Sir Elton John has been honored in innumerable ways during the span of his half-century career. But later this year Madame Tussauds London will pay tribute to the Rocket Man with a one-of-a-kind, gravity-defying figure that pays homage to the pop icon’s wild and wooly 1970s heyday.

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According to a press release, the latest rendering of John will honor the decade of his rise to superstardom via a model that has the singer doing one of his patented keyboard handstands, with his legs in the air above his head and his hands firmly planted on the black and whites.

“We’ve been creating figures of Sir Elton John since the beginning of his legendary career, and he has always inspired us to go above and beyond in our creations,” said Madame Tussauds London general manager Steve Blackburn of the singer who has worked with the museum since 1976, when he was the model for its first-ever talking, smiling piece. “Back in the 1970s, his first figure was our first talking figure, and in 2024 we’re determined to go big again. The figure’s iconic, gravity-defying pose will capture the essence of Elton’s legendary early performances in a way that only Madame Tussauds London can. This will be our most structurally complex figure to date in our centuries-old history and it is going to be a real showstopper when we unveil it later this year.”  

Madame Tussauds released behind-the-scenes images from the creation of the figure on Wednesday (Oct. 16), which it called one of the “most complex structural designs integrated into a figure to date.” The first-stage clay sculpt finds John wearing a white toile jumpsuit as well as a pair of the singer’s signature oversized eyeglasses as he hovers in the air, mouth agape; the final costuming will arrive with the finished figure.

The new John creation will launch at Madame Tussauds London’s “Impossible Festival” music zone later this year, taking its place alongside superstar recreations of Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Queen’s Freddie Mercury and more.

The upcoming John documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, will debut on Disney+ on Dec. 13.

Check out an image of the new John figure below.

Elton John
Elton John

It’s quite the picture: Lainey Wilson performs in a club with fewer than 100 seats and sings a song that’s so new she needs one of her fellow performers — Post Malone, of all people — to hold her cellphone so she can read the lyrics off the screen.

That was the setting when Wilson took part in a songwriters-in-the-round event on June 17 at Nashville’s vaunted Bluebird Cafe. It was, she says, the first time she had performed “4x4xU” live.

“I didn’t even know the chords,” she recalls. “I was just making them up that night.”

The song would make its way into the public sphere when Broken Bow released the track and its accompanying video to digital service providers on July 4, ahead of the Aug. 23 street date for her album Whirlwind. On Aug. 26, “4x4xU” officially went to radio via PlayMPE, continuing a trend she has unintentionally developed with prior singles “Heart Like a Truck” and “Wait in the Truck,” a collaboration with HARDY.

“For so long,” she says, “I was like, ‘I’m not going to write about trucks.’ That’s what everybody does. [But] every single one of my biggest songs is about a damn truck. I couldn’t help it, but I guess you just write what you know. And the truth is, trucks are a big part of my childhood and even with the way that I live now, I’m always up and down the road.”

Appropriately, Wilson wrote “4x4xU” on the road when she played Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Nov. 1, 2023, in conjunction with the 96th annual FFA Convention. The event cultivated some of her creative mindset for the day.

“I was excited to be at the FFA Convention,” she reflects. “My daddy started one of the very first FFAs at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. It just felt cool. It felt like, ‘Man, I want to kind of write a song about my people. I want to write a song about keeping my people close.’ ”

It was not the first thing on the menu. Co-writers Aaron Raitiere (“You Look Like You Love Me”) and Jon Decious helped her craft a cheeky light-funk piece, “Ring Finger,” first. Once that was completed, they found themselves with a small pre-concert window, and they were all game for a whirlwind attempt at something else.

“We didn’t have more than 30 or 40 minutes,” Decious says. “She had to go be a superstar, you know, in 50 minutes.”

Decious wasted no time — as they strummed guitars on the bus, he brought up the “4x4xU” hook he had developed during a brainstorming session.

