Innholdsfortegnelse for May-02-15 i Billboard Magazine

ARIANA GRANDE recently broke up with Big Sean, but musically, she has a new milestone to celebrate: The pop star is now five hits deep on second album My Everything. Its latest single, “One Last Time,” is No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, a new peak. It follows “Problem” (featuring Iggy Azalea), which hit No. 2 in June 2014; “Break Free” (featuring Zedd), which reached No. 4 in August; “Bang Bang” (with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj), which went to No. 3 in October; and “Love Me Harder” (with The Weeknd), which peaked at No. 7 in November. Republic Records executive vp Charlie Walk says the label strongly considered “One Last Time” as the first single from My Everything, citing its catchy hook and dancepop vibe. But the sassy…

Roughly a year ago, The Replacements were a mess. High expectations for the band’s Coachella debut — its first show in California in 23 years, with a prime 8:45 p.m. slot on the stage where Lorde, Pharrell Williams and Lana Del Rey would later perform — were dashed by murky sound and a wobbly performance, and the small crowd had mostly wandered off by the set’s end. “It was obvious this was not our scene,” Darren Hill from the band’s management tells Billboard. What a difference a year makes. Now tour-tight after months of performing before die-hard fans, the currently unsigned band — singer-guitarist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson with hired guns Josh Freese (drums) and Dave Minehan (guitar) — has made two trips to the studio in the…

CHAIRMAN/CHIEF CREATIVE OF FICER , JOHN VARVATOS ENTERPRISES; PR ESIDENT , JOHN VARVATOS RECORDS ASK JOHN VARVATOS TO pinpoint the moment when his obsession with fashion and music began, and he’ll show you a photo of The Stooges taken in 1970. “It was all hippies before these guys,” says the Detroit native. “They showed up wearing motorcycle jackets, ripped jeans, aviators ... nobody looked like them at the time.” The image’s backdrop, a pastiche of Asian rugs and rustic wood, bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2,500-squarefoot showroom in New York’s Flatiron District where, for the past 15 years, Varvatos has helmed his rock’n’roll-rooted menswear empire, which spans 21 stores globally and averages a reported $250 million in sales annually. Questlove, Ringo Starr and, as fate would have it, Iggy…

R&B singer Percy Sledge, whose hit “When a Man Loves a Woman” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, died at his Baton Rouge, La., home after a battle with cancer. He was 73. Composer Steven Stern, whose tracks have been featured in Gone Girl, House of Cards and Entourage, died of mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix. He was 47. Singer-songwriter-producer Johnny Kemp, best known for the 1988 hit “Just Got Paid,” was pronounced dead of unknown causes after his body was discovered in the water off of Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was 55. Spotify appointed James Duffett-Smith global head of publisher relations. Warner Bros. Records appointed Liz Lewis vp creative synch licensing for advertising and Lila Gerson vp brand partnerships. Tidal CEO Andy Chen, of Norwegian-based parent company Aspiro…

LOOK AT IT!” SAYS GEORGE EZRA, 21. The English singer behind blues-pop hit “Budapest” grins as he holds his right pinky up for inspection. It’s permanently bent — the result of a paddle-boarding mishap at 13 — and complements the inch-long scar on his forehead, which he got by walking into a wall while drunk at music school BIMM Institute in Bristol. He attended a lecture by Marky Ramone hours later, leaving only when the still-flowing blood was too much for his classmates to bear. “I’m built to be on the move,” says Ezra with a laugh, soaking up the sun in an alley behind the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, Calif., where he’ll play his first gig after recovering from laryngitis. The affliction forced him to cancel his…

DiCaprio’s Bicoastal Club Crawl Leonardo DiCaprio is not letting a little thing like the 2,352 miles between Indio, Calif., and New York get in the way of his social life. On April 18, the Wolf of Wall Street actor, who has been rocking a rather hirsute look as of late, replete with a ponytail and fedora, checked out former Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello, who was spinning at Marquee NYC in Chelsea. A spy says that DiCaprio left around 1:30 a.m. with a brunette he had been socializing with at the club. Almost a week earlier and a coast away, DiCaprio, in shorts and a blue T-shirt, checked out the pop-up Desert Soho House at Coachella at the Merv Griffin mansion in La Quinta. He arrived in the late…

DJ KHALED IS CHEST DEEP IN HIS FREE-FLOWING pool, dripping in kilos of gold. “You mind if I talk to you from the pool?” says the rapper-producer and We the Best Music Group founder. “I swim almost every day when I’m here.” It’s his calm before the imminent release of a new single in May from his upcoming album, I’ve Changed a Lot. “It’s going to be this summer’s anthem,” promises Khaled, 39, who has collaborated with more than a dozen artists including Kanye West, Nas, Drake and Lil Wayne, and has sold 1.2 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. While he won’t give away the title of the track, he will say that it’s a project with “three other megastars. Make that superstars. This is…

Romeo Santos’ speaking part in Furious 7 lasts exactly 10 seconds. But 10 seconds can mean a lot at the box office. “Latin audiences spend more on film, and music stars are an attraction,” says Bob Berney, CEO of indie distributor Picturehouse, whose films include the upcoming Gloria Trevi biopic Gloria! and 2001’s Y Tu Mamá Tambié. ”They tweet and get their fans to go.” Apparently so. This year, Furious 7’s opening weekend brought in $384 million, including $143.6 million domestically, making it the biggest U.S. debut since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November 2013 ($158 million). But more telling, according to Universal: Hispanics were the majority of Furious 7’s ticket buyers (37 percent), followed by Caucasians (25 percent) and African-Americans (24 percent). For his part, Santos not only…

