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When Usher said he was “just getting started” after his 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, he meant it. Just days after he took the stage at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas Sunday (Feb. 11), the 45-year-old superstar has now announced plans to develop a television drama series centered around his music. According to The […]

Among the seminal albums celebrating momentous anniversaries this year is Tina Turner’s classic What’s Love Got to Do with It. Originally released on June 15, 1993, the soundtrack to the singer-songwriter’s biographical film by the same title is being repackaged in honor of its 30th anniversary. The brand-new special edition collection will be released on April 26 […]

As Beyoncé enters her country era, the global superstar has the unequivocal support of at least one fellow artist — Reneé Rapp. During the Mean Girls star’s concert in Paris on Tuesday night (Feb. 13), Rapp delivered a faithful cover of Queen Bey’s 2016 country song “Daddy Lessons.” Dressed in a pair of baggy jeans […]

In his two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, catcher Garrett Stubbs has played in just 87 of a possible 324 games — par for the course when you’re backing up J.T. Realmuto, commonly referred to by Phillies fans as the “BCIB” (Best Catcher in Baseball). But despite his limited time on the field, Stubbs has become one of the most beloved and recognizable Phils for his role as the team’s preeminent Clubhouse Guy — as well as their anointed post-game DJ.  

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With the Phils’ locker room turning into Philadelphia’s hottest club over their five playoff series victories across 2022-23, Stubbs has also become one of the city’s most influential aux-cord wielders with his celebratory selections, collected in his publicly available “Phils Win” Spotify playlist (nearly 30,000 likes). The most famous of the bunch, Tiësto’s remix of Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own,” caught so much local heat after it became the Phils’ unlikely postseason anthem in 2022, which propelled the song back onto the Billboard charts, making the Digital Song Sales top 10 last October.  

Below, Stubbs talks with Billboard about how he became The Guy for soundtracking the team’s champagne-soaked celebrations, as well as why his club loves a good dance remix, and whether they’ll ever be able to get away from “Dancing on My Own.”  

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How did you become the sort of official team DJ/Spotify playlist curator here?  

Somebody’s gotta do it, and I’d say because my role on the team as far as playing time goes is limited, I just became the guy who came into the locker room after the games to turn on the music. As guys started to like certain songs, I just started to accumulate the ones that everyone liked and put them into a playlist. And then slowly but surely, there ended up being 1, 2, 20, 50, 100 songs on the playlist.  

Over the past couple years, who else on the team have been your supporting curators? 

Schwarbs [Kyle Schwarber] is a big one. He’s certainly a guy that brings good vibes to the locker room. [Nick] Castellanos is another one. He’s got very eclectic taste in music — he’s a huge J. Cole fan and likes to play anything from rap all the way to ODESZA. And he is a big fan of those two — if you walk into the locker room and either one of those two is playing, he definitely got ahold of the sticks.  

Do you need a sort of quorum of team approval to put a song on the playlist? Are there any times that you try to sneak one on that you like — or do you need to have, like, a couple co-signs before you put one on the official team playlist?  

No, I put random songs on there all the time. [Laughs.] So I generally will just like a song and put it on there, and then it’ll play in the locker room at certain times of the day, or after the game, and when the song comes on, I’ll just around the locker room and see what vibe I’m getting from everybody. And if it’s good, it stays, and if it’s not good, it gets taken off quickly.

Do you remember any times you got a particularly bad response to a song you were excited about? 

Not so much a bad response — I mean, sometimes guys get over songs. Like we have Waka Flocka [Flame] on there — Schwarbs is a big Waka Flocka fan, so he will put Waka Flocka on there. And at times, if we get too much Waka, it gets worn out quickly. But there are other songs on there that come and go as post-game music. But the top four songs are always [Shouse’s] “Love Tonight,” [Calum Scott’s cover of] “Dancing on My Own,” [Trey Lewis’] “D–ked Down in Dallas” and then [Alabama’s] “Dixieland Delight.”  

But we make trades during the year, right? And we try to make guys feel comfortable as soon as they get over. And that’s how “Dixieland Delight” got on there. We got D-Rob [David Robertson] traded over from the Cubs, and he was an Alabama guy, so we quickly put on “Dixieland Delight.” And it ended up sticking in 2023! But it’s just a good way of getting guys connected — especially, like, Latin players who there’s a language barrier with. So we have Latin songs on there as well, for people to enjoy.  

