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The lineup for the Hollywood portion of the 2024 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest was revealed on Thursday night (Dec. 7), and it is jam-packed with pop, hip-hop, R&B and rock stars. The list includes Green Day, Janelle Monae, Ludacris and Reneé Rapp, as well as “Barbie” band Aqua, Bebe Rexha, […]
Cher‘s chart-topping Christmas album marked her first-ever holiday record — and now, the legendary singer will embark on another first: a trip to the metaverse.
Billboard can share exclusive first details about Cher’s four-week event on Roblox that launches today (Dec. 8) in the latest collaboration between Warner Music Group and leading metaverse game developer Gamefam. Cher will head to WMG’s music-themed Roblox world Harmony Hills, which will have its halls decked in festive decor, add new holiday-themed locations, and launch limited-time virtual merchandise inspired by some of the superstar’s most iconic looks with tinsel hair, winter fairy wings, diamond antlers and a winter crown. The activation will spotlight three of Cher’s new Christmas tracks: “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” with Tyga, “Angels in the Snow,” and her historic new No. 1 single, “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
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Alongside a virtual Cher NPC (non-playable character) designed to match her new album cover, players can earn the wearable avatar merch by successfully completing tasks like delivering presents, climbing up Christmas trees and participating in snowball fights.
The Cher space in Harmony Hills is the latest launch in WMG and Gamefam’s partnership that kicked off in February 2023 ahead of a Super Bowl concert with Warner Records rapper Saweetie. Gamefam reports the concert holds the highest rating among any concert on Roblox with a 96 percent player rating, with the Super Bowl campaign earning over 7.5 million visits in one week. A Bebe Rexha concert in July in support of her Bebe album averaged 8,300 concurrent users amid its 4.3 million unique visits.
Leaning into the 70 million daily active users on Roblox marks a unique opportunity for a legend like Cher to reach across generations, including an entirely new audience and demographic, via festive and familiar holiday music.
“Christmas songs have this magic that always brings families together and we feel Cher’s Christmas album really captures that spirit,” explains Jacqui Bransky, vp of Web3 and Innovation at Warner Records. “We thought taking her music to Roblox would help expose her to a new generation of fans while simultaneously spreading joy. We wanted to make the whole experience feel like a story, something that really draws the audience in while still feeling authentic to who Cher is as an artist.”
Adds Alli Guglielmino, svp of Growth at Gamefam, “Cher is an everlasting, multi-generational superstar and, after seven decades, Cher continues to find innovative ways to connect with a new wave of fans…as Gen Z and Alpha turn away from traditional music consumption methods, there’s no better place to reach them than the metaverse gaming platform where they’re actively playing for 2.5 hours every day.”
Cher’s Christmas event on Roblox (launching at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 8) joins her heavy promo run for the holiday LP that’s included performances at the iHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball, the Rockefeller Center Tree-Lighting Special and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Gamefam & Warner Records
Mariah Carey has been barnstorming the country for nearly a month on her festive Merry Christmas One and All tour and on Friday morning (Dec. 8) she presented her fans with the greatest gift of all: a new Lambs-centric video for her modern holiday classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” “The best thing […]
The pop world looked different than previous years in 2023, with a mix of genres topping the Billboard Hot 100 throughout the year — from country and pop-rap to K-pop and Latin and beyond. Billboard‘s staff put together our list of our top songs from throughout the year, with SZA’s “Kill Bill” topping the list. […]
Stay calm, Arianators — but it looks like Ariana Grande might be working on new music.
After putting her singing career on pause for the past couple years to focus on the Wicked live-action films, the 30-year-old vocalist shared a series of photos and muted videos on Instagram of her hard at work in a professional recording studio. In many of them, Grande — who’s known for producing her own vocals — sits at a computer while editing audio files visible on the screen.
The “Thank U, Next” singer didn’t provide a caption for the Thursday (Dec. 7) post, much less any details about what she’s planning. However, her close friend and frequent collaborator Victoria Monet did comment, “She’s HOME!!!🤎🤎🤎🥂”
Cynthia Erivo, who’s starring as Elphaba opposite Grande’s Glinda in the Wicked movies, also wrote that “no one is ready.” “I’m so freaking proud of you!!” added the singer-actress. “This project is so freaking special!!!”
The Victorious alum hasn’t had a proper release since her 2020 album Positions. She has jumped on tracks such as The Weeknd’s “Die for You” and “Santa, Can You Hear Me” with Kelly Clarkson over the past few years, and she released a 10-year anniversary edition of her debut album Yours Truly in August. But other than that, Grande’s pretty much kept her sights trained on Wicked and her R.E.M. Beauty business.
“[Wicked] is going to have every piece of me, every minute, every ounce of my heart, my time, my soul, my everything that I can give it,” she said in May 2022. “My hands are quite full with a lot of other ‘thrillifying’ work at the moment. I am spending all of my time with Glinda, I just was not ready.”
