Pop
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Selena Gomez has been treating fans to adorable Instagram photo dumps lately, and her newest post features another Latina superstar. “Random moments,” the “Calm Down” singer captioned a series of snaps, which include Gomez eating at restaurants and hanging out in a studio. One of the sweetest photos however, featured the 30-year-old posing with Camila […]
Sparks are still flying for Taylor Swift, who is continuing her Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) rollout with a new deluxe digital version of the album released on Thursday (July 13). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The superstar took to her Instagram Stories to announce the news, […]
Just a few months after launching Lights, his debut solo EP, MONSTA X’s JOOHONEY has announced that he will enlist in the military on June 24, in a statement shared with Billboard on Thursday (July 13). “I thought a lot about when would be a good time to share this news with you,” JOOHONEY wrote […]
You might just have Barbie to thank for Billie Eilish‘s next album. In a new interview following the release of the 21-year-old pop star’s Barbie film soundtrack single “What Was I Made For?,” Eilish confessed that the project, which dropped with a self-directed music video on Thursday (July 13), pulled her and brother/producer Finneas out of a brutal writing slump plagued by self-doubt.
“Honestly, we were in a period of time where we were both… like through this last winter, we’ve both been incredibly uninspired,” Eilish told Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1. “And we’ve still been working and trying to make stuff. And honestly, that song was the first thing we’d written in a minute. Even though we were coming up with ideas and coming up with this and that, I remember after we wrote that first half, I go, ‘I think we still got it.’”
The “Bad Guy” singer also shared that the writing process began with director Greta Gerwig treating her and Finneas to a special viewing of a rough cut of Barbie at the Warner Brother Studios. The very next day, the brother-sister musicians weren’t having any success in writing music independent of the film — but when they on a whim shifted into writing what would become “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie’s perspective, their writer’s block immediately dissipated.
“We were really in a zone of feeling like we lost it and feeling like, man, I don’t know if we can do this anymore,” she added. “Barbie and Greta just pulled it out of me, I don’t know,” Eilish said. “Those first couple lyrics, ‘I used to float, now I just fall down,’ just came right out.”
One of the most inspiring things to come out of the writing process, Eilish added, was how a song written strictly from the point of view of Margot Robbie’s titular character in Barbie somehow came full circle, with the “Happier Than Ever” artist realizing that she related to the lyrics without even trying to.
“I did not think about myself once in the writing process,” the Grammy winner explained. “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that. And then, over the next couple days, I was listening and I was like, girl, how did this … honestly, and I really don’t mean this to come off a conceited way at all, but I do this thing where I make stuff that I don’t even know is … like I’m writing for myself and I don’t even know it.”
“It is one of the most incredible things I get to experience in my life,” Eilish continued. “Dude, the next week I was playing it in the car all day and playing it for everybody. And I was like, ‘This is exactly how I feel. And I didn’t even mean to be saying it.’ It was truly the trippiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was like, oh, I absolutely was writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person.”
Watch Billie’s interview with Apple Music 1 above.
The cat is finally out of the bag. After a few days of teasing, R&B star Coco Jones has confirmed that Grammy-winning superstar Justin Timberlake is the mystery artist set to feature on the remix of her hit ballad “ICU.” Jones revealed the news during a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight at the 2023 ESPY Awards on Wednesday (July 12).
“I have a very very amazing, talented guy featured on the song,” she gushed. “Justin Timberlake is actually on the the ‘ICU’ remix! It was so amazing watching him just be a creative. We were collaborating on ideas, and I feel like [“ICU”] is nostalgic … so having his voice on it, and that soul, that element he brings … it’s going to be amazing.”
Jones first teased the remix on Monday (July 10) with a photoset that included pictures of a river, a screengrab of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode and a collage of ’90s boy bands.
“ICU” is the second single from Jones’ What I Didn’t Tell You EP. The DJ Camper-produced ballad became the Bel-Air actress’ first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 63. The song also spent four weeks at No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. The steady growth of “ICU” also helped What I Didn’t Tell You reach the top 10 on Heatseekers Albums (No. 6).