Brandon Marsh #16 and Bryson Stott #5 place a cup on the head of Garrett Stubbs #21 of the Philadelphia Phillies as Stubs gives a post game interview after a win in a game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 13, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

Do you add to it in the offseason?

No, I’ll listen to new music all the time. Unfortunately I feel like there hasn’t been a ton of great music coming out. I don’t know how you feel about that, but… 

Well, you’re working for a very specific purpose — maybe people like the new Lana Del Rey album, but I’m sure that’s not gonna make it onto the post-game playlist.  

No doubt. Yeah. I’ve been listening to — there’s a lot of good country music that comes out, but like you said, it’s not necessarily the vibe after a win to listen to friggin’ Chris Stapleton or like, a slow Morgan Wallen song or something. But we had big Dua Lipa love in 2022, starting with Kyle Gibson. And so the “Cold Heart” song got put on there. And that’s kind of the vibe we like to go with.  

Do songs ever get nixed for being bad luck? Like if you hear a song before a big loss, or it’s the first song that gets played after a big loss, are you ever like, “All right, that song’s no longer part of the vibe, we gotta get it out of here?” 

Well, so last year, we tried to get rid of “Dancing on My Own.” Which didn’t go very well at the beginning of the season. And so we ended up putting that back on. But we went through a number of different songs. I know that Juicy J was at one point getting played. I put on “Erryday” by Juicy J after wins. That quickly got axed. There was another J. Cole song that got played after wins — that was just a little too slow. And like, you’re looking around the league, there’s probably songs that get played that are in multiple locker rooms. So we try to keep it independent to ours. I’m sure at one point “All I Do Is Win” was just like the song that everyone played.  

We try to stay away from the superstition part. Like, playing “Dancing on My Own” after wins isn’t a superstition for us — it’s just a good vibe. Everyone seems to be having a smile on their face. But also the connection that we got to have with the fans during that was pretty cool.  

So I’m sure you’ve talked about it a million times by now, but when did you know that “Dancing on My Own” was connecting in that way?  

Well, the funny thing is that all the music that got played in the locker room, not that it wasn’t supposed to get out of the locker room, but that was certainly not the intent at first. We basically were just playing certain songs, I started curating a playlist honestly just to make it easy to play the songs after the game — we could just click play on the playlist and then it would run through all the songs. At no point did I think the entire city was going to find my Spotify! And then realize that there was a “Phils Win” playlist. And then next thing I know, there was 1,000 people liking it, 5,000, 10,000, I think it’s up to like 20 or 25,000 now… 

You’re almost up to 30 now.   

OK, yeah. So that wasn’t the intent out the gate. But I think it’s a cool way for fans to kinda get a taste of what goes on in the locker room. I think fans enjoy seeing that side of our team. I think they also see that outside of the music, just how we interact with each other on the field. And we have a very unique, fun way of connecting with the people of Philly.  

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That song specifically, though — when did you know that that was going to be the song that people most associated with you guys? 

I don’t think we ever thought that people were going to associate themselves with it outside the locker room. I think we just kinda felt like it was a good vibe when we were listening to it inside the locker room. And then, very quickly, people found out that that was our song inside the locker room, and then they started connecting with it. That kind of just happened organically, which — I think that’s how the best things in life happen, right? You don’t really intend for them to be a certain way, but just over time, people just get drawn to a certain thing.  

In general, just the vibe, the feeling that you get when you hear the song, is upbeat — Tiësto did a great job remixing it because obviously the original is a little slower. So I think the remix gives a good vibe, and all of a sudden you kinda get your head bobbin’, and it gives you good feelings inside, with the association of the winning part of it, along with just the sound that you get from listening to the song, is always positive.  

I did notice, skimming the top of the playlist — and I’ve heard it in the locker room too — there’s a lot of dance remixes of non-dance songs. That seems to kind of be a sweet spot for you guys.   

Yeah, I personally love bringing a little bit of house vibe to an old song. Seeing some of these new artists grabbing really great classics, and then remixing them with a little more modern house sounds that you weren’t necessarily able to make when they were making those songs, I really enjoy it.  

So with 30,000 people following this playlist, do you ever hear it outside the locker room?   

Well, after we would win we would go over to Xfinity Live, and immediately the DJ would start playing every single song from the playlist. We would celebrate in the locker room, and then afterwards we would go to Xfinity and celebrate again, and they would bring out those same songs. It was always fun watching the reaction of the fans to certain songs. My favorite song on the playlist [laughs] to have fun with is “D–ked Down in Dallas.”  

