The Springfield Fire Department is investigating a fire at a home in the 1200 block of south Florence.
Crews say one person suffered minor burns when going back into the home to retrieve some items.
The fire was contained to one room, but there was smoke damage throughout the house.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
Earlier this year, Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman held a funeral for his beloved 2007 indie-pop LP Night Falls Over Kortedala. He’d built the record on a foundation of hundreds of tiny samples, none of which he’d had the resources to clear.
Still, for 13 years, the record endured, until finally it joined its sibling, 2005’s equally sample-heavy Oh You’re So Silent Jens, in the ether. Lekman’s Swiftian solution? Re-record both albums, and pad these new versions with all kinds of goodies: audio diaries, covers, and previously unreleased tracks.
On the heels of this month’s physical release of his new records – which he called, respectively, The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom and The Cherry Trees Are Still in Blossom – Lekman chatted with Billboard via Zoom about the re-recording process, the problem with copyright and his plans for the future. [Ed. note: this interview has been condensed for clarity.]
What inspired you to re-record Oh You’re So Silent Jens and Night Falls Over Kortedala, and why now?
Legalities. [laughs] The records were made in such a different time. I was at a very different point in my career. I wasn’t expecting anyone to really hear the songs. I was expecting to maybe sell a thousand copies of each record or something, and then things just took off.
Oh You’re So Silent Jens was taken down almost 10 years ago, and Night Falls had to be buried earlier this year. When Silent was taken down, I just assumed that things would continue as normal, and people would keep trading mixtapes, and the songs would live on in that way. But then streaming took over and that just made the record seem like it had never existed in the first place. There was not even a gap. There was no void. There was just nothing.
Night Falls is one of those albums I’ve listened to literally hundreds of times, but then You’re So Silent hardly at all, just due to the difficulty of getting a hold of it legally. Is that a common experience, fans just not being familiar with this piece of your catalog?
Yeah. There was a show I did where this young guy came up afterward and said, “You know, I love that new song that you played. I think it was called ‘Black Cab.’” [laughs] And that made me realize two things: one, that the record really had ceased to exist, that people were just so unfamiliar with it, and two, that the songs worked. The songs still had quality. They still did their job.
Were there any samples you had to scrap in this re-recording process that broke your heart?
On Night Falls, that record contains hundreds of samples. Some of them are tiny. I spent so much time in that micro-verse, trying to put everything together. So that was a tricky one to replace. Of course, [for legal reasons], I can’t really name any particular samples, but I do miss them. The sampler was my instrument. It was like I learned to play the guitar and then all of a sudden they said you can’t play a guitar anymore.
How does it feel to let go of a melody you’ve been singing for so many years?
I think of these records as portals, or tombstones that lead to the original records. I want people to understand that these are not the original records, that these are reconstructions of them. And I want them to look up the original records and think about the time that they were made in, because I think that it was a very interesting time. There was another conversation about how we could mix music, how we could borrow, how we could use copyright in a different way that wasn’t all tied up with major labels and venture capitalists.
It’s depressing to me how everything just changed so quickly, with regard to the distribution of music and how we listened to it. When I was making these records, I thought a lot about these things. There’s this song by the German-Brazilian artist Dillon, who wrote her own song on top of my song “Pocketful of Money,” which in turn was based on a song by Beat Happening. It’s just this beautiful string of songs tied in which each other. I think we’re missing that today.
Were there any really joyful moments of recreation? Any songs that you think came out better or that you were happy to have the opportunity to re-work?
I think “Maple Leaves” was probably that song. It was a very difficult song from the beginning, because the original contains so many samples, and it has this very particular sound that comes from the samples. It just sounds like a train that’s derailing – in a good way.
So when I was thinking of how to do it, I came to think of Joni Mitchell’s re-recording of “Both Sides Now.” That seemed to sum up a lot of the things that I was feeling and thinking when I was making these re-issues. That song just hits you so hard when it’s re-recorded by the 57-year-old Johi Mitchell instead of the 23-year-old. It made me feel like I understood what I was doing. I wanted to give “Maple Leaves” more emphasis on the bittersweetness of, at one point, being 23, feeling very confused about having your heart broken, and feeling like one day I’m gonna figure it out, and then being 41 and realizing that it’s still a big mystery. “I never understood at all” is how my song ends, and Joni Mitchell’s song ends with, “It’s love’s illusions I recall/I really don’t know love at all.”
Do you think that we’ll see more artists revisiting old work in this manner? Is that a path forward that you want artists to take, or would you rather find some other way to deal with sample ownership?
I’m hoping that we can find a different way of talking about it. I feel like it’s in the air. There is more interest in talking about these things now. But I also feel that there’s something about re-recording old work that has seemed forbidden before. When I was doing it, I liked that it was a bit forbidden. I liked that it was a bit of a sacrilege. It piqued my interest, in a way.
We’ve been talking a lot about what made you recreate these albums and the broader forces shaping this music. But I really do want to talk about the music itself, especially the sequel you wrote to “A Postcard to Nina” in the form of “The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom.” It’s very tonally different from that older song, which ends jubilantly with this refrain of “Don’t let anyone stand in your way.” Whereas, in 2022, you’re talking about Orlando, Viktor Orbán, the anti-gay laws in Russia. You can track a regression. Can you speak to the difference in the tone of those two songs?
I think of it as a joyous song in many ways. I think of it as an appreciation of what that story has meant to me and to other people. When I released “A Postcard to Nina,” I got a lot of reactions in certain parts of the world, which were like, “Didn’t happen,” or, “She’s not for real.” I mean, who cares these days? And then I would go to other places in the world where it’s a whole different situation and have people come up to me saying they went through the exact same thing or something similar. I feel like when things change in one part of the world for the better, it changes for the worse in some other part of the world. Things are still pretty grim, I think.
I’m curious about how you selected “The Linden Trees Are Still in Blossom” and all these other bonus tracks for each record. What was that process like?
I think all of them are old recordings. “A Little Lost” was released in 2007 on an EP. And there’s a few songs that I found when I was going through the old tapes and archives that were almost finished, like “Our Last Swim in the Ocean,” “When I’m Swimming,” “Eureka.” I found these instrumental recordings I had gone into a studio and recorded with various musicians. “Eureka” was found on an old four-track tape. With those songs, I remembered how the melody went and I just recorded the vocals for them. Other songs, like “Radio Energy,” for example, were B-sides. “Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death” was a very popular song at the shows I did in 2006. I used to start with that song. I remember playing it in a sports bar somewhere in Texas and just made all the regular patrons walk out of the bar.
