State Champ Radio Pride
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A decade after they released it, pop singer Sam Smith is coming back to their breakout hit — and this time, they’re ready for something fresh.
In an emailed note to their fans, Smith shared that they recorded a brand new version of “Stay With Me” to honor of its 10th anniversary, and changed one of the song’s lyrics in the process. “This song is truly so special to me, so for the 10 year anniversary I re-recorded the track, which will be available on all platforms & physical,” they said in the message. “Including the updated lyric ‘but I still need love, baby understand’ which felt really important to me. It’s beautiful to know that sometimes, we can change the past.”
The song’s original lyric saw Smith saying that they “still need love, because I’m just a man.” In 2019, Smith publicly came out as non-binary, changing their pronouns to they/them. In subsequent live performances of the song since — including on their Gloria World Tour — the singer has often changed the lyric live.
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Smith also altered the lyrics of the song even further when performing at the White House to honor the Respect for Marriage Act’s passing back in 2022. To mark the occasion, Smith changed a lyric in the track’s chorus from “This ain’t love, it’s clear to see,” to “This is love, it’s clear to see.”
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Elsewhere in their statement, Smith reflected on the writing and recording process of “Stay With Me,” thanking their collaborators Jimmy Napes and Tourist for helping them express complicated feelings through music. “When me, Jimmy and Tourist wrote this song, none of us would’ve expected it to become what it has in the world,” they wrote. “I will never forget Will (Tourist) playing those three chords on the piano. I stopped everything I was doing and said ‘what is that’. Those chords and this song still stir me in the same way to this day. I’ve never once got sick of singing it.”
Upon its release in 2014, “Stay With Me” became an international hit for the then relatively unknown Smith. Debuting at No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 shortly after its release, “Stay With Me” steadily climbed the chart to reach its No. 2 peak in August, a career-high for the singer until their smash-hit “Unholy” reached No. 1 in October 2022.
Pre-orders for the 10th anniversary edition of Smith’s In the Lonely Hour — including their new version of “Stay With Me” — are available on the singer’s website. Listen to the original version of the track below:
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Elton John songs? For a musical? Groundbreaking. Vanessa Williams is really giving fans a glimpse into the pop icon’s new tunes for her new musical based on The Devil Wears Prada.
During her appearance on the Wednesday (July 10) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the “Save the Best for Last” singer shared some details about working with the pop legend for the show, which began its off-West End run in Plymouth, England, on July 6.
“I am honored because I grew up listening to Elton John on my little transistor radio on my windowsill with my two antennae, listening to ‘Bennie and the Jets’ and [‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’],” she said. “That’s my childhood! So, to be able to work with him and have him write new songs that I get the chance to sing for him is pretty epic.”
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In the show, Williams plays the titular role of Miranda Priestly, the icy, high-powered editor-in-chief at the fashion magazine Runway. In discussing her performance in the show, the actress gave Clarkson and her audience a tease of one of the show’s pivotal numbers.
“The script is very much based on the movie, so you see all the aspects of that, but it’s amplified by the music. So, for instance, in the second act they’re doing their fashion show and everyone thinks [Miranda] is on the outs,” she explained, before launching into an a capella rendition of the song. “‘You think that I can’t see you/ Smugly sitting there with glee/ Eager for the ending you’ve been waiting years to see/ Today, she’s getting ousted/ Yet her final hour’s nigh/ ‘Miranda’s reign has run its course’/ That’s what you think? Oh my.’”
Williams also shared that thanks to John’s musical sensibilities, the songs immediately lend themselves to broader cultural appeal. “This music takes the transition from the words and brings it to musical theater — but it’s also pop, too, because that’s Elton’s background,” she said. “So, there’s going to be remixes on the radio from The Devil Wears Prada, because he know what works in both genres.”
Check out the clip of Williams’ interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show below:
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Julia Fox is ready to open up to the public about her sexuality. In a post on her TikTok Monday (July 8), the actress revealed that she identifies as a lesbian. Fox stitched a video from comedian Emily Gracin, who was talking about seeing “a lesbian with her boyfriend” and thinking to herself, “Aw, you […]
Jason Mraz is a cat fancier. Like, a seriously devoted feline dad. The singer described just how much he loves his kitty during an appearance this week on actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast, when he revealed that he purposely tried to tank his nearly championship run on the 32nd season of Dancing With the Stars so he could get back home to his fur baby.
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“Two or three weeks in, I realized I’m probably going to be here the whole time, and I’m terrified, and I have to cancel all my plans for the entire rest of the year, and I’m missing my cat terribly,” he said of his epic run on the show last year, in which he hit the runner-up spot and just missed out on the trophy after landing behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Xochitl Gomez. “I start telling my friends, ‘Stop voting for me!’”
