Month: July 2023

As Barbie blows up box-offices around the globe, the official soundtrack struts its way to No. 1 in Australia.

Barbie The Album (via Atlantic/Warner) opens at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, published July 28, while several tracks from it climb the singles survey. The big gainers include Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” up 8-2; “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua soaring 23-3; and “Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa shimmying 27-6.

Barbie, which features “Journey to the Real Word” by Tame Impala, and “Forever & Again” by The Kid Laroi, both artists from the land Down Under, is the first soundtrack to lead the national tally since Disney’s Encanto completed an 11-week climb to the top in March 2022, ARIA reports.

Starring Aussie actor Margot Robbie in the titular role, Barbie raked in a “dazzling global debut of $356.3 million,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, a sum that includes a biggest opening ever for a Warner Bros. title in Australia ($14.6 million).

Jack is back on the albums chart. John Farnham, the legendary, ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted singer, has four albums in the top 100, powered by the July 24 TV debut of the documentary John Farnham: Finding The Voice.

Leading the charge is his Greatest Hits (Sony), vaulting 169-9 for a new peak position. Farnham, who has battled health issues in recent months, boasts the highest-selling album ever in Australia by a domestic artist, 1986’s Whispering Jack. The album spent 25 weeks at No. 1 following its release, en route to shifting more than one million copies. Whispering Jack reenters the ARIA Chart at No. 41.

Also debuting on the latest tally is Blood Red (Sony) from Australian folk-rock duo Busby Marou, new at No. 14; and River Runs Dry (Universal) by Cold Chisel’s Ian Moss, new at No. 18.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, “Sprinter” (Virgin/Universal) by Dave and Central Cee outraces the pack for a seventh non-consecutive week at No. 1.

The top debut this week belongs to Travis Scott, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd, whose collaborative single “K-Pop” (Epic/Sony) is new at No. 27. “K-Pop” is lifted from Scott’s new album Utopia, which dropped Friday.

There’s some K-pop in the top 20, specifically, cuts from NewJeans’ second EP Get Up (ING/Universal). All six tracks from the EP impact the top 100, including “Super Shy,” up 26-14 for a new peak position, while “ETA” bows at No. 34, “Cool With You” starts at No. 40, “ASAP” is at No. 64 and the title track appears at No. 82. The girl group has an Aussie connection: Danielle Marsh is born-and-raised in Newcastle, Australia, and Hanni Pham is a Melbourne native, who featured on The Voice Kids Australia back in 2014.

When Quavo discusses TakeOff and making those delicate steps forward in life without his nephew and Migos bandmate, the grief is palpable.

“I think about him all the time,” he explains in a new interview — a “conversation for the fans,” in which he bears his soul in black and white. “Sometimes I cry myself to sleep.”

TakeOff (real name: Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot and killed during a private party he attended at 810 Billiards & Bowling in downtown Houston with his uncle and bandmate, Quavo, on Nov. 1, 2022, an action that still weighs heavy on the rapper.

Grief, when you’re not prepared, and who is, can put you in a “messed up place, in a bad place,” he explains. Everything, from the day-to-day, which now includes therapeutic stints of chilling out, meditating, swimming in the ocean, and gym, to the creative process, is turned upside down.

As a record takes shape, Quavo has a particular style of working. He’d cut the hook and the verse, show it to his bandmates. “Now he’s gone and I don’t have nobody to play the music for,” he recounts. Instead, “I just try to connect with the earth and just try to hear them like that.” Quavo doesn’t “really like nobody else’s opinion.”

Quavo’s forthcoming solo album Rocket Power is slated for release Aug. 4, and it’s fueled by his late nephew and former partner-in-rhyme.

With Rocket Power, his first LP since 2018’s Quavo Huncho, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, he lets it all out in one blaze of energy.

He’s been “bottling all these emotions,” he notes, “all the pain, all the hard times, all the times I cried and all the times I just made music” to cope with loss. “And to pull up and try to play songs and he’s not there, and I’m just trying to get this fuel from above and this feeling from the sky and just call it Rocket Power.”

Quavo also opened up on his favorite song on the album, “11.11,” a date that captures the moment he hit record and got to work (“It felt like it was a sign”), and talked the residual energy of his fallen bandmember.

There’s not just energy floating out there in the ether, there’s a stash of unfinished music. A lot of it, apparently.

“In this phone alone, it’s 150 songs. Every phone probably has 350 songs.” Quavo admits he’s got five phones. TakeOff had three phones. “He’s got songs I never heard, ‘I’m like, bro why you never played me this’.”