The problem was that I have so much material from those days. The majority of it is, of course, made with samples, so I can’t release it. And the other songs are not very good. So don’t worry about it.
I loved the vocal diary entries that are peppered throughout, especially the one that opens “The Cherry Trees Are Still in Blossom.” You’re like, “If I’m dead, then my CDs are here, and I hope you like them.” It’s been almost 20 years since you recorded that message. Are you where you thought you’d be? What surprises have those 20 years held for you?
No, I never imagined that I would be here at this point. I had a job back then – I don’t know what it’s called in English – but it’s, it’s a service for people with disabilities or the elderly. It’s like a taxi service people who can’t go on public transport. I just envisioned myself staying at that job. I loved that job. It was great. And then writing songs for the fun of it.
So, yeah, a lot of stuff has happened since then, but I also feel like things have calmed down the last 10 years. When Night Falls Over Kortedala came out, it felt like things were blowing up. I used that tool, Google Trends, once, just to check my name. [laughs] This is not something that I usually do, but I was just fascinated by it. And there’s this curve when Night Falls comes out, and it gets really high. And then [2012 album] I Know What Love Isn’t comes out, and it just nosedives. And then it’s nothing after that. [laughs] But it’s a very pleasant place to be in, in my career. I do my wedding shows. I get to put out records. I get to go on touch with youth orchestras. So I’m very, very happy to be where I am.
What do you think the future holds? Can you guess at where you’ll be 20 years from now?
I think I’ll still be making music. Our time allows musicians to work in collaborations with other formats, other expressions. So I’ve been working the last five, 10 years with art galleries and writers and people in TV and movies and all kinds of things. I feel like that’s where my music belongs. I’m not just going to put out record after record. I make a record, and then, after that, I usually make some weird projects that people may not understand as well. [laughs] But it’s for myself. It’s how I keep going.
It’s been 43 years since President Jimmy Carter hosted a celebration for Black musicians on the White House lawn on June 7, 1979. Also known as African-American Music Appreciation Month, Black Music Month was formally recognized as a national, monthlong observance in 2000.
Another observance was added to the month when President Joe Biden — in the wake of protests stemming from the 2020 murder of George Floyd — declared Juneteenth (June 19) a federal holiday in 2021, commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.
In salute to both observances, Billboard is spotlighting industry events and activations that will take place throughout June.
YouTube will provide 10 prospective students of the 1500 Sound Academy with full-ride scholarships to attend the Music & Industry Fundamentals Live Online Program (which offers courses in music production, music business, engineering and more) as part of the #YouTubeBlack Music Future Insiders Scholarship program. Applicants can apply online, and enrollment is open through June 24. YouTube will also serve as the exclusive livestream partner of the iconic Roots Picnic music festival on June 4. The event will livestream via The Roots official YouTube channel. Through its #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund, which launched in October 2020, the company continues to select international grantees to receive seed funding to develop their YouTube channels, dedicated partner support from YouTube, training and workshops.
YouTube will also launch the following weekly programmed playlist series:
SiriusXM and Pandora are joining forces to launch five exclusive, limited-engagement channels and additional specialty music programs and events in honor of Black Music Month. SiriusXM unveiled two new channels saluting Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. Both the company’s 2PAC and Prince channels have also returned. Also noteworthy, Pandora’s popular Black Music Forever Radio has extended to its own SiriusXM channel, Black Music Forever Radio.
SiriusXM will also air live event specials. On Rock the Bells Radio from June 1 through June 6, LL Cool J will guide listeners through his influential album, Bigger and Deffer (1987), in celebration of the work’s 35th anniversary.
ASCAP commemorates Black Music Month on social media by featuring ASCAP members discussing the impact and influence Black music has made on them and the world. Every Friday all month-long, award-winning singer TL Cross will present fun facts about top Black music creators and their songs, available on ASCAP’s Instagram pages @ASCAP and @ASCAPUrban.
Comcast celebrates Black Music Month with a one-of-a-kind musical showcase which includes exclusive content available only on X1, Stream and Flex. The “Best of the Best” collection (available on the Black Experience on Xfinity Channel) features top-charting albums, most streamed videos, viral sensations, Guinness World Record holders, documentaries and the top five artists by decade. The collection also features a curated music video playlist by legendary music icon Quincy Jones and a partnership with REVOLT, featuring exclusive content from Lucky Daye — including a newly reimagined single backed by several talented instrumentalists, available on demand for Xfinity customers.
Rising R&B singer and Bel Air actress Coco Jones released an all-new Amazon Original song titled “Love Is War,” as part of “Credit the Culture,” Amazon Music’s celebration of Black Music Month.
Also as part of “Credit the Culture,” Amazon Music will drop additional Amazon Originals from new artists, including rapper/R&B crooner Yung Bleu; artist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist bLAck pARty; and more. Listeners can also tune in to Amazon Music’s Black Culture Radio, a multi-genre station highlighting Black artists. Amazon Music will debut Diaspora, a new playlist that will serve up the hottest new music across, hip-hop, afrobeats, and R&B—all on one unified playlist.
ASCAP Experience, ASCAP’s signature event created to inspire, educate and connect aspiring songwriters and composers, is celebrating Black Music Month with a series of events highlighting diversity. On June 8 at 3 p.m. ET, Indian-American TV/film composer Raashi Kulkarni (Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Costa Rican composer-producer Daniel Rojas (Marvel’s Hit-Monkey, M.O.D.O.K.) will come together with Universal Pictures executive Jeff Cafuir for “The Sound of Diversity: Championing Unique Voices in Film/TV Music” — a discussion in which the panelists will explain why diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are so important in the industry. Kulkarni and Rojas will also discuss their experiences with NBCUniversal’s Universal Composers Initiative, an effort dedicated to closing the gap for women, people of color and other underrepresented communities in the composing world. The conversation will take place live on Instagram @ASCAP.
Tidal teamed up with the “Mother of Black Music Month” Dyana Williams, and the National Museum of African American Music for The Official Black Music Month Playlist, a four-part series releasing every Wednesday through June. Vol. 3 is available for streaming via Tidal.
As part of the ASCAP Experience, the ASCAP Wellness Program will present “The Art of Listening: A Live Music Meditation with Beginner’s Ear” at noon ET. With contemporary classic music performed by ASCAP composer Todd Reynolds, founder of Beginner’s Ear Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim will guide an immersive group meditation that explores how sound, stillness and mindfulness are interconnected. The meditation will take place live on Instagram via @ASCAP.
