State Champ Radio Pop
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Shania Twain is clearly a big Harry Styles fan — so much so that she hopes to work with the former One Direction member on some music in the future, when the time is right.
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The country singer — who previously joined Styles onstage at Coachella in April to perform “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” and “You’re Still the One” — sat down on the Monday episode of TalkShopLive with TV personality Nancy O’Dell to talk about her forthcoming album, Queen of Me, the amount of music she’s sitting on and a possible Styles collab.
“I went up onstage with Harry Styles [at Coachella]. He invited me on his stage, which was so wonderful and [he’s a] lovely, lovely person. I want to say lovely kid, but I mean he’s not a kid anymore, is he? He’s a man,” she said of the “Watermelon Sugar” singer. “[A collaboration] would be my dream, yes. He’s busy making movies right now. I would love that. Put it out there! Make it happen, absolutely. And magic will happen, I’m sure.”
As for Twain’s latest album Queen of Me, she told TalkShopLive that the pandemic allowed her a significant amount of time to step back and write. The lockdown period was a prolific one for the singer, who says she developed multiple albums’ worth of material during the Queen of Me writing sessions.
“The COVID period gave me more time than I expected,” Twain said. “So I basically wrote four albums worth of music. This is just the beginning. I was so productive, I wrote a lot of music. So it was very difficult to narrow it down to what would then be this album, Queen of Me, but, of course, once I determined the real focus of the sentiment of the album, what I want to express personally out there right now, which is the Queen of Me message, be the queen of yourself, the boss of you and take responsibility for the good and the bad and everything that comes in between, so the songs naturally fell into place after that, once I had a good beginning, which was the title.”
When asked to clarify if it’s “truly” four separate albums from Queen of Me, Twain said: “Oh yes. Definitely.” Those albums will sadly not see the light of day anytime soon. “I think we’re going to have to wait for awhile. It’s going to be well over a year because I still have a tour coming up, I’ve got so many projects,” Twain added. “I’d say well over a year. Could be a couple years.”
Queen of Me will be released via Republic Nashville on Feb. 3, 2023. Watch Twain talk about the record and the Harry Styles collab in the video above.
When the Grammys unveil their annual nominations, fans pore over the Big Four categories — album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist — to pinpoint the biggest snubs, surprises and upcoming showdowns. Yet the nominations for the 65th annual Grammy Awards, which were announced on Tuesday (Nov. 15), also included particularly stacked shortlists in the main pop categories; those include best pop solo performance, best pop duo/group performance and best pop vocal album. (Best traditional pop vocal album — which includes works by Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones, Pentatonix and Diana Ross — is a little removed from this conversation.)
Some of the biggest names in music have songs and albums in the running this year, a veteran group translated its shocking Big Four nods into the pop categories as well, and history could be made by international superstars turning their nominations into victories. Here are the five biggest takeaways from this year’s Grammy pop category nominations — buckle up, because a whole lot of star power is about to be unleashed.
The Superstars Show Out
The pop artists in the culture’s current upper echelon have nearly all been active over the past year, and as such, the pop categories are brimming with big names and their latest respective smashes. Out of the 11 songs nominated for best pop solo performance or best pop duo/group performance, six of them — Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Coldplay and BTS’ “My Universe” and Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” — have reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while other major hits from long-proven hitmakers like Doja Cat, Bad Bunny, Post Malone and Camila Cabello have also scored nods.
That’s hardly unusual for the pop categories — but in most years, songs by A-listers are intermixed with those by newer artists. This year, however, the 10 best new artist nominees score zero nominations in the pop categories, as well as none in the other Big Four categories. Lacy, who was ineligible for best new artist due to past nominations, is a rare representative of the rising-artist class, with his Hot 100-topping “Bad Habit” up for best pop solo performance, as well as for record of the year and song of the year. And kudos to Petras, who not only earned her first career Hot 100 entry with “Unholy,” but now has her first career Grammy nomination.
ABBA Crashes the Party
After scoring a surprise record of the year nod at this April’s Grammys with “I Still Have Faith In You,” the legendary Swedish quartet shows up twice in the Big Four categories this year — with their long-awaited comeback LP Voyage placing in the album of the year race, and “Don’t Shut Me Down” giving ABBA their second consecutive record of the year nod.
