Pop
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“The reason I love electronic music and clubs and DJs so much is that everything is endless,” Charli xcx told Billboard in her July cover story. Fittingly, the veteran pop artist got her start in London’s rave scene over a decade ago and, across five albums, developed a faithful cult following. But it was her sixth album, brat, and its yearlong rollout, that shifted perception — and expanded her fandom.
Beginning with her record-breaking Boiler Room warehouse set in February, Charli let demand slowly build before the June release of brat, which was met with critical acclaim and became her highest-charting title on the Billboard 200, entering at No. 3 and collecting 82,000 equivalent album units in its first week, according to Luminate. In the following months, the internet deemed the season “Brat Summer” as Charli became even more omnipresent and brat started to shape-shift.
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Soon after brat’s release, Charli dropped a surprise remix of standout song “Girl, so confusing” featuring its subject: Lorde. The drop hinted at more to come, and in August the “Guess” remix featuring Billie Eilish arrived — and soon became the highest-charting song from brat, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Brat Summer soon turned into Brat Fall with the September kickoff of her co-headlining Sweat Tour with Troye Sivan, during which Charli released a full-fledged remix album titled Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
Every song was reimagined and featured at least one special guest, including Robyn and Yung Lean (“360”), Ariana Grande (“Sympathy Is a Knife”), Bon Iver (“I Think About It All the Time”) and Sivan on “Talk Talk,” which closed each night of their tour. To celebrate the release of the remix album, a larger-than-life “sonic sculpture” was unveiled at New York’s open-air Storm King Art Center, juxtaposing its lime green walls against the browning colors of the surrounding grass and trees.
By November, brat earned Charli seven Grammy nominations — including for album and record of the year (“360”) — and she ended the month by pulling double duty as host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. She closed the year by announcing a few 2025 solo arena dates, as well as a headlining set at Primavera Sound in Barcelona and a main-stage booking at Coachella. The word “brat” was even named word of the year by the Collins English Dictionary.
As for what’s still ahead, her management team reveals that all of 2025 is already planned out. For an artist like Charli, who has “always operated three steps ahead,” as Twiggy Rowley, a member of her management team, previously told Billboard, the blueprints for Brat Winter and Brat Spring have indeed been laid — and will lead right back to where it all began, with no end in sight. Just as Charli always wanted.
And yet, as Charli said while speaking to the audience at a May screening of her “360” music video, “It’s hard being ahead.” Her longtime creative director, Imogene Strauss, agrees, telling Billboard in June: “I think this is very true. Doing things first almost never means you’re going to be the biggest or most famous. Being the reference means you have to make choices that go against the status quo.”
Still, Charli and her team have managed to sustain the momentum surrounding brat for months — and make it look easy. And while her previous output has earned critical love, she and her team’s lockstep moves in 2024 have actually helped her become both one of the biggest and most famous pop stars of the year.
“Going into this album, Charli had written a 20-page manifesto for the core team,” recalls Brandon Davis, executive vp/co-head of pop A&R at Atlantic. “So much of what you saw throughout the campaign was conceptualized many months prior by her. She’s a genius. The look, the feel, the sound, the art, the fashion — it was all there and all Charli.”
Because of that precision, her team was able to build “key campaign moments” based on her vision. “Where things got a bit spontaneous,” Davis continues, “was what happened next.”
He cites the “brat wall” as the best example of inspiring “massive cultural moments” that the team then had the challenge of amplifying. Over the summer, a wall in Brooklyn was painted brat green and communicated different messages and updates about the album, all of which were written and broadcast live for fans gathering in person and watching on social media. Soon enough, cities around the world from San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia, enacted walls of their own.
Davis also mentions the “brat generator,” an online tool that lets users customize their own brat album cover-inspired images, as helping boost the album’s cultural cachet. Once the team realized how widely the tool was being used, they mobilized to create multiple versions of the generator for each version of brat and, eventually, for the Sweat Tour as well.
