Month: September 2022

Raphael received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday night (Sept. 29), where he also performed a medley of timeless hits. 

Joined by Spanish pop star Pablo López and Latin boy band CNCO, Raphael performed his tracks “De Tanta Gente,” “Mi Gran Noche,” “Estar Enamorado,” “Como Yo Te Amo,” “Que Sabe Nadie” and “Escandalo.” 

Raphael is recognized for his “exceptional professional career and his artistic and personal contributions” that have influenced the development of Latin music around the world. 

With a musical career that spans more than 60 years, Raphael — known for anthemic songs such as “Yo Soy Aquel,” “En Carne Viva” and “Mi Gran Noche” — has garnered worldwide recognition as a pioneer of Spanish-language romantic ballads. In 1962, he began his professional career, where he soon earned first, second and third prizes at Spain’s Festival Internacional de la Canción in Benidorm. He also performed two consecutive times at the Eurovision Festival, starred in various films, and hosted a radio show called The Raphael Show. To date, he’s recorded more than 60 albums and has sold over 70 million records. He’s slated to release a new album at the end of the year.

Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Paquita la del Barrio, Armando Manzanero, Miguel Bosé, Los Temerarios, Intocable, José José, Marco Antonio Solís, Ricardo Arjona, and Maná, among others.

Chayanne made an exciting comeback to the Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday night (Sept. 29), where he not only performed his new single, but also received a special award.

Wearing black leather pants, a white tee and a black blazer, the Puerto Rican artist performed his new single “Como Tú y Yo,” a catchy pop urban tune that samples his ‘90s hits “Dejaria Todo,” which peaked No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart in 1998 and spent five weeks at the top. 

Following the energetic performance, Chayanne received the Billboard Icon Award from Sony Music Latin’s Chairman and CEO, Afo Verde. “He’s a great friend and an exemplary father. I’ve had the honor of working with him for many years,” said the 2022 Billboard Latin Executive of the Year. 

“Thank you with all my heart, for your applause and beautiful love,” the artist said. “I do things with love but don’t know where they’ll head. I just create a song and it becomes yours. That strength and love so big are what motivate me. It’s the motor for me to do what I do.”

The Billboard Icon Award is given to an artist who has carved out a career that has not only remained relevant through time, but has also made them the most distinguished artist in their genre, celebrated globally for achieving both musical and commercial success. The Puerto Rican balladeer and pop star — whose career spans more than four decades — has built a legacy as one of the most beloved and respected artists in the entertainment industry.

Christina Aguilera belted out her ranchera song “La Reina” at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday (Sept. 29). The chart-topping artist blew everyone away and received a standing ovation at the end. The song is part of her Latin Grammy-nominated album Aguilera.

After her performance, she received the Spirit of Hope Award from her collaborators Ozuna and Becky G. She accepted the award “humbly, with gratitude and pride,” Aguilera said in her speech, which she delivered in English and was translated into Spanish. “It’s so nice to be in a room where they can say my name correctly and beautifully. Thank you so much, Billboard, for this award. To my Sony team, you guys are amazing, I couldn’t be more thankful.”

Aguilera also encouraged attendees and viewers to donate to the Red Cross to help those impacted and affected by Hurricanes Fiona and Ian. She continued her emotional speech, “When I entered the industry, I promised myself I’d use my voice for something deeper to make change. Sharing my story was vital in helping others. It means so much to grow together with my fans throughout the years.”

The 29th annual Billboard Latin Music Awards, taking place at Miami’s Watsco Center, are broadcasting live on Telemundo and simultaneously on the Spanish entertainment cable network Universo and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on Telemundo Internacional. The awards — produced by MBS Special Events and executive produced by Mary Black Suarez — coincide with Billboard Latin Music Week, which returned to Miami from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1 at the Faena Forum, with a roster of star speakers that included Romeo Santos, Maluma, Grupo Firme, Chayanne, Ivy Queen and Nicky Jam, among many others.

5 Seconds of Summer is fresh off the release of their fifth studio album, aptly titled 5SOS5, and the group sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to talk about their musical inspirations — most notably, Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl and the late Taylor Hawkins.