Apple Music will launch Juneteenth 2022: Freedom Songs, an exclusive curated collection of 16 new original songs and covers available in Spatial Audio on Apple Music to celebrate and honor Juneteenth. The genre-spanning track list includes: 6LACK, Denzel Curry, Lupe Fiasco, Brittney Spencer and more. Artists featured on Juneteenth 2022: Freedom Songs were commissioned by Apple Music’s expert music curators.
The world premiere of HARGROVE, a heartfelt documentary chronicling the last year of legendary jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s life, will be presented at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film, directed by Eliane Henri, includes interviews with Erykah Badu, Questlove, Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper and more. Additional Black-music oriented documentaries include Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby and The DOC — about rap pioneer The D.O.C.
Rapper Cordae will make his TED Talk debut, titled “The Hi Level Mindset,” during which he will reflect on his journey from high school student to music star. Cordae will also explain the importance of performing at the highest level possible at all times.
The ASCAP Experience will host “Express Yourself: A Roundtable on Identity in the Music Industry” with Lazaro Hernandez (VP, A&R at Warner Chappell Music for U.S. Latin and Latin America), Ryan Cassata (award-winning singer-songwriter, LGBTQ+ activist) and Jamie Moore (Grammy-nominated songwriter-producer). The roundtable discussion, which will air on ASCAP’s YouTube channel, will address how each participant’s identity shapes their music career, how they’ve navigated challenges and how to create a more welcoming, accessible and nurturing music industry.
The Juneteenth Honors Award Show and Festival will kick off in Washington, D.C. with the Live Nation produced Juneteenth Honors Red Carpet Awards Show at the Historic Warner Theatre with special performances by: T.I., Rick Ross, Ledisi, Keri Hilson and more artists. Honorees include: Maxwell, Doug E. Fresh, Big Sean, Cathy Hughes (founder/chairperson of Urban One, Inc) and more. Terrence J. and MC Lyte will co-host the award show.
The Black Music Project, sponsored by non-profit arts service organization Fractured Atlas, is an extensive, engaging interactive exhibit that celebrates, promotes and preserves the history of Black American music. The project features a collection of many lesser-known stories of the inception of what we now call “American music.” The Black Music Project also visually tracks the history of Black music, focusing on Black American artists, genres and eras from the Pre-Civil War period through the birth of hip-hop at the close of the 20th Century.
In honor of Juneteenth and Black Music Month, Meta Quest’s new Soul Sessions VR concert series featuring intimate live music and interviews with Lucky Daye, Umi, and serpentwithfeet will be available via Oculus TV and Venues in Horizon Worlds through June 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The Madam Walker Legacy Center, a National Historic Landmark in Indiana, is celebrating its 95th anniversary with a Legacy Concert at Walker Theatre, headlined by Indianapolis native and music legend Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. Babyface will also be inducted into the Madam Walker Legacy Center Walk of Fame on the same day as well.
Grammy-winner 2 Chainz, will give an invitation-only concert as part of SiriusXM’s Small Stage Series in Atlanta at Terminal West, which will air on SiriruHip Hop Nation. For information on how to attend SiriusXM’s Small Stage Series featuring 2 Chainz, please visit: www.siriusxm.com/2ChainzPR.
Produced by Redrock Entertainment and Live Nation, the Something in the Water Festival returns in Washington, D.C., on Independence Ave for Juneteenth weekend (June 17 to 19). The musical event will celebrate art, culture and music with performances by: 6LACK, Adekunle Gold, Ashanti & Ja Rule,Ashe, Baby Tate, Baird, BIA, Blxst, Calvin Harris, Chloe x Halle, Dave Matthews Band, Davido, Denzel Curry, DJ Domo, Dominic Fike, Dreamer Isioma, Duckwrth, EARTHGANG, Emotional Oranges, ericdoa, Gracie Abrams, Hope Tala, Jean Dawson, Jeremy Zucker, JID, Jon Batiste, Lakeyah, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Lucky Daye, María Isabel, Mariah the Scientist, Moneybagg Yo, Montell Fish, Ogi, Omar Apollo, Ozuna, Paris Texas, Pharrell & Phriends, Pusha T, Q, Quinn XCII, Rae Sremmurd, Raveena, Rei Ami, Roddy Ricch, ROLE MODEL, Run The Jewels, Saba, Sabrina Claudio, Skepta, Skiifall, Skillibeng, slowthai, Snoh Aalegra, Syd, Teyana Taylor, Thundercat, T.I., Tierra Whack, Tobe Nwigwe, Tokischa, Tyler, The Creator, Usher, YVNGXCHRIS and more. The festival will also spotlight D.C. music with performances from Go-Go musicians including Backyard Band, Rare Essence and Sound of the City. Clipse, Justin Timberlake, N.O.R.E, Q-Tip, SZA and more will join Pharrell as special guests during his set.
The National Museum of African American Music will host the second annual State of Black Music Summit at the NMAAM Roots Theater in Nashville. Sponsored by Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records Group and Go West Creative, the event will explore the intersection of Black music and culture with industry leaders, artists and media personalities.
ABC News’ series Soul of a Nation will air a one-hour primetime special titled Sound of Freedom – A Juneteenth Celebration at 8 p.m. ET. Gospel singer-songwriter Marvin Sapp will give his TV debut performance of his new single “All In Your Hands” as part of the special. Patti LaBelle and Jon Batiste are also set to perform. Sponsored by GEICO and hosted by country music star Jimmie Allen, the program will include live performances and informative conversations with some of music’s biggest stars to highlight the musical contributions of Black Americans across various genres.
Motown Records will host musical sets on the COLORS stage as part of A COLORS SHOW concert series celebrating Black Music Month. The series kicks off with a premiere performance by the Migos’ Quavo and Takeoff of their new single “Hotel Lobby.” Additional episodes of A COLORS SHOW will be released on June 20 22. The final episode will air on June 24 with a performance by a surprise icon who will announce their signing to Motown.
Motown Records CEO and chairwoman Ethiopia Habtemariam said in a statement, “Colors is one of the most culturally relevant worldwide platforms across all genres and I’m excited about our partnership which is the first of its kind. Motown is a place where black dreams are manifested and we are proud to showcase our incredible stars. Colors is credited as one of the biggest live music channels and we are eager to present the stars of Motown today.”
