State Champ Radio Pop
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Your perfect Halloween soundtrack has just arrived courtesy of Duran Duran. The veteran new wave group dropped their delightfully devilish cover of the Talking Heads’ 1977 classic “Psycho Killer” on Tuesday (Oct. 24). The song — which features bass from Måneskin’s Victoria De Angelis — appears on their upcoming 13-song Dance Macabre album, which features […]
10/24/2023
You’ve read all about the 500 best pop songs that reached Billboard’s flagship songs chart — now check out the 100 best that never got there.
10/24/2023
Taylor Swift has definitely met the parents, and it seems like they are on Team Taylor. After Swift attended her fourth Kansas City Chiefs game in support of reported boyfriend Travis Kelce over the weekend, the tight end’s dad gave the singer said she belongs with them.
Speaking to People magazine, Trav’s dad, Ed Kelce, said that Swift is a “very, very sweet, very charming, down-to-earth young woman.” As the NFL continues to double-down on the unexpected bounty of having a pop superstar in the family suite almost every weekend, the cameras caught Swift chatting with Ed Kelce during the team’s Oct. 12 game, with the family patriarch saying he found her “very genuine” during their first meeting.
In fact, despite having the No. 1 movie at the box office for a second weekend in a row with her Eras Tour film, Ed Kelce said he noticed something “very special” and endearing about the pop princess the first time he met her.
“We’re sitting in the suite, she gets up and in the front room, she gets up to go get a drink or something and she starts picking up empty bottles, cans, plates that are scattered around,” he said. “Because in the suites everybody gets stuff and you empty it down wherever you can.”
The small gesture meant a lot, but it also revealed something else to Ed Kelce about Swift that was even more telling. “I’m just thinking, I don’t think she got the diva memo,” he said of Swift’s impeccable manners. “She didn’t get the spoiled musician. She doesn’t know how to pull that off. And that really to me said a whole lot… She’s very smart. I mean, very. That comes through right away.”
Swift has already met Travis’ mom, Donna, who she sat next to at the team’s Sept. 24 game, followed a week later by a shot of Taylor with her arm around Donna during the Chiefs’-Jets game at MetLife Stadium. On Sunday, she made it to her fourth Chiefs game, where she showed off her secret handshake with Brittany Mahomes, wife of KC QB Patrick Mahomes. More importantly, she was spotted holding hands and dropping a kiss on Kelce’s cheek after KC’s 31-17 roll over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Last weekend, Swift and Kelce basically confirmed their long-rumored romance by holding hands on their way to the Oct. 14 SNL afterparty, just after they each made cameos on the show’s season 49 premiere. The next day, they grabbed dinner at a restaurant in the West Village, hand-in-hand again; to date neither Swift nor Kelce have confirmed their reported romance.
Nikki Glaser had her priorities set on Taylor Swift this summer. The comedian joined The Kelly Clarkson show as a guest on Monday (Oct. 23), where Clarkson immediately asked her if it was true that she spent $25,000 on tickets to Swift’s Eras tour. “I just want to say that it was a conscious decision […]
The Kelly Clarkson show is back, which means the superstar’s popular Kellyoke segment has also returned. On Monday (Oct. 23), Clarkson kicked off the week with a powerful performance of Christina Aguilera’s 2002 hit, “Fighter.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Dressed in a full leather outfit, […]
Taylor Swift notched her 10th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Oct. 28, 2023 with “Cruel Summer,” a longtime fan favorite track from her 2019 album, Lover. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news With “Cruel Summer,” Swift joins an elite club of artists […]
As Britney Spears gears up for the release of her debut memoir The Woman in Me, her breakthrough hit, “…Baby One More Time,” just hit a major milestone. The track turned 25 on Monday (Oct. 23) and was celebrated on Instagram by its producer, Max Martin, who shared how it changed the trajectory of both his and Spears’ career, as well as pop music as a whole.
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“On October 23, 1998, @britneyspears released her debut single ‘…Baby One More Time’ in the U.S.A, the pop classic that became No 1 in every country where it was released, and that launched Britney’s career as an international pop icon,” Martin wrote, captioning a series of images from Spears’ debut era.