I mean “Dancing on My Own” is obviously an incredible song, and associated with the whole city. But “D–ked Down in Dallas” is just such a fun song for all of us to have fun to, and whenever we’d go to Xfinity and watch everyone else sing along with it, it was hilarious to us.  

Have you thought about what the next in line song would be if “Dancing on My Own” wasn’t working anymore? 

I mean, we’ve thought about it plenty, right? We tried to get rid of it this last year. And I don’t even wanna use the words “get rid of,” but we tried to move on from it and find something new and fresh. And we ended up reverting back to it. I think the fans have certain feelings about bringing it back in 2024, which I totally understand — when you don’t win the World Series, a lot of fans feel like it’s not a success. And us players feel the same way, too. But there has been a lot of success — not just with the song, but with the team for the past few years — so we do have a lot of really good memories, and I hope that eventually we just do find a new song that gives us a good vibe and a new good energy that people can connect with.

Even Ariana Grande can’t believe it. The singer revealed on Wednesday (Feb. 14) that she will be teaming up with the “queen of my heart” Mariah Carey on a remix of her “Yes, And?” single. In an Instagram post featuring a photo of the two women leaning in and touching foreheads, Grande said, “I cannot […]

Forget yeehaw, it’s all about Bey-haw now! During the Super Bowl (Feb. 11), Beyoncé teased new music — in a glitzy Verizon commercial, no less — and by the time the Chiefs won, two new singles had appeared on streaming platforms. One of the new tracks, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” released alongside the plaintive “16 Carriages,” […]

Killer Mike visited The Daily Show on Tuesday night (Feb. 13) to talk about taking home three 2024 Grammy Awards for his deeply personal Michael album, as well as his arrest that night for what police said was a physical altercation with venue security. But what host Jordan Klepper really wanted to know, though, was […]

A wide-ranging group of more than 400 musicians, actors, agents and managers and studio executives signed an open letter to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest rejecting attempts by some participating countries to bar Israel from participating in this year’s event. Among those lending their names to the letter from the non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community for Peace were: Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, KISS’ Gene Simmons, Scooter Braun, Boy George, Sharon Osbourne, Emmy Rossum, Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing, Diane Warren and Selma Blair, among many others.

The letter supports the European Broadcasting Union’s commitment to including Israel in this year’s contest amid calls last month from Swedish and Finnish artists demanding Israel’s exclusion from the contest over their belief that including the country “undermines” the spirit of the competition. The letters cited Israel’s ongoing response to the deadly Oct. 7 surprise assault on the nation from Hamas militants in which more than 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians — were murdered, sexually assaulted and attacked and more than 250 were taken hostage.

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“We have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the Contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” the letter reads. “Under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into civilian populations, Hamas murdered and kidnapped innocent men, women, and children.”

Artist manager Braun added, “Music is a place for unity not division. It is a language that should always bring us together. Artists should never be discriminated against for who they are, who they love, or where they’re born. These boycott efforts do nothing but distract from the uplifting and unifying power of music – something we need now more than ever.”

KISS’ Simmons, who was born in Israel to a Holocaust survivor mother, wrote, “Music unites people from all backgrounds. It’s the one language that everyone can understand. It’s a beautiful thing and a great way to bring people together. Those advocating to exclude an Israeli singer from Eurovision don’t move the needle towards peace, but only further divide the world.”

Last month’s letter from a group of more than 1,000 Swedish artists — this year’s Eurovision will be held in the the Swedish city of Malmö from May 7-11 — requested that Israel be barred from participating over it’s “brutal” response to the Hamas attack, citing the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.

“We who sign this are 1,000 artists who believe in music as a unifying force. The Eurovision song contest began as a peace project with the ambition to unite countries and citizens through music,” read the Swedish letter, whose signers included Robyn, First Aid Kit and Fever Ray. “Allowing Israel’s participation undermines not only the spirit of the competition but the entire public service mission. It also sends the signal that governments can commit war crimes without consequences. Therefore, we appeal to the EBU: Exclude Israel from the Eurovision song contest 2024.”

To date, the 130-day war has reportedly led to the deaths of more than 28,000 Palestinians, the destruction of much of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and the displacement of more than one million Gazans. The Swedish letter joined earlier, similar requests to exclude Israel from more than 1,400 artists in Finland and Iceland.

