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Mariah Carey, Lewis Capaldi, Whitney Houston, Coldplay and Sam Smith are among the first recipients of the new BRIT Billion Award, denoting 1 billion career UK streams.
The BRIT Billion award, which, like the existing BRIT Certified program and its platinum, silver and gold tiers, is verified using Official Charts data.
Other artists in the inaugural class of recipients are ABBA, AJ Tracey, Anne-Marie, Ellie Goulding, George Ezra, Headie One, RAYE and Rita Ora. More artists who have surpassed the threshold will be announced in due course.
“I’m really honoured to be one of the recipients of the BRIT Billion Award,” Carey said in a statement. “I’m so grateful to my fans for their endless and enduring support. I love you UK lambily and cannot wait to come back to your side of the pond and create more magical moments together.”
“Am so buzzing to be one of the first artists ever to be given a “BRIT Billion” award!,” Capaldi exclaimed on receiving the award. “Never in a million years did I think any of this stuff would happen but now it is I will gladly accept each and every award, you have my address x.”
Pat Houston, representative of the Whitney Houston estate, said: “Whitney would be very proud of this award, and the first thing she would say is, ‘is this for me’? Thanks so much to all of her worldwide fans, and on behalf of the Whitney Houston estate, I want to say thank you, and that we are extremely grateful, and that we appreciate you.”
This is the first time in its five-decade history that the BPI’s certifications program has recognized an artist’s combined success across multiple projects. The One Billion career total will include tracks an artist has appeared on either as the principal performer or as a featured artist, as credited by the Official Charts.
The introduction of BRIT Billion reflects the extent to which streaming has transformed the music landscape for artists and fans alike over the past decade. More than 85% of the UK’s recorded music consumption now takes place through streaming.
Sophie Jones, BPI chief strategy officer and interim chief executive, said in a statement: “For a recording artist, there can be few greater sources of pride than having a Platinum or Gold disc on their wall, but in an era when success in measured in the hundreds of millions and indeed billions of streams, it was clear that we needed a new and additional way to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievement in recorded music, and I feel certain that having a BRIT Billion Award will become equally prized.”
The BRIT Billion award represents the first significant upgrade to the certifications program since April 2018, when it was rebranded from the BPI Awards to the BRIT Certified Awards.
When Bernie Taupin accepts his Musical Excellence Award at the 38th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Nov. 3 in Brooklyn, it won’t be the first time he’s mounted that stage.
When Elton John was inducted back in 1994, he called his longtime lyricist to the stage, saying that, “I’m kind of cheating standing her because without Bernie there never would have been an Elton John at all… and I would like him to come up and I would like to give this to him. We’ve been together for a very long time. I love him dearly.” Now, with his own Rock Hall honor on the horizon, Taupin tells Billboard from his home in California that John’s magnanimous gesture had an unintended consequence.
“That’s the big thorn in the paw because in a lot of people’s minds, that’s the reason I was not inducted before now, because certain elements of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame didn’t like the fact Elton brought me up on stage… and gave me his award,” says Taupin, who had the trophy “for years” before returning it to John. “So they just assumed that I already had the award so I didn’t need to be inducted myself, which is pretty puerile, if you think about it, and pretty childish and churlish at the same time.
“But, hey, that’s all in the past. What’s gone is gone and it’s all forgotten now and God’s in his heaven and all is good.”
Taupin is, in fact, fully stoked to be receiving the honor this year, joining fellow Musical Excellence Award winners Chaka Khan and Al Kooper. “Obviously it was nice nice news,” he says. “It’s always good to be appreciated. I certainly appreciate it. At my age I don’t get excited (by) that much, but this is certainly something I’m very appreciative of.” He adds that “those around me” have been pointing out his exclusion from the Rock Hall over the years. “They say things like, ‘You’re not in there already? I just figured you were in there’ or ‘You should have been in there long ago,’” he notes.
“I don’t put a tremendous amount of thought into it. I don’t really reflect much on what I’ve contributed. Do I feel I belong in there? Yeah, probably. I think I’ve contributed enough that it gives me credence to be in there, certainly.”
Born in Lincolnshire, England, Taupin graduated from the University of Cambridge and met John (then Reginald Dwight) in 1967 after both auditioned for Liberty Records and John, who did not write lyrics, was given some of Taupin’s poems to consider. Famously writing separately, the pair has worked together on more than 30 albums and enduring hits ranging from “Your Song” in 1970 and all of John’s greatest hits to tracks on John’s Wonderful Crazy Night album in 2016.