He continued, “After exactly 25 years to the day, so much has been said about this masterpiece of a song — the artists who could have recorded it, its controversial lyrics, its iconic music video, the record-breaking sales figures, how much it has changed the landscape of pop music and defined a new era, and so on. So this time, I wanted to celebrate ‘…Baby One More Time’ for what it is, that is a pure piece of art and 3:30 minutes of sonic bliss.”
As evidenced by the song’s two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the Swedish record producer added that “‘Baby’ is one of these songs that you just can’t ignore, whether you are a pop music lover or not,” and proceeded to give an eight-part review of the song as if he listened to it for the first time. In his review, the hitmaker gushed over the song’s sad undertones and delighted over its little moments, like Spears’ vocal runs at 0:27 (“Go oh oh-oOoOh”), and said it was “a reminder so much fun is around the corner even if the lyrics seem sad at first listen.” Of the then-budding star’s “cooing,” Martin called Spears’ inflections “pure pop heaven.”
“…Baby One More Time,” as Martin noted, singlehandedly launched Spears’ career as a pop star. Propelled in part by the success of its single of the same name, the …Baby One More Time album enjoyed six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent nearly two years (103 weeks) on the chart.
See Martin reflect on “…Baby One More Time” and give his review of the track below.
Taylor Swift‘s “Cruel Summer” has turned into a pretty sweet autumn, as her fan-favorite Lover track rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Oct. 28, 2023 — four years after its initial release. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a video posted […]
In a different cinematic universe, Britney Spears could have played Allie in The Notebook. The pop superstar’s audition tape for the iconic romance film based on the Nicholas Sparks novel was released by The Daily Mail on Monday (Oct. 23), in which Spears breaks down in tears while reading a particularly emotional scene. While Rachel […]
Jess Glynne can’t believe it’s already the five-year anniversary of her most recent album, 2018’s Always In Between. “It really is mad,” the British pop star tells Billboard of Always In Between, which turned 5 on Oct. 12. “So much has happened in my life, personally and in my career. … It was never the plan for that to be so long. But it’s just, life happens, right? And I think I’m now accepting of that.”
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Over that past half-decade, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter — best known in the U.S. for her smash Clean Bandit collaboration “Rather Be,” but with nine solo top 10 hits on the UK’s Official Charts — experienced profound personal loss as an inadvertent professional catalyst. In 2021, one of Glynne’s close friends passed away, causing the pop star to pause her career and “do a lot of self-work,” she says. Glynne re-emerged from mourning with reevaluated priorities and a revamped team, signing with Roc Nation for management last year and with Republic Records as her stateside label.
With that in mind, Glynne has treated 2023 as an opportunity to ramp up to her third studio album, due out next year. “This year has been a foundation for me to get myself back into the world of music and creativity,” she says. “It’s really been a journey, and it’s been experimental, [but] I feel like I have a really strong vision for this album.”
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Last Friday (Oct. 20), Glynne further previewed that vision with “Friend of Mine,” an absorbing pop anthem with production that pulls from drum-n-bass and vocal runs that remind the world why Glynne is considered such a powerhouse. Written with Jin Jin, Ollie Green and DJ Sub Focus, “Friend of Mine” allows Glynne to ruminate on the changing contours of a relationship: “We said some things and we crossed the line, “ she sings, “but will you still be a friend of mine?”
Glynne says that the main hook of “Friend of Mine” came within a 20-minute period during a studio session. “When you break up with someone, you’re mourning the loss of something, but you still want to be able to have that person in your life, because they mean so much to you,” she explains.
“Friend of Mine” is Glynne’s third single of 2023, following the fuzzed-out clap-along “Silly Me” and the thumping dance offering “What Do You Do?,” which were released in April and July, respectively. Those three songs not only suggest a more reflective tone for Glynne’s upcoming album, but also a diversification of sound, with different slants on her soulful pop bedrock.
“With this album, I feel like this chapter has been quite exciting, and refreshing,” says Glynne. “I feel like I’m in a good space.”