“There’s such a tragedy and so much to miss about Taylor,” 5SOS’ Luke Hemmings shared of the beloved drummer, who died in March at age 50. “Everything from friends and family through the band and to entertainment of fans. Everyone missing him desperately.”

Hemmings also shared his thoughts on Grohl, who previously went through the death of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain in 1994. “You think about someone like Dave whose life — when he looks back on this life, man, when he is very, very old and very, very gray, through all the tragedy and the triumph, few will have been able to have squeezed as much life out of it as Dave has,” the singer said, before adding, “I even watched Sonic Highways the other day. What an incredible series. I started it again. I got three episodes in and I’d lost time. His book is excellent too. You should read it if you haven’t, it’s awesome.”

Hawkins passed away suddenly on March 25 in Bogotá, Colombia, while in town for a Foo Fighters show. Earlier this week, on Sept. 27, his band held a special tribute concert for him in Los Angeles, California. Countless stars took the stage to honor the late drummer and Grohl MC’d the night, sharing Hawkins anecdotes between songs. See our list of highlights from the emotional six-hour event here.

Ashley McBryde’s breakthrough hit, 2017’s “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” established the artist not only an astute vocalist but as a nuanced wordsmith. Follow-up hits such as 2019’s autobiographical “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” the irreverent “One Night Standards” and her heart wrenching collaboration with Carly Pearce, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” (which earned McBryde her first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 as well as five CMA Awards nods) only cemented her as a star.

Come Friday (Sept. 30), her collaborative album Lindeville will help to maintain that status. Showcasing her penchant for tightly-curated character studies, the project takes various characters from the same fictional town and explores what happens when their stories intertwine.

“The expected thing, especially coming off having a No. 1 with Carly, is to shoot straight down the middle,” says McBryde, seated in her manager’s Nashville office outfitted with stained glass windows and slightly gothic, antique knickknacks. “I think that’s the perfect reason not to do that. When you do a love project like this, it’s supposed to be like, album five or six, or 10, which is another reason to do it now. Because f—k ‘should,’ right?”

The town’s name of Lindeville nods to songwriter Dennis Linde, who wrote Elvis’ “Burnin’ Love,” and “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” which had originally been recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys and New Grass Revival before becoming a smash hit for Garth Brooks in 1994. In his other work, Linde had a habit of featuring a character named Earl, who shows up in the Sammy Kershaw hit “Queen of My Double Wide Trailer” and meets his demise in the Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.” Linde also designed a map that designated a fictional town where the characters in his songs lived — right down to the water tower referenced in the Linde-written Joe Diffie hit “John Deere Green.”

“I didn’t know what else we would name it,” McBryde says of her upcoming album’s title. “I had been here in Nashville for several years before I found out the same guy had written all those songs. It’s kind of the opposite of what we did — we realized we had the characters and then developed the town for them. But we wanted to make sure we paid tribute, and we thought we should name the town after him.”

McBryde gathered a group of close friends and frequent co-writers — Aaron Raitiere, Connie Harrington, Brandy Clark and Nicolette Hayford — to help bring her characters to life. And, as she’s done before on previous writer retreats, she asked Hayford bring a writer she had never met. For these sessions, Benjy Davis rounded out the group. “I love that wild card aspect,” says McBryde. “There’s no telling what that other ingredient is going to change.” (Of Davis, she says: “He’s brilliant, I love his voice, his presence, he’s a pleasure to write with, and he always has cigarettes.”)

Once assembled they all gathered at a lake house about an hour outside of Nashville for a week-long writing retreat, leaving with songs that reverberate with unvarnished truths. “We had no thought of, ‘Should this a ballad?’ or ‘We need to write a song about this [topic].’ Our goal was just to be happy … Somebody might be high, somebody might be a bit drunk or just had a mimosa. If it’s lunch, someone’s making sandwiches while we’re writing or you’re eating on top of your sketch pad. We were having so much fun we didn’t want to stop.”

