Month: March 2023

The moment Eden Muñoz has waited for his entire life has become a reality: The Sinaoloan singer-songwriter is hitting the road with his first U.S. tour.

Presented by Live Nation, Muñoz’s Consejos Gratis Tour (Free Advice) is set to kick off on Aug. 25 at Kings Theater in Brooklyn, NY, and will visit key cities such as San Antonio, San Diego, El Paso, and more before wrapping on Nov. 22 at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, TX.

With the 14-day stint, the artist and producer—who hit No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay as a Soloist With “Chale!”—feels that with this tour he will give back to his fans and the Latin community in the U.S. “It’s a well-done tour, well structured, beautiful, where people enjoy themselves and in the end live an experience because that is what it is all about,” he tells Billboard.

On social media, concertgoers can already have a feel as to what to expect at a Muñoz concert.

“They [his fans] bring their posters and ask me to let them play the accordion, and if it’s their dream, I let them do it,” he explains. “I think that this is part of the interesting things about life. You don’t know how good I feel when people tell me, ‘I fulfilled my dream of going to see you’ or ‘I fulfilled my dream of playing a song with you.’ I was also someone who had those dreams.”

Muñoz launched his solo career in January 2022 after forming part of the Regional Mexican group Calibre 50. He was named songwriter of the year at the 2021 SESAC Latin Music Awards for penning hits such as Banda MS’ “La Casita” and La Arrolladora Banda El Limón de René Camacho’ “Mi Primer Derrota.” But in addition to composing, he’s also a producer, which can be best seen in Yuridia’s first Regional Mexican album, Pa’ Luego Es Tarde, which debuted at No. 7 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart.

“I want to make an album, but visual,” he said of his own upcoming project. “Show how I work in the studio and how much fun it is for me to play with things. Part of the things I do is purely ignorant because I don’t know about acoustics. I know how to play the guitar very limited, but I like to see what sound it gives us. I listen to my intuition, so I feel that part of the success of my music is that.”

As for the best “consejo gratis” the “Te Invito a Ser Feliz” can share with fans? “To find themselves and be happy—especially to be happy with what they have.”

Tickets for the Consejos Gratis Tour can be purchased on LiveNation.com.

Ever felt “just like a tourist in the city you were born?” Kelly Clarkson can relate, as she covered Death Cab for Cutie‘s 2011 track “You Are a Tourist” for The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s opening Kellyoke segment on Friday (March 3).

Accompanied by her band Y’all, the three-time Grammy winner put her own peaceful spin on the alternative track, using her signature belt to execute soaring high notes and stunning vibrato moments. “‘Cause when you find yourself a villain/ In the story you have written/ It’s plain to see/ That sometimes the best intentions/ Are in need of redemption/ Would you agree/ If so, please show me,” Clarkson passionately sang on her rendition of the track.

“You Are a Tourist” was released as the first single from Death Cab for Cutie’s seventh studio album, Codes and Keys, in 2011. The track topped Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart, one of the band’s now eight No. 1s on the tally.

Clarkson’s cover of Death Cab‘s hit comes at an appropriate time, as the band just collected its eighth Adult Alternative Airplay chart-topper with “Pepper,” which crowns the chart dated March 11. The single marked the band’s second No. 1 in a row, following the eight-week ruler “Here to Forever,” which led in August-October 2022.

Listen to Clarkson cover Death Cab for Cutie’s “You Are a Tourist” for the latest Kellyoke in the video above.

Omar Apollo was supposed to be in Philadelphia on Thursday night. The R&B singer had been slated to open for SZA on her SOS Tour stop at the Wells Fargo Center, but that show was postponed at the last moment, leaving the best new artist Grammy nominee with an unexpectedly free evening.

Rather than waste it, he decided to give his loyal cadre of fans a special treat by announcing a secret show at New York City’s Irving Plaza.

With just a few hours’ notice, the concert was sold out, and Billboard was on the scene inside the packed ballroom for Apollo’s intimate, off-the-cuff set, which took place just two days before he’s slated to take the stage at Madison Square Garden to open for SZA. “You’re getting the real, unscripted vibes, you know what I’m saying?” the singer — clad in a black puffer jacket, sweats and backward baseball cap — told the electrified crowd after revealing he and his band hadn’t even had time to come up with a setlist or run through a full rehearsal for the spontaneous show.

Below, Billboard rounded up all the best moments from Apollo’s secret show in NYC.

