Month: September 2022

J Balvin’s “Ritmo (Bad Boys for Life)” video, in collaboration with Black Eyed Peas, surpassed 1 billion views this week, officially making Balvin the artist with the most videos in YouTube’s coveted Billion Views Club.

“Ritmo” — which was released Oct. 11, 2019, on the video platform — marks the Colombian artist’s 12th entry as a lead, featured artist or collaborator. Prior to reclaiming his crown, Balvin was tied with Justin Bieber with 11 music videos each surpassing 1 billion views.

In 2016, the artist born José Álvaro Osorio Balvin became the first Latin urban artist to reach 10 digits with his “Ay Vamos” video. He was only the third Latin artist of any genre to reach a billion views, following Enrique Iglesias’ “Bailando,” featuring Gente de Zona and Descemer Bueno, and Romeo Santos’ “Propuesta Indicente,” both in 2014.

“Ritmo” samples Corona’s ’90s smash hit “Rhythm of the Night,” fusing hip-hop and pop with Balvin’s incendiary and infectious take on reggaeton. In 2020, the track topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and Hot Latin Songs charts, becoming the Peas’ first leader on each ranking and Balvin’s first on the dance chart.

The video, which shows scenes of the Bad Boys for Life movie, joins Balvin’s 10 other billion-view clips: the Willy William-assisted “Mi Gente”; “X (Equis)” with Nicky Jam; “Con Altura” with Rosalía; “China” alongside Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, Karol G and Ozuna; “No Me Conoce (Remix)” with Jhayco and Bad Bunny; “Ay Vamos”; “I Like It” with Cardi B and Bad Bunny; “Ahora Dice” with Chris Jedi, Ozuna and Arcangel; the Farruko-assisted “6 AM”; and “Safari” featuring Pharrell Williams, BIA and Sky.

Watch the “Ritmo” video below:

Sean Kingston‘s “Beautiful Girls” music video officially surpassed the 1 billion view mark on YouTube on Thursday (Sept. 8).

The visual finds Kingston bouncing between the modern day and a retro fantasia straight out of the 1950s as he swoons over the untouchable women of the song’s title. “You’re way too beautiful, girl/ That’s why it’ll never work/ You’ll have me suicidal, suicidal/ When you say it’s over/ Damn all these beautiful girls/ They only wanna do you dirt/ They’ll have you suicidal, suicidal/ When they say it’s over,” he croons inside a soda shop, backed by barbershop-style doo-wop singers.

Released on May 26, 2007, the lovestruck track samples Ben E. King‘s classic “Stand by Me” and was the Jamaican-American newcomer’s breakout single, eventually topping the Billboard Hot 100 and reigning over the chart for four consecutive weeks that summer.

At the time, the song courted a bit of controversy over the lyrical references to suicide in its chorus, which was sometimes edited on radio as “in denial.” It also prompted a cheeky response titled “Beautiful Girl Reply” from fellow pop star JoJo. Though that viral follow-up didn’t make the cut for JoJo’s scrapped follow-up to 2006’s The High Road, it debuted at No. 39 on Billboard‘s Rhythmic Airplay chart (then known as the Rhythmic Top 40).

Meanwhile, Kingston’s self-titled debut album also included the reggae-tinged top 20 hits “Me Love” and “Take Me There,” and later that fall, he collaborated with Natasha Bedingfield on Pocketful of Sunshine lead single “Love Like This.”

Revisit Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” video below.

J-pop duo YOASOBI shared a new live performance video of its latest single called “Sukida,” set to be featured in a commercial for Ichikami hair care products.

The track originated from a collaborative project between the breakout pair and four Naoki Prize-winning female authors who wrote stories based on the theme of “a story to read when you do [something] for the first time.” “Sukida” was inspired by the story “Hikari no tane” (“Seed of Light”) by Eto Mori, included in the collection Hajimete no (“…for the first time”). The tale comes with a subtitle that means “the Story to Read When You Tell Someone You Like Them For the First Time.” 

The new TV commercials for Ichikami stars Mei Nagano and Yoshiaki Higashi in a story about “farewell and reunion” set to the track by YOASOBI. The 60-second version of the commercial, also viewable on the special website for the brand, features a string arrangement of “Sukida” written especially for this collaboration. The commercials will start airing in Japan on Friday (Sept. 9) local time.

The footage of the duo and backing band performing the song live was shot on Aug. 6 at ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2022, where YOASOBI made its music festival debut.

BLACKPINK holds atop the Sept. 10-dated Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts with “Pink Venom.” The song from the South Korean quartet tops both lists for a second frame, backed by 108.4 million streams and 7,000 downloads sold worldwide in the week ending Sept. 1, according to Luminate. That makes it the first song with Korean-language lyrics to top either chart for multiple weeks.

That isn’t the only new record set among Korean acts this week, however. With IVE‘s “After Like” surging to No. 9 (from No. 27) on Global Excl. U.S. and TWICE‘s “Talk That Talk” debuting at No. 10, three South Korean artists place in the top 10 for the first time since the chart began in September 2020.