The only problem, as it turned out, was that the “I’m Yours” singer has considerable hoofing skills, so he and dance partner Daniella Karagch almost made it to the winner’s circle, even after informing producers at one point “I’m good” and telling them he was ready to leave. “Having made it all the way to the very end, made it to the buzzer, I look back and laugh and think, ‘Well, maybe if I’d actually given a s–t!’” he said. “So, I would do it all over again if I could, and I would try really hard.”
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Elsewhere in the chat recorded at Mel’s Drive-In in West Hollywood with the former Modern Family star, Mraz, 48, talked about his decision to come out as bisexual later in life due to fear of how the news might be received. “In the ’90s, being gay was like [the] punchline of a joke. And I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke,” Mraz said of growing up in conservative Mechanicsville, Va, where he said he was bullied as a teen and didn’t have many sexual experiences. “I still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was very hard to ignore or to break out of. I was very shy and and scared of what my family would say, or what my hometown would think or just whatever.”
So, as a teenager, Mraz said he just tried to keep “my nose down” and searched for a way out of town so he could see the wider world. Mraz first discussed his sexuality in a 2018 Billboard interview, in which the twice-divorced Grammy-winner described having experiences with men even while dating his ex-wife Christina Carano; the pair married in 2015 and divorced in June 2023. And though Mraz said he can’t say he’s finally found love yet, he described “amazing relationships” that have helped him grow and learn a lot about himself and life.
“I love where I am and I feel so much love for myself finally, that can only enhance the next relationship,” he told Ferguson, admitting to still feeling like a “late-bloomer.”
Listen to the full podcast below (discussion about coming out is at the 19-minute mark and the cat tale begins around the 37-minute point).
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Throughout her career, R&B star Kehlani has spoken up about her identity time and time again. But in a new set of videos posted to her TikTok on Sunday (June 30), the “After Hours” singer shut down anyone who still hasn’t gotten the memo.
In the first clip, the singer spoke about the importance of prioritizing female voices in their life in order to find happiness. “I was bisexual my entire life, and then I came out as a lesbian almost four years ago now,” they said. “But when I realized, recently actually, all of the f–king elevation in my life that has come from de-centering men in every f–king area of it … when I prioritized women and also just centered myself and women? When all the bad b—hes decide what planet we’re going to after we f–k this one, invite me, because I will thrive.”
While most fans in the comments section were supportive, a few began questioning the star’s sincerity, saying that she’d been in multiple relationships with men. So Kehlani made a second video responding to the claims, clapping back at those attempting to invalidate their sexuality.
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“Bringing up the fact that I had a child, or bringing up ex-boyfriends from four years ago or before, bringing up situations from when I was 20? I’m 29. I will be 30 next year,” she said. “I don’t know why there’s this inability to fathom that I’m a raging lesbian.”
She continued, adding that her identity as a lesbian naturally bleeds into her artistry. “And yes, my music is gay! Who I perform to and for is the gays,” she said. “And if you’re stuck in the past, it’s between you and your god. If you’re a man still bringing up my ex-boyfriends, just say you want to f–k ’em.”
In a since-deleted TikTok from April 2021, Kehlani let their fans know that they identified as “gay, gay, gay, gay, gay,” adding that it seemed everyone in their life seemed to know already. “When I want to have these heart-to-hearts with my family and my friends, and I’m like, ‘Guys, I finally know that I’m like gay gay,’ and they’re like, ‘We know, duh,’” they said. “I want you to fall on the floor and be like, ‘Congratulations, we had no idea!’”
Kehlani recently debuted her fourth studio album Crash, which officially debuts at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 dated July 6. The album’s lead single “After Hours,” meanwhile, reaches a new high of No. 72 on this week’s Hot 100, just two slots under Jordan Adetunji’s viral single titled “Kehlani.”
Check out Kehlani’s TikTok videos below:
The self-proclaimed CMO of Gay Pop JoJo Siwa is ready to give her fans even more music very soon. In a post to her Instagram on Sunday (June 30), Siwa revealed that she would be releasing her debut EP, titled Guilty Pleasure, on July 12 via Columbia Records. Sharing the album art — which shows […]
Since debuting in Brooklyn in 2018, LadyLand – a queer music festival organized by New York City nightlife force Ladyfag – has hosted performances by everyone from Eve to Kim Petras to Christina Aguilera to Honey Dijon to Gossip. After several successful years at Brooklyn Mirage, the festival moved to the Under the ‘K’ Bridge Park in 2023, a uniquely NYC locale that – when not hosting fashion-forward queer music fests – is a surprisingly green public park under the Kosciuszko Bridge in an industrial part of Greenpoint.
