Radio
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In 2024, radio gained a massive star: Shaboozey. Thanks to an ambitious five-format strategy by the EMPIRE label to break “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” to the widest possible audience, the singer-songwriter’s signature track hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July and remained there for a record-tying 19 weeks, making radio history along […]
Nearly one year after launching a new streaming app, SiriusXM Holdings announced on Tuesday it is moving away from streaming and doubling down on the people who pay for its music, news and podcasts in cars.
Sirius has become the dominant provider of audio entertainment subscriptions in vehicles in the recent years in the U.S. but concerns over softening subscriber revenue and an eagerness to attract more younger subscribers pushed the launch of a streaming app last December.
While their $9.99 subscription for streaming on your phone will still be available, the company will focus resources on keeping and selling more services to the 33 million people with SiriusXM subscriptions—90% of whom listen in their cars.
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“We are focusing on … our strong core subscriber base, our unique position in vehicle, and our unrivaled, curated content — and taking steps to drive profitability and cash flow as we face marketplace headwinds impacting the company’s growth trajectory,” SiriusXM chief executive Jennifer Witz said in a statement.
SiriusXM’s stock price was down more than 10% at $25.81 just before 1 p.m. in New York. Witz is expected to speak about the new strategy at an investor conference later on Tuesday.
Streaming, which is already sold as a companion to the in-car subscription for $24.98, will be considered a “companion” offering, the company said, through partnerships with companies like Tesla. But it is shifting “marketing and other resources away from high-cost, high-churn audiences in streaming to focus resources on core revenue-generating segments.”
The company also named Wayne Thorsen the company’s chief operating officer in charge of product & technology, corporate strategy and parts of the commercial business. Thorson is charged with tracking “the return on marketing and technology investments.” A former Google and Viacom executive, Thorsen previously oversaw product management, engineering and business development for home security company ADT. Thorsen’s appointment coincides with the departure of chief product and technology officer Joseph Inzerillo, who played a pivotal role in modernizing SiriusXM’s technology platform and launching the streaming app.
SiriusXM invested two years and millions of dollars into updating its technology and developing the streaming app, which it unveiled last December, along with a new logo. The new app came with new channels run by John Mayer, Kelly Clarkson, Shaggy and Smokey Robinson, as well as a weekly show by James Corden and a new true-crime channel from Crime Junkies podcast host Ashley Flowers.
The company’s investments in podcasting and new technology has driven years of belt-tightening and at least two rounds of layoffs, which resulted in around 650 jobs being cut in 2023 and 2024. Having cut costs by $200 million this year and $150 million in 2023, executives said Tuesday they are aiming to achieve an additional $200 million in cost savings next year.
During its most recent quarterly earnings, SiriusXM lowered its 2024 revenue goal to $8.675 billion from $8.75 billion due to lower subscriber revenue and softer-than-projected advertising revenue in the second half of this year.
The company reported gaining 14,000 self-pay subscribers in the third quarter this year. However, subscriber revenue was down to $1.645 billion in the third quarter 2024 from $1.729 billion during the third quarter 2023.
SiriusXM reaches around 150 million listeners through SiriusXM, Pandora and its growing podcast service.
In March 2020, Elena Rose was a songwriter in her mid-twenties who had helped craft hits for Latin superstars like Becky G and Myke Towers. She was content with her day job, but as lockdown began to take hold, the Venezuelan American had an early-pandemic revelation.
“I really thought that the world was coming to an end,” she says. “When I saw that my voice had not been heard, it made me sad.”
While Rose continued to work behind the scenes — her songwriting credits to-date include Billboard chart entries and collaborations with Selena Gomez, Bad Bunny, Marc Anthony, and the Becky G-Karol G team-up “MAMIII,” which reached No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart — she made her singing debut as an independent artist that May with the Latin urban song “Sandunga.” She paired the release with a colorful music video that showcased her striking presence and alluded to her superstar capabilities.
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Today, the 29-year-old has fully realized her potential, breaking through in recent months on the Billboard charts as a performer with “Orion,” her collaboration with Panamanian star Boza.
