Month: August 2022

At long last, the funk wavs are bouncing once more. Today (August 5), dance hitmaker Calvin Harris has released his latest LP, Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 2, the followup to 2017’s Vol. 1 of the same name.

The rollout of this album has revealed a genuine tidal wave of musical royalty, with Dua Lipa, Young Thug, Halsey, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, 21 Savage, Tinashe, Normani and Offset all gracing the album’s four previously released singles, which together indicated that this album is, like its predecessor, fusing Harris’ electronic productions with hip-hop and R&B influences and an altogether smooth, stoney sensibility. Listen to Funk Wav. Bounces Vol. 2 below.

The rest of the album includes a similarly no-scrubs lineup:  Stefflon Don, Chlöe and Coi Leray feature together on “Woman Of The Year,” Charlie Puth and Shenseea show up on “Obsessed,” Busta Rhymes drops in for “Ready Or Not,” Jorja Smith and Lil Durk collab on “Somebody Else,” 6lack and Donae’o pair up for “Nothing More to Say,” Snoop Dogg and Latto do their first ever collab with “Live My Best Life,” Swae Lee features on “Lean On Me,” and Pharrell returns for the Pusha T collab “Day One.” Additionally, Halsey, Timberlake and Pharrell show up once more for the reprise of their single “Stay With Me.”

Out via Sony, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 is Harris’ sixth studio album, with his discography extending back to his 2007 classic I Created Disco and also including the era-defining Ready For The Weekend, 18 Months and Motion. Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spent 42 weeks on the chart.

Benny Blanco is famous for working with pop music all-stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kesha and more — but his newest track may be his most epic collaboration yet. On Friday (Aug. 5) at midnight, the 34-year-old super producer dropped “Bad Decisions,” the lead single off his upcoming album, and an accompanying music video featuring two of the world’s biggest names: BTS‘ Jin, Jimin, V and Jung Kook and Snoop Dogg.

The guys first began teasing the new track in July, releasing a string of hilarious videos in which Blanco tries his best to fit in with BTS. In one, he video chats Jin, Jimin, V and Jung Kook and flat out asks them if he can join the band. “No,” the BTS members immediately say in unison, before Jimin offers a compromise: “But we can make a song together.”

“Let’s make the best song in the entire world,” Blanco replies. “Let’s go!”

The guys also released a short trailer for the “Bad Decisions” music video prior to its release, featuring the “Eastside” artist identifying himself as a second Jimin in an effort to make his boy band dreams come true. “This year, they’re back,” says a dramatic voice over, stumbling a bit when the trailer cuts to Blanco pretending to be Jimin. “Jin, V, Jung Kook, Jimin — Jimin? — Snoop. ‘Bad Decisions.’”

Though official promotions for the new song only began in recent weeks, Snoop Dogg has been promising a collaboration between him and BTS for months. In January, the rapper revealed on a podcast that BTS had reached out to him with the hopes of working together, and in March, he said their partnership was “official like a referee with a whistle.”

“I make good music. They make good music,” Snoop said of the K-Pop phenomenon at the time. “And we end up doing this. This is what it’s always about, bringing our worlds together.”

Watch Benny Blanco, BTS and Snoop Dogg’s new music video and stream “Bad Decisions” below:

STREAMING LINK TKTKTK

Beyoncé isn’t quite done dropping new remixes of her Renaissance lead single, “Break My Soul.”

On Thursday (Aug. 4), Queen Bey’s “Cliquebait” version of “Break My Soul” was released, adding a fun club remix to an already dance-heavy track. The accompanying YouTube video features the star dancing atop the silver horse on her latest album cover.

Just a day prior, the singer dropped a four-song “Break My Soul” remix EP featuring refreshed versions of her Renaissance single by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, Chicago house legend Terry Hunter, global scene queen Honey Dijon and New York producer/DJ Nita Aviance.

The OG version of “Break My Soul” surged to No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart (dated Aug. 6), scoring Bey her fifth leader on the list.

Renaissance, meanwhile, is heading for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart with one of the biggest weeks of the year. If it opens atop the chart, it will be the first album released by a woman in 2022 to hit No. 1. All six of her solo studio albums also debuted atop the tally (outside of her output as part of Destiny’s Child), starting with Dangerously in Love in 2003.

Listen to “Break My Soul (Cliquebait)” below.

In 2011, Myriam Hernandez released her studio album Seducción (Universal Music Latino), which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard‘s Latin Pop Albums chart. Earlier this year, she dropped Sinergia, her first studio album in 10 years and a completely independent release.

The reason for her decade-long hiatus? She didn’t connect with hitmakers.