Geno Shelton’s Praise God Entertainment will host the first-ever What the Funk Festival in celebration of Juneteenth. During the Indiana Juneteenth Freedom Music Festival featuring What the Funk Tour, attendees will see performances by Zapp, The Original Lakeside, Average White Band, The Bar-Kays, Klymaxx (featuring Bernadette Cooper), Trouble Funk, Circle City Band and The Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign. On Sunday, June 19, Soul Music Hall Of Fame inductee Uncle Jamz will host the inaugural What the Funk Summit whose theme is “Everything You Need to Know About the Music, the Music Business and the Music Industry.”
Notes Shelton, aka DJ Geno, “We wanted to unapologetically salute the historical Juneteenth weekend … filled with spectacular performances by iconic groups.”
B-Hen is partnering with DIAGEO to launch Joy of June, a series of local events, programming and experiences across the country that will celebrate the vibrancy of Black joy, identity and self-expression, while toasting to the creative voices powering change across local communities.
The series will kick off with the B-Hen Block Party presented by DIAGEO and its brands Smirnoff, Crown Royal and DeLeon Tequila for a Los Angeles takeover to kick off Juneteenth weekend. Events will take place in major cities including Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York through September.
Outside of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame’s June 2022 class will be inducted. Among the inductees for the walk — established by the Black American Music Association and the Georgia Entertainment Caucus — are Urban One founder Cathy Hughes, Prince, Nas, Run-D.M.C., Charlie Wilson, Tamela Mann, the Clark Sisters, Steve Harvey, Bob Marley, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and Duke Ellington.
A special performance from the Djapo Cultural Arts Institute will be held outside at the Rock Hall. Free for all guests, the event is slated to take place from 2 to 9 p.m. ET. The Djapo Cultural Arts Institute will give viewers a taste of Africa and the African Diaspora with theatrical travels through Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea and the U.S. highlighting Djapo’s dynamic dance company, community performers and international artists from each region.
The Harlem Festival of Culture will host the first Annual Black Independence Awards recognizing the best of Harlem through the outstanding leaders, entrepreneurs, artists and creators whose contributions have proven to be cultural, social and economic drivers for the Harlem community. The Awards will be hosted by hip-hop icon and Harlem native Doug E. Fresh. Honorees include TV personality, author, and actress Bevy Smith, fashion designer Dapper Dan and restaurateur and founder of Melba’s Restaurant Melba Wilson. Brownstone will perform and other notable appearances include Michael Bivins, Estelle and Ro James. The Black Independence Awards — which will include a Black-carpet, pre-reception, dinner and awards presentation — will take place at the Harlem Parish.
Los Angeles’ annual, free celebration of Black culture and community will feature performances from Buddy, Masego and Smino at Leimert Park Village. Rotation, the hip-hop/R&B brand from Amazon Music, has worked hand-in-hand with Still Rising Corporation to curate the main stage. The Juneteenth event will honor South Los Angeles’ Black community.
Composer and musical director Derrick Hodge is at the forefront of JUNETEENTH: A Celebration of Freedom — an all-star concert that will feature an all-Black symphony orchestra (The Re-Collective Orchestra) performing for the first time in the 100-year history of the iconic Los Angeles venue. Thomas Wilkins and Derrick Hodge will conduct the orchestra; Adam Blackstone and Questlove are musical directors. Produced in partnership with Live Nation Urban, the lineup includes Earth, Wind & Fire; The Roots; Lucky Daye; Jhené Aiko; Robert Glasper; Killer Mike; Billy Porter; Mary Mary; Anthony Hamilton; Michelle Williams; Mickey Guyton; Khalid; Amir Sulaiman; the Debbie Allen Dance Academy; and more.
The celebration, produced by Live Nation Urban and Jesse Collins Entertainment, will be broadcast exclusively by CNN.
Fox Soul is partnering with The Juneteenth Foundation to exclusively air the inaugural Juneteenth Honors, a music and awards show broadcasting on Fox Soul at 7 p.m ET after being taped at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C on June 16. A total of $250,000 will be awarded in scholarships to college students attending HBCUs during the show.
Sirius XM’s Soul Town will air a performance and commentary from The Manhattans as they begin the Soul Train Cruise concert at 5 p.m. ET.
The Juneteenth Unityfest, happening in Brooklyn, New York on Father’s Day, will celebrate the role that gospel music and church have historically played in uplifting the Black community and the stories of Black dads striving to uplift their own communities and families at home. Gospel greats Tye Tribbett, Deborah Cox, Israel Houghton, Mali Music and more are set to perform during the big day which will take place across several locations. The Juneteenth Unityfest will be complete with a classic, old-school neighborhood block party with DJ Spinna; the official Unityfest Concert at Prospect Park and a late night after-show at Brooklyn Bowl.
Bounce TV will present the 30th anniversary Bounce Trumpet Awards at 7 p.m. ET. Special guests who will pay tribute to this year’s honorees are: Tamron Hall, Sanaa Lathan, JB Smoove and Wendell Pierce. This year’s awardees are Courtney B. Vance (excellence in entertainment award), Stan Lathan (living legend award), Zaila Avant-garde (rising star award), Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff (Xernona Clayton award of distinction) and Princess Sarah Culberson (impact award).
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is teaming up with Nashville Music Equality (NME) to present a one-day summit that will celebrate the evolution of Black Music and its ever-growing impact on the music industry. Titled “For the Culture: Empowering Black Music Creators to Achieve Beyond Reach,” the summit will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time at The MLC’s offices in Nashville. The event will feature panels designed specifically for Black music creators. The event was spearheaded by Dae Bogan, The MLC’s head of third-party partnerships – in collaboration with NME’s Gina Miller, Kortney Toney and Shannon Sanders.
Summit speakers include:
In honor of both Black Music Month and the 25th anniversary of the iconic Wu-Tang Clan’s Wu-Tang Forever album, the MLB premiered an all-new montage featuring the group’s classic single “Reunited.” The clip showcases standout player-fan interactions including Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper exchanging hats with a fan; Seattle Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez signing autographs for children in exchange for his first home-run ball; Cincinnati Reds’ Joey Votto TikTok dancing with a young fan; and Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena giving an autographed bat to a youngster.
TikTok is hosting two hip-hop focused panel discussions as part of VidCon 2022. The first, a panel featuring musical artists Zai1k and Trinidad Cardona titled “How TikTok Is Bringing in the New School Of Sound” takes place at 2:30 p.m. PT. The second panel, “How Women in Hip-Hop Have Found a Home on TikTok,” features artists Doechii, Monaleo and Baby Tate, and takes place at 4 p.m. PT. Fellow artist Tai Verdes makes a special appearance during TikTok’s official Keynote at 3:30 p.m. PT.
