Pop

05 Mar 2024

Justin Timberlake Teases Tender New ‘Technicolor’ Track: Listen

We’re just 10 days away from the release of Justin Timberlake‘s forthcoming sixth studio album, and the “Cry Me a River” hitmaker is teasing us with snippets of some of the album tracks.

On Tuesday (March 5), Timberlake took to his official Instagram page to share a snippet of the fifth track on Everything I Thought It Was. Titled “Technicolor,” the new song finds JT gently crooning over a subdued electro-pop&b soundscape reminiscent of some of the double-header tracks on The 20/20 Experience. “Caught up in the moment, every color saturated/ Your shape is painted on my canvas like it’s animated/ Every emotion of life, so vivid,” he sings.

This isn’t the first snippet of “Technicolor” to surface before the LP’s full release. Back in 2021, Timbaland shared an Instagram post that featured a snippet of JT crooning, “Let’s make love in technicolor/ Use all of our self inside,” in the background.

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Timberlake has released two songs from Everything I Thought It Was so far. Lead single “Selfish” arrived on Jan. 25, netting a No. 19 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 — his highest debut on the chart in six years. Shortly after securing his 29th top 40 hit as a soloist, Timberlake dropped the emotional promotional single “Drown” on Feb. 23. While that track failed to enter the Hot 100, it did hit No. 1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.

Everything I Thought It Was marks JT’s first full-length release since 2018’s Billboard 200-topping Man of the Woods. That album housed the Hot 100 top 10 hits “Filthy” (No. 9) and “Say Something” (No. 9, with Chris Stapleton), the latter of which earned a Grammy nod for best pop duo/group performance. Timberlake will launch a sprawling North American arena tour in support of his new LP, commencing on April 29 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C., and concluding Nov. 20 at KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Ky.

Listen to a snippet of “Technicolor” below:

05 Mar 2024

Miley Cyrus & Pharrell’s Revived Collab Is Just What the ‘Doctor’ Ordered

Miley Cyrus and Pharrell reportedly worked on their newly released song “Doctor (Work It Out)” circa her 2013 Bangerz era — and now, more than a decade later, they’ve gifted fans with the upbeat single and a feel-good video to match.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about where the song might live — on a new Pharrell album? Or a new Miley project? Or is it just a one-off treat? And why was it scrapped from Bangerz in the first place?

Listen to our full conversation below:

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Also on the show, we’re discussing Rihanna’s private, pre-wedding performance in India – which marked her first full concert since her Anti World Tour back in 2016. Could she be rehearsing for something bigger? Plus, we’ve got chart news on how the Korean pop girl group TWICE lands its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and with fellow K-pop girl group LE SSERAFIM debuting in the top 10 as well, they team up for a big week for all-female groups in the top 10.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

05 Mar 2024

Billboard Explains: PinkPantheress’ Impressive Chart Record

Hailing from Bath, England, PinkPantheress has quickly morphed into a global phenomenon thanks to her sleek, catchy blend of U.K. garage, drum and bass and bedroom pop. After a couple of minor hits on TikTok back in 2021, the “Break It Off” singer parlayed her proclivity for viral success into a world-conquering Ice Spice-assisted smash and a terrific debut LP.

An acclaimed producer in her own right, PinkPantheress co-produced every track on Heaven Knows — just one of many reasons she was a clear choice to be honored as Billboard Women in Music‘s Producer of the Year for 2024.

PinkPantheress first made her Billboard Hot 100 debut with the hit single “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2” (with Ice Spice). Although it was just her first entry on Billboard’s marquee singles chart, the track flew all the way to a peak of a No. 3. As “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2” scaled the charts, PinkPantheress’ production contributions netted her a No. 12 peak on Hot 100 Producers.

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Over on the Billboard 200, she has charted a pair of titles. In 2021, her To Hell With It mixtape — which featured early hits “Break It Off” and “Just for Me” — reached No. 73 on the ranking. Two years later, Heaven Knows — her debut album, featuring “Mosquito,” “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2” and “Nice to Meet You” (with Central Cee) — peaked at No. 61. PinkPantheress has also found some noteworthy success on Billboard’s genre charts. On Hot Rock/Alternative Songs, she has four career appearances, including “Break It Off” (No. 30) and the Willow-assisted “Where You Are” (No. 22).

