Innholdsfortegnelse for 5/28/2016 i Billboard Magazine

Guy Clark, a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame whose songs were recorded by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, George Strait, Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney and many others, died May 17 after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 74. Chesney, who covered Clark’s “Hemingway’s Whiskey” on his 2010 album of the same name, remembers the singer-songwriter. “When I got to Nashville, Guy Clark was one of those names you knew. It meant a level of songwriting few attained, but it also meant songs that contained the heart of real life. “I won’t say he intimidated me as much as I was always blown away by the artistry he brought to homegrown tomatoes, old men, free-spirited women. He had grace and compassion for the people he wrote about, and…

THE PULSE OF MUSIC RIGHT NOW IN 2014, FOUR YEARS AFTER HE TOPPED charts with debut hit “Cooler Than Me,” singer-songwriter-producer Mike Posner found himself on a different kind of summit: a mountain in Utah. That’s where he exiled himself after he was released by his label, RCA, his recording career in limbo. “I felt trapped,” he says, sitting in a London pub on a late spring afternoon. “By my possessions, my lifestyle, everything. So I bought this creepy van with a bed in the back, packed the clothes that fit and donated the rest, and drove to Utah. I lived out of that van with my guitar. I wanted to see if I could be happy like that. And you know what? I was.” Two years later, Posner, 28,…

Ty Dolla On Kylie Kiss: Huh? If hip-hop artist Ty Dolla Sign and Kylie Jenner got a thing going on, he’s not saying. On May 13, the “Blasé” rapper greeted a long line of fans at the HUF clothing flagship store in Los Angeles where his collaboration with the brand on a line of T-shirts, socks and bandanas was unveiled. As he signed posters, Overheard asked him about media reports that he was spotted kissing Jenner’s neck at a party the previous evening and may be quietly dating her. A smirk crossed his face before he insisted, “That’s crazy. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Then, turning to a member of his entourage, he asked, “Did you see me kiss Kylie last night?” The dutiful reply: “I didn’t…

“After I worked so hard for what I have, and shared so much, the greedy are never satisfied.” —NICKI MINAJ The rapper subtweeting her ex Safaree Samuels, who reportedly is suing her for unspecified damages. “I will not just f—ing be quiet and hide. Today I will say f— it and live.” —KESHA The pop star in a confessional Instagram post, detailing her struggles with depression and an eating disorder. “Goodbye, gender!” —LAURA JANE GRACE The transgender Against Me! singer while burning her birth certificate at the punk band’s Durham, N.C., show in protest of the state’s recent anti-transgender legislation. “I have abused prescription drugs and battled addiction. If I hadn’t gotten the help I needed when I needed it, I might not be here today.” —MACKLEMORE The MC speaking…

One-Two Step Gomez during her May 6 performance in Las Vegas. Backup dancers help attach the gown component. Far left: The original sketch that Gomez approved. Dynamic Duo “Selena has the same attitude we give our clothes: a sense of ease; feminine while sexy,” says Garcia (left), seen here with Kim in 2015. AS THE YOUNG FASHION LABEL MONSE has proved, a lot can happen in a year. Created by Oscar de la Renta alums Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, Monse (pronounced “mon-SAY”) counted Sarah Jessica Parker and Amal Clooney as fans of their menswear-meets-womenswear brand even before debuting its first collection at New York Fashion Week in September 2015. Their most recent moment in the spotlight, however, comes by way of Selena Gomez, who opens shows on her Revival…

This April, Billboard hosted its 27th installment of the Latin Music Conference. The two-day gathering featured a star-studded lineup of speakers and panelists and hosted more than 700 attendees. Many thanks to the wonderful sponsors for making it an excellent event.…

Future “When his songs come on it creates a physical response,” says Grande of the in-demand Atlanta rapper, who appears on the Dangerous Woman track “Everyday.” His past pop collaborations include songs with Miley Cyrus and Rihanna. Lil Wayne The trailblazing rapper contributes R-rated rhymes to Dangerous Woman rebound anthem “Let Me Love You.” “They feel like oldschool Wayne,” says Grande. The verse makes a surreal and comical counterpoint to her seductive cooing on the song. Nicki Minaj The new album’s “Side to Side,” says Grande, exemplifies how both rapper and singer “represent so many different kinds of women.” It’s the third collaboration for Grande and Minaj: They followed their No. 3 Hot 100 hit “Bang Bang” with “Get On Your Knees.” Big Sean Before Grande and…

Food Beauty & Essex “Vegas is over the top, but Beauty & Essex offers an intimate speakeasy feel,” says Kaplan of chef Chris Santos’ new restaurant/lounge. Share some small plates and order yourself a tequila cocktail. The Cosmopolitan 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Las Vegas, NV 89109 Drink Casa Fuentes Casa Fuentes, says Kaplan, “is a place not everyone knows about, and has an old-school Cuban feel.” In addition to hand-rolled cigars, there’s a “Black List” of ultra-premium liquor to sip on the outside patio. The Forum Shops at Caesars 3500 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Las Vegas, NV 89109 Dance Encore Beach Club At Night Change into swim trunks for The Wynn’s three-tiered pool complex, which offers a night swim with DJ sets on Sundays. “You can rent cabanas and…

MORNING SHOW CO-HOST/ASSISTANT PROGRAM DIRECTOR, WQHT NEW YORK; ANCHOR DJ, APPLE MUSIC'S BEATS 1 EBRO DARDEN DIDN’T EXPECT A JOB in retail would lead to radio. But being a stock boy at clothing stores in his native Sacramento was the connection to DJs who wanted first dibs on shipments from thentrendy lines like Karl Kani and Cross Colours. The young teen became friendly with local TV personality and former KSFM radio DJ Mark S. Allen, who introduced him to the station’s research director, Sonia Jimenez. She eventually offered him a job as an assistant. “Sonia wouldn’t hire dudes to do phone research because their voices were too low [and intimidating],” he recalls. “But she said, ‘If you use a different name and change your voice, I’ll give you the job.’…

THE ALBUM Fifty years ago Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream & Other Delights ruled the Billboard 200 for eight weeks, beating out The Beatles to become 1966’s top seller. But it was photographer/A&M art director Peter Whorf’s image, which depicted a seemingly nude woman covered in whipped cream, that became a cultural touchstone. THE MODEL The cover star was Dolores Erickson, now 80, who previously had posed for albums by Nat “King” Cole and Stan Kenton. “I had worked on a catamaran in a storm for a cigarette commercial,” she tells Billboard of the shoot. “This was just another job.” THE SECRET Whipped cream gets runny under hot lights, so Whorf surrounded Erickson — who actually was wearing a bathing suit underneath — with mostly cotton…

Gregory Porter, who just released his fourth studio album, Take Me to the Alley (Blue Note, May 6), requires an increasingly rare description: crossover jazz artist. The Bakersfield, Calif., native, 44, is at No. 20 on the Adult R&B Songs chart with single “Holding On,” an acoustic flip of his 2015 collaboration with U.K. electro phenom Disclosure, which already hit No. 1 on Dance Club Songs. Porter tells Billboard about the people and places that inspired his soul-inflected new album. His 3-Year-Old Son, Demyan “I’m not calculated about my music; I’m just thinking about things around me, like my son: how he operates, how he asks for 12 ice cream cones a day. ‘Don’t Lose Your Steam’ and ‘Day Dream’ — I ended up writing those songs about what I…

Like her former neighbor and current label boss Beyoncé, hard-edged Houston rapper Ingrid Burley got her start in a girl group. At age 11, as part of Trio, which was managed by Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles, she would scribble raps inspired by both hip-hop (DJ Screw, Jay Z) and country (Alan Jackson, whose ”Little Bitty” influences how she writes “to this day,” she says). “I used to be shy,” recalls Burley. “But very early on, Beyoncé would help.” Under the moniker IB3 (a nod to Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood), Burley, who’s now 29, opened for Drake and J. Cole before reuniting with Beyoncé in 2012 through an invite to write for her self-titled 2013 opus (in the Hamptons, naturally). In 2014, she signed to Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment and landed a…

Shoes are critical to the success of a show, so the goal was to make something that would add to Selena’s outfits but that she could also dance in. For Act 2, we created a mirror-embellished bootie [see inset, above] that is both sharp and comfortable. The ankle strap and platform we added to the shoes for Act 3, “The Sixth Sense,” make the pump easy to perform in despite the height. Luxury for me is to be able to re-create this balance of comfort and sexiness in every pair.…

WHILE IT BOASTS FIVE BEDROOMS, marble floors and a huge window overlooking beautiful Benedict Canyon, the Beverly Hills home Ariana Grande moved into last summer lacks any kind of decor — unless you count the picture frames leaning against a nearby wall, their corners still wrapped in cardboard. On this Monday afternoon in April, Grande sits in a plush white chair at the head of her sprawling dining room table. She’s wearing a plain black top, black stretchy pants and unmarked black sneakers, and her hair hangs over her chest in two loosely braided ropes. A MacBook, iPhone, bottle of water and Starbucks iced coffee sit before her. It’s as if a Hollywood pitch meeting is about to break out — an impression that’s reinforced when she offers a one-sentence…

THE POP-FUNK FOURSOME DNCE MAY be new to the scene, but they party like seasoned rock stars. Singer Joe Jonas’ years of JoBro fame surely helps, as does bassist Cole Whittle’s taste for bourbon: “The rest of the guys will drink that if they want to make me happy.” Do you party before going onstage? JOE JONAS Before a show, we’ll have a few drinks, we do a lot of screaming, and then we have a dance party with early-2000s joke rock. We even have Nickelback on there. COLE WHITTLE And Korn. And Smash Mouth. Joe always DJs to set the mood, and it used to be disco or funk or trap. But one time he put on Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me,” and we just started screaming and dancing.…

WE’RE LIKE FAMILY, LUDA and me. Two ATLiens!” says Ciara, referring to her Billboard Music Awards co-host. “The way we grew up in Atlanta, we didn’t have the fanciest things. I never imagined, years ago, that I’d be hosting the BBMAs.” They’ve both come a long way. Ludacris, 38, has won three Grammy Awards as a rapper and stars in the billion-dollar Fast and Furious franchise as an actor. Singeractress-model Ciara, 30, has multiple platinum albums and singles, and in March announced her engagement to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. “I was a cheerleader in high school, but I was the one who was always into the actual football game,” she says. “It wasn’t just about dancing in our cute outfits.” For the big night, though, what to wear is…

ACCORDING TO BAND LORE, ONE OF THE Go-Go’s’ first shows prompted a review as concise as it was disgusted: “The Go-Go’s are to music what botulism is to tuna.” The group was all but incompetent at the time of its first gig, at a Los Angeles club in May 1978, but the three founding members — bassist Margot Olavarria; and apartment neighbors guitarist Jane Wiedlin, then known as Jane Drano, and singer Belinda Carlisle, both still 19 — had fun with their bratty songs, including “Robert Hilburn,” a taunt of the Los Angeles Times’ old-guard music critic: “Bet you think you’re really smart/We know better, you’re a boring fart.” They added Elissa Bello on drums and Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar. Caffey also began writing catchy pop songs, including “We…

REWINDING THE CHARTS “I HEARD FIRST OF ALL THIS SOFT VOICE, but … a lot of charisma … and I said, ‘This girl’s going to be a star, whether I work with her or not,’ ” R. Kelly told GQ in its February issue. That girl was Aaliyah, and his instincts were on the money. Her debut single, “Back & Forth,” which Kelly wrote and produced, rocketed to No. 1 on the May 21, 1994, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it reigned for three weeks. Just 15 at the time, Detroit-raised Aaliyah would score more hits with her Kellymasterminded first album, Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number, which was packed with lush ballads, funky grooves and the singer’s “passionate, velvety vocals,” as a Billboard review then described them. Her instant…

Hollywood’s iconic Capitol Studios opened in 1956 with Frank Sinatra conducting the orchestra for his Tone Poems of Color album. While millions have enjoyed the music made in the famed wood-paneled studios by artists ranging from The Beach Boys to Beastie Boys, few have stepped inside. On May 21 and 22, Capitol Studios will open its door to the public for tours to commemorate its 60th anniversary. Billboard talked with vice president Paula Salvatore, who has run the studio since 1990. What is your most memorable session? Frank Sinatra’s Duets [in 1993]. We had to put him in the middle of an orchestra because he didn’t want to be in the [vocal] booth. So we built a nice booth within the band and put a roof on it, but he…

Drum Line “They were the first instrument I learned to play. During my father’s rehearsals when the band took a break, my brother Stephen and I would jump on them,” says Marley. He and his wife used to host drum circles when their children were younger, inviting neighbors with kids to come over and bang on the djembes. Golden Touches The den, Marley’s favorite room, is where he often sinks into the couch and turns on a Quentin Tarantino film. It also houses his awards — including five Grammys. THE FINCHES AND JAYS banter in the oak trees above — but Ziggy Marley has chickens on his mind. As a toddler in Kingston, Jamaica, where he was born the second child to Rita and Bob Marley, chickens would cluck through…

Billboard once again produced its signature En Vivo consumer concert series leading up to the Billboard Latin Music Conference & Awards in April. This year’s series featured top Latin artists Fonseca and Gente de Zona. Thank you to partners American Airlines, Lexus, Pepsi and Orgullosa for making it a standout series.…

Selena Gomez kicked off her TV career on Barney & Friends, graduated to Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place and now stars in movies. Her 77.8 million followers make Gomez the single most popular person on Instagram (sorry, Taylor). She made a memorable appearance as a musical guest in January, performing “Hands to Myself” on a bed, but has never hosted the show. Gomez has sent both of her studio albums to No. 1 on the Billboard 200: Stars Dance in 2013 and Revival in 2015. Ariana Grande played Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and the spinoff show Cat & Sam. In 2015 she gueststarred on Fox’s Scream Queens. With 71.7 million followers, Grande is not far behind Gomez and consistently among the service’s most popular users. Grande, who also performed…

Artists planning to wear eyeliner to the 24th annual Billboard Music Awards on May 22 are best advised to invest in a tear-proof brand. “The show is going to be filled with a lot of emotion,” says Mark Bracco, an executive producer of the telecast, which, for the first time, will air live coast to coast from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, beginning at 8 p.m. ET. In addition to the choked sobs that often accompany an acceptance speech — award finalists are based on album and digital song sales, radio airplay, streaming, touring and social engagement measured by Billboard and its data partners — this year’s BBMAs will include performances by Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Fifth Harmony with Ty Dollar Sign, Troye Sivan, Meghan Trainor, Blake Shelton and…

Goos Check Chart ‘Boxes’ Twenty-five years after first appearing on a Billboard chart, Goo Goo Dolls (above) debut on the Billboard Artist 100 at No. 75. (The chart launched in 2014.) The alt-rock act — it formed as a trio in 1986 but has been a duo (consisting of founding members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac) since 2013 — starts with the bulk of its Artist 100 points from its new album Boxes, which begins at No. 16 on Top Album Sales with 15,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen Music. Goo Goo Dolls’ 11th studio album includes lead single “So Alive,” their 20th entry on Adult Top 40 (where it bullets at No. 19). Atop the Artist 100, Drake dominates for an eighth total week (tying…