State Champ Radio Pop
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To millions of K-pop fans, hello82 has been a destination to watch their favorite idols take on viral challenges, play celebrity babysitter to kids, attempt karaoke in foreign languages and star in other ready-to-share videos. But in the past year, the company behind the multi-language YouTube channels has expanded its e-commerce offerings to better meet its’ viewers’ wants. The results have led to success for the four-year-old company on the Billboard charts and, as of last week, completing their first “tour.”
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When ATEEZ‘s first U.S. shows since 2019 kicked off in January for The Fellowship: Beginning of the End tour, the band was selling out arenas but had yet to break into the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 like many of their K-pop peers. While a relationship with Korean management label KQ Entertainment led to the channel’s top-watched video (an 11-minute prank of ATEEZ member San disguised as a break-dancing senior has over 32 million views), hello82 saw an opportunity to better connect to the band’s ATINY fans directly in the States.
With offices in Los Angeles, hello82 spent 2021 becoming a trusted hub for international K-pop fans to shop for physical album imports, merch, and virtual experiences like live events and artist-fan calls during the pandemic after COVID-19 concerns forced the company to expand into different offerings. Physical-album distribution in the U.S. has helped Korean artists soar high on the Billboard albums chart (largely thanks to being issued in collectible deluxe packages, each with a standard set of items and randomized elements). hello82 saw how expanding their e-commerce channels could create a new business opportunity and simultaneously deliver the same communitive aspect they looked to develop with their video content.
“We just wanted to go meet where the demand was with the supply,” says Sang H. Cho, co-founder of hello82’s parent company KAI Media and its current COO, from his Beverly Hills office. “We just felt like few K-pop groups are well represented and were getting the sort of recognition or credit they deserve when it comes to things like charts. Obviously, we’re a business that wants to make money, but we also understand the fans, their psychology, and their needs too. Having them getting involved and getting them to feel the sense of accomplishment and community. And we obviously knew the opportunity was there for all of us to achieve that together.”
What began in 2021 as distributing two ATEEZ albums from a virtual storefront—September’s Zero: Fever Part.3, which peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200, followed by December’s Zero: Fever Epilogue at No. 72—turned into larger ambitions for ATEEZ’s The World EP.1: Movement album released this past July. Not only was this ATEEZ’s first release after reuniting with their ATINY fans during their early 2022 tour, but also ignited a new musical era for the group.
“We saw the potential to make it much, much bigger,” Cho says with his team looking to both traditional, big-box retailers alongside local, fan-driven pop-up stores to activate beyond the virtual.
Chain department stores have been increasingly carrying more K-pop content, but almost exclusively by those with label deals or representation in the U.S. While RCA Records under Sony Music signed ATEEZ in 2019, the group had yet to have its music available in retail stores stateside. (RCA declined to comment by time of publication on its relationship with ATEEZ) With Cho’s background in retail finance, plus other internal relationships, hello82 quickly made inroads.
“There are a couple of retailers that understand and know the K-pop market pretty well: Target is one, Barnes & Nobles is another, and we’ve worked with those two pretty extensively,” Cho says. “Those guys don’t necessarily buy from new suppliers very easily—especially when it comes to physical media, but we were lucky enough to know some people that could get us in front of these buyers fairly quickly in an official manner and make sure we check all the boxes to make sure we’re qualified for them.”
The move instantly connected hello82 and, finally, an ATEEZ album into some of the world’s biggest retail giants. The World EP.1: Movement was available online and in Barnes & Noble stores, plus in online stores for Target, Walmart and FYE. “The margins are thin at these big-box retailers,” Cho says. “But they also give you a lot of coverage and you get a lot more fans who aren’t close to places like big cities so we’re happy about that.” There are hopes for upcoming ATEEZ projects to be in actual Target stores.
Yet perhaps the most meaningful part of their chart goals was creating more than a dozen pop-up stores across the country directly alongside fans. With a hello82 rep at each store, local ATINY volunteered (some reaching out on social media before the company could even make the call for help) after being vetted by the team to help work at their local locations that were decorated with photo walls, giveaways and customized merch.