With her career already yielding such impressive returns, it’s clear that PinkPantheress’ Producer of the Year honor is just the beginning for the young multi-hyphenate.

After the video, catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about Peso Pluma and the Mexican music boom, the role record labels play, origins of hip-hop, how Beyoncé arrived at Renaissance, the evolution of girl groups, BBMAs, NFTs, SXSW, the magic of boy bands, American Music Awards, the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the Hot 100 chart, how R&B/hip-hop became the biggest genre in the U.S., how festivals book their lineups, Billie Eilish’s formula for success, the history of rap battles, nonbinary awareness in music, the Billboard Music Awards, the Free Britney movement, rise of K-pop in the U.S., why Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums, the boom of hit all-female collaborations, how Grammy nominees and winners are chosen, why songwriters are selling their publishing catalogs, how the Super Bowl halftime show is booked and more.

05 Mar 2024

Reneé Rapp Postpones Shows Due to Illness & Voice Loss: ‘I Have to Prioritize My Health’

Reneé Rapp has postponed two upcoming performances in her Snow Hard Feelings Tour, revealing that she’s struggling to sing as a result of being sick.

In a candid message to fans on X Tuesday (March 5), the Mean Girls star broke the news that she won’t be able to perform her back-to-back concerts at Vinilo Record Store in Southhampton as previously scheduled on March 7.

“Guys I’m sure you could tell but my voice was gone after last nights show,” Rapp wrote. “I’ve been sick for the majority of the European leg of this tour, and without any recovery time I can’t seem to shake it. I’m being told that I need to rest my voice and not sing through for risk of long term injury. I want to keep delivering high quality shows [for] you.”

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Noting that she’s “really sorry to do this,” the “Not My Fault” singer went on to say that she plans on returning to Hampshire over the summer, closer to when she’s booked to play Leeds Festival on Aug. 23 and Reading Festival on Aug. 25 in the U.K. “We’ll have the new rescheduled date to share with you before the weekend,” she wrote.

“This tour is everything to me but holy s–t am I burnt,” Rapp added. “I have to prioritize my health in this moment. love you and appreciate your understanding endlessly.”

The news comes on the heels of Rapp’s Monday (March 4) concert in Dublin, the last show of her tour’s European leg, which kicked off Feb. 13 in Paris. As of now, she’ll next take the stage in April at Coachella, where she’s slated to perform both weekends on the 14th and 21st.

See Rapp’s message to fans below.

05 Mar 2024

Madonna Recalls First Words After Coming Out of Coma, Struggling to Walk After Hospitalization

Madonna is in the middle of a five-night concert run at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., as part of her Celebration Tour, but less than a year ago, she wouldn’t have been able to even walk onstage.

During her Monday (March 4) concert, the 65-year-old superstar revealed that the severe bacterial infection she suffered in June 2023 — which led to her hospitalization and the postponement of her current trek — at one point made it nearly impossible for her to move around. “This summer I had a surprise,” she told the crowd, holding a cowboy hat in one hand and gripping a guitar in the other. “It’s called a near-death experience.”

“It was pretty scary — obviously I didn’t know for four days because I was in an induced coma, but when I woke up, the first word I said was, ‘No,’” she continued. “I’m pretty sure God was saying to me, ‘You wanna come with us? You wanna come with me, you wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No. No!’”

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The “Express Yourself” singer went on to thank her doctor, who she said was in the audience and had advised her to go outside and soak up some vitamin D while she was recovering from her health scare. “It was so hard for me to walk form my house to the backyard and sit in the sun,” Madge recalled. “I know that sounds insane, but it was difficult.”

“I didn’t know when I could get up again and when I could be myself again,” the seven-time Grammy winner added. “It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control. That was my lesson to let go.”

After delaying the career-spanning trek over the summer, Madonna was finally able to kick off her Celebration Tour in October at the O2 Arena in London. She’s currently scheduled to stay on the road through April 26, when she’ll conclude the six-month run with a show at Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City.