“It’s funny because I don’t refer to myself as a songwriter,” Taupin says. “I’m just basically a guy who writes stories. In our early days I was featured on the album covers, and there weren’t many people that really wrote songs the way Elton and I did, where I wrote first and the melody came after. There are a couple people of that ilk, like Keith Reid (with Procol Harum) and Robert Hunter (for the Grateful Dead), but I think if I did anything I took it to another level and become more of a part of the band — not to say I was a rock star at all. That’s laughable. But I became in the eyes of a lot of people, say, an artist in my own right for what I contributed to the Elton John canon.
“So, yeah, I think if anything I’m unique in that sense. I’m not saying unique in the sense that I’m great, or good. That’s for other people to assess. What I’m saying is I think my whole career has been different to what the perceived concept of a songwriter is. I’m a contributor, basically.”
In addition to John, Taupin has also written songs with and for Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Melissa Manchester, Heart, Starship, Peter Cetera, Richie Sambora, Marianne Faithfull and others. He’s tried his hand as a performer as well, with three solo albums and, during the 90s, two with a band he formed called Farm Dogs. “When I was original told I’d been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I thought, ‘Oh, is that in the non-performer (Ahmet Ertegun Award) category?’” Taupin says. “I’ve made five albums and performed on stage, so (a Performer induction) wouldn’t have been wholly correct in their assumption of what I am.”
Taupin says he’s heard from John several times during the week (“He’s ecstatic.”) and credits his longtime partner as well as John’s husband David Furnish and Universal Music Publish Group Chairman and CEO Jody Gerson for “putting some leverage into the voting committee” as it determined this year’s recipients. “I had a lot of people pushing for me and having my back,” Taupin acknowledges. “I’m grateful to all of them.”
Taupin’s induction will come after the September publication of his memoir Scattershot. He spent two years working on it — including editing it from an 800-page draft to “just under” 400 pages — and he’s received the initial galleys for it this week. “I think people will be surprised by it,” Taupin says. “It’s not a conventional rock slog biography It’s not an A-to-Z life story. It’s non-linear. It’s more vignettes of my life… I’m not comparing it to Dylan’s Chronicles, but it has the same sort of free-form feel to it. I couldn’t be tethered to any restrictive autobiographical code. I just had to write it as I felt it.
“It’s pretty exciting, I have to say. I never pat myself on the back about things. I’m my own worst critic. But I’m absolutely thrilled with it. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s incredibly satisfying, and… I’m looking forward to having it out.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 3. Ticket information will be announced in the future.
Live Nation announced the return of Concert Week on Thursday morning (May 4), the $25 all-in ticket deal that will cover more than 3,800 shows across North America this year. The week-long annual program will offer limited-time low-dough tickets specials for shows by more than 300 acts, including gigs by Janet Jackson, Fall Out Boy, Don Toliver, Maroon 5, Shania Twain, Snoop Dogg and more.
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Between May 10-16, fans can click here to see the full list of available shows, filtered by the events, venues or artists; on the site fans can also search for the closest city with a participating gig. Tickets will be available beginning with Verizon and Rakuten presales, with the both kicking off on May 9 at 10 a.m. ET through 11:59 p.m. local time.
Among the lengthy list of other acts participating in Concert Week are: 5 Seconds of Summer, The Offspring, Garbage and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the Outlaw Music Festival, Pantera, Hayley Kiyoko, Ghost, P!nk, Pepe Aguilar, Pentatonix, Avenged Sevenfold, Bebe Rexha, Beck & Phoenix, Hunter Hayes, Incubus, Jason Aldean, Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Boy George & Culture Club, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, Santana, Sam Hunt, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Brooks & Dunn, Charlie Puth, Def Leppard & Motley Crue, LL Cool J, Luke Bryan, Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins, Maneskin, Louis Tomlinson, Miranda Lambert, Wizkid, Wu-Tang Clan and Nas and more.
Concert Week ticket will be available on a limited-time, while supplies last basis, with tickets including all fees upfront in the $25 cost; any taxes will be added at checkout as applicable in each city, state or venue. Click here to see the full list of participating events.
“This isn’t a documentary on a musician; I feel like it’s a documentary on grief,” Ed Sheeran says.
