Pop
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Sufjan Stevens was gearing up to promote his upcoming Javelin album (Oct. 6) when he woke up one day recently and couldn’t feel his hands of feet. The singer revealed in a length Instagram post on Wednesday (Sept. 20) that he has been missing from the press rounds in advance of his first solo collection of new tunes in three years because he’s been in the hospital battling a scary autoimmune disease.
“I’m very excited about having new music to share, but I just wanted to let you know that one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to participate in the press and promotion leading up to the release of Javelin is bc I am in the hospital,” the singer wrote along with a selfie of him in a hospital room with a walker at his side.
“Last month I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk. My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility,” he explained. “My brother drove me to the ER and after a series of tests—MRIs, EMGs, cat scans, X-rays, spinal taps (!), echo-cardiograms, etc.—the neurologists diagnosed me with an auto immune disorder called Guillian-Barré Syndrome.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, the syndrome is a “rare disorder in which your body’s immune system attacks your nerves. Weakness and tingling in your hands and feet are usually the first symptoms.” The numb sensation can spread quickly and can eventually paralyze a patient’s entire body, requiring immediate hospitalization to begin treatment.
The cause of the Syndrome is unknown, but most patients report symptoms of some kind of infection (COVID-19, Zika virus, a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection) in the weeks proceeding a diagnosis. There is currently no known cure, but there are several effective treatments that can ease symptoms and reduce the illness’ duration, with recovery sometimes taking several years, though most patients can walk again within six months of the first symptoms. In rare instances, the Syndrome can be fatal.
Stevens said he was lucky that he’s received treatment via immuno-hemoglobin infusions for five days, though he had to have faith that “the disease doesn’t spread to the lungs, heart and brain. Very scary, but it worked. I spent about two weeks in Med/Surg, stuck in a bed, while my doctors did all the things to keep me alive and stabilize my condition. I owe them my life,” he wrote.
Stevens said he was transferred to an acute rehab facility on Sept. 8, where he is currently “undergoing intensive physical therapy/occupational therapy, strength building etc. to get my body back in shape and to learn to walk again. It’s a slow process, but they say I will ‘recover,’ it just takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work.”
He noted that most people with GBS learn to walk again on their own within a year, so he’s hopeful that he’ll be back on his feet at some point. “I’m only in my second week of rehab but it is going really well and I am working really hard to get back on my feet,” he said. “I’m committed to getting better, I’m in good spirits, and I’m surrounded by a really great team. I want to be well!”
The singer/songwriter promised to keep fans updated on his progress and thanked them for their thoughts and prayers. “Be well, be joyful, stay sane, stay safe. I love you,” he said. Javelin is the proper solo follow-up to Stevens’ eighth studio album, 2020’s The Ascension.
See Stevens’ post below.
After Swifties solved 33 million puzzles in a mad dash to reveal the “Vault” tracks slated for Taylor Swift’s upcoming 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album, the singer finally revealed which extra songs will appear on her latest re-record project. The announced tracks that will accompany the album’s Oct. 27th release are: “Is It Over Now?,” “Now […]
Fifty years ago today (Sept. 20), Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana, during a concert tour of southern colleges. In the previous 15 months, Croce had amassed four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” “One Less Set of Footsteps” and the sing-along smash “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” which spent the final two weeks of July 1973 at No. 1.
The sudden death of someone who was so new to the mainstream was of course a shock. But few would have expected what would happen next: Croce’s death triggered one of the biggest posthumous sales booms in history. “I Got a Name,” which was released the day after Croce’s death, reached the top 10 on the Hot 100 in November. The following month, the poignant “Time in a Bottle” (which had appeared on his 1972 album You Don’t Miss Around With Jim) became his second No. 1. It made Croce just the third artist in the history of the Hot 100 to top the chart posthumously, following Otis Redding (“(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” 1968) and Janis Joplin (“Me and Bobby McGee,” 1971). Moreover, Croce became the first artist in Hot 100 history to top the chart both while living and after his death.
