Month: October 2022

Masked metal veterans Slipknot are the new champions of Australia’s chart, as The End, So Far (Roadrunner/Warner) blasts to No. 1.

It’s the fourth leader on the ARIA Chart for the Des Moines, Iowa act, following .5: The Gray Chapter, All Hope Is Gone and We Are Not Your Kind.

Slipknot leads sets from The Weeknd (The Highlights via Universal) and Harry Styles (Harry’s House via Columbia/Sony), respectively, while Billie Eilish sees both her studio LPs climb off the back of her national arena tour. Eilish’s 2021 leader Happier Than Ever (Interscope/Universal) lifts 6-4 on the latest survey, while her breakthrough debut, 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, lifts 7-5. When We Fall Asleep is now triple-platinum certified and has logged 184 weeks on the ARIA Chart.

Spanning 15 dates across Australia and New Zealand, Eilish’s route Down Under came to an end Sept. 30 at Perth’s RAC Arena.

Another U.S. artist who has been on the road in these parts, and is enjoy sales lifts as a result, is Luke Combs. The country star’s double-platinum 2017 album This One’s For You lifts 9-7, a new peak; his platinum-certified former leader from 2019, What You See Ain’t Always What You Get, is up 12-9; and his 2022 set Growin’ Up (all via Columbia/Sony) holds at No. 10. The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year wrapped his nine-show trek on Aug. 26, also at RAC Arena.

Further down the list, U.S. indie rock icons Yeah Yeah Yeahs crack the top 20 with their first studio album in almost a decade, Cool It Down (Secretly Canadian/Inertia). It’s new at No. 19. Cool It Down is the followup to 2013’s Mosquito, which peaked at No. 17 on the ARIA Chart.

Over on the national singles survey, published Friday (Oct. 7), Sam Smith and Kim Petras retain top spot with “Unholy” (Capitol/EMI).

Meanwhile, Coolio (real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr.) makes a posthumous appearance on the chart with his signature song from 1995, “Gangsta’s Paradise”.

The song bounces back at No. 22, following Coolio’s death Sept. 28, at the age of 59. “Gangsta’s Paradise” is one of the all-time ARIA hits. the single led the chart for an unbroken 13 weeks following its release – a streak that stood until Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” ruled the tally for 14 straight weeks in 2017.

Just four singles debut in the top 100 this week, led by Sheeran’s “Celestial” (Atlantic/Warner), at No. 57. “Celestial” appears in the new Pokémon titles “Scarlet” and “Violet.”

Being back where she was born made for a particularly special night of Lizzo’s The Special Tour on Thursday (Oct. 6) in Detroit.

The Grammy Award-winning singer was born Melissa Jefferson in the Motor City during 1988, and though her family moved to Houston when she was 10 years old she continued to visit regularly and still refers to it as home. Thursday’s show before about 15,000 fans at Little Caesars Arena was her largest concert there to date, following a co-headlining slot at the Mo Pop Festival during May of 2019.

Lizzo started waving her home town flag early in the nearly two-hour concert, changing references in the opening song “The Sign” to “Detroit keeps singing along” and “my people keep singing along.”

Segueing into “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready),” Lizzo declared “tonight is a very special night ’cause we are home, bitch! My whole family is in this motherf***er!” But Lizzo saved her most extensive expression until late in the show, before closing the main set with “Good as Hell.”

“The feeling that I have,” she began, before being interrupted by a long, deafening ovation that left Lizzo near tears, “is indescribable.” She shouted out to her family, pointing around the building and adding that “my mom’s over here somewhere.” “It’s emotional being in the place where you were born,” Lizzo explained. “It’s emotional being back where your roots began…thinking about the people you wish were here.”

Then she really did tear up when nothing that, “I think about my father every time I come here. He would’ve been so proud…”

Lizzo then turned her talking to being proud of the fans who came, repeating her customary mantra, “I love you. You are Beautiful. You can do anything” before launching into the song.

The arena date was part of a two-night homecoming for Lizzo. On Wednesday night she played a special Small Stage Series show for SiriusXM at Saint Andrew’s Hall, a historic 1,000-capacity club where Lizzo would attend concerts during her Detroit visits.

The 13-song, 55-minute performance was recorded and will be broadcast the concert at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12 on SiriusXM Hits (Channel 2) and on the SXM App.

