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. 4, we look at the long-awaited sophomore album from rap superstar Cardi B, and what its chances are of debuting atop the chart.  

Cardi B, Am I the Drama? (Atlantic Group): It’s been a long, long wait for Cardi B fans, but the rap great has finally returned with her second album. Am I the Drama? dropped last Friday (Sept. 19), nearly seven-and-a-half years after Cardi first bowed with Invasion of Privacy back in April 2018. That set debuted atop the Billboard 200, spawned a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit in the Bad Bunny and J Balvin team-up “I Like It” (joining her first leader, 2017’s “Bodak Yellow [Money Moves],” also included on the album), drew rave reviews and even won a Grammy for best rap album — understandably making it a challenge for Cardi to follow up in the years since. 

But now, the sophomore LP is out, and also receiving mostly strong reviews. The 23-songs-on-DSPs set swarmed the Apple Music real-time charts upon its Friday release, occupying the great majority of the top 10 even though, as of posting, HUNTR/X’s “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters has since taken back over from Cardi’s new Kehlani collab “Safe” (which also received its own music video) atop the listing. Response to the album has been much more muted on Spotify, where “Safe” is the only track from it still residing in the top 100 of the Daily Top Songs USA chart.  

Beyond its overall streaming returns, which should still be fairly robust for its full first week, Drama is also expected to sell well. Those numbers will be helped greatly by a wide variety of available CD and vinyl variants, many with different varieties of album cover, including the already-infamous “courtroom edition” taken from much-memed images of Cardi on the stand during her assault trial in August, for which she was ultimately acquitted on all charges. Those physical releases also include eight deluxe CD boxed sets, containing merch and a copy of the CD — and there are also a variety of digital releases, including a Bonus Edition with an exclusive 24th track, “Don’t Do Too Much.”  

Cardi has also been on the promotional trail getting the word out about Am I the Drama? In addition to doing an interview tour of radio stations, streamers and daytime TV shows (The Breakfast Club, Spotify and The Jennifer Hudson Show, just to name a few) in the weeks leading up to the album release, Cardi has been on a busy schedule of in-store appearances, doing photo ops and meet-and-greets with fans purchasing the album. (She started her release week at Looney Tunes in New York, and will make it across the country to Fingerprints in California by the end.)  

It should all add up to a pretty considerable first-week for Am I the Drama? — perhaps not quite the equal of Invasion’s opening frame (255k, according to Luminate), but certainly comfortably into the six digits, and perhaps into the 200s. With no other debuts of its size to compete with, and KPop Demon Hunters continuing to gently recede, it should have a pretty clear path to becoming Cardi’s second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in two tries. And if Cardi is No. 1, Atlantic Group will have successive No. 1s (with Twenty One Pilots’ Breach topping this week’s listing) for the first time since the Aug. 24-Aug. 31, 2019-dated charts, when Slipknot’s We Are Not Your Kind (Roadrunner/Atlantic Group) and Young Thug’s So Much Fun (Young Stoner Life/300/Atlantic/Atlantic Group) bowed at no. 1 in successive weeks. 

Nine Inch Nails, Tron: Ares (Interscope/Walt Disney/The Null Corporation): Nothing new to see veteran composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scoring another big movie, which they’ve been doing successfully for 15 years now, since first hooking up for David Fincher’s The Social Network adaptation back in 2010. But there’s a little extra juice to the duo’s new release — the soundtrack to the upcoming Disney sequel Tron: Ares — thanks to it being recorded and released under the moniker of Reznor’s chart-topping longtime band Nine Inch Nails, of which Ross is now also an official member.  

The 24-track soundtrack is mostly moody instrumentals and slamming dance-rockers along the lines of the duo’s work for last year’s Challengers, but it does also include a number of cuts with Reznor’s vocals — including lead single “As Alive as You Want Me to Be,” already a top five hit on Billboard’s Rock &Alternative Airplay chart. Sales of the set will also be helped by a number of physical variants, including both CDs and vinyl editions with alternate covers, and even a cassette edition.  

Buckingham Nicks, Buckingham Nicks (Polydor/Quality/Rhino): A longtime collectors’ favorite, this early full-length collaboration between then-future Fleetwood Mac superstars Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks — self-titled under the name Buckingham Nicks — had been out of print for many decades. As the Mac catalog has proved a persistent cultural force time and time again across those years, there have been countless calls from fans for the album to once again see the light of day.  