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Croce had even bigger success on the Billboard 200, where You Don’t Mess Around With Jim reached No. 1 on Jan. 12, 1974. Croce was just the second artist in the history of the Billboard 200 to reach No. 1 posthumously, following Joplin (Pearl, 1971). You Don’t Mess Around With Jim stayed on top for five consecutive weeks. For two of those weeks, Croce also had the No. 2 album, I Got a Name. He was the first artist to hold down the top two spots the same week since The Beatles scored in March 1969 with The Beatles (better known as The White Album) and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.
Croce’s impact was also felt during awards season. At the first American Music Awards on Feb. 19, 1974, Croce won favorite pop/rock male artist, beating a pair of legends – Elton John and Stevie Wonder. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was also nominated for favorite pop/rock song, but lost to Dawn featuring Tony Orlando’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” which had been the biggest hit of 1973.
“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was nominated for two Grammys – record of the year and best pop vocal performance, male. Croce was the first artist in Grammy history to receive a posthumous nod for record of the year. He lost in both categories at the 16th annual Grammy Awards on March 2, 1974. Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” took record of the year, while Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” took the male pop vocal prize. Wonder graciously saluted Croce in his acceptance speech: “I accept this award in memory of Jim Croce, who was a very talented man.”
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Another pop legend paid tribute to Croce that spring. Frank Sinatra covered “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” His brassy version had a seven-week run on the Hot 100 in April and May 1974, peaking at No. 83.
Wonder had two more top 40 hits on the Hot 100 in 1974 – “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” and “Workin at the Car Wash Blues.” All of his hits were gathered in Photographs & Memories/Greatest Hits, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in November 1974, becoming his fourth top 10 album in less than a year.
Croce ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s list of Top Pop Albums Artists of 1974, ahead of Elton John, Charlie Rich and John Denver. He had three albums in the top 25 on that year’s list of Top Pop Albums.
Why did Croce’s music touch such a nerve in the year following his death? Partly, it was because of the sense of loss of a talented young artist who died just as his career was really taking off. The fact that Croce was approached to record “I Got a Name” is a sign of how quickly he was moving up to the A-list. Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox (whose hits include the aforementioned “Killing Me Softly With His Song”) wrote the song for the Jeff Bridges film The Last American Hero.
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Also, Croce had some songs that resonated in the wake of his death, and almost seemed to foreshadow it, especially “Time in a Bottle” (“But there never seems to be enough time/ To do the things you want to do once you find them”). The title of “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” also seemed fit the circumstances. The latter song, at once polished and poignant, became Croce’s fifth and final top 10 hit on the Hot 100 in April 1974.
More broadly, Croce’s music was just right for that era, where soft-rock singer/songwriters were among the hottest acts in the business. His music was a perfect fit alongside such other hitmakers of the era as Denver, Carole King, Seals & Crofts, Gordon Lightfoot, Mac Davis and Dave Loggins.
Croce wrote all of his Hot 100 hits except “I Got a Name” and a 1976 medley of early rock and roll classics. His records were co-produced by Terry Cashman, now 82, and Tommy West, who died in 2021 at age 78.
Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990, alongside Smokey Robinson and Michel Legrand. In 2013, Garth Brooks included his version of “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” on his Billboard 200-topping box set, Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences.
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Croce’s widow, Ingrid Croce — with whom he recorded a duo album for Capitol in 1969 — is now 76. Their son A.J. Croce, who turned two eight days after the crash, is 51. A.J., who is also a singer/songwriter, has recorded 11 albums.
News of Croce’s death was reported on page 3 of the Sept. 29, 1973 issue of Billboard. The following week, there were two full-page ads paying tribute to the singer. One said simply “Jim Croce will be missed and deeply mourned by the Phonogram group of companies throughout the world.”
The other, signed by Jay Lasker, the president of Croce’s label, ABC/Dunhill, had an unusually warm and personal tone. It read, in full:
“Some people reach out and feel nothing. Jim reached out an in some way touched everyone.
“Some talk of love and goodness as if they alone remained its custodian. Jim gave his love and goodness as it if belonged to everyone.