CUBAN RAPPER MARIANA “LA MARIANA” MORACÉN SAIZ is ready for the normalization between Cuba and the United States to finally —finally — begin. “Cuba is full of culture,” says the 28-year-old Havana native who fronts the rap-salsa-fusion group Mariana y la Makynaria. “Thank God we can send it out now to the whole world.” To be fair, the whole world save for the United States has been able to freely enjoy the rich tapestry of Cuban musical offerings (there are 17,000 professional musicians on the island) for the last 60 years or so. Freed from the pressures of marketplace formulas, Cuban musicians have in recent decades enjoyed a fair amount of artistic freedom (if not full freedom of speech), and have created all kinds of new styles and approaches. It’s…

You seem to be more excited about Cherry Bomb than your previous LPs. What’s special about it? It’s the music I’ve always wanted to make. Joy Division, Ronnie McNeir, N.E.R.D. — that’s the shit that really got me. To finally be able to make that — to make a song with Roy Ayers, “Find Your Wings” — is really cool. I’m living every line on the album. That’s why you don’t hear depressing, sad shit, because I’m f—ing happy. The first single, “F—ing Young/Perfect,” is about a touchy subject: dating younger people. What made you record that song? I wanted to make a song like Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions album. You listen to shit in the ’70s, they got to the point. Although it sounds soft, “F—ing Young” is perverted and…

IN ORDER TO FINISH THE Magic Whip, its first album in a dozen years, Blur had to revisit the past. This wasn’t the distant past of 1994’s Parklife or 1995’s The Great Escape, cheeky Britpop triumphs that branded the London foursome as Gen X’s answer to The Kinks; nor was it the more recent past of 2003’s muted, muddled Think Tank, recorded amid the departure of guitarist Graham Coxon and released just before a five-year hiatus. BLUR The Magic WhipParlophone Instead, The Magic Whip meant returning to May 2013, when the cancellation of the Tokyo Rocks festival left a reunited Blur with five days to kill in Hong Kong. While there, the band jammed on wordless doodles that sat idle until fall 2014, when Coxon enlisted producer and frequent collaborator…

Backstage Pass / Billboard Latin Music Conference & Awards, April 27-30, Miami Beach AT MIDNIGHT ON NOV. 21, UNIVERSAL MUSIC LATIN America head Jesús López stopped his company’s Latin Grammys afterparty to make an announcement: Universal was launching Aftercluv, a new Latin dance and EDM label in the United States and throughout Latin America. It was, López later said, “one of my biggest accomplishments of 2014.” The Billboard Latin Music Conference in Miami Beach April 27-30 is the place to learn about hot trends, like Latin dance, that are fueling a newfound industry optimisim in Latin music. After years in which declining record sales, rampant piracy and employee downsizing dominated the conversation, executives are once again talking growth. “We are very, very bullish about developing new artists,” says Sony Music…

Born in Lake Charles, La., but raised between the bayou and Mexico, sisters Hanna Nicole Perez Mosa, 29, and Ashley Grace Perez Mosa, 27, are bringing country to Latin pop. Influenced by Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood, the Sony Music Mexico artists write and sing captivatingly lyrical narratives, mostly in Spanish. “We’re storytellers,” says Hanna. In the last decade, the duo has charted four singles on Hot Latin Songs, although its biggest success has been in Mexico. The pair’s new live album, part of Sony’s Primera Fila series, reached No. 1 on Mexico’s Amprofon sales chart and has spent 20 weeks on the tally. The sisters say they hope the live set will be a passport to wider success, and recently signed with Creative Artists Agency as their booking agent.…

CARLOS SANTANA BELIEVES IN ANGELS. “Everywhere I’ve been, God has put them in my path to open doors: Clive Davis, my mom,” says the guitar ace. “They are there to help you achieve your dreams and aspirations.” So when the guitarist and his family created a foundation in 1998, they called it Milagro — Miracle — a nod to unexplained events that can bring about change. Santana, 67, who will receive the 2015 Spirit of Hope Award on April 30 at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami Beach for his philanthropy, spoke about how Milagro connects to his music. What inspired you to create Milagro? I grew up in San Francisco watching Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, the freedom movement and Bill Graham [the promoter known for his benefit…

Sony Music is celebrating Roberto Carlos’ 50 years of Spanish recordings with a series of releases and musical projects, including a concert album through its Primera Fila series of live recordings in intimate settings. Carlos will record the album before an audience at London’s Abbey Road Studios. “The idea was to have a legend record at a legendary place,” says Afo Verde, Sony Music Entertainment’s chairman/CEO for Spain and Portugal, who will produce the release. The setting is a nod to the key role he played in the beginnings of Brazil’s pop-rock movement, as well as the influence of The Beatles on his songwriting. The album will include 16 classic tracks, such as “Ese Tipo Soy Yo,” Carlos’ newest Spanish-language single, and his classic “Qué Sera De Tí,” which was…

SHAWN MENDES HAS GRADUATED FROM ruling Vine to dominating the charts. The singer- songwriter’s debut full-length album, Handwritten, released April 14 through Island Records, arrives at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 119,000 units earned in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. Traditional album sales made up the bulk of Mendes’ album launch, with 106,000 copies sold: The LP also bows at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart. That’s a fairly robust sales figure, considering he has yet to claim a radio hit; none of his songs have reached Billboard’s airplay charts. Instead, the high-schooler, who first gained fame by posting six-second video loops to Vine, has been boosted by social media, making a splash on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart. On…