Fans have grown increasingly impatient for Grande to release a new album, something she’s teased her listeners about a couple times this year. “I know you’re very annoyed with me and my little makeup, but it’s coming,” she joked in a Q&A in August, referencing fans who are vocal about wanting the star to prioritize music over R.E.M. “There’s more, mhmm. Gotcha!”
In October, she shared Instagram pictures of her hanging out with some goats on a farm and teased: “ag7: goat mother.”
Britney Spears‘ best-selling memoir The Woman in Me featured the stories behind a number of iconic and difficult moments from the “Toxic” singer’s life and career. But one that really struck a chord with so many fans — thanks to actress Michelle Williams’ unforgettable reading of it in the audiobook version — was a scene […]
Our 100 favorite songs from a year where “pop” could mean just about anything.
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No one sounds quite like Adele — and she knows it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Thursday (Dec. 7), the publication’s latest cover star was brutally honest about what she really thinks when other artists attempt to sing her hits.
“With my music, and for whoever listens to it, I think I’m not the best singer in the world at all, but no one else can sing my songs like me because they didn’t write them,” she said. “No one can sing my songs like me, period.”
“The lyrics are not their own,” she added, laughing. “And I don’t think anyone else should sing my songs.”
OK, the Queen of Soul might be the one exception. “Apart from Aretha Franklin,” Adele amended when asked about the late legend’s cover of “Rolling in the Deep.”
“No, I don’t mind it when they do, but I’m just saying, they’re never going to be able to emote it,” she continued. “Same way that I can’t sing other people’s songs. I didn’t write the lyrics, and I can’t sing as well as them. But it’s just like, I would choose this any day.”
The 16-time Grammy winner’s new interview comes on the same day as THR‘s annual Women in Entertainment event, for which she is this year’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award honoree. Still in the thick of her Weekends with Adele Las Vegas residency, the 35-year-old star also opened up about which of her concert guests made her “s–t” herself (Lady Gaga), her love for SZA and Dua Lipa and her surprising dream job — a script reader at a Hollywood studio.
As for new music, Adele says she hasn’t “even thought about it.” The same pretty much goes for collaborations with other artists, with the “Easy On Me” singer revealing that she’s turned down “a lot” of duet requests. “Some of them are just an obvious no, that I would never do,” she shared. “Some people ask and I’m like, ‘In what world do you actually think I would say yes to that?’ And it doesn’t make any sense either. A couple that I’ve been like, ‘Oh, I want to do that,’ and the timing hasn’t worked out.”
“I’m not anti-it,” she added. “I’m not anti-it at all. I’m open to it. But also, if I do it, it has to be f–king great.”
Did Taylor Swift write “When Emma Falls in Love” about Emma Stone? The world may never know.
Both stars were in attendance Wednesday evening (Dec. 6) at the premiere of Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film starring Stone opposite Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. And on the red carpet, Stone was asked about the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) Vault track that had many fans obsessing over whether she was its subject.
Unfortunately for Swifties, the 35-year-old actress’ response didn’t clear anything up. “You would have to ask her,” she told Entertainment Tonight of Swift.
Stone — who is a Billboard-charting artist thanks to her La La Land duet “City of Stars” with Ryan Gosling — and the “Anti-Hero” singer are longtime friends, first meeting when both of them were teenagers. Earlier this year, the Easy A star attended one of Swift’s kickoff Eras Tour shows in Glendale, Ariz., after which Stone said of the musician, “She’s a wonderful friend. She blows my mind.”
On Wednesday night, it was Swift’s turn to support Stone. After walking the red carpet ahead of the screening at the DGA Theater in New York City, TIME‘s 2023 Person of the Year was spotted in the audience sitting next to Suki Waterhouse and Robert Pattinson.
And while confirmation may never come regarding fan theories that “When Emma Falls in Love” was inspired by Stone, many listeners remain convinced. On the previously unreleased track, written circa 2010, Swift sings, “When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom/ Jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong/ She waits and takes her time/ ‘Cause Little Miss Sunshine always thinks it’s gonna rain.”
When those lyrics dropped alongside the rest of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July, the question for some theorists wasn’t whether the track was about Stone, but whether the specific romance described in the song was Stone’s famous relationship with her The Amazing Spiderman costar Andrew Garfield.
The Oscar winner and Garfield dated for a few years before breaking up in 2015. In 2020, Stone married comedy writer Dave McCary, and the pair welcomed their daughter Louise Jean in March 2021.
Fresh off being named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year, Taylor Swift hit the red carpet in New York on Wednesday night (Dec. 6) to support her old friend Emma Stone at the premiere of the actress’ new dark comedy, Poor Things. According to People magazine, Swift made the scene at the DGA Theater in […]