired by the 14-time Grammy winner, examining everything from her songwriting prowess to her impact on world culture.

Swift is currently nearing the end of a two-month break from touring as she gears up to release her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. A follow-up to her 2022 Billboard 200-topping record Midnights, the 16-track LP features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine.

Taraji P. Henson Blown Away By ‘TIME’ 2024 Most Influential People List Honoree Fantasia: ‘The Sky’s The Limit’

If you’ve ever heard even one note from Fantasia Barrino‘s mouth, you know that the American Idol season three winner and The Color Purple star is a force to be reckoned with. That explains why in her essay celebrating Fantasia for TIME magazine’s 2024 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World Golden Globe-winning actress (and fellow 100 honoree) Taraji P. Henson nearly runs out of superlatives for her Color Purple co-star.

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“There was just something about Fantasia Barrino when I first saw her on American Idol. It was her spirit, her soul. She left it all on that stage when she sang. I thought, Who is this girl? I voted for her again and again,” wrote Henson, one of four TIME 100 cover stars alongside Dua Lipa, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Yulia Navalnaya, widow of anti-Putin crusader Alexey Navalny.

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“When I met her years later, I learned that she’s a Cancer — sweet and sensitive but with a quiet strength. You can feel it in her presence, and you can hear it in her powerful voice,” Henson added. “When she sings, she transcends. It’s like she goes somewhere else and you just have to go with her.”

Oscar nominee Henson called Fantasia “living testimony” that we are all going through our own personal “storms,” saying that after the tempest has tamed the sun comes out and “whatever comes next for her will be so beautiful. She deserves everything. I see such big things for Fantasia – the sky’s the limit. Well, beyond the sky for her. It’s her time.”

This year’s list features a number of other singers (cover star Dua Lipa honored by punk godmother Patti Smith), 21 Savage (by Burna Boy), Jack Antonoff (by Maren Morris), Kylie Minogue (by Coldplay’s Chris Martin), Leslie Odom Jr. (by Kate Hudson), Burna Boy (Angélique Kidjo) and James McBride (by Ethan Hawke).

Check out this year’s full list here.

Taylor Swift Announces New Music Video With Cryptic Clip Full of ‘Tortured Poets’ Easter Eggs

Taylor Swift announced Tuesday night (April 16) that her new music video is set to drop shortly after her 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department arrives later this week — but she didn’t stop there. The pop star also posted a cryptic video on Instagram filled with what appears to be Easter eggs about her new era, leaving Swifties scrambling to decipher them in time.

The mysterious clip begins with an animated, first-person view of a room full of crumpled papers, colorful vinyls, photos and more items alluding to Swift’s most recent album, Midnights. It then simulates the viewer exiting the room, walking down a stark hallway and entering another wing labeled “The Tortured Poets Department,” in which a wall-hanging calendar reveals that the singer’s new visual will drop at 8 p.m. ET Friday (April 19), 20 hours after Tortured Poets arrives on streaming services.

The calendar doesn’t specify which of the 16 songs on Swift’s new record is getting the music video treatment, but it does provide a possible clue. Toward the bottom, someone jotted down 14 tally marks, potentially indicating that the song in question comes 14th on the tracklist, aka “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”

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Or, it could be a reference to track one, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone. (How many days are in a fortnight? That’s right, 14.)

The video comes as Swifties continue to pore over clues hidden at Spotify’s Tortured Poets library pop-up in Los Angeles, which is adorned with texts, dried flowers, figurines and more. Most enticing is a book of stationary on display in a clear case, the pages of which are turned on an unknown schedule to reveal one new lyric at a time. Recently, it bore the message, “One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen.”

But fans may be remiss not to search for Easter eggs in Swift’s new animation, too, especially when it comes to what gets left behind in the Midnights room. Swiftie sleuths online have already begun concocting theories about the sunshine streaming in through the windows, the time displayed by a wall clock and the gel pens littered on the table (which tie back to something the pop star once said about how she mentally categorizes her songs).

See the clip, as well as a few Swiftie theories it’s inspired, below.

Total Eclipse of the Charts: Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun,’ Bonnie Tyler & More Shine

Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” leads a constellation of sun- and moon-related songs on Billboard’s charts in the wake of the solar eclipse seen across parts of North America April 8, ranking at No. 1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally dated April 20.

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The track drew 4.2 million official streams earned (up 34%) and 2.5 million in radio airplay audience (up 19%) and sold 1,000 downloads (up 166%) in the U.S. April 5-11, according to Luminate.

The song becomes Soundgarden’s first No. 1 on the ranking, which began in 2020. (Older songs are eligible to appear on multimetric Billboard charts if ranking in the top half and with meaningful reasons for their resurgences; “Black Hole Sun” was released in 1994 on the band’s album Superunknown.)

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The track also appears at Nos. 13, 15 and 19 on the Hot Rock Songs, Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs surveys, respectively.

It flares 20-4 on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, marking its best rank since 2017 (following the death of frontman Chris Cornell), and 14-5 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs, its first time in the top five since the list began in 2020.

“Black Hole Sun” was Soundgarden’s first No. 1 song on any Billboard chart, ruling Mainstream Rock Airplay for seven weeks in 1994.

