Month: August 2022

Swifties have three more reasons to be excited.

Taylor Swift reveals the vinyl release of her forthcoming Midnights LP will be available in three versions, all of them limited editions.

The pop superstar appropriately let the news out at the stroke of midnight.

“August may have slipped away but September brings 3 new special edition covers,” reads a post on her Instagram.

Taylor herself gives the big reveal a special touch with a goofy video, in which she holds aloft the three new versions.

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

Swift used the platform of the 2022 VMAs to announce Midnights, explaining from the podium, “I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out Oct. 21.”

Later, she confirmed the date in her Instagram post. The set, as Swift described them via Instagram, will contain “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”

The trilogy features Midnights: Jade Green Edition Vinyl, Midnights: Blood Moon Edition Vinyl and Midnights: Mahogany Edition Vinyl.

The “unique color vinyl versions” will be available for just one week, ending late Sept. 7, and each is priced at $29.99.

Pre-orders are at Swift’s official store.

Lucinda Williams, Chris Isaak, Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls are among the performers who will take the stage at the Americana Honors & Awards.

The Americana Music Association says Wednesday (Aug. 31) that Isaak and the Indigo Girls will also be honored with lifetime achievement awards at the Sept. 14 show at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, which will also celebrate the careers of Al Bell, Don Williams and the Fairfield Four.

James McMurtry, Morgan Wade, Lukas Nelson, the McCrary Sisters and the War and Treaty are also scheduled to perform.

The show will be livestreamed beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on several social media platforms and NPRMusic.org. It is also slated for broadcast on the Circle Network later this year and PBS in 2023.

Meghan Trainor jumped on a popular TikTok trend Tuesday to look back at her rather regrettable choice to lock lips with Charlie Puth in 2015.

Using the viral sound “Hal Walker Plays the Banakulas,” the “Bad for Me” singer twerked it out while celebrating some career high points — namely her debut single “All About That Bass” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning the Grammy for best new artist in 2016 — before the fun came to a hilarious halt.

“Making the decision to kiss Charlie Puth on national television in 2015,” the screen reads as Trainor mouths, “Two wads of masking tape tied together with a pink ribbon” and grimaces at the camera. (Trust us, the lip sync makes sense in the context of the challenge.)

The moment Trainor is referencing occurred at the 2015 American Music Awards where she performed her hit single “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” before being joined onstage by Puth for his flirty Nine Track Mind ode to teenage lust “Marvin Gaye.” At the end of the latter, Puth stepped out from behind the piano, Trainor beckoned him closer and the two embraced in a passionate kiss as the audience burst into surprised cheers.

The music video for the track also happens to end with the singers locking lips — but at the time, both stars insisted they were nothing more than friends and collaborators. These days, Trainor is married to husband Daryl Sabara of Spy Kids fame and prepping the release of her fifth album Takin’ It Back on Oct. 21. Coincidentally, Puth’s self-titled LP Charlie is set to arrive two weeks earlier, on Oct. 7.

Watch Trainor revisit her onstage makeout session below.

@meghantrainor It was a wild 3 years #grammys #allaboutthatbass #amas ♬ Hal Walker Plays the Banakulas – Hal Walker

South Korean superstars BLACKPINK debut atop the Sept. 3-dated Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. survey with “Pink Venom,” extending their international reach. But another band scores multiple debuts and re-entries on this week’s rankings, bolstering its own global fortunes.

Coldplay’s 2008 hit “Viva La Vida” debuts on the Global 200 at No. 184, while re-entering Global Excl. U.S. at No. 162. (The surveys started in September 2020.) Concurrently, 2014’s “A Sky Full of Stars” starts on Global Excl. U.S. at No. 199 and 2015’s “Hymn for the Weekend” re-enters at No. 166. In all, the British quartet tallies six songs on the latter list, rounded out by “My Universe,” with BTS (2021); “Something Just Like This,” with The Chainsmokers (2017); and “Yellow” (2000).

It’s an impressive total, bested this week only by Bad Bunny (16 entries on Global Excl. U.S.) and Ed Sheeran (seven). (Ado and The Weeknd also sport six each.) For Bad Bunny, his global saturation is mostly due to Un Verano Sin Ti, his hit album released in May. For Sheeran, it’s a combination of hits from last year’s = and recent turns with Burna Boy and Camila Cabello, plus a pair of enduring songs from 2017’s ÷ (Divide).