At a previous concert, the Queen of Pop revealed that her six children were instrumental in pulling her out of her illness. “By the way, I had to almost die to get all my kids in one room,” she joked to her Brooklyn crowd in December.

“And I was thinking, ‘What if I left my children?’” she continued, more seriously. “That would destroy me to leave my children at this moment in their lives. I wasn’t thinking about me. I was thinking about them, and I was thinking about my mother and how scared she must have been to know that she was going to leave us all behind.”

Watch Madonna reflect on her near-death experience below.

05 Mar 2024

Lance Bass Reveals Diabetes Diagnosis During COVID: ‘I’m Really Trying to Figure Out How to Control That’

Lance Bass is opening up about the diabetes diagnosis he got during the COVID-19 lockdown, telling People that the news forced him to re-think his diet, exercise and mindfulness routines. “I’m really trying to figure out how to control that,” the 44-year-old singer and *NSYNC member told the magazine. “I’m definitely conscious of my eating now.”

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In order to get a handle of his blood sugar levels, Bass said he’s learning “what you can eat, when you can eat, when you take your insulin — and all that has just been really hard lately.” That lifestyle change includes Bass prioritizing his physical health, including upping his work-out schedule.

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“Exercising is so key right now, but it’s hard for me because of my schedule to get to a gym,” said the married father of twins Violet and Alexander with husband painter/actor Michael Turchin. “So I do have a nice setup at my house and I get 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there.” One of the most important lessons he said he’s learned is the importance of drinking “tons” of water. You think you’re drinking too much water, [but] you need to drink even more than that.”

In addition to exercise and diet, Bass said he’s begun meditating in the morning, a practice he said “cuts my brain off just for a few minutes,” as well as hiking to improve his mental state.

Bass has also been busy lately collaborating with his former *NSYNC bandmate Justin Timberlake, first on the on-hiatus boy band’s first new charting single since 2002, the 2023 Trolls Band Together soundtrack single “Better Place,” which debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. He’s also featured — along with Joey Fatone, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick — on “Paradise,” the 17th song on Timberlake’s upcoming solo album, Everything I Thought It Was.

05 Mar 2024

Hot 100 First-Timers: LE SSERAFIM Enters With ‘Easy’ From New EP

South Korean pop group LE SSERAFIM is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting act thanks to the group’s new single, “Easy.”

Released Feb. 19 on its new five-track EP of the same name, the song debuts at No. 99 with 5.2 million official streams and 1,000 downloads sold in the U.S. in its first full tracking week (Feb. 23-29), according to Luminate.

The EP concurrently debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 equivalent album units earned. Notably, as TWICE’s With YOU-th EP enters at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, this marks the first week that the top 10 has featured two all-women K-pop groups. Easy also starts at No. 2 on both the World Albums and Top Album Sales charts, while the title track surges to No. 6 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, marking the group’s second, and top charting, top 10.

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LE SSERAFIM, which is signed to Source Music/Geffen Records/IGA, notched its first Billboard chart entry on May 14, 2022, when “Fearless” debuted on Global Excl. U.S. and the Billboard Global 200 charts (at Nos. 74 and 155, respectively). The same week, it also opened at No. 14 on World Digital Song Sales. To date, the act has charted seven songs each on the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. and five on World Digital Song Sales.

The group has also tallied three entries on the World Albums chart: Antifragile (No. 1 in November 2022), Unforgiven (its debut full-length LP; No. 1 in May 2023) and now Easy.

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LE SSERAFIM, whose name is an anagram of the phrase “I’m fearless,” is comprised of members Kim Chae-won, Hong Eun-chae, Kazuha, Sakura and Huh Yun-jin.

05 Mar 2024

From Taylor Swift to Warhol’s Factory, Girl In Red Reveals What Inspired Her New Album

With the release of her 2021 debut album, if i could make it go quiet, alternative singer-songwriter girl in red blurred the line between contemplative songwriting and chaotic production, leaving the Norwegian artist born Marie Ulven with the challenging task of crafting an equally compelling follow-up. Yet I’m Doing It Again Baby! (out April 12 on Columbia Records) lives up to the difficult standard set for sophomore albums: Her songwriting cuts quicker to the core, while Matias Tellez’s production fuses even more influences.