‘Thoughts of a Third Make Me Weak‘

After a one-two punch of “Useless” and “Killing Me,” Apollo treated fans to a live performance of his newest single “3 Boys.” The heartsick ode to queer desire and casual non-monogamy translated perfectly from record to stage as he yearned, “Seems like everything I do take me further from you/ Three boys would work if I wasn’t so tethered to you/ What should I do? I can’t even choose/ I’m tethered to you, baby” while bathed in cool blue light. Apollo’s heart may not be ready to juggle multiple guys, but the crowd couldn’t get enough of the romantic ballad.

Playing with His ‘Tamagotchi‘

No song got the jam-packed room going throughout the night quite like Ivory single “Tamagotchi,” which was produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes. The bouncy Latin trap jam had Apollo engaging in a teasing back-and-forth with the audience, flashing some skin as he motioned to the band of his underwear (“Feel on my waistline”) and miming a sexually charged hand gesture on the song’s steamy chorus.

On Such a Winter’s Day

It may have been a chilly 40 degrees outside, but Apollo decided to bring some sunshine indoors by injecting a number of tender, off-the-cuff covers into his set. “So, yo, I didn’t, like, have a full entire set, but I do have some covers if y’all want to hear some covers,” he said as the crowd erupted into enthusiastic screams, leading him to admit, “Thank god. Thank god, it relieves me.”

First up was “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and The Papas. Leaning into his fluttering falsetto, the alt-R&B sensation transformed the 1965 classic into a slow-burning groove, singing, “Stopped into a church/ I passed along the way/ Well, I got down on my knees/ And I pretend to pray/ You know the preacher likes the cold/ He knows I’m gonna stay/ California dreamin’, dreamin’, dreamin’/ On such a winter’s day” before letting out an excited yelp.

Next, the singer offered up an impromptu take on “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King. The only problem? He wasn’t quite sure of the lyrics, leading him to borrow someone’s phone to read off the words — but only after stopping momentarily to make sure a distressed fan was all right in the audience. “I was kind of nervous, I’ve never sang that before,” he admitted to the crowd after finishing the song, later adding, after a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication album cut “Porcelain,” “We didn’t rehearse sh–! I’m letting y’all know right now, we didn’t rehearse nothin’! We had to put it together for New York!”

An ‘En El Olvido’ Sing-Along

Following the trio of covers, it was time to get back into Apollo’s own discography, which he did by jumping into the Spanish-language “En El Olvido.” The rising star’s Mexican-American roots have always been a central tenet of his musical brand, and from the first jaunty notes of the guitar, fans went wild with appreciation. So much so that partway through the song, Apollo decided to pass the mic around to a number of fans in the front row, giving them the chance to prove that they did, in fact, know every single word of the deep cut en Español.

‘Evergreen’ Is Evergreen

Naturally, there was no more obvious choice for closing out the secret set than “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).” After all, the breakout hit was Apollo’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as an array of charts around the world, and has since been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

And for his big finale, Apollo demonstrated precisely why the midtempo jam made the leap from TikTok virality to a bona fide radio hit. “Evergreen/ She don’t know you like me/ She could never love you more, more than me/ But sometimes I pray that you fall in love/ I’ve cried, I’ve cried so much for you, baby,” he crooned as the house sang each word back to him in full force. Not even the thrilling encore of “Go Away” could match the energy of the rising star’s biggest hit.

First Country is a compilation of new country songs, videos & albums that dropped this week.

Kip Moore, “Damn Love” (Video)

The title track to Moore’s upcoming April 28 album, Moore delivers one of his fiercest vocals to date on the title track from his upcoming April 28 album, written by Jason Gantt, Jaren Johnston and James McNair. Moore’s signature passionate, blue-collar scruff of a voice wrings every nuance of longing and heartbreak out of the song’s straightforward musings on the illustrious highs and crushing valleys of love.

Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal, “I Am a Pilgrim”

On Friday (March 3), Doc Watson would have celebrated his 100th birthday. Here, Cash and Leventhal offer a sweetly sparse arrangement of the folk song “I Am a Pilgrim,” which Watson included in nearly every live show. Tasteful acoustic guitar work elevates Cash’s voice, which is both wisened and packed with warmth. “I Am a Pilgrim” is the second release from the upcoming Doc Watson tribute album, I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100, which releases April 28 and features artists including Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas, Valerie June and Steve Earle.

Southerland, “World Without You”

Southerland’s Matt Chase and Chris Rogers wrote this track along with Greg Bates and Jessi Alexander. In “World Without You” a guy muses what his life would be like sans his lover, comparing it to Tennessee without its “guitar town,” or Texas without its signature gruffness. The earnest lyrics get elevate by rippling guitars, shining production and the duo’s smooth harmonies.

Juliana Riccardi, “Right on Time”

Riccardi’s lilting voice and moody acoustic guitar flourishes are an elegant foil for this sweetly assuring song about carving your own path in your own time. “Don’t hold on too tight, and don’t hold on for spite/ What ain’t working out is teaching you to steer,” she sings. “Right on Time” is part of Riccardi’s two-song The Nashville Sessions project, co-produced and mixed by Nick Bullock.

Jenna Paulette, “Anywhere the Wind Blows”

Paulette, who releases her debut album The Girl I Was on March 31, takes a confident, carefree approach to her new single, “Anywhere the Wind Blows,” written by Paulette with Rhett Akins, Will Bundy and Jeb Gipson. Paulette brings a lilting Texas twang to a song that, not unlike Jo Dee Messina’s 1996 hit “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” envisions a range of places she and her sweetheart could set off to, from the Carolinas to Texas. “You be the tumbleweed/ I’ll be the feather, I don’t care as long as we’re together,” she sings in this promising track, backed by sweet fiddle lines and a bed of laid-back percussion.

The Panhandlers, “Tough Country”

The Panhandlers, a collection of music veterans that include Josh Abbott, John Baumann, William Clark Green and Flatland Cavalry’s Cleto Cordero, formed The Panhandlers in 2019 and a year later released their debut album in 2020. On Friday (March 3), they returned with their second project, the 14-track Tough Country. On the sterling title track, they pay homage to the rugged Texas countryside that shaped members of a family for generations, a place “in the land before the lazy chair, power pole, Frigidaire.” The expertly-crafted, softly played track is tinged with both wistfulness and sadness, and an urgency to soak in the tough Texas land’s beauty, knowing “it’d bring a tear to my grandpa’s eye/ Knowing every good thing dies.” The song concludes with a knowledge that one day, more generations of the family will return to the land where their generational roots have held for so many years. The album also includes Santa Fe, a song written by the late Guy Clark, but never released until it was included on Tough Country.

No song debuts in the top 50 of the March 4-dated Billboard Global 200 or Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant new entries. Grupo Frontera, the regional Mexican group with a fast-growing roster of global hits, arrives on both rankings with “Di Que Si,” alongside Grupo Marca Registrada.

The new duet hits the Global 200 at No. 152 and the Global Excl. U.S. chart at No. 190. At first look, a Spanish-language title with primary impact on Billboard’s regional Mexican charts might be expected to debut higher on the Global Excl. U.S. ranking than on the Global 200. But all four of Grupo Frontera’s currently charting global hits are higher on the Global 200. “Bebe Dame,” with Fuerza Regida, is No. 28 on the latter chart and No. 34 on the former. “Que Vuelvas,” with Carin León, is Nos. 40 and 48, respectively. And “No Se Va” stands at Nos. 101 and 111.

While Grupo Frontera makes regional Mexican music, its members hail from McAllen, Texas, as second-or-third-generation Mexican-American immigrants. The band’s success is one example of many in the genre finding major success in America, specifically through Texas and other western states. Eslabon Armando, Gerardo Ortiz and Grupo Firme are some of the other U.S.-based acts topping the regional Mexican charts.

“Di Que Si” arrives with 14.5 million streams in the week ending Feb. 23, according to Luminate. That breaks down to 4.6 million in the U.S. and 9.9 million outside, or 32% and 68%, respectively. That is slightly above the band’s other chart hits, all between 26-30% of domestic streams. The group’s new debut climbs to No. 11 on the Mexico Songs chart, while its three other charting hits land at Nos. 3, 5 and 13 on the survey

Grupo Frontera’s growing global presence kicked off with the debut of “No Se Va” hitting both charts in October. “Que Vuelvas” and “Bebe Dame” arrived in January, ahead of “Di Que Si.” These songs are part of a larger profile of regional Mexican acts populating both lists, with Natanael Cano, Peso Pluma and Chino Pacas, among others, also scoring recent debuts.

On the March 4-dated global charts, 10 regional Mexican tracks appear on both rankings, marking a 5% share of all titles. Six months ago, on the Sept. 3, 2022-dated Global 200, there were five. A year ago (March 5), there was one.