Innholdsfortegnelse for April 27, 2019 i Billboard Magazine

TWO COLLABORATIONS STORM THE Billboard Hot 100’s top 10, led by Sam Smith and Normani’s “Dancing With a Stranger,” which jumps from No. 12 to No. 7. The duet also pushes 6-2 on the Radio Songs chart, up 15% to 84.1 million in audience, according to Nielsen Music. Smith adds his sixth Hot 100 top 10, while Normani notches her second as a soloist, after “Love Lies” with Khalid (No. 9, September 2018). As a member of Fifth Harmony, she reached the region with “Work From Home,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign (No. 4, 2016). Plus, BTS’ “Boy With Luv,” featuring Halsey, blasts onto the Hot 100 at No. 8, marking the septet’s second top 10 and the highest-charting track for a K-pop group. It surpasses BTS’ own “Fake Love”…

LOS ANGELES, APRIL 17…

After rapper Lil Nas X independently released “Old Town Road” — a twangy trap song that makes mention of cowboy hats, boots and horses — in December, the track gained steam early in 2019 thanks to TikTok, an app used to create and share short videos (similar to what Vine once was). Users uploaded millions of clips, tagged #oldtownroad, in which they transformed from wearing their everyday attire to cowboy clothes while the song played. By the end of March, Lil Nas X landed a record deal with Columbia, and now a remix of “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (for the third consecutive week). Thanks in part to Lil Nas X’s success story, TikTok is exploring how to…

THE “DREAMLOVER” REMIX BROUGHT MARIAH to the forefront of the club world. Not that she wasn’t known as a pop singer, but it just was like, “Mariah’s cool.” I made the track and went into the studio with her. I think she was 21. I had never had a singer come in and re-sing the track. There are very few people that Mariah will go into the studio with as far as producers go, because we always reconstruct everything for the most part. And with [the “Dreamlover” remix] we were producing a new song. The way she sang it was different, the background was different. We changed the game of remixing at that point. Mariah opened up a whole other door, and not many people at that time were…

AM GUILTY OF COVERING MENTAL health super insensitively. “Loses her mind,” “loopy” — that came up a lot. In the past, when a famous woman was experiencing a mental health crisis, there was a certain way of talking about it. Hysteria. Temper tantrum. When men go through it, people were so quick to rationalize it: This is part of his genius. If that happened today, would we have more awareness? I would hope to have improved myself. The People cover was big on many levels. There is a generation of younger people now who are much more openly talking about mental health, like Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and recently Justin Bieber. The generation of legacy artists like Mariah come from a time when these things weren’t talked about as…

“EMOTIONS” (1991) Nods to: The Emotions’ “Best of My Love” One of Carey’s sneakier lifts: The influence of the 1977 disco classic’s loping bassline and blissed-out lyrics — plus the wink of the title — are unmistakable. And like “Best of My Love,” “Emotions” builds to a rapturous, wordless climax. “FANTASY” (1995) Samples: Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” The first single from Carey’s Daydream gets its chirping synth-funk groove from a top 40-grazing 1982 hit by Talking Heads spinoff Tom Tom Club. Sampling an ecstatic beat from a minor ’80s song proved a reliable formula for Carey going forward: The pattern continued with “Honey” (World’s Famous Supreme Team’s “Hey DJ”) in 1997 and “Heartbreaker” (Stacy Lattisaw’s “Attack of the Name Game”) in 1999. “THE ROOF” (1997) Samples: Mobb…

In addition to keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and networking, the 2019 Music Biz conference will again take time to recognize both recent and lifetime achievements. The Music Biz conference’s awards and hall of fame dinner — held at the JW Marriott Nashville on May 7 — will honor British rock icon Peter Frampton with the chairman’s award for lifetime achievement, Sony Music Nashville chairman/CEO Randy Goodman with the presidential award for outstanding executive achievement, Darius Rucker with the Harry Chapin memorial humanitarian award, and Kane Brown and Bebe Rexha as breakthrough artists. Other honorees include The Orchard’s Richard Gottehrer, for outstanding achievement, and Richard Storms and Alayna Alderman of Rochester, N.Y.-based Record Archive, this year’s independent spirit award recipients. The event also will feature a performance from Country…