“I spend, gosh, several hours a week just title-hunting, I call it, and that was one that I just kind of came across,” he says. “It sort of reminded me — like, I’m a big Prince fan, and you know how he would put numbers [in titles] and also, instead of writing out ‘you,’ he would just put the letter ‘U.’ ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ is a good example. That’s kind of cool, but I don’t see it too often in country.”

Wilson turned the “4x4xU” hook into a gently ascending melody, very close to the way Decious had imagined it, and the phrase became the opening line of the chorus. The next line, “From the bayou to Kentucky,” enhanced the truck’s travel vibe in a personal way.

“She’s from the bayou, and we’re from Kentucky,” Raitiere says. “We were putting all these little, little, little nuggets in there. Hopefully people hear it on the second listen or something.”

Those two lines had a subtle verbal tie — the “4×4 by you” sounds like the “bayou” — and they added a few more locations in the rest of the chorus. They changed those communities on the second verse, covering New York, Los Angeles and a couple of cities with quirky names.

“We just wanted to get them all over the place,” Raitiere says. “And then Timbuktu; I been putting Timbuktu in songs for a while. Kalamazoo rhymes with Timbuktu. Those just seem like weird words. I actually had somebody come up to me from Kalamazoo and say they were so proud to have Kalamazoo in another song.”

When they formed the opening verse, they instinctively took a cinematic approach. The plot’s lens focused first on the singer, riding shotgun in the moving vehicle, then on the guy in the driver’s seat, who has his “hands 10 and two on this heart of mine.” That’s one of those nuggets Raitiere cited, the steering-wheel numbers setting up the four-by-four to come.

They parked the car in verse two, dropping their speed “90 to nothing,” once more feeding more numbers into the text. By the time they reached the bridge, the plot seemingly left the vehicle, pointing the camera toward the sun, the stars and the moon.

“I love that contrast,” Decious says. “You know, four-by-fours, the idea of it is so down home and so tangible, but then the idea of space and time is very intangible. So I love the contrast of those. I think it was just an accident that we went there, a happy accident.”

When Wilson brought “4x4xU” to producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Miranda Lambert), the track was layered during tracking at the Neon Cross Studio with multiple keyboards, including soulful electric piano and churchy organ sounds. The bridge received special treatment with a revised set of more ambitious chords and a fermata — an extended hold as pieces of electronica create otherworldly atmospherics.

“Jay does this a lot,” Wilson says. “He kind of takes you to outer space. He’ll kind of take you somewhere up in the clouds, and then when you’re coming back into that chorus, it’s almost like he brings you back down to Earth. When you can get both of those feelings — when you can feel grounded and rooted, like your feet are on the ground but also feel like your head is in the clouds — to me, there’s something really special about being able to feel both in a song.”

One other unusual moment in “4x4xU” occurs in the last half of verse two, with the band breaking into double time, directly contrasting with the “slow motion” lyric.

“That was my one production note,” Wilson says. “I was like, ‘What about if we kind of dug in right here and got a little sexy on it?’ And Jay was down for it.”

The fan base reacted strongly to “4x4xU,” and it continues its steady upward movement on the charts, reaching No. 28 in its sixth week on the Country Airplay list dated Oct. 19 and No. 32 in its fifth week on the corresponding Hot Country Songs. Just as importantly, it has a key role in Wilson’s concerts.

“I still felt like we were missing something that was a big moment, a put-your-hands-in-the-air, sway-back-and-forth kind of thing,” she says. “Truthfully, it’s all about the live show.”

The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Oct. 26, we look at the most competitive race we’ve had on the albums chart in some time, as a pair of big new releases (and a just-retooled slightly older one) compete to claim the top spot.  

