28 Oct 2022

Disturbed’s Dan Donegan: Upcoming Album ‘Divisive’ a ‘Bit of a Wake-up Call [to] Reflect on How Crazy We’re All Acting’

Disturbed’s forthcoming album, Divisive, has been four years in the making. The last time the band had this long of a gap between studio releases was during its early-2010s hiatus that lasted nearly as long. But these have been surreal times, with the coronavirus pandemic delaying albums and tours, and putting people a different head space. For many, lockdown inspired musical creations, but for others, it instigated a change that wasn’t for the better.

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Divisive takes on the country’s fraying society where political friction, social media sparring and, as frontman David Draiman calls it, “outrage addiction” has turned Americans against one another.

Headbanging songs like “Hey You,” “Love To Hate” and the title track (the video for which drops Oct. 28) tackle the tumultuous times. Even a ballad with Heart’s Ann Wilson, “Don’t Tell Me,” is about a disintegrating relationship where each party struggles with letting go.

The metal quartet had little problem with changing-up its recording situation. It worked with producer Drew Fulk (Motionless in White, Ice Nine Kills) for the first time, and it nested into Nashville for recording sessions rather than Las Vegas or Chicago as it had done in the past. Guitarist Dan Donegan notes that half of the music that he wrote came about in the studio due to the strong chemistry he had with Fulk. And for Disturbed’s 2023 world tour, he and his bandmates are considering switching things up in the setlist to keep things fresh and give fans a wider variety of tunes while hopefully digging into deeper cuts.

The Chicago band has no shortage of proven hits to choose from. Since debuting with 2000 single “Stupified,” Disturbed has scored 24 top 10s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay list. Eleven of them hit No. 1 (including “Hey You,” for three weeks), and four of those chart-toppers remained entrenched for months, like 2008’s 14-week champion “Inside the Fire” and 2016’s epic revamp of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” that reigned for seven. The group’s crossover appeal is evident in its also impressive Billboard 200 stats: Half of its 10 entries have ruled the chart and were RIAA-certified at least platinum. 2000’s No. 29-peaking The Sickness accounts for at least 5 million of the 17.1 million equivalent album units the band has earned, according to Luminate. Disturbed has also sold 15.6 million digital songs and logged 362.2 million on-demand streams.

Donegan sat down for a Zoom with Billboard to talk about the creation of Divisive, his personal connection to “Don’t Tell Me” and what it was like recording with legendary vocalist Wilson.

Billboard: Disturbed has broached similar themes in its music before, but they’re really relevant now. Society is at a point where it’s so split that it has to start finding ways to reunite. Even in the ballad with Ann Wilson, it’s there — the idea that this couple has serious issues, yet they can’t imagine being apart.

Dan Donegan: Exactly. That was a really personal one for me. During COVID-19, I was going through a divorce after 18 years of marriage. Part of that divorce process is that there was still a great deal of love we have for each other, and we couldn’t imagine our lives without each other. Just that letting go, letting somebody go that you still love, but maybe the marriage just might not be working anymore . . . It was touching on that. It was just very personal.

Did you write the lyrics for that?

The concept, basically. Some of the lyrics I worked on with David. I threw a few lines at him, and he took the ball and ran with it.

There is the patented Disturbed sound, and you occasionally throw in surprises like an unusual cover or the 2018 semi-acoustic Evolution album. What’s the challenge to keeping things fresh?

I’m always just trying to push. I never really second guess what we do or why we do it. Or try to chase something — what is it that the label wants, the fans want or radio wants. When we started this band, it was all about being in a room together and trying to have that therapy session together and trying to inspire each other. The only thing I concern myself with is trying to be creative enough to continue to inspire the guys that I’m writing with. And I just trust my gut. I just feel whatever that emotion is, wherever I’m going with it musically. I try to study a lot of other bands and producers, and try to get a feel for new ideas and something that might be inspiring to me. Then we push it. Even with the previous album, Evolution, that was such a departure from what people are used to . . .

Which is good.