“We knew that we could probably do a few pop-up stores on our own, but we really wanted to activate the fans and make them one of the stakeholders in the entire campaign,” Cho says of the 19 pop-up stores they held in hotspots like Chicago and Atlanta, but also in smaller cities like Yuma, Ariz. and Southfield, Mich. Utilizing cafes and existing stores (some very familiar to K-pop fans like NYC and LA’s LINE Friends stores that sell BTS‘ BT21 and TREASURE‘s TRUZ products), fans could pick up their copy of The World EP.1, an exclusive box version prepared by hello82, and connect with other ATINY in person.
“Doing pop-ups has its own merits; it can be flexible in terms of locations, timing and all of that,” Cho reflects. “I just feel like K-pop fans in certain areas now deserve a place that they can go to to hang out, not just access to all the products and albums. These fans like to just get together. And it’s not just K-pop fandom, I feel like it’s all most fandoms: I’m a big Philadelphia Eagles football fan and I would go to a sports bar just to hang out with other goofy MFers from Philly.”
The strategy broke ATEEZ through with The World EP.1: Movement opening at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (behind Beyoncé and Bad Bunny) with 50,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 4, with album sales comprising 47,000 of that total, according to Luminate. The set has earned 86,000 U.S. equivalent album units through Dec. 1.
The first week marked a massive jump from the opening sales of Fever Epilogue (which earned 16,000 units in the first week) and Fever Part.3 (13,000). Along with KAI Media co-founder and current CEO Jae Yoon Choi, Cho emphasizes ongoing dialogue with Billboard and Luminate to ensure “we’re doing everything by the book.”
“It’s the first time for us doing it this scale so obviously there were some hiccups but release week was actually pretty calm,” he recalls. “We kind of knew where we were gonna go, but you never know…when we were at the top of the charts, I mean, we were obviously ecstatic. Not just us, but with the fans that we got a lot of ‘thank-yous’ and ‘great jobs.’ Our community manager who talks to a lot of those guys directly also shared an almost tears-of-joy moment on release day, and then, ultimately, when the charts officially came out. So, it was exciting.”
The company kept that energy alive with pop-up stores throughout the 11 dates in the North American leg of ATEEZ’s The Fellowship: Break the Wall tour, the group’s second tour in 2022 and most expansive run yet. Each of seven cities on the trek, along with two that weren’t on the tour route, set up shop for at least two days each as the official pop-up for tour merchandise.
“After the successful album distribution, we are now distributing merch in association with their upcoming North American tour,” Cho explains. “We have always looked at ourselves as a bridge for management companies between South Korea and the U.S. market, where we can help them connect directly with their fans here and create a lasting fandom.”
Stores in LA and Oakland opened ahead of ATEEZ’s Nov. 7 and 8 shows at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Fans could grab new items like jackets and T-shirts while participating in activities like writing sticky note messages for ATEEZ.
By the tour’s final stop in Toronto on Dec. 2, hello82 showcased what may be their most visible project yet when they played their “Project Star 117 – From ATINY to ATEEZ” video played during the show with on-camera messages from fans and the sticky notes written by pop-up attendees. The band themselves watched with a heartfelt gaze and led to leader Hongjoong crouching down in tears. The official upload video has more than 50,000 views in under five days.
hello82 isn’t a dedicated music-service company, but they watch industry trends and consumer behaviors to consider new business.
“The music industry is now sort of maturing into this real combination of on-demand, ubiquitous consumption of music, but also this very active and passionate sorts of fandom activities as well that drives a lot of commerce,” he adds. “I think all of these things have always been part of music business, but it’s coming back with the vengeance now and we’d like to partake in all of that. The K-pop audience, K-pop fans, they’re sort of at the forefront of all of these activities so, we see a bright financial future and our investors do as well.”
Cho notes that the ATEEZ strategies have caught the interest of other artists and labels looking to impact America. However, the company is interested in partners who will engage heavily with fans and “be a little bit experimental.” There are also hopes for the company to take the business beyond North America and “hopefully, eventually expand out to other underserved markets around the world.”