The singer-songwriter was at The Times Center in New York City on Tuesday night, wearing a simple white T-shirt and black leather moto jacket. He was seated alongside Gayle King, the moderator for the evening’s discussion, and the producers and director of his new Disney+ documentary, Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All, which he had screened moments before for the first time to a plush room full of press, some famous faces and a few lucky Sheerios.
Out now on Disney+, the four-part docuseries offers fans a powerful, honest glimpse into the “Bad Habits” troubadour’s personal life, exploring the aftermath of three events that rocked his world in February 2022: his wife Cherry Seaborn’s cancer diagnosis at six months’ pregnant, the copyright lawsuit over his No. 1 smash “Shape of You,” and the sudden, tragic death of his best friend Jamal Edwards.
These three tragedies and obstacles were ultimately the catalyst of Sheeran’s sixth album – (Subtract), out Friday via Atlantic Records, but they weren’t initially what he was planning to bare for the cameras after being approached by the team at Fulwell 73 about the documentary.
“We had a call and I said, ‘Look, this is what’s been actually going on in my personal life and I don’t really want to make a documentary on this,’” Sheeran recalls. “And [executive producer] Ben Winston was like, ‘Let’s just film it and see.’”
That approach results in the kind of vulnerable portrait of the artist fans have likely never seen before while simultaneously touching on universal themes of love, loss and pain. “I never wanted to make a documentary that was like, ‘Sad pop star and feel sorry for sad pop star,’” Sheeran says. “And what I think is really great about the documentary is the themes that it explores. Everyone goes through the fear of sickness in the family. Everyone goes through grief. Everyone goes through ups and downs in their mental health.”
Sheeran worked with Winston and his producing partner Ben Turner — whom he first met while writing songs for early One Direction albums like 2011’s Up All Night and 2012’s Take Me Home — particularly to honor the memory of Edwards, an influential figure in the London music scene who gave Ed a platform for his start in the music industry on the popular YouTube channel SBTV. (Sheeran’s first single “The A Team” went positively viral on the channel — leading to his record deal, smash debut album + (Plus) and everything that’s come since.)
And while the Grammy winner is proud to send his best friend’s legacy out into the world with the doc, he acknowledges that Edwards’ death has left a void that can never be filled with fame, success or another No. 1 single.
“I don’t think you ever process it, really,” he admits. “I think your life builds itself around grief. And I think that’s one thing I’ve actually really liked about making this documentary, is that more people than knew Jamal are now gonna know Jamal, you know? … I don’t think you should process it. I think to respect the person you’ve lost, you just have to live with it and allow yourself to be sad sometimes. And allow yourself to laugh at the fun memories and stuff like that! But to erase someone from your memory to not feel sad, I think is quite disrespectful to the memory of that person. So I allow myself to feel sad when I want to feel sad.”
Viewers can also look forward to getting to know Seaborn across the four episodes. She and Sheeran, who grew up as schoolmates in Suffolk, England, have always been notoriously guarded about their relationship, marriage and two daughters, both to preserve their family’s privacy and maintain a healthy sense of normalcy. However, they made the decision as a couple to temporarily open up about her unexpected health struggles as a way to help viewers find commonality and community with their story.
“It’s something that I talk to Cherry a lot about, because this is our life,” Sheeran says, noting Seaborn in the audience and revealing she thankfully has a clean bill of health these days and is attending “regular checkups” with her doctor.
“This isn’t something that’s scripted; it’s not a reality show,” he continues. “This is something that we’ve kept private for a very, very long time, and rightly so. We are a couple; we’re not celebrities who want to be out there on the red carpet. So what I’m hoping is that this documentary goes out there and exists for what it should exist for — which is a snapshot of grief and mental health and depression — and that we can close the door again and get on with our life.”
And while The Sum of It All‘s release coincides with Sheeran finally unveiling Subtract as the fifth and final album is his long-planned cycle of mathematically titled studio sets, the superstar confesses he’s decidedly nonchalant about how the album will be received by the masses or how it performs on the charts compared to his past mega-hits like 2014’s x (Multiply), 2017’s ÷ (Divide) and 2021’s = Equals — all of which bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. (He’s already released “Eyes Closed” and “Boat” as the first two singles from Subtract. The former has so far peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, far below the No. 2 peak of Equals‘ dance-infused lead-off “Bad Habits” or Divide‘s pair of career-defining No. 1s “Shape of You” and “Perfect.”)