With overall album sales consistently following a downward trend, the little victories have to be sought within the overall big picture. For example, although year-to-date album sales are down, they’re only off by 3 percent compared with the same point a year ago (74.2 million through the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music). It’s not exactly something to start partying about, but a year ago, sales were down by 16 percent. Even better, when we examine specific major genres, the story gets happier. Rap album sales rose by 27 percent (to 7.9 million), thanks to strong sellers like If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late by Drake (835,000) and the 532,000 that To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar (above) racked up. They are two of three rap…

Record Store Day leaves its fingerprints all over Billboard’s charts, as the April 18 celebration of indie music stores pushes big gains and sparks debuts for an array of titles. As usual, a multitude of special releases were created for the event, many of which were available in limited-edition vinyl pressings. Among the offerings: A-ha’s “Take On Me” on a 7-inch picture disc, a Miles Davis 10-inch box set and the first vinyl release of The White Stripes’ 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan. Overall vinyl album sales grew 74 percent in the week ending April 19 to 375,000, according to Nielsen Music — the biggest week for vinyl albums outside of the Christmas shopping season since Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991. On the Vinyl Albums chart, Get Behind…

“I Really Like You,” the comeback single by Carly Rae Jepsen (above), reenters Streaming Songs (viewable on Billboard.biz/charts) at No. 19 thanks to some help from her pal Justin Bieber. Bieber and some famous friends (including Kendall Jenner, Ariana Grande and Lance Bass) lip-synced to “Really,” re-creating the silly lo-fi webcam-style video they made for Jepsen’s breakout single, “Call Me Maybe,” back in 2012. On Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks (left), “Really” roars 26-3. The new video, which was released to YouTube on April 14, stirred an 82 percent gain in U.S. plays for the song (in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music). Now, the majority (43 percent) of its plays come from the Bieber clip, as many of his fans were sharing and reposting it across…

Tyler, The Creator takes the No. 1 spot on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Cherry Bomb enters with 51,000 first-week sales, according to Nielsen Music. It’s the rapper’s second chart-topper after Goblin started at the top in 2011 (45,000 sold). His 2013 follow-up, Wolf, landed a No. 2 arrival along with his best sales week (89,000). On Rap Digital Songs, new song “Smuckers” lands a No. 30 debut, with 10,000 downloads during the week ending April 19. Cherry Bomb was released digitally on April 13 and was originally planned to arrive on physical formats on April 28. However, its physical release was accelerated to April 17 to coincide with its digital bow. He additionally debuts at No. 18 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart amid the attention surrounding the album’s release.…

David Guetta (above) delivers his first No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs as “Hey Mama” (featuring Nicki Minaj and Afrojack) moves 3-1. Although Guetta has placed 18 titles on the chart — more than any act aside from Skrillex (21) — since the chart’s Jan. 26, 2013 premiere, he never topped the list until now. His prior top-charting track was as a featured guest on Rihanna’s No. 5-peaking “Right Now” in July 2013. Minaj and Afrojack also post their first No. 1s on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. “Mama” moves 75,000 digital units (up 25 percent), according to Nielsen Music. That sum keeps the track at No. 1 for a fourth week on Dance/Electronic Digital Songs, where it outsells the No. 2 title, Skrillex and Diplo’s “Where Are U Now,” by 30,000…

WHEN THE “CORE FOUR” surviving members of The Grateful Dead — Bob Weir, 67; Phil Lesh, 75 ; Mickey Hart, 71; and Bill Kreutzmann, 68 — announced Fare Thee Well, a trio of final shows in Chicago set for July 4-6, no one expected a backlash from fans. After all, The Dead had pioneered the complicated craft of preferred ticketing, launching its own Grateful Dead Ticket Services in the 1970s to accommodate tapers, fan club members and Deadheads looking to attend shows in multiple cities, a common rite of passage for the band’s followers. So when 210,000 tickets sold out within an hour on Feb. 28, and then minutes later showed up on secondary-ticket sites with astronomical markups — one pair was going for a cool $1 million, another for…

As co-president of Atom Factory, J. Erving oversees an active artist roster that includes John Legend, Meghan Trainor, Nico & Vinz and Miguel, as well as investments in Tuition.io, Backplane and PopWater. Thanks to his most recent artist signing Charlie Puth at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the Wiz Khalifa duet “See You Again,” and a business venture with Usher on deck, the 40-year-old son of basketball great Julius “Dr. J” Erving is flexing new muscles at Atom Factory alongside CEO (and fellow Philadelphia native) Troy Carter and copresident Ty Stiklorius. How did Charlie Puth land on your radar? He was brought to us by [Warner Music A&R chief] Mike Caren, and we fell in love with the music as soon as we heard it. Some people…

For approximately the 20th time since the advent of radio and records, labels and performers are hoping that proposed legislation — called, this time, the Fair Play Fair, Pay Act — will result in royalty payments from terrestrial radio. The act, sponsored by Jerrald Nadler (D-N.Y.) and co-sponsored by Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), already has produced loud opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which has beaten back every previous attempt to legislate a performance royalty for terrestrial broadcasts of master recordings, most recently in 2009. Key elements in the new legislation include: Imposing a royalty on commercial radio stations comparable to a figure negotiated in an open marketplace under the auspices of the Copyright Royalty Board. Labels and performers already have…

ARLINGTON, TEXAS , APRIL 19 THEY SAY THAT EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS, AND after moving from Las Vegas to Arlington, Texas, the 50th annual Academy of Country Music Awards set out to prove exactly that. Apart from a whopping three-and-a-half-hour-long telecast, the 70,252-strong audience at AT&T Stadium was big enough to set a new Guinness World Records mark for award-show attendance. “It feels a little bit magical for me. I grew up 80 miles east of here,” Miranda Lambert, the night’s big winner, told Billboard. Lambert was among seven Milestone Award honorees that included George Strait, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn and country-turned-pop icon Taylor Swift. “I’m so unbelievably proud that I learned to treat people with kindness and respect from country music,” Swift told…

Diplo may be dance music’s busiest man. Fresh off the February release of the self-titled debut from Jack U, his super-duo with Skrillex, the DJ-producer, 36, is focusing on Major Lazer, his trio that also includes Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. The group will release two albums this year, including Peace Is the Mission (June 1 on Diplo’s Mad Decent label); on April 16, Major Lazer debuted a self-titled cartoon on FXX. On top of that, Diplo’s working on the next Justin Bieber LP with Skrillex. Recently, he found time to speak candidly with Billboard on collaborators both past and present. How did Major Lazer get its own cartoon? It started four years ago. We developed it with another station for about a year; I was back and forth to Atlanta…

“Basically what I’m saying here is that I have the coolest mother-in-law, and you all can suck it!” —KELLY CLARKSON The pop singer introducing Reba McEntire, the stepmother of her husband, Brandon Blackstock, at the Academy of Country Music Awards. “Hillary is my only competition right now.” —WAKA FLOCKA FLAME The rapper, declaring his candidacy for president. “The things that we did will stay with me for the rest of my life.” —ZAYN MALIK The former One Direction member, breaking his silence at the Asian Awards, his first public appearance since leaving the band. “Do me a favor and stop listening to n—s that pose naked on their motherf—ing album cover.” —LIL WAYNE The rapper onstage in Jackson, Miss., dissing Young Thug and his mixtape Barter 6, originally named Carter…

The rap sheet on where to get caught up in the Magic City Best Eats “If I’m in the ‘hood I like Chef Creole’s Haitian rice and stewed chicken,” says DJ Khaled. “For a date night with my girlfriend, we go to Zuma for Japanese.”chefcreole.comzumarestaurant.com Hottest Clubs “LIV and STORY, especially if I’m DJing that night,” says Khaled of the spots where such celebs as Miley Cyrus, Diddy and Pharrell Williams have partied. livnightclub.comstorymiami.com Crowd-Free Beach “Drive past the madness of South Beach and head north to Golden Beach,” says Khaled of the area where musicians including Ricky Martin reside. His other favorite spot? Sunny Isles, also known as the Florida Riviera.…

THE HEIR TO THE SECOND-BIGGEST fortune in the world listens to AC/DC in his car and used to DJ at an Acapulco dance club. That’s part of the everyman charm exuded by business scion Carlos Slim Domit, the son of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, a 75-year-old telecommunications mogul whose assets are worth $77.1 billion (almost $5 billion more than Warren Buffett), according to Forbes’ 2015 ranking. The oldest of six children, Slim Domit, 48, is responsible for preserving his family’s empire with his two brothers, Marco Antonio, 46, and Patrick, 45. But he alone serves as the chairman of Grupo Carso, the cornerstone of his father’s oligarchy and one of the globe’s biggest conglomerates. Through this role, Slim Domit oversees a substantial part of Latin America’s retail music industry.…

La Zorra y el Cuervo Avenue 23 between N and O, Vedado “The Vixen and the Crow” is located on La Rampa, the busy promenade in the bustling Vedado district. This venerable jazz nightclub features top talent every night. Fábrica de Arte Cubano Avenue 26 and 11, Vedado Housed in a former power station, this hip music and culture (dance, art, fashion) venue showcases mostly Cuban and some international acts Thursday through Sunday. Questlove just performed here. Casa de la Música Calle Galiano between Concordia and Neptuno, Centro Habana; Avenue 35 esq. a 20, Miramar Catch live timba every evening at both locations of this institution (run by the state-owned recording company, EGREM) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and again at midnight. PLUS Vistar magazine This slick monthly webzine…

AS I AM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DJ AM A mash-up pioneer with a tragic beginning and end gets his due NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, there you are. That’s the central theme of As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM, a documentary on Adam Goldstein, who battled addiction, obesity and depression before becoming one of the first rock-star DJs and then succumbing to a drug overdose in 2009 at age 36. Kevin Kerslake directs, and aided by his experience making the 2011 EDM doc The Electric Daisy Carnival Experience, he positions Goldstein as a DJ icon who popularized the “mash-up” format and pioneered the seven-figure Vegas residency. But Kerslake’s work directing early Nirvana videos looms over the fi lm as well: Like Kurt Cobain, Goldstein…

HITS TRACY CHAPMAN, LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN (APRIL 16) With retirement looming, Letterman got the 51-year-old singer-songwriter to give a rare TV performance and sing one of his favorites, Ben E. King’s classic “Stand by Me.” Chapman’s solo rendition, a vocal/electric guitar combo, was gorgeously understated (and meant “a great deal” to the host). JENNY LEWIS, THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN (APRIL 16) Simultaneously playful and forceful, Lewis brought a vintage Carly Simon vibe to “She’s Not Me,” a cut off her third solo offering, 2014’s Voyager. That sort of quiet, confident cool is tough to pull off when you’re singing about destroying a relationship, but Lewis, who took a break in between her dual Coachella sets to appear on the show, did it with ease. ROYAL…

Overcoming panic attacks early in his career, J Balvin broke through with “6 a.m.” (featuring Farruko) and its contagious chorus (“What a party, pa-pa-pa”). As it hit No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, Balvin landed new management with Fabio Acosta, founder of Akela Family Music, and Rebecca Leon, vp Latin talent at Goldenvoice/AEG Live, who booked him to open the Enrique Iglesias/Pitbull tour. Recent milestone “Ay Vamos,” which reached No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs, was a late addition to the Furious 7 soundtrack. At the conference Joins “The New Latin Urban Movement” panel on April 29…

Luis Coronel’s career began with a Facebook post: a video of the then-17-yearold singing the Mexican hit “Mi Niña Traviesa” for his girlfriend. The clip went viral, and Del Records came calling. In July 2013, the Tucson, Ariz., native’s debut single, a professionally recorded version of his Facebook post, hit the top 10 on Hot Latin Songs while his debut album, Con la Frente en Alto, debuted at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums, while Quiero Ser to Dueñ reached No. 1 in 2014. He won the new artist of the year honor at the 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards. In a genre known for narcocorridos (drug ballads) that glorify dealers, the clean-cut , bilingual Coronel, now 19, sings love songs set to banda and norteño beats. On social media…

Telemundo to broadcast honors April 30 live from Miami Beach Artist of the year Marc Anthony Enrique Iglesias Prince Royce Romeo Santos New artist of the year J Balvin Banda Tierra Sagrada Kevin Ortiz Remmy Valenzuela Tour of the year Marc Anthony Enrique & Pitbull Alejandro Fernandez Juan Gabriel Social artist of the year Enrique Iglesias L a Arrolladora Banda el Limon de Rene Camacho Romeo Santos Shakira Crossover artist of the year Becky G Jason Derulo Drake Pharrell Williams…

NUMBERS: ACMs SHINE The 50th annual Academy of Country Music Awards spur big gains for the April 19 show’s winners and performers, including Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town. Little Big Town’s ACM performance of “Girl Crush” fueled the biggest sales week for a country song in 2015: 97,000 downloads, up 126 percent, according to Nielsen Music. Their 2014 LP Pain Killer also nets the largest gain on Top Country Albums (up 7,000 to 11,000; 12-7). Florida Georgia Line, which performed and won two awards, earns the second-largest unit gain on Top Country Albums, as 2014’s Anything Goes rises 5-4 with 13,000 units sold in the week ending April 19 (up 5,000). Country album sales were up by 33 percent to 608,000 in the week ending April…

Country Songs at No. 29 with “Let It Go.” It’s his 121st entry on the chart, easily the most of any act since 1981, the year of his debut hit, “Unwound.” (George Jones boasts the most appearances — 158 — since Hot Country Songs launched as a multimetric chart in October 1958.) Strait’s new single, which he performed April 19 at the Academy of Country Music Awards (see Numbers, opposite page), starts on Country Digital Songs at No. 9 with 27,000 first-week downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music. It lifts 52-47 in its second week on Country Airplay.…

The latest Disney Channel actor-turned-Disney Music Group recording artist has arrived on the Billboard 200: Sabrina Carpenter (above). The 15-year-old actress-singer, who stars in the TV series Girl Meets World, debuts at No. 43 with her first full-length album, Eyes Wide Open. (It bows with 12,000 equivalent album units moved in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. The Hollywood Records set follows her debut EP, Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying, which reached No. 16 on Heatseekers Albums in 2014 and has sold 17,000. On the new album, Carpenter co-wrote four of the set’s 12 songs. In addition, two of those dozen tracks were co-written by Meghan Trainor. Carpenter’s fellow Disney Channel stars who hit the Billboard 200 are numerous. Since the mid-2000s, the chart has housed…

Rock band The Mowgli’ claims its first No. 1 on Heatseekers Albums as Kids in Love starts with 3,000 copies sold in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. The group’s last album, 2013’s Waiting for the Dawn, debuted and peaked at No. 2 with a 4,000-unit start. The act made its Billboard chart debut with 2012’s Love’s Not Dead EP, which reached No. 24. The seven-member band is on tour with Fences and Hippo Campus through May 8. Elsewhere on Heatseekers, singer-songwriter Halsey earns a 27 percent sales gain at No. 7 (up 12 slots) as her Room 93 EP zooms to nearly 2,000 copies sold (its second-largest sales week following its 3,000-unit start). The boost is owed to the vinyl release of the album, the sales…

Reba McEntire returns to familiar hallowed ground on the Top Country Albums chart, as Love Somebody debuts at No. 1 with 58,000 first-week copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. The set is McEntire’s first leader on the list since Keep On Loving You spent its first two weeks at the summit in September 2009. (In between, All the Women I Am debuted and peaked at No. 3 in November 2010.) McEntire extends her record for the most Top Country Albums No. 1s among women to 12. Loretta Lynn ranks second in the category with 10. The new album’s coronation also marks the first No. 1 on a Billboard chart for the Nash Icon imprint, to which McEntire became the first signee in October. Meanwhile, Sam Hunt becomes the first act…

Pesado lands the No. 3 debut on Top Latin Albums with Abrazame, selling 2,000 first-week units, according to Nielsen Music. The set marks the regional Mexican group’s 26th charted album on the list dating to its first appearance in 2001. The act ranks behind only 10 others for most appearances in that span — notably, all regional Mexican groups, led by Conjunto Primavera (37). Pesado jumps 40-29 on Hot Latin Songs with “Que Aun Te Amo,” aided in part by an 11 percent rise at radio (to 4.1 million audience impressions). The second-highest entrance on Top Latin Albums belongs to the Billboard Latin Music Awards Finalists 2015 compilation, which arrives at No. 10 (1,000 sold). The Target-exclusive set includes tracks by a variety of finalists for the annual awards show,…

South African live entertainment company Big Concerts International makes an impact on the Boxscore chart with six of its promoted engagements, including One Direction (above) in a March appearance at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium. With 131,615 tickets sold at the country’s largest soccer venue, the boy band earns the No. 2 ranking with revenue from two sellouts promoted by Big Concerts. Ticket sales totaled $6.2 million, bringing the overall gross from the pop group’s On the Road Again Tour to $74 million since its launch. Michael Buble owns three slots on the chart with sales reported from his To Be Loved Tour’s sweep through South Africa, the final leg of a world trek that covered six continents during its 21-month span. Big Concerts promoted the shows in all three markets, including…

When TV’s “upfront” advertising marketplace dropped 6 percent to $18.1 billion in 2014 — the first year-over-year decline since 2009 — several factors were to blame. Time-shifted viewing has consistently risen (40 percent of all U.S. homes paid for video on-demand services as of November 2014, according to Nielsen), and Netflix reached a record 57.4 million global subscribers as of Dec. 31. Also, with concert and festival attendance reaching 20-year highs, music is posing an added threat to TV’s longtime stronghold on the ad market. That’s great news for music-related programming, with brands already spending record dollars on live events ($1.3 billion, according to analytics firm IEG) and music video product placement ($156 million, according to PQ Media) in 2014. But will the digital “NewFront” presentations in New York designed…

WITH 2 MILLION RESIDENTS, Stockholm may only have roughly a quarter of the population of New York, but it’s responsible for more than a half-dozen billion-dollar brands: IKEA, H&M, Skype, King (maker of Candy Crush), Ericsson and Spotify among them. Yet the Swedish capital has never hosted its own South by Southwest or Silicon Valley Innovation Summit, conferences that have positioned Austin and San Francisco as tech hubs on a global scale. Daniel Ek, founder/CEO of Spotify, and Ash Pournouri, founder of At Night Management (Avicii), are seeking to change that with the inaugural Symposium Stockholm, scheduled for June 8 to 13 and anchored by the tech- and music-based Brilliant Minds Conference on June 11 and 12. Ek argues that Sweden already is a model for the future of content…

ON MAY 2, VIN Scelsa — a pioneer of free-form radio, a warm and wise voice on New York’s airwaves and a hero to a generation of DJs through his stints on WFMU, WNEW, WXRK and most recently WFUV and SiriusXM — will air the last installment of his decades-long show, Idiot’s Delight, on WFUV. Scelsa, 67, shares some parting thoughts on his nearly 50-year-long career. After all these years, there were only a couple of ways that it could end. One was that I’d drop dead or get so sick that I couldn’t work anymore. Another was that I’d get fired. But another is the way I chose: that I’d decide when and how it ends, which is very rare. Usually, the DJ never has a chance to say…

ROCK IS “MORE THAN MUSIC, MORE THAN FASHION,” Joan Jett told the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 30th annual induction audience. “It’s a subculture of rebellion, frustration, alienation and the glue that set several generations free.” The rocker, who was the evening’s first honoree, celebrated with a star-studded lineup of inductors that included Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Fall Out Boy and Miley Cyrus, who noted that Jett is “what Superwoman really should be.” Bill Withers, who joined Wonder and John Legend for “Lean On Me” in his first public performance in years, called it “the largest AA meeting in the Western Hemisphere.” Other notable moments: Patti Smith’s teary speech where she said Lou Reed’s “consciousness infiltrated and illuminated our cultural voice” and Leon Bridges’ performance of The “5” Royales’…

BEST PLACE FOR A PRE-SHOW DRINK Russian Samovar, 256 W. 52nd St. “I love good vodka. This place has got 50 infused ones that they make right there. There’s always someone playing the piano. I’ve been known to go up there and sing, surrounded by really old-school Russian guys.” BEST POST-SHOW HANGOUT Bar Centrale, 324 W. 46 St. “I go there afterwards rather than before because all the casts converge there. It’s great people-watching, and they make great drinks.” BEST THEATER TO CATCH A SHOW The New Amsterdam Theatre, 214 W. 42 St. “It’s gorgeous, and they renovated it [in 2014]. That’s where I did an Actors Fund concert of Chess. We rehearsed for a week, so I really got to know the ins and the outs of the theater.”…

THE CAUSE Avril Lavigne released an inspirational new single, “Fly,” on April 16 to support the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, to be held July 25 to Aug. 2 in Los Angeles. “I’ve always been touched by people with disabilities and illnesses, so I wrote this song for them,” she says. “It has helped me through some dark moments.” All proceeds from sales of “Fly” will support the Special Olympics; an iTunes download also includes a video starring Lavigne and Special Olympics athletes. The singer, 30, aims to perform the track at the opening ceremony, but isn’t sure she’ll be well enough after a long bout with Lyme disease, which she contracted in 2013. THE BACKSTORY Lavigne started writing “Fly” two years ago for the Avril Lavigne Foundation, which she…

ON MAY 31, 2014, AT THE AMERICAN Airlines Arena in Miami, Romeo Santos brought a girl in her 20s out of the crowd to join him onstage in front of 19,000 fans. Wearing tight jeans and a cropped top, she balanced on high heels and constantly pushed her long, blonde hair back from her face. Santos was dressed all in red — red pants, red jacket — and behind him was a bed draped in red velvet. He asked the girl — tonight’s girl, because Santos does this every night he plays, whether it’s for 19,000 people in Miami or 90,000 in Buenos Aires — her name. Mariana. “SEX IS A VERY POWERFUL TOOL, AND IT’S WHAT STICKS IN PEOPLE’S MINDS.” “Mariana,” Santos repeated into the microphone. “Do you like…

Mexico Breakthrough star Millennial acts have ensured the future of regional Mexican music, and cowboy-hatted Julión Alvarez leads the pack. Alvarez is currently Spotify Mexico’s No. 1 artist for 2015. Big biz news Mexican TV giant Televisa premiered the music reality show Me Pongo de Pie in April. Mexican stars Cristian Castro and Espinoza Paz and former Mecano vocalist Ana Torroja judge family members who sing together in the weekly competition. Dominican Republic Breakthrough star Hip-hop sensation Mozart La Para, whose streetwise image contrasts with the manicured looks of Dominican bachata stars. His single “Llegan los Montro Men” is in the top 20 of Billboard’s Latin Rhythm and Tropical Songs charts. Big biz news The Dominican version of the familiar dembow beat, as heard in reggaetón, has taken over youth…

ON THE BASIS OF ITS 13 TOP 10s ON THE HOT Country Songs chart prior to Jekyll + Hyde, it’s tempting to describe the Zac Brown Band as unreconstructed Southern country-rock. That pun on historical Reconstruction is deliberate, given the Georgia-based group’s fondness for larding platitudes on faith and patriotism into its deep-fried tributes to romance and laidback good times. As a wildly popular live unit that routinely sells out stadiums, though, ZBB earns a tag with much more expansive connotations: jam band. Yes, it’s one with roots more in Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Band, gospel and bluegrass than in Phish or The Dead, but it’s just as exploratory and genre-bending in its multi-instrumental workouts. The 2013 EP The Grohl Sessions Vol. 1 hinted at the band’s eagerness to break out…

Love Somebody NASH Icon The country legend forgoes radio fare for mature ballads There’s really no template for Reba McEntire to follow at this point. She’s a star of a certain age — 60, if you can believe it — who’s in the Country Music Hall of Fame but still has the drive to make radio-relevant music at a time when country airwaves skew spring break-ish. The singles from her last LP, 2010’s All the Women I Am, seemed engineered to compete with a new generation, and the anxiousness showed. That makes it all the more satisfying to hear her sound so comfortable in her skin on Love Somebody. McEntire turns in lusty, emotionally committed performances throughout, letting one line catch in her throat and the next blaze with intensity.…

PETER, BJORN & JOHN “HIGH UP (TAKE ME TO THE TOP)” INGRID Who knew PB&J had another breezy summer jam in them? The Swedish trio rediscovers the spry hipster-pop of 2006’s “Young Folks” with “High Up,” replacing that inescapable whistle with junkyard percussion and stoned vocals. —JASON LIPSHUTZ GIORGIO MORODER FEATURING SIA “DEJA VU” RCA Moroder’s disco revival tour continues with “Deja Vu,” a glistening dance cut featuring Sia in straight siren mode. The singer’s enunciation here makes notorious jumbler Ariana Grande sound articulate in comparison, but her longing lyrics in the chorus — “I’ve fallen for you, got nothing to lose” — thankfully go unobscured. —J.L. TAMIA “SANDWICH AND A SODA” DEF JAM Soulstress Tamia goes full sultry on the man-catering “Sandwich and a Soda,” the first single off…

The 21-yearold Colombian artist‘s urban sound has evolved into more uptempo, danceable pop that fits his matinee-idol looks. The shift follows his stint as a judge on the Colombian TV talent show The Voice Kids, which helped Maluma (real name Juan Luis Londoño) amass 3 million Instagram followers. Newly signed to Sony Music U.S. Latin, his upcoming album, Pretty Boy/Dirty Boy, finds him collaborating with different producers for a more international sound. The year ahead More than 100 live shows, mostly in Latin America. At the conference Will be on the “TV and the Music Star panel” on April 28…

Nicky Jam, 35, first rose to prominence in the 1990s and early 2000s as a collaborator and friend of fellow Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee. While Yankee became a star, Jam struggled “with the streets, with alcohol, with drugs,” he says. In 2010, he made a fresh start in Colombia, where a new breed of reggaeton artists was rising, and has since landed four hits on Billboard’s Latin charts — most notably “El Perdon” (Forgiveness), featuring Enrique Iglesias, which hit No. 1 on both the Hot Latin Songs and Latin Airplay tallies. A new album is due this year, and he has signed deals with Sony Music U.S. Latin and Sony/ATV (for his worldwide publishing). In his words “Once I fell to the floor, I had to come back…

THE KEY MOMENT IN THE CAREER OF THE BEST-selling Latin American artist of all time came when he was persuaded to sing in another language. No, not English — Spanish. In 1965, Brazilian singer-songwriter Roberto Carlos — already a big Portugese-language star despite coming from the more remote province of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, six hours northeast of Rio de Janeiro — was approached by A&R directors of Brazil and Argentina from CBS Records, the international arm of Columbia Records. In 1965, the now 72-yearold singer says, “they decided to launch me in the Hispanic market through Argentina. I believe the first [Spanish] song was ‘Mi Cacharrito,’ and I was so excited at the opportunity. I thought, ‘My God, I come from Cachoeiro, and now I’m going to record in another…

THREE CHEERS FOR OMI After winning over crowds worldwide, OMI’s “Cheerleader” (Ultra) is hitting in America. San Francisco top 40s KMVQ and KYLD are leading the way, with the song among each station’s 20 most-played titles in the week ending April 19. Just as Robin Schulz revived Mr. Probz’s “Waves” with a remix, fellow German DJ Felix Jaehn’s reworking of OMI’s track, first released in 2012, has spurred its stateside start. RAY SHINES Michael Ray bullets at No. 23 on the Country Airplay chart with his first hit, “Kiss You in the Morning.” The Florida native made an earlier impression with TV audiences as the winner of The CW’s 2012 reality competition The Next. He recently supported Sam Hunt on tour and made his Grand Ole Opry debut (April 24)…

One of the eight remaining hopefuls on the eighth season of NBC’s The Voice, Sawyer Fredericks (above) debuts on the Billboard Artist 100 at No. 82. The folk-rock singer (a member of Pharrell Williams’ team in the competition) starts with all of his activity from digital song sales as his cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” enters Digital Songs at No. 25 with 46,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music. Fredericks performed the song on the show’s April 13 episode. Fredericks’ version of “Imagine” also begins on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 98, marking the fifth cover of the classic to reach the chart. After Lennon’s original rose to No. 3 in 1971, remakes followed by Tracie Spencer (No. 85, 1989), Jack Johnson (No. 90, 2007), American Idol finalist David…

Your latest album,Second Hand Heart, debuts at No. 18 on the Billboard 200. How does the sound of this project differ from previous releases? It’s not specific in terms of reference to the sonics or material, but rather the intent. There’s an immediacy to the performances that have that sound of [1986’s] Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. or [1987’s] Hillbilly Deluxe. It came out of a moment from the clubs back in 1982 and 1983; they dubbed it “cow punk” because there were former punk musicians who had started to discover country music in a West Coast way. I never really explored the term “cow punk” in a sonic way or presented myself in that musical context. Did your personal life inspire this LP at all? I don’t write from the…

Drake earns his sixth top 10 hit on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart with “My Side,” which arrives at No. 9. The rapper announced the song as a bonus inclusion on the April 21 physical release of his recent album, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, which previously was only available as a download. “My Side” becomes Drake’s 23rd chart entry, extending the Canadian MC’s lead among all artists for most appearances on the young chart, which launched in May 2014. Elsewhere on the chart, comedian Amy Schumer scores a No. 19 debut with “Milk Milk Lemonade,” a parody of pop music’s ongoing big booty obsession. The track’s video, which premiered April 12, teases the third season of the comedian’s Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Schumer, and…

Two female-fronted hard rock bands continue to make waves in the heavily male-dominated rock format. Halestorm (above), led by singer Lzzy Hale, scores its first No. 1 on Top Rock Albums, a career-high rank on the Billboard 200 (No. 5),and its best-ever sales week as Into The Wild Life starts with 52,000 copies sold in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. It notched its previous best week with its preceding studio album, 2012’s The Strange Case Of…, which started at No. 7 on Top Rock Albums and No. 15 on the Billboard 200 with 24,000 sold. The band also tops Hard Rock Albums for a second time, making it the only female-fronted group to lead the list twice since the chart originated in 2007. Meanwhile, fellow female-fronted…

Singer Lauren Daigle vaults to No. 1 on Top Christian Albums as her debut full-length album, How Can It Be, zooms 34-1 with 16,000 copies sold in the week ending April 19, according to Nielsen Music. (The album arrived on the chart the week of April 13 with about 1,000 sold due to pre-street-date sales.) The album, which was released April 14 through Centricity/Capitol Christian Music Group, follows Daigle’s same-named EP, which climbed to No. 18 in January. Daigle’s rise to the top also gives her 11-yearold label, Centricity, its first chart-topper. Elsewhere on Top Christian Albums, rock band Needtobreathe nets its fifth top 10 set with Live From the Woods at Fontanel (No. 2 with 7,000 sold), and veteran star Amy Grant collects her latest top 10 with Be…

WITH HER BALD HEAD AND BREATHtaking vocal style, Sinéad O’Connor attracted plenty of attention with her searing 1988 debut album, The Lion and the Cobra. But it was her 1990 follow-up, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, that propelled the Irish singer-songwriter, then 23, to pop-culture ubiquity. Driven by the Prince-written single “Nothing Compares 2 U” and a music video in which she shed real tears, her sophomore set topped the Billboard 200 on April 28 and remained there for six weeks. (The song had begun a four-week reign atop the Billboard Hot 100 a week earlier.) O’Connor found her mass appeal an ill fi t. She refused to perform in concert if the U.S. national anthem was played beforehand — prompting Frank Sinatra to threaten to “kick…