“He told me, last New Year’s Day, that he enjoyed taking care of his son’s 2 a.m. bottle and diaper change because it gave him more time to spend with the boy, something he had precious little time for, in light of his heavy travel commitments.
“We are now all the losers for not being able to spend more time with Jim Croce.”
As we’d see in the weeks and months to come, many listeners, most of whom never met the man, felt the same way.
Selena Gomez provided a rare, raw glimpse into her personal life in the 2022 Apple TV+ documentary series My Mind & Me, an inside look at six years in the singer/actress’ life, chronicling the highs and lows of fame, her struggles with mental health and body image and life after being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus.
But according to The Hollywood Reporter, in a chat with Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington at Tuesday’s (Sept. 19) Thrive Global Music & Health Conference, the Only Murders in the Building star said if she had to do it over again she might have passed on sitting for director Alek Keshishian to spill her guts.
“I was very against it. There was a very long period of time where I just didn’t know if it was a good idea,” Gomez said of her first thoughts on the doc. “I knew, eventually, one day I wanted to maybe just be an actress for a while, and I didn’t know if it would jeopardize things in my life. I don’t know what I’m doing, letting people into my life. And then the moment it was released…I had no choice at that point. And I was relieved. I felt like a huge weight was lifted.”
The good part was that she got to say some things that had been on her mind for years, but Gomez said now it’s “very hard” for her to watch the series. That said, “I will never watch it again, but I’m very proud of it. I couldn’t have been luckier to have the people that worked on it with me,” she added.
With best-selling albums, a hit show in Murders and a successful Rare Beauty cosmetics line, the hosts wondered if Gomez might further expand her brand some day by writing a memoir. “Oh no, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not wise enough. I don’t think I can do that. But does it mean that one day I wouldn’t be interested? I have fun things I would like to say but not right now.”
Gomez was also asked about how she thinks artificial intelligence might impact the music industry in the midst of the historic dual Hollywood strike by actors and writers, which is predicated in part on the striking artist’s desire to get assurances about how studios plan to employ AI creatively.
“I don’t think anybody in my field wants to feel like they need to lean on a computer in order to translate their story or what they’re trying to say,” she said. “It terrifies me, to be honest, the whole AI thing, but I don’t think you could ever replace what a human being can write… Lil Wayne said it really well, and he was basically saying that there’s no other human like who you are. And that’s all it should be.”
Gomez recently released the bouncy song “Single Soon,” which is expected to appear on her upcoming third studio album, whose release date has not yet been announced.
Ed Sheeran is about to release his second album of the year when his Aaron-dessner produced Autumn Variations collection drops on Sept. 29. Actually, we found out on Tuesday (Sept. 19) that he’s also preparing to release his third album of 2023. In an Instagram post, Sheeran revealed that he’s recorded a surprise secret live […]
After 25 years in the music industry, Mýa is showing no signs of slowing down. The pop-R&B star made her debut in 1998, when she put out her self-titled studio album via Interscope Records. The debut single from the album, “It’s All About Me” with Sisqó, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and put the world onto Mýa’s sultry, angelic voice and cutting-edge R&B sound that infiltrated the mainstream pop market while drawing influences from hip-hop, dancehall, techno and more.
She revealed in a new interview with Billboard News that the outfit she wore in the “It’s All About Me” music video, which was inspired by the traditional red Chinese wedding dress, is her all-time favorite look. “I sketched that outfit on paper, drew the designs that I wanted and I saw it come to life,” she said. “But this is something that I’ve been doing for years. I have this whole sketchbook of outfits that I wanted to create before I signed my first deal. And so, that was one of them. The seamstress brought it to life, and that was an amazing experience for me as a brand new artist.”
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In June, she re-created the UNC jersey dress from her 2000 “Best of Me (Part 2)” video, featuring Jay-Z, while she was performing at Charlotte R&B Music Experience. (This reporter also re-created the UNC jersey dress look, as well as Mýa’s outfit from the 1999 “Take Me There” video with Blackstreet, Mase and Blinky Blink, due to endless claims that she resembles the singer. Decide for yourself in the video interview above!)