“The album is my cathartic, therapeutic way of trying to make myself feel better,” he tells the audience. “I’m honestly putting it out because people think it’s good. But I wasn’t intending to put it out, I had a whole other album I was gonna put out. So I don’t really mind how it does. I’m just sort of like, ‘I’m gonna put it out and it will just exist and do its thing.’”
You can stream all four episodes of Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All now on Disney+. In the meantime, revisit the trailer for the docuseries below.
Billie Eilish is showing off her time inside the Met Gala with one of the event’s famed bathroom selfies.
For those who may not know, phones and cameras aren’t technically allowed at inside the highly exclusive A-list soiree (per the rules of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour), so the only place one can safely whip out your smartphone for a cute photo with friends is in the restroom.
Wearing a sheer, lacy Simone Rocha dress over a corset by Agent Provocateur for the high-fashion occasion, the “Billie Bossa Nova” singer rounded up pals Halle Bailey, Elle Fanning and Maya Hawke for a high-fashion mirror selfie that she posted to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday (May 2). Eilish even cheekily doubled down on the bright red “no smoking” sign posted on the mirror by adding two emojis of the same symbol to her caption-free post on her now-expired Story.
Bathroom selfies have become something of a tradition at the Met Gala over the years. One of the most memorable was back in 2017 when Kylie Jenner shared a veritably party-within-a-party happening in the lavatory featuring her sisters Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner, A$AP Rocky, Brie Larson, Luka Sabbat, Paris Jackson, Sean Combs, Elizabeth Chambers, Ashton Sanders, Lily Aldridge and more.
This year’s gala theme was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, with guests asked to dress “in honor” of the late designer behind the likes of Chanel, Fendi, Chloé, a brief stint at Balmain and his own namesake label, Karl Lagerfeld.
Check out Eilish’s glamorously goth look on the Met Gala carpet before it expires.
Houston, we’ve got a new Harry Styles music video. The 29-year-old pop star dropped the adorable visual for “Satellite” Wednesday (May 3), making it the latest of his Harry’s House tracks to get the single treatment.
Directed by Styles’ go-to music video collaborator Aube Perrie, the project follows the perspective of a Wall-E-esque robot, who works as an automatic vacuum cleaner backstage at one of the musician’s concerts. We see him cleaning the floors of a green room as Styles leaves to perform, and again when he accidentally rolls onstage while the star is singing mid-show — just to be expelled from the concert by a security guard.
In search of adventure, the little vacuum exits the venue and explores the world outside, eventually reuniting with Styles at the end to go stargazing.
The video comes just two days after Styles confirmed that “Satellite” would be the fourth single off his May 2022 album Harry’s House, following 15-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “As It Was,” “Late Night Talking” and “Music For a Sushi Restaurant,” all three of which were turned into music videos of their own. On Monday (May 1), the Grammy winner’s affiliate social media accounts unveiled majestic posters teasing the new music video, featuring a Mars Rover-type robot looking at constellations and exploring rocky terrain.
The “Watermelon Sugar” singer is currently gearing up for the European leg of his ongoing Love on Tour, which has been running since September 2021, and is expected to conclude after nearly two years of shows this July. In late March, he wrapped up the trek’s Asian leg with two nights at Japan’s Ariaka Arena in Tokyo.
Watch Harry Styles’ new “Satellite” video above.
Forget Steph Curry and LeBron James: BTS’s Suga is the NBA’s latest secret weapon.Suga will play ball with the Association, which this week unveiled the South Korean rapper, songwriter, and producer as an NBA Ambassador.In this sporty new role, Suga will be expected to “engage NBA fans around the world” through the remainder of the 2022-23 NBA season and beyond, reads a statement from the league. “Music and basketball have been shared passions of mine since my youth, and it’s a dream to be named an NBA Ambassador,” says Suga in a statement. “I’m excited to formalize my relationship with the NBA, and I can’t wait to share some exciting collaborations I have planned with the league over the coming months.”
