Month: May 2023

Billboard has more than 200 different weekly charts in its menu, encompassing numerous genres and formats.

While established artists often compete for a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and Billboard 200 albums ranking, which track the most popular songs and albums of the week, respectively, up-and-coming talents typically start off on genre-specific lists.

Here’s a look at 15 acts who appear on surveys for the first time on the May 20-dated charts.

Wunderhorse

Wunderhorse, the pseudonym of British artist Jacob Slater, debuts “Purple” at No. 36 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart (up 38% in plays), marking his first-ever chart entry. He released the song in October on his debut LP Cub, on Communion Records/Mick Music. Before performing as Wunderhorse, Slater was the frontman of post-punk trio Dead Pretties. Outside of music, Slater stars in the FX mini-series Pistol, a biographical drama centered around the Sex Pistols, in which he portrays the band’s drummer, Paul Cook. Earlier this year, Slater supported the Pixies on tour, and he’ll next open for Fontaines D.C. In between, he’s slated to perform at multiple festivals, including Austin City Limits, Glastonbury and Ohana.

Jim-E Stack

The indie-pop musician, 31, scores his first chart appearance as a recording artist thanks to his new collaboration with Flume, “Chalk 1.3.3 (2017 Export.WAV).” The song, released May 3 on Flume’s mixtape Arrived Anxious, Left Bored through Future Classic Records, debuts at No. 44 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with 420,000 official streams in the U.S. May 5-11, according to Luminate. Stack has written and produced songs with an array of acts including Gracie Abrams, Bon Iver, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Empress Of and Caroline Polachek. Bon Iver’s “PDLIF (Please Don’t Live in Fear),” which Stack co-produced with Justin Vernon and BJ Burton, reached No. 36 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs in 2020. He also co-produced Diplo’s “New Shapes” (featuring Octavian), which hit No. 48 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in 2019. Stack has self-released two solo LPs: Tell Me I Belong, in 2014, and Ephemera, in 2020.

Lil Mabu

The 18-year-old New York City native (real name Matthew DeLuca) scores his first chart hit with breakthrough track “Mathematical Disrespect.” The song, which he self-released May 4, debuts at No. 90 on the Hot 100, as well as No. 17 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 27 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, with 7.2 million streams. Lil Mabu has released all his music, including his debut 2022 debut mixtape Double M’s, while attending the Collegiate School, a private prep school in Manhattan. He also arrives at No. 19 on the Emerging Artists chart.

Kid Joi

The Detroit-based Nigerian singer-songwriter (real name Julia Igwe), 19, makes her first chart appearance with her new collaboration with Gryffin, “Oceans.” The track, released May 3 through Darkroom/Interscope Records, debuts at No. 29 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with 577,000 streams in its first full week of tracking.

Pretty Porcelain

The Miami-based rapper tallies her first chart hit with “Stop Playing With Me.” The song, released in December via Supa T Records, debuts at No. 39 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (up 45% in plays). Pretty Porcelain (real name Sheterria Heaven Elliott) has released one additional song on streaming services, “Sushi Sushi,” with Osmani Garcia, on May 11.

Enisa

Enisa arrives on Billboard’s charts thanks to her featured appearance on Galantis and JVKE’s “Fool 4 U.” The song, released May 4 on Big Beat/Atlantic Records, begins at No. 31 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with 554,000 streams. The Albanian singer-songwriter and Brooklyn native (full name Enisa Nikaj) signed to Atlantic in 2019 before competing on NBC’s American Song Contest, representing New York, in 2022. Also last year, she released her debut EP, Fake Love, via Atlantic.

Billy Woods & Kenny Segal

The two artists each earn their first chart entry with their new collaborative album, Maps. The set, released May 5 via Backwoodz Studios, debuts at No. 8 on Heatseekers Albums, No. 24 on Top Current Album Sales and No. 31 on Top Album Sales (4,000 copies sold). With 3,000 from vinyl sales, it also starts at No. 14 on the Vinyl Albums chart. Woods and Segal are both veteran musicians. Woods, a New York City-based underground rapper, is a member of the hip-hop groups Armand Hammer, Super Chron Flight Brothers and the Reavers. He has released more than a dozen albums and mixtapes in his career, dating to the early 2000s. Segal, a Los Angeles-based producer and DJ, has also released several albums. He’s half of hip-hop duo the Kleenrz and has also collaborated with Hemlocke Ernst and Serengeti. Woods and Segal previously teamed up in 2019 for the album Hiding Places.

Los Vendavales de Adan Melendez

The Mexican group enters Billboard’s charts with its single “El Colesterol.” The song, released in January on the group’s latest LP, Las Aguitas, on Azteca Records, debuts at No. 28 on Regional Mexican Airplay (up 645% in airplay audience). TikTok has been a big contributor in the song’s growing profile, as a portion of it has been used in over 390,000 clips on the platform.

DRAIN

The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based hardcore punk group charts for the first time with its second LP, Living Proof, released May 5 on Epitaph Records. The set debuts on Heatseekers Albums (No. 18), Top Current Album Sales (No. 28) and Top Album Sales (No. 43) with 3,000 copies sold in its opening week. The group, which also debuts at No. 15 on Emerging Artists, comprises Sammy Ciaramitaro (lead vocals), Cody Chavez (guitar) and Tim Flegal (drums). After releasing its debut LP, California Cursed, in 2020 through Revelation Records, the group signed to Epitaph in 2021.

Zafem

The Haitian duo arrives with its debut studio album, Las. Released May 5 via Dener Ceide Productions, the set opens at No. 25 on Heatseekers Albums, No. 50 on Top Current Album Sales and No. 87 on Top Album Sales (1,500 sold). The sum also helps the duo enter at No. 36 on Emerging Artists. Zafem consists of Dener Ceide (vocals, guitar) and Reginald Cange (vocals).

SQÜRL

SQÜRL, the New York City-based avant-garde rock duo comprising Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan, lands on Billboard’s charts for the first time thanks to its new album, Silver Haze. The set, which the pair released May 5 on Naked Kiss Records/Sacred Bones Records, debuts at No. 100 on Top Current Album Sales chart with 1,000 sold. The album is the act’s first studio LP, following a series of EPs, soundtracks and film scores. Notably, Jarmusch is an influential film director, screenwriter and producer (The Dead Don’t Die, Paterson, Broken Flowers, Dead Man, Only Lovers Left Alive, Stranger Than Paradise), while Logan has produced several of Jarmusch’s films. The act formed in 2009 to create original music for Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control.

Josh Ross

Ross makes his U.S. chart debut, thanks to his single “Trouble.” The song, released in January through The Core Entertainment/Universal Music Canada, debuts at No. 20 on Country Digital Song Sales and No. 39 on Digital Song Sales with 2,000 downloads sold. Ross, from Burlington, Ontario, has already broken through in Canada. His hit “First Taste of Gone” reached No. 5 on the Canada Country airplay chart in July 2022 and “On a Different Night” hit No. 4 this February. After opening for Chase Rice on his Way Down Yonder Tour through May 20, Ross is set to open for Nickelback in June-August.

María Dueñas

The 20-year-old Spanish violinist and composer achieves her first chart appearance with her debut album, Beethoven and Beyond, with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck. The set, released via Deutsche Grammophone/VLG and recorded live at Vienna’s Musikverein, debuts at No. 6 on the Traditional Classical Albums chart.

Blaqbonez

The Nigerian rapper debuts thanks to his featured appearance on CKay’s “Hallelujah.” The song, released May 5 through Warner Music Africa, opens at No. 26 on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart. Blaqbonez (real name Emeka Akumefule) has released two studio albums: Sex Over Love in 2021, and Young Preacher in 2022, both on Chocolate City Music.

Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem

Fresh off the premiere of the new Disney+ comedy musical series The Muppets Mayhem on May 10, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem are now, officially, Billboard-charting artists – nearly a half-century after their on-screen debut. The group enters the Kid Albums chart at No. 13 with the series’ companion soundtrack, The Muppets Mayhem: Music From the Disney+ Original Series, which also arrived May 10, on Disney+/Walt Disney Records. The 22-track set includes 17 songs credited to Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, plus five scores by Mick Giacchino. While some songs are original compositions for the series, others are covers of classics by The Beach Boys, Cyndi Lauper, Simon & Garfunkel, The Who and more. Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, which made their first televised appearance in the pilot of The Muppet Show in 1975 (and recently dished to Billboard about “the frog,” Miss Piggy and more), comprises Dr. Teeth (performed, originally, by Jim Henson and now by Bill Barretta), Animal (Frank Oz, now Eric Jacobson), Floyd Pepper (Jerry Nelson, now Matt Vogel), Janice (Richard Hunt, now David Rudman), Zoot (Dave Goelz) and Lips (Steve Whitmire, now Peter Linz).

Falls Festival, one of Australia’s top touring fests, will skip its 2023/24 edition.

Secret Sounds, the Live Nation-affiliated producers of Falls Festival, announced Wednesday (May 17) that the annual event would not go ahead this December and next January in either of its three locations – Melbourne, Byron Bay and Fremantle.

“After an impressive 28 years ringing in the New Year with some of the world’s biggest acts, the Falls team are today switching on their OOOs and taking this New Years’ season off to rest, recover and recalibrate,” read a statement posted to social media.

It’s the third time in the past four years the event has been nixed, after the 2020 and 2021 events were scrapped due to the pandemic.

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Falls is one of the hottest tickets on the calendar, and, in a typical year, is held during the summer holiday with legs in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.

A long-running show at Marion Bay in Tasmania was officially discontinued during the health crisis, and organizers last year walked away from ambitions to host a Falls Birregurra in Murroon, country Victoria, citing a time-consuming and expensive application process. The pre-NYE event went ahead at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, with Arctic Monkeys and Lil Nas X among the headliners.

“We send huge love and appreciation to all our patrons for their ongoing support and for the great vibes they brought to the 2022/23 events,” the Falls statement continues. “You really are the heart and soul of Falls Festival, and we look forward to updating you with our plans when the time is right.”

Spearheaded by Jess Ducrou and Paul Piticco, Falls Music & Arts Festival originated in 1993 as a one-day concert in Lorne, Tasmania under the banner Rock Above The Falls. In the years since, the likes of Iggy Pop, Jack Johnson, Billy Bragg, the Black Keys, Blondie and many more have graced its stages.

Post Malone has made a 12 carat gesture by helping a Scottish singer in his quest to buy a home.

The “Rockstar” singer star immediately hit it off with Gregor Hunter Coleman, who he caught singing in Glasgow’s Wunderbar last Friday night (May 12).

According to the BBC, the pair sang and chatted through the evening. As the night progressed, Posty generously chipped in money towards a house deposit, for which the Scotsman has been saving his pennies.

After completing his set, Coleman was invited over to meet Posty. “He said, do you want a drink?,” Coleman tells BBC Scotland. “I was like, listen, I’m saving for a house so I’m not drinking just now. Which was daft, my mates were, like, why did you turn down a drink from Post Malone?”

Posty respected the singer’s decision and extended an invitation for him to perform at his official afterparty the following night. “He started saying, how much will you charge? I said nothing, it’s Post Malone, this is the chance of a lifetime.”

Malone “got talking to me and he offered to help me out with my house deposit,” in an encounter he described as “bizarre”.

The pair exchanged details and the Scot is keen to present music to his new pal. And how much money did the superstar donate to Coleman’s cause? The singer is keeping mum on that.

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Taking to social media, Coleman describes the catchup as “a life changing experience.”

The time “spent with this gent chatting and jamming was life changing in itself, not to mention what followed. This could be my time to hit the ground running.”

Malone was in the city performing at the Hydro on May 13, part of the U.K. and Europe leg of his Twelve Carat Tour, which kicked off last September for a North America run, and passed through Australia and New Zealand earlier in the year.

The action doesn’t end there. Posty set a swag of RIAA records last month and released a new greatest hits compilation The Diamond Collection, which includes his new pop-leaning number “Chemical.”

There’s more music on the way, with a fifth album, Austin, due out July 28, and the first single from it dropping this Friday (May 19), “Mourning.”

Corey Taylor and Slipknot aren’t yet enshrined in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. And he’s ok with that. In fact, he “couldn’t care less” — in his own words.

“Oh Jesus. At this point, who gives a s*** really, to be honest,” the rocker told Audacy Check In. “It’s hard for me to say that they get it wrong because sometimes the people they induct 100% deserve it. But there are still so many groups that should go in before some of the ones that have. And it really upsets me. At this point it’s like, I don’t even know if I’ll be considered or something like that. And I couldn’t care less, to be honest.”

The performer category for the Rock Hall is a stacked class, featuring Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, the late George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, and The Spinners.

Slipknot cut its first record in 1996, and landed six titles in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, including three No. 1s. They’ve been eligible since 2022, but the nu-metal act is waiting for its first nomination.

Speaking with Audacy’s Jason Bailey, Taylor likened Rock Hall induction to “a high-five at the end of your career.”

It’s not that he doesn’t want in, he has other things to do first. “I would rather have that later on. It’s just something I don’t really concern myself with.

“Would I be a stingy hog and want to be like the late, great David Crosby and be in there like four times? That would be great – if I could be in there for all three acts, that’d be killer. But, I don’t think I’m gonna even get in for one. So it’s fine. I’ve got better things to do,” he added.

Though talk of Rock Hall membership may be premature, Taylor reckons he’s in a purple patch with his own music.

The Slipknot and Stone Sour singer is readying the release of CMF2, the followup to his 2020 debut solo effort CMFT, which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and No. 11 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.

The forthcoming album, “it eats the first one and spits it out,” he claims, adding he was “really proud” of the debut, but it “felt like where we were coming from and this album feels like where we’re going.”

Expect something for everyone who likes heavy music. Taylor and Co. “decided to up the stakes, the music is more expansive, there’s heavier stuff, there’s darker stuff it paints with the whole palate like the first album, but there’s not there, man. To me, it’s the best rock album of this year and next year. It’s that good.”

CMFT is due out Sept. 15. Fan get a taste of things to come with new cut “Beyond,” the official music video for which is below.