Both the album and song show up in the pop categories, too — for best pop vocal album and best pop duo/group performance, respectively — and those nominations might end up being more meaningful for ABBA in the long run. The Big Four categories are as hyper-competitive as ever with 10 nominees in each, and if Voyage or “Don’t Shut Me Down” prevails in the less-crowded pop categories (five noms each), ABBA would earn their first-ever Grammy, capping one of the most celebrated runs in pop history.
Bad Bunny Keeps Making History
With his May blockbuster album Un Verano Sin Ti earning Bad Bunny his first album of the year nod, the Puerto Rican superstar continues breaking ground — and could become the first recipient of the top prize for an album performed predominantly in Spanish. Yet it’s also worth noting that album standout “Moscow Mule” becomes the first-ever Spanish-language nominee for best pop solo performance in the category’s 12-year history, and gives Bad Bunny his first career appearance in the pop categories. The “Moscow Mule” nod confirms what we’ve already known about Bad Bunny’s enormous year: His popularity transcends language and genre, and he belongs in competition with his fellow A-listers of any nationality.
Could the Stars Align for Coldplay and BTS?
Seven-time Grammy winners Coldplay may have not won a new trophy since 2009, but the stadium rockers keep racking up nominations, including another album of the year nod — this time for 2021’s Music of the Spheres, the band’s third overall nod in the category and second consecutive project to be nominated. The space-pop full-length is also up for best pop vocal album this year, and Hot 100 No. 1 hit “My Universe” (alongside BTS) will compete for best pop duo/group performance — where it has a strong chance to earn the K-pop group its first career Grammy win.
BTS is actually up for three total Grammys — their song “Yet to Come” snagged a nod for best music video, and they’re credited for their Music of the Spheres contributions in album of the year — but ARMY should circle “My Universe” in best pop duo/group performance as perhaps the group’s best shot at a long-coveted W, especially as part of a category that doesn’t include mega-stars like Adele, Harry Styles or Taylor Swift. Recording Academy voters are still in Coldplay’s corner, and that support could earn the band their first trophy in over a decade — and, simultaneously, a historic win for BTS.
Adele, Harry and Lizzo Could All Dominate Early, Then Late
This year, five artists — Adele, Beyoncé, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and Lizzo — could earn a hat trick by winning in each of the album of the year, record of the year and song of the year categories. And while Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar both could rack up additional wins in the dance, R&B and hip-hop categories, Adele, Styles and Lizzo all have work nominated for best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album — and if any of them dominates in those categories, that could foreshadow a big night for someone in the Big Four.
Could Adele — who has won three best pop solo performance trophies in the past, and has yet to lose in the category — score another victory with “Easy on Me”? Will Harry Styles, whose “Watermelon Sugar” emerged victorious in the category two years ago to give him a first career Grammy, come out on top with his even-bigger smash “As It Was”? Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” won in the category the year prior to “Watermelon Sugar” — can “About Damn Time” notch another W for her? And when it comes to best pop vocal album, can 30, Harry’s House or Special take home the trophy and set the stage for the night’s top prize? No matter which artist wins on Grammy night, the pop categories will be a clash of some of music’s biggest personalities, and just might preview a return trip or two to the stage.
On the same day that Taylor Swift casually picked up four Grammy nominations, Swifties fought tooth and nail to pick up tickets for her Eras Tour next year. In fact, so many millions (that’s right, millions) of them flooded Ticketmaster’s site trying to purchase tickets during the tour’s initial presale Tuesday (Nov. 15), the company was forced to postpone a couple of its onsales following high reports of site crashes and technical difficulties.
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“A few updates on the Taylor Swift Eras Tour onsale,” read a statement posted to Ticketmaster’s official Twitter account. “There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale.”
“Hundreds of tickets have been sold,” it continued. “If you have already secured tickets, you are all set. If you are currently in a queue, please hang tight — queues are moving and we are working to get fans through as quickly as possible.”
The company went on to announce that onsales scheduled for West Coast shows in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Clara and Seattle would be postponed to 3 p.m. PT Tuesday instead of its original time of 10 a.m. PT. The Capital One cardholders presale was also moved to 2 p.m. local time Wednesday (Nov. 16), delayed from its originally scheduled starting time of 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
“All presale codes and links sent via text will still work at that time,” Ticketmaster reassured Swifties in its statement. “Thank you for your patience as we continue managing this huge demand.”