Speaking on how the collaboration came to fruition, Jones joked, “Truthfully, I don’t know! I don’t know how this happened. All I can say is [that] he’s such a legend and he really supports me, so I’m really really happy to have this collaboration. I feel like it’s gonna shake y’all up!”
The Disney alum also revealed that she and Timberlake recorded their verses separately, but joined forces in the studio to put some final touches on the remix. “He’s so cool and chill, like me! He gives me ‘I’m doing this for fun, but life is so much bigger.’ He’s a normal human like me.”
The “ICU” remix marks Timberlake’s first musical release of the year. In 2022, the “Mirrors” singer featured on three songs: “Parent Trap” (with Jack Harlow), “Sin Fin” (with Romeo Santos) and “Stay With Me” (with Calvin Harris, Halsey and Pharrell Williams). He has not released a studio album since 2018’s Man of the Woods, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Jones recently won best new artist at this year’s BET Awards. On Wednesday (July 12), she announced a slew of new dates for her What I Didn’t Tell You Tour.
Check out Coco’s reveal of the “ICU” remix mystery artist with ET below:
Fall Out Boy dropped a surprise cover of Billy Joel‘s 1989 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire” on June 28 featuring the group’s modern update of the Piano Man’s breathless blitz through 20th century history. Out were Joel’s Boomer-skewing stream-of-consciousness lines about such h-bombs, Studebakers, Liberace, Marilyn Monroe, Harry Truman, Doris Day, Einstein, Peyton Place and children of thalidomide.
In were the Chicago emo rockers’ updated references (from 1989 to the present) to Rodney King, deep fakes, Kurt Cobain, Harry Potter, MySpace, QAnon, Ballon Boy, Fyre Fest and Stranger Things, among many others. In a recent BBC Radio2 interview Joel said that he’d heard the new verses and weighed in on the effort. “Everybody’s been wanting to know when there’s going to be an updated version of it, because my song started in ’49 and ended in ’89 — it was a 40 year span,” he said. “Everybody said, ‘Well, aren’t you going to do a part two?’ I said, ‘Nah, I’ve already done part one.’ So, Fall Out Boy, go ahead. Great, take it away.”
If you need a guide to follow along to the lightning-speed tumble of references in FOB’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” find the lyrics below:Captain Planet, Arab SpringL.A. riots, Rodney KingDeepfakes, earthquakesIceland volcanoOklahoma City bombKurt Cobain, PokemonTiger Woods, MySpaceMonsanto, GMOs
Harry Potter, TwilightMichael Jackson diesNuclear accidentFukushima, JapanCrimean peninsulaCambridge AnalyticaKim Jong UnRobert Downey Jr., Iron Man
We didn’t start the fireIt was always burning since the world’s been turningWe didn’t start the fireNo, we didn’t light it but we’re tryin’ to fight it
More war in AfghanistanCubs go all the way againObama, SpielbergExplosion, LebanonUnabomber, Bobbitt, JohnBombing, Boston MarathonBalloon Boy, War On TerrorQAnonTrump gets impeached twicePolar bears got no iceFyre Fest, Black ParadeMichael Phelps, Y2KBoris Johnson, BrexitKanye West and Taylor SwiftStranger Things, Tiger KingEver Given, Suez
We didn’t start the fireIt was always burning since the world’s been turningWe didn’t start the fireNo, we didn’t light it but we’re tryin’ to fight it
Sandy Hook, ColumbineSandra Bland and Tamir RiceISIS, LeBron JamesShinzo Abe blown awayMeghan Markle, George FloydBurj Khalifa, MetroidFermi paradoxVenus and Serena
Michael Jordan, 23YouTube killed MTVSpongeBobGolden State Killer got caughtMichael Jordan, 45Woodstock ’99Keaton Batman, Bush v. GoreI can’t take it anymore
We didn’t start the fireIt was always burning since the world’s been turningWe didn’t start the fireNo, we didn’t light it but we’re tryin’ to fight it
Elon Musk, KaepernickTexas failed electric gridJeff Bezos, climate changeWhite rhino goes extinctGreat Pacific garbage patchTom DeLonge and aliensMars rover, AvatarSelf-driving electric carsSSRIsPrince and The Queen dieWorld Trade, second planeWhat else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the fire (we didn’t start it up)It was always burning since the world’s been turningWe didn’t start the fire (we didn’t start it up)But when we are gone, it will still go onand on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and onWe didn’t start the fire (fire)It was always burning since the world’s been turning
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Billy Joel
Submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the United States.