As expected, the tour had brattiness coursing through it, with Strauss previously telling Billboard it was “an interesting morphing, shifting thing” because of how the album itself evolved throughout the trek. The list of potential surprise guests grew, too: At Madison Square Garden, Lorde joined Charli for their “Girl, so confusing” remix, and at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, Kesha performed her version of “Spring breakers” (off the deluxe Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not), which arrived as a surprise release days after Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
“So much of this rollout was planned, but sometimes it was not,” Charli previously told Billboard, speaking of her “Girl, so confusing” remix with Lorde, which took just three days to arrange. As Davis reveals, “There was a moment where we weren’t even sure if the song would make it out on all [digital service providers] in time.”
Charli’s management team, led by Brandon Creed with Rowley and Sam Pringle, say the brat remixes are a perfect example of how quickly she moved following the release of the original album. While Charli always planned on releasing a remix set, no one anticipated how much momentum her collaboration with Lorde, which charted at No. 63 on the Hot 100, would inject into the campaign. And ever since, Charli has kept illustrating how being nimble is crucial to the “endless” release cycle she always wanted.
“It was a total balancing act of strategy and real-time decisions,” Charli’s management team shared in a joint statement to Billboard. “The entire brat campaign exemplifies perfectly when an artist and their team are locked in and able to amplify, magnify and pivot with all decisions.”
“I think the key fundamental was to always be watching, always be nimble and always stay close to Charli,” Davis adds. “She knows herself, and her fans, best.”
As for what will come next, that’s for Charli to know and fans to find out. How very brat.
This story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Dua Lipa’s list of 2024 musical accomplishments is comically long. In this year alone she’s done — deep breath — the following: released her third studio album, Radical Optimism; kicked off her biggest global tour yet; played a coveted Glastonbury Festival headline slot, the first British woman to do so since 2016; filmed a TV special at London’s Royal Albert Hall; performed onstage with Cher, Elton John and Chris Stapleton; and made a playful cameo on Charli xcx’s remixed version of brat.
“It’s honestly been the best year of my life. I’ve done things that I’ve wanted to do for so long,” Lipa tells Billboard U.K. with a laugh on a video call. She’s in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when we speak, where she’s playing two nights at the city’s Axiata Arena. The run of dates in Asia, which has included stops in Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Bangkok, is her first in the region in six years. The crowds have been so “loud and fun,” she says, and she’s been “blown away” by their enthusiasm.
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“There came a point in the year where I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to sit down and write some new dreams and new plans and other things I wanted to do,’ ” she says. “I feel like I ticked so many of my boxes this year. It’s amazing.”
In May, the British Albanian artist released Radical Optimism (Warner), which peaked at No. 1 on the United Kingdom’s Official Albums Chart upon release and had the biggest opening week by a British female artist since Adele’s 30 in 2021. The record went to No. 1 throughout mainland Europe in Spain, France, The Netherlands and more, and hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200, her highest debut on the U.S. charts to date. Lead single “Houdini,” meanwhile, enjoyed a 17-week reign on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
The 29-year-old is a fitting entry for Billboard U.K. in Billboard’s inaugural Global No. 1s series celebrating the biggest and most successful artists internationally over the past year.
Seven months after the album’s release, Lipa looks back fondly on recording it with the stellar house band that included Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, hyperpop hero Danny L Harle, superproducer Andrew Wyatt and star songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr., along with her accomplished previous collaborators Caroline Ailin and Ian Kirkpatrick. Lipa has said it was inspired by Parker’s Tame Impala work and, speaking to Rolling Stone in February, dubbed it a “psychedelic-pop-infused tribute to U.K. rave culture.” A noticeable shimmy away from her disco-infused single “Dance the Night,” which appeared in the 2023 blockbuster Barbie film, Radical Optimism showed flashes of the turn-of-the-millennium French touch scene (“End of an Era”) and Parker’s signature psych-pop (“Training Season”).
Lipa sketched the blueprint for Radical Optimism following the success of her monster second album, 2020’s Future Nostalgia, which later spawned several hits, including “Levitating,” which was named the biggest song of 2021 on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart. The set, which found an enthusiastic worldwide audience with its playful disco sheen during the COVID-19 lockdown, won best pop vocal album at the Grammys in 2021.
“Future Nostalgia doing what it did allowed me to grow as an artist, to push boundaries and change. It allowed me to have the confidence to make Radical Optimism,” Lipa tells Billboard U.K. “It gave me the freedom and confidence to be like, ‘You know who I really want to make an album with? Kevin Parker. And I want to do something a bit different; I want to work with Danny L Harle and experiment with my sound, do a different vocal performance and make pop music but allow that to live in another sonic world.’ It’s been fun to shape-shift.”
Dua Lipa backstage at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Nov. 24.
Elizabeth Miranda
In October, the songs received the ultimate stress test with a performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, where she enlisted the 53-piece Heritage Orchestra, conducted by Ben Foster; 14 choristers; and her regular touring band for a bombastic, glitzy night at the capital’s most iconic music venue. She performed Radical Optimism in full, utilizing the brass section to give new heft to songs like “Houdini,” while elegant strings added another dimension to “French Exit” and “These Walls.” The in-the-round performance was captured for a TV special, An Evening With Dua Lipa (which aired Dec. 8 on ITV in the United Kingdom and will air Dec. 15 on CBS in the United States), and a live album, Dua Lipa Live at the Royal Albert Hall (out now).
“When we were in rehearsals, there was nothing quite like it: Those orchestral instrumentations just shook me to the core,” Lipa recalls. “Feeling my music in such a way that was so moving, it made me fall in love with music all over again.”
During the concert’s encore, John joined Lipa — the first time they performed live together — to sing their collaboration, “Cold Heart,” which topped charts globally upon release in 2021 (in its PNAU remix) and interpolates multiple John songs.
“Obviously Elton is no stranger to the Albert Hall himself and it felt like such a chic and elegant night, so I needed my most chic and fabulous friend to come and join me. He immediately said yes,” she says. “One thing about Elton is that he always shows up for his friends. He’s super loyal… he’s just always been there, lending his ear and being so supportive.”
Dua Lipa backstage at the Philippine Arena in Santa Maria, Philippines, on Nov. 13.
Elizabeth Miranda
The defining Dua Lipa performance of 2024, however, was not in the austere, lavish Albert Hall but in a Somerset field in southwest England. Worthy Farm, where Glastonbury Festival is held, is usually full of dairy cows gently grazing in the lush greenery, but on June 28, they were replaced with a sea of sequined spectators for Lipa’s headlining slot on the festival’s Pyramid Stage. The impassioned, fun, formidable set (during which Parker joined Lipa onstage) aired live on BBC One and globally on the broadcaster’s website.
The show marked her second Glastonbury appearance, following a 2017 mid-afternoon performance that attracted one of that weekend’s biggest crowds — and, following on the heels of her self-titled debut album’s release, helped catalyze her star turn.
Returning as a Pyramid Stage headliner (on Friday, so she could party the rest of the weekend at the festival with her partner, actor Callum Turner, and some pals) had been on her agenda ever since. “I try not to let these moments pass me by so I made sure that when I was standing up there I took as many mental pictures as I could,” she says. At one point, she headed out toward the crowd and turned to face the stage, focusing on its apex: a shining white tip sending a beam of light into the starry night sky.
Prior to the performance, Lipa had switched off her phone to get in the zone. When she got back to her dressing room afterward, she had a deluge of texts.
“It was so beautiful. I had so many messages from previous headliners,” she says. “You sort of earn this badge of honor in that moment, and it felt like I joined the coolest club in the world.” One came from Adele, the last female British act before Lipa to top the bill in 2016. “She said, ‘I’ve been thinking about you all day and just wanted to wish you luck for tonight. Don’t forget to soak it all in.’ Looking back at that Pyramid was me trying to do that.”
Dua Lipa backstage at MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 30.
Elizabeth Miranda
Radical Optimism is the first album Lipa has released since striking a deal with TaP Music, her former management and publishing group, to acquire ownership of her songs, music, masters and publishing rights. The move dovetailed with news that Lipa would now be managed by her father, Dukagjin Lipa, and in 2024, she expanded her nonmusic offerings: Her company Radical22 produced the Disney+ documentary Camden, about the north London borough and its music scene; she starred in the action-comedy Argylle; and her Service95 newsletter — which compiles recommendations for food, literature and more — grew in stature. No surprise, then, that The Sunday Times featured her on its annual Rich List, estimating a $113 million (90 million pounds) net worth.
“This is really me stepping into my role not just as a creator but as a businesswoman,” she says. “It comes with the understanding that as much as I want to stay on the creative side, I have to be knowledgeable about all aspects of my career if I want to have longevity.
“I think for every artist that’s really important — and as much as we might not want to, as the easiest thing is to go into the studio and write the songs and whatever happens, happens — it just can’t be that way,” she continues. “Every artist should be educated on that. It’s really important for us to be in control or at least know what’s happening with our careers and not turn a blind eye.”
Elsewhere, she’s consistently voiced support of Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and she was also named a champion for the Trevor Project, the suicide prevention charity that supports LGBTQ+ youth. “Anything I can do as a supporter to help out in any way with the platform that I have, I’m fully willing and open to all of that,” she says.
But, despite her many achievements, something noteworthy eluded Lipa on this cycle: Radical Optimism did not receive any nominations for the upcoming Grammys, a surprise given her 10 career nominations in years past (including a win for best new artist in 2019) and the fact that her performance kicked off the 2024 ceremony.
“I’m so proud of Radical Optimism and where it’s brought me. I love that album and I’m having the time of my life performing it live, and I’ve been able to do things that I thought I could only dream of this year, so I’m really grateful,” she confidently says of the record’s impact on her career. “Although it would have been nice to be recognized by your industry, especially as a woman, I’m so proud seeing so many incredible female artists nominated at the Grammys this year.”
Dua Lipa backstage at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Nov. 6.
Elizabeth Miranda
Lipa has particular love for Charli xcx, a longtime pal who received several Grammy nods for brat. She had a cameo on the remix of Charli’s “Talk talk” alongside Troye Sivan, with Lipa speaking in French and Spanish on the track.
“I love her so much and she’s always been a really good friend of mine and been so supportive from day one. She deserves all the flowers,” Lipa says of Charli. “She’s worked her arse off, and it’s so beautiful to see her get the recognition she deserves. She’s really stuck to her guns and allowed herself to be creative in her own way, and it’s paid off. That’s the best thing that can ever happen to an artist. She’s so deserving of every moment.”
As for where her own career is, “Overall I’m really happy with where I am,” Lipa says. “I don’t think it really matters in the grand scheme of things where I am, where I want to be and where I’m going. It doesn’t change the way I feel about the record at all.”
Now, as 2024 comes to a close, Lipa is enjoying some well-earned rest before her biggest tour yet. In March 2025, her Radical Optimism tour kicks off its next leg in Australia and New Zealand before heading to Europe and the United Kingdom, which includes two sold-out nights at London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium and Liverpool’s historic Anfield Stadium. Then in September, she’s off to North America with 24 arena dates including a whopping four nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden and another four at L.A.’s Kia Forum.
She speaks about manifestation, the idea that she must imagine her biggest goals and achievements for them to become a reality. In fact, Lipa’s use of the word contributed to the Cambridge Dictionary naming “manifest” its word of the year. She remains coy, however, of what’s next on the agenda. “I can’t really tell you, as they have to be a secret to come true…” she says. If her past year is anything to go by, we’ll know it when we see it.
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Lady Gaga has one mode: all-in. That’s the lesson Little Monsters learned (again) over the weekend when Mother Monster hopped in the car with Zane Lowe for a surprise A Carpool Karaoke Christmas special — which also featured Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan — and talked about the time she was told to dial it […]
Weekend Update had SNL‘s Jane Wickline singing a comedic song as Sabrina Carpenter Saturday night (Dec. 14) — one that named pop stars like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, both of whom the internet has no problem gossiping about when it comes to sexuality. Carpenter apparently hasn’t been a big part of that particular rumor mill. In the sketch, Wickline portrays the “Taste” singer as feeling left out.
“A lot of people on the internet like to start these juicy rumors about whether pop stars are gay, and this is a new song that I, Sabrina Carpenter, wrote called ‘When Will Even One Person Do That About Me?’” the SNL cast member explained ahead of performing a parody based on what Carpenter might think of it all.
Of course, the song sounded nothing like an actual Carpenter hit. “I can’t look or sound like her. She’s completely perfect,” Wickline said, but added, “For the purposes of this song, I am her.”
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“Taylor Swift sings about a crush on her best friend/ And you all cry ‘lesbian’ because she didn’t phrase it ‘my boy best friend,’” she sang in front of a keyboard.
“In a music video, I make out with Jenna Ortega/ No one doubts me at all when I say this is a metaphor for one of my ex-boyfriends/ And that is all it was, but no one ever wondered,” Wickline’s Carpenter said. In the next verse she pointed out that making out with her female co-star in “Taste” merely resulted in online chatter like “I heard this song is about Shawn Mendes.”
“Help me/ Just tell me where I’m doing wrong/ Why am I the only straight pop star/ Taken at their word?/ It’s lonely/ I do gay stuff and you don’t get mad/ I just want the same treatment/ I want to have mystique/ Why don’t you think I’m either bi or pretending that I might be/ I’m not bi or pretending, but why does no one think I’m lying/ I just want you to think I might have secrets,” she sang.
Wickline went on to remind everyone that Carpenter also locked lips with a female alien during the MTV Video Music Awards stage in September, while performing a medley of her hits.
“I also made out with a girl alien at the VMAs/ Nothing!” she lamented in her song.
Carpenter hasn’t commented on the bit.
Watch the “Weekend Update” that pokes fun at Carpenter in the clip below. Elsewhere during the Chris Rock-hosted episode, musical guest Gracie Abrams played “That’s So True” and “I Love You, I’m Sorry.”
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department notches a 17th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 21), as the set holds atop the list after rushing back to No. 1 a week ago after its deluxe Anthology edition was released on CD and vinyl exclusively at Target. In the tracking week ending Dec. 12, the album earned 240,000 equivalent album units (down 41%) in the U.S., according to Luminate, with over 80% of that sum driven by physical album sales.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 chart, ROSÉ’s debut solo album rosie bows at No. 3, TWICE’s Strategy enters at No. 4 and Sabrina Carpenter’s holiday set Fruitcake reenters the chart at No. 10 for its first week in the top 10, after its wide physical release.
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The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 21, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Dec. 17). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 240,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 12, traditional album sales comprise 201,000 (down 45%, it holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales for a 10th nonconsecutive week), SEA units comprise 39,000 (up 6%; equaling 51.04 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it falls 9-10 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 27%).
TTPD was initially released on April 19 as a standard 16-song digital download album, as well as in an array of 17-song physical configurations. Two hours after the album dropped, Swift issued an expanded 31-song edition of the album, dubbed The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which added 15 additional songs. However, the Anthology edition was only available as a digital download and streaming set until Nov. 29, when its CD and vinyl editions became available for purchase exclusively through Target. The Target CD and vinyl additionally boast four bonus acoustic tracks (which were previously released in other alternative versions of the album).
Since the Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956, Poets is only the 18th album to have spent at least 17 weeks at No. 1, of more than 1,200 leaders. The last album to spend at least 17 weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which logged 19 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between March 2023 and this March. The last album by a woman to spend at least 17 weeks at No. 1 prior to Poets was Adele’s 21, which earned 24 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2011-12.
Kendrick Lamar’s former leader GNX is a non-mover at No. 2 on the latest Billboard 200 with 125,000 equivalent album units earned (down 24%). It remains at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums for a third straight week.
ROSÉ’s solo debut album, rosie, launches at No. 3 with 102,000 equivalent album units earned. Pop group BLACKPINK, of which she is a member, has logged a pair of top 10s, including the chart-topping BORN PINK in 2022.
Of the 102,000 equivalent album units earned by rosie in its opening week, album sales comprise 70,000 (it debuts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 43.85 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 17 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000. The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 physical variants of the album across CD and vinyl editions, many including collectible ephemera (some randomized).
The album was led by the single “APT.” with Bruno Mars, which debuted and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Streaming Songs chart, and has reached the top 30 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and the all-format Radio Songs charts.
TWICE captures its sixth total and consecutive top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200 as STRATEGY debuts at No. 4 with 88,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the second top 10 for the group in 2024, following their first chart-topper, With YOU-th (March 9-dated chart). Of the new set’s first-week units, album sales comprise 81,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 6,500 (equaling 8.86 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise less than 500 units. The album’s first-week sales were aided by its availability across more than 15 CD and vinyl editions, all inclusive of collectible paper ephemera (some randomized).
Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (75,000 equivalent album units earned; up 10%); the Wicked film soundtrack falls 3-6 (74,000; down 31%); Michael Bublé’s former leader Christmas is a non-mover at No. 7 (62,000; up 10%); Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas hits a new peak, rising 9-8 (56,000; up 13%); and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft slips 6-9 (56,000; down 6%).
Carpenter captures a second album in the top 10, and the second top 10 of her career, as her holiday effort Fruitcake re-enters the chart at No. 10 (a new peak) following its wide physical release on CD, vinyl and cassette on Dec. 6. In the tracking week ending Dec. 12, Fruitcake earned 54,000 equivalent album units (up 1,040%), with album sales comprising 39,000 (up 27,326%; it debuts at No. 4 on Top Album Sales) and SEA units comprising 15,000 (up 210%, equaling 19.65 million on-demand official streams of set’s songs).
Fruitcake was initially released in November 2023 as a digital download album for purchase and through streaming services. It had a limited vinyl release, exclusively through Carpenter’s official webstore in December 2023. On Dec. 6, the album became widely available on CD, cassette and three vinyl variants (including one exclusive to Target).
Carpenter is the sixth artist in 2024 to have at least two albums in the top 10 at the same time. Previously this year, Zach Bryan, Future, Metro Boomin, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen all notched multiple projects in the top 10 concurrently.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Gracie Abrams made her first-ever appearance on Saturday Night Live.
During the Dec. 14 episode hosted by Chris Rock, the 25-year-old pop star performed two tracks from her sophomore album The Secret of Us and its deluxe edition, both released in 2024.
Setting a cozy, intimate scene with a candlelit backdrop, a crackling fireplace and soft Christmas lights, Abrams opened with “That’s So True,” a bonus track from the deluxe version. The song, which hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, was delivered with passion as Abrams — dressed in a white shirt and matching bowtie — was accompanied by her backing band.
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Later in the show, Abrams returned to perform “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” a lilting track that peaked at No. 19 on the Hot 100 in October. For the second performance, she switched to a long black gown, while her band members sported black-and-white tuxedos.
Her SNL debut caps an extraordinary year for Abrams, who wrapped up her run opening for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour on Dec. 6. She is also nominated for best pop/duo group performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards for her collaboration with Swift on the song “Us.”
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Last week, Abrams announced a new set of North American tour dates for 2025 in support of The Secret of Us deluxe edition. The six-date tour will take her through Canada, the U.S. and Mexico starting July 24 in Boston and ending Aug. 26 in Mexico City. The dates follow her previously announced European and Asian legs in the spring of 2025.
Abrams previously toured North America this fall in support of the original The Secret of Us album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after its June release.
SNL is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary season, which began in September and will culminate in a special weekend and live primetime event on Feb. 16. So far this season, Charli XCX has pulled double duty as both host and musical guest, while other notable hosts like Ariana Grande, John Mulaney, and Bill Burr have shared the spotlight with musical guests including Billie Eilish, Mk.gee, Chappell Roan and Jelly Roll.
Watch Abrams’ SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
Billie Eilish was struck in the face by an object during a recent stop on her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour.
While performing at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on Friday (Dec. 13), the 22-year-old pop star was struck by what appeared to be a necklace thrown by an overzealous fan. The incident occurred while Eilish was sitting cross-legged on stage, delivering an emotional rendition of the Barbie movie soundtrack ballad “What Was I Made For?”
Fan-captured footage shows Eilish flinching as the necklace strikes her face. But she handled the situation like a pro, continuing to sing the chart-topping track before tossing the piece of jewelry aside with mild frustration.
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Eilish has spoken out before about fans throwing objects onstage. During the Barbie movie’s world premiere in July 2023, she acknowledged the impulse behind such actions but emphasized that it’s not acceptable.
“I’ve been getting hit on stage with things for, like, literally six years. I don’t know why this is new,” Eilish told The Hollywood Reporter. “People just get excited, and it can be dangerous.”
She explained that most of the objects thrown are smartphones, often aimed at capturing a selfie with the artist. “It’s absolutely infuriating when you’re up there. I have mixed feelings about it, because when you’re up there, it blows,” the artist said. “But you know it’s out of love, and they’re just trying to give you something. You’re in a vulnerable position, but I’ve been getting hit with stuff for years.”
Friday’s Arizona incident is part of a troubling trend of fans throwing objects at performers, which has been on the rise in recent months. Several high-profile artists — including Zach Bryan, Wiz Khalifa, Morgan Wallen and Nicki Minaj — have been struck by random objects during their shows.
In June 2023, P!nk was left shocked when a fan threw their mother’s ashes onto the stage during a performance at BST Hyde Park in London. Similarly, Cardi B had water thrown at her during a concert in August 2023, and Bebe Rexha was hit with a phone in June 2023, resulting in injury.
Harry Styles and Kid Cudi have also faced similar disruptions. Styles was hit in the eye by a Skittle during a 2022 show in Los Angeles, while Kid Cudi cut his Rolling Loud set short after fans threw bottles at him.
Meanwhile, Eilish is preparing to wrap up the North American leg of her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour, which began in late September. After taking a break on Dec. 21 following five nights at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, the singer will embark on a series of dates in Europe and Australia starting in February.
If you know, you know. Taylor Swift didn’t post anything on her social media accounts on Friday, Dec. 13, her 35th birthday. But her official team online, known as Taylor Nation, used its social media accounts to point fans in the direction of a new section on Swift’s website that’s dedicated to archiving material across eras.
Fans can navigate the TS Eras Archive by clicking a picture of Swift on the photo banner from the era they’d like to explore. There, they can discover behind-the-scenes clips from the music video shoots for “Anti-Hero,” “Karma,” “Fortnight” and more, all newly uploaded to YouTube as of Dec. 13. The BTS videos can also be found by going directly to Swift’s YouTube page and sorting videos by “latest.”
“I have been the architect of my own chaos that I currently live in,” a silver statue version of Swift, as seen in the video still above, quips in the “Karma” clip. “I have no idea how many hundreds of showers it’s gonna take to get this off.”
A recurring theme in these clips is that Swift’s hands-on work, personality and style as a director are highlighted. Besides being the obvious star of each of the music videos here, she also directed them. Swift counts 10 directorial credits — 9 music videos and one short (All Too Well: The Short Film) — for projects released thus far, with a plan to shift to features. In December 2022, it was announced Swift will make her debut as a feature film director with Searchlight Pictures. The as-yet-unnamed film will be based on a script that’s a Swift original.
Many (if not all?) of the behind-the-scenes videos from Friday’s drop were played at stadiums on The Eras Tour ahead of Swift taking the stage for her 3.5-hour concert. The volume and excitement there made it difficult to pay close attention to all the little details in the clips, but now they can be watched at any time, and as many times as you’d like to see them, from the comfort of home.
Swift’s massive Eras Tour wrapped in Vancouver on Dec. 8, just before she was named the big winner at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards on Dec. 12 — with 10 new wins, she’s become the most-awarded artist in the show’s history. “This is the nicest early birthday present you could have given me,” she said in her acceptance speech video, noting her fans’ support of the music is the reason for her being honored.
Billboard editors were on site at Vancouver’s BC Place to review the final weekend of The Eras Tour. Find Billboard‘s thoughts on night one, night two and night three, and relive the complete list of surprise songs Swift played throughout her Eras journey.
Watch all of Swift’s just-released behind-the-scenes clips, from the sets of “Karma,” “Fortnight,” “Bejeweled,” “Anti-Hero” and “Cardigan,” below.
“Karma” (Feat. Ice Spice) (Behind the Scenes)
“Fortnight” (Behind the Scenes With Post Malone, Ethan Hawke & Josh Charles)
“Bejeweled” (Behind the Scenes With Laura Dern)
“Bejeweled” (Behind the Scenes With Jack Antonoff, HAIM & Pat McGrath)
“Bejeweled” (Behind the Scenes With Dita Von Teese)
“Anti-Hero” (Behind the Scenes With Mike Birbiglia, John Early & Mary Elizabeth Ellis)
“Cardigan” (Behind the Scenes – Forest & Ocean)
“Anti-Hero” (Behind the Scenes with the Ghosts In the Room)