She says they wrote nearly 18 hours a day, all gathered around the kitchen table that served as a central command station, covered with iPads, computers and various writing pads. “We hunkered down like a family surrounding a big puzzle — only all the pieces were invisible,” says McBryde.

Even the smoke breaks on the front porch manifested in three old-school, between-song “jingles” touting local Lindeville favorites like homemade pie at the Dandelion Diner and the clandestine “We don’t ask, We don’t tell/ We just buy, we just sell” policy at Ronnie’s Pawn Shop.

While the songs do center on life in a small town, the stories and characters in Lindeville dispel the idyllic nostalgia that permeates many songs currently staking their claims on the country charts. Over the course of 13 songs, McBryde and company unfurl a cast of denizens in the fictional Lindeville, including bartender Lonnie, burger flipper and meth addict Leroy, drug dealer and pill addict Patti, and several other women — Betty, Brenda, Jenny and Lynette — each with their own way of coping with life.

“Play Ball,” with lead vocals from Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne, offers the tale of Pete, a kind-hearted man who “chalks the ballfields at Dennis Linde park…he lost his wife to cancer and a thumb in Vietnam.” Even the dogs of Lindeville get their own moment, as the wry wit of “If These Dogs Could Talk” highlights vocals from Clark.

“We do tend to pave dirt roads a little bit. I love what we do here in Nashville, the way we are able to time capsule small towns and make sure everybody can feel how important that is to our upbringing,” McBryde says. “But sometimes, somebody’s getting their a– beat at the supermarket, and everybody knows about it. It’s okay to acknowledge it, at least wink at it.”

The album — recorded at the SmoakStack Studios and produced by Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne — features a rotating cast of singers, including Clark, Pillbox Patti, Caylee Hammack, Brothers Osborne and Raitiere, with McBryde’s lead and/or harmony vocals on about half of the project’s 13 songs and jingles. A few tracks, including “Bonfire at Tina’s” and the well-chosen cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “When Will I Be Loved” feature lush, rowdy harmonies from McBryde, Hammack, Hayford (Pillbox Patti) and more. “We could have cut it with just me singing it and it would be me telling all these stories,” says McBryde, “but it’s so much easier to listen to when there are different points of view. “

“Gospel Night at the Strip Club” serves as one of the project’s most gripping, soul-searching pulses, depicting a bartender who offers late-night sojourners a place at the bar to pour out their pain, a place as good as any church pew. He “does the last call benediction then wipes the bar slate clean,” before the song reaches its soaring, pointed chorus of “Hallelujah/ Jesus loves the drunkards and the whores and the queers…would you recognize him if he bought you a beer?”

“I was like, ‘We’re gonna get in so much trouble for this,’ but I don’t care. Because it’s true,” McBryde says.

There’s “Bonfire at Tina’s,” which begins as a near-cat fight but ends as an anthem of (brief) unity, for which McBryde recently filmed the video. “I don’t think we’ve been able to harness that idea previously that we don’t like each other a lot in small towns,” McBryde says. “But when one of you is down, everybody bands together. All kinds of things women go through — getting cheated on, or your stepkids hate you — those things are very real that we need to burn things about and drink about. Then on Monday, it’s back to talking s–t, no problem.”

The album’s denouement, and title track, ties together the preceding stories into a moment of peaceful clarity. The song also foreshadows new music, with a line about Betty in “Lindeville” nodding to “Blackout Betty,” to be included on another forthcoming McBryde album.

“We do spend a little while going, ‘Patti takes too many pills, Betty drinks too much, Leroy is a meth head,’” McBryde says. “But then we have a moment where Patti sleeps fine, and Leroy adopts a dog who kept showing up at the diner looking for scraps. On that night, things are peaceful and pretty, because it’s important to recognize when sh-t’s okay for a minute.”

Now, looking around the room she’s currently in, McBryde recalls gathering the team that put Lindeville together in that same space less than a month ago to celebrate what they had made. “We had charcuterie and cocktails and listened to it. I wanted us to experience it together at the same time, and not just through a link on your phone. When we write stuff, sometimes you can tell that it’s an idea that came to visit and let you be its mouthpiece for a minute. This felt important to hear together, the magic we created.”