Born Andrea Elena Mangiamarchi in Miami to Venezuelan parents, Rose grew up between Puerto Rico and Venezuela before returning to her hometown due to sociopolitical and economic crises in the South American country. No matter her location, she loved to sing anywhere and everywhere: initially, she began as a performer, singing in bars, restaurants and at parties.
She met mentor and producer Patrick Romantik in Miami in her early twenties, who brought Rose to the studio and taught her the ins and outs of the technology, while also letting her observe sessions to learn about the songwriting process. “And my years of silence began,” she reflects. “I remember they told me, ‘OK, you can be here, but we cannot feel you.’ ”
During that time, she watched writers and producers such as Servando Primera, Yasmil Murrufo and Mario Cáceres create hits including Becky G’s “Mayores” featuring Bad Bunny in 2019, which reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100. Along the way, she gained an informal music education as a hitmaker.
“When I worked in bars in Miami, the musicians were Ricky Martin’s percussionist, Alejandro Sanz’s pianist, the bassist who had played with Stevie Wonder,” Rose says. “It was my best school because they were people who had experienced music, understood it and wanted to preserve it.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
She continued to self-release new singles through the next few years, such as “La Ducha” and “Picachu” and made appearances at key industry events such as Billboard Latin Music Week, where she has participated every year since 2021 either as a panelist or a performer. In summer 2022, she signed a record label deal with Warner Music Latina.
“Her lyrics, her voice, her presence and the ability she has to convey emotions is unparalleled,” said the label’s president Alejandro Duque at the time. In September of the following year, she agreed to a management deal with OCESA Seitrack, whose artists include superstars such as Sanz and Alejandro Fernández.
“The day I sat down a year and a half ago to have dinner with her, I was blown away,” says OCESA Seitrack founder/CEO Alex Mizrahi. He adds today that he recognized her as “a diamond in the rough” with the potential of becoming “the next Karol G” in terms of success.
In the year-plus since then, she has released soulful solo songs, including the empowering “Me Lo Merezco” in March. But her collaborations with artists spanning genres on her November EP, En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas), and elsewhere have taken her to new markets — chiefly with “Orion.” Sophisticated in both its lyrics and production, the song is a captivating fusion of reggaetón, salsa and Afrobeats. It has an irresistibly playful bridge from Boza, and with Rose’s evocative writing, the single shows new layers to both artists.
“I made the song ‘Orion’ at a [writers] camp in Miami a year ago,” remembers Boza. “I heard it with the producer, Daramola, and the songwriters, Essa Gante and Omar, and at that moment we already knew that we needed a female voice. Together with my team, we thought of Elena.”
Adds Rose: “When this song came to me, I remember saying, ‘OK, it has a soul, it has something nice. If you allow me, I want to take it to my world and see how I can give it a little more of myself.’ I remember that was when I gave love to the chorus, changed the lyrics, and wrote my verse. I feel that, for me, the concept of ‘Orion’ became a source of information on emotional intelligence.”
The song was released May 29 on Sony Music Latin (Boza’s record label), with an official music video arriving the following day. Though Rose recorded her part separately, they got together to shoot the video in Panama, which has since tallied more than 105 million views on YouTube. “Orion” steadily began to take hold at radio as well, and by mid-September, it debuted at No. 20 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. Three weeks later, it arrived on the overall Latin Airplay ranking. It has held ever since on both, with “Orion” spending the last six weeks at No. 2 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. It has also reached a No. 15 high on Latin Airplay. “Working with her is like traveling to another planet,” Boza says of Rose.
As her public profile reached new heights fueled by the song’s success, so did her status within the industry: in September, she earned three Latin Grammy nominations, for song of the year for “Caracas En El 2000” with Danny Ocean and Jerry Di; best pop/rock song for “Blanco y Negro,” a LAGOS song featuring Rose; and best regional song for her hand in Becky G’s “Por El Contrario,” which she co-wrote with Latin hitmakers Edgar Barrera and Keityn. (The year prior, she was the only woman to be nominated when the songwriter of the year category was inaugurated.)
Rose has continued to prioritize her collaborative efforts, releasing both the country-tinged ballad “A Las 12 Te Olvidé” with Ha*Ash and a Latin pop song infused with cumbia and urban rhythms, “Pa’ Qué Volviste?” with Maria Becerra, as non-EP singles in November. And while her success with Boza has made her a recognizable face in Panama — Rose coyly says that a recent flight she was taking was delayed after the co-pilot requested a photo with her — Mizrahi teases that more duets are on the immediate horizon, which aim to bolster her following in other countries.
