Innholdsfortegnelse for March 30, 2019 i Billboard Magazine

WHEN GINA TUCCI WAS 16 years old, her father — a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist for 1970s/’80s Columbia R&B act Gary’s Gang — brought her to a pitch meeting with an A&R executive. Having grown up with a studio in her parents’ Long Island home, Tucci had learned how to write and record vocals and produce on a Korg sequencer at a young age. As she watched her father’s dance song get ripped apart, she couldn’t help but note that her own thoughts on his track weren’t far off. On the train back from the city, a light went on in her head. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, that’s a job?’ ” she says now, her feet propped on a chair in an artists lounge at Atlantic Records’ midtown…

ON A COLD NIGHT IN LATE January, Ben Platt stepped behind the microphone in a plush private space at New York’s Bowery Hotel. Atlantic Records chairman/COO Julie Greenwald had just gushingly introduced him to the crowd, a mix of industry types and Broadway stans there to hear Platt perform songs from his upcoming solo debut, Sing to Me Instead. Up to the moment he hit the stage, the Broadway star turned pop singer looked like he might rather bolt instead. But when Platt opened his mouth to sing, the crowd’s eyes widened and mouths silently formed “wows.” Playing an anxiety-ridden teenager in Dear Evan Hansen, Platt, 25, won a Tony for performing anthem after anthem each night, often while crying, spitting, contorting his body — or some combination of…

Reba McEntire always felt she had to hit certain milestones in her career: star in a hit TV show, perform on Broadway, record a duets album with pop stars like Kelly Clarkson and Justin Timberlake (which hit No. 1). But for her upcoming 29th studio album, the country superstar had only one objective. “I wanted to record music that made me happy,” says McEntire, 63, “without worrying where it would or wouldn’t get played.” After all, with 16 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 24 Billboard 200-charting albums (two of them reached the top) and three Grammy Awards, she no longer has anything to prove. Stronger Than the Truth, McEntire’s sixth project for Big Machine Records that will arrive April 5, marks a return to the Oklahoma native’s roots.…

1 Marshmello The 26-year-old DJ-producer, still never seen without his signature white helmet, followed his second studio album, 2018’s Joytime II — his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart — with the blockbuster Bastille collaboration, “Happier,” which has spent 28 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2. Ever prolific and genre-savvy, Marshmello began 2019 with the Hindi-language “BIBA,” featuring Indian stars Pritam and Shirley Setia. His latest win: signing an exclusive two-year residency at new Las Vegas super-club KAOS for $60 million. TOP GIG In February, the avid gamer performed the first in-game Fortnite concert for his “Mellogang,” drawing over 10 million virtual attendees. STAT Within a year of releasing Joytime II, his Apple Music exclusive Marshmello: Fortnite Extended Set became his second…

Star Sells A Million Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack surpasses 1 million copies sold in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. It sold 16,000 copies in the tracking week ending March 21, bringing its cumulative sales sum to just over 1 million after 24 weeks. The album is Gaga’s fourth million-selling title and her first to reach the mark since May 2011, when Born This Way launched with 1.1 million sold in its first week; it has sold 2.4 million in total. Gaga’s other million sellers: The Fame (4.8 million) and The Fame Monster (1.7 million). The most recently released album prior to A Star Is Born to sell a million was another soundtrack: The Greatest Showman. It arrived Dec. 8, 2017, and…

Combs Takes Five Again Luke Combs (above) becomes the first artist to concurrently rule all five country charts for multiple weeks as he leads Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, Country Streaming Songs, Country Digital Song Sales and Top Country Albums for a second frame simultaneously. He first staged the quintuple achievement three weeks earlier. One other artist has led all five charts simultaneously for a week: Kane Brown, on Oct. 28, 2017. Combs’ “Beautiful Crazy” tops all four country song charts and makes for a personal best on Country Airplay, where it dominates for a fifth week, with 39.4 million audience impressions in the week ending March 24, according to Nielsen Music. Combs passes his prior longest stay atop the tally: “She’s Got the Best of Me” reigned for…

Triple Crown For ‘Con Calma’ “Con Calma,” by Daddy Yankee (above) and featuring Snow, crowns three Latin airplay charts as it climbs 2-1 on Latin Pop Songs. It’s also No. 1 for a third week on the overall Latin Airplay tally and the Latin Rhythm Airplay chart. On Latin Pop Songs, the track rises with a 13 percent jolt in plays during the week ending March 24, according to Nielsen Music. It earns Daddy Yankee his fifth No. 1 and Snow his first. “We continue to open the way for culture with another leader in Spanish, not only in the U.S. but worldwide,” says Daddy Yankee of the global hit. “My great respect for Snow and [co-producers] Play-N-Skillz, as well as for Chapkis Dance Family, who are captivating in…

LEGEND Bullets indicate titles with greatest weekly gains. Album Charts Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 500,000 albums (Gold). RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 1 million units (Platinum). Numeral noted with Platinum symbol indicates album’s multi-platinum level. RIAA certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 10 million units (Diamond). Numeral noted with Diamond symbol indicates album’s multi-platinum level. Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 30,000 units (Oro). Latin albums certification for physical shipments & digital downloads of 60,000 units (Platino). Numeral noted with Platino symbol indicates album’s multiplatinum level. Digital Songs Charts RIAA certification for 500,000 paid downloads and on-demand streams where 100 streams equal 1 download (Gold). RIAA certification for 1…

NORMALLY, MUSIC FANS WOULD have to hang around after a concert and snag a setlist from a stagehand. But best-selling authors Dave Eggers and Nick Hornby are launching a charity auction, Setlists for Young Voices, to save them the trouble, with “the idea of the setlist as a historical artifact that you can frame and put somewhere that will always make you smile,” says Eggers. “It’s just a piece of paper, but it’s an artifact of a moment, and it has all your favorite songs written on it.” Eggers and Hornby pooled their connections in the music world, from friends to former interviewees, to collect over 70 signed setlists to auction as a benefit for their nonprofit organizations — 826 Valencia and Ministry of Stories, respectively — as well…

On Dec. 13, 2018, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2019 class of inductees. Stevie Nicks was nominated alongside Janet Jackson, Radiohead, Roxy Music and 11 others. What separates Nicks? She’s already in — with Fleetwood Mac (the band was inducted in 1998). At the ceremony in New York on March 29, Nicks will become the first woman to be inducted twice, and the only member of Fleetwood Mac to be inducted on her own. (Of the hall of fame’s current 322 members, only 44 are women. The first female inducted was Aretha Franklin, in 1987.) Nicks is “not only a rock legend, but an inspiration for young artists making music,” says Joel Peresman, president of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. At the…

No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart Early (dub)steps Born Oliver Tree Nickell in Santa Cruz, Calif., to parents who met at a flute class, the 25-year-old grew up in a house filled with instruments and picked up guitar early on. In middle school, he had his first taste of performing while fronting a ska band called Irony. His tastes later broadened to include hip-hop and electronic music; by the time he was 18, he was entrenched in the dubstep community, even performing alongside Skrillex and Nero. Down in the DMs In August 2013, Nickell dropped a genre-blurring debut under his middle name on SoundCloud, but it was his Thom Yorke-approved cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” that ultimately made waves. Soon after its release, Nickell received a Facebook…

When dance music exploded from a grass-roots to a mainstream movement, the world’s leading live-event companies, labels and agencies scooped up its biggest talents. But an indie spirit still persists in the industry — and recently, independent players have been some of the genre’s standout success stories ARTIST YAEJI The rising DJ-producer released her first and second EPs with boutique label Godmode, the first of which included breakout hit “raingurl.” But she chose to go independent at the start of 2018 in an effort to control the pacing of her career and work with like-minded friends. “The most important part is the feeling of you and the people you care about growing together, at the right pace, and with the right ideas and intentions,” she says. “If it’s not…

STEPHANIE LaFERA, 39 Owner/CEO, Little Empire Music Set within an unassuming yellow house on a sleepy street in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, Little Empire Music is aptly named: The management company has just 11 employees who on a Monday morning buzz around the kitchen and living room. What was once a bedroom is now owner/CEO Stephanie LaFera’s office. A drum’n’bass fanatic who grew up in Atlanta going to clubs and raves, LaFera is warm and direct — qualities that have helped her pass on projects she’s not wild about and jump on the ones she loves. She got her start in the early 2000s at MCT Management in New York, where the roster included Moby and Groove Armada. There she signed her first artists, including Kaskade, whose career she…

Pinkfong Swims To No. 1 Pinkfong tops the Emerging Artists chart for the first time, largely driven by its viral single “Baby Shark,” which ranks at No. 12 on the Streaming Songs chart with 21.7 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music. The track’s parent album, Pinkfong Presents: The Best of Baby Shark, spends a second week atop the Kid Albums list (4,000 sold). Rapper 42 Dugg makes his Billboard chart debut, entering Emerging Artists at No. 43 as his debut LP, Young and Turnt, launches at No. 4 on the Heatseekers Albums tally (1,000 sold). Plus, former Fifth Harmony member Ally Brooke arrives at No. 47 on Emerging Artists as her new single “Low Key” (featuring Tyga) bullets at No. 26 on Mainstream Top 40 and jumps 33-27…

ASTRO Blasts To New Peak A month-and-a-half after reaching the Social 50’s top 10 for the first time, ASTRO (below) betters its peak on the list by shooting 35-7. The six-member K-pop group reaches its new high thanks to posts about its latest U.S. tour, which hit New York (March 19) and Dallas (March 21) during the tracking week (March 15-21), with stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco still to come. The group’s 366,000 Twitter reactions, a bump of 156 percent (according to Next Big Sound), were also assisted by tweets about member Yoon San-ha’s 19th birthday on March 21. At No. 17, Katy Perry re-enters the Social 50, hitting the top 20 for the first time since Oct. 27, 2018, and for just the fourth time in…

‘Fight’ Is A Winner Disturbed (above) scores its sixth straight (and ninth total) No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock airplay chart, setting a record for the most leaders in a row as “A Reason to Fight” rises 3-1. Each of the band’s entries has reigned dating to “The Vengeful One” in August 2015, encompassing four chart-toppers from that year’s Immortalized and the first two singles from 2018 LP Evolution. Disturbed breaks a tie with Three Days Grace, which logged five consecutive No. 1s between 2012 and 2015. Cage the Elephant’s “Ready to Let Go” tops a third airplay chart, lifting 2-1 on Triple A. The Kentucky rockers’ third No. 1 on the list (and first since “Mess Around” in February 2016) spends a third week atop both the Alternative…

‘Here’ Comes Murphy William Murphy (above) earns his second No. 1 on Top Gospel Albums as live set Settle Here bows with 3,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. Murphy first started at the summit with Demonstrate in July 2016. Another live release, Todd Dulaney’s To Africa With Love, recorded at Every Nation Church in Cape Town, South Africa, follows with a No. 2 entrance (1,000 units). Dulaney adds his third top 10 after the No. 1s Your Great Name in 2018 and A Worshipper’s Heart in 2016. On Top Christian Albums, Chris Tomlin’s Holy Roar: Live From Church debuts at No. 7 (4,000 units). Recorded live in Nashville, the set marks Tomlin’s 12th top 10, a total that includes seven No. 1s. Elevation Worship earns its third…

REZZ Isabelle Rezazadeh’s father was, reasonably enough, worried. It was 2013, and teenage Isabelle was out of high school, living with her parents on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and partying a lot, ditching her waitressing shifts at the Hard Rock Cafe to go to music festivals with her friends. When home, she stayed in the basement, reading — self-help books, essays on psychology, the dictionary. “My dad literally thought I was going to end up being, like, a basement rat that didn’t leave the room,” she says. Those fears only escalated later that year, when Rezazadeh spent all of her waitressing money to fly to Los Angeles for electronic music festival Day of the Dead. Deadmau5 was headlining, and watching his set, a vision of her future…

HATERS LOVE TO POINT OUT THAT DRAKE didn’t really start from the bottom, but there’s zero debate about where he is now: on top. The superstar is the No. 1 artist of the first 30 years of Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart, dating to the list’s launch on March 11, 1989. Since he first landed on the survey in 2009, he has proved a near-omnipresent force, scoring a trinity of chart records for the most No. 1s (20), top 10s (74) and overall appearances (142). Drake edges out No. 2 artist Jay-Z, who notched his 40th top 10 in 2018. Lil Wayne ranks third, powered in part by 11 No. 1s — second only to Drake — including his latest, the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Mona Lisa,” last October. Meanwhile, Macklemore…

Round 2 For Death In Sleepy Week Juice WRLD’s Death Race for Love lingers for a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning 74,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 21, according to Nielsen Music. That’s down 55 percent compared with its chart-topping opening sum of 165,000 units. Death Race leads a very sleepy Billboard 200: There are no debuts in the top 10 and just two on the entire chart. Just how snoozy is the new tally? The highest debut comes in way down at No. 153 (Chief Keef and Zaytoven’s Glotoven). The last time the highest new entry was ranked so low — and there were just as few debuts — was on the Jan. 12 chart. That week, only one album…

AIRPLAY DATA COMPILED BY RADIO SONGS: The week’s most popular songs, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen Music. Stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. DIGITAL SONG SALES: The week’s top-downloaded songs, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music. POP/RHYTHMIC/ADULT: The week’s most popular current songs at mainstream top 40, rhythmic, adult contemporary and adult top 40 formats, respectively, ranked by radio airplay detections, as measured by Nielsen Music. Songs are defined as current if they are relatively recently-released titles, or songs receiving widespread airplay and/or sales activity for the first time. Stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See Charts Legend on billboard.com/biz for complete rules and explanations. All charts © 2019,…

Mill’s First Rhythmic No. 1 Meek Mill (above) lands his first chart-topper on Rhythmic as “Going Bad” climbs 2-1. The song, which features Drake, rises 4 percent in plays in the week ending March 24, according to Nielsen Music. The move also seals Drake’s record-extending 24th leader since the ranking launched in 1992. “Bad” sustains its strong showings on other radio formats: It holds atop Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop for a third straight week and remains at No. 2 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay for a second frame. Steady airplay helps the collaboration return to the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 after a 14-week absence as it lifts 14-10 (see page 3). Plus, ScHoolboy Q earns the highest debut on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as “Numb Numb Juice” begins at No. 25. The arrival…

One ‘Giant’ Step Calvin Harris (above) and Rag’n’Bone Man rise 2-1 on Dance Club Songs with “Giant.” The track was remixed by Robin Schulz, Purple Disco Machine and Laidback Luke, among others. The DJ’s seventh leader, and the deep-voiced singer’s first, previously became Harris’ 12th top 10 among 22 entries, dating to his first visit to the chart in 2011. On Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, “Giant” returns to the top 10 at a new peak (11-9). Atop Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Marshmello and Bastille reign for a 27th week with “Happier.” The total ties The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” (featuring Halsey), in 2016 and 2017, for the second-most frames at No. 1 in the chart’s six-year history. Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s “The Middle” leads with 33 weeks at the summit in 2018.…