To date, 24 songs by 10 Korean acts have hit the Global Excl. U.S. top 10. Of those, 13 songs are by BTS or its members in solo roles and another six are by BLACKPINK or its members on their own.

Plus, 26 weeks have included at least two songs by South Korean acts in the top 10, and more than half of those were BTS doubling up, including a stretch of eight consecutive weeks in 2021 with “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.”

Before the latest charts, one week in the Global Excl. U.S. chart’s history included three songs by Korean artists in the top 10, although two were by BTS: On the Oct. 17, 2020-dated ranking, the group’s “Dynamite” dipped to No. 2, while “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo, climbed to No. 3. All the while, BLACKPINK debuted atop the list with “Lovesick Girls.” It remains the only week in which Korean acts have monopolized the chart’s top three positions.

The Sept. 10-dated survey boasts an entirely new feat, as three distinct South Korean acts – BLACKPINK, IVE and TWICE – join forces in the top 10.

As mentioned above, “Pink Venom” is BLACKPINK’s second Global Excl. U.S. No. 1, following “Lovesick Girls,” and its third top 10; “Ice Cream,” with Selena Gomez, hit No. 6 on the inaugural survey. “After Like” becomes IVE’s highest-charting song, eclipsing the No. 10 peak for “Love Dive” in April, while “Talk That Talk” matches TWICE’s previous best, after “The Feels” hit No. 10 last October.

Marshmello and Bastille‘s 2018 collaboration has been bringing happiness to listeners for four years and counting — so much happiness, in fact, that it’s now a member of YouTube’s Billion Views Club.

On Thursday (Sept. 8), the video platform confirmed that Marshmello and Bastille’s “Happier” video has surpassed 1 billion views on its site. The visual stars iCarly actress Miranda Cosgrove going through a series of teenage growing pains softened by the companion of a furry friend. Sadly, Cosgrove’s dog — a gift from her father in the music video — dies, but history repeats itself when the daughter of an older version of Cosgrove is gifted a puppy for her birthday.

In the YouTube video’s description, Marshmello explained how “Happier” came to be, as well as his personal connection to the track and why he felt compelled to work on it. “When @bastilledan sent me happier for the first time I was taken back. The amount of emotion that you could feel in the lyrics was crazy. As I listened to the song more and more it reminded me of so many things I’ve been through in my life. Toxic relationships, letting go of things I didn’t want to and just situations where happiness came with a sacrifice,” the record producer, born Christopher Comstock, explained.

He added, “Recently I lost my best friend, my companion, my life long friend. I wanted this video to embrace the pain that we feel losing or sacrificing something and the cycle of life that comes with it. I hope this song and video can bring closure in any situation you may be and make us all happier.”

“Happier” was a smash for both Marshmello and Bastille — the track peaked at No.  2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it spent a total of 52 weeks. The track enjoyed even more success on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, spending a total of 69 weeks at No. 1.

Revisit the video for “Happier” below.

With his new album I Got Issues slated to drop later this month, West Coast star YG sat down with Billboard News‘ Tetris Kelly to discuss his latest collaboration, “Run” with 21 Savage, Tyga and Bia, as well as the inspiration behind the video.

Throughout his career, YG — who has worked with multiple marquee names, including Drake, Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Lil Wayne and more — plucked some familiar faces for his new single “Run.” After nabbing features from Tyga and Bia, he opted to take the surgical route and rework a 21 Savage verse that was originally on another song they previously recorded together. 

“21 Savage, he did another song on my album. I took the verse he did for the other record and put it on ‘Run’ ’cause it fit better and sounded better. I sped his verse up four, five [beats per minute] so that it would fit on the song, and it worked,” he said.

The action-packed visual isn’t a run-of-the-mill rap video. Inspired by the 1996 classic movie Set It Off, Tyga and YG mastermind a bank robbery in the clip.

“Me and Tyga were in the studio just trying to plot like, ‘What should we do for the video?’ There’s only so much you can do with that type of song. We ain’t wanna do like a flashy rap video, driving around in the cars. I got plenty of them. So we were like, ‘What can we do that makes sense that ain’t been done?’ We started talking about a bank heist but doing it in a way like nobody seen it by some rappers.”

To complete the mischievous deed, they channeled their inner-Kardashians and dressed up as the famed reality TV stars. YG admitted to Billboard News that though people were initially “shocked” by the teaser, after watching the video later, they quickly became fans. He also told Kelly that I Got Issues will “have something for everybody on there.”

“I’m giving a piece of my life,” he said. “I’m talking about what I’ve been going through, sitting in the crib for two years. It’s a good time, but it’s personal.”

Watch the full interview below. 

The Rolling Stones’ lucky number must be 14. For the third summer in six years, the British rock legends have embarked on a 14-show tour throughout Europe, topping the $100 million mark yet again.

In celebration of the band’s sprawling six-decade career, their new tour — officially billed as The Rolling Stones – SIXTY — doubled its namesake, grossing $120.8 million from 712,000 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.

For more coincidental numerology, The Stones’ two-night stay at London’s Hyde Park became its sixth engagement ever to gross more than $20 million ($22.4 million) – one for each decade of its career. Further, those shows mark the band’s sixth engagement in London to top the 100,000-ticket threshold, with attendance of 130,000.

SIXTY played from June 1 at Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid ($9.5 million; 53,000 tickets) through Aug. 3 at Waldbuhne in Berlin ($5.7 million; 22,000). The London play was the run’s only double-header and obvious highlight in terms of total gross and attendance, but Munich’s Olympiastadion show on June 5 also broke $10 million.

Overall, the brief tour averaged $8.6 million and 51,000 tickets per show. That makes it The Stones’ most fruitful European tour ever, clipping the 2017 and 2018 legs of the No Filter Tour, which averaged $8.6 million ($8.568 million, to be exact) and $8.4 million, respectively. In total grosses, it lags behind the 2003 European leg of the Licks Tour, which earned $129.7 million in a far more expansive run of 46 dates.

It’s not the first time The Stones have toured around a career milestone: 50 & Counting played 21 shows in North American arenas (plus two in London), averaging $5.5 million and 14,217 tickets per show. That gives the ’22 European stadium tour a 57% jump in nightly earnings and a 258% blast in per-show attendance. Overall, SIXTY sold more than twice the tickets of the band’s 50th-anniversary trek.

Dating back to reports from the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour in 1989, SIXTY pushes The Stones’ total European gross to $904.2 million and 10.1 million tickets, and their global Boxscore total to $2.6 billion and 28 million tickets.

Following the Sept. 3 tribute concert in honor of late drummer Taylor Hawkins at London’s Wembley Stadium, streams and sales of Foo Fighters‘ music ballooned both domestically and globally.

According to preliminary sales and streaming data from Luminate, Foo Fighters’ catalog garnered 2.4 million on-demand U.S. streams on Sept. 4, the day after the concert. That’s a 28% jump from Sept. 3, when the band’s catalog earned 1.9 million streams.

On Sept. 5, streams held steady at 2.4 million, giving the group a two-day (Sept. 4-5) sum of 4.8 million streams, a 24% jump from the previous two days (Sept. 2-3).

Foo Fighters’ digital song sales also leapt throughout the weekend, first from a negligible sum on Sept. 2 to 1,000 on Sept. 3 (up 354%), followed by another 184% increase to 3,000 on Sept. 4. On Sept. 5, though down 23%, the band still managed another 3,000 downloads.

1998’s “My Hero,” seemingly the breakout performance of the concert, drew 515,000 streams Sept. 4-5, up 61% from Sept. 2-3 (320,000). It also sold 2,000 downloads Sept. 4-5, up 638% from a negligible amount Sept. 2-3.

The concert performance of “My Hero,” the original of which hit No. 6 on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart in 1998, featured Hawkins’ son, Shane, on drums. It served as the penultimate song of the set, followed by frontman Dave Grohl performing “Everlong.”

Other streaming gains belong to “Times Like These,” a No. 5 hit on Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2003, at 235,000 streams Sept. 4-5, up 50% from 156,000 Sept. 2-3; one-week Alternative Airplay No. 1 from 1999 “Learn to Fly” at 322,000, up 15%; and “Best of You,” a No. 1 on both Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2005, with 303,000, a 17% boost.

Globally, the band also made sizable gains, accumulating 6.3 million on-demand streams on Sept. 4, up from 4.9 million Sept. 3, a 29% surge. Its catalog rose another 10% to 6.9 million on Sept. 5. Its two-day sum Sept. 4-5 of 13.2 million marked a 32% jump from 10 million Sept. 2-3. Additionally, the band’s digital song sales increased to 8,000 Sept. 4-5 from 2,000 Sept. 2-3, up 332%.

“Everlong,” a No. 3 Alternative Airplay hit in 1997, has led as the band’s most-streamed song since the concert (1.1 million Sept. 4-5), and is its top-streamed song regularly, leading all Foo Fighters tracks in the Aug. 26-Sept. 1 tracking week with 3.7 million official U.S. streams.

Concurrently, multiple Foo Fighters songs appear on the LyricFind U.S. and Global charts, which track lyric usages and searches. “Aurora” paces the group at No. 1 on LyricFind U.S. (up 8,902%, according to LyricFind), followed by “My Hero” (No. 4, up 2,170%), and both songs rank in the same spots on LyricFind Global.

Further gains for the band’s catalog are due to be reflected on the Billboard charts dated Sept. 17, reflecting the Sept. 2-8 tracking week.

The Sept. 3 concert, the first of two planned tributes, was held in honor of longtime Foo Fighters drummer Hawkins, who died March 25 at age 50. The 50-song set featured a score of special guests, including Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher, Pretenders, Brian Johnson, Rush and Queen. A second concert is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Los Angeles.