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John Legend opened up Wednesday (Feb. 1) about how he and Chrissy Teigen came up with their new daughter Esti’s name.
The R&B star told E! News that the newborn’s unique moniker was intially the brainchild of wife Chrissy Teigen, but it also has surprising roots in his family tree. “It turns out, my great-grandmother was named Esther,” he said. “It wasn’t intentionally after someone, but once Chrissy told me that idea, I was like, ‘Oh, my great-grandmother’s name was Esther.’
“We wanted to already name her middle name Maxine after my grandmother, whose middle name was Maxine,” Legend continued. “So, it’s a lot of my family in the name.”
Baby Esti joined older siblings Luna and Miles in January to make the singer and model’s brood a family of five, following the devastating loss of their third baby Jack last year when Teigen was 20 weeks pregnant.
Following her birth, both proud parents took to social media to share photos of Esti. “Our new love,” Legend captioned his snap of the baby, while Teigen wrote, “Look at u out here lookin’ like a baby” alongside hers.
This weekend, Legend is scheduled to take the stage at the 2023 MusiCares Persons of the Year tribute concert in Los Angeles, where Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson will both be honored two days before the 65th annual Grammy Awards.
Having recently wrapped season 22 of The Voice — where Team Legend’s Omar Jose Cardona ultimately came in fourth place behind eventual winner Bryce Leatherwood — the Grammy winner will sit out season 23 to make room for the return of fellow coach Kelly Clarkson and newbies Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again is Billboard latest cover star, and he opened up about his music making process with reporter Meaghan Garvey.
“It’s a disease,” he shares of his ability to put out as much music as possible. “Literally, I cannot help myself. I tell myself sometimes, ‘I’m not going to drop until months from now,’ but it’s addictive. I wish I knew when I was younger how unhealthy this was for me. Whatever type of energy I had inside me, I would’ve pushed it toward something else.”
He adds,“The music is therapy, but I can’t stop it when I want,” he goes on, sounding almost ashamed. “And the lifestyle is just a big distraction from your real purpose.”
The star is fresh off the release of his new album I Rest My Case, which arrived in early January. I Rest My Case marks the rapper’s first release since he signed to Motown Records in October. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native broke out in 2015 and signed to Atlantic two years later, going on to become one of music’s top acts. Since, he’s charted 24 albums on the Billboard 200 — 11 that were top 10, four of which hit No. 1.
He’s charted four top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 in 2022 — more top 10s than any other act this year — and has released four albums in the past two months: The Last Slimeto, Realer 2, 3800 Degrees and Ma I Got a Family.
The 2023 Grammys is just days away, which means music fans will soon find out who’s walking away with new golden gramophones on music’s biggest night.
Of course, part of the fun is getting to predict the winners, and today, Billboard is honing in on one question: Whose song do you think should win the Grammy for record of the year?
It’s been a few years now since the Recording Academy widened the field of its top prizes to 10 nominees, and this year’s pack of hopefuls are heavyweights across multiple genres — from pop to R&B, hip-hop and more.
As one of the Big Four categories, the race for record of the year will once again pit Beyoncé against Adele in a hotly anticipated rematch of their epic face-off back in 2017. At the time, 25 memorably — and the Beyhive would certainly say controversially — beat out Lemonade for album of the year, and Adele gave Queen Bey a teary apology during her modest acceptance speech. But which do you think deserves record of the year in 2023: Adele’s “Easy on Me” or Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul”?
The two superstars are hardly the only contenders, though. Harry Styles had one of the biggest smashes of the year with “As It Was,” which dominated the Billboard Hot 100 for 16 non-consecutive weeks — a streak that was eventually broken by first-time nominee Steve Lacy‘s No. 1 hit “Bad Habit.” Or maybe you think it’s about damn time for Lizzo to walk away with the trophy for, well, “About Damn Time.”
And don’t count out the dark horses of the field: ABBA scored its first-ever nomination last year in the same category thanks to “I Still Have Faith in You,” but could the Swedish pop pioneers clinch their first win with “Don’t Shut Me Down”? There’s also Mary J. Blige‘s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Kendrick Lamar‘s “The Heart Part 5,” Doja Cat‘s “Woman” and Brandi Carlile‘s Lucius-assisted “You and Me on the Rock” to consider.
The 2023 Grammys will air Sunday (Feb. 5) on CBS. Vote for who you think should win record of the year below.
It didn’t take long for the Britney Spears jokes to start rolling in after Doja Cat shaved her head in August last year. It also didn’t take long for the 27-year-old rapper to clap back at people trolling her new look at the time, and in a new interview with Variety — published on Wednesday (Feb. 1) — she’s explaining why she found the Spears comparisons harmful in particular.
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“It’s so incredibly disrespectful for people to be minimizing what Britney went through and make a joke out of something that was very serious and a big deal in her life,” she told the publication. “Every time I see a comment like that, I can’t compute what’s happening, other than it’s just an awful thing.”
It was 2007 when Spears shocked the world by shaving her own head while out in public, an incident that’s since gone down in pop culture history as the moment the “Toxic” singer supposedly had a mental breakdown. The next year, she was placed under a restrictive conservatorship controlled by her father, which she wouldn’t succeed in getting legally terminated until 2021.
Doja similarly shocked her fans when she debuted her buzzcut in a surprise Instagram Live last summer, and shocked them further when she proceeded to shave off her eyebrows on that same livestream. Many were quick to jump to baseless conclusions that the “Woman” musician was mentally ill simply because of her dramatic new style, which she angrily shut down at the time.
“I needed to change something,” she explained to Variety. “I wasn’t working out and wasn’t really taking care of myself in the way that I wanted to. I was like, ‘I need to do something,’ so I just chopped it all off. And I could see the shape of my head. I could see my whole face… it’s the best choice I’ve ever made, and I’ve never felt more beautiful.”
The Grammy winner also hinted at what’s to come for her in the music department, confirming that she’ll release another album by the end of 2023. “I want to explore punk,” she revealed. “But not pop-punk. I feel like we have enough pop-punk artists right now. And if there needs to be more, then let there be more, but I don’t think I’m the one to do it.”
“I want to explore more of a raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing,” she continued, also noting she wants to focus more on R&B and rap as opposed to pop and dance music. “It’s just something that I’m doing for my own personal fun — getting some drummers and guitarists together. And I don’t even know if that’s gonna make it out there.”
It’s fitting that on Wednesday morning (Feb. 1) Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott became the first-ever female hip-hop artist to be nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. The pioneering rapper/songwriter/producer celebrated the news in a statement in which she said, “This is an incredible honor. I’m so humbled and grateful to be counted amongst all the incredible honorees.”
Elliott joined a list of 2023 nominees that also included Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Cyndi Lauper, Iron Maiden, JoyDivision/New Order, The Spinners, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes and Warren Zevon.
“I’ve spent my career making the kind of music I love and it means so much to know that I have touched others as well,” Elliott added. “But to hear that I am the first female hip hop artist to EVER be nominated into the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame?!? Wow!! This one hits extra different as I hope it opens doors for other female emcees to be recognized!”
To be eligible for the RRHOF, an artist’s first commercial release must have come out at least 25 years prior to the nomination year. After making a name for herself in her early 20s writing and rapping on songs by Raven-Symoné, Jodeci, SWV and Aaliyah, Elliott’s genre-expanding debut, Supa Dupa Fly, dropped in 1997, featuring the psychedelic video for “The Rain,” her first of many eye-popping collaborations with director Hype Williams.
Elliott won a Grammy — one of four she’s earned to date — for best rap solo performance in 2002 for her landmark hit “Get Ur Freak On” and hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with her 2003 single “Work It.” In addition to her six solo albums, Elliott has continued to be one of the most in-demand producers and songwriters in the business, working with everyone from Mary J. Blige and TLC to Beyoncé, Ciara, Fantasia, Jazmine Sullivan, Monica and Fifth Harmony, among many others.
She was also the first female rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2019), the first to receive the MTV VMAs Video Vanguard Award (2019) and with more than 40 Million records sold worldwide she is the best-selling female rapper in Luminate history.
RRHOF Inductees will be revealed in May, with the induction ceremony taking place this fall. The top five artists selected through fan voting will be tallied along with the ballots from the Rock Hall’s international voting body to determine the Class of 2023. Fans can vote online every day through April 28 at vote.rockhall.com or IRL at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.
In 2022, only Taylor Swift and Drake streamed more than YoungBoy Never Broke Again. But even with his enormous popularity and wildly prolific output (he released eight full-lengths last year), the rapper hasn’t revealed much about his personal life.
Now, in a candid, lengthy Billboard cover story written by Meaghan Garvey, the 23-year-old rapper opens up about his new life in snowy Utah, where he currently resides under house arrest. And while a security team limits his visitors to three pre-approved people at a time, YoungBoy has been entertaining some unexpected guests: Mormon missionaries.
The Louisiana rapper turned them away the first time they swung by his home in late 2022. But when they returned, he decided to them in: “I wanted help very badly. I needed a friend. And it hit me,” he recalls.
“It was just cool to see someone with a different mindset that had nothing to do with business or money — just these wonderful souls,” he tells Billboard. The missionaries now discuss The Book of Mormon with YoungBoy regularly, which accounts for his recent “Hi Haters” video opening with a quote from the Latter Day Saints tome. According to YoungBoy, their visits help him “make sure my heart is in the right space”; he’s planning on being officially baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter-day Saints after his ankle monitor is removed.
“Even when my negative thoughts come back, when I do want to tell them, ‘Not today,’ I just don’t let nothing stop it,” he explains. The rapper’s potential baptism dovetails with his growing uncertainty over the violent storytelling in his own lyrics. This year’s I Rest My Case (released on Motown, his first since signing with the label) intentionally featured fewer mentions of guns than on previous projects.
While he’s aware that lyrical shifts could affect his popularity — “What if they don’t like me now?” he mused about his audience during the interview – he refuses to rap about violence merely to satisfy listeners. “I’m not changing. I will not be provoked, I will not be broken, and I’m not going back to who I used to be. Accept it or not — I ain’t going back.”
Read YoungBoy’s full Billboard cover story profile here.
This February and March, City Winery will host its inaugural two-month long initiatives titled “Still I Rise” in celebration of Black History Month and “Fierce Light” honoring women and gender justice. Each month will feature a mix of musicians and women thought leaders including Lalah Hathaway, Chrisette Michele, Eric Benét, Vanessa Carlton, Elle Varner and Keke Wyatt.
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“At City Winery, we aim to foster an environment that invites people from all walks of life into our ecosystem and gives everyone a chance to proverbially be onstage,” said Michael Dorf, CEO of City Winery. “We are thrilled to celebrate and recognize diverse voices that empower and inspire during Black History Month and Women’s History Month.”
The initiatives are a part of City Winery’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The upscale dining and event space will also donate a portion of select programming proceeds throughout February and March. “Still I Rise” beneficiaries include Black Feminist Future, Black Voters Matter and In Our Own Voice, while “Fierce Light” proceeds will go to Sister Reach, Sister Song and Women’s Refugee Commission.
Guests can support these causes by attending shows throughout the next two months at City Winery’s various locations in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville and Hudson Valley. The organization will also produce a limited-edition, custom-labeled wine that will be available for purchase online and at the performances. A portion of the proceeds from both ticket sales and wine sales will benefit the aforementioned organizations as well.
Tickets for all shows and panels will be available at City Winery.
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Up a winding mountain road on the edge of Salt Lake City, past snow-dusted pines and freshly shoveled driveways, through a wrought iron gate that opens at the command of an armed guard yawning in a pickup truck, sits a handful of mansions designed like rustic ski resorts — and one that looks like a modernist mall. Another security guard idles at the end of the outlier’s heated driveway, which slopes past a garage where Maybachs and McLarens sit alongside muddy, toddler-sized four-wheelers and a terrarium housing a sleeping bearded dragon. At the front door, an inflatable Santa stands sentry, holding a sign that warns, “Nine Days Until Christmas!”
On a clear day like today, you can look out the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, over the icy swimming pool and presently invisible dirt bike track below, and the entirety of the Salt Lake Valley spreads out before you like an overturned snow globe. Inside, the space is all white and sparsely furnished, decorated with a pair of spindly Christmas trees, a half-dozen painted portraits — in one, a smiling young man feeds his daughter a cheeseburger — and an enormous plaque that glints in the sunlight and reads, “100 RIAA Gold/Platinum Certifications,” and, in larger letters, “YoungBoy Never Broke Again.” Its recipient, who introduces himself as Kentrell, sits quietly beneath it as a motherly woman named Quintina, who is not his mother but his financial adviser, paints his fingernails black.
Read the full YoungBoy Never Broke cover story profile written by Meaghan Garvey here.
Saddle up because Beyonce is kicking off Black History Month with a bang. Queen Bey took to Instagram early Wednesday morning (Feb. 1) to announce that her long-awaited Renaissance World Tour 2023 will officially kick off this year. The global trek will kick off in Stockholm on May 10 and feature a mix of stadium and arena shows across Europe through June 27 before picking up in North America at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8; that leg is currently slated to run through a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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The announcement photo may look familiar to fans, as she donned the same glittery attire on the cover of her seventh studio album. Bey also added “Renaissance World Tour” on her Instagram bio, further accenting the news. Last week, Beyonce performed a full concert for the first time in four years at a luxury resort in Dubai in front of influencers and journalists. The 19-song set included a collaboration with her oldest daughter Blue Ivy as the two performed their Grammy Award Winning record “Brown Skin Girl.”
Crowned a triumphant win by music lovers, Renaissance stormed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last year and rattled off two Hot 100 top-ten hits, including her chart-topper “Break My Soul.” The dance-centric album also notched nine Grammy nominations, the most for any nominee for this year’s ceremony. Bey is looking to rack up more trophy wins, as she currently sits at a staggering 28 wins. Nominated for album of the year, song, and record of the year, Bey is facing some stout competition, especially in the former. The R&B juggernaut will tango against Adele, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, and more for album of the year. A win in this category would serve as Beyonce’s first. The 65th Grammy Awards will occur Sunday night in Los Angeles at 8 pm EST.
Check out Beyonce’s Instagram post below.
The Spinners have been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three other times — in 2012, 2015 and 2016. But for sole remaining founding member Henry Fambrough, being on the ballot has not lost its thrill.
“It’s a pleasure being selected by this,” Fambrough tells Billboard from his current residence in Virginia. “We’ve been in this position over years and years, but we just haven’t won anything yet. But it’s a pleasure being selected like this. When you’re nominated like that, at least someone is thinking about you. You’re not sitting at home not hearing anything — you know what I’m saying?”
The spinners were named on Tuesday as part of a class of nominees that also includes Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Iron Maiden, JoyDivision/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes and Warren Zevon.
The quintet, which formed during 1954 and has been known at varying times as the Detroit Spinners and the Motown Spinners, has logged 17 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, insuring immortality with R&B chart-toppers such as “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love,” “The Rubberband Man,” “Then Came You” with Dionne Warwick and others. The group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976 and was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
It started out recording for manager/group member Harvey Fuqua’s Tri-Phi Records, then became part of Motown when Fuqua sold the company to his brother-in-law, Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. Its successes there were only modest, with just two R&B chart Top 10s from a pair of albums. “We didn’t have our own producer at Motown, like the Supremes and the really big stars did,” Fambrough recalls. “We’d get (the songs) they didn’t do, or get the other producers who were trying to get in.” The Spinners did tour, often supporting Marvin Gaye and other Motown acts. And the group members had other jobs at Motown, including working in the record packing plant or tour managing other acts. Fambrough, meanwhile, served as chauffeur for Gordy’s mother.
Despite the limited success, however, Fambrough feels the Spinners were well-served by their Motown tenure. “Harvey Fuqua and Cholly Atkins, our choreographer, they taught us,” he says. “(Executive) Maurice King, he told us, ‘Look, we’re gonna build you guys, so once your hit records stop coming you’re gonna be able to work. People are gonna want to hire you because of your act.’ “We hung on to that, and it was true. When our hit records stopped coming we were still going to Vegas and on the cruise ships and stuff, ’cause people wanted to see us.”
The Spinners real success came when it signed to Atlantic Records during the early 70s, at the suggestion of Aretha Franklin. There the group met up with producer-songwriter Thom Bell, who started with “I’ll Be There” and promised the group that “a year from now, you’re gonna be the No. 1 group in the country,” according to Fambrough.
“And we were like, ‘Yeah. Right. Thank you’ — but it was true.” Teamed with Bell, and with the lead vocal triumvirate of Fambrough, Bobby Smith and Philippe Wynne, the Spinners reeled off a hit parade that left its Motown years in the dust and put the group on par with fellow hit-makers such as the O’Jays and Earth, Wind & Fire. The fertile stretch lasted into the late 70s, declining after Wynne left the group and the Spinners subsequently stopped working with Bell.
But the group has never stopped — and doesn’t intend to, according to Fambrough. During 2021 it even released Round the Block and Back Again, its first album of original material in nearly 40 years.
“We made a pact with each other, back in the beginning,” Fambrough says. “We said, ‘We’re gonna make it or we’re not gonna make it, but whatever we do we’re gonna do it together.’ And when one of the guys would pass away we would get somebody else to come in who was thinking like we thought and had the idea of the future that we wanted and just keep it going.
“I’ll stay with them as long as I can — I might be on a stool, but I’ll be on stage,” he adds with a laugh. “And if I’m not on stage, I’ll still be with them. The other guys…are gone, but they’re still with us any time we sing. This group’s bigger than any one of us.”