Or, tweet @gthot20.
Let’s open the latest mailbag.
Hot Fun in the ‘Summer’-time, and Other Times:
Hi Gary,
To add to the many times that the season called “summer” (and “verano” in Spanish) has appeared in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10, Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” happens to reach the tier during summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere).
It made me wonder: How often are songs with the word “summer” in their titles hits at that most fitting time of year?
Thanks,
Pablo NelsonSummering in Oakland, Calif.
Hi Pablo,
Fun question. (And per your mention of “verano,” Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti topped the Billboard 200 albums chart during spring, summer and fall last year. A man for all seasons, he has charted the set in the top 20 each week since it debuted at No. 1 in May 2022.)
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Swift’s “Cruel Summer” was released in summer 2019 and is now a Hot 100 top 10 (and an officially promoted single) in summer 2023.
But a look at all the songs with “summer” in their titles that have hit the Hot 100’s top 10 reveals not such seasonal synchronization.
Here’s a rundown, first, of every Hot 100 top 10 with “summer” in its title that peaked outside of summer, from the first to the most recent:
Peak Date, Peak Position, Title, Artist
Sept. 29, 1958, No. 8, “Summertime Blues,” Eddie Cochran
Feb. 22, 1960, No. 1 (9 weeks), “The Theme From A Summer Place,” Percy Faith and His Orchestra
Oct. 17, 1964, No. 7, “A Summer Song,” Chad & Jeremy
Oct. 18, 1969, No. 2, “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” Sly & The Family Stone
Nov. 25, 1972, No. 6, “Summer Breeze,” Seals & Crofts
Sept. 25, 1976, No. 7, “Summer,” War
Sept. 30, 1978, No. 5, “Summer Nights,” John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John & Grease Cast
Nov. 19, 1983, No. 9, “Suddenly Last Summer,” The Motels
Sept. 29, 1984, No. 9, “Cruel Summer,” Bananarama
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Feb. 9, 1985, No. 5, “The Boys of Summer,” Don Henley
March 26, 1988, No. 2, “Endless Summer Nights,” Richard Marx
June 9, 2007, No. 6, “Summer Love,” Justin Timberlake
Feb. 20, 2016, No. 6, “Summer Sixteen,” Drake
That makes for 13 songs with “summer” in their names that have peaked in the Hot 100’s top 10 outside of summer.
Now, the Hot 100 top 10s with “summer” in their titles that have peaked in the region during summertime:
Peak Date, Peak Position, Title, Artist
June 29, 1963, No. 6, “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” Nat King Cole
Aug. 13, 1966, No. 1 (3 weeks), “Summer in the City,” The Lovin’ Spoonful
Aug. 27, 1966, No. 10, “Summertime,” Billy Stewart
Sept. 12, 1970, No. 3, “In the Summertime,” Mungo Jerry
Aug. 31, 1985, No. 5, “Summer of ‘69,” Bryan Adams
Aug. 3, 1991, No. 4, “Summertime,” D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
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Aug. 19, 1995, No. 3, “Boombastic”/”In the Summertime,” Shaggy
Aug. 22, 1998, No. 10, “Cruel Summer,” Ace of Base
Aug. 28, 1999, No. 3, “Summer Girls,” LFO
Sept. 21, 2013, No. 6, “Summertime Sadness,” Lana Del Rey vs. Cedric Gervais
July 19, 2014, No. 7, “Summer,” Calvin Harris
Aug. 29, 2020, No. 6, “7 Summers,” Morgan Wallen
July 15, 2023, No. 7 (to date), “Cruel Summer,” Taylor Swift
That amounts to … also 13! (The number is, of course, synonymous with Swift.)