Jelly Roll, Beautifully Broken (Republic): If it feels impossible that Jelly Roll is only releasing his first album of 2024 this October, there’s a reason for that. The 2023 country breakout star has been absolutely ubiquitous throughout 2024, showing up everywhere from the Emmys to SNL to Congress (!!) to Twisters: The Album to new sets by Post Malone, Eminem, Falling in Reverse and Jessie Murph – as well as on plenty of his own new releases, including the Billboard Hot 100 Hits “I Am Not Okay” and “Liar.” But indeed, his LP follow-up to last year’s Whitsitt Chapel did not arrive until just last Friday (Oct. 11), in the form of Beautifully Broken

The new set features those two aforementioned hits, as well as guest appearances by rapper Wiz Khalifa, his “Lonely Road” collaborator mgk and singer-songwriter Isley Jubey. It’s available as a 14-track standard physical album and 22-track deluxe on digital download and streaming services – and if that’s not enough Jelly Roll in your life, Friday also saw the release of a 28-track super-deluxe edition subtitled (Pickin’ Up the Pieces), which features additional guest appearances from country stars ERNEST and Keith Urban, singer-rapper Russ and singer-songwriters Halsey and Skylar Grey.  

The 28-track length should certainly help the set’s numbers on streaming, where Jelly Roll usually performs fairly well for a country artist – but Beautifully Broken is expected to do most of its damage in sales. The album is available on his webstore on cassette, CD and vinyl, including gold and camo vinyl variants and a signed CD, as well as a fan pack featuring the signed CD along with a T-shirt or hoodie. There’s also a clear/gold splatter vinyl version exclusively available at indie stores, and a “silver nugget” variant exclusive to Amazon, while the digital deluxe and Pieces editions of the album are on sale on iTunes for $4.99 and $7.99, respectively. It all could add up to Jelly Roll’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 – though in a competitive week, he’ll still need all the help he can get.  

Rod Wave, Last Lap (Alamo): One artist who already has several Billboard 200 No. 1s to his credit is Florida-born rapper Rod Wave. Despite keeping a low mainstream profile and never really scoring a crossover pop hit – with even hip-hop radio support remaining limited – Rod Wave has maintained consistent commercial success that most MCs can only dream of, with three straight No. 1 albums in three straight years this decade: 2021’s SoulFly, 2022’s Beautiful Mind and last year’s Nostalgia.  

Will Rod Wave be able to go 4-for-4? The stacked week could make it tough, but the album is off to another hot start on streaming. Like Future’s Mixtape Pluto a couple weeks ago, Last Lap’s presence on Spotify has been minimal – claiming just one spot on the current Daily Top Songs USA chart, with “25” ranking at No. 138 – but it has been absolutely dominant on Apple Music, occupying seven of the top 10 spots on the DSP’s real-time chart, including the entire top three (led by “25”). It will need to keep up that streaming performance to have a shot at the top spot, because as has also traditionally been the case with new Rod Wave releases, the album is not yet available for physical purchase – though it is also available digitally on iTunes for $4.99.  

Charli XCX, Brat (Atlantic): Though Brat Summer has come and gone – at least according to the weather outside – Charli XCX’s Brat album has remained a fixture on the Billboard 200, ranking at No. 14 this week in its 18th week on the chart. It should get a huge bump next week from the release of its new complementary remix edition: Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a star-studded 34 (or 35, including the recently released add-on “Spring Breakers” with Kesha) track affair which includes new versions of each of Brat’s original 15 cuts (as well as bonus track “Guess,” now with Billie Eilish), with each redo featuring one or multiple new big-name featured artists.  

The much-anticipated completely different version of Brat includes Charli’s previously released spins on “360” (with Robyn and Yung Lean), “Girl So Confusing” (with Lorde) “Von Dutch” (with A.G. Cook and Addison Rae) and “Talk Talk” (with Troye Sivan) as well as the aforementioned “Guess.” Some of the most attention-grabbing newly added names to the guest list include The 1975 (along with Jon Hopkins on “I Might Say Something Stupid”), Bon Iver (on “I Think About It All the Time”) and pop superstar Ariana Grande (on “Sympathy Is a Knife”). The completely different version of Brat, as with all other previously released permutations of Brat, will all be combined into one Brat for chart purposes. 