One of the standouts, he explains, is called “Put That S— On.” “The Silent Assassin, he saved it for a reason. I got you though. We’re gonna finish strong,” he enthuses, adding, “that’s just in the phone. We’ve probably got like a thousand….we’ve got a lot of songs.“

With the announcement of the new LP back in May, Quavo remarked, “This album is for the Rocket, our true fans, and also this is my therapy. This album is a true reflection of how I feel right now.”

Watch the interview below. Part 2 is said to be coming soon.

Carly Rae Jepsen‘s new album, The Loveliest Time, is officially here! The LP — the seventh by the “Call Me Maybe” hitmaker — was released to streaming services on Friday (July 27).

The album contains a total of 13 tracks that were first teased in a New York Times-style crossword puzzle. The track include “Anything to Be with You,” “Kamikaze,” “After Last Night,” “Aeroplanes,” “Boy,” “Kollage,” “Shadow,” “Psychedelic Switch,” “So Right,” “Come Over,” “Put It to Rest,” “Stadium Love,” “Weekend Love” and the project’s lead single, “Shy Boy.”

In the announcement for the record, Jepsen shared that the album came as a result of experiencing a period of positivity following isolation.

“I got to know loneliness and discover the beauty in it. The loneliest time taught me that growth comes from being planted in darkness. But now the world has opened itself back up again and in turn so have we. It’s time for celebration and for all the lessons we have learned to burst into joyful action. The Loveliest Time…” she wrote. “I can’t really call it a b sides as if these were cast off ideas – it’s the completed set to a body of work that taught me so much about love and loneliness and myself.”

The album serves as Jepsen’s follow up to The Loneliest Time, which was released last year on Oct. 5. The set peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and became her fourth top 40 album on the chart.

Listen to The Loveliest Time below.

The wait is finally over. On Friday (July 27), Post Malone returned with his fifth studio album, Austin. The set is available to listen to on streaming services now.

The album contains a total of 17 tracks — “Don’t Understand,” “Novacandy,” “Too Cool to Die,” “Sign Me Up,” “Socialite,” “Something Real” “Speedometer,” “Hold My Breath,” “Enough Is Enough,” “Texas Tea,” “Buyer Beware,” “Landmine,” “Green Thumb” and “Laugh It Off” arrived with the release of the record on Friday, while tracks “Chemical,” “Mourning” and “Overdrive” were dropped as singles preceding the album’s arrival. The latter three singles charted at Nos. 13, 36 and 47 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

Upon announcing the name of the project back in May, Malone revealed that recording the project was incredibly rewarding, and highlights the true nature of his artistry.

“This whole deal has been one of the most challenging, rewarding, and exciting records I’ve worked on. I feel it captures who I am as a man and as an artist in this moment,” he wrote in a May 16 Instagram post. “Thank y’all so much for your patience, and thank you for being there with me in my hardest times. I love y’all so much, and am ready to f—ing party with y’all. Cheers, and keep spreading love.”

Austin follows 2022’s Twelve Carat Toothache. Toothache peaked at No. 2 on the all genre Billboard 200 chart, and became Malone’s fourth studio album to chart within the top five.

Listen to Austin below.

On Friday (July 28), Offset and Cardi B fired off rounds during their incendiary collaboration, “Jealousy.” Teased earlier this week, “Jealousy” marks the couple’s latest reunion on wax since their multi-platinum song “Clout,” as they take turns throwing darts at their envious adversaries.  

“B—es don’t wanna go Birkin for Birkin / B—-es don’t go enough hits for a Verzuz,” spews Cardi on the hard-hitting track. 

Offset first garnered attention for the record when he enlisted Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis for a spoof of the late James Brown’s 1988 interview with CNN. Following the clip’s viral success, Offset released the cover art for the song alongside Cardi on social media. The buzzy photo shows an annoyed Cardi mushing Offset’s face as he stands in front of a parked car. They continued the song’s promotion when they unleashed a trailer featuring Cardi talking on the phone with Taraji P. Henson. 

“Jealously” marks the third release of 2023 for Offset after releasing “2 Live” (with Hit-Boy) and “TBS” (with R-Mean and Scott Storch). In an interview with Variety last May, he namedropped the features for his forthcoming album. Along with Cardi, Set nabbed features from Travis Scott, Future, Chloe Bailey, Latto and TakeOff. 

During the interview, he spoke on the passing of his fallen comrade TakeOff, saying: “It’s hard for me to talk about s–t right now,” he said. “I’ve never talked about this stuff. Seriously. Talking about Take is hard, man. Talking about all this s–t is hard. That’s why I don’t, to be honest. That s–t hurts.” Offset attempted to continue the conversation before ultimately cutting things off because of how painful the chat was getting. “Like, it’s gonna put me in a mood, and I don’t want to get in that mood. Some things I don’t never tell nobody. He’s not here. That s–t feels fake, bro. I get through my day thinking it’s fake. And I don’t say nothing to nobody about it.”

Listen to “Jealousy” below. 

Matteo Bocelli‘s relationship with his father, beloved Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, means everything to him.

“Thanks to my dad, I had the pleasure to be on the most famous stages of the world and got to travel all over the planet,” 25-year-old Matteo tells Billboard. “Bringing our voices on stages, we were bringing a story that is true and authentic. As I always say, music is about authenticity, because when you’re not truthful to music, the music won’t work and people won’t feel it. Our duet ‘Fall On Me’ is a song that talks about a true relationship between father and son and it’s probably why people really felt the song and they were so excited to see us together all the time.”

While he’s already had an impressive amount of musical experience thanks to working and performing with his father, Matteo is ready to re-introduce himself to the world on his own — but not without paying tribute to the family who supported him along the way. The singer dropped a new solo single, “Chasing Stars,” on Friday (July 28), which was written by pop superstar Ed Sheeran and his brother Matthew about their own father.

“When I was younger, my father was my hero / Let me hop on his shoulders, we sang to the moon,” Matteo’s honeyed vocals croon on the opening lines of the heartfelt ballad, which, as expected, Andrea loved. “Once my father heard that first line calling him my hero, he said, ‘I like this song,’” Matteo recalls with a laugh, before sharing how supportive the Italian legend has been while his son worked to carve his own creative path.

“My father helped this big step feel a little smaller,” he says. “I’m very grateful for everything that he taught me, the values that he gave to me and all the vocal techniques. Every time I have jobs, I still go to him and ask him how I should use my voice. He’s always saying, ‘I’m here for you to help you for whatever you need.’ I think that this is what father should always do. Let their sons live their lives but always be there to support and give advice.”

Having a song written by Ed Sheeran on his debut album made the song even sweeter, as Matteo has been a fan of the superstar since he released 2011’s “The A Team.”

“To think that in my very first album, I have a song with him, it’s incredible. It’s really a privilege,” Matteo says, noting that he met Sheeran “multiple times” over the years, but really got to know him back when he worked with Andrea on his 2017 “Perfect Symphony” duet. “We kept in contact, and later on, we asked if it was possible to have a song written by him. We thought it’d be a privilege to have one of his songs and he sent us ‘Chasing Stars.’ I fell in love with the song in the very first moment because it’s beautiful, the melody and also the lyrics. It wasn’t a song that he wrote for me. It was a song that he did for himself — but what’s cool is the song has a theme that is quite common because we both have a shared value of family and a passion for music.”

He continues, “I found so many connections on that song that I said, ‘I’ve got to do it.’ Not only because everything Ed touches is beautiful, but also because all the pieces of the puzzle were fitting perfectly.”

As for the age-old phrase, “Never meet your heroes,” the warning proved to be completely untrue in Matteo’s experience working with Sheeran. “One of the things that I appreciate so much about Ed is that in his music and art in general, he knows what it means to be free and to have the freedom to do what you love in your way,” Matteo says. “Many artists in their career have been judged for what they were doing or the way they were bringing music to people. For this reason, he gave me the freedom to perform the song the way I like. He wasn’t at all the type to be like, ‘No, you got to do this, you got to do that.’ He encouraged me to perform it the way I feel, because he said, ‘At the end of the day, you’re going to be on stage performing the songs.’”

The Parisi-produced “Chasing Stars” will be featured on the singer’s upcoming debut solo album, fittingly titled Matteo, set for release on September 22 via Capitol Records. The 12-track project will feature both Italian and English songs capturing this new chapter in Matteo’s life.

Despite his confidence in taking this next step as a solo artist, Matteo is still growing and learning who he is, just like any 25-year-old. “They always ask me who I am today and I always say, ‘Honestly, I don’t know,’ because it’s truly a specific and particular phase of my life,” he says of how he views himself at this moment. “This is why one of the first ideas we thought of was to call the album Fasi, which means ‘phases’ in English, because it’s a very important moment of my life with many, many changes. I’m super happy about all of the music I made these last two years and this record will be the product of getting to experiment and work with many writers and composers. You learn so many things, you have so many experiences and so many stories to tell. I hope that the concepts and all the stories and emotion will be able to connect with people.”

Listen to “Chasing Stars,” and watch the moving music video, below.