While Cho and colleagues are directly discussing high-level plans with Team ATEEZ (“Credit goes to KQ for having the foresight and ATEEZ for being a great band—they were kind enough to give us the opportunity, and they were willing to risk a lot”), they are also putting in work at hello82’s retail stores themselves.
“We make sure that everybody does a rotation,” Cho says. “The look and joy you see on fans’ faces—especially when you’re pulling the right photo card for them—that’s what makes our day.”
She’s practically levitating! Dua Lipa‘s latest wax figure got its grand unveiling on Wednesday (Dec. 7) at Madame Tussauds in New York City.
“I absolutely am honored to have my new wax figure displayed at the world’s greatest wax museum, Madame Tussauds New York in Times Square,” the pop star shared in a statement with Parade. “It has been a privilege to work closely with the artists and creatives on making the figure just right. I hope guests of the museum enjoy her as much as I do!”
Leaning both arms above her head on a giant pink hoop, Lipa’s third figurine is dressed for Studio 2054, the “Don’t Start Now” singer’s livestream concert event held back in late 2020. A few months after that virtual show in support of Future Nostalgia, Dua gave fans a sneak peek at the creation process for the wax figure on Instagram, revealing studio artists “took more than 200 measurements” to get the lifelike statue just right.
Last month, fans started buzzing online over the possibility that Lipa — who was recently granted her Albanian citizenship — has a collaboration with none other than Mick Jagger on the way.
The singer was also on hand in November for Elton John’s final U.S. tour date at Dodger Stadium in L.A. For the special concert, the duo performed their smash Top 10 hit “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix).” The entire show, which also included appearances by Brandi Carlile and Kiki Dee, was broadcast live on Disney+ as Elton John Live From Dodger Stadium.
Get a look at Dua’s new Madame Tussauds creation as well as a glimpse of its making below.
Christmas is a time for giving. And for boy bands, that usually means putting on their chunkiest sweaters, adhering to all the chestnut-roasting and kissing under the mistletoe cliches and complementing their multi-part harmonies with enough sleigh bells to give Santa Claus tinnitus.
But which pin-ups over the years have delivered the best musical present?
It could be argued that Wham!’s “Last Christmas” – a song so ubiquitous it sparked a survival game based on avoiding it throughout the whole of December – was the progenitor of the trend. But to avoid the debate about whether George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s chart-topping duo could really be described as a boy band, our Christmas list only focuses on the heartthrobs who emerged from the late 1980s onward, when the concept of the all-singing, all-dancing, all-male group truly kicked in.
To narrow things down further, were only rewarding those who came up with something original. That means there’s no place for The Wanted’s take on Bing Crosby’s classic “White Christmas” or The Vamps’ cover of Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.” And to prevent the domination of those who truly committed to the season by recording a full-length holiday album, we’re being Scrooge-like and limiting each boy band to just one track.
So if you’ve grown sick of the yuletide staples that clog up the Hot 100 at the end of every year, here are ten teenybopper-friendly alternatives.
And to check out our list of stone-cold candy cane classics, head here for Billboard’s 100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time.
2022 is coming to a close, and Billboard celebrated the music of the year by compiling our 100 ranked, favorite songs.
From TikTok-viral hits like Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend” and Gayle’s “abcdefu” to new tracks from top artist like Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” and Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” there was a little something for every type of music lover this year.
We want to know which 2022 hit is your favorite. Check out our picks here, and let us know by voting below.
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Next Tuesday’s (Dec. 13) two-hour The Voice finale will feature a star-studded parade of guest stars on hand to celebrate the crowning of season 22’s champion. At the end of the night, a winner will emerge after the final showdown between finalists bodie, Omar Jose Cardona, Baryden Lape, Bryce Leatherwood and Morgan Myles.
But before that happens, viewers will be treated to a cavalcade of all-star collaborations, including Kane Brown performing the title track from his Different Man album with coach Blake Shelton, whose team has three slots in the final five. Kelly Clarkson — who will return as a coach for season 23 in March — will sing a solo version of her Ariana Grande Christmas duet “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” from her When Christmas Comes Around…” holiday album.