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The alliance goes both ways. Suga will also participate in several league initiatives that will be featured on both the NBA and Suga’s social channels. Among them, Suga will participate in promotional activities, and attend NBA games and events in Asia and the United States — which he has already done this season, including the Dallas Mavericks game at Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 12.Also, the NBA will “have a presence” throughout Suga’s D-Day Tour, which is currently winding its way around the U.S., in support of his debut solo album as Agust D.“We’re thrilled to join forces with Suga – a superstar musician, fashion icon, and passionate NBA fan,” comments NBA deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum. “We look forward to working with Suga to bring the same excitement he engenders from his global fanbase in support of our continued efforts to grow our brand.”Suga loves that game. Earlier in the week, he talked ball with Jimmy Fallon when he stopped by The Tonight Show. His stage name, he explained, is a contraction of “shooting guard.” And when asked if he could beat the other BTS lads in a game of one-on-one, he responded: “Are you kidding me?” Adding, “I don’t think any of the other members know the basketball rules.”The NBA has never been more popular with sports fans abroad, and the game itself had never been more “international.” When the 2022-23 season tipped off, franchise rosters included 120 international players from 40 countries, led by Canada (22) and Australia (10). When the regular season came to an end, international players led the league in points per game and rebounds, and internationals have won the Most Valuable Player award for each of the past five seasons.
IVE arrived on the K-pop scene in November 2020 and quickly became the industry’s next reliable hitmaker with three addictive yet distinctly unique singles: the exotically intriguing pop of “Eleven,” the snappy, runway-ready throbber “Love Dive,” and the Gloria Gaynor–sampling disco update “After Like.” But through the differing sounds, the girl group’s identity connected with K-pop fans thanks to undeniable cohesion and confidence to pull off whatever genre or concept that came next. That spirit stays strong in their first full-length album, the multidimensional I’ve IVE, which sees the K-pop stars to watch taking the next big step of their career alongside a new U.S. label partner in tow.
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Even before IVE’s official debut, anticipation was already high for the six-piece led by Yujin and Wonyoung, two of the most popular members from the sensational-but-temporary girl group IZ*ONE (who earned three entries on the World Albums chart and six on World Digital Song Sales during their two-and-a-half years together), as well as fresh faces in eldest member Gaeul, Japan-born Rei, power vocalist Liz, and youngest member Leeseo. From high kicks off the ground to simultaneously spinning and singing, the group developed under Korean super-label Starship Entertainment stood out for moving equally as one, even with varying degrees of original star power between members.
The same substantial stability comes through in I’ve IVE as the girls previewed their LP with the fun and rowdy chant-a-long buzz track “Kitsch” before dropping the power-pop bomb lead single “I Am.”
Within the LP, IVE is keen to present themselves as whatever kind of girl group the listener may enjoy but with their own added bite of self-assurance. The first listen of the sunny “Not Your Girl” recalls any flirty, feel-good ditty until the lyrics make it clear they’re not staying unless there’s a commitment and intention from the love interest. Plus, the opening track, “Blue Blood,” takes a common belief in South Korea that one’s blood type predicts their personality for IVE to declare themselves pure-hearted and exceptional over a dark, marching beat. Other standouts include the bossa nova influences through a plead for honesty on “Lips,” while “Heroine” is an invocation of self-assurance written by Yujin told through quirky electro-pop production, and “Mine” explains adorable infatuation through angelic harmonies and candy metaphors penned by Wonyoung.
Yujin, Wonyoung, Gaeul and Rei all boast writing credits through the LP that IVE says spotlights their belief in self and one another above any style or sound.
“Power and confidence are, outright, the most key concept,” Wonyoung says during an evening Zoom interview with Billboard. The member most comfortable with English, Wonyoung’s warmness is palpable through the screen as she’s eager to speak about the group’s dreams and her perspectives on fame. As untouchable as IVE appear on stage, there’s an undeniable relatability from sitting down to talk with them. Liz has a hilarious, no-bars-held candidness to her responses. At the same time, Gaeul uses her perspective as the oldest to fill in any missing details from her members and ensures everyone gets due credit, including shouting out their leader’s abilities when Yujin prearranged schedule didn’t allow her to join this chat.
“We are very excited to show such a variety of music styles in IVE’s first album,” Yujin says in a statement to Billboard after the interview. “This album is super meaningful to me as it’s our first full-length album and also because I participated in writing the lyrics for the first time. This album is like a package of different versions of IVE, and it has the unique color of IVE. I hope you look forward to our album and many other plans.”
Learn more about IVE’s colors, plans and more below.
Congratulations on this impressive full album, IVe. What’s everyone’s favorite song on the album?
Wonyoung: Mine is “Mine,” I wrote the lyrics too, so, I love it.
Liz: My favorite song is our title track [single], “I Am.”
Gaeul: I like the song “Hypnosis” because me and Rei wrote the lyrics to it, and it was the most fun to write the lyrics for that song.