The open letter from Creative Community for Peace — the first public call of its kind from the entertainment industry voicing unequivocal support of Israel’s inclusion in the contest — highlights Eurovision’s ability to unify people from diverse backgrounds and music’s power to effect positive change in the world.

Other signatories to the open letter include: Julianna Marguiles, Ginnifer Goodwin, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Skylar Astin, Atlantic Records Group CEO Julie Greenwald, Universal Music Publishing Group CEO Jody Gerson, Warner Records CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck, Patricia Heaton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Disturbed’s David Draiman, Tom Arnold, Columbia Pictures chairman Tom Rothman and MRC co-founder/co-CEO Modi Wiczyk.

The letter notes that Israel has a long and storied Eurovision history — including hosting in 1979, 1999 and 2019 and winning in 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018 — while offering up a diverse group of contestants representing the Palestinian, Ethiopian and LGBTQIA+ communities. “Furthermore, we believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music,” it reads.

“The annual Eurovision Song Contest embodies this unifying spirit. Every year, millions of people across Europe and around the world join in a massive display of cultural exchange and celebration of music. Those who are calling for Israel’s exclusion are subverting the spirit of the Contest and turning it from a celebration of unity into a tool of politics.” Click here to see the full letter.

Kim Petras has the perfect soundtrack for you Valentine’s Day. The Grammy-winning singer dropped a 12-track sex positive lust bomb EP on Wednesday (Feb. 14) entitled Slut Pop Miami, a sequel her 2002 seven-track Slut Pop EP.
The collection that a press release explains was “inspired by hedonistic trips to Miami” pulls no punches from jump on “Slut Pop Reprise,” on which Petras promises “these b–ches can’t suck like me/ Walk in, I’m the sucking queen” over an insistent disco beat and a robotic voice announcing “this is slut pop.”

The pleasure-seeking party doesn’t stop there, with X-rated jams including “Gag On It,” “F–in’ This F–kin’ That,” “Get F–ked,” “Rim Job,” “C–kblocker,” “B-tt Slut,” “Whale C-ck” and the EDM banger “Banana Boat,” on which Petras coos “So ripe, so sweet, big and juicy/ Can’t wait to put ya in my smoothie/ I wanna ride, ride, ride your banana boat.”

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Petras has been hyping the collection on her Instagram for the past two weeks, showing off a custom Corvette with the album’s title, a teaser for the album’s title track in which Petras poses on the beach in a barely there silver bikini hiding, over inflated, exploding breast implants. After that clip was posted, Petras’ “Unholy” collaborator, Sam Smith, commented “UNBELIEVABLE.”

In the day leading up the EPs release, Petras released two more NSFW teaser videos that, well, see for yourself.

Petras is currently on the European leg of her Feed the Beast world tour in support of her 2023 albums Feed the Beast and Problématique.

Listen to Slut Pop Miami below.

It may be Valentine’s Day, but if you are really in the mood for love it might make sense to pass up those chocolates and long-stemmed roses today and save your romantic gesture for a late summer date to the inaugural swoon-worthy Fool in Love festival.
The packed lineup for the August 31 gig at Sofi Stadium-adjacent Hollywood Park in Los Angeles will be headlined by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, with a stacked roster of classic R&B and soul stars including Al Green, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, the Isley Brothers, Charlie Wilson, the O’Jays, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, the Stylistics, the Chi-Lites, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Zapp, Kool & the Gang, Rose Royce and Morris Day & the Time, among many others.

Fans can signs up now for an access code to a presale that begins on Friday (Feb. 16) at 1 p.m. ET here; a public onsale will follow at 5 p.m. ET if any tickets remain. GA, GA+, VIP and Platinum tickets will be available with layaway payment plans starting at $19.99 down.

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Also slated to perform at the show are: Santana, Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Jacksons, War, the Spinners, the Whispers, Durand Jones & the Indications, Barbara Mason, Mayer Hawthorne, Durand Jones, the Delfonics, the Stylistics, Los Lobos, Stevie B, Heatwave, the Bar Kays feat. Larry Dodson, Cameo, Shalamar, S.O.S. Band, Dazz Band, the Legendary Blue Notes, Bloodstone, Frankie J, Con Funk Shun, the Pointer Sisters, the Mary Jane Girls and many more.

Check out the full lineup below.