In the coming months, there are plans for releases with Camilo and Morat (both from Colombia), Sanz (Spain) and Los Ángeles Azules (Mexico). She is also scheduled to perform at both Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Chile in March 2025. “The goal is to bring Elena’s music to the world,” Mizrahi says, “to make her a global artist.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
A version of this story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Apple Music is doubling down on its commitment to fuel Latin music’s global presence with the launch of its brand-new Apple Música Uno radio station, which officially went live on Tuesday (Dec. 10). The station will be free, with no subscription needed.
Música Uno is one of Apple Music’s three new global radio stations, the other two being Apple Music Club and Apple Music Chill. They joined the previously launched Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country radio stations.
Música Uno will have multiple on-air hosts — including radio personalities Evelyn Sicairos, who will host La Oficial Radio, and Lechero, who will helm ¡Dale Play! Radio — as well as exclusive special shows hosted by superstars Becky G, Rauw Alejandro and Grupo Frontera.
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“In the past we’ve been lucky to have the support of Zane [Lowe] and Ebro who’ve given us space in their shows, which aren’t necessarily Latin music shows, and that’s been great, but we need more spaces to tell the stories of many other Latin artists and for them to feel free to speak in Spanish or even Spanglish. Apple Música Uno is the place for that,” says Jerry Pulles, Latin music programmer at Apple Music. Over the past 10 years, Pulles has overseen the launch of several hosted shows, including the Apple Music 1 series La Fórmula Radio with El Guru, which is dedicated to Latin music.
Now, Música Uno will serve as a hub exclusively for all things Latin, covering every spectrum of the genre — from reggaetón to pop to Mexican music. “This radio station will allow us to continue building blocks with the artists we’ve supported since day one,” adds Marissa Lopez, Apple’s head of Latin music artist relations. “We’ve seen Latin music’s growth in real time, so this launch has been a long time coming.”
Rauw Alejandro
Apple Music Radio
The launch of Música Uno comes four years after Apple Music last launched a new radio station, when it introduced Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. In this way, it’s hoping to tap into the growing popularity of Latin music as it continues to hit record-high revenues — largely led by paid streaming subscriptions. Over the past two years alone, a total of 134 Latin songs have reached Apple Music’s Global Daily Top 100 — up from 88 the previous two years, according to Apple. In the same time range, the number of música mexicana songs on the chart have more than quadrupled, up from 12 to more than 50.
“This was such a natural evolution for us,” Juan Paz, Apple Music’s global head of Latin music business, says of launching Música Uno. “Radio has always been the heartbeat of Apple Music, where we showcase the best and most relevant music and give artists a space for their creative output. With Apple Música Uno, we will continue to do just that, but in our language and with an opportunity for people all over the world to tune-in for free. Having this available for free globally is a truly exciting opportunity to continue to amplify what we do best — supporting artists and being at the forefront of culture.”
Since launching in 2015, Apple Music has made a name for itself in the industry as an artist-first service, and the launch of Música Uno aligns with that identity, says Patty Flores, head of U.S. Latin, music business partnerships at the company.
“By creating a space like this, we are filling a void where the artist is in charge of their own narrative. And a space where we lead by culture and human curation,” Flores says. “Our tagline roughly translates to the culture that moves you, and we really want to make this station come to life through the voices of our hosts and artists. Whether that is sharing track-by-track commentaries explaining the process and story behind new songs, or checking in to share influences or a special story behind their latest release, we want to tell those stories.”
Becky G
Apple Music Radio
Hosted by the Latin pop hitmaker, The Becky G Show will “give people a real sense of what life on tour is like — from the encounters with my incredible fans to the challenges, the highs, and everything in between,” says Becky G. “This show captures a special moment in my career, where I get to fully represent my culture and all the different layers that shape who I am.”
On Grupo Frontera’s show, meanwhile, the band says that “people will get to see us in a more relaxed environment, hanging out, goofing around and talking about music which is what we do in our regular lives. I think people are going to see that we are just a bunch of regular guys living our dreams. We had a lot of fun with our surprise guests.”