The Special Tour’s next stop is Friday at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. The North American leg of the tour warps up Nov. 18-19 in Inglewood, Calif., while Lizzo’s European dates begin Feb. 17 in Oslo, Norway.

The time has come, STAY!  Stray Kids are back with their brand new album MAXIDENT, which arrived on Friday (Oct. 7) via JYP and Republic Records.

The album comes less than four months after the release of Stray Kids’ Japanese-language EP, Circus, which arrived on June 22. Last week, Stray Kids — which consists of members Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N. — shared a video for each track in a series of three with the titles 3-1 “3RACHA,” 3-2 “TASTE,” and 3-3 “I Think I Like You.”

“Our goal ever since we debuted was to reach as many ‘stray kids’ as possible,” member Bang Chan previously told Billboard in the group’s recent cover story. He continued, “to deliver our music and give strength to people who really need it.”

“If we settle, we know we can’t go forward,” added Han. “That’s why we were and are like this. We try to look ahead and not stay still.”

MAXIDENT also follows an already-impressive 2022 for the South Korean K-pop group. The band’s most recently released EP, Oddinary, was the Stray Kids’ first release to ever hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. The EP also marked the group’s debut appearance on a Billboard chart. Oddinary moved a notable 110,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending March 24, according to Luminate, with 103,000 of the total sales being purchased in the U.S.

Listen to Stray Kids’ MAXIDENT album in full below.

Quavo and Takeoff’s collaborative album Only Built for Infinity Links, has arrived. The project, released via Quality Control Music/Motown Records, came after four singles — “Hotel Lobby,” “Big Stunna” with Birdman, “Us Vs. Them” with Gucci Mane and, most recently, “Nothing Changed.”

Outside of its singles, the 18-track offering also features Summer Walker, Young Thug, Gunna, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Mustard.

The title is inspired by Raekwon’s solo 1995 debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, and even received the official stamp of approval from the Wu-Tang legend, Takeoff told Complex. The uncle-nephew duo — also billed as Unc and Phew — worked on the project for two years and modeled elements of the cover art on iconic rap pairs Kanye West and Jay-Z circa Watch the Throne and Outkast, while the title itself speaks to their own unbreakable bond and possibly rumors earlier this year of the Migos breaking up.

Suspicions began brewing after Cardi B and her husband Offset unfollowed his Migos bandmates, and in August, a bitter lawsuit ensued between Offset and Quality Control Music over ownership of his solo music. Although neither of the three have confirmed an official breakup, there’s a clear hiatus with Offset doing his solo thing, releasing singles like “Code” and “54321,” while cousin Takeoff and uncle Quavo have branched off on their own for this new chapter.

In celebration of the release, Quavo and Takeoff held a massive listening party in Atlanta on Tuesday and took The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon stage on Thursday night.

Stream Only Built for Infinity Links below.

5 Seconds of Summer score their fifth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Oct. 8), as the band’s new studio effort, 5SOS5, arrives atop the tally. The set sold 36,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 29, according to Luminate. All five of the quartet’s full-length studio albums have hit No. 1 on Top Album Sales.

Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart: anniversary reissues of Alice in Chains’ Dirt, Marina and The Diamonds’ Electra Heart and Phoebe Bridgers’ Stranger in the Alps all re-enter the list thanks to strong vinyl sales, while Kelsea Ballerini’s new album Subject to Change opens at No. 6.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of 5SOS5‘s 36,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise 30,000 (13,000 on vinyl; 16,500 on CD; and 500 on cassette) and digital downloads comprise 6,000. The set’s sales were bolstered by its availability across six vinyl variants, which combined to give the band its best sales week on wax. CDs still led the sales charge overall, thanks to multiple versions available in collectible packaging (including alternative cover art for each of the four band members) and deluxe boxed sets.

BLACKPINK’s Born Pink falls to No. 2 with 26,000 copies sold (down 65%) in its second week.

Alice in Chains’ Dirt re-enters Top Album Sales at a new high of No. 3 (23,000 sold; up 4,947%) following the set’s 30th-anniversary remastered reissue on Sept. 23.

The album, first released in 1992, bounds back onto the list for the first time since 1994. It logs its highest rank on the chart, surpassing its initial No. 6 debut and original peak on the Oct. 17, 1992-dated chart.

Dirt’s re-entry is largely powered by sales of its double vinyl album, with 22,500 sold across its three available pressings (a widely available standard black LP, a red-colored variant exclusive to Walmart and an orange-colored LP exclusively sold through the band’s webstore). That vinyl sum – the band’s largest since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991 – is also enough to see the album debut at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.