So, perhaps surprisingly, songs with “summer” in their titles have peaked in the Hot 100’s top 10 during summer exactly half the time. Expanding the scope, and seemingly more expectedly, 17 of the 26 songs above have spent time in the top 10 during the summer.
That nine such songs peaked outside the Hot 100’s top 10 during cooler months also isn’t that shocking, considering that many sport lyrics reminiscing about summer, such as “Suddenly Last Summer,” “The Boys of Summer” and “Endless Summer Nights.”
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Meanwhile, Swift scores another Hot 100 record: She now has the highest charting hit called “Cruel Summer.” With its 13-7 jump, it surpasses the No. 9-peaking classic by Bananarama, as well as Ace of Base’s No. 10-peaking cover.
Olivia Rodrigo scores her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart thanks to “Vampire,” which debuts atop the July 15-dated tally.
“Vampire” bows with 35.5 million official U.S. streams in its first week, according to Luminate.
It follows similar No. 1 debuts by “Drivers License,” a four-week leader beginning in January 2021, and “Good 4 U,” which crowned the list for eight weeks starting in May 2021.
Between “Good 4 U” and “Vampire,” Rodrigo accumulated eight Streaming Songs appearances, all from 2021 debut album Sour. The top-ranking of those, “Traitor,” debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the June 5, 2021, ranking.
The 35.5 million stream count of “Vampire” is the largest for any song in the U.S. since Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” earned 36.6 million toward the April 22 survey.
It’s the second-best first-week count for any song in 2023, behind only Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which debuted with 52.6 million streams toward the Jan. 28 list.
Concurrently, as previously reported, “Vampire” debuts at No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, also her third No. 1 and third debut atop the chart, following “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U.” In addition to its streams, the song earned 26.3 million radio audience impressions and 26,000 sales.
It launches at No. 2 on Digital Song Sales and No. 22 on Radio Songs, and it bows at Nos. 17 and 22 on Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, respectively.
“Vampire” is the lead single from Guts, Rodrigo’s second studio album, due Sept. 8.
The Beach Boys announced their first-ever official anthology book on Thursday morning (July 13), the 400-page, 60,000-word The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys. The book covers the summer-lovin’ band’s rise from a Hawthorne, CA garage in 1961 to international fame thanks to such indelible sand-and-surf hits as “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Little Surfer Girl,” “Kokomo” and many more.
“There’s love in the music and people can relate to the love, regardless of whether you’re two years old or 92 years old,” said musical mastermind Brian Wilson in a statement about the book due out in December. “For me, music is about love. Love is the message I want to share. I hope people feel that in my music. That makes the hard work worth it.”
The collection will be limited to 500 copies, with the band’s story told through the words of members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston, with rare and classic photographs and rarities; a hardcover edition for bookstores will be issued in 2024.
“I think it’s the heart that you put into what you’re doing that’s important. Each member of the Beach Boys puts their whole heart and soul into what they do, and that is probably the saving grace of the group,” added Brian Wilson in a statement shared by publisher Genesis Publications. “Few families are together spiritually and emotionally over art.”
The book will feature photos from the Capitol Records archive, the band’s archive and members’ personal archives, including outtakes from album sessions for such landmark releases as Pet Sounds and Smile, live shots from their first European tour and the rehearsals for their first live performance of “Good Vibrations.” It will also include other rare objects, including photos of tape boxes, tour posters and programs, handwritten lyrics and notes, newspaper clippings, album ads and studio documents.
“The environment in which we grew up and the things we chose to sing about primarily, which were the beautiful things about growing up in Southern California – the lovely girls, the lovely cars, the lovely weather and the lovely beaches – it was like an endless summer,” said singer Mike Love in a statement.