Aside from her iconic looks, pop-dancehall collaborations have been another constant in Mýa’s storied career. Over the years, she’s worked with Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists like Beenie Man (“Girls Dem Sugar,” “Lie Detector,” “Docta”), Sean Paul (“Things Come & Go”), Spice (“Take Him Out”) and, most recently, Bounty Killer, on her latest steamy single “Whine.”
“Funny story is I had a solo version of the video shot two years prior to reaching out to Bounty Killer,” she says. “And I’ve always wanted a feature on that record. And so we went back down to Jamaica two years later, to the same location, and put Bounty Killer in the video, inserted him, and it all looks cohesive now.”
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Of her pop-dancehall collaborations, Mýa says they feel like a family effort. “Every time I go down there, it’s usually for music. But then my associates, music friends, become like family over the years. We understand the beauty of independency but also working together. And so, that’s a big part of the culture, too,” she explains. “I think it’s important also to just be authentic for representation, so it was important for me to be in Kingston, in the heart of Jamaica, to capture the essence of the good vibes and the music, the culture and the people and the dance.”
Outside of her debut LP’s 25th anniversary this year, Mýa also celebrated the 20th anniversary of her third album Moodring, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earned her another Hot 100 top 20 hit with “My Love is Like…Wo.” (Missy Elliott co-produced the track two years after working with her on the five-week No. 1, Grammy-winning smash “Lady Marmalade” with Christina Aguilera, P!nk and Lil’ Kim from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack.)
Earlier this year, she collaborated with Interscope/UMe to release the digital deluxe 25th anniversary edition of Mya, the digital deluxe 20th anniversary edition of Moodring and the “25th Anniversary Remix” of “It’s All About Me,” accompanied by the Brian Friedman-directed choreography video. Come December, Mýa will ring in the 15th anniversary of her fifth album Sugar & Spice.
“I was a baby, I was a kid, everything was brand new. Working in the studio with Dru Hill for the first album was really like a family and a camp, so I had big brothers around me … I learned a lot from them, watching them,” she reflects. “It’s just a beautiful journey. I’m excited as well about what’s to come. I just love music, so it’s a blessing to just still be here 25 years later and still feel like it’s brand new.”
Watch the full video interview above.
Maren Morris has been a country hitmaker since her 2016 breakthrough “My Church.” But last week, she released a pair of new songs — “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” — along with a mission statement that makes it clear she’s no longer interested in playing by the rules of country music. […]
As *NSYNC revisit their boy-band days ahead of the release of their first new song in more than 20 years, they have one question: “Who had us pose like that?!” On Tuesday (Sept. 19), the quintet posted a new Instagram video with that caption, that shows the five bandmates casually entering a room together, soundtracked […]
As 1989 (Taylor’s Version) draws nearer, Taylor Swift is ramping up her teases and Easter eggs. On Tuesday (Sept. 19), Google launched a new pop-up animation in honor of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — and based on some of the puzzles, fans think a Nicki Minaj collaboration could be imminent.
If you search “Taylor Swift” on the search engine, a new pop-up will offer one of 89 puzzles that fans are tasked with solving to “unlock Taylor’s vault.” Each puzzle asks the user to unscramble a word and then type it into the Google search bar to solve the exercise. Sharing the new feature on her Instagram page, Swift wrote, “You can tell me when the *search* is over… if the high was worth the pain 😎,” a reference to “Blank Space,” one of three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles from the original 1989.
One puzzle’s answer, in particular, has captivated the attention of both Swifties and Barbz; “Sagittarius.” Not only is it the ninth astrological sign, but some fans are taking the answer asa hint for a collaboration between the two music powerhouses.
First, Swift and Minaj are both Sagittariuses given their Dec. 13 and Dec. 8 birthdays, respectively. At the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (Sept. 12), after accepting her third trophy from Minaj — who served as the night’s emcee — Swift said, “That’s my favorite Sagittarius over there,” eliciting a giant smile and an enthusiastically affirmative response from the “Last Time I Saw You” rapper. Minaj has been a devoted champion of her star sign for years, so this came as no surprise to her biggest fans.