Finally, through the efforts of Rhino Records — and with the cooperation of both artists, who have been largely on the outs since Buckingham’s 2018 split from the rest of the group — the much-beloved set has at last been reissued, arriving both on streaming services and in record stores. For the latter, the set is available on CD and through multiple vinyl variants — its first-ever pressing on CD — and while it’s unlikely to challenge Cardi B’s overall numbers this week, you can bet those who have waited generations to get their hands on a copy will jump at the chance to finally own the record.  

The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) celebrated its eighth annual Nashville Songwriter Awards on Tuesday evening (Sept. 23), held at the Ryman Auditorium. Forty-two individuals were honored for their excellence and dedication to the craft of songwriting–or, as NSAI board president Lee Thomas Miller called songwriters that evening, “the lifeblood of our industry.”

The organization was founded in 1967 as a not-for-profit trade organization for professional and developing songwriters. 

The evening launched with a tribute to Kris Kristofferson (the namesake of the evening’s Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement award, which was given to country group Alabama). Kristofferson, known for elevating the craft of songwriting with his poetic approach and songs such as “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “For the Good Times,” died in 2024. During the Nashville Songwriter Awards, Lukas Nelson honored the late Kristofferson with a performance of Kristofferson’s 1971 hit “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Everything I’ll Ever Do Again)”. 

“He changed what you can write in this town,” Bart Herbison, executive director of NSAI, said of Kristofferson.

Ashley Gorley earned his ninth songwriter of the year accolade, for writing songs including “Cowgirls,” “I Am Not Okay,” “Bulletproof,” and “World on Fire.” Tyler Hubbard feted Gorley with a performance of “Park” and Dylan Scott performed “This Town’s Been Too Good to Us.” 

Gorley thanked NSAI “for the work you do to fight for our rights… and to celebrate our talents tonight.” He also thanked Sony, Tape Room, ASCAP, country radio and more. “I want to thank the artists for recording the songs,” he added.

“I Will Always Love You,” written by Country Music Hall of Famer Dolly Parton, earned the legendary song award. Caylee Hammack honored Parton with a spot-on performance of the song. 

“This song has become so many things to so many people,” Parton said in a video acceptance speech. “That is the power of music, and I can’t thank you enough for honoring me and allowing me to tell my stories.”

“Little Miss Dynamite” Brenda Lee, who signed with Decca Records prior to her 12th birthday and went on to become the first woman inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, was celebrated as the NSAI president’s keystone award recipient. Trisha Yearwood performed a rendition of Lee’s 1959 hit “Sweet Nothin’s,” which was written by Ronnie Self. 

“It’s such an honor for me because of the people who are giving me this. The songwriters have been the backbone of everything I’ve ever done… I love this industry… You have been so so loyal and wonderful to this little short girl from Georgia,” Lee said. 

The loss of esteemed Nashville songwriter (and NSAI board member) Brett James last week was palpable within the songwriter and publishing community gathered that evening. The screen included a tribute that read simply, “We love you, Brett.” Early in the evening, Lee Thomas Miller led the audience in observing a moment of silence to remember James, and to honor his enduring impact on the Nashville songwriting community.

Miller called James “an incredibly talented songwriter, publisher and producer. Few songwriters in our town have achieved the level of success that Brett did. Since the mid-’90s, him, and that hair, were a constant on Music Row and in our lives. He was a beautiful friend to all of us who knew and loved him and it’s hard to imagine country music without him.”

In accepting his songwriter of the year accolade, Gorley also took a moment to remember James and memories of spending time with him. He recalled playing a writer’s round with James and how during the round, James took the time to encourage Gorley. Gorley said James was “proof of living life to the fullest and being an encourager even more. My whole family ziplined with him at Sundance, I watched him get knighted at a castle in France at a writing camp one time. He gets all he can out of life.”

Matthew West was named songwriter-artist of the year for a second time, and honored as a writer on songs including “Don’t Stop Praying,” “Unashamed,” “No Fear” and “Strong.” He was celebrated as Anne Wilson performed her 2021 hit “My Jesus,” which she wrote with West and Jeff Pardo. West is the first to be a multiple writer-artist of the year winner from the Christian music genre. 

“A songwriter only goes as far as the champions they have in their life,” West said, thanking “every artist and writer who lets me in the room to create.”

