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Noah Kahan has had quite the year. Last October, the singer-songwriter released his third album Stick Season, a project that ushered in a sonic shift for the artist away from pop and into folk music — and set him on the fast-track to global acclaim.
The album debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200; In June, Kahan released its deluxe edition, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), which shot the album up to a No. 3 peak on the chart. The deluxe also topped a handful of genre-based charts, including Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Americana/Folk Albums.
“It’s been an unbelievable year-and-a-half now … a whirlwind of attention and wonderful outpouring of love from fans,” says Kahan. He recalls making Stick Season through the pandemic, saying, “There was a feeling in the studio of like, ‘Woah, this is something special.’ I felt so creatively in control … and I think, at the time, I couldn’t see that as a sign of success or relatability, it just felt so right for me that I was fine with whatever happened.”
In July, Kahan delivered yet another gift to fans with his Post Malone collaboration on standout single “Dial Drunk.” And while Kahan says he didn’t get a chance to play beer pong with the champ (“I got to watch him play, there was a big line … I was a little starstruck”) he says their first meeting was “exactly what I wanted an experience with Post Malone to be; he was sitting crossed-legged, drinking Bud Lights [and] smoking cigarettes.”
The pair bonded over their love of the comedy Walk Hard and Kahan confirms “the hang is not over.” As he says, “I would love to get in the room and write music with him [together from scratch]. What I love about [him] is he is so untethered by genre…I would love to make some weird shit.”
Looking ahead, Kahan has already completed his two biggest goals: be verified on Instagram and have a Wikipedia page. Still, he has one other major project in the works. His nonprofit the Busyhead Project, which he founded with his managers in May and is named after his 2019 debut album Busyhead, is on track to raise $1 million for mental health organizations across country and in Canada. “That is definitely a goal,” he says.
Watch the full Billboard News interview above.
Noah Kahan opens up to Billboard‘s Lyndsey Havens about how his life has changed since the release of his album Stick Season, working with Post Malone, his mental health initiative The BusyHead Project and more!
Noah Kahan:
Holding a pencil for five minutes makes me tired. She did three hours of like dancing and singing and like …
Lyndsey Havens:
Intense cardio.
Noah Kahan:
Like that and like — all that kind of stuff.
Lyndsey Havens:
Thank you for the preview of your own choreography there. A sneak peak.
Noah Kahan:
Yeah, that’s something I’m working on. Cut that out. I don’t want people seeing that. I want it to be a surprise.
Lyndsey Havens:
It’s not ready yet.
Noah Kahan:
Yeah, it’s not ready.
Hi, I’m Noah Kahan, and this is Billboard News.
Lyndsey Havens:
Hey, I’m Lyndsey Havens for Billboard News, and we are here with the incredible singer-songwriter Noah Kahan.
Did I get that last name, right? I’ve heard a lot of different ways.
Noah Kahan:
Yeah, you are one of the first. There’s only one way to say it, by the way. It’s Kahan. You did a great job. Thank you very much.
Lyndsey Havens:
People overcomplicate it!
Noah Kahan:
People … well, it’s like there’s two As. I say, “One of the As is silent and you get to pick which one.”
Lyndsey Havens:
If you could describe your last 12 months, I think it’s nuts, because obviously, you’ve been making music for a really long time, and you had success. But then suddenly, everything changed and it hit a next level.
Noah Kahan:
It’s been an unbelievable few months, like a year and a half basically now of just, like, whirlwind of attention and this wonderful, like, outpouring of love from fans. A lot of, like, a lot more commitments that I’m in, which has been, like, the big challenge for me has just been balancing, like, trying to have my life, trying to write music and be creative and be inspired by the world, but also being really busy, being on the road all the time.
Lyndsey Havens:
Yeah.
Noah Kahan:
I’m kind of navigating it. It has been really challenging, but really cool, and it’s an opportunity and an experience that not all artists get. And so I’m very aware of the privilege of this year for me.
Watch the full interview above!