Girl in red, 25, describes the album as an “elevated” version of her previous output. “It feels more creative,” she says, “more fun and more playful, and a little bit more confident. I’m not playing it safe, which is important … Everything is just getting pushed further.” She breaks down the inspirations that influenced I’m Doing It Again Baby!, from working alongside fellow pop superstars to refining her culinary tastes.

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Taylor Swift

While finishing her album in 2023, girl in red earned a coveted spot as one of the openers for Swift’s The Eras Tour. “It was like watching history being written in the moment — like, ‘I’m a part of history now,’” she recalls, still in awe. Opening five dates in June, she explains, was more than just a cool opportunity; it provided a career’s worth of educational experiences in less than a month. “I learned so much from watching Taylor’s shows and seeing how hard she works,” she recalls. “My new thing is I’ll ask myself, ‘What would Taylor do?,’ because I’m so inspired by her work ethic: ‘We’re not complaining, we’re just getting sh-t done.’”

Fine Dining

In the process of elevating her music, girl in red found that “my palate and my taste for food and drinks completely changed.” Embarking on gastronomic adventures at Michelin-star restaurants, and even studying to become a sommelier (“I have this delusion where I think I can be anything,” she jokes), the singer found herself taking on more complex topics in her music. “I think food is highly connected to everything you feel. So trying a bunch of really nice wines and nice foods gave me more depth to work with in production,” she explains. “I know that sounds really f–king pretentious, but it’s true!”

1960s New York

On the final track of the album, “*****,” girl in red pines for the art scene of 1960s Lower Manhattan, specifically Andy Warhol’s iconic studio The Factory: “Six out of six, I never miss, you’ve got to be delusional to be in the biz at The Factory,” she sings. The artist says reading Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids, introduced her to the scene’s history and made her immediately yearn for the “electric” times she wasn’t alive for. “I just feel like we’re missing that energy now,” she says. “With Studio 54 and The Factory and all these amazing artists working together to produce great art — it’s just so cool. I wish we had more of that today.”

Cartier Watches 

“I had never thought about watches in my entire life,” Ulven says with a laugh. But when her longtime collaborator Matias Tellez started explaining his love of timepieces, the singer says she adopted the same obsession. She soon developed a specific infatuation with Cartier’s brand of stylish wristwear, and convinced Tellez to buy matching engraved gold watches to commemorate the album’s release. “It’s sort of about manifesting,” she says. “All these iconic people have worn these Cartier watches, and there’s something about wanting to wear something that iconic people wore.”

A version of this story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.

05 Mar 2024

Gregg Alexander Reveals ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ Was Meant to Be New Radicals’ Debut Single

Gregg Alexander‘s music career could have taken a much different path had he not had a very bad night in Detroit 30 years ago. The reclusive singer/songwriter and leader of the New Radicals recently revealed that his band’s signature 1994 debut single, the up with (positive) people anthem “You Get What You Give,” almost didn’t make the grade thanks to an equally catchy song he ended up handing off.

“I had a moment of annoyance that I couldn’t go to the house clubs in Detroit. So he reached for the acoustic guitar in the back, channelling his emotion into a song beginning ‘It’s murder on the dancefloor, but you’d better not kill the groove,’” Alexander told the Guardian about a 1994 night when his old blue Ford Mustang wouldn’t start, depriving him of an evening of clubbing.

What he got instead, though, was the groove for “Murder on the Dancefloor,” the song that became a No. 2 hit for Sophie Ellis-Bextor in the UK and then hit the top 20 again this year after it was memorably used in the viral hit movie Saltburn. “You know how Paul McCartney originally sang about scrambled eggs in ‘Yesterday?;” Alexander said. “‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ wasn’t anything deep from my subconscious. It was just a dummy lyric that was kind of sung for fun, but then I couldn’t better it.”