The set should rack up a good amount of curiosity streams for its new remixes and the big names on them, and it’s also available for purchase on Charli’s webstore in double-CD, double-cassette and triple-vinyl editions (and for $4.99 on iTunes), all of which also include the original Brat tracklist. But with the entirely new Jelly Roll and Rod Wave albums getting in the way this week, Charli will have her work cut out for her in passing the original No. 3 debut spot of Brat on the Billboard 200 even with the added help.

IN THE MIX 

GloRilla, Glorious (CMG/Interscope): Though many prematurely wrote off GloRilla when her 2023 did not maintain the momentum of her breakout 2022, her official debut album is now coming at the exact right time – hot off the momentum of 2024 hits “Yeah Glo!,” “Wanna Be” (with Megan Thee Stallion), “TGIF” and “Hollon.” The first two of those aren’t found on Glorious, but the latter two are, along with appearances from the aforementioned Stallion, Muni Long, Latto, Bossman Dlow, Sexyy Red and more big-name guests – with the Sexyy teamup “Whatchu Kno About Me” already looking on its way to breakout hit status. In many other weeks this autumn, Glorious’ strong streaming entrance (and webstore availability on signed CD, and in a digital download with an exclusive bonus track) would likely have it as a contender for the Billboard 200’s top debut – but in this stacked week, it may have to settle for top five.  

A summer slowdown in new Billboard Hot 100 top 10s has been followed by a near fall freeze.

Over the past three-plus months, between Hot 100 charts dated from the beginning of July through Oct. 19, only seven songs have notched new peaks in the top 10, led by Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which has run up an active 14-week reign — the third-longest this decade — beginning July 13.

The other six such Hot 100 top 10s in that span (pending any further climbs): Morgan Wallen’s “Lies Lies Lies” (No. 7 peak, July 20); Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” (No. 3, Aug. 31); Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” (No. 2, Sept. 7); Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” (No. 4, Sept. 28); Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” (No. 2, Oct. 12); and The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s “Timeless” (No. 3, Oct. 12).

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The tracks have gained entrance to an especially exclusive club of long-running hits in the Hot 100’s top 10 in that stretch, also among them Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which has lodged in the tier for 39 weeks and counting, tying for the fifth-longest top 10 stay in the chart’s archives. Plus, Carpenter’s “Espresso” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” at Nos. 4 and 10, respectively, on the latest list have each spent 25 weeks in the top 10, while “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has pulled up a stool in the region for 24 weeks.

The extent of two songs hitting new highs in the Hot 100’s top 10 so far in October, following two each in September and July and one in August, represents the most fallow three-month-plus period for turnover in the top bracket over the chart’s entire 66-year history.

Put in further perspective, “Die With a Smile” in August ended a nearly five-year run of multiple Hot 100 top 10s posting new peaks every month since; in November 2018, Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” was the only track to do so, when it began a seven-week rule. Overall, such inertia in the top 10 is rare. March 2009 sported one hit reaching a new high (The All-American Rejects’ “Gives You Hell”), while January 2002 marks the only monthly shutout ever. (Eilish wasn’t ready yet to keep the streak going, as she was born the month before.)

The current trend of hits repeating in the Hot 100’s top 10 isn’t necessarily a bad thing — every week in the chart’s history has featured exactly 10 in-demand top 10s, regardless of their age. A chicken-and-egg element is also involved: Are big hits so strong that newer songs can’t overcome them, or are challengers not on the same level? In any case, a select group of established hits — many multiformat smashes strong in streaming, airplay and sales — is preventing new songs from cycling through the chart’s upper reaches at a rate in line with the past.

What’s behind the relative lack of movement in the Hot 100’s top 10 since early summer? Below are five seemingly key factors.

A big year for k.d. lang is getting even bigger.

After celebrating her legacy with an induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and a reunion with her original band The Reclines for the first time in decades, the celebrated Canadian singer has inked a new publishing deal with Reservoir Media. The deal includes her future works and partial catalogue.

“It is an absolute thrill to partner with Reservoir!” says lang in a statement. “Golnar [Khosrowshahi] is a force of nature and understands me as an artist. I am deeply inspired and have utmost confidence in this creative partnership.”

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Golnar Khosrowshahi, the founder and CEO of Reservoir (and one of the leaders on Billboard Canada‘s 2024 Power Players list), is Canadian herself and understands the iconic status k.d. lang holds in the country and beyond.

“As a Canadian, I am particularly proud to be working with k.d. and her manager, Steve Jensen, and I’d also like to thank Bruce Roberts, our very first Reservoir songwriter, who introduced us to k.d,” she says.

Golnar Khosrowshahi. k.d lang and Rell Lafargue
Golnar Khosrowshahi, k.d lang & Rell Lafargue

Already revered as a queer pioneer within country music and a collaborator to musical legends including Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt and Loretta Lynn, lang has been embraced by a new generation in recent years.

She’s charted on the Billboard Hot 100 twice, with her yearning 1992 hit “Constant Craving” and a showstopping 2010 Vancouver live version of fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah.” Originating in the early ’80s in Alberta as part of the burgeoning “cowpunk” scene, lang has never stopped evolving, even appearing on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums Chart in 2021. And she’s won many accolades, including the Order of Canada, four Grammys, four awards from GLAAD and much more.

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Reservoir Media is used to working with legends and amplifying their catalogues for modern audiences. Last year, the company was responsible for bringing seminal hip-hop group De La Soul’s much-missed catalogue back to streaming and back onto the charts. Reservoir also signed a publishing deal with Joni Mitchell in 2021, right before her moving comeback.

But while lang’s deal with Reservoir includes some of her past work, it’s also about the future – which shows a trust in her continued success beyond her achievements.

“It never gets old when a legendary artist like k.d. lang decides to call Reservoir her home. Her incomparable voice and music are a gift to the world,” says Khosrowshahi. “We look forward to helping her share those gifts with new audiences and supporting her as she steps into the next chapter of her career.”

This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.

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Travis Kelce may be known for his football skills, but now he’s leaning on his natural charm as the host of Prime Video’s new game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? The series will join the streamer’s “winning Wednesdays” lineup with a three-episode premiere airing Oct. 16 for a 20-episode run.

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Kelce was confirmed as host for the show back in April, with Taylor Swift even making an appearance on set to support the 35-year-old.

Each episode will feature a new contestant vying for a $100,000 grand prize. All they have to do is successfully answer 11 questions with the help of a classroom of celebrities. If the concept sounds familiar, you’re not wrong: Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? is MGM Alternative’s (a division of Amazon MGM Studios) spinoff of the 2007 game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Keep reading to learn the streaming options available.

How to Watch Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? Online for Free

You can watch Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? online exclusively on Prime Video. The first three episodes are available to stream, and new episodes will arrive every Wednesday. If you’re already a Prime member, you just need to log into your account and head to Prime Video to watch the game show for no additional cost.

Don’t have a Prime membership? Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial for new users who sign up. You’ll be able to watch Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? for free in addition to everything else within the Prime Video library. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged the regular subscription fee of $14.99 a month, or $139 a year.

Looking for more savings? Adults 18-24 and college students can get a six month free trial and 50% off subscription when you sign up for a student membership. Qualifying government programs can also get you a 30-day free trial and half-off membership fee when you sign up for the EBT/Medicaid membership.

In addition to being able to stream Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? for free, a Prime membership will let you watch Prime Originals including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Killer Heat, Fallout, The Idea of You, The Boys, Gen V, My Lady Jane, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Expats, Citadel Diana, Tragically Hip No Dress Rehearsal and The Legend of Vox Machina.

To expand your content options, you can add premium channels to your subscription through the Prime Channel storefront including Paramount+, Max and Starz.

Watch the trailer for Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? below:

Yng Lvcas and Peso Pluma have a billion reasons to celebrate this week. The Mexican singer/rappers both scored their first ever ticket into the YouTube Billion Views Club this week when the clip for the remix of their smash 2023 collaboration, “La Bebe,” crossed the 10-digit line.

Lvcas launched the original version of “Bebe” in 2021, though the popular song didn’t end up on his debut Wup? Mixtape 1 released that year. He recycled it as the outro for his reggaetón-leaning follow-up La Perreo Mixtape), which came out later in 2021.

When the remix arrived in March 2023 it came with additional vocals from Pluma, whose laid-back vocals matched Lvcas’ equally chill flow. The colorful video for the remix features the two men rocking flashy designer gear while singing on a nearly empty soundstage lit by neon tubes, with the song’s title spelled out in silver and gold mylar balloons floating behind them.

Though they start out alone on the rose and red heart balloon-strewn stage, the scene soon shifts to footage of the men cooly crooning in front of a flashy mansion, accompanied by a quartet of lingerie-clad women shaking their hips to the spare beat. “She wants me to put music on/ So that the baby can dance all the way down/ We drank a couple of bottles/ And even so, she remembers that we did it yesterday,” Lvcas sings in Spanish (translation courtesy of Genius).

LVcas then gets some alone time with one of the models in a bedroom, while Pluma dances his way through various scenes wearing a black balaclava and puffer coat accented by a Public Image Ltd. t-shirt.

The “La Bebe” remix debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 77 in April 2023 and eventually climbed up to No. 11; it topped out at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart and hit No. 1 on the Latin Rhythm Airplay tally in June of that year.

Watch the “La Bebe” remix video below.

Four powerful women who have built upon the legacies of their family names — Camila Fernández, Chiquis Rivera, Lupita Infante and Majo Aguilar — sat down together Wednesday (Oct. 16) at Billboard Latin Music Week 2024 and talked about how they rose above and assumed their own path in leadership roles in regional Mexican music.

Moderated by Luana Pagani, founder of Fairwinds, and presented by Smirnoff Ice, the artists discussed during The Legacies panel how they are taking their illustrious family names and breaking through with their own sounds.

Here are the best quotes from the panel:

Camila Fernández: “[Our ancestors] inherit us in affection, and [fans tell me], ‘You remind me so much of your grandfather [Vicente Fernández]’. I’ve been working for 10 years for my hands. My grandfather used to say that success comes from work, not luck. It’s a mantra. You always have to have that thought. Exceed the expectations people have of you. Give honor to the family you come from; to keep elevating Mexico.”

“I need to start from zero to know [about being in the spotlight]; to earn it, that it’s not a whim of mine. Yes, I can do it! I make a fresh spin on mariachi for the new generations. Dressed as a charra and singing mariachi. My tour is called La Fernández.”

Chiquis: “From the beginning, I wanted to put a mark on my career. I want to do it with a lot of love. I’m proud to be Jenni Rivera’s daughter. She [did everything] with ovaries. She said, ‘If you don’t open this door for me I’m going out the window, but I’m going in.’ The first time I got on stage was when I was 10 years old in a competition my grandfather [Pedro Rivera] had. ‘I want to do that.’ An album of corridos. It was in 2012 that I said, ‘I want to try that’. And I sang ‘La Chacalosa’ [by Jenni Rivera] and won second place. Let them say what they say … I feel very proud of what we have been able to do, but even more proud of how I feel as a woman in my gender. We are stronger together.”

Lupita Infante: “It’s a great responsibility [the inheritance]. In the end it’s the public that decides if you continue with this career. I will never stop being [Pedro Infante’s] granddaughter. I feel that I grew up far away from the industry, from show business. My dad [Pedro Infante Jr.] passed away in 2009. My grandfather is long gone. And that’s where I got close [to music]. Connecting with Mexico. I’m from Los Angeles.”

“We who do the mariachi genre, it’s something very beautiful, very traditional, and it’s hard to break away, because you want to represent the genre. I am a producer as well. Change certain elements and find and look for that sound that I still have that I am respecting the mariachi.”

Majo Aguilar: “Since a long time ago I had it clear that I wanted to go forward, not sideways. Of course it helps [being the granddaughter of Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre]. It is important to say it, otherwise it would be very unfair not to recognize it. That you have that surname that your family has done super important things in the industry. I admire all the girls here very much. Your mom is Jenni Rivera, you are already Chiquis, that you have achieved that with such a great mother, imagine being Jenni Rivera’s daughter, [Chiquis] you have paved so much road for us. My case is very particular, music chose me, and not music. Now I understand why I have this restlessness to sing”.

“I do mariachi with love, not to follow trends. To fuse the mariachi instruments with the tumbado format. Mariachi Tumbado is the name of my album. We have to embrace our genres, now they are in the global charts, and feel very proud”.

Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is back in all of its pink, angel-winged glory, with the once-annual televised juggernaut making its grand return Tuesday (Oct. 15) in New York City.

It was held at the women’s lingerie brand’s flagship store in Brooklyn, the 45-minute show featured fierce catwalk takeovers from veteran Angels Gigi Hadid, Tyra Banks, Adriana Lima, Barbara Palvin, Taylor Hill and more. Victoria’s Secret also brought back its traditional lineup of A-list musical performances, with Cher leading an all-women docket that also included LISA of BLACKPINK and Tyla, both of whom were outfitted with the company’s signature wings.

Also in attendance were Ice Spice, Queen Latifah, Tyga, Coco Jones and Phoebe Dynevor, as well as Dylan Sprouse, who is married to Palvin. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody alum supported his wife by bringing cutouts of their pets’ faces, which he showed off on the red carpet before the show.

The event comes six years after the last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which previously marked one of the biggest annual fashion events of the year before the company shuttered it amid inner brand turmoil and public complaints about the cast of models’ lack of diversity. Leading up to 2018, it was also a big performance opportunity for musicians, with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez and many more all taking the stage over the years.

In 2023, Victoria’s Secret reimagined the show with a pre-taped special showing off that year’s collection in various locations around the world. It featured live music from Doja Cat, at that point fresh off the release of her album Scarlet. 

Whether you missed the livestream of the show on Prime Video or simply want to relive the magic, Billboard has collected all the best moments from the program. See photos from the 2024 comeback VSFS below. 

Members of The Lumineers, Dropkick Murphys, American Authors, Rise Against and Plain White T’s are among the artists taking part in a new Public Service Announcement encouraging people to get ready to vote.

The #KnowBeforeYouGo campaign is a partnership between talent agency Wasserman and non-partisan, non-profit voter information and registration organization HeadCount.

Other Wasserman music clients taking part in the PSA, which debuts below, include Lisa Loeb, Vincint, A-Trak, Bartees Strange and Ambar Lucid. Additionally, Wasserman sports clients featured in video are Julie Foudy, Jason Collins, Sierra Quitiquit, Weston McKennie, Hilary Knight, Alexander Mattison, Chris Mosier and Lela Rochon.

The 75-second PSA will air on HeadCount’s YouTube channel, as well as Wasserman and HeadCount’s social media channels and was produced by Wasserman’s creative agency, Laundry Service. In it, the artists and athletes remind voters to check their registration, as well as their options for early voting and vote-by-mail, as well as in person on Nov. 5.

“The #KnowBeforeYouGo campaign brings together iconic figures in music and sports to encourage people to exercise their most precious democratic right:  voting,” said Lucille Wenegieme, executive director of HeadCount, in a statement to Billboard.  “Through the PSA, we aim to equip voters with the information they need to show up confidently at the polls, helping to create a culture where civic participation is celebrated and valued. Together, Wasserman and HeadCount are inspiring a new generation to make their voices heard every election cycle.” 

#GetOutTheVote PSA video from Wasserman and HeadCount

Denise Melanson, Wasserman’s vp of social impact, added, “Wasserman and our clients have been working with HeadCount for years through various campaigns and initiatives. When it came time us to establish our own campaign, HeadCount was the obvious choice as a partner. Their passion for civic engagement while harnessing the power of popular culture is synonymous with Wasserman’s mission” 

HeadCount has registered more  350,000 people so far during the 2024 election cycle at over 3,000 events and through partnerships with over 100 music artists. For more information, voters can visit headcount.org/wasserman.