Coldplay boasts a similar blend of current and catalog, mixing last year’s No. 1 global hit “My Universe” with its breakthrough single “Yellow.” But while those two songs, and “Something Just Like This,” have been consistently on the global charts over the last year, the group’s other chart entries are spiking. Streams outside the U.S. gained 16% week-over-week for “Vida” (to 7.4 million) and “Stars” (to 7.1 million) in the frame ending Aug. 25, according to Luminate.  “Yellow,” “Universe,” “Something,” and “Hymn” are all up, as well, by 19%, 11%, 9% and 8%, respectively.

Collaborations with BTS and The Chainsmokers aside, few acts have found such substantial global chart action with this many catalog titles. And while, with one song or another, Coldplay ranked on the Global Excl. U.S. chart every week since the list’s launch, its six-song sum on the latest chart is striking.

The band saturates the charts amid its band’s Music of the Spheres Tour, in support of its 2021 album of the same name, the parent set of “My Universe.” The tour has been cresting on its European leg, ruling Billboard’s Top Tours chart in July with a $66 million haul and continuing with a string of London shows in August.

Plus, videos from the various shows have been making the rounds on social media and YouTube, bringing the band’s nightly stadium spectacle to your screen and mine. Though this crop of songs is also ticking upward on the Global 200, the gains are sensibly stronger outside the U.S., owed to the band’s European concerts.

Bad Bunny himself experienced a similar surge earlier this year, when tracks from 2019’s Oasis and 2020’s YHLQMDLG entered the Global 200 in February and March, during his North American El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo.

Fun.‘s smash 2012 hit, “We Are Young,” featuring Janelle Monáe has officially hit one billion YouTube views, marking each artist’s first entry into the exclusive Billion Views Club.

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks in 2012, and spent an impressive 42 weeks total on the chart. The song also topped Hot Digital Songs, selling at least 300,000-plus units for six straight weeks, and becoming the first song ever to reach such a total in each of six weeks – consecutive or not. It passed the only other title to rack up five weeks of sales of 300,000-plus at the time: Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” featuring Rihanna.

“We Are Young” won song of the year at the 45th annual Grammy Awards in February 2003. Fun. also won best new artist that night, and after rumors that members Nate Ruess, Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost were not on speaking terms due to a “clash of egos,” they embarked on solo careers — with Ruess unveiling an album on his own and Antonoff leading the band Bleachers as well as going on to become a high-profile producer.

On February 5, 2015, Fun. posted on their official website their status stating “there was no new Fun. album in the works.”

To reminisce on times that felt a bit more Fun., watch the new Billion Views Club member, “We Are Young,” below.

The Billboard Latin team has compiled 16 of the collaborative tracks released in August that were either included on the weekly First Stream Latin or featured by Billboard, and we want to know: Which was your favorite?

This month’s poll includes many exciting collaborations, such as Paulo Londra and Ed Sheeran’s second single together “Noche de Novela,” Anitta and Missy Elliott’s first collaborative effort “Lobby,” Camilo and Grupo Firme’s joyful number “Alaska,” and Ozuna and Tokischa’s call for equality “Somos Iguales,” to name a few.

Last month, Sebastian Yatra and Pablo Alboran’s “Contigo” was picked best Latin collaboration of July, with more than 50% of the votes, followed by CNCO and Kenia OS’ “Plutón,” with more than 37% of the votes.

The new fan poll comes on the heels of Billboard unveiling the “Best Latin Collaborations of 2022 (So Far),” including Christina Aguilera & Ozuna’s “Santo” (January), Becky G & Karol G’s “Mamiii” (February), Sebastian Yatra & John Legend’s “Tacones Rojos (Remix)” (March), Bizarrap & Paulo Londra’s “BZRP Music Sessions #23” (April), Morat & Duki’s “Paris” (May), and Blessd & Rels B’s “Energia” (June).

Who should win the best Latin collaboration of August? Vote below!

The 2021 winners for favorite Latin collaborations were Maria Becerra and Cazzu’s “Animal” (January 2021), VF7 and Lunay’s “Codigo Secreto” (February 2021), Danny Ocean and Justin Quiles’ “Cuantas Veces” (March 2021), Sebastian Yatra and Myke Towers’ “Pareja del Año” (April 2021), J Balvin and Maria Becerra’s “Que Mas Pues” (May 2021), Nobeat and Khea’s “Medio Crazy” (June 2021), Enrique Iglesias and Farruko’s “Me Pasé” (July 2021), Sebastian Yatra and Jhay Cortez’s “Delincuente” (August 2021), Sofia Reyes and Becky G’s “Mal de Amores” (September 2021), Anitta and Saweetie’s “Faking Love” (October 2021). (Editor’s note: There were no polls for November and December 2021.)