The presale initially started at 10 a.m. local venue time on Tuesday and was soon followed by outages on Ticketmaster’s website. The technical difficulties were reported and posted about by anxious fans trying to secure seats at one of Swift’s 52 North American shows kicking off in March next year.
Some of the gargantuan demand for Eras Tour tickets had been apparent even leading up to the ticket sale, leading the “All Too Well” pop star to add 25 additional shows to her 27 original dates in the past couple weeks.
Read Ticketmaster’s full statement below.
The hour Swifties have been breathlessly waiting for finally arrived on Tuesday morning (Nov. 15) when presale tickets for some dates for Taylor Swift‘s 2023 Eras U.S. stadium tour went on sale at 10 a.m. And, as you might expect of Taylor’s first tour in five years, the rush to secure a golden ticket was intense.
In fact, Downdetector reporting a surge in outages on the Ticketmaster site around the time of the on-sale; spokespeople for Ticketmaster and Swift had not returned a request for comment about reported outages at press time. Billboard attempted to log into the TM site and app several times during the on-sale and was unable to load the site amid reports that it was freezing and/or crashing despite fans having pre-sale codes.
A spokesperson for TM told CNN Business Tuesday morning that the “site is not down” and that “people are actively purchasing tickets… Fans who have received a code to the TaylorSwiftTix Presale should login and access the queue through the link they received via text rather than entering through the Ticketmaster homepage. This will ensure an optimal shopping experience.”
The reaction to the reported lags and difficulties securing tickets were well-documented by frustrated Swifties — including this writer’s college-aged daughter, who reported from Vermont that “everyone here is freaking out about getting Taylor Swift tickets… no one is getting them… in my lecture if you looked around everyone was on Ticketmaster.”
“The Taylor Swift ticket presale is proof that the Hunger Games could actually happen in real life,” read one tweet about the frenzied sale, while another frustrated clicker was less polite, writing, “if anything will force ticketmaster to finally get their s–t together it’ll be hundreds of thousands of angry taylor swift fans willing to murder someone in cold blood for eras tour tickets.”
The singer added 17 more shows to the now-52-date tour that will celebrate all 10 of her studio albums released since 2006. The massive outing will now set up shop in some cities for two or three nights, including multiple nights in Glendale (AZ), Las Vegas, Arlington (TX), Tampa, Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Denver and Los Angeles (where she’ll play five nights). The U.S. leg is currently slated to kick off on March 18 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
While some tried to have a good attitude about the issues, including one who wrote, “taylor swift really wasn’t lying when she said ‘i vowed not to cry anymore if we survived the great war’ about getting tickets for the eras tour,” others were livid that things didn’t work out as they’d expected. “Can Taylor Swift fans have a redo on tickets sales?” one asked. “@Ticketmaster clearly wasn’t prepared for this amount of traffic, and all verified fans with actual presale codes are unable to buy tickets. The site has done nothing but crash.” The TM Fan Support account posted an update nearly 11 a.m. ET, telling Swifties, “We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve.”
Though some joyfully posted about scoring the sought-after tickets, others just wondered what was going on. “Did anyone actually get Taylor Swift tickets,” a fan wondered. Swift hasn’t hit the road since 2018, when she launched her best-selling Reputation Tour. She had planned to go out again after dropping 2019’s Lover for a series of stadium shows she dubbed Lover Fest, but the gigs were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those keeping score at home, this means that Tay has six albums-worth of material that she’s never played live — if you include the previously unreleased vault tracks on 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). Studio albums Folklore, Evermore and, of course her latest, Midnights, which have all also been released in the time between Lover and the Eras Tour.
Check out some of the reactions to the “Eras” presale madness below.
