Lizzo Reacts to Fan Holding ‘I Chose You Over Taylor Swift’ Sign at Australia Concert

Lizzo showed some love to Taylor Swift during her tour opener in Australia on Friday (July 14).

While chatting up the audience at Perth’s RAC Arena, the “About Damn Time” singer spotted a concert-goer holding up a sign that read, “I Chose You Over Taylor Swift (Heart) Can I Get a Hug.” Before addressing the flattering message, Lizzo thanked fans for attending the performance.

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“I’m going to start off be saying thank you for coming to my show,” the pop-rap star said. “I know tickets are expensive to everybody’s shows, so it means the world to me that you’re here.”

She added, “Taylor Swift is amazing as well. And you don’t have to choose, because I’m going to get you tickets to Taylor Swift! I’m just kidding.”

Lizzo then asked the crowd if Swift — who is currently touring North American stadiums on her The Eras Tour — had already toured in Australia.

“Did she already play? When does she come here? She’s not coming here?” Lizzo asked before joking, “How you choose me over Taylor?”

The singer-rapper then autographed the sign and commented, “I love TayTay too … there’s no competition here.”

In late June, Lizzo received backlash from Swifties after comments she made during an Instagram Live. “The most popular person of today ain’t even comparable to what Beyonce is doing,” Lizzo said.

Many of Swift’s fans believed her words were aimed at the pop superstar, who is currently dominating the Billboard charts with her re-recorded Speak Now album and breaking records with her Eras Tour.

Watch Lizzo react to the Taylor Swift sign at her Australia concert on Twitter here.

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Lauren Spencer Smith Explains Why She Wanted to Name Her Debut Album ‘Mirror’ & More | Billboard News

Lauren Spencer Smith explains why she wanted to give her debut album the title ‘Mirror’, her reaction to seeing so many romantic TikToks to her song ‘That Part’, and more.

Lauren Spencer Smith
Like I get asked this question a lot and my answer is always that I’m just an oversharer like I have no issue telling every single person every traumatic thing that’s ever happened to me. Hey, I’m Lauren Spencer Smith and you’re watching Billboard News

Rania Aniftos
Hey everybody it’s Rania Aniftos with Billboard News and I’m so excited. We have singer songwriter, my sweet friend Lauren Spencer Smith here.

Rania Aniftos
I interviewed you back in the day, like right when fingers crossed came out. And now we have this incredible journey that we’re here to talk about your debut album. Congratulation, so ‘Mirror’ tell me a bit about the concept behind it. The idea of your bathroom mirror being a constant through the ups and downs in your life.

Lauren Spencer Smith
I mean, like initially, when I first wanted to title the album, I wanted it to be something about reflecting because everything that’s on the album is like a personal experience to me. And then throughout realizing like no one had been by my side other than my mirror, seeing every cry sash happy sash, like came back from the first day with my boyfriend and looked myself in the mirror and was so excited. Like, it’s the only thing in my life that was the constant throughout the rollercoaster of emotions that I had to go through to write the album. But it just felt so fitting to call it ‘Mirror.’

Watch the full interview above!

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Beyoncé Supports Jay-Z’s ‘The Book of Hov’ Exhibit in Stunning New Selfies

Beyoncé was a proud wife this week, supporting Jay-Z as the Brooklyn Public Library unveiled an honorary exhibition for the billionaire superstar.

The “Break My Soul” singer took to Instagram on Friday (July 13) to share a series of snaps from the grand opening event, in which she was rocking a sunset red vinyl skirt and matching mesh top, complete with a sky-high ponytail and brown shades. Throughout the snaps, Bey is seen posing with Jay and the couple’s daughter Blue Ivy.

See the post here.

“The Book of HOV” exhibition — based on the rapper’s lyric in DJ Khaled’s 2022 Grammy-nominated anthem “God Did” — features “archived objects, including original recording masters, never-before-seen photos, iconic stage wear, prestigious awards, and recognitions, as well as videos and artifacts from every facet of Jay-Z’s professional life.”

Billboard was on site at the opening event, and you can read the full recap here.

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SM Entertainment Leads Music Stocks This Week After Successful EXO Album Launch

Shares of SM Entertainment gained 11.8% to KRW 117,900 ($92.88) this week, making the K-pop company the greatest gainer on the Billboard Global Music Index. The home of groups such as NCT 127 and Red Velvet, SM got good news this week after boy band EXO’s latest release, EXIST — The 7th Album, sold over 1 million copies in South Korea on its first day of release. In the United States, the group currently has four of the top five songs on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart. Year to date, SM Entertainment shares are up 37.5%.

Led by SM Entertainment’s double-digit gain, 13 of the Billboard Global Music Index’s 21 stocks finished in positive territory this week. The index rose 1.7% to 1,355.35, its third-straight weekly increase and the sixth in the last seven weeks. Music stocks lagged behind many major indexes, however. In the United States, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.4% and 3.3%, respectively. The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 improved 2.4%. And South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 4%.

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Spotify continues its hot streak by gaining 9.6% to $172.03, bringing the stock’s year-to-date improvement to 117.9%. The streaming giant got a boost this week after analysts at Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo increased their price targets to $185 and $250, respectively. Wells Fargo analysts are enthusiastic about Spotify’s prospects to improve its margins following the company’s layoffs and reduction of podcast content costs. Long-awaited price increases in the United States could improve Spotify’s gross margin by three percentage points and add nearly $727 million of revenue in 2024, according to the analysts.