In addition, Maluma will be on hand for a run through his Billboard Latin Airplay chart No. 1 “Junio,” OneRepublic will play their top 5 hit “I An’t Worried,” Adam Lambert will take on his cover of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” (which will appear on his upcoming album, High Drama), Breland will make his Voice debut with “For What It’s Worth” and returning season 21 winner Girl Named Tom will perform “One More Christmas” from the trio’s debut EP.
In his swan song, lone original coach Shelton could be poised to add a ninth win to his already record-setting Voice resumé with three of his team members in the mix (Leatherwood, Lape and bodie) after Tuesday night’s (Dec. 6) semi-final round.
The Voice‘s season finale will air from 9-11 p.m. ET.
Avatar: The Way of Water is just one week away from gliding into movie theaters, but what’s a blockbuster movie without an equally cinematic song to soundtrack it? A new trailer for the James Cameron-directed film arrived on Wednesday (Dec. 7), this time, featuring a snippet of a new track written by The Weeknd titled “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength).”
The 45-second clip starts off with peaceful clips of Jake Sully, Neytiri, their kids and the Na’vi people enjoying their life. “Wherever we go, this family is our fortress,” Sully says before the scenes dramatically change to those of war, turmoil and unrest.
The Weeknd’s vocals softly play thoughout the trailer, in which he sings, “I thought I could protect you from paying for my sins/ You give me strength/ I would do either way/ Nothing’s lost/ No more pain, just you.”
“Nothing Is Lost (You Give me Strength)” is set to be released as part of the Avatar: The Way of Water soundtrack; the song arrives Dec. 15 at 3 p.m. ET. The track is produced with The Weeknd’s now-frequent collaborators Swedish House Mafia.
The “Blinding Lights” singer previously teased his involvement with the Avatar sequel via social media on Dec. 4, tweeting “12.16.22” — the release day for Way of the Water — along with a 12-second music clip featuring the blue Avatar logo. “#AvatarTheWayOfWater x @theweeknd,” the official Avatar account shared after the singer’s tweet.
Listen to the first snippet “Nothing Is Lost (You Give me Strength)” in the Avatar: The Way of Water trailer above.
Did you know that … Lana Del Rey‘s ninth studio album is coming out next year? On Wednesday (Dec. 7), the 37-year-old alt-pop star put an end to fans’ anticipation for new music by announcing her new record, titled Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, will arrive March 10, and to tide them over in the meantime, she also dropped its title track.
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Del Rey also unveiled Ocean Blvd‘s cover art, a black-and-white portrait of the “Summertime Sadness” singer resting her head in one of her hands. In chunky yellow lettering reads the album’s title, and in white are the names of its featured artists: Jon Batiste, Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis and SYML.
Antonoff, who previously worked with the singer-songwriter on 2021’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, is also listed on the cover as a producer, as are Mike Hermosa, Drew Erickson and Zach Dawes, who worked on Blue Bannisters, also released in 2021. The new record is available now for pre-order on the New York native’s website, as are vinyls with several alternate covers.
Ocean Blvd‘s brand new title track, meanwhile, finds Del Rey in her element, her voice billowing out like smoke over somber piano and dark strings. “When’s it gonna be my turn?” she sings on the single. “Open me up, tell me you like it/ Love me until I love myself / There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard.”
The Grammy-nominated artist hasn’t released a full album since Blue Bannisters last year, but she did drop an ethereal single titled “Watercolor Eyes” in January for Euphoria‘s soundtrack. She also worked with Father John Misty on the EP Buddy’s Rendezvous this year, and was featured on Taylor Swift’s Midnights track “Snow On the Beach,” which became Del Rey’s second Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit.
Listen to “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” below:
Beyoncé, Rihanna and Taylor Swift have each done their fair share of dominating Billboard‘s charts, and now, they’re taking command of Forbes‘ rankings, too. On Tuesday (Dec. 6), the publication unveiled its list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and all three of the hit-making pop stars earned a spot.
Of the three women, Rihanna placed the highest at No. 73, with Forbes citing her billionaire status and her Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty businesses as her major achievements. According to the publication, her net worth is currently $1.4 billion, making her the 2,031st richest person in the world.