GoFundMe named two women — Anne (a professional fiddle player) and Amanda (the sole Black woman violin maker on record in the U.S.) — Black Music Month Heroes. GoFundMe honored Amanda and Anne for their tremendous efforts spearheading Black artistry in the violin-making industry and creating the first violin commissioned by two Black women in the U.S.
Grammy-winner Ashanti will speak with VIBE editor in chief Datwon Thomas about the 20-year legacy of her debut album, Ashanti, at 3 p.m. ET on ASCAP’s YouTube channel. Ashanti, CEO of record label Written Entertainment, recently became the first Black female artist to co-found a Web3 company, EQ Exchange, and is also set to release her first children’s book, My Name Is a Story, on July 12 with HarperCollins Publishing.
Ashanti’s discussion with Thomas will conclude ASCAP’s Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, which will take place on @ASCAP and @ASCAPURBAN social media accounts from June 21 to 24.
Co-founder, chairman and CEO of 300 Entertainment Kevin Liles — also chairman and CEO of Elektra Music Group — will have a discussion titled “It’s a New Day” with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City about Juneteenth, Black Music Month, and advancing the culture. The conversation will be held in person from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.
Club Quarantine Live in Los Angeles, hosted by Kenny Burns, will take place at Crypto.com Arena with a star-studded lineup of special guests including Ne-Yo, Brandy, Nelly, Jadakiss, Machel Montano, Mary Mary, El Debarge, and Lil’ Mo.
The Grammy Museum, The Recording Academy, Black Music Collective, MusiCares and the Universal Hip Hop Museum will present a panel discussion titled Hip-Hop & Mental Health: Facing the Stigma Together live inside the museum’s Clive Davis Theater in Los Angeles beginning at 3 p.m. PT. Moderated by Nick Cannon, the discussion will feature panelists Adrian Miller (XYION), Claudette Robinson (The Miracles), Michael “Blue” Williams (Family Tree Services) and Dawn Richard (recording artist). Special remarks will be given by Harvey Mason Jr. (Recording Academy, CEO), Rita George (GRAMMY Museum, Chief Program Officer), and Tina Marie Tyler (Universal Hip Hop Museum, executive producer and advisory board member).
The 2022 BET Awards, hosted by Taraji P. Henson, will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Viewers can watch the ceremony on BET. With six nods, Doja Cat is the most nominated artist of the event. Fellow artists Ari Lennox and Drake are tied for second most nominated, with four potential wins each.
See the complete list of 2022 BET Awards nominees.
TikTok is hosting Diddy for a special live event. Details will be released via @musicontiktok.
Everybody wants to see a rockstar — at least, one billion people and counting do. Post Malone and 21 Savage‘s 2017 music video for their hit single “Rockstar” has surpassed a billion views on YouTube, becoming the former’s third and the latter’s first to reach the milestone.
Shot through a slightly blurry camera lens, the Emil Nava-directed visual features Posty and 21 Savage rapping about the rockstar life’s abundance of girls and drugs, while battling a harrowing set of enemies using samurai martial arts. The two rappers eventually come out on top and triumph over their opponents, with the video’s closing shots showing them staring into the camera with their faces and white clothing covered in thick blood.
Of the four Post Malone tracks to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Rockstar” has had the best run thus far. The lead single off the rapper’s 2018 sophomore album Beerbongs & Bentleys, it stayed atop the chart for eight weeks and maintained a spot on there for 41 weeks total.
Prior to the release of Beerbongs & Bentleys, Post — whose music videos for “Sunflower” and “Congratulations” previously joined the billion views club — spoke to Billboard about how “Rockstar” came together in the studio. “We were at Quad Studios,” he began. “Some kid came in, and I guess he was in the session next door and he was like, ‘Hey? Can I play you some beats?’ I’m like, ‘I guess so.’”
“You know, I’m a nice guy, I like music,” he continued. “I’ll listen to your beats. He played the beat and it was incredible. We were just vibing on it and the melody was sick. I finished my part and sent it off to [21] Savage … I feel like he has a lot of attitude. You know, he’s really got his own lane and he really doesn’t care about anything, so I figured that embodied it perfectly. He snapped on the record, and I don’t think it could have came out any better.”
Join one billion others in watching Post Malone and 21 Savage’s “Rockstar” music video below:
Mention the words “Limelight” or “Roxy” or “Tunnel” to anyone who went out in New York in the ’80s and ’90s, and chances are good they’ll get a sort of dreamy look in their eye.
These legendary NYC venues were ground zero for the city’s influential ”80s and 90s club culture, which seeped out into the mainstream both musically and aesthetically, affecting the dance scene, fashion runways and Top 40 radio for years to come.
All of these venues were directed by Steve Adelman. Originally from Michigan, in the ’80s Adelman decamped to Manhattan, where he was soon running the clubs at the center of the scene. This legendary run would be followed by club openings in Memphis and Boson, where Adelman founded the Avalon brand that would soon expand to Los Angeles, New York City and Singapore — drawing ravers, normies, celebrities, paparazzi and demographics beyond.
Through this decades-long tenure in the scene, Adelman rubbed elbows with everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Bob Dylan, and he’s now amalgamated the memories and lessons gleaned via his decades in nightlife into a book: Nocturnal Admissions: Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs. In the book — released earlier this month via Santa Monica Press — Adelman tracks his career from the new wave days to the EDM explosion, giving the lessons learned in an often cutthroat industry and the hot gossip on what was really going down int he VIP area.
Here, Adelman reflects on his career, his new book and why Bob Dylan once yelled at him.
1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?
Right now I’m in Memphis, Tennessee, where summer comes early and the humidity stays late.
2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
The LP We’re an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad. My Mom gave me the $10 needed to buy it.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now?
My dad owned a wholesale grocery company and would always say, “People got to eat.” I took it to heart, figuring they also “got to dance.” My mom is still waiting for me to get a real job.
4. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money in nightlife?
A dinner at a fancy restaurant in NYC. It was Bobby Flay’s restaurant Mesa Grill. However, the manager mistook me for John Malkovich, so he comped the whole thing. I tried a do-over the next week, where it happened again. Eventually, I went somewhere else where I got handed a check.
5. It seems like everyone that works in dance music had one sort of transformative experience with the music and the culture that made them really fall in love with and go deeper into this world. What was yours?
I got hooked in my twenties on combining dance music with production, décor and other elements, allowing me a creative outlet that I still love after over thirty years.
6. If you could go back to any era of dance music history, when would you go, and why?
The early 2000s. That era was transformative and laid the foundation for what is known as EDM today. I still remember John’s (Digweed) five-hour set to open Avalon Hollywood like it was yesterday. Maybe the fact that he had to pee in bottles due to not being able to access the bathroom have kept it fresh in my memory.