The book will also feature new text based on extensive interviews with Wilson, Love, Jardine and Johnston done exclusively for the project, as well as archival text from late members Carl and Dennis Wilson. “We were just having fun and it developed into something else. It’s funny. We were really an accident — but a good accident,” said Jardine. “And our first record seemed to be enough for us. We sure didn’t think we’d be recording into the next century.”
A number of contributors who worked with or were inspired by the Beach Boys also participated in the book, including Lindsey Buckingham, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Bob Dylan, Def Leppard, the Flaming Lips, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, David Lee Roth, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and more.
An 85-copy numbered ArtLuxe edition — which is already sold-out — is hand-signed by Brian Wilson, Love, Jardine and Johnston and is quarter-bound in apple leather and sea blue Toile Ocean cloth; the cloth is woven from 100% recycled plastic gathered from oceans and coastlines. The large-format ArtLuxe edition comes in a handcrafted, cloth-bound solander case finished with screen-printing and foil embossing.
The Beach Boys will also come in a numbered Deluxe edition hand-signed by the living members (limited to 415 copies) and a hardcover Bookstore edition due out in 2024, with more details to be announced soon. A portion of the proceeds from both non-bookstore editions will go to the ocean conservation group the Surfrider Foundation.
Billie Eilish released her simmering contribution to the soundtrack of the summer’s hottest must-see on Thursday morning (July 13), the Barbie movie soundtrack ballad “What Was I Made For?” In the video for the dreamy track Eilish sports a Barbie-like high blonde ponytail and poofy bangs and wears a yellow dress (with matching shoes and earrings, of course) while seated at a child’s desk to open a Barbie-themed box, whose contents she carefully examines.
“I used to to float/ Now I just fall down/ I used to know, but I’m not sure now/ What I was made for/ What was I made for?,” Eilish sings in a breathy whisper over a gentle piano backing on the track co-written and produced by brother FINNEAS. “Takin’ a drive, I was an idea/ Looked so alive, turns out, I’m not real/ Just something you paid for/ What was I made for?”
The Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning singer directed the clip, in which she meticulously tries to arrange the Barbie clothes on a tiny rack in a green void as wind and rain whip them around to her frustration. “Cause I, I/ I don’t know how to feel/ But I wanna try/ I don’t know how to feel/ But someday I might/ someday I might,” she croons on the chorus.
According to a release, the “intimate and heart-rending track exists as the sonic background for pivotal scenes through-out the film, while beautifully and poignantly highlighting the film’s important message and sentiment.”
In a statement accompanying the video’s release, Eilish said director Greta Gerwig showed her and Finneas a handful of unfinished scenes in January, admitting that the sibling collaborators had, “nooooo idea what to expect at ALLL… we were so deeeeeply moved.. that the next day we were writing and COULDNT shut up about it lolll andddddddddd ended up writing almost the entire song that night. to be real with you this all seemed to happen in a time when i really needed it. i’m so so thankful for that.”
She added that the video she created for it, “makes me cryyyyy.. it means so much to me and i hope it will mean just as much to you. don’t have much to say other than that, i think it will speak for itself🫀 :’’’’) enjoy.”
The singer teased the emotional track earlier this week in a video in which a voice was heard telling Barbie (Margot Robbie), to “take my hand, close your eyes, now, feel,” backed by a gentle, melancholy piano and Eilish singing the title of the song. “absolutely over the MOOOOON excited for you to see this,” she captioned the post. Finneas and Eilish won the best original song Oscar in 2022 for their collaboration on the title track to the most recent James Bond film, No Time to Die.
The Mark Ronson-produced soundtrack for Gerwig’s candy-colored toy story will also feature contributions from Lizzo, Charli XCX, Karol G, Sam Smith, co-star Ryan Gosling (with Slash), Dominic Fike, Haim, the Kid LAROI, Khalid, PinkPantheress, Gayle, Ava Max, Fifty Fifty, Tame Impala and already released singles from Dua Lipa and Ice Spice with Nicki Minaj; the movie will hit theaters on July 21.
Watch the “What Was I Made For?” video below.
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