“It really was 10 years, totally independent, there were many wonderful authors who had sent me songs but none of them really managed to fill my soul,” she tells Billboard. “When I record an album I always have to be 100% vibing and aware that those songs that I am going to record are really the ones that I want to sing both in the studio and on stage, which is what I want to convey to my fans.”

The Chilean singer/songwriter, who has a number of timeless tracks, including the Hot Latin Songs No. 1 hits “Te Pareces Tanto a El” and “Peligroso Amor,” explains that she felt worried at one point in her career because she wasn’t falling in love with any of the proposals.

That is, until Spanish composer Jacobo Calderón, son of the late singer and musician Juan Carlos Calderón, sent her a DM on Instagram. The latter worked on Hernandez’s 1992 album, Myriam Hernandez III, home to the classic singles “Se Me Fue” and “Un Hombre Secreto.”

“He told me that the album I made with his father marked his life, and that’s when we began having contact on WhatsApp, where he sent me his songs,” Hernandez says. “I swear that from the first song I fell in love, because I felt that they were songs sent by his father, Juan Carlos. He felt the same when he listened to me sing. He felt that his father made the songs.”

Called Sinergia (synergy) because of all the special moments that happened during the album’s process, the project is home to 11 brand-new tracks, including the heartfelt closer “Partir de Ti.”

“At one point, Jacobo told me that he found a cassette in his house with an unpublished melody of his father’s. He sent it to me to record, and when I did, I cried. For Jacobo, this also closed a circle because it was the first time he created a song with his father. It was a posthumous joint composition.”

Hernandez will kick off her Sinergia Tour in October, where she will be joined by talented musicians, choirs and state-of-the-art technology and perform the songs from her new set. The trek goes until Nov. 13 after visiting fans in Miami, Orlando, New York, Houston and Atlanta, to name a few.

As for what fans can expect on the tour? An honest and transparent connection with love. “I want to continue singing about love,” she says. “In this album, I refreshed my sound with more rhythmic sounds, but I think that I’m still betting on love, and on making music like before. I’ll be singing to love until the day I die.”

Camila Cabello is gearing up to take a seat on the red chair as the newest coach of The Voice, and in the show’s latest promo, the “Havana” singer gets a questionable welcome from one of her fellow coaches.

In the one-minute clip, Cabello is seen gushing over balloons, flowers and gifts delivered to her makeup vanity. “That is just too sweet,” the singer says, before finding a note that reads, “You’re going to lose so bad.”

“Who would send that?” Gwen Stefani asks, before her husband Blake Shelton shiftily tells Cabello, “I can’t believe you got that anonymous letter.”

However, it seems the “Bam Bam” singer isn’t the only one who got a menacing note. The show’s fourth judge, John Legend, received one that read, “You should have never come back.”

The mystery is eventually solved when host Carson Daly calls out Shelton for doing crafts in his dressing room. “Busted,” Cabello tells the country superstar.

The fall will bring the 22nd season of The Voice. Longtime coach Shelton was joined by Legend last season, as well as Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande, who will not be returning for this season. Stefani is a former coach who will be back on the rotating lineup for season 22.

Watch the promo below. The new season of The Voice airs on Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The show is also available to watch on Peacock, which you can sign up here.

Since its release on June 24, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, starring Austin Butler as The King, has grossed more than $129 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to boxofficemojo.com, marking the third-highest-grossing music biopic since the mid-1970s.

Billboard recently compiled the top 25-grossing biopics about musicians, ranging in genres from pop, rock and R&B to rap, country and classical.

Check out the list here, and let us know your favorite biopic by voting below.

“Dynamite” may have entered the world in 2020, but the song’s impact is still being felt to this day.

On Thursday (Aug. 4), J-Hope shared a dance practice video set to the tropical remix of BTS‘ “Dynamite” on the BangtanTV YouTube channel.

The video finds J-Hope preparing for his headlining slot at this year’s Lollapalooza, the annual four-day music festival held in Chicago. J-Hope, a member of the wildly successful K-pop group BTS, made history as the first South Korean artist to headline a major U.S. music festival.

His headlining set follows the release of Jack in the Box, his debut solo studio album. Jack in the Box, which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the World Albums chart, spawned the singles “More” and “Arson.” The former served as the album’s lead single and topped out at No. 82 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Arson” peaked at No. 96 on the overall ranking and became J-Hope’s first entry on the Hot Rap Songs chart (No. 21). J-Hope first hit the Hot 100 as a soloist in 2019 thanks to the Becky G-assisted “Chicken Noodle Soup”; the collaboration, which peaked at No. 81, remains his highest-charting song on Billboard‘s flagship songs chart.

“Dynamite (Tropical Remix)” soundtracked a choreography-packed segment of J-Hope’s 70-minute set. J-Hope flaunted his dance skills alongside his backup dancers while holding space for the song that launched BTS into another stratosphere. “Dynamite” earned BTS their first of six No. 1 singles on the Hot 100, their first Grammy nomination, and a 2021 Billboard Music Award for top selling song.

Watch the J-Hope’s dance practice video here:

On Aug. 7, 1997, Garth Brooks made history with his famed concert in New York City’s Central Park, where an estimated 1 million people attended the once-in-a-lifetime event. The resulting HBO special, Garth: Live From Central Park, was the most-watched special on cable television in 1997, with 14.6 million television viewers. The special was nominated for six Emmy Awards, including outstanding performance in a variety or music program, as well as outstanding variety, music or comedy special.

Brooks is gearing up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that concert by exclusively streaming highlights of Garth: Live From Central Park on social selling and online network talkshoplive on Sunday. Brooks will go live from Studio G in Nashville during this special talkshoplive event to cut in and offer live commentary as he showcases some of his favorite moments from the 1997 concert. Footage of Brooks’ 1997 concert was previously included in Brooks’ 2006 The Entertainer collection.

“Time is a friend to all things good, and the Central Park Concert will forever remain a GREAT chapter in our story,” Brooks said via a statement.

In addition to the upcoming TalkShopLive special, Brooks is also nearing the release of The Anthology, Part II, a book and CD series offering insights from his career and personal life from 1996-2001. The forthcoming project delves into stories behind the recording sessions for Brooks’s albums including Fresh Horses, Double Live and Sevens — including chronicling the reason for the delay of the release of the Sevens album. Brooks also recounts his famous 24-hour signing sessions during Fan Fair 1996. The project also includes a six-disc set of highlights from albums released during that time, including two previously unreleased recordings.

Post Malone‘s gaming efforts are officially a success. The rapper’s “Gaming for Love” charity streaming events on Twitch have earned approximately $196,066 in revenue, Republic Records reported Thursday (Aug. 4).

The “Cooped Up” rapper capped the revenue from the charity streams on Twitch by donating $40,000 of his own funds, totaling in more than $200,000 in money raised.

The rapper participated in a total of four separate streams of Apex Legends on the platform; each stream’s earnings went to a different charity. Human Rights Watch, Project HOPE, United Way and The Trevor Project were the charities selected to benefit from each charity stream. The stream to benefit The Trevor Project included a 60-person tournament on a private server that raised $76,026.33 in a single evening. Respawn Entertainment — the creators of Apex Legends — contributed $10,000 each for the four streams, for a total $40,000. Esports brand OpTic also donated $10,000.

Malone doesn’t plan to stop his charitable efforts with the Twitch streams, either: All stream are available to watch in full via the rapper’s gaming account “Gaming for Love.” Each of the videos are available to watch for fans that missed the streams, and the videos have a donation button attached for each of the videos.

The 27-year-old has been vocal about his love of gaming in the past. During his May appearance on Hot Ones, he revealed that he’s unable to have music on while playing Elden Ring because it makes him uneasy.

“I turn the music all the way off [in Elden Ring] because it is insane. It’s literally like choirs — not of angels, [but] of demons. And they’re like, ‘We’re going to f— you up.’ There’s no way you live,” Malone explained. “After a fight, I’m shaking like this, so I have to walk outside and smoke and I’m like, ‘I have to decompress.’”

Check out Malone’s most recent Twitch stream below.

Earlier this week, Drake shocked fans with the announcement of both a positive COVID-19 diagnosis and the cancellation of the final night of October World Weekend. Now, fans can rejoice as the “Jimmy Cooks” rapper has announced the new date for the Toronto festival’s final show.

This Saturday — Aug. 6 — is the new date for the Young Money reunion featuring Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. The final show of October World Weekend will still be held at the Budweiser stage as originally planned. “Negative test…positive outcome…this was the only date available until the fall and because the family is so solid everybody is flying back in to make it happen for you all…SEE YOU SATURDAY…young moulaaa,” Drake captioned the post.

Drake’s announcement lands on the same day as Minaj’s reveal of the artwork for her upcoming single “Super Freaky Girl.”

October World Weekend is a three-day festival that aims to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Drake’s OVO Fest and set up a global run for the festival in 2023. This year’s weekend of performances featured Lil Baby, Chris Brown, scores of unsung Canadian music heroes, and a surprise appearance from Nelly Furtado.

The festival is the just the latest success for Drake. Last month (July 2), he scored his 11th No. 1 title on the Billboard 200 with the debut of Honestly, Nevermind, which houses the singles “Sticky” and “Massive.” The corresponding Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 debut of the 21 Savage-assisted “Jimmy Cooks” helped Drake extend his record as the rapper with the most No. 1 hits in Hot 100 history (11).

Check out Drake’s announcement below:

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