BTS Lands Third No. 1 BTS meets The Beatles and The Monkees in Billboard chart history as the South Korean pop group notches its third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in under a year — a rare feat also achieved by the Fab Four and the Prefab Four. BTS’ Map of the Soul: Persona debuts atop the the tally with 230,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 18, according to Nielsen Music — a career-high frame for the act. Of that sum, 196,000 were album sales — another career-best week for the group. Some artists take years to accumulate three No. 1 albums, but BTS needed just under 11 months — starting with the week it notched its first No. 1, Love Yourself: Tear…

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,…

.Paak Posts First Top Five Album Anderson. Paak (above) earns his first top five entry on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Ventura debuts at No. 2. The set earned 55,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 18, according to Nielsen Music. The singer-rapper previously claimed chart entries with the No. 9-peaking Malibu in 2016 and last year’s Oxnard, which crested at No. 6. Ventura’s arrival prompts two of its tracks to bow on Hot R&B Songs: “Make It Better” (featuring Smokey Robinson) at No. 19 and the André 3000-assisted “Come Home” at No. 25. The former also finds a warm reception on the Adult R&B airplay list (No. 24). Meanwhile, Beyoncé returns to Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Homecoming: The Live Album starts at No 4. The set arrived…

Avicii, Prince Back On The Charts Over a year after his death, Avicii (above) scales a host of dance/electronic charts with “SOS” (featuring Aloe Blacc). After its first full week of tracking, the collaboration debuts at No. 2 on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs with 10.5 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music. It’s Avicii’s first top 10 debut and highest peak since “Hey Brother” reached No. 2 in 2014. “SOS” also improves on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (8-6), Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (5-3; 6,000 sold) and Dance/Mix Show Airplay (32-9), where Avicii adds his 11th top 10. On Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Prince, who died in 2016, posts his first appearance, debuting at No. 2 with His Majesty’s Pop Life/The Purple Mix Club. The Record Store Day exclusive, a replica of a…

IT IS A SPRING AFTERNOON IN Eagle Rock, a quiet neighborhood in East Los Angeles, and Mac DeMarco is trying to find a polite way to explain his recent reclusiveness — that is, why he’s less like the wacky, rabble-rousing entertainer fans have come to know and love, and more like a lone wolf. He takes a few drags of his cigarette and shrugs. “It’s not that I don’t enjoy all of this anymore,” he says, “but the amount of — I don’t want to say ‘celebrity,’ because I’m not famous — but the amount of notoriety, especially with the internet nowadays, I’m already uncomfortable with where I’m at. Playing to as many people as possible, that’s a beautiful thing, but it taxes your soul.” The question of stardom…

Noname introduced herself to the world with her soul-baring verse on “Lost,” a track off fellow Chicago artist Chance the Rapper’s independently released 2013 mixtape, Acid Rap. Almost six years to the day since that song dropped, Noname, 27, has emerged from the first phase of her career battle-scarred, ready and willing to confront whatever comes her way and fight for what she believes in. “I sell pain for profit,” she sing-speaks matter-of-factly on “Song 31,” a rare one-off she shared in January. She’s not bragging so much as laying out the truths that she has come to accept and that she has earned: “Ain’t no labels backing me/But my tickets still selling out and I’m steady raising my fee.” Born Fatimah Warner, the soft-spoken, poetic MC blends jazz…

I met Snoop’s mother [Beverly Broadus-Green] over 20 years ago. She told me, “Calvin is going to serve the Lord,” so that’s why I worked with him: to fulfill one of his mother’s desires, to watch him give glory to God. It’s very apparent that he’s not afraid to branch out. Before he pursued the record, he posted himself listening to gospel music on Instagram a lot. The temperament of the studio was set by Snoop’s kindness. His ability to embrace life head-on without smoke screens — no pun intended, especially for him — made it easy for me.…

1 SHE SOUNDTRACKED CHILDBIRTH WITH HER OWN SONGS. When her twins, Moroccan and Monroe, arrived in 2011, Carey welcomed them into the world with a live version of “Fantasy” recorded at Madison Square Garden in 1995. “I wanted them to feel the applause when they were first born,” she said. 2 SHE GOES TO EXTREMES TO PROTECT HER VOICE. In 2006, Carey said she started sleeping with 20 humidifiers after Luther Vandross told her about the power of steam. 3 SHE CELEBRATES MULTIPLE CHRISTMASES. Less than a month after Christmas in 2016, a series of Instagram posts showed her putting up another tree. One caption: “Christmas revisited… #couldntresistmakinganotherchristmastree #thoughitsjanuary.” 4 SHE RIDES PUBLIC TRANSIT IN STYLE. The week she released 2014’s Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse, she…

BEYONCÉ Mariah Carey was the person that made me want to sing. (2001) CHRISTINA AGUILERA I discovered Mariah in my room one day, listening to the radio… I ran downstairs going, “Mommy, Mommy, I just found the greatest person in the world!” (2000) GRIMES The first time I heard Mariah Carey, it shattered the fabric of my existence and I started Grimes. (2013) BRANDY When I first got my deal… I sang “Vision of Love.” I owe [her] everything. (2008) NELLY FURTADO She kind of taught me how to sing, because, you know, [I] couldn’t really afford singing lessons. (2006) RIHANNA Her voice is an instrument. Unreal, really. (2013) WHITNEY HOUSTON Mariah is a hell of a vocalist, let me tell you. She can go. (1998) STEVIE WONDER When…

Record Store Day Delivers All hail vinyl! Record Store Day drove record-breaking music sales yet again, according to Nielsen Music. The 12th annual independent music retailer celebration, staged April 13, helped yield 827,000 vinyl albums sold in the United States in the week ending April 18, according to Nielsen Music — a record for RSD week, and the third-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991. The previous largest vinyl-album sales haul for an RSD week was in 2018, with 733,000 sold in the week ending April 26. The only two bigger weeks for vinyl album sales overall were logged during Christmas 2018 (905,000 in the week ending Dec. 27; 880,000, Dec. 20). In addition, 673,000 vinyl albums were sold through indie record stores…

Wallen Pours Another Top 10 Morgan Wallen (above) earns his second Country Airplay top 10 as “Whiskey Glasses” rises 11-9, up 18% to 23.6 million audience impressions in the week ending April 21, according to Nielsen Music. The song follows Wallen’s “Up Down” (featuring Florida Georgia Line), which led the list on June 30, 2018. Brett Young’s “Here Tonight” lengthens its stay in the Country Airplay penthouse to a second week (40.2 million, up 8%). All four of his No. 1s have now ruled for multiple weeks, as his latest follows “Mercy,” which dominated for two frames in August 2018; “Like I Loved You” (three, January 2018); and “In Case You Didn’t Know” (two, June 2017). Plus, Aaron Lewis’ third country LP, State I’m In, debuts at No. 2…

Madonna & Maluma Debut Madonna and Maluma’s team-up on the Spanish-/English-language track “Medellín” debuts at No. 34 on Hot Latin Songs. It’s Madonna’s fourth visit to the chart, while Maluma clocks his 28th hit. Released April 17, the track bows with two days of sales/streaming activity and five days of airplay. The song, a preview of Madonna’s Madame X album (due June 14), opens with 5,000 downloads sold in the week ending April 18, according to Nielsen Music, and earns the artist’s first No. 1 on Latin Digital Song Sales. Madonna was last on Hot Latin Songs in 2009, when the list was still a purely airplay-based tally. That October, she reached No. 35 with the English-language track “Celebration.” On the Latin Pop Albums chart, Sebastián Yatra logs his…

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…

INDIO, CALIF., APRIL 21 KANYE WEST BROUGHT HIS NOW FAMED SUNDAY SERVICE, WHICH HE STARTED IN January, to Coachella’s second weekend for a special Easter celebration. The service took place atop a hill built for the occasion within a Coachella campsite, and featured guest appearances from Chance the Rapper, Teyana Taylor and DMX. During the two-hour event, West debuted a fittingly spiritual new song, “Water.” He also took part in renditions of some of his classics, like “All Falls Down” and “Jesus Walks,” along with covers of Stevie Wonder’s “As” and Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life.” Chance joined him for a choir-driven take on “Ultralight Beam,” and DMX delivered an emotional prayer that brought West to tears. Attendees included Katy Perry and fiancé Orlando Bloom, Childish Gambino, Kylie…

Earlier in April, Third Man Records celebrated its 10th anniversary since launching in Nashville with a one-day festival, during which label founder Jack White made a major announcement: Co-founders Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank had been made minority co-owners. As the label’s first two employees, the Bens have overseen the release and/or reissue of 600 titles and grown the vinyl-focused indie to 45 employees, not including the staff at Third Man Pressing, which opened in Detroit in 2017. “You don’t have those goals going into it, because it just seems like you’re cut off from that huge corporate world,” says Blackwell. “So every time we put out a new record, it’s just like, ‘Holy shit.’” And while Blackwell was skeptical that the label would last six months, he and…

RECORD COLLECTOR Since debuting on Billboard’s charts on June 2, 1990 — when “Vision of Love” entered the Hot 100, among other lists — Mariah Carey has become synonymous with chart domination. Senior director of charts Gary Trust explains just how extensively she has ruled. What are her most impressive chart records? There’s her 18 Hot 100 No. 1s, the most among soloists; her 79 cumulative weeks atop the Hot 100, the most among all artists. But perhaps most striking is her unprecedented streak leading the Hot 100 in each year of the ’90s. No other artist has spent time at No. 1 on the chart every year of a decade. Which is her biggest hit? “One Sweet Day,” with Boyz II Men, holds the record for most weeks…

ANNIVERSARY The day of Carey’s birth. “I don’t count years, but I definitely rebuke them,” she has said. “I have anniversaries, not birthdays, because I celebrate life, dahling.” BLEAK A descriptor for the most wretched aspects of life, including Carey’s restrictive diet and her time on American Idol, during which she famously sparred with co-judge Nicki Minaj. DAHLING Term of endearment for Carey’s followers; term of derision for her detractors. #DEMBABIES Hashtag for the exploits of Carey’s twin children, Moroccan and Monroe, including memorizing multiplication tables, petting sharks and providing guest vocals for “Supernatural” from Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse. FESTIVE A descriptor for the most Christmasy aspects of life, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”…

Luh Kel Dances In Rapper-singer Luh Kel (above) debuts at No. 19 on Emerging Artists as “Wrong” bows at No. 39 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, marking his first entry on a Billboard chart. The track’s profile was aided by a dance challenge (#WrongChallenge) on the TikTok app, and gains by 87% to 9.3 million U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music. Seattle-based experimental metal duo Sunn 0))) (pronounced “sun”) is No. 17 on Emerging Artists as its new LP, Life Metal, bows at No. 22 on Hard Rock Albums (4,000 equivalent album units earned). Plus, indie rocker Soccer Mommy enters Emerging Artists at No. 50 thanks to a Record Store Day (April 13) release of her 2016 debut EP, For Young Hearts, new at No. 5 on Heatseekers Albums. Nearly…

Swift’s Social Return Taylor Swift (below) reenters the Social 50 thanks to a mysterious series of tweets promoting the date April 26. She returns to the list at No. 16, just her fourth appearance on the Social 50 in 2019 and her first time in the top 20 since October 2018, thanks to 265,000 Twitter mentions and 232,000 reactions in the week ending April 18, according to Next Big Sound. Normally quiet on social media, Swift has been posting various photos with no context since April 13, adding the caption “4.26” to each. The countdown naturally has led to much speculative chatter from Swift’s fans about the pop star’s upcoming plans. Meanwhile, a week after returning to the Social 50’s top 10 for the first time since August 2018,…

‘Black’ Packs A Punch A cover of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band’s “Blue on Black” — a six-week No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1998 — by Five Finger Death Punch (above) soars back onto Hot Rock Songs at a new No. 2 high (FFDP’s career best). The new rendition adds Shepherd, Brantley Gilbert and Queen’s Brian May. The track, whose new version benefits the first-responder-assisting Gary Sinise Foundation, surged by 125% to 3.7 million U.S. streams and 3,609% to 33,000 sold in the tracking week, according to Nielsen Music. It becomes the band’s record-extending 10th No. 1 on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales and launches at No. 2 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart and at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the…

Evolution Of ‘Theory’ “Love Theory” by Kirk Franklin (above) ascends 2-1 on Gospel Airplay to become his record-tying sixth leader on the list, matching Tamela Mann. James Fortune & FIYA follow with five. “Theory” marks Franklin’s first trip to the chart’s summit since July 2017, when “My World Needs You” (featuring Mann, Sarah Reeves and Tasha Cobbs) led for two weeks. “I’m so grateful to share the songs that God has given me,” says Franklin. “To see them still connect with old and new fans alike is truly humbling.” On the airplay-, streaming-and sales-powered Hot Gospel Songs chart, where in February “Theory” became Frankin’s record-padding seventh No. 1 (and second to start at the pinnacle), the track reigns for a 12th week; it leads Gospel Digital Song Sales for…