NCT 127’s 2 Baddies descends from No. 2 to No. 4 in its second week with 13,000 copies sold (down 77%).

Marina and The Diamonds’ Electra Heart re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 5 with 10,500 sold (up 9,480%), marking the 10-year-old set’s first visit to the top 10. It’s back on the list following a 10th anniversary expanded reissue on magenta-colored vinyl (Sept. 23). Effectively all of it sales were on vinyl LP, easily the act’s best week on vinyl, aiding its debut at No. 3 on Vinyl Albums.

Kelsea Ballerini’s new studio album Subject to Change debuts at No. 6 with 9,500 sold – marking the singer’s third top 10 on the tally.

Phoebe Bridgers’ debut studio album, Stranger in the Alps, released in 2017, re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 7 (8,500 sold; up 520%) after its fifth anniversary reissue on colored vinyl (Sept. 23). It’s the first time the album has been in the top 10. Of that sales sum, vinyl comprises 8,000, yielding at No. 4 debut on the Vinyl Albums chart.

Rounding out the top 10 of Top Album Sales is a trio of former No. 1s: TWICE’s Between 1&2: 11th Mini Album rises 9-8 (8,500; down 18%), Ozzy Osbourne’s Patient Number 9 falls 5-9 (8,000; down 44%) and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House climbs 15-10 (6,500; up 18%).

In the week ending Sept. 29, there were 1.655 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 5.2% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.318 million (down 4.5%) and digital albums comprised 338,000 (down 7.5%).

There were 617,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Sept. 29 (down 12.4% week-over-week) and 689,000 vinyl albums sold (up 4.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 25.434 million (down 7.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 28.552 million (up 0.9%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 69.597 million (down 7.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 54.378 million (down 3.3%) and digital album sales total 15.219 million (down 21.1%).

Nick Cannon shared an adorable father-daughter moment on Instagram with his new baby Onyx Ice Cole Cannon. The picture shows Cannon snuggled up with the newborn, both asleep on the couch. 

“All in a days work!!” Cannon wrote in the black-and-white photo’s caption. “Onyx has the right idea! It’s a wrap! Meditation and Rejuvenation aligns the Spirit!”

Onyx is the Masked Singer host’s ninth child. He shares the baby, born on Sept. 14, with model Lanisha Cole. “Once again, today I am in awe of the Devine Feminine!” Cannon wrote in an Instagram post announcing Onyx’s birth. “God has given me and @MissLanishaCole the privilege of hosting an Angel here on earth. I vow to protect, provide, guide and love this child to the best of my abilities.”

Since Onyx was born, Cannon shared news of the birth of his 10th child, Rise Messiah Cannon, last week. Rise is Cannon’s third child with model Brittany Bell.

While many found the father-daughter bonding with Onyx adorable, some commenters had a few things to say about the size of Cannon’s family. The comedian has fathered three children this year with three different women.

“It’s amazing that you love all these children. But you need to stop,” said one Instagram user. “There is NO way you can give all of these children the time they deserve with their Dad. Common now…enough is enough.”

Some took a more comical approach, pointing out how many Christmas gifts Cannon will have to give out this year. “You gotta visit a lot of houses for Christmas St. NICK so yea rest up,” said another.

In a new interview, Katy Perry said she knew Dua Lipa was the “it girl” early in her career.

“I remember going in to watch her play at the Hollywood Palladium,” Perry tells Rolling Stone. “It’s so funny, I left work early. It was the first season of me doing American Idol. I was like, ‘I really need to get out of here by 7 because I’m going to see this new artist Dua Lipa play at the Palladium,’ and my co-judge Luke Bryan was like, ‘Who’s that?’ I was like, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll know her name.’”

Perry expressed empathizing with the rising star because of her own experience as a woman in the industry coming up. Perry has been very vocal about stan culture pitting women artists against one another.

“I love new female artists,” said Perry. “I know the really intense challenges and the pressure and all that stuff. I just feel for them so much.”

Perry also shared the inspiration behind her campy Las Vegas residency in the new interview. The show, filled with over-the-top costumes and larger-than-life sets, drew upon the fantasy of Alice in Wonderland.

“You don’t have to take mushrooms to feel like you’re on mushrooms when you watch this show. Believe me,” Perry says. “It’s got all the nostalgia factor, but it is wrapped up in this Alice in Wonderland mushroom trip animated story of finding true love and self-love.”

Read Perry’s full interview on Rolling Stone.

The last time Jowell y Randy dropped music was in 2020 with their pandemic-inspired hit “Se Acabó la Cuarentena” featuring Kiko el Crazy. On Thursday (Oct. 6), they unveil their new single “Toro,” released under Rimas Entertainment.  

Produced by Subelo Neo and composed by Mora, the ultra-perreo stays true to the Puerto Rican duo’s essence. “We feel the responsibility to ‘romper la calle’ very hard,” Jowell tells Billboard. “We cannot play with being experimental and bringing concepts that are not the sound people expect from us.” 

The track, which has a raunchy lyricism that metaphorically relates to a bull, was a quick creative process, according to Randy. “We didn’t have to think much about it,” he says. “Mora is very talented. This kid is a huge fan of ours and he grew up with our music. He has a different type of vocabulary and a different type of composing. Getting together with Jowell and Randy was like a huge challenge for him and a lot of fun too. There are a lot of powerful minds in this collaboration.” 

For the official music video, Jowell y Randy opted for their signature party scene, mechanical bulls, and a very inclusive group of people. The single is one of many the artists hope to release as part of their forthcoming studio album, following their 2020 Viva El Perreo, which peaked at No. 5 on the Top Latin Albums chart.

“We have a lot of songs for like three albums,” Jowell explains. “We are going to release the strongest rhythms we have for the club and for the dancing. This is very fast and people want music. We can’t keep waiting.” 

The forthcoming untitled album is set to be released before 2022 comes to an end, and according to the duo, will include promising collaborations with Rauw Alejandro, De La Ghetto, Nicky Jam, Wisin y Yandel, and Maluma, to name a few.  “There’s nothing on this album that’s not reggaetón. It’s pure reggaetón,” Randy elaborates. 

Below, see the complete “Live With Billboard Latin” interview via Instagram Live.

Manuel Turizo’s “La Bachata” logs a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart (dated Oct. 1). The track, which was released via La Industria/ Sony Music Latin on May 26, is Turizo’s first champ since his first entry, “Vaina Loca,” with Ozuna, in 2018.

“La Bachata” joins five other tracks which have topped the Argentina Hot 100 ranking in 2022 for at least four weeks. Let’s look at the leaderboard:

Weeks At, Title, Artist, Peak Date
9, “Entre Nosotros,” Tiago pzk, LIT killa, Nicki Nicole & Maria Becerra, July 31, 2021
8, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52,” Bizarrap & Quevedo, July 16
5, “La Triple T,” TINI, May 14
5, “Plan A,” Paulo Londra, March 26
4, “La Bachata,” Manuel Turizo, Sept. 10
4, “Te Felicito,” Shakira & Rauw Alejandro, June 18

The Argentina Hot 100 ranks the most popular songs within Argentina. The ranking is based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services as well as national radio airplay and plays of songs featured on a variety of Argentine TV networks. Streaming data is provided by Luminate, while radio and TV measurement is tracked by BMAT/Vericast.

Rosalia’s “Despecha” rebounds to its No. 2 high, the closest the Spaniard has been to the top since “Con Altura,” with J Balvin and El Guincho, led for three weeks in 2019. Plus, “Despecha” trades places with Bizarrap and Quevedo’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52” which dips 3-2. The latter crowned the tally for eight consecutive weeks starting the July 16-dated chart.

Further, Quevedo and Rei both add a third top 10 to their career history as “Fernet,” their first collaboration, rises 13-9. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny and Chencho Corleone rejoin the top 10 as “Me Porto Bonito” advances 12-10, after it remained steady in the upper region for 16 consecutive weeks.

Back to Quevedo who celebrates another achievement: thanks to “Vista al Mar’s” 20-rank trek (51-31) the Spaniard takes home the Greatest Gainer trophy of the week.

Elsewhere, four new faces visit the tally: Chileans Pablito Pesadilla, Polimá Westcoast, Nickoog Clk, and Fran C each score their first Billboard Argentina Hot 100 entry with “Baby Otaku’s” debut at No. 75.

Lastly, two other songs arrive this week: Romeo Santos and Rosalia’s “El Pañuelo” at No. 83, and Soledad, Lali and Natalia Oreiro’s “Quiero Todo” at No. 97.