Another K-pop company experienced the index’s largest decline this week: Shares of HYBE, home to BTS and Tomorrow X Together, fell 10.3% to KRW 256,500 ($202.08). The company was in the South Korean media this week following complaints of sexual harassment by security guards at an &TEAM singing event in Seoul. In a statement, HYBE apologized to the fans and explained that attendees at such events are searched to prevent recordings from leaking to the public.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd.’s decline of 3.9% to 0.74 pounds per share was the index’s biggest decline of the week after HYBE. On Thursday (July 13), Hipgnosis reported a $12.9 million improvement in pro-forma annual revenue million in calendar year 2022, although both gross and net revenue declined due mainly to two large, non-recurring adjustments. Still, investors remain wary of the stock, which has declined 14.3% year to date. As Billboard reported this week, Hipgnosis is shopping some assets that could help bolster its share price if sold. Shareholders will get a chance to weigh in on the fund’s future at the annual meeting in September by voting to change fund managers, liquidate the fund or stay on course.

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Lauren Spencer Smith Details Lessons Learned While Writing Debut Album ‘Mirror’ & Meaning Behind Title

Lauren Spencer Smith‘s debut album, Mirror, has finally arrived. The singer released the project on Friday (July 14), and leading up to its release spoke with Billboard News about the meaning behind the project’s interesting title, as well as the lessons she took away from writing the LP.

“Initially when I first wanted to title the album, I wanted it to be something about reflecting because everything that’s on the album is a personal experience to me,” she explained to Billboard staff writer Rania Aniftos. “Then throughout realizing no one had been by my side other than the mirror seeing every cry sesh, happy sesh, came back from the first date with my boyfriend and feeling excited, it was the only thing that was a constant throughout the rollercoaster of emotions that I had to go through to write the album, but it felt so fitting calling it Mirror.“

Smith continued, “When I first started writing the album, I would never have imagined that I was going to end the album with that title. I definitely think it was something that I randomly started thinking of one day, like ‘Wow, I literally would not where I am today if everything didn’t happen to me.’ And as much as sometimes I still look back being very annoyed and sad that things like that happened to me, it just has made me who I am. It’s the reason I written all the songs. I remember thinking one day to myself, ‘I think I should thank the person that hurt me,’ because they kind gave me this trajectory of a career at this point.”

Mirror features breakthrough singles “Fingers Crossed” and “Flowers,” “Fantasy” with GAYLE and Em Beihold, “That Part” and more. The 20-year-old will embark on a tour in North America, U.K. and Europe starting on July 14 to support the album.

Reflecting on Mirror, Smith also shared that writing the LP has allowed her to feel more comfortable within her craft: “Throughout songwriting I just realized to say whatever I want, it doesn’t have to have a bad intention to it, it’s just something that I want to say in the song and allowing myself to be honest in all of my songs and really be true to myself.”

Watch Smith’s full interview with Billboard News in the video above.

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Radio & Music Industry Trade Website All Access to Cease Operations in August

Radio and music industry trade website All Access will cease operations on Aug. 15 due to “a marked decrease in revenues that makes moving forward impossible,” according to a bulletin from the company, which also noted that the site will remain online for an undetermined amount of time.

A statement from All Access reads, “This was not a decision that was reached lightly nor without earnest tries to find a path forward. It comes on the heels of major changes in the music industry announced in January of this year. These strong financial headwinds also extend to our non-music partners as well. Both downturns have greatly affected how All Access operates. The dollars are just not there to support our operation and staff any longer.”

According to the All Access website, the company has just over two dozen staff members.

All Access launched in 1995 and has been an essential source of news for the radio and music industries across genres including rock, pop, country and gospel/Christian, with the website providing news, editorial insights, community, industry events and job postings to many in the business for nearly three decades.

You can read the statement from All Access founder/president/publisher Joel Denver below.

This is without question the saddest and most heartbreaking moment of my professional life to have to tell you that allaccess.com will cease publishing and will be going out of business.

All Access began nearly 28 years ago and with the help of an amazing staff of professionals, the best in the business. We’ve weathered many changes and obstacles in the industry over these years. We’ve carved an incredible path and have taken each part of our operation to amazing levels of success through honesty, hard work, and passion for the radio industry, the music, the artists and our many readers, marketing partners, clients and our many contributing editors. Thank you all so much — we could not have done any of this without you.

The goal of All Access has always been to provide cutting edge content for all sectors of our business. We’ve strived to provide the best and most credible NET NEWS coverage, help people find jobs and stay connected. We have been blessed with wonderful partnerships and have created many valuable services for all parts of the radio and music businesses and have the support of nearly 100,000 active users.

Looking back over nearly three decades of service, we have much to be proud of. We’ve created amazing editorial and service products that will be benchmarks of our success like: All Access Downloads, First Alert, co-creation/presentation of Worldwide Radio Summit and creation/presentation of the All Access Audio Summit, among many others along the way.

Again, I cannot begin to express my sincerest appreciation and thanks to all of our many thousands of readers, our many amazing partners, wonderful clients, and the incredible ALL ACCESS staff for your love and devotion to All Access, our mission, and our success for nearly 28 years. I will miss working with all of you.

Closing All Access doesn’t mean that I am retiring from the business. I will take a moment to catch my breath and focus on new horizons and opportunities.

I hope that you will give all of our All Access team members a good strong look as well at new opportunities — they are the best of the best, and I will provide a glowing recommendation for all. There is not one person on the All Access team that I wouldn’t hire again. Please reach out to them by visiting our Team Page.

It has been a true honor to have served the radio and music communities. We have had a blast doing this. We will all miss serving and working with all of you — our readers and clients. I truly wish everyone much success in the future.”

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