‘Baby Shark’ NFTs Are On Their Way

To date, Pinkfong’s viral hit “Baby Shark” has spawned an animated TV series, a children’s book and even a Kellogg’s breakfast cereal. Now, the brand is expanding into the NFT space with a new collection on the digital art platform MakersPlace.

Slated to debut Thursday at 3:30 p.m. PST, the first-ever Baby Shark NFT collection is a collaboration between Pinkfong’s parent company SmartStudy and Pinkfong’s global music partner Sony Music Entertainment/Relentless Records.

The six-piece collection, now available to preview on MakersPlace, includes one unique (1/1) piece and five limited edition pieces that feature Baby Shark and his family in original, loop-able animations inspired by holographic collectors’ playing cards. Each piece is accompanied by audio referencing the “Baby Shark” song.

The unique piece, titled “Baby Shark No. 1,” is a one-minute long digital NFT that shows Baby Shark journeying “through a newly reimagined dream-like underwater world, seen through a lens that portrays Baby Shark in a captivating new light,” according to a press release. The music that plays over the visual is described as “a classically composed, bespoke, electronic movement built around” the original song. The winner of the piece will receive a custom vinyl, created by Pinkfong to accompany the NFT, that will feature music from the digital piece along with accompanying artwork.

In August, Sony Music joined the $30 million Series A funding round for MakersPlace alongside Eminem, former Def Jam CEO Paul Rosenberg and DJ 3LAU. The following month, Sony Music announced a strategic partnership with MakersPlace that saw Sony artist Shakira offering audio-visual NFTs on the platform.

Since debuting on YouTube in June 2016, “Baby Shark” has received a Diamond certification from the RIAA based on sales of more than 11 million copies; the song also reached a peak of No. 32 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s currently the most-watched YouTube video of all time with over 9.7 billion views to date.

“This marks the beginning of our venture into the world of NFT, an important next chapter of Baby Shark’s journey,” said Pinkfong USA CEO Bin Jeong in a statement. “As a sensation born on the internet, it is a natural progression for Baby Shark to embrace NFTs and we are thrilled to share the experience with the community.”

MakersPlace co-founder and CEO Dannie Chu added, “Over the last year we have seen strong demand from our community for music-inspired NFTs. We want to expand our offerings in this space by providing the platform, tools and curatorial support to help bring great audio-visual works to life on the blockchain. We are thrilled to partner with Pinkfong to bring the world of Baby Shark to the digital arts space.”

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Billie Eilish Does the Same ‘Vanity Fair’ Interview for a Fifth Year in a Row: Watch

Billie Eilish was almost certainly feeling deja vu as she sat for her yearly video interview with Vanity Fair on Oct. 18. While the questions remain the same in the video, which was released Tuesday (Nov. 30), the superstar’s answers (and hair color!) showed her growth over the last half-decade.

The annual tradition started when the teenage pop sensation was just a 15-year-old newcomer, back in the simpler days when she only had a mere 257,000 Instagram followers. (Four years later, she now boasts upward of 94.1 million — including Kylie Jenner, the third most-followed person on the platform.)

Reflecting on her pandemic-era answers from 2020, Eilish couldn’t help but laugh at herself. “Gosh, that girl was going through an identity crisis. Oh my gosh!” she said. “You can see it in my eyes. I mean, really. The low bun? Please. What’s going on?”

Looking back at how her confidence had grown from 2017 to 2019, the singer claimed that “nothing will ever top that 2019 ego.” But, she was quick to explain, there’s a reason. “I was feelin’ myself, that is for sure,” she said. “It’s because I had been so miserable for so long, that I finally wasn’t and I just never shut up about it. But I’ve been…I’ve been good. I mean, I’m starting to have, like, an adulthood. Which is new for me and very exciting, and I have had new experiences and new people and lots of love.”

Eilish also said this year that her perspective on meeting the world’s expectations have changed as she’s entered into adulthood. “I feel a lot of pressure, but I would also say, like, back then…I was pretty overall  loved, I would say. To be honest. So I was, like, scared ’cause I really wanted to keep that love. And now, like, tons of people hate me,” she said with a laugh. “So I’m not worried anymore. I’m like, ‘Oh, OK well, if you like me, you like me; if you don’t, you don’t. So…”

For more, including Eilish’s biggest regret, advice she would give herself for the next year and more, watch the full interview below.

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The Biggest & Best Holiday Songs of All Time: Breaking Down Billboard’s Christmas Lists

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s  officially time to listen to — and debate about — Christmas music.

In the past week, Billboard has published two major lists of festive music: The Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs chart, based on the first 10 years of our Holiday 100 tally, plus the 100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time: Staff List, based on a staffwide vote from Billboard editors. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are taking a closer look at these two lists — specifically, we’re comparing the top 10s of each list.

Listen below, and you might be surprised by what the top tiers of each list has in common — or what they don’t.

Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Adele’s 30 debuts atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with the biggest week of the year for any album — and has immediately become the biggest-selling album of 2021 — plus how the British singer/songwriter doubles up in the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, as “Easy on Me” returns to No. 1 and album cut “Oh My God” debuts in the top five. Plus, it’s starting to get Christmasy on the charts, as a flurry of holiday favorites re-enter — or climb — the Hot 100. Could Mariah Carey’s evergreen classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” return to No. 1 again this year?

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard’s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and senior director of Billboard charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

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Anitta Shares 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Her

During rehearsals for the 2021 Latin GRAMMYs, Anitta shared five interesting facts about herself, including her go-to breakfast, her biggest fears and how her family bets on her relationships.

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Concert Business Stocks Rebound Following Friday Omicron Selloff

Shares of Live Nation and MSG Entertainment rose 4.2% and 9%, respectively, on Monday (Nov. 29) as investors considered how the coronavirus omicron variant will affect the touring business’ recovery.

The day’s gains halved Live Nation’s 8.8% fall on Friday when news of the omicron variant was first widely publicized, and a 2% gain in after-hours trading suggests investors’ concerns could ease in the following days. MSGE’s spike on Monday more than made up for Friday’s 8.4% drop. Both companies outperformed the market, with the S&P 500 Index rising 1.32% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.68%.

Reports Friday that the new variant, first discovered in South Africa, had been detected in Europe sent global markets tumbling and gave the Dow Jones Industrial average its worst drop in 2021. Shares of Live Nation reached an all-time high of $123.80 on Nov. 5 following encouraging third-quarter earnings results and optimism for a strong 2022 concert schedule, but fell 9.3% to $112.32 the following week after 10 fans and hundreds more were injured at the Astroworld festival the company produced in Houston on Nov. 5. Then, on Friday, shares fell from $112.61 to $103.53 at close, based on the omicron news.  

Friday’s decline was greater than the short-lived deficit due to COVID-19 delta variant concerns on July 19 when the Live Nation’s shares fell 4.8% and fully recovered in just two days. Going into slow months of winter, the timing of the omicron breakout is less concerning for out-of-home entertainment companies such as concert promoter and theme parks than for recovering industries such as movie theaters and cruise liners that do brisk business in cold months.  

Concerns about omicron hampered the recovery of stocks throughout the travel and leisure industries. Delta Airlines and American Air Lines shares fell 8.8% and 8.3%, respectively, on Friday while each fell less than 1% again on Monday. Some hotel companies rebounded slightly on Monday: Hilton Worldwide Holdings recovered a fifth of its 6.2% drop, and Marriot International made back a third of its 6.5% decline. Markets in general have surged in the latter half of 2021 as countries re-opened to travel and governments eased restrictions. Stocks have fared well even as hospitalization rates throughout Europe grew to record levels in November.    

Many countries — including the United States, United Kingdom and European Union member nations — quickly restricted travel from South Africa and seven other countries on the continent on Friday. Israel closed its borders to non-citizens at midnight Sunday to stop the omicron variant from spreading beyond two cases detected last week. Japan, which opened to some business travelers and students this month, followed suit and closed its borders to all international travel on Monday. No cases had been reported in the United States through Friday, although the variant has been detected in Canada, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong and Belgium. 

The World Health Organization said on Monday that the omicron variant carries a high likelihood of global spread and its mutations “may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility,” although it stressed there are uncertainties about whether the new variant is more transmissible or leads to more severe COVID-19 symptoms than the delta and other coronavirus variants. In addition, some experts are concerned that existing vaccines will be less effective against the omicron variant. Existing PCR tests continue to detect infection of variants including omicron, and researchers are trying to find out if the types of rapid testing used at concerts and other live events are also effective, according to the World Health Organization.   

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