For Krystina DeLuna, Apple Music’s head of música mexicana editorial, Música Uno is an opportunity to continue the growth of a genre that was long considered niche. But today, thanks to a new generation of música mexicana hitmakers, that has totally changed. “The fact that this station is going to be global and free, that’s only going to help continue the conversation of taking música mexicana to the next level, which is what we’ve been trying to do for many years,” she says. “That’s why it was important to have Grupo Frontera host a show and have our playlist música mexicana playlist La Oficial come to life with a hosted show that will be focused on the culture, creating a safe space for artists to speak about their craft.”
The first song played on Música Uno when it launched Tuesday was Bad Bunny’s “El CLúB.” That marks a full circle moment for Apple Music, as the superstar launched the streaming service’s first Latin playlist, ¡Dale Play!, in 2018. “It’s a testament to the building blocks I mentioned before,” says Lopez. “Being there from the beginning of his career and seeing that growth. It’s just so exciting all around.”
Stephen King is killing off his cluster of money-losing radio stations in Maine, announcing on Monday (Dec. 2) that WZON, WKIT and WZLO will cease operations in the Bangor area on Dec. 31 after 41 years under his and wife Tabitha’s ownership.
The wicked prolific author bought WLBZ in 1983, renaming it WZON in homage to his 1979 novel The Dead Zone. The station was sold in 1990 but re-acquired by the Kings three years later. Despite King’s passion for radio and his efforts to maintain local and independent stations, the three stations have consistently lost money, with King personally covering the deficits.
WZON is on the AM dial at 620 and plays “Retro Radio,” while WKIT 100.3 FM is branded as “Stephen King’s Rock Station” and WZLO, at 103.1 FM, is “Maine’s Adult Alternative.” The company operates under the name The Zone Corporation.
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King, who was in his mid-30 when he got into radio, cited financial losses and his advancing age — a healthy 77 — as reasons for the shutdown. He expressed pride in being a local owner and gratitude for the staff and local advertisers who supported the stations.
“While radio across the country has been overtaken by giant corporate broadcasting groups, I’ve loved being a local, independent owner all these years,” said King. “I’ve loved the people who’ve gone to these stations every day and entertained folks, kept the equipment running, and given local advertisers a way to connect with their customers. Tabby and I are proud to have been a part of that for more than four decades.”
General manager Ken Wood, who has been with the stations for 10 years, acknowledged the end of an era but appreciated the Kings’ commitment to local broadcasting.
“Independent, locally owned radio stations used to be the norm,” said Wood. “There’re only a few left in Maine, and we’re lucky we had these three as long as we did.”
A news release states that Zone Corporation is closing but doesn’t specify if they’re looking to sell the stations. This potentially means they could stop operations under a Special Temporary Authority from the FCC, which lets them follow regulations while possibly finding a buyer.
Since getting into the terrestrial radio business in 1983, King has written over 50 novels, including well-known works such as It, Misery, The Dark Tower series, Pet Sematary, Under the Dome, Skeleton Crew, The Green Mile and 11/22/63, among many (many) others.
Read the full announcement from Zone Corporation:
When internationally known author Stephen King first entered the radio business in 1983, it was with the enthusiasm and love of a lifelong rock and roll fan and as a listening member of the greater Bangor community.
He also was a young man of 36 with a lifetime of creativity ahead of him. Now, in good health but feeling his 77 years, King says it’s time to “get his business affairs in better order,” and that means saying good-bye to the radio stations that he personally has kept afloat and on the air all these years.
“While radio across the country has been overtaken by giant corporate broadcasting groups, I’ve loved being a local, independent owner all these years,” said King. “I’ve loved the people who’ve gone to these stations every day and entertained folks, kept the equipment running, and given local advertisers a way to connect with their customers. Tabby and I are proud to have been a part of that for more than four decades.”
In those four decades, however, the stations consistently have lost money. The amounts have varied from year to year but have been significant. King personally has covered those losses.