7. What effect have smartphones had on club culture?
The loss of privacy from smartphones has had two effects: many people are less inhibited, while others spend time staging photos for social media. Both effects have taken a lot of the spontaneity out of how people behave.
8. I understand that you once got chewed out by Bob Dylan. When? What for?
In 1997, I had just gotten to Boston when I was heading up the stairs to my office at Avalon and mistakenly took a left and ended up in Dylan’s dressing room. The entire second floor of the club had been retrofitted to create what looked more like a house. From ten feet away we saw each other, and I remember thinking, “oh, it’s Bob Dylan, that’s a bit odd.” Ten minutes later he demanded I be removed from the club for interfering with his pre-concert focus. Remembering the words of Lew Wasserman, “talent is a king,” I simply left and wished him a good show, but not before a bit of a stare down.
9. I also saw that you got into a spat with the late pastor Jerry Falwell. What happened?
The Moral Majority had taken up Y2K as a cause, predicting catastrophic consequences when the year 2000 hit. This had the effect of people afraid to venture out for New Year’s Eve at Avalon. This proved my toughest competitor ever, as I point out in the book, given they had a rarely used competitive advantage: evoking God and his only perceived son.
10. People get sort of dreamy, faraway looks in their eyes when they talk about going to Tunnel and Limelight back in the day. What made those places so magical?
Many people attribute it to the era, the “wild ’90s”, but it was really about the people making it happen. I was young and inexperienced but was lucky enough to be learn from some talented people like [Tunnel and Limelight owner] Peter Gatien and [nightlife veteran] Gregory Homs.
11. I imagine a decent part of running a club is catering to celebrities and VIP types. What are the secrets to keeping this clientele happy, and to keep them coming back?
When Spider Club became the celebrity club of the early 2000s, no photographers were allowed in. Of course, somehow a few “sneaked in” and got just the right shots. I quickly discovered that leaving celebrities alone was the key to keeping them coming back. You’ll rarely see me in a photo with a celeb, with the one of Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, and myself, looking mortified as I’m about to be kicked by a steer (a prop for their show The Simple Life) comes to mind as an exception.
12. Most people probably don’t understand the economics of a nightclub. What are the primary revenue drivers, primary expenses and what are they keys to keeping a club lucrative over time?
Number one on the list is negotiating a favorable lease or preferably buying the building, as this is the main fixed expense and can be a business breaker. Next, make sure you have a unique venue and/or location to ensure barriers to entry. Third is to focus on multiple revenue streams. The Avalon model involves dance nights, concerts, special events and a food offering. Start with these three things, and your chances for long term success have increased exponentially before you’ve even opened the doors
13. Your career started in the ’90s and extended into the EDM boom and beyond. Are there key differences between the ’90s club crowd and the EDM generation? How are the fans and artists different, and the same?
Big differences. In the ’90s, the focus was on the dance floor experience. This was done in extended sets, where DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Louie Vega took the crowd on journey, so to say. Today, it’s two hour “look at me” sets with over-the-top production. Now don’t get me wrong, I think what is going on now in EDM is fantastic; just not what I was brought up on. The first few times I heard David Morales spin in NYC I could never even locate the booth to get a glimpse of him. It wasn’t until I booked him a few years later that I got to put a set with a face.
14. Working in nightlife can be exhausting. How did you maintain the energy required to do what you did?
It can certainly become a 24/7 job, if allow it to be. Two things are a must, the ability to be disciplined with your time, which includes working out. On many occasions I have been talking to someone at 2:00 a.m. and then cut the conversation short so I can head home, having to be up working the next morning by 9:00. The “Steve Leave” has become a trademark of mine over the years. I also adapted boxing as both a diversion and a way to stay healthy. I highly recommend it, just not the getting hit in the head part.
15. What’s the best U.S. city for clubbing, and why? What does New York have that LA doesn’t, and vice versa? And what’s your take on Vegas?
You really can’t beat New York City. There are just so many talented, creative people there in nightlife — like Suzanne Bartsch, the House of Yes crew, Rocca Ancarola, Richie Romero and others who really know the business. Of course, this all depends on the type of nightlife you are looking for. Certainly, L.A. has the Insomniac team leading the world-class EDM scene there, and the Hollywood Group and their venues are fantastic. Vegas is a tough one. I love the world class talent, over the top venues but not so much the pricing and lack of what I’d call soul. In nightlife, money can’t buy everything.
16. In this post-covid world, what functions do nightclubs serve? Will these spaces ever be as carefree as they once were?
I think when the smoke from the pandemic clears by the end of this year, nightclubs are going to have a resurgence not seen in a while as people put a premium on social interaction and connecting. We’re also in for a reckoning with the amount of debt younger people have incurred. That, combined with high interest rates and inflation mean that club goers aren’t going to have the money to support the high prices charged in places like Vegas. So, not only do I think nightclubs will be as carefree as they once were, but more so.
17. What’s your favorite place to listen to and experience dance music?
Avalon Hollywood. The lighting and sound systems from John Lyons are still the best there is after over twenty years.
18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?
Sometimes the best decisions are those when you decide not to do something. I’ve turned down opportunities over the years, and in almost [all] cases, I’m glad I did.
19. Who was your greatest mentor, and what was the best advice they gave you?
I learned a lot from Peter Gatien and experience, equally. Peter told me, “Never build a nightclub under 2,000 capacity, so when you become successful you won’t limit your success.” Experience taught me that in the end, life is about those who love and care about you, not work.
20. One piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
Be careful what you’re chasing — because when you catch it, the running better have been worth it.
Springfield police are investigating a murder-suicide that took place over two separate scenes Wednesday.
Investigators say at 11:42 a.m., officers were called to the 1600 block of east Adams to check the well-being of a woman.
Officers received information the woman’s ex-boyfriend might be at the home with intentions to harm her.
Based on information received during the initial investigation, police determined the suspect was not at that location, so officers obtained a search warrant.
When police entered the home, they found the body of Cheryl Lamar, 59, Springfield.
The Springfield Police Department identified the suspect as Lydell Jackson, 59, Springfield.
Jackson was located by officers in a mobile home in the 1600 block of east Caravan.
The suspect barricaded himself inside and officers negotiated with Jackson while a search warrant was obtained for the trailer.
Police evacuated homes in the area during the Special Response Team’s standoff with Jackson.
