Categoría: Billboard

Amid a burgeoning regional Mexican scene in 2018, Alex Ahumada and his cousin Leonardo Lomeli began playing gigs in their hometown Salinas, Calif., — an agricultural hub located just south of the San Francisco Bay Area — mainly as a hobby, after all, they’d both soon go off to college. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Inspired by legacy acts like Valentín Elizalde and Ariel Camacho, Ahumada sang covers while Lomeli played the requinto at family backyard parties or events around town, their repertoire ranging from old-school corridos to cumbias. “We wanted the party to be lit,” Ahumada tells Billboard. The 24-year-old doesn’t come from a family of musicians but corridos and regional Mexican music in general soundtracked his childhood. “A lot of Mexicans live in Salinas,” he adds. “Growing up, we’d always have música mexicana on, for instance you’d hear it in the streets, parties, the Salinas community showed us to be proud of our roots.” The first-gen Mexican Americans — whose parents emigrated from Jalisco, Mexico and worked in the fields as farm workers — were performing four events a month, charging around $100-200 an hour. While college made it particularly challenging to gig consistently, their summer breaks were booked playing in Salinas and nearby cities like Fresno and Sacramento. “Those gigs built us,” Ahumada says today. “We were able connect with our community and understand what they really wanted to listen to.” Clave Especial — comprised of Ahumada, Lomeli and tololoche player Rogelio González, who was also born and raised in Salinas and joined the group in 2021 — is a growing force in regional Mexican music thanks to their take on corridos, incorporating charchetas and trombones to their style. In March, Clave’s debut album Mija No Te Asustes — via Street Mob Records — featuring collabs with Luis R Conriquez, Fuerza Regida and Los Dareyes de La Sierra, debuted and peaked at No. 8 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart and at No. 5 on Regional Mexican Albums. Earlier this month, the band scored its first Billboard No. 1 thanks to “Tú, Tú, Tú” with Edgardo Nuñez, a track that’s also from Mija No Te Asustes. “All those songs are bangers,” says Lomeli. Ahumada adds, “We had been releasing singles but people wanted the album, so we locked ourselves in the studio for like two or three months, crafting songs specifically for the artists that are featured. We didn’t just want them to jump on any song, we had a specific artist in mind for each collaboration. It all feels like a dream but we’ve worked hard for this.” Ahumada didn’t know he could sing until one day his cousin got ahold of a guitar. “He called me while I was at work with my dad one summer and he started playing a tune and I just started singing over the phone,” he says, feeling encouraged that no one was watching him. “I was embarrassed but then Leo and I would get together at my house and just practice in my room when no one was home. We started getting more comfortable and sang in family parties or when we were with our friends from high school.” They also began uploading songs on Instagram and YouTube but had no expectations. “We had faith in our craft but we were realists,” Ahumada says. At the time, a number of young acts were taking center stage fueling the Mexican music movement. “There were so many new artists, all with different styles. That’s why we stuck to our lifestyle and never dropped out of school. We kept grinding and started writing our own songs, too. If this was going to happen for us, it would happen organically.” That moment came in 2021, after they had graduated from college, with “El Tranki,” released independently, which they said went “viral” on YouTube, getting more 10,000 views. “For us, those were a lot of views and we’d get excited,” adds González. It wasn’t the group’s big break but it encouraged them to keep going. Two years later, “Rápido Soy” catapulted them to a new level, with one million views on YouTube. It’s when the labels started calling, one in particular that they’d hope would reach out. Street Mob Records, founded by Fuerza Regida’s Jesús Ortiz Paz, signed the group in 2023 on the heels of “Rápido Soy’s” growing streaming numbers. The track earned Clave its first entry on a Billboard chart peaking at No. 39 on Hot Latin Songs in February 2024. “I used to watch JOP’s blogs when I was in high school,” says Ahumada. “He’s also from California so he gets us and he used to gig locally, playing in backyard parties. Now he’s doing these huge concerts, it’s inspiring.” Since, Ahumada, Lomeli and González say their lives have completely changed, spending more time in L.A. in the studio but also gearing up for their first U.S. tour set to launch in September. “We’re hiking a lot, trying to eat better, to charge up and be 100% ready,” Ahumada says. What’s most rewarding is that they’ve made their parents proud. “My mom’s like, ‘Mijo, me estas saliendo diario en mis redes,‘ she says she sees me all over her social media feed,” Ahumada says with a laugh. They’re super proud. We come from a hard-working Mexican family and we want to show kids to dream big and work hard.” They’ve also intentionally created a team that includes people mainly from Salinas. “We’re bringing the whole town with us on this journey,” Lomeli adds proudly. Below, learn more about August’s Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise: Names: Alex Ahumada, Leonardo Lomeli and Rogelio González Ages: Ahumada is 24 years old. Lomeli and González are both 23. Biggest Accomplishment: “Going No. 1 on Billboard. We’re always checking the charts and when we got the No. 1, we immediately showed our families,” Ahumada says. “But also our debut album because that’s a representation of what we can do.” Recommended Song: “Tú, Tú, Tú” with

Flo Milli is in her mother era. The Alabama rapper returned on Friday (Aug. 22) with Coop for “Perfect Person,” Flo’s second single of 2025, and first since revealing she gave birth to her baby boy, Sixx, in April, which coincided with the arrival of the T-Pain-assisted “Gripper.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news “Perfect Person” unexpectedly samples Hoobastank’s “The Reason,” which flips the 2004 Grammy-nominated hit over trunk-rattling drums and leans into women’s empowerment, as Flo realizes she deserves better while knowing she doesn’t represent perfection herself. “We knew we’d heard the song before,” Flo tells Billboard of recognizing hints of the alt-rock smash. “The way the sample was singing, they made it sound so much higher than their actual song, so we thought it was girls. We looked it up, and we saw it was slower and everything, and we were just in awe, and we loved it.” The 25-year-old gushes about her mini-me changing her entire world, as she opens up about love for Mickey Mouse, baby talk and even hair-pulling. Having Sixx around has also amplified her intentions as an artist, realizing it’s not just her she’s responsible for these days. “It definitely made me go harder, because now I got somebody to not only look after, but I have to set an example to show you can do anything you put your mind to, whether it’s music or not, like you can make it,” she says. “I think it’s just more of me being more hands-on and 10 times more serious about my work.” Flo Milli’s promising more music later this year, as she builds off the success of her 2024 Fine Ho, Stay project, which produced the top-15 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Never Lose Me.” Tap into the rest of our interview with Flo, who reveals what Megan Thee Stallion gifted her for Sixx, why women are winning in rap and what it was like like working with Tate McRae. Walk me through how “Perfect Person” came together? I kind of just was in the space of observing what’s going on in the media and tapping back into vulnerability and connecting with my fans. Because I feel like I have a lot of different fans around the world. So it’s just about like me tapping into all of that — like, not just making one type of music for one group of people — and I felt like it was a fun song. We’re in summer right now. When Coop and I heard the beat, we loved it from the jump, and we were vibing in the studio and it just came about naturally. Why did you think about flipping Hoobastank’s “The Reason” into your own world? The song sounded familiar and I remember we actually did our research on it. I was actually supposed to perform it at one festival, and [Hoobastank] was actually there, and I was so excited, but I ended up not being able to go. I think they loved the song. So it was a cool little moment to cross over. Tied to the single, you were asking fans about their biggest crashouts on social media. What were some of the funniest responses you got? This one girl said, “Kicked his side b—h door in, she called the police and I ran a red light and crashed and went to jail.” I’m not gonna say her name, but she said, “Ran an ex over with my car and got 10 years of felony probation. Another one: “Broke my baby daddy’s Rolex and threw his jewelry box out that’s worth $80,000. I’ma keep reading them: “Sliced shorty’s tires for not understanding principles and not giving me money back.” Somebody said, “He kept cheating on me so I lied and said I had gonorrhea. Somebody else said: “F—ked the s—t out of him and then told him we should start seeing other people.” Girl, you did him a favor.  Flo Milli Fans Spill Their Craziest Crash Out Moments On IG Stories Courtesy Photo Obviously, there’s been a huge change in your life with you giving birth to your son, Sixx. How has motherhood been treating you? It’s been great. Everything, plus more than I expected from it. It’s just cool having a mini-you. It’s just such a blessing. I literally love my son so much. It’s fun and I can’t wait — well, I can wait, because I don’t want him to grow up. Whenever we’re able to go to theme parks and all types of stuff like that, I love doing stuff like that, so it’s been fun so far. It’s just cool watching a baby grow. They literally grow every two days and they do something new. Like, it’s just amazing. What are some of his recent accomplishments as a baby? He knows how to flip over. I gotta watch him. He’s starting to crawl a little bit and scream baby talk. He pulls people’s hair. He’s so strong. He loves Mickey Mouse. He’s pretty chill, like, he’s a really cool baby. I’m excited to see how he’s gonna act when he gets older. Like, how his little personality comes in. Have you played any of your music for him yet? I actually did play him one of my music videos the other day. I was waiting for him to notice, but I don’t think he noticed me. We gotta give him like a year. He was just looking, but I don’t think he noticed that it’s me yet. Did any of your music friends get you any cute gifts for him? Yeah, Megan [Thee Stallion] got us some stuff on my registry, his bassinet and some other cool things that we use all the time. Honestly, I got a lot of gifts. I’m so grateful because I really didn’t have to buy anything, but I still bought a lot of stuff. Like, I actually have an issue. I’m on Amazon buying every day for no reason.

As their music has endured over the course of the two decades since their last studio album, System of a Down shows have remained a rare commodity — before this week, the band had played a grand total of three U.S. shows in the past three years. Yet for Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan, the ability to reunite sporadically, play a couple of packed-house shows and then wander off in separate directions is possible because of how fine-tuned their craft has become, full of easy instrumental virtuosity and effortless onstage chemistry.  If you were plopped into MetLife Stadium on Wednesday night (Aug. 27), unaware of the greater context of the performance, you’d think that System of a Down had been pummeling stadiums together ceaselessly for years, and that the East Rutherford, N.J. tour stop was one in a months-long string of headbanging balls. Instead, the Armenian-American metal quartet were kicking off a limited-edition stadium run — three cities, two stops each, one top-line rock act preceding each show (Korn was the over-qualified opener on Wednesday) — with the whole affair wrapped up by the end of next week, and who knows what’s to follow. All of which is to say: System of a Down’s mercurial nature makes these stadium shows all the more special, and if you’re on the fence about trying to snag a ticket over the next week, make the extra effort. Amidst global tumult, the band’s political righteousness sounded especially pointed; in a performance full of screams, the group’s rapport and down-to-earth humor felt just as cathartic. “Chop Suey!,” “Aerials” and “Prison Song” all absolutely crushed. The fact that they weren’t among the very best moments of the evening tells you just how vital of a live act System of a Down remain, and will likely always be. Here were the five best moments from System of a Down’s first MetLife Stadium show: “B.Y.O.B.” as Skull-Crushing Opener Following a bit of “Soldier Side” as an introduction, the first full song that the band played was their blistering anti-war Mesmerize single, which would have blown the roof off MetLife were it to have one. Flashing lights, thundering guitars, all-encompassing mosh pits and graphics behind the band that read “Human Suffering – Now in 4k!” — “B.Y.O.B.” kicked off the show in singular, unforgettable fashion. “Radio/Video” as Dance Break When System of a Down trotted out “Radio/Video” — following a breathless run of “Needles,” “Deer Dance” and “Darts” — the stomp-along centerpiece of Mesmerize offered a quick, grooving reprieve, with Tankian shuffling around the stage and the “la-la-la” bridge echoed throughout MetLife Stadium. “Radio/Video” should have been an oddball hit 20 years ago; now, at least, it’s a killer song to catch live. “Our Lips are Sealed” as Unexpected Intro Before the band sunk into “Lonely Day,” Malakian preceded the song with one you wouldn’t expect to hear at a System of a Down show: the 1981 Go-Go’s pop-rock classic “Our Lips Are Sealed.” The band also busted out The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” as a teaser ahead of “Lost in Hollywood,” but “Lonely Day” seemed even more poignant with the misdirection that led into it. “Snowblind” as Ozzy Tribute Before performing a faithful cover of Black Sabbath’s “Snowblind” (which System of a Down had actually recorded in 2002, but hadn’t played live in decades) as a tribute to the recently departed Ozzy Osbourne, Malakian told the crowd about how pivotal their early-‘00s stints on the Ozzfest bill had been in breaking System of a Down to U.S. audiences. “We want to thank Ozzy Osbourne!” Malakian bellowed, and was met with “OZ-ZY!” chants from the thousands in attendance.  “Toxicity” and “Sugar” as Final One-Two Punch Talk about a haymaker of a finale: the Toxicity title track leading into the highlight of the band’s 1998 self-titled debut sent the MetLife crowd home with their ears ringing. “Toxicity” and “Sugar’ have been closing out System of a Down shows for some time now — to which we say, why mess with perfection? Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox Sign Up Source link

For Lettuce, Japan is more than just another tour stop. It is where the American funk collective first discovered an audience beyond U.S. borders, a place that welcomed their sound with open arms two decades ago. The band’s 2004 Live in Tokyo album captured that connection, and bassist Erick Coomes still recalls how meaningful it felt to find early international fans in Tokyo and Osaka.   Explore See latest videos, charts and news “Japan was one of our first opportunities to go overseas,” he says. “They were our first really loyal audience, and we’ve wanted to get back ever since.”   This year, Lettuce finally makes that long-awaited return. As part of the tour supporting their new album Cook, the six-piece will make their fifth visit to Japan for two special engagements — Oct. 29 at the Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka followed by a Oct. 30 concert in Tokyo at the Duo Music Exchange — before continuing on to Europe and a first ever tour of Australia.   “Japanese audiences make you want to give even more to the music,” Coomes said. “The respect they show makes you raise your own level.”  After recording their 2004 album at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Lettuce returned twice, first in 2008 and then again in 2013, to play Japan’s famed Fuji Rock Festival. Playing at the foot of Mount Fuji, Coomes recalls feeling struck by both the surreal natural setting and the audience’s extraordinary respect for music. “It’s the cleanest festival you’ll ever see,” says Coomes. “Not a piece of trash on the ground. That kind of respect for art and for each other is something we’ll never forget.” He recalls the long bus ride from the airport, exhausted from travel, when the mountain first came into view. “You catch that glimpse of Fuji and suddenly all the fatigue disappears. It’s like magic.”   For drummer Adam Deitch, the Japan trip feels like a full-circle moment. “Hearing music from different countries has broadened our creative outlook,” he says. “Japan in particular had a huge impact on us early on.”   Lettuce is eager to bring new music from Cook to eager fans. The album ties together their passions for food and funk, even including a cookbook insert with family recipes alongside the vinyl.    “Music and food are very related,” Deitch says. “Use the wrong ingredients in either and you can ruin the sound or the meal. With this record, we feel like we’ve got the right recipe.”   Recorded at Colorado Sound outside Denver, Cook builds on Lettuce’s past success at the studio where they recorded Elevate (2019), Resonate (2020) and Unify (2022). This time, the band leaned even harder into layering, textures and arrangements that blur genre lines with a record that is equal parts funk and R&B, hip-hop and jazz, cinematic soul and old-school rock.   “This record is a little more three-dimensional than our past albums,” Deitch explains. “It shows a lot more sides to the band, exploring further depths of production and arrangements.”   Tracks like “Storm’s Coming” carry the raw, urgent energy of early Wu-Tang Clan, a nod to the group’s recent tour with GZA of the legendary hip-hop collective. Others, like the album closer “Ghost of Yest,” echo the band’s dream-come-true collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, where they performed their catalog backed by a full orchestra.   On “The Mac,” Lettuce even pays tribute to Maceo Parker, the James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic sax master who once performed with Lettuce onstage. Lettuce’s cover of Keni Burke’s 1982 R&B classic “Risin’ to the Top” is pure bliss, featuring Hall’s soaring vocals over a groove the band describes as “spirit caught in the moment.”   “I had never played the song on bass before,” recalls Coomes, noting that the track was cut in a single take. “I learned it one second before we hit record, and when we nailed it, we just started screaming with joy in the studio. We left those screams in the final cut because it was real, raw emotion.”   The title Cook isn’t just a metaphor. Along with the vinyl edition, Lettuce is releasing a glossy print cookbook featuring family recipes from each member. It’s a playful but sincere extension of the band’s culture, one built around sharing meals on the road as well as sharing grooves on stage.   “My dad’s Caesar salad recipe is in there, [Lettuce vocalist] Nigel Hall contributed a Portuguese dish, and I added a watermelon basil salad for the summer,” Coomes says. “It’s all food we actually love and make. The idea was to combine our love of music and cooking into something tangible.”   The cookbook is packaged with the album art so fans pulling the vinyl from its sleeve discover recipes tucked inside. “It’s beautifully presented,” Coomes says. “It feels like the band has come full circle.”  Deitch says Cook marks the start of a new chapter. “This is the best team we’ve ever had. Our infrastructure is solid, our ideas are flowing, and we feel like the world is our oyster. It’s the start of a brand-new era for us.”            Source link

Next year’s Lollapalooza Chile, Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Brasil will feature headlining sets from Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler, The Creator and Chappell Roan. The festivals announced on Thursday (Aug. 28) the full lineups for their 2026 editions, which will also all include headliners Deftones, Skrillex, Lord, Doechi, Turnstile, Lewis Capaldi and Paulo Londra. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Lollapalooza Chile will take place March 13-15 at Parque O’Higgins in Santiago de Chile and also features sets from Interpol, Peggy Gou, Kygo, Addison Rae, Tom Morello, Danny Ocean, Orishas, Mau y Ricky, Yami Safdie, The Warning, Joaquina, 3BallMTY, and more. Ticket information is available on the festival’s website. Lolla Argentina will take place on the same weekend in the Hipódromo de San Isidro in Buenos Aires with a similar lineup that will also include sets from Ratones, Paranoicos, Brutalismus 3000, DJ0, Aitana, Viagra Boys, Judeline, Guitarricadelafuente, and more. Ticket information can be found on the Argentina event’s website. Lolla Brazil will hit stages March 20-22 in the Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paulo also with a similar lineup including Cypress Hill, Katseye, Ben Böhmer, Lola Young, Edson Gomes, Marina, TV Girl, Riize, Men I Trust, and many more. Check the event’s site for ticket information. The shows will be Sabrina Carpenter’s debut in Chile, and will mark her return to Argentina after serving as the opening act for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour there in 2023. That same year, she also played multiple shows in Brazil, including at the MITA Festival and as the opening act in two cities for Swift. Check out the full lineups for all three festivals below. Source link

Last week, select college seniors were granted special access to Donald Glover’s Gilga, a creative campus in Ojai, Calif., for a week-long bootcamp hosted in partnership with Sony Corporation of America.  Explore See latest videos, charts and news “Our first collaboration with Donald Glover was helping bring his pop-up concert at Little Island in New York to life, tied to the Bando Stone & the New World album rollout last year,” says Sony’s Jordy Freed, head of brand, business development and strategy. “That experience gave us a window into his goals, his team’s goals and ultimately led us to discover Gilga.” To kick off the camp, the students – all of whom are studying music production, composition or related fields – were divided into two teams. By the end of the camp, each team emerged with five original songs that they wrote, recorded and mixed themselves, having full access to Gilga’s studios and editing suites plus Sony’s cutting edge technology, including its 360 Virtual Mixing Environment.  “It was cool to see young people working towards a goal in person,” says Glover. “I’m glad they made things, but the best part was them hanging together.” Gilga x Sony camp Joseph Collier When the students weren’t making music or getting to know one another, they were learning about the industry through various panels, with speakers including composer and producer Ludwig Göransson, recording and mix engineer Stu White, artists Samara Cyn and Ray Vaughn and executives from Wasserman Music, RCA Records and elsewhere. Students stayed at Gilga’s on-site housing, and were also free to explore all that the Ojai farm has to offer beyond creation, including its  orange and avocado orchards and an artisanal sandwich shop.  “What Donald is building with Gilga is more than a location or a company — it’s a cultural hub that intends to support creators holistically and nurtures their ideas with care,” says Freed. “That philosophy mirrors our creator-first approach at Sony, where we are supporting creators at all stages, providing tools and resources and supporting their vision authentically. Prioritizing creativity with integrity at the root not only helps elevate creators, it also has the power to strengthen culture as a whole.” Adds Myles Williams, Gilga’s Director of Operations, “Being able to ignite creativity in such talented youth makes us excited for a future that people tend to speak bleakly about.” Source link

The Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers will soon play against each other at the 2025 NFL São Paulo game on Sept. 5 — and Luísa Sonza is coming along.  Explore See latest videos, charts and news Ahead of the big game set to be broadcast live on YouTube from the Corinthians Arena in Brazil, the Brazilian singer-songwriter — who was honored as a Global Force at the 2024 Billboard Women in Music Awards — teamed up with the Kansas City Chiefs to release a reimagined Portuguese version of Tech N9ne’s “Red Kingdom,” Billboard can exclusively announce today (Aug. 28). The song, originally released in 2019 by the Kansas City-based rapper, has become an anthem for the team and their loyal fans known as Chiefs Kingdom.  “‘Red Kingdom’ has been such a staple song,” Lara Krug, Kansas City Chiefs executive VP and CMO, tells Billboard. “It was something that the community gravitated to, and therefore, we as an organization too. We’ve used it in our in-game experience, and it’s become a big part of fans’ playlist on the way to the game. To now have this reimagined version with Luísa, provides a fun and fresh angle to it. Just having her female voice adds a different dimension to it.”  The original track fuses rock with hip-hop and its lyrical content is about winning big and having team pride. Sonza’s version stays truthful to the song’s sentiment, but is amped by a hard-hitting Brazilian Funk beat, powered by lyrics in Portuguese. “Luísa was our first choice when we had this idea,” Krug explains. “To find someone like her and make it true to who the Chiefs are and what the song is, with that authentic Brazilian angle and voice, felt like the perfect marriage. We were starstruck that she was willing to partner with us. Through that quick creative process, we trusted her and her team on creating the best version of ‘Red Kingdom,’ and making it special for the Brazilian fans.”  With the mission of turning the Chiefs into “the world’s team,” Krug says the organization is looking forward to playing in Brazil next month, where Karol G will headline the halftime show during YouTube’s first exclusive NFL live broadcast. “We know how passionate fans are over there. We’re excited to build campaigns that hopefully speak to the Brazilian fans and welcome them to the [Chiefs] Kingdom,” she notes. Watch the music video exclusively on Billboard, below. Luisa Sonza Pam Martins    Source link

People who felt scandalized by Short n’ Sweet songs such as “Juno” or “Bed Chem” probably won’t like Man’s Best Friend, according to Sabrina Carpenter. In a clip released Thursday (Aug. 28) ahead of her appearance on CBS Mornings Friday, the pop star confirmed that her new album is not for the faint of heart — and if they do want to listen, they’ll probably want to do it in the privacy of their own homes. “The album is not for any pearl clutchers,” Carpenter told Gayle King of the LP, which drops Friday (Aug. 29). “But I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.” When King noted that the songs on the project are as “sexual” as they are “powerful” and “vulnerable,” the two-time Grammy winner replied, “I think that’s the thing, is sometimes people hear the lyrics that are really bold or they go, ‘I don’t want to sing this in front of other people.’” “It’s like it’s almost too TMI,” Carpenter added. “But I think about being at a concert with, you know, however many young women I see in the front row that are screaming at the top of their lungs with their best friends, and you can go like, ‘Oh, we can all sigh [in] relief like, ‘This is just fun.’ And that’s all it has to be.” This isn’t the first time the pop star has addressed backlash to her sexual song lyrics, which have polarized audiences ever since Carpenter found breakout success with 2024 album Short n’ Sweet. In a Rolling Stone cover story published in June, she said, “It’s always so funny to me when people complain … like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’” “But those are the songs that you’ve made popular,” she continued at the time. “Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.” Man’s Best Friend has also caused people to, as Carpenter puts it, clutch their pearls even before its release. When the Girl Meets World alum first shared its cover art — a photo of herself down on all fours, held in place by a man grabbing her hair — she was met with backlash from some critics who found the image degrading to women. Not to worry, though. Carpenter has since released several variants of MBF with alternate covers that even pearl clutchers can probably get behind. See a snippet of Carpenter’s Friday CBS Mornings interview below. Source link

In 2014, British singer-songwriter Coyle Girelli’s indie rock band, The Chevin, went on hiatus, and he says, “I jumped into a million other things.” One of them was a trip to the Los Angeles home of another singer-songwriter Mac Davis, who scored 15 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1970 and 1981 — including the chart-topping “Baby Don’t Get Hooked On Me” — and wrote or co-wrote memorable songs for such acts as Elvis Presley (“In The Ghetto,” “A Little Less Conversation”), Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (Something’s Burning”), Dolly Parton (“White Limozeen”) and Weezer (“Time Flies”). Explore See latest videos, charts and news Girelli and Davis were both published by Primary Wave, and its CEO Larry Mestel suggested they meet because, Mestel says, “They were both extraordinary writers — but also genuinely nice, down-to-earth human beings.” More than a decade after the two artists met — and nearly five years since Davis’ death in 2020 — Girelli will release the extraordinary result of their collaboration on Aug. 29: Out Of This Town. The solo album, which Girelli also produced, features his interpretations of 10 songs he and Davis wrote and a coda by Davis that was lifted from a voice memo he sent to his writing partner. Girelli, who’s currently based in New York, says that he had Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska in mind when he arranged and recorded the songs on the album, and Out Of This Town‘s acoustic guitar, pedal steel and piano sound is spare and crystalline. The richest instrument on the album is Girelli’s voice, which, at moments, recalls Roy Orbison‘s lush falsetto. It’s appropriate then, that Orbison’s onetime label, Sun Records, will release Out of This Town. As Girelli recounts in this interview with Billboard, he and Davis initially intended to record the album together and came close to a deal with another label until an executive shakeup derailed it. Enter Sun, which Primary Wave acquired in 2021. Primary Wave and Sun Label Group chief strategy officer Dom Pandiscia, says, “Coyle had played the demos of these songs for me years ago, and we’ve talked regularly about finding the right way to bring them to market. The creative connection between Mac & Coyle align perfectly with the history of Sun,” he adds, “while also leaning it forward and adding to its legacy.” Girelli talks with Billboard about the set and his relationship with Davis below. Coyle is an unusual name. What’s its origin? It’s an Irish name. My father was Irish and my mother, Italian. Very New York but not very common in England. How did you come to collaborate with Mac Davis? I think it was Larry [Mestel] who shared a performance of me in my old band, The Chevin. We performed on [Late Show With David Letterman]. He shared it with Mac, and according to Mac’s wife Lise, Mac said something along the lines of, “This kid is the next Roy Orbison.” He wanted to get in a word with me, so Primary Wave threw that out. I was super excited. It was a real curve ball. I had only just started cowriting outside of the band — it was a matter of months — and I got this opportunity. The next time I was in L.A., I went over to Mac’s house. I didn’t know what to expect. I had listened to the music he had written, but I had no idea how it was going to look. We grabbed guitars, sat over a cup of coffee and wrote something together probably within an hour of meeting each other. It’s a song called “Already Gone,” which is on the record. What did you do for an encore? We spent the rest of the day just talking about music and songs. He told me stories about Elvis and Frank Sinatra. We really got on. Him being a small-town guy who had really hustled., and me, also being a small-town guy who had really hustled for everything I’d gotten — there were a lot of similarities between us. We then kept getting together. I just loved writing with him. I’d always loved Elvis and Roy Orbison, and Americana [music] was always my favorite. That kind of influence is always in there. Being from Northern England, I never had the confidence to be okay, “I can sing this stuff.” Working with Mac gave me permission. His whole angle was that my voice was built to sing the type of music we were writing, and we really leaned into it. Before we knew it, we had a big collection of songs and we were like, what do we do now with it? You said that when you were writing with Mac, he literally had a bag of songs that he had written? There was a point where we wrote together for four days in a row. We’d written a bunch of songs in the first few days, but on the fourth, we were both burned out. We stopped for a coffee, and when we came back, Mac said, “You know what? Let’s see what’s in my publishing company.” And he pulled up this Nashville Music Week swag bag that he had next to him. He unzips it, and inside are sheets and sheets of yellow lined paper with lyrics on them. He starts pulling them out and saying, “Oh yeah, this one.” He plays it to me. It’s “Mary in the Moonlight” [on the album]. He was like, “Yeah, it works. That can be for the project.” He just kept doing that. There were hundreds of songs in that bag. He picked out songs from there that he thought worked with what we were doing. And I would voice memo them and take them home to demo them. I spoke with Lise about it when I was with her a couple of weeks ago in Nashville, and she said, “That’s where he put his songs. He would write them and then put them in his bag.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, and the song she used when she reshared their joint Instagram announcement to her Stories was her 2024 track “So High School,” which accumulated more U.S. streams on Aug. 26 than the previous four days combined. Related On Aug. 26, when Swift and Kelce’s joint post revealing the engagement went live on their respective social media accounts, “So High School” earned 794,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to preliminary data from Luminate. Their usage of the song in the post was apt, as Swift’s caption read, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” That 794,000-stream count represented a 394% increase over the previous day, Aug. 25, which saw the song sport 161,000 streams in the U.S. In fact, during the previous four days (Aug. 22-25), “So High School” had accumulated 640,000 streams, fewer than the single-day Aug. 26 sum. The song debuted and peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2024 upon the chart start of its parent album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift held the entire top 14, the most by one artist on down from No. 1 in the list’s history, on the May 4, 2024, ranking and 19 of the top 25, and the LP blasted in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In all, Swift’s catalog earned 35.8 million streams on Aug. 26, a 27% gain from Aug. 25’s sum of 28.1 million. More gains for Swift’s catalog could be reflected on the upcoming Sept. 6-dated Billboard charts, which will reflect the Aug. 22-28 tracking week. Source link