We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve.— Ticketmaster Fan Support (@TMFanSupport) November 15, 2022
did anyone actually get taylor swift tickets— gill (@contactabrother) November 15, 2022
Can Taylor Swift fans have a redo on tickets sales? @Ticketmaster clearly wasn’t prepared for this amount of traffic, and all verified fans with actual presale codes are unable to buy tickets. The site has done nothing but crash.— Lexi (@LexiHernnandez) November 15, 2022
if anything will force ticketmaster to finally get their shit together it’ll be hundreds of thousands of angry taylor swift fans willing to murder someone in cold blood for eras tour tickets— james 🕛| fan account (@fearIessummers) November 15, 2022
The Taylor Swift ticket presale is proof that the hunger games could actually happen in real life— Abi (@abiwilk_) November 15, 2022
ticketmaster: we expect the demand for taylor swift tickets to be overwhelming 🙂ticketmaster when the demand for taylor swift tickets were, in fact, overwhelming: pic.twitter.com/ZYhJq52R1F— syd 🪩 (@sydstweeter) November 15, 2022
taylor swift really wasn’t lying when she said “i vowed not to cry anymore if we survived the great war” about getting tickets for the eras tour— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) November 15, 2022
hot take: ticket access should’ve been determined based on how much bullying you endured for being “The Taylor Swift girl” growing up— gracie 🦋 (@soitgoesgrace) November 15, 2022
Taylor Swift continues her record run at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Nov. 19), as she spends a record extending 53rd week at the summit.
Swift leads thanks to the continued success of her newest LP Midnights, which ranks at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 299,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. The album spent its first two weeks at No. 1, having debuted with 1.578 million units, the largest one-week total since the opening frame of Adele’s 25 in December 2015 (3.482 million).
Swift charts nine total albums on the latest Billboard 200, the most among all acts this week. After Midnights, she appears with Folklore (No. 19), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 23), Lover (No. 25), 1989 (No. 35), Evermore (No. 50), reputation (No. 70), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 105) and Speak Now (No. 124).
Swift also tallies 18 of Midnights‘ 20 songs (from the set’s standard version and “3am Edition”) on the latest Billboard Hot 100, led by “Anti-Hero,” which logs a third week at No. 1. The song sold 327,000 downloads – up 1,793% – Nov. 4-10, sparked by seven new remixes made available for purchase during the tracking week. The sum is the greatest for a song in a single week in over five years, since her own “Look What You Made Me Do” bounded in with 353,000 (Sept. 16, 2017).
Here’s a recap of Swift’s haul on the Nov. 19-dated Hot 100. All 20 tracks from Midnights ranked on the chart the previous two weeks; in the set’s debut frame (Nov. 5), Swift made history as the first artist to claim the entire top 10 in a single week.
Rank, Title:No. 1, “Anti-Hero”No. 23, “Lavender Haze”No. 30, “Midnight Rain”No. 33, “Bejeweled”No. 36, “Maroon”No. 39, “Karma”No. 40, “Snow on the Beach” feat. Lana Del ReyNo. 42, “You’re On Your Own, Kid”No. 51, “Vigilante Shit”No. 56, “Question…?”No. 65, “Mastermind”No. 67, “Labyrinth”No. 71, “Sweet Nothing”No. 76, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”No. 85, “Bigger Than the Whole Sky”No. 87, “The Great War”No. 90, “Paris”No. 98, “High Infidelity”
Drake and 21 Savage rank at Nos. 2 and 3 on the Artist 100, respectively, as their new collaborative LP Her Loss launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (404,000 units). The set starts as Drake’s 12th No. 1 album, the third-most in the chart’s history, and 21 Savage’s third.
Plus, Joji re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 5, nearly matching his No. 4 peak, thanks to his new album Smithereens. The LP arrives at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (57,000 units), marking his third top 10.
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Lisa Simpson is officially a BlackPink fan — and according to one of the band’s members, the feeling is mutual. After the famed spiky-headed eternal pre-tween revealed she’s a hardcore Blink on Sunday’s (Nov. 13) episode of The Simpsons, Jisoo took to Instagram stories to share her excitement.
The BlackPink tribute came during a scene where Homer Simpson and his daughter sit in the car and he tries to guess what kind of music his jazz-loving daughter wants to listen to. “I like K-pop, dad,” Lisa says. Homer then cues up BlackPink’s “Lovesick Girls” and joins the rest of the characters in the car in singing the lyrics, nailing even the Korean-language parts.
After the episode aired, Jisoo posted a clip of the scene on her story and wrote: “Gahhh! Is this real? Oh yeah!”
The 27-year-old singer is currently touring North America with the other three ladies of BlackPink — Lisa, Rosé and Jennie — in support of their September sophomore record, Born Pink. The Billboard 200 No. 1 album came two years after the band’s full-length debut, The Album, on which Lisa Simpson’s jam, “Lovesick Girls,” was a single along with “How You Like That” and “Ice Cream” feat. Selena Gomez.