Leeseo: “Shine With Me” is my favorite song because Wonyoung wrote the lyrics to it to link us to our fans, DIVE. It’s a message to their fans and the melody is especially very emotional to me.
Rei: “Cherish” because when we first listened to the demo, I could imagine how the members would be able to sing the song. And then once I listened to the completed song, I really loved the way it turned out.
We’re only with the five of you today. Does anyone know Yujin’s favorite song?
Wonyoung: “Heroine” or “Kitsch,” maybe?
As you mentioned, you were very involved in a lot of the songwriting on this album, some of you even the sole lyricist. What are your songwriting processes like?
Wonyoung: At first, I just listen to the song, just to get the feeling and set my mind right, usually at my home or in my room. If I get a certain feeling, I just write the whole song first and then just make little mixes, little changes. I love the process and I really love writing lyrics.
Rei: Once I receive the song, it’ll will have a blank portion without the rap, so I just kind of imagine a story and write lyrics according to that.
IVE has been successful with just three singles, but now it’s a full-length album with many more songs. Why was now the right time to make a studio album with “Kitsch” and “I Am” for singles?
Wonyoung: We’ve always had the desire to show a full album and our full power. For “Love Dive,” “After Like” and “Eleven,” I think we just made steps and strides with little-but-strong energy between us and DIVE. Now, we just thought this is the time to show our full-length and full energy to them. We really prepared a lot for this season and, now, we are ready.
Gaeul: We chose “Kitsch” as the pre-release single because we want to show a side of IVE that we haven’t shown before and kind of break free from the image that we’ve always had as a group. We wanted to challenge ourselves. And I feel like “I Am” is the lead single because our album title is I’ve IVE, and we thought that “I Am,” as a track on its own, would fit the most to the concept of the album.
I’ve heard debates about this but, in your own words, what is IVE’s concept or main message?
Wonyoung: I think the most important concept of us is of self-loving and self-love. But not just for us, we always want to say, “Please love yourself” to all of the listeners too. The power and confidence is, outright, the most key concept for us.
There are great messages in the “Kitsch” video too: The “You’re so weird, don’t change” neon sign. Or your jackets with “Books, not gun. Culture, not violence” patches. Can you talk about other messages you’re embracing?
Wonyoung: Mainly, we wanted to say, not just for us, but that you can change like us and can do everything and anything like us. The main [point] was, it’s not just about us—join us, join our culture and join in on everything. We just wanted to give listeners the power of believing in themselves. If we’re honest, the sentence and mottos were a little in cooperation with our director and the director’s ideas too but we worked on it all together.
I want to also congratulate you because IVE just signed with Columbia Records. What can we look forward to with this partnership?
Wonyoung: We’re really honored for that. First, we are really excited to work with another label and with other places like Columbia. We are, right now, really excited, and we’re really looking forward to that right now. For the start with Columbia, we really want to reach out to global fans all over the world. We are, right now, preparing a lot for our global fans.
Are there any plans you can share right now? Any planned visits to the U.S.?
Wonyoung: First, our “Prom Queens” fan-meeting tour will start with the Asia tour, and, hopefully, in the future, we really want to reach out In America, and everywhere else overseas. And not just for fan concerts, but we really want to visit the world to perform our own concerts. So, just keep cheering for us and hopefully you all can join us soon.
I’ve IVE is your first record eligible for the album charts on Billboard. Do you have any chart dreams?
Wonyoung: Even from our first song, we are really honored to have our name on the Billboard chart and really thankful for that. Hopefully, one day, we really want to visit Billboard in America with the six of us. We will prepare a lot in preparation for that day.
You are all very strong and charismatic personalities on your own but also very cohesive as a team—your choreography is seamless even when you spin and kick. What’s your teamwork secret?
Wonyoung: I think it’s the power of believing in each other; we just have a strong sense of belief between us. I let them do everything they want and they let me do everything I want. I think that makes the best cooperation between us; the belief.
Rei: During dance practices, we’ll use counting to match each other. For a really important part, we’ll stop and repeat that part and keep repeating it so that during the actual performances, we’ll think of the practice in our minds. That’s also how we stay so in sync with each other.
Wonyoung: Dance practices are pretty intense. For a long time, we would make and work on the choreographies every day for six hours or something. I think it’s pretty intense, but we’re always enthusiastic to show our fans and DIVEs the performances so I think that is the motivation for us.
