New York state lawmakers are aiming to expand sexual harassment protections to all public employees, including elected officials and those who work for them. The state Senate Tuesday passed a … Click to Continue »
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Dave Grohl is on a winning streak. The Foo Fighters singer/guitarist’s memoir The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music moved up a couple of notches to land at No. 9 on the New York Times best-sellers list, which is up two spots from the previous week.
Grohl’s book has spent an impressive 20 weeks on the best-sellers list, and landing in the top 10 puts him a few spots behind Will Smith’s self-titled memoir, which is at No. 5 after notching 15 weeks on the NYT best-sellers list. Mathew McConaughey’s Greenlights is at No. 6 (McConaughey’s book has spent 60 weeks on the list).
Over on the Amazon book charts, The Storyteller is at No. 1 on the Rock Band Biographies list ahead of Crying in H Mart by Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zuner, who takes up two spots on the Amazon list for hardcover and paperback copies of the book. Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present is at No. 4 on Amazon’s list followed by the Kindle edition of Storyteller and Elton John’s autobiography, while The Beatles: Get Back rounds out the top 10.
Grohl’s Storyteller memoir has had a great run since its release last October when it debuted at No. 1 on the NYT best-sellers list. “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would someday be a number one bestselling author, but it’s those same wildest dreams that I’ve followed since the day I picked up a guitar. Honored,” Grohl wrote on Instagram at the time. “Huge thanks to everyone at @deystreet for making my first book such an amazing experience.”
In November, Grohl unveiled limited-edition signed copies of the memoir at select bookstores around the country. If you haven’t gotten around to buying The Storyteller click the link below to purchase a copy. For additional book recommendation, see our list of 15 books that every music fan should read.
Buy: The Storyteller by Dave Grohl: Tales of Life and Music ($17.99)
To celebrate the digital release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 film Licorice Pizza, MGM is teaming up with Postmates to release a limited edition, gourmet spicy pepperoni pizza in New York and Los Angeles.
From March 2 through March 6, Postmates users can order a “Licorice Pizza” that includes an exclusive code from Apple TV, which gives you access to watch the film as many times as you want. Additionally, the first orders will receive one of the film’s limited edition vinyl soundtrack, while supplies last. The special pies will be priced at $19.73, which is the year the film takes place.
Order your own “Licorice Pizza” exclusively on Postmates here.
Licorice Pizza, which stars Alana Haim as Alana Kane and Cooper Hoffman as Gary Valentine, is a coming-of-age film that follows the duo as they grow up, have adventures and ultimately fall in love in California’s San Fernando Valley in the 1970s.
“I honestly thought I was going to get fired every day because I had no idea what I was doing,” Haim told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in December of her acting debut. Instead, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role.
Haim’s role was written specifically for her by Anderson, and she also revealed that she had to go to “truck school” for a scene in which she drives Bradley Cooper around in a 1970s manual transmission moving van.
“I’m a terrible driver, and I didn’t tell anybody that I was a bad driver. And then it came the day that I had to, you know, do it, I had to drive this truck and I had Bradley Cooper… America’s sweetheart and [co-star and fellow first-time actor] Cooper Hoffman,” she joked to Fallon.
Dua Lipa was sued for copyright infringement Tuesday (March 1) by a Florida reggae band that claims the British pop star stole her smash hit song “Levitating” from a lesser-known 2017 track.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court, the members of a band called Artikal Sound System claim that Lipa’s “Levitating” – which spent 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and was the No. 1 Hot 100 song of 2021 – was ripped off from the band’s “Live Your Life.”
The complaint was very short and contained mostly boilerplate claims of copyright infringement, with little detail about how or why Lipa allegedly copied the song. But it said that the two tracks were so similar that it was “highly unlikely that ‘Levitating’ was created independently.”
“Levitating,” released in 2020 on Lipa’s second studio album Future Nostalgia, was a massive hit, eventually peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and securing the honor of being the longest-running top 10 song ever by a female artist on the chart.
Artikal Sound System is a reggae band based out of South Florida, founded in 2012 as a duo before later adding additional musicians and vocalist Logan Rex. The band released “Live Your Life” on its 2017 EP Smoke and Mirrors.
Like any copyright case, the lawsuit against Lipa claimed that she had “access” to the earlier “Live Your Life” – meaning she heard the song, thus giving her the ability to copy it. But the case does not explain exactly why the band believes the pop star heard their song.
The lawsuit also named Warner Records, as well as others who helped create “Levitating.” Representatives for Lipa and Warner Music Group did not return requests for comment on Tuesday evening.
Listen to the two songs below:
Kane Brown notched his seventh No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart with “One Mississippi,” which climbed to the top of the survey dated March 5, 2022.
“‘One Mississippi’ hitting No. 1 means so much to me, not just for my own career but for each of the co-writers,” Brown previously told Billboard. “I’m also really proud of Levon Gray, who we signed to our publishing company, Verse 2, after discovering him on Instagram. This is the first song Levon and I wrote together. I couldn’t be happier for him!”
If you need a guide to follow along with Kane Brown’s “One Mississippi,” find the lyrics below:
You and I had this off and on so long
You’ve been here, then you’ve been gone
So many times
And every night, yeah I’m always bumping into you
Well, you do the same things we used to
It’s your place or it’s mine, so
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
We’ll lie and swear we’re through
With the lonely, drunken deja vu
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Five minutes out of downtown
Ain’t nothing but a countdown
One Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three shots of whiskey
Are you on your way?
We’re tipsy, baby, come kiss me
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three in the mornin’
We’ll be on our way
So tipsy, can’t stop kissin’
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Forever
Mm, every time I’m at this bar
Tap on the shoulder, turn around
And baby, there you are
And it’s fire
Yeah, like this bourbon hundred-proof
Yeah, they don’t burn the way you do
Yeah, we’re better in the dark, so
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
We’ll lie and swear we’re through
With the lonely, drunken deja vu
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Five minutes out of downtown
Ain’t nothing but a countdown
One Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three shots of whiskey
Are you on your way?
We’re tipsy, baby, come kiss me
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three in the mornin’
We’ll be on our way
So tipsy, can’t stop kissin’
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Forever
Woo
Kinda like that Georgia wind
We’ll be gone and back again
But always wind up right back where we are
Playing roulette with our hearts
And blowing smoke rings in the dark, yeah
Oh-oh-oh, oh
We’ll lie and swear we’re through
With the lonely, drunken deja vu
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Five minutes out of downtown (ain’t nothing but a countdown)
Ain’t nothing but a countdown
One Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three shots of whiskey
Are you on your way
We’re tipsy, baby, come kiss me
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Mississippi, two Mississippi
Three in the mornin’
We’ll be on our way
So tipsy, can’t stop kissin’
I can’t wait, I can’t wait
Forever
Every time I’m at this bar
Tap on the shoulder, turn around
And baby, there you are
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ernest Smith, Gary Levon Wallace, Jesse Frasure, Kane Brown
Britney Spears has lived a lot of life in her 40 years, from her tween start on The Mickey Mouse Club to her blockbuster music career to the conservatorship that controlled her professional and personal affairs for more than 13 years.
But there’s a happy ending to this story, because the pop star broke free from that conservatorship in the fall, and now she’s allegedly going to tell her side of the story as part of a reported $15 million book deal.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about what to expect from her upcoming memoir. What will be included in the book? And could there possibly be a companion album in the mix – potentially her first new project since 2016’s Glory? Listen to our podcast discussion below.
Also on the show, Olivia Rodrigo will be named Billboard‘s Woman of the Year at Wednesday’s Billboard Women in Music Awards, and we’re talking about the “drivers license” singer’s insane trajectory from pop rookie in January 2021 to Woman of the Year just over a year later. Plus, we’ve got chart news about the continuing success of the Encanto soundtrack at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and how it’s one of the longest-running No. 1s of the past five years and one of the longest-running No. 1 soundtracks of the last 30 years. But could Encanto’s reign at No. 1 be coming to an end, thanks to Kodak Black’s new album Back for Everything? And, GAYLE’s “abcdefu” reaches No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart for the first time — and the top three on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. Could the track be on course for No. 1?
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.)
The announcement was abrupt and unexpected in a way that partings of this type seldom are in sports. There was mystery to it as well — Derek Jeter suddenly quitting … Click to Continue »
The Weeknd kicked off 2022 with his long awaited Dawn FM album, which included the groovy “Sacrifice” on the track list.
The song peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent 6 total weeks on the chart. Dawn FM, meanwhile, bowed at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 22, 2022.
If you need a guide to follow along with the words to The Weeknd’s “Sacrifice,” find the lyrics below:
I was born in a city
Where the winter nights don’t ever sleep
So this life’s always with me
The ice inside my veins will never bleed
My, ooh
My, ooh
Uh, every time you try to fix me
I know you’ll never find that missing piece
When you cry and say you miss me
I’ll lie and tell you that I’ll never leave
But I sacrificed (sacrificed)
Your love for more of the night (of the night)
I try to put up a fight (up a fight)
Can’t tie me down (down)
I don’t wanna sacrifice
For your love, I try
I don’t wanna sacrifice
But I love my time
My, ooh
My, ooh
I hold you through the toughest parts
When you feel like it’s the end
‘Cause life is still worth living
Yeah, this life is still worth living
I can break you down and pick you up
And f— like we are friends
But don’t be catching feelings
Don’t be out here catching feelings ’cause
I sacrificed (sacrificed)
Your love for more of the night (of the night)
I try to put up a fight (up a fight)
Can’t tie me down (down, down)
I don’t wanna sacrifice
For your love, I try
I don’t wanna sacrifice
But I love my time
I don’t wanna sacrifice
For your love, I try
I don’t wanna sacrifice
But I love my time (my, ooh)
Oh, baby
I hope you know that I, I tried
Oh, baby (baby)
I hope you know I love my time, oh
I don’t wanna sacrifice
I don’t wanna (woo), I try (hey)
I don’t wanna sacrifice
But I love my, my time
My, ooh
My, ooh
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Abel Tesfaye, Axel Christofer Hedfors, Carl William Eric Nordstroem, Kevin McCord, Max Martin, Oscar Thomas Holter, Sebastian Carmine Ingrosso, Steve Angello
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine in the early morning hours of Feb. 24 that has left hundreds dead and many injured, and in response, music artists are protesting the violence by canceling their upcoming concerts in the country.
After months of military buildup along the Ukrainian border, Putin announced that he was deploying a “special military operation” into Ukraine that has since turned into an unprovoked attack on the country. Putin is demanding that Ukraine demilitarizes, and is aiming to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, a defensive alliance of 30 countries including the United States.
See below for our ongoing list of artists who have canceled scheduled concerts in Russia.
Green Day
Green Day had been scheduled to perform on May 29 at Moscow’s Spartak Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 45,000.
“With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium,” the band explained via an Instagram Story. “We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it’s much bigger than that. But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future. Refunds available at the point of purchase. Stay safe.”
Louis Tomlinson
Tomlinson was scheduled to perform in Kyiv’s Stereo Plaza in Ukraine on July 4 before traveling to Moscow, Russia, to perform at Circus City Hall on July 6 as part of his 2022 World Tour, in support of his 2020 debut album Walls.
“Due to the recent events in Ukraine, I have to sadly announce that my tour shows in Moscow and Kyiv are cancelled until further notice,” he wrote in a short note to his fans on Twitter. “The safety of my fans is my priority and my thoughts go out to the people of Ukraine and all those suffering from this needless war.”
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) February 28, 2022
Yungblud
“I’m heartbroken to announce I will be cancelling my Russian shows scheduled for this summer,” the “Strawberry Lipstick” rocker shared via Twitter on Monday (Feb. 28). “Heartbroken because I know the vicious and brutal acts of the Russian regime in Ukraine over the past week do not reflect the attitudes and ideals of the beautiful people who I have met in Russia in the past!”
Yungblud then added a message to the Ukrainian people, writing, “My heart is with you – you’ve already shown such strength and determination, resisting this needless invasion. Everyone deserves to be the creator of their own destiny, rather than having it forced upon them by acts of war and aggression. Ukraine, I promise I’ll come back as soon as I can!”
— YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) February 28, 2022
AJR
“We are sad to announce that we will be cancelling our upcoming show in Russia,” the group tweeted on Friday (Feb. 25) about their concert in Moscow, originally scheduled for October 22. “Thank you to our Russian fans who oppose their country’s unprovoked and criminal behavior. Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine. At this point, the best thing you can do is share ACCURATE info.”
We are sad to announce that we will be cancelling our upcoming show in Russia. Thank you to our Russian fans who oppose their country’s unprovoked and criminal behavior. Our hearts are with the people of Ukraine. At this point, the best thing you can do is share ACCURATE info.
— AJR (@AJRBrothers) February 25, 2022
Health
“Though we do not wish to penalize our fans for governmental decisions that are beyond their control, given the current state of affairs we will no longer be performing our previously scheduled shows in St. Petersburg and Moscow,” the rock band wrote in a statement shared to Instagram. “Our thoughts go our to the people of Ukraine.”
A group of songwriters led by the organization The 100 Percenters gathered outside of Spotify’s old West Hollywood office Monday afternoon (Feb. 28) to protest the streaming service’s low royalty rates. Dubbed “#WeWroteThat,” the collection of creatives began congregating around noon while holding signs with phrases like “My time costs money,” “Would you work for free?,” “Spotify is valued at $67 billion — pay artists” and “1 cent per stream.”
Event organizer Tiffany Red — a professional songwriter and founder of The 100 Percenters who has credits on songs performed by Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo and more — says the protest at 9200 Sunset Blvd. (a building Spotify previously occupied before moving to its current headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District in 2018) was motivated by a myriad of grievances she has with streaming services and Spotify in particular, including the company’s fight against increasing the royalty rates songwriters and publishers are paid per stream.
Monday’s protest is part of a larger ongoing battle over the royalties paid by services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Pandora. In Oct. 2021, the National Music Publishers’ Association asked the Copyright Royalty Board, which determines the streaming royalty rates for periods of five years, for a 32.4% increase in the headline rate to 20% of a digital service’s revenue for the full five-year term for Phonorecords IV (a period covering 2023-2027). By contrast, Spotify, Pandora and Amazon proposed lower rates for songwriters and publishers in Phono IV than in any year since 2018.
Another major pain point for songwriters is that they’re still being compensated according to the rate set in Phono II (2013-2017) while awaiting a final ruling on an appeal — filed by Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora and YouTube — of the CRB’s rate hike for Phono III (2018-2022), which would have led to higher payouts.
Other protestors point to Joe Rogan‘s more than $200 million deal to host his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on Spotify exclusively as an impetus for the protest. “They tell us they can’t pay us more and then they go and give a podcaster that much money?” says Bianca “Blush” Atterberry, an artist and songwriter who has written for artists including Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor and Chris Brown and is also a member of The 100 Percenters board. “If we didn’t exist, making the music, neither would Spotify.”
Rogan’s recent scandals — including the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and his repeated use of the N-word on the podcast — have recently sparked criticism among several prominent musicians. Some, like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby and India.Arie, have left the platform in protest. Red says that Arie’s criticism of Spotify’s low royalty payouts specifically was a major factor in spearheading The 100 Percenter’s protest.
“When India.Arie started to speak out about how the artists and songwriters are paid, I realized that now the fight against Spotify is coming into everybody’s living rooms, and it’s important for us to get out there and show our face,” says Red.
When asked why The 100 Percenters chose the site of Spotify’s former office, Red replied, “Because we wanted to start where they started. Our next in-person event will be going to where they are now in Downtown.” She points to how the company upgraded from the significantly smaller West Hollywood location to their new sprawling Arts District campus as a sign of the company’s wealth. “They were able to make that move easily and comfortably,” she says.
Rogan and Spotify aside, the #WeWroteThat protest comes down to the fight for better pay for working creatives overall. “I just want to be able to pay my bills. I just want to afford basic expenses. We songwriters struggle every day,” says Kaydence, a songwriter and board member of The 100 Percenters. “I’ve written for some of the biggest artists in the world, like Ariana [Grande] and Beyonce, and it’s still hard.”
“We give our all to make music and then we watch as other people make millions and billions off it,” adds Caso, another professional songwriter who was at the protest. “People see the credits of the song and they think dollar signs, but the reality is different.”
