Month: April 2023

Metallica’s 72 Seasons debuts atop multiple Billboard charts dated April 29, including the Top Rock & Alternative Albums survey.

In its first tracking week (April 14-20), Seasons earned 146,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 134,000 units were via album sales.

It’s Metallica’s fifth No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, which began in 2006. The rockers first ruled with Death Magnetic in 2008 and then with 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (the band’s last proper LP prior to Seasons) and 2020’s S&M2 with the San Francisco Symphony, along with a first week at No. 1 in 2021 for 1991’s Metallica upon its 30th anniversary.

The new set’s 146,000-unit start marks the best single-week sum on Top Rock & Alternative Albums this decade. It’s the biggest since Tool’s Fear Inoculum soared in with 270,000 units on the Sept. 14, 2019, ranking.

Seasons is also Metallica’s fifth No. 1 on both Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums.

The set bows at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with its 134,000-unit sales count, becoming Metallica’s eighth leader dating to 1991’s self-titled album. On Vinyl Albums, it’s likewise No. 1 thanks to 43,000 first-week vinyl copies sold, marking the group’s sixth champ, tying the band with The Beatles and Jack White for the second-most, after Taylor Swift with nine.

On the all-genre, mult-metric Billboard 200, Seasons debuts at No. 2, behind Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which earned 166,000 units. The band adds its 12th top 10 on the chart, a run that began with …And Justice for All in 1988.

Concurrently, multiple songs from Seasons reach Billboard song charts, with the entire album’s tracklist infusing Hot Hard Rock Songs. It’s led by the title track and current radio single, which leaps 12-2 thanks to 2.7 million radio audience impressions, 2.4 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold. “Shadows Follow” is next at No. 6 (1.8 million streams).

Twelve songs at once on Hot Hard Rock Songs is the most since the chart’s 2020 inception, surpassing Deftones‘ 10 songs on the Oct. 10, 2020, ranking.

“72 Seasons” jumps 8-6 on the latest Mainstream Rock Airplay survey. It’s Metallica’s 26th top 10, placing the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers in a tie with Van Halen for the sixth-most since the chart began in 1981. Preceding single “Lux Æterna” reigned for 11 weeks beginning in December, while fellow teaser song “Screaming Suicide” (not promoted to radio) spent one week on the tally at No. 40 in February.

Jack Harlow‘s third full-length studio album, Jackman., will drop this Friday (April 28). The surprise announcement about the follow-up to last year’s Come Home the Kids Miss You came on Wednesday morning (April 26), with a spokesperson saying no additional information was available at press time about a lead single, track list or features.

The news was accompanied by what appears to be the Jackman. cover, a shot of a shirtless Harlow standing with his arms crossed in an alleyway next to some garbage cans. Harlow will be among the 2023 class of Hometown Heroes whose banners will go up around his stomping grounds next week, joining the likes of previous honorees Muhammad Ali and Colonel Harlan Sanders, alongside fellow 2023 honorees jazz musician Lionel Hampton, golfer Justin Thomas and NBA champ Wes Unseld.

After blasting onto the rap scene in 2020 with “What’s Poppin’” from his debut album, That’s What They All Say, Harlow did it again with Come Home, which featured the single “Nail Tech” and chart-topping smash “First Class.”

In addition to the new album and the hometown honor, Harlow will also star in the upcoming remake of White Men Can’t Jump, which will hit Hulu on May 19. The trailer for the MC’s film debut dropped last week and found the “Industry Baby” rapper portraying a self-care loving, goofily dressed rich kid who is surprisingly good at basketball, much to his rival’s (played by Sinqua Walls) shock.

“You assumed I couldn’t hoop because I’m white, which is incredibly outdated,” Harlow says to Walls’ character in the trailer, to which Walls replies, “No, I assumed you couldn’t hoop because you were dressed like a white girl at Whole Foods.”

Check out the album cover below.

The 2023 BET Awards will air live from Los Angeles on Sunday, June 25. It will be the latest awards show to celebrate five decades of hip-hop. The Grammys and the Juno Awards also gave hip-hop a 50th anniversary salute on their 2023 editions in February and March, respectively.

This will be the 23rd edition of the BET Awards, which calls itself “Culture’s Biggest Night.”

“We are thrilled to be back in L.A. for BET Awards 2023 and to celebrate a huge cultural milestone – the 50th anniversary of hip-hop,” Connie Orlando, EVP specials, music programming and music strategy at BET, said in a statement. “For five decades, hip-hop has not only influenced American culture, but has become a global phenomenon and one of the most influential musical genres of our lifetime. From music to fashion, art, and entertainment, we are honored to have always provided a platform for hip-hop to thrive. We look forward to paying tribute to the pioneers and innovators as we amplify the new generation of hip-hop artists like only BET can.”

This year’s venue hasn’t yet been finalized. The show has been held at the Microsoft Theater every year since 2013, except the 2020 show, which was a virtual production due to the pandemic.

Taraji P. Henson hosted the 2021 and 2022 BET Awards, becoming the show’s first repeat host since Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross co-hosted in 2015-16. Other hosts since the show moved from the Shrine Auditorium to the Microsoft Theater have been Chris Tucker, Chris Rock, Leslie Jones, Jamie Foxx and Regina Hall. (Amanda Seales hosted the 2020 show.)

Orlando will executive produce this year’s show, with Jamal Noisette, VP, specials, music programming & music strategy to co-executive produce for BET. Jesse Collins Entertainment is the production company for the show, with Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay also serving as executive producers.

The BET Awards has been the top-rated cable award show among all adults 18-49 the past two years, and has been the No. 1 cable award show among Black adults 18-49 for the past 21 years.

This story is part of Billboard‘s Mujeres Latinas en la Música package.

When their baby, Índigo, turned 40 days old, new parents Evaluna Montaner de Echeverry and Camilo Echeverry packed their bags and embarked on their first tour as a family of three. “She fits in perfectly with this [tour] life, thank goodness,” says Evaluna proudly of her daughter, the superstar couple’s first child. 

It’s late March and the multifaceted artist — singer-songwriter, actress and director — is home in Miami after wrapping up the first leg of the couple’s ambitious De Adentro Pa’ Afuera world tour, which kicked off last year. “The crew became Índigo’s second family.” She adds, “It’s just so much fun to see her surrounded by many people that love her.” 

Evaluna, 25, and who goes by her first name only, grew up in a similar environment. Her father is prolific singer-songwriter Ricardo Montaner, her mother is director Marlene Rodríguez Miranda — who directs all of Ricardo’s music videos — and her brothers are recording artists Ricardo and Mauricio Montaner (known as the duo Mau y Ricky). 

While Evaluna’s name is often seen side by side with those of her famous husband, siblings and parents, she’s a powerhouse in her own right. With a distinctive soothing voice that has captured more than 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 4 million YouTube subscribers (as well as 21 million followers on Instagram), her ability to balance life as a Montaner (on- and offscreen), in addition to a marriage, a recording and directing career and now motherhood on the road, embodies a different kind of pop star: One that makes family part of her success. 

“It has been wonderful to grow up in the family that I’ve grown up in, where they are open to all of us following our dreams. Our dreams all happen to go hand in hand, and we’re able to work together.” 

That modeled her own relationship with Colombian star Camilo (who also goes by his first name), whom she married in February 2020. The pair collaborated on “Por Primera Vez,” “Machu Picchu” and “Índigo,” which peaked at No. 16 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart and No. 26 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. She has also directed all of Camilo’s music videos, following in the footsteps of her mother, who would take Evaluna to work with her while she was directing on set. “I’d be her AD [assistant director], and it would be great because she’d make me do a bunch of things although I was really young,” she remembers. “I felt I was being productive, and that really encouraged me to say, ‘I think I can do this too.’ I don’t know if I’ll be as good as her, but I can try.” Even after directing for three years now, Evaluna confesses she’ll still call her mom to ask: “Do you think this idea for a music video is cool or do you think this is going to be lame?” 

Aside from touring and directing, Evaluna’s music career (she’s managed by Jorge Ferradas at FPM Entertainment, who also manages Camilo) is “very much a priority.” Her latest single, “Refugio,” a sunny ballad released last year with a video (directed by her mom) with over 4 million YouTube views, is a preview of what’s to come. “I’m not one to release a whole bunch of songs and go single after single,” she explains. “I like taking my time and nurturing a song before releasing it. I’m getting closer to the stripped-down, raw sound I want to have for myself.” 

A few weeks after Billboard spoke with Evaluna, the family of three will pack up again and kick off the second leg of the tour in Central America and Mexico. “Having to wake up early after you’ve had a long night, that’s intense,” she says of touring with a baby in tow. 

Still, that doesn’t compare to the comments she was seeing online after giving birth, the less-talked-about side effect of having millions of eyes on you. “That was the hardest part,” Evaluna says. “They were saying that childbirth had ‘done a number on me.’ The only reason I’m sharing this is because I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone. I regret feeling for a moment that those people might be right. I regret it because my body is incredible. It has been doing some crazy things since the moment I got pregnant.” She then adds confidently, “I feel like I’ve really grown as a woman, being a mother to this beautiful girl. I can say that I’m the woman I always dreamed of becoming.”

Tickets to Billboard‘s Latin Women In Music can be purchased here.