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Olivia Rodrigo is coming back with a bite. At long last, the 20-year-old pop star has finally unveiled details about her first project since her 2021 multi-platinum debut Sour — a single titled “Vampire,” arriving later this month.
“my new song vampire is out june 30th!” Rodrigo wrote on Instagram Tuesday (June 13). “you can presave now. so excited for this ahhhhh!!!!!!! 🖤🩸💜🫀❤️”
The “Deja Vu” singer also shared the single’s cover art, which shows a close-up black-and-white photo of Rodrigo’s side profile. She sports dark lipstick, winged eyeliner and two Band-Aids forming a cross on her neck, signifying the location of a vampire-fang puncture wound. The bandages are edited to be the only part of the photo that’s in-color, a lilac purple shade that matches the cover of Sour.
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actress also posted a slightly longer note on her website, where the digital single is available for pre-save and physical copies are available for pre-order.
“Hi guys!” the note reads. “Im so excited to announce that my new single ‘vampire’ is coming out June 30th!… so excited for this new chapter. thank you so much for all your support. love always, Liv.”
Both the CD and vinyl — which is tinted a bright blood red — include “Vampire” as well as the track’s first demo, according to Rodrigo’s online store. Also on the store, the cover art boasts a Parental Advisory: Explicit Content sticker.
Fans have suspected for weeks that Rodrigo’s highly anticipated next move would be set into motion on June 30, especially after a mysterious timer counting down to that date appeared on her website. The expiration date on her “drivers license” Spotify graphic was also altered recently to read “6-30.”
“Vampire” will serve as Rodrigo’s followup to her record-breaking debut effort Sour, which featured two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits (“Drivers License” and “Good 4 U”). In June last year, the album became the longest-running debut record this century to remain in the Billboard 200 top 10 at more than 52 weeks.
“By focusing on intimate storytelling, crafting iconic choruses, and effortlessly building a passionate fandom, Rodrigo has ascended to the very pinnacle of pop,” reads a press release for “Vampire.” “Her music has become an integral part of this era’s soundtrack. With ‘vampire,’ she is poised to begin an exciting new chapter.”
See Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” announcement below:
Multiplatinum-selling Grammy-nominated K-pop phenomenon BTS is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and to commemorate the milestone, the Bangtan Boys on Tuesday (June 13) gifted fans a live performance music video for their latest single “Take Two,” which they released last week (June 9) in celebration of their anniversary. Decked out in a fashionable collection of pastel […]
Pretty soon, new music from Selena Gomez won’t be so rare. The 30-year-old pop star teased in a recent Instagram post that her highly anticipated follow-up to 2020’s Rare — her last proper solo release — is finally underway, sharing snaps from the studio to prove it. In a carousel of black-and-white photos posted to […]
It’s one thing if you and your wife get caught on a Kiss Cam at the stadium. But it’s a whole other thing if your video accidentally outs a not-yet-official fellow celebrity couple. That’s the situation Keith Urban apologized for after the singer’s May 15 TikTok video — in which he was dancing with wife […]
There are Ed Sheeran fans, and then there’s Chris Hemsworth. The Thor star proved that he’s a gold-star Sheerio over the weekend when he attended his third show on Ed’s Mathematic Tour over the weekend at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. “Saw Ed Sheeran for the 3rd time this year. Some say I’m a super […]
More than six decades after their formation, Paul McCartney says the final-ever Beatles song is on its way thanks to the miracle of modern technology. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today, Sir Paul said that he has been using artificial intelligence to “extricate” John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to complete the untitled track.
“We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year,” he said, of the untitled song that the BBC speculated could be a 1978 Lennon composition called “Now and Then.” The single was reportedly in the running to serve as a “reunion song” for the 1995 Anthology series, which included two new songs based on demos recorded by Lennon after the group split, 1995’s “Free As a Bird” and 1996’s “Real Love,” produced by ELO’s Jeff Lynne. Those tracks were the first “new” Beatles” releases in more than 25 years.
McCartney reportedly received the demo for the new track from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, in 1994; the song was one of several on a cassette labelled “For Paul” that Lennon made shortly before his murder in 1980. The BBC reported that the tracks were “lo-fi and embryonic” and mostly recorded on a boombox by Lennon on a piano in his New York apartment.
The BBC reported that the living members of the band tried to record the “apologetic” love song “Now and Then” around the time of the Anthology release, but abandoned the sessions in short order. “It was one day — one afternoon, really — messing with it,” Lynne said. “The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn’t finish.”
McCartney later said guitarist/singer George Harrison refused to work on “Now and Then,” saying the sound quality on Lennon’s vocals was “rubbish… George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.” The BBC reported that there were also reportedly technical issues with the original, due to some persistent “buzz” from the electrical circuits in Lennon’s apartment. The new version of the demo reportedly popped up on a bootleg CD in 2009, minus the background noise.
In a 2012 BBC documentary on Lynne, McCartney said, “that one’s still lingering around… so I’m going to nick in with Jeff and do it. Finish it, one of these days.” And while it is still unknown if that song is the one due out, the BBC reported that technical advances employed during the making of Peter Jackson’s Get Back Beatles documentary series — during which dialog editor Emile de la Rey trained computers to recognize the Beatles’ voices and separate them from background noise, including their own instruments — allowed the team to create “clean” audio. That same technology also allowed McCartney to sing a virtual duet with Lennon on his most recent tour.
“He [Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette,” McCartney told Radio 4 in explaining how the tech used in the documentary helped him work on the “new” song. “We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.’ So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway.”
At press time a release date for the Beatles track had not been announced.
Idina Menzel took the stage at WeHo Pride over the weekend, and she sat down with Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly to discuss her new music and the impact the LGBTQIA+ community has had on her career. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Of her dance-heavy new single “Move,” […]
Shawn Mendes released his new single “What the Hell Are We Dying For?” within 24 hours of making it, and the pop star sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss the inspiration behind the heartbroken track.
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“I feel like over the last year and a bit, I’ve just been really struggling in the studio to find my voice and to find myself musically and to even have the courage just to be in the room with writers or step into the booth and sing,” he explained. “I was upstate New York and just on the back end of feeling a lot of things about relationships, about my career, about the environment. I was in the studio and this moment of just deep frustration came over me and I finally started to feel this inspiration come. Honestly, in that moment, it felt like it was the first time I felt that in a year and a half in the studio.”
He continued, “I think I had this feeling of urgency, this feeling of honestly excitement, this feeling of connection — this feeling of this is me right now, this is how I feel right now. […] I think we were up there in New York, the sky was orange, the air was thick and the words were flowing and this happened. In hindsight, it was scary. I woke up in the morning and I was like, “Wow, what did I do?” I think it was a good thing for me to do for myself. I had to dive into the deep end. Otherwise, I would’ve sat there for years questioning myself… and I think it wraps around to just, what is it that we care about in life? Who do we care about? What’s worth it? Why do we show up the way we do?”
As the song came on the heels of smoke in the New York skyline due to Canadian wildfires, Mendes revealed upon the song’s release that he’s donating to the Canadian Red Cross to provide relief those impacted.
The song marks his return to music after Mendes postponed, then cancelled a planned 2022 North American/European tour to focus on his mental health. “If I’m being completely honest, I feel a little confused about everything still,” Mendes explained of his current mindset. “I think a little bit, just all over the place. I feel aware of how people are receiving the song. I feel aware of the fact that I did it on a whim and I’m proud of it. But most of all, honestly, if I’m being real, I’m just happy that I broke through that horrible wall of writer’s block and I’m creating again. I’m just happy about that. And I’m just going to keep going, keep making some songs because I really think that there’s something in here.
Listen to the full interview here.
Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered.
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These 10 tracks from artists including PinkPantheress, Reneé Rapp, Baby Queen and more will get you energized to take on the week. Pop any of these gems into your personal playlists — or scroll to the end of the post for a custom playlist of all 10.
Baby Queen, “Dream Girl”
Rising British pop star Baby Queen has demonstrated a knack for sunny pop melodies and sardonic lyrics from her first singles, and new track “Dream Girl” shrugs off cynicism for an earnest declaration of unrequited adoration. The singer-songwriter deploys endless rhetorical questions (“Does he give you everything you need? And baby, do you ever think of me?”) to prove herself more worthy of love than some lame boyfriend, and does so with an array of bouncy, undeniable hooks. – Jason Lipshutz
Frankie Bird, “Twenty Nothing”
At the beginning of the “Twenty Nothing” music video, Frankie Bird, the singer-songwriter who formerly went by Frankie, breaks the horizon, striding down the middle of an empty street with a guitar strapped to her back; the shot is an apt metaphor for the singer-songwriter, who spends the single looking back on her tumultuous twenties and looking ahead to her next artistic era. “Twenty Nothing” pinpoints disappointment through musical evolution: the country-tinged production and harmonies prove affecting as she expands her pop-rock environment. – J.L.