BlackPink is just the latest in a long history of artists to receive a shoutout from the longest running primetime scripted show ever, now in its 34th season. Though only time will tell if the girl group gets to make a cameo on the show in the future, The Simpsons is famous for inviting big name musicians to guest on an episode and lend their voices to animated versions of themselves; recent appearances include The Weeknd, who starred in a season 33 storyline, and Billie Eilish and Finneas, who bonded with Lisa over music in a Disney + standalone special.
See the Simpsons scene Jisoo reacted to below:
If you’ve watched the Selena Gomez documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, you know that it delves into some pretty difficult chapters in the 30-year-old singer’s life. From her battle against autoimmune disease lupus to a diagnosis of bipolar disease that sends the singer into a dark place, the Apple TV+ doc directed by Alek Keshishian (Madonna’s Truth or Dare) pulls back the curtain on some challenging passages in Sel’s career.
Keshishian told EW that the he could “feel her authenticity and her vulnerability” during the years-long shoot, a process that was “very difficult” for Gomez’s family to watch, especially her mother, Mandy Teefey. “The complicated feelings of a parent knowing her daughter suffered like that and she wasn’t able to help,” he said of Teefey, who had “huge reservations” about participating in the film at first.
“They’ve healed their relationship and they’re in a really good place but obviously making a documentary or even speaking about it in a sense, it’s like recutting yourself a little bit and having to face that moment again,” the director said of the at-times estranged feelings between mother and daughter. “It was a very delicate discussion and I was so happy and amazed, because Mandy is a really brave woman and she does a lot of work as well to help in the mental health space. And you see where Selena gets that desire to help others and to treat other people as equals, and it all comes from Mandy, in her upbringing. I was just myself and I spoke to her for a while before she agreed to do it. She was nervous on the day, and we just did our best.”
As for whether Teefey has seen the final product, Keshishian said Selena “definitely” has, but the last he heard her mom had not. “Mandy hasn’t felt ready to watch it,” he said. “And she talks about it on a recent podcast she did, where she says she’s not quite ready because of the pain for her of watching what her daughter went through, she’s not ready quite yet to face. But they’re in a beautiful place in their relationship”; Teefey told Jay Shett’s On Purpose podcast this week that she’s not ready to re-live her daughter’s struggles on film because, “It’s going to hurt my stomach and put me in that mindset. I’m going to wish I could go and protect her.”
Gomez, 30, celebrated a very special moment this week when she accepted the 2022 Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion for her work to raise awareness and educate young people about prioritizing mental health. The singer, who delves into her struggles with bipolar disease and mental health issues in My Mind & Me, told People what the award from the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation means to her.
“I am honored to be the recipient of this year’s Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion,” Gomez said in a statement. “Mental Health impacts all of us, and we each have a role to play in ensuring that everyone – regardless of their background – has access to mental health services. I hope by sharing my own story and using my platform, we can empower each other and more young people to address mental health. We know that the stigma associated with mental health has led to silence around the issue. I want to change that, especially for young people. I’ve been open and honest about my own journey with my mental health, and it hasn’t always been easy, but it’s something I’m constantly working on.”
Jay Ruderman, president of the family’s foundation, said in a statement that Gomez “powerfully” embodies the Foundation’s mental health mission, “which continues to take on greater importance amid today’s unprecedented mental health crisis for teens, young adults, and the entire population. Drawing inspiration from her personal journey, Selena has given voice to the struggles of countless individuals who have endured mental health challenges, while working tirelessly to increase access to indispensable mental health resources and programs.”
The singer have found multiple ways to raise mental health awareness and tie charitable donations to her projects recently, including tying donations to her HBO Max cooking show, Selena + Chef, as well as her Rare Beauty brand, whose Rare Impact Fund aims to raise $100 million for mental health services over the next decade.
It’s hard to imagine a more apt title for a film about one of the most beloved recording studios of all time: If These Walls Could Sing. The first trailer for director Mary McCartney’s upcoming documentary about Abbey Road Studios dropped on Monday (Nov. 14) and it is packed with fond remembrances from rock all-stars, including her dad, Sir Paul McCartney, as his former bandmate, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Nile Rodgers and Star Wars creator George Lucas, among others.