When police entered the mobile hours later, Jackson was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Detectives are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Springfield Police Department at 417-864-1810 or make an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 417-869-TIPS (8477).
It’s been about eight years since Meghan Trainor took over the world — and the charts — with her refreshingly real doo-wop sound on songs such as “All About That Bass” and “Dear Future Husband.” And now, having just announced that her next album Takin’ It Back is coming this fall, she’s gearing up to do it again.
The 28-year-old singer-songwriter delivered the news Wednesday (June 22) via Instagram that the album is set to drop Oct. 21, marking her fourth full-length project since 2020’s Treat Myself — not counting last year’s Christmas record, A Very Trainor Christmas, or the 2021 reissue of her EP The Love Train with three additional tracks. Captioning a photo of the upcoming LP’s brightly colored cover art — which features the artist lounging in a floral body suit across a spiral staircase graphic design — she simply wrote: “New album TAKIN’ IT BACK out Oct 21st!”
Takin’ It Back was simultaneously announced in an interview with Rolling Stone, in which the Grammy winner revealed that the new record will feel like a return to the form of her breakthrough debut album Title. “It’s like Title 2.0,” Trainor told the publication. “It’s my old school. It’s true to myself in all the weird genres that I go to, but also modern with my doo-wop in there.”
“The lyrics are stronger than ever, and it’s still a party,” she added.
The new album will be Trainor’s first since she welcomed her first child, son Riley, with Spy Kids actor Daryl Sabara, and many of its songs will explore her motherhood journey and love for her husband. Also on the track list are collaborations with Arturo Sandoval, Natti Natasha, and Teddy Swims, as well as songs about learning to feel good again about her body after all the scarring and physical changes she experienced following her pregnancy and C-section.
“I feel like my songwriting is much better since I had a C-section,” she joked in the interview.
Check out Meghan Trainor’s Takin’ It Back announcement, featuring the new album’s cover art, below:
When Luke Combs played his current single, “The Kind of Love We Make,” for his wife, Nicole, her reaction was perhaps not what one would expect to the mid-tempo slow burner about a sexy evening of romance.
“She was like, ‘Geez,’ and she gave me one of those eye rolls,” the low-key country superstar says with a chuckle, relaxing in a low-slung chair in Los Angeles during a press stop. “We have a great relationship and we’re totally not afraid to make fun of each other either. We get a lot of laughs out of stuff like that. She’s great. She just takes everything with a grain of salt. She keeps me humble, let’s put it that way.”
Marrying Nicole is just one of the major changes for Combs since he released his blockbuster sophomore set, 2019’s What You See Is What You Get. He also turned 30 in 2020 and, on this Father’s Day, became a dad for the first time to son Tex Lawrence Combs. Given all those significant life milestones, calling his new album Growin’ Up seemed more than appropriate.
“Sometimes I feel like a college kid, and some days I feel like I’m 65 or 70 — I wouldn’t say I’m middle-aged, but it’s like I feel like a real adult,” says the CMA Awards reigning entertainer of the year. “When I walk into a room, no one’s like, ‘That can be a guy in college.’ Nobody thinks that… It’s like, time to kind of get it together fully, and dig into this life thing.”
Luke Combs
Combs co-produced the River House Artists/Columbia Nashville album, out tomorrow (June 24), with Chip Matthews and Jonathan Singleton. Its 12 radio-friendly tracks range from the autobiographical “Doin’ It” and “Used to Wish I Was” to the rollicking ode to blowing off steam, “Ain’t Far From It,” and salute to small towns, “Middle of Somewhere.” Regret-filled ballad “Tomorrow Me” lets Combs show off his fine husky twang, while on irrepressibly catchy “Outrunnin’ Your Memory,” he and Sony Nashville labelmate Miranda Lambert rue not being able to escape your ex no matter how much distance you put between the two of you.
Combs wanted the album to come out before this week, but the pandemic had other plans. Plus, playing concerts in the age of COVID-19 took a bigger toll than he expected. “The tour we did last fall was just the most draining from a mental and physical standpoint,” he says. “Now it’s way more relaxed, but at that time it was like, ‘Oh, should we even go?’ ‘Are people going to show up?’ ‘Does everybody get vaccinated?’ It was all these different things that I had never had to deal with before. I was flying by the seat of my pants, and it was like, ‘I don’t really get to work on this album. I just can’t. I don’t have any mental space’.”
Of course, it’s not like Combs even remotely disappeared from the radio airwaves in the meantime. “The Kind of Love We Make” entered the Country Airplay tally at No. 18 for the chart dated June 25, making it his second highest debut. It follows Growin’ Up’s first single, “Doin’ This,” which reached No. 1 in May, becoming Combs’ record-setting 14th consecutive No. 1 single on the chart (13 efforts with Combs as lead artist, plus his feature on Jameson Rodgers’ “Cold Beer Calling My Name”).
Similarly, his albums have taken up residence in the top 10 of Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. His 2017 debut, This One’s for You, has been on the chart for 263 weeks — more than five years — and sits at No. 6 this week, while What You See It What You Get is No. 5 in its 136 week. (Unlike with those two sets, Combs says there will be no deluxe version of Growin’ Up. “I’ve done it twice now. It’s just time to do something else,” he says.)
As with his previous efforts, Combs co-wrote all the songs on the new album, including “Tomorrow Me,” which he penned with one of his songwriting heroes, Dean Dillon, who is best known for writing multiple hits for George Strait. How the co-writing session came about sounds like a plot out of a James Bond film. After playing a songwriters night, Combs’ friend and fellow artist Ray Fulcher told Combs a woman had slipped him her number asking if he wanted to write with Dillon several months from then on a yacht in the Bahamas. Intrigued, but skeptical, Combs told Fulcher he was in.
“Then it’s a week before we’re supposed to go, and still I don’t really have any details,” Combs says. “It’s like, ‘Go to the airport and there’s going to be a private jet that you’re going to get on.’ We end up in the Bahamas and get on this little boat for two hours. And there’s this 40-something-foot yacht floating out in the Exumas, and Dean Dillon’s just on there smoking a cigarette.”
The circumstances of how he and Lambert wrote “Outrunnin’ Your Memory” is much more routine, but the results were just as thrilling. Getting together at Lambert’s manager’s office, Combs recalls, “We had met each other in passing, [but] we’d never hung out or anything like that. So, we spent the first hour just talking, having coffee or whatever and just exchanging pleasantries.”
The day before, Combs and his friend and co-writer Dan Isbell met with another artist with the intent of writing a song for that act. “We had come up with this idea called ‘When It Rains in Seattle,’ which was going like, ‘I’ll only miss you when it rains in Seattle, which is all the time.’ We really thought this person was going to be like, ‘Yes!,’ but they weren’t into it.”
Combs declines to say who the artist was, but the next day as Lambert and Combs were discussing ideas, he brought up the theme of “When It Rains in Seattle,” which Lambert loved. As the pair began crafting a new song based on that idea, Isbell hopped in his car and rushed to the writing session. “By the time he got there, we had the chorus for this song, which was a completely different song,” Combs says, “so we ended up not even writing the ‘When It Rains in Seattle’ thing.” Once he got into the studio to cut the track, Combs reached out to Lambert to ask if she’d make it a duet.
While he says he’s not opposed to recording songs by outside writers — and even cut one for Growin’ Up that didn’t make the final track list — Combs adds, “I just like that part of it so much, the writing thing. I’m sure that my albums would probably be even more successful if I cut outside songs because [there are] songwriters a lot better than I am, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.”
As Combs’ current single climbs the Country Airplay chart, he knows that eventually his No. 1 streak will stop. “Whether it’s the next one or 20 from now or 50, it inevitably will end,” he says. “So, I think you have to just be okay with that. I don’t just sit down and go, ‘How do I write something that’s going to be a big old No. 1,’ you know?”
Combs played his first headlining stadium date in May, and after playing a handful of dates in July — including Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium — he will begin a four-month arena tour in September that will be much more manageable than last year’s outing. Taking a page from Eric Church, he will play two dates every weekend in the same city then head back home until the next weekend. Despite escalating gas prices, he committed to not raising the ticket cost.
“It’s going to cost me a lot, but all I wanted to do is make a living doing music,” he says. “And I make enough money to not have to worry about anything and be really comfortable, so I don’t ever want to get greedy. It’s more competitive out there than it’s ever been, so it’s two-fold for me: I get to go, ‘Hey fans, I love you. I’m not going to gouge you,’ and it’s about a full room, it’s not about making money. I didn’t get into it to be Jeff Bezos and be the richest guy in the world.”
Get ready for the launch of the BTS break era. After teasing last week that he would drop his collaboration with BTS’ Jungkook if he got 500,000 pre-saves, Charlie Puth posted a pair of tantalizing previews of the duo’s bubbly pop tune “Left and Right” on Thursday morning (June 23).
“Memories follow me left and right/ I can feel you over here/ I can feel you over here/ You take up eery corner of my mind,” Puth croons in his signature falsetto in the video sneak peek. In the short clip, the two men cycle through a series of outfits as they sing back-to-back and Jungkook tries to listen to a conversation on the other side of a wall using a glass and hangs on to a car hood for dear life as it speeds through town.
Puth dropped a second preview a short time later, posting a clip on Instagram in which he and Jungkook bob their heads while seated in an old sedan and beatbox along to the song’s beat while using the click of the car door locks as an additional rhythm track while Charlie yells “so cool!”
The song is due out at midnight, with the official music video slated to debut at the same time.
Last week Puth pulled the curtain back on the collab with a clip in which he called up Jungkook and asked, ““Hey man, what does it sound like when you sing ‘Memories follow me left and right?’” Jungkook gave it a shot and then Puth asked him to stand to the left of the mic and sing “I can be over here,” and then do it to the right.
After that fairly simple task was completed, Puth said “and it sounds like this… this is gonna be crazy!” The tease of the song came just a few days after Jungkook and the rest of BTS announced that they were going to take a break to work on their solo careers.
Check out the video previews below.
The King has long been royalty on the Billboard Hot 100, and his chart success even predates the survey’s start.
Upon the Friday (June 24) box-office premiere of Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler in the title role, a look at Elvis Presley‘s achievements on Billboard‘s signature songs chart reflects that he earned a combined total of 17 No. 1s on the Hot 100 and its key predecessor ranking Best Sellers in Stores.
Presley notched 10 No. 1 singles on Best Sellers in Stores, beginning with “Heartbreak Hotel” in April 1956. He added seven more No. 1s on the Hot 100, once the tally premiered in August 1958 (replacing Best Sellers in Stores and other charts), last leading with “Suspicious Minds” in November 1969.
Despite his career pre-dating the Hot 100’s start, Presley became the first artist to chart as many as 100 entries on the ranking, and he held the record for the most charted Hot 100 titles from late 1964 through early 2011.
The late legendary Presley most recently appeared on the Hot 100 over the 2020 holiday season, with “Blue Christmas.” First recorded and released in 1957, the carol debuted on the Hot 100 during the 2018 holidays, granting Presley his highest rank on the chart since 1981.
(Notably, as Presley originally broke through, his impact helped spur the Hot 100’s inception itself, as Seymour Stein, Sire Records co-founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame enshrinee, recalled of the chart’s Aug. 4, 1958, origin.)
Here’s a chronological recap of Presley’s iconic 17 No. 1 singles on the all-genre Best Sellers in Stores and Hot 100 charts.
Elvis Presley’s No. 1s On:
Best Sellers in Stores
“Heartbreak Hotel,” eight weeks at No. 1, beginning April 21, 1956
“I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,” one, July 28, 1956
“Hound Dog”/”Don’t Be Cruel” (double-sided single), 11, Aug. 18, 1956
“Love Me Tender,” five, Nov. 3, 1956
“Too Much,” three, Feb. 9, 1957
“All Shook Up,” eight, April 13, 1957
“(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” seven, July 8, 1957
“Jailhouse Rock,” seven, Oct. 21, 1957
“Don’t,” five, Feb. 10, 1958
“Hard Headed Woman,” two, July 21, 1958
Billboard Hot 100:
“A Big Hunk O’ Love,” two weeks at No. 1, beginning Aug. 10, 1959
“Stuck on You,” four, April 25, 1960
“It’s Now or Never,” five, Aug. 15, 1960
“Are You Lonesome To-night?,” six, Nov. 28, 1960
“Surrender,” two, March 20, 1961
“Good Luck Charm,” two, April 21, 1962
“Suspicious Minds,” one, Nov. 1, 1969 (also the 75th-anniversary date of the first Billboard issue)
Presley has also scored 10 No. 1s on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, from Elvis Presley in May 1956 through Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits in October 2002. In the list’s history (which dates to March 24, 1956, and is, thus, more inclusive of Presley’s overall catalog than the Hot 100), he ranks third among solo males and fourth among all acts for the most No. 1s, after The Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand (11 each). Drake, Eminem, Taylor Swift and Ye have also achieved 10 Billboard 200 No. 1s each.