It is good, and just no apologies for anything we do. I don’t care. I do it for me, I do it for us. There’s going to be people that love it, people that hate it, and you’re never going to satisfy everybody, but I’m satisfying myself with it. It’s the music that we write, and it’s a way to express ourselves.

I think after all these years of being together it’s always fun to push each other and challenge each other and show that we’re not this one-dimensional band, that we can throw an occasional curveball at you. We’re going to experiment; we’re going to try things just like we did with “The Sound of Silence” and with the acoustic stuff we did on half of the last album. It is always fun to challenge ourselves, even when we do cover songs like “The Sound of Silence” or “Land of Confusion” or “Shout” . . .

Or the Sting cover, “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” which you released in 2020.

Yeah, the Sting song. I love doing those songs because it’s so challenging to take a great classic song and put our stamp on it. [To] try to walk that fine line of paying our respect to the original artist in what they did, but to give our interpretation of it so it still sounds like a Disturbed song. It’s finding that balance of keeping the hook of the melody or lyric within there, but still add that stamp.

The most important things I look for is, lyrically, the message first — is it something that we would say? Is it something we feel resonates with us? And then, musically, is it something that I could take and I’m not going to be crucified if I change it too much? I can’t imagine doing “Stairway to Heaven” and changing the guitar part. It’s too signature. But with “The Sound of Silence,” with all due respect [to] the folky guitar part, I thought I could take the ball and run with it and try different things and not be married to trying to replicate that guitar part. I didn’t think it was a signature enough of a part that it had to stay. That came to the question of, “Where do we go with it?” I just pushed the guys and said, “You know what? I think most people are going to think we’re going to go the opposite way with it and go heavy with it. Let’s go slower with it . . . Not real slow, but let’s make it moreso haunting, more of the darker Disturbed thing. We can make it a little bit more haunting and bring [in] the orchestra and the piano and David’s delivery.” It was definitely an experimental thing, but clearly, we found something that connected and worked. [The song was nominated for a best rock performance Grammy.]

Was “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” recorded before the pandemic?

We recorded it during the same session as Evolution. I suggested that song because I always loved it. I love Sting, and lyrically is what did it for me. It’s just funny how those lyrics really rang true once the pandemic hit. Even though we were a year ahead of it, the line about the politicians and how it’s all become a game show on TV — they’re all kind of clowns. No matter what side of the fence you’re on, we don’t have to turn it into a political debate. But it’s just become a circus.

Some of those lines stuck with me, and I thought it would be good timing to do our interpretation of the song. Some of those other lines seemed to come through once the pandemic hit. There’s a line in there about questioning science and questioning your faith. A lot of people questioned that when this pandemic happened.

For a few moments at the start of the Sting cover, I thought it was a Seal tune. Now I’m thinking the band could do a rocked-up cover of Seal’s “Crazy.” 

Yeah, I love that song. It’s definitely been on my mind. It’s such a great song, and I was always a big fan of Seal’s voice.

“If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” ties into the thematic arc on this new album. On “Love To Hate,” David sings about getting engaged in a war that can’t be won. Have you seen that with people whom you know, that vitriol and intensity?

Even with “Hey You,” the first single off this album, it’s a little bit of a wake-up call for us to step back and reflect on how crazy we’re all acting. Especially throughout social media and just even among friends and families and watching strangers go at it. It’s not even debating anymore. It’s just attacking. Debating is a good thing. It opens our minds to educate each other on whatever our views are, but it’s not even a debate anymore. It’s just like, “If you don’t believe in what I believe, then I hate you and we have to cancel you.” It’s the back-and-forth hatred, and now it’s just crazy. I’ve seen friendships falling apart. I’ve seen some family members that are losing their minds over it.

The positions on Divisive are generally centrist.

Right. We’re not here to try to force whatever our opinion or our views are, we don’t have to shove that in people’s faces or down their throats. So if it’s a little cryptic or it’s a little middle of the road, let [the fans interpret] it the way they choose to. Like I said, we walked a bit of a fine line of not having to force our views because it’s not like within the band we agree on everything all the time. Or in a marriage or anything — you’re going to have different opinions and different views on things. That’s OK, there’s nothing wrong with that. You can still be friends and bandmates and fans and still have that connection. But nobody’s being over the top, shoving our views, saying, “This is the way it is.” There’s no agenda behind it.

You flew out to San Francisco to record Ann Wilson’s part. What was that like?

As [the song] was coming together, I knew David had talked to Ann Wilson a couple of times through social media. They became somewhat friends over the past couple of years. He’s like, “These parts sound like we could maybe have somebody on this and do it more of a duet.” Obviously, she was the first person that came to mind. She’s a legend, one of the best female vocalists and rock vocalists around. He reached out to her, and she said yes almost instantly . . .

Once she agreed that she would sing on it, we wanted to make it as easy on her as possible because we didn’t know her schedule. She was out in California, and [David, Drew and I] flew out to San Francisco. We found a small studio more inland like Walnut Creek or somewhere in Oakland. She came in and was so professional and just killed it. She did whatever we asked of her, and her and David worked on the harmonies together. I’m sitting there on the couch just listening to two of my favorite singers harmonize and work this out. She was willing to do anything that was suggested to her, so she was taking direction from Drew as well. And she did her thing to it, too. We wanted to give her that freedom to do what she does. She gave us a bunch of takes and left it at that, and it was amazing.

28 Oct 2022

Executive Turntable: Warner Records Appoints Marketing SVP; iHeartRadio Vet Adds Digital Music to Prez Purview

Shawnae Corbett-Rice was promoted to senior vp of marketing at Warner Records. Based in Los Angeles, she will continue to oversee marketing campaigns focused on artist development. She reports to executive vp of marketing & artist development Dionnee Harper.

Jon Zellner was named president of programming operations and digital music for iHeartRadio, effective immediately. Zellner was previously president of programming operations. In the new role, Zellner will manage the programming, content and strategy for iHeartRadio’s digital channels and playlists while continuing to oversee iHeartMedia’s programming operations. In addition to running programming and strategy for the iHeartMedia custom and format center stations, he will continue to lead the company’s commercial production center, national imaging center, audio distribution center, on-air partner and client integration and the technical and broadcast operations teams.

Artist Partner Group (APG) promoted Brett Copell to senior vp of legal & business affairs and Alexis Warner to marketing director. The company also hired Sebastien Christie as senior director of A&R administration and Jesse Wylde as senior director of artist & business development. Copell will continue to act as lead attorney for both APG and its publishing arm, Artist Publishing Group. He will oversee legal and administration departments at both companies and focus on new business opportunities for APG at large, while Warner will continue spearheading marketing campaigns for APG artists. Christie, who previously operated his own music consultancy company, will focus on prepping releases by clearing samples, producer agreements and more. Wylde, who joins from Web3 startup Rally.io, will help develop the careers of APG artists and songwriters, focusing on promo, touring and business strategy/partnerships.

The Harlem Festival of Culture (HFC), launched in April 2022 as a reimagining of the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, appointed Fugees co-founder and solo artist Wyclef Jean as chair of the music advisory board for the organization. Jean will advise executive leadership and help engage the artist community to drum up support around the festival.

Big Loud Records hired Nate Yetton as vp of A&R, effective immediately. Yetoon will spearhead the discovery and signing of talent in alternative genres including Americana, indie, folk, acoustic, singer/songwriter/roots, alt-country and more in collaboration with existing Big Loud Records and Big Loud Publishing A&R teams. He can be reached at nate@bigloud.com.

BBR Music Group hired Allan Geiger as director of content creation and Taylor Scheese as manager of partnerships. The company also promoted Kennedy Nickerson to senior coordinator of A&R. Geiger, who joins from his creative agency Artistnoize, will handle the creation of creative assets and graphic design for the label group’s artist roster while reporting to vp of creative & imaging Jen Morgan. Scheese, who joins from Thinkswell, will work on driving brand partnership deals for BMG’s recorded label and publishing roster, with a focus on BBR Music Group’s artist roster, while reporting to director of brand partnerships Daron Moore. Nickerson, who has moved from BMG’s publishing arm where she served as income tracking coordinator, will report to vp of A&R Katie Kerkhover. Geiger can be reached at allan@bbrmusicgroup.com, Scheese can be reached at taylor.scheese@bmg.com and Nickerson can be reached at kennedy.nickerson@bmg.com.

Chris Taillie was promoted to vp at Shore Fire Media; he was previously publicity director. The New York-based Taillie’s music clients include Angélique Kidjo, Cyndi Lauper, Esperanza Spalding, Floating Points, Jacob Collier and Rhiannon Giddens. Taillie can be reached at ctaillie@shorefire.com.

The Chamber Group promoted Shannon Atran to associate director of public relations and hired Edwin Tetteh as public relations manager. The New York-based Atran will serve as the company’s independent public relations executive, responsible for developing, executing and overseeing PR campaigns for clients including Big Sean, T.I., Lil Wayne, Pusha T and more. Tetteh will collaborate with internal and external partners in developing and implementing PR strategies on behalf of his client roster, which includes Jon Batiste and Mariah Carey. He joins from the Lede Company. Atran can be reached at shannon@thechambergroup.com and Tetteh can be reached at Edwin@thechambergroup.com.

Elijah B Torn was named head of creative production at Found Objects, the original music and sound collective founded by film and TV composers Jay Wadley and Trevor Gureckis. Torn, who was previously global creative director at MassiveMusic New York, will oversee the creative and production team.

28 Oct 2022

Quentin Tarantino Says There’s ‘No Truth’ To Kanye West’s Claim That ‘Django Unchained’ Was His Idea

Quentin Tarantino loves a good tall tale. But on Thursday night (Oct. 28) QT went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to pour water on a recent stem-winder that Kanye West told in which the embattle rapper (now known as Ye) claimed that he originally conceived the idea for Q’s 2012 historical revamp tribute to Spaghetti westerns Django Unchained.

After West said in a recent interview that he pitched a similar concept to Tarantino while working up the treatment for the video for his 2005 hit “Gold Digger” — which features Jamie Foxx, later the star of Django — Tarantino told Kimmel that’s not exactly how it went down.

“There’s not truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea of Django and then he told that to me, and I go, ‘Hey, wow, that’s a really great idea! Let me take Kanye’s idea and make Django Unchained out of it.’ That didn’t happen,” said Tarantino of the 2009 Ye video that feature the rapper and Foxx frolicking with scantily clad models.

“I’d had the idea for Django for a while before I ever met Kanye,” Tarantino continued. “He wanted to do a giant movie version of [his 2004 debut album] College Dropout the way he did the album – so he wanted to get big directors to do different tracks from the album and then release it as this giant movie – not videos, nothing as crass as videos, it was movies, movies based on each of the different tracks.”

That story differs significantly from the one West told British talker Piers Morgan in a recent interview. “Tarantino can write a movie about slavery, where actually — him and Jamie [Foxx] — they got the idea from me, because the idea for Django I pitched to Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarantino as the video for ‘Gold Digger.’ And then Tarantino turned it into a film,” Ye said during the interview, in which he also continued to lean into his recent string of antisemitic comments that have caused his once sprawling business and music empire to crumble.

The Hype Williams-directed “Gold Digger” video consists almost entirely of West rapping the song in a raspberry-hued void while Foxx croons the refrain and buxom, lingerie-clad models dance with the men at a nightclub and pose for magazine covers. Tarantino’s controversial Oscar-winning film tells the story of a freed slave named Django (Foxx) who embarks on a killing spree across the South with a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) as they search of Django’s wife (Kerry Washington); there does not appear to be any obvious narrative correlation between the “Gold Digger” video and Tarantino’s film.

Which is exactly what QT told Kimmel, though he did reveal that he did have a meeting with Ye that didn’t amount to anything.

“We used it as an excuse to meet each other and and so we met each other we had a really good time. And he did have an idea for a video,” Tarantino said, adding that the kernel could have turned into something. “I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video, that he would be a slave. And the whole thing was the slave narrative where he’s a slave and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger.’ And it was very funny. It was a really, really funny idea.”

When Kimmel quipped that it sounds like it could have been a “funny slave video,” Tarantino responded, “It was meant to be ironic. And it’s like a huge musical. I mean, like no expenses spared with him in this slave rag outfit doing everything. And then that was also part of the part of the pushback on it. But I wish he had done it. It sounded really cool. Anyway, that’s what he’s referring to.”

Watch Tarantino on Kimmel below.

28 Oct 2022

Katy Perry Makes Weirdest Pitch For Las Vegas Residency: ‘Come See My Broken Doll Eye Party Trick’

Katy Perry has proven time and again that she gets the joke. Even when the punchline is seemingly out of her control and involves some pretty out-there conspiracy theories. Take, for instance, the weird moment at her Las Vegas Play residency this week when her eye started twitching so much she had to take a second to re-set her lid in the middle of the show. Decked out in a soda can dress, Perry seemed to struggle to open her right eyelid, so she blinked her left one in an effort to jump-start the stuck lid.

Of course the bizarre moment was caught on video and promptly went viral in a TikTok fan clip in which Perry calmly tries to manually re-open the stuck peeper while urging the crowd to “make more noise” for her band. Cue the rush of weird theories about what was “really” happening, including suggestion that she’d suffered a “mechanical failure” and had been replaced by a Katybot . She gets it, so on Thursday (Oct. 27) Perry re-posted the video and turned it into a wink-wink joke.

“Welcoming all my #flatearthers #spaceisfakers #birdsarentrealers #skyisntbluers to come see my broken doll eye party trick IRL in Vegas next year!,” she wrote, along with the message “POV: when you see new 2023 PLAY dates.” Katy just announced new dates for a 2023 run of the residency, telling any Katy Kats who haven’t woken up in Vegas what they can expect.

“The show’s set list is a fun through memory lane going all the way back to 2008, a time when we weren’t all frozen by the paranoia of our own echo chambers! This show is a nonstop party about finding unconditional love and strangely (for me) not political at all,” she wrote. “Heck I pour beer out of my t–s (that’s a party trick too… I don’t actually lactate hops silly goose!) Hope to sing along with you in 2023! And we’ll drink, this one’s on me, cause we’re all #chainedtothealgorithm.”

Perry just announced a string of news dates for her Resorts World Las Vegas residency from Feb. through April of next year.

Check out Perry’s tweet below.

28 Oct 2022

Elon Musk Takes Control of Twitter — What’s Next?

Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The question now is what the billionaire Tesla CEO will actually do with the social media platform.

Musk ousted three top Twitter executives on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the deal who said he was in charge. Such a shakeup was widely expected, but Musk has otherwise made contradictory statements about his vision for the company — and shared few concrete plans for how he will run it.

The people wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal had closed. A Delaware judge had ordered that the deal be finalized by Friday.

Late Thursday, Musk tweeted, “the bird has been freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo.

Twitter’s users, advertisers and employees are parsing Musk’s every move in an effort to guess where he might take the company — but the mercurial tech executive has not made the job easy.

He has criticized Twitter’s dependence on advertisers, but made a statement Thursday that seemed aimed at soothing their fears. He has complained about restrictions on speech on the platform — but then vowed he wouldn’t let it become a “hellscape.” And for months it wasn’t even clear if he wanted to control the company at all.

After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition.

Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. The New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk.

Musk has been signaling more recently that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit,” and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

The people familiar with the deal said Musk has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Both people insisted on anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deal.

Musk privately clashed with Agrawal in April, immediately before deciding to make a bid for the company, according to text messages later revealed in court filings.

Around the same time, he publicly criticized Gadde, the company’s top lawyer, in a series of tweets. A wave of harassment of Gadde from other Twitter accounts followed, including racist and misogynistic attacks, in addition to calls for Musk to get rid of her. After she was fired, the harassment on the platform began again.

In his first big move earlier on Thursday, Musk said that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”

The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.

He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”

The note is a shift from Musk’s position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.

“You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.

As concerns rise about the direction of Twitter’s content moderation, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted to Musk on Friday that “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.”

Breton and Musk met in May and appeared in a video together in which Musk said he agreed with the 27-nation bloc’s strict new online regulations. Its Digital Services Act threatens big tech companies with billions in fines if they don’t police their platforms more strictly for illegal or harmful content such as hate speech and disinformation.

Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. There is internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company’s culture and operations.

The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation.

Musk has spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes conflicting pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them.

Thursday’s note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information.

Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said.

28 Oct 2022

Simon Le Bon Talks ‘A Hollywood High’ And Duran Duran’s Resilience: ‘We Haven’t Gone Away’

Forty years ago, Duran Duran was the hottest band on the planet. Fast forward to now, well, they’re still pretty hot.

Over a 12-month stretch, the British new wave legends dropped a 15th studio album, Future Past, which debuted at No. 3 on the Official U.K. Chart; they performed at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in the band’s birthplace, Birmingham, England; and headlined an open-air show at London’s Hyde Park, with 70,000 fans looking on. Add to that, induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame next month (the band was the top vote-getter from the public), and the upcoming release of a concert film entitled A Hollywood High, it’s been all-sizzle for the lads.

Earlier this week, frontman Simon Le Bon stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live for a look to the future, the past, and a proper rockstar reception.

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When the screams and hollering from the live audience died down, Le Bon admitted that the band was deceptively resilient. “It’s the 20th comeback, I think,” he says. “There’s so many comebacks, we haven’t gone away.”

That trip down memory lane included a revisit to the historic all-star Band-Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (it was the first time he had met Bono and The Edge), and the Live Aid concerts that followed in July 1985. Kimmel, like many of us, taped the entire event, spread over concerts in London and Philadelphia, on VHS.

“It was mind-boggling,” Le Bon recounts of the concerts, spearheaded by Bob Geldof to raise money for famine relief in Africa. His hot take was of Stephen Stills, of Crosby, Stills, and Young, telling Duran Duran, who were prepping backstage, to “shut the f*** up.”

Le Bon typically doesn’t discuss the lyrics to those ‘80s mega-hits. Fallon went there, unpicking “Hungry Like The Wolf” and “The Reflex.”

Later, the Brit took his place at the mic with Duran Duran for a performance of “Invisible,” the first track lifted from 2021’s Future Past.

A Hollywood High is due out on Nov. 3, and will include exclusive interviews and archival footage in which the pop-rock legends dissect their decades long obsession with the City of Angels.

They’re set for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nov. 5 as part of the class of 2022, which also includes Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.

28 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Dominates Australia’s Charts With ‘Midnights’

Taylor Swift is the queen of Australia’s music charts, as Midnights (via Universal) darts to No. 1 with the biggest volume week of any album in five years.

Midnights bows atop the latest ARIA Chart, with more combined sales than any title since Swift released Reputation, also No. 1 back in 2017. It’s her 10th No. 1 ARIA Album.

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With Midnights setting the albums chart alight, records tumble. Swift enjoys a record-setting haul on the national singles survey, capturing nine of the top 10 positions, led by “Anti-Hero” at No. 1, with “Lavender Haze” and “Snow On The Beach,” featuring Lana Del Rey, respectively completing the top 3.

According to Universal Music Australia, Midnights is the most-streamed album in a week in ARIA history, and the biggest-ever vinyl sales debut, shifting over 10,000 vinyl units in week one.

The song that ruins TayTay’s chance at a top 10 sweep is Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ former leader “Unholy” (Capitol/Universal), which dips 1-7 on the ARIA Singles Chart. With the exception of Smith and Petras’ collaboration, Swift locks down every ARIA chart position from No. 1 through to No. 14. Remarkably, she’s in possession of the only debuts on the latest singles frame — 13 of them.

“Anti-Hero” is Swift’s ninth No. 1 ARIA Single, and fourth in the past two years, most recently with “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021.

The U.S. pop star is shortlisted for the fan-voted best international artist category at the 2022 ARIA Awards, having won the pointed trophy in 2019 and 2021.

Parking at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart, published Oct. 28, is Arctic Monkeys’ The Car (Domino Recordings/EMI). Though the Sheffield, England alternative rock band misses out on the crown, Alex Turner and Co. keep alive a streak that has seen all seven studio albums placed in the top 5, with three reaching the zenith.

Meanwhile, Australia’s pop royalty Kylie Minogue returns to the chart with Impossible Princess, which enjoys the reissue treatment for its 25th anniversary through Warner Music. Impossible Princess drops in at No. 3.

The top five is completed by two new classical crossover albums, Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas (Decca/Universal), and Anthony Callea’s Forty Love (BMG), respectively.

Also new to the top 10 this week is Architects‘ tenth album Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit (Epitaph Record/RKT), at No. 8. The British metalcore band will support the album in these parts with a national tour in February 2023.

28 Oct 2022

First Stream: New Music From Rihanna, SZA, Jin & More

Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

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This week, Rihanna returns from a far-too-long absence, SZA tries out the full-length version of a long-teased fan favorite, Ice Spice goes under the sea and more. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:

Rihanna, “Lift Me Up”

Rihanna’s much-anticipated return to music comes not with the kind of door-kicking, floor-filling lead single we once expected from her on a yearly basis, but rather with a lush, percussion-less ballad of domestic bliss. Co-written with producer Ludwig Göransson, Afrobeats sensation Tems and film director Ryan Coogler and featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, the stirring song showcases Rihanna’s still-improving vocals as she sings of the security she seeks in her partner and her life: “Lift me up/ Hold me down/ Keep me close/ Safe and sound.” A simple and touching love song, also written in part as a tribute to the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman.

SZA, “Shirt”

It’s not quite as long-awaited as Rihanna’s comeback, but SZA fans have been waiting for the full version of “Shirt” since she first teased it on TikTok in 2020, spawning a dance challenge in the process. Safe to say the full version of the song fits just right, with the singer-songwriter’s typically scattered and piercing vocals racing over a booming beat, leading to an already trademark chorus: “Blood stain on my shirt/ New b–ch on my nerves.” If the song sounds like something that could’ve played on BET’s Planet Groove in 1999, there’s a reason for that: Turn-of-the-century R&B architect Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins co-produced and co-wrote the track, along with SZA and “Freaky” Rob Gueringer.

Jin, “The Astronaut”

Coldplay’s first blast off into the BTSverse went pretty well — the two groups’ “My Universe” collab debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the former group’s first time topping the chart since 2008 — so it’s not surprise to hear Chris Martin & Co. called on again for co-writing duties on Jin’s solo single “The Astronaut.” The bilingual love song provides the kind of sparkling pop-rock maximalism we’ve come to expect from the two groups, with Jin’s plaintive vocal perfectly selling the chorus sentiment (“When I’m with you/ There is no one else/ I get heaven to myself”) — with Martin’s own backing cries of course providing valuable assistance underneath.

Polo G, “Bag Talk”

After proving near-ubiquitous in popular music from 2019 to 2021, Polo G has had a more laid-back 2022, with just a couple features and a one-off single (“Distraction”) to his credit so far this year. “Bag Talk” suggests the break might coming to an end: Co-produced by heavy-hitters TM88 and Southside, Polo brings the urgency to the widescreen production, promising “You could pick any location in the city I’m good, b–ch/ Everywhere I go, I’m stamped… I need evеry dime, I stay on my grind/ Like Tony Hawk up that ramp.”

Dove Cameron, “Bad Idea”

Following in the mode of prior releases “Boyfriend” and “Breakfast,” “Bad Idea” is Dove Cameron’s third badass “B” single of 2022, another sultry and alluring pop offering performed with an audibly devilish grin. This time, Cameron also takes cues from another “Bad” singer: With its alternately jaunty and eerie production, darkly pulsing beat and whisper-cooed vocals (with occasional dips into sing-speaking), the song could’ve slotted rather naturally into the middle third of Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Ice Spice, “Bikini Bottom”

Everyone’s favorite viral Bronx hip-hop sensation — and Billboard‘s own R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month for October — is back with a new single, and it might be her most irresistible yet. Ice Spice hopscotches through a skittering beat and a particularly springy RIOTUSA production in “Bikini Bottom,” spitting, “How can I lose if I’m already chose?/ Like, If she feelin’ hot then I make that b–ch froze.” Running a very replayable 1:46, you can bet that the staff at the Krusty Krab is getting down to this one at any opportunity.

28 Oct 2022

BTS’ Jin Drops Emotional Solo Single ’The Astronaut’: Watch the Heartwarming Music Video

Jin‘s highly anticipated solo single “The Astronaut” has finally landed.

The BTS superstar revealed the stunning, nearly five-minute rock–pop track on Friday (Oct. 28), worldwide alongside its heartwarming music video.

While BTS had previously revealed that “The Astronaut” was co-written by Jin and Coldplay, the entire song reveals the stadium-sized rock sound that the British band is known for as a perfect bed for Jin’s steady, soothing vocals.

While Jin’s past solo songs like “Awake” and “Epiphany” have proven he can bring raw emotions to his ballads, “The Astronaut” is able to capture that same sentimental approach to a more upbeat, dynamic pop-rock song. If you listen closely, one can even hear Chris Martin seemingly harmonizing with Jin on a few notes.

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“The Astronaut” music video lets Jin embrace his actor side and tell a heartwarming story of an alien navigating Planet Earth, finding moments of wonder and joy throughout the journey, and ultimately deciding to call this planet his home. Jin looks cool and calm throughout the visual, which includes special cameos of his Coldplay collaborators and loving shoutouts to ARMY if one looks closely.

October is a major month for Jin’s music. Three of the star’s solo tracks hit worldwide streaming services for the first time on Oct. 21, and following the release of “The Astronaut” on Oct. 28, he’ll give the debut performance of the track alongside Coldplay less than 24 hours later at the band’s concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fans can watch the concert at River Plate stadium in a movie experience with more than 3,500 theaters in more than 70 countries “cinecasting” the show.

Previous to this single, all seven members of BTS teamed up with Coldplay on the single “My Universe” for the latter’s Music of the Spheres album. The track debuted atop the Hot 100, becoming the first Hot 100 No. 1 by two groups each sporting lead billing on a song.

28 Oct 2022

Chlöe Bailey & Latto Team Up for New Single ‘For the Night’

Chlöe Bailey and Latto have released their new single “For the Night” on Friday (Oct. 28) via Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records.

The track, which is set to appear on the Chloe x Halle singer’s upcoming debut solo album, finds the rising R&B star singing, “You say you promise and promise, you’ll figure it out / But I can not wait, you’re teasing me, I back down” before tossing the mic to Latto for a guest assist.

Co-directed by Bailey and Shermay Joh, the official music video shows off Chlöe’s first-rate dancing skills. Latto joins in on the fun later in the piece, and has her say on Chlöe’s boy problems. The video also captures footage of Bailey performing at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival Daytime Stage.

Chlöe first teased the existence of the track back in May when she polled fans during an Instagram Live about which song she should release first in the wake of her single “Treat Me”: “For the Night” or its eventual predecessor “Surprise.”

Besides prepping her debut album, the elder Bailey sister has kept busy as the new celebrity spokesperson for Pepsi, following in the well-heeled footsteps of Britney Spears, P!nk and her longtime mentor Beyoncé by recording a new take on “Footloose” for the famed soda brand.

Chlöe and her sister also reunited with Queen Bey at Tina Knowles-Lawson’s 2022 Wearable Art Gala, with the “Break My Soul” singer showing off a picture with her protégés on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Latto has been beefing with Nicki Minaj over Grammy eligibility on Twitter and recently appeared on stage with Stacey Abrams during the Atlanta stop of Lizzo’s The Special Tour.