It’s not the only eclipse-adjacent title on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” reaches the chart at No. 24 via 3.3 million streams, 164,000 in radio reach and 1,000 sold, with boosts of 7, 88 and 118%, respectively. The song hit No. 2 for the John Fogerty-led act on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” also rotates back onto the all-format Digital Song Sales chart at No. 5, its second week on the tally (which began in 2004); it ranked at No. 13 for a week in September 2017 – also following a solar eclipse that Aug. 21. It sold 6,000, a vault of 634%. The single, a No. 1 for four weeks on the Hot 100 in 1983, also bounded by 133% to 4.1 million streams and 47% to 3.2 million in airplay audience.

Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a No. 3 Hot 100 hit in 1971, boasts new chart activity, too. It debuts at Nos. 136 and 151 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S., respectively. It earned 13.3 million streams globally, up 33%, with 5.4 million from listeners in the U.S., up 25%. On the U.S. side, it returns to R&B Digital Song Sales at No. 4 with 1,000 sold, up 45%.

The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” gets in on the action via the Rock Digital Song Sales survey, returning at No. 11 with 1,000 sold, up 114%. King Harvest’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” holds at No. 10 (2,000, up 23%) and Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” re-enters at No. 14 (1,000, up 512%).

The Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart features a different version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”: Nicki French’s, from 1995, new at No. 8 (1,000, up 830%).

Interest in the lyrics of eclipse-themed music drives Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” onto Billboard’s LyricFind U.S. chart, at No. 18. It joins Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which appeared on the previous ranking at No. 22 and jumps to No. 16.

According to LyricFind, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” snagged a 3,712% increase in lyric usages and searches, while “Eclipse” earned a corresponding 3,153% bump.

Tina Knowles Says Zendaya Reminds Her of Beyoncé: ‘She Is Just the Most Gracious, Beautiful Girl’

Zendaya might have two Emmys to her name, but she may have received her highest honor at the Challengers premiere in Los Angeles Tuesday (April 16) — and it came from Ms. Tina Knowles.

During a conversation with Variety on the red carpet, Knowles — who recently appeared in an Essence cover shoot in support of Beyoncé‘s Cécred haircare line — gushed over the Euphoria actress and her evolution from child star to leading lady.

“I love Zendaya!” she said. “The first time I saw her, I used to watch her in the Disney series with my grandson [Solange‘s son Julez Smith] and she just reeked of stardom. She is just the most gracious, beautiful girl, and she reminds me of my daughter — she’s a Virgo like my daughter [Beyoncé]!”

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Zendaya, of course, is a card-carrying member of the Beyhive. She appeared in Queen Bey’s 2016 Lemonade film, paid tribute to her iconic “Crazy In Love” Versace look at the 2021 BET Awards and attended her blockbuster 2023 Renaissance World Tour alongside boyfriend Tom Holland.

Challengers, helmed by Academy Award nominee Luca Guadagnino, finds Zendaya starring as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach who must balance both a love triangle and the quest to break her husband’s losing streak as he prepares to play against his former best friend (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend). Co-starring award-winning actors Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, Challengers opens in theaters April 26 with a score crafted by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

The film’s tennis themes also offer another bridge between Beyoncé and Zendaya. In 2022, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer earned her first Oscar nomination for “Be Alive,” an original song she co-wrote with DIXSON for King Richard, the Will Smith-starring biopic of Venus and Serena Williams‘ father and coach, Richard Williams.

No stranger to the music world, Zendaya has landed several entries across the Billboard charts. On the Billboard Hot 100, the thespian has logged six entries including 2013’s “Replay” (No. 40), 2016’s Chris Brown-assisted “Something New” (No. 93) and 2022’s “I’m Tired” (No. 53, with Labrinth). Over on the Billboard 200, Zendaya’s 2013 self-titled debut album debut and peaked No. 51.

Watch a clip of Ms. Tina Knowles praising Zendaya below.

Charli XCX & Troye Sivan Are Gonna Make You ‘Sweat’ With Co-Headlining Tour: See the Dates

They took you back to “1999” and flung you forward to “2099.” Now, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan want to make you sweat in the present tense.

On Wednesday (April 17), the pop star duo announced their co-headlining arena tour, Charli XCX & Troye Sivan Present: Sweat, set to kick off this fall. The 21-date excursion will start at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 14, with the pair heading through Toronto, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and plenty more stops, before wrapping up with a final show at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Oct. 23.

Sharing the stage with special guest Shygirl, Charli and Sivan will transform arenas into raves throughout the Sweat tour, with a press release adding that the show will be “not only a celebration of their individual successes, but it is also a testament to their commitment to inclusivity and diversity within the music industry.” Fans can sign up for the advance presale until April 25 at the tour’s official website.

The news comes on the heels of Charli announcing the official dates for her own international arena tour in support of her forthcoming album Brat (due out June 7 via Atlantic), with shows set to start on June 1 in Barcelona. Sivan, meanwhile, will embark on his long-awaited European tour supporting his 2023 LP Something to Give Each Other starting in May.

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In an interview with Billboard in March, Charli teased that fans can expect her new album to sound “aggresive and confrontational,” while also remaining “conversational and personal.” Speaking about the writing, she said, “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.”

Artist presale for Charli XCX & Troye Sivan Present: Sweat begins Thursday, April 25, at 10 a.m. local time, with the general on-sale beginning Friday, April 26, at 10 a.m local time on Live Nation’s website. Check out the official dates for the tour below:

Troye Sivan and Charli XCX

Troye Sivan and Charli XCX

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