“I’m humbled to be a part of this community,” he added, and urged songwriters on Music Row to let “hope and love flow” from their pens — citing songs such as “Jesus, Take The Wheel” and “Go Rest High on That Mountain” as enduring examples of songs of faith within the genre.

Later in the evening, Lisa Kristofferson, who attended in honor of her late husband Kris Kristofferson, presented the Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement award to this year’s honorees, Alabama’s Teddy Gentry, Randy Owen and Jeff Cook (who was honored posthumously). The group has earned 33 No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hits and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Lorrie Morgan performed “There’s No Way,” while singer-pianist Gordon Mote honored the group with a medley of songs including “Tennessee River” and “Feels So Right.” Jason Aldean performed “My Home’s in Alabama,” calling the country group “my favorite band of all time.”

Alabama‘s Randy Owen, who also wrote many of Alabama’s hits, took the stage to accept the honor. He thanked longtime Alabama producer Harold Shedd, who was in attendance. Owen also thanked Cook and Gentry for their camaraderie and thanked those who fight on behalf of songwriters.

The evening concluded with the song of the year accolade, which went to “Dirt Cheap,” a solo-written song from Josh Phillips. In a brief acceptance speech, Phillips offered gratitude to artist Cody Johnson for recording the song, as well as to Johnson’s producer Trent Willmon. Phillips also thanked Warner Chappell Music and thanked NSAI for their continued advocacy for songwriters, before he took up an acoustic guitar and offered a performance of the song.

“Dirt Cheap” joins an illustrious group of songs that have earned the honor, among them “For the Good Times,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “Lucille,” “Strawberry Wine,” “Bless the Broken Road,” and “The Song Remembers When.” 

Johnson feted Phillips during brief video comments, saying, “You have no idea how much [‘Dirt Cheap’] changed my life… the impact that I get to see of the song you wrote.”

Throughout the evening, 10 additional songs were recognized as part of the “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written Awards,” voted on by the professional songwriter members of NSAI to honor the work of their peers. The songs eligible have to have at least one Nashville-based writer and charted in the top 20 of Billboard Airplay chart in the Christian, Country, Mainstream Top 40, and/or Rock genres between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025. The NSAI song of the year is the highest vote-getter. Many of the songs’ writers were on hand to perform the songs throughout the evening.

This year’s recognized songs were:

“4X4XU” – Written by: Jon Decious, Aaron Raitiere, Lainey Wilson (recorded by: Lainey Wilson)

“Espresso” – Written by: Amy Allen, Julian Bunetta, Sabrina Carpenter, Steph Jones (recorded by: Sabrina Carpenter)

“I Had Some Help” – Written by: Louis Bell, Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome, Jonathan Hoskins, Austin Post, Ernest Keith Smith, Morgan Wallen, Chandler Paul Walters (recorded by: Morgan Wallen feat. Post Malone)

“I Never Lie” – Written by: Carson Chamberlain, Tim Nichols, Zach Top (recorded by: Zach Top)

“I’m Gonna Love You” – Written by: Kelly Archer, Travis Denning, Chris Stevens (recorded by: Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood)

“Lies Lies Lies” – Written by: Jessie Jo Dillon, Josh Miller, Daniel Ross, Chris Tompkins (recorded by: Morgan Wallen)

“One Bad Habit” – Written by: Marc Beeson, Aaron Eshuis, Tony Lane (recorded by: Tim McGraw)

“She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined)” – Written by: Drew Baldridge, Cameron Jaymes, Jimmy Yeary (recorded by: Drew Baldridge)

“Texas” – Written by: Johnny Clawson, Josh Dorr, Lalo Guzman, Kyle Sturrock (recorded by: Blake Shelton)

“You Look Like You Love Me” – Written by: Riley Green, Ella Langley, Aaron Raitiere (recorded by: Ella Langley feat. Riley Green)

LONDON – Universal Music U.K. is reviving the legendary jazz imprint Fontana, the company announced on Thursday (Sept. 25).

Fontana, which was founded more than 70 years ago by the Dutch multinational company Philips, distributed music by Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck and Art Blakey in the U.K. Universal has dubbed the returning imprint as “the new home of jazz, folk, blues, alternative and soul in the U.K.”

Tom Lewis, previously co-president of Decca Records, has been named the sole president of Fontana. Its initial roster consists of former Decca signees Jacob Collier, AURORA, Jeff Goldblum, Jordan Rakei, Melody Gardot, Victor Ray, The Teskey Brothers and dodie.

Established in 1954, Fontana also distributed British jazz musicians Tubby Hayes, Cleo Laine and Ronnie Scott. In later years, it was home to formative releases by Jimmy Page, Elton John (with his Bluesology band) and an early iteration of The Who. 

Fontana had five U.K. No. 1 hits, most famously with The Spencer Davis Group (“Keep On Running”) and Manfred Mann (“Mighty Quinn”). Universal Music U.K. first assumed ownership of the label in 1999.

Following Lewis’ departure, Decca Records will double down on its success in the classical and ambient genres while also focusing on film, TV and gaming soundtracks. Laura Monks, who shared the title of co-president with Lewis, will assume the role of president and oversee Decca Records, Decca Classics, Mercury KX and Hyperion, with artists including Ludovico Einaudi, Andrea Bocelli, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Lise Davidsen, Yunchan Lim and Max Richter. Upcoming releases on the label will include Richter’s score for the Paul Mescal-starring Hamnet and Paddington The Musical.

Dickon Stainer, chairman and chief executive of Universal Music U.K., said in a statement: “These changes reflect our commitment to supporting artistic excellence in these great genres of music. I’m delighted to see Tom and Laura shaping the future of both labels, and opening new avenues of discovery for artists and fans across the world.”

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Maybe this is just us, but when it comes to shopping for merch, it can be pretty tough to find something that strikes a balance between proud fan and fashion.

Oftentimes, brands will sacrifice one or the other, veering into corny territory to appease a fanbase. Other times, the merch is fashionable but lacks that distinctive quality that lets people know that you live and breathe for said artist or franchise. Lucky for you — pun intended — Lucky Brand’s latest collaboration with Guns N’ Roses strikes a perfect balance between fashion and fandom, resulting in apparel and accessories for both men and women that even non-fans will love.

The full collection can be shopped right now on Lucky Brand’s website, and pieces retail from $23.70 to $139. The collab includes denim — a Lucky Brand staple — along with graphic tees fans and fellow rockers are sure to love. To make your shopping a bit easier, we’ve spotlighted five of our favorite pieces below, discussing everything from sizing options to styling and everything in between so you can shop the merch like a pro.

Lucky Brand x Guns N’ Roses Studded Boyfriend Tee

$49.50

Buy Now at lucky brand

A black T-shirt with studded detailing.

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Lucky Brand x Guns N’ Roses Girl Tee

$39.50

Buy Now at lucky brand

A red graphic tee with a girl motif on the front.

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Of course, this wouldn’t be a rock collection without Guns N’ Roses graphic tees. The collection is chock-full of unique tees for both men and women, all afixed with eye-catching designs that give each piece an edgy feel. While it was hard to choose our favorites, we ultimately settled on the Men’s “Girl” Tee for $39.50 and Women’s Studded Boyfriend Tee for $49.50

Both garments have a lived-in feel and a boxy finish, emulating that distressed look that vintage rock band tees often have. The Boyfriend Tee features a roomy crew neck and a ribbed collar. Sizing for this piece ranges from XS to 2XL. The front and back are affixed with tour graphics from the band’s Appetite for Destruction Tour in 1987. To further up the ante, the shirt is adorned with gold studs. This tee is 100% cotton, offering a breezy, weightless feel.

Similarly boxy, the Men’s “Girl” Tee is red and comes in sizes small to 2XL. The shirt features a faded wash with artwork of a rocker girl on the front in reference to the band’s Use Your Illusion era. The T-shirt is made of a mix of 57% polyester and 43% cotton.

Lucky Brand x Guns N’ Roses 223 Straight Jeans

$139

Buy Now at lucky brand

Baggy denim with distressing throughout.

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Lucky Brand x Guns N’ Roses Crew Sweatshirt

$99.50

Buy Now at lucky brand

A gray crewneck sweatshirt.

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This wouldn’t be a Lucky Brand collaboration if we didn’t mention the denim, and as you can guess, there’s a good amount of it. The Men’s 223 Straight Jeans for $139 is a standout for us. The straight leg style is slightly baggy and properly distressed with rips and tears all up the thighs and knees. The wash is gray-ish blue.

Sizing options range from 28 through 42, with a 30 and 32 inch inseam. A Guns N’ Roses skull graphic can be seen embroidered on the back pocket, enhancing the otherwise basic silhouette. The motif also offers a much-needed pop of color. The denim is durable and, most important, comfortable, made with the right amount of stretch so you can move and mosh without feeling restricted.

Unrelated to our denim faves, the Crew Sweatshirt for $99.50 is a good pick for those who want a solid piece of merch to wear when it gets chilly. The crewneck is made of 100% cotton and comes in gray with a skull graphic on the back and a coordinating Guns N’ Roses logo on the front. The comfortable style comes in sizes small to 2XL.

Lucky Brand x Guns N’ Roses Skull Baseball Hat

$23.70

Buy Now at lucky brand

A bright red hat with a skull motif on the front.

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The only accessory on our list, and the only one featured in the collection, is the Skull Baseball Hat for $23.70. The hat is a burgundy hue with a skull and rose motif embroidered on the front. An embroidered GN’R patch is on the back, above an adjustable slide-tab closure.

For Perrie Edwards, the studio can be both a sanctuary and a suffocating cocoon. Last autumn, six months after beginning her solo career, the singer and Little Mix member pretty much resigned herself to life as a recluse, spending the majority of her time in her Cheshire house. Travelling to London for work would trigger her agoraphobia – an anxiety disorder characterised by a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult – so her home recording space, named Studio 22, became a hideout whenever she felt overwhelmed.

In April 2024, the singer (known mononymously as Perrie) released her strident debut single “Forget About Us,” which was co-written by Ed Sheeran, and hit No. 10 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart. From an outside perspective, as the summer rolled on, it seemed as though things were in motion: she was active on social media and delivered a series of radio appearances, including a set at Wembley Stadium as part of Capital’s Summertime Ball, delivering a viral powerhouse cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

All the while, things began to unravel behind the scenes. Follow-up single “Tears,” which swapped its predecessor’s country inflections for smoky, ‘70s-inspired pop, dropped out of the U.K. top 100 after a week and was duly scrapped from the record she was putting together at the time. Edwards stopped posting to Instagram Stories and TikTok, prompting concern from her fanbase. The distractions and drains of anxiety on her energy as an artist and a human being, meanwhile, led to her bringing her therapist to work. 

“Getting an album out felt very untouchable for quite some time,” Edwards tells Billboard U.K. over Zoom, her chestnut blonde hair scraped back, relaxed in minimal makeup and a baggy black jumper. She is feeling reflective about the journey to her self-titled LP, due Sept 26 via Columbia. “I’m glad I stuck to my guns and did what I needed to do to make it happen.” She lets slip a chuckle. “I’m actually really proud, because I thought I wasn’t going to get an album at this point.”

Edwards credits the shift in her perspective to therapy, patience and family. In the early sessions for Perrie, she asked for each song to be A&R’d due to a lack of confidence in her own songwriting ability. Now she understands she was limiting herself; she has had to learn how to enact a fully integrated vision of pop star life, where fulfilling one desire inspires the next one.

After a fresh start in the new year, she began drawing on her longtime relationship with footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (“Cute Aggression,” “Absof–kinglutely,” “Bonnie & Clyde”) and the transformative pleasures of the beach (the Sam Fender-inspired “Sand Dancer”), both of which dissolved a level of self-seriousness in her writing. “If He Wanted To He Would,” a barnstormer of a breakup anthem, kicked off a new era this summer, catapulting Edwards back into the charts and setting a precedent for the effervescent, high-tempo revelry that dominates much of her upcoming album.

Solo projects are currently the focus for all three members of Little Mix, who won The X Factor in 2011 and enjoyed national exposure before any music had been released. The group – who started out as a four-piece before Jesy Nelson left in 2020, citing mental health issues – went on to make history on both the U.K. and US charts in their decade-long tenure, selling over 50 million records worldwide. Following Jade Thirlwall’s That’s Showbiz Baby! released earlier this month (Sept. 12), Edwards is the second Little Mix member to drop a full-length LP, while Leigh-Anne Pinnock departed Warner Records in May to forge an independent career.

Having faced her past insecurities head-on and uncovered some of her most emotionally honest songwriting as a result, Edwards tells Billboard U.K. about how Perrie is the “liberating” next step in her journey.