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Alexander’s lost-to-time demo of the song has the same driving disco meter, but shot through with his signature keening vocals and his band’s eternal sunshine vibe, enhanced by a string section played on a keyboard. Alexander and the Radicals only released one album, 1998’s Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, which featured the equally bouncy “You Get What You Give,” which hit the top five in the U.K.

“I almost flipped a coin between the two songs,” Alexander, 53, told the Guardian. “The record company wanted something urgently and I didn’t have the time or the budget to finish both. I felt like ‘Murder’ was a monster but ‘You Get What You Give’ was a masterpiece. It was everything I’d always wanted to say inside five minutes.”

In a way, Alexander won on both accounts, since the co-write with Ellis-Bextor (Alexander also co-produced “Murder”) has now become as iconic as the New Radicals’ hit, which has more than 440 million Spotify plays to date. “A publisher told me that in January it [‘Murder’] was the most heard music on the planet,” Alexander said of the track for which he recorded a “master quality” demo at the time. “That’s just incredible.”

Just two years after writing the double dose of pop wonderment, Alexander disbanded the New Radicals and receded from the spotlight to focus on songwriting, penning a Grammy-winning track for Santana (2002’s “The Game of Love”), as well as writing and producing tracks for Enrique Iglesias, Rod Stewart, Hanson, Ronan Keating and S Club 7.

After moving to Notting Hill, England following the New Radicals’ break-up, Alexander’s demo got into the hands of Ellis-Bextor, at which point they finished the track together. “‘Murder’ was a song I always wanted the world to hear,” Alexander said, recalling that during sessions for the song he would walk down the halls at the studio and see people dancing along to “Murder,” which made him think they were on to something. “And when I met Sophie we embarked on a creative journey, the first of three or four Top 10 hits we had.”

The original demo also had the “I know, I know, I know” ad lib, which Alexander said he’d been told was a songwriting no-go. “I’d been told you can’t use the same words over and over because it’s too repetitive,” he said. “So I used ‘I know’ seven times.”

The reboot of “Murder” has also reconnected him with Ellis-Bextor, with Alexander realizing that sometimes things work out just as they were supposed to. “She’s so talented and humble but a great pop star. I think her genius, slightly deadpan delivery helped make it a hit,” he said. “Everything would have been different if I’d put out ‘Murder on the Dancefloor,’ but I feel that everything happened as it was meant to be.”

Listen to the “Murder on the Dancefloor” demo here (paywalled).

05 Mar 2024

Why This Spring Is Stacked With Major Pop Releases

Women are set to dominate a crowded March-April album slate with major releases from Ariana Grande to Taylor Swift.

Sound, Women in Music, Maggie Rogers, Shakira, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift

Clockwise from left: Maggie Rogers, Shakira, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift.

Illustration by Mara Ocejo; Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Christopher Polk for Variety; Kevin Mazur/WireImage; Katia Temkin; Kelly Christine Sutton; Graham Denholm/TAS24/Getty Images

Spring isn’t necessarily known as a big time for new album releases — but it will be in 2024.

After women took home all of the Big Four Grammy Awards in February (Taylor Swift won album of the year, a record-breaking fourth win, for Midnights; Billie Eilish won song of the year with the Barbie soundtrack song “What Was I Made For?”; Miley Cyrus won record of the year with her Billboard Hot 100 topper “Flowers”; and Victoria Monét won best new artist), they will continue to dominate the release calendar in March and beyond.

Across a six-week span, a coterie of music’s A-listers will deliver new — and highly anticipated — albums. Starting with Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and on through to Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, the flurry will keep listeners busy. And with impending releases from Dua Lipa, Normani and Billie Eilish — and potentially SZA’s Lana, a deluxe version of her Billboard 200-topping SOS album — still on the way, this succession is showing no sign of slowing down.

Surely, so much new music from major stars signals a packed touring season ahead. And though Grande told The Zach Sang Show in a recent interview she is “unsure” about hitting the road to support Eternal Sunshine, she will make a grand return to Saturday Night Live as the show’s musical guest on March 9. Meanwhile, Swift’s monumental The Eras Tour is set to continue through this December.

Below, Billboard breaks down the confirmed upcoming albums that will help us ease into the warmer months ahead.