Doja Cat, Kylie Minogue, Troye Sivan, Blink-182 and Lady A release new music. Nicki Minaj speaks out after her husband, Kenneth Petty, is put under house arrest. Ryan Hurd is defending his wife, Maren Morris, as she announces her departure from country music. Noah Kahan stops by the studio to chat about working with Post Malone, how much his life has changed since his album ‘Stick Season’ has dropped and more!
Tetris Kelly:
Doja Cat releases new music and we take you to her surprise in LA as Ed Sheeran premieres a new song live. Nicki Minaj is blaming others for her husband being on house arrest and we have interviews with Noah Kahan and R&B legends Tony! Toni! Toné!.
What’s up? It’s me, Tetris. It’s Friday, September 22nd and this is Billboard News. Let’s kick things off with our Friday Music Guide.
Doja Cat has been serving devil red as she’s arrived with her full album “Scarlet” and also brings us a video for “Agora Hills.”
More tunes coming at you throughout the show, but for now our top stories. Both Nicki Minaj and Ryan Hurd are coming to the defense of their spouses. Let’s break it down. Nicki Minaj is responding after her husband, Kenneth Petty, was placed under house arrest for 120 days following a series of social media posts allegedly showing him violating his probation. Nicki seemed to respond to the drama on her IG stories writing “Can’t call the cops every time you flop, just saying,” along with a string of laughing emojis. The house arrest came after Nicki’s husband was recorded on video making threatening remarks to a specific individual while in the company of someone with a criminal record according to a Central District of California court order.
Ryan Hurd is coming to his wife Maren Morris’s defense after the singer released “The Bridge” and announced her departure from country music. Ryan took to IG to support Maren, writing “She deserves to be celebrated, not just tolerated.” He also hit back against those who have criticized his wife, writing in part, “I’m so sick of watching my wife get the sh*t kicked out of her by the internet. I’m sick of every talking head having some kind of stupid opinion about what she says. It’s the same every time. Why are you surprised when she calls out something racist or homophobic? I’m sick of people getting rewarded for it.” He continued his support of her final country project, “To me ‘The Bridge’ is beautiful and so rock and roll. She deserves a little sunshine for the burden she has carried for every artist and fan that feels the same way.”
Watch the full video above!
Shares of YG Entertainment plummeted 16.3% this week amidst speculation the agency has not renewed the contracts of the members of girl group BLACKPINK. Following a spate of reports out of South Korea, the company’s share price dropped 13.3% on Thursday (Sept. 21) and another 4.1% on Friday (Sept. 22).
On Thursday, Korean news outlet Daily Sports Seoul reported that three members of BLACKPINK — Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa — will leave YG Entertainment and spend just six months out of the year as part of the group. In response to that report and the flurry of media attention that followed, YG Entertainment issued a brief statement: “Currently, BLACKPINK’s contract renewal has not been confirmed and is being discussed.”
BLACKPINK became the first K-pop girl group to play Coachella in 2019 and headlined the festival in 2023. The quartet was also the first K-pop girl group — and the third K-pop group overall — to top the Billboard 200, with its 2022 album, Born Pink.
A week ago, YG Entertainment’s share price was up 80.8% year to date and was outpacing its K-pop competitors. Following the BLACKPINK news, shares of YG Entertainment fell to 130,300 KRW ($97.56), dropping its year-to-date gain to 51.4%. That put YG Entertainment below SM Entertainment’s 69.9% year-to-date gain and JYP Entertainment’s 55.6% improvement.
Overall, the 21-stock Billboard Global Music Index fell 1.9% to 1,330.12 this week, lowering its year-to-date gain to 13.9%. Eleven stocks ended the week in negative territory and two were unchanged. Of the eight stocks that finished in positive territory, only Cumulus Media, which gained 7.9% to $4.80, appreciated more than 3%.
Music stocks outperformed some major indexes, though. In the United States, the S&P 500 dropped 2.4% to 4,345.64 and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.6% to 13,211.81. Overseas, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 7,683.91 while South Korea’s KOSPI composite index declined 3.6% to 2,508.13.
