Month: December 2022

Chiquis has released a mariachi version of her debut single “Paloma Blanca” in honor of her mother Jenni Rivera’s death 10 years ago, on Dec. 9, 2012. The new interpretation comes eight years after the original banda track debuted in 2014. 

Accompanied by the all-female Mariachi Divas, the Mexican-American singer belts out a heartfelt love letter to La Diva de la Banda, expressing how much she misses her, what she would’ve changed about their mother-daughter relationship, and her biggest life lessons learned. 

The song was produced by Cindy Shea, Ulises Lozano El Licenciado and Janney “Chiquis” Marin, and co-written by Marin and Claudia Brant.

“When ‘Paloma Blanca’ was originally released, I wasn’t entirely happy with the way it was recorded. I have always wanted to re-release it,” Chiquis said in a press statement. “My vocals and delivery have greatly evolved over these last eight years and I feel better than ever about my music so I decided to record it alongside Mariachi Divas. It will always be dedicated to my mom who passed away ten years ago but I also wanted to re-record it for her fans as well as mine.” 

Bringing the emotional lyrics to life, a music video helmed by director Oscar Eden shows Chiquis performing the song dressed as an angel as well as never-before-seen footage of her mother.

The sweet tribute comes a month after Chiquis received her first-ever Grammy nomination for best regional Mexican album and her second Latin Grammy win in the best banda album category with Abeja Reina.

Watch the music video for “Paloma Blanca” below:

Paul Kelly scores an early Christmas gift, as the veteran Australian singer, songwriter and wordsmith bags the chart crown with his holiday collection.

Kelly’s “2022 Edition” of Christmas Train (GAWD/EMI) stops at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, published Dec. 9. That’s one better than Christmas Train’s No. 2 debut and peak position following its original release in 2021, an effort that made it the highest-charting Christmas album of the year in Australia.

Christmas Train collects a batch of classics, and features a new recording of Ron Sexsmith’s “Maybe This Christmas” — recorded with Kelly’s live band at Soundpark Studios in Melbourne — and, of course, Kelly’s own holiday standard, “How to Make Gravy,” a tale of a prisoner reflecting on the friends and family he’ll miss while he’s locked up for Christmas.

Guest vocalists on the LP include Marlon Williams, Waleed Aly, Lior, Emma Donovan, Kasey Chambers, Kate Miller-Heidke, Vika & Linda Bull, and more.

With another Aussie Christmas set blazing to No. 1 last week, Jimmy Barnes’ Blue Christmas (down 4-1 this cycle), ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd is calling the result “amazing” and “one more thing to celebrate as we enter the festive season. Congratulations to Paul for his success, it’s fantastic to see such an accomplished and important national storyteller continue to reach new heights.”

Kelly had to wait for his first No. 1. It finally came in 2017 with Life Is Fine, his 23rd studio album. Its followup, 2018’s Nature, also scaled the summit.

A smattering of Christmas gifts are placed on the ARIA Charts, including Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Reprise/Warner), up 36-8 on the albums survey, and the Bocellis’ A Family Christmas (Decca/Universal), which holds at No. 9.

Leaping in at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart, just behind Taylor Swift’s Midnights (Universal), is Australian Frog Calls: Songs of Disappearance (via MGM), an album that features calls from 43 of Australia’s most threatened frogs.

The set is a collaborative project of Australia Museum FrogID project, the Bowerbird Collective, Listening Earth and Mervyn Street of Mangkaja Arts, and aims to raise awareness for Australia’s declining frog population. Currently, one in six Australian native frog species are threatened.

The amphibian benefit recording is from the same well as Australian Bird Calls: Songs of Disappearance, an album of bird songs that reached No. 2 on the national chart in 2021.

Also new to the ARIA Albums Chart is Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (Republic/Universal), new at No. 5, while BTS star RM’s starts at No. 26 with his solo debut Indigo (Interscope/Universal), and Magic Dirt singer Adalita bows at No. 29 with Inland (Liberation/Universal).

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Sam Smith & Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (Capitol/Universal) unseats “Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (Universal) after six weeks, while Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (Columbia/Sony) races 11-3.

Metro Boomin’ has the top debut on the singles survey with his Heroes & Villains release, “Creepin’” featuring the Weeknd and 21 Savage. It’s new at No. 8.

When Guns N’ Roses come to an arena or stadium near you, there won’t be any chance of Axl Rose’s microphone smacking you in the face.

The reunited rock legends’ front man has pledged to quit throwing his mic into the crowd, a decades-long tradition, after a fan apparently sustained facial injuries when she was hit during a concert in Australia.

According to the Adelaide Advertiser, Rebecca Howe was left with two black eyes and a bloody nose when Rose threw his mic at the completion of their set.

Following a rendition of the final song “Paradise City,” Rose “took a bow and then he launched the microphone out to the crowd … and then bang, right on the bridge of my nose,” she told the title.

The microphone then reportedly bounced into the hands of another concertgoer.

“My mind went, ‘Oh my God, my face is caved in,” she continued, adding that she was left hyperventilating following the incident, and in a state of “shock”.

Rose heard the story, he saw the photos, and he’ll change the show accordingly.

“It’s come to my attention that a fan may have been hurt at r show in Adelaide Australia possible being hit by the microphone at the end of the show when I traditionally toss the mic to the fans,” he writes in a social post.

“If true obviously we don’t want anyone getting hurt or to somehow in anyway hurt anyone at any of r shows anywhere,” Rose wrote.

Having tossed the mic at the end of show for over 30 years, the singer continued, the band felt “it was a known part” the performance “that fans wanted and were aware of to have an opportunity to catch the mic.”

That said, “in the interest of public safety from now on we’ll refrain from tossing the mic or anything to the fans during or at r performances.”

GNR’s stadium tour down under wraps this Saturday (Dec. 10) at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, the finale of an eight-city swing. TEG Dainty is producing the Australia and NZ leg, which features the classic line-up of Axl, Slash and Duff McKagan, with The Chats, Cosmic Psychos and Alien Weaponry in support.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ archival release Live at the Fillmore, 1997 debuts in the top 10 across a range of Billboard charts (all dated Dec. 10), including Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Tastemaker Albums. It also launches in the top 40 of the all-genre Billboard 200, arriving at No. 35 — Petty’s 21st top 40 album.

Also in the top 10 on Top Album Sales: Taylor Swift’s Midnights holds at No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week as it surpasses 1.5 million in U.S. sales while the Cure’s Wish re-enters at No. 4 after its 30th anniversary reissue. Plus, Matteo, Andrea and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas hits the top 10 for the first time as it jumps 38-5 following the trio’s appearance on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Nov. 27) and NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center special (Nov. 30).

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.

Top Current Album Sales lists the week’s best-selling current (not catalog, or older albums) albums by traditional album sales. Independent Albums reflects the week’s most popular albums, by units, released by independent record labels.  Vinyl Albums tallies the top-selling vinyl albums of the week. Tastemaker Albums ranks the week’s best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores.

Live at the Fillmore, 1997 – which commemorates Petty’s 20-show run at the historic theater in 1997 – sold 16,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 1, according to Luminate. Live at the Fillmore was available in multiple configurations (with either 33 tracks on a standard edition or 58 tracks on an expanded version) that ranged in price from a basic $20 digital download album to a $550 uber deluxe collector’s boxed set with six vinyl LPs. All versions of the album are tracked together for sales and charting purposes.

Of Live at the Fillmore’s 16,000 sold, physical sales comprise 14,000 (with 9,000 on CD and 5,000 on vinyl) and digital album download sales comprise 2,000. The set features live takes of such songs as “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”

At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Swift’s Midnights holds atop the list for a sixth straight week (60,000 sold; up 5%). It’s the first album to sell at least 50,000 copies in each of its first six weeks of release in nearly a year, since Adele’s 30 also sold 50,000-plus in its first six frames (Dec. 4, 2021-Jan. 8, 2022-dated charts).

Midnights’ total U.S. sales now stand at 1.525 million – more than twice the sales of year’s second-largest selling album, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (678,000).

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is a non-mover on Top Album Sales with 18,000 sold (down 35%).

The Cure’s Wish re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 4 with 15,000 sold (up from a negligible sum the previous week) following its 30th anniversary reissue. The set, originally released in 1992, debuted and peaked at No. 2 on Top Album Sales and the Billboard 200. It’s the highest-charting effort for the act on the latter list.

Matteo, Andrea and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas vaults from No. 38 to No. 5 on Top Album Sales — its first week in the top 10 — with its best sales week yet, 14,000 (up 169%). The gain comes after the trio appeared on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Nov. 27) and NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center special (Nov. 30). (The album’s title is truth in advertising: Matteo and Virginia are Andrea’s children, ages 24 and 10.)

Styles’ Harry’s House rises 9-6 on Top Album Sales with nearly 14,000 (up 28%), Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack climbs 11-7 with 13,000 (up 35%), Swift’s Folklore bumps 13-8 with 13,000 (up 57%) and another Swift set, Red (Taylor’s Version) rises 17-9 with 11,000 (up 33%). Most albums in the top 10 also benefit from Black Friday sale pricing and promotion at major retailers, as the tracking week reflected on the latest chart covers the Nov. 25 – Dec. 1 time frame (with Nov. 25 Black Friday).

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours rounds out the top 10 of Top Album Sales, vaulting 21-10 with 10,000 sold (up 31%) following the death of the band’s Christine McVie on Nov. 30.

In the week ending Dec. 1, there were 2.708 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 17.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.361 million (up 22.4%) and digital albums comprised 348,000 (down 8.8%).

There were 862,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Dec. 1 (up 18.1% week-over-week) and 1.485 vinyl albums sold (up 25%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 31.892 million (down 10.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 36.871 million (up 3.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 87.949 million (down 8.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 69.265 million (down 3.3%) and digital album sales total 18.683 million (down 22.5%).

Everyone has good and bad qualities, but Sky Katz is embracing her dark side in her angsty new single, “P.O.S.,” which officially dropped on Friday (Dec. 9).

“Probably got anger issues, major anxiety / I’m a manipulative, under-stimulated teen / Over opinionated, I got nothing to say / Maybe I’m just a piece of s—, but baby, that’s OK,” the 17-year-old sings in the chorus, which takes on a more pop-punk sound in the same vein as Katz’s recent singles, “Why Did You Call?” and “Breakup Song,” the latter of which was co-written and produced by Good Charlotte‘s Joel Madden.

“‘P.O.S.’ is a song about owning the shittiest qualities within yourself,” Katz shared with Billboard in a press statement. “We present such polished, perfected versions of ourselves to the world, but this is a song to take a break from that and just have fun exaggerating/embracing your flaws for a little.”

The release comes just days before Katz takes the stage at New York City’s The Mercury Lounge on December 13 in celebration of her 18th birthday. “I purposely scheduled my concert a day after my birthday so I can celebrate with some people who make me feel most loved – my fans,” she told Billboard. “There’s going to be a lively contagious energy in the room which I can’t wait to present. With Silver Cup opening and me performing after, I know we’ll start and end the night on a great note!”

Listen to Katz’ ‘P.O.S.’ below, and grab tickets to her upcoming NYC show here.

ABC will no longer air its planned Backstreet Boys holiday special this month, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

A Very Backstreet Holiday was scheduled for Dec. 14 but has been pulled from the network’s schedule, and comedy reruns will air in its place. The special was set to feature the boy band singing tunes from its holiday album of the same name that was released in October.

The decision to pull the special follows a lawsuit filed Thursday alleging that Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter raped a 17-year-old fan on his tour bus after a 2001 concert in Tacoma, Washington. According to the civil suit filed in Nevada, now-39-year-old Shannon “Shay” Ruth claims that the singer chose her amid a group of autograph seekers to join him on the tour bus, gave her an alcoholic beverage called “VIP juice” and assaulted her.

The lawsuit alleges that three other anonymous Jane Doe accusers experienced similar assaults by Carter between 2003 and 2006. One of the three unnamed accusers was allegedly underage.

In a statement shared with Page Six, Carter’s attorney Michael Holtz called the allegations “not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue.”

These are not the first accusations leveled against the pop singer. In 2017, Melissa Schuman, a former member of singing group Dream, publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2003 when she was 18 years old. At the time, Carter denied the allegations by saying Schuman hadn’t previously expressed to him that “anything we did was not consensual.”

Prosecutors investigated Schuman’s claims and declined to bring criminal charges against the star, citing the statute of limitations having expired.

This article originally appeared in THR.com.

As a significant part of HYBE’s grand plans for 2022 and 2023, the Korean entertainment corporation’s first Japan-based act officially arrived on the music scene with its debut EP this week.

&TEAM is the nine-member boy band aiming to be a “global” group with representation from their Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and German backgrounds. Consisting of members K, Fuma, Nicholas, EJ, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki and Maki, the nine were selected from the singing competition show &AUDITION – The Howling that wrapped in September. The program featured HYBE chairman Bang Si-Hyuk leading and advising the group, while Scooter Braun and Zico appeared as special producers for the show. BTS, SEVENTEEN, Tomorrow X Together and ENHYPEN cheered on the contestants.

The boy band started their journey with their rock-pop lead single “Under the Skin,” released in late November, to preview their forthcoming EP, First Howling : ME. Produced by Slow Rabbit (who’s produced multiple singles for BTS and Tomorrow X Together), “Under the Skin” showed early indication that trusted HYBE collaborators would also work with the new act with contributions from Melanie Fontana (who’s written on multiple BTS, TXT, and ENHYPEN singles) and Kyler Niko (ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM).

For the release of First Howling : ME and the Southern hip-hop/pop track “Scent of You,” &TEAM once again had production handled by Slow Rabbit as well as Supreme Boi (the HYBE rapper and producer who’s appeared on BTS and J-Hope albums) with a music video that spotlighted the precise choreography K-pop acts are famous for shot by a 360-degree camera. Bang also helmed the group’s new song “Buzz Love.”

While &TEAM is not the first Japan-based group to debut from a Korean label, the group does stand out by already incorporating into multiple parts of the K-pop conversation. &TEAM’s music videos are uploaded on the HYBE Labels YouTube channel (with more than 69 million subscribers) and have released a performance of “Under the Skin” with popular K-pop dance company STUDIO CHOOM (where performances from the likes of Stray Kids, (G)I-DLE and Kep1er have racked up tens of millions of views). &TEAM also has had global distribution on streaming services when many Japanese labels still do not share their music worldwide.

After &TEAM confirmed its lineup in September, the members shared their international ambitions. K, born in Japan and once competed for a spot in ENHYPEN, said via a press release that “our ultimate goal is to reach a global audience and be charted on Billboard like BTS.”

The group didn’t have to wait long as “Under the Skin” already bowed at No. 80 on the Japan Hot 100 chart dated Dec. 3. Where the group will go next—and what charts they may enter—will be exciting to watch as &TEAM and HYBE look to expand their global reach.