Once attendees get over their ‘where the hell am I walking to?’ trepidation, people quickly acclimate to the spacious, easy-to-navigate and visually stunning location. It’s a perfect spot for a Pride Month celebration, and who better to celebrate in 2024 than Madonna, hot off her career-spanning Celebration Tour?
Seven months after bringing that blockbuster trek to Barclays Center, the Queen of Pop returned to Brooklyn on Saturday (June 29) for the second night of LadyLand 2024 (Tinashe and Slayyyter rocked night one) to help close out Pride Month.
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There had been rumors that Madonna, who was not on the festival’s bill, would make a surprise appearance at LadyLand before it was officially announced on Instagram on Thursday (June 27). But even after her presence at the fest was confirmed, no one quite knew what was going to happen. Would she come out during Tokischa’s set to perform their “Hung Up on Tokischa” collab, a reworking of her classic 2005 single, while making out with the Dominican rapper, as they did during Pride 2022 at Manhattan’s Terminal 5? Pop up while Arca – who made an onstage cameo during Madonna’s recent Barcelona tour stop – was performing? Spin a tune during the DJ set by Bob the Drag Queen, the Drag Race champ who deftly emceed her Celebration Tour?
Around midnight on the Fist Stage, attendees found out: Madonna was there to judge. Not the audience (though she may have been doing that, too), but a coterie of ballroom performers vogueing down the runway during a segment called the Vogue Ball House Battle that echoed the “Vogue” portion of her recent tour. Madonna, Arca, Bob the Drag Queen, Tokischa and Sevdaliza served as judges on a vogueing competition, flashing 10s for the various houses. And just like on her tour, preteen daughter Estere was there, only this time she gave a pre-vogue DJ set.
“Thank you New York City,” said Madonna after it wrapped. “Without you I am nothing.”
NYC’s Pride March, the city’s premier Pride Month event, takes over Manhattan on Sunday (June 30) in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots that marked the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
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Chappell Roan’s tour glam includes a $15 eyeshadow palette and viral setting powder from the LGBTQ-owned brand KimChi Chic Beauty.
Roan’s makeup artist, Ali Scharf, shared details on the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s tour glam, which incorporates KimChi’s Sapphire Jewel Collection.
KimChi Chic Beauty
KimChi Chic Beauty Jewel Collection Eyeshadow Palette Sapphire
The eyeshadow palette is made up of nine “blendable, smooth and velvety” matte and glitter shades available in sapphire, ruby, emerald and diamond.
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Also on Roan’s glam list: KimChi’s The Most concealer ($12.50) and the TikTok-favorite Puff Puff Pass Set & Bake Powder ($19).
KimChi Chic Beauty
KimChi Chic Beauty Puff, Puff Pass Set & Bake Powder
The beauty brand, currently offering up to 25% off for Pride Month, can be found backstage at Roan’s Midwest Princess Tour. The 26-year-old singer’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released in 2023.
Roan’s breakout single “Good Luck, Babe” debuted at No. 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 and rises to No. 16 on this week’s charts.
With show-stopping performances at Governors Ball and on the The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, opening for Olivia Rodrigo on the Guts tour and a co-sign from Elton John, Roan’s star shows no signs of slowing down.
The Midwest Princess Tour stops in Seattle Washington on July 19 and the Lollapalooza after party in Chicago on July 31. Roan is scheduled to take the stage at several summer music festivals including Lollapalooza, Hinterland Music Festival, Outside Lands and All Things Go Festival. The tour heads to Europe in September.
Want to see her live? Tickets to the tour are available at StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek and Ticketmaster.
Pride Month is nearly over, so be sure to spend this last weekend listening to some new tunes from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
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From Tinashe’s stunning new single to Omar Apollo’s long-awaited new album, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Tinashe, “Getting No Sleep”
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Have you matched Tinashe’s freak yet? If not, don’t worry — according to her new song, you’ll have all night to do it. “Getting No Sleep,” the latest single off Tinashe’s forthcoming album Quantum Baby, takes a page out of the “Nasty” handbook , while still keeping things plenty fresh. Over a skittering beat and cool synth chords, Tinashe confidently lets her lover know that after a long work week, she’s ready to stay up ’til dawn with them. It’s might be a long night, but don’t worry, you’ll have Tinashe’s excellent new track to keep you company.
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Lil Nas X, “Here We Go!”
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No, it’s not the ’80s, Lil Nas X is just feeling a little nostalgic. With “Here We Go!,” the superstar’s new single for the upcoming Netflix movie Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Lil Nas takes the vibe and voice of the original 1984 Eddie Murphy film — including a prominent sample of Harold Faltermeyer’s iconic “Axel F” — and translates them through his own unique point of view. Bringing all the swagger and bravado fans have come to expect, Lil Nas is ready to remind fans why they fell in love with him in the first place on this fun new track.
Omar Apollo, God Said No
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Just two years after Omar Apollo stunned the world with his debut album Ivory, he’s ready to do it all over again — regardless of whether or not the powers that be would like him to. God Said No sees Apollo stretching the boundaries of his sound while diving deep into the process of moving on from a breakup. Over 14 tracks, the singer runs through the classic stages of grief (song titles like “Spite,” “Empty” and “Done With You” lend themselves pretty cleanly to anger, depression and acceptance) all while managing to refine his music even further.
Clairo, “Nomad”
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Who else but Clairo could provide the emotionally devastating lyrics we’re all looking for in 2024? “Nomad” certainly wastes no time in cutting right to the point, as Clairo’s buttery voice floats in over a bed of acoustic harmonies singing about running away from someone who refuses to love her the way she deserves. With a building sense of urgency, the singer paints a picture of her life as an isolated traveler, laying on the heartache thick before coming down like a pile of bricks on her former flame: “I’d rather be alone than a stranger,” she calmly croons on the chorus.
Sophie feat. Kim Petras & BC Kingdom, “Reason Why”
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It’s been just over three years since groundbreaking producer Sophie passed away — and now, fans are getting a final set of songs from her. Ahead of the release of the star’s posthumous self-titled album, Future Classic and Transgressive unveiled “Reason Why,” the late icon’s dance-pop collaboration with Kim Petras and BC Kingdom. Over an entrancing house beat, Petras and BC Kingdom offer their own hypnotic musings on personalized authenticity. All throughout the song, they offer a mesmirizing chat that will have you repeating words to yourself from then on: “In your mind, in your eye/ Take a little look inside,” they sing. “What’s your life, in your eyes/ And I know the reason why.”
Doechii, “Rocket”
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Doechii’s too booked and busy to be bothered by her detractors. That’s the central theme of “Rocket,” the singer’s new track in partnership with Sprite Limelight, where the Florida rapper refuses to let herself get too pressed. Over a grooving beat crafted by Take a Daytrip, Doechii leans back and lets her haters know how much space they’re taking up in her head(spoiler, the answer is none at all). “Can’t be stressed, I’m relaxin’” she sings. “Can’t be pressed ’bout your actions.”
MUNA, Live at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles
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For a group that proudly dubs themselves as The Greatest Band in the World, MUNA certainly lives up to the title with their new live album. Recorded during the first of their two sold-out shows at the iconic Greek Theater in Los Angeles in October 2023, Live at the Greek Theater captures the raw essence of a MUNA show — screaming fans, amped-up arrangements of the band’s biggest hits, and the trio performing at their absolute best. Whether you’ve seen MUNA live or not, Live at the Greek is about as faithful a recreation of the band’s energy in person as you’re going to find.
Towa Bird, American Hero
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Listening to Towa Bird’s phenomenal debut album American Hero is a lot like listening to a soundtrack for the eldest members Gen Z. Across 13 rollicking tracks, Bird tackles the sickly-sweet taste of early romance (“Ew), the inevitable pain of a breakup (“Deep Cut”) and learning how to live your life as an independent person (“This Isn’t Me”). But what makes American Hero immediately stand out is the performer’s innate sense of musicality. In both her crystal-clear voice and her otherworldly guitar skills, Bird shows time and time again throughout this LP that she is the Real Deal — and she’s only going up from here.
Jake Wesley Rogers, “Loser”
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There’s something infectious about Jake Wesley Rogers’ shimmering new single “Loser.” It’s hard to say what precisely it is about the track that works so efficiently when each of its parts manage to do exactly what you would hope, and then a little bit more. Rogers’ classically-trained voice certainly helps, as he sings about the bright and shining future for the currently disenfranchised; the 80s-inspired pop production also adds a sparkling sense of drama to the mix. Whatever it is about “Loser” that works so well isn’t nearly as important as the feeling you’ll get once the song reaches its moving, glorious climax.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
06/28/2024
VINCINT, Ethel Cain, Allison Ponthier, Peach PRC and more were in attendance for the celebration.
06/28/2024