Mahalia feat. JoJo, “Cheat”
Searching for a modern, more feminism-forward take on Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy is Mine”? Look no further than “Cheat,” on which Mahalia and JoJo brush off a dude who’s two-timing them while leaning into the turn-of-the-century rhythmic pop production (the music video, complete with flip phones and MySpace nostalgia, is a blast as well). Ahead of her sophomore album IRL, Mahalia continues to delight as a new-school UK pop star, while JoJo, currently owning Broadway in Moulin Rouge, sounds reinvigorated a lifetime removed from her “Leave (Get Out)” days. – J.L.
Glaive, “All I Do is Try My Best”
Years of promising singles and short projects have led to Glaive’s debut album, the spectacularly titled I Care So Much That I Don’t Care At All, due out July 14; those releases have also resulted in the (slight) polishing of the teen’s unruly songwriting, as heard on the sweeping strums and full-throated sing-along of “All I Do is Try My Best.” Glaive’s messy, often nihilistic wordplay sounds even more intoxicating within a defined pop structure, creating a tension between styles that makes the song stand out in an impressive discography. – J.L.
Youth Lagoon, “Rabbit”
Trevor Powers became an indie-blog darling in the early 2010s as the mastermind of Youth Lagoon, then retired the moniker that made him famous in 2016; Heaven is a Junkyard, the first Youth Lagoon album in eight years, sounds like an old friend stopping by and sharing tales from several travels. “Rabbit” floats in the wind with piano sprinkles and Powers’ tender voice, then surges toward a propulsive finale that’s barely perceptible before it arrives — the mark of an effective storyteller, confident in their craft. – J.L.
Reneé Rapp, “Snow Angel”
Reneé Rapp has become a buzzy new name in pop, known first for starring roles in Mean Girls on Broadway and The Sex Lives Of College Girls, but following her 2022 debut EP, it became clear she’s a double threat — and rousing lead single “Snow Angel,” off her forthcoming debut full-length, solidifies that sentiment. The rock-pop ballad fits within a formula that has worked well for artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish (it’s similar to the latter’s “Happier Than Ever”) and advances Rapp’s skillset, showing off her powerful vocal range and heart-wrenching honesty. — Lyndsey Havens
Romy, “Loveher”
Led by delicate, twinkling keys and a steady drumbeat, Romy begins to sing tenderly of the one she loves — delivering each line like she’s confessing her feelings to herself alone. Yet as the production picks up and the lyrics become more hypnotic — “I love her I… I love her I…” — it’s clear Romy made this song for the masses. And there’s more to come, as Romy announced her debut solo album, set to arrive September 8. — L.H.
Tiwa Savage, “Pick Up”
While a call (or several) going unanswered often incites some rage, the latest from Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage checks that emotion at the door. Instead, as she sings of calling someone repeatedly she maintains an air of confidence over a meaty, bouncy beat. From the perspective of the listener, it works: a song this catchy would never go ignored. — L.H.
PinkPantheress, “Angel”
Diehard PinkPantheress fans have been given a treat with “Angel”: released as part of the forthcoming Barbie soundtrack, multiple snippets of the song’s demo were floating around the Internet over the past year, and have since become fully actualized. Pink’s effervescent vocal delivery stays true to hits like “Boy’s a Liar” and “Break It Off,” while the instrumentation adds another unique layer to the British artist’s sound with the inclusion of the fiddle. – Starr Bowenbank
Slayyyter, “Out of Time”
Slayyter makes a grand return with new single “Out of Time,” embracing pop maximalism on the track with ’80s-inspired synth instrumentals and large-than-life hooks that tells the sad tale of a fame-hungry woman with an alluring charm. “Make up runs from her eyes/ She walks in/ Oh goddamn, he could get it tonight/ She hates herself, but if they all love her then she don’t mind,” she sings on the pre-chorus of the cut, a first look at what’s to come from a forthcoming LP from the singer. — S.B.
A group of Los Angeles shoppers enjoyed a private Kelly Clarkson performance over the weekend, when the pop superstar organized two separate a cappella flash mobs to perform tracks from her upcoming album Chemistry. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the videos posted to Instagram, Clarkson […]