Led by Cumulus Media’s 7.9% gain, the three radio companies in the index had an average gain of 3.8% — the only segment in positive territory — with SiriusXM gaining 2% to $4.07 and iHeartMedia rising 1.5% to $3.45. Meanwhile, the eight stocks covering record labels and music publishers lost an average of 1.1%, and four live music stocks fell by an average of 1.7%. The six streaming companies in the Billboard Global Music Index lost an average of 6.9%.
Two streaming companies, LiveOne and Anghami, had the sharpest declines of the week. Abu Dhabi-based Anghami dropped 19% to $0.68, bringing its year-to-date loss to 57.4%. U.S. music streamer LiveOne fell 23.4% to $1.05 and has lost 36% of its value since spinning off its PodcastOne division on Sept. 11 and attracting media attention over allegations its Kast Media division did not pay some advertising revenues to podcasters. The spinoff hasn’t helped the company’s combined value: Trading under the name Courtside Group, the podcast company’s share price fell to $2.05 this week, 52% below its opening trading price on Sept. 8. The other streaming stocks almost broke even this week: Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, Cloud Music and Deezer had an average share price decline of just 0.2%.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund rose 2.8% to 0.832 pounds ($1.02) a week after dropping 12.8% on news the publicly traded investment trust plans to sell some catalogs for $465 million. The sale proceeds would fund share buybacks and repurchase debt, which Hipgnosis believes will support the beleaguered share price and reset the company’s net asset value.
Shares of Warner Music Group (WMG) dropped 4.7% to $30.76 this week following the announcement on Monday (Sept. 18) that BMG is taking control of its digital distribution and will no longer use WMG’s ADA Distribution (though it will continue to outsource its physical distribution). The news didn’t impact WMG’s share price until Wednesday (Sept. 20), when investors became aware of a report by analysts at Guggenheim that stated BMG’s decision would cause “a staggered reduction in WMG gross revenue” beginning Dec. 31 of roughly $250 million annually. Losing BMG’s digital business won’t be a major hit to WMG’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), however: Guggenheim noted that WMG’s revenue from BMG had an EBITDA margin in the low single digits and would have “minimal free cash flow impact,” analysts wrote in the investor note. Perhaps sensing WMG sellers misunderstood the economics of BMG’s departure, some buyers returned to WMG and helped the stock recapture 47% of Wednesday’s losses over the next two days. The Guggenheim has a $37 price target on WMG, which implies 20% of upside from Friday’s closing price. WMG shares
Selena Gomez does not have a boyfriend, and she isn’t shy of making that fact abundantly clear. In a new TikTok video posted to her account on Thursday, the Rare Beauty founder set the record straight about her dating status once again.
Gomez appears in the video wearing a white oversize T-shirt and two braided pigtails. She lip-syncs to audio that says: “Guess who has a boyfriend? Not me bi—! Y’all be safe out there!” before waving goodbye to the camera.
Fans in the comments section were delighted by Gomez’s sarcasm, with several stating that the sass reminded them of her Wizards of Waverly Place character Alex Russo. “I have been missing Alex Russo…here you are queen,” one user wrote, with another adding, “Better to be single, healthy, and happy.”
This is far from the first time Gomez has used social media to debunk dating rumors. In January, rumors circulated that she and The Chainsmokers’ Drew Taggart were in a relationship after they were seen hanging out. A week after the rumors surfaced, however, Gomez took to her Instagram Stories and wrote “I LIKE BEING ALONE TOO MUCH,” along with the hashtag “#iamsingle.” Less than two months later, she made a TikTok joking that she was “still out here looking” for her crush.
Earlier this summer, Gomez made a TikTok wondering, “Why am I single?,” set to Bonnie Tyler’s Footloose soundtrack classic “Holding Out for a Hero.” Another confirmation from the Only Murders in the Building actress came in August with her track “Single Soon” (which has so far peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100).
Since the Taggart dating rumors, Gomez has been linked to Zayn Malik and The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White.
See Gomez’s new TikTok below.
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