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“When you enter a place with so much history around it, it’s kind of sacred in a way,” John says at the top of the two-minute trailer. “People want to come here. They want the sound of Abbey Road.” The Disney+ doc will drop on Dec. 16, in time to commemorate the studio’s 90th anniversary. In the preview, Mary McCartney says Abbey Road has been part of her life “for as long as I can remember,” as attested to by snaps of a baby Mary — now 53 — laying on the studio floor on a blanket.
There is, of course, ample footage of Sir Paul attesting to the special alchemy of those rooms in St. John’s Wood, including him popping up to play a beloved piano just over his shoulder as Mary ticks off the many genres of music that have been laid down in those four walls, from classical to pop, Afrobeat, blues and more.
Former Oasis guitarist/co-vocalist Noel Gallagher notes that “a huge part” of his record collection was recorded at Abbey Road before Lucas and composer John Williams speak of the studio as a “gift to music,” which explains why they recorded some of the most iconic Star Wars music at the London landmark during a time when it was struggling to attract patrons.
Mary McCartney spoke to Rolling Stone about the film, telling the mag, “Hearing it was the anniversary of Abbey Road Studios brought back so many memories to me. I have grown up visiting Abbey Road, it feels like family to me. In directing this feature-length documentary, it felt natural to explore the wealth of stories, and unearth so many unheard gems that I had not known about.” The film will also feature interviews with Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, Williams, Celeste and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, among others.
Watch the If These Walls Could Sing trailer below.
Jin might be known to the world as “Mr. Worldwide Handsome,” but BTS‘ ARMY know him also as a focused, equally tender and powerful vocalist whose knack for ballad and rock songs have been displayed throughout the K-pop star’s career.
Starting by sharing his covers of popular Korean rock songs from the past through BTS’ SoundCloud account early in the group’s career, Jin grew his vocal prowess through the years and showed the music styles that spoke most to him. Later, the star got opportunities to share his ability to tell stories through songs in soundtrack singles for popular Korean dramas like Hwarang and Jirisan. In 2019, Jin released his first entirely original solo song, and he’s only continued to show further displays of his musical perspective. Even the super-silly, super-viral “Super Tuna” single that he dropped in 2021 speaks to Jin’s larger personality as someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously and how music can allow one to truly let loose.
Jin’s latest solo accomplishment comes via his new single “The Astronaut,” which features Jin and Coldplay as writers and composers on the track. The heartfelt rock track debuts at No. 51 on the Hot 100 dated Nov. 12, 2022, marking his first-ever credited solo entry while also acting as the top-selling song of the week (taking No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales and World Digital Song Sales charts). The remarkable chart feat is the latest step in Jin’s ongoing solo efforts that have been purposeful and pointed in their execution, slowly revealing the multifaceted artist that Jin is in his own right.
From covers to OSTs to special collaborations with his BTS band mates, read on for Jin’s best solo moments.
A new music video blends one of Korea’s biggest musical acts and one of its biggest television stars.
For the release of Chen‘s new EP Last Scene, the EXO boy band member enlisted one of the breakout stars from Squid Games to help tell the story of the final moments and “last scene” of a dying relationship. The EP’s piano-led title track is a moving ballad centered around the 30-year-old’s powerful vocals featuring actor Park Hae-soo telling the story through the accompanying music video.
Park, who gained international fame through his role as Cho Sang-woo (a.k.a. “Player 218”) on Squid Game, channels the same emotive and delicate sentiment he showed on the Netflix hit in “Last Scene,” recalling memories and moments from a relationship through an evening drive. The visual racked up more than half a million views in its first 12 hours.
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Last Scene is Chen’s third solo EP following 2019’s April, And a Flower and Dear My Dear, which both landed in the Top 10 of Billboard’s World Albums chart. Since his solo debut, Chen has released a slew of collaborations, completed his mandatory military service in South Korea, and welcomed two children with his wife following their marriage in 2020. The rich life experiences undoubtedly helped colored Chen’s latest work, revealing fresh musical sides like a wispy delivery through the sparse and snappy guitar track “I Don’t Even Mind” or the light rock-pop standout “Travelers” among the new ballads.
Watch “Last Scene” below:
