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It’s the most wonderful time of the year — when Billboard unveils the year-end charts! And this year, for the first time in a long time, the chart unveiling coincided with the 2023 Billboard Music Awards. If you tuned in Sunday, you know that Morgan Wallen was our big winner, taking home 11 prizes, while […]
When Taylor Swift first released her Midnights track, “Snow on the Beach,” fans were confused. The song featured Lana Del Rey, but the singer was barely heard throughout the track.
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Swift listened to her fans and soon released an updated version in May titled, “Snow on the Beach (Feat. More Lana Del Rey).” The track highlights Del Rey more, as she sings the entire second verse. In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar shared on Tuesday (Nov. 21), Del Rey explains that she actually had a huge role in the first iteration of the song.
“That was actually the song Taylor wanted me to sing on. If I think someone’s song is perfect, I will act as a producer in it,” she explained. “I can mimic almost anyone, so I am all over the first version of ‘Snow on the Beach.’ I layer and match her vocals perfectly, so you would never even know that I was completely all over that first song. She wanted me to sing the whole thing, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The original version of “Snow on the Beach” became Del Rey’s highest charting song on the all genre Billboard Hot 100 to date — following the release of Midnights in November, the track debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the chart, where it spent a total of six weeks on the all genre tally. In a previous interview with Billboard, Del Rey that she wasn’t aware she should have added more to “Snow on the Beach.”
“I had no idea I was the only feature [on that song]. Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted. My job as a feature on a big artist’s album is to make sure I help add to the production of the song, so I was more focused on the production,” she said. “She was very adamant that she wanted me to be on the album, and I really liked that song. I thought it was nice to be able to bridge that world, since Jack [Antonoff] and I work together and so do Jack and Taylor.”
Elsewhere in the Harper’s Bazaar interview, Del Rey gushed over having the same tattoo as Adele — the word “paradise” written on the side of their hands. “I think we must have been on the same wavelength,” Del Rey said. “That’s actually a cool little connection. I like that. That’s amazing.”
Adele performs on stage as American Express present BST Hyde Park in Hyde Park on July 02, 2022 in London, England.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Watch the full interview below.
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In a world full of albums, only 23 have ever sold a million or more U.S. copies in a single week — and only one has ever done so more than once, much less three times total. At least, that’s what can be gathered since Luminate began electronically counting music sales in 1991, back when […]
It’s been a month since J Balvin and Maluma had the Internet buzzing when they posed for an Instagram photo with Britney Spears at a New York City restaurant. “We told her how proud we are about her,” the Colombian singer revealed to E! News this week of his and Maluma’s time with the pop star. […]
11/21/2023
Featuring Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, George Michael and more.
11/21/2023
The Kansas City Chiefs may soon have bad blood with the Philadelphia Eagles, who playfully bragged about their recent victory over Travis Kelce‘s team with a Taylor Swift-themed jab on Twitter. Shortly after beating the Chiefs 21-17 at Arrowhead Stadium Monday night (Nov. 20), the Eagles’ official team Twitter account shared a photo of a […]
Love is wonderful and exciting and disappointing, often all at the same time. And, every once in a while just plain confusing. That’s the state Lana Del Rey says she’s been in recently after a break-up she just can’t understand.
In a cover story for Harper’s BAZAAR in which the singer looks back on the difficulty of the critical pile-on early in her career and how that scorn has magically turned into praise for the singer’s influence on a new generation of stars such as Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, LDR also tackles love. Or the lack of it.
Hanging in her modest home with the writer, Lana opened up about how despite creating what she thinks of as a welcoming, mellow environment, her latest unnamed beau just couldn’t hang in her sacred space. “I feel like even the most chill guy doesn’t really want to chill here,” she said. “Sadly, part of you knows … that ain’t it.… That one shocked me. I won’t name names and whatever, but that one really shocked me, that person. That was actually the end of a relationship.”
She said the recent love interest wanted more from her, but what exactly that was wasn’t clear. “That’s a tough nut to swallow,” she said of the man who seemed enamored with the “idea of her,” but maybe not actually her. “In that person’s case, there was something going on with them, like a little bubble ego. See, I don’t get to have one anymore. It’s been smashed to … what do you call it? Smithereens. I’m sure it’s somewhere in my toe. That’s it. I’d love to grow one. I’m learning how. I’m learning. I know what I want.”
Del Rey also made one thing perfectly clear about her current dating status.
“I’m definitely not in love right now. No,” she “firmly” told her interviewer. “Absolutely not in love. Have been, but no.” Asked if she wishes to be in love at some point in the future, Del Ray shrugged and said the thought hadn’t actually crossed her mind over the last five months on the road in support of her most recent Grammy-nominated album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. “But give it a week. My history, sure, it’s coming for me at some point. Yeah. It would be interesting if it didn’t. It would be interesting if it didn’t.”
Del Rey — who People magazine reported earlier this year was in a relationship with house musician Jack Donoghue of Salem that began in early 2022 — has been linked to a number of musicians and photographers over the years. After several years with Scottish singer/songwriter Barrie-James O’Neill of Kassidy, the magazine said Del Rey began dating Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini in 2014, before a reported brief dalliance with rapper G-Eazy, followed by a year with cop Sean Larkin and an engagement to musician Clayton Johnson.
Billboard reported in March that Del Rey was engaged to Range Media Partners’ Evan Winiker; it was unclear at press time if the break-up referenced in the Harper’s story referred to Winiker.
After this latest break-up, Del Rey said some things would have to seriously shift for her to open her heart to someone else. “I think I would have to get my orientation toward where I want to be geographically stronger in my solar plexus, like a knowingness there, before I could tune into a stronger desire romantically,” she said. “Because if you don’t feel a connection necessarily to the pavement you’re walking on, the love thing stays over there.”
Check out the Harper’s cover below.
Collier Schorr
In 2020, Jessie Murph began regularly posting covers to YouTube and TikTok. They quickly gained a following, and ever since she’s been scoring one win after the next. She parlayed her early success with covers of Ariana Grande, Fleetwood Mac, Post Malone and others into a label deal with Columbia Records the following year. By the end of 2021, “Always Been You” — the lead single from her debut mixtape — became her first hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Since then, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter has tallied three more entries on the chart: “Pray”; her Diplo and Polo G collaboration, “Heartbroken”; and most recently “Wild Ones” with Jelly Roll. The latest has already become her biggest hit to date, reaching a No. 42 high in six weeks on the ranking.
Over an inescapable country-driven groove, Murph and Jelly Roll romanticize risk-taking, rule-breaking daredevils with an affinity for fast cars and lifting their middle fingers high in the air. “Say you wanna get dangerous/ Now you’re speaking my language,” Murph sings.
The two musicians share a connection in more ways than one. Both are Nashville-area natives — though Murph’s family moved to Alabama when she was a child, she recently moved back to the Music City — and have continued to explore different genres throughout their careers, including country, hip-hop, pop and rock. For Jelly Roll (real name: Jason DeFord), “Need a Favor” and “Son of a Sinner” have been genre-fluid mainstays over the past year and have helped fuel a best new artist Grammy nomination and a win as new artist of the year at the recent CMA Awards.
“I think something that’s so special about him is he’s so always just so grateful,” Murph says of Jelly Roll. “You can tell he’s such a gratitude-based person and it’s beautiful. Jelly Roll has just been so positive and every time I’m around him I leave feeling so happy.”
How did this song come together?
It was such a long process. I feel like I made it months before it came out, and I never planned on having a feature on it. I was just going to put it out. But [at the] last minute, Jelly heard it and he was like, “I have a verse for this,” and I’m a huge fan of him. I went to one of his shows and sang a cover of “Simple Man” with him. Then I guess he heard “Wild Ones” and I was like, “Oh my God, please be on this.”
What inspired the song?
I’ve always been attracted to crazy things or chaos. That’s where the song came from. I don’t normally write fun songs, so it’s one of my first songs like that — really cool and different. I had been in a session all day and we had gotten nothing. In the last 30 minutes, I remember Gitty [producer/co-writer Jeff Gitelman] played this guitar lick and we ended up writing it super fast.
Once you were in the studio, were there any big changes made to the song?
We might’ve sped it up during the process to make it a little bit more groovy. But I really wanted country elements for this song — that was the palette I wanted to stay with. Stylistically, especially lately, I’ve been a little bit country leaning. I’m really inspired by country music, and I feel like it has found its way into my sound.
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How did you first hear Jelly Roll’s music?
My older brother is really into country [music], so he listens to a lot of that kind of stuff. I feel like we were just in the car and he had it on. I was like, “Whoa, this is insane.” But the craziest thing was seeing Jelly live. I was just blown away.
It feels like country music is everywhere this year, in different variations. Genres keep melding together in different ways. What is your take on that?
I think it’s beautiful. That has always been my thing as an artist: I don’t ever want to have a genre because I feel that boxes you in. As you get older and grow as a person, you listen to different types of music, and I think it’s beautiful when those things mix and intertwine. It creates a whole new vibe that people haven’t even heard. But I agree, country is exploding right now.
Who else would you want to collaborate with?
My dream collaboration is Lil Baby. I’ve always wanted to [make a song with him], and it’s going to happen at some point. I’m manifesting it. I’ve been obsessed with his music since I can remember. He’s just such a real person. I feel like he sings about real sh-t. I love his melodies, his flows.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Nov. 18, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The Beatles had one last hurrah earlier this month with the release of its final single, “Now and Then,” on Nov. 2. As with most releases from the Fab Four, the track proved to be a success for the group, and according to Ringo Starr, serves as a “nice way to finally close that door.” […]
A lot of things happened on Monday (Nov. 20) when President Biden participated in one of the weirdest annual White House fall traditions: the National Thanksgiving Turkey pardoning ceremony. As you’ve probably already read, Biden — who was also celebrating his 81st birthday that day — pardoned the cluckers named “Liberty” and “Bell” and then […]