State Champ Radio The Contenders
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. Next week (for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated May 11), Taylor Swift’s second week for The Tortured Poets Department should be less Hot 100-dominant than the first, allowing room for challengers from some much-less established stars (and one of her Eras Tour openers).
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Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone, “Fortnight” (Republic): Taylor Swift of course sets a record this week on the chart dated May 4 by locking down all 14 of the Hot 100’s top 14 spots with songs from her blockbuster new album The Tortured Poets Department, led by the Post Malone-featuring album opener and lead single, “Fortnight.” That song drew over 76 million official U.S. streams in its first week, according to Luminate – the best single-week mark for a song since YouTube user-generated content was removed from chart calculations in 2020 – while also bowing as the week’s top-selling track with 19,000 sold, and entering Radio Songs at a lofty No. 14 with its 31.1 million radio airplay audience impressions.
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The streams and sales should both drop considerably in the song’s second week – as is typical for debuts of its size – but radio should only continue to heat up from here, with the song already challenging for a top 10 spot on next week’s Pop Airplay chart. And while the streams will be down, they should still be fairly mighty in number, as the song remains in the top five on both Spotify’s and Apple Music’s daily US charts and its official music video in the top five on YouTube’s Trending music chart.
Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso” (Island/Republic): Swift’s primary competition for the chart’s top spot next week may come from her good friend and international Eras Tour dates opener Sabrina Carpenter. The multi-platform star’s new single “Espresso” became easily her highest-charting single on the Hot 100 with its No. 7 debut last week, and though it slides to No. 22 on this week’s chart, it remains the sixth-highest non-Swift song on the listing.
“Espresso” should be due for an enormous rebound on this week’s chart, as it continues to grow across the board (and some of Swift’s Tortured Poets tracks vacate the premises). It’s taken over the top spot on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart from “Fortnight,” and is currently scaling the Pop Airplay chart, bounding 32-25 there in its second frame. One of the only things holding it back is the fact that it’s competing on the airwaves with another of her recent hits: “Feather,” which is still hanging in the Hot 100’s top 50, and hits a new peak of No. 5 on this week’s Radio Songs chart.
Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/EMPIRE): As Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter continues to reel in the accolades, its widespread influence on pop culture is already undeniable. Perhaps the most obvious and immediate impact it has had is in the breakthrough success of country artist Shaboozey, who was a collaborator on two of the chart-topping album’s tracks and who just weeks later is already enjoying a crossover hit growing to near-”Texas Hold ‘Em” size, with the celebratory (if slightly melancholy) “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
The breakout hit, which interpolates chorus and verse hooks from J-Kwon’s 2004 pop-rap classic “Tipsy,” is one of the only climbers on this week’s Swift-stuffed Hot 100, rising 36-27 on the chart despite the 20 Tortured Poets songs debuting above it. With the song still soaring on streaming – now top five on both Spotify’s and Apple Music’s daily U.S. charts — while also leading on the iTunes real-time chart and beginning to get a foothold in country radio (as it hits No. 1 on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart), it should be a contender on the Hot 100 for weeks to come, perhaps even challenging the No. 2 peak for the original “Tipsy” 20 years ago.
Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby” (Pulse/ISO Supermacy): Virginia singer-rapper Tommy Richman first came to public prominence as the signee of (and opening act for) R&B hitmaker and fellow DMV native Brent Faiyaz. Now, he’s on track to score a crossover hit beyond any Faiyaz has yet enjoyed, with the TikTok-teased “Million Dollar Baby.” Released on Friday (April 26), the song has already reached the apex of Apple Music’s real-time chart, and its virality seems to only really be getting started – likely leading to a debut in the Hot 100’s top 10, and possibly the top five if it continues its early momentum.
Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (Night Street/Warner): Can’t count out Benson Boone, whose “Beautiful Things” has been in the mix for the spot for the last couple months now, and who only now seems to be finally peaking at radio, reaching No. 2 at Radio Songs and threatening to end Teddy Swims’ three-week reign on top. It might not be enough to unseat Swift and hold off all her many rising challengers, but ”Beautiful Things” is the highest-ranking non-Swift song on this week’s chart, so who knows? With a little late bump, maybe it could eclipse its prior No. 2 peak and finally get all the way to the Hot 100’s mountaintop.
Kendrick Lamar, “Euphoria” (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): The big wild card on next week’s Hot 100 is of course Kendrick Lamar’s Drake response track “Euphoria,” which had a world-stopping debut on YouTube on Tuesday (April 30), and very quickly became what feels like the only song in the world that people are talking about. It arrived on other DSPs and online retailers later in the day, so it should have two full days of tracking along with a partial Tuesday to make up its incomplete first week of chart eligibility – not likely enough to fight for No. 1 in a crowded field, but certainly enough for a splash debut. We’ll see in the weeks to come whether it can follow Lamar’s Future and Metro Boomin collab “Like That” to pole position, and become the rapper’s second Drake-dissing Hot 100-topper of 2024.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated May 4), Taylor Swift zooms past her own already-historic career-best marks with the first week of her much-anticipated Tortured Poets Department album.
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Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): Apologies to grunge greats Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter, which should have a very nice first-week sales debut – but this week, it’s simply all about Taylor Swift. Her 16-track, much-hyped new album’s The Tortured Poets Department, which was expanded to 31 tracks mere hours after its initial release with the set’s subsequent Anthology Edition, is set to put up some absolutely stratospheric first-week numbers – zooming past the totals even for her recent Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) releases, which already but her in a class by herself this decade as far as debut tallies go.
Billboard has reported on her Poets numbers throughout the week, most recently updating them yesterday (April 23) for the days of April 19-22. Through those first four days of release, the album had racked up 1.6 million traditional album sales, including a modern-era record 800,000 of that in vinyl, according to initial reports to Luminate – both easily the highest such first-week numbers for the decade, passing Swift’s prior marks of 1.359 million and 693,000 for 1989 (TV). It’s also already the fifth-highest single-week sales mark for an album of the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991). The album is available for purchase in six vinyl variants, including editions named after album cuts “The Albatross,” “The Bolter,” “The Manuscript” and “The Black Dog,” which all also have CD versions available for sale on her webstore.