Last month (Aug. 24), Minaj tweeted, “Fighting the urge to say Sagittarius tingz right now so bad,” when she quoted a tweeted commemorating her and Swift as the only female artists in Billboard chart history to place over 100 entries on the Hot 100. Earlier this year (Mar. 24), the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper tweeted, “Dear Barbz, it must be exhausting always rooting for the Anti-hero,” a reference to both her controversial public persona and Swift’s Hot 100-topping Midnights single.
A collaboration between Swift and Minaj would not be completely out of left field. Swift was an early champion of Minaj’s “Super Bass,” and the two performed a medley of their songs together (Minaj’s “Trini Dem Girls” and “The Night Is Still Young” and Swift’s “Bad Blood”) at the 2015 VMAs after ironing out an argument regarding that year’s nominees for video of the year.
See what the Swifties and Barbz are theorizing about a potential Taylor Swift-Nicki Minaj collaboration:
🚨 Taylor Swift & Nicki Minaj appear to be teasing a collaboration on ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ following Google vault puzzle clue: Sagittarius.Taylor also called Nicki her “favorite Sagittarius” at the VMAs last week. pic.twitter.com/N9E8iE4Unq— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 19, 2023
if nicki and taylor collab i’ll do insane things— hannah !! (@lovatojauregxi) September 19, 2023
I really might be getting a Nicki and Taylor swift collab 😭😭😭😭. Yall I’m so going to rinse it . I’ve prayed and fasted for this day to come— Choco Latte🍫☕️ (@Aaliyah_Lillli) September 19, 2023
Taylor and Nicki collab would be such sagittarius power— Fifi // GUTS🖤 (@basedaquarius) September 19, 2023
For the final time: Christina Milian has no beef with Jennifer Lopez over “Play.” The 41-year-old singer who co-wrote the 2001 JLo hit in 15 minutes when she was just 19-years-old told New York Post gossip site Page Six that the persistent rumors that she has a problem with how she was credited on the song that appeared on the singer/actress’ sophomore album, J.Lo.
Milian said she originally recorded the dance pop track that hit No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 for her own album during the same week she penned her debut single “AM to PM” at a songwriting camp in Sweden with Bloodshy & Avant, Anders Bagge and some other early 2000s songwriting aces.
“Hands down, she killed it. She’s so good. I love that song,” Milian said of Lopez’s version. “And I couldn’t believe at 19 years old I wrote a song for J.Lo.” In fact, Milian said she wrote the track in around 15 minutes after a late night of partying. “I went to bed late that night, woke up the next morning and had to go to the studio. I had the track and I didn’t write anything [to it],” she said. “So I sat down in the bed, I had this track, I was really tired and I played the track and I was like… ‘This sounds too easy.’”
Milian said she really liked both “Play” and “AM to PM,” but thought her then-label, Def Soul, wouldn’t want two party songs on her 2002 self-titled debut. The decision was made for her, though, she said, when former Sony Music Entertainment chairman/CEO Tommy Mottola heard “Play” and claimed it for Lopez, who was signed to his label Epic Records at the time.
“The guy comes in and he hears ‘Play,’ loves it and is like, ‘I want this as her single,’” Milian said. “And the next thing I know, she’s in New York, she’s recording the song and I came in to help rewrite some of the stuff.”
The Post claimed that there are still rumblings today from Milian fans who call out Lopez for including Milian’s sultry backing vocals on the track but not giving her a feature credit. Milian, though, said she doesn’t sweat it. “It’s funny when people talk about this being kind of a thing about me singing on the song with Jennifer. I mean, I have background singers on some of my songs,” she said. “It’s no different than Michael Jackson having background singers on songs or Britney Spears. This is what music is made of. You want a blend of voices. It makes songs better, to me.”
Milian said she doesn’t need the feature credit on top of the songwriting and backing vocal credits because, frankly, she’s just happy that Lopez recorded the song, “because she’s an icon, she’s amazing.”
Lopez is slated to release her ninth studio album, and first as a solo artist in nine years, This Is Me… Now, later this year.