What kind of headspace were you in when you began working on Perrie?

Gosh, it was a completely different headspace to where I am now. I kept thinking, “What can I do to please people? What can I do to make this worthwhile?” When you’re trying to be creative, that’s the worst place to be in. You end up making music that doesn’t feel authentic, fun or genuine. I was excited and was going with the flow, but I also felt overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown.

I had to learn to not let outside voices and opinions guide my decision making. I am quite indecisive and I do get quite nervous; I need reassurance a lot of the time. At the start, I think I was going wrong because my gut and my intuition is normally right, like nine times out of 10. If I don’t feel or believe in something, it’s probably for a reason. 

Now I’m at a point where I’m making the decisions. I set the track list and I’ve kind of taken control of everything now, unlike at the beginning, when I just didn’t have it in me. I was still figuring things out. 

Was there ever a moment early in your solo career when you almost gave up or thought it wouldn’t work out? How did you push through?

For sure. I was having therapy every Friday, and in the majority of my sessions, issues around work kept coming up. I was just feeling pressure from everybody; I felt like there was pressure from the fans. It got to a point where my therapist was just like, “Can’t you just have a little break from it all then?” And I was like, “No, I can’t take my foot off the gas, this industry doesn’t really wait around for you. I don’t have that option.”

She then told me, “I think you could afford to step back a little bit, have time to think and chill out; go see Alex abroad [when he was playing for Turkish club Besiktas] and that might inspire you more when you go back in the studio.” When the new year came, I started working with producers and people that I’d not really worked with before. They brought out a renewed energy in me.

What lessons did you bring from years of group songwriting into your solo sessions?

When you’re in a group dynamic, it’s quite tricky to get things across. When it came to Little Mix, there were four of us working with songwriters, topline writers and producers all at once. Sometimes there could be like, nine people in a room writing a song in a room. It’s quite hard to get deep when there’s that many voices contending with each other at once. What I’ve since taken away from that is I probably write better in small groups, otherwise I just get caught up in the vibes. I learned how to take more control in my solo sessions, so I would go in with a song concept and lyric ideas straight away, which made a massive difference.

Twitter was pivotal to the early success of Little Mix. As the social media landscape has changed drastically in recent years, was there a moment when you felt like the world you came up and knew had passed?

When we were in the group, we were very on it with everything; we were so involved with every aspect of our work. But when I went solo, everything had changed so much. I remember when I released my first song “Forget About Us,” I was like, ‘Guys, where’s the schedule?’

My team told me I had to do social media stuff and make content, and I was like, “But what do you mean? There should be TV [appearances], talk shows and fun events!” I’m used to a full-on release schedule, which would mean that for a month, you ain’t got a life – you just work. Now there’s not as many promo opportunities, you have to be creative and think outside the box. I think even for labels, it’s a tricky industry at the moment.

Where do you draw the line of how much you’re willing to share of yourself online?

I’m a very open book, but at the same time, I’m not a social media whiz. I’m not good at making TikToks. It’s really hard when you’re trying to think of a million things to do when it comes to a social media post. There’s an ongoing joke with the fans; they say, “If you want to travel back in time, go to Perrie’s Instagram, scroll three times and you’ll be back in 2017.” I get the joke because I’m f–king useless at it. I don’t see the point in it, but I get it’s different now, and people want to see everything all the time, so I am trying to do better.

Songs like “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Cute Aggression” don’t shy away from the emotions that often, as women, we’re told not to show in public – jealousy, obsession, being “too much.” How does the Perrie on record relate to Perrie IRL in that way?

Everything you hear throughout the album is 100% me. “Bonnie & Clyde” is very dramatized, but I do have those moments in my relationship where I’m looking at Alex and I’m like, “I love him so much, I would kill for him.” I think we all kind of go through that where we look at our partner and think, “I’m obsessed with you, but I hope you’re obsessed with me as well.” I just love letting it all out in a song, it’s like doing therapy.

In a crowded pop landscape, what do you think Perrie offers that’s unique?

Hopefully the album just cuts through. It’s music that I love so much and I just hope it’s an escape for people. When I’m feeling shit, when I’m scared, when I’m feeling anxious, SZA is my “anxiety artist.” She just calms me. So hopefully when people hear the album, it does the same thing and takes them away to some place else. That’s what I want the most.