Prize-winning Japanese comedian, Netflix star and all-around entertainer YURIYAN RETRIEVER can now add major-label solo artist to her illustrious list of titles, dropping her debut single “YURIYAN TIME” on Wednesday (July 16).

The versatile funny woman, now based in the U.S., worked with sought-after music producer yonkey — producer of ATARASHII GAKKO! — on the new song, an earwormy number that naturally inspires courage after repeated listening despite its comical nature. YURIYAN, whose stage name as a singer is stylized in all caps, says that’s the core of what she aimed to convey through the track that showcases yonkey’s expertise. The 34-year-old multi-hyphenate and 28-year-old music producer opened up about the creative process of “YURIYAN TIME” in this conversation for Billboard Japan.

Tell us about your first impressions of each other.

yonkey: We met in a sort of conference room and talked about a lot of things. She said, “Could you listen to this song I wrote?” This often happens whenever I’m meeting with other musicians I produce, but they usually just play it on their iPhone. But YURIYAN was like, “I don’t have a recording, so do you mind if I do it here?” and performed it for me right there in full with just the beat. I was floored. My first impression of her was that she was more enthusiastic than any other artist.

YURIYAN: He says I was enthusiastic, but I just didn’t have the skills to make sounds or to record them, so I had to do it directly.

yonkey: I mean, usually it’s embarrassing to sing in front of someone at a distance of a table between you. But I had this gut feeling that if she could perform even under such circumstances, the project would definitely work out. It was such an electrifying moment.

YURIYAN: He asked me, “What kind of vibes do you like in a song?” I often think songs that have catchy intros are cool, so I told him, “I like songs that start off in a unique way.” And when I told him that I often put my thoughts and feelings into my comedy routines, he said… was it a scribble? A scrawl?

“Itemize them,” maybe?

YURIYAN: Yes! “An itemized list is fine, so write your thoughts down.”

Did you have an idea of what you wanted it to sound like?

yonkey: I was invited to go see YURIYAN’s comedy show once, and one of her segments had a kind of horror story feel to it. I wanted to add some scary sounds reminiscent of Japan and Japanese children’s songs. I thought I could reproduce that horror-tinged flavor that YURIYAN had written into her comedy routine by using delay on crows cawing in the intro to evoke the image of dusk.

YURIYAN: I heard from yonkey that he added that Japanese flavor to the track to suggest I was going global from Japan. You know what, though, a fortune teller once told me long ago that my guardian spirit is a crow. A yatagarasu, the three-legged crow used as the symbol of the Japanese national soccer team, is apparently watching over me. Also, my hometown is NYC… Oh, Nara Yoshino-cho, I mean. I thought maybe my guardian yatagarasu possessed yonkey and made him add those caws.

How did you two work out the lyrics?

yonkey: I only knew YURIYAN from what I’d seen in the media, so I wanted to know what she usually thinks about. She wrote about her love life and about the pent-up resentment she feels from daily life in the notebook she used to list her ideas, so I took her words and designed them into music. YURIYAN inspired the basic ideas and words of the lyrics, while I did the designing to make them sound pleasing.

YURIYAN: I sent him the list I jotted down, and he wrote lyrics about the core part of me that I hadn’t even realized I had, and it made me really happy. It was also catchy and cute on top of that, so I was impressed.

Could you elaborate on that “core part” that you didn’t realize you had?

YURIYAN: At first I wrote about feeling disappointed because my love life wasn’t working out, but when you read yonkey’s lyrics, you can see that it’s not just limited to romantic relationships. It’s about not catering to anyone and being like, I’m fine the way I am, you know? It’s basically about finding value in who you are and saying, “I’m OK with this!”

yonkey: But she also has sensitive and vulnerable sides to her, and I was really impressed by the way she’s like, “I’m the best” even though she has such traits. In the first verse, YURIYAN intentionally says she feels faint-hearted sometimes, but follows up immediately, “No I don’t, dumbass!” and flexes her strong self. I wanted to express that duality in the song.

There are plenty of other key words pulled from your list in the lyrics.

YURIYAN: Stuff about my comedy routines and personal life. And about playing the role of (professional wrestler) Dump Matsumoto in Netflix’s The Queen of Villains, and about my fitness coach Tomo Okabe, who I’ve been training with for a long time.

yonkey: All the parts that show her daily life I took from her notes. In hip-hop, it’s sometimes hard to get a message across when the lyrics only cover universal topics. I think it’s best to honestly express that person’s lifestyle, so I was confident that it would work out if she told me about such things.

And now YURIYAN has made her debut as a solo artist with the song.

yonkey: I always had the idea of making it an introduction to YURIYAN since this is her debut number. And since she’s based in the U.S., I was meticulous about the track, aiming to make music that could be included in Spotify playlists all over the world. I also wanted to make sure to include Japanese identity in the music, so I asked her to sing the song in Japanese.

I produce ATARASHII GAKKO! and I’m particular about using the Japanese language with them as well. You know how Japanese people have a hard time pronouncing English? I’ve been told by producers from other countries that they find our pronunciation to be distinctive, and I think that’s something we can use as a weapon. Translation features are available everywhere nowadays and we can understand what people are saying, so I figured Japanese was the only language that could draw out YURIYAN’s uniqueness even more. That’s another thing I focused on when I wrote this song.

YURIYAN: I talk about this as if it were normal, like, “Yeah I got to make my debut,” but I’m actually like, “Can this really be happening?” and still find it hard to believe. I really want to do what I can to make it a hit. I started TikTok a few days ago in a hurry because I want “YURIYAN TIME” to create a buzz. [Laughs] It’s a song that introduces me, and I want people to get to know me, but I think it’s also a song that will boost the energy of anyone who listens to it. So I hope people will enjoy it by replacing it with their own names, like “AKIKO TIME” or whatever. I want people from all over the world to listen to it, grown-ups and kids alike.

This interview by Atsuo Nagahori first appeared on Billboard Japan.

OneRepublic will release “Beautiful Colors,” the theme song for Season 2 of the anime Kaiju No. 8, on Friday (July 25). Following the upbeat “Nobody” and the cool, mature “Invincible,” the latest track for the series is a soaring ballad that reintroduces the band’s emotional side.

In this interview with Billboard Japan, Ryan Tedder, the band’s frontman, songwriter and producer, talks about the different approaches taken with each song, as well as the unique challenges of writing music for anime. 

I want to go back a little and ask about how your collaboration with Kaiju No. 8 began. What drew you to the collaboration between OneRepublic and the anime project?

It first came to our attention, I think it was 2022—maybe 2023. We were approached by Universal Music Japan Group, our label in Japan. They said, “Hey, are any of you guys fans of manga or anime?” And we said, “Yes, we are, in fact.” 

I grew up doing cartoons and drawing. I used to think I was going to be a cartoonist. Back in the ’90s, anime was exploding, and the coolest stuff you could draw was Japanese anime. A couple of the guys in the band read manga and they absolutely love Kaiju No. 8. So they already knew what it was. Then UMJ said, “the team behind Kaiju No. 8 would like to come to your concert in Tokyo and talk to you afterward about potentially writing a song for the series.” I’ve written a lot of songs for TV and film—that’s how I started before OneRepublic—so for me, the answer was easy. I wanted to do it from the beginning. And when they flew out to Los Angeles and showed me the animation, we were hooked and said, “Yes, let’s do it.” 

We submitted several songs until they picked one because we were competing with other artists in Japan and internationally. Everyone wanted to be a part of it. But we got very lucky, and they chose “Nobody” for Season 1. That’s how the whole thing started.

You mentioned that you saw storyboards and early footage before you started writing “Nobody.” Were there any specific visuals or moments that helped shape the song’s tone?

For me, it really started with those early images of Kafka and understanding his story—the idea that he accidentally becomes a kaiju by ingesting a parasite. I thought that concept was absolutely brilliant. His story, and the overall goal of eliminating the kaiju while honoring his best friend and keeping that promise intact—that was the inspiration for the phrase: “Nobody got you the way I do. Whatever demons you’re fighting through.”

It was kind of perfect because, in English, the word demons is used in songs quite a bit. In America, we use demons metaphorically, like running from the demons of your past or your childhood. And then we also have literal, supernatural demons that people talk about in religion, right? So it was kind of perfect because that’s what kaiju meant in this context.

Rarely can I pull a literal phrase from a TV series or film into a song without it sounding cheesy. When you’re writing for TV or film, it’s really easy to cross that line. For example, with our Top Gun: Maverick song “I Ain’t Worried,” we never once mention airplanes, jets, fighter pilots or Tom Cruise (laughs). But for “Nobody” and Kaiju No. 8, I was able to actually include the phrase, “whatever demons you’re fighting through.” It was so perfect for the story that I kind of laughed when I wrote the lyric. I was like, “Oh wow, this is hilarious, it works perfectly.” So that was really the main motivation: Kafka’s storyline.

Having written for films and TV before, did working on “Nobody” challenge or inspire you creatively in a new way? Because, as you mentioned, you need to align more with the anime’s themes.

Yeah, it was a challenge. I’ve been to Japan more times than I can count and it’s one of my favorite countries. My left arm is pretty much all Japanese tattoos. Japan is very near and dear to me, and I work with a lot of Japanese artists. I’ve even helped develop some Japanese artists over the last couple of years. There’s enough of a cultural difference between the U.S. and Japan and those cultural differences are very layered and deep. There’s a lot both countries understand and love about each other, but so many things are also completely different.

When I looked at the Japanese music charts, I realized that, as an American artist, there’s no territory in the world more difficult to break into than Japan. It’s the toughest market in the world. Japan is literally an island, and you generate so much good music and so many incredible artists yourselves, who sing in Japanese. Unless you’re K-pop, it’s very difficult to cut through.

Obviously, kaiju and demons and monsters are dark. So I was nervous when I first sent the song. Even for me, “Nobody” is a very feel-good, poppy song. I was afraid it was too catchy, which is a dumb thing to be afraid of. They told me, “We need a song that’s light that feels good and catchy. Because everything else is dark.”

But I was listening to other Japanese music, and I was like, “Oh man, I really hope the Japanese audience that love anime, manga and kaiju likes this song.” I was so scared they weren’t going to like it. So I really just had to trust the Kaiju No. 8 creative team when they kept saying, “This is the right sound. This is it.” Because I was like, “Guys, I can do five more songs to get this right.” But they were like, “‘Nobody’ is the song.”

Moving on to “Invincible,” the ending theme song for ‘Hoshina’s Day Off.’ It’s a poppy and fun track, but also has a powerful message about resilience and inner strength. What inspired the message of the song?

We worked on that song off and on. We had the beginnings of it, a melody a long time ago. I couldn’t get the lyric right because the word ‘invincible‘ scared me because it felt too obvious. I kept telling the guys in my band, “I love this melody, but the phrase we have is invincible, and it doesn’t feel strong enough yet.” All I had was that one word and this little melody. I didn’t know what to do with it.

Then they presented the film idea to me and the second I saw what they were working on, I said to the other band members, “’Invincible’ is the song.” I knew what to do with that word. 

I wanted it to feel a little cooler and a little more grown-up than “Nobody.” “Nobody” just feels good, no matter what age you are. But I wanted “Invincible” to feel a little older, a little more grown-up, and have a bit more swagger.

The lyrics were inspired by the film itself. And that’s more or less what you are, without being too on the nose. But if you’re a kaiju, you feel like you’re invincible. And for the most part, they are, with the exception of a handful of other entities that can destroy them. So you’re dealing with a character that is, in and of itself, pretty much invincible. 

How did the anime’s story influence the direction of the new song you wrote for Kaiju No. 8, “Beautiful Colors”?

One thing the Kaiju No. 8 team told me was, “We want something deeply emotional.” We already had “Nobody,” which was upbeat and did really well. Then came “Invincible,” which also had tempo but leaned edgier and more mature. Now, they felt it was time for something that gives people goosebumps, even brings them to tears. They wanted to evoke real emotion, because some powerful things happen in the story that needed musical support. That’s where this kind of lyrical ballad came in. 

The main characters go through a lot. If you read the lyrics to “Beautiful Colors,” it will probably give you a strong hint at what’s happening in the storyline. It was meant to be a complete emotional pivot from “Nobody.”

It was exciting for me because we haven’t done a ballad in a long time. But in the coming year, we want to release more songs with that kind of emotional depth. We love making people feel good. We’re like the dopamine band, you know? Crack open a Red Bull, have a few drinks, and just having fun. I love that identity and being the artist whose concert leaves you floating on a cloud.

But I also know it’s time to reintroduce that emotional side, because that’s how we started with “Apologize,” which is a heart-wrenching ballad. “Beautiful Colors” is part of our return to that space.

Are there any musical or production elements in “Beautiful Colors” that you’re especially proud of?

We used strings and orchestral elements, which we haven’t used in a while, and there’s a piano part that kicks off the song. I hate to say this, but it’s one of the most OneRepublic sounding things we’ve done in a long time. It sounds like how we started. You hear that piano line and think, “Oh, that sounds like the guy who did ‘Apologize,’” and that was 18 years ago. So in a way, it’s come full circle. If you liked “Apologize” or if you’ve been with us since 2007 or 2008, this song is for you. It’s the closest thing we’ve done to something like that.

That’s the best way I can describe the production is it sounds like original OneRepublic, but in 2025. We’re not trying to sound dated. You have to constantly be evolving and paying attention to what works. That’s my job as a producer whether I’m working with OneRepublic, &TEAM, or ONE OR EIGHT. The songs have to be great and timeless, but the production is more of a moving target. You’re constantly trying to stay aware of where the world is sonically and that’s a very challenging game, but that’s something that I do every day.

Like you mentioned, you work with artists from different countries including Japan. You also recently worked with a Punjabi artist. Is your approach to production different across cultures?

Definitely, though there are exceptions. I’ve worked a lot with K-pop artists, like LISA and BLACKPINK, who I produced their last single and I also worked on the second single on JIMIN’s album. K-pop is really its own category, sonically. It has a distinct sound, although that’s changing now.

I have a track on Miley Cyrus’ new album called “Easy Lover.” The production sounds like Nancy Sinatra in 2025 and has a little western influence, a touch of country, and that 1970s vibe. I also have a song dropping with Tate McRae that reminds me of back when I first fell in love with Rihanna. It’s completely different in energy and sound from the Miley track.

Then there’s OneRepublic’s “Beautiful Colors” and “Invincible,” which sound nothing alike, and nothing like Miley or Tate. And I’ve got some dance records coming soon with David Guetta and other big DJs, again, which are totally different.

So every song is its own thing. Each one has to be approached differently. You ask, “What does the artist represent? What do they want?” My job is to take that vision and combine it with what I know the world likes or what I think it’s going to like six months from now. I have to predict what’s next. But at the end of the day, I’m making what I personally like. 

When you have a big hit or a global record, it’s usually when your instincts on what you want to hear line up with what the rest of the world didn’t even realize they wanted. If you’re lucky, you get to do that once or twice. And if you’re really lucky like I’ve been, you get to do it for 20 years.

The only way to keep that going is to stay curious and excited about culture and pop culture. That’s why I travel so much. Just two weeks ago, I was in Istanbul, Zurich, Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, and Mexico, all within 10 days. When you’re in a tuk-tuk in Bangkok and you’re driving through like Sukhumvit or some of the major parts of the city, you’re going to hear music in the streets, in a taxicab and I paid attention to all those songs. 

When I’m in Tokyo, I listen to the radio. I notice what’s playing in shops and cafés in places like Omotesando or Nakameguro. That’s my job. That’s the only way I think that you can stay plugged in and to really understand what each culture is resonating with and listening to. And that’s the only way I know how to do it. Otherwise, I’m just guessing the whole time, which is dangerous.

This interview by Mariko Okada first appeared on Billboard Japan.

Despite bans on corridos in Mexico and a crackdown on immigrants stateside, Latin music continues its upward trajectory in the U.S. and beyond, according to Luminate’s Mid-Year Music Report published Friday (July 18), which measures consumption for the first six months of 2025, through July 3.

After ending 2024 ranked as the No. 5 core genre in the U.S. in terms of total consumption (although Latin is music in Spanish and not a genre per se, it is identified as a core genre by Luminate), Latin preserved its No. 5 spot in the first half of the year. However, its on-demand audio streams grew 7.8% over the same six-month period in 2024, to 59.4 billion. Overall, Latin’s market sharepoint change was +.25, the second largest growth of any genre behind only rock and outpacing both country and Christian/gospel.

All told, an analysis of several metrics in the report shows that Latin music, which as recently as a decade ago was still a modest niche genre in the U.S., is now playing with the big kids in the sandbox and continues registering major and consistent growth markers, both in consumption and as a percentage of the overall market.

Latin’s growth in the first six months of the year was largely fueled by regional Mexican music, the subgenre with the second highest growth rate in terms of volume, behind only alt rock.

Regional Mexican was also the sub genre with the second-largest percentage growth — 32.95% — outpacing alt rock, hard rock and Christian music and behind only the Broadway subgenre. Beyond Mexican music, however, Latin rhythm registered robust 16.25% growth — a rebound from its negative 3.8% last year. Although this is likely due in large part to the Bad Bunny effect, it shows that reports of reggaetón and urban ceding major ground to other genres were overblown. Despite being heavily touted, Latin tropical grew more modestly, by 6.16% — a sharp decrease in growth compared to the past three years — and surprisingly, Latin pop decreased by 1.29%.

Outside the U.S., things got exciting for Latin. In Luminate’s ranking of the Global top 10 countires, ranked by overall streaming volume (Total On-Demand Audio + Video), two Latin countries finished in the top five: Mexico was No. 3, with 226 billion streams, only slightly behind India’s 235.5 billion streams; and Brazil was No. 4, with 195.4 billion, far surpassing No. 5 Germany, which had 115 billion streams.

Those rankings are different from the ones on the IFPI’s year-end report for 2024, which uses different methodologies. Still, Brazil and Mexico also made it into the IFPI’s top 10 ranking, with Mexico edging out Australia to land at No. 10. This is excellent news for Latin both as a producer and consumer of repertoire.

These successes in no way mean the Latin industry should get complacent. When it came to U.S. current music (music 18 months old or newer), Latin’s share of the pie actually shrank by 1.1% compared to the first six months of 2024. This is a much smaller loss than that shouldered by R&B/hip hop, but it signals that fans’ tastes are quickly changing, and that the market needs to adapt to continue enticing those listeners.

Rapper Sean Kingston’s mother is begging a federal judge for a lenient prison sentence after the mom-son duo were convicted of running a fraudulent scheme to effectively steal high-end cars, jewelry and other luxury goods.

In a court filing Friday (July 18), attorneys for Janice Turner asked Judge David S. Leibowitz to sentence her to only 30 months — far less than the 63 to 78 months recommended by sentencing guidelines. They say even the low end of that range would be an excessive punishment for a 62-year-old with “a myriad of health issues” and “minimal criminal history.”

“Ms. Turner will go to prison; she has earned the prison sentence,” her lawyers write, adding emphasis in their filing. “However, a sentence greater than thirty months is a waste of taxpayer resources based upon the history and characteristics of Ms. Turner.”

Later in the same filing, Turner’s lawyers cite letters from supporters that described her as “Mama Kingston,” a figure who served as a “pillar in her community” and had been a “motherly figure whose home was a refuge.”

“Ms. Turner fed the hungry, clothed the less fortunate, and encouraged those who had lost their hope,” her lawyers write. “Her generosity and love for others did not have a limit, and she exemplifies a life lived of service to the public.”

Kingston, best known for his chart-topping 2007 hit “Beautiful Girls,” was convicted in March along with his mother of defrauding luxury goods vendors of more than $1 million in merchandise, including a Cadillac Escalade and a massive LED television.

According to prosecutors, Kingston and Turner exploited his celebrity status to convince vendors to deliver goods without immediate payment, either by “promising to place his victims and their products in social media promos” or by “name-dropping high-profile celebrities as potential referral clients.” When payment was due, Kingston or Turner would text them fake wire transfer receipts, falsely suggesting that the money had been sent.

Following a trial in March, it took jurors less than four hours of deliberation to convict the pair of one count of wire fraud conspiracy and four counts of wire fraud. A sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for Aug. 15.

According to court records, a pre-sentencing report prepared by federal probation officers recommends that Turner face a sentence between 63 and 78 months. The actual report remains under seal, but prosecutors disclosed those basic details in court filings.

In Friday’s filings, Turner’s lawyers called that length of sentence “wholly unnecessary” to punish her for her crimes. They said that none of the stolen items were “for her personal gain,” and that she was almost certain to be deported to Jamaica on top of any eventual prison term: “She will be separated from her family and the friends she has.”

In addition to seeking a shorter sentence, Turner also asked the judge to recommend that she be sent to a Miami-area prison so that she can be visited by her friends and family: “The love and support
resulting from Ms. Turner’s family and friends being able to visit her while in custody will allow her a greater chance of positive matriculation through the prison system,” the filing reads.

Prosecutors have not yet filed their own sentencing request. But their most recent court filing — an objection to the probation report arguing that it omitted certain victims and undercounted losses — suggests they’ll oppose Turner’s bid for a lenient sentence. A spokesperson for the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Probation officers have prepared a similar pre-sentencing report for Kingston, but it remains under seal, and details have not been disclosed in other filings.