Flagship station WZON, which first went on the air in Maine in 1926 as WLBZ, was purchased by the Kings in 1983. The call letters were changed to WZON, a nod to Stephen King’s best seller The Dead Zone and a rock and roll format was instituted. The station never made money and for a time, even surrendered its commercial status to become a donor supported enterprise. In 1990, the station was sold, only for the Kings to re-acquire it three years later and bring back the commercial model.
Ken Wood, General Manager of the stations for the last ten years is certainly sad to see the end but said he’s grateful for the Kings’ ownership and proud of the local voices that have a place in Maine’s colorful broadcast history. “Independent, locally owned radio stations used to be the norm. There’re only a few left in Maine, and we’re lucky we had these three as long as we did,” said Wood.
The stations of The ZONE Corporation are WZON (620 AM), WKIT (100.3 FM), and WZLO (103.1 FM). Broadcasting operations are expected to cease on December 31st.
Damiano David is iHeartMedia’s latest “On the Verge” artist with his new solo single, “Born With a Broken Heart.” In a first for iHeart, he will be featured across three formats, with all iHeartRadio CHR, Hot AC and Alt stations participating in the promotion. Damiano, 25, is best-known as frontman for the Italian rock band Måneskin, […]
Kix Brooks is marking the end of an era, as he steps down from his nearly two-decade role as host of the national country music radio show American Country Countdown. Brooks’s final broadcast will air the weekend of Dec. 28-29, 2024.
Beginning the weekend of Jan. 4-5, 2025, country radio personality Ryan Fox will take over as host of American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox. Fox currently serves as on-air host, mornings, at Dallas country station KPLX/99.5 The Wolf.
Brooks took on the hosting role at American Country Countdown in January 2006, guiding listeners through each week’s top hits, while both entertaining them with his wit and humor, but also offering deep insights into artists, the country music genre and its rich history.
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“I never dreamed I would be asked to host a legendary international radio show like American Country Countdown,” Brooks said in a statement. “The fact that I have been supported by hundreds of affiliates and an amazing team of radio professionals for 18 years has made this one of the greatest experiences of my professional life. It’s time to turn my primary focus back to writing, recording and touring with Brooks & Dunn. It’s been an honor, to say the least, that I was trusted with a microphone that had such an iconic history. Special thanks to all the fans who listened and participated, to ensure that I was being the best that I could be. Keep counting ‘em down!”
Brooks’s work leading American Country Countdown, which is broadcast to more than 300 station affiliates nationwide through Westwood One, was honored with the Country Music Association’s national broadcast personality of the year in 2009, 2011 and 2013, making Brooks the first person to win a CMA award in both artist and broadcast categories. He also claimed the Academy of Country Music’s radio award for national personality in 2021.
Fox said in a statement, “To be given the opportunity to take the reins on one of the longest running, most successful, Country countdown shows in the world and sit in the same chair as Hall of Famers like the legendary Kix Brooks and the late, great Bob Kingsley, is a tremendous honor. This is a terrific era for country music, and I cannot wait to count down the biggest country hits from coast to coast!”
As part of Brooks & Dunn, Brooks just picked up a 15th win in the Country Music Association’s vocal duo of the year category during last week’s CMA Awards, held Nov. 20 in Nashville.
Brady Bedard has been appointed as the executive vice president of promotion for Atlantic Music Group, transitioning from a 26-year career at Sony Music and Columbia Records, where he most recently served as senior vp of pop promotion. In his new role, Bedard will take the lead on promotion strategies for the Atlantic, 300 and 10K Projects labels.
Bedard’s career has been marked by significant contributions to the success of high-profile artists such as Adele, Beyoncé, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, BTS, and many more. A native of the Twin Cities, he began his career as a college rep for Sony Music in 1998. Over the years, he progressed through roles in marketing and radio promotion, eventually landing his most recent position in 2018. His expertise spans multiple genres and a deep understanding of the evolving radio and music landscape.
AMG CEO Elliot Grainge praised Bedard’s extensive experience and strong industry connections, emphasizing his ability to navigate the complexities of promotion.
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“He’s expertly navigated the ever-shifting radio landscape for more than a quarter century, with a passionate devotion to the music and deep relationships across the industry,” said Grainge.
Bedard’s appointment is part of a broader leadership restructuring under Grainge, who recently also named Alana Dolgin as the label’s first president of digital marketing, underscoring AMG’s focus on digital innovation.
This leadership evolution aligns with broader strategic initiatives at Warner Music. In last week’s earnings call, Warner CEO Robert Kyncl commended Atlantic and Warner Records for driving growth through innovative talent discovery and promotion. He highlighted the success of 10K Projects, a joint venture between Warner and AMG, attributing its rapid growth to Grainge’s digitally driven strategies. Kyncl also lauded Grainge’s intensity — “I love that about him,” he said — and decisive leadership, which he believes attracts top talent.
Bedard expressed enthusiasm for his new role, citing Atlantic’s legacy of artist development and its strong reputation in radio promotion.
“Having spent my entire career so far at one company, the only other place I could ever imagine working is one with such a rich history of artist development and genre-spanning roster as WMG,” said Bedard. “Atlantic is a legend in the radio promotion business, and to join the company at this transformational moment is tremendously exciting. I want to thank Elliot for this amazing opportunity.”
When Jack and Jill went up the hill, they got more than just a pail of water. Or, at least, Jill did. Jack didn’t really stick around.
Jordan Fletcher, in the closing track on his Triple Tigers EP Classic (released Sept. 27), rewrites the centuries-old “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme with a surprising, modern-day twist. “About Jill” is a sensitive, almost celebrant, portrait of a single mom raising a boy who looks very much like his father, an immature rich kid who leaves a pregnant girl to fend for herself.
But Jack isn’t really the story of “About Jill.”
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“No one likes Jack,” Fletcher allows, “but you don’t want to make him the focal point.”
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Fletcher didn’t know Jack would be the topic du jour when he showed up for a co-writing session with Nora Collins (“Leroy”) at Sea Gayle in Nashville on March 16, 2022. They ended up talking about how she was rebounding from the pandemic, and in the process, Fletcher started thinking about the challenges that single women face trying to succeed in a male-dominated world. He turned to his phone for an appropriate title.
“I think I’ve got 50,000 – that’s a real number – I think, 40,000 or 50,000 voice memos on the phone of partial songs, ideas, partial ideas, full songs, completely unorganized,” he says. “And I had this thing called ‘Jack and Jill.’”
They figured out pretty quickly that they could use that title to write about a woman finding her way.
“He said, ‘You know that everybody knows Jack, but they don’t know jack about Jill,’” Collins recalls. “That got me. He started playing a little guitar part, and then I started writing that first verse.”
The nursery rhyme gave them an obvious starting point, and they altered the rhyme just enough to change the story’s direction: “Jack and Jill had time to kill.” They make out on a back road, and things develop quickly: by the end of line three, she’s pregnant, he decides he’s “too young for kids,” and he leaves it to “Jill to choose.” It’s a subtle hint that she considered an abortion (they wrote that line three months before the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision stripped many women of that choice). They broached the topic so gracefully that the controversy is all but eliminated.
“I think that that was important,” Collins says. “It was, you know, ‘Let’s lightly discuss a really hard topic, and let’s empower Jill.’”
The remainder of the verse and the chorus paint Jack as a playboy who eventually ends up living an easy life with a girl he meets in college. And it’s at the end of that chorus that the hook makes its debut: “Everybody knows Jack/ But they don’t know jack about Jill.”
Musically, “About Jill” disguises the serious nature of the story, using a light chord progression and breezy tempo, maintained by a strong upstroke, owing in part to Fletcher’s reggae appreciation.
Verse two contrasts Jill’s struggles with Jack’s good fortune. She works two jobs, drives a hand-me-down car and can’t look at her boy without seeing Jack’s reflection. But she still loves the kid. “She has a very, very difficult situation,” Fletcher says. “This turns out to be a lot of people’s story, and I didn’t realize that. It’s a story that wasn’t really told often.”
The bridge reiterated her ability to stay positive, concluding that life had given her lemons, but “she makes damn good lemonade.”
“You can’t predict what life’s gonna hand you,” Collins says. “It’s all a choice, how you choose to deal with things. Life by no means is easy for anyone, and if you’re a single mom or a single parent, you do the best that you can for your kid, and you got to make lemonade.”
Collins sang on the work tape at the end of the day as they considered several women – including Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert – as potential matches. “About Jill” received good feedback, but no cuts. Meanwhile, Fletcher posted a back-porch video of the song a week after they wrote it, with the sounds of birds and traffic in the background. He finally decided to record it himself for the Classic EP.
“It honestly is sweeter coming from a guy, because it just seems more objective,” he reasons. “I could definitely see how a female would feel like it was a man-hating song, but if a guy’s singing it, it’s just a very observant song.”
Producer Austin Nivarel (Jelly Roll, Austin Snell) identified “About Jill” on first listen as a song they needed to cut, and he and Fletcher agreed that it should be presented as simply as possible. “We wanted it to just feel so real and raw,” Nivarel says.
They accomplished that by cutting it as a guitar/vocal track at the Black River studio complex on Nashville’s Music Row. Engineer Nick Autry set up two mics in the center of the studio and a couple more placed elsewhere to capture room noise. But after one or two test passes, Nivarel had the room mics shut down, deciding instead to make it authentic to Fletcher’s back-porch demos.
Fletcher played about two feet away from the mics, tracking the guitar at the same time as his vocal, which meant that his voice and the supporting instrument both appeared on every track. The performance itself had to be right, since Nivarel was unable to do much tinkering later – if he were to boost the low notes in Fletcher’s voice, for example, it would also boost the bass in the guitar notes.
“Since the vocal mic is picking up the guitar, you get what you get,” Nivarel says. “You can’t perfect performances. You can’t do too much to edit something like that. So everything the listener hears is very real.”
Fletcher also cut 3-5 minutes of environmental sound from his back porch, and the resulting atmospherics are used to present the singer even more authentically.
“About Jill” provides the clearest picture of Fletcher’s vocal sound and artistic sensitivity. But it also has increased value in the immediate aftermath of the election. Within days, misogynists began posting crude “Your body, my choice” threats on some women’s social media pages. As a result, “About Jill” rises from a well-crafted song to an important one about decency and real American values.
“I want to give light to it,” Fletcher says. “It just tells the positivity and the strength of this woman that [does what] so many women do daily. It’s the side of the coin people don’t want to look at, but it is right there.”
The Country Radio Broadcasters/Country Radio Seminar board of directors has made two significant updates to the eligibility and selection criteria for its annual New Faces of Country Music Show.
Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart has been introduced as a qualifying measure for New Faces eligibility, joining the existing Mediabase Country Chart published in Country Aircheck. The expanded chart criterion incorporates digital sales and streaming data alongside terrestrial radio airplay to offer a more comprehensive view of music performance metrics.
RJ Curtis, executive director at Country Radio Broadcasters, said in a statement: “The revised New Faces Show chart criteria more broadly reflects how our music is being exposed and consumed in 2024, and how its performance is measured. While radio airplay continues to be the critically important calculation for artist success, digital sales and streaming data are also important, accurate factors in identifying the rising New Faces and voices in country music.”
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The second update places the responsibility of determining artist eligibility and management of the submission process on record labels and artist representatives. Representatives will now confirm that artists meet the minimum criteria, submit their names for ballot inclusion, and verify artist availability and willingness to perform if selected.
This shift is also aimed at increasing the level of industry involvement and accountability, ensuring artists chosen reflect the current and future landscape of country music. The new criteria are in effect for the Nov. 1, 2024, to Oct. 27, 2025, qualification period, which will impact the New Faces of Country Music Show lineup for the Country Radio Seminar 2026.
Artists must have at least one but no more than five top 25 singles on Country Aircheck‘s Mediabase Country Chart or Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart during the qualification period. Voter eligibility requirements state that “voters must be full-time employees in programming, promotion, or distribution of country music, excluding those with vested interests in individual artists.”
The ballot will include all qualifying artists submitted by their representatives, with artists listed in alphabetical order. Ballots will be reported to and approved by the Country Radio Broadcasters executive committee before final selections are made.
The 2024 New Faces of Country Music Show, held during March’s Country Radio Seminar, featured artists Megan Moroney, George Birge, Dillon Carmichael, Corey Kent and Conner Smith. Since its inception in 1970, the show has put some of country music’s brightest new talents in the spotlight, including Tim McGraw, George Strait, Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Jelly Roll.