Gaeul: Also, Yujin really helps with the details during dance practices and is willing to teach individual members different parts. She really does her part as the leader of the group.
Similarly, how do you stay well? Fans can see you so busy but may also worry about your physical, emotional, and mental health. How do you stay strong?
Wonyoung: If there’s nothing scheduled for the day, I spend time all by myself, just recovering on the outside and, of course, on the inside. Actually, I love to work out and do a lot of different exercises. On an off day, I’ll concentrate on my inside by listening to music; just hanging out by myself and working out helps me too. It feels like I’m healing myself.
Leeseo: I make sure I’m sleeping a lot, making sure I’m taking my vitamins, and taking care of my body physically.
Liz: I believe that you have to be mentally strong, or internally strong, in order for you to be physically or outwardly strong. For me, I really focus on believing in myself and believing in my decisions.
You do show such strength and confidence in yourselves. Wonyoung, you’ve spoken about this in the past, but what would IVE’s advice be for people needing that extra confidence?
Wonyoung: I want to say, you have more of the good times than tough times. Tough times and bad comments do not take away everything that is good: just believe the good, know you’re a good person, and just concentrate on yourself, your positive relationships and the good times. I think that is the important thing—just don’t mind them.
Liz: I like to just focus on the nice people who are saying good things rather than giving attention to the haters or negativity. I think that you have to be certain in yourself so that you don’t get sidetracked by any hate.
Do you have any other messages? Maybe to the international fans hoping to see you soon?
Gaeul: We’re working really hard to reach our global fans, so I wish they’ll just wait a little bit longer for us.
Miranda Lambert stopped by Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen on Monday night and dished on her dream collaboration with Beyoncé.
Host Andy Cohen pressed the country star on both who her favorite past collaborator has been as well as who’s still on her bucket list during a game of “Clubhouse Quickie.” For the former, she chose fellow guest Meghan Trainor — the pair performed “All About That Bass” at the CMA Awards back in 2014 — but at first she had a difficult time naming another artist she’d want to work with.
“Everybody!” she insisted. “Everybody brings something different to the table. It’s always fun and, you know, cool to meet somebody new and get some of their creativity and mix it all up.”
It was at that point that Trainor jumped in to shout, “I want Lewis Capaldi!,” which helped Lambert make a decision: “I want Beyoncé.”
Other things fans learned about the “I’ll Be Loving You” singer during the rapid-fire round of questioning included her first concert (Garth Brooks at Texas Stadium when she was just 10), go-to karaoke song (anything by The Chicks), the reality shows she secretly binges (home renovations on HGTV) and more.
While Lambert’s most recent album, Palomino, came out in April 2022, she just released her very first cookbook titled Y’all Eat Yet? In an exclusive interview with Billboard, the singer said the book of recipes came about “so organically” adding, “I’ve never shared some of my personal happy times, and memories and some hard stuff other than in my music. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years, so I feel like this is maybe a side of me that my fans haven’t gotten to see and dig a little bit deeper.”
Watch Lambert talk about Queen Bey being on her wish list of collaborators below.
History has a way of repeating itself, which is exactly what Kim Petras is watching happen with the current anti-trans rhetoric spreading around the globe.
In an exclusive clip from her upcoming Out magazine cover story shared with People, Petras talks about coming out as trans at an early age and why her parents’ support was vital. “I literally was very suicidal as a kid, and I just wouldn’t still be here had my parents not believed me,” the singer said. Recalling her historic win at the 2023 Grammy Awards, she added that she knew she needed to thank “the person who’s responsible for me being alive,” her mother.
Watching the continued wave of transphobic sentiment sweeping across the globe — especially in the U.S., where more anti-LGBTQ legislation has been proposed in 2023 than any other year on record — has been “sad” to watch, Petras said. “I hate that another generation is going through this, and I hate that young kids are going through the same sh– I was going through, and that apparently just isn’t changing.”
Putting a finer point on the issue, Petras said it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business how a person identifies. “I just never understood why people were so obsessed with what people do to be happy,” she said. “Just focus on what you can do to be happy.”
The teaser of Petras’ new profile comes on the heels of “Alone,” the singer’s latest collaboration with rap superstar Nicki Minaj. Following the pair of performers earning a No. 55 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, Kim and Nicki dropped their official music video for “Alone” on Tuesday (May 2).
Check out the preview of Petras’ Out cover story here, and watch her new music video for “Alone” below:
