Month: September 2023

*NSYNC are tearin’ up our hearts with news of their reunion single, “Better Place,” and Justin Timberlake kept the buzz going on Thursday (Sept. 14) when he shared footage alongside JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass in the studio.

“So many stars aligned and that’s why I hit y’all and was like, ‘Hey, something came up,’” Timberlake is heard telling his former bandmates in the clip, as scenes of the group laying down vocals and harmonies, before jamming out to their upbeat pop track, weave across the screen. “If we do this song, it’s a love letter to our fans. I would be honored to have the group on this song.”

“I don’t mind that the world spins faster, faster, faster / Just let me take you to a better place,” the boy band sings in the song’s breezy chorus.

The song — which appears to follow in the upbeat footsteps of Trolls lead single “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” and Trolls World Tour opener “The Other Side” — is available to pre-save now but won’t be released until Sept. 29.

The song marks *NSYNC’s first musical release since 2002 (when the Neptunes remix of “Girlfriend,” featuring Nelly, arrived) and it comes just days after the group stepped onstage together at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards to present the award for best pop to Taylor Swift for “Anti-Hero.” The group last took the VMAs stage in 2013, for Timberlake’s Video Vanguard Award medley performance.

Watch the full behind-the-scenes clip on JT’s Instagram page here.

“There’s a freedom to being in full light and not feeling like you have to hide anything,” says the Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne.

With that spirit of renewal and openness, it feels wholly appropriate that the reigning CMA duo of the year is using a tactic normally employed by acts on their debut album by self-titling their fourth album, Brothers Osborne, out Friday (Sept. 15), as a means of introducing a truer version of themselves.

Since the Brothers Osborne’s last album, 2000’s Skeletons, TJ Osborne came out as gay and John revealed his mental health struggles with depression and anxiety. When they returned to the studio, they went back in with a fresh perspective, a new producer and a desire to reveal themselves musically and emotionally as they never had. 

“It’s a new start in that we’re trying new things, trying new sounds — but it’s also a late start that between recording our last album, my brother and I have disclosed a lot of personal things,” John says. “I feel like it gave us the courage to lean further into ourselves and not play it safe.”

TJ wholeheartedly agrees. “We’re making this record, even though there’s not anything that speaks about it directly on the record, in a place where we can be completely ourselves, be open with who we are. Just creating any song and not feeling like we’ve got to steer the ship in a certain way was just incredibly freeing. I think the end result is our music ultimately being better. We just thought it’s time for us to embrace our differences.”

That including shifting from Jay Joyce, who had produced the previous three sets, to Mike Elizondo and letting him steer the project. “We said, ‘Hey Mike, here are the keys,’” John shares of working with Elizondo, who is known for producing a wide variety of major artists including Eminem, Fiona Apple, Carrie Underwood and Ed Sheeran. “We didn’t want to go in with too many preconceived notions. We wanted Mike to drive because we trust that he will take us somewhere we can’t predict.”

While the album undisputedly sounds like Brothers Osborne with their guitar-led country rock, they weren’t afraid to be sonically adventurous, adding strings to one song, recording their first piano ballad and occasionally stripping down to acoustic guitars instead of always relying on John’s striking electric guitar playing skills. 

“My brother and I early on decided maybe we should make an album that’s a bit more narrow focused, and we ended doing just the opposite,” John says. For example, “New Bad Habit” is a guitar-centric rock song, “and we thought, ‘What the hell,’ and threw really bizarre Prince, Slash [guitars] on it and Parliament Funkadelic harmonies in the middle of it because ‘why the hell not?’”  

Since the release of their gold-certified EMI Nashville debut, 2016’s Pawn Shop, Brothers Osborne have been critical favorites and beloved by their peers—they have won vocal duo of the year at the CMA Awards five of the past seven years and are once again nominated for the Nov. 8 awards—but have struggled to gain a consistent foothold at radio. 

The album’s first single, uplifting, inclusive “Nobody’s Nobody” rose to No. 27 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, making it the duo’s highest charting single since 2020’s “All Night,” but dropped to No. 29 last week. The Brothers have scored 10 Top 40 hits, with their cuts usually rising into the 20s or 30s; 2015’s “Stay a Little Longer” reached No. 2, as their only Top 5 hit. 

“It’s not that we ever felt like we were trying to be rebellious against the radio format, it’s just that we’ve always done what we did and were ourselves come rain or shine,” John says, “but it feels like it’s starting to feel like all the pieces are finally coming together.”

Another album track, “Sun Ain’t Even Gone Down Yet,” is getting visibility through a Ram Truck commercial, the duo’s second association with the brand which also used them in an ad in 2018. Agreeing to license their music comes down to a few elements, TJ says. “Is it a product that we like and want to be involved with is always first. You want to steer clear of things that maybe you don’t align with, but it also comes down to it’s something we’ve worked really hard on, if you’re going to use this, what do we get out it?” In addition to a lucrative fee, Ram also identified the song and the artist in the commercial, giving the new track valuable exposure. 

The sole guest on Brothers Osborne is Miranda Lambert, who provides backing vocals on the atmospheric “We Ain’t Good at Breaking Up,” which she and Jesse Frasure co-wrote with the duo. The title and theme came from a response TJ would jokingly give when friends asked if he and his boyfriend, Abi Ventura, were still together. “There was a time early in our relationship where we felt like it didn’t make a lot of sense, we didn’t live near each other, we were both so busy and other different things, that we tried to call it off, but we would try to break up and we just wouldn’t,” TJ recalls.

He said the line to Frasure, who knew a winner when he heard it. “He said, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to write that song next week in our [writing session] with Miranda,’” TJ says. Lambert’s vocals on the demo were such an enhancement, they decided to add her on the actual track. “It just really makes the song, sends it into a dreamy, almost Fleetwood Mac kind of thing,” TJ says. 

Brothers Osborne will begin rolling the new songs out on the road as they tour throughout the year — but as they have learned to put a premium on self-care, they have found ways to make the road grind manageable. “I spoke with our management (Q Prime South) and was candid about what I needed and wanted, and one of those things was to tour less,” John says. “Taking care of yourself off the road helps you to take care of yourself on the road and part of it is just honestly knowing when I am physically done and I just put my ass to bed. I’ve never struggled with drugs or alcohol, but I have a really bad workaholism.”

Though country music — and its makers — have shown signs of division both politically and culturally lately, John stresses that everyone is welcome to their concerts.

“Our shows are all about inclusion. We don’t care who you are, we don’t care your color, your creed, your sexual orientation, your religion, or anything,” he says. “The only thing you’re not allowed to be in our company is an a–hole. That’s it. That’s how we roll.”

Calum Scott has just earned a major milestone in his career. The singer’s music video for his 2017 single “You Are the Reason” recently hit one billion views on YouTube. The video is the star’s first video to join the Billion Views Club.

Scott reacted to the news via Instagram. “1,000,000,000 views on ‘You Are The Reason’ on @youtube.. I’m speechless. Thank you, a billion times,” he wrote recently, captioning a video of him explaining the visual’s concept back in 2018 while on set.

The video sees Scott walking through the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine. As he makes his way through the town, a series of intimate moments play, from a little girl sharing a loaded glance with her father before driving away, and a couple sharing a dance in the streets, to a family watching their matriarch pass, and a different couple sharing headphones in the backseat of a cab after a date.

“You Are the Reason” was released as the third single from his debut studio album, Only Human. The track, which later received a new version that featured Leona Lewis, peaked at Nos. 7 and 11 on the Digital Song Sales and Adult Contemporary charts, respectively. Only Human peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard 200, and at No. 31 on the Top Current Album Sales chart.

Revisit the music video for “You Are the Reason” above.

Throughout almost four decades, Los Auténticos Decadentes have been able to get the party going with joyful and irreverent classics such as “Entregá el Marrón,” “La Guitarra” and “El Murguero.”

Starting today (Sept. 14), fans of the Argentine ska and alternative rock band will be able to see them play in five U.S. cities, kicking off at the Palladium Times Square in New York and ending at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, where they will close, along with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, the KCRW Festival on Sept. 24. They will also perform in Washington, D.C., as well as Napa and San Diego in California (more details here).

“We invite everyone,” Jorge Serrano, who has been part of Los Decadentes since its inception, tells Billboard Español. “Those who know us know they’re going to have a good time. Those who don’t know us will be surprised,” he adds with a smile.

The show they will be performing was presented last month at a sold-out concert in Buenos Aires in front of more than 15,000 people, according to a statement, which was also streamed in North and South America on the Star+ platform.

In the last three years, Los Auténticos Decadentes released A D N (2021, 2022, 2023, respectively), a trilogy of albums with covers of well-known Spanish-language songs, mostly recorded with guests such as Natalia Lafourcade, Panteón Rococó, Andrés Calamaro, Beto Cuevas and Diego Verdaguer. The most recent installment, N, was released last July, with eight songs — including versions of “Golpes En El Corazón” by Los Tigres del Norte, “Oro” by Bronco, “Costumbres Argentinas” by Calamaro and “La Ladrona” by Verdaguer.

“We’ve known those songs for a long time,” Serrano tells Billboard, explaining how they are part of the band’s DNA. “Many of them we play at our family parties, like Los Tigres’, or Bronco’s.”

Comprised of 12 musicians, of which 10 are still founding members, Los Auténticos Decadentes was formed in 1986 and became known with the hit “Vení Raquel,” which set the tone for the irreverence and ironic humor of their future songs. While they have not entered the Billboard charts in the States, they have placed six songs from their A D N trilogy on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100, including “Golpes En El Corazón” featuring Natalia Lafourcade (November 2021), “La Ladrona” (August 2022) and, most recently, “Costumbres Argentinas” (May 2023).

Below, Serrano talks with Billboard Español about the group’s recent covers project, and how they’ve managed to stay relevant across the decades.

When you hear Auténticos Decadentes, you think of ska, rock, irreverence, joy. But then you see that in your DNA there are songs like “Costumbres Argentinas” by Andrés Calamaro or “La Ladrona” by Diego Verdaguer. How did this project come about and why do you consider that these songs are part of your DNA?

The album began as a whim when we said, “How nice it would be to make an album with songs by people we admire, that we like … not our songs, but songs by other people.” And we had started to do it in Mexico in a Sony studio where we had some few hours left, so we took advantage of it, so we took advantage of it and said, “Well, this is the moment.”

Then the pandemic caught us — so we continued it, each one of us in our own home studios, sending vocals and different things; the [plans] were more or less already laid. It was something that kept us active and connected and songs and songs and songs and songs followed one after the other until it ended up being a triple [album]. Because when you make your own album you somehow have the limit of the songs you have done so far — but when you do a tribute album, a covers album, you can never finish, because there are millions of songs.

And well, our DNA… you say “La Ladrona,” for example — or songs that are somehow more popular than rock or ska, which is where we really came from — were always part of our style, because somehow one of the things that Los Decadentes did and contributed was to make a kind of crossover with what is popular music that at that time was not well received. As if rock was one thing and popular music was the music of adults or other people, but not of rockers. With affection, with love and because we liked it and enjoyed it, we incorporated it into our music. We have known those songs for a long time: Many of them we played in our family parties, like Los Tigres, or Bronco. And well, that’s how it was done.

And did all 12 of you have a say in the selection of songs for the three albums?

Always. The 12 of us always have a say in everything we do. We are a cooperative, we are a horizontal group. When we make albums, we vote on the songs we choose. In this case, we didn’t vote on them, because we mostly suggested a song and in general we knew it and liked it and it was more like a “yes.” We didn’t have to vote a lot to decide whether to do it or not. We would say, “Yeah come on, let’s go!”

With Diego Verdaguer, who died last year — did you record together?

Yes, although not the vocal part, because we did the version of the song ourselves. But we did go to the house, he invited us to a barbecue, and there we did a little bit of the images that you see in the video.

After so many years, you have managed to stay relevant as a band. To what do you attribute your longevity and multi-generational success?

It’s usually a mystery, isn’t it, why people choose you and not the one next to you? But I think that continuity has a lot to do with it. We have been playing for 37 years, we are already very much part of people’s memories, of many people’s lives. We have transcended generations and we have never separated, we have always been present.

We were fortunate that we always had a song that was being listened to at the time, that people accepted us, even though we were getting older. We kept renewing our audience. We keep going to places where we are surprised that people from 15 to 25 years old know us and listen to us. We are grateful. It is beautiful and we do our best to respond to that. When we go to play, we do our best to make sure they have a good time at the show. I think all those things add up to that [longevity].

It’s interesting, because the music industry and people’s taste have changed so much, especially in the last decade. What would you say has been the key to navigating these changes?

We somehow continue to do the same thing. What survives is a style of music, what survives are the memories, the affection that people have for this type of songs. And what we contribute in some way – I don’t know if we’ve been getting better and better or rather we are a testimony to our analog era of songs and this type of music, that if we are unplugged we can continue playing. We don’t depend on computers or things like that, although we use them.

It is also striking that after so many years, 10 out of 12 are still founding members. What is the dynamic among you? I imagine you are a family.

Yes, our children are also friends with each other, we have always had that multigenerational family spirit. On the other hand, we are a horizontal group, because we vote on the decisions, the songs we choose. We are a cooperative. All these things help us to live together. And also, being a group of friends before being musicians, we stayed true to ourselves — knowing how to value that somehow for all of us, who were like a herd of losers, the group got us out of where we were and the group is so much more than the sum of us. We value it and we know it. We take care of it.

A D N has had you doing covers for the last three years. Are you planning to release original music soon?

That’s what we’re focused on. We’re going to do it very quietly, without the pressures that albums usually [generate]. This one we want to do at our own pace, but I guess it will be for the next year or so.

In another three years the group will be 40. Do you already know how you want to celebrate?

We haven’t thought about it. At one point we celebrated our 10 years, then we celebrated 15, 20, 25. I don’t know if we celebrated 30, but we said, “Let’s stop a little bit to celebrate more [like] every now and then.” [Laughs.] But 40 is going to be unmissable!