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Additionally, the 31 total tracks have amassed a combined 602.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams, which passes the 549.3 million streams posted by Midnights upon its October 2022 debut for the highest single-week mark for an album by a female artist. The only other albums that have posted higher single-week streaming marks are both by Drake — Scorpion posted 745.92 million in 2018 with its 25 tracks, and Certified Lover Boy totaled 743.67 million in 2021 with its 21 – both of which Swift would seem to be on pace to pass, with three days still to be accounted for in the Poets tracking week.
All in all, Tortured Poets Department is already up to 2.1 million equivalent album units in its first week of release, making it only the second album since the Billboard 200 began measuring by equivalent album units in December 2014 to clear the two million mark in a single week. The other, of course, is Adele’s 25, which posted a still-staggering 3.482 million first-week units (including 3.378 million in straight sales) upon its debut in November 2015. (*NSYNC’s No Strings Attached also earned 2.416 million in straight sales during its 2000 debut week, obviously long before Billboard calculations accounted for streaming.)
With sales and streams both slowing for Poets as the week goes on – a very normal arc for a blockbuster album release – it’s unlikely that the album will approach either of those Adele numbers. The album would have to average around 460,000 units a day over the final three days of the tracking week to challenge Adele’s 3.482 million total, and it added around 200,000 additional units on the 22nd. You can never count out a last-minute extra edition or two as far as Taylor Swift is concerned, and 2.5 million is definitely in range for her, but failing some extraordinary surge, it seems like the three-million mark will likely remain Adele-only territory for at least one more Swift album.
Swift should also remain in a class by herself when it comes to space occupied at the top of the Hot 100, however. For the second album of all-new material in a row – following Midnights in 2022 – Swift is a threat to lock down each of the top 10 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 with debuting tracks from the set, and this time her uninterrupted dominance could stretch into the teens as well, according to early data from Luminate. (Swift charting all 31 songs from Anthology is also certainly a possibility.)
The main threats to her top-dozen Hot 100 supremacy are of course Hozier’s “Too Sweet” and Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That,” which occupy the top two spots on the chart this week (dated April 27), and Republic labelmate Drake’s own new release “Push Ups,” which debuted on streaming and at digital retailers on Friday after being available via internet leaks for the prior week. “Push Ups” is unlikely to get the streaming edge on any of Taylor’s top dozen Poets tracks, but its sales advantage – it remains in the top 20 on the iTunes real time chart, behind just eight of the Poets cuts – may be enough for it to get in the way if it continues through the end of the week.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated April 27), Future and Metro Boomin look to go two for two at No. 1 with their We Still Don’t Trust You album, following March’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You team-up.
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Future & Metro Boomin, We Still Don’t Trust You (Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic): Part of the reason that We Don’t Trust You generated the immediate excitement that it did – including a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with a then-2024-best 251,000 first-week units – was because fans knew it was just part one of two for Future and Metro Boomin. The superstar hip-hop duo also promised a follow-up just a few weeks later, and as of last Friday, it is here: We Still Don’t Trust You, the big-budget sequel to their March blockbuster, featuring the same rapper-producer chemistry and the same stacked (though uncredited, at least initially) guest list as its predecessor.
Still actually runs well longer than its earlier series installment, with an 18-song official tracklist and then a seven-track bonus set – like a deluxe edition that Future and Metro didn’t even wait to drop on fans. And the supporting cast is perhaps even stronger this time around, with the 25 total tracks boasting cameos from The Weeknd, Lil Baby, Chris Brown, A$AP Rocky, Ty Dolla $ign, and of course, J. Cole – whose appearance is particularly headline-making news, given his (brief) involvement with the ever-expanding hip-hop civil war kicked off by Kendrick Lamar’s pot-stirring verse on the prior Future/Metro set’s Billboard Hot 100-topping “Like That.”
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Despite the expanded tracklist and guest list, it seems unlikely that Still will debut with the same sort of robust first-week number as the original Trust. On DSPs, the set’s songs are not streaming quite as resoundingly – in fact, on the daily charts for both Spotify and Apple Music, the top two Future and Metro songs are currently “Like That” and “Type Shit,” both from their March release. Nonetheless, songs from Still are still scattered across both listings – led by the set’s pulsing neon title track, its leadoff cut – and with the whopping 25 tracks to rack up streams, it’s still in prime position to compete for the No. 1 spot on next week’s Billboard 200. (And with three different CD versions set for release this Friday – vinyl will follow in July – it may remain in the mix for the following week as well.)
Linkin Park, Papercuts (Warner/Machine Shop): It’s been a big year already for Linkin Park, with their new-old single “Friendly Fire” topping the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, and an upcoming biography on the band announced for October, written by Billboard’s own Jason Lipshutz. On Friday, they also released their first-ever hits compilation Papercuts, a 20-track set spanning the band’s 20-plus-year career — which still seems as relevant and vital as ever in 2024, even six years after the death of lead singer Chester Bennington.
In addition to signature smashes like “In the End,” “Numb” and “What I’ve Done,” Papercuts includes “Friendly Fire” (originally recorded for 2017’s One More Light), as well as last year’s rock radio-dominating “Lost” (originally recorded for 2003’s Meteora), and the limitedly available “QWERTY” (previously released on 2006’s fan club-only LP Underground 6.0 EP). While racking up the usual streams for these metal and alternative classics, the set is also expected to post strong sales, thanks to the availability of eight different-colored vinyl variants, including exclusives for Target, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and the band’s official store, as well as CD and cassette options.
Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget Me (Debay Sounds/Capitol): Five years after her debut album Heard It in a Past Life turned heads with its No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200 – eventually leading to a best new artist Grammy nomination for the Maryland singer-songwriter – Maggie Rogers appears to be bigger than ever. Her recently announced Don’t Forget Me tour for the spring and summer will feature her first-ever arena shows in its second leg, including dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.
Those shows will, of course, come in support of her third album of the same name: Don’t Forget Me was released last Friday, and has been met with some of her best reviews yet. The set is not expected to stream in blockbuster numbers, but should sell well, with five different vinyl variants – including exclusives for Spotify and indie retailers, and a signed edition sold through her webstore, as well as a CD (also available in a signed webstore edition) and a cassette option.
IN THE MIX
Chris Brown, 11:11 (RCA/CBE): Brown’s late 2023 set 11:11 was already packed to the gills, with its title referencing the number of tracks on each of the album’s two streaming-divided halves, including minor Hot 100 hits like “Sensational” and “Summer Too Hot.” But the set’s new deluxe edition adds a new third stretch with 13 new cuts, taking the total from 22 to 35, including new collabs from recognizable names like Bryson Tiller, Lil Wayne and (again) Davido. (Neither the original nor deluxe edition is yet available for what would surely be an unwieldy physical release.)
Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor/Interscope): Seems like Lana Del Rey will never run out of vinyl reissues of her acclaimed 2023 set, and in this case the timing makes particular sense: She offered a new “festival orange” pressing of Ocean Blvd to go with her Friday night headlining slot at weekend one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival over the weekend. The reissue should sell nicely, and the album will also be helped by the general boost in streaming her buzzy set has given her catalog for the days since – assisted by an appearance from fellow alt-pop superstar (and longtime LDR acolyte) Billie Eilish.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: The first weekend of Coachella spurs gains for a lot of the biggest and most ascendant names involved, while songs that soundtracked the biggest moments of Wrestlemania XL also see big bumps, a Cowboy Carter collaborator has his first solo breakout hit and more.
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New Peaks in the Coachella Valley: Streaming Bumps for Lana Del Rey, No Doubt, Sabrina Carpenter & More Weekend One Performers
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Coachella Season was once again upon us this past weekend, as hundreds of thousands of music fans flocked to the desert in Indio, Calif. to see many of the best and brightest performers in pop, rock, dance, hip-hop and more. While this year’s festival saw a little less hype (and was reported to have slower ticket sales) than some past incarnations, many of the key artists involved still saw big bumps in streaming consumption following their buzzed-about performances.
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Friday (Apr. 12) headliner Lana Del Rey saw a 36% rise in official on-demand U.S. streams over the following Saturday to Monday compared to that period from the previous week, climbing from 19.4 million streams to 26.4 million, according to Luminate. Breakthrough hit “Video Games” was one of her biggest beneficiaries, rising 70% to nearly 1.2 million streams, thanks to Del Rey bringing out fellow alt-pop superstar Billie Eilish for her Coachella performance of it — then returning the favor by dueting with Eilish on her own breakout single, “Ocean Eyes” (up 21% to 1.5 million). Saturday headliner Tyler, the Creator also saw a Sunday-to-Monday bump from the prior week, with his catalog increasing 20% to 13.5 million streams. (Sunday headliner Doja Cat was down overall in streams, due to her having released her Scarlet 2: Claude deluxe edition the week before.)
In addition to those headliner bumps, a number of the reunited ’90s rock acts on the undercard for Saturday also saw major gains. Of those, No Doubt easily saw the biggest, with their overall catalog leaping 85% (from 1.4 million to 2.6 million) over Sunday and Monday from the previous week — with their “Bathwater,” performed with a special cameo from pop-rock superstar Olivia Rodrigo, seeing a particularly notable spike (up 450% to 113,000 streams). No Doubt’s ’90s ska-punk peers Sublime, who assembled on Saturday with late original lead singer Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob taking vocal duties for the first time, also saw a more modest bump for their catalog over that period (up 19% to 4.6 million streams), as did Britpop greats Blur (up 27% to 770,000).
It wasn’t just the established veterans seeing the catalog spikes for the weekend, though. Still-rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter had one of the best-received sets on Friday, not only helping her just-released single “Espresso” score her best numbers for a new song to date (9.9 million streams between Apr. 12-15), but also offering a major bump for the rest of her catalog — which was up 41% from the previous week to 10.4 million streams over the three days following her set, not counting the “Espresso” numbers. Meanwhile, Chappell Roan‘s breakout spring just kept rolling, with her catalog streams rising 52% to 14.6 million over Saturday to Monday from the previous week, following her Friday performance. And Reneé Rapp‘s headline-capturing Sunday set also resulted in a 33% bump from the prior week for her catalogue that Monday, climbing to 1.4 million streams. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
WrestleMania XL Lights Up Tracks from The Weeknd and Nothing More
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As wrestling fans continue to bask in the glow of WrestleMania XL (April 6-7), so do songs featured prominently at the blockbuster event. Both The Weeknd’s “Gasoline” and Nothing More’s “If It Doesn’t Hurt” posted impressive streaming gains during WrestleMania week.
“Gasoline,” a single from the pop superstar’s 2022 Dawn FM album that peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, pulled over 560,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of April 5-11, according to Luminate. That marks a 72% increase from just over 320,000 streams during March 29-April 4. “Gasoline” marks the fifth consecutive Weeknd song to be selected as the WrestleMania theme. Past Weeknd selections include “Less Than Zero” (2023), “Sacrifice” (2022), “Save Your Tears” (2021) and “Blinding Lights” (2020).
At the top of the year (Jan. 19), Grammy-nominated hard rockers Nothing More launched “If It Doesn’t Hurt” as a standalone single. During the week of WrestleMania (April 5-11), where “Hurt” was used in a hype package video for the much-anticipated Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch match, the song collected over 580,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, posting a whopping 132% gain from around 253,000 streams the week prior.
According to Deadline, WrestleMania XL was Peacock’s most-streamed entertainment event ever, garnering jaw-dropping 1.3 billion live minutes across April 6 and 7. Clearly, some of those viewers made their way to favorite music streaming platforms after hearing those theme songs for two action-packed nights in a row. – KYLE DENIS
Shaboozey’s Boozy New Single Is Already a Breakout Hit
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Along with the multiple country legends who swung by or got shouted out on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s latest blockbuster also featured a handful of rising artists as collaborators, receiving the most coveted type of co-sign by popping up on a Queen Bey track list. Shaboozey arguably received the biggest showcase of any of the guest artists by appearing on two songs from the Billboard 200-topping set, as the rising country singer-songwriter swung by “Spaghettii” and “Sweet / Honey / Buckiin’” and quickly expanded his profile one decade into his recording career.
Not wanting to sacrifice any of the Cowboy Carter momentum, Shaboozey returned last Friday (Apr. 12) with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” a clap-along country anthem designed for bleary-eyed TouchTunes plays. The Beyoncé Bump helped the single score seven-figure streaming totals in its first four days of release, debuting with 1.63 million U.S. on-demand streams on Friday (according to Luminate), and racking up 5.66 million streams through Monday — along with nearly 6,000 in digital song sales, a tremendous number for a song by a newer artist over just for days.
Meanwhile, “Tipsy” — J-Kwon’s eternal 2004 hip-hop smash, which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 — was revived in “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” via interpolation, and is enjoying a slight streaming bump of its own following the Shaboozey single release. “Tipsy” earned 413,000 streams from Apr. 12-15, up 8% from the same four-day period during the previous week (383,000 streams from Apr. 5-8), as listeners likely played it one time, then ran it back from the two to the three to the four times. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
GloRilla Guns for Third Concurrent Hit With Fast-Rising Big Boogie Collab “Bop”
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Between “Yeah Glo!” and the Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “Wanna Be,” GloRilla has the first half of the year on lock. Now, with her catchy Big Boogie collaboration “Bop,” she’s looking to add another 2024 hit to her arsenal.
During the period of April 12-15, “Bop” earned slightly over one million official on-demand U.S. streams, ballooning 43% from just under 730,000 streams during April 5-8. The song’s growth has been spurred by a dance trend created by TikTok user @curvejso. The infectious choreography is set to the very end of GloRilla’s guest verse and the entirety of her hook.
Although the sound that played in the video that kickstarted the trend is no longer available, several “Bop” sounds have found traction on TikTok. A fan-uploaded snippet of the sound boasts over 16,000 posts on the platform, and another user-uploaded snippet (which soundtracks a different dance trend) plays in over 4,000 posts. Should the dance trend continue to turn into streaming gains, Big Boogie could be in for his very first Hot 100 entry with “Bop.” — KD
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard Hot 100 dated April 20), things get tight at the top for Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar, with lingering threats from Benson Boone and Hozier and a new direct response from J. Cole.
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Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar, “Like That” (Boominati/Freebandz/Republic/Epic): After spending its first two weeks at No. 1, the excitement has finally started to settle down a bit over Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar’s fiery hip-hop missive. The song is still a top performer, however, remaining in the top two on both Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart and the Apple Music real-time listings. And the song saw revived interest over the weekend in the headlines, at least, as rap superstar J. Cole memorably responded to the song’s apparent callout as part of his own Might Delete Later mixtape, before expressing his regrets over doing so during the headlining set at his Dreamville Festival that Sunday.
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“Like That” is also starting to be embraced by radio, as the song leaps 34-21 as the Greatest Gainer on this week’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart (up 77% in audience), according to Luminate, and is trending towards a debut on the all-format Radio Songs chart. The big question for “Like That” may be on how it is able to maintain its performance beyond next week, however, as the sequel to its We Don’t Trust You parent set – aptly titled We Still Don’t Trust You – is scheduled to drop this Friday from Future and Metro Boomin, with who knows what kind of additional surprises in store. Will “Like That” remain top of mind for streamers and radio programmers through that release, or will its heat be swiped by an even newer, more exciting single?
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Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (Night Street/Warner): Will it ever be Benson Boone’s turn at the top? “Beautiful Things” has been hanging around the Hot 100’s top tier for nearly a couple months now but has still yet to get past the runner-up spot – lingering at No. 3 this week behind “Like That” and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter-revived “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Next week could provide another real chance for the singer-songwriter, though, as “Things” should see a boost from Boone’s full-length debut Fireworks & Rollerblades, which of course features the breakout hit within its 15-song tracklist.
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In the meantime, “Beautiful Things” continues to grow at radio, as the song jumps 9-4 on Radio Songs, rising another 15% in all-format airplay audience this week. It’s currently the only song to rank in the top five of Radio Songs, Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs, so with the expected consumption lift from Fireworks (and the start of his accompanying headlining tour), it may be now or never for Boone’s breakout smash to finally grab the Hot 100’s top spot.
Hozier, “Too Sweet” (Rubyworks/Columbia): Few would’ve gone into 2024 expecting to involve Hozier in any discussions about the top of the Hot 100 – before last year’s comeback, he hadn’t even appeared on the chart since his No. 2-peaking “Take Me to Church” in 2015. But with 2023’s well-received Unreal Unearth and subsequent tour and an ever-growing TikTok presence, the Irish singer-songwriter is once again proving to be a real factor on the chart: He debuted three songs last week from the new Unheard EP, led by the No. 5-entering “Too Sweet.”
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“Sweet” climbs one spot to No. 4 this week, even outpacing any of the new debuts from Beyoncé’s blockbuster set Cowboy Carter. And there’s every indication that the song isn’t going to stop there: It’s climbed past “Like That” to the top of the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart, while also starting to find its footing on radio, trending towards debuts on the Adult Alternative Airplay, Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. If its trajectory continues, it might not be more than a week or two away from matching Hozier’s previous “Church” peak of No. 2 – if not even one-upping that enduring smash.
J. Cole, “7 Minute Drill” (Interscope/ICLG): While “Like That” has multiple challengers for Hot 100 supremacy next week, only one of them can claim to be a direct answer to it: J. Cole’s “7 Minute Drill” was written in response to Kendrick Lamar’s tough-talking verse on the No. 1 hit, with Cole taking aim at Lamar’s catalog spottiness and general lack of recent productivity. It didn’t quite detonate on impact the way “Like That” did, with many pundits taking issue with its more measured, perhaps less-committed tone, but it still shot up to near the top of the DSPs’ daily charts and remained the most-debated song on social media all weekend.
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Complicating the chances for “7 Minute Drill” to achieve maximum chart impact is Cole himself walking the song back a couple days later, apologizing at his Dreamville headlining set for letting himself be dragged into the muck of the beef and announcing his intention to remove the song from streaming services. As of Wednesday morning (April 10) “Drill” was still available for listening on DSPs, but Cole’s repudiation of a song that many fans were already somewhat conflicted about may have cost it any chance of being a real threat to “Like That” on the chart next week anyway.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated April 13), it’s pretty much all Cowboy Carter, as Beyoncé’s eighth official studio LP sets its six-shooter’s sights on the top of the charts.
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Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter (Parkwood/Columbia): Even in a first quarter that’s seen full-length releases from some pretty massive artists — including Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign, Ariana Grande and Future & Metro Boomin — Beyoncé albums remain a next-level event in the pop sphere. Cowboy Carter rode onto the scene last Friday (March 29) with more buzz and anticipation than any other LP of 2024 thus far, and the results have not disappointed: The album currently boasts a 92 score on review-aggregating website Metacritic, making it the second-best-reviewed set from any artist this year, and has also started receiving some serious Grammy buzz as the set to finally earn her long-overdue first album of the year trophy.
Unsurprisingly, the release is expected to make an eye-popping debut — helped by a number of physical versions of Cowboy Carter that Beyoncé is currently selling exclusively via her webstore. (Vinyl and CD are scheduled to go wide to all retail on April 12, which should give it a nice sales bump in its third chart week.) The set’s vinyl release includes four different-colored variants, each with a different back cover image of Beyoncé. The CD version includes an extra song, “Flamenco,” and is available in four variants (each also with a different Beyoncé back cover), while two of the CDs are exclusively available inside the boxed sets she’s selling — three versions of which are currently for sale, each with a T-shirt and a copy of the album on CD inside a branded box. And of course, there is a digital version for sale and streaming, which includes five tracks not featured on the physical release (“Flamenco,” “Spaghettii,” “The Linda Martell Show,” “Ya Ya” and “Oh Louisiana”).
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All of this should add up to a lofty sales total for Beyoncé, who has become a reliable performer in terms of physical sales, moving 190,000 such copies of Cowboy Carter’s 2022 predecessor Renaissance in its U.S. debut frame, according to Luminate. The new album is also streaming very well — at 27 tracks, it’s the longest album of Bey’s career to date, which will certainly help boost those totals — and Spotify even confirmed that it was the service’s most-streamed album in a single day of 2024 so far upon its release last Friday. That said, outside of previously-released lead single (and former Billboard Hot 100 No. 1) “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the album has no breakout hit yet on streaming akin to Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends” or Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” — as of Tuesday (April 2), the only new song from the set in Spotify’s Daily US Top Songs chart was the Miley Cyrus duet “II Most Wanted,” at No. 10. (Both “II Most Wanted” and Bey’s redo of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” were top 10 on Apple Music, at Nos. 10 and 8, respectively.)
Nonetheless, the high-volume combination of sales and streams should still result in a massive first week for Cowboy Carter — likely setting a new high-water mark for 2024 by passing Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You, which entered with 251,000 units on this week’s chart. It may also be in line to pass the 332,000 units Renaissance moved in its debut frame two years ago, becoming Beyoncé’s best-debuting album since her universally-beloved Lemonade bowed with 653,000 units back in 2016.
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J-Hope, Hope on the Street, Vol. 1 (BigHit Music/Geffen/ICLG): J-Hope‘s latest is the musical accompaniment to his new Amazon Prime docuseries of the same name, in which the BTS alum hits the streets to meet dancers around the world and reconnect with his dancing roots. The six-track set features guest appearances from his bandmate Jung Kook as well as club legend Nile Rodgers, and is available in eight collectible CD editions, including exclusives for Target, Walmart and the Weverse store, all boasting branded paper merchandise (like posters, photo cards and stickers).
mgk & Trippie Redd, Genre : Sadboy (10K Projects/EST 19XX/Interscope/ICLG): The artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly’s first full-length release since officially rebranding as mgk is a 10-track team-up with longtime collaborator Trippie Redd. The resulting set is closer to the former’s hip-hop roots than his last few pop-punk-oriented albums, one of which (2020’s Tickets to My Downfall) debuted atop the Billboard 200. Genre : Sadboy is not yet available for vinyl purchase, but can be bought on CD via mgk’s official website.
Aaron Lewis, The Hill (Valory/BMLG): Longtime Staind frontman Aaron Lewis has found success in the country world since making a career pivot over a decade ago, particularly with conservative-courting right-wing anthems like 2021’s surprise top 20 Hot 100 hit “Am I the Only One.” His latest country-leaning effort The Hill is a 10-track acoustic affair, and is available on both CD and clear vinyl.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Apr. 6), a big week of new releases is headlined by Future and Metro Boomin, who could break the mark for first-week units set by Ariana Grande just two weeks earlier.
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Future & Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You (Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic): It was always gonna be big-time when hip-hop superstars Future and Metro Boomin got together for their first collaborative album. Not only have they proven to be two of the most consistently successful figures in the last decade-plus of rap, but they have extensive history and chemistry with one another — down to Future providing Metro’s famous “If young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you” producer tag (via his appearance on Uncle Murda’s “Right Now”), which partly inspired the name of their recent team-up, We Don’t Trust You.
Now, the two hip-hop greats with 11 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 already between them are likely gonna be in line for their 12th. We Don’t Trust You immediately dominated the internet upon its release last Friday (March 22), with its entire tracklist swarming the top of the Spotify and Apple Music daily charts. Somewhat ironically, the thing the album is getting the most attention for has little to do with either Future or Metro, but rather the “Like That” guest verse from an arguably even bigger superstar in Kendrick Lamar – with its shots fired against Drake and J. Cole sending social media into an absolute tizzy, likely propelling the song to a No. 1 debut next week on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Its parent album also seems all but certain to grace the top of the charts. Trust has remained a blockbuster on streaming — as of Tuesday, Future and Metro still commanded four of the top 10 spots on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA, and nine of the top 10 on Apple Music’s real-time chart – likely helped by an initially hidden guest list, which prompted users to listen to the 17-track set in full to discover the features for themselves. Even without a physical release yet, its streaming and digital sales numbers should be robust enough for the set to challenge Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine mark (227,000) for the biggest first week yet of 2024 – though Future and Metro would still have to do better as a duo than either did with their own most recent solo sets, 2022’s I Never Liked You (222,000) and Heroes and Villains (185,000), respectively.
Shakira, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Sony Latin): Future and Metro are far from the only longtime hitmakers who released new sets on Friday: arguably the biggest global superstar from the last 30 years of Latin pop also made her return. Shakira’s 16-track new set Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran is essentially divided into two parts – half entirely new pop bangers, including the New Music Friday-leading Cardi B collab “Puntería,” and half singles Shak has already had success with over her highly productive past couple years, including 2023’s barnstorming Bizarrap team-up “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.”
That combination of explosive new bangers (also including guest appearances from the starry likes of Grupo Frontera, Rauw Alejandro and – again – Bizarrap) and established hits should result in a pretty formidable showing on streaming, though Shakira has nowhere near the established history there (especially in this country) as Future and Metro. She does have a physical presence, though, with Las Mujeres available for sale in four different vinyl editions (each with a different cover and different-colored LP), as well as four different CDs (also with different covers) and a standard digital release.
Kenny Chesney, Born (Blue Chair/Warner Nashville): Another decades-spanning star returns this week from the country world in Kenny Chesney with his 19th studio album (and first in four years), Born. The album doesn’t have the kind of advance radio hits Chesney might have landed in the past; only “Take Her Home” had been previously pulled from the set, and had peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s Country Airplay listing. But Chesney does have both standard and signed editions of Born for sale — as well as a “Tour Edition” of its digital release with three bonus live cuts, available for purchase to anyone who bought tickets to his upcoming summer trek or are members of his fan club – and he has the chart history of nine No. 1 albums, spanning from 2002’s No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem to Born’s predecessor, 2020’s Here and Now.
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Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (Geffen): While Olivia Rodrigo largely refused to play the reissue game with her game-changing debut album Sour, she’s diving into the deluxe editions with sophomore set Guts. Last Friday saw the release of Guts (Spilled), which tacked five stellar new cuts (previously each found on different specific vinyl variants of the album’s original release) onto the 12 of the chart-topping original LP – including the fan favorite “Obsessed,” which Rodrigo had been playing at stops on her current Guts World Tour. There’s no new physical drop for the deluxe set at the moment, but the resounding streaming and sales activity for the new cuts should help the album (which is still lingering in the Billboard 200’s top 20 a half-year after its initial release) rebound on the chart this week, possibly getting it back to the top 10 for the first time since early December.
Hozier, Unheard (Rubyworks/Columbia): About a half-year since his latest album Unreal Unearth debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier is back with a new EP of songs that just missed the cut for that set, Unheard. Though it’s only available on streaming and for digital sale at the moment, and only has four tracks to rack up consumption totals with, it should be in line for a sizeable debut – largely because one of those songs, the TikTok-teased “Too Sweet,” is off to a massive start on streaming, likely on pace to become the artist’s biggest Hot 100 hit since “Take Me to Church” reached No. 2 in 2015.
Tyla, Tyla (Fax/Epic): One of the most anticipated pop debuts of the year comes from South African crossover star Tyla, whose breakout smash “Water” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 2023. Her 14-track LP features both the original and remix versions of “Water,” as well as a decently wide array of big-name guest stars, including Travis Scott, Tems and Becky G, and is available for purchase in three vinyl editions — including two color variants, one with a signed insert.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Mar. 30), Kacey Musgraves and Justin Timberlake both have much-anticipated new albums – but will they be well-received enough to take down Ariana Grande’s 2024 pace-setting set?
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Ariana Grande, Eternal Sunshine (Republic): In its debut week, Ariana Grande’s seventh studio album moved an impressive 227,000 units in the U.S. March 8-14, according to Luminate. That’s not just up more than 50,000 units from Grande’s most recent first-week performance (for 2020’s Positions), but nearly 70,000 units higher than the previous best single-week performance of 2024 (the 149,000 posted by Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 in its first frame). Needless to say, it landed at No. 1 last week by a decisive margin, and may not be moved from the top spot all that easily in its second week.
In its second week, Eternal Sunshine will undoubtedly see a heavy drop-off in sales – it sold 77,000 copies in its first week – but its streaming activity should be considerable. As of Tuesday (Mar. 19), the album still had six songs in Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA’s top 40 and four in the Apple Music real-time top 40, led on both by “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love),” which bowed atop the Billboard Hot 100 and will remain one of the top-streamed songs in the country this week. It should be enough to ensure that a new album will need to post first-week units in the high five digits to unseat it at No. 1 next week.
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Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well (Interscope/MCA Nashville): Despite being one of the most acclaimed artists in country music for over a decade – and now an arena-touring, album of the year Grammy-winning crossover star as well – Kacey Musgraves has still yet to score a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. Each of her four non-holiday studio albums has reached the chart’s top five, with her 2013 debut set Same Trailer, Different Park even getting to the runner-up spot. But she’s never quite gotten over the top – with her most recent charting effort, 2021’s lukewarmly received Star-Crossed, only making it to No. 3.
Musgraves no doubt hopes that the fifth time is the charm with the release last Friday (Mar. 15) of her new set, Deeper Well, which pulls back a little on the multi-media (and multi-genre) ambitions of Star-Crossed for a lower-key, more gently introspective singer-songwriter vibe. The album should stream respectably – though not quite as well as Eternal Sunshine, even in that album’s second week – and should sell well, with nine vinyl variants of the LP currently available, including eight different-colored versions and exclusive variants for Target, Walmart, Spotify and Amazon, as well as four different CD versions, three different digital editions and a cassette.
Justin Timberlake, Everything I Thought It Was (RCA): Unlike Musgraves, Justin Timberlake has visited the Billboard 200’s top spot – four times in a row, in fact – most recently with 2018’s Man of the Woods. It’s been over 20 years since Timberlake released an album that didn’t reach No. 1: his 2002 solo debut set Justified, which got stuck at No. 2 behind the Eminem-led 8 Mile soundtrack. However, JT’s No. 1 streak is at risk of coming to an end with his latest LP, the Friday-released Everything I Thought It Was.
The album should sell fairly well, helped by four different vinyl LPs (including exclusives for Target, Amazon and his webstore) and three different CD box sets (each with a specific branded T-shirt) — as well as by a fairly successful lead single in the radio hit “Selfish,” which debuted at No. 19 on the Hot 100 and is still in the top 40 six weeks later. But the album’s streaming presence should be fairly minimal, even with an extensive 18-track runtime. Not one of the set’s cuts appeared in either the 200-spot Spotify Daily Top Songs USA or iTunes real-time charts in the day following its release – which may leave Timberlake looking up at Grande and Musgraves on the Billboard 200 next week.
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Bossman Dlow, Mr Beat the Road (Alamo/Sony Music): Bossman Dlow has become one of the breakout rappers of early 2024, largely thanks to his viral hit “Get in With Me,” which has crossed over from TikTok to the top half of the Hot 100. That song can be found on the rapper’s new 22-track set Mr Beat the Road, along with still-growing streaming fixtures “Mr. Pot Scraper” and “Piss Me Off,” though whether Bossman can carry over the level of interest in his hits to a full album remains to be seen.
Black Crowes, Happiness Bastards (Silver Arrow): The Brothers Robinson are back together again as co-pilots of Southern Rock staples the Black Crowes on new album Happiness Bastards, the duo’s first together in over a decade. It’s been three decades since the bros’ early-’90s commercial peak, but modern-day country gold-spinner Jay Joyce is behind the boards for the new set — which is available in three vinyl variants, as well as on standard and indie-exclusive CD.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated March 23), Ariana Grande’s first album since 2020 may end up having the biggest immediate impact of the still-early calendar year.
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Ariana Grande, Eternal Sunshine (Republic): For a minute there, it looked like Ariana Grande might get lost in the shuffle a little bit. Not that one of the biggest pop stars of the last decade was ever gonna get totally overshadowed, but between the time she announced the release of Eternal Sunshine and when the album actually dropped last Friday (March 8), a whole lot of stuff happened elsewhere in pop’s A list. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Ye all also announced new albums for February and March, and the latter two scored Hot 100-topping breakout hits from them – both of which were much bigger in the culture than Grande’s own No. 1 lead single “Yes, And?,” which fell out of the top 10 in just its third week and has yet to return to the region.
But Grande is more of a full-albums artist now – arguably has been since at least Sweetener in 2018 – and so far, it seems that the positive reception to Eternal Sunshine from fans and critics is helping the album get off to an impressive start. The album of course debuted with all of its tracks littering the real-time charts on Spotify and Apple Music, but more impressive than its first day is how well the set is still doing four days later, with six of its songs still in the top 15 on Spotify and three in Apple — led by second single “We Can’t Be Friends,” which has risen since its release and has been duking it out with Ye & Co’s “Carnival” for the top spot on both charts.
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Grande’s very busy and visible weekend – following several years of mostly being out of the spotlight — helped her get the word out about Eternal Sunshine (and “We Can’t Be Friends” in particular) in its first few days of release. On Friday, she released the video for “Friends,” which drew attention for its co-star Evan Peters and for its take on multiple scenes from the classic 2004 surrealist rom-com Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that the album gets its name from. Then on Saturday, she made her first appearance of the decade on Saturday Night Live, performing “Friends” and late-album highlight “Imperfect for You,” and also appearing in multiple sketches. Then on Sunday, she presented (alongside her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo) at the Oscars – not actively promoting her new set, but generally adding to the Weekend of Ariana with her presence on the weekend’s most-watched event.
Helping her first-week numbers even more than all the heavy cultural exposure should be the multiple variants in which the set is available for purchase. That includes six different vinyl LPs, five with alternate covers (including a Target-exclusive cover; the other four being exclusive to her webstore), as well as five different CDs, four with alternate covers, and one signed CD (all CDs being exclusive to her webstore). In addition, a “slightly deluxe” digital version of Sunshine dropped over the weekend with four additional tracks — all remixes and alternate versions of songs on the standard album, including the previously released Mariah Carey-featuring remix of “Yes, And?” and a version of “Supernatural” with her former “Dance to This” collaborator Troye Sivan.
As easily the biggest new release of the week, this should all be enough to secure Grande her sixth Billboard 200 No. 1 album in seven tries. (Dangerous Woman was her lone official LP to fall short, debuting at No. 2 behind Republic labelmate Drake’s Views in 2016.) Sunshine’s consistent performance on streaming throughout the week may also help nudge it past the 174,000 units that its predecessor, 2020’s Positions, posted in its first week, and will likely help it easily clear the 148,000 units moved by Ye & Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 in its February debut week, making it the best-performing album bow of the year thus far.
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Judas Priest, Invincible Shield (Columbia/Epic): The week’s biggest non-Grande debut may come from metal legends and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Judas Priest, who dropped the 19th album of their 50-plus-year career with Invincible Shield. The album will not likely have much of a presence on streaming, but should sell fairly well – helped by five vinyl variants, including an indie retailer exclusive red-color vinyl and an artist-webstore-only picture disc, as well as three CD editions, including exclusives for both Target and Amazon.
Norah Jones, Visions (Blue Note): Two decades ago, Norah Jones sold over a million copies in the first week of her sophomore album Feels Like Home, coming off the RIAA multi-platinum-certified success of her blockbuster Come Away With Me debut. Her commercial returns should be significantly more muted 20 years later for ninth album Visions, but the album has received strong reviews for its rawer, more rock-oriented sound, and is available for purchase in both three CD versions and four vinyl variants, including exclusives for indie retailers and for Barnes & Noble.
Bleachers, Bleachers (Bleachers Band Recording/Dirty Hit): Jack Antonoff has been a writer and producer on some of the biggest albums of the 2020s so far – particularly multiple from increasingly close artistic partner Taylor Swift – but has yet to see that type of crossover success translate to his own primary artistic project, Bleachers. He tries again this week with the self-titled Bleachers, the outfit’s first release since moving to U.K. indie label Dirty Hit (home of recent Antonoff collaborators The 1975) — which has at least seven different vinyl variants (in assorted colors, with alternative covers and four bonus tracks), as well as a signed CD, three CDs housed in deluxe packaging and a pair of deluxe CD boxed sets, both shaped like pizza boxes with a branded T-shirt inside.
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Mar. 9), a star K-pop group aims to end Kanye West’s & Ty Dolla $ign’s two-week Vultures 1 reign on the albums chart.
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TWICE, With You-th (JYP/Republic): They’ve been one of Korean pop’s biggest acts for over a half-decade now, with best-selling albums in their home country, worldwide arena and stadium tours, and even a couple entries on the Billboard Hot 100. But nine-piece girl group TWICE has yet to secure a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200: They’ve reached the top three with each of their last three efforts, but have still not gotten any higher than No. 2, achieved last March with Ready to Be (held off from the apex by Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster One Thing at a Time set in its second week).
Next week, the runway may be clear for the nonet to finally take off to the spot. TWICE is the biggest-name contemporary outfit to release a new set last Friday (Feb. 23) — the EP With You-th — and with Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures fading in its third week, the bar for No. 1 should not be an unusually high one for the group to need to clear.
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With You-th‘s sales should be considerable, thanks in part to its availability in 14 different CD variants (including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the act’s webstore, all with branded paper merch inside the packages as well as randomized merch), as well as three additional vinyl variants (all picture discs, one being a Target exclusive). Streaming numbers may not be quite as robust for the set, given its six-track length, but in a slower release week it may not need much activity there to secure the top debut.
French Montana, Mac & Cheese 5 (Coke Boys/gamma): It’s been a little while since French Montana was one of the biggest names in mainstream rap – his only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 so far this decade came alongside Diddy, The Weeknd and 21 Savage on the No. 87-peaking “Another One of Me.” But he remains an industry fixture, as evidenced by the guest list on his new mixtape Mac & Cheese 5, which includes appearances from such A-list names as Rick Ross, Lil Baby, Lil Durk and even a pair of appearances from current Billboard 200-topper Kanye West.
He may provide some competition for his chart-topping collaborator on the 200 this week. Mac & Cheese 5 may not be a major streamer – the set will be helped by its features and its length (21 tracks in its standard edition, 22 in its deluxe, and a staggering 126-track Versions edition with clean, explicit, a cappella, instrumental, sped-up and slowed-down versions of each track), but it has yet to produce a real runaway hit there. It should sell pretty well, however — given its availability in three different CD and vinyl variants (all discounted to $5), as well as three signed-CD variants for $10 each, all for sale exclusively via Montana’s Coke Boys webstore.
Le Sserafim, Easy (Source/YG Plus/Geffen): TWICE aren’t the only major Korean girl group to have a new EP out this week: Hitmakers Le Sserafim are also back on the scene with their new five-track set Easy. Their set also should post good sales, boosted by a number of available variants – 14 CD versions, including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart, all with branded paper merch inside the packages as well as randomized merch. The quintet may also have something of a breakout hit from the set in its title track, which debuts at No. 73 on the Global 200 this week, and is still hanging around the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA chart.
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Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (Geffen): Olivia Rodrigo’s acclaimed sophomore effort – our staff’s No. 1 album of 2023 — already topped the Billboard 200 for a week last September, and has lingered not too far from the top ever since, landing at No. 23 on this week’s listing. It may get a good bump next week, thanks to the start of her Guts World Tour, which kicked off in southern California over the weekend and continues through Texas this week – not only electrifying fans in those locations, but also tantalizing potential attendees from all over the country, who have been devouring clips of Rodrigo’s first-ever arena headlining dates on social media.
Ace Frehley, 10,000 Volts (MNRK): The Spaceman is back. Guitar legend Ace Frehley did not appear with KISS on their End of the Road World Tour – supposedly the group’s final-ever live trek, ending in December 2023 – but he returns this week with his first album of originals since 2018. The 11-track set, released amidst back-and-forth swiping between Frehley and his former bandmates, is available in at least 11 vinyl variants, as well as a standard CD digipack and jewel case, and a Walmart exclusive with a lenticular cover.