Six spots behind Ri is Swift, who ranked No. 79. The success of Midnights and her re-recorded albums Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) were highlighted, along with her political influence and November’s Eras Tour ticket sale meltdown, which has recently been addressed by Congress, and is the subject of a lawsuit leveraged by fans against Ticketmaster. Her net worth in 2022 was $570 million, according to Forbes.
Close behind her at No. 80 is Queen Bey, whose net worth is listed at $450 million. The publication cited her and Jay-Z’s On The Run II stadium tour, which grossed roughly $5 million per night and earned a total of more than $250 million, and her groundbreaking performance at 2018’s Coachella.
Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list is a yearly ranking of high-profile women wielding substantial public influence, and is determined by money, media, impact and spheres of influence, according to the publication. “The result is a collection of women who are fighting the status quo,” this year’s list reads.
Rihanna, Beyoncé and Swift were all featured on last year’s Most Powerful Women roundup as well, ranking at No. 68, 76 and 78, respectively. The three also each hold a spot on this year’s Forbes list of America’s richest self-made women, with Ri at No. 21, Swift at No. 48 and Bey at No. 61.
It was a refrain heard throughout the Billboard offices in the first half of 2022: Where are the hits? The slow start for new entries really impacting the Billboard Hot 100 had us all looking left and looking right for the sort of songs we usually take for granted — the kind that slowly (or not-so-slowly) spread to all corners of the culture, connecting every kind of music fan and becoming unavoidable parts of a given year’s experience. With 2021’s biggest singles refusing to go away and this year’s listenership seemingly too spread out to elect new consensus hits to replace the incumbents, it was starting to look like we might go the whole calendar subsisting on nothing but reruns.
Luckily for us, the hits showed: first from some of pop’s biggest returning heroes, then from some artists taking the next step towards stardom, some longtime hitmakers we hadn’t heard from in a bit, and some new names we hope to be hearing a lot more from in the years to come. And of course, it wasn’t just the big songs that enraptured us in 2022; we found plenty of smaller favorites to save to our streaming playlists and inspire our vinyl orders in between those. But the year just wouldn’t have felt complete without those late-arriving, chart-crashing smashes, particularly since we ended up getting a handful who proved more than worthy of their position.
Here are our 100 favorite songs of 2022, a year that once again proved that no matter the time or context, pop music always finds a way. (Songs were considered eligible for the list if they either came out in 2022, were first released as an official single in 2022, or peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 — though sorry, Stranger Things heads, we still couldn’t quite justify including “Running Up That Hill” or “Master of Puppets.”)
The audience at Sunday night’s (Dec. 4) Broadway opening of A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical showed up to hear their favorite hits from the legendary 81-year-old singer. But they went home with much more. According to CNN, Diamond surprised theatergoers when he popped up in the balcony during the curtain call to help lead the audience in a singalong of his beloved 1969 hit “Sweet Caroline.”
The singer, who retired from touring in 2018 after receiving a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, sang the song’s opening lines before encouraging the packed house at the Broadhurst Theatre to join in on the iconic chorus as the house band played along. The pop-in at the jukebox musical that pays homage to his long, hit-filled musical career was New Yorker Diamond’s first appearance in his hometown since 2017 and one of the few times he’s appeared in public since his diagnosis.
According to People, before the surprise, Diamond walked the red carpet with his wife, Katie McNeil, and received a standing ovation from the audience upon entering the theater. While Diamond has kept a low profile since 2018, he did show up for a rare public appearance during a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in June to sing “Caroline.”
Diamond stepped out during the 8th inning of the Red Sox’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals to deliver a rousing rendition of his 1969 hit; the singer had last performed at Fenway Park in 2013, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing. “Sweet Caroline” has been an 8th inning tradition at the ballpark since 1997. Standing alongside Diamond at Fenway was Broadway veteran Will Swenson, who plays the lead role in A Beautiful Noise.
Check out footage of the impromptu “Caroline” singalong below.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but Neil Diamond, who retired from performing five years ago because of Parkinsons, just had a Broadway show of him open and it at the opening night he did this pic.twitter.com/eJ02YUAzr